January Books

I've been sick sick sick. Over the past week, when I haven't been working I've been in bed. Occasionally I'm on the couch with my mother watching an episode of Star Trek. One of the really old ones from the 1960s. Who thought wearing mini skirts in space was a good idea? But mostly I'm just in bed. It's good for me to be really sick sometimes. It helps me remember to appreciate all the rest of the times when I'm not sick.

These are the books I read in January:

• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey 
• Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
• The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

I loved A Tree Grows in Brooklyn best. It was beautiful. I also loved The Book Thief and Outliers. I loved the perspective of death. Death is a frequent character in books but I've never read one where I found death's perspective so unique and worth appreciating. I'm only sad I waited so long to read the book; my copy has a big NOW A MOTION PICTURE burble ruining the cover. Pretty much the worst. Outliers was interesting and easy to read. I'm hoping to dig into Gladwell's other books.

I really liked The Buddha in the Attic. I think many people would find the collective perspective used throughout the book disorienting and alienating. I thought it was lovely. The Snow Child I also really liked.

I found The Memory Keeper's Daughter a bit too didactic for my taste. The man who made the wrong choice ruined his life, destroyed his marriage, and estranged his son in one act. The woman who made the right choice changed her life for the better, living with fullness and joy and service to hundreds of women with children like her own where before her life was dull and empty and full of nothing but waiting.