Weekly Wrap-Up

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that receives it.

WHAT WE LOVE THIS WEEK

This lovely Penguin Classic's edition of three of Edith Wharton's classics.

Netflix. They had me at Gilmore Girls. Now they've swooped in and saved The Little Prince after the geniuses at Paramount Pictures dropped its U.S. theatrical release. A Cannes Film Festival audience favorite and winner of best animated film in France, but nah, Paramount said, we'll pass. Must be too educational and uplifting to their liking. It's enough to make a girl lose hope. Look for it on Netflix later this year.

March Madness, baby. How's your bracket looking? Oklahoma gave me a scare this afternoon. Now if Oregon will pull through with a win, my final four will have survived the weekend. Tar Heels for the championship!

Audio books the whole family will love. Spring Break means family road trips and the best cure for the "Are we there yet?" blues is listening to a great book. My friend Monica, who's a family-audio-book guru, swears by Treasure Island narrated by Alfred Molina. It kept the whole family riveted in the car—from her pre-schooler to her high schooler. (Riveted=not pestering each other...or you.)

Me Before You. The movie. One of my favorite beach reads with a brain will be in theaters this June. Here's a sneak peak. (I see you, Finnick and Mr. Bates.)

COMING NEXT WEEK

That long overdue review and book club discussion of The Boy who Harnessed the Wind. Really.

Tracy's latest kid-lit pick—word has it Jonah and Luke are giving it a big thumbs up.

Posted by Rachel

I Owe Tracy A Trip To Ireland

Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy. —W.B. Yeats

I owe Tracy a trip to Ireland. She was saddled with two broke girls for friends in London. Well, obviously not broke, or we wouldn't have been studying abroad. Let's just say we were funds-challenged. Ireland was a priority for her—we were so close, how could we not go? When would we have this opportunity again? Turns out never. At least not in the past almost thirty years. I should have scrimped, borrowed, and begged my way (or just cut back on the Hobnobs and Callard & Bowser licorice toffees). While I spend my St. Patrick's Day in Shoulda Coulda Woulda Land, enjoy some picks from some of our favorite Irish writers, including Yeats above.

James Joyce. I'm smitten with this Penguin Classics Edition of Dubliners. My favorite Joyce short story is The Dead.

C.S. Lewis. I must confess I didn't know until today that he hailed from Ireland.  The Screwtape Letters is a must read, and of course, always, his Chronicles of Narnia.

Frank McCourt. If you have yet to read his Pulitzer prize winning Angel's Ashes, you should remedy that pronto!

Oscar Wilde. My favorite: The Importance of Being Ernest.

George Bernard Shaw. On my list to read: Pygmalion. Or as we know it, thanks to the lovely Audrey Hepburn, My Fair Lady.

Posted by Rachel

I'll Be The Riverbank And You Be The River

Human beings are the best hope in the world of other human beings to survive.

No, this is not a review of last month's book club selection, The Boy who Harnessed the Wind, that was promised for yesterday. And yes, this is the review I promised last week but didn't deliver. You should know by now I'm nothing if not unreliable. What can I say except that it's taken me this long to recover from the shock of Tracy finally succumbing to an escape read. Next up: audio books! Why quit while we're ahead?

While I can't say whether Tray will take to the sound of books in her ear, it's a safe wager she'll take to Anna and the Swallow Man. I know I did. This beautifully written young adult book (that every adult should read) centers around seven-year-old Anna, suddenly alone in a city torn apart by war, and a tall, thin, enigmatic man she calls the Swallow Man. She follows him as a river follows the riverbank, across Poland and parts of Russia, as they try to stay alive and out of war's way. While the Swallow Man teaches her how to survive in a time of war, Anna reminds him that survival, in and of itself, is not enough to support life.

I can't stop thinking about Anna and her Swallow Man, or her beloved Reb Hirschl, a Jew they meet along the way and against their better judgement, but to their betterment, befriend. This book will stay with you long after the last line. There is something uniquely unsettling about witnessing war through the eyes of a child: it's raw, unfettered, and devastating in it's simplicity. But at the same time hopeful, leaving us all better for the reading. Like Liesel and Marie-Laure before her, Anna helps us see the world through younger, yet wiser, eyes—as children so often do. In the words of her father: "Men who try to understand the world without the help of children are like men who try to bake bread without the help of yeast."

Posted by Rachel

I've Got A Serious Case Of The Mondays

There's a house, a napping house, where everyone is sleeping.

I’ve got a serious case of the Mondays.  Daylight savings just added insult to injury, didn’t it?  Spring forward to exhaustion.  But never fear, it’s National Napping Day! This very day, March 14th, we are encouraged to nap. (Like I need encouragement.)  I just read a bit about Winston Churchill—said he only slept four hours a night during World War II, but he insisted on a two-hour snooze every afternoon. Like champagne, naps were a staple for the British Bulldog. Good for you Winnie!  

Here’s the thing, I’d gladly take a sincere doze today if I could. I’m a gifted sleeper—I shouldn’t mask my talent, right?  But I’m a working mom, one with too many nagging items on a semi-futile daily “to-do-or-die” list.  So, in honor of National Napping Day, I won’t be catching any extra z’s.  Instead, with a muffled yawn, let me tell you “there is a house, a napping house, where everyone is sleeping.”

