Welcome to the Class of 2012. Working in a school setting has been pretty fun. Pretty frustrating, but pretty fun. And if you've ever worked a school, if you've ever taught - a school class, a sunday school class, any group with a bunch of kids really - then you know there are always "those kids." The ones that fit the "the one that ..." stereotypes. Well, since that's been my world this year, I figured I'd make my annual book review a "yearbook" of sorts. So let's look back at this year in books - all the "the ones" that I read.
The Last Letter From Your Lover
By Jojo Moyes
(The one who does just what you need him to, right when you need him to )This book was the kid in class that exactly met my reading needs and expectations, right when I needed it to. Gotta love that kiddo! I found this book on a list from a book club that a few friends of mine are a part of (they kindly passed me their book lists from years past). I needed something to occupy my attention while I finished up all my Christmas crafts and baking. So when I saw this was an unresolved love story, I figured why not. The story starts in the 1950s/60s in England. An affair begins between a man and woman - the woman's husband is cold and has very rigid, traditional expectations of her, while the lover wants her to be her own person. The love affair is conducted largely through letters, and after a long series of a events and after the author gets you totally wrapped up in their love, that portion of the story stops with the ending to the love affair slightly unresolved. The story jumps ahead to 2003 (I think .. sometime in the early 2000s). A young journalist who is having a sort of pitiful love affair of her own finds the last letter sent from the lover asking the woman to leave her husband and run away with him. She begins her mission to find out what happened to the 2 lovers ... now tell me that isn't the perfect story to get wrapped up in mindlessly while crafting and baking?? (I was listening to the audiobook, if you're wondering how I am so talented to bake, craft and read all at once).
The End of Your Life Book Club
By Will Schwalbe
(The one that makes you want to be a better person)
Yep, there’s always that kid and there’s always that book. This book is a memoir ... I guess?? It’s a true account of a son and his mom. The mother is diagnosed with Stage 4 terminal pancreatic cancer, and she and the son begin reading and discussing books (and life) together as he accompanies her to her doctors appointments and chemo treatments. Reading this book hit home so very much because of our similar situation with Roger. So the topic is still fresh. At first I was a little hesitant to like the book because it isn’t the “just for fun” reading I was really looking for when I got it. But as I got to know the people more, I just loved it. The mom, Mary Anne, is just this amazing person who makes me want to be better, do more, and hold back less. And I don’t think she is just that way because she is dying. This is a book that I really think anyone and everyone should read because it is so true to expressing the emotions and contradictions that family members go through when someone they hold so dearly is dying and they are trying to figure out what to do with the time they have left. There were so many times reading it that I thought, “Yes! That is exactly what that feeling is ... what a perfect way to put it into words” or “What a good way to approach that situation.” I think it hit home with me because of Roger, but I wish so much that I had read it long before we were in that situation, because I felt like it prepared me (after the fact) for his illness and death. That makes no sense, but I just kept thinking, I wish I had read these feelings before so I recognized them when they were happening and knew better how to deal with them. Also, this book is about loving books, so it helped me start a new list of things to read!
Proof of Heaven
By Eben Alexander
(The one who restores your faith)
There is always that kid in the group that, no matter how rough the class is or the year has been, who somehow helps you see the light at the end of the tunnel and restores your faith in what you do and why you do it. This was that book for me this year. I mean, seriously, this is a crazy book! The author, Eben Alexander, is a neurosurgeon (and apparently a smart one as he trained at lots of big name places) who through a very unlikely series of events goes into a coma for 7 days. During his time in the coma, he has an out of body experience, which the book is based around. Mr. Alexander was previously a more science-based, who-can-believe-in-God kind of person, and he returns from his experience with a belief in and passion for a God who loves us specifically and individually. And he medically backs up why he believes his experience was true and real and not a figment of his imagination or delirium. I was totally wrapped up in this book! The medical side was sometimes over my head, but I thought it was so cool how he was able to use his medical knowledge as support for his experience! And reading his conclusions and “lessons” he learned through his experience really just blew my mind. I can’t even really explain how or why this book rocked my world, but it just did. It made me feel that the things I’ve always said I believed are even smaller than what is true. I really think it is well-written - not to boring, and pretty on anyone’s level - and enjoyable. It would be hard for me to fight against this book, even if I didn’t really believe in anything spiritual. And he doesn’t express a specific alignment with one religion, so it’s not like he was out there promoting anything, just relaying his personal experience and how it changed his life and outlook. I really, really found it FASCINATING!
