Lara Zielin

While it's incredibly unlikely that you'll ever find me chasing any tornadoes - for fun, for research, or some combination of the two - I do have to admit that fictionalized accounts of those that do are interesting to me. (The 'reality' versions, oddly less so.)

Lara Zielin's The Waiting Sky uses the storm chasers and their quest to find the next great, big tornado and gather information from it as a backdrop to telling seventeen-year-old Jane McAllister's story. Living all of her teen, as show more well as most of her childhood, years alone with her alcoholic mother, Jane's learned how to take care of her mother.

In their troubled relationship, Jane makes as much money as she can babysitting - even to the detriment of her school work - pays the bills, lies for her mother and manages as best she can. Her mother, meanwhile spends all of the money (mostly on alcohol), forgets about bills, spends too much time in bars, and puts Jane in danger.

Jane's older brother, Ethan, left when she was just a kid and she's forever blamed him for (as she sees it) abandoning not only her but their mother as well. Now, he - after some urging from her best friend, too - has finally convinced Jane to spend the summer with him - and the tornado chasing team he's a part of.

While everyone else, including the gorgeous, charming Max, is sure that time apart is what Jane's mother - and more importantly, Jane - need for a real chance at healing, Jane's not so sure. She's used to watching out for her mother.

Will she stay with Ethan - for the whole summer and maybe even past it - or will she return home to Minnesota and the dysfunctional relationship with her alcoholic mother, even if it means losing her best friend and continuing the same life?


I've never really thought before how perfect that chaos and ultimate unpredictability of tornadoes are to be paired alongside a story of someone dealing with addiction. The tornadoes the teams chase parallel, in a way, Jane's mother - or her relationship with her mother. There are false starts, things that seem like they're going to be more than they ultimately are, things that cause more damage than is first known.

The two work together extremely well, both for readers and for Jane. Both story lines - the team chasing the tornadoes and Jane working out her relationship with her mother (and brother) while quite different, are both very strong and blend together nicely in The Waiting Sky.

As a story about addiction or a character dealing with someone with addiction, The Waiting Sky is different than any I've read; it removes Jane from the situation.We don't as much of her in the every day, routine of coping with her mother. That's also where I think The Waiting Sky is strongest and most unique, however. Jane deals with her guilt, mixed emotions and uncertainty away from her mother, with people not completely familiar with the situation and without the constant presence of her mother. All without the novel losing any depth or impact - possibly gaining a new kind.

With a great cast of characters (you might even want to start talking like a pirate a bit - it's safer than tornado chasing), the right touch of romance, fantastic family relationships and a great complex main character The Waiting Sky is one not to miss!

A great contemporary, realistic fiction novel you'll want to run out and pick up - it's out Thursday. show less

Review originally posted http://hobbitsies.net/2012/08/the-waiting-sky-by-lara-zielin/

Twister is one of my favourite movies ever. I used to play a game I made up called “Storm Chasers” on the playground as a kid. So when The Waiting Sky by Lara Zielin opened up with a quote from Twister, I already knew I was going to love this book.

And The Waiting Sky did not let me down – I loved everything about it. Lara Zielin combines storm chasing with real issues like alcoholic mothers and show more everything is a metaphor for the other and I just loved the way she tied everything together so beautifully.

The Waiting Sky’s storytelling absolutely masterful in the way that Lara Zielin was able to tie it all together so when you were reading on event, you could easily see it back to something to do with Jane’s mother. Every thread of the story connected to another and it flowed so beautifully.

And the storm chasing itself was awesome! I loved the rivalry and the betting and all the characters on the Tornado Brothers team. I loved the idea of a group of college and PhD students going around chasing storms in the summertime to test their inventions and…the whole concept of The Waiting Sky was awesome.

Plus, you know, the romance. It was just a sweet side story between Jane and Max that I really liked.

The whole issue with Jane’s mother in The Waiting Sky was heartbreaking and realistic. It was so evident how much Jane was struggling with it all and everyone kept trying to help her and it just broke my heart.

I loved the ending of The Waiting Sky. It was exactly what I was hoping for – and I’m not going to lie, I would totally read a sequel to The Waiting Sky.

Essentially, if you’re a fan of contemps with masterful storytelling, not to mention lots of awesome and a heavy dose of realistic situations, do not miss The Waiting Sky by Lara Zielin. show less

Donut Days had a lot going for it. Emma is your everyday girl with her own set of problems but has a great sense of humor to get her through them. I really appreciated Emma's struggle over her religion, I feel like I don't see that side of religion enough. Like Emma talks about in the book sometimes things are glossed right over and not really talked about in the church. And I really liked seeing her question her relationship with God. And the book is written in such a way that you don't show more need to be a Christian to understand Emma's struggles. Along with that I thought Emma's fight with her best friend seemed real and brings up a good question. What do you do when you don't agree with your friend's viewpoint but want to be there for them as a friend?

I thought the setting of a donut camp for the opening of a donut store was fabulous. And yes, those really do happen, a few years ago I remember a lot of news coverage for a similar opening! I did find it a bit odd that her parents would let her stay overnight in a tent alone with a bunch of strangers around though at the donut camp. The group of evangelical bikers she meets there were wonderful characters. I loved how their experiences helped Emma think about her own faith and her own future.

Besides Emma, I loved the character of Jake. A friend that wants to be more. I actually would have liked to have seen more of him. But what a nice guy, in the book he does something that most people would probably not even consider but he knows it's right and does it. And he's just one of the great cast of characters there supporting Emma including a lovely bear of a biker, a cute little sister and loving parents.

Overall a great story of faith, friends and donuts! show less

A book about donuts has to be fabulous or at the very least entertaining. Donut Days was both fabulous, entertaining, and hunger-inducing. Before I start my review, I would like to warn those of you who are on diets: Donut Days will be a very difficult book for you to read! You should just give up counting calories for a day and indulged in some mouth watering donuts. You better believe, that is exactly what I did!

Donuts aside, Donut Days is a very compelling and thought provoking book. With show more interwoven themes of religion and friendship Donut Days is so much more than a book about a girl who likes to eat donuts.

Some of my favorite things about Donut Days were how to issues of family and religion are handled. This is truly high praise coming from me. I’m the girl who did a poster project on evolution vs. intelligent design for her anthropology class. I’m not the least bit religious, but it is still an interesting topic that fascinates me. Emma has always been at odds with many of the people at her parents' church- including her own parents. Emma doesn’t dress up or act like any of the other girls and having faith is not something that comes naturally to her. I think that this is what made Emma such a believable character for me. Emma doesn’t take things at face value. Emma questions everything including the belief system that she was raised with.

Some of the other secondary characters were tougher for me to relate to. Especially Emma’s intelligent-design defending ex-best friend. There was one scene in the class room when, I wanted to leap into the book and smack her over the head with a biology textbook. Violent reactions aside, the story started to pick up for me when Emma meets a gang of born again bikers at the donut camp. I loved this group of people. They are the kind of people who actually do good things instead of just sitting around talking about it. Despite my non-religious status, I wanted to go riding around with them on their bikes. And… oh all the yummy donuts that were at the camp. I wish that there was a donut camp around here!

Donut Days wraps up nicely at the end. There is a love interest for Emma and a nice happy ending for a change. I didn’t find the ending to be entirely practicable either. In fact, I was actually quite surprised by one development. I don’t wan to give too much away, so go pick up a copy and find out for yourself!

I would recommend Donut Days to anyone who is interested in books dealing with religion,family, and friends. show less