Book Review: Mostly Monsterly

Around Halloween time I ordered this book from Scholastic because I had free points. It is about a young girl monster named Bernadette who goes to school at Monster Academy. She loves to be scary but she also likes to pet kittens and pick flowers. Her monster friends laugh and Bernadette's feelings are hurt. One day while the other monsters are at recess, Bernadette gets a truly scary idea! She makes everyone a card! But these cards are scary! They are oozing and slimy and everyone loves them! Just because Bernadette is a monster doesn't mean she can't be herself.

Book Review: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

I recently read We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. I checked it out on my mother's recommendation.She liked it a lot. I thought it was so-so. I'd give it about 3 stars.

It was pretty hard to get into at first. I feel like the beginning of the book really dragged. Shriver talked A LOT about the "past" and I think it could have benefited from some editing. Some of it was important to build up the context, but some of it just went on forever and ever seemingly without end. I figured if my mom really liked it I should continue plowing through it but it was difficult at first. I'd look at it every night on the nightstand and sigh. About halfway through the book when more of the "action" started to happen I stopped dreading it so much.

The good: the topic was of course interesting. With this rise in school shootings it gives you a lot to think about. I read Jodi Picoult's 19 Minutes which was also about school shootings and I liked it a bit more. It told the story from all different sides (rather than from just the mother of the perpetrator like this one). Of course, like all Picoult books, the ending kind of sucked so it wouldn't get 5 stars either. I did like that it gave the perspective of the mother of a shooter which I think is something we often don't get to see or think that much about. I just wish the writing would have been a little better so that I could have enjoyed that perspective more. 

The "bad"/things I have questions about:

1. The family seemed inauthentic. Why didn't the family have an intervention earlier? Clearly Kevin was NOT normal and was very disturbed. I find it hard to believe that the father would excuse EVERYTHING away and that the mother wouldn't have tried harder to get some professional help. If his personality "disorder" or whatever wasn't SO exaggerated I would have bought this plot/story line more. But he seemed so extreme that I find it hard to believe that it would go on like this until the shooting happened. With the real school shootings that happened many of them did have interventions of some sort or the personality flaws weren't as exaggerated. They still missed a lot of signs but for most of them they weren't life-long issues like Kevin was cast to have in this story. 

2. The whole writing letters to Franklin thing got old and was pretty predictable. At the beginning I thought maybe they were divorced but by the middle of the book I knew he was dead and it was more of a journaling exercise. I think that it was maybe a good idea but not executed well. Especially when there were dialogue portions, etc. No one would actually write like that in a letter. Maybe an infusion of letters in-between standard chapters of "story-telling" would have been more effective. 

3. Going along with point #1, I felt like the mother self-sabotaging came off very inauthentic. Even if the unimaginable happened I would have found many of her behaviors questionable. I can't of course say for sure, never having been in that situation, but I just find it hard to believe that she would try and ruin her life even further by acting like such a bozo (especially in the civil court case-related parts). 

4. I hated the ending. Why did she make a sudden change of heart happen for Kevin? Shriver built him up for the whole book to be a cold, calculating person. And at the end, through no medical or psychological intervention, he suddenly has regrets? He was horrible the whole novel, blinded his sister and all of a sudden he has a change of heart in the juvenile lock-up? I just groaned at that part. It would have been better if he would have stayed cold through the end. It would have left a bigger impact to have to think about him being so cold and sociopathic and to think about him getting out and going to live with his mom after that. Instead she tried to leave us with some hope that he was actually a nice kid who made a mistake...we don't always need a happy ending.

Too bad my lame sister has gone AWOL. I would have liked to hear her perspective about the book. Usually my mom and I agree on books fairly well but this time I think our opinions were very divergent. I would have liked to hear Leslie's perspective. I guess I'll have to read other online reviews!

Book Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Well my sister has pretty much dropped out of the book club. I should rename this Lindsay's Book Club. I wasn't going to write any more but I thought maybe I'd entice my lame sister back. We shall see.

I started trying to read Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls but I just couldn't get into it. It started out with epic tragedy and coming off her last book I just didn't think I could get into it. Maybe I'll try again in a few years. I requested several books from the library and was on hold for a while and then I got flooded by a ton of them at once. I prioritized my reading list by due date & by which ones couldn't be renewed. I landed on Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I had heard RAVE reviews from several people but I wasn't too sure how I'd like it. I'm not too big into fantasy or sci-fi and most places I've seen this book have categorized it as such. In addition, it's a young adult book and while I think some YA books are ok I keep thinking at some point I might grow out of this genre. However, SO many people had recommend it I thought it had a good possibility of decent and when I read some brief summaries of the book it reminded me a lot of my favorite short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson that I thought I should give it a whirl.

