I just spent the last 4 days (not including today) with family taking a nice little break from the hum drum routine to reminisce and relax. I went “tubing” aka floating down a river in a nicely padded tube, had a picnic on the shores of Lake Tahoe, and feasted on Reno’s infamous “awful, awful burger.”
More importantly though, I read. I did not think I would read as much as I did, but it seemed to be a product of the books themselves, rather than my ability to read quickly. It started in the Denver Airport, where my 3 hour layover was unexpectedly extended into 4 hours. While meandering through the airport I happened upon “The Help.” Everyone has been raving about it lately, partly I think because the movie is out, so I decided to spend the ridiculous airport-up charge on a new book to while away the time.
As soon as I opened to the first page, time flew.
Before I knew it, the four hours had passed, and I was boarding the plane, book in hand. I couldn’t put it down! I finished it a day and a half later. Here’s my take on it, and I am going to try not to insert any spoilers: My favorite character has to be Minny Jackson. She’s a “take no prisoners” kind of lady, with a lot of spunk, and her relationship with Celia is absolutely hilarious and heart-warming. The way the book is written is simply fantastic — specifically when writing from either Aibileen or Minny’s perspective, the way the writing actually adopts the way those two characters speak is impressive. Not to mention that their chapters have me thinking in my head the way they speak. If that doesn’t make sense, read the book.
My criticism is that I felt like I should have still been reading when I got to the last page. Not in a “I wanted it to keep going” sort of way, but in a “this isn’t an ending” sort of way. It just stopped, rather bluntly I thought. I know the take-aways of the book, I get the message, I just thought each character seemed to be dropped on her hiney without any sort of resolution of what the entire book worked up to. SO, other than the last 2 pages of the book, I loved it!!
The second book was handed to me by my sister on Saturday after she had finished reading it. It’s called “One Day.” Coincidentally, another one that is in theaters now.
That ended up being much bigger than I intended. Oh well.
So I didn’t start reading this one in earnest until I was in the Reno airport waiting for my flight back to Kansas City. I finished it by the time I landed in Kansas City. Granted, I had a one hour layover in Phoenix…it is quite the book.
So, for those of you that have not heard anything about the book or the movie, it is a love story. I’ll just admit now that I am a sucker for love stories. I’ll also admit that while I loved “The Help” I kept hoping that Skeeter would get her love life figured out along the way. That’s probably blasphemous to say anything bad about “The Help” but I can’t help it 🙂
Anyway, back to “One Day,” the general summary is that this girl (Emma) and this guy (Dexter) are very good friends, and the book follows them through their lives by checking in with them each year on July 15. The technique itself is very interesting, because it also has to fill you in a little on what happened over the course of the last year at the start of each chapter. Plus, it tells the story from both character’s perspectives, which makes it very interesting as well. What I really liked about it was that it was not the classic sort of romance. It’s a little bit “When Harry Met Sally” but I think with much greater depth. FYI, this book made me cry. That has been known to happen on occasion, but I usually take it as a sign that the book is quite good if it pulls on my heartstrings so effectively. That, or I am having a really bad day while I’m reading it. The latter was not the case though, I’m happy to inform you! So basically I LOVED it! Now I’m pretty excited about seeing the movie.
Sidebar: What is with the name “Dexter” lately? Is it coming back into fashion? I mean, there’s “Dex” from “Something Borrowed” (book and now movie), and there’s the TV show “Dexter” in which I am a big fan of Mr. Dexter Morgan, blood spatter analyst by day and serial killer by night. Then there’s always good old “Dexter’s Laboratory”… the cartoon?
I think the Dexter’s of the world are making a comeback!! I think it’s growing on me, especially the shortened version “Dex.” There’s definitely a ring to it.
Alright, well, that’s my reading binge. I need to find a few more things to read I think!
Sagacious Student 