Last night my book club discussed Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.  If your book club is looking for a juicy read, I have to say this was a great discussion.  You won’t find a book with more twists and turns  than this one.  Everyone in the group had a visceral reaction.  But before we get into that, let’s discuss the plot.

We meet two seemingly normal people, Nick and Amy, who met 7 years ago at a party in NYC.  For all appearances sake, they were a normal, happy couple. In her diary, Amy wrote about it:

Tra and la! I am smiling a big adopted-orphan smile as I write this. I am embarrassed at how happy I am, like some Technicolor comic of a teenage girl talking on the phone with my hair in a ponytail, the bubble above my head saying: I met a boy!

When they meet, they are both employed writers. They have a wild, crazy romance and what appears to be a good marriage.  When his mom gets sick and they both lose their jobs, they decide to move to Missouri.  That’s not such a good move as things start to slowly unravel soon after. The book starts out on the morning of their 5th anniversary and we read Nick’s thoughts about it:

Amy peered at the crepe sizzling in the pan and licked something off her wrist. She looked triumphant, wifely. If I took her in my arms, she would smell like berries and powdered sugar. When she spied me lurking there in grubby boxers, my hair in full Heat Miser spike, she leaned against the kitchen counter and said, “Well, hello, handsome.”  Bile and dread inched up my throat. I thought to myself: Okay, go.

And then Amy disappears and the fun begins.  Each chapter alternates between Amy and Nick’s narratives and we find out what’s going through each of their minds at various times of their histories leading up to her disappearance.  They are mad at each other and at any given time, you suspect one is guilty…and then you suspect the other is guilty.  The book is a roller coaster ride and it’s titillating from beginning to end. One minute you think that Nick killed Amy, then you think Amy is framing Nick, then you don’t know what to think.  They both want you think the other one is guilty and they both do really good job.

As my book club discussed the book, we realized just how many layers the book has. Nothing is as you think it is at any time.  Adjetives used to describe how several members felt reading the book were: Desperate. Creepy.Wild ride. Roller coaster. No likable characters. Plot driven. Most of us liked, loved it.  Several members weren’t as taken with it.  I, for one, want to pick it up and read it again.

We all loved Amy, despite how crazy her character is.  Nick doesn’t realize it when he meets her, but Amy is a psychopath with a capital “P”.  She reminded one member of Cathy from East of Eden.  She is a true psychopath.  One minute she’s Amazing Amy, the subject of a kid’s book series her parents wrote that supported their existence financially until recently, the next minute she’s a true psychopath.  A woman with no conscience, no remorse, no sense of concern for the well-being of anyone, not even family members.  No struggle with shame and the surreal ability to conceal her true psychological makeup from everyone, including her husband.  She’s so smart, so clever that it’s frightening.  One member’s takeaway from the book: Don’t marry a psychopath. To all the single ladies out there, read this book.

I don’t want to give away everything about this book, but overall, it’s a very, very good book club pick, make it your next one.

I’ll start with the one I adored. I knew nothing about Cutting for Stone before I started it, I just knew that it was very, very long, over 700 pages and I was wondering how I’d get through such a ong book.  Once I got into it, the length became no problem.  As a matter of fact, I never wanted the book to end.  The descriptions and language are so beautifully crafted that the book reads like a piece of art. As someone who is forever intrigued by other cultures – how people live, how they practice medicine, how they are educated, this was the perfect book for me.  It’s about twin brothers, who we find out at the beginning of the book are born of a clandestine affair between a nun and a British surgeon.  Their heads had to be separated at birth by their own father, who ran away soon after and they were left orphans when she died on the delivery table.  The book explores their life long relationship and the one they had with both sets of parents, which endure many trails and tribulations, and travels from Ethiopia to NYC.  While we learn about the boys and follow their lives through the eyes and voice of only one of the brothers, the author quietly educates the reader about the country itself – not only about its revolution but its history of medicine and science.  I absolutely adored this book and really don’t want to give away too much, but it is really a must read.  I am still thinking about the ending and i finished it weeks ago.

