Books I Read and Other Assorted Oddities

 This book is really nostalgic for me, and probably why I love it so much. My mom read this to my brother and I when we were kids, and it's one that has stuck with me surprisingly well. I remember several parts of the story really vividly (and was actually really impressed with what I remembered of the story). This one got the Disney treatment, but the movie is terrible in comparison. Meg's father is gone. They don't know where he is, when he will return, or if he's even all right. People in town are starting to talk, and kids make fun of Meg (and they're met with her fists). All of that changes when Charles Wallace, Meg's younger brother introduces them to three exceptionally odd ladies: Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Who. The ladies set the children (who are joined by Calvin, their neighbor) on a journey to rescue Meg's father from a galaxy-consuming darkness. Like I said, I can't help but find this book really fascinating. I remembered portions of...

 I've been following this case since 2020, when officers pleaded with Lori to return her children to Idaho. Since then, I've paid careful attention to new developments in the case. I also read Leah Sotille's book: When the Moon Turns to Blood . You can see my review for that HERE . This book was recommended to me on Audible, and I picked it up to see if it had any new insights on the case. Doomsday Mother  gives a pretty thorough background on both Lori Vallow Daybell and Chad Daybell. Lori grew up in California to well-off (but anti-government) parents. They were supposedly devout members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Lori's marriages ended in disaster. Chad grew up in Springville, Utah. He served a mission for the Church and then worked at the Springville cemetery, where he met Tami. The two were eventually married and started their family. After a near-death experience, Chad began writing about it and the end times. He ultimately claimed to be h...

It was summer 2023. I remember coming across breaking news headlines about two children who were found in Ivins, Utah, in deplorable condition. These two children had been abused by their mother, Ruby Franke, and her friend, Jodi Hildebrant. The children were malnourished and had been forced to do horrible punishments, outside in the stifling Utah desert heat in the summer. This has been one of the major child abuse cases to come out of Utah in recent years, a string of others not far behind. It's a case that I remember distinctly following. One of my coworkers recommended this book to me, and I'll admit, I was hesitant at first. Sometimes people who experience this kind of abuse and trauma become extremely anti, and I just wasn't sure I wanted to read about that. However, as I dove into Shari Franke's book, I found her to be the opposite. That impressed me, and just added to what I liked about this book. In The House of My Mother , Shari Franke (Ruby Franke's oldes...

I first read The Hiding Place  in my 8th grade honors English class. It was a book that I found fascinating and enjoyed at the time. As I was again trying to find books to include in my AP class, this is one that I thought of. I read through it a second time.  Corrie ten Boom was a devout Christian, raised in Denmark. She lived with her father and sister, Betsy, in their clock repair shop in a small Dutch town. As World War II broke out and the Germans invaded, the ten Booms were suddenly very aware of their Jewish neighbors. Corrie and her family begin helping the Dutch underground, helping take in Jews for short periods and hiding them in their home. Eventually, the ten Booms were caught, and Corrie was sent to Ravensbruck. This is a story of survival, faith, and doing what's right. This book is a memoir, with Corrie ten Boom telling the story of her experiences during World War II. The story itself is well-written, and the pacing of the story kept my attention. It was a rel...

 This book was recommended to me by one of my coworkers. The case of Lori and Chad Daybell have fascinated me from the start. I'm not usually a "true crime junkie" by any means, but I do tend to follow some cases like this. The more I've read about this case, the weirder I feel it's gotten. This book aims to clarify and shed some light on the Daybell's strange belief systems. When the Moon Turns to Blood  written by investigative journalist Leah Sottile gives insight into the religious beliefs of Lori and Chad Daybell, both of whom are accused of murdering Lori's two children from previous marriages, and Chad Daybell's former wife. The book focuses mostly on the pair's beliefs and focus on the "end times" - the times right before the second coming of Jesus Christ as outlined in the book of Revelation in the New Testament. The couple have taken the doctrine taught in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and twisted it to their o...

