I consider myself lucky to have grown up in a house where my parents encouraged reading. My mom enrolled us in tons of books clubs, so I constantly got new books in the mail. And every night, reading books was our "mommy and daughter time." We'd cozy up in my bed and she'd read a book to me. Sometimes the Bible, sometimes a Little Golden Book, sometimes the same Dr. Seuss book she'd already been forced to read three times that week.
I devoured books, and I'm not ashamed to say that my mother continued reading aloud to me at night until I was a teenager. I remember the last thing we read together was one of the books in the Left Behind series. Then, like all teenagers do, I got too cool for Mom, and we stopped. But the thing about it is, the books stayed with me. I still read tons, and I read a lot as a teenager too. I still love being read aloud to, which I don't think reoccurred to me until my junior year of college when my boyfriend and I would read books aloud to each other while we cuddled on the couch. Even when it's artificial, like when I turn on my Kindle's text-to-speech feature, I still enjoy it.
Books get stored in my heart the way in a way that other forms of media never will be for me. I love movies, but I don't feel like they're a part of me, no matter how many lines I can quote. Music is more intense, but still doesn't matter to me as much as the things I read. My mom showed me how to make books and reading important, and that time that we spent together reading makes it even more a part of my heart. It's as though when I read, no matter where I am, she can be there reading with me.
Wow, after writing this post I'm glad I'm going to go see my mom this weekend. :)
On the same Friday night I found The Year of the Hare, I found this book. Well, actually, a friend of mine found it first, showed it to me, and I bought it first! I'm a book thief!
I got sucked into this book almost immediately. It's not what I would usually call historical fiction, but I think technically it is. I love learning about the way things happened, the history of things, and especially if it has to do with literature.
This book is about Alice Liddell, the woman who inspired Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He's much older than her (20 years to be exact), but the two of them are clearly in love, even though at the time she was only a child. At first I was like, "Ewww, pedophile!" But then my logic kicked in, and I realized that what was happening was not a revolting thing. It's just very important to keep Victorian views in mind when you read this novel.
Alice is the middle child, the rebellious one, the messy one, the individual. She is a constant rival to her older sister, Ina, but dearly loved her little sister Edith. Her mother had no love for her, and she had to find the answer to all her troubles. She finds that in Dodgson (Carroll), and becomes his inspiration for photography and, of course, writing.
I'm having a hard time describing why I loved this book so much, but I did. It's a perfect and tragic picture of an original child star and how she grows up. I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. I plan on going back to read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland soon.
Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity by Kerry Cohen was my first book of the year. It's about a girl who grew up feeling unloved and unnoticed, so she acted out and looked for love in all the wrong places (sing the song, you know you want to!).
My heart ached while reading this. I grew up in this incredibly loving home. My parents paid more attention that any teenage would want, but looking back on it, I'm so glad they did. I hate to think how I would have felt in Kerry's position. Her mom was self-absorbed and abandoned her daughter's to follow a dream. Her father was no more mature than Kerry herself. I don't think that my reaction to such treatment would have ever been to become a promiscuous teen or woman, but probably to have become more like her older sister, Tyler. Tyler became closed off and more what today's society would define as "emo." She just had a dark outlook, but she still tried to relate to her parents as best she could instead of rebelling against them.
Overall, I would give this book a 4 out of 5, although I have a feeling that your opinion of this book will be strongly affected by how well you can relate to her situation.
