Summer Reading Suggestions

The end of the school year always brings a wild flurry of activity. The last choir concert, the last track meet, the volunteer appreciation breakfast, and so many other last minute things thrown into the schedule it’s overwhelming.

But looming in the background is the promise of lazy summer days lying in a hammock and reading. Not that I ever seem to achieve that, but it’s an ideal to strive for. My daughters on the other hand, seem to get that hammock time in at least once a week.

I’m compiling my list of recommended summer reading, and I’d like to hear from any of you who have suggestions. I’ll publish a list with everyone’s recommendations in early June.

Already I know Frank Cottrell Boyce’s new book Cosmic will be on my list, and I can’t wait for it to come out. And my two book club selections will take me into the beginning of summer. I’ll be reading The Adoration of Jenna Fox with Catherine, who’s just finishing 8th grade, and This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff with Madeleine, who’s finishing her junior year in high school.

What’s on your list? Leave a comment here or drop me a note at info@motherdaughterbookclub.com.

Who Says Reading’s On the Decline?

Last week my mother-daughter book club celebrated its fourth year together with a Cinco de Mayo party followed by a discussion of our book, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King. Our hostess brought out her Partridge Family album and played it for the moms, many of whom had teenage crushes on David Cassidy (yes, me too!). We got crazy singing along and talking about our 13-year-old selves back in the day, which was quite embarrassing for our daugthers.

But then we settled down to talk about the book. We talked about the fun of reading mysteries and discussed the main characters—Sherlock Holmes and Mary Russell—and we talked about things we liked and didn’t like about the plot.

As I looked around at the girls and moms sitting in the circle talking, I was reminded of a study released last year by the National Endowment of the Arts, which says reading is on the decline. I thought, “thank goodness my family isn’t a part of that.” Yes, my girls love to read and maybe they would be avid readers anyway. Their dad and I always have a stack of books we’re working our way through and as parents, we have always encouraged them to read books.

Even so, I believe being in a mother-daughter book club has helped us keep reading cool, even when Madeleine and Catherine might have been tempted to let it fall by the wayside as their other time commitments ramped up. And the friendships they’ve developed there have become some of the most important ones in their lives. I can say the same is true for me.

I’m happy to be a trend-reverser, and I look forward to the day a study finds I’m right in the middle of the upswing in readers everywhere.

Girlwood - New Book Review

Girlwood by Claire Dean is a new book out this month from Houghton Mifflin publishing.

With one foot in the modern world and one foot in a world of fantasy, Girlwood takes us into the life of Polly Greene, who can see the colors that surround people, revealing their true selves. Polly’s older sister, Bree, disappears into the woods one night, and Polly is the only one who believes she has not run far, that she’s hiding nearby to heal her out-of-control life.

When Polly finds a magical clearing hidden among the trees, she’s certain that her sister is close. She determines to leave her food and clothing and healing plants in a magical spot she and her friends dub Girlwood to help Bree survive until she’s ready to return.

Girlwood explores many themes as Polly enlists the help of friends and family in her mission:

• What’s the value of nature compared to development?
• Why do girls sometimes subvert their own personalities when they start to date?
• How does divorce affect family dynamics?
• How can parents teach and protect their children while also allowing them to have independent thoughts?

The themes are woven into a story that is as enchanting as the magical clearing, Girlwood, itself. And by the end, you may even find yourself searching for your own Girlwood.

Recommended for mother-daughter book clubs with girls in 7th grade and up.

Mother’s Day Thoughts

For once, I’m on top of a Mother’s Day present. It seems that every year it sneaks up on me and I’m late sending a gift off to my mom. She lives in Louisiana, I’m in Oregon so it takes just a bit of planning. Usually I get her books, or a certificate for a massage or a restaurant certificate. But this year I’m contributing to the cost of her plane ticket to come out and see my family this summer. I felt lucky to find an airline ticket that didn’t cost an arm and a leg.

With the gift part down, I just have to be sure I get a card to her on time. I recently found a Web site that will make that easier, because I can pick out a card to email to her. It’s called 123greetings.com. Here’s the link for the site’s Mother’s Day cards: http://www.123greetings.com/events/mothers_day/.

