As with any “book review” I do, there will NEVER be any spoilers… it’s more of my opinion on each book and my favorite samplings.

I read her books several months ago but just started thinking about Elizabeth Noble’s books again recently.  Noble has written 4 books and all of them are definitely worth reading.  My favorite of these is “Things I Want My Daughters to Know.”  Noble writes in third-person omniscient which is my preferred narrative form.  I love being able to peek into the minds of each of the main characters… wouldn’t that talent make life easier?

“Things I Want My Daughters to Know” is an easy, enjoyable read (except for when you’re crying just 10 pages in).  Even if you don’t have daughters you will enjoy this book as a daughter who feels close to her mom.   Barbara, the mother in this story leaves individual letters for each of her four daughters but the real story is how each daughter deals with life after her mother’s death and how learning about who their mother really was eventually affects their lives.  This is part of the one letter that she left for the girls as a group.  Again, this is not a spoiler, just an example of Noble’s exceptional writing and insight as a mother.

“… these are not all, but some of the things I want my daughters to know… And the greatest of these is love.  Please know that you had mine, unconditional, powerful and awesome.  So strong that I cannot believe that it will die with me.  I want to imagine it as a living thing that goes beyond my body and my death, as a vine that has grown and wound its way through the very core of you and cannot be uprooted or destroyed, but rather will hold you erect when everything else is crumbling and withering inside you.”

Isn’t that what we all want as mothers?   For our kids to feel our love so strongly that it helps them through even the toughest of times?

Another of Noble’s novels “The Reading Group” is about just that… a group of women who get together to review books they’ve read.  There is a character in there for everyone.  Each is very different, whether it’s her age, lifestyle, career choices or just personality differences.  Noble does an excellent job of introducing these ladies individually then allowing their lives to intertwine in the small town they share.  There were two very poignant excerpts that have stuck with me for these last few months.  Both of which I agree with whole-heartedly.  Each occur when Noble is talking through Susan.  Noble writes…

“In her experience unhappy people were the ones who made the trouble.  Happy people were too busy living their happy lives.”

Isn’t that the truth?  How many happy people do you know who are out shooting people in the streets?  Actually I hope you don’t personally know anyone who is shooting people in the streets.  But even on a smaller level, think about the people you do know who seem to cause the trouble around you… the person who likes to ’stir the pot,’ push your buttons, etc….it’s likely that person is not very happy.

The second excerpt that made me think is this…

Susan:  “Mum and Dad loved you”

Maggie (Susan’s sister) “That’s the easy part, though isn’t it?  I loved them too. But I would have liked them to understand me, to like me.  Love, mother for child, is unconditional and involuntary.  Liking has to be earned.”

It’s interesting that I’m writing this during the holidays when people often feel the pressure to have the perfect family Christmas.  I always loved the movie “Home for the Holidays” with Holly Hunter but the part of that movie that hung with me after all of these years is when the woman who plays Hunter’s sister (Joanne) looks at Hunter and says with total exasperation,

Joanne:   “If I just met you on the street… and you gave me your phone number… I’d throw it away.”

Claudia:  “Well, we don’t have to like each other, Jo. We’re family.”

I just think that is so sad.  I hope that years from now my daughters will like each other enough to be friends aside from the family obligations of loving each other as sisters.  As adults, my relationship with my mother is that way.  If she was someone I met on the street, we would have been fast friends… I like her.   I like her enough to sit and talk to her on the phone for an hour about stuff that has nothing to do with our relationship as a mother and a daughter.

So to sum up my attempt at another book review… If you can only read one of Noble’s novels, make sure it is “Daughters.”  If you have enough time to read all four, do so in this order:

1. “Things I Want My Daughters to Know”

2. “The Reading Group”

3.  “The Friendship Test”

4.  “Alphabet Weekends”

I just can’t take it anymore. If the first step is admitting you have a problem then I’m here to tell you… I HAVE A PROBLEM!

I am a grown woman who is obsessed with Edward Cullen. That’s right, a fictional character.  If you haven’t read the Twilight series then you can’t begin to imagine how deep my obsession goes. I have always had a love affair with books and reading but this series is different… I honestly have dreams about Stephanie Meyer’s characters… I’m worried.  Our Guinea Pig is named Edward Cullen for God’s sake!  I took my 12-year-old to the midnight showing of the movie – on a school night – just to see it at the earliest possible moment.

For those of you thinking these books are vampire stories, you have been misled.  They are much more.  Meyer’s character development is unparalleled by other authors.   She has turned non-reading teenagers into book lovers and that is a difficult task in today’s unfocused, distracted, A-D-D’ish world.  Lakyn first started reading this series just before her 10th birthday (early 2006) after a friend suggested it.  The interesting part is that I’m sure there were certain parts that ‘went over her head’ as a 9-year-old but now that she has read the series for a 3rd time (as a 12 year old) she seems to have more appreciation for the love story aspect of these books.  I know I certainly do, whew!  I’ve never looked at a 700 page book as being too short but once Edward gets into your head you will feel the same way…. you’ll want more… you too will be ‘obsessed with Edward!’

I’m pretty sure if I ever met Chelsea Handler in person, we’d be fast friends.  In fact, she’s exactly what I’m looking for in a BFF.  She’s sarcastic, fun, immature, likes to get her drink on and loves midgets, oh… I mean ‘little people.’  Simply put, Chelsea’s my kind of girl.  I used to watch her on Girls Behaving Badly on the Vagina Network aka Oxygen and have been watching Chelsea Lately since it debuted.

Right now I’m reading her book, “Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea” and it is fantastic.  I do love a girl who can deliver a one-liner.  Like Sarah Silverman, Chelsea makes being inappropriate so right.

I’m only part way through the book and many of my favorite parts can not be included in this PG-13 blog but I can guarantee you will enjoy the chapter titled ‘Big Red’ specifically the second paragraph on page 113.

As far as a close second, for me, it’s this excerpt:

“I was twelve when I got my boobs.  I was over the moon, knowing they were the last piece of the puzzle I needed to start my own business.”

Two of My Favorite Monologues:

A Couple Skits with Nugget: