Sunday, September 12, 2010

Prep, The Abstinence Teacher, Watermelon and The Women's Room (books 2-5 of 8)

I was going to do individual posts about each book but I've come to find that I keep putting off the task. My compromise to myself is still writing about each book I've read but keeping it short and simple and clumping books together if I need to.  I've gone through several books in the past few weeks and one I've already talked about (The Women's Room) but want to put in here for the sake of accurate 25 before 25 tracking.

First up is Prep. Pretty good book, didn't ever get bored and definitely saw a life of a child that wants to get away from home a little earlier. I would definitely recommend it for an easy and fun but not completely carefree read.


The Abstinence Teacher I just finished maybe 20 minutes ago and was a little disappointed in the ending. I feel like there is more to the story that I want to know. The story itself was wonderful, I read through it really fast and found it way easier to handle than Little Children. Oh my goodness I almost didn't buy this book because of how much I didn't like the heartache in Little Children. But luckily I did buy it after reading the synopsis. The book definitely hits on subjects close to my life. Christianity and sexual health teaching are two subjects I constantly find myself thinking about. Christianity because I don't understand it and have tried many times to follow but personally don't find the point and sexual health teaching because I feel like kids in America are definitely not getting the education or information that they deserve which creates a lot of our other social problems across gender, nationality, socio economic status and religious groups. I see now that I could write a lot about these subjects but it wouldn't have too much to do with the book. The point is, I recommend it highly. I really liked the dynamic Perrotta set up between the two main characters. 


Watermelon starts out as a really sad tale but written very lightly so it goes by fast and eventually the story becomes happier and somewhat inspiring. I don't know what it is about chick lit that keeps me coming back but there is something that I just love. Maybe the way that the woman usually ends up with he guy at the end or there is promise. Or maybe it's because the main character goes through a hardship and always bounces back and I just want to have those stories to believe in. Either way I love chick lit and this book was a fast read that I enjoyed.


Already wrote about it a bit here.
The woman's room was definitely a tad more dense than the other books read thus far but it was completely and totally worth it. Still fiction but based on true true stories that hurt my heart a bit and threw me back into feminist mode. The tone was definitely angry and while I'm normally really receptive to anger and pick it up fast I couldn't find myself mad at the male gender nearly as much as I use to be when I would read feminist literature. I'm still very much behind woman empowerment and balance between genders/sexes/roles but I don't like being super pessimistic anymore and so I don't want to hate a huge group for the horrible acts a percentage of that group does. Even if it's a large percentage... I'm only looking for one man in the end. Life is too short to have burning hatred consuming the body and mind. 
Despite the anger I love love loved the book. Absolutely loved it, even though I took a break in the middle of it to read lighter books. It was definitely a worthwhile read and made me think a LOT. I love books that remind me of classes I use to love. This one definitely did.


So there wraps up another post about books and 25 before 25... Hopefully in the next week I'll be finishing a blanket for a friend's new baby and putting the finishing touches on my last paint by numbers. 

Now I'm off to one of my new organizing jobs, this one is a doozy. I am helping B organize his whole garage and then selling expensive stuff he doesn't need and my payment is a percentage of the sales as well as a great reference. 
My ocd definitely helps with jobs like this because they are tiring and if I didn't have my compulsive need to keep fixing things until they look perfect I would quit half way through.

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday!

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