Rasmussen Reads

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

2010-04-21T10:15:00.000-07:00

The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

Well, while I am recommending books about the Holocaust I should recommend this book as well. This is an autobiography and is very good. Here's a better description.

Corrie ten Boom was a woman admired the world over for her courage, her forgiveness, and her memorable faith. In World War II, she and her family risked their lives to help Jews escape the Nazis, and their reward was a trip to Hitler's concentration camps. But she survived and was released--as a result of a clerical error--and now shares the story of how faith triumphs over evil. For thirty-five years Corrie's dramatic life story, full of timeless virtues, has prepared readers to face their own futures with faith, relying on God's love to overcome, heal, and restore. Now releasing in a thirty-fifth anniversary edition for a new generation of readers, The Hiding Place tells the riveting story of how a middle-aged Dutch watchmaker became a heroine of the Resistance, a survivor of Hitler's death camps, and one of the most remarkable evangelists of the twentieth century.

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

2010-04-21T10:06:00.000-07:00

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum

This book came up as a recommendation when I was looking for books similar to Sarah's Key. I liked this book and would recommend it as well but it is a little more *ahem* sexy than Sarah's Key, but not too sexy, not trashy romance novel non-stop sexy, so....sorry if that's what you are looking for.

From Publishers Weekly
Blum, who worked for Steven Spielberg's Shoah Foundation, takes a direct, unsentimental look at the Holocaust in her first novel. The narrative alternates between the present-day story of Trudy, a history professor at a Minneapolis university collecting oral histories of WWII survivors (both German and Jewish), and that of her aged but once beautiful German mother, Anna, who left her country when she married an American soldier. Interspersed with Trudy's interviews with German immigrants, many of whom reveal unabashed anti-Semitism, Anna's story flashes back to her hometown of Weimar. As Nazi anti-Jewish edicts intensify in the 1930s, Anna hides her love affair with a Jewish doctor, Max Stern. When Max is interned at nearby Buchenwald and Anna's father dies, Anna, carrying Max's child, goes to live with a baker who smuggles bread to prisoners at the camp. Anna assists with the smuggling after Trudy's birth until the baker is caught and executed. Then Anna catches the eye of the Obersturmführer, a high-ranking Nazi officer at Buchenwald, who suspects her of also supplying the inmates with bread. He coerces her into a torrid, abusive affair, in which she remains complicit to ensure her survival and that of her baby daughter. Blum paints a subtle, nuanced portrait of the Obersturmführer, complicating his sordid cruelty with more delicate facets of his personality. Ultimately, present and past overlap with a shocking yet believable coincidence. Blum's spare imagery is nightmarish and intimate, imbuing familiar panoramas of Nazi atrocity with stark new power. This is a poised, hair-raising debut.

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

2010-04-21T09:58:00.000-07:00

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

Here's another book I recommend. It is not a real "upper" of a story, but it was a good story. I will let a professional review give you an idea of what it is about as i am not very good at it.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

2010-04-21T09:48:00.000-07:00

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Once again, another spot-on recommend from Faeth. This book was a quick read for me and I enjoyed it. It was another book that I had seen around but never really gave it a chance, that was until Faeth gave her thumbs-up. I loved how the author gave the character such a unique and believable voice.

