reading

I just finished some really great books. This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper and Little Bee by Chris Cleave. I couldn't put Jonathan Tropper's book down, and I am really excited to order his other books on the kindle. It's a family drama about siblings and their relationships as adults when they're all forced to be together and try to relate. He captures human emotion and character depth so well. I can see this book being made into a great movie with the right casting.
love the cover too.

Little Bee was one of those books where you just feel different once you've finished. The back of the book says "Once you have read it, you’ll want to tell your friends about it. When you do, please don’t tell them what happens. The magic is in how the story unfolds." It is a heart-wrenching story about a special relationship between two women who should never have met, but they do, and their worlds are changed for it. Definitely worth picking up.


Two others I'd recommend are "Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet" by Jamie Ford and "Olive Kitteredge" by Elizabeth Strout. Drew's mom loaned me both of these and I really enjoyed them. Hotel had me laughing and crying. It was a look at an elderly Chinese man as he remembered his childhood during WWII and a forbidden friendship with a Japanese girl. It definitely enlightened me to a part of Japanese-American history that I did not previously know much about.

Olive Kitteredge was good too. It was almost like a collection of short stories where Olive is connected to each of them in some way. Olive is a harsh woman and just when you love to hate her, you maybe can understand why she is the way she is. Hard to describe, but an interesting take on human traits and I think I learned a lot about people from her character.

Next up on my list...re-reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows so I'm ready for the movie.

I just started the Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls and my mom gave me
Cutting for Stone, so those will be up soon. The back of Cutting for Stone says "A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel–an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home." I'm hooked so far.