Books

I just finished reading "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett last night and I'm still blown away by how good it was. I also can't believe this is the author's first book--this was a seriously well-crafted, beautifully written, meaningful, important and enjoyable story. It might even be on my Top 10 best books list (but I don't know because I'm not about to sit and make a list right now, sorry.)

I got it from the new section of the library without realizing they wanted it back in 1 week. It's pretty long and I've been pretty picky with books lately, so I thought I'd be returning it unread. At first I was kind of bored with the whole idea and was wondering if it was only so popular because of the way it's partially written in the old southern dialect of a black housekeeper. I thought it was okay and kept reading because I had nothing else to read by the pool.

It all came together so well though and I'm so glad I stuck it out and read the whole thing. It was one of those books where once I finished, I wished I had read the last few chapters a little slower because now it's over forever and I enjoyed the characters so much that I'll miss them. I'm okay with owing a late fee on it. (Sorry, library.)

I also want to thank whoever suggested Molokai and Honolulu--those were great books. Especially Molokai, which was about a 5-year-old girl in old Hawaii who gets diagnosed with leprosy and quarantined to a leper colony on an island. It was really interesting and written well.

Now I'm trying to get into The Road with Cormac McCarthy but it's too soon to tell if I like it or hate it. I will be surprised if I love it but sometimes I'm wrong.

I'm sick right now but no one here cares. People are punching each other and crying and using my nasal spray as a water gun and breaking stuff and asking for things and talking about video games way too often. Actually, little kid is the one doing almost all of those things. He's playing zoo, which means he's got about 9 zillion toys out, and he's narrating the whole thing musically so it's pretty loud. And not as interesting as you'd think. Just loud. Now he's lying on the floor crying because he can't have pudding. Such a hard life!

I'd rather be reading.