August Book Reviews

One book.  Just one.  And none in July.  And the one I did read was a young adult book.  Mike even mentioned the absence of literature in my life.  I need a good book to draw me back.  

The Fault in our Stars:  One of my pet peeves is how people always talk about young people dying as saints and suffering in such holy ways.  But I suspect they are also just real people who are angry and disappointed and weak and good.  And bad too. This book kind of confronts a lot of the sugary talk around the young dying, which I appreciated.  The book also includes the kind of smart, independent kids you always hope your own will grow up to be.  (Without the sex that these two kids, who are too young in my opinion, do indeed have.)  I liked it more than most young adult novels.  It may also have helped that I read it next to a man on the plane who told me it was the last book his daughter read before she died of undetected cancer and he reads the books as a way to feel connected to her. I like that.  The bonding influence of books - even beyond life.