I'm a wife, a mother, a daughter, a teacher and a reader. Quite often I get asked the question, "What do you read?" So here is my answer.

Friday, June 20, 2014

The Midwife

Petersheim, J. (2014). The MidwifeCarol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers.

Well, Jolina has done it again.  Since I finished The Outcast, I have been waiting for her sophomore novel, The Midwife.  She did not disappoint.  Once again, Jolina (I will always refer to this author by her first name since she is a friend of mine) enters the Tennessean Mennonite community as the backdrop for The Midwife.  Like The Outcast, Jolina takes on multiple personas to create a story that is told from the mid 1990's and today.  

The narrators include Roda--the head midwife at Hopen House, a place for young unwed mothers who is keeping a long and dark secret--Beth--a graduate assistant, who is a surrogate for her professor and narrates from the past--and Amelia--a teenager who is the newest resident at Hopen House with an undiscovered past of her own.  Each narrator has a distinct and independent voice.

Sunday, June 1, 2014

The Fault in Our Stars

Green, J. (2012) The fault in our stars. New York:  Dutton Books.

First I want to day that I have not seen The Fault in Our Stars movie yet. My twelve-year-old cousin leant me her copy of John Green's young adult novel. I have seen a lot of my students reading this book lately. And with a title that alludes to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, how could I resist?  After reading The Fault in Our Stars, I look forward to both watching the movie and reading some of Green's other works.