So it's really sad, but for some reason I feel like I haven't ready any books in awhile...until recently. I had been waiting for almost a year for a book to come out in paperback so I could buy it (I did try to check it out at the library but apparently other people had the same idea as me!). So finally Nineteen Minutes by
Jodi Picoult came out in paperback a couple weeks ago. Its a fiction story about a school shooting set in high school. The book is very well written and is told in an interesting mixture of past tense and present tense, while the opening chapter actually contains the shooting. I immediately felt connected with multiple characters, and enjoyed the authors use of 2 characters who had been in a few of her prior works. The first book I read by this author was My Sister's Keeper, and it was another story where you are drawn in and right away feel connected with multiple characters. Since then I have read many of her books (I actually need to start keeping track of which I've read and which I've read the backs of so many time's I think I may have read them!). I think Jodi Picoult develops her characters (and their dilemmas) in such a way that you feel connected with multiple characters and cannot yourself ultimately always find the "right" decision. When Nineteen Minutes ended I was sad the story was over, and I felt a little disappointed. However (without giving away any of the story) I cannot decide if I was disappointed in the way the story ending was written (my first thought was that it was a partial cop out) but upon second thought I might have just been sad about what happened with certain characters because I felt I had come to understand them and like them so much. I want to read it again, when I get it back (its on loan to the "dealer" who got me hooked on JP to begin with). Anyone else read it?
While @ the bookstore to get the above book...I stumbled across the fact that Christopher Pike has a new adult novel out! I think I have read every Christopher Pike "young adult" novel he wrote in the 90's. There are still some of his adult novels I haven't read, as they aren't readily available at bookstores these days. For some reason neither are the young adult ones. I remember there being some controversy about his books and some schools banning them, but I could aways find them in bookstores. So I started the Christopher Pike book this weekend and am already 140+ pages in...and I'm hooked! Its like the old days of part time work and full time summers filled with no worries @ work or school and READING whenever I wan for however long I want. Of course that means last night I was up past midnight even though I had to work today. I'll let you know how it turns out!
I know neither of these books are "intellectual" per se...but reading deserves to be fun as well right?
