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Superhero Kick Team 2 – Behind the Scenes

November has been a whirlwind month. We’ve been so busy trying to get the 2nd Superhero Kick team book completed. Plus, with taekwondo testing this week, Thanksgiving, and my older son’s birthday, it went from Halloween to Crazytown around here.

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Superhero Kick Team 2: Behind the Scenes

Bennet loves writing stories and we’ve been working on this one off and on for about the last year. We set it down for a while due to “creative differences”. The kid loves his action sequences. For example, we argued over whether there should be a dungeon in the basement of the school to imprison the bullies. I wasn’t sure that was entirely appropriate, but he assured me that it most definitely was. We finally compromised and agreed to keep the dungeon, but not mention it in the book. We’ll chalk that up to world building.

Writing with Bennet is one of my favorite things. We laugh a lot and I love his perspective on things. Kids look at problems and situations completely different from adults and that’s always interesting. One of our bullies in the story tries to sabotage the school play by pelting the performers with snowballs. When I asked how he would save the show, one of his ideas was to hide umbrellas on the stage. That’s something I wouldn’t have considered. It was also interesting to hear him bring up nuggets of anti-bullying tips that he learned from his instructors at taekwondo class. He does listen! Yay!

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When the story started coming together, I got so excited to see the pictures. I started to helpfully remind Chris to work on drawings. Below his is first sketch of the mean girl bully. Curly hair, jeans, t-shirt… hmm. Seems a bit familiar. Maybe I should ease up on the reminders? Maybe…

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This one is longer than the first one and there’s definitely more action and mayhem. We’ve got some new villains and two bullies instead of one. We love picking villains that are close to home. For example, one of the villains is Black Hole, who turns kids bedrooms upside down. We’ve definitely been hit by him many times…  He’s actually a villain that Bennet created for one of his other books. We just borrowed him for this one and changed up his villainy a bit.

The kids explore how to make themselves big instead of small and use their voices. Our goal was to create a fun, relatable story that draws on all of those superpowers we learn in taekwondo class.

Fun Fact: One of the new villains is Professor Ice Eyebrow. For years, Chris and I have argued about whether an ice cream headache is called an ice cream headache or an icy eyebrow. Obviously, it’s an ice cream headache… 

Superhero Kick Team 2: Winter Snowdown is for sale now on Amazon. Check it out. Just like the first one, we are donating the proceeds to the JK Lee City Youth Martial Arts Fund, which is a nonprofit that brings martial arts to underserved communities. It’s a fantastic program and we’re so excited to support it.

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Virtual Book Club: Nov 2018: Firefly Lane

Welcome to the virtual book club for November! This month, we’re reading Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah.

My 93 year old grandma has read every Kristin Hannah book. She’s a voracious reader and she doesn’t often give me book recommendations. So when she recommends something, I usually take notice. she told me I needed to read some Kristin Hannah. Then, my sister in law, who is smart and hilarious, recommended it as well. Still, this one sat with the growing pile of books on my “to read” shelf.  Then, I was at the library looking at a copy of The Great Alone, also by Kristin Hannah and a random stranger told me I should read Firefly Lane. So, I think the universe was trying to tell me something.

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This is a book about friendship. It follows Tully and Kate, two very different girls, through the ups and downs of a lifelong friendship. Tully is bold and beautiful and ambitious and everything Kate wants to be. Kate is smart and shy with a loving family with stability, which Tully longs for. They make it through high school, college, motherhood, love, jealousy, loneliness and life until a betrayal tears apart their friendship. It’s a coming of age novel, but mainly it’s a story of a friendship that defines these two women. The sequel is Fly Away.

Firefly Lane: Discussion

Onto the discussion….

Characters? Some of the reviews I read complained that the characters were one dimensional and stereotypical. Did you feel that way? I was a little surprised by this, because the characters pulled me into the story right away. They were predictable, but I didn’t feel like they were one dimensional. Did you like the characters?  I really wanted to like Tully because she was daring and broken, but I found her kind of exhausting.

What did you think of their friendship?  Did their friendship ring true to you? What I really liked about their friendship is that they both provided missing puzzle pieces to the other. Tully’s boldness gave Kate courage to become who she wanted to be. Kate grounded Tully and gave her the stability she craved. I liked that they became family to each other, but their friendship seemed a bit codependent to me. To me, Tully seemed like someone who would be really difficult to have a long term friendship with, maybe because she’s so manipulative.

Motherhood? There’s no question that these women have Mommy issues. Repeated rejection from her flighty mom has made Tully needy and hard at the same time. Did it wreck her ability to experience love? In Kate’s childhood, she wants her mom to notice and be proud of her, but her mom seems to gravitate to Tully. Is this the root of Kate’s insecurities? How about the portrayal of Kate as a mom? What lessons from her childhood did she bring with her to motherhood?

