Book Reviews

First, Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief because it is less involved than the other one. Okay.... this book was alright. But I have heard some people hail it as the next Harry Potter and I just don't get it. I like fantasy books, it's what I write and what I read. But this book did not resonate with me. Firstly, I do not like that the mom never told him the truth and then dies before any real explanation. Oops, spoiled it. Oh well, don't read a review from me without expecting spoilers. Anyhow, I did not like the main character enough. Not to continue in the series, anyway. I love me some Harry Potter. I was invested in Harry's past, present and future after chapter one. It's possible that it is only me because I know a lot of people love this book series but I was not invested in the character from the beginning and by the end I liked his friends better. However, I advise readers to decide for themselves because it is entirely possible I am wrong about it. I frequently am. But don't tell my husband because I maintain an eerily always right, told you so attitude around him:)


I was reading a book that I decided I wanted to read based on the cover.(Side note: I do not judge them on their covers HOWEVER if I see an interesting one...). I liked the broken lollipop piece heart that was mostly blue and green with one red piece. The title was obviously a little fluffy but I figured I could suffer through it to get to the mystery behind the lollipop piece heart. Then I found out that the lollipop pieces are sea glass. And that the book was not fluffy at all. And there was a quote that I liked so much I had to write it out somewhere so that I could have it forever.



"When someone you love dies, people ask you how you're doing, but they don't really want to know. They seek affirmation that you're okay, that you appreciate their concern, that life goes on and so can they.
Secretly they wonder when the statute of limitations on asking expires (it's three months, by the way. Written or unwritten, that's about all the time it takes for people to forget the one thing that you never will). They don't want to know that you wake up every day wondering why you got to live and he didn't. That on the afternoon of your first day of real vacation, you sit in front of the ocean, face hot under the giant sun, willing him to give you a sign that he is okay."

This quote says it all for me. There is no expiration on grief and I can tell without asking that every day since my mother died is just as raw as the first month for myself, my sister, and my uncle. Maybe not in the way that every moment is a crying jag. But in the way that every morning I wonder why. That in seeing her things in my place, I am simultaneously forced to remember and forbidden to forget. It's a hard place to be- remembering hurts but to forget is
unquestionably not an option. A year passes and no one remembers except those closest and maybe a couple people on the anniversary. When people ask how you are, you can not answer honestly because you are no longer expected to give answers about it. When you go a little crazy, or even a lot crazy and no one knows why- they don't trace it back to the fact that you don't feel right since this happened, they just assume you are having a bad day. Well, I guess what I want to know is- how long until I am really just having a bad day? How long until I no longer feel crazy, until I don't feel off and broken and strange inside my head and my heart? Maybe I can live through the day now but time- the only thing we can really count on- is not making this easier. Is there something wrong with me or is everyone like this when someone so close dies? Why is it that I feel like crying instead of smiling at the memory? I don't think it is a depression and I am not truly, inside my head crazy. I just don't think I can get over this the way some people seem to do.
Anyway. This book sort of highlighted for me these issues and it made me feel a little less alone. So I recommend it, particularly to anyone who has suffered a serious loss. Who cares that it is the equivalent of a puke inducing chick flick that you would be ashamed to ask for tickets for in the movie theater? It's so worth it. Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah (ha, we have the same name. Maybe it was fate) Ockler.

On writing and music- I will be subjecting a flash fiction story I wrote to criticism from a writers group I attend and I just hope that it is good enough for them to not want to chuck me out into the parking lot and repeatedly run over my fingers so I can never write again. Wish me luck.
As for music... I listened to the new Death Cab for Cutie song for New Moon and I was disappointed. Not in a way where I thought they sold out or some other such nonsense. Just that I really hated the song. I will try to listen to it again but in the meantime I am listening to Stone Sour- Through the Glass and Placebo- Running Up That Hill and 10 Years. All things that remind me of Catching Fire because I had to read it again and it is just haunting me in the way that only Harry Potter, Twilight, The Host, and White Oleander have....