The Hiding Place by David Bell

**I received this book as an Advanced Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way affects what I have to say about the book**

Goodreads Summary:

Twenty-five-years ago, the disappearance of four-year-old Justin Manning rocked the small town of Dove Point, Ohio. After his body was found in a shallow grave in the woods two months later, the repercussions were felt for years.… Janet Manning has been haunted by the murder since the day she lost sight of her brother in the park. Now, with the twenty-fifth anniversary of Justin’s death looming, a detective and a newspaper reporter have started to ask questions, opening old wounds and raising new suspicions. Could the man convicted of the murder—who spent more than two decades in prison—really be innocent? Janet’s childhood friend and high school crush, who was in the park with her that day, has returned to Dove Point, where he is wrestling with his own conflicted memories of the events. And a strange man appears at Janet’s door in the middle of the night, claiming to know the truth. Soon, years of deceit will be swept away, and the truth about what happened to Janet’s brother will be revealed. And the answers that Janet has sought may be found much closer to home than she ever could have imagined.

My Thoughts: **SPOILER ALERT**

I am not a huge fan of the mystery genre, but that being said I liked this book. I felt the character development was top notch. I never once questioned why a character was doing what they were doing. I find that kind of character development as a dying art form so Kudos to David Bell. My only complaint about this book is Janet never gets a break. Janet has hope for a second in this book that her brother isn't really dead, he is. Then on top of that, Michael, Janet's best friend and life long crush is the one who actually killed her little brother. While this book was well written it was incredibly sad and Janet never got even a moment of happiness, I have a hard time reading a book without even one happy moment for the main character. I did have a hard time putting this book down every night while reading it. I was captured by the word usage and the picture that David Bell painted.

This has made me pick up David Bell's other book Cemetery Girl from the library. I just hope there is at least a hint of happy in that book.

I recommend this book to mystery lovers and those who are lukewarm on mysteries. This is a genuinely good read, just be prepared there is not a happy ending.

While writing this review I was listening to Ciara.

Excuse the Politics...

As most of you guys know I am not a rich kid. Many would say I am down right poor, but I am not too poor to help out a couple organizations I really believe in. I donate $5 dollars a month to KUER (for public radio, yes, I am an NPR listener), $5 a month to Planned Parenthood (without them I would never have had access to health care for the 5+ years I didn't have insurance), and $10 a month to Equality Utah (I love and support the LGBT community). 

So what? Who Cares? Well the thing is kids if my broke ass can give up my latte money every month to help support things I really care about then so can you. I am not even close to suggesting that you support the same organizations that I do. I have been hearing a lot of discontent about the state of the world lately, this is one way to help. If I had the time to volunteer you bet your ass I would. If you have time to volunteer I am absolutely suggesting that you should.

I get that things are looking pretty grim lately. We have a crap economy, we have high unemployment, we have people who thump podiums with hate filled speeches, and we have non doctors trying to enforce medical decisions. The worst of it all is the whole world is in turmoil, not just America. So much hate is getting thrown around it is hard to see the bright side in anything. I can't turn a page in the New York Times without reading about some conflict that stems from hate. 

For me, donating to the organizations I have already mentioned has helped me feel a little light coming through. Getting involved in my community has always been something that has made me feel better. The older I get, the more I think that voting is not enough. That isn't to suggest that I don't think you should vote, I am a huge fan of voting (in Utah if you aren't registered go to vote.utah.gov and get registered). I just think with so much grumpgrump in the air it would be nice if we could all be a little more active in our worlds to make it a better place. It seems like everyone has a gripe, then why not do something to off set it? In my own state the local NBC affiliate decided to not air The New Normal because they didn't think a show about a gay family was appropriate for prime time when straight families will be watching tv. This ticked me off, it was also the same day that I started my monthly donations to Equality Utah. Nationwide, including my state, women's rights to reproductive choice have come under attack. I started donating to Planned Parenthood. I love NPR and the local radio programming like Radio West. I donate to them for being a bright light or at the very least an informative light in my day. 

Yeah yeah I am an idealist, I think that the world can change and be a better place. I am still naive enough to think that what I do matters, so I better do things that improve not destroy. I just can't help it. I really do think that if we all did our part things could get matter. Let's stop polarized politics and start active participation in our communities.