From Publishers Weekly
Christopher Boone, the autistic 15-year-old narrator of this revelatory novel, relaxes by groaning and doing math problems in his head, eats red-but not yellow or brown-foods and screams when he is touched. Strange as he may seem, other people are far more of a conundrum to him, for he lacks the intuitive "theory of mind" by which most of us sense what's going on in other people's heads. When his neighbor's poodle is killed and Christopher is falsely accused of the crime, he decides that he will take a page from Sherlock Holmes (one of his favorite characters) and track down the killer. As the mystery leads him to the secrets of his parents' broken marriage and then into an odyssey to find his place in the world, he must fall back on deductive logic to navigate the emotional complexities of a social world that remains a closed book to him. In the hands of first-time novelist Haddon, Christopher is a fascinating case study and, above all, a sympathetic boy: not closed off, as the stereotype would have it, but too open-overwhelmed by sensations, bereft of the filters through which normal people screen their surroundings. Christopher can only make sense of the chaos of stimuli by imposing arbitrary patterns ("4 yellow cars in a row made it a Black Day, which is a day when I don't speak to anyone and sit on my own reading books and don't eat my lunch and Take No Risks"). His literal-minded observations make for a kind of poetic sensibility and a poignant evocation of character. Though Christopher insists, "This will not be a funny book. I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them," the novel brims with touching, ironic humor. The result is an eye-opening work in a unique and compelling literary voice.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

2010-04-21T09:38:00.000-07:00

Here is another book I recommend. As you can tell from most of my other recommendations the genre I enjoy is historical fiction. I will add a review/snippet(?) I found online about the book to give you a little more info. The book is told by different women from their point of view. It took me a little bit to get used to and get over how things were spelled as the author tried to capture the women's voices.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. What perfect timing for this optimistic, uplifting debut novel (and maiden publication of Amy Einhorn's new imprint) set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams. Assured and layered, full of heart and history, this one has bestseller written all over it.

Books by Lisa See

2010-03-16T12:57:00.000-07:00

Hey, a new post on this blog. I go through times where I just read and read and then I go through times when I don't read at all.

The first book is called "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See. I enjoyed this book very much. When I read I like to read about different cultures, history, and mostly I read to be transported. I felt this book was well written and reminded me a lot of "The Good Earth". I actually had seen this book before but avoided it because the name sort of turned me off, but, Faeth recommended it to me and I trust her recommendations and read it. I would recommend this book as well.

Faeth also recommended this book 'Shanghai Girls' by Lisa See as well. It is actually Faeth's book that I read and still have at my house (sorry!). I enjoyed this book but not as much as Snow Flower. It was still a good book and I would recommend it.

After reading and enjoying two other books by Lisa See, I started reading another book that she wrote called 'Peony in Love'. I am really just having a hard time reading this book. I have not finished it and may not unless I force myself to do it just because I already have invested time into it! So, as of now, I would not recommend this book.

Go ahead and look these books up on amazon and read a summary and possibly even read them for yourself!

Coraline by Neil Gaiman

2009-03-02T11:07:00.000-08:00

Yay! Neil Gaiman. I absolutely enjoyed his previous novel 'Stardust' and was excited to see another of his novels being brought to the big screen. I decided to read this novel before I saw the film so the film wouldn't ruin the book for me. I read 'Stardust' before they made the movie and still thoroughly enjoyed both of them. Coraline reminds me of Roald Dahl's 'The Witches' or even a little of 'Matilda'. The amazon.com review says it is 'scary as heck' but I would not go that far. I remember reading R.L. Stine(?) goosebumps books back in the day and they were more disturbing then this book. Here's the amazon.com review:

Coraline lives with her preoccupied parents in part of a huge old house--a house so huge that other people live in it, too... round, old former actresses Miss Spink and Miss Forcible and their aging Highland terriers ("We trod the boards, luvvy") and the mustachioed old man under the roof ("'The reason you cannot see the mouse circus,' said the man upstairs, 'is that the mice are not yet ready and rehearsed.'") Coraline contents herself for weeks with exploring the vast garden and grounds. But with a little rain she becomes bored--so bored that she begins to count everything blue (153), the windows (21), and the doors (14). And it is the 14th door that--sometimes blocked with a wall of bricks--opens up for Coraline into an entirely alternate universe. Now, if you're thinking fondly of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, you're on the wrong track. Neil Gaiman's Coraline is far darker, far stranger, playing on our deepest fears. And, like Roald Dahl's work, it is delicious.
What's on the other side of the door? A distorted-mirror world, containing presumably everything Coraline has ever dreamed of... people who pronounce her name correctly (not "Caroline"), delicious meals (not like her father's overblown "recipes"), an unusually pink and green bedroom (not like her dull one), and plenty of horrible (very un-boring) marvels, like a man made out of live rats. The creepiest part, however, is her mirrored parents, her "other mother" and her "other father"--people who look just like her own parents, but with big, shiny, black button eyes, paper-white skin... and a keen desire to keep her on their side of the door. To make creepy creepier, Coraline has been illustrated masterfully in scritchy, terrifying ink drawings by British mixed-media artist and Sandman cover illustrator Dave McKean. This delightful, funny, haunting, scary as heck, fairy-tale novel is about as fine as they come. Highly recommended. (Ages 11 and older) --Karin Snelson

