Book Chatter

Sunday Matters

OLIVER is done! My kids have done this show three or four times now but this time around, it was the easiest, most well-rehearsed show. Everyone was awesome. Here is a photo that someone snapped of my daughter backstage as Mrs. Sowerberry, the undertaker’s wife. She got to sing That’s Your Funeral and fall into a coffin. So fun. That link is not her actually singing because we are not allowed to record but it’s such a fun song.

Mrs. Sowerberry from Oliver

And here is just a snippet of the show’s rehearsal that the theatre company posted. As you can see, very elaborate sets. Definitely not a high school production.

Right Now:

We had to miss church last weekend due to the production schedule so we are going this morning. No high school ministry tonight but the girls in my group want to meetup so I am meeting them later for frozen yogurt.

This Week:

Nothing. Guys, I have nothing. Well, I have work but no other commitments except Monday night outreach.

Reading:

I started Tin Man by Sarah Winman and it’s so good! The writing is so lovely. After just a page or two I completely fell into the story.

I will start my book club book today. We are reading Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? It’s an interesting choice for discussion.

Watching:

Nothing, although my life group ladies told me to watch Botched. Does anyone watch that show?

Making:

I’ve been ordering groceries online and I am really liking it. This week we will have pizza, a hamburger/cheese bake, Parmesan chicken with broccoli, and breakfast for dinner.

Grateful for:

Online groceries. I add to my cart throughout the week and then show up at a certain time for them to load up my car. And to be truthful, I’ve sent The Hub to pick it up twice now which is even easier for me!

What are you grateful for this week?

The Perfect Mother
By Aimee Molloy
Harper, 9780062696793, May 1, 2018, 336pp.

The Short of It:

Another page-turner that keeps you guessing.

The Rest of It:

Motherhood is a hot topic this summer. I wonder why. Maybe because so many of us are overwhelmed, super busy, and give everything we have to our kids? Whatever the reason, I have at least three books in my stack dealing with motherhood in some way and The Perfect Mother was one of them.

May Mothers is a group made-up of women who had their babies in the month of May. They meet at the park for their regular meetings but now that their infants are a couple of months old, they decide it’s time for a girls night out and head to a local bar for some drinks. Excited to be taking a night off from baby duty, they get a little careless and drink a little too much so when one of the moms suddenly vanishes from the bar, only for them to find out later that she is home, with the police, trying to figure out who took her son from his crib, things begin to escalate as the moms try to make sense of what’s happened.

Mommy groups can be very supportive but also very dramatic. That is the case here. These women take it upon themselves to find the missing baby. They inject themselves into the investigation, steal evidence, put themselves in very dangerous situations, usually with their own infant strapped to their chests. It’s crazy what they do!

Although the missing baby is the focus of the story, Molloy also touches on the loss of identity that can come with having a baby and how difficult it is to figure out those first few months as a mother. This, I could relate to well.

The Perfect Mother is not a perfect book. It’s a little predictable and you might tire of all the “mommyness” contained within its pages but it was a quick, entertaining read and a good distraction from the headlines that continue to find me even though I have made a real effort to avoid them.

Source: Review copy provided by the publisher.
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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