The second book is A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick, which I  just chose for my own book club this month, so the story is quite fresh in my mind.  This is not a book I can whole-heartedly recommend, but I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy it either. Many members of my group compared it to a Harlequin novel as it does have elements of a trashy romance, but the writing is very interesting and quite intense so it’s hard to dis.  Plus, the story really takes you on quite a ride and has you gripped until the very end. As I told my book club, I neither loved or hated it, but I am hesitant to recommend it. As the story opens, it is fall 1907, and it’s freezing as Ralph, Truitt, an affluent business man from Wisconsin, is waiting to meet the woman who will be soon be his wife, what you would call a mail order bride.  When the woman who comes off the train is not the woman he ordered, he goes crazy with rage but eventually agrees to keep her.  The story that transpires is unlike anything you would ever imagine.  There are twists and turns and no one and nothing is what you think it is.  I would definitely have to call this book a page-turner, but one that I couldn’t wait to finish.  A girl in my book club who is from Wisconsin said that the book had nothing to do with the home she knows.  In her mind, people don’t go nuts from the cold. In this book, they do go crazy and it’s taken to an extreme.  If you’re going on vacation or want to distract your mind from reality for a few days, do read this book.  Just be sure to suspend every ounce of reality that you can.

Disclosure: I was not paid for these reviews and all opinions expressed are my own.

The first time I saw Amy Chua interviewed on The Colbert Report, I vowed not to read her book.  She talked about how she condoned calling her daughters names like “garbage” and how she tore up their handmade birthday cards. I thought, how could I relate to her?

But when my dear friend and fellow book-club member chose it as this month’s selection, I felt compelled to pick up a copy (discounted, of course, at B&N) and join in.  This particular friend happens to pick the most interesting selections to discuss and she is meticulous about leading the discussion (she uses post-it notes like crazy).  Also, with all the controversy about the book on social media over the last few months, who isn’t a little bit curious about what’s inside the pages of this book, which is apparently selling like hotcakes?

I don’t have the best behaved children, I readily admit it.  When I ask them to practice piano, they stall.  They tell me they’re busy, they’ll get to it later.  And they don’t.  I haven’t forced the practicing….yet.  Mainly because I want them to continue to love it, and I want them to play piano for years to come.  That’s my tactic, maybe it’s wrong, but I’m no Tiger Mother.   Chua got her two daughters to practice their instruments, piano and violin for four hours a day.  How did she get them to do that, you may ask?  By belittling them.  By forcing them.  By giving them no other option.  One plays Carnegie Hall.  The other auditions for Julliard at a young age.  Together, they play a special concert in Budapest.  She wants them to go all the way to the moon.

As a result, one of her daughters rebels at age 13.  She’s had enough.  Chua, an over-achiever, who insists that Chinese parenting skills are far superior to what she considers Western laziness and permissiveness, condones her own actions and words used throughout the book.  She locks her daughters out in the cold when they refuse to play piano, denies them of play dates and sleepovers, forces them to practice their music on weekends and vacations, doesn’t accept grades less than an A, doesn’t allow television or video games.  She calls them names when they go against her wishes.

Sure, I’d like better behavior from my kids, but not this way.  It’s important, while you’re reading this book, to note that this is not a parenting guide.  It’s a memoir.  Reading this book made me realize that I’m not a great mother.  But I am teaching my kids compassion, to live life to the fullest, to follow their dreams.  Chua wants her daughters to take one road.  For her, there is only one road.  When her younger daughter, Lulu, comes forward and tells her she no longer wants to practice four hours a day, that she wants to live differently, taking tennis, being normal, Chua can not handle it.  In real life, Chua can think she’s being tongue and cheek about her whole experience and that people are taking this book far too seriously as much as she wants to.  But I’ll go to my grave questioning her parenting skills.  Skills that her own husband and parents questioned throughout the book.