Here are some reading gift ideas for yourself, your mother or your daughter:

• I Capture the Castle—Dodie Smith. A great book for multi-generations that allows you to talk about life expectations for women in another era while fantasizing about living in a castle in England.
• The Mother-Daughter Book Club—Heather Vogel Frederick. An interesting look at a fictional mother-daughter book club and an inspiration for travel to New England. Reading it also made me want to take field trips to the homes of historic authors, as some of the story line is devoted to the birthplace of Louisa May Alcott.
• Girlwood—Claire Dean. A new book released this month. It feels as though it has one foot in the present, one foot in medieval times. It’s dreamy yet real. It reminded me of a secret place my sister and I carved from the shrubs along the fence line of the house I grew up in, and it will have you thinking about creating your own girlwood.
• Songs for a Teenage Nomad—Kim Culbertson. Who can resist the thought of writing a soundtrack for your life? This came up recently in our mother-daughter book club when we talked about the music we all liked. We found a lot in common as well as a lot that was different, as you might expect. But we had fun talking about it as we explored some very interesting themes from this book.
• Certain Girls—Jennifer Weiner. I haven’t read this one myself yet, but it’s getting good reviews and it seems like it would work well for older girls and their moms. The Web site, www.certaingirls.com, offers two reading guides, one for mothers and one for teens. Both include interviews with the author “that touch upon the mother-daughter themes throughout this novel, from the disconnect between the worlds of adult women and teenage daughters, to those feelings of teenage insecurity about one’s family and body image, to the conflicts that come when a mother learns she has to let her daughter go and grow – all common emotions among anyone who has ever been or had a mother!”

Whatever you choose for your mom or ask your family for, I hope you’re able to have a meaningful, relaxed Mother’s Day and enjoy the best part of the holiday—spending time with your family to focus on how important motherhood is.

Spotlight on a Mother-Daughter Book Club

Featured mother-daughter book club
Eight moms and daughters from Brookfield, Wisconsin

The mebers of this mother-daughter book club in Brookfield generously took time during their last meeting to answer some questions about their group. Read on to find out how the group started on some of their favorite books.

How did your group get started, and what grade were your daughters in when you first formed?

Our group started at the beginning of the girls’ seventh grade. Several mothers had done similar clubs with older daughters and suggested we form a club for this group of girls. The girls have a relatively small class so we invited all of the girls in their class to join and decided we would form one or two groups depending on level of interest. Our original group was 7 mother daughter pairs so we elected to do a single book club. We will meet through the summer after 8th grade - we decided high school activities would preclude meeting in high school.

How many mother/daughter pairs are in your book club?
We are now up to 8 pairs - one mother/daughter joined us after a few months. They had originally declined due to other commitments but heard our discussions at other school events and decided they were missing out.

How often do you meet?
This varies depending on other school activities and holidays but is generally every 6 weeks.

Do you tend to read certain genre books?
Everyone brings suggestions of books they would like to read and we have had quite a variety. We generally get consensus on which book we will read next.

Tell us about the three books you’ve read that have been favorites with the group and what you liked about them.

• The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd - a wonderful story of women and their diverse friendships. Teaches perseverance and acceptance of others. We have already talked about doing a book club reunion when the movie comes out next year.
• Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick - Funny and sad story with a great boy lead character.
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom - thought-provoking book that led to a great discussion and made us all think about the impact we have on others.

Do you have activities outside of book club?
We plan to go to a movie of one of the books we have read and then out for dinner where we can compare the movie and the book.

Can you offer any tips or advice to other mother/daughter book clubs?
Make it a fun, quality time for mothers and daughters - not one more chore for the girls, another assignment to finish, an attempt to improve reading skills, etc. To make it fun, each meeting was hosted by one mother-daughter pair and the discussion led by another pair. We always started with a game - often based on a TV game show - that “quizzed” us on some details of the book. We had inexpensive prizes which were theme based - for example Burt’s Bees Lip Balm for Secret Life of Bees. The hosts often served theme-based food - for example, Chinese food for the meeting to discuss Chinese Cinderella. The game and food made the meetings fun and helped lead to great discussions. We had prepared questions to prompt discussion - each one started by of the girls. Eight mother/daughter pairs was a good size - I don’t think you can go much bigger and have a discussion that includes everyone. Teach the girls to listen - at first everyone tried to talk at once but we eventually got to the point where one girl started the discussion and everyone contributed.

West with the Night

West with the Night, a memoir by Beryl Markham, is one of my all time favorite books to read. Both for the glimpse it gives into life in Africa during the early decades of the 20th century, and for the descriptions of life for a bush pilot. 

As a child growing up with her father in Africa, Markham faced down lions and wild boar. As an adult she trained race horses before learning to fly airplanes and becoming a bush pilot. Eventually she became the first pilot, female or male, to fly west with the night and cross the Atlantic ocean solo from Europe to North America. Marham bring the African bush to life with stories of boar hunts and elephant hunts. Of horse races and airplane flights over desert terrain. And she tells her story beautifully. There are other famous characters here as well. If you’re familiar with Bror Blixen and Denys Finch-Hatton, who appeared in Out of Africa, you’ll find more about both of them in this book.

