Book 50 of 2015- "In This Together" by Ann Romney

So remember how I said there were 2 types of autobiographies- those that made you think less of a person and those that made you think more? This was the second. She is a very interesting person. I enjoyed reading about her and Mitt's life just as parents of 5 boys. Yes, they are super rich and now famous because of running for president twice, but that doesn't excuse them from the trials that so many of us face. She has been dealing with Multiple Sclerosis since 1998, and a lot of the book was talking about her learning to accept this disease and how to manage the symptoms. She uses horseback riding as a therapy, and used it a lot when Mitt was running the Salt Lake City Olympic games.

I really respect Mitt Romney. He is an ethical man, and gave up his career at Bain to help our country in the Olympics. He even gave up his salary at the time to help them raise their money faster. He seems like a great man, a loving dad, and someone who would have been a great president.

I COMPLETED MY GOAL FOR THE YEAR! WOOOOOO! That's 50! I might read 1 or 2 more before the year ends, but I'm just excited that I did!

Book 49 of 2015- "Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens

So my dad reads this book every December (right?), and I have never actually read it! So I tried to request it at the library, but it had a waiting list. So I actually found it online for free (http://www.learnlibrary.com/xmas-carol/index.htm) and read it while addressing Christmas cards yesterday and today. (Now that I go to cancel my reservation, I saw it just shipped. Oh well.) It is a super short book, but packed with great messages.

First of all, I mostly remember the story from "A Muppet Christmas Carol". I am amazed at just how closely they stuck to the story! I thought for sure there would be more embellishing than there was. Besides the fact that Bob Cratchit was a frog and the narrator was a Gonzo.

Anyway, it is such a wonderful story about redemption and the ability that someone has to change. The whole story is about Scrooge getting the lesson of his life and seeing just how unkind and stingy he has been throughout his life, and what will happen in the end if he doesn't change. The concept of Jacob Marley (Who I always want to call Bob......) is a terrifying one, when you read it in this perspective. None of this "Marley and Marley" business, he is a scary ghost whose jaw falls off when he unwraps his head! And then Scrooge looks out the window and sees a bunch of other ghosts who are weeping and wailing and lamenting their own mistakes. Many of them were people that Scrooge knew. How terrifying!

The ghost that I actually found the least interesting was the Ghost of Christmas Past. Its entrance is super startling, if you read closely enough and didn't miss the sentence where Dickens says the ghost was "as close to it as I am now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow". CREEPY. I got chills when I read it. Although I did learn that Scrooge only had one sister, who had one child, who was his nephew Fred. What also surprised me while reading these events was how quickly Scrooge seemed to lighten up, and enjoy the spirit of Christmas. I always thought he was more hesitant than he was in the story.

The Ghost of Christmas Present seemed to be exactly as I expected him to be. He is kind of sassy, throwing Scrooge's words back at him when he wants to be more charitable. That is a way to make sure that Scrooge not only wants to be better, but see where he went wrong for so many years. There is actually a quote that I LOVE, because it applies so aptly to the political climate of fear that is happening right now. Scrooge asks him why he (I'm assuming he means Christianity) allows people to shut the poor out and close their doors every 7 days. The ghost replies, "`There are some upon this earth of yours who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge their doings on themselves, not us.'" Hopefully we can all remember that with all the stories and news that are being spread around right now. 

The other part of the story of the Ghost of Christmas Present that was not present in the Muppets version (or any other version that I can recall) are the two children who hang onto his robes. Ignorance and Want. Just as applicable today as it was then.

The part that I found most interesting with the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come is that the spirit seems to pity and have compassion for Scrooge. When Scrooge is kneeling before his grave begging to change his own future, the spirit seems to tremble and shake. Scrooge was awfully bold to grab his hand... Eesh.

When he goes through all this, and sees how he could have helped the world and his future if nothing changes, Scrooge says, "I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach". And he really doesn't. I almost got teary reading about how grateful he was to have this second chance. I'm sure if I had a boss who was as awful to me as Scrooge was to Cratchit, I would not be so quickly receptive to his new mentality. I would wonder what he was trying to get at, or what he would extort me for later. But that just shows how good of people Scrooge had been surrounded with, even if he didn't know it.

So I HIGHLY recommend this story for anyone. It is a perfect story for Christmas time, and helps you get into the right spirit about the season.

Book 48 of 2015- "Yes Please" by Amy Poehler

So I signed up to request this book in June (The same time as Tina Fey's "Bossypants")... and I was number NINETY FIVE on the list. I mean, seriously? So I FINALLY got this book a few weeks ago and couldn't wait to read it. Brandon and I watched "Parks and Recreation", her latest show, last year and I thought she was a hilarious character. She was also always a funny character when she would act on Saturday Night Live and in movies that I have seen her act in, so I wanted to read her book.

So, the way I described it to Brandon was that there are autobiographies that make you think more of the person, and autobiographies that make you think less of a person. This was not in the first category. I've just come to realize while reading these books just how broken these famous people are. I also have realized that the creative types of people that become actors usually are willing to do anything to become famous, including many many drugs. There's only so many times you can read that before you start skimming. But actors will always feel like they need to please someone, and will always do what it takes to stay relevant.

So, I was disappointed. I mean I loved watching her in other movies! But now I won't be able to see her the same way.

