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Reviews by Lynette

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Flesh & Blood: Reflections on Infertility, Family, and Creating a Bountiful Life: A Memoir
by N. West Moss

Ties of Blood (8/25/2021)

I have a special fondness for memoirs, especially those written by women, so I was happy to read and review Flesh and Blood: Reflections on Infertility, Family, and Creating a Bountiful Life, by N. West Moss. Flesh and Blood is a perfect title for this memoir, a conclusion …more

The Tender Mercy of Roses: A Novel
by Anna Michaels

No Tender Mercy Here (4/3/2011)

I am not the intended audience for this book.

In its favor, I have to say that it is a fairly quick read and the plot moves forward without too much effort on the reader’s part, except for keeping the generations clear in one’s mind. The story is interesting enough as a …more

The Bread of Angels: A Journey to Love and Faith
by Stephanie Saldana

The Bread of Angels (2/18/2010)

This is a true account of the author's year in Syria, spanning from September of 2004 to September of 2005. We find out from the outset that Stephanie Saldana is departing the US just as a relationship is ending, leaving her with a broken heart. She has been granted a …more

Rules for Old Men Waiting
by Peter R. Pouncey

Rules for Old Men Waiting (10/14/2009)

This book is for the discriminating reader who enjoys exquisitely written, softly beautiful prose, and who does not require an action-packed plot to appreciate a book. The subject is not upbeat, and yet the reader has a sense of sober satisfaction at the end, somehow. What …more

Wedlock: The True Story of the Disastrous Marriage and Remarkable Divorce of Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore
by Wendy Moore

Wedlock (5/14/2009)

This true story of a mid-18th century English heiress duped into a marriage with an abusive, masochistic, fortune-hunting monster is jaw-droppingly fascinating. The period details are instructive and the laws regarding women's rights are enlightening, especially in this day …more

Something Like Beautiful: One Single Mother's Story
by Asha Bandele

Something Like Beautiful (12/2/2008)

Over all I found Asha Bandele’s Something Like Beautiful to be an engrossing story. I liked reading about what happened to her, and how these events made her feel; I sympathized 98% with the author, even as I wished she had made other choices; and I loved meeting her …more precious, precocious daughter. The message was uplifting as the book ended, and I can imagine this work will be a boon to other single parents, especially women.

Although the author never made the point in so many words that children of single parents are often, of necessity, more mature than other kids of their ages, I do believe this to be true. The relationship this mother and daughter have is truly a beautiful thing, and I think Bandele fails to give herself enough credit for this fact. On the other hand, one wonders about down the road, how difficult it may be for them to separate in the normal, healthy way of all kids and their mothers. It’s a poignant fact of life for just such families that growing up to be independent may be more problematic for children like Bandele’s daughter and for the parents, also, that cleaving may be particularly painful. In other words, I believe this book is an important sociological portrait, given the prevalence of single mothers.

I have only one reservation about Something Like Beautiful, which may not even be fair, considering that the book I read was not the final edition. And this is that, despite the fact that Bandele has won awards as an author, I found her language to be vague and/or ambiguous in numerous places. I am not talking about typos or repetitions of words, or misspellings. Instead I found pronouns whose antecedents were not clear, or sentences such as the following, which I found by opening the book at random: “ ... we revealed ourselves to ourselves wholly ...” rather than “... we revealed ourselves to each other wholly ...” and instead of “After five years ... we did what most people who are in love are want -- and able -- to do,” I certainly hope she meant to say “are wont ... to do.” OK, the latter may have been an editorial error, but there were many, many sentences that I had to read several times in order to find the meaning in them. Here’s an example of an awkward sentence (the last one): “You can still make it out,... but you have to squint. And even then, blurs.” Does she mean, “And even then it blurs” or “And even then, you see a blur”? Sometimes I chalked up the ambiguity to her being a poet, but I usually enjoy reading the prose of poets, so maybe it’s just that the work is still in need of a firm editorial hand. (I suppose that editing one’s own writing is different from editing that of another, since the author has also worked as an editor.)

Despite the foregoing paragraph, I found Something Like Beautiful, by Asha Bandele, to be well worth the reading. (less)

The Music Teacher
by Barbara Hall

The Music Teacher by Barbara Hall (10/2/2008)

I like this book, but it seems more of a short story than a novel: a story which has been stretched out to novel-length, as opposed to an actual novel with the complexities of characters and various story lines which the term novel tends to connote. Since I love short …more

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