I am SO glad I did. This book was AWESOME. If I had to summarize it in one sentence it would be "Imagine 'The Lottery' meets Survivor and they have a baby and then you have The Hunger Games." 

First and foremost, while I can see why it's labeled fantasy/sci-fi, it is SO not typical sci-fi/fantasy. It's like the X-Men version of sci-fi/fantasy. Sure there are some things that are not realistic and far-fetched, but it's mostly grounded in reality and the things that are "unrealistic" are background mostly and don't really detract from the story. While post-apocalyptic style stories do intrigue me, I think they've been slightly overdone so I was hesitant about this aspect of the book. However, like the sci-fi/fantasy aspect, it's mostly background. It's the whole reason for the story but they do not dwell on it really. The story mostly revolves around the actual "game" itself (leading up to it, going through it and the aftermath) and that stuff was REALLY exciting and compelling. It was such a unique story I couldn't put it down. Literally. I read it in 6 hours with only bathroom and lunch breaks.

From the beginning it was hard to figure out who Katniss was. When I figured out she was a girl a while into the story (around page 14) I was a little surprised. As I read I had assumed that Katniss was a boy. This changed things a bit and made me a little more intrigued.

Besides the setting/environment, I really drew a lot of parallels with "The Lottery" at the beginning. However, after the story gets going it leaves that short story behind and moves on into a more Survivor like story but in a more serious way.

The best part of the book is the middle section once they are into the arena for the game. The preparation is interesting but I really couldn't put the book down once all of the contestants were fighting for their lives. I didn't see the "love story" coming, although it isn't misplaced or come out of nowhere but it wasn't something I predicted. It seemed very realistic and believable. Additionally, all of the struggles that the contestants had to go through in the game were also realistic and believable. Collins did a good job of creating an atmosphere of realism and I could definitely picture the setting from her words and imagery. One thing I thought was that the arena seemed bigger at the start of the game and seemed smaller by the end. Katniss journeyed forever on the first day and quite a lot on the second day but by the end it seemed like they could get anywhere in the arena in a few hours by the end. The complex emotions and personalities of the contestants was very interesting. A little Lord of the Flies but much more interesting and entertaining. The Truman Show parallels were also interesting to see. It's like Collins took some of the most interesting twists of all the above mentioned stories and wove them (very well) into this story. I don't mean to say this to make anyone think it's an old, tired story because they way she weaves it all together makes it fresh and interesting. I can just see some influences she may have had.

Although it seemed clear (to me) from the beginning that Katniss would win the game, you were still worried for her throughout the story and really rooted for her the whole time. The twist with bringing her and Peeta together was unexpected and nice. At the beginning of the game I was wondering how Collins would work that one out...although Katniss had some clear resentment towards Peeta I didn't know that she would be able to kill him unless something really drastic happened. I'm glad that the twist made that not have to happen. And because things got changed up so much throughout the story, even though Katniss winning seemed predictable, I didn't mind because the story kept changing so you were sure HOW she would win, and there was a possibility at several points that she MIGHT not win.

The one and only thing I didn't love was the ending of the book. The love story that emerged wasn't all that interesting to me, but mostly because I'm not a romance fan and particularly not in a YA novel. It would have been nice to end the book with a satisfying end rather than letting it linger, although obviously this left the end open for the subsequent books. I don't have a huge desire to continue the series, but since I got so involved with this book unexpectedly I am going to commit to the second book just in case it surprises me as well. This leads to a second tangent of something that I wasn't a HUGE fan of, although it didn't really detract from the story. Throughout the story I would forget that these "kids" were supposedly ages 12-18. They just didn't have a "teenage" voice. The characters were much more thoughtful and advanced than their supposed ages would seem. Again, their ages weren't really the point so it didn't detract from the story, but occasionally I'd reflect on it and think, no way, a 16 year old wouldn't be thinking about things like this. So it seemed a little unbelievable that they were actual young adults rather than young adult characters created by an adult author. But in terms of the overall book and story it was just a minor detail.

Overall I would suggest this book to ANYONE (over the age of 14 probably). I give it 5 Stars and would probably classify it as one of the best books I've read all year. I really, really loved it. Obviously loved it enough to write a review of it which doesn't always happen. Go get it NOW!