I will get down off my soap box now. :)

Diary of a Mad Fat Girl by Stephanie McAffee

Goodreads Summary:

Graciela "Ace" Jones is mad-mad at her best friend Lilly who cancels their annual trip to Panama City for mysterious reasons; at her boss Catherine for "riding her ass like a fat lady on a Rascal scooter;" at her friend Chloe's abusive husband; and especially at Mason McKenzie, the love of her life, who has shown up with a marriage proposal three years too late. Ace is never mad, though, at her near-constant companion, an adorable chiweenie dog named Buster Loo. Ace's anger begins to dissipate as she takes matters into her own hands to take down Chloe's philandering husband-and to get to the bottom of a multitude of other scandals plaguing Bugtussle, Mississippi. Then, she starts to realize that maybe Mason deserves a second chance after all. With a sharp and distinctive voice, Stephanie McAfee delivers a hilarious and fast-paced tale about Ace Jones and her two best friends-thick as thieves and tough as nails-navigating Southern small-town politics and prejudices, finding love, and standing up for each other all the way.

My Thoughts:

I listened to this one over the course of a week. I really enjoyed the narrator Cassandra Campbell's use of tone. The story was one of your average Pink Book. Ace is getting chunky, she loves a dude but things don't really work there, and her professional life is unsatisfying. I suppose there is a reason for this formula for pink books. I liked the book. I liked that Ace has some serious attitude. I just don't like how predictable chick lit is. I want a little more than what I get. I don't want the same story over and over again with just basic details changed.

That isn't to say I didn't like the writing and there wasn't anything new to this book. There were parts that were pretty unique that I enjoyed quite a bit. I like the old rich lady who comes into the book half way through and I liked the drag store bits. I liked that Ace wasn't afraid to make an ass out of herself. I loved Ace's dog Buster Loo, so very cute. 

I would recommend this book to Pink Book readers but that is probably as far as I would suggest it. I don't think this book translates to the masses.

While writing this review I was listening to a political speech from one of the candidates for President.

Knit The Season by Kate Jacobs

Goodreads Summary:

Knit the Season is a loving, moving, laugh-out-loud celebration of special times with friends and family. The story begins a year after the end of Knit Two, with Dakota Walker's trip to spend the Christmas holidays with her Gran in Scotland-accompanied by her father, her grandparents, and her mother's best friend, Catherine. Together, they share a trove of happy memories about Christmases past with Dakota's mom, Georgia Walker-from Georgia's childhood to her blissful time as a doting new mom. From Thanksgiving through Hanuk­kah and Christmas to New Year's, Knit the Season is a novel about the richness of family bonds and the joys of friendship.

My Thoughts:

I think I liked this book the best out of all three in the series. I actually cried a few times, which doesn't happen all that often with books. I really think the writing and character development took a step up in this book. I liked watching Dakota grow up and come into her own voice and stop whining so much about things and just do what needed to be done. I liked that each member of the Friday Night Knitting Club found some kind of peace or love. It was over the top sweet, but sometimes you just need that kind of happy ending book.

I don't know if Kate Jacobs is planning on writing another book for this series, in some ways I hope she doesn't just because I liked this one so much. I only wish that I had waited for the holiday season to read it. I am craving Thanksgiving dinner and looking forward to a quiet Christmas with my husband. I think he and I both decided to avoid our families this year and just enjoy time together. Oddly, this book talking so much about family time made me even less inclined than normal to spend time with family. 

I would recommend this to fans of the series or Kate Jacobs. This is definitely what some would call a Christmas read so I wouldn't read it until the season. 

While writing this review I was listening to Beethoven.

All MarindaRue - Rory Gilmore Read List

I love the TV show the Gilmore Girls. I own it on DVD and re-watch the whole series at least once a year. Recently, I ran across a Rory Gilmore Reading List on Goodreads and thought I would start ticking away at
the books on the list.

Here is the complete list, books I have already read and do not intend to re-read I have marked. Some of these books are worth re-reading so I won't mark them so don't be shocked if you see something unmarked that I have previously mentioned.

