National Book Month - Blog Posts

Lovely, lively then lament

It’s National Book Month, but while I have been given and introduced to books through school, from friends and family, following reviews online, many of the books I have been able to read because of my local library.

More than ‘just’ books many local libraries also have classes, are a meeting space, have activities for children or other community specific events with some being hosts of local political events or debates. In addition, local public libraries have become a symbol of the shared public space that is not only central to the community but a place you can go that is FREE (separate from taxes of course). Even as the world turns more digital there are certain databases, and historical texts that aren’t being added online or would be difficult to absorb separate from the understanding that staring at a screen 24/7 is bad for you.

Libraries are glorious and should be as much of a necessity as a post office or grocery store for a community but they’re not always appreciated and people commonly undervalue the benefits a good library can bring allowing them to slowly disappear for things that will make a bigger profit.

National Book Month

National Book Month has been a lot, but going down memory lane has been so comforting--like hot cocoa, fuzzy socks, a warm blanket...and a good book.

As we get older, we change. We grow, our perspective changes and with more knowledge comes deeper understanding. The Giver by Lois Lowry is still a great book and was a book I still chose to pass onto my nephew when he reached the age of the protagonist, Jonas (12). The first of many young adult dystopian novels, The Giver is unique as it deals more with the politics and touches upon the issues and reasoning for strict and government regulation without all-out war or battle by Jonas or his friends. Around Jonas’ age, I read and loved this book but during a recent reread found the depth of the book I felt originally was lacking. Still touching upon how the adults had lost their way and the understanding of the choices they were making, I had grown and wanted more from the book. This hurts. I felt as thou I had lost a beauty with the book, because for me some of the story is gone. It still makes me sad, thou understanding why I felt this way after first reading it makes me feel better and I can know to look for more books and stories, both in fiction and in real life that inspire me; while still being able to read a good story from my childhood. 

In the spirit of Halloween and the change of tides with the Giver, today I’d also like to honour the books I love--whose names I’ve forgotten. I book I still swear is called the Pearl, telling the story of the French resistance during the Nazi rise thru the eyes of a rich girl of privilege, a particular story about Elizabeth Blount’s life and events in England and told thru the eyes of a maid/servant. Hopefully I’ll find you once more

The Giver is a good book--please read

And some days--I can't handle it. Books are entries to other worlds, but sometimes the brain is just fried, and on those days I watch tv, just listen to music, or with recent trend, color.

To taking it easy!

While not the best of ideas, in the pre-internet times--books sometimes were your only saviour. Even today, I still appreciate the new worlds, in some aspect better worlds books can take me to and inspire me to create

StellaLuna, Archie, and other picture books

Many "kids books" don't have pictures, many " adult books" do. While an overuse of pictures can dumb-down the story the final picture in A Picture of Dorian Gray and the pictures of some of the mountain climbers and map of Everest in Into Thin Air created emphasis and added to the story. It's important also to note that while not always, "kids books" or picture books aren't actually always just for children.

I was probably too young to read the Archie comic books when I read them, as with most things I did with my parents. But at 11 or later at night there was little else at the newsstand, that's what was available and it worked to keep me occupied at a time long before smartphones or portable DVD players. A few years later books were used again as part of a reward system: 100 books and I could get a pet. These were good moves, while there is a fine line between bribing and inspiring, in this case I was inspired with that list being one of the biggest factors into reading all the very adult books I read today, even thou most of those books were ones that I knew were kids books even then when it took me less than an hour to read some.

StellaLuna was a story about a bat, and long story short, it’s about how who you love determines your family, the harms of trying to fit into a mould and is a stuffed animal that remains on my bed to this day. So really, let's stop hating the picture books, stop thinking those that do are dumb or bland, let's just stop being book-snobs. Picture books aren't low brow, and Shakespeare isn't the holy grail.

The Pillowman

After the older stories by the Grimm Brothers, A Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Lottery in high school--finding the newly written “The Pillowman” was like a breath of fresh air. Another story that twisted your world upside down and had an element of supernatural while also being so accurate about the aspects and attitudes of human nature, just made me feel so at peace. 

The Pillowman is fascinating to me as overall it’s a short story, quick read but has so much depth. There is very little filler, you find out what you need and that’s that. Also, there is great complexity and skill to someone who can make you sympathize with someone who should be seen as evil--whether or not they truly are evil or that sympathy is warranted

I believe in the power of knowledge, which comes from books. You want to learn something? Read.