By the way, I am not writing about this book to promote sales.  If I were you, I’d borrow this book from a friend, wait until the library has a copy.  There is no need to contribute to Chua’s growing wealth and profit from this book.

So, going back to my book club who gathered tonight to discuss the book,I  want to share their opinions and thoughts.  It’s important to note that my book club consists of mostly lawyers, much like Chua.  Everyone is opinionated, and we all have kids.  We discussed why this book is having such a moment, and everyone believes that it’s due to the tenuous  state of U.S. education and the ascent of China.  We’re having a Chinese moment, so this book arrived at the right time.

Here are some random thoughts from the group.  There was primarily a consensus from people who didn’t care for the book, but for whom the book made them think about their own parenting skills and methods.

“Why would a Professor of Law expose herself like this?”

“I thought she was joking, I kept waiting for her to say ‘Ha!’ after every page.  She’s a snob and I didn’t care for her loose comparison of Chinese culture to the Western World.”

“I think her (Chua’s) husband will write his own book, his side of the story.  We didn’t get much of that.  Why did he side with her the whole time?”

“How could their relationship (Chua and her husband) work with such a different type of upbringing?”

“Even at the end of the book, after all is said and done and her daughter flips out, Chua was faux humbled.”

“She’s over-invested.  She’s looking out for her best interests, not her daughters.  She has zero powers of reflection and is busy turning their experiences into their own.”

“She just wanted to win…at her children’s expense.”

On the flip side:

“It’s an insight into the Chinese mind.”

“As a memoir, she seemed to get the joke of her life.  Her attitudes about permissive Western society makes sense, but I, myself, am too lazy to be a tiger mom.”

“The book makes me desperately afraid as a mom.  Am I allowing my kids to grow up too soft?”

“It made me think of how I am raising my own child and reassess my own skills.”"It made me think of how I am raising my own child and reassess my own skills.”

“The book is truthful in teaching your kids about hard work.”

One member handed the book to her 12-year-old son and told him to read it.  He read it in two days and came back to her and immediately said, “She’s (Chua) crazy.”  He also stated that her children know more now if they didn’t already.  About Chua’s daughter playing Carnegie Hall: “It would feel good to play Carnegie Hall, sure.  But it was one night!”  He also insisted on knowing where was the baby’s father?  Everyone agrees that he’s writing a Tiger Dad book with his own perspective.

Another member’s husband is reading the book as a “how to” with his own children.

Lastly, one member could not even pick up the book.  She saw Chua in interviews and decided not to read it.

Disclosure: This post is based on my own personal experiences.  No compensation was provided by anyone and all opinions are my own.

Choosing a book that suits men and women is a difficult task and our host usually takes her responsibility quote seriously.  She’s chosen various authors from Hemingway to Potok.  The guys get really into it, and over time, more and more of them actually read the book.  The discussions are heated, emotional, serious, funny.

Tonight we discussed a 1994 novel, In the Lake of the Woods, by Tim O’Brien.  The book chronicles the rise and fall of Vietnam veteran-turned politician John Wade and his wife, Kathy. After secrets from his past surface during an election, his career abruptly ends. They seek refuge in a cabin on Lake of the Woods, a remote wilderness area in Minnesota.

During Vietnam, John Wade witnessed and was involved in major atrocities.  The secrets are so horrific that he buries them deep and never reveals to them to anyone, not even Kathy.  As the past wreaks havoc on John’s career, marriage, and mind, she suddenly disappears without a trace, never to be found again.  Her disappearance is a mystery, and the book provides clues and facts, as well as several hypothesis, for the reader to surmise what actually happens.  Did he murder her?  Or did she just leave on her own accord?  Did they fake her death for the world to see and meet up after forever to be left alone?  The book leaves it up to the reader to decide.

