Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner

After reading the last book I needed something a bit lighter. I found this book in the stack my son said I have to read because it was so good. Well, it turned out to be short and light yet intense in it's own basic way. It didn't have the happiest ending either.

A little boy's grandfather gets sick and he needs to earn money so they don't loose the farm. He does everything he can and eventually enters a dog sled race. He races against an Indian that has never been beat before. THEN right before he crosses the finish line....ha ha I'm not going to tell you.

Good Whole Book

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

This was a very disturbing book. I was also educational and well written. I am so glad I live in America with the freedoms that I take for granted and enjoy every day. I would not survive very long in Afghanistan and especially not in an arranged marriage or with an abusive husband.

The book is about two women. They begin there lives in very different ways and the story is in two different separate parts but they eventually come together in a most amazing friendship. They endure more then any human being should endure in life. They are abused and scared and pushed to the limits and over.

The History of this country is interwoven in the story. Luckily unlike the kite runner it ends happily ever after and I think I literally gave a sigh of relief. It was that intense to read this book.

Broken/Bent/Healing

Friday, November 09, 2007

Crime Files: for-Minute Forensic Mysteries by Jeremy Brown

I used to be a CSI TV series gunky...way back when we actually had TV. Well, the shows have progressively become worse and more graphic I hear. I'm glad I am not watching them anymore. I did like the mystery and suspense and of course the unique cases they came across.
This book was like CSI but for kids. It is a collection of short stories with a silly quirky kid humor twist to them. Easy to read, sometimes a bit gross but most of them are based on true crimes solved by crime investigators. Kept me on my toes but I don't think I will have nightmares like some of the shows gave me!

Healing book

Thursday, November 01, 2007

The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls

Wow, this book was actually pretty good. I couldn't put it down. It was written in such a style that you couldn't wait to see what would happen next in the little girls life. Her family was poor, starving and surviving. They were so dysfunctional they are off the charts. It is an amazing story from the little girls perspective.

Her mom was a bit loony and tried to be an artist. Her dad turned out to be an alcoholic, brilliant but always going on a binge. I guess the best way to describe their lives would be eccentric.

This autobiographical account made you think her life was hard yet easy. She usually described tragic events that would have been huge stumbling blocks in most peoples lives as humorous and not a big deal.

Her first memory was from three years old having an accident with boiling water, hot dogs and her tutu catching fire. She was in the hospital for a very long time. The book starts out with her wondering if she is over dressed driving down the street in a Taxi then she looks up and her mother is scrounging through a dumpster. Her mother thinks being homeless is such an adventure. Her parents even after having four children didn't become conventional. They were a matched pair even to the end.

The little girl was starving and smelly yet she survived the hardest life and even turned it around to become a very successful writer in a big city. You would have thought they all would have perished long ago but all the kids keep on trying and pulling together despite their parents and situation.

Broken and Healing book - not recommended for children