47) Seeking Sara Summers by Susan Gabriel: I received this as a free book from goodreads.com. I was interested to find out that the author lives in Fort Collins! This is the story of middle-aged Sara Summers, a married woman with 3 kids who is in the midst of breast cancer and a marriage that is falling apart. She decides to go to Italy to visit her old best friend from high school (Julia) and ends up falling in love with her. Ultimately she must decide whether to go back to her old life or not. So, this book was sort of like Under the Tuscan Sun, as most of the story takes place in Italy, and ultimately it's a story about Sara finding herself as well as new love in a new place. The big difference is there is some lesbian lovin' in this book. I enjoyed the plot and it was easy and fun to read. But certain aspects seemed slightly rushed, such as when Sara suddenly finds herself "falling" for Julia- the jump from best friend to physical attraction felt out of nowhere, in a way. I wished for a little more introspection on Sara's part (there was some, I just wanted a bit more).
48) Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher: This is the story about a girl who leaves behind audiotapes describing the 13 reasons why she killed herself. I loved this book, and I would recommend it to others. I couldn't put it down. I loved the way the story was told through audiotapes. I also loved Clay's story told simultaneously with Hannah's. While it was really sad, since you knew there couldn't be a happy ending, I just really got immersed in this teenager's world.
49) The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak: This book, about a German girl living during the Holocaust, was amazing. There aren't many books that make it onto my "favorites of all time" but I think this one just might. It was just so creative- I loved that the story is told from Death's point of view. The characters are real and have flaws but some of them are good to the core. They grow as the story evolves. You ache for them. It was such a heartbreaking book- both because it points to the evil in mankind and because it points to the inherent good. I loved it.
50) The Help by Kathryn Stockett: This book is about the relationship between white women and their black maids in the 1960s. I don't think I liked this book as much as most people I know, but I did enjoy it. It was definitely an interesting read, and I was invested in the characters. I especially liked Skeeter and her relationship with Aibilene and Minnie. That said, I think some of the characters were a little unrealistic. I do think this could be a good book club book.
I made it to 50! At the end of this week, I'll be posting my worst and best books of 2009.
I just started reading The Help. Only about two chapters into it so far, so no opinion yet. Good for you for making it to 50! I have NO idea how you did it with all the things you had going on in your life this year! wow!
ReplyDeleteI liked Columbine too. Both my husband and I read it. My husband thought "The Book Thief" was great but I couldn't get through it. It just moved too slow for me and I didn't like death writing it--I thought it was goofy.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised you didn't like "The Help" better. That's one that both my husband and I really liked a lot! I thought it was quite interesting.