Friday, October 1, 2010

Cures for Heartbreak

cures for heartbreak When Mia was 15 her mother was diagnosed with cancer and dies 12 days later. Then her father has a second heart attack. This is a story about how Mia coped with these two events.

This book is well written. It follows how a 15 year old girl would act and speak. It goes through such details as her having a crush her first boyfriend and school.

It does not pretend that she gets a happy ending and her life is all rosy after her mother dies. It paints an accurate portrayal of how a person would react to such a situation. For example, she fails some classes at school and she faces other tough obstacles.

What could have been a depressing book instead uses humor to somewhat lighten up the mood. The use of humor in this book is appropriate. It does not come of as mocking or to cheapen what Mia is going through but rather as a way to express grief and such in a way that a 15 year old can process it.

The book feels disjointed in ways. There are several stories that interweave with each other. It almost feels like different books. There is a thin common thread that joins them all together. I think this is  a good use of writing technique because it symbolizes how events in our lives seem to be fragmented but in reality there is something that joins it all together.

At the end of the book we find out this is a semi-autobiographical account of the author’s own experience with her mother dying and her father having two heart attacks. After learning this I became curious about her own life. I hope she writes a memoir.

Another interesting fact is that the editor attempted to get this published as an adult novel but no publisher want to do that so instead it was published as a YA novel. I thought it was in between. I could see where it would be taken as a YA novel but at the same time I felt that the issues could stood as an adult novel. Upon father reflection the style of writing mostly reflects how an YA novel would feel.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Booking Through Thursday

bookingthruthursday

If you read series, do you ever find a series “jumping the shark?” How do you feel about that?

And, do you keep reading anyway?

The way my brain works if I don't like a book I tend to repress the memory of that book. So my mind is drawing a blank with this question. However I have read some books in a series that I suspect the author may have had an “off” period. Usually the next book more than makes up for it. My favorite series of books is currently anything by Laurell K Hamilton. All of her books have kept me interested.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Sunday Salon

TSSbadge2

I have missed two Sudays Salons. Real life caught up with me. I have went back north and it seems that my moving had disrupted everything. I had been in a little bit of a reading and writing slump. It is amazing how not having your desk and stuff set up can disrupt everything. I finally am getting my bearings back but I will be glad to get my desk and stuff set back up.

I have been trying to convince the boyfriend to get one more bookshelf. I am serious just one more. The problem is that we live in an itty bitty apartment and one more bookshelf would really crowd things. I dislike not having my books organized though so I am pushing really hard to get my bookshelf.

Speaking of books, the boyfriend is a grad student and has an ID to the local university. He probably felt sorry that I have no friends here yet so he loaned me his ID and I discovered that with all the libraries that I am virtually unlimited in my selection of books. Which is good cause I am on a tight budget which dose not leave room for a lot of book buying. I went crazy with checking out books. I am just waiting for all the books to be ready then I will go pick them up.

In the interest of organizing and peace I have decided to put all my recipes that I have collected in magazines and stuff on Springpad. My stuff is everywhere and it is distracting. Springpad seems to be good for recipe collection. I hope it is anyway. I rounded up all my magazines and would hate to find out halfway in there is a better alternative.

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