Mermaids by Patty Dann

Rating: 4.5

What it's about:
"Mrs. Flax was happiest when she was leaving a place, but I wanted to stay put long enough to fall down crazy and hear the Word of God. I always called my mother Mrs. Flax."

So begins this extraordinary first novel about one wild year in the life of fourteen-year-old Charlotte Flax, when she and her sister Kate move with Mrs. Flax into a sleepy 1960's Massachusetts town. Mrs. Flax is a woman who wears polka-dot dresses and serves hors d'oeuvres for dinner every night, and Kate is a child who basically wants to be a fish.
And then there's Charlotte, who in Patty Dann's hands, is transformed into a young woman of infinite whim and variety. Charlotte's main ambition in life is to become a saint, preferably martyred, though she's Jewish. She's smitten with the shy young caretaker at the convent at the top of the hill. Dann has created a young girl who accepts the unkindness of the mad universe in which she's whirling and takes it on with a savage glee.

Charlotte Flax is like no one you have ever met--and someone you know very well.
-taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
Mermaids is a coming-of-age novel that takes place in 1963-1964 and is centered around a somewhat different 14 year old named Charlotte. It follows a year in the life of Charlotte, her mother Mrs. Flax and her little sister Kate who practically lives in water. Mermaids is a fun book with quirky characters. Mrs. Flax moves the family around the country before they can barely get moved in. Kate is obsessed with swim meets and fish, her goal in life is to swim the English Channel. Then there is Charlotte, a girl who is just waiting (not so patiently) for divine intervention. She wants to be a saint, or at least a nun, even though she's Jewish. When the Flax family move to Massachusetts they move into a house right down the hill from a convent. Charlotte is thrilled.....surely she will hear the word of God now. She learns a lot about life and love in this small Massachusetts town, especially when she falls for Joe, the convent caretaker man.

For fans of the movie Mermaids, (me! me! me!) the movie followed the book almost exactly! While I was reading it was just like I was watching the movie in my head.

The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:

In 1637, one Dutchman paid as much for a single tulip bulb as the going price of a town house in Amsterdam. Three and a half centuries later, Amsterdam is once again the mecca for people who care passionately about one particular plant — thought this time the obsessions revolves around the intoxicating effects of marijuana rather than the visual beauty of the tulip. How could flowers, of all things, become such objects of desire that they can drive men to financial ruin?

In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan argues that the answer lies at the heart of the intimately reciprocal relationship between people and plants. In telling the stories of four familiar plant species that are deeply woven into the fabric of our lives, Pollan illustrates how they evolved to satisfy humankinds's most basic yearnings — and by doing so made themselves indispensable. For, just as we've benefited from these plants, the plants, in the grand co-evolutionary scheme that Pollan evokes so brilliantly, have done well by us. The sweetness of apples, for example, induced the early Americans to spread the species, giving the tree a whole new continent in which to blossom. So who is really domesticating whom?

Weaving fascinating anecdotes and accessible science into gorgeous prose, Pollan takes us on an absorbing journey that will change the way we think about our place in nature.

-taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:

The Botany of Desire is a fantastic book about the co-evolution between us and the plant world. The book is written in four chapters, each chapter being an example of a plant and it's relationship with us. Pollan writes about the apple, the tulip, marijuana and the potato. He starts with the apple and writes about John Chapman (better known as Johnny Appleseed) and his love of "wildness". He planted apples not in the rows we see now at apple orchards. He appreciated the more disorderly nature of wilderness. Pollan talks about the tulip and the desire for beauty in chapter two. Chapter three is marijuana and the almost universal desire for intoxication....not only of humans but animals as well. By the end of the book Pollan writes about the potato. We see the opposite end of the spectrum from Chapman's "wildness". We see men in lab coats genetically modifying the potato, taking control of it's genes and having their way with them. Pollan's writing is very passionate. His anecdotes along the way (especially his attempt at growing marijuana) are laughable. His love of gardening is saturated in these pages and by the end I was thinking seriously about starting my own garden!

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

Rating: 4.5

What it's about:

In the world of the near future, who will control women's bodies?

Offred is a Handmaid in the Republic of Gilead. She may leave the home of the Commander and his wife once a day to walk to food markets whose signs are now pictures instead of words because women are no longer allowed to read. She must lie on her back once a month and pray that the Commander makes her pregnant, because in an age of declining births, Offred and the other Handmaids are only valued if their ovaries are viable.

Offred can remember the days before, when she lived and made love with her husband Luke; when she played with and protected her daughter; when she had a job, money of her own, and access to knowledge. But all of that is gone now....

Funny, unexpected, horrifying, and altogether convincing, The Handmaid's Tale is at once scathing satire, dire warning, and tour de force. -taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is a novel of dystopia set in the near future. In the tale, women are now commodities. They are not allowed to read or gain knowledge in any way. They are not allowed to make conversation with each other. Sex is for reproduction only, not pleasure. They have a job to do and if you happen to be a Handmaid, like the protagonist in this novel, then your job is to get pregnant by the Commander under whose roof you live. Our protagonist lives under a man named Fred so her name is Offred (Of Fred). Throughout this tale she remembers a time when she had her own name, her own husband to make love to, her own daughter to nurture, her own job and money....but those days are gone. She describes in pieces how the government in America changed to the totalitarian Republic of Gilead and how many people, her husband and daughter included, tried to escape it. This novel is chilling and gloomy. Offred describes her life as a handmaid in a dispirited and dejected way. The book is compelling though and thought provoking.

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:
Anne, an 11-year-old orphan, is sent by mistake to live with a lonely, middle-aged brother and sister on a Prince Edward Island farm and proceeds to make an indelible impression on everyone around her. -taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
I've begun re-reading the Anne of Green Gables series. I've just finished the first book and enjoyed it just as much, if not more, as I did when I was twelve!

When Marilla and Mathew Cuthbert, an aging brother and sister, send away for an orphan boy to help out on the farm they are sent a little girl instead by mistake. They decide to keep Anne and it's the best decision of their lives. They fall in love with the little freckle faced redhead as does everyone around her. You can't help but love her dramatic imagination and mischievous ways. She comes to the Cuthbert house of Green Gables as an eleven year old and at the end of the book she's nearly an adult at the age of sixteen. The years she spends at Green Gables and the town of Avonlea are filled with amusing adventures and misshapes usually brought about by Anne's overactive imagination. The story takes place on Canada's Prince Edward Island and the island comes to life beautifully through the eyes of Anne. This charming story is perfect for all ages and one to be enjoyed over and over.