1984 by George Orwell
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll 
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
Archidamian War by Donald Kagan
The Art of Fiction by Henry James
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
Atonement by Ian McEwan
Autobiography of a Face by Lucy Grealy
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
Babe by Dick King-Smith
Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women by Susan Faludi
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Beowulf: A New Verse Translation by Seamus Heaney
The Bhagava Gita
The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews by Peter Duffy
Bitch in Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
A Bolt from the Blue and Other Essays by Mary McCarthy
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
Bridgadoon by Alan Jay Lerner
Candide by Voltaire
The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer
Carrie by Stephen King
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
The Children’s Hour by Lillian Hellman
Christine by Stephen King
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dicken
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse
The Collected Short Stories by Eudora Welty
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty
A Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
Complete Novels by Dawn Powell
The Complete Poems by Anne Sexton
Complete Stories by Dorothy Parker
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas père
Cousin Bette by Honor’e de Balzac
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber – started and not finished
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Cujo by Stephen King
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon – read – 2009
Daisy Miller by Henry James
Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende
David and Lisa by Dr Theodore Issac Rubin M.D
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
The Da Vinci -Code by Dan Brown
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol
Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller
Deenie by Judy Blume
The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson
The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Tommy Lee, Vince Neil, Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx
The Divine Comedy by Dante
The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
Don Quijote by Cervantes
Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhrv
Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Edgar Allan Poe: Complete Tales & Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook
The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn
Eloise by Kay Thompson
Emily the Strange by Roger Reger
Emma by Jane Austen 
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald J. Sobol
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Ethics by Spinoza
Europe through the Back Door, 2003 by Rick Steves
Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Extravagance by Gary Krist
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury – started and not finished
Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore
The Fall of the Athenian Empire by Donald Kagan
Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
The Fellowship of the Ring: Book 1 of The Lord of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien
Fiddler on the Roof by Joseph Stein
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Finnegan’s Wake by James Joyce
Fletch by Gregory McDonald
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger
Freaky Friday by Mary Rodgers
Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut
Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
George W. Bushism: The Slate Book of the Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President by Jacob Weisberg
Gidget by Fredrick Kohner
Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
The Godfather: Book 1 by Mario Puzo
The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Alvin Granowsky
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Good Soldier by Ford Maddox Ford
The Gospel According to Judy Bloom
The Graduate by Charles Webb
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The Group by Mary McCarthy
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling 
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi and Curt Gentry
Henry IV, part I by William Shakespeare
Henry IV, part II by William Shakespeare
Henry V by William Shakespeare
High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
Holidays on Ice: Stories by David Sedaris
The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton
House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
How the Light Gets in by M. J. Hyland
Howl by Allen Gingsburg
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
The Iliad by Homer
I’m with the Band by Pamela des Barres
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Inherit the Wind by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
Iron Weed by William J. Kennedy
It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
The Jumping Frog by Mark Twain
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair
Just a Couple of Days by Tony Vigorito
The Kitchen Boy: A Novel of the Last Tsar by Robert Alexander
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Lady Chatterleys’ Lover by D. H. Lawrence
The Last Empire: Essays 1992-2000 by Gore Vidal
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield
Less Than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis
Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them by Al Franken
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Little Locksmith by Katharine Butler Hathaway
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Living History by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
The Lottery: And Other Stories by Shirley Jackson
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold 
The Love Story by Erich Segal
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Marathon Man by William Goldman
The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman by William Tecumseh Sherman
Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
The Meaning of Consuelo by Judith Ortiz Cofer
Mencken’s Chrestomathy by H. R. Mencken
The Merry Wives of Windsro by William Shakespeare
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Mojo Collection: The Ultimate Music Companion by Jim Irvin
Moliere: A Biography by Hobart Chatfield Taylor
A Monetary History of the United States by Milton Friedman
Monsieur Proust by Celeste Albaret
A Month Of Sundays: Searching For The Spirit And My Sister by Julie Mars
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall
My Lai 4: A Report on the Massacre and It’s Aftermath by Seymour M. Hersh
My Life as Author and Editor by H. R. Mencken
My Life in Orange: Growing Up with the Guru by Tim Guest
My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
Nervous System: Or, Losing My Mind in Literature by Jan Lars Jensen
New Poems of Emily Dickinson by Emily Dickinson
The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay
Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich
Night by Elie Wiesel
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism by William E. Cain, Laurie A. Finke, Barbara E. Johnson, John P. McGowan
Novels 1930-1942: Dance Night/Come Back to Sorrento, Turn, Magic Wheel/Angels on Toast/A Time to be Born by Dawn Powell
Notes of a Dirty Old Man by Charles Bukowski
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Old School by Tobias Wolff
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life by Amy Tan
Oracle Night by Paul Auster
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Othello by Shakespeare 
Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens
The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan
Out of Africa by Isac Dineson
The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
A Passage to India by E.M. Forster
The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition by Donald Kagan
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Peyton Place by Grace Metalious
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Pigs at the Trough by Arianna Huffington
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
The Polysyllabic Spree by Nick Hornby
The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
The Portable Nietzche by Fredrich Nietzche
The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O’Neill by Ron Suskind
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 
Property by Valerie Martin
Pushkin: A Biography by T. J. Binyon
Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw
Quattrocento by James Mckean
A Quiet Storm by Rachel Howzell Hall
Rapunzel by Grimm Brothers
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Rescuing Patty Hearst: Memories From a Decade Gone Mad by Virginia Holman
The Return of the King: The Lord of the Rings Book 3 by J. R. R. Tolkien
R Is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton
Rita Hayworth by Stephen King
Robert’s Rules of Order by Henry Robert
Roman Fever by Edith Wharton
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster
Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
Sacred Time by Ursula Hegi
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
Savage Beauty: The Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Milford
The Scarecrow of Oz by Frank L. Baum
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd 
Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman
Selected Letters of Dawn Powell: 1913-1965 by Dawn Powell
Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Several Biographies of Winston Churchill
Sexus by Henry Miller
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Shane by Jack Shaefer
The Shining by Stephen King
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
S Is for Silence by Sue Grafton
Slaughter-house Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Small Island by Andrea Levy
Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway
Snow White and Rose Red by Grimm Brothers
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World by Barrington Moore
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht
Song of the Simple Truth: The Complete Poems of Julia de Burgos by Julia de Burgos
The Song Reader by Lisa Tucker
Songbook by Nick Hornby
The Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Sonnets from the Portuegese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sophie’s Choice by William Styron
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Speak, Memory by Vladimir Nabokov
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
A Streetcar Named Desiree by Tennessee Williams
Stuart Little by E. B. White
Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust
Swimming with Giants: My Encounters with Whales, Dolphins and Seals by Anne Collett
Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Term of Endearment by Larry McMurtry
Time and Again by Jack Finney
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
The Trial by Franz Kafka
The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson
Truth & Beauty: A Friendship by Ann Patchett
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 by Sylvia Plath
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Unless by Carol Shields
Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
The Vanishing Newspaper by Philip Meyers
Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
Velvet Underground’s The Velvet Underground and Nico (Thirty Three and a Third series) by Joe Harvard
The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
Walden by Henry David Thoreau
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
We Owe You Nothing – Punk Planet: The Collected Interviews edited by Daniel Sinker
What Colour is Your Parachute? 2005 by Richard Nelson Bolles
What Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell
When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Who Moved My Cheese? Spencer Johnson
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf by Edward Albee
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
The Wizard of Oz by Frank L. Baum
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