Bookstore owner, Joan of Arcadia (via colemeanitch)

I’d expand this, as there is also art and discussion and life and other experiences, but yeah--these things come from other places and by putting yourself out there in a way that will get you more understanding of the situation and books are amazing for this, but sometimes a book or a just-fact book isn’t the right way either

Dorian

First, it’s amazing to me that I still don’t remember the TRUE title of this book. I always refer to it just as Dorian, then remember it’s Dorian Gray--completely forgetting it’s actually “The Picture of Dorian Gray”

I love this book so, so much. Forget the ridiculousness of homophobia in general and in the book, for Oscar Wilde to have written this book, have the visual degree he had, the understanding he had--it baffles and bothers me that people really considered anything else except for the pure genius that he was with this story and concerned themselves with other things. 

First, for the story, the use of the painting and Dorian as a split between him and his soul is amazing. While he begins his journey with a great lack of understanding, it brings about the idea that without consequences many will go astray--while also pointing out that those who choose to put their value in images or status instead of nature and character are going to be missing the truth about people--warned by Sybil, the painting and Bail’s disbelief of the rumours

Secondly, Dorian’s journey over the 18 years that were inspired by Basil’s painting and Lord Henry’s small chat, along with Dorian’s lack of follow thru to stay with Sybil both before and after her death--what concerns me with this is the reflection that that at that point his fate is sealed. While later true, Dorian and the other characters take the easy way out and similarly to my first point go towards the path of least resistance--in more ways than one, regardless of the logic or lack of behind it. 

Finally, and for me, the most awe-striking genius that I continue to be stunned by is the ending where Dorian meets his demise. While I know that our creativity comes from an inspiration within, the ending especially (along with the idea of the painting in general) was so ahead of its time. I am again in awe

Keep Reading

When you can barely see but cannot sleep 

When everyone around you makes you feel insane

They’ll be there, they’ll call your name

All your friends and dreams will guide you home and to who you want to be

A Walk to Remember, Holes

The book is almost always considered better than the film, and really, how couldn’t it be (shout-out to all the people who were in the same theatre as me during the first Harry Potter and had to deal with me going thru the book in the theatre and complaining about the inaccuracies for the first third); there’s no budget, no timeline for the writer or the reader and you get to become more immersed (bonus: movies are expensive!). But except for times when the movie greatly alters the story (the Giver), I understand that movies are more restricted than the books and sometimes even very important plot points not 100% relevant to the main story ‘must’ be omitted (R.I.P S.P.E.W). However, two stories that were big as I grew up went from book to movie, one that I first saw as a movie (A Walk to Remember) and one I first read as a book (Holes)

A Walk to Remember was a big deal in my school when it first came out, even after those who saw it first shouted about the ending and while the dramatics of young love being lost to death area big plot point in young adult novels, many of the aspects of high school were accurate even when they’re cliché. There are kids who are ‘losers’ and hate it, but also don’t care; and some people who are assholes in elementary school, are assholes for life—but others, may not even be assholes by the end of high school whether due to basic maturing and growth or dramatic circumstances change them (I’ve seen both). About ten years after the movie came out, I came across the book and decided to read it as there some things in the book that didn’t make sense to me (main point, her leukaemia being so devastating at such a young age and the school being overly involved with Landon’s criminal activity punishment). Turns out, the original book was set in the 1950s!!! but adapted so more teens would go see it. As with most of the stories I love, this one I loved because it gave a good background as to why and how Landon falls in love with someone ‘not his type’, it’s both explained and unexplainable—completely accurate and brings the idea to kids that there are many reasons why people are the way they are and you can only truly know someone by getting to know them. As a side, while mostly ignored in both the movie and novel, both stories do have the reconnection made between Landon and his father.

Holes: is, was, and will always be; hysterical. From Stanley = Yelnats, to the curse being centered on a pig and a dumb rich girl, to the kids at camp green lake really not being hardened criminals but just really overactive kids, and of course, the fact that them digging holes was going to not just make them strong enough to beat the counsellors up. There were so many amazing stories and lessons portrayed in both the movie and the novel: racism, how love can turn into anger, how women can be ruthless, how it’s important to find love that is equal, to thank your friends who try and help you and to always be optimistic (though maybe a bit more realism wouldn’t have hurt). Both the film and the movie portrayed the lessons they wanted to get across well, especially, the greatness that is true friendship and compassion for others.

