1. Can’t Think Straight, A Memoir of Mixed-Up Love by Kiri Blakeley

2. Jacob’s Ladder by Donald McCaig

3. The Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua

4. The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella

5. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

6. Barefoot by Elin Hilderbrand

Walls’ story unfolds with her sitting in a taxi cab on her way to a party and noticing her homeless mother rooting through a trash can. Walls’ then takes the reader through the story of her life, starting with her earliest memory of catching on fire while cooking herself a hot dog at a very young age. The family is constantly moving around the deserts of the West, or doing “the skedaddle” as her father calls it, to avoid the authorities.  Walls’ parents, Rex and Rose Mary, loved their children but each had major personal demons to battle. Rex was a raging alcoholic with outrageous invention ideas and dreams that he could never stay sober enough to make reality.  Rose Mary cared much more about pursuing her dreams of being a renowned artist and writer than holding down a teaching job or being a mother to her four young children. The kids as a result were usually left to fend for themselves.  The family lived in precarious housing situations to say the least. The kids slept in cardboard boxes, washed weekly if they were lucky and were often starving. Despite the gloom of their financial situation, the children were well educated and the parents taught them to see their lives as an adventure and count their lucky stars that they weren’t spoiled and coddled like other children. This worked while the kids were young, but as they got older, they realized the desperate hopelessness of their situation and planned their escape to New York. Despite several setbacks, including their own father stealing their savings, they finally did make their New York dream become a reality. The three oldest children attended college and started careers.  Rex and Rose Mary eventually followed them to New York City and lived on the streets despite offers of help from their children. The youngest daughter stabbed the mother and then spent a year in a hospital and moved to California.

Growing up as one of 22 children, I thought there were times we had it rough, but after reading this book, I am convinced that my siblings and I lived a life of luxury. Walls is a remarkable storyteller, who manages to capture every moment of her childhood as if she is living it again in that moment. She must have an amazing memory. The lengths that this family went to just to survive and the oddities and twists and turns of the family dynamic made it impossible to put this book down. I laughed, I cried, I sighed, I shut my eyes in anger–I think I must have went through every emotion imaginable reading this book.

At the end of the day, there was always love in the family, but it’s difficult to fathom that there are parents who don’t put their children first. Sadly, I know that is not uncommon. But, I know this story is unique in its oddness and the fact that most of the children went on to be successful despite enduring unimaginable childhoods. What a wild ride!

As a lifelong Christian, sections of this book were somewhat difficult for me to read. However, looking at the Western civilization as a whole, I can understand how he drew some of his conclusions about the lack of religion in our lifestyle.

Overall, I found this book to be thoughtful and insightful in its arguments and theories. It also re-introduced me to Islam, a religion that I studied in college, but have only read about in the papers since then.

I moved to Philadelphia in 1992 at the ripe age of 12 and learned almost from day one that Philadelphia was a city built on history, pride and corruption. This book included all of these elements. The short stories moved from murder to romance gone wrong to stock scams to prostitution to graveyard scandals to ruined fairs to the Barrymore family drama and more.

It was interesting to learn that Arch St. was formerly Mulberry, Market was High St., the famous South St. was Cedar, and my favorite–Race was Sassafras St.!

Other interesting items included the story of Benedict Arnold and how his name became synonymous with traitor, the tale of Sophie Beck, “the queen of the confidence women,” and how term “sugar daddy” became part of the English vocabulary.

-p. 37: “For many of Philadelphia’s fallen women, it was a far better fate to be a queen in hell than a servant in heaven.”

-p. 60: “Given the long and continuing saga of body snatching in Philadelphia, it’s hardly surprising that our city became one of the early centers of cremation in America.”

p. 87: Funny quip at the bottom of the page questions the effectiveness of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

I will tell you one thing, after reading this book, I definitely want to be cremated when I die!

I have picked up a few interesting books though. I nabbed a few for 25 cents each at a recent flea market and I picked up a signed copy of ‘Wicked Philadelphia: Sin in the City of Philadelphia’ by Thomas H. Keels at a murder mystery event on Halloween. Maybe I will read this real quick….

In addition, I got a personally signed copy of ‘Chasing Miracles’ by John F. Crowley at a movie event at Arcadia University earlier this week. After a recent interview, I also have a copy of Kevin Sinnott’s ‘Coffee Companion’ book heading my way via mail. Can’t wait to read that one.

So…material obviously isn’t the issue. I’m the issue. So I better put nose to paper soon!

p. 36–”She herself was a filmmaker. Not a Hollywood filmmaker, God no, not even an artistic, expirimental, underpaid filmmaker, the kind who doesn’t have enough money (or possibly technical know-how) to make actual films, but who instead talks at parties about the superiority of black and white to color.”  -I love this. As a video communications major in college, I met more than my fair share of people like this!

p. 75–”A girl is a person on a trampoline, not her own trampoline, but the neighbor’s…a girl chooses to be a girl. It’s not about making tuna casserole for the boys, or joining some bobby socks bowling league. And it’s not really Cyndi Lauper or The G0-Go’s either, although they come close.” -After reading this, I’ve decided, I just want to be a girl and go jump on someone else’s trampoline.

p. 160–”Heritage–did it matter? Winona herself felt invisible, neither poor nor rich, nothing in particular. German, Danish, Irish–sure, those were her origins, but her people didn’t leap off the page to shake their rights at her, rights or wrongs.”

p. 205–”It was like she thought life lasted a really long time and that everything you did didn’t matter utterly, that you weren’t made of the minutes you spent.”

p. 236–Lucy to Winona: “You don’t belong at a place like Grecko Mauster Crill. See what I mean? Stay at a place like that and you become part of the problem.” Winona: “I know, but–I’ve got to pay the rent.” Lucy’s response: “The rent gets paid, Winona.”

p. 261–Bill to Winona about Rex (lawyer that is in love with Winona) after he left the job: “Trust us, everyone has a dark side,” Bill said, looking satisfied. “Everyone has a light side, Winona thought to herself, on her way back to her apartment that evening.” -Yes, everyone does have a light side. I believe that.