Perfect by Ellen Hopkins

Goodreads Summary:

Everyone has something, someone, somewhere else that they’d rather be. For four high-school seniors, their goals of perfection are just as different as the paths they take to get there. Cara’s parents’ unrealistic expectations have already sent her twin brother Conner spiraling toward suicide. For her, perfect means rejecting their ideals to take a chance on a new kind of love. Kendra covets the perfect face and body—no matter what surgeries and drugs she needs to get there. To score his perfect home run—on the field and off—Sean will sacrifice more than he can ever win back. And Andre realizes that to follow his heart and achieve his perfect performance, he’ll be living a life his ancestors would never have understood.

Everyone wants to be perfect, but when perfection loses its meaning, how far will you go? What would you give up to be perfect?

A riveting and startling companion to the bestselling Impulse, Ellen Hopkins's Perfect exposes the harsh truths about what it takes to grow up and grow into our own skins, our own selves.

My Thoughts:

I read this book a while ago and wrote a review but never posted it. I wanted to think about it for a while before posting. This book, like Impulse before it, is written in poetry story telling. I loved reading a story written in this way. It brings be back to the way that I personally tell stories. This book has overlap with the first book in the series but not in the normal way. We are dealing with all new characters during the same time frame as the first book. Conner from Impulse gives us time markers through two of the new characters, Kendra and Cara. 

