Philomena; Twisted Sisters

"Philomena" by Martin Sixsmith was a heartbreaking true story of young Philomena Lee, who is forced to give up her child for adoption in Ireland in the 1950s. It was a huge scandal, how the Catholic church was keeping these girls as slaves, making them work for years, and then selling their babies to America for adoption. Philomena's son, Anthony, is adopted by an American family, who change his name to Michael. Michael grew up desperate to know something about his mother, even traveling to Ireland in 1977 to see if he could find out some information. The nuns at the orphanage kept quiet, though, and didn't even tell him about his mother's brother, who lived very close by. Nor did they tell Philomena a few weeks later when she came, looking for him, that he had been by. Years later, Michael was dying of AIDS and made one final trip to Ireland to search for answers, to no avail. His last wish was that he be buried at the orphanage, so if his mother ever did come looking for him, she could visit his grave. Sadly, Michael died in 1995 and was buried there. Philomena kept her secret from her family until 2003, but by then it was too late. The long hoped for mother-son reunion took place in a cemetery, where Philomena was able to say goodbye to the son she didn't get the chance to know. The only bad thing I can say about this book was that it was very one sided, all Michael's story. It would have been lovely to have a bit more of Philomena's story, but it was still good.

I  needed a laugh, it's been a tough week (I got braces again--for the third time, ugh) so I read Jen Lancaster's latest, "Twisted Sisters". I had the pleasure of meeting Jen at a book signing last month, and she was so lovely and gracious and took the time to talk to everyone and took pictures with us. She read a chapter from the book and had us all rocking with laughter. She's just as hilarious in person as you would imagine. My sister, Jen went with me and she enjoyed meeting her as well. Anyway, "Twisted Sisters" was very funny. Reagan Bishop is an overachiever, and has always criticized her sisters for their lack of ambition. Reagan is a psychologist for a small cable network TV show called "Push". When her show is sold to a major network, there are big changes. Now Reagan only has one afternoon to work with her patient, and she's terrified of failing on national TV and earning the scorn of her family. So she turns to new Age healer Deva, who comes up with a way for Reagan to switch bodies with her patients during the crucial moment, film the breakthrough for the camera, and then switch back. Reagan hates doing this, because she genuinely does want to help these people, but she wants to succeed even more, so she goes along with it. All is going well until her boss (who she has a secret crush on) hires her sister Geri to replace the hair stylist. Everyone immediately takes to Geri, and Reagan is jealous. She takes advantage of Deva's switching abilities to inhabit her sister's body, so she can figure out why everyone likes her better. Poor Reagan. I really felt bad for her. She didn't seem like such a horrible person. A bit tightly wound, perhaps, but not as bad as all that. And her family really did seem awfully mean to her for no reason. But while inhabiting Geri's body she learns a lot of truths about herself and vows to make changes. Good for her! I enjoyed this one a lot, and it gave me the laughs I  needed.