Book Review--No Place Like Home, by Mary Higgins Clark

Mary Higgins Clark is one of my favorite authors, ever since I read her first book, Where Are the Children? when I was maybe 12 or 13. Her latest book, No Place Like Home, is one of the best, in my opinion.

At age 10, Liza Barton accidentally shot and killed her mother, in an attempt to protect her from her estranged stepfather, whom she also wounded. Her stepfather, Ted Cartwright, claimed she had done so deliberately and that she had intended to kill him as well. The shooting was ruled an accident, but many people believed Ted's version of events, and his claims that he and Liza's mother had broken up because of Liza's animosity toward him. They dubbed her "Little Lizzie" after the infamous Lizzie Borden.

Liza was adopted by distant relatives, who changed her name and moved her to California. She lived there until she attended design school back East. At age 28 she married a childless, 60-year-old widower, and they had a son. On his deathbed, her husband begged her not to tell anyone her true identity, for fear their son would be stigmatized. Liza, now called Celia, agrees to keep her secret.

Two years later, her son now four, Celia is happily remarried to a lawyer, Alex Nolan, who knows nothing about her past. On her 34th birthday, Alex, surprises her with a new house--which, unbelievably, is the house in which she shot and killed her mother and wounded her stepfather. (This is perhaps a little too coincidental to be believable, in my opinion, but that's the only negative thing I can think of to say about this book.)

Celia's unhappiness is apparent when she sees the house, but remembering her promise to her first husband, she feels she cannot tell her new husband the real reason she does not want to live there. So they move in and she tries to make the best of it, but the troubles start immediately. The house is vandalized. Celia receives prank calls. Her son hears about "Little Lizzie" in school. And then Georgette Grove, the real estate agent who sold them the house, is murdered. Celia discovers the body and becomes a suspect in her murder. Celia fights to prove her innocence in that murder, as well as uncover more about the past in an attempt to clear her name, so that she can finally tell her husband the truth about her identity. However, more murders follow, and Celia and her son are also in danger.

I did have a hunch regarding who might be behind her current troubles, and it turned out that the hunch was correct, at least regarding one of the culprits. Mary Higgins Clark always manages to throw in several unanticipated twists and turns, however, and the truth is generally rather complicated.

As with all her books, I did not want to put this one down. Known as America's Queen of Suspense, Mary Higgins Clark is one of the best in the genre. I always feel rather low once I've finished reading one of her books, though, because I know I'll have to wait a year before a new one is out.

Book Review--Maggie Without a Clue, by Kasie Michaels

This book came out in 2004, and it is actually the third book in a series. So, I am reading out of order here. The premise is rather bizarre. The main character, Maggie, is a writer of regency-era mystery novels. Two of her characters, Alex (the Viscount St. Just) and his sidekick, Sterling, have come to life. They help Maggie solve real-life mysteries.

In this case, they are trying to help Maggie's friend and publisher, Bernie Toland-James. Bernie's second husband has been missing for nearly seven years. He is about to be declared dead, after which Bernie can collect on his life insurance policy. But then one morning, Bernie wakes up next to her estranged husband's bloody corpse, with no memory of what had happened. Of course, she is the primary suspect in what looks like an open and shut case. Maggie and her book characters try to help her prove her innocence.

Meanwhile, they have other problems. Alex and Sterling are staying in the apartment across the hall from Maggie's, while that tenant, Mrs. Goldblum, visits her sister. There Sterling gets a strange visit from two large, threatening men who are very unhappy when they learn Mrs. Goldblum isn't there. They want something that is in her possession, but Sterling has no idea what. Things get worse from there. The apartment is vandalized and then Sterling is kidnapped.

Anyway, like I mentioned, the characters coming to life and all that is a little bizarre. However, the book is fun, light reading.

Random Thought #8: My Human Doesn't Love Me Anymore, by Moonie the Cat

This is Moonie the cat, and I have taken over my human's computer, because I'm mad at her.

