Finished Book 13

I finished The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time yesterday. I really liked this book. It was an interesting read and the style that it was written in was very unique. I loved how the main character, Christopher, was able to figure out so much on his own. He was one brave boy. I do need to research whether "Nora" is a cuss word in England, because it was mentioned that way twice in the book. This was a great book club pick. I'm glad I finally got a chance to read it.

221 pages

Book 14: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

I haven't gotten very far in Angela's Ashes, but I wanted to start my next book since it is the book club selection for January. The book club pick is The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. It's told in the perspective of an autistic boy who finds his neighbor's dog speared with a garden fork. The boy, Christopher, decides to write a murder mystery to find out who killed the dog. I just got the book from the library today and have only read a few pages, but I already find it interesting. I have wanted to read this book for a long time, so I'm glad it's the book club pick.

Book 13: Angela's Ashes

I started reading 'Angela's Ashes' by Frank McCourt yesterday. I have to admit that I have always heard of people reading this book and know it is a movie, but I had no idea what it was about. I bought it at The Book Shoppe a few weeks ago without reading the description. When I went to get it off the bookshelf I was really hoping it was a WWII story, but it's a memoir about Frank's childhood in New York and Limerick. It is supposed to deal with the struggles he faced growing up in a poor, Irish Catholic family.
Memoirs have been really hit or miss for me lately. They are usually filled with too many stereotypes that sometimes seem to be exaggerated to gain more readers. I hope this one isn't too disappointing.

Finished Book 12

I finished 'Night' by Elie Wiesel on Wednesday night. When I first started reading this, I didn't know it was a true story. This book was so sad. I still cannot believe what the Jewish people and so many others went through in WWII. I just can't imagine how horrible it must have been to not know what was happening to other people in your family. The treatment of people was terrible, no one could be trusted, and fathers and sons were turned against each other. I don't know if I missed this part in the book, but I wondered what happened to his other sisters. I only remember him talking about his younger sister and mother being taken.
Even though Dawn (Night#2) is a fictional story, it's supposed to be a follow up to this book. I have added it to my to-read list.

Book 12: Night

In keeping with the WWII theme for one more book, I will be reading 'Night' by Elie Wiesel. It's the story of a young boy in a Nazi death camp who is agonized by the horror he witnesses. I have heard that this book is small but powerful.

Finished Book 11

I just finished 'Winter Garden'. This was a very sad and intriguing story. Once the mother started telling her story, I really didn't want to put the book down. I was so anxious to hear what happened. I'm glad the story had a somewhat happy ending, since the mother's story was so full of loss.
This book has made me realize that I would really like to learn more about my parent's background. It's always hard talking about the past with divorced parents, but I think it's really important that I learn their stories before it is too late.

391 pages

Book 11: Winter Garden

I started 'Winter Garden' by Kristin Hannah today. I have only read one chapter so far, but I am already intrigued by the story. This book is about a mother telling a story to her daughters as their father is on his deathbed. The story starts 60 years ago in Leningrad and ends in modern day Alaska. I have been really interested in WWII stories lately and hope to really enjoy this book.

Finished Book 10

I finished 'How to Make an American Quilt' by Whitney Otto this morning. This book went through the lives of various women in a quilting circle. In addition to giving brief instructions on making different kinds of quilts, the book really focuses on the idea that every quilt tells a story about the life of the person who made it or the person it was made for. I liked hearing about how all the women came to meet each other and why quilting became important to them. It was interesting to see that love, friendship, and suffering all played an important part in the making of the quilts. This book was good, but was kind of slow at times. I'm glad I read it, but it's not one I would really recommend to many people.

236 pages