Book Thirty Two

This book was haunting and there is no other way to describe it  Written by the author of Speak, Laure Halse Anderson paints an incredibly vivid picture of a teenage woman grappling with a deadly eating disorder.  She gets the voice down pitch perfect.  Lia is sarcastic and disillusioned about life.  I liked the strike-outs that Anderson inserts when Lia censors her own thoughts.  I don't know how Anderson identified with the teenage voice quite so well.  By the end of the book, I felt the author certainly must have struggled with her own disordered eating.  But then, don't we all . . .

This is not a book I would have on my shelf because it's too dark.  But, I'm glad it has been written as it expertly depicts the experience.  I don't know who I would recommend the book to.  It doesn't exactly glorify eating disorders but in many ways it could be misconstrued as a "how to" manual.  Parents reading this book would get chills and fear for their own daughter.  The scenes depicting cutting were difficult, if not impossible, to read.  I wanted to hate Lia for the pain she inflicted on herself and others.  Like I said, Anderson nails this disease.  She couldn't have written a more authentic novel if she had tried.

Read this in a day and a half.  Need some uplifting chick lit, stat.

Book Thirty One

My first impression of this book was:  dammit will Kate DiCamillo STOP repeating herself already?  I must say, I missed the whole point of that technique.  The specialness of the book didn't hit me until the author's acknowledgments on the last page giving thanks to those who walked with her through a long winter's night.  To me, DiCamillo means to say that an elephant comes to us all when we despair most.  And a community of others will help us get to the place we are supposed to live.

Way too much time on Vilna Lutz though.  What is DiCamillo trying to tell us about this old soldier with half a brain? This is a lyrical book but it does beg to be read aloud.  I'm not sure my understanding of the novel is what DiCamillo intends.  I did enjoy but without the dramatization and setting constructed by brilliant illustrator Yoko Tanaka, the book is just page upon page.  I could have skipped this one and I hate to say that about DiCamillo.

Book Thirty

I love Leif Enger. He's an former NPR editor writing about a man from Cannon Falls. Lest those Harvard professors continue to characterize us as "children of the corn," Leif Enger shows again that there can be beauty in simplicity & deep characterization in a novel of just 250 pages. He isn't showy with his words but still manages to convey. I finished this book in 3 days. I devoured it.

Some readers find that Brave, Young and Handsome is a poor man's cousin to Peace Like A River. The former is a book about faith, the latter about family. I wasn't ready to embrace a novel about the West and train robbers and the Pinkertons but somehow, along the journey, I found myself intrigued by Darlys Dafoe and Hood Roberts and Charles Siringo. I could have spent a little less time with Charles Siringo. The dude just would NOT go away.

More than anything, Enger does an AMAZING job giving voice to his storyteller. I felt that Monte Becket was a member of my family . . . I knew him so well. I found myself drawn to Glendon Hale's character most of all and kept wishing Monte would find him again in the story. At the same time, I wanted Monte to just go home already. I was frustrated by the long journey to find himself. I have to admit that I was shocked by the ending. I should have seen it coming. I really didn't.

My favorite passage is on page 271 when Susannah discovers that Monte has encountered grace. "You seemed afraid before you left - and now you don't." I do think that Monte Becket experienced a tremendous amount of growth throughout the book but then again who doesn't find happiness (at the end of the rainbow) on an orange grove in California? I mean, really . . . anyone could be happy there.

Interesting that "So Brave" is Leif's second book and it took seven years to create. In "So Brave," he describes "Peace" as a novel that was trashed for not being good enough. And Leif has stated in interviews that he read every sentence of his novels to his wife Robin during their inception. Just like Monte Becket shares with Susannah when he writes his 1000 words. You wonder how much of the novel and its themes are autobiographical.

Favorite quote - "Sometimes heroism is nothing more than patience, curiosity, and a refusal to panic."