Last night she got out the dreaded cat carrier. Both Carmela and I froze. What was she doing with that thing? It's never good, when she gets that out. Carmela actually ran off. I was about to, but I noticed that she wasn't getting both carriers out. That could be good, for one of us anyway. Maybe she was taking Carmela somewhere, but not me.

But our human just set it on the floor and didn't try to get either one of us. So we sort of forgot about it. Carmela even got in it for a little while.

This morning I was sleeping comfortably on a chair when my human picked me up and plopped me into the carrier. I kept sticking my head out so she couldn't zip it shut, but I never seem to win this battle. She took me for a ride in the car, which I hate. It's not like I'm a dog or something.

Then we stopped and got out. We went into a lady's house, and my human told the lady I needed my claws trimmed, my butt shaved, and a bath! The nerve. I clean myself, and if my human thinks my butt isn't clean enough, that's her problem. As for having my claws trimmed, just wait til they grow back.

So, it was bad enough having my nails trimmed and my butt shaved. Then the lady and my human took me to another room and got me all wet and soapy. "You'll feel better," said my human.

"I felt fine before you got me all wet!" I yowled back, though she doesn't understand cat speak. Why couldn't I have had a bilingual human? I understand what she says, but she doesn't even try to understand my language. At least, she doesn't try hard enough.

So, she made me wait there to dry off for two hours, and then finally brought me back home and let me out of the carrier. Freedom at last!

I will only forgive her if she feeds me really well. Like, if she gives me some chicken from her dinner, or something. Otherwise, forget it.

Random Thought #7: I Am So Out Of Shape

In the summertime I like to swim. I usually swim a half-mile a day, once I've worked up to it. I have been patiently waiting for the pool to open in my apartment complex. Usually it's been open for awhile by this time, but this year it needs some work done. For some reason they have had an incredibly difficult time getting someone to come and do it. So I decided to go to one of the public pools during their adult lap swim.

Boy, that public pool is long. That combined with the fact that I haven't swum in awhile made me feel like I might drown halfway through a lap.

The thing about the pool at my apartment complex is that it's good for one's self-esteem. It's not a very big pool, so I can do many laps without expending too much effort. I know that in a pool 25 yards long, 35 laps is a half-mile. I know that it takes me about 35 minutes to do 35 laps in such a pool. I can do about 63 laps in 35 minutes in my apartment complex pool, which sounds quite impressive.

It took me 20 minutes to do 12 laps in the public pool.

This is quite embarrassing, so I decided to deal with that by writing about it on the internet. In fairness, I'm not sure how long the public pool is. It's really, really, long though, honest!

I don't have any books on swimming specifically, but one of my favorite books on health in general is Eat, Drink, and be Merry by Dean Edell, MD (1999). It's about how Americans are in the best health and have the longest life spans in history, yet we worry more about our health than ever before. He wrote the book to try to quell some of our health-related anxieties. He discusses the media bias toward scare stories and how that makes us think that things are worse than they are regarding health threats. He says that perfect nutrition may not exist and in general, rather than "dieting," eat what you want, just eat less of it, vary your diet as much as possible, and add some vegetables. He also discussed some of the myths regarding exercise and notes that you can accrue most of the health benefits by only doing a moderate amount. (He also points out that playing an instrument burns 160 calories an hour and typing burns 120 calories an hour). Both of these facts are good news to me, since I've been playing my flute lately, practicing for my brother's wedding, and I type a lot. Anyway, there is a lot of other information in this book, and it's all really interesting and highly readable.

Book Review--The Kid, by Dan Savage

This is a great book. It is a true accounting of Dan and his boyfriend, Terry's, experiences in adopting a child. With great humor, Dan recounts how they arrived at the decision to do an open adoption, their fears that no birth mother would choose them, and their fears when one did (What if she changes her mind? What if we aren't good parents? etc.).

Dan and Terry had originally considered biological fatherhood for Dan, with one of several women they knew (a lesbian couple, a lesbian single, and a straight single woman). Essentially, negotiations fell through on each of these possibilities. So, Terry and Dan decided to try open adoption, a process where the birth mother chooses the adoptive parents and maintains contact after the baby is born.

