Devourer of Books

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

Kyra is the daughter of her father’s third wife.  According to their prophet, polygamy is a means to salvation and girls and women must be subservient to the men in their lives.  To this point in her life, Kyra has been lucky to have a father and mothers who allow her relative freedom.  She has begun a flirtation with a young boy in the compound and makes secretive weekly visits to a bookmobile.  However, the prophet has a plan for Kyra.  She is to marry one of his Apostles, Hyrum.  A man who just happens to be the eldest brother of Kyra’s father - she is to be her uncle’s seventh wife.

This is quite a heartbreaking young adult novel.  I am told that it is one of the very best  young adult novels dealing with polygamy out there.  I did find it to be a fantastic and very quick read.  The storyline was superb.  That being said, I wouldn’t say it is the best young adult novel I’ve read this year.  Much of “The Chosen One” is told from Kyra’s point of view in almost a stream-of-consciousness style.  It definitely works, but I think that Laurie Halse Anderson did it better with “Wintergirls.”  That being said, I would still definitely recommend “The Chosen One,” particularly to young adult readers.

Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local independent bookseller via Indiebound.
Amazon.

After much anticipation… Daniel Alexander Karsbaek has finally arrived!!! He was born at 5:20AM this morning, weighed in at 7lbs 8oz, is 21.5 inches long… and he’s absolutely beautiful, as you can see above! Everything went smoothly and mother and baby are both doing wonderfully. Please join me in congratulating Jen and Brian and welcoming Daniel Alexander to the world!

-Auntie Jill

Lost Boy by Brent Jeffs

Brent Jeffs was part of a family of polygamist royalty as the grandson of FLDS prophet Rulon Jeffs.  Unfortunately, this did not translate into an easy life.  Brent’s father Ward was the only one of Rulon’s sons to go to Vietnam and he returned with PTSD.  Add to this the fact that two of Ward’s three sister-wives were actually sisters who had never gotten along and the third was a supremely messed up teenager who married him to get away from a controlling mother and didn’t seem to know how to interact with other people, particularly children, and you can start to see why Brent’s life may not have been very easy.

However, things did not stop there.  When Brent and some of his brothers were around 5 years old, they were molested by their uncle Warren Jeffs, the man who would later take over his father Rulon’s position as FLDS prophet.  Warren molested them only from about ages 5-7, but afterwards seemed determined to make life difficult for them - not a hard task since he was the principal of their school.  This led Brent and many of his brothers, all of whom seem to have initially repressed these memories, to become rather troubled adolescents.

This was a very interesting book.  It seems that most books dealing with polygamy and FLDS explore the effect this life has on women.  In “Lost Boy,” we see the effect it can have both on the boys who are pushed out and the men who are more fully integrated into the polygamous adult male life style, like Brent’s father.  The writing isn’t the best - there are far too many exclamation points! in some places - but it is serviceable.  This is not the sort of book you read looking for lovely prose anyway, you read it to learn what is happening perhaps only miles from where you live.  By that metric, I think this book succeeds.  I found it to be an interesting and informative read, and one I would recommend to people interested in this topic.

Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local independent bookseller via Indiebound.
Amazon.

Secret Son by Laila Lalami

Youssef El Mekki is a young man growing up in an impoverished slum of Casablanca, Morocco with his mother.  He has always been told that his father was a teacher who worked odd jobs for extra money and was killed in a tragic accident.  Then, one day, he discovers that his father is truly a (living) wealthy business man who fooled around on his wife with Youssef’s mother.  Due to the circumstances surrounding Youssef’s discovery and his attempts to reconnect with his father, Youssef begins to spend more and more time at the community center of a somewhat radical Islamic group known as The Party.

I thought that “The Secret Son” was a fantastic look at the desperate circumstances that end up radicalizing many young men around the world.  I really enjoyed the way the story unfolded, particularly through the end of the book.  The beginning was a bit of a slow start for me, but once Youssef began to learn the truth about his father it really picked up.  I really enjoyed this look into modern life in Morocco.

Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local independent bookseller via Indiebound.
Amazon.

I promised that I would give away a package of mystery books I’ve reviewed to one lucky participant in the Bloggiesta Mini-Challenge I hosted.  I’m assuming that everyone who was planning to let me know that they had participated has done so, so I have used Random.org to pick a winner: #15, Nan from Nan’s Corner!  Nan, I’m not giving you an exact timeline to get back to me, but if you want your books with any speed, you’ll do it quickly, because this baby could come at any time.  If I haven’t heard back from Nan by the time I’m home with baby, I’ll draw another winner.

For those of you who didn’t win, you’re still eligible for prizes from Natasha for entering.  See you all next Bloggiesta!

Waking Up In Eden by Lucinda Fleeson

Lucinda spent much of her career in journalism.  When her paper began downsizing and things began getting uncomfortable at work, she knew she needed something different.  Always a fan of gardening around her own house, Lucinda found her something different when an old friend, Bill Klein, invited her to join him in his work at the National Tropical Botanical Garden in Kauai as the foundation’s fundraiser.

“Waking Up in Eden” is Lucinda’s memoir of the time that she was in Kauai.  It was an interesting mix of a personal and professional memoir.  Fleeson shared a good deal of information about the National Tropical Botanical Garden, its history, internal politics, and mission.  She also talked a lot about the history of Hawaiian plant life and how it has been degraded.  Amongst all of this, some of her personal interactions with people unrelated to her work seemed a little random.  These sections made sense by the end, looking at Lucinda’s personal growth while with NTBG, but they definitely weren’t my favorite parts.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, although I definitely preferred the sections dealing with the National Tropical Botanical Garden and Hawaiian plant life.  The one thing I would have liked to see included is illustrations or photos of some of the different plants, even in black and white.  I find the descriptions of the plants so interesting, but had no idea what they looked like and wasn’t always near my computer to look them up.

Buy this book from:
Powells.
A local independent bookseller via Indiebound.
Amazon.