I did receive compensation for the review of this book, but have only expressed my honest opinion.
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The Care and Handling of Roses with Thorns by Margaret Dilloway
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I consider myself a rose with thorns. In fact, because I consider everyone in this world a rose with thorns (some have more than others), I was very intrigued from the first time I read the title of this book. Come to find out I was right when I knew from the very title that I would love this book. I knew the author would be addressing my favorite topic in any piece of fiction or fact: the relationships of man to man (or in this case woman to girl, woman to multiple men, and woman to herself.) I know what it is like to live a daily struggle of trying to create deep meaningful relationships while addressing and dealing with my own personal thorns. It’s what we call life and this book was full of it.

This book follows the story of two main characters: a teacher with two non-working kidneys who also loves to raise roses, and her teenage niece who has lived a long life of neglect and sorrow. I don’t want to tell you what happens in the story because honestly I couldn’t bare depriving you of the pleasure of following the story-line for yourself. It takes twists and turns through many other just as thorny but delightful characters. It’s a feel-good story and it makes you ponder your own character and your own priorities.

The author writes from teacher Gal’s point of view. Gal calls herself difficult and obstinate and explains that so are roses. “That’s why I like the roses so much.” I found this statement beautifully profound. If all of us can just learn to love each other past our thorns this world would be such a better place. A brighter place. And sometimes when we are lucky even a world full of sweet fragrance. (Read the book to understand that last metaphor – it explains in interesting detail how rose-breeders hope that good luck will smile in their direction with a sweet smelling hybrid) It’s always another plus for a book when you read it for the story-line, but find yourself learning about a subject that you would never research otherwise. I will think of this book every time I smell the sweet roses planted out front of my house.

This is a four star book. If it was longer I may have given it 5. I highly recommend this book to all my friends. It was truly a joy to read. I plan to add Dilloway’s debut novel How to Be An American Housewife to my list of must-reads.

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Abigail woke me up this morning by climbing in my bed with a newspaper. She then proceeded to tell me about everything she read of any interest.

For a moment I had a deep sense of parental pride telling myself I’ve done a great job of teaching my oldest to love to read. She is reading the newspaper!! How many 13 year old kids out there read the newspaper regularly?

I then looked up from my game of i-scrabble to shoot a photo, only to catch her reading the funnies.

As she caught me snapping her photo I said,”You need to read something besides the funnies so you can look smart.”

Her reply,”Well, I was just reading my horoscope.”

I then congratulated myself fur raising kids who are not only smart, but also have totally awesome senses of humor (even though I am not too certain she was attempting humor.)

That’s just how I like to roll as a parent. Patting myself in the back occasionally really helps during those dark moments when I, like every parent out there, realize that I’ve screwed them up in some way.

Abigail then proceeded to pose for a better photo. What a gem. She’s pretty much perfect at this given moment. Now let’s go check out the cleanliness of her room.

Carnival Girl: Searching for God in the Aftermath of War by Sonja Herbert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Carnival Girl was a fantastic read. The touching and intriguing memoir chronicles the life of author Sonja Herbert as she is raised in post-World War II Germany with her nomadic large family who works the carnival circuit. Can you imagine living in a camper with five siblings forever? You move on a weekly basis and long for a permanent home like those of the children that you usually only get to know for a week. This was Sonja’s upbringing. Sonja vividly portrays throughout her beautiful memoir how much she just longed for a normal life, but I am so glad that God had something else in mind for her because it made for an intriguing and enlightening read.

I don’t want to give spoilers but I will tell you that at some point late in the book Sonja is introduced to two American Mormon missionaries. However Sonja’s interest in the Mormon church is a side-story and I do believe that this book can be enjoyed by any person, religious or not. In fact, if you aren’t religious, you will probably relate well to Sonja’s parents: one a bitter atheist and the other an a-typical Catholic.

Something that I enjoyed the most from this book was Sonja’s great faith from a very early age and how God strengthened her to endure and taught her to be comforted in some really hard circumstances. I also related to some of Sonja’s confusion to when her prayers weren’t answered.

I imagine that Sonja’s mother is dead by now, and so it won’t be too disrespectful to say it, but as a mother of 4, I truly marveled at how much of a burden her children were to her. Of course, I have never raised 6 kids in a caravan while also running a carnival, but part of me was so sad that Mutti (Sonja’s mom) never seemed to enjoy her children. However I also related to Mutti. I recently found I out that I am pregnant at 38 with number 5 and I swear this snippet from the book could transcend through time to my bedroom just a few nights ago:

“From our caraven, Mutti’s loud voice rang out with a harsh edge. ‘I can’t believe this happened again,’ she said. ‘I’m almost forty!’
‘Maybe you should see someone,’ Vati ventured.
‘That’s dangerous.’ Mutti’s voice wavered. ‘Besides, it’s the end of the winder, and we don’t have that kind of money. Later it will be too late.’
A pause.
‘Don’t cry,’ Vati said. ‘It’s not the end of the world.’
‘What do you know?’ She sobbed. ‘I can’t believe you’d do that to me again.'”

Not just in this small chapter that I related with so well, but throughout the book, I was drawn to Sonja, her family, her circumstances. They were most peculiar, sometimes heartbreaking, but always extremely fascinating and educational.

I highly recommend this book to all my readers. I don’t think anyone would be disappointed in learning all about the carnival girl of all carnival girls.

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I know you’ve all been missing the church signs.

Lucky me, there is one church in all of Utah County with a church sign. It’s never as entertaining as those in the south, but this one kind of got me thinking.