52 Book Challenge: Stones from the River

Well welcome to a dose of reality. I sincerly love the variety of the books I read. Keeps things entertaining. And boy, this book was a great read. So real. So blunt. Not sugar coated but not overexaggerated at all. It made you understand (if you don't already) how it feels to be different. But beyond that - so much further beyond that - it really put into perspective the reality of World War Two and the Holocaust from a German perspective. Absolutely fascinating and very emotional.

The author was just outright honest. Gestapo came into people's homes. Gestapo beat Jews in the streets. People actually believed Hitler was going to liberate them. This was how it was. No gore, no exaggerating, no glossing it over. Just pure this is what happened and this is how it was dealt with.

Stones from the River follows a dwarfed woman named Trudi from her birth to her late adulthood. It explores her relationship with people in her town and her coming to terms with her difference. Spanning from World War One through World War Two in a small German town, Trudi offers insight into all of the characters living in her neighborhood and how they each coped with her, with their secrets and with the war. She got into the psychological issues each person deals with through her ability to make herself seem innocent and allow people to divulge their secrets to her. She comes to discover that each person has something that sets them apart from the other, although it may not be as visible as her own.

She explores the nuances in people's attitudes toward Hitler and the extermination of their Jewish neighbors who at one time were close friends and suddenly in some townspeople's eyes were the enemy. Then she notes the denial of the Hitler believer's behavior after the war is over so that they avoid persecution.

The entire book is incredibly insightful. It seems like it is long when you look at it but the read goes by quickly because there is such variety in the characters. It mainly revolves around Trudi but it also goes into the lives of everyone in the town. If you are interested in the Holocaust from a German perspective or just looking for a good read (kind of similar to Our Town but much more detailed) Stones from the River is the book for you.

52 Book Challenge - Book Eleven: Safe Haven

Of course you know that when books starting getting too serious and thought provoking, we always have Nicholas Sparks to turn to. In my time of need after my previous read that questioned love I felt it necessary to reassure myself that unconditional, unrealistic and heroic love do indeed exist by turning to the tried and true classic formula love story.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

While some people get bored, even exhasperated with the formula love story, I eat it up like apple pie ala mode. It is the guilty pleasure of my reading experience. In fact, I enjoy it so much I usually read some kind of gooshy book at least once per month.

And do you know why? Because life is too damn full of negative. At least these characters have a positive outcome in the end. So love on Nicholas Sparks characters! True love does exist. Love conquers all evil. Love is patient, love is kind. Etc, etc.

The story is about a woman introduced to us as Katie. She is hiding something and we do not know at first but she is starting over in a small southern town. We come to learn she is running from an abusive husband. While starting over, she meets Alex, a store owner in town with two children whose wife has passed away from a terminal illness. Alex and Katie inevitably fall in love and are initially brought together by Katie's compassion for his children.

The budding relationship between the two is juxtaposed with flashbacks of the past and how Katie (whose real name is Erin) ended up in town. Eventually we gain the perspective of both Katie and the abusive husband she has left behind. While she is moving on with her life and finally gaining courage to stop feeling followed, he is on the desperate hunt for her. And did I mention, of course, he is a cop.

Inevitably, the husband finds Katie and comes to get her. Let's not ruin his psychopathic rampage by going into description here ... that part is half the fun (the other half being unconditional love). To top it off there is also a supernatural twist (oh yea, it goes there and I LOVE all over it). In the end ... well I'm sure you can guess what happens ...

Nicholas Sparks = Fairytales for adult princesses

52 Book Challenge - Book Ten: The Marriage Plot

The title of this book implies something a little fluffy. Maybe a story about roping a man into marrying you or searching for "the one". Well don't let it fool you. Like Middlesex (another book written by this author) this book is full of dark undertones while telling the story of complex characters with real life struggles. Except their struggles are the types of struggles no one discusses, which makes this peek into what is going on behind closed doors even more enticing, and offers some relief (at least for me).

The Marriage Plot explores a complex relationship between three main characters who begin as graduating seniors with an abundance of intelligence and diplomas from Brown. But if you think in the beginning of the book that this is another story about wealthy intellectuals who have it all, you are sorely mistaken. Not only does it explore the issues faced by being stuck in between childhood and adulthood, but it also makes an interesting commentary on love and commitment as a whole.

Madeline  is a co-dependent woman with no real direction for the future of her life except for to take care of her bipolar boyfriend Leonard. He is literally bipolar and she literally feels obligated to stay with him in spite of all of the messed up scenarious he puts her through. The reader is a fly on the wall through their disfunctional relationship.

In the background of the Madeline / Leonard relationship is Madeline's friend, Mitchell, who is a religious studies guru in hopeless love and hopless resentment of Madeline and Leonard respectively. Mitchell also has not much of a direction in life and hopes to wait out the current recession by travelling around Europe and India.

The story of their relationships devlops based on their character flaws rather than their character attributes. However, I found myself relating to many of the feelings Madeline has towards Leonard and towards life and the future in general. I even found myself relating to Leonard at times (which could say something about me). As I have said before, I appreciate a book that allows me to feel for the characters. I especially appreciate a book that examines the real, flawed side of humanity.

The Marriage Plot intertwines all of these attributes and is puncuated by well written prose which include a lovely use of vocabulary. I can see why this book was reccomended by magazines and other readers.

52 Book Challenge - Book Nine: Home Front

Yes, I am already posting another book I finished. And do you know why? Because it was the best. book. ever. No exaggeration. I could not put it down, nor could I stop crying at it.

This author (Kristin Hannah) wrote another book I read called Night Road - also a fabulous book - so you can imagine how excited I was when I was handed this  newbook by my boss (his wife is an avid reader, a perk of the job). I immediately started Home Front knowing it was going to be good but I was not prepared for amazing, emotional, heart wrenching and all those other adjectives that make for an awesome read.

Well I got prepared. By page twenty I actually gave a shit about the characters, by page fifty I felt for the characters, by page one hundred I practically WAS the characters. That is how much I cared. I cared enough to cry not once, not twice, but probably over three times. Actually it was probably the vast majority of the second half of the book, which took me two hours to read.

I have not read a book I felt so emotionally involved in since The Notebook (before it was a movie and everyone was obsessed with it thankyouverymuch). This is a MUST read. This book is so much more than a sappy story, in fact it isn't sappy at all. It is real life. Read it.

I refuse to tell you the entire plot since I feel so strongly you should read it I do not want to give anything away. I will set the tone for you though, since you should have an idea of what it is about. There is a family, the woman is a helicopter pilot for the army, the children are four and twelve, the father is emotionally disengaged and the mother is a perfectionist ... this is how it begins. Then the mother is deployed.

Read the damn book for more.
You will not be let down.

52 Book Challenge - Book Eight: Jewel

This was one of those "slice of life" books. The writing was absolutely beautiful but the story wasn't the exciting page-turning pop-fiction most readers are used to. Luckily, I am not most readers and I am used to symbolism and messages in literature (thanks to being a devoted English major).

The story was really about family and the trials and tribulations you go through in different stages of life. It also focused on the main character (Jewel) and her relationship with God. Much of the message in the book was based on the age-old question of whether or not to maintain faith in God during the toughest times. Additionally it was a message about how you react to chllenges with your life and how all of the peices fit together.

To be honest, I enjoyed it for the fact alone that Jewel was faced with quite a few challenges (the primary being a mentally handicapped child) and she powered through them. Now many books obviously have characters that do this but in THIS book, the challenges were REAL. You could actually imagine yourself having the feelings and anxiety and questioning of faith that Jewel goes through. It definitely created well-rounded characters and easily imaged scense and feelings.

52 Book Challenge - Week Four (and part of Five) - Books Five, Six & Seven: The Hunger Games Trilogy

I honestly don't even want to give you a synopsis of these books because it would ruin them for you. They are that good that you should read them yourselves. The creativity, thought and intelligence that went into the books coupled with the great story telling makes them impossible to put down. I obviously back to back read the books. THREE books in ONE week.

Not only did I love the books but I also loved the Kindle I was reading them on so now I am joining the forces of traitors and getting an e-reader. Fear not, I will never abandon the written, printed word. I just love to read so much I would read off of any medium!

Anyway, back to the books. These are worth BUYING and one thing I don't do is buy things I can get for free. But if you can't get them for free, get them anyway. Beg, borrow and steal for them because they are THAT enjoyable. And if it turns out you follow my instructions and hate the books, don't blame me.

For anyone who thought that toilet paper they call Twilight was good, you don't know what a true book series is made of. Never since Harry Potter have I read such an enjoyable set of books with a strong female character, an interesting message, twists, turns and emotions all at once. Amazing. Absolutely amazing. My compliments to the author.

Oh and a movie is coming out. It better be good. But books are always better than the movie anyway ...

52 Book Challenge - Week Three - Book Four: When You Were Mine

This book is one of those stories that could have been told better in two hundred pages than the three hundred and thirty it was stretched out to. I would have felt much more interested in the characters were there to be less delay in the telling of the story with some meaningless details. I wanted so badly to feel for the characters in this book and I came close at times but I never really cared enough. To me, that makes it miss the mark a bit. Toward the end of the book it began to move a bit faster but by then it was too little, too late. I say Nicholas Sparks should steal the story premise and make the characters people I care about.

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The story is about a woman named Susie who is in a loveless relationship where her partner does not want to commit and his kids don't care about her. At her brother's wedding as she is revealing her dissatisfaction with her life, she runs into Rob, her high school sweetheart. They say hi and then leave one another. Susie still thinks about Rob while they are seperated and the tale of their past relationship and how she cheated on him is recapped.

Meanwhile, Susie's best friend since childhood, Amelia, gets a cancer diagnosis. Susie now must be supportive for Amelia while struggling with her own relationships. Admist this, Rob contacts Susie and they begin to see one another for coffee. One thing leads to another and they end up hooking up. Problem is, Rob just got married to a woman named Helena and Susie is in a relationship. But they claim it is true love.

Susie keeps the whole relationship a secret even from Amelia. But Amelia knows something is up and they get in an argument over Susie's behavior and stop speaking for a bit. Meanwhile, Rob and Susie keep their affair going on and end up sleeping together. Susie finally gains enough courage to leave her boyfriend and expects Rob will do the same with his wife. The thing is, Rob's wife is in the service and she gets injured. After she comes home with no leg, Rob realizes how much he has to be there for her and cannot be with Susie.

Susie is devestated but in the end it turns out Amelia is there for her. Amelia's cancer has gone into remission and both happy and healthy she reassures Susie that she has much to offer the world. The End.

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Like I said, the story could be so emotional and touching if you connect with the characters but I just couldn't connect. When I did connect slightly it was usually to think that Susie was a moron and she deserved what she got for being a homewrecker. I didn't see it from the touching, romantic viewpoint it was supposed to be coming from. In that regard, it just fell short.