BOOK REVIEW: Expecting Adam

Sometimes a book comes along that makes me a little nervous to tell you about it; I am afraid that I will not do it justice. EXPECTING ADAM by Martha Beck is one of those books. As the cover says, it is a “true story of birth, rebirth, and everyday magic”.

My first contact with Martha Beck was a book titled The Joy Diet. It was an upbeat, humorous guide on how to add joy to your life. As I read it, the author’s life became slowly revealed showing that she was a person who had experienced so many things that should have made joy a foreign emotion. She knows that being happy is a deliberate decision that we make.  Probably the major event in her life was giving birth to her son Adam. But, let us start at the beginning of EXPECTING ADAM.

Martha and her husband John were graduate students at Harvard. With two degrees apiece under their belts, they were on their way to successful careers. Although already the parents of a daughter, Martha was on the professional track demanded by her school and fellow classmates.

The new pregnancy brought with it constant battles with nausea, dehydration, and censure from the Harvard community. The criticism became more intense when the unborn baby is diagnosed with Downs Syndrome and it is clear that she is not going to terminate the pregnancy.

This story covers so many issues that it is hard to know where to begin. I was particularly amazed by how critical her fellow female colleagues were. Showing signs of illness was showing signs of weakness and as one woman told her, “gave woman a bad name”. The stress to get ahead on campus did not allow for any type of personal life. Almost from the moment that she thought she was pregnant, Martha started having “spiritual” experiences. She said that she could not explain some of the things that happened, but it was as if Adam brought his own guardian angels with him from the very beginning.

This is a tender, honest, funny, wonderful book. If you are the type to scoff at visions or guardian angels, you will still be captured by the warmth and love contained in Adam’s story. If you have been blessed with a special needs child, this book should be required reading.

BOOK REVIEW: The Devil's Punchbowl

THE DEVIL'S PUNCHBOWL is the most disturbing Greg Iles book that I have read. A Greg Iles book is going to deal with unsavory characters and situations. We know that; he is not for the faint of heart or squeamish. This time the subject matter pushed some personal buttons.

After the death of his wife, and thinking to give his young daughter the support of her grandparents, Penn Cage had returned to his home town, Natchez, Mississippi. He had been elected mayor on the promise to bring fresh money to the small city and to improve the school system.

Penn reluctantly agrees that one way to bring jobs and money in is to allow riverboat casinos to set up at the bottom of the town. When his old high school friend Tim asks to meet him in the local cemetery, Penn is pulled into the evil that has come to his town. Tim shows Penn graphic pictures of the dog fights that are drawing the big money gamblers to the Magnolia Queen Casino. Shortly after their meeting Tim is found murdered and when threats are made to Penn’s family, the depraved new world collides with Penn’s world.

Although I feel that I should warn you of the violence, it was always done as part of the horror of the situations. (Trust me; you will not be able to forgive the people involved in dog fighting after reading this book.)

There are so many things that I like about Greg Iles and this novel is no exception. First of all, he is never a formula writer. Each book is fresh and inventive. I also love his use of language. On one page his description is Southern poetry; the next page will be in words that only a man from the gutters would use. Both rang true to me.

If I have a problem with THE DEVIL'S PUNCHBOWL it is that it ends with a doozy of a cliff hanger. In searching for the title of the next book in line, I found that Iles has been in a very bad automobile accident and, as far as I can find, the sequel has not come out yet. He is worth waiting for, but I hope that he hurries up!

BOOK REVIEW: Calling Invisible Women

Ladies, have you ever felt invisible? Have you ever felt that your loved ones would not notice if you were present, as long as the food appeared on the table and the laundry was done? Or… better question…..What would you DO if you were truly invisible?

If any of these questions have ever crossed your mind, meet Clover, the fifty-something heroine of Jeanne Ray’s CALLING INVISIBLE WOMEN. Clover panics when she makes the discovery one morning that her body can no longer be seen. Although her husband Arthur and their son Nick sit across from her at the breakfast table that morning, neither are aware that Clover has no body.