I thought the way Kate lost herself in motherhood was relatable. Motherhood was what she wanted, but then she felt guilty about wanting it and being happy with an ordinary life. I also thought the idealized version of motherhood that she wanted was interesting. Whether we are working moms or stay at home moms, society loves to tell us we’re doing it wrong and offers up an unattainable ideal to beat ourselves up with. I felt that in Kate’s character.  She felt like her family wanted her to be more, like being a mom wasn’t enough. I kept wondering what would have happened if Tully was the one who got pregnant. Do you think Tully will step it up and be there for Kate’s daughter?

A few random thoughts:

That scene in the beginning when her mom let’s go of Tully’s hand and leaves her standing in the street. Heartbreaking. It stuck with me. When my kids were little, it was also the thing that sent waves of panic over me – the idea of losing my kid in a crowd. Even now that they’re older, I still stress out about it.
So, what happened between Tully’s grandma and Cloud? Her grandma seemed pretty awesome and also accepting of her daughter. I kept hoping for some backstory.
Cloud? Really? I get that the idea was to portray her as a deadbeat, but I felt like it was maybe a bit much. She seemed to have no feelings whatsoever about her kid. No love. No regret. Nothing. I feel like even if you’re a drug addict, you would at least have bursts of love for your child even if you weren’t able to properly care for her, but maybe I’m naïve.
I didn’t cry during this book. Am I dead inside?

Did you read Firefly Lane? Did you like it? Will you read the sequel? Drop me a comment and let me know what you thought.

 

Want more book club selections? Check out last month’s selection, 

 

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Virtual Book Club: Oct 2018: Weight of Ink

Welcome to virtual book club for October! This month, we’re going with The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish. One of the reasons I love historical novels is that they allow us to live history as the characters show us their world.

The Weight of Ink is the story of Ester, a Jewish woman in 1660s London, who has a sharp mind and a thirst for knowledge, but isn’t allowed to study because she’s a woman. She scribes for a blind rabbi, which is not allowed for a woman. When he stops teaching her and suggests she marry, Ester starts an elaborate deception and betrays the rabbi she loves as a father. Flash forward to modern times when an ailing history professor finds a trove of Esters letters and begins to piece them together to learn about the scribe who wrote them. It’s a complex story that spans modern day London, Israel in the 1960s and London in the 1660 as the great plague breaks out. It’s long, but beautifully written and reads almost as a mystery with enough twists and turns to keep it clipping along.

Book Club: The Weight of Ink (by Rachel Kadish)

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On to the discussion…

Warning: Spoilers ahead if you didn’t read the book yet…

I ended up loving this book, but I didn’t start out loving it. I’m usually reading multiple books at a time and I don’t know if it was because of that or because I read late at night, but it took me a little while for this book to grab me. I almost gave up on it, but then Ester hooked me. Once she did, I couldn’t put it down.  I love a good story of a woman taking what society tells her she can’t have. This isn’t a story of a woman trying to land a husband or raise babies. Instead, Ester fights for her truth and the life she wants – the life of a scholar.

Weight of Ink is beautifully written. It speaks to the Rachel Kadish’s skill as a writer that her novel, which is largely correspondence between rabbis, Ester’s philosophical debates, and the details of academic research, is so readable and accessible. There were several times that I stopped reading to admire her beautiful words. There are many twists and turns and I kept reading, often way past my bedtime, because I wanted to find out what happened to Ester, Mary and Helen.

Questions:

There is a lot going on here and so many threads to pull. I’m just going to throw out a couple. Please comment and let me know what you thought of the book and what stood out to you.

Characters:

There are really 3 people’s stories here: Ester’s, Helen’s and Aaron’s. Which one were you most invested in? I loved Ester and Helen even though neither seemed very likable. Did you think they were likable characters?

For me, I wasn’t as invested in Aaron’s story. I do think he matured by the end, but I wasn’t really invested in him enough to really care if he got the girl or not. What did you think of him?

Love:

“The air between them was alive. She could feel him through it.” (part 2, location 2565 in the digital copy).

I love that line so much and wish I would have written that. It’s so simple, but universal.  Love is definitely a recurring theme here – romantic love, love of knowledge, the love between parent and child, religious love.  In nearly every case, love is tied to sacrifice. For her love of knowledge, Ester sacrifices her relationship with the rabbi and her future. She essentially gives up John because she doesn’t want marriage to interfere with her studies.  For Helen, love set her on her lifelong academic journey. Love for Mary started as a rebellion, but turned into a train wreck. She sacrificed her relationship with her father and her future for Thomas. Do you think Thomas loved her?  What do you think love meant for Aaron? What did he love?