Book 47 of 2015- "Anne of Windy Poplars" by L.M. Montgomery

I am DEFINITELY starting a book blog next year. I like keeping track of this, but I am not a huge fan of it taking up my family blog space. Half my posts this year are about the books I read!

Anyways, I was not a huge fan when I saw that the first part were all letters. I don't mind that in a little bit, but I was worried that it would be the whole book. Luckily it wasn't, but it was funny to read her perspective on what happened in the town of Summerside.

She made a friend with a sweet little girl while she was out there. I don't understand who "the Woman" was in relation to her, but she was afraid of her. In the end Anne wrote a letter to her dad (who was in Paris), who ended up coming to take care of her eventually.

I will say one thing that drives me a little crazy is that Anne is always at the center of everything. I just wonder if that is real life with anyone, where they just keep finding themselves in the middle of huge things between other families. She helped someone elope, she helped an orphan reunite with an uncle he didn't know he had, she helped someone break off an engagement that neither party really wanted, etc. etc. It is just amazing that everyone keeps liking her and is just drawn to her! I'm just not sure how much that would actually happen.

And she might FINALLY get married after this book!

Book 46 of 2015- "The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times" by Jennifer Worth

My friend Jeni recommended this series (on BBC) to me when I was pregnant. I watched a few episodes, but I am too tender to pregnancy/childbirth/even nursing things to have watched too much. It was SO fascinating though... I may start watching it again.

As in the episodes that I watched, when reading these stories I was struck by how hard the lives of these people must have been. There were some stories in here that were very sad. Issues of prostitution, domestic violence, living in squalor, venereal diseases, and the inadequate healthcare that was around in the 50's. Of course, none of those things are exactly gone (besides the healthcare, mostly), but it is still amazing to think of what might have been if we had been born in a just slightly different time and a different country. We could have been the people living in the old tenements that were supposed to be torn down, with 25 children (that was one of her stories). Fortunately (for my heart's sake) there was only one story of the baby dying, and that was due to eclampsia that came on very suddenly. There was also a story of a baby who was given up for adoption without the mother's consent, because the mother had been working as a prostitute and had nowhere else to go. About 6 years later, she was arrested for kidnapping someone else's baby and went to jail for it. But I have to say the saddest story was about the local "mad" woman, who was always around when a baby was born. She was filthy and always lurking. They found out that a long time ago, she had 6 kids and a husband, but then the husband died of what sounded like tuberculosis. She wasn't able to support her family, and the baby ultimately died. She then took the other 5 children to a workhouse, which basically sounds like prison. All of her children's heads were shaved, and she was separated from them and never saw them again. They all died and were buried without her knowledge. It just tore me apart to think of that happening, and the fact that it just happened not that long ago is awful. Again, it just made me so grateful to have lived in the time that I do.

Jennifer was a 23 year old nurse who accidentally agreed to work with a convent full of nuns. She had no idea that was her job description, as she was not religious. But she got to know the nuns and loved them, especially Monica Joan. She was a 90 year old woman who was borderline senile, with flashes of mischievous and often brutal clarity. She drove many of the other nuns crazy, and even the nurses who worked there. But Jennifer realized that she loved all of them, with their funny quirks and all.

I love this style of book, which has many short stories in it. That makes it that much faster to read, and really enjoyable. I just can't imagine what life was like back then, it breaks my heart. Recently our cousins Tanner and Alyse had a baby that required surgery for colonic atresia, where she could not pass meconium due to her bowels not forming correctly in one spot. If she had been born back then, she would have ultimately died. It makes you SO grateful for the wonderful medicine we have nowadays, and for the wonderful doctors and medical staff at hospitals and medical centers everywhere!

Book 45 of 2015- O for a Thousand Nights to Sleep" by Lorilee Craker

So, I thought this was a professional's book that will be helpful in sleep training. I was excited that it came right now because ever since Daylight Savings (curse Benjamin Franklin for thinking it up) Cora has stopped sleeping through the night. I am about to LOSE MY MIND. I love her, but my nerves are a little more frayed at 4 AM when she's ready to play.

Anyway, this was not a book done by a professional. She is a mom speaking to a mom, but I actually really enjoyed that. She tells of some of the different things that happen with each month from birth to a year. While they weren't totally accurate to Cora's timeline (I mean, crawling at 5 months???), it was pretty informative. For example, I "get" to look forward to an outburst of independence at about 9 months. Woohoo, right? And in the next month Cora will start to figure out that the person she already laughs at in the mirror is herself. I am excited for a lot of these tiny changes, and can't wait to see more!

Book 44 of 2015- "Anne of the Island" by L.M. Montgomery

I have to say this book was my favorite of the series so far. This is when Anne goes to college, to get her BA. She goes with a few school friends, including Gilbert Blythe. While going to school she makes some new friends and adopts a cat. Her best friend, Diana, gets married and another friend passes away from consumption (which I just found out was tuberculosis... Anne probably shouldn't have spent so much time with her.). And she has a serious boyfriend for 2 years, but when he proposes she realizes that she loves Gilbert (whose proposal she had rejected before). So, that is awkward for Roy. But finally she gets together with Gilbert!

I am excited to keep reading this series... Yes it is a big fat "I told you so" moment.