Mommy but Still Me

(pic via amazon.com)
Mommy but Still Me By: Mohanalakshmi Rajakumar

Description from amazon.com: "Imagine a man volunteering to trade in his game nights for heart burn and back ache. Good thing there are women around to ensure the survival of the species. This hilarious look at the journey from high heels to high blood pressure, as a jet setter turns into a bed wetter, is what your doctor won't tell you and your own mother may have forgotten in the years since she was blessed by your arrival.

At our first meeting my future father-in-law waited until we sat down in the Thai restaurant, the oblong menus placed in our hands and the waiter was a distance away, tending to other diners, before turning towards me, his eyes glowing. This was the first time we were all seeing each other after his son had proposed to me. "When will I get to hold my first grandchild?"

For my father-in-law and everyone else, I have a question of my own: When will any of you be satisfied?"

MY REVIEW: I got this Kindle Book for FREE. I have an android phone and they have a free kindle app and tons of free books to download. Any-who, I have one little boy and another baby on the way. I wanted a humorous book about pregnancy and I got it with this one. I've already gone through this once so I could totally relate to her struggles of getting pregnant, then being frustrated with everything pregnancy came with. It was a cute and humorous book.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The description from Amazon.com:

"It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .
Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.
This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul."

MY REVIEW: Excellent book. Death is the narrator in this book, which I was a little reluctant to read. It was intriguing and very well written. You come to love the main character and feel for her. More adult themed because it does deal with death, but much more fascinating than other Holocaust era books I've read. It has tons of positive reviews on Amazon and I can see why.

The Help

Here is the description from Barnes and Noble:
"Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women-mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends-view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't."

MY REVIEW: Possibly my new favorite book. Yes, it's that good. No, I have not seen the movie but I'm planning on it! Growing up in sheltered Utah, I haven't been exposed to much racism. It totally baffles me that such hatred has and still does exist.That said, I truly appreciate the insights of the author and her ability to write such a beautiful story.

I loved everything about this book. The story was intriguing, the characters were loveable, it tugged at your heartstrings, made you angry, and made you want to never put it down! Excellent read!