Both A Walk to Remember and Holes to me are stories that were adapted and made sure to keep the true story and the experiences of the characters intact, so while not everything aligns up perfectly, only a snob would complain about the outcome.

Out of body

Books are loved for how they let us connect, how they make us feel at home, and how they allow us to see experiences from others' point of view among many other reasons

But along with these, sometimes books are more straightforward, and are just there to get our feet moving, but we have to do more of the work ourselves.

So, to both the books that show us and tell us, to the books that make us imagine and have us see the natural beauty up close, to the books that let us sit back and inspire us to venture out. Cheers

it’s all I ever wanted to be

The Magician’s Nephew

Not a fan of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardobe. It was ok, nothing as great as the first thou. Harry Potter is the book that I call home, but the first book that I became obsessed with, that I feel completely in love with, where the pages became warm, was the Magicians Nephew--and the beauty, intricacy and originality I felt for lost.

The Magician's Nephew was first great because it was real, it wasn't a story where they went on a grand adventure. These were two regular kids with regular lives that had death, greed and were just doing normal fun activities and were then forced on a "grand adventure".

This also was my first adult book, while wrote for children the adults and characters who were the antagonists weren't just evil or villainous, they were just normal. Filled with selfishness and greed, they weren't one dimensional, they showed the real consequences of human actions and loss of moral. This was a great novel, a great children's novel and a great story about humans, kids and human nature

Cinderella--Grimm

There are a million different ways we can all go into the Disney manipulation, white-washing and ending the loss of the Grimm stories that managed to capture the ‘grandfather tales’ passed down thru generations, previously only spread by word-of-mouth. 

Rook di goo, rook di goo! There's blood in the shoe. The shoe is too tight, This bride is not right! 

But sometimes, the joy of truth is just that it’s funny

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes

Sadako and the Thousand paper cranes was the true story of Sadako Sasaki, who was a child when the atom bombs were dropped in Japan during World War II. She was only 12 years old when she died from Leukemia developed from the bombs—a fate similar to many children who were young when the bombs were dropped, linked to the effects of radiation. In the novel she tries to make 1,000 origami paper cranes that when completed will allow her to wish to heal, in real life she is able to make over 1,000 cranes but still dies, her wish not coming true.

The story of Sadako is known worldwide and impacts many as it is the story of a young child’s want to live and persistence. The story of Sadako also reminds all about how war is not a small or controllable action: there are many, many unforeseen consequences—and many that are foreseeable are ignored. Whether she folds the 1,000 paper cranes or not, the aspect of the story that hits me the most is how much she wanted to live, how much she did and didn’t understand (a lot of which was no understandable) and the love that surrounded her and surrounds other communities during a tragedy. A symbol of peace and innocence, this is a story that should always be shared, even when the days of war have ended.  

Books for ourselves

It is important to remember that books are not always about just telling a story. Books can show us how others live--whether they be Stormtroopers, drug addicts, slaves or someone that has another different story from all the ones that are different from us. 

Yes, we learn about people from their stories, but it doesn’t have to stop there. In understanding one’s life and one’s struggles--we can choose to act, we can choose to push forward, we can choose to help, we can choose to learn more. 

In 15 days it’s Halloween, in 16 days it’s a day of really cheap candy and chocolate, and in 21 days you have the power to vote and make the world how you think it should be. But I hope that’s not your one day of using your voice, your power and the power of listening to someone else’s story. You may not have the best or easiest life, everyone struggles but “a rising tide lifts all boats”--be that tide, raise the condition for everyone

The Gift of Fear

Not all books can be comforting, not all books are make-believe, not all books are heart-racing suspenseful; Gavin De Becker’s The Gift of Fear is all three. Gavin De Becker, the author, shares with us the stories of his clients who were raped by strangers, celebrities stalked by ‘regular people’, obsessed coworkers and more. He dissects them to show them, and us, where and when we should trust our gut and how it really isn’t our gut, but our logical mind setting off warning flags that society has told us to ignore.