Part of the process involves writing a "Dear Birthparent" letter to introduce themselves to prospective birth mothers. Dan had a lot of trouble writing this and ended up first writing a hilarious anti-Dear Birthparent letter--saying things that would ensure they never got picked, if they were to actually use it.

The birth mother who picked them was a 20-year-old street kid named Melissa. Dan and Terry faced a dilemma in that she had been drinking and using drugs, until she discovered she was pregnant. They weren't sure if they should take a chance and agree to accept a baby that might have FAS. However, the ultrasound showed normal fetal development, and a couple of doctors who were FAS experts were able to reassure them.

Dan Savage's recounting of their adoption experience is humorous, honest, reflective, and at times political. He shares his views on gay adoption and parenthood, as well as his and Terry's emotional ups and downs as they face the hopes and fears that all adoptive parents face, gay or straight. The book is highly readable, hilarious, yet intelligent and thought-provoking.

Book Review--Somebody Else's Kids, by Torey Hayden

Somebody Else's Kids was published in 1981. It is the story of Torey Hayden's experiences teaching a class that is essentially a self-contained special education class in the 1970s. The circumstances in which the class developed were rather strange. Torey was actually a resource room teacher initially, meaning that kids in the regular education classroom who needed extra help came to see her for a half hour or hour or so a day. She didn't have her own class. But, she ended up having four kids who just weren't able to manage the regular education setting placed with her for a full or half-day.

The first one to be placed with her for a half-day was Boo, an autistic kindergartner. The second was Lori, originally a resource room student. Lori and her twin had been adopted when they were five. The other twin had no problems in school, but Lori wasn't so lucky. She had been a severely abused child in her natural home, and had suffered brain damage as a result. She had had brain surgery to remove bone fragments from her brain, but lesions remained. As a result, she had epilepsy and ADHD-type symptoms. Furthermore, the brain damage had apparently interefered with the part of her brain that processed written symbols. Because of this, Lori had not been learning to read and write in her first-grade classroom, though she was very bright.

The third student to be placed in the class was Tomaso, an extremely angry boy who had witnessed his stepmother fatally shoot his father and older brother when he was five. By the age of 10, he had lived with an abusive uncle and been in more than seven foster homes. He had been placed in Torey's class after he had attempted to strangle a younger student on the playground.

Finally, and most bizarrely in terms of placement, was Claudia. Claudia was 12 years old and not a special education student. She was placed in Torey's class because she was pregnant. She had been kicked out of her private Catholic school, and apparently the school district wanted her to be placed in a setting where she wouldn't be noticed. She was placed in Torey's class for half a day and attended vocational and baby-care classes with high school students for the other half of the day.

All of the students made some impressive academic gains, but her influence, as with all teachers, went far beyond academics. She was one of Claudia's very few sources of emotional support. She helped Tomaso manage his anger appropriately and helped Lori cope with the frustration of her learning difficulties. Lori and Tomaso formed a special bond that was touching to see. That bond seemed to help Tomaso get in touch with his feelings beyond his anger. Boo started to speak beyond the mere echoing of other people's words and improved greatly in his ability to stay on task.

The recounting of Torey's time with this class is an amazing read. Each one of the characters will grab onto your heart and never let go.

Movie Review--Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

I know; I usually don't do movie reviews. But, well, this one is a book also. I just happened to see the movie first, but I loved the movie and want to read the book as well.

The title--Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants-- is rather bizarre. It's about four girls who have grown up together. When they are 16, they spend their first summer apart. Anyway, the book and movie are so-named because the girls share a pair of pants that summer. Each one keeps the pants for a week, then sends them to the next person. With the pants, they each send a letter telling the next person the most interesting thing that happened to them while wearing the pants. Interestingly, the pants fit all of the girls, even though they aren't all the same size. From this they conclude that the pants have some sort of magic associated with them.