Stargirl...Jerry Spinelli

2009-02-25T13:06:00.000-08:00

I really liked this book. It's a nice short easy read, but really sweet. It's all about being yourself and not conforming to others. Stargirl is the main character and she's crazy, different, loving, fun, and totally everything that makes you smile! It takes place during their high school years..and it really makes you think about what kind of person you were in high school! You will fall in love with Stargirl and all of her craziness! Read it...it won't hurt!

Here's the amazon review:

Amazon.com Review"She was homeschooling gone amok." "She was an alien." "Her parents were circus acrobats." These are only a few of the theories concocted to explain Stargirl Caraway, a new 10th grader at Arizona's Mica Area High School who wears pioneer dresses and kimonos to school, strums a ukulele in the cafeteria, laughs when there are no jokes, and dances when there is no music. The whole school, not exactly a "hotbed of nonconformity," is stunned by her, including our 16-year-old narrator Leo Borlock: "She was elusive. She was today. She was tomorrow. She was the faintest scent of a cactus flower, the flitting shadow of an elf owl."
In time, incredulity gives way to out-and-out adoration as the student body finds itself helpless to resist Stargirl's wide-eyed charm, pure-spirited friendliness, and penchant for celebrating the achievements of others.

In the ultimate high school symbol of acceptance, she is even recruited as a cheerleader. Popularity, of course, is a fragile and fleeting state, and bit by bit, Mica sours on their new idol. Why is Stargirl showing up at the funerals of strangers? Worse, why does she cheer for the opposing basketball teams? The growing hostility comes to a head when she is verbally flogged by resentful students on Leo's televised Hot Seat show in an episode that is too terrible to air. While the playful, chin-held-high Stargirl seems impervious to the shunning that ensues, Leo, who is in the throes of first love (and therefore scornfully deemed "Starboy"), is not made of such strong stuff: "I became angry. I resented having to choose. I refused to choose. I imagined my life without her and without them, and I didn't like it either way."

The Glass Castle: A Memoir

2009-02-23T10:03:00.000-08:00

The Glass Castle: A Memoir
by Jeannette Walls

SOOOOO good! Just read it! Here is the Amazon.com description:

Jeannette Walls's father always called her "Mountain Goat" and there's perhaps no more apt nickname for a girl who navigated a sheer and towering cliff of childhood both daily and stoically. In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets. Walls describes in fascinating detail what it was to be a child in this family, from the embarrassing (wearing shoes held together with safety pins; using markers to color her skin in an effort to camouflage holes in her pants) to the horrific (being told, after a creepy uncle pleasured himself in close proximity, that sexual assault is a crime of perception; and being pimped by her father at a bar). Though Walls has well earned the right to complain, at no point does she play the victim. In fact, Walls' removed, nonjudgmental stance is initially startling, since many of the circumstances she describes could be categorized as abusive (and unquestioningly neglectful). But on the contrary, Walls respects her parents' knack for making hardships feel like adventures, and her love for them--despite their overwhelming self-absorption--resonates from cover to cover.

Three Little Words: A Memoir

2009-02-23T09:55:00.000-08:00

Three Little Words: A Memoir
by Ashley Rhodes-Courter

Just finished this one, it is a quick read but it is good and eye opening. Here is the description found on Amazon.com. On the Amazon page it also compared it to Jeannette Walls The Glass Castle. I would recommend the glass castle over this book as it is better written, but they are both good books.

