Book Review: Repairing Rainbows by Lynda Fishman

At the age of 13, Lynda Fishman lost her mother and her two younger sisters in a plane crash. She was left alone with her father, who was so devastated he became a completely different person, retreating into himself. Emotionally, Lynda was alone for the rest of her childhood.

Repairing Rainbows is a deeply personal memoir of Lynda's journey from a tragic childhood to a joyful adulthood. She shares stories of her family life before the crash and shows the stark contrast to life after. She shares her pain and confusion as a young girl coming to grips with the loss of her family, and the strength she had to persevere and never give up on life as her father did.

This was a very personal story. Lynda shares her honest thoughts and feelings through many experiences of her life ~ from the crash, to her father's remarriage, to her interactions with her extended family, even after her father cut ties with them. She also shares her husband's story of losing his mother as a toddler and his father as a teen. She shows how they each transcended the sadness of their tragic childhoods to find happiness together.

This is a very moving and inspirational story. It was a little difficult for me as I read it just days before hopping onto a flight by myself, leaving my kids behind. It made me a bit more nervous as I thought of a plane crash taking me away from them as it had taken her mother from her. Luckily, I returned safely. If you enjoy memoirs, I think you'll enjoy this one. It drags a bit at times, but overall, it's a very interesting story.

My Rating: 3/5

For more information about Repairing Rainbows and Lynda Fishman's story, visit the Repairing Rainbows website.

Read an excerpt.

This review was written based on a copy of Repairing Rainbows that I received from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Comments

Getting back to blogging

It seems that blogging has dropped to the bottom of my list for the past year, and was pretty low for the year or two prior to that. I love to read, and am continuing to do so, but as my regular readers know I haven't been around much. My last blog post was almost a year ago!!

There are many things that have taken me away from blogging. Work has been much more challenging and interesting these past few years, but that means I really don't want to get back on the computer when I get home at night - or on the weekends.

Family life has been more busy with kids having multiple activities in the evenings, leaving little time to just hang out and write about the books that I read.

I will admit to a bit of a Facebook addiction, which means way too much time spent scrolling through my newsfeed instead of doing something more productive. This is one of the things I'm working on and hoping that this will free up some time for getting back to the blog.

Overall, life is good. Work is …

Book Review: The Bookman's Tale by Charlie Lovett

Peter Byerly is distraught over the loss of his wife nine months ago. He has retreated to their cottage in the English countryside, hoping to return to his love of collecting and restoring rare books. But when he opens a book about Shakespeare forgeries and finds a Victorian watercolor of a woman who looks just like his wife, Peter is soon on a search for the origin of the painting and the truth about Shakespeare's real identity.

The Bookman's Tale: A Novel of Obsession by Charlie Lovett is a wonderful journey for anyone who loves books. It follows Peter's search in 1995, which turns into a bit of a thriller at times. But Lovett also takes the reader back in time a bit so we can learn the story of his relationship with his wife and how he came to be a bookseller. He does a beautiful job of expressing Peter's feelings about the rare books he encounters, and his feelings are contagious.

And then he takes us back even further to the history of one particular volume, whos…

Banned Books Week: Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park

This is the end of Banned Books Week and unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time to write about banned books this year. But I did want to include at least one post about it, so today I wanted to share one of the book series that it seems most people are surprised to find on the list: Junie B. Jones by Barbara Park.

According to Wikipedia:
The Junie B. Jones series came in at #71 on the American Library Association's list of the Top 100 Banned or Challenged Books from 2000-2009. Reasons cited are poor social values taught by the books and Junie B. Jones not being considered a good role model due to her mouthiness and bad spelling/grammar. This is an interesting example of a banned book. Many times there are serious, controversial topics featured in books that are challenged. Things like homosexuality, drugs, vulgar language, etc. You can actually understand why people may not want their children to read those books, and why they may challenge their inclusion in school libra…

My Book Retreat

Search This Blog