Tag book-reviews

The Outsiders – Book Review

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Book 5/100

Every high school English class has its go-to classics. In my English classes in Texas it was Inferno by Dante Alighieri, Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Firzgerald and others. In this area, I was introduced to The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. I had never heard of this book an apparently it is a very common read for middle schooler around here! Classic literature is so different regionally.

This book was chosen to be our January book of the month for The Shire Bookstore and it was a great success! Our food theme were side dishes, and our dress theme was to dress as a Greaser or a Soc.

The Outsiders is the story of Ponyboy Curtis (yes, that’s his actual name) and his life as a Greaser. Their rival gang is the Socs and they are the rich kids that everyone wants to be. Ponyboy has two brothers and is very close knit with his gang brothers, especially since he is an orphan. Ponyboy and his friend Johnny get into trouble and have to flee to another city and hide out for a while. Johnny is badly injured and life lessons are learned.

Surprisingly this book about gangs and boys behaving badly was written by a teenaged girl! Because of this, I was a bit more lenient with my critique. I can see why this book would appeal to teenagers. I made my children read it for their English class and 3 out of 4 of them liked it. There is a coming-of-age feel to the book. The book was easy to read and there were many tender moment between the brothers, but it did feel a bit juvenile of them to be hugging and holding each other all the time. The book had a strong emphasis on what it means to be family and taking care of one another.

We did also see the movie! That is another American classic in the movie world. I couldn’t believe how many famous actors were involved in that movie! And who knew Tom Cruse was such an ugly duckling? The movie does follow the book closely.

Overall the book was good. I give it a 3.8 stars out of 5. I recommend this book to middle and high schoolers. The book has no cuss words or sex scenes. The violence is minimal.

This book was publish April of 1967
This book is 208 pages long
It has a Goodread rating of of 4.12

One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot – Book Review

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Book 4/100
Book Challenge: A book with a beautiful cover
Some spoilers ahead, so take caution!

This book was written by Marianne Cronin and is about a 17 year old girl named Lenni who has is terminally ill. She only has a few months to live and her perspective on life is one of urgency. Margot on the other hand, has lived a full life and is 83. She is relatively healthy and we get to travel back and forth between the present and Margot’s interesting life. Together between the life of Lenni and Margot there is 100 years worth of stories.

There were a lot of endearing moments in Margot’s story, but Lenni’s story was mostly sad. There is an interesting relationship that Lenni develops with the hospital’s spiritual adviser, Father Arthur. He is a clergy member and this is where I believe the book fell short for me. Lenni has so many questions about her life. She is about to die and a lot of her questions are very deep and Father Arthur doesn’t truly answer them. As a Christian, I was so frustrated with the dialogue between the two of them! The book towards the end even hints that Lenni may have jarred Father Arthur so much with her questions that he may have ended up questionig his own faith. She’s about to meet her maker and Father Arthur basically answers everything with “I don’t know”. We have the truth, Father Arthur, and in the end that is what Lenni was looking for. Also, the outright abandonment when life got tough was shocking. Lenni’s dad leaves her because he can’t handle seeing her waste away by her illness. Margot’s first husband leaves her when they suffer a devasting event, and Margot also leaves her second husband when the going gets tough! How can you love someone and just leave them to die alone! I would even understand if it was years of devestation, but all of these abandonments lasted months. And Margot running away to live as a lesbian in her 80’s and marry Meena, a woman who just used her, had me fuming. Meena only wanted Margot around when she needed moral support, and even then, she was elusive and never really invested in Margot. I was not happy for Margot and felt that in the end, Meena would leave her like she did multiple times because it wasnt convenient for her to stick around. Meena was not a good friend, and would be a worse partner.

This book does have a very good rating of 4.30 on Goodreads though. So there is a chance that you would like it. It has the feel of A Man Called Ove, so if you liked that book, there is a strong chance you will like this one. I just didn’t like it, but still gave it a solid 3 stars because the author does write beautifully.

This book was published in June 2021
It is 322 pages long

Hidden Pictures – Book Review

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Book Challenge: A book of your choice
2/100
Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

I don’t often read books with pictures in them. I think the last adult book that I read with pictures was A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness. I will admit that the pictures in A Monster Calls did add a whole other dimension to my reading experience and Hidden Pictures did the same thing. Where A Monster Calls tugged at my soul, Hidden Pictures scared the mess out of me.

Hidden Pictures is about ex-addict Mallory Quinn and her goal to pursue a normal life after being in a half-way house. She has made several mistakes in her past and all she wants is to find a job where she can earn a living and make something out of herself. She soons finds a job nannying a little 5-year old boy, but his parents seem to be a bit over protective. The job comes naturally to her and she is also given living accomodations in a guest house towards the end on the couples large backyard. Soon things are not what they seem and Mallory starts experiencing things that made the hairs behind my nect stand on end! The creepy pictures that Teddy begins to draw also add another level of fright.

Hidden Pictures was entertaining. It wasn’t very deep, but at least the characters were easy to follow and likeable. The plot twist at the end completely shocked me. I didn’t see it coming at all. I think this book would fall under the genre of contemporary gothic fiction. There is a ghostly feel to the book and thankfully there were no graphic scenes of gore or sex.

I would recommend this book to anyone 15 years or older who likes stories of ghosts.
This book was published in May of 2022
It is 375 pages long.
I do not recommend this book in audio form due to the importance of the pictures found within it.
4 out 5 stars