Cutting for Stone
By Abraham Verghese
(The one who makes you grow with him)
You know the kid in your class who is really well rounded and sort of challenges you to try new things in your teaching, and actually teaches you a thing or two. Well, I guess this book, for me, was that kid. I started this book once at the beach and it felt a little too somber for the time, so I put it aside for something lighter. But when I picked it up the second time, the book seemed to have taken on a whole new tone and light. I immediately felt invested into learning more about the book and the plot. Cutting For Stone is about doctors who live and work at a Medical Convent Hospital (best way I know how to explain it??) in Ethiopia. One of the nuns dies giving birth to twin boys, who are adopted by another doctor and raised at the mission around all kinds of illnesses. Their lives are shaped and directed by the things they see and the decisions they make. You really feel like you grow with the characters, and of course, if you’re me, you become emotionally attached. This book made me want to read and research and find out new things and discover new places. I don’t know how to explain this book, but I highly recommend it - maybe not for the beach, but for the time when you need to really sink into a book and feel that you are a part of it and are being taught by it.
Defending Jacob
By William Landay
(The one that you want to believe but can’t)
This is the kid that tells you something and makes you believe it, even when your gut and intuition knows it isn’t true. It really is a very interesting book and concept with quite the ending. The basics of the book is that there is a murder of a adolescent boy in a quite town. The DA that begins the investigation soon finds that his son is a suspect in the murder ... and you can see how it gets complicated from there. The book flashes between the trial (as if typed up by the court reporter) and the actual proceedings of the investigations and events leading up to the trial (as told by the DA whose son is a suspect). The whole time I felt so torn between what seemed obvious and what I wanted to believe. It is a little suspenseful, a little frustrating, a little gut-wrenching (I felt so sorry for some of the characters), and the ending sure is a surprise!
Gone Girl
By Gillian Flynn
(The one that keeps you on your toes)
This is the kid that always has your attention because if you take your eyes off of him then you don’t know where he will go. That is TOTALLY this book. You can never be sure where it’s going to go next! I was completely, totally, 100% sucked in the whole time. I mean, I literally couldn’t take my eyes off of it! But then the ending ... oh, the ending. I won’t give even a hint away, but I will just say that I had a sudden urge to FLING the book out the window. And I might have if it hadn’t been conveniently downloaded to my Nook. It did not please me a bit. Which really stunk because I was so into the rest of the book! Read it, form your own opinion and then get back to me.
The Memory Palace
By Mira Bartok
(The one that is smart, but kind of boring)
This book is obviously written by a very intelligent woman - the smart kid in class - but for some reason, it never fully held my attention. I started it mid-way through the year, put it down at some point, and then finally picked it up and forced myself through the last 100 or so pages just so I could feel right about including it in my review. The book is a memoir (I read a lot of memory stuff and memoirs this year??). I heard about it as I was riding home from school one day and my radio found NPR interviewing the author. As I tuned in, I began to understand that the book was written by a lady who had grown up with a mom who had schizophrenia and eventually became homeless. The author ended up suffering a traumatic brain injury that caused her to suffer from memory problems, which helped her in some ways to understand her mom's state of mind. That was the concept I came away with ... it sounded really interesting to me - a lot like a book I loved The Glass Castle that I read years ago. But for whatever reason, I couldn't really connect with it and get involved in the way that I had with that story. I kept telling myself, "This is a good, intellectual book," but it never quite caught me. Sometimes the smart kid just lacks that lovable quality, I guess!
Rescue Me
By Rachel Gibson
(The one you know you shouldn’t like, but you for some reason you do)
Rescue Me is that kid who really doesn’t do what they’re supposed to, you know they aren’t all that good, but for some reason they are just so likable. You know that kid! The book is about a girl who goes back to her hometown, where she swore she wouldn’t return, to help her dad who is sick. In a turn of events, she ends up meeting a handsome, mysterious (and hot) guy ... oh, and she ends up staying in town for an extended period of time ... as does he. You can see where this is going. This book was pure trash - a real beach read. There are embarrassing ridiculous sex scenes (I mean, I was reading this by the pool just praying my mother-in-law couldn't see the text on my nook because it was so graphically embarrassing), and just plain out unrealistically bad romance, but you know, sometimes you just need something so ridiculous to get you ready for something a little heavier. And plus, sometimes the beach is so hot, you don’t need to put forth any extra effort reading something that makes you think :)
The Art of Racing in the Rain
By Garth Stein
(The teacher's pet ... no pun intended)
The one that is the obvious favorite. Seriously, my favorite book of the year. And I LOOOVED a lot of the books I read this year. But The Art of Racing in the Rain just carved out a sweet and special place in my heart. The story is told by a dog named Enzo. Enzo is nearing the end of his life and he thinks back to when he was a puppy and was adopted by his master and retells their story together. This book is just heart-wrenching. If you don’t just feel your heart breaking and bursting at different points in the book, you are a heartless person. Just straight heartless. I finished this book riding in the car on the drive home from Atlanta. I rode with Thomas to Atlanta while he did some work because it was our anniversary and we wanted to be together. So I did a lot of reading while he ran a lot of errands. As I got to the end on the drive home, Thomas looked over and I just had tears streaming down my face. Of course he kind of freaked, “What’s wrong? Are you ok?” All I could say was, “That was such a good book. It was just such a good book.” He made lots of fun of me, needless to say, but that statement sums it up. It was just such a good book.
