Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom

This tome has been a "go to" guide for me in many ways over the years. It has helped me get pregnant, understand thyroid and menstrual cycle irregularities and has eased any fears that I've had regarding my body. It is written by Christiane Northrup, a physician with extensive experience with women's medical needs as well as our strong emotional connection to our bodies. She writes over and over again about the mind/body connection and how if we are not healthy in our minds and hearts (our emotions), we might be causing issues in our bodies.

Recently I experienced an extremely painful rupturing of a large cyst on my left ovary. After 3 weeks of pain, a pelvic ultrasound and doctors appointments, I finally consulted my trusted reference - WOMEN'S BODIES, WOMEN'S WISDOM. In the section regarding ovaries, there is most definitely a section on cysts. What surprised me was what Dr. Northrup sees as the reason that cysts develop. "We women are meant to express our creative natures throughout our lives. Our creations will change and evolve as we ourselves grow and develop. Our ovaries, too, are always changing, forming, and reabsorbing those small cysts. As long as we express our creative flow deep within us, our ovaries remain normal."

So what does this mean for me? I don't feel like I've been particularly blocked in my creativity. Yes life has been stressful over the past six months, and I have not done as much writing as I would like, but I didn't think that I was denying myself to the point to create such a painful "wake up call" from my body.

Dr. Northrup goes further to say that cysts on the "left side of the body represent the female, artistic, reflective side, while the right side is the more analytic, male side." I have had two ruptured cysts previously on the right side and this is my first on the left (and the most painful). Never have I tried to imitate male ways of being in this world, as that is not my nature at all. My personality has always been one that is creative, not analytical or technical. So how can I best re-energize my creative outlets and heal my body? I dance, I read, I write, I dream, I laugh...where else can I express myself?

I know that my answers come in time, but I thought this book was worth sharing. It was first published in 1994, in 1998 and again in 2010. Like I said, it has walked me through two pregnancies, a myriad of cycle problems and will help me through menopause (a ways off). I highly recommend that every women has this book on hand to answers questions for yourself, your daughters, your mothers and friends.

Kapitoil

Our city chose this for its "Novel Idea" book of the year. Last year they chose The Help and a few years earlier The Kite Runner. As in prior years, I have read each of the "Novel Idea" books, and found them to be engaging, discussion provoking and great reads.

On the other hand, and IN MY OPINION, Kapitoil was not. In fact I did not even finish it. After laboring through a third of the book, skimming most of what I had read, I ditched it. Initially I was interested in the foreign worker who comes to America to write code and work in the financial world. But then I realized that I was reading about someone who writes codes and works in the financial world - both of those subjects bore me to death.

I am sorry to say I would not recommend this book. As I did not push through to finish the book, I will pass on attending the author reading. I hope that others found this a wonderful read.

The Book Thief

Growing up in Germany on the cusp of WWII is a challenging task. Liesel, a scrawny nine year old girl is repeatedly impacted by war, by hatred and by loss throughout this novel. Fortunately because she is a child, she is also able to be influenced by constant love, strong community and true friendship.

Abandoned to a foster family in Munich, she arrives heartbroken and hopeless. She is taken in by an older couple whose grown children visit seldomly, and who are in need of the stipend that taking care of Liesel will garner. Times are tough in Germany. Hitler's influence is gaining strength throughout the country where people are tired of not having enough food, not enough work, and not enough aid.

The Book Thief is narrated by Death (as you can imagine, with war imminent, Death was everywhere in Germany during this time). He encounters Liesel for the first time as they both watch her young brother die. She will cross paths with Death many, many more times before this amazing novel is finished.

Death is touched by Liesel, by her words, as no other human has done before.

Her words, and all written words...their power, their influence, their beauty, their confinement and freedom are the essence of this book. The author, Markus Zusak not only understands their power but displays a mastery of them that is uncanny.

Descriptions of sunsets, smiles, and sadness are unique and poignant. Not only is the story an original view of life behind the Fuhrer's crazy control, it is exceptional because of the language used to describe the hard life that all Germans lived - whether they supported the Fuhrer or not, they all were impacted by the misery of war.

I cannot recommend this book enough. I loved it. You would think that a story narrated by Death and about Nazi Germany would be a horribly sad story, but you would be wrong. The hope, trust, friendship, love and faith in humanity outshine all of the horrible, inexcusable actions and intentions of this time.

This book is a MUST read.

The Devlin Diary

This is an intriguing story which jumps back and forth between the present day England, and the 1600's in King Charles II's court. It expertly entwines two murder mysteries into one captivating read.

Christi Phillips presents a well researched, in depth depiction of court life during King Charles II reign; the scandals, the schemes and the lengths to which courtiers and royalty will go to gain, cultivate and maintain power within that sphere of influence.

