Wednesday, April 8, 2015

April Bookshelf part 1

Only two books this time because one of them was so long and time consuming.

Big Little Lies
by Liane Moriarty
Big Little Lies is written through the viewpoints of three women - Madeline, Celeste, and Jane.

Madeline is a woman who is strong, confident, and passionate. Her ex-husband is remarried to a woman with a very different outlook on life and it seems like their daughter wants to be around her step-mother more than Madeline herself.

Celeste is a beautiful woman with a terrible secret. Her husband travels the world and brings her back really expensive gifts. With twin boys in Kindergarten, the couple is set to be the leaders of the school. But is it worth everything they have to deal with at home?

Jane is a young, single mom who doesn't think she belongs with the rest of these women. She's new to town and is harboring an intense secret of her own.

Madeline and Celeste take Jane into their family of friends and try to teach her the way of the world. They learn her secret and try to help her solve the scandal that is going around the school involving her son.

Big Little Lies is written by an Australian author whose books I've never read before. But after reading this one, I definitely am going to look into her other books because she is fantastic! The book is really long, but I wanted to keep reading and didn't feel burdened to finish.

4.5/5 stars

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She Said Yes
by Misty Bernall
She Said Yes is a story about Cassie Bernall, a young girl who was killed during the Columbine shooting of 1999. Rumor has it (though I believe it's been disproved by now) that she was shot because Eric and Dylan (the gunmen) asked her if she believed in God and her answer was "yes".

Cassie's mom writes this story of her daughter, discussing what her high school life was like leading up to her senior year at Columbine, when her life was taken away from her. She describes the way that Cassie had her own demons to deal with - thoughts of suicide and murder, self mutilation, rebellion. Until one weekend she went to a church retreat where she was reborn into the Cassie everyone knew that day in April 1999.

Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of this book. To me it's just a biography about a teenage girl. The shooting is hardly even mentioned at all past the first chapter. Plus, as I said, they've come out and said that the "Do you believe in God" conversation did not actually take place as described by the people in this book.

Part of me just expected more out of this story (the first time I read it...this is the second) but that's also because I grew up in Littleton and know a lot more of the background information of Columbine that most people reading this story do not know.

My 7th/8th graders are seeming to enjoy it, so that's what really counts.
3/5 stars

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