Villa Mirabella (Peter Pezzelli)

Why I have this book: It is one half of a Reader's Digest Condensed book.

I enjoyed the nice message in this book... namely, that family is important and no matter what, you can always go home.

This edited version was clean. I don't remember if there was any swearing, so if there was, there must not have been much. :)

Behind Every Good Man (John Bytheway)

Why I have this book: I bought it after flipping through it at a local bookstore.

I liked almost every bit of this book. There is one little group of paragraphs that made me roll my eyes in a big way. A big way. But other than that, this little book is great for "helping your husband take the spiritual lead at home".

It's a keeper.

Clean.

The Glass Castle (Jeannette Walls)

Why I have this book: I know a friend told me about it... we may have also read it as a book club book.

Okay... this is one of those books that sticks in your mind for a long time. It's just so unbelievable and sad and triumphant (in some ways)... also puzzling and disturbing and sometimes funny and sweet.

I don't know. It's so hard for me to fathom that anyone is surrounded by that many troubled people. I guess it's possible, and probably reality for more people than I can imagine. I can understand that everyone has someone that has mental issues or troubling behavior, but the author grew up with it on all sides. It was interesting to read this again after reading Half Broke Horses, which is about her maternal grandmother. I can see some similarities in how the grandmother and the mother parented ("buck up" type of parenting), but wow... something went amiss at some point, because the life of the author is just crazy.

I haven't decided if this book stays or not, so for now, it stays. It's not a book I could recommend to just anyone, but for those who are intrigued by the human story and are willing to sometimes go through the muck to understand what others go through, it's a fascinating memoir.

There is the filthiest of language as she quotes her parents and others (mostly her dad), and several instances of sexual misconduct are described.

When the Bough Breaks (Kay Lynn Mangum)

Why I have this book: It was on the bargain table of a local bookstore. I actually bought it for one of my daughters.

This LDS novel was written for the teenage/YA crowd. I liked it. Some of it was a bit cliche (wish I had the accent mark to make that spelled just right), and one character was too good to be true, in my opinion. Some of the storyline wasn't developed to the depth that would be required to declare this super well written... but I thought it was a touching story that kept my interest. I enjoyed it.

This book belongs to my daughter, so it's up to her whether or not we keep it. My guess would be that we will.

This book is clean. The subject matter includes the death of a parent and alcoholism.

Half Broke Horses (Jeannette Walls)

Why I have this book: It is the second half of a Reader's Digest condensed book.

Okay, this is the problem with condensed books: You might read the condensed version and then wish you had read the real version.

I've had my eye on this book for quite some time. Now that I've read the condensed version, I'm kicking myself that I never just bought the book when it came out.

I'm especially intrigued because this novel (based on the author's grandmother's life) talks about the author's mother... and Glass Castles (another book by the same author) goes into great detail about how her mother's life played out and affected her and her siblings. I am going to read Glass Castles again.

I enjoyed this book very much. I may still read the unedited version.

This book does have some swearing in it. I also want to point out that Glass Castles is a very raw and heavy book and there are even "rougher" words than this one contains. Of course, I have no idea what swear words are in the unedited version of this book.

Love in Bloom (Sheila Roberts)

Why I have this book: It's the first half of a Reader's Digest condensed books.

About 2/3 of the way through this book, I thought I'd be gushing about it here on the blog. Then it just got cheesy and lost it's appeal in several different ways.

Too bad.

This edited and condensed version had a few swear words and a bit of sexuality at the end. I'm not sure how much more the original version has.

The Amish Midwife (Mindy Starns Clark and Leslie Gould)

Why I have this book: A friend recommended it, so I downloaded it to my Kindle.

Oh, look! Another Amish book! It's been a while since I read one, and the reason I was motivated to read this one is that it has an adoption theme.

I do wonder if either author is directly involved in adoption. Were they adopted? Have they adopted? I wonder because they seemed to write as if they know what a person who was adopted feels like. They quoted from a well-known adoption book (which, btw, I've seen adults who were adopted as babies disagree with.) *That was a terrible sentence. Ack.*

Actually, one of the authors (Leslie Gould) wrote Beyond the Blue, which I reviewed earlier this year. That is also a book about adoption (and I loved it), so maybe there is some personal experience in her life with adoption. I could research, I guess, but I probably won't.

The book was enjoyable and, as an adoptive mom, it had some interesting angles to it.

I'm not sure if I would keep it or not if it was a real book and not on my Kindle. I might, simply because of the adoption theme. Whether or not my daughter can relate to some of the emotions expressed in the book, it would make for good conversations when the time comes that she might be exploring what adoption means to her.

This book was perfectly clean.