2011: Book 39

For the Sins of My Father: The Legacy of a Mafia Life by Al DeMeo

288 pages

Completed 4/24/11

For a tale of death, greed, murder, and cheating, DeMeo's story of his childhood with his Mafioso father was heartwarming. A man who truly seemed to care for his only son, yet struggling with keeping up his obligations, the elder DeMeo's luck finally runs out; as does the younger's.

Planning to stage his father's murder, helping him to establish identities in the Bahamas, and meeting hordes of "uncles,' the younger DeMeo revisits the moment when he realized his father was not just a used car salesman. With poignancy that would touch any reader, the discovery of his father dead leaves Al in shock, as does the subsequent "tell-all" books and a legal case that seems to never go away. An easy read, it is still as full of heart as any father-son story.

2011: Book 38

Torch by Cheryl Strayed

336 pages

Completed 4/23/11

The tale of a family left in the wake of their young mother's sudden death, Strayed manages to turn a work of fiction into a story that could easily have been ripped from middle America. From a step-father's disloyalty, to run-ins with the law, affairs, and crippling depression, the family left behind struggles mostly on their own; you have to wonder what they could have accomplished had they come together.

Rarely moved to tears, I found myself heartbroken for every member of the family. Rather than close it out with an atypical-to-the-family happy ending, the disjointedness revolving around the siblings at the end was so well-thought and ended the story in a great way.

2011: Book 37

Daughter's Keeper by Ayelet Waldman

352 pages

Completed 4/19/11

Waldman's writing style's fluidity makes for great reading. This novel, about a young woman caught up in a tumultuous relationship with her mother and step-father, in a federal drug case with her illegal alien boyfriend, and pregnant with an unwanted child, takes the reader on a journey from the naivety of childhood through a prison sentence.

Nailing the daughter's condescending attitude without making her unlikable, Waldman's character development is that which makes you forget whether you are reading a work of fiction or a memoir.

2011: Book 36

Don't Wake Me at Doyles: The Remarkable Memoir of an Ordinary Irish Woman and Her Extraordinary Life by Maura Murphy

400 pages

Completed 4/11/11

The tales of Maura Murphy cannot be ignored; a mother of nine, with lives in both England and Ireland, with stories of love and of woe, this memoir is poignantly terrific. Stricken by poverty and illness throughout her life, Murphy is then dealt the final blow; a cancer diagnosis. With journal entries of each of her children and her husband intermitently making appearances, the reader is given a glimpse into the reasons, and effects of Maura being Maura.

A full-life memoir, the kind I rarely read, this one was worth it. And it was okay to be a bit perturbed by Murphy and her actions; she makes no exscuses, and is fine in - and with - her ways. As she ages, her decisions become clearer, and one cannot help but be on her side.

2011: Book #35

The Rules of Survival by Nancy Werlin

272 pages

Completed 4/7/11

Written in letter form, this novel is written from the vantage point of almost-adult Matt to his baby sister Emmy, in hopes that she will understand why things are the way they are. Living for years in South Boston under the rule of their seemingly-psychotic mother and never-ending roatation of her boyfriends, Matt involves a man in their lives that he believes will help them out of their perilous situation. But when Murdoch realizes just how off the deep end Nikki really is, he scuttles out, leaving an adolescent Matt to not only survive himself, but care for his two younger sisters.

Defintely written at a young adult level, this book nonetheless was intriguing and offered a good story. While perhaps not necessarily challenging, the emotion itself is a force to be reckoned with.

2011: Book #34

Family Album by Penelope Lively

240 pages

Completed 4/3/11

Told from nine points of view - the six children of two parents and their nanny - set in the outskirts of London, this novel was a bit slow to get into, but I am so glad I did. Revealing the secrets behind the family, while combining their past stories with their current lives was written so well that not once did I feel lost in terms of whom was speaking.

Intriguing, I couldn't believe the ease in which huge secrets were revealed. With the mother being oh-so-cheery and living alongside her lost-in-his-own-world husband, the children have very different takes on what went on during their childhood, and each had their own unique voice. Well done; I truly enjoyed this read.

2011: Book #33

Cheerful Money by Tad Friend

368 pages

Completed 3/31/11

This memoir was obnoxious, and not in an entertaining way. The woe-is-me tale of a rich boy with a rich familial history and hob-nobbing years anaylzed in a heavy Freudian manner gained zero sympathy for me. Reporting that he spent $130k on therapy, I was even less inclined to like Friend.

The intense family tree reckonings confused me; I could not keep the names and the sides straight, and forget it when his wife came into play. With oh-so-brief glimpses into such a rich life, this book was more sociological than memoir. Disappointing.