The Chaperone

I didn't know this when I started reading the book, but it's another (fictional) story about a child who traveled west from NYC on the Orphan Train. But it's not at all similar to the novel of that title, though it was just as enjoyable to read.

Cora Carlisle is a respected wife and mother in Wichita, Kansas in 1920. When her neighbor Myra Brooks is looking for a chaperone for her 15-year-old daughter Louise (yes, that Louise Brooks) to travel to NYC to dance school, Cora volunteers to go, in the hope of finding out something about her past. Over the course of their few weeks together, both Cora's and Louise's lives change forever.

What I liked most about this story is what follows Cora's experience as Louise's chaperone. She is fundamentally changed, and takes that change back to Wichita with her, and it impacts all she does and everyone she is involved with for the rest of her life. The story had some neat surprises and dealt with the many issues of the times, and it was just a really enjoyable read.

The Chaperone

Orphan Train

Thank you to Rita for lending me this book. I just loved it! It's a wonderful, heartwarming story about resilience, love, and family, and it's based on actual historical events.

Molly Ayer is a 17-year-old foster child in present-day Maine.Vivian Daly is the 91-year-old wealthy widow whose attic Molly helps clean out for community service. To think that these two young women have anything in common is a stretch, but it turns out they do. Vivian started out her life as Niamh Power, an Irish girl whose family immigrates to New York City, who is sent west on an Orphan Train after the rest of her family die in a fire. Niamh winds up in Minnesota where she becomes Dorothy, then Vivian, and where she has a series of homes and families before finding the one that is right for her. And through Vivian, Molly learns about being strong, finding your way, and becoming who you were meant to be.

The Orphan Trains were real - they took thousands of children from the streets of East Coast cities to the Midwest where they were adopted - if they were lucky - or contracted as laborers if they weren't young or pretty enough. The author, Christina Baker Kline, obviously did a lot of research. But more importantly, she has written a moving and thoughtful story about a couple of very strong female characters, two women with great inner strength, but also humor and warmth. I'm so glad I read this book.



Orphan Train

Infidel

Has any well-informed person not heard of Ayaan Hirsi Ali? She is the scholar and activist who was to receive an honorary degree from Brandeis this year, but whose offer was rescinded after protests by student groups and CAIR.She's a brave and outspoken advocate for women's rights, particularly when it comes to female castration, honor killings, and forced marriages justified by Islam. Infidel is her story from war-torn Somalia to the American Enterprise Institute in DC, and it is amazing.

This is an amazing book by an amazing woman. As she says herself, how many girl babies born in Somalia in 1969 are even still alive, let alone living the life she has lived for the last 20 years? From Somalia to Saudi Arabia, to Kenya and finally The Netherlands and the United States, she survives all of the hardships in her path, and even thrives. Her dedication to her education and her refusal to be a victim make her a role model for all of us.

She first rose to prominence as a member of the Dutch Parliament, and gained terrible fame when movie maker Theo Van Gogh was brutally murdered - with a note stabbed into his chest indicating that she would be next. An outspoken and brave opponent of the evils of radical Islam, she lives her life seemingly without fear. As she writes in her book, during her childhood in Somalia and Saudi Arabia, anything could kill you - a germ, a flood, the police, even your father or brother. To live in fear is just not in her to do.

Her book is a revelation, and her life is an education to everyone, female or male. She is an amazing woman. I highly recommend her book.

Infidel

Admission

I had a hard time initially getting into this novel about Portia Nathan, a dedicated Princeton admissions officer who's life seems to be unraveling around her. I didn't really find Portia that likeable, and she spends way too much time in her own head. But the Korelitz paints of the Ivy League admissions process is interesting, and Portia does become a bit more likeable as she makes her way through her problems.

I don't see how this novel became the movie with Tina Fey and Paul Rudd... I didn't see the movie, I admit, but I didn't particularly see them in the characters. And I have to say the book made me very glad I'm not applying to colleges right now, it seems to much more competitive and crazy than it did when I was applying.

I liked the novel, but I admit to doing a lot of skimming through Portia's more tortured inner monologs.

Admission