Before I Go to Sleep
By S.J. Watson
(The one who surprises you with potential)
This book is definitely the kid I didn’t think would really “make it,” but it took me by surprise. At first, I started reading this book just out of curiosity - the plot just sounded interesting. Before I Go To Sleep has a cool concept. In the story, the main character has been in a serious accident many years earlier which caused her to lose her memory and ability to store new memories. Every morning that she wakes up, she believes she is in her 20s (and she is in her 50s) and has to relearn her life and history that day. During the day she can hold memories (so if she calls someone that morning, she remembers that through the day), but when she goes to sleep at night, it sort of “erases” her memory again and she wakes up the next day just as she did the day before. She begins to meet with a researcher who begins to help her recover memories and the book turns into a mystery of sorts. By the end of the book, I was very into the plot and was invested in figuring out the mystery and seeing how it all turned out. So it started a little slow, but by the end I saw the books great potential to keep me entertained!
When She Woke
By Hillary Jordan
(The one you think is going to be great, but then turns out to be really weird)
This kiddo is the opposite of the previous. You think this kid is cool and awesome, but as time goes on, you realize that the “cool” is just weird, and the “awesome” was short-lived. The cool and awesome was the concept behind the book: It is supposed to be a futuristic Scarlett Letter (and what book has a juicier plot??). In the story, society has become very controlling and conservative. A girl falls in love with her pastor, becomes pregnant (sound familiar) and is imprisoned for her sins. In this futuristic society, the punishment for certain crimes is to have your skin died the color that corresponds with your crime for the duration of your sentence. So the main character is died Red ... she’s “a Red.” I thought the concept was so intriguing. But as the story progressed it got weird, a little too unpredictable, and then a little too predictable. And I ended up finishing it just because I had started and I better see for sure where it ended up. Oh well, some books are like that.
Turn of Mind
By Alice LaPlante
(The one that does just enough to keep your attention)
This is the kid that doesn’t particularly stand out, but there are little things that you notice. Turn of Mind, much like When She Woke, snagged my attention with it’s creative plot. The story begins with a brilliant hand surgeon who is developing dementia. She has just retired because the dementia is beginning to become significant. As the book progresses, the reader discovers that the surgeon’s neighbor and best friend has been murdered and 3 of her fingers have been surgically removed. Naturally, the surgeon is a primary suspect, but she remembers nothing ... not even that her friend has been murdered. Catchy, right?? It is, but somehow the more I read the less interested I became. It did just enough to keep my bare attention and make me want to get to the root of what happened, but it wasn’t enough for me to rave about. But great concept! And the ending was just so-so in my opinion.
Then Came You
By Jennifer Weiner
(The one that is just there)
I think this is the first “pleasure read” book that I downloaded on my Nook. I got it because it seemed easy to read, wasn’t too pricey and I was just eager to download something. Well, you know how I labeled it the one that is “just there?” That’s pretty much what it was. I remember it being easy to read. It had a “twisty” plot, but one that was still predictable enough. And it was too easily resolved. But it was easy to read, and I rarely complain if a book takes my mind off of things. It didn’t blow my mind though. It just was.
2013 Reading Goals:
1. Finish Sarah's Key - I've just started this one, and it's a "back and forth between the past and present" story that has to do with WWII and the Holocaust but focused on the France, not Germany. So far, I'm really enjoying it. Who knows ... I may finish it before Jan. 1 and then I can add it to this year's list! 2. I've got a whole waiting list of books that I want to get around to including: Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein (gotta see what the hype's all about ... and then based on how that goes, maybe Lord of the Rings??), Crashing Through by Robert Kurson, and a whole host of books that I read about and thought sounded intriguing in The End of Your Life Book Club.
3. Speaking of book clubs, I might try to join or start a Book Club this year ... I've been toying with the idea, but then I'd be under pressure to read and that might take the fun away. Who knows.
Happy 2012, and here's to many more wonderful new book-friends in 2013!!
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