Our host’s husband created a chart that we had to fill out before the discussion started.  We had a few choices determining Kathy’s fate: murder, accident, escape, runaway.  We also had to determine what happened to John at the book’s conclusion.  The group was split.  Some people thought John was deranged and definitely killed Kathy.  Most of my fellow book club members are former lawyers and had problems with this scenario due to lack of evidence.  Some thought Kathy got tired of John’s lies and ran off.  No one really thought that she killed herself.  We all felt that his love for her was very intense.  But did his past turn him into a violent killer?  Or had she just had enough?

O’Brien brings in a lot of evidence that he outlines in several chapters: quotes from his mother about his difficult relationship with his father, who was a drunk and killed himself when John was a child; Kathy’s sister and co-workers, who all don’t believe that she would do anything to herself nor disappear; John’s campaign manager who gave on him after the secrets came out; his fellow commanders in Vietnam who called him “the Sorcerer”.  He includes quotes about other famous politicians who were damaged by the Vietnam War like Nixon and Wilson.  But it’s pretty impossible to enter John’s head and we were all pretty blitzed by the end of the discussion.

Once again, I’m so glad that my book club chose a book that I would never have picked up on my own. only because I’d never heard of this book.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone.  Just bear in mind that it’s heavy…and very disturbing.

A Soft Place to Land actually isn’t one of my actual book club’s selections this summer; I picked it out on a recent trip to Target before our trip abroad last month.  I always take a few books with me on my travels, feeling ambitious that I will read as much as I can — despite the fact that I am traveling with young children who may have other activities in store for me.  However, as they are getting easier to travel with as they age, my reading time is increasing.

I am intrigued by the book selections at Target, as well as at Costco, and always linger in the book sections for long periods of time when given the opportunity.  On the odd occasion, I pick one up.

On that particular day, I picked up A Soft Place to Land (Simon & Schuster) by Susan Rebecca White.  The copy on the back cover pulled my heartstrings, I guess.  It’s about sisters.  I have two.  We love each other, but our relationship is at times bumpy.  However, I’m not sure what I’d do without them.  While I may have not realized how important they were to me while growing up, I certainly do now.  While many relationships in my life come and go, they are the two people who love me no matter what, and vice versa.

The book takes place in Atlanta, at least part of it, which is where I was born and bred.  I know all of its locations intimately and knew the book would resonate with me on many levels.

The story revolves around two half sisters, Ruthie and Julia, who live a very normal life in a big house with terrific, loving parents. Who would ever think that life could change in the blink of an eye?

When they are ages 13 and 17, their parents are killed in a plane accident while flying over the Grand Canyon.  Despite their strong desire to stay together, they are separated by provisions in their parent’s will and are forced to live apart.  Julia is sent to live in a small town in Virginia with her father and evil step-wife; Ruthie heads to San Francisco to live with her loving aunt and uncle.

The story is told through Ruthie’s point-of-view.  At first, she is not sure how to live without Julia.  They communicate mainly via snail mail and their phone calls are somehow met with disappointment and the become less and less frequent.  When Julia is finally allowed to go to San Francisco, Ruthie disapproves of her once hip older sister.  She doesn’t like the way she dresses in tie-die shirts and she doesn’t like her constant criticism of her lifestyle, which is more fortunate than her own.  Julia’s departure is abrupt and it causes friction between the sisters that lasts for many years. When Julia later becomes an author, and reveals a secret about her sister in the book, the damage is irreparable. 

But as Ruthie grows up, she never stops longing for her sister.  As they grow more and more distant, Ruthie’s memories of her parents get fainter and fainter.  When she falls in love with a guy who pulls her back to live in Atlanta, Ruthie reconnects with her past…and her sister.

A Soft Place to Land is a nice summer read.  If you have siblings, it will probably make you re-evaluate your relationships, as well as any future provisions you’ve made for your own children if anything should happen to you.  White brings in recent real events like 9/11 and the US Airways flight that nearly crashed into the Hudson last year which brings the story closer to home.