Markham lived a courageous life in a time when girls were only supposed to wear dresses and play with dolls and flying airplanes was a man’s job. Her account of the early part of her life is fascinating and provides a good example for older girls. I recommend West with the Night for mother-daughter book clubs with girls in high school and older.

Sold

I just finished reading Sold by Patricia McCormick. The story is about a Nepalese girl—13-year-old Lakshmi— who leaves home thinking she will be working to support her desperately poor family. In reality she has been sold into the sexual slave trade and is taken far away from anything that is relevant to her. A fictional tale of a very real event, Sold is an important book that sheds light on how easily girls can be lured away from their families and into situations from which it is difficult for them to escape.

To research her story, McCormick traveled to the countries of India and Nepal, and she interviewed the women living in Calcutta’s red-light district, as well as girls who had been rescued from sexual slavery. As the mother of two daughters, I think it’s important for them to know that cases like these are not isolated, and sexual slavery occurs all over the world, even in the U.S.

Sold has recently been released in paperback, and I believe it would make for a very interesting discussion with a mother-daughter book club. The scenes of Lakshmi’s life before she leaves home are bittersweet as well as enlightening about what life is like for the people who live in the villages of Nepal. And Lakshmi is as innocent as you might expect any girl her age to be. Her voice rings true throughout the book; she’s a very real character.

A non-fiction book I recently read on this topic called Not for Sale: The Return of the Global Slave Trade and How We Can Fight It by David Batstone makes a great companion to Sold. Batstone tells of organizations in many different countries that are fighting this horrific practice, and gives ideas for what each of us can do to help support them.

Shakespeare’s Birthday

Tomorrow, April 23, is considered the officially recognized birthday of William Shakespeare. My daughter, Madeleine, loves to watch his plays as well as act in them when she gets a chance to do that at school. I’ve always been surprised at and a little bit in awe of her early love of Shakespeare. My own theory is that she was exposed to his works when she was young, at a time when a lot of what adults said didn’t make sense to her. So she learned to appreciate the overall story without focusing so much on understanding every single word that was spoken.

I wish I could say the same is true for me. The first Shakespeare play I saw was Midsummer Night’s Dream. I was in high school and my class traveled to see the production at a local university. That play is certainly one of the most accessible of Shakespeare’s works, but I still struggle with it. And I read as much background as I can about a play before I attend any production so I’ll know the general story line.

We haven’t chosen Shakespeare for any of our mother-daughter book club meetings, but I think it would be great to read one of his plays and then attend a theater production together as a group. I’d love to hear from someone who has done this and how it went.

Happy 444th birthday William Shakespeare.

Peanut Butter Pie

My daughter Catherine can’t get enough of this super simple pie that’s easy to prepare for a mother-daughter book club meeting. Catherine loves just about everything with peanut butter, but she’s not alone. Every time I make this recipe the pie disappears so fast I think I should have made two. Here’s the recipe:

Peanut Butter Pie

• 1 8 oz. package of cream cheese at room temperature
• 3 to 4 tblsp. milk
• 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
• about 1/2 cup (or slightly more) peanut butter
• 1 tub (8 oz.)  Cool Whip, thawed

Blend all ingredients together and spoon into a graham cracker crust. Refrigerate. You can purchase a pre-prepared graham cracker crust, but making one is easy too. I make a chocolate graham cracker crust.

Chocolate Graham Cracker Crust

• 1-1/2 cups chocolate graham cracker crumbs
• 1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 6 tblsp. melted butter

Mix all ingredients together and press into a pie tin. It will be loose and crumbly, so refrigerate until cold before spooning the pie filling in. You can bake it at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes, but my family prefers it unbaked.

It’s that simple. I got the recipe from my mom, and she also finds that the pie is gobbled up quickly every time she makes it. Enjoy!

Songs for a Teenage Nomad

Songs for a Teenage Nomad by Kim Culbertson tells the story of Callie Smith, a teen girl who’s been moving from town to town with her mother for as long as she can remember. As far as Callie is concerned, the story seldom changes - her mom meets someone new, falls in love, they move in together, life is normal for a while, and all too quickly normal ends and they are packed up and on their way again. As she starts high school in a new town, Callie dares to make friends and has hope that this time things will be different.

As the story unfolds, Callie realizes her mom is keeping a secret about their past and Callie’s father, and the mystery becomes a great part of the story. A thread running throughout the narrative is the song journal that Callie keeps. It’s like having a soundtrack of her life, and I found myself thinking about the songs that would go in my own song journal, and what the soundtrack of my life would be.

Songs for a Teenage Nomad explores many issues that are of interest to teenage girls and their moms - when is it okay for parents to withhold information they think is harmful to their children? What obligations does a child have to a potentially abusive parent? There’s a lot to discuss in this well written book. To read reviews by other readers, click over to MotherDaughterBookClub.com.