I Am A Mother

by Jane Clayson Johnson

I loved this book! It is written to an LDS audience though it is perfectly fine for any female audience or male for that matter. Affirmation of the uniquely feminine quality of motherhood for those with or without children. All of those who have meekly responded, "Oh I'm just a mom." This is the empowering book for you. This is not a man-hater book but a memoir of one lady's choice to give up the fast life of television journalism for a less glamorized but more meaningful life as a mother. As she said, “I left one wonderful thing for another incredibly wonderful thing.”

Her expressions, however, are not sugar-coated. She acknowledges just how tough the job can be, the moments of self-searching and wondering. It is not just the middle-of-the-night feedings and the never being off duty. She has a chapter in her book called, “Can I quit now?”

“Sometimes, the challenges of mothering, the daily physical and emotional exhaustion and occasional self-doubts causes us to devalue what we do and to devalue it in the eyes of our children. The day-in-and-day-out of daily mothering is invisible, because so much of what we do doesn’t last, and we do it within the walls of our own home where it is not noticed. I traded in fancy lunches and fancy restaurants for something better. Still, there is no one to tap me or any mother on the back and say, ‘terrific diaper change.’ There’s no praise or recognition for the day in and day out of mothering.

We pay a lot of lip service to motherhood. We give mothers awards and we occasionally say, aren’t they great, but we don’t extend them the same respect in reality. I have experienced that first hand. When I told one executive that I was leaving New York and moving to Boston, he said, ‘What are you going to do?’ I told him, ‘I have the opportunity and privilege to be a mother.’ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘but what are you going to do?’

“We have to change that paradigm,” said Jane, and she hopes her book will play a role in that shift. “I want every woman to feel for herself that mothering matters, that nurturing matters, that we have to start valuing these skills in our society and really most importantly in our selves.”

My Sister's Keeper

Jesse, Anna, and Kate live a fairly stereotypical middle class life but each is attempting to defy their circumstances. One child is rebellious, one donater, and one terminally ill; these attributes actually define their existence. Underlying is a child that makes grand gestures of goodwill, one athletic superstar, and one quitter, respectively. The firefighter father can't seem to quench the mother's passionate obsession of curing Kate from Lukemia. The family doesn't seem to have any religious background besides the thorough knowledge of the constellations and their histories.
What I like about the story is the medical awareness of struggling through treatments in hope of sending cancer into remission. I also like the rather blaring message of wake up people and take every day as a gift because you never know how long we have left.

"So far I have found that 10 out of every 10 people die."

What I don't is all the swearing, the awkward love scene that doesn't really contribute to the story (more a distraction) and certainly how selfish I find all the characters.
The mother is not a bad mother, she loves each of her children. At first I struggled to see the problem in her parenting because she loves Anna but eventually I get it as the story develops (you will too if you read it). In fact I think she is a very good mother and how much better this entire family would be benefited if they had a knowledge of the purpose of this life. We are here to receive a body. We are here be tested and to overcome our trials so we may live forever in the presence of our Heavenly Father. Heavenly Father sent the Savior Jesus Christ to take on not only all our sins but all our afflictions and pains as well. Anna in this novel completely dismisses the creation of Adam and Eve as our forebearers, Christ as our Savior, but is constantly struggling to find someone to see her as an individual and recognize her worth as a soul.
This novel leaves me with angst emotions because I want so much to share with her how important we all are to our Heavenly Father no matter how much or how little love and attention our earthly parents have shown us.
An endearing account of sister's dividing room because they needed their own space and mother's reaction:

I do not know how long it took my mother to wonder why I wasn't coming to the kitchen for lunch, but when you are five, even a second can last forever. She stood in the doorway, staring at the line of marker on the walls and carpet, and closed her eyes for patience. She walked into our room and picked me up, which was when I started fighting her. "Don't," I cried. "I won't ever get back in!"
A minute later she left, and returned with pot holders, dishtowels, and throw pillows. She placed these at odd distances, all along Kate's side of the room. "Come on," she urged, but I did not move. So she came and sat down beside me on my bed. "It may be Kate's pond," she said, "but these are my lily pads." Standing, she jumped onto a dishtowel, and from there, onto a pillow. She glanced over her shoulder, until I climbed onto the dishtowel. From the dishtowel, to the pillow, to a pot holder Jesse had made in first grade, all the way across Kate's side of the room. Following my mother's footsteps was the surest way out.