I’ve never been a fan of short stories, but I adored Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri’s Unaccustomed Earth that came out about two years ago.  Just like in her two previous books, The Namesake and Interpreter of Maladies, Lahiri writes stories that revolve around relocated Bengali Americans and their adaptation to their new culture.  It’s about arranged marriages and how they work out once they come across the ocean, the high expectations they have on their children, the traditions and past that bind them all together, love, hate, betrayal and connection.

As always with her writing, Lahiri brings you into a culture she knows and is magically able to spin stories with all different types of characters of all shapes and sizes.  At the end of each story, she creates an ending you would never expect but perfectly ties up any loose ends.  Each character is drawn to the past and the traditions they have been raised with.

I highly recommend it – you won’t be able to put this book down.

Since going freelance in 1999, Muchnick has published hundreds of parenting and lifestyle articles for various publications and websites including The New York Times, The Boston Globe, Woman’s Day, Ladies’ Home Journal, Parents, Parenting, Child, Pregnancy, Sesame Street Parents, Healthy Kids, Family Life, ShapeFit Pregnancy, Women’s Health & Fitness, Westchester Magazine, Long Island Parents & Child, In Town Magazine, Rockland Magazine, Endless Vacation, Sprout.com, Famil .com, FamilyTravelTimes.com, and MomLogic.com.

She has also been a contributor to several books including See Mom Run, The Best Places to Kiss in New York, The Rough Guide series and The Birnbaum guidebooks. TV appearances include CNBC’s Parent’s Helper, Steals and Deals, News 12 Westchester, Good Day New York Sunday and RNN.

She considers herself to be the quintessential suburban mom, complete with two daughters who she embarrasses simply by breathing, a husband who doesn’t understand why there are so many beauty products in the bathroom, a shedding dog, a lawn that forever needs mowing, and a messy house/car filled with overdue library books, clothes headed to the dry cleaners and an assortment of reusable shopping bags.

Here is what Jeanne had to tell the Culture Mom Blog about her new book, career, life balance and finding inspiration.

CultureMomBlog: Can you please tell us about Dinner for Busy Moms?

Dinner for Busy Moms is a strategy guide as opposed to a recipe book. There ARE a few recipes in back, but mainly it’s a “Dummie’s Guide for Parents” on how to get your family back to the dinner table with minimal effort. And yes, take out Chinese and frozen pizza count. My mantra: it’s really the fact that you’re all sitting together at the dinner table more than what you’re serving that matters. I’m no cook and I clearly have culinary downfalls, but I DO think it’s important for families to eat together, and so I offer strategies on how to make that work – without becoming a short-order cook/slave to your kitchen. The secret (if I cut to the chase and save you the 214-page tips) is planning to plan and spending as much time on thinking about dinners as you do on scheduling your kid’s after-school activities and catering to your own work and lifestyle demands.

Bottom Line: I’ve always been great about my work deadlines and kids’ after school commitments, but when it came to dinner, I didn’t think it through at all, leaving me in a harried state come 5:30/6 p.m. of staring at my fridge wishing a fairy godmother would pop out and place a steaming home-cooked meal in front of all of us.

What I think makes my book different: it’s filled with tips from other moms across the country (though a fair amount from Tri-state area too and Westchester because that’s where most of my friends are).  As moms, we always turn to other moms for best advice…and I do think my book feels a bit like chatting with a friend.

It’s also very magazine-y — as that’s my background — with tips and sidebars and easily “digestible” tidbits….meant to be the kind of book you can pick up and read, then put down as we busy moms don’t have TONS of time so making it an easy read was very important.

Culture Mom: What inspired you to write this book?