I had a really hard time with Kendra. She reminded me of girls I dealt with at a job I once had. I worked in a  treatment center for troubled girls. Some of these girls had eating disorders. I remember having to watch them chew and swallow each bite of every meal. I had to stand next to the bathroom while they used it to listen for purging and other behavior that could harm them. It broke my heart to see so many young girls destroying themselves in the goal to be the perfect weight, to attain the perfect look. I didn't work in the treatment center for very long. Those girls really did break my heart and eventually I had to admit I wasn't strong enough to deal with it every day. Throughout the course of the book Kendra's eating issues increase and soon she is so thin she looks emaciated.Needless to say the eating disorder sections of this book hit home for me and I cried more than once. I heard more than one girl have the same thoughts as Kendra. I hate what we as a society have done to women to make them think they have to starve themselves and constantly move all for fear of having a belly, curves, and any softness to their frame.

Over all I liked this book, it was not a light read (neither was Impulse) and I wouldn't say it had any moments that really inspired me. The only criticism I have is that it didn't ever lift me back up after it dropped me really low. I fully understand that was kind of the point, but at the same time, when you have so many people in pain it would be nice to be able to at least hope for these people. I was left with no hope and that is, again, really hard to read and handle. Ellen Hopkins ended her book with some facts about eating disorders and such, but had she left any hope at all for her characters it would have had more impact to read the stats and how to help prevent these things from happening to other people. Don't get me wrong, I have a high tolerance for doom and gloom, I just need a pinch of light to balance it all.

I recommend this book to fans of Ellen Hopkins. I would not suggest this read if you are at all in a grim place yourself.

While writing this review I was listening to Sara Bareilles.

Knit Two by Kate Jacobs

Goodreads Summary:

The sequel to the number-one New York Times bestseller The Friday Night Knitting Club, KNIT TWO returns to Walker and Daughter, the Manhattan knitting store founded by Georgia Walker and her young daughter, Dakota. Dakota is now an eighteen-year-old freshman at NYU, running the little yarn shop part-time with help from the members of the Friday Night Knitting Club.

Drawn together by the sense of family the club has created, the knitters rely on one another as they struggle with new challenges: for Catherine, finding love after divorce; for Darwin, the hope for a family; for Lucie, being both a single mom and a caregiver for her elderly mother; and for seventy something Anita, a proposal of marriage from her sweetheart, Marty, that provokes the objections of her grown children.

As the club's projects - an afghan, baby booties, a wedding coat - are pieced together, so is their understanding of the patterns underlying the stresses and joys of being mother, wife, daughter, and friend. Because it isn't the difficulty of the garment that makes you a great knitter: it's the care and attention you bring to the craft - as well as how you adapt to surprises.

My Thoughts;

Sometimes when I read a book I can feel it lifting me up a little bit, in ways that it probably wouldn't if I was in a different place in my life reading the same book. When I picked this sequel up I was in the need of female energy and down time. This book isn't a masterpiece but it really was what I needed when I read it. I like all the different female voices that are in this book. It is hard to be a woman and know what that means when you have everyone else telling you their opinion. Growing up is hard and I don't think that process ever stops. This book points out that just because you have reached a certain age doesn't mean you have all the answers and everything is suddenly easy. I didn't love this book as much as the first but it is worth the read.

Also I would like to say this book makes me want to pick up my crocheting that has been sitting around for months. I hope I can find time throughout the semester to catch up a little on some projects. I always think about when my Mother taught me how to crochet when I read the knitting books. It was frustrating when I was young but now it is incredibly relaxing to feel the yarn glide through my fingers. I love watching something come to life. Recently, I finished a project for my older brother who lives in the Emerald City. It was really cool to see something I made on his bed. I have also made things for my other older brother in Bean Town. Not everyone has a little sister who is handy with a crochet hook, I hope they know that. ;)

I would recommend this book to fans of Kate Jacobs and anyone in the need of an uplifting read about real-ish people.

While writing this review I was listening to an NPR interview with George Takei about his time in a Japanese interment camp as a child. You can listen to it here George Takei