Sam Reviews "Tree Girl" by Ben Mikaelsen

This book came into my life randomly and second hand with no recommendation.  When I started reading it I assumed it was meant for middle school readers (and that may be true) but there was a bit of somewhat graphic details of tragic events.  The fact that this story is based on truth makes it all the more compelling.  But, even if it was pure fiction I would love it.  The story is heartbreaking and eye opening but ends on a hopeful note.  My only complaint is where the story ends.  The author's dedication implies the girl who originally told this story did live to tell this story but the book itself doesn't take us to current day.  I want to know more about Gabriela.  Parts of the story and style remind me of Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl although that may be simply a matter of content.  Either way, I found this book easy to dive into and compelling enough to complete and thirst for more so I would recommend it to anyone looking for a short read that doesn't mind some tear jerking (and sometimes infuriating) content.

"Humiliation was not a poison that cowards needed to taste twice."

"Cowards can be very dangerous when they have guns."

"Knowing Spanish, and knowing this or that, doesn't prepare you for the future.  Your future is found in discovering the right questions to ask and having the courage to ask them.  Good questions are always more important than good answers, but it takes courage to ask.  You may understand how you live, but do you understand why you live?"

"Right is whatever wind you choose beneath your wings.  No longer do all our customs and names come from our Mayan ancestors.  Now they come from many winds.  It's up to you to decide which wind should carry you.  You need to decide for yourself if it was wrong for the church to change our names."

"I don't think you can respect someone but still want to change their religion, their customs, and even their names."

"It's okay to be fearful and restless.  Fear and restlessness bring change."

"A whipped dog has a long memory."

"Promises borrow from the future."

"It seemed impossible to me, as I stared at the baby, to think that soldiers had begun their lives so small, vulnerable, and innocent."

"For you, being a female is a war that you'll fight all of your life.  For both of us, being Indio is a war we fought even before the soldiers came."

"Children grow up with nothing if they don't learn pride and dignity."

"A good teacher didn't criticize an idea simply because it came from a young woman instead of him.  A good teacher embraced new ideas."

"I know now why you survived the massacres.  You were too stubborn to die."

Sam Reviews "The Leadership Secrets of Oz" by BJ Gallagher

This was an interesting little book.  It has a number of good points, interesting references to the story of Oz, and original art from the Oz books as well.  I think the tips in this book are solid, although I feel also commonly talked about.  However, my favorite tidbits tended to be quotes by people other than the author.  This was a quick and informative read with some interesting critical thinking questions.

"If your work speaks for itself, don't interrupt." - Henry Kaiser

"Actions speak louder than words and people watch what you do more than listen to what you say."

"If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.  Do good anyway.
"If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.  Succeed anyway.
"The good you so today will be forgotten tomorrow.  Do good anyway.
"Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.  Be honest and frank anyway.
"The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.  Think big anyway.
"People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.  Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
"What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.  Build anyway.
"People really need help but may attack you of you do help them.  Help people anyway.
"Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.  Give the world the best you have anyway."
- Kent Keith

Sam Reviews: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson

I would like to start by saying, when this story was all over everywhere, I had no idea the book was a crime novel.  I used to gobble these up like candy in middle school (mature content be damned) and may have even enjoyed this book more at that time in my life.  I'm honestly quite shocked that a foreign crime novel got so much attention.  I was extremely interested in half the story (the Chronicle if you will) but the other half (the financial bits) I found pretty boring.  As accomplished as I felt for finishing this book, the last 60 or so pages were pretty lame.  I have very mixed feelings regarding Mikael Blomkvist, but the ending really left a bad taste in my mouth for him.  I also wanted to note that I find it interesting that (I believe) Lisbeth Salander is the "main character" (the character the title revers too at least) but in reading the book, if I hadn't known the title I would have assumed Blomkvist was the main character.  With that in mind I am curious to know how / where the other two books go as their titles strongly imply Salander's presence but not necessarily Blomkvist's.  Over all I managed to read through this pretty quickly, and it is quite a lengthy book compared to my usual reads, so there was something endearing about the mystery and the characters themselves.  I do intend to finish the trilogy but ... I'm not sure how soon that will happen.

