Not My Daughter

Not My Daughter

Author: Barbara Delinsky

Source: My friend, Ali Bettger

Days to Complete: 6

My friend Ali and I always discuss and recommend books to one another. A few weeks ago I was at her house and had mentioned I was looking for a new book to start and she passed this one along to me. This book kept me reading but I thought the story line was a little farfetched. It is definitely a "light and fluffy" read as I like to call it.

The story is about a mother, principal and friend who had a daughter when she was a teenager. She struggled through her 20s, her parents cut her out of their lives and she refused to marry the father of her child. She worked hard and became a principal at the school which her daughter attends. Her daughter Lily is your typical good student, good girl, so when she tells her mother she is pregnant it comes as a big shock to Susan. The story unfolds as the reader learns that Lily's two best friends are also pregnant and they had a pact to become pregnant at the same time. Lily's situation parallels that of her mother's in that she is still in high school when she becomes pregnant and has a group of 4 friends who are all very close. Susan happens to be best friends with the 2 other mothers whose daughters also become pregnant. Did you follow all that? This is where I began to feel the book was a little bit of a stretch. No doubt that this type of situation could happen, but for me it just didn't provide enough depth to carry it along. It was somewhat predictable and I never felt emotionally drawn to any of the characters. That being said, I would classify it as a good, light summer read.

On to the next!

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Rainy Day Frustration!

I meant to post this yesterday but as luck would have it my computer decided to freeze every time I tried to open the internet. Extremely frustrating!  For those of you in the GTA, yesterday was a rainy day for us. Thankfully I am a weather network enthusiast and was therefore prepared with my trusty, albeit slightly tattered, umbrella. On a side note, I must have learned my weather network behaviour from my brother who, when we were in grade school, would watch the weather network every morning while eating breakfast before school. Now, I consult my app at least 3 times a day to stay on top of it. 

But enough about the weather network. I was on my lunch break yesterday and was going to head to the bank a few blocks away. I quickly realized that walking on the streets in the city on a rainy day with 90% of the people holding an umbrella is stressful task for someone who naturally is a fast paced walker. I typically just weave my way through the crowds with relative ease. However, throw in the umbrellas and it’s a whole new ball game. Some people don’t get out of your way so you’re bound to poke out their eyes with the little spokes. Others shield their faces with the umbrella and thus don’t see anything but the pavement in front of them. And others who are angry at the world because they forgot their umbrellas at home refuse to move out of the way and you have to either stumble onto the street or into a side walk stand of shoes. Next time it rains I think I will wear a rain coat with a hood so I can weave through the crowds unobstructed!

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Room

Room

Author: Emma Donoghue

Source: Another book picked up at Chapters while on a book buying spree!

Days to Read: 6

My first thought when I started this book was "this is awkward and I am not going to be able to get into it". It starts with a 5 year old boy describing his day to day activities with his mom in Room. Notice the awkwardness of the previous sentence? Jack, the little boy, refers to everything by it’s names but in the context of a pronoun. So the rug is Rug, as in I played on Rug this morning. The book is about a mother that was kidnapped when she was 19 and has been held in a 11x11 foot room. She has a child, Jack, who has never been outside the Room. He doesn't know there is an outside; his reality is the small, square room. His mother has created a world for him inside the Room. The story begins slowly, establishing life within the four walls, but it quickly turns exciting and the innocence of Jack and his fascination with the Outside is refreshing. For a book based around a very depressing and heavy subject, the characters journey and Jack's enlightenment of the outside world leaves you feeling touched and entertained, not sad and depressed. This is unlike any book I have read and I think the author does a great job of illustrating how a five year old child would view the world having never before experienced it. I like the ending as well as it provides good closure which is so key to a good book!

Definitely worth a read, I highly recommend The Room.

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Island Beneath the Sea

Island Beneath the Sea

Author: Isabel Allende

Source: Reading the back of the book at Chapters

Days to Complete:7

This book took me a little longer to read but it was pretty interesting. I feel like I usually say that about books that I'm not crazy about. But I was reading one evening on my subway ride home and missed my stop because I was so into a particular part of the book! This was how I found the book; a page turner at some points while at others it seemed to drag a bit. The story is about a young girl living in Saint-Domingue who is bought at a young age by an older white master who owns a plantation.  She has a rough life but makes the best of it. There is a lot of history intertwined with the book and ups and downs for Tete, the main character. I thought this book was okay but it isn't one of my favourites. I like a good love story, either romantic or platonic, and I found this book lacked that. Tete does fall in love but it is only referenced a few times in the book, not enough to make you care about the relationship. The book is so-so, I don't know what else to say!

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