I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. It was engaging and witty, poignant and touching. The points about grief and the fear of moving on resonated true. The characters were very true to life; the family dynamic was also true to life and incredibly funny. Before you read it, you may not see how you'd laugh out loud about a slacker who fell hopelessly for a vibrant, talented, beautiful older woman who dies and leaves him and her teenage son adrift, but you will laugh, I promise. This book has a little bit of everything, and really I loved it.
THE GOD OF WAR by Marisa Silver
This is a complex novel by a great storyteller. It deals with the importance parenting, family, and location, in all our lives. As much as I loved this story, I found it too complex for a tidy summary, so I'm offering a quote from another author.
“Marisa Silver is the author for whom we've all been waiting. With unabashed voice she steadily, bravely, unerringly tells a heartbreakingly beautiful story for our time. The God of War is the truest novel I've read in ages.”
- Alexandra Fuller, author of Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
ONE MISSISSIPPI by Mark Childress
This is a tale of one teenage boy's odyssey from naive acceptance to a strong sense of self; it will knock your socks off. It is an extremely funny and touching story about family, best friends, first love, and surviving the scariest years of your life - the teenage years. I laughed till I almost fell off my chair, when I read the chapters about a home-grown church musical production and the hero's ill-conceived trip to the prom. One Mississippi is many things: it's wild it's unpredictable, yes it's tragic in the end, but so is life, sometimes. It’s about as easy to resist as a riptide. Jump in you’ll love it, too.
Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella
This is chick-lit at its best. Remember Me?, has a fresh heroine, who can’t remember anything from the past three years. Lexi wakes up in a London hospital and she’s a stranger to herself. She’s thin, toned, well-coiffed, veneered and married; she doesn’t remember any of it. Lexi’s tale of catching up with herself is a riotous roller-coaster ride. Tag along for the ride, you won’t be sorry.
Belong to Me, Marisa de los Santos
Belong to Me, is utterly magical. You’ll meet the best 14 year olds, ever. The men of this novel are varied and “keepers”, in the relationship derby. But, it’s the women of this story you’ll fall the hardest for. The story is told from the perspective of 3 different characters, two of the women and one of the teenagers. De los Santos braided their tales together, to tell a beautiful tale that had me twisting and turning in all directions, laughing out loud or crying, while cheering their relationships on. The struggle through heartbreak and the will to find love and happiness is what it’s all about. This is delos Santos' second novel, and a follow-up to the first one, Love Walked In. It is not necessary to read Love Walked In, before Belong to Me. Belong to Me really does stand on it's own two feet.
Beautiful Boy: A Father's Journey through His Son's Addiction by David Sheff
Beautiful Boy, is an amazing book. To me addiction is a foreign land, but Sheff uses haunting candor to tell us about his son's addiction. Before meth, Nic was a varsity athlete, honor student, and award-winning journalist. After meth, he was a trembling wraith who stole money from his eight-year-old brother, lies about everything and lived on the streets. I've always said parenting is the hardest job I've ever had. The assumption is that if we were good parents our children would not have problems. Parents with easy kids don't understand how addiction can happen. Sheff's book provides a rare opportunity to experience the parental nightmare of substance abuse. The story is compelling, and hard to put down. I hope everyone will read it to gain empathy and understanding.
Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
In this book, Randy Pausch has combined the humor, inspiration and intelligence that made his lecture such a phenomenon and given it an indelible form.
A lot of professors give talks titled "The Last Lecture." Professors are asked to consider their own deaths and to talk about what matters most to them. When Pausch gave his "The Last Lecture.” he really was near the end of his life, he’d been diagnosed with terminal cancer. This is not a sad or maudlin book, it is life affirming. The book takes his "The Last Lecture", and expounds and expands on it. If I could, I’d quote the entire book here, that’s how good it is. Here’s on of my favorite quotes from the book: "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand." This is a book that will be shared for generations to come.