Each of the girls has a life-altering summer. One of the girls, Lena, goes to Greece to stay with her grandparents. There she meets a guy she is crazy about, but her grandparents aren't crazy at all about the idea of her dating this guy. It's sort of a Romeo and Juliet thing (no suicide at the end, thank goodness); they don't like his family.

Bridget, who just recently lost her mother to suicide, goes to soccer camp in Mexico, where she pursues one of the coaches, which is of course against the rules. She gets more than she bargained for in this.

Carmen, who narrates at the beginning and end of the movie, goes to visit her father, who lives near Atlanta. Her father displays a stunning lack of senstivity in waiting until she is actually there to spring his new Stepford family on her--perfect, blond fiance, with her perfect blond son and daughter, all of whom are living with him. Carmen is supposed to be a bridesmaid in her father's wedding along with her soon-to-be stepsister, and is humiliated at the fitting for her bridesmaid's dress. Carmen is somewhat overweight, and her father was ever-so-slightly off in guessing her size. It's symbolic; Carmen feels like she doesn't fit into his life anymore.

Tibby stays at home and works at a Wal-Mart-type store, which of course she hates. There she meets and befriends a younger girl (well, more like the girl befriends her) who has a serious illness. At first, the girl seems like just an annoying pest to Tibby, but they become close and Tibby learns a lot from this girl, Bailey, who has a remarkable strength of spirit. (I was trying to remember where I had seen the actress who plays Tibby, Amber Tamblyn. I think she is Joan of Arcadia, actually).

The movie is really touching. It is a tearjerker in spots. Since I enjoyed the movie so much, I definitely want to read the book, and will report on how it compares to the movie in a later entry.

Book Review--The Tiger's Child, by Torey Hayden

The Tiger's Child is the sequel to One Child. It was published in 1995, fourteen years after One Child. In the prologue, the author says that she was hesitant to write a sequel, simply because much of what was going on in Sheila's life since was rather grim. Torey changed her mind about writing a sequel in response to numerous queries from her readers, and also in response to Sheila, who overcame her abusive and deprived background to become a competent adult.

The first 40 pages of the book are a review of One Child. Torey wrote that book in eight days, never intending to publish it, but rather to better understand her relationship with Sheila. When she finished it, she realized that she had a book, and that she needed to find Sheila and let her read it.

Finding Sheila was not an easy task. Torey had lost contact with her five years previously, and had not seen her for seven. When Torey found her again, Sheila was thirteen. She was living with her father, but she had spent some time in foster care. It was strange for them both, to see each other again after so much time had passed. They both felt as though they knew each other well, but after so much time, they really were strangers. Furthermore, Sheila's memory of the experience and of Torey was not entirely positive. Torey had moved away at the end of the school year that Sheila had been in her class. Sheila had difficulty separating Torey's leaving from her mother's abandonment of her. At one point, she told Torey that she had actually made things worse for her, in that Sheila had not realized how bad her life was before being in Torey's class.

Personally, I think the problem was that Torey wasn't really in a position to do more. The problems in Sheila's life were simply too big to easily fix, and Sheila had little else in the way of support. She had a drug addicted, alcoholic father and a string of foster homes. There's only so much a teacher can do, no matter how much she cares. But when she found Sheila again, they had a chance to work through some of Sheila's issues and form a relationship again.

All of this does sound pretty grim, but the book does have a reasonably happy ending. Sheila does amazing well, especially considering everything she has been through. This book is able to include more of her point of view than the first book, since she is older, and it is interesting to see how she viewed things. This book is also an amazingly fast read, and hard to put down.

Book Reviews--One Child, by Torey Hayden

Well, I can't read fast enough to post book reviews as often as I'd like, and I only get random thoughts every so often. So, I am going to take this opportunity to review some old favorites.

Torey Hayden is one of my all-time favorite authors. I first became hooked on her books when I came across One Child in my college bookstore. All of her books are about her experiences as a special education teacher or a psychologist working with emotionally disturbed kids. I would classify her books as creative nonfiction; they're stories, not texts. The books of hers that I own are in tatters because I've read them so many times.