You don’t have to be a pre-K insomniac to enjoy Audrey and Don Wood’s The Napping House. It’s one of my favorite children’s books. A snoring granny, a dreaming child, a dozing dog, a snoozing cat and a slumbering mouse enjoy a collective siesta until a wakeful flea crashes into the subliminal.  The pictures are as big a draw as the text. I have yet to find a tired tyke who doesn’t love to snuggle up with this read!  The Woods are responsible for some of my children’s very favorites:  Quick as a Cricket, King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub, The Little Mouse, The Red Ripe Strawberry, and THE BIG HUNGRY BEAR are all keepers.  Maybe the thought of joining the fictional folks at The Napping House is the next best thing to taking advantage of this national holiday for a girl once called Rip Van.

Posted by Tracy

If You Have Time To Kill

No one can change the sound of an echo.

I have never read a John Grisham book. (“Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”)  More than once my sister Sharee has told me they’re entertaining reads.  This I believe.  Give me some popped corn in front of a remotely big screen and Grisham proves entertaining.  Because my time is scarce like awesome political candidates, I want to read the exceptional stuff. I want to read books with staying power.  

That was the idealist in me talking.  Lately, I’m so tired and spent that I quieted my inner book snob, and looked for a simple escape.  Yes, I said escape.  As in, “to get away from a place where you’re being held or kept; to get away from something that is difficult or unpleasant.”  When I discovered The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens, I said to myself, “oh why not?” Besides it was touted as “compulsively suspenseful”—even noted it on the cover.  

The Life We Bury did its job. I escaped to Minnesota of all places.  It shouldn’t be a surprise that I was drawn in by a student, Joe Talbert, who took a college writing assignment to heart.  His assignment morphs into an investigation of a not-so-cold case.  Eskens, a lawyer by day, writer by night, created a nice piece of storytelling with depth.  He penned some nice lines too.  And I found myself reading one more skinny chapter despite heavy lids.  Something tells me Grisham fans will love this book (that includes you Sharee).  At the end of the read, I can say it was just what I needed—but I am so looking forward to picking up Girl at War!

Posted by Tracy

March Book Club Selection

The realization that my parents, too, felt pain and fear frightened me more than any strangers could.

International Women's Day seems like the perfect time to announce Girl at War as our March book club selection. Let's just pretend we planned it that way, shall we? It's received stunning reviews. The one below by Victor Lavalle (The Devil in Silver) may be my favorite, and will explain why this is a timely choice on this day we celebrate and recognize the power of women and girls all over the world:

Sara Nović isn’t here to play games. Her debut novel, Girl at War, serves as the announcement of an audacious talent. Great war stories are engaging and rough and honest, and Nović’s book is certainly all three. But it’s the fact that all this war is happening to a child that makes this book singular and special. You’ll hold tight to this book as if you were going to protect the young girl at its center—but come to find out, she’s the one with all the courage and all the strength.

I'm eighty-three pages in and find it hard to put this mesmerizing read down. We haven't forgotten about last month's pick. We'll be reviewing that one and opening it up for discussion next Monday.

*Fair warning to our readers offended by harsh language: while there has been some in what I've read so far, it's very limited.

Posted by Rachel

Suffering From Downton Abbey Withdrawals?

No one ever warns you about bringing up daughters. You think it’s going to be like Little Women. Instead they’re at each other’s throats from dawn till dusk. —Cora Crawley, Downton Abbey

Did you wake up with the Downton blues like I did this morning? Last night's series' finale was almost all I dreamed it would be. The only thing missing was a message at the end saying it's all been a terrible mistake, they really will be back next season. Now wouldn't that have been lovely? Sigh. Thankfully, Time Magazine has our backs with 10 Books to Counteract Your Downton Abbey Withdrawal. Books to the rescue once again.

Pretty sure there isn't a book that's going to help Tracy feel better today though. She's wearing black in honor of Peyton's announced retirement. We'll both admit we cried a little at his press conference. Classy, classy guy. They don't come any better.

We're off to drown our sorrows in some Coke and Coke Zero—meet you back here tomorrow for this month's book club selection.

Posted by Rachel

Weekly Wrap-Up

The best dividends on the labor invested have invariably come from seeking more knowledge rather than more power. —Wilbur Wright

WHAT WE LOVE THIS WEEK

Friends who text us with a Quote of the Week. This week's lovely and welcome surprise was the quote above.  I've said it before and I'll say it again: the world needs more Wright brothers. And how.

Downton Abbey. More than ever. If we had time (ha), we'd throw a party like this one. If anyone's formed a support group to help us all through our Downton withdrawals after tomorrow's series' finale, sign us up. Whatever will we do without our weekly Dowager Countess fix? Oh, how our eyes will miss Matthew Goode.

Rachel and Tracy's Summer Concert Tour. No, we aren't coming to a city near you, and no, won't be the ones on stage. Who will be, you ask? James Taylor (the original JT), Adele, and the Dixie Chicks, for starters. We're open to more suggestions. And free tickets, if you have them. This is just the warm up to our London Tour next year.

Book Club. We've heard from a few of you personally, and here, that you are enjoying our little guilt-free book club. We've decided to keep it but with one minor change: We'll do away with Book Club Mondays and just do one post at the end of the month where we can all discuss our thoughts together. We really will work on the whole Periscope thing too...because it would be fun for the blog, and really, just so we have an excuse to be in the same state.

COMING NEXT WEEK

Brace yourselves, it looks like you'll be getting two actual book reviews! I know, we're as shocked as you are. Anna and the Swallow Man and The Life We Bury. Stay tuned.

Posted by Rachel