"Leviticus, 20:18 - If a man lies with a woman having her sickness, and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood; both if them shall be cut off from among their people."

"Maybe he's just a square peg in a round hole who happens to be poisoning the atmosphere."

"He's pulling the load of an ox and walking on eggshells."

"'What do you need me for?'  [Her] greatest fear, which was so huge and so black that it was of phobic proportions, was that people would laugh at her feelings.  And all of a sudden all her carefully constructed self-confidence seemed to crumble."

Sam Reviews "Wuthering Heights" by Emily Bronte

I genuinely enjoyed this story so much more than I ever could have anticipated.  There was a slight struggle with dialect and language since this was written so long ago, but once you're in the thick of the story it's easy to get past all of that.  I don't really imagine I will reread this very often but I can recommend it to anyone who's considered reading it.

"I know, by instinct, his reserve springs from an aversion to showy displays of feeling - to manifestations of mutual kindliness.  He'll love and hate equally under cover, and esteem it a species of impertinence to be loved or hated again."

"Many could not imagine the existence of happiness in a life of such complete exile from the world as you spend."

"I don't remember another [terrible night] that I can at all compare with it since I was capable of suffering."

"Terror made me cruel."

"I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town.  A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself."

"It is strange people should be so greedy, when they are alone in the world!"

"[She] grumbled herself calm."

"[She] was to mischievous and wayward for a favorite [child]."

"[His words] made her cry, at first; and then, being repulsed continually hardened her, and she laughed if I told her to be sorry for her faults and beg to be forgiven."

"'Why canst thou not always be a good lass, Cathy?'
"'Why cannot you always be a good man, Father?'"

"The little souls were comforting each other with better thoughts than I could have hit on; no parson in the world ever pictured heaven so beautifully as they did."

"They were full of stupid admiration; she is so immeasurably superior to them - to everybody on earth."

"Proud people make sorrows for themselves."

"It is for God to punish wicked people; we should learn to forgive."

"Let me alone, and I'll plan [my revenge] out; while I'm thinking of that I don't feel pain."

"A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o' clock, runs the chance of leaving the other half undone."

"She was full of ambition, and led her to adopt a double character without exactly trying to deceive anyone."

"Sit down; you shall not leave me in that temper.  I should be miserable all night, and I won't be miserable for you!"

"I love him because he's more myself than I am.  Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton's is as different as a moonbeam from lightening, or frost from fire."

"If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger; I should not seem a part of it."

"My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods:  time will change it; I'm well aware, as winter changes the trees.  My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath - a source of little visible delight, but necessary."

"I kissed Hateton goodbye; and since then he has been a stranger, and it's very queer to think it, but I've no doubt he has completely forgotten about Ellen Dean, and that be was ever more than all the world to her, and she to him!"

"Well, we must be for ourselves in the long run; the mild and generous are only more justly selfish than the domineering; and it ended when circumstances caused each to feel that the one's interest was not the chief consideration in the other's thoughts."

"My soul will be on that hilltop before you lay hands on me again.  I don't want you, Edgar, I'm past wanting you.  Return to your books. I'm glad you possess a consolation, for all you had in me is gone."

"Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were valued living."

"She abandoned them under a delusion, picturing in me a hero of romance, and expecting unlimited indulgences from my chivalrous devotion.  I can hardly regard her in the light of a rational creature, so obstinately has she persisted in forming a fabulous notion of my character, and acting on the false impressions she cherished."

"Would you like to live with your soul in the grave."

"It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those wasted hands.  Kiss me again and don't let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me.  I love my murderer - but yours! How can I?"

"Treachery and violence are spears pointed at both ends - they wound those who resort to them, worse than their enemies."