I’m reminded of an SVU episode wherein thinking she’s just being racist, a young white girl allows a big black guy into her apartment to help her unload her groceries—she didn’t need the help, and she wasn’t being racist, there was something about him that she knew was off but told herself she should ignore it and then got raped. There are people who are racist, this book nor I ignore that, but just as women have been taught to smile, we have all been taught to be kind and understanding—even when we shouldn’t be. Sometimes it doesn’t matter much, but sometimes it means the end of our lives. He reminds us, me, of the phrase “look at someone’s actions, not at someone’s words”—he reminds us that people choose to be nice, charming—it doesn’t mean they are. He gives a list and more descriptions about Pre-Incident Indicators: methods used by those trying to get something from you that they are used to people ignoring:

Trying to make you two a team

Making you feel sympathy

Locking you down and trying to force a connection

Making a situation where you feel it’d be rude to not speak to THIS COMPLETE STRANGER

Trying to get you into your debt

Trying to make a deal with you, when really they could just leave

Refusing to hear the word no

People say this book could save your life, no. It reminds you that you already have the power to save and fight for your life, you just have to recondition yourself to listen to yourself and trust what someone is showing you. The aspects of this book being real and harrowing are obvious, the issues of comforting is how it allows us to trust ourselves again. This book isn’t just for young women, mothers, or the elderly. I’ve shared this book with managers, coworkers, friends and more. Share this book, read it’s tales and learn how you can survive. It’s awful, but as we know have work-place shootings as part of our fire safety, and the access the internet provides others with our personal details, this book is only becoming more important

We tell ourselves stories in order to live...we look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five. We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices. We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the "ideas" with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience

Joan Didion

The White Album

Into Thin Air

I’m still in the process of reading this book for the first time, but as I slowly read thru their final days on the Summit, I know this book will be with me forever. Not even knowing the events beforehand Jon Krakauer’s words will break you; you are only able to remove yourself so much as he highlights impending consequences of what were the best-made decisions. Little, inconsequential choices and feelings in crucial moments that were unknown to him at the time turn out to be the worst of his life, you can feel them now—you can feel his sorrow, guilt and pain.

His words are intensified by quotes included by other climbers and authors about climbing, about life and about death. I have added his other works onto my list, as never before have I been able to see a world so clearly, been in the place of someone so closely, feeling their heart within mine. He is an amazing writer, for lack of more deserving words and praise, and I wish peace upon all those in his, and similar stories.

Libraries

I love libraries, I always have. The insurmountable access to books and all the information they contain and may provide, always makes my heart completely burst (especially the reference sections that discuss religion, culture, and historical past times). 

Here is Trinity college, a famous library. Most people don't appreciate their local library as much as they fawn over this one thou. My local library, the library I grew up with, that’s the one that just makes me happy and comfortable, just thinking about it as I am now. 

Whether it’s those little boxes on a yard where people can exchange books for free, a large historic university library inside an old castle or cathedral where some King once studied, or your modern library down the street that lets you take out electronic books: love your local library! GO to your local library! There are movies, there is music, there are boos, there are sessions about plays and scientific questions and just so much can be done at libraries. 

Think of a library as the Wood Between the Worlds, every book can take you to an entirely different place, and you won’t feel so bored, or lonely. Love your local library, be loving to your local library

The Giving Tree

The Giving Tree is one of those books where I’m shocked there so much controversy with it and shows my how different people’s perspectives can be. Looking at the same situation people believe that The Giving Tree shows a selfish boy who just takes and takes and takes: promoting narcissism and selfishness. In this scenario, the tree may also represent unrealistic goals to new mothers who are supposed to give and give to their child and expect nothing in return or environmentalists who have the boy as a symbol for our destructive pillaging of the planet.

When I read I naturally and by force try to focus on the relationships between characters and how their wants and feelings dictate their actions (as is the case with most humans). I focus on the aspects of the story where the boy and tree are together and how the tree just wants to make the boy happy, and is always happy when he is happy. While I see it as a story of parental love, it really represents all true love, where you want the other person to be happy whether or not that happiness includes you—you want what’s best for them, even if it’s not what’s best for you.

My experiences with parenthood reflect those in the book but only in a simplified version. In the beginning, the boy loves the tree so much, yes he takes from her: her energy, her time, her snacks—but he’s also there with her sharing his time and his laughter and love. As a teen the boy just uses the tree and as a young adult, the boy creates a home, from the foundation of the tree and his own plans and efforts. The last two moments: where the boy is lost and tries to get away and the ending when he just wants to sit on the stump; these are the moments I don’t know we always get to see with our children, unfortunately. Even those who become parents while their own parents are around still say they didn’t appreciate or tell them enough how much they love them—things only realized after they’re gone. It’s sad, of course it’s sad. It’s depressing and shows that people can be too loving and too selfish. As with any book, you can take from it what you want to take from it, from the Giving Tree, I choose to see the relationship as a boy and his Momma, who in the end will be perfectly happy just spending time together; young or old.

