Monday, March 28, 2011

Books

I've been doing a lot of reading. Partly for classes but also spring break was a nice chance to catch up on reading for fun and now that The Crucible is over I've got more free time.
Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult was great. It's about a school shooting: who it affected, what led up to it, how relationships changed in the aftermath. I've read several of Picoult's books now and I've liked all of them. They always involve a court case about some controversial issue but it's about the lives of the people involved not the drama of the court. Keeping Faith: stigmata and custody. Change of Heart: terminally ill child needs a heart transplant and death row inmate found guilty of killing her step-father wants to donate his. My Sister's Keeper: daughter sues parents to prevent them from forcing her to donate her kidney to her dying sister. All were wonderful in my opinion. Vanishing Acts is about a women who finds out that her father kidnapped her as a toddler. The book focuses on her father's trial and her love triangle with her alcoholic husband and best friend who's always loved her but has played 3rd wheel since they were all kids together. This was the only one of her's I didn't care for.
Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska I read for my history class but I couldn't put it down. It's about a Jewish girl living in the slums of New York in the early 1900s. She rejects her family traditions (getting married to whatever con-man dupes her dad) to go work her butt off to support herself and pay her way through college to become a teacher. I loved the author's voice and the relationship with her father. He comes up with one crazy scheme after another, all of which fail miserably and much as she wants to abandon him at times, he's still her dad.
I'm reading Beloved by Toni Morrison right now. So far, I like it but I won't say more until I finish.
I'd love suggestions on what to read next.

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