The fact that my family and I were all over the place come the 6 p.m. scramble. We rarely ate together. Often, we ate in shifts: my (then) grade school kids first and then my husband and I. And hello ten pounds of weight gain to me who nibbled off both my kid’s plates and then later ate a second meal with Hubby. It wasn’t ideal. It kind of worked sometimes. But none of us was really happy. It it wasn’t until my younger daughter started counting down the days to visit my sister’s house in California where her family all eats together – despite their hectic schedules – that I figured I should step up to the plate (pun intended). Sydney told me it was better at Auntie Ann’s house because they all ate together and that resonated with me. Made me realize I needed to Plan to PLAN!! And be better at bringing my family together.

I’m not perfect. And we still don’t eat together every night. And I don’t take recipes out of Martha Stewart. But from then on, I became committed to taking the mayhem out of mealtimes at least three nights a week. We started easy: with taco nights on Sunday nights and moved on from there (nothing is set in stone as kids got older, lifestyles changed). And yes, sometimes that meant eating without my husband. Or feeding the kids (and me!) snacks to tide us over till he came home. I just think it’s a matter of putting dinner on the schedule and then sticking to that schedule that makes it possible. We moms need to put dinner back on the front burner (another fun food pun). It doesn’t have to be all 70s style with a home-cooked pot roast, but it should mean sitting down together as a family as often as it works. And at least TRYING to make it work.

Culture Mom: Did you learn anything while writing it?

Honestly? It just reinforced for me how much I love sitting around the dinner table with my family. Even when there’s crying, whining, sulking….we’re together and “in the moment.” I don’t allow TV or texting. And we don’t answer the phone. It’s our “sacred” time. I like to think of dinner as a warm hug at the end of a busy, long day where we’re all in separate directions and finally come together. When it’s a meal where we’re laughing and I’m learning
something I didn’t know about my kid’s or about their friends or what they’re thinking or worrying about, it’s a real win. (I encourage inviting friends over as kids will talk more and you’ll learn more. It also makes it more fun.)

I also think it’s important for my girls to know that come 6:30 p.m. they have me and my husband’s undivided attention. It’s just a way of reconnecting…even if just for 20 or 30 minutes. (Sometimes that’s all the time you have but again: if you have a quality 20 minutes it means a lot more than a jumbled 20 minutes standing and eating at counter, pulling things out of the fridge, eating on the go in the car.)

Seriously: think about it. You walk into a friend’s house to pick up your kid from a play date and there’s this delicious smell coming from the kitchen. Even YOU want to stay.

Culture Mom: How do you recommend a busy mom find time to cook?

Plan it out. Planning to plan is essential. (Sorry I keep saying that) Look at your week. Figure out what might work. Here’s where the Chinese or pizza come into play. Maybe Tuesday is just impossible to get a meal on the table. So figure you’ll order in. Do NOT think you have to be a good cook. You can pick up a rotisserie chicken and steam some veggies and throw a potato in the microwave and viola: you have dinner. I’m honestly all about steps to make it easier. Doubling up recipes so you plan for leftovers. So Monday is lasagna, Thursday is lasagna leftovers. Or buying enough meat to make a bunch of different meals, i.e. grilled chicken one night, chicken fajitas another, chicken tacos another or throwing chicken into soup or on top of pizza.

Buying pre-packaged and cut up veggies is also key for busy moms; anything pre made but also healthy (check food labels to make sure first three ingredients and make sure they are something you can pronounce and KNOW what they are). Grilling a bunch of chicken and then freezing it so it’s always there is also key (same with hamburger/turkey meat, etc.) I LOVE my freezer and talk a lot about how when you embrace your freezer, there’s always a meal or two or three there. Just PLAN to take it out the night before so it defrosts in time!)

You also need to plan your shopping. When can you go to the food store (try to only go ONCE a week — if you really organize your list, it’s possible!!). Start making Sundays your routine go-to day. Keep your list in your computer as we all pretty much make the same things over and over. That way, you have a working list of staples that you can use to make your standard meal. Update it. That way hubby can pick up what you’re missing or, if you’re really lucky, your driving teenager.

