books 45, 46, 47

the girls' guide to hunting a fishing, melissa bank

i like this book. you can say all you want about chick lit and how dumb it is, but there are a few books caught in this category that i still find to be very well-written and real. and this is one of them. i read it back in 1999, but, with the upcoming film version (which has just been really horribly casted, i must say), i decided to read it again. it's written like linked stories, in a similar way to bank's second novel, the wonder spot, which i also liked. there's this one story, sort of right in the middle, that i still don't understand. but the writing style is clean, there's not a lot of excess, and this protagonist is relateable.

girlbomb: a halfway homeless memoir, janice erlbaum

i'm not sure why, because this book actually seemed sort of predictable to me, but i really got sucked in. i like memoirs, and this one's nice because erlbaum doesn't really seem to sugarcoat things. she was a promiscuous, drug-abusing (and sometimes drug-addicted) runaway, and she doesn't apologize for it. her writing is good, too, wry and honest, which i always go for.

i am the messenger, markus zusak

OH MY GOD, READ THIS BOOK. this is an australian young adult novel (published originally as simply the messenger. it's all about ed kennedy, a 19 year old cab driver who starts to get these weird playing cards in the mail, which take him on a number of missions across his town. i can't even begin to explain why it's so good, but it is! trust me on this one. if you've ever: had a best friend, wished you had done something in a crisis situation even though you couldn't muster the strength, been in love with someone, felt like you weren't sure what you were supposed to do with your life -- basically, if you're a human -- then you should give this book a chance. I MEAN IT!