Medicine and new methods of medical treatments during this time in the 1600's are explored, as well as the limited role women had in everything but the home.

Mrs. Devlin, the main character, is a wonderful woman, wading through loneliness, practicing medicine through prejudice and striving to create a new definition for what women's capabilities could be. Mrs. Devlin, a widow, has been trained in the field of medicine from a long life assisting her famous physician father as well as her husband. Her skills, knowledge and proficiency are unparalleled even among the male physicians of her time. She slowly, quietly gains respect and confidence from her male counterparts and soon finds herself at the personal call of the King.

Mrs. Devlin's story directly parallels and offers clues to the murder mystery being unfolded in current England at Cambridge. The Devlin Diary is a entertaining read and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good mystery as well as a historical fiction.

Sizzling Sixteen

Sizzling Sixteen by Janet Evanovich is a PERFECT summer read...fun, laugh out loud, and a "no brainer". I have read ALL of Ms. Evanovich's novels about Stephanie Plum since ONE FOR THE MONEY, and I have loved and devoured them all!

They were passed on to me from my 90 year old grandmother, via my aunt, to my mother, and then to me. I passed them on to my good friends, who then passed them on to their mothers and grandmothers, aunts and friends. Ms. Evanovich has a fantastic ability to write humor - which is hard to do. And not just "Oh, that's funny", but laugh so loud you embarrass everyone around you funny. It is a true gift!

SIZZLING SIXTEEN was funny, but a little thin on story and story development. Nothing really happened. Sure, I enjoyed it, laughed my butt off...in the orthodontics office, waiting for my daughter, on the deck with a glass of wine and at the pool...but I wish there was something more to develop the story and about 50 more pages. It was thin.

I loved it, but it was not up to Stephanie Plum snuff

Resurrection by Tucker Malarkey

It is a rare occurrence when I actually take notes while reading a book, but RESURRECTION by Tucker Malarkey was one in which I felt compelled to do so. The writing is simple, perfectly descriptive, and inviting to the reader. I felt like an active participant, filling in the details of the sceneries with my own imagination spurred on by Malarkey's well crafted writing. There were some sentences that just needed to be written down and saved.

The story takes place just at the end of World War II. The main character is a nurse in England who is as emotionally destroyed as the countless soldiers bodies and minds she tends to. She has survived the war physically but mentally is crumbling.

Her father, an ex-patriot researcher, who has lived and worked in Egypt for years has been killed and she is beckoned to Egypt in order to settle his affairs. Though her task is an unhappy one, it becomes the chance for her to learn who her father truly was, what his passions were and how these passions ultimately got him killed.

RESURRECTION is an exploration in the development of religion, Christianity specifically, as well as a historical fiction, a romance and a murder mystery all in one. I loved this book. I would definitely read it again. It was engaging, thought provoking and very well written.

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford, is set in the melting pot port city of Seattle. The story bounces between the early 1940's and the mid 1980's as Henry, a Chinese man, with his life in transition remembers his time as a boy in the tumultuous 1940's.

As a young man, Henry struggles within a world that is enslaved by prejudice. His controlling, emotionally detached father forces him to attend an all-white school and speak only English, which neither parent understands. At school he is ridiculed, threatened and beat up on a daily basis as Pearl Harbor is bombed, China invaded and Germany plows over Europe. As his Chinese peers call him "the white devil" his white peers persecute him for being the enemy.

The only light in his world comes from an unexpected source, a Japanese girl named Keiko. She too is a student on scholarship like Henry. As they work as janitors and cafeteria help a friendship is seeded which soon grows in strength and depth. Their love, forbidden by Henry's family is one that history has known before. Like Juliet and her Romeo, society has erected barriers out of hatred, judgement and intolerance.

Seattle's diverse ethnic population it is a perfect setting for the strife and conflict the world is experiencing to be felt intimately. As America's fears and hate escalate towards the Japanese, internment camps are created to imprison all citizens of Japanese dissent. As you can suspect Keiko and her family are one of the thousands of families that are forced to leave everything behind and live in these camps.

"Love knows nothing of rank or riverbank. It will spark between a queen and the poor vagabond who plays the king. And their love should be minded by each. For love denied blights the soul we owe to God." - Shakespeare in Love

This seemed to be the longest little story I have read in a while. I had a difficult time feeling the desire to finish this book. The writing was good, as was the story, but in some way it was lacking. It would have been a more complete novel if the story had been told from both Keiko's perspective as well as Henry's. There would have been so much more historical and emotional depth. As it is, the strife between Henry and his father, the love that cannot conquer the circumstances it struggles with, as well as how the story ends are all themes that have been written about many, many times before. There was nothing unique here that made me want to keep reading. There was nothing wrong with the book, there just wasn't anything great about it.