"She was a happy creature, and an angel, in those days.  It's a pity she could not be content."

"Good words.  But deeds must prove it also; and after he is well, remember you don't forget resolutions formed in the hour of fear."

Sam Reviews "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

I loved this story so much more than I thought I would.  I put off reading this because I assumed I would be bored by the unfamiliar culture and traditions.  But, honestly this is just a well written and interesting story that just so happens to mention and explain Afghanistan culture.  I found myself addicted to this story and I was disappointed on days I couldn't find time to continue it.  I've had a few friends tell me that A Thousand Splendid Suns is better so I'm so excited to read that story soon cuz I loved this one so much.

"It's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it.  Because the past claws its way out."

"There is a way to be good again."

"The problem, of course, was that Baba saw the world in black and white.  And he got to decide what was black and what was white.  You can't love a person who lives that way without fearing him too.  Maybe even hating him a little."

"There is only one sin, only one.  And that is theft.  Every other sin is a variation of theft.  When you kill a man, you steal a life.  You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father.  When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth.  When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness."

"Children aren't coloring books.  You don't get to fill them in with your favorite colors."

"A boy who won't stand up for himself becomes a man who can't stand up to anything."

"Didn't all fathers in their secret hearts harbor a desire to kill their sons?"

"To this day, I find it hard to gaze directly at people who mean every word they say."

"That's the thing about people who mean everything they say.  They think everyone else does too."

"Coming close wasn't the same as winning, was it? ... Winners won and everyone else just went home."

"Better to get hurt by the truth than comforted with a lie."

"He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him."

"How could I be such an open book to him when, half the time, I had no idea what was milling around in his head?  I was the one who went to school, the one who could read, write. I was the smart one.  Hassan couldn't read a first-grade textbook but he'd read me plenty.  That was a little unsettling, but also sort of comfortable to have someone who always knew what you needed."

"It was [her] and me against the world.  And I'll tell you this: In the end, the world always wins."

"There is no shame in war."

"Sad stories make good books."

"I envied her.  Her secret was out.  Spoken.  Dealt with."

"Every woman needed a husband.  Even if he did silence the song in her."

"A big part of the reason I didn't care about [her] past was that I had one of my own.  I knew all about regret."

"It wasn't meant to be.  Or, maybe, it was meant not to be."

"Time can be a greedy thing - sometimes it steals all the details for itself."

"I knew it was better to be miserable than rude."

"How seamless love seemed and then came trouble."  - Hafez

"The desert weed lives on, but the flower of spring blooms and wilts."

"What was the old saying about the bad penny? My past was like that, always turning up."

"A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer."

"I believe true redemption is when guilt leads to good."

"Perspective was a luxury when your head was constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons."

"Lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of uncertainty."

"Life goes on, unmindful of beginning, end, crisis or catharsis, moving forward like a slow, dusty caravan of kochis."

"I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare if epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night."

Sam Reviews "The Catcher in the Rye" by J. D. Salinger

Mostly I'm just confused.  The story wasn't bad, though I did find the writing style challenging at times.  The writing style honestly reminded me of American Psycho which is another book I didn't necessarily love.   I'm so curious why this is considered such a classic and necessary part of do many literature curriculums.

"What I was really hanging around for, I was trying to feel some kind of a good-by. I mean I've left schools and places I didn't even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don't care if it's a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I'm leaving it. If you don't, you feel even worse."

I guess "giving a girl the time" used to be a euphemism for sex.

"Almost everytime somebody gives me a present, it ends up making me sad."

"Sensitive. That killed me. That guy Morrow was about as sensitive as a goddam toilet seat."

"I gave her a good look. She didn't look like any dope to me. She looked like she might have a pretty damn good idea what a bastard she was the mother of. But you can't always tell--with somebody's mother, I mean. Mothers are all slightly insane."

"I had her glued to her seat. You take somebody's mother, all they want to hear about is what a hot-shot their son is."

