CARRY ME LIKE WATER by Benjamin Saenz: A Review

Posted on by Rae Longest

powerfulwomenreaders

Saenz is rapidly becoming one of my favorite authors.  I have read several of his books, and each one seems better than the one before. Carry Me was his debut novel, described by the Chicano author of Bless Me Ultima,  as “ferocious” and “sentimental.” The characterization (which is something I am always drawn to) and conflicts presented are outstanding. Originally printed in 1995, the E-version came out in 2010.

The story is set in 1970’s America at the height of the AIDs epidemic. It opens with the relationship of Jake and Joaquin, and with Joaquin slowly dying. A compassionate hospice nurse, Lizzie, becomes involved with the two men as she takes care of Joaquin.  Her best friend, the pregnant Maria Elena, confides to her that she has been keeping a BIG secret from her husband and feels compelled to reveal it to him before their baby is born. Little does…

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SATURDAY MORNINGS FOR KIDS

Posted on by Rae Longest

powerfulwomenreaders

Today I am starting a new type post. Saturday Morning for Kids will be book reviews and miscellaneous thoughts aimed at the younger set.  When I was a kid, Saturday morning TV was reserved for kids only. Showtimes began at 6:30 a.m. and ran through 11:00 or 12:00 noon, depending on the network.  While kids were safely occupied with cartoons, Mom and Dad could safely sleep in a few extra hours if they wished.  Older kids poured cereal and milk into younger siblings’ bowls, and we munched in time with the musical backgrounds of cartoons like Looney Tunes.  Who knew we were getting an education on classical music!

Today’s review will be of The King of Show and Tell, a book in the Ready Freddy series written by Abby Klein and illustrated by John McKinley. This 86 page (large print) book, published by Scholastic includes at the back a newsy…

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FIRST LINE FRIDAY

Posted on by Rae Longest

Join us in a little game several blogging friends and I are playing.  Take a book you are ready to read and type in the first line or so.  See if the first line “grabs” you. Enter the title of the book and the first line(s) in the reply box at the bottom of this blog.

Here is the first line from Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club:

” Tyler gets me a job as a waiter, after that Tyler’s pushing a gun in my mouth and saying, the first step to eternal life is you have to die.”

The book was donated to my Little Free Library in my yard, and now I need to read it (or at least part of it) to see if it is too rough for our neighbors. The first line is pretty stark.

Tuesday Teaser

Posted on by Rae Longest

powerfulwomenreaders

Tuesday Teaser is a meme hosted by The “Purple Booker,” which I first discovered on a friend’s blog, “Brainfluff.” The point is to grab what you are currently reading, copy a sentence or two from where you left off, hopefully teasing someone into reading the book.  Once again, I am using Roland Merullo’s Breakfast with Buddha:

“For all that morning, I’d managed to put out of my thoughts the notion of handing over this property (his family’s farm that he grew up on as a child) to Rinpoche (a holy man). On the one hand, it seemed patently absurd for him to start a  venture here, and for my sister to give away the only security that life would ever hand her.”

Whether the siblings give away , to this holy man? charlatan?, their family inheritance is something you will have to read the book to find out.

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