Friendship 

I felt like Mary and Ester were two sides of the same coin – like Mary is what Ester would have become if her parents would have lived. What did you think of Mary? I will admit, there was a part of me that wanted it to end with Mary, Ester and Rivka living together and raising Mary’s child, but alas, it was not to be…

Lies

I thought it was really interesting how easily Ester lies. Sure, she feel guilty, but she’s pretty good at lying. She creates a male persona and lies to the philosophers she corresponds with. She lies to the rabbi constantly. There is part of me that wants to high five her for  being brave enough to stay true to what she wants out of life. yet, there’s another part that’s a bit judgy. I wonder if she would have been as brave asking those heretical questions under her own name. After all, she could have just used her first initial and last name and not mentioned her gender.

In her time, those philosophers wouldn’t have given her the time of day if they had known she was a woman, but they risked much by putting their views on paper. She really didn’t take a risk since she was hiding behind her fictional persona. So, she didn’t seem to have skin in the game. Agree? Disagree? Did you have any issues with her deceptions? Did you think she was brave?

A few random thoughts…

I love all the history here. I learned a lot about a period in history and a group of people that I didn’t really know anything about. That’s one of the reasons why I love historical novels.
The bodies in the pit piled up during the plague. OMG. Thank you for modern sanitization.
How did they get Alvaro off the ship so fast?
The Patricias. Love them.
Bescos. I was really hoping he would meet some horrible end.
The twist at the end with Constantina’s parentage. That was a bit much for me. What did you think?

Comment below and let me know what you thought of Weight of Ink.

Want more? Check out last month’s book club selection. 

 

 

 

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Virtual Book Club: Sept 2018: Whisper Me This

Welcome to our first virtual book club! Our first book is Whisper Me This by Kerry Anne King.  I really enjoyed this book and it’s a quick read. It’s got secrets, suspense and the end gave me all the “girl power” feels.

The story follows Maisey, a single mother, as she gets called home to deal with a medical emergency with her parents. As her mom lays dying in the hospital, Maisey needs to make some tough decisions and care for her failing father. While she’s looking for some important paperwork, she stumbles across two birth certificates – hers and also one for her twin sister, who she didn’t know existed. So, Maisey starts investigating her mother’s past, uncovering secret after secret, while dealing with a controlling ex-husband and a hottie, emotionally damaged fire fighter.

The author, Kerry Ann King, is a licensed RN and mental health counselor and she likes to explore themes of grief, loss and transformation in her work. Whisper Me This hits on all of these themes and explores the cycle of abuse. The topics are heavy, but King writes in a readable, compassionate way.

Virtual Book Club: Whisper Me This (by Kerry Anne King)

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Onto the discussion….

Warning: Spoilers if you haven’t read the book yet…. 

This book deals a lot with abuse. It hits it from every angle – Physical abuse, emotional abuse, from a parent, from a partner, from a father. One thing I really loved about this book was that it wasn’t a single viewpoint on this subject and it really showed the legacy of abuse from several compelling stories – Tony and his sisters, Maisey’s mom, her daughters, and even the neighbor next door and the false accusation of Maisey’s dad. It touches everyone. Because it’s told from Maisey‘s point of view, we’re in it with her. Her relationship with Greg is unfortunately probably pretty relatable to a lot of women and I liked how it showed how abuse can sneak up on you.

Is Maisey’s mom abusive? I kind of wrestled with this one and came away deciding that she was emotionally abusive. To me, convincing your daughter she’s crazy because she has memories of her twin definitely falls into that category.  I was a bit judgy about Maisey’s mom. It’s great that she got out, but how do you not go back for one of your kids?  Some of the reviews I saw online were more sympathetic to her, citing her own history of being abused and her fear of Boots coming back for her. What did you think? Was Maisey’s mom abusive? Drop me a comment and tell me what you think.

The other thing I really liked about the book was how the idea of the fallibility of memories was woven throughout the book.  Sometimes, our memories don’t have the whole story, as was the case with Tony and his memories of the night his father died. Sometimes, something happens that makes us see our memories in a new light, as it did when Maisey began realizing how Greg had been quietly abusing her and Elle for years. Things you thought weren’t real can turn out to be true, like Maisey and Marley’s memories of the night they were separated.  Did what we remember really happen the way we remember it? It’s interesting to think about.

“A familiar web of worry and indecision grounds me in my accustomed reality.” Yep. I feel that.

I did really enjoy this book, but there were a few things that bugged me. She found her sister in one Google search? And she just happened to be playing in a band in town? Really? That was way too easy. Also, as much as I wanted to like Elle, she kind of bugged me because she seemed too smart and precocious for a 12 year old.

What did you like about the book? What bugged you? Drop me a comment and tell me what you thought.

 

 

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