Wearing long sleeves, slacks, a hat, and sunglasses, Clover ventures out of her house into a world that does not notice her lack of a body. Luckily, she finds that she is not alone with this condition. The Organization of Invisible Women helps the members develop self-confidence and useful survival skills, particularly the freedom of being naked. After all, no one can see them.

Being unseen gives Clover and her new friends an ability to do Super Hero types of actions like stopping bullying on the school bus and stopping a bank hold-up. The women discover that the one thing that they have in common is a combination of drugs that they had taken and that the responsible pharmaceutical company knows of this side effect.

CALLING INVISIBLE WOMEN is a very light read, but it does have serious ideas. The author seemed to have two points that she wanted to make: how easy it is to over- look women of a certain age and how far large pharmaceutical companies will go to make a profit.

One quote saved the book from being silly : “…..before it happened I felt that I had all of the burdens of no one paying attention to me and none of the benefits. Now I can see how many things you can do when no one is watching. It’s a huge freedom when you think about it.”

So, if you ever feel invisible, dance as if no one is watching; it can be liberating according to Jeanne Ray’s CALLING INVISIBLE WOMEN.

THEATER REVIEW: The Importance of Being Earnest

The high school theatre season has started and I could not be happier. If I have as much fun at the other schools as I did this past Friday at Bellefonte High School's fall play, it will be a good year.

The Bellefonte Area High School Drama Club stretched their Thespian muscles with Oscar Wilde’s THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST proving that audiences can still relate to Oscar Wilde and that our high school students have talent.

The two charming bachelors who confuse the plot by proposing to their respective girlfriends under the pseudonym of “Earnest” were played by freshman Stephen Giacobe and senior Sean Connelly. Both actors captured the period of the play well. I initially had some trouble with Stephen’s British accent, but before the end of the first act it was no longer a problem.

The girlfriends were delightfully played by seniors Elizabeth Catchmark and Julia Laufer. These two young actresses have great stage presence and clear diction. Since so much of Wilde’s humor depends on the audience catching the clever lines I really appreciated the work that went in to the dialogue. They are also to be commended on handling hoop skirts so skillfully.

Senior Chelsea McGhee played the only “earnest” person in the play, the pompous Lady Bracknell, with dignity and a touch of true snobbery. When she and the governess Miss Prism, senior Marichka Lucas, explain what has happened, it almost makes sense. Again, the work that went into making the lines clear to the audience was appreciated.

Zachary Spaw and Kyle Naylor “ butlered” perfectly. They were the very model of Victorian correctness. Sean Gipson had the fun part of the Reverend Canon Chasuble. These three actors proved that there are no small parts in theatre. Each young man took his part and made it his own.

Extra credit goes to the technical crew for capturing the period so well. Costumes, sets, and even the women’s hair styles were well done. Artistic Director Shaun McMurtrie put together a very enjoyable evening. It will be fun to see what this group will do with South Pacific in April.

BOOK REVIEW: Moment of Truth

As I said last week, I have discovered Lisa Scottoline. I just finished MOMENT OF TRUTH and am a little ambiguous about my feelings.

Wealthy Honor Newlin has been murdered. Her husband Jack finds her body in their apartment, rearranges the death scene, calls 911, and confesses to the crime. Jack knows that their daughter Paige was to have met her parents for dinner that night, so he is sure that Paige is guilty of killing her mother. Jack hires the inexperienced attorney, Mary DiNunzio. Mary may not be a veteran criminal lawyer, but she finds Jack’s story unbelievable and starts investigating Paige. Sixteen-year old Paige is a very successful model whose career has been managed by her mother. For all of those years Paige has put up with her mother’s abuse and now she has to tell her mother of her pregnancy. What follows, of course, is a plot full of twists, chase scenes, and several more murders.

This book was a disappointment to me. I know that just because an author makes it to a best seller list does not guarantee that I will like him or her, but I expected more. The characters in MOMENT OF TRUTH did not ring true to me; I wanted more depth, more growth. The basic plot was good and Scottoline is able to introduce humor in the spots that need to be lightened, but somehow this book felt rushed, as if the author’s mortgage was due and a deadline was fast approaching. I will read Lisa Scottoline again. Her collection of articles, Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog made me feel that I know her personally. Keeping that in mind, I will give her another chance.