Good Reads & Views

Not My Father's Son: A Memoir by Alan Cumming
Nonfiction

A fascinating book written by the actor Alan Cumming about his life growing up with an emotionally and physically abusive father in Scotland. The actor narrates his own audiobook so you truly know what the actor was feeling through every experience.  The book chronicles his life growing up, the close relationship he has with his mother and reveals secrets that have shaped his life and career.  He is asked to appear on the popular genealogy show “Who do you think you are” and through it he learns about his maternal grandfather and what happened to him after World War II.  As the show is filmed and research is completed Alan learns more about not only his grandfather but his own father as well.  It is candid, moving and often witty.

Last Man Standing - Television Series (2011-).  The Complete First Season – The Complete Second Season   
TV-DVD

A comedy television series created by and starring Tim Allen.  Mike Baxter is your traditional manly man who is married with three daughters and works for Outdoor Man.  The show offers a lot of laughs dealing with marriage, children, family, relationships and politics.   The show airs on ABC on Friday nights.

TV show.  (Not Rated) 

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Nonfiction

After his father’s death in the 9/11 attacks, precocious, tambourine-playing, 9-year-old Oskar tries to unravel the mystery of a key his father left behind. He encounters a delightful cast of unusual characters during his quest, which takes him throughout the boroughs of New York. By turns funny and sad, this story is told by Oskar, his grandmother, and his long-lost grandfather. While Oskar’s intelligent yet naïve narration provides the primary thread of the story, his grandparents’ complex marriage and lengthy separation provide compelling color and texture. A poignant story about a fascinating family.

The Best of Me
DVD

Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks.  Dawson and Amanda, two former high school sweethearts who find themselves reunited after twenty years apart, when they return to their small town for the funeral of a beloved friend. Their bittersweet reunion reignites the love they've never forgotten, but soon they discover the forces that drove them apart twenty years ago live on, posing even more serious threats today.  The DVD offers an alternate ending for those Nicholas Sparks fans who prefer a happy ending.  

Feature Film.  (Rated PG-13) 

This is Where I Leave You  
DVD

Based on the book by Jonathan Tropper.  Four grown siblings are forced by their mother to sit Shiva after their father passes away.  Returning to their childhood home to live under the same roof for a week they are forced to face their past, present and future and deal with the state of the relationships they have with the people the love.  It’s chaotic, funny and heartwarming.

Feature Film. (Rated R)

Every Young Woman’s Battle: guarding your mind, heart, and body in a sex-saturated world by Shannon Ethridge
Nonfiction

First, I encourage parents to read this book before deciding to give it to their daughters and then to go through it together. The language is very frank and there is no hesitancy to using descriptive words when dealing with sexual matters. However, the authors make the point that ignorance makes one vulnerable. This book is a great tool for explaining all areas of purity - emotional, mental, physical and spiritual. It focuses on putting God first, has realistic advice and applies to young people over the entire spectrum of the purity matter. This book made for an incredible and challenging read. It looks into every situation regarding how to live out God’s intended plan of purity. The most encouraging piece about this book is that it gives you the knowledge that there are answers when it comes to questions about what God thinks about sex and sexuality.

Alex by Pierre LeMaitre
Fiction

In this US debut of French author LeMaitre, a young woman is kidnapped and forced into a cage whose origin dates from an 18^th century design that was meant to deliver maximum torture (there are rats involved). Diminutive Police Commandant Camille Verhoeven reluctantly takes on the case and races against time to find the kidnapping victim, and now hostage, before it is too late. Graphic, dark, and gory, this book has plenty of twists and turns and zigs when you think it will zag. A bestseller in Europe, it is actually the second in a trilogy (Irène being the first, Camille the third) but can be read as a stand-alone. In a starred review, Kirkus calls it “An eloquent thriller with a denouement that raises eyebrows as it speeds the pulse.” 

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty        
Fiction 

Set in Australia, this is a story of Alice and her quest to figure out who she is and what happened to her idyllic life. Before Alice Love falls down at the gym and bangs her head she is 29 in love with her husband, Ryan, and pregnant with their first child.  After she comes to she is 39, getting a divorce, doesn’t speak to her sister and has 3 children.  She has to get her memory back so she can understand what has happened to her life over the past 10 years and how she became a super mom with really nice clothes.  A sweet and funny story about getting a second chance. 

Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
Nonfiction

With his trademark flair for storytelling, the author of The Devil in the White City takes us aboard the ill-fated Lusitania on her final voyage. Erik Larson infuses the story with suspense by alternating between the action on the Lusitania and the U-boat that sunk her. His detailed look at various passengers’ stories brings an intimacy to the narrative, which further deepens the sense of tragedy. In addition to showing life at sea, the book delivers views of Woodrow Wilson as he navigates the political situation regarding World War I (and woos his second wife). A big, multi-faceted, remarkable true story, well told.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Fiction

This National Book Award and Pen/Faulkner Award finalist begins its story on the night a famous actor dies on stage and an extraordinarily fast-acting flu emerges on its deadly path to wipe out most of the world’s population.  Kirkus, in a starred review, says that "Mandel's solid writing and magnetic narrative make for a strong combination in what should be a breakout novel." Jumping back and forth between different time periods, this book is literary, suspenseful, and post-apocalyptic. And there are Shakespeare performances,  before and after the calamity. The story made this reader wonder what she would do if a downfall of civilization were to occur during her lifetime. Highly recommended