In general both the movie and the book make the viewer/reader think. It's hard to imagine a time where this book would have been real and yet it was. As a viewer and a reader you cheer on the characters and hope for their victory. It's sad though because it's easy to cheer on the characters that you want to get through this tough time because it is so evident now how wrong the time they were in was. And yet the characters you don't root for, the Hilly Holbrook like characters, thought they were right at the time too. They thought they would be proved right and that the others were so wrong. It's scary because some of those people are still around. I am not naive enough to think there won't always be some group that people are prejudice against, but I wish there always was a happy ending in these situations.
The Submission by Amy Waldman- Such an interesting book. I can't recall what landed it on my to-read list but I'm so glad it ended up there. I don't quite know where to start with this book. The plot unfolds easily and yet is complex. The story takes place a few years after a terrorist attack in NYC. A committee has been brought together to vote on a memorial for the victims. The submitted memorials remain anonymous until the voting process is complete. It is then found out that a muslim man has won the rights to build the memorial. The story unfolds from here. Readers hear from several family members of victims, from the muslim man, from the head jury member who is responsible for telling the public what has happened, and many many others. My favorite character, Asma, was the wife of a man who cleaned in the towers that fell in the described terrorist attack (if memory serves me correct the author never says 9/11 though the reader can only conclude it). Asma is not a US citizen and neither was her husband. The points this brings up in the book are thoughts I never imagined having. How many victims went nameless because they couldn't be discussed? This book had so many twists and turns it kept you guessing and wanting for the ending the whole time. I have to say too that the ending was one of the best endings I've read. I tend to hate book endings and give this author immense credit for finding such an excellent way to end such a thought provoking, well written, and well thought out book.
While I'm Falling by Laura Moriarity- I didn't necessarily dislike this book so much as I didn't really get it. It told the story of a young woman over the course of a few days in her junior year of college that went terribly wrong and had a big impact on her life. I liked the way the book flashed back to unfold more to the story and sometimes even spoke from the future to give the reader an idea of how some things turned out. The story was also about the main characters mother who had recently divorced her father and was struggling to regain control of her post divorce life. One thing I truly didn't understand was that the book was told 90% from the daughters perspective and 10% from the mothers, and I might be being generous with 10%. If it was meant to have both voices in it I don't understand why one voice over powered the other so significantly. If it was meant to serve some purpose to have the mom narrate so little, I missed the purpose. Overall the book didn't really flow and led to a dull ending. I like the author and other books of hers that I've read but this one was just not a favorite.
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern- This type of book is normally not my cup of tea, but I guess I better start trying new teas more often because this book was all kinds of amazing. I was immediately sucked in and didn't want to leave. It was the kind of book where you get closer to the end and start reading slower because you don't want it to end. I'm still pondering the ending to this book too and it's been several weeks since I read it. I also give the author major credit on this one for coming up with such a fantastical world. The book is unique also in that it is told by many narrators but before each section the reader is told where and when this part of the book is from. The years skip around quite a bit so that sometimes the reader knows things the character does not and vice versa. It threw me off a bit at first but after finishing it I really understand why the author did it that way, just still have no clue how she came up with the idea to do so. I also was very convinced when I first started reading this that this book was the start of a series, I was so disappointed to find out I had misunderstood, but at the same time it's almost better that it's just the one. Also in checking out the authors website there is a "trailer" but the trailer is for the book and not for a movie which I really got excited about and then extremely disappointed to realize was not in existence. Though I'm still fairly certain it's only a matter of time before this one becomes a movie. I would love love love to see it taken from all the visuals my mind has made and see it on film. I realize I have said almost nothing about the plot or characters but the fact is that this book is too good to sum up, go read it!
The Taste of Salt by Martha Southgate- This was an interesting read in lots of ways. It tells the story of a family struggling with addiction with it's male members. The main character allows for other characters to chime in every once in awhile too and it makes for an interesting writing style. One really cool part about the book for me personally was that it took place in Cleveland OH where I am from. It made it that much easier for me to visualize the childhood scenes the narrator discussed. Oddly enough she also discusses the aquarium that used to be and is no longer, only they just opened a new one! The sad ending was somewhat predictable but the story moves quickly with flashbacks and some surprising moments. The female narrator loves the ocean/water and winds up as a marine biologist as an adult which also made me feel connected to her as that was once upon a time a dream career of mine. I related a lot to the main character and really wanted a happy ending for her even though she did a great job of screwing up some things and then also had things happen way beyond her control. I still can't quite decide if the book was meant to be a sad story with a happy ending or a happy story with a sad ending. I did enjoy it though. Some quotes from the book that stuck with me enough to write down:
“There’s this hollow place in me- this place that needs to be alone, this place that vibrates and can’t sit still... sometimes, in my hear, I feel that toe impatiently tapping, waiting for the other shoe to drop, lonely, scared. I don’t know how to explain that to anyone. I’m not sure how to explain it to myself.”
“I could never really believe that it didn’t matter how I behaved. That my father’s drinking had nothing to do with me.”
“The truth was not to be spoken. I got that.”
The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh- This book seems to be wildly popular right now. I loved how it started off. The story of a foster child aging out of the system and her rough start into the adult world but that turns into finding wonderful people and starting to understand how to open up and begin a life for herself. In the meantime we get to also hear a background story of the one and only foster home she had that seemed to work out but all the time knowing she didn't stay there permanently and something tragic happened. As a social worker I laughed as the narrator told the terrible stories of her social worker and how much she hated her. As a professional I was sad to hear it but I also agreed with her assessment that she had gotten a bad worker to some extent. The story changes around the halfway point of the book and suddenly it's almost as though it's a brand new book with one underlying theme. The title refers to the meaning behind flowers and the passion the narrator has for these meanings and putting together flowers as she develops both into a young adult and a florist. I liked the book a lot until the halfway point, then I sort of got confused and felt like it changed directions so sharply. In the end though when it all came together it worked as a whole.