Final Review: Love in the Present Tense by Catherine Ryan Hyde

Well apparently my sister has dropped off the face of the Earth! I was waiting for her to do her final review of The Glass Castle, but she's too slow. She had her chance; she blew it up.

In between starting and finishing The Glass Castle we started Love in the Present Tense by Catherine Ryan Hyde. As we were moving across the country (me moving, Leslie helping) we decided we could take our book club with us on the journey! We decided to get a book on cd that we could listen to on the 3 day drive. Leslie picked this one...I'm not sure why, but maybe if she ever comes back to the book club she can say why.

We didn't start the book until late on Day 2, but once we started we were pretty hooked. We forced ourselves to take breaks and do other things in the car (sing our heads off, take naps, giggle, etc.) but we did a good job of plowing through it. However, the trip wasn't quite long enough because we only got through 4 and 1/2 of the 7 discs. It equated to about 2/3 of the book. Once I got a library card here I was able to go pick up the book and finish it in paper format.

The book on cd version was good except for the readers they chose. The voices of all the characters were SO annoying. Leslie and I couldn't stop talking about how annoying they were. Eventually we got over it enough to become absorbed in the story, but they were still annoying. After I started reading the book I could still hear their dumb voices in my head as I was reading.

I thought it was a great story overall. Very original, not something I'd ever read before. Listening to the story it was kind of hard to figure out who was telling the story and at what point in time they were doing so. It was much easier to do that with the paper version of the book. I think the back and forth of the story was the only part I didn't totally enjoy. It added to the story because if it would have just went in chronological order the story would have been very different. But it was kind of confusing.

I really liked the ending to this book. It wasn't the happiest ending, but it felt good in the end to have most of the loose ends tied up. It wasn't unrealistic, but you just felt like everyone was going to be ok. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes fiction.

Review: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

So we've been on hiatus for a hot minute. I was finishing my dissertation, we moved, Leslie was finishing her summer classes, we were both starting a new school year...and our books went by the wayside. BUT! We are back in the saddle. 

This weekend I finished The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls. 

Wow.

That story was out of control. At fist I was just so floored by the never-ending tragedies that seemed to befall her family. And then I got mad. I tried to give her parents a LOT of leeway in the beginning. I didn't want to label them "bad parents" but instead tried to really think of them as eccentric and free-spirited. But after a certain point, I really just couldn't do it anymore. They were absolutely horrid parents. My parents are fairly eccentric. Her parents were downright neglectful and abusive. And maybe my upbringing had something to do with the way I felt about her parents. My parents have always been a little on the weird side, and our family did a lot of things differently than other people. But my parents were still parents. My mom was also an artist, like Jeannette's, but unlike Jeannette's she realized that being a starving artist wasn't good for her family, and whether it was her life's dream to be an art teacher she did it because her family needed to eat (and have clothes, books, etc.). She committed to being a parent. Jeannette's mom just wanted to cry and moan about life's injustices and in the process, made her children suffer. It was just appalling. Her father was also appalling, but I think for a number of reasons I am less "shocked" by this. First of all, he's an alcoholic. Not that being an alcoholic is an excuse to be a crappy dad, but at least I can recognize that he has a disease. Secondly, he's a dad. Again, that's not an excuse to be a terrible parent, but it's less surprising when dads fall down on the job. When a mom falls down on the job it's pretty big. When my parents divorced and we lived with our dad it was pretty abnormal, and our mom was still involved with us, we just didn't live with her. So to have a mom who so clearly sucked at all things mom was pretty alarming. I was thinking about this after I finished the book and I was wondering if Jeannette's mom has an undiagnosed mental health condition. This is the only reason I can even begin to understand as to why she would behave the way she did. But maybe that's just me trying to come up with an excuse for her (like her father's disease). When Maureen loses it at the end it made me wonder if there was a history of mental illness in the family and maybe her mother was mentally ill as well. 

Overall I liked the story, but I'm not sure if I want to read another book by Jeannette Walls. At least if it has to do with her family, and especially any more stories from her childhood. This book seriously disturbed me. I woke up with bad dreams three different times last night. I hate the thought of children being abused and neglected. It makes me so sad. If you can get past the horrible neglect and abuse I would very much recommend this book.

