Mrs. Mike by the Freedmans

The day we visited Macchu Picchu it was not a busy tourist day. We didn't have the place to ourselves, but we didn't have a lot of company either. No one chased us down to tour guide us, so we got to wander. Sit by the llamas. Flip water with our fingertips from the still-flowing man-made waterways.

The discovery was what made it so magical.

So it is with books. I'd never heard of Mrs. Mike, written by the Freedmans. Turns out the book is famous. Turns out a lot of people love it. Turns out it's right up there with A Tree Grows in Brookln. But it's better because I didn't know that it was so renowned before I read it. That's what made finding it all the better.

Add this to your list if you haven't read it. It's sort of like These is My Words, except Kathy marries a Mountie and goes north, not west. The writing is good, not sappy. The plot is good, not overdone. The characters are good, neither too real nor too fake.

And that's a description that makes the book sound average, which it wasn't. It was heart-wrenching. It was great.

Here's what Peggy Orenstein* had to say about it:

http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Mrs-Mike-Changed-My-Life

Definitely would work for book club. And not sketchy---your advanced teen readers wouldn't be scandolized. Would be just fine for a high school home school literature class if you home school, or Katy, if you needed something for early 1900 Canadian history---though it's not history heavy, just a period piece.

Happy reading. Let me know what you think.

*Peggy Orenstein writes about the caustic messages that modern-day society sends young women. She wrote Schoolgirls: Young Women, Self-esteem, and the Confidence Gap. I used her work for my thesis. Good stuff, interesting culture commentary. Her other books, Cinderella Ate My Daughter and Waiting for Daisy are on my list to read. I don't agree with everything she thinks, but her outlook is interesting and, I think, worth considering.