So Larsson’s third book in the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series didn’t disappoint. It started out slow and there were a few pages about SAPO’s history that I literally had to force myself to read. Once it got going though, it was an amazing read. Salander was in rare form. She was in a hospital bed for more than half of the book, but that didn’t stop her from plotting and getting involved in various investigations. Blomkvist was his usual smutty, obsessively focused self who doesn’t seem to have a fear in the world…except maybe commitment. This was also the first book where we got to know Erika Berger a little better and I really enjoyed the plot around her character. It’s really a bummer that Larsson is no longer alive and this series can’t keep going. I could read 100 more books of Salander/Blomkvist/Berger mysteries and adventures.

I don’t usually mark pages from mysteries, but one comment that felt particularly meaningful came on p. 150 from Morander, the former Editor-in-Chief of SMP. When Berger asked how he was feeling about retiring, he answered, “You walk around feeling like a teenager and immortal your whole life, and suddenly there isn’t much time left. But one thing’s for sure–I don’t intend to spend the rest of it in this glass cage.” Those are words to live by…

While the violence was too extreme at times and some of the coincidental meetings a little unbelievable, I couldn’t stop reading. Definitely a page turner. This was a great follow up to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The central plot wasn’t quite as compelling as in the first novel, but it shed more light into who Lisbeth Salander really is, what makes her tick and why she is the way she is.

There were so many new characters, it did get confusing at times, but fortunately the central characters still dominated the story. I really liked a few of the new characters like Miriam (Mimmi) Wu and Inspector Bubble. While I wouldn’t say I liked them, Zala and the blond giant were fascinating characters.

When the boxer Paolo Roberto emerged on the scene, I literally LOL’d. Even funnier, is that he plays himself in the movie version. Unfortunately for him,he seems to have gotten into a bit of trouble for slapping a 16-year-old.

Blomkvist was smart, creative and diligent in his pursuit of the truth. The police were a mess which I am sure Larsson meant as a critique that goes beyond the pages of this book. They couldn’t see eye to eye, there was scandal, machoism and many other appalling aspects of their investigation.

I was most disappointed with the media’s role in this book. It pains me when media outlets jump on a story and spin it to the most sensational headlines possible. In cases like this, it really does defeat the whole idea of guilty until proven innocent.

All in all, great book and I am dying to read the last book, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.

It’s 600+ pages, but it shouldn’t take me too long to finish…I hope!

Back to the book–I didn’t necessarily “like” everything that Obama had to say in the book or like the fact that my president had some of these thoughts detailed in the book, esp. some of the comments about race, but I did like that he was honest and open about his experiences and his struggles with figuring out his identity. I guess truths that are different from your own can make you feel uncomfortable at times, but that is the only way one can truly grow and expand one’s ideas of others and of self.

The following are passages, stories or quotes that made me stop and really think:

-p. 40–When Obama asked his stepfather Lolo why a man was killed and Lolo replied, “Because he was weak. That’s usually enough. Men take advantage of weakness in other men.

p. 94–”Everybody was welcome into the club of dissatisfaction. And if the high didn’t settle whatever it was that was getting you down, it could at least help you laugh at the world’s ongoing folly and see through all the hypocrisy and bullshit and cheap moralism.”

p.94–Talking about an interaction with his mother, “I had given her a reassuring smile and patted her hand and told her not to worry, I wouldn’t do anything stupid. It was usually an effective tactic, another one of those tricks I had learned: People were satisfied so long as you were courteous and smiled and made no sudden moves. They were more than satisfied, they were relieved–such a pleasant surprise to find a well-mannered young black man who didn’t seem angry all the time.” But, his mother wasn’t satisfied that day.

p. 96–His mother to him: “A healthy dose of guilt never hurt anybody. It’s what civilization was built on, guilt. A highly underrated emotion.”

p. 258–passage about how public schools are designed to educate black children.

p. 266–Obama’s brother Roy talking to him: “I thought I could start over, you see. But now I know you can never start over. Not really. You think you have control, but you are like a fly in someone else’s web.”

p.327–”What is a family? Is it just a genetic chain, parents and offspring, people like me? Or is it a social construct, an economic unit, optimal for child rearing and divisions of labor? Or is it something else entirely: a store of shared memories, say? An ambit of love? A reach across the void?

p. 337–Obama’s aunt about his father: ” I tell you this so you will know the pressure your father was under in this place. So you don’t judge him too harshly. And you must learn from his life. If you have something, then everyone will want a piece of it. So you have to draw the line somewhere. If everyone is family, no one is family. Your father, he never understood this, I think.”

p. 381–Obama’s uncle: “I think perhaps educations doesn’t do us much good unless it is mixed with sweat.”

p. 435–History teacher about her daughter: “In the end, I’m less interested in a daughter who is authentically African than one who is authentically herself.

p.437– Obama about law school: “The study of law can be disappointing at time, a matter of applying narrow rules and arcane procedure to an uncooperative reality; a sort of glorified accounting that serves to regulate the affairs of those who have power–and that all too often seeks to explain, to those who do not, the ultimate wisdom and justness of their condition. But that’s not all law is. The law is also memory; the law also records a long-running conversation, a nation arguing with it;s conscience.”