A heartfelt work that takes its time conveying lessons of pain and kindness.
McMullin recalls a lifetime of hardships and blessings in ranch life and education in her debut memoir, the winner of two North American Book Awards.
The author was adopted from a Texas orphanage shortly after her birth. From a young age, her adopted family raised her as a Christian and encouraged her fondness for horses. However, when the family dynamic changed due to financial difficulties and the birth of a new sibling, McMullin says that she was emotionally abandoned by her adopted parents, who didn’t acknowledge her learning disability. In fifth grade, she writes, they briefly sent her into foster care due to her low grades, and they also sold her dog and expressed gladness when her horse died. Meanwhile, she suffered from physical impediments, including an eye ulcer and a debilitating back problem. McMullin’s faith gave her the strength to finish school and maintain a stressful work life. Her loyalty, strong work ethic, and patience endeared her to employers and to a group of friends who offered her stability and love, and she eventually became an educator and author. As her life continued to bring misfortune, including massive injuries from an automobile accident, she still had faith in God and relied on her network of friends. Overall, this memoir is a testament to the endurance of the human spirit in the face of emotional and physical pain. The author consistently notes the need for love and encouragement when dealing with both people and animals as well as the necessity of prayer and thankfulness; it’s almost a rhythmic incantation in the text. Readers will feel as if they’re walking alongside McMullin as she tells her story and advises readers how they, too, can survive setbacks; she couches all the painful experiences she relates, including a hostile confrontation with her adopted father, in lessons. With her memoir, the author effectively opens up a space, into which she invites readers to be a part of the family she longed for as a child.
A heartfelt work that takes its time conveying lessons of pain and kindness.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9967113-0-2
Page Count: 222
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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