"Sunshine, you're my baby and I'm your only mother. You must mind the one taking care of you, but she's not your mama." Ashley Rhodes-Courter spent nine years of her life in fourteen different foster homes, living by those words. As her mother spirals out of control, Ashley is left clinging to an unpredictable, dissolving relationship, all the while getting pulled deeper and deeper into the foster care system.
Painful memories of being taken away from her home quickly become consumed by real-life horrors, where Ashley is juggled between caseworkers, shuffled from school to school, and forced to endure manipulative,humiliating treatment from a very abusive foster family. In this inspiring, unforgettable memoir, Ashley finds the courage to succeed - and in doing so, discovers the power of her own voice.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim - David Sedaris

2008-12-24T11:43:00.000-08:00

This book is not for the easily offended or those that don’t enjoy the occasional (or frequent) f-bomb. If you are not one of these people and you enjoy biting, witty, stories then this is the book for you. I have read one of his previous books ‘Me Talk Pretty One Day’ and found it very fun, so I would recommend that one as well. His books are collections of short stories. I actually downloaded this one as an audio book and listened to it while doing a monotonous task @ work that didn’t require my brain too much. I TOTALLY recommend this as an audio book because it is read by David Sedaris and I don’t think just reading it would have the same effect. He does his little imitations of people and family members that although would be funny read, are so much better heard.

The Shack

2008-11-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

I finished The Shack yesterday and I really liked it. It's a great story of how God never forgets us in our times of need and great despair. I think you should all read it. It got a bit wordy at times, but I don't know if that is because I just didn't understand some of it because I got bored by all the descriptions and explanations of everything, but I really liked it and bawled like a baby several times while reading the book. Anyway read the synopsis and then read the book. I think you'll like it.

A Great and Terrible Beauty

2008-10-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

This is the first book in the 'Gemma Doyle' trilogy. It is a decent read, but is a young adult novel and reads as such. The story is not as compelling as the 'Twilight' series, but in actuality, the writing is a bit better and not as repetitive. Here is a little info from wikipedia:

A Great and Terrible Beauty is the first novel in the Gemma Doyle Trilogy by Libba Bray. It is told from the perspective of Gemma Doyle, a girl in the late 1800s.
Gemma leaves her home in India after her mother dies for a boarding school in England. Once there, she is plagued by clairvoyant visions as she looks into the magical secrets of the school with her three friends Felicity Worthington, Pippa Cross and Ann Bradshaw.

Oh yeah, one of the characters last name is Cross, so HOLLA!! I purchased the whole series without reading any of them, so I am committed to finishing it. So I will give my opinions on the other two books at a later date.

The Book of Lies - Brad Meltzer

2008-10-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

This book is a nice little thriller/action read. It was not very deep and was no Da Vinci Code, it felt a little like that's what it was trying to be, but maybe that's just the genre and I really enjoyed the Da Vinci Code so my standards are a bit high. I read it fairly quickly and did enjoy it, so I would recommend it, but I usually like to come away from a book feeling a little more enlightened or at least have an idea to ponder upon. Aw, just read it and enjoy.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

2008-10-28T09:07:00.001-07:00

Yes, the name of this book does sound like it may be a Nancy Drew story, but it is not. It is a nice little book written as a series of letters between an author and members of the aforementioned Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. You will also learn a bit of history, such as the fact the the English Channel Island of Guernsey was occupied during the Nazi's during WWII. I did enjoy this book and I knew I would enjoy it when I opened it and saw that there was a beautiful blue ribbon attached to the book to use as a place holder. This is a book about and for people who love books and love to read.

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

2008-10-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

I finished reading this book recently, before that Oprah put it on her book list. This story is so well written and fluid. I just recommend getting the book and reading it. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT, read the synopsis or the book jacket, it gives WAY to much away. Just read the book, and enjoy the story.

