Minis - Eleanor & Park by R. Rowell, Black Box by J. Schumacher, The Pearl by J. Steinbeck

Out of the last 8 books I've read, only two were advance readers. Both are worth talking about and will get their own posts. Everything else? Well, they varied and those that I loved are old enough titles that most everyone I know has read them so I'm going for a bunch of super-minis, 3 today and then maybe a few more, later.

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell - I had no idea what this book was about, apart from the fact that it's clearly a YA with a touch of romance, but my friend Tammy said I had to read it right now, so I put it on hold at my library and it showed up almost immediately.

 Eleanor was kicked out of her home by her surly, abusive stepfather. A year later, she has returned to the stifling and, at times, terrifying atmosphere she must share with her large family, all of the children crammed into a single room together.

Park is an Asian nerd who gets along well with just about everyone but feels set apart by his looks and interests. On Eleanor's first day of school, he reluctantly scoots over on the bus when nobody else will let her sit down. As they slowly get to know each other and share music and comics, Eleanor and Park find that their families are a world apart but their affection for each other is boundless.

Highly recommended - I sobbed alligator tears. A wonderful, touching, beautiful story.

Black Box By Juli Schumacher is another YA, this time one that was recommended highly but I can't recall by whom. It's the story of a family in crisis, told through the eyes of Elena, a 14-year-old whose sister is suffering from mental illness. When 16-year-old Dora becomes severely depressed and has to be admitted to a psychiatric ward, her family is at first confident that she will recover and then confused and terrified when they see how tormented she has become.

While Dora is hospitalized and then goes through the difficult adjustment to medication, Elena is befriended by an older student who is known to have been held back for a year or two. At first she's uncomfortable around him but he says he's been through the same thing with his brother. Gradually, Elena begins to trust this strange new friend and learn to cope with the emotions she has a tendency to swallow.

Highly recommended - While Black Box is not a page-turner, it's a quietly powerful story that shows how difficult it can be for people to accept and adjust to mental illness within their household. A very emotional story. I particularly loved how the book ended.

The Pearl by John Steinbeck is one of those books that a lot of people study during their high school years. Naturally, I missed it. I snatched it off the shelf on a day that I just happened to be in the mood for a short classic.

Kino and his wife Juana wake up on an ordinary day, but when their infant son's life is endangered, they must go for medical help. When the doctor refuses to see them, Kino goes pearl diving in the hopes of finding a pearl large enough to pay for the baby's care. What he finds is a pearl of unusual size and brilliance.

With the pearl in hand and the baby improving, Kino dreams of the things he'll buy, and the ways he will be able to improve his family's life. But, when he's offered only a fraction of the pearl's value, he decides he would be better off traveling to another town to find someone willing to pay the right price than take what he's offered. Of course, everyone in his village knows about the pearl so Kino and Juana encounter non-stop peril.

Not recommended - Very much a "beat you over the head" morality tale, so transparent that I cringed all the way through the book, knowing what was bound to happen (and it did). I love Steinbeck but The Pearl is just flat awful. I gave it an average rating because I like Steinbeck's style but it's not a story I'll ever return to.

©2015 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Catch-up #1: Of Mice and Men by Steinbeck, A Survival Guide for Life by Grylls, Tomorrow We Die by Grady

I had such a fantastic reading month in September that my sidebar has been taunting me for ages. Yes, true, I am under no obligation to write about every book I read (I do skip a book if I feel like there's nothing to say and the book in question is from my personal library). But, the whole point of blogging is to keep a record of what I've read and my thoughts about each of those books so I'm going to do some catch-up posts. The following were either recently purchased or on my home shelves. I absolutely loved and highly recommend all three.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - I just found out I'm not the only person in America who missed out on reading and discussing Of Mice and Men in school, yesterday! Whew! Good to know.

Short version of the storyline, lacking spoilers: Two friends travel around working odd jobs together. Lennie is intellectually challenged; George watches out for his friend. When they end up in trouble -- which invariably happens because Lennie has difficulty understanding boundaries and doesn't know his own strength -- George takes charge of their escape. When Lennie does something so horrific their lives are both put in danger, what will George do?

I love Steinbeck. For such a small book, Of Mice and Men certainly packs a wallop. Definitely one of my favorite reads of the year. I wish I'd read it in a group setting. When I closed the book, I was dying to discuss the moral dilemma.

I love Bear Grylls and have been thinking, "I need to read one of his books" for quite a while. So, when I indulged in some stress shopping in September I went in search of a book by Grylls. Any title would do -- and since I was looking at a discount website I took what was available.

A Survival Guide for Life by Bear Grylls is about achieving your goals, with focus on paying attention to what makes you happy, maintaining enthusiasm, dealing with adversity, working on strength of character -- really great advice. The author refers to the book as "self help" within its text. I'm not generally a fan of self-help because I've found the majority of such books are not particularly helpful or their effects are short-lived. However, I do love books on positive thinking and have several favorites that I periodically reread when I need an upper.

A Survival Guide for Life definitely falls into the "uppers worth rereading" category. Although much of Grylls' advice is common sense or already in practice here, there is still plenty to think about and his infectious can-do attitude just can't be beat. I haven't yet talked my youngest into reading the book because he's been reading business books recommended by his father while working on his second degree but I think there are aspects to A Survival Guide for Life that are particularly relevant to young people on the verge of entering the work force so I hope he'll find the time to read the book soon. In the meantime, I may even give it a second go. A Survival Guide for Life is definitely a book I plan to reread repeatedly. And, I would especially recommend it for those who need a little mental boost. It would also make a fabulous graduation gift. Bear Grylls is truly an inspiration.

I've already talked about Tomorrow We Die by Shawn Grady a bit, here, but without describing the storyline.

Jonathan Trestle is a paramedic working for a private ambulance service. When he's called to a cardiac arrest, he manages to revive the patient, an unkempt man who may have overdosed. Before the patient slips back into unconsciousness, he hands Jonathan a note and tells him to give it to Martin. Of course, Jonathan has no idea who Martin is.

There is so much going on in this book that I realize now why I didn't post a synopsis, before. First, there's the patient with the note. Jonathan tracks down the patient and goes in search of Martin. There's an old girlfriend Jonathan keeps running into; they have a lot of baggage but the mutual attraction is still there. His alcoholic dad is fading. Jonathan has flashbacks to his mother's death. And, when the ambulance company gets after Jonathan for not meeting the city's standard response time because there aren't enough ambulances to cover the quantity of calls coming in, he stumbles across a corporate cover-up that puts his life (and the lives of several other people) in danger.

I have a feeling there's more that I've forgotten but the bottom line is that Tomorrow We Die is action-packed, well paced and the pages absolutely flew. I loved this book. My only problem with it was that it could be a little too descriptive. But, that's something you just have to be prepared for when you're reading a book written by a paramedic. The things they see are not pretty. I'm currently reading Bringing Out the Dead by Joe Connelly (yet another novel written by a paramedic) and it is equally stomach-turning, at times, but I love this stuff. Tomorrow We Die was definitely the most exciting novel I've read by a paramedic, so far. We'll see how the next one goes.

©2014 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery  or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.