Review: The Glass Castle

I finally started reading The Glass Castle the other day and I am glad so far. I have only read about the first 50 pages and so far it is really good. Jeanette seems like a child in a family that is very free! They are constantly on the run from bill collectors and her parents don't seem to pay much attention to rules or watching after their children closely. First Jeanette burns herself horribly and then later she falls out of the car (her parents returned for her after quite a drive!). Her father is an alcoholic - verbally abusive at times but also loving at others.

So far I haven't decided what my opinion is on her parents' upbringing - are the negligent or hippies??

New Book: The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

We've started a new book! Well at least I have. I keep asking Leslie if she has and she keeps saying no. I'm sure she'll pick it up and finish it in one day, but for now, I'm steadily reading along. We'll see how it goes!

From Amazon: "In The Glass Castle, Walls chronicles her upbringing at the hands of eccentric, nomadic parents--Rose Mary, her frustrated-artist mother, and Rex, her brilliant, alcoholic father. To call the elder Walls's childrearing style laissez faire would be putting it mildly. As Rose Mary and Rex, motivated by whims and paranoia, uprooted their kids time and again, the youngsters (Walls, her brother and two sisters) were left largely to their own devices. But while Rex and Rose Mary firmly believed children learned best from their own mistakes, they themselves never seemed to do so, repeating the same disastrous patterns that eventually landed them on the streets."

Final Review: House Rules, by Jodi Picoult

This review represents the views from Lindsay Briggs and no one else. Especially not that weirdo who posted below me.

I give House Rules four out of five silver glittery stars. I actually liked this one overall more than previous Picoult books that I've read. As mentioned by Leslie below, this one lacked a big plot twist which was a nice change, and it also lacked the "neatly tied up, everyone gets a happy ending" ending that typifies Picoult novels. This one was much more realistic than most (as in, I could actually see it happening without too much eye-rolling) and still had a good story throughout.

The reason I didn't give it five stars was due to the dumb romance of Emma & Oliver and the fact that it was pretty predictable and took a little too long to wrap all up. The last two books I've read of Picoult's seemed like her editor fell down on the job. They were longer than they needed to be and good have been edited a little better. There were two parts near the end that were almost verbatim repeats of stuff she had already written previously. That was kind of lame.

Overall I would recommend this book if you like Picoult novels OR if you would just like a light, but interesting read.

Final Review: House Rules by Jodi Picoult

This final review is the express, written review of Leslie Reed. I will not be held to the same views as my counterpart, Lindsay Briggs, nor will she be held to my (awesome) views.

I give House Rules by Jodi Picoult 4 out of 5 pink stars. Overall I was thoroughly engaged by this book. I read 3/4 of the book in one day even though I was trying to hold off for Lindsay so that we wouldn't speed through the book, but alas, I had to finish it. 

As a teacher I have had several experiences with children that have specials need. This past school year I also had a boy with Autism who was such an awesome kid. I also babysat a 1st grade boy several years ago named Jacob that had Asperger's syndrome so this book really connected with me (even with his name!).

I have read several of Picoult's books and usually she keeps you guessing but this book was a little more predictable than others, which I didn't mind too much because I didn't want Jacob to go to jail. Her endings are usually big but this one wasn't although it was a little abrupt. I couldn't give it the fifth star because it was missing just a little something. Every character had a little bit of extra something to them that made it more dramatic or unbelievable than it needed to be. But, I still enjoyed it and will continue read Jodi Picoult books.

Review: House Rules by Jodi Picoult, Asperger's & The Justice System

This review is an extension of Leslie's previous review on the trial and it has to do more generally on Jacob's autism and Picoult's characterization of his condition. I mentioned previously that I had wondered if when writing from Jacob's perspective if that was true to how people with Asperger's really think. I honestly have no idea. I do not know anyone with Asperger's or autism and actually have never really interacted with anyone with that condition either. This is not to say that I am naive in any manner. Both my sister and mother have worked in public schools as teachers for quite some time and have had experience working with kids on the spectrum. I am also a public health researcher and although my area of research is unrelated, if it has to do with health I feel like I am pretty well informed. Finally, I feel like unless you live under a rock you have at least SOME knowledge of autism. It's kind of the childhood health condition du jour. I feel like I can't go through a day without hearing about a new research study, or a commercial about autism, or even seeing a bumper sticker about autism. Which leads me to my main question related to the book...would Jacob REALLY have been treated so poorly by the justice system?