The Shack

2008-10-27T12:31:00.000-07:00

Okay so I just started reading The Shack. I'm only on page 66, but I'm hooked. I already highly recommend this book to all of you. It has gotten so many great reviews, so i'll post a more complete post when I am done reading it, which will be tomorrow probably seeing as how I can't put it down.

The Lace Reader

2008-09-02T12:47:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally finished The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry. It was a decent enough book. It took me quite a while to feel like I was really into the meat of the story, I would say probably halfway was when the story started to get interesting. I don’t know if it was just my mood when I was reading it or what, but it seemed kind of disconnected. The story takes place in Salem, Mass. but it is not a story about witches, although there are some in the book. It is more of a murder-mystery, but not really. Am I really selling you on it? The Lace Readers are fictional fortune-tellers who look into a piece of lace and through the patterns see the future. The idea of lace reading is kind of cool and just from reading the book you would believe it was a totally real thing, as real as palm-reading or tarot cards. It has some pretty good reviews on Amazon.com and I just entered to win a Lace Reader trip to Salem, so if I do win the trip, then it was the greatest book ever written and I loved it whole-heartedly.

Twilight Series Review?

2008-08-19T13:55:00.000-07:00

Okay, Okay... I am a little bit obsessed with the Twilight series and I want to know how you other gals feel about it? Are you also so involved in the book that you feel like you know what's best for the characters? Do you dream of being a "good" vampire? Do you find yourself more frisky then usual?? Are you in love with Edward? Do you read the books over and over again?? Am I the only one?? Am I crazy? Is anyone else counting down the days until Twilight the movie is out? I think something's wrong with me... but I LIKE it!

The Lace Reader - on pause

2008-08-18T08:42:00.000-07:00

I got this new book called 'The Lace Reader' and started reading it and was not very far into it, when my friend informed me she had finished 'Breaking Dawn' and I could borrow it from her. So, needless to say, but I will say it anyway, I am reading 'Breaking Dawn' and have put the Lace Reader on hold for a bit. May I just say, that I am probably more in love with the cover art on these books than I am with the books. I am just in like with the books but don't tell them because they think I am in love with them and I don't want to hurt their feelings.

Another Stephenie Meyer Book

2008-08-15T20:29:00.000-07:00

Okay so I'm reading The Host now. I think it will be the last Stephenie Meyer book I read for a really long time. I'm not very far into it at all, but I like it so far. I'll keep you posted. Time to get a new list of recommendations from you other avid readers.

New Books

2008-08-05T08:48:00.000-07:00

Hello All!
I have to admit that I, too, picked up the new Stephanie Myer book yesterday. I am only about 50 pages into it so far and my goal is to get it read before the baby comes. So far, so good. I know my Mom is reading it too, and she is quite a bit further than I am. Before "Breaking Dawn" came out, I was reading a book called "devil in the White City." It's about the Chicago World's Fair in 1840 something and the events that surrounded it as well as tells the story of this crazy doctor who killed a bunch of women during the fair. I have really enjoyed it so far. I will try to get a list together of my top ten and get it posted here soon. Thanks for setting up the blog, Sarah, this is going to be awesome!!!!
Faeth

Ras-tas-tic

2008-08-04T18:08:00.000-07:00

Hey ya'll, this blog is for the Rasmussen Clan. Please post books you are currently reading or have read with a summary and what you love about it. I think it will be really cool to see what everyone is reading and sometimes you just need a suggestion for a good book. You don't even have to be original about with the summary, just cut and paste it from Amazon.com but it would be great to let us know what you thought about it, even if you didn't like it. Laurel and I were talking about starting this blog at the reunion and we wanted to do a recipe blog as well, so I guess for now if you want to post and share recipes please feel free to do it on this blog. Peace out.
p.s. I want to give Allison some credit because reading her blog entry about the twilight series inspired me to get this thing going!