"That's the thing about girls.  Every time they do something pretty even if they're not much to look at, or even if they're sort of stupid, you fall half in love with them, and then you never know where the hell you are."

"I never did find out what the hell was the matter.  Some girls you practically never find out what's the matter."

"New York's terrible when somebody laughs on the street very late at night.  You can hear it for miles.  It makes you feel so lonesome and depressed."

"The thing is, it's really hard to be roommates with people if your suitcases are much better than theirs - if yours are really good ones and theirs aren't.  You think if they're intelligent and all, the other person, and have a good sense of humor, that they don't give a damn whose suitcases are better, but they do."

"[Money] always ends up making you blue as hell."

"All you have to do is say something nobody understands and they'll do practically anything you want them to."

Sam Reviews: "The Glass Castle: A Memoir" by Jeannette Walls

Amazing.  I figured this would be a good memoir with unique stories but boy what an understatement.  Even though this is written from one person's perspective, I truly felt empathy for each person and I cried for the last 20 pages of the book.  I don't know what more to say than, everyone should read this book.  I'm so grateful my dear friend Alley shared this with me and encouraged me to read it sooner rather than later.

"Dark is a way and light is a place, Heaven that never was Nor will be ever is always true." - Dylan Thomas, "Poem on His Birthday"

Interesting to note that the author capitalizes Dumpster when describing the scene of her mother going through it.

"I'd tried to make a home for myself here, tried to turn the apartment into the sort of place where the person I wanted to be would live."

"What could I do? I'd tried to help them countless times, but Dad would insist they didn't need anything,and Mom would ask for something silly, like a perfume atomizer or a membership in a health club. They said that they were living the way they wanted to."

Not to imply it isn't dangerous to allow a three year old to cook on a stove, but sometimes it's amazing what people can judge after a moment.  My mom always talks about how my brother knew how to cook macaroni and cheese for himself before he was 5 (may not have been 3 but younger than 5) and I never thought that was "wrong" or "inappropriate".  My brother never had a major accident, like burning the better part of his body, but things like that happen all the time, so I wonder how wrong it really is to let a child cook at an early age.

"Twenty-­three men had already proposed to her, Mom told Dad, and she had turned them all down.  'What makes you think I'd accept your proposal?' she asked.
"'I didn't propose to you,' Dad said. 'I told you I was going to marry you.'  Six months later, they got married.  I always thought it was the most romantic story I'd ever heard, but Mom didn't like it.  She didn't think it was romantic at all."

"Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you're young is good for you, she said.  It immunized your body and your soul, and that was why she ignored us kids when we cried."

"What I did know was that I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire.  It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes."

"That was the thing to remember about all monsters, Dad said:  They love to frighten people, but the minute you stare them down, they turn tail and run.

"You'd be destroying what makes it special, it's the Joshua Tree's struggle that gives it its beauty."

"What could you expect, from an institution run by celibate men who wore dresses."  [in reference to Catholicism]

"Life's a drama full of tragedy and comedy.  You should learn to enjoy the comic episodes a little more."

"Erma can't let go of her misery, it's all she knows."

"Maybe it's because life there was hard and it made people hard."

"Our trips reminded me how easy it was to pick up and move on when the urge struck.  Once you'd resolved to go there was nothing to it at all."

"It seemed to make him feel like he was doing what a father should, plucking up his daughter's courage, helping her face the terrors of the unknown."

"I wondered if he was remembering how he, too, had left Welch full of vinegar at age seventeen and just as convinced as I was now that he'd never return.  I wondered if he was hoping that his favorite girl would come back, or if he was hoping that, unlike him, she would make it out for good."

"We both stood a better chance if we took on the world together."

"I think that maybe sometimes people get the lives they want."

"She looked across the table and smiled at me with the smile you give people when you know you have the answers to all their questions."

"They'd stumbled on an entire community of people like themselves, people who lived unruly lives battling authority and who liked it that way.  After all those years of roaming, they'd found home."