 This is a book that I use in my AP class. I've been looking for an excuse to read it for a long time, as it's always sounded interesting. Tara Westover grew up in Idaho. Her parents were something of doomsday preparers, taking the religion of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to an extreme. They believed fervently in preparing for the End Times, stockpiling food, fuel, and other supplies, and making their best effort to go off grid. Westover's father also deeply mistrusted the U.S. government and what he called "the Medical Establishment." Even after horrendous accidents, the family rarely visited hospitals or saw doctors. Westover was also kept out of school. Things began to change for her once she started suffering horrific abuse from her older brother Shawn. After taking the ACT, and earning a scholarship to BYU, Westover started to realize that the world was so much wider than her father's. As she discovered herself, she lost her family, fin...

 This book came highly recommended from one of my coworkers who loves this novel. I have a goal of trying to read every novel in my classroom library, and since I had this one, I decided to give it a shot. Bless Me Ultima  by Rudolfo Anaya follows the story of Antonio Marez as he grows into adolescence. Antonio lives in New Mexico with his family. His family has a divided past, and Tony must pick which direction he wants to go. Will he be a priest like his mother desires? When Tony is six, Ultima comes to live with them, a curandera, who heals with herbs and magic. It is Ultima who often guides Tony through his battle between his mother's Catholicism, and his father's desire for freedom. This book is hard to review. On the one hand, I really enjoyed the mysticism and the magic and devils. The story is beautifully described, and the characters are deep and fascinating. The battle Tony fights between what his parents each want for him is also particularly poignant, even though I...

This is another book that we chose to read as a book club. I have to admit, I was really excited to read it, even though I'd never heard of it or Nadia Murad before. The Last Girl  by Nadia Murad is the tale of her fight against ISIS in Iraq. Nadia grew up in a small village in northern Iraq. Their village was generally unaffected by the American invasion in the 2000s except that American soldiers did come to their village. Nadia and her village are part of a minority religion called Yazidi. When ISIS gained power following events in Syria, they invaded Nadia's village. They killed the men of her village and took the women captive, claiming them as slaves that they were free to abuse. The Last Girl  is Nadia's tale of captivity and abuse at the hands of her captors and her escape to freedom. I loved this book. This story is raw and honest. Murad doesn't leave out the excruciating details of what she went through. In the U.S., we largely ignored ISIS and what was happeni...

I was frustrated with the ending of The Handmaid's Tale  and saw that there was a sequel, so I wondered if it would answer some of the questions that I had. The Testaments , book two in Margaret Attwood's series covers a time period after Offred (from The Handmaid's Tale ) left Gilead. It follows the story of two girls: one that lives in Gilead, and the other that lives in Canada. The girl that lives in Gilead was from a wealthy family. She ends up deciding to become an Aunt - the teachers of the girls in Gilead, and the defining body of women's roles and expectations of society. They make the rules for the girls and keep the records of who people really are. They also send missionaries to Canada. The other girl is from Canada. She lives with a couple who own a second-hand store. They are killed one day in an explosion that sparks the whole action of her story. She is eventually sent to Gilead to join the Aunts as well (with the Gilead missionaries), and the two stories...

I've heard about this book, and it's been highly recommended and popular, so I thought I would give it a try. It's also been made into a T.V. series, and I was curious about what the hype was about. The Handmaid's Tale  by Margaret Attwood analyzes what would happen if society was ruled by religious zealots. Offred is a handmaid in Gilead: meaning that she is a birth mother for children she will never be able to keep. She has strict rules that she must follow, in a life that is completely different from the one she used to lead. Birthrates are declining, so as a handmaid, she is supposed to bear children for the commander she is assigned to, the source of her only value to society. She can only leave the house once a day to go to the market to buy groceries for the household. Offred struggles to reconcile the life she used to have with her husband and daughter, with the extreme oppression and fear in her new life. I have mixed feelings about this one. On one hand, the s...