The Reading Promise-Review by Kellie

For those of you who didn't read it, it was written by 23 year old Alice Ozma.  She wrote about a promise she and her dad made to read together every night for 1000 days, which actually ended up turning into well over 3000.  He read to her every night, from the time she was 4, right up to the moment he dropped her off at College at 18.  Alice's mother left the family when Alice was only 8 and her sister was 12.  She didn't elaborate on a lot of details about her mother, except you were made very aware that she had  some "issues", whether it be depression or something else.  Neither Alice nor her sister seemed to spend a lot of time with her other than their assigned weekends, or whatever the arrangement was.  The responsibility of raising the girls fell mostly to their father and, quite honestly,he was a bit of an odd duck himself. However, he was completely dedicated to his daughters, and his nightly reading sessions with Alice had a profound affect on her and helped shape who she is today.  

This book was met with very mixed reviews. A couple of us loved it, a couple of us hated it, and the rest fell somewhere in between.  For those of us that loved it we thought it was sweet and endearing and described a childhood with a quirky father, whom Alice adored and who could read a book like no one else. Also, we felt inspired.  For those that didn't like it; it was boring, poorly written, needed more drama (would have loved details about the mom), did not see a good connection between father and daughter, etc.  For those in the middle it was a little boring but definitely had its moments.

So, in the end, what we ended up doing was reminiscing about either reading to our own children or being read to as children and telling tells about it.  Pam H.'s story won, hands down.   She and her husband were in the same 6th grade class with an awesome teacher, who had a very big personality.  She also (as Pam's husband remembers) had a very LARGE bust line in which she kept a handkerchief tucked away.  Anyway, when she would read out loud to the class she would reach down to get her kerchief, from between her boobs, and dab her face from time to time while excitedly reading.  I'm not sure I did the story justice, but it was funny ;)

Seven of us rated it (Lisa emailed hers) and they ranged from 2 - 4, averaging a 3.

Next month is our FAVORITE meeting!  Our happy hour at Val's house.  Thank you Val, ahead of time, for having us once again.  Our July book is Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephan Chbosky, August is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Sept. is The Goldfinch by Donna Draft.  Also, please bring ideas for books to this gathering.  It helps if you bring printed up reviews/details about the books so we can pass them around and look at them all.

Lastly, Val will send a separate email with the specifics about our July meeting.  Everyone, please let us know what you plan on bringing to Val's so we don't have repeats. Thanks!  I'm going to bring a hot spinach/artichoke dip w/crackers.

Hope to see everyone next month,

Kellie