One Child was published in 1981. It is about a 6-year-old girl, Sheila, who suffered severe abuse and was abandoned on the highway by her mother. She lived with her father in a migrant camp, in a shack with no running water or electricity. Torey Hayden was a special education teacher teaching a self-contained class for emotionally disturbed children. Sheila ended up in her class after she burned a younger child. The plan was for Sheila to go into the children's unit at the state mental hospital as soon as there was room for her. In the meantime, she was placed in Torey's class.

One Child is about the bond between the student and teacher. Sheila had never really been able to bond with any adult before. They either mistreated her or were put off by her bad behavior before they could even really try to form a bond. Her behavior was horrible at first. On her first day in Torey's classroom, she killed several fishes in the aquarium in the classroom and poked their eyes out, just to give one example. But once she formed a bond with Torey, her behavior greatly improved, and school staff also discovered she had a genius IQ.

The book really had a profound effect on me. Seeing the change in Sheila over the period of time she was in Torey's class was just amazing. The book is a very fast read, due to both the writing style and the fascinating subject matter. I remember talking to my college roommate about it constantly the first time I read it.

One thing about this book that was difficult for many who read it was that it gives very few details on what happened to Sheila after her time in Torey's class. So, several years later, a sequel was published. In the prologue, the author mentions how many readers had written to her to ask what had happened to Sheila. The sequel was also quite fascinating and surprising in some ways. I will review the sequel in a later entry.

Random Thought #6: Things That Should Never Be Said

I was paying for my lunch at a buffet today. I had the exact change out for one adult, but for some reason or another the cashier felt compelled to ask me, "You're not a senior, are you?"

I just gaped at her. Could she possibly mean senior citizen?

"I'm thirty-four," I said, my tone probably not being as pleasant as it could be.

"Well, I didn't think so," she said, or something to that effect.

"I hope I don't look that old," I said. If anything, people usually think I look younger than I am.

"No, it's just. . .there's another woman who comes in here who kind of looks like you, only she is a senior," the cashier says. "I got the two of you confused."

This didn't exactly make me feel better. Maybe what she was trying to say was that this woman didn't look old enough to get the senior discount, either. The cashier is also young enough that she probably thinks everyone over 25 is old. But still.

To my way of thinking, in that kind of situation, if it's not obvious, the cashier should wait for the customer to tell her. Then the cashier can say, "Oh, sorry, I just thought you looked way too young to qualify for the senior discount," and everyone is happy. The way the cashier I encountered did it, no one is happy. She feels stupid; I feel old. Well, I don't exactly feel old. I feel that maybe people are thinking I look old, even though I really don't have any wrinkles (honest!) and still have to use facial cleanser that cuts down on oil. I pull out the occasional stray gray hair.

It's kind of like asking someone if she is pregnant. If she's not, you've basically just called her fat. This happened to me once when I was about 15 pounds heavier than I am now and wearing a dress that didn't really help the situation. Only the person who asked me if "I was going to have my baby soon" wouldn't let it go.

"I really thought you were going to have a baby," she kept saying. It was almost as if she thought maybe I was unaware that I was pregnant, and would end up giving birth on the toilet or something.

"Trust me," I said through gritted teeth.

I stopped wearing that dress after that. Clearly it failed to do me justice.

The things I've said aren't things that everyone hasn't heard before. But clearly, the message bears repeating.

Book Review--Lost, by Joy Fielding

Joy Fielding is another one of my favorite authors. Lost came out in paperback in January 2005. It is about a mother, Cindy, whose 21-year-old daughter, Julia, goes missing. Cindy had already felt that she lost her daughter when Julia moved in her father after the divorce seven years previously. When Julia's father remarried, Julia moved back home with her mother, sister, and sister's boyfriend. An aspiring actress, Julia had been living with her mother again for about a year when she failed to return home after an audition. In the search for her daughter, Cindy realizes how little she really knows about her. Several people in her daughter's life raise red flags--Julia's ex-boyfriend, who wrote a story about a man who brutally murders his ex-girlfriend; their next-door neighbor, who may be having an affair with Julia; even the director for whom she auditioned and her sister's boyfriend, with whom Julia had had an argument the morning she was last seen. Cindy learns disturbing truths about who her daughter really is.