Throughout his arrest and subsequent trial I kept thinking "What's wrong with these people? Are they that dense?" I felt like all the main characters outside of Jacob's family had never even heard of autism and were acting like complete dorks about it. I mean, maybe 10 years ago the reactions to Jacob and treatment he received would have been believable, but it's hard for me to believe that in 2009 or 2010 (which is when I think the story was based) that people would react and behave the way they did! Maybe this is just my naivete or even wishful thinking; I'm really not sure. As I mentioned this is really outside of my personal experience and I really don't know how this story would have panned out in real life. Am I over-assuming how wide-spread the knowledge and awareness is on autism? Am I giving too much credit to our justice system? I really don't know.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

Review: House Rules by Jodi Picoult, The Trial

Rather the review specific chapters, I thought I would look at the trial that Jacob goes through starting with his arrest. Once Jacob understands that he needs a lawyer while being questioned by Det. Matson everything gets crazy! His mother and his new lawyer bust into the Det. office but it's too late. Jacob has said some things that seem pretty suspicious; almost a confession even.

Jacob is then sent to jail to await arraignment which doesn't go well. Once his cellmate touches him, he goes berserk, banging his head on the bars until he is finally stopped by guards and brought to a padded room. The time he spends in the padded room is told from his point of view. He describes that when he normally goes to another place to get away from it all, it's like another planet. Once he wakes up in the padded room though, he thinks he's dead until he goes through a list of question like asking himself why he would be breathing if he were dead. He gets frustrated that he can't be like everyone else and cry.

Once his mother and his lawyer find out how jail has been for him, they find a way to go back to court to request he be released. They manage to get him out which makes me wonder about real life. If this book were nonfiction, how would the real Jacob deal with staying in jail rather than being released to his home? I cannot imagine what would happen. What would inmates do? What would be his mental (or even physical) state once the actual trial started several months later? It makes me sad to think someone like that could potentially end up in jail while waiting. 

Before the actual trial finally starts, Oliver (the lawyer) manages to negotiate some accommodations to help him through the trial. He has a sensory room in the courthouse which can be access at almost any time. The trial is separated into shorter time frames and a shorter day. His mom is also allowed to sit at the bench with him although she isn't allowed to speak. These things actually allowed Jacob to have a mostly smooth trial. He had a few meltdowns but they were all triggered by things he had a lot of trouble with normally (crumpling paper, missing Crime Busters).

The whole time they are prepping for the trial and proceeding in the trial I was a little annoyed that Jacob didn't get to talk about his actions or that no one ever asked him what actually happened. I understand the whole lawyer/perjury thing but no one else asked him. Picoult put so much emphasis on how he always told the truth yet the one time he needed to say the truth, no one asked!

As the book nears the end, the jury goes into deliberation. Three or four days pass and Theo has a birthday. Jacob gives him a special gift that changes the whole trial! As the family and Oliver rush to the courthouse to stop everything I wonder again about a real life trial. Would they have convicted Jacob? The longer a jury takes, the harder I (usually) think it is to come to a decision. Of course I was glad that Jacob didn't actually commit murder but I kind of wished she would have included what happened next. The last case she included helped the outcome become a little clearer.

Review: House Rules by Jodi Picoult, Chapters (Cases) 1-3, Pages 1-146

So I am ahead of everyone else at this point in the reading. I've been trying to stay ahead because I am also working on my dissertation right now so I don't have a ton of free time on my hands & Leslie has a tendency to devote an entire day to reading and will knock a book out in under a day so if that happens I don't want to be eons behind. But in case our schedules don't jive I thought I'd write down my thoughts so far...

So I've read three chapters so far. I'm calling them chapters even though the book isn't really divided into chapters. Every once in a while Picoult will put in a "Case" that are numbered chronologically. I'm guessing these are like chapter markers? At least how I'm treating them. I am not sure why the cases are in the book--they don't have anything to do with the story (as of yet) and they are just a random one page summary of some murder case. We'll see if they have any importance later in the story.

So far I like how Picoult divides up the story from different viewpoints. I like when books show different authors speaking so you can get a different piece of the story from lots of different characters perspectives. The one thing that makes this difficult in this story is the telling of Jacob's perspective. All of the other characters are easy to relate to and there isn't so much "explaining" that is done. I feel like when she is writing from Jacob's perspective she has to do a lot of "this is how people with Asperger's think/act/behave" which makes it seem like Jacob is talking TO the reader, not like the reader is experiencing the story AS the character which is what it seems like when you are reading the other character's perspectives. I don't know how Picoult could make it better and I think she's done a good job of trying to represent the inner workings of someone with Asperger's but it's just different. Also, not really knowing anyone with Asperger's I don't know how "true" it feels. I'm excited to see how it pans out through the rest of the book.

