Recent Reads: L & K, I<3U, Glass

Yes, yes, yet another, let's play catch up, post. I read far faster than I can put up RR posts, so I'm just going to keep doing my best to keep up with these and sometimes the posts will be multiples.

I can't help it. There are way too many good books out there that I want to share about!

Book: Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

Book Count: 13

The story of a girl who finds out what home and love really are.

In Lock and Key Ruby is discovered living in a house where her mother abandoned her. She's still underage, so instead of finding herself in foster care, Ruby is sent to live with her much older estranged sister and her husband.

Once Ruby's moved in, she befriends the cute neighbor guy, works on rebuilding a relationship with her sister and finds out that one of the hardest parts of letting people in, is letting people go.

Great book. Great Read. Go get it! It's Sarah Dessen. You can't really go wrong here.

Book: I Heart You You Haunt Me by Lisa Schroeder

Book Count: 14

Boy and girl meet. Boy and girl fall in love. Boy dies. Girl can't let go. Neither can boy.

Yep, that's about it. Yanno, with some more detail and stuff. Her dead boyfriend's ghost comes back to be with her because she can't let go of the guilt, blaming herself for his death, so she can't let him go. But how do you have a "real" relationship with a ghost?

I really thought the premise of this was great, but the execution was a bit off for me. It just felt like there wasn't enough. For a book written in free pose, much like Ellen Hopkins's novels, this book felt a thin. The characters were not developed enough for me. For me, I guess the easiest way to put it is: I didn't feel what she was feeling.

If it didn't only take me about 45 minutes to read, I probably wouldn't have finished it. The premise got me. The actual story lost me.

Book: Glass

Book Count: 15

Ahh, yes, another Ellen Hopkins book. Issues galore. This is the sequel to Crank and what a sequel it is. As usual, written lyrically and in free pose, Glass sucks you back into Kristina's world. Now seventeen with a baby, the lure of an even stronger form of meth calls out to her.

In this sequel Ellen Hopkins deals even more with the ramifications of an addicts actions on their families and it is heartwrenching. Especially when there are children involved. She doesn't gloss over the story, which makes it more real and more difficult to read. The difficulty does not lie in the writing, but in the actual story and how harsh reality is.

This is the second part in a based on real life story that Ms. Hopkins's family has faced. As you read this book, you can tell there's more to the words than in some of her other works. There's more behind the story and it breaks your heart just a little bit more.

Maybe not something to read if you're having a downer day, but definitely a good book.

That's it for now. Happy Reading!

Recent Read: Wintergirls

Book: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Current Book Count: 2

This was a pickup based on some reviews from others on Goodreads and a couple other author blogs I follow. It had me curious. The issue of eating disorders comes up now and again, usually when a celebrity or some sort of celebutante lands themselves in some sort of rehab, but Wintergirls came out as the news has been eerily quiet on the issue.

The story of Lia, a girl who had a deal with her best friend Cassie about who would be the skinniest. After Cassie's death, Lia's still trying to win the deal. Having been in treatment for anorexia twice before, Lia knows the tricks to beating the scale. She's figured out most of the ways to beat the system. As Cassie's ghost haunts her, egging her on the deadly path to become the skinniest, it's clear that Lia isn't interested in another stint in treatment, she just wants to be the skinniest.

Weight and self-image are such big issues in American society, it's difficult for anyone, male or female, young or old, to truly escape it. Isn't that why people get Botox injections? A nip here, a tuck there? Aren't there so many pills, diets, workout regiments and special cleansing treatments out there purely to assist people in improving their images, internal or external?

As with Lia, giving in sometimes becomes easier. Then it just becomes routine and who you are. Eventually it starts to wear on all those around you, your friends and family, and everyone suddenly wants to help. When they weren't interested before. But you can only be helped if you're ready.

Wintergirls is a story about Lia and her battle with anorexia. It is also a story about a family’s journey to recovery and finding out that when something like anorexia is waging a battle against one person, it will take the whole family to win the war.

For more information on eating disorders a couple websites to visit:

The National Eating Disorders Association

Mirror Mirror - Eating Disorders