Home Improvement with Brownies

I did my taxes last night.
And wrote my paper.
And began to tile my bathroom because I'm pissed off that I haven't been able to shower in my own house since October and from what it all sounded like, that was just going to go on indefinitely. Never underestimate the power of a motivated woman especially when she's sick and tired of waiting on men. For someone who has never done it before, I think I did pretty well:

And then I made cheesecake brownies and stayed up too late watching Californication. 

And then, all I thought about was how amazing it would be if I could teach college classes and write full-time. 

The Dream.

Book Review: The Parish and the Hill by Mary Doyle Curran

Written in 1948, The Parish and the Hill became an instant classic. Chronicling the trials and struggles of Irish Americans in 1920's New England, The Parish and the Hill offers a clear view into three generations of the O'Connor family as they fight, drink and work to preserve themselves, their family and their Irish heritage.

Told from the viewpoint of the youngest child, Mary, The Parish and the Hill is a quick read with a strong female at the heart. What keeps the family together even when apart is the mother, who more often than not puts her children and her relatives before herself. With near-saintly behavior, Mrs. O'Connor sticks up for her brothers, her husband and fights to keep her children safe even when they treat her like a doormat. Her strength and love is admirable and is at the heart of this tale of culture clash, immigration and ultimately fighting to survive in a new world while trying to not lose your footing in the old one.

After all, just because one moves to the Hill from the Parish, doesn't mean that you're any less Irish. only a drop in your blood means that you are of Ireland.

Score: 4/5
Book Information: The Parish and the Hill by Mary Doyle Curran was originally published in 1948 by Houghton Mifflin. This review corresponds with the 1986 reprinting by Feminist Press with ISBN 1-55861-396-X. 

Book Review: Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

This was a super quick read. I finished it in about two days, but there was a lot to the book. I absolutely enjoyed it. I didn't feel terribly connected to the characters, but I did feel connected to the situations and tragedies that they all were going through.

Sarah Nickerson has it all - a great house, a loving husband, three beautiful children and a high-pressure job that she adores, but when a terrible car accident leaves her damaged, Sarah has to figure out how to survive and live in her new life.

It's easy to like Sarah, she's like so many of us - busy and working towards attaining that perfect life while not always taking the time we need to just sit back and enjoy where we're at when we have it. She has a contentious relationship with her mother and a pride streak so big that she finds it nearly impossible to rely on her mother even when she loses even the ability to see her left side. Left Neglect is a real condition that Genova documents throughly throughout the book. It occurs when a person suffers damage to the right side of the brain such as a stroke or in Sarah's case a car accident. It makes it nearly impossible for the person to realize that they do in fact, have a left side. It's like the left side of everything simply disappears.

What I liked most about the book is that Genova doesn't make it a scientific trip through Left Neglect, but rather shows us what that is by showing us Sarah and her life following the accident. Overall, it was a quick and very enjoyable read with a clear message: maybe, we all just need to slow down.

Score: 5 out of 5
Book Information: Left Neglected by Lisa Genova is available for purchase with ISBN 9781439164631 via Gallery Books. It was originally published in 2011. 

Book Review: A Woman in Berlin by Anonymous

This past week, I read A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in a Conquered City. It was hard to get through, not because of the writing which I loved considering the material, but just with how emotional the book was. The novel is the diary of a woman who recorded daily life during the Russian occupation of Berlin during the second World War.

For years, the book was published without credit, since its author feared what could become of her if it was known that she had in fact written it. It is presumed that the diary actually was of German journalist, Marta Hillers. 

The diary largely chronicles the brutality and atrocities that can and do occur during wartime. The author descriptively records the multiple rapes se suffered at the hands of the Red Army, the murders, the suicides and the bombings that prevailed in Berlin following Hitler's fall from power. She raises the question, is it really the more humane thing to do to leave women and children behind while men fight in wars? Without protection, women do become the booty of war (pun intended) and they die, along with the children. 

The author is admirable because instead of making herself the victim, which she no doubt is, she rises above that. She uses her mind and her body to keep herself safe and to ensure that she can get food to feed herself and in turn the people that she lives with. Her bravery and courageousness that echoes in her writing is just unbelievable as when she was writing this, there was no end in sight for her. This was her life. 

The book moves pretty quickly and what I enjoyed most about it was the author's writing style. Though written in the 1940's, the book had a more modern feel to the way it was written, completely pulling me into her story and the story of those she lived with. 

Score: 4 out of 5
Book Information: A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in a Conquered City is available for purchase with ISBN 0312426119 via Picador. This version was originally published in July 2006.

If you're interested, there was even a movie made of this book not too long ago: