reading: oh what a way to start the new year...

Many of my friends have been subscribing to this one book a month idea for a while now and I love it. It's the perfect goal to set for those of us who want to spend more time with the written word. It's feasible and fulfilling all at once. As with most things, I tend to be a bit of an overachiever with this one, and started out the year with two books (and one right before the holidays, too!)...

PRE-JANUARY READING: JULIET NAKED by nick hornsby -- I'll keep this short. I've always enjoyed Hornsby's writing style and Juliet certainly lives up to her predecessors (think High Fidelity, Fever Pitch, How To Be Good). Not my favorite of Nicky's books thus far, but definitely an enjoyable distraction and an easy read.


JANUARY READING: ROOM by emma donoghue

Synopsis: Five-year-old Jack and his Ma live and eat and play and sleep in one room--an 11×11-foot space that is their prison--captives of the terrifying man Jack calls Old Nick. But as Jack grows older and more curious, it becomes clear that the room will not be able to hold him and Ma forever.

I loved this book. I devoured this book. And it found a home in me, which is really rare. I read ROOM on my way home from the holiday break, right after New Years Day. And by the time that I had lifted off in Knoxville, sprinted through DFW and touched back down in rainy Los Angeles, I was completely changed by Jack and Ma. In all its haunting difficulty, ROOM had seeped in and paralyzed me with its heartbreaking story. The realities of kidnap, sexual enslavement and forced imprisonment that the book presents are enough to sober up any day, but when told through the lens of 5 year-old Jack's limited understanding, the story takes on a deeper hurt. It took me a long time to come out of this one and I even found it hard to interact with people for a while after reading it. I'm typically the quiet girl with her nose desperately buried in the book so that I don't have to talk to my fellow passengers, but this time was different -- more intense. And when my friend Matt picked me up from the airport and I heart my own voice for the first time since I'd pushed through the pages, it was almost startling to realize that I was no longer inside ROOM. Still, I highly recommend this book to anyone that feels up to the emotional challenge.


JANUARY READING: THE MEMORY KEEPER'S DAUGHTER by kim edwards

Synopsis: Dr. David Henry is forced by a blizzard to deliver his own twins. His son, born first, is perfectly healthy. Yet when his daughter is born, he sees immediately that she has Down's syndrome. Rationalizing it as a need to protect Norah, his wife, he makes a split second decision that will alter of their lives forever.

I, like the rest of the female public, had been hearing about this book for months and months. I finally decided to give it a shot when I found it for uber cheap at my all-time favorite book store -- McKays over the break. While it was certainly a dramatic and interesting storyline, I could have done without the indulgent play-by-play of the children's lives. I found myself wishing that several of the years had been omitted entirely. There were too many unnecessary storylines and the character development was hard to follow at times because of the distracting nonessentials. Still, it's easy to see why it was such a big seller in bookstores around the country. It's constant drama -- just when you think that these two families couldn't be more overwhelmed by the cards that life has dealt them, another affair emerges from the shadows or another angsty teenage crisis makes you relish the easy life you lead. It's the stuff of housewives' wet dreams. Can't say that I would revisit it, but I also won't say that I'm not patiently waiting for the oversimplified Hollywood adaptation to make its big debut. It's only a matter of time...