On a sidenote related directly to Asperger's I was a little wary when Picoult went into the whole vaccine related issue (do vaccines cause Autism?). I kind of wish she'd left that out because I didn't think it was relative to the story at all. I know that people who are invested in the debate WANT to talk about it, but it's so controversial I feel like it could have been a potential distraction to the story. I know when it first came up I was ready to just skip over it because I didn't want it to taint the rest of the story. However, I must say, for bringing up the issue Picoult did as good a job as possible to try and stay balanced in the debate. I just wish she wouldn't have brought it up at all.

Another predictable (but kind of annoying) thing that I see developing is a love story between Emma and Rich. It seems like that is one pattern in all of Picoult's books. Two of the main characters, usually two who have "had it hard," end up falling in love. It's one of those stereotypical romance lines that you find in fiction geared towards women that I find distracting and lessens the quality of the story. But that's my bias. Maybe some people like to have romance in all their stories. I'm just here for the interesting part of the plot (the Asperger's storyline).

Another interesting sidenote is that this story doesn't seem to be a "ripped from the headlines" story, which tends to be a lot of Picoult's books. Maybe it is and I'm just not aware of it, but I can't recall ever seeing anything about anyone with Asperger's that may be involved with the criminal justice system. I mean, the connection with Autism being a media-related story is sort-of in line with her past story telling, but that's about it. This doesn't have much to do with my review of the book, but it was just interesting to note.

Overall I am enjoying the book. I'm curious to see what happens because it seems like, at this point, it is obvious who DIDN'T kill Jess, although the real culprit is yet to be identified. I'm only about a fourth of the way through the book so it will be interesting to see what happens as it develops and how Picoult rounds out the story because at this point it doesn't seem like 3/4 of the book could still be about this case! I'm sure she'll do a good job of twisting and turning the story until the end.

House Rules by Jodi Picoult

Lindsay and I started reading House Rules the other day as our 2nd book. Our mom also just started reading it too! Anyone else, feel free to join in!

This book is about a teenager with Asperger's Syndrome. He is really into crime scenes and the forensics side of figuring out crime. One night there is a death and because of his social awkwardness, the police department thinks that he is looking guilty. So the question is, does Jacob have anything to do with this death?

Possible Future Book Club Selections

Like I mentioned in our first post, we have very divergent tastes in books. We are going to have to do a lot of negotiating to find ones that will be mutually enjoyable or take turns picking books one of us may like more than the other.

Some ideas so far...

The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Black Boy by Richard Wright
The Almost Moon by Alice Sebold
Room by Emma Donoghue
The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard
The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Feel free to leave other ideas in the comments!

Taste

Lindsay and I have both loved to read since we first learned how to pick up a book. Our taste in books haven't quite been the same though. I will admit that I like to read some lame-ish books. I love anything by Sarah Dessen (or books that are similar: YA fiction). I also love the Harry Potter series which Lindsay claims to dislike, even though she has never read it. I also like to read mystery books and because I teach 1st grade I love children's books. 

I am however trying to broaden my horizons and read other genres or just books that have been recommended in general. Because I can read a book in a few hours, I figure that I might as well read as much as I can get my eyeballs on. So here I am, setting off into a new adventure of reading with my sister who loves to read African stories/memoirs/narratives, research studies, and various public health topics. Here's to finding common ground!

The Inagural Post of The Sister Book Club

If you are like SOME people (who think we are complete WEIRDOS) you might be wondering, why a sister book club?

Well, for one, I love reading and so does my sister.

That really should be enough, but of course, people like more than one reason generally. So, I'll also add that my sister and I are BFFs and what is better than doing some you love and having fun with your BFF?

Finally, I am moving to California in one month and this will be a fun way to stay connected to my BFF who is living in smelly old Indiana.

We are both very fast readers and provided we have the time, may be reading and discussing a lot of different books on this blog. If we get busy? Well, you'll just see less. We're pretty simple.

We already read one book (before we created this blog): Sweet Valley Confidential by Francine Pascal. If I have time and the inclination I will write a review. The short and sweet review goes like this: So much hope, and so much disappointment.

Our second book that we are starting today is House Rules by Jodi Picoult. One of the challenges of the sister book club is that we have very different tastes in books so we have to work hard to find mutually agreeable books. This was one we could agree on.

Off we go!