Again: it all comes down to planning.

I also talk about organizing your pantry. If you spend time organizing it and seeing what you really have and what you really need – You’ll ALWAYS have stuff in your pantry that you can pull out and make for dinner. And when I say “pantry,” this includes your fridge and freezer.

I know for a fact that I always have spaghetti, chicken (either in freezer or fridge), frozen veggies that I can use to toss in spaghetti or stir fry.

Also always have tomato sauce and pasta on hand.

Always have frozen meatballs.

Always have eggs and frozen waffles– breakfast for dinner an easy alternative and fun – top with fruit. Use frozen veggies to make an omelette or frittata. My advice to moms: don’t go all crazy thinking you need to prepare a four-course meal. Soup and a sandwich can be dinner. So can a baked potato with various toppings (you can make it fun by putting things out in little bowls: pepperoni, sauce, extra cheese, veggies, chicken, etc).

Culture Mom: How did you become a published author? What steps did you take to get to this point?

I’ve been writing for 20 years so know a lot of people. I was introduced to Julie Trelstad, publisher of Plain White Press and we hit it off. I love that she publishes a lot of mom-oriented books and was thrilled when she said she’d be happy to partner with me.

Culture Mom: How have you juggled motherhood and work over the years?

OY! The million dollar question as I’ve worked in various shifts as mentioned earlier. Part time. Freelance. Full time. Rushing to catch train. Etc.

I’ve had various babysitters over the years, people I’ve shared babysitting with, times I scrambled to make it work without any help, and finally, the latchkey kid situation. We used to live on the Upper West Side and I had my in-laws to pitch in so that was helpful for times I had to work late. They’ve also taken the train out to Larchmont to help when I’ve been in a bind. When my girls were younger and I worked full-time I had a nanny. For a time I worked three days a week and only had a babysitter pitch-hitting. But we’ve gone through a lot of babysitters over the years as my kid’s needs — and my needs changed. At one point, I really just needed a chauffeur! But that wasn’t possible. Luckily I’ve been able to write at night when they’re sleeping or when my husband could take over. And I work a lot of weekends. “sneaking” work in is how I’ve done it. It remains a juggle that I’m still perfecting.

Culture Mom: What are you working on?

A few articles for Westchester Magazine…something on cold soups and sangria (not together but sounds good, right?) And busy trying to promote my book. If people buy direct from publisher before Mother’s day, a $1 will go direct to Family-to-Family.org, the charity I’m trying to promote as it helps feed needy families in the U.S. (and was started by Pam Koner, a Westchester mom!) Go to http://www.jeannemuchnick.com/ and click where it says to order from publisher. If you use the code “dinner” you can get 20% off.

Culture Mom: What is a typical day like for you as a writer? Where do you work?

I work best in the morning with a hot cup of coffee. I also like it when it’s quiet in the house. So I tend to do a lot of my best writing on Sat and Sunday mornings.

I also like to write at night when crazy busy day is more or less behind me and kids are finished homework, don’t “need” me for anything.

Please join the Culture Mom Blog in the near future for another installment of our column, Inspiring Culture Moms.

Want to learn more about Dinner for Busy Moms and enter to win a copy of the book?

Join us next Monday, April 26th, for the Dinner for Busy Moms Twitter Party! Author, Jeanne Muchnick will be on hand to answer our questions about planning our shopping, keeping our pantry organized, making healthy food for our children (yes, we are all a part of the Food Revolution that is sweeping our nation!), strategies for family meal time and much, much more.

Join us as we tweet about all of the above and more including:

-Dealing with picky eaters

When: Monday, April 26th from 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. ET

>Where: #Dinner4BusyMoms on Twitter

Who: Be sure to follow your host, me! @culturemomblog or @dinner4moms

-We will have book giveaways during the party. To be eligible, you must be present.

-All tweets with the #DinnerForBusyMoms hashtag between 9pm EST and 10pm ET on the 26th will count.

