Because She Was Smart

Spending her earliest years in a cult, Guinevere rarely saw her mother and was raised communally. She strove to be "good", make the adults in charge happy, and to follow the rules. But in Melvin Lyman's "The Family", whims could bring about castigation, isolation and worse, and often did. When girls were 13, they were selected as "junior wives" for the older men, with all that that entailed. Misogyny was the day-to-day norm. After proving herself helpful to the daughter of the cult leader and his current paramour, Guinevere found herself in the upper echelon of the cult hierarchy, traveling with the elite tier and living a very different life than she had before. All of that changed when her mother lost favor with the powers that be, and Guinevere's nuclear family was ousted completely from The Family--along with her mom's boyfriend. Thus, a new and horrific chapter in her life began.

This book is a real page-turner, and kept me hooked to the end.

Marginal?

Born female in a very Christian culture, author Shannon T. L. Kearns relates his experience through the feelings of "otherness" while trying to fit in as a child, then adolescent, and finally young adult pursuing a position as a pastor. His realization that he actually identified as a man, and then ultimately acting on that knowledge is the crux of this book. I commend Kearns for making hard decisions and remaining kind in the process (or at least it seems so in the book). Spoiler alert: I would say that his lack of understanding as to why his wife was less than enthusiastic about his gender change rankled with me a bit. It seems logical that if one is a lesbian, which is how the couple identified when they married, one of them wouldn't be excited about suddenly being married to a man. Right? So while I felt his handling of his mom and his faith (remarkable, really) were kind and sensitive, he did seem to have a gigantic blind spot when it came to his marriage. I also thought there would be more scriptural "meat" bolstering the notion that the bible is often misinterpreted when it comes to issues of gender/sexual fluidity. There is a reading list and he did put his spin on a few passages, but it was lighter in that area than I had expected.

Captivating

Wow. Author Lisa Belkin deftly tells the story of three families, from their "old country" origins four generations back, to their adopted home, the United States. Three men were ultimately involved in a murder, and we wonder as the book winds its way along, which will be which. I find that some authors include way too much superfluous material about characters, rendering the story mind-numbing and hard to read. Maybe to prove they did the research? Maybe to make the book longer? I don't know, but this book is not that, be assured. Although she fleshes out the family members, it's interesting and helps one "know" their stories and what made them tick. As this book was nearing its dramatic conclusion, I was still unsure of the outcome and as tense as if I were reading a hot summer mystery. The absolute cherry on top is that the author is actually related to one of the characters. Wanna find out which one? Read it!