It's been a long time since my last reading post. Here's what I've finished:
Book #2 of 2008 was Loving Frank, by Nancy Horan. This was well-written but I found the story depressing - people in search of their own fulfillment to the detriment of everyone around them. The end was completely unexpected.
Book #3 was Brother, I'm Dying, by Edwige Danticat. This was a wonderful book, my favorite of hers. (I've read and enjoyed all of them.) Her prose is spare and totally unsentimental, but she puts you right in the middle of the action, and breaks your heart. This is a memoir about Danticat's childhood, when her parents went to the United States and left her in Haiti with her uncle, about her father's and uncle's illnesses, and about her pregnancy and the birth of her daughter, and always the backdrop is the turmoil of Haiti. Beautiful and highly recommended.
Book #4 was Look Me in the Eye, by John Elder Robison. I had read an essay excerpted from this in the New Yorker, and that made me want to read the book. It's fascinating to see the world through the eyes of an adult with Asperger's Syndrome. A couple of the chapters felt like padding to me, but overall I found it compelling reading.
Book #5 was Small Steps, by Louis Sachar, a follow-up to Holes, containing the continued adventures of X-Ray and Armpit. This is aimed at slightly older kids than the first book, and it just isn't nearly as good. I'm sure it will make a great movie, and it seemed as though that was the raison d’être of the book. Many of the scenes are very cinematic. I'd give this one a so-so.
By this time last year I'd read twenty-three books. Clearly, there's too much going on in my life right now. I need to be making more time to read!
Here's what all the cool kids are reading and reviewing.
1 hour ago
4 comments:
Book #2: You certainly know how to write a teaser! Now I'm dying to know the ending...
Book #4: I read a review a couple of Saturdays ago in the Saturday RoB. The author actually logged a comment! It sounds like an intriguing book.
I wrote on review on Book 4 a few weeks ago and the author commented on it as well. I love it when authors do that, especially when you write a favorable review. I found the book totally fascinating as a in-depth discussion of Asperger's.
Yes! Yours was the review I was thinking of, Framed. :-)
Hi Ruth,
I read this blog post today and thought of you.
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1880000388/post/1470022347.html?nid=3716
I hope you are well.
Best,
Tricia
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