Dementors

"Dementors are among the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope and happiness out of the air around them....get too near a Dementor and every good feeling, every happy memory, will be sucked out of you...you'll be left with nothing but the worst experiences of your life.’

It is with our introduction to Dementors that we really feel inside JK Rowling, even for those who dealt with depression, the aspect of it being temporary and out of ones control made the connection difficult--but is becoming more accepted overtime. While some stories show us new worlds, and other stories draw connections from different worlds to our own, others open our eyes to living a better life and all the different ways stories and books and conversations, sometimes we read to find ourselves as we look for ourselves in others. This is one of the best examples, of how JK connected us and brought us forward within ourselves as those right next to us. Her ability to openly and honestly portray pain, loneliness and loss are some of the most crucial elements that people needed to feel connected with in order to survive.

"You do care" said Dumbledore "You care so much you feel as though you will bleed to death with the pain of it"--and we did, we have survived

Born a Crime

Trevor Noah’s (current host of The Daily Show) autobiography Born a Crime about an illegal child born in South Africa during apartheid is not the traditional rags-to-riches story you would expect. He does express breaking out of apartheid and the circle of ‘black payment’ but all before the success of who he is today, actually in only one sentence, as part of background information, does he mention his comedy, his touring and this is all before he came to the states or even left South Africa.  His story of rags-to-riches focuses on the better life he got in South Africa thanks to the willfulness of his mother and some random luck. 

There are a few reasons I love this book so much, for starters, I hear Trevor Noah in every word written, I'm not reading the book, I’m hearing him tell me his story and while watching The Daily Show provides his voice and talking mannerisms the actual art of showing and not telling, portraying his humanness in the story, that’s the beautiful part and it’s not because of The Daily Show. Giving a personal and historical understanding of his experience growing up under apartheid is great for all the obvious reasons: the picture he paints, the life different from ours that he introduces us to, but what he does so seamlessly is showing us our stories within his. 

Once I got old enough I knew I was privileged. Not from the specifics of being white or an upper-middle-class background--everyone I knew was like that, but I did understand that growing up in the states that I always had food and I’d go to college. Growing up Trevor shows us that while very different, that he can show us his world of apartheid and our world all at once, the specifics are different, but the stories are the same: racism, fear, fake personas, heartbreak, domestic violence

He brings us into the understanding of how again were just different types of toasted bread (because really, races aren’t even different types of skin, it’s literally just different levels of shading, this is all so ridiculous--but anyway), how some of us were in to level seven and others 4 and others only level one but we’re all still bread. 

Our Shared Universe: Human Experience

What is truly beautiful and most show by JK Rowlings’ Harry Potter series, but also by many other books (Sakura and the 1,000 paper cranes and the new book-to-movie adaption To all the boys I’ve loved before, is that while our cultures are different, part of us are all the same. WE ARE ALL HUMAN. While some believe in the human being split and others believe in the red string; most of us all have similarities with those very different from ourselves and even if we cannot meet these people face to face, we meet them in the stories that reflect ours, but are just slightly different.  

At the entrance to the Peace Park people filed through the memorial building in silence. On the walls were photographs of the dead and dying in a ruined city. The atom bomb—the Thunderbolt—had turned Hiroshima into a desert. Sadako didn’t want to look at the frightening pictures. She held tight to Chizuko’s hand and walked quickly through the building. -- Sakura and the 1,000 paper cranes 

Is this not how the US currently deals with September 11th, there is respect, there is honor, there is fear and confusion. 

The Lottery

I was never too fond of happily-ever-afters, and as I got older and learned how fictitious they were I became more annoyed by them as I felt, and feel, that they present a falseness that others allow themselves to remain within at the cost of others. But before the true fairy-tales of Cinderella or the Pillowman, the first story is Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”.

This story brings us more into a different perspective than most, like Samuel Jackson’s character in Unbreakable. We start off just seeing a small town coming together for this very important event, how this is an important event in this town and others big and small. While we don’t know what the event is and an entire town meeting ina square seems odd to us now, we know it used to happen and draw connections to how the children act the adults’ gossip, and the changing of the event over time. As the story continues, an undertone becomes more prevalent, young men are just starting to draw for their families, and a woman mentions about how fast time goes by, using the event as a marker and how some towns don’t participate at all. 

