book 18

speak softly, she can hear, pam lewis
rating:


my sister recommended this one, remembering that it had a secret history-esque feel to it. this book has the same take home (take-home?) message as scott smith's simple plan: don't ever keep a big secret. ever. okay: carole, the protagonist, makes a pact with her best friend naomi to each lose her respective virginity before graduating from spence, an elite all-girls school in manhattan. enter eddie, who's such a stand up twenty-six year old that he doesn't mind helping the young ladies out. they all go up to vermont for a weekend and things happen in a way that's more than a little unexpected. the three of them end up sharing a pretty serious secret that haunts carole through the book. very creepy. i was hyper-aware of my surroundings all day. watch your backs, people. TRUST NO ONE.

book 17, etc.

the namesake, jhumpa lahiri
rating:


somehow, i've never read this before. it seems like it's always checked out. the story is about the ganguli family, but mostly about the family's son, gogol. his father has an intensely personal connection with nikolai gogol, established during a tragic event many years before he was married or had a son. and so gogol is named, and the rest of the book is very much about him, and a little about his parents, and a few other key characters, too. i liked it a lot. something about the pace forced me to slow down and read more carefully than i usually do, which i appreciated. it was very sad, but i like the sprawling quality of it - it spans across so many years, and gives perspectives from so many characters. i'm a little wary of the movie, not only because it stars Taj, but also because the preview makes it look like a bit of a departure from the book.

speaking of movies, i recommend shut up & sing, even if you're not a dixie chicks fan. matt and i watched it last night and were both entertained/disturbed by it. i have no idea how i missed this whole dixie chicks vs. george bush controversy, but i only learned about it last year. very interesting movie, where you'll come across such crazy characters as rick rubin and nathan petrelli.

okay, i'm still on a self-imposed vacation, so now it's basketball time.

book 16

hey, i'm actually just where i was at this time last year, so i guess i'm not as behind on my reading as i thought. which is really amazing if you factor in the amount of time i've spent lately not working on my master's paper and opting to watch basketball instead.

the virgin of small plains: a novel of suspense, nancy pickard
rating:


i picked this up randomly from the browsing shelf because the cover looked interesting and it was newish. also, it's spring break and i felt like reading a mystery. pretty much: beautiful naked girl found frozen to death in the middle of a blizzard small plains, kansas in 1987. "no one" knows who she is (except the people who do, and they go to great lengths to hide her identity). fast forward almost twenty years and abby, whose boyfriend mitch mysteriously disappeared the morning after the body was discovered, decides she wants to figure out what's up. she's inspired by a sudden tabloid interest in the anonymous dead woman (who has been nicknamed "the virgin of small plains") after a cancer victim claims that the virgin has miraculous healing powers. i was actually pretty surprised to find out the real deal, and i was really interested the whole time, but sadly, the ending felt rushed and i had to knock a few 'bots off for that.