Please leave your name below in the comment section to let us know that you will be joining us!

The women in Katheryn’s Stockett’s “The Help” have also been sitting quietly before the wake of the civil rights movement and they have had enough..enough of living in a segregated society and being treated like outcasts. This is the first book in a long time that I didn’t want to put down and when it ended, I had not had enough. Not that it didn’t wrap up well. Stockett, a former marketing executive, closed up all the pieces of the puzzle neatly and satisfyingly.

Set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s, the story is told from 3 persons.
Skeeter, an educated young woman with no real plans for the future, is white. Aibileen and Minny, the help who reveal their stories, are black. The story starts and ends with Aibileen’s story. Aibileen is middle-aged and without family – she lost a grown son to an accident – but has raised seventeen white children as part of her duties. She becomes attached to the children she cares for but is able to take commands from her superiors even when she disagrees. Minny, on the other hand, has no problem with speaking her mind. This often costs her and she goes from job to job.

An aspiring writer, Miss Skeeter decides to make her reputation by secretly interviewing black maids and compiling the experiences into one book. Maybe that will be her ticket to New York.

This is where the plot thickens. While they are meeting privately revealing what life is really like, they all live in fear of getting caught. The maids fear for their lives. Miss Skeeter is seen as a traitor early on the novel and is treated with disrespect by her peers.

Stockett writes with such realism. Her sense of melodrama is keen and the story is quite funny at times. This is a real page turner.

Set in two very different time periods, 1942 occupied France and in today’s Paris, the novel follows the stories of two very different women, and how their lives intersect. De Rosnay does this with purpose and brings the lives together half-way through the book, although they are never able to meet. Many people in my book group did not care for Julia’s story and found it to be self-indulgent on the author’s part. For me, it didn’t matter. De Rosnay was able to bring an important story to the mainstream public and I applaud her for it. It’s amazing that she found out about this part of history by accident and wrote a book about it, utilizing a fictionalized account of a girl and her family to make sense of this catastrophic part of French history. I really admire her.

The first protagonist is Sarah Starzynski, a ten-year-old girl, born in France to her Polish Jewish immigrant parents. She and her 4-year-old brother have been shielded from the events of War World II, and when their mom starts to sew yellow stars on their clothes, she thinks it is because they should be proud of being Jewish. So when the events of July 16, 1942 – the Vélodrome d’Hiver round-up (which I had not heard of) – unfold, her ignorance leads to heartbreak and extreme tragedy. Because the men who come to take them away are French policemen, not the Germans, Sarah lets her brother go to their “secret hiding place,” and takes the key with her. They both assume she’ll be home in a little while. The pain that they all experience once taken away to the stadium is vivid and felt through the author’s words. The mother and father seem to know immediately that they will never go back to open the cupboard and they suffer from the moment they find out what Sarah has done. Sarah has to learn to live with her decision, but I will not tell you what happens after they are taken away.

The main character in today’s Paris is Julia, an American journalist married to a Parisian man. Assigned to do a story on “the Vel d’Hiv” for its upcoming 50th anniversary, she faces ignorance and denial from the French almost everywhere she goes. Younger Frenchmen have never heard of it (or appear not to know about it), and her Parisian husband and his family don’t even want to talk about it.

Julia’s research, and Sarah’s story of her family’s treatment at the hands of the French policemen, combine for a riveting story. It is not all depressing though, as we also follow Julia’s own story as she is dealing with what she learns as her own marriage is ending and a new life is beginning.

This is an excellent book, so compelling and so well-written. Of course, not everyone in my book club agreed with me on this one. They all liked the story of the past, but found her story of her present indulgent and long. Nonetheless, I completely recommend this book to anyone who believes we must learn our history in order to not repeat it. The Holocaust should never be forgotten and it is important to remember that it only happened 60 years ago. This book will haunt me and stay with me forever.