Book Twenty-Eight of the Book-a-Week Quest
Multiple Bles8ings
by Jon & Kate Gosselin and Beth Carson (2008)
My younger brother hooked me on the television show Jon and Kate Plus Eight a few years ago. The kids -- a set of twins and sextuplets -- were just so darn cute, it was tough not to watch. Over the past year, even before the scandals and threats of affairs and divorce between the two elder Gosselins, my interest in the show was waning. I don't know why, but my fascination with the inner workings of the family were gone.
Nevertheless, I bought this book as a Christmas present for my brother and I told myself I was saving this for my vacation as I knew it was going to be an easy read. And I was correct...it certainly was.
I could've written this book -- by that I mean that it was a very simple read that contained a lack of big words and grammatical sentence structure that was utterly normal. Not a problem, per se, but I just wanted to make it known that it wasn't anything fancy here (I'm assuming that it's possible that two people that read this blog may want to borrow this once I return from vacation).
Reading the book in light of the recent scandals was somewhat painful. Passages like "Many times I would explode at Jon...Our five years of marriage felt like a thin crust of ice on a frozen pond" took on new meaning now. Reading Kate talking about the love for her brother who just recently went on talk shows denouncing the family's involvement in keeping the show on the air was just an odd juxtaposition. It's just tough to read the book now, read the passages on Jon and Kate's relationship, and believe that it's true. I understand that marriages can fall apart and I completely get that when this was written maybe everything was true, but reading the book now, certain passages rang false.
The book focuses very heavily on Jon and Kate's relationship with God and while it didn't bother me in the slightest, the fact that it was published by a religious book publisher should probably be known prior to anyone else picking up the book. I honestly felt like the book leaned a little too much on religion -- I don't mean that in a negative way, except to say that I would've liked to have learned more about the inner workings of their life, rather than reading about how God pulled Kate through the difficult time. [Reading this paragraph seems harsh and I don't mean it to come across that way -- I'm a religious person as well, so I don't mean that in a negative manner except that it kind of ruined the flow of the book.]
So, if you're interested in learning about the first year of the sextuplets' life (I mean you -- "Anonymous" and Amanda), this book is certainly something to read. Otherwise, I'm sure you didn't make it this far into the review anyway.
your interest wasn't waning much. You probably watched more of the last season than I did (this was my turning point in the show. it really did go from an "okay 'the babies' are on let's watch" to a "eh I guess I missed it. I might watch it when it re-airs later")
ReplyDeletebut the episodes became too structured with too many planned trips. And not to places like dutch wonderland or the zoo or even Disney World. Those were certainly believable. But Park City, all the CA trips, Hawaii, Ace of Cakes, etc --that all became too much. It morphed into "ugh where are they going this week" rather than the enjoyable, funny, and simple "I wonder what they're up to this week"
G - I can't remember the last time I really watched a whole episode -- The Colorado trip, maybe?
ReplyDeleteThomas - I was trying to be funny...I read all your posts, too, unless I'm trying to avoid spoilers (re: Dark Tower -- it's gonna happen; or Moon)
shout out!
ReplyDeleteAside - that sentence you quoted (about the pond and the 'crust' of ice) made me cringe.
ReplyDeleteand then shudder.
Thomas - not even close to the Top Ten, although, at this point, it's in the Top Twenty.
ReplyDeleteMeghan - It's totally not well written (obviously), but, having been a fan of the show, you may want to read it. It took me all of three hours, tops (although I never could've read it in one sitting).