What I love about this story is how much our perception changes as we learn more. We enter the story neutrally, then get excited and then try to hold onto that as we learn more. True artistry here comes from being able to challenge, surprise and have your reader’s perception and world be altered; and it is all down here. 

The Lottery: 

http://sites.middlebury.edu/individualandthesociety/files/2010/09/jackson_lottery.pdf

"Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it."

JK Rowling

Words, like books, are everything. Every experience, almost every emotion that we experienced can be told to others with the use of words and we understand each other by reading and listening to the stories of others. The most beautiful love song, the worst phrases that turn a friend to an enemy.

Act with kindness, speak with compassion, and keep reading

Freakonomics

Freakonomics is a beautiful book that doesn’t do a damn thing. Forget the books or, even better, tv finales that leave you with more questions than answers--this book is all questions. 

Now, the book actually answers it’s questions or at least gives as much insight as possible to the questions it raises, but the questions that get you, and where it succeeds, are the questions you come up with after, on your own; looking at the world around you in a different light. 

Are there true connections there, or are they just happenstance?

While for the most part, I love books that take you somewhere, this books brings everything to you. Different, and not so different from other books, this book makes you think. But it doesn’t just pose a philosophical quandary--it makes the world an open world of quandaries that you can ponder on your own or issues that it brings up that maybe you need to handle differently. 

It’s not a cheat sheet to the world, it’s the coding manual that allows you to create all the cheat sheets in the world.  You don’t go to space and meet aliens, you don’t go back in time to find out who murdered Tupac; you get to look at our world, your world and begin to answer your own questions--and are inspired to do so. 

It's a great goal, but really, just keep reading at whatever pace you can do and enjoy. It's not a race. I love reading because I enjoy seeing and learning something different. Not always, but those books you read when you then have to look up stuff and find more books to read and things you want to learn. But also the books where you can really breathe it in and reflect. Those are the big things, the big moments in reading, but really the small moments are great too. There is the heartbreaking story that's only six words: "For sale: Baby shoes,never worn" So much can come from so little and the same is so with reading. Don't feel overwhelmed, just keep reading, don't feel bad when you maybe need to take a break for a few days. Don't worry too much about what you read, just read and read and read

The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing

I got this book at a thrift store–which is a great practice on its own, just got a school textbook for less than $5.00—I didn’t get it thinking it was about Hunting and Fishing, but as I believed that it would be about raising strong women; but that it wasn’t either and I’m not going to lie, the reviews are right, this book is a bit of a mess but overall it reminds me a bit of Freaks and Geeks where it’s messy and authentic.

First on the mess, it doesn’t help and is unnecessary, the majority of the story is believed to be from one person’s point of view, but two chapters (one told from a character connected to the “main character”, and one not) are told from different people’s points of view. As the “main character” who actually isn’t depicted as the main character or is always portrayed the same but has memories from the earlier chapters—it’s the best you can go. This is confusing, and when I read this book the second time it was early in the second chapter that I remembered—oh right, this is why this book was annoying and confusing. But while poorly formatted and executed, that’s not really all that important, overall the story is snippets of most girls struggles with her personal romantic relationships, navigating different adult relationship as she gets older and changes, figuring out what she wants with her relationships and her changing relationship with her family.

What’s also crucial, and does make it a good story for young adult women and older, is that the love stories aren’t fairy-tale, they’re realistic. Loving someone you broke up with, how much pain can one handle or one should handle in a relationship, the weirdness of not wanting what you know is probably best for you, breaking up with your best friend; it’s not some dramatics of other books: woman finds herself after divorce, found her fiancé cheating, just got a makeover and became the ‘hot girl’ in school. It’s all the other parts of love, the common and more dramatic, heartbreaking and confusing stuff that there is no right answer for.

I’ve read this story a few times—and I still don’t get the title (really, it does not come up in the book, I’ve checked) but what’s great about it is that it’s accurate, and how you do feel the mess you’re in, isn’t unique to you—you’re not alone in feeling alone, even if no situation matches yours.

Brick Heck, The Middle

An odd guy, no doubt. But you know....he knew who he was...

...he didn’t play to anyone else...

...and he learned to appreciate what he had when he had it. 

Thank you Brick, for knowing what’s important and how to cherish it and where your home was