This book is really enjoyable. It's a fast-paced thriller with a twist at the end. Joy Fielding is really good at that; after finishing some books by her I am just stunned for days afterwards by an unexpected twist.

Book Review--Rage, by Jonathan Kellerman

Jonathan Kellerman is one of my favorite authors. His books are awesome, especially the ones in the Alex Delaware series. Rage just recently came out in hardback. Alex Delaware is a psychologist who works with the police, usually with his friend, homicide detective Milo Sturgis. His latest case involves two kids who killed a toddler, reminiscent of the real case in England several years ago where the two 10-year-old boys did the same thing. In the book, Alex evaluated both of the boys for the court. One of the kids was killed in prison shortly after he arrived. The other gets out after eight years. The book opens with a call to Alex from the surviving boy, Rand, shortly after he gets out of prison. He asks Alex to meet with him, saying he has something important to tell him. Alex agrees to meet with him, but Rand never shows up. Alex later discovers that Rand was murdered. In attempting to solve his murder, Alex and Milo look at the details of his crime, suspecting that his past has caught up with him. In doing so, they learn that the crime was way more complex than two kids grabbing a toddler who was a stranger to them. They learn of the fertility problems that had plagued the toddler's parents, and two seemingly earnest divinity students who aren't what they seem.

Here's what was most interesting to me about this book. The crime in England which apparently was the inspiration for this story had no clear-cut cause. Violent movies and factors in the boys' backgrounds were cited as contributing factors, but it's not as though other kids haven't had similar difficulties and managed not to kill anyone. And these boys were only 10 years old. In the book, this "How could this happen?" feeling was partially removed by the factor of adult influence. It doesn't diminish the horror of the crime, but evil adult influence is easier to understand than two very young kids committing such an awful crime on their own.

Random Thought #5: More Cat Thoughts

Some days it's just not good to read the paper.

On the front page of the Tri-City Herald yesterday, there was an article about several cats missing from homes in more outlying areas, thought to be victims of coyotes.

I did not need to know this. I hate reading about cats getting hurt. Furthermore, my cats and I don't live in an outlying area, and I don't let them outside anyway due to traffic, so it's not like I needed the warning to keep my cats indoors.

Actually, though, the story was mostly about a woman who snatched her cat from the jaws of a coyote, saving its life, though to the tune of $2000 in vet bills and $10,000 in medical bills for herself. The woman was pictured on the front page, holding her cat, who looks perfectly fine now.

Of course, the article warned people not to do the same thing that this woman did if they found themselves in the same situation. It's sensible advice, but if one of my cats was clutched in the jaws of a coyote, I would do the same thing, without even thinking about it. I'm not saying it would be the smartest thing to do, but no way would I just let one of them be killed without a fight. The woman who saved her cat is a hero in my book.

Since I'd rather not have to fight off coyotes, I guess we'd better not move to the country, and my cats are definitely remaining indoor cats.

I have posted pictures of my two cats, just so that my vast readership (I think I must be up to nearly a dozen friends and relatives now :-) can see for whom I am willing to fight off coyotes.

Yet another cat book:

Cat Facts, by Marcus Schneck and Jill Caravan (New York: Barnes and Noble Books, 1990). This book is divided into two sections. The first section discusses The Nature of the Cat. It includes the history of cats, cognition, learning, and memory, basic cat psychology, and how to care for your cat. The second section is devoted to pictures and description of the various cat breeds. The parts that I thought were the most interesting were those discussing cat psychology. For instance, there is some evidence that cats dream. The book explains various cat behaviors and debunks some myths.

This is Carmela, being mellow.

This is Moonie, trying to hide from me.