84, CHARING CROSS ROAD, by Helene Hanff

basically, it's 20 years of correspondence between an american woman and a british bookseller.

here's what i wrote on a friend's FB wall:
you were right!!! why, oh WHY didn't i listen to you???
"do you have this book?" "yup, here you go." 20 YEARS OF THIS!!!!! and why did that woman go to south africa and australia?? and what happened to the woman whose hub was in the RAF?? someone thought this was worth publishing?!?! and it's a "CLASSIC"?!?! well, no accounting for some people's tastes, i guess.

sigh. i liked guernsey better. although i did notice helene's tendency to write in lower case, with the occasional word in caps... that pleased me, for some reason. ;)
 
and the fact that it was a true story was actually disappointing to me. if i want to read non-fiction, i have a house full that i could read!! honestly, i thought i would like this more. i was all set to enjoy a nice little book of letters. but really, there's no story. i liked helene, the woman. she writes in lower case, rarely capitalizing anything. i appreciate that. and her sense of humour and writing style is quite similar to mine. so i really, truly, well nigh DESPERATELY wanted to enjoy this book. but i didn't. 'nuff said.

SIX WEEKS TO TOXIC by Louisa McCormack

two women in their mid-thirties (Maxi and Bess) have been best friends for 16 years. but between New Year's Day and Valentine's Day, 2000, the friendship slowly disintegrates as Maxi's luck in love and work takes a downturn, and Bess ends up with a wonderful man and her star begins to rise at work.

so that's the story. as for my opinion of the book...

worst. book. ever.

ok, not quite ever. but it was definitely the worst book i've read in quite some time. the friendship was supposed to be falling apart, and really, the only way you could really tell was when bess would say things like, "i wondered how many more 'girls' nights in' we would have." only at the very end - like in the last few days of the story - was it really evident that they weren't as tight as they once were. you would expect that a story like this would be full of tension between the two of them, but really, there wasn't much. to be honest, the only reason i kept reading the book to the end was because i was just waiting for something - anything! - to happen.

ok, during the last week, there was one incident involving Rocks, Bess' boyfriend's dog, but other than that, nothing. zilch. nada.

it seemed the author wrote with the same existential ennui that bess felt at the beginning. too bad the author couldn't shake it like Bess did. if i could sum up the book in one word, it would be meh. the coolest thing about this book was the outfits on the front cover. i should have stopped there.

SEEING ME NAKED, by Liza Palmer

it's about a young woman who feels overshadowed and intimidated by her socialite mother, and famous writer father and brother, and how she tries to break free from that pressure.

i'll admit, it took me a while to get into this book. for the longest time, i just didn't care about her character. although i did laugh early on at her brother's book reading, when someone in the audience asked his father who his literary influences were, and he replied, "lady, i named my Raskolnikov. you do the math." LOL

after a while, though, once she met Daniel Sullivan, that the writing seemed to pick up, and it was easier to get the feel of the book. until that point, she seemed stuck in some existential malaise, and so was the writer. but once she met him, everything seemed to pick up, and you can sense the tension in her as she is torn between the life she really wants and the life her family expects her to have.

all in all, not a bad book, though my life would have been just as rich having not read it.

HANA'S SUITCASE by Karen Levine

earlier this week, at bedtime, my kids and i were reading The Sneetches by Dr Seuss. we love that story. i like to use his stories to talk with the kids about lessons we can learn. based on The Sneetches, we discussed (at the levels of a 4.5-year old and 7-year-old) intolerance, discrimation, and then redemption and restoration.

the next day, i was listening to the radio, and they were discussing this book, and i was so captivated by the story that i ran out and bought it. i decided to read it to my children.

but first, i had to read it myself. (i needed to make sure it was suitable for young kids.) and i'm telling you, i bawled.

Hana was a young Czech girl who was sent to Terezin, and then Auschwitz, during the Holocaust. sadly, she did not survive.

but in March 2000, her suitcase arrived at a children's Holocaust education centre in Tokyo. on the outside of the suitcase, in white paint, was written, Hana Brady, May 16, 1931, Waisenkind (german for orphan).

this book tells the remarkable story of Hana and her experiences during the Holocaust in Nazi concentration camps, and of a young woman in Japan who was determined to learn everything she could about Hana, so that people could learn about the children's experiences during the Holocaust.

this book is heartbreaking, but also full of hope. i bawled, but not necessarily sad tears. it's said that those who don't know the past are doomed to repeat it, and i want my children to understand that this horrible part of human history CANNOT be repeated.

i highly recommend, but probably not for bedtime reading. stick to dr seuss for that. ;)


to order:
http://www.amazon.ca/Hanas-Suitcase-Karen-Levine/dp/189676455X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1257566194&sr=1-2

mmm... books...

so, i read. i love reading. in the words of hamlet, "words, words, words." love them, need them, can't get enough of them. mmm... books...

and since i've recently read a bunch of books, i want somewhere to document my literary adventures and travels through someone else's imaginings. i'd thought of getting myself one of those book journals, where you keep track of what you've read and what you thought of it and what not.

but alas, i am cheap. and broke. so buying a journal in which to write about what i've read is just not happening right now.

but blogging! i can do that for free!! so here we go. my little online booklover's journal. :)