Holy cow I've been reading like there's no tomorrow. Since I've been in PA, I've read 8 books. EIGHT! It's a good activity to do while keeping an eye on the kids in the yard. I sit on the porch, curled up in a comfy chair, while the kids run like wild children.
The books I've read:
The Glass Castle: totally interesting. 2 thumbs up
The Horse Boy: awesome. 2 thumbs up. Interesting to read this book right after The Glass Castle - what two totally different ways of parenting.
The Help: really enjoyed this. 2 thumbs up. However, I wasn't too keen on the ending.
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: It's a Twilight Book. 'Nuff said.
Whispers of Heaven: 2 thumbs down. I was more than half way through this book before I realized I had read it before (last summer!). That's how memorable it was. And I still didn't remember how it ended. Kinda trashy romance novel. A waste of a few hours (both last summer and this summer).
Charlie St. Cloud: A good read, but not fantastic. I think the movie looked better than the book was. 1 thumb up 1 thumb down.
The Last Summer (Of You and Me): I enjoy summer romances, so I liked this book. Sad ending. 2 sideways thumbs.
The Last Child: I LOVED this book. LOVED it. It was gritty, had a great mystery that blew my mind at the resolution, had cops - both good and bad. A riveting read, very well written. A bit on the haunting side, some strong language. 2 thumbs way the heck up.
6 years ago
6 comments:
Wow that's awesome. I can't think of a better way to spend the summer. Reading books and playing outside. I'll have to check out the Last Child one. I love a good mystery.
As for The Glass Castle, I can't figure out why people like that book so much. I got about 50-60 pages into it and then took it back to the library. I have no doubt that her parents were really that phsyco, but she recalls memories as a 3 and 4 year old in such great detail that makes me think "yeah right." Nobody remembers things from that young in THAT much detail. I know this is terrible of me, but when she says that the basic needs were not provided them, yet all the kids totally learned to read by age 3, Again I think "Yeah right." Those things alone made it hard for me to read the book. While it's written in an interesting way, I also don't like how her childhood is kind of romanticized, for lack of a better word. I don't like how she doesn't talk about the negetive ways that it affected her and how she GOT OVER that. I know she ended up becoming successful, BUT after being raised like that, HOW EXACTLY? I want to know how she over came those things, not just that she did. Anyways, I know lots of people who love this book and I just don't get it? I also didn't finish reading it, so maybe I'm missing out on something. I just assumed that it got worse.
Sorry I had to vent that to someone else who has read it.
Here's the thing with the book - I liked how she wrote it. I like how she didn't throw her judgment into it, which she could have with her adult self looking back on these insane situations. She recalled the events as a child would, without judgment. It was just normal for her and that's how she wrote it. It wasn't until she was older that she started to realize that things were not right. I hardly doubt I could write about my childhood with out projecting my adult opinions into the situations. I thought she did that very well.
As for memories and recalling them so well. There are quite a few very vivid memories that I have as a child. Some are hazy, some are crystal clear. We didn't get all of her memories, only a few - and they were the real stand-out ones that ANYONE would remember.
What I really liked about the book was the progression that she went through - from recalling early memories and not thinking they were out of the ordinary to her growing up and realizing that things weren't right. I also liked that there were some very valuable and treasured memories that she had growing up - things that weren't so wacky that she was able to look at and apply to her life (like her father's love of learning). There are so many tender, sweet situations in that book that she took in and treasured, even though there were really lousy situations as well.
It's our very own little book club!
How funny - I've read 6 books in just the last month. But NONE of those were outdoors, hahahaha. Anyway, I'm totally getting "The Last Child" based on your description. Sounds thrilling!
I read The Glass Castle and The Help in the last few months. I really loved The Help. I thought her writing was incredibly captivating. She had a knack for keeping me on the edge of my seat. I could NOT put it down.
I'm so excited to read The Last Child. Thanks for the review!
The only book I've read on that list was the Glass Castle. Have we talked about that before? I LOVED that book. I loved the way she told the story, I loved how bizarre her upbringing was and how drastically it contrasted to my "boring" childhood and I loved how she was able to rise above. Oh, and I might have loved that her parents really had money but they enjoyed being homeless. Kind of cool, isn't it? Well, not how they raised their children but how they continued to live once they got older. When are you coming home?
I'm jealous. You run in cool weather, read books outside, and you blog. I want to pamper myself with those luxuries!
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