Paperback Reader

Into the Forest

2006-05-17T13:00:00.000-07:00

Into the Forest

By Jean Hegland

This books centers on two sisters, Nell and Eva, who are on the brink of adulthood. They have been raised in a slightly untraditional household where they are home schooled by their mother and father. Other than that, they live their lives as many sisters do, playing together, make-believing and then they start to grow apart as their interests change and they begin to grow as individuals. But then something happens, perhaps apocalyptic or maybe only temporary, their world begins to change and the sisters have to rely on a whole different set of skills. They lose electricity, gas, and other conveniences of life such a grocery stores and telephones. This forces them to change their behaviors and the way they view their life, their possessions, and themselves.

In the beginning of the changes, the girls try to maintain normalcy to the best of their abilities. They almost flat out ignore what is going on around them with the hopes that one moment everything will return as it once was. But throughout the book their frame of mind slowly changes and by the end of the book, their way of life is nothing like it once was.

Material possessions take on a new role in this book as the girls slowly lose what they once had. When Nell comes across an old Hershey’s Kiss she has new decisions to make. Save it? Eat it? Share it with her sister? Normally she wouldn’t have given a second thought to popping it in her mouth and chewing the candy within seconds. But when she finally eats the kiss, it is an experience she relishes with a mix of joy and guilt.

This book is also about the relationship that sibling have, especially between two sisters. Nell and Eva go through a separate transformation, but end up reuniting for the sake of survival and basic love. I did however feel that the relationship extended beyond what was normal for two sisters. I don’t know if their shared experiences would have really led to some of the things that happened between them.

I enjoyed reading the book-if anything, it was very interesting. It provoked a lot of personal questions about technology dependence and sibling dynamics. I kept wondering what I would have done at certain crossroads in their story about going across country, destroying their house, or using the gas. Their choices made sense, but were very undesirable. What they were left with in the end did not strike me as natural and more suitable, it wasn’t the ideal “hunter-gatherer” situation that some have described. Instead it seemed like a lonely desperate choice made from fear and limited options. To me, their future equated nothing but death.

The Ice Queen

2006-04-13T13:40:00.000-07:00

The Ice Queen

By Alice Hoffman

Alice Hoffman has written a number of books and this is the third I have read in the past few months. This is the second of my 'three for two' books that I picked up from Borders and needless to say, I enjoyed this one much more than the first.

My experience with Hoffman's novels is that they are compelling. They are very interesting stories intertwined with magic and often times tragedy. The Ice Queen is no different. It starts with a girl that learns the bitter truth about being careful what you wish for. Tragedy strikes her as a young girl and haunts her for a long period in her life. She learns to shut down her heart with ice and closes herself up away from anyone, even herself. But then, she makes another wish and gets struck by lighting. At first, this seems like another event in her unending sorrow, but through this phenomenon, she encounters another who also has been struck and through their similar experiences she begins to melt. This is a story of her own survival. Of how she slowly realizes herself through life experiences. She doesn't seek out to change her life, but with each step she takes she really is on the road to recovery and self-discovery.

On thing I really like is that Hoffman uses magic in a way that makes the reader pause and wonder if it really isn't magic, but instead just the way the world works--mysteriously. There is no real hocus pocus, just strange phenomenon's that may or may not be real. Wishes don't necessarily come true, but when things happen some people take personal responsibility for the way the cards are dealt, and that really isn't fair. The narrator comes full circle, freezing over, thawing out--moving away, moving back--closing her heart, and opening it once again. The imagery of the butterfly is used in the novel and in a lot of ways it can be directed back the narrator, butterfly's live very cyclical lives and at the very end they are self-actualized when they have gone through the entire cycle. At the end of the novel, the narrator's wings have finally opened and she is ready to continue the circle of life fully alive.

I really enjoyed this story and it gets my full recommendation

Slightly Engaged

2006-04-11T09:55:00.000-07:00

Slightly Engaged

By Wendy Markham

After reading She's Come Undone, I was desperate for something new to read. So I picked a few new books at Borders on their 2 for 3 table. Book number one was some very light reading. There was a two-fold reason for this: 1. I thought I wanted something light after my last read and 2. My sister needs some light reading. Apparently the only books in English that she can get her hands on are heavy classics, so I thought I could send this to her when I was done.

Well, sometimes light is well...too light. I was not impressed with this book at all. Apparently this is book #3 in a saga about a young woman named Tracey Spadolini and her quest to nail down a man. This book is preceded by Slightly Single, Slightly Settled and will be followed by Slightly Married. So as you might be able to infer from the titles, Tracey is "slightly" never happy about her current situation. Each chapter she is expectantly waiting for Jack to pop the question and continuously doubting Jack, herself, and their relationship and then quickly resending the doubt. I am not sure what the first two books were like, but if they were anything like Slightly Engaged, I would not have read any further in the series. I know this is coming off sounding harsh, but the book was in a word: boring. The characters were flat, the story was slow. I never really understood why she wanted to marry Jack. He seemed like a nice guy, but nothing special. He never seemed to give her the emotional support that women look for in a man and he never picked up on her feelings about marriage or ever reassured her about the solidity of their relationship. When he finally proposed (and it is not like I am giving anything away here, we know it is going to happen!) I didn't find it romantic in a romantic way or even in a "funny, goofy, that's life" way, what I felt was nothing but relief-- relief because since he proposed it could only mean that the book was almost done.

Every since "Bridget Jones" the literary world has been inundated with mute copycat chick-lit, and I have yet to find anything that comes close to the real deal.

I still plan on passing this book on to my sis, but I am not going to recommend that she, or anyone seriously read it.

She's Come Undone

2006-04-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

She's Come Undone By Wally Lamb

She’s Come Undone follows the story of girl from when she is young all the way to her mid forties and details her life's tribulations as she eats her pain and her mother feeds her guilt until she balloons into an obese adolescent. She then struggles in school and allows herself to be victimized until through therapy and self healing, she becomes a strong woman.

Following Dolores Price through several decades was one of the most interesting reads I can remember. Although at times it was desperately heart-wrenching, I couldn't put it down. And not because I am sadistic, but because you had a feeling that she was going to pull through one way or another. The ending wasn't full of rainbows and cake, but neither is life. And that is what I really appreciate about what Lamb has done in this novel, he lets terrible things happen to Dolores, but in a very real, very sad way.

Things happen like this in real life, and people have to deal one way or another. And then he continues this all the way through the end; Dolores continues to have disappointments in her life but not without learning and growing from them. She knows that her life is not going to be a bowl full of cherries, but she come to terms with who she was and is finally empowered to shape who she has become.

During Dolores’s therapy sessions, she was able to understand and come to terms with the issues that she had with each of parents, as well as some of the terrible things that happened to her during her childhood. After she left the institution, I was surprised how much she was able to learn from herself and her new experiences. It was implied that maybe she left too soon and wouldn’t be able to cope. But instead, Dolores succeeded in re-entering life ready to be a new person. She struggled a bit in the beginning with some of her new relationships, but she continued packing away her life experiences in order to come out ahead as a better, stronger person than ever before.

I feel that her relationship with Dante brought out some of her worst, but ultimately her best. He tore her apart all over again and she started to allow him to control her-- but by the end of the book we can assume that it will be the last time she has anyone else but herself be in control.I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for something other than light reading, but who is in search of a very good, well-written story. It is hard at times to get through, but at the end you feel that Dolores was a person worth getting to know.