Like most novels I believe it to be far superior to the movie. This being said I have not watched the movie. However it is like reading a love note. You can take it in personally and envision what each sentence means or evokes to you as the reader. The movie stamps the directors vision as to the physical attributes of a character, pushes side story drama into the forefront, and presents sensory overload with music and scenery.

Treasure Hunt for Free Books, gift certificates and more...

Dear Readers,

TWO GREAT PROMOTIONS,

31 CHANCES TO win free stuff!

This is real because I personally know the author Laurie LC Lewis and she sent me the link...

Happy Hunting!

Welcome to Our “Summer Treasure Hunt:

Dig for Clues and Win” Contest!-
Some friends and I have put together an exciting contest to kick off your summer! Beginning June 1st, we will be giving away a prize a day. That’s right: 30 days, 30 treasures! There should be something for everyone: romance, mystery, historical, contemporary, and young adult fiction; children’s picture books; a variety of non-fiction; and just to liven things up even more, we’ve included a few exciting non-book prizes: a free 30 page manuscript edit, for you aspiring authors out there; an e-bay gift certificate; and a gift-certificate for a Vinyl Expressions Quote.

How can you win one of these fabulous prizes? Follow the rules below:

SUMMER TREASURE HUNT RULES:
You can send in an entry for each day’s prize, or only for those prizes that strike your fancy. The rules are simple:
(1) Go to the website or blog indicated for each day, find the answer to the question for that day, then email the answer with your name and mailing address to jdipastena@yahoo.com.
(2) Please send a separate entry for each day and type the day you are entering in the subject line. (Such as: June Treasure Hunt, Day 1; June Treasure Hunt, Day 2, etc).
(3) Deadline for each day: Midnight PST
(4) The winner will be contacted and announced on the day following the deadline.
You do not have to wait until the designated day to enter. You can start sending in your entries right now, or begin entering at any point along the way. And check back here each day between June 2nd-July 1st to read the names of the winners.
If you have any questions, feel free to email Joyce DiPastena at jdipastena@yahoo.com.

And now…let the treasure hunt begin!
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The Nazi Officer's Wife

I sit here as I sit with you today in my favorite cafe on the square in the city of Netanya by the sea in the land of Israel, and an acquaintance stops to chat and says, "So tell us, Giveret Beer, what was it like then, during the war, living with a Nazi Party member inside Germany, pretending to be an Aryan, concealing your true identity, always fearing exposure?" I answer in a little voice that is dazed by its own ignorance, "Oh, but I do not know. I think I do not remember this anymore." My gaze wanders and loses focus, my voice turns dreamy, halting, soft. It is my voice from those days in Brandenburg, when I was a twenty-nine-year-old Jewish law student on the Gestapo's "Wanted" list, prentending to be an ignorant twenty-one-year-old nurse's aid.
You must forgive me when you hear this small voice from then fading and faltering. You must remind me: "Edith! Speak up! Tell the story."
It has been more than half a century.
I suppose it is time.

I have been meaning to read this book for a while now after a few recommendations. This is the autobiography of Edith Hahn Beer and her experiences as a Jew during the Holocaust. Her general tone is one of sorrow, bent pride, and bitterness. It is amazing what she went through and she is grateful for the life she was given afterward; but overall, as compared with other witnesses of this atrocity, she is not hopeful in her message, she is merely telling her story. I can understand why she suppressed the experiences for nearly 50 years. This is the only biography I have read that truly evoked some of the emotions and smells I experienced while visiting Dauchau and conversing with survivors.

Similar genre I have read:
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
Christian German sent to concentration camp for involvement in Resistance
The Diary of Anne Frank
Jewish girl's diary of hiding during the holocaust
Yearning for the Living God by Enzio Busche
German man and soldier who finds that God has never abandoned him
A Distant Prayer: Miracles of the 49th Combat Mission
American fighter pilots and their experiences as POW