Childhood Memories

#76 ~ Trespassers will be Baptized

Trespassers Will Be Baptized: The Unordained Memoir of a Preacher’s Daughter by Elizabeth Emerson Hancock Trespassers will be Baptized tells the story of Elizabeth Emerson Hancock’s early childhood as the oldest daughter of a Southern Baptist preacher living in Kentucky. Miss Em was a precocious little girl who grew up certain that she knew exactly [...]

Filed Under: Books, Childhood Memories, Family, LIfe, Memoir, Religion Tagged With: A Girl Named Zippy, Childhood Memories, Elizabeth Emerson Hancock, growing up in Kentucky, Guess jeans, Haven Kimmel, Memoir, oldest child, preacher's children, Southern Baptist, Trespassers will be Baptized

Prayers Needed

30 Jan By Literate Housewife 2 Comments

My oldest childhood friend, Kristin, was hospitalized last night due to a high fever. My mother found out this morning that her kidneys were failing. I humbly ask all of you reading this to please say a prayer for her. Even if you don’t believe in prayer, she does. Maybe it will be of help [...]

Filed Under: Childhood Memories, LIfe Tagged With: coma, kidney dialysis, prayer for Kristin, ventilator, visit to Grand Rapids

#55 ~ Stealing Buddha’s Dinner

27 Jan By Literate Housewife 5 Comments

Stealing Buddha’s Dinner: A Memoir by Bich Minh Nguyen Sometime toward the end of the year I was adding some books to my library on LibraryThing and wanted to add a book I received from my parents for Christmas the year before. It is a book of vintage postcards from Grand Rapids, my home town. [...]

Filed Under: Books, Childhood Memories, Culture, Disappointment, Family, LibraryThing, LIfe, Memoir, Religion Tagged With: Bich Minh Nguyen, Calvin College, Christian Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, he Little House on the Prarie, Michigan, midwest, Roman Catholic, TStealing Buddha's Dinner, Vietnamese immigrants, WASP, worshiping Mary

#50 ~ Fight Club

26 Nov By Literate Housewife 1 Comment

Fight Club: A Novel by Chuck Palahniuk Throughout the year I’ve been talking with people at work about the books I’ve been reading. Two of my co-workers mentioned Fight Club. I’ve never had a desire to read this book or see the movie. They are six and 13 years younger than me respectively and I [...]

Filed Under: Books, Childhood Memories, Culture, Film, Free, LIfe, My Life with Books, Reading Tagged With: Chuck Palahniuk, fatherless sons, Fight Club, mental illness, suicide, The Silence of the Lambs, violence

#48 ~ The Ice Queen

14 Nov By Literate Housewife 1 Comment

The Ice Queen: A Novel by Alice Hoffman Something I’ve never really warmed up to in general fiction is not naming the narrator. I suppose that author’s have their reasons. I might by it in circumstances where the reader could be the narrator or “anyone” could be the narrator. This is not the case in [...]

Filed Under: Books, Childhood Memories, Family, Sexual Identity Tagged With: Alice Hoffman, cancer, death, fairy tales, Florida, lightning, scientific research, The Ice Queen, wish

#47 ~ Without a Map

11 Nov By Literate Housewife 2 Comments

Without a Map: A Memoir by Meredith Hall I am angry. Correction. I am pissed. Really, I’m f*cking pissed off after reading this book. I am angry and hurt for Meredith in specific and for all women in general. That one woman should have lived through a teenage pregnancy is horrific to me. That this [...]

Filed Under: Adoption, Beach, Books, Childhood Memories, Culture, Inspiration, LIfe, Memoir, Parenting Dilemmas, Post-Partum Depression, Reading, Religion, Secrets and Lies, Sexual Identity, Writing Tagged With: boundaries, divorce, forgiveness, hippy, lack of boundaries, Meredith Hall, MS, New Hampshire, reunions, sex, shame, teenage pregnancy, Without a Map

#41 ~ The Monsters of Templeton

16 Oct By Literate Housewife 15 Comments

The Monsters of Templeton by Lauren Groff There is something spectacular about a book whose first line lures you into its spell like a siphon and never lets you go. In my 36 years of reading, there has only been two books whose first lines I’ve memorized and cannot forget: “Call me Ishmael.” Moby Dick [...]

Filed Under: Amazing Narrator, Barnes & Noble, Books, Childhood Memories, Culture, Exercise, First Look Book Club, Free, Gothic Fiction, LIfe, Margaret Mitchell, My Life with Books, Parenting Dilemmas, Pre-Release Sneak Peak, Reading, Religion, Secrets and Lies, The Monsters of Templeton Tagged With: Auntie Em, Glinda, Gone with the Wind, hippy, lake monster, lauren groff, memorable first sentences, Moby Dick, Monsters of Templeton, mother-daughter relationship, Scarlett O'Hara, single motherhood, The Monsters of Templeton, The Wizard of Oz

#39 ~ The Winthrop Woman

23 Sep By Literate Housewife 2 Comments

The Winthrop Woman by Anya Seton I joined the Historical Fiction forum at the end of last month. [I need to write another post on that later - it's a lot of fun.] They have a book of the month forum for anyone who would like to join. From the beginning of September on, the [...]

Filed Under: Barnes & Noble, Books, Childhood Memories, Culture, Historical Fiction, LIfe, Margaret Mitchell, Reading, Religion Tagged With: Anya Seton, black sheep, Elizabeth Winthrop, John Winthrop, Margarat Mitchell, Massachusetts Bay Colony, New World, over-zealous relatives, puritans, religious freedom, Scarlett O'Hara, Southern Daughter, The Winthrop Woman, Wintrop

If I Had a Hammer

13 Sep By Literate Housewife 1 Comment

I like Rosie O’Donnell. I used to watch her talk show frequently and it was sure to make me laugh. She made A League of Their Own for me. I may not always agree with her politics, but I tune out when celebrities talk about that for the most part anyway. I don’t personally turn to [...]

Filed Under: Books, Childhood Memories, LIfe, Memoir, Post-Partum Depression

#33 ~ Special Topics in Calamity Physics

8 Aug By Literate Housewife 6 Comments

Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl Just 75 pages into Special Topics in Calamity Physics, I knew that I was going to enjoy it. When what I was reading spoke to me personally in conjunction with an outside conversation I had just moments before reading it, I knew that I was reading something [...]