Eternal Smile; Absolutely Maybe; Hope Was Here; and More

85. The Noonday Friends by Mary Stolz

 

With a copyright date of 1965, this had to be one of the first almost-teenage-girl-with-family-troubles books. This is now an out-and-out genre; I can’t tell you how many of these I saw at the library conference last week. Franny’s problems seem small compared to those of girls nowadays: Franny is worried that her friend won’t like her best and that her dad can’t keep a job (not because he has deeper problems like anger issues or drinking on the job issues…he’s just a bit dreamy). Because of the copyright, I felt pretty confident going in that everything would work out in the end and, of course, everything did. It’s a good solid story, with good solid characters. I wonder what contemporary readers would think of this book.

 

86. Absolutely Maybe by Lisa Yee

 

I dived right into this book at the library conference last week and I couldn’t stop reading. Love Maybe and her mom and her friends. Must find a new teen reader to pass this on to.

 

Just a little plot info:  Maybe is Maybeline, a girl her mother named after her favorite brand of makeup. Her mom is a serial marrier, set to pick up husband number seven. Maybe goes off with friends to California in search of the father she never knew and the one man her mom did not marry.

 

87. How to Live:  A Search for Wisdom from Old People (While They Are Still on This Earth) by Henry Alford

 

I almost gave up on this book ten times. It is not as advertised. Alford spends much of the book talking about his elderly mother who decides in her eighties to divorce Alford’s stepdad. Here and there, Alford stops to interview elderly people but he obtains very little wisdom. Please. If you say you are going to write a book about the wisdom we can obtain from old people, then you’ve got to seek out wise old people. Disappointing.

 

88. The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus:  What’s So Good About The Good News? By Peter J. Gomes

 

Gomes’ message is simple:  Why do we spend our time devoting ourselves to Jesus rather than doing what Jesus asked us to do?  Gomes emphasizes the transforming nature of Jesus’ words and asks us to act.

 

89. Happy Birthday to You! By Dr. Seuss

 

A perfect happy birthday message in a fun Seuss book.

 

90. The Eternal Smile by Gene Luen Yang and Derek Kirk Kim

 

Three good stories related in a graphic novel format. The graphic novel format seemed very suited to the telling of these quirky stories.

 

91. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

 

Two sisters and their elderly father collide as they have always collided in the past but with tremendous force and great frequency when the elderly father falls for a young woman who wants to immigrate to England from Ukraine.

 

The dialogue is clever and fun and painful and the dad’s obsession with tractors is a nice sidebar to the story.

 

92. Meet Kirsten: An American Girl by Janet Shaw

 

I’ve always wanted to read an American Girl book. This is my first.

 

Kirsten is a young Swedish girl whose family is moving to the United States. Kirsten is lonely but soon is befriended by another young Swedish girl who is also moving out West.

 

The story takes a surprisingly painful twist. American Girl is more realistic than I’d expected. Kirsten is more than just a pretty face.

 

93. Hope Was Here by Joan Bauer

 

Hope was tiny when she was born and her mom couldn’t cope; Hope’s mom gave Hope to Hope’s aunt to raise. Hope’s aunt, Addie, is a fantastic cook but she and Hope are always moving.

 

The one thing Hope’s mom gave Hope of use to her was the secrets of waitressing. Hope and Addie suffer at the hands of a con artist and are on the move again, this time to the café of a man with cancer. The man with cancer turns out to be another Atticus Finch, but with political thoughts, and Hope becomes caught up in his campaign for mayor against a villainous long time mayor.

 

I liked this story more and more with every page I read. The aunt…the mom…the café owner…the cook at the café…Hope herself…all were scrumptious characters.

 

94. Tomorrow: Adventures in an Uncertain World by Bradley Trevor Greive

 

You’ve seen this book or at least this kind of book or maybe you’ve seen the Powerpoint of it in your inbox. It’s a collection of wacky photos of animals captioned with truisms about life. Uplifting and thoughtful…just don’t expect profound.

 

95. A Generous Or+hodoxy by Brian D. McLaren

 

Here’s the subtitle:  Why I am a missional + evangelical + post/protestant + liberal/conservative + mystical/poetic + biblical + charismatic/contemplative + fundamentalist/calvinist + anabaptist/Anglican + Methodist + catholic + green + incarnational + depressed-yet-hopeful + emergent + unfinished Christian.

 

And that’s the whole book.

 

And, I find, me, too.

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