Banned Books Week

Banned books week is this week Sept. 29th through Oct. 6th. I guess it intruigues me a little because I don't always like to do what I am told. Books are usually banned or challenged due to sexual content, language and content for the audience written to.
Here is a list of banned books.
I am going to bold and color the ones I have read..........
and *** I have read part of



1. The Bible
2. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
3. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes***
4. The Koran
5. Arabian Nights
6. Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
7. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
8. Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
9. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
10. Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
11. The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
12. Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
13. Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
14. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
15. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
16. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
17. Dracula by Bram Stoker
18. Autobiography by Benjamin Franklin
19. Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
20. Essays by Michel de Montaigne
21. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck (All Steinbeck leaves me feeling despondent, yet not a reason to ban.)
22. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon
23. Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
24. Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
25. Ulysses by James Joyce
26. Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio
27. Animal Farm by George Orwell
28. Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
29. Candide by Voltaire
30. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
31. Analects by Confucius
32. Dubliners by James Joyce
33. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
34. Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway***
35. Red and the Black by Stendhal
36. Das Capital by Karl Marx
37. Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire
38. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
39. Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D. H. Lawrence
40. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
41. Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
42. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
43. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair (Why would you ban this unless you yourself were a meat packer???)
44. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque***
45. Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
46. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
47. Diary by Samuel Pepys
48. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (this was probably banned for being written by Hemingway)
49. Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
50. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (Ironic)
51. Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak
52. Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant
53. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
54. Praise of Folly by Desiderius Erasmus
55. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (TBR to be read)
56. Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X
57. The Color Purple by Alice Walker (I hated this book and would never recommend it because sometimes I just don't want to know the world is like that)
58. Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
59. Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke
60. Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (Did not enjoy. Oprah and I have seriously differing views on good literature.)
61. Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
62. One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
63. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
64. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
65. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
66. Confessions by Jean Jacques Rousseau
67. Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
68. Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
69. The Talmud
70. Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau
71. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
72. Women in Love by D. H. Lawrence
73. American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
74. Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler (I read this when I was about 15. It is awful!)
75. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
76. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
77. Red Pony by John Steinbeck
78. Popol Vuh
79. Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith
80. Satyricon by Petronius
81. James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
82. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
83. Black Boy by Richard Wright
84. Spirit of the Laws by Charles de Secondat Baron de Montesquieu
85. Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
86. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
87. Metaphysics by Aristotle
88. Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder ( I can't figure this one out.)
89. Institutes of the Christian Religion by Jean Calvin
90. Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse
91. Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
92. Sanctuary by William Faulkner
93. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
94. Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin
95. Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig
96. Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
97. General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud***
98. Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
99. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Alexander Brown
100. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
101. Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman by Ernest J. Gaines
102. Émile Jean by Jacques Rousseau
103. Nana by Émile Zola***
104. Chocolate War by Robert Cormier
105. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
106. Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
107. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
108. Day No Pigs Would Die by Robert Peck
109. Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
110. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
111. Are You There God, It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume (Okay, I refuse to believe that Judy Blume's book Forever isn't on this list somewhere!!! I distinctly remember this book in like 6th grade, being handed from girl to girl with the pages dog eared on the nasty parts. I can't even say or think the name Ralph without recalling this book. I'm not saying it should be banned but I wouldn't want my tween to read it! Yes, even though I did. All you Westridge Middleschool girls out there, you know who you are. I will refrain from naming you......for now.)
112. The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
113. The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
114. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
115. The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatly Snyder

Well I guess I am not as much of a rebel as I would like to think. I would love to hear about any of these you have read!! I challenge you to read something banned this week! By coincidence I am just starting the Harry Potter series again......so I am covered.

Private Peaceful

Private Peaceful by Michael Maorpurgo

This novel is a juvenile historical fiction account of a young British soldier in WWI. The first half of the book deals with Thomas Peaceful and his brother Charlie growing up in the English country side during the turn of the 20th century. Quickly we learn of the harsh realities of Thomas' life. His father is killed in a logging accident when Tommo is very young. He struggles with bullying, classism, adolescent love, and an older brother Big Joe that is 'special' (as his mother puts it) because of a bout with childhood disease. Largely though, Tommo seems quite happy, especially because he always has his big brother Charlie with him.

In their teens, World War I breaks out. The home they live in is owned by the rich man in town. Most of the people work for this man (The Colonel). Tommo's mother, father, and sister-in-law have or do work for him. The Colonel tells Tommo's mother that in order for her to stay in the cottage that he so willingly provides for her, she must send her boys off to war.

Thomas and Charlie sign up even though Thomas is too young. During this time that was a common occurrence. They are shipped off to the front lines.

A running theme through this book is the struggle with authority. Not really in the way we think of it most of the time where youth don't like to be told what to do by anyone. It is the struggle to go against authority when the authority figure is bigger and more powerful, yet they don't have your best interest at heart.

A quote from the book that I want to remember, "Charlie was swiping at the wasp, and the wasp wasn't just stinging him, he was stinging all of us. Charlie was was beginning to be thought of as a bit of a liability in the company, a bit of a Jonah." I really enjoyed this quote because it drew a very clear picture. Charlie is the protector and the one that stands up for himself and Tommo. But as we all know, standing up for yourself many times brings greater struggle.

I really liked this book. It was descriptive and captivating. I read it in about 2 hours. I wasn't necessarily hanging on every word and biting my nails, but it seemed like nearly every chapter ended in a way that I just had to read the next to find out what happened.

Rating.........4
Rating.........G It does take place during war time, but it is geared toward a younger audience so it isn't overly graphic.

The Sound of Rain

The Sound of Rain by Anita Stansfield





This is the first book in a new trilogy by Anita Stansfield. Jayson Wolfe is a musically gifted teen. He has just moved to a new state and is making lasting relationships with those he meets through his music. Jayson thus far, is not an LDS character. Nor are any of the other characters........for those of you not wanting to read LDS fiction. Jayson has had some very hard times in his upbrining and is facing many more as the book continues. The relationships are sincere and clean.


The author has a distinct writing style throughout all of her books. You can always tell that you are reading her material. She seems to use the same phrases or words such as; perfect or perfect joy, peruse, buffer. She uses the same adjectives a lot. Her characters are always talkers. Sometimes they talk too much. They are also always thinkers. Sometimes they think too much. She seemed to strike a better balance in this book than some other her other recent endeavors.


I have taken a lot of flack for reading this author, among friends and relatives. Guess what? I don't care. I enjoy that Anita is a clean, yet romantic author. She deals with some timely issues in most of her writing (death, divorce, illness, mental illness, blended families, pornoghraphy, premarital sex, addiction, abuse, responsibility............). Her female characters are strong yet not femenists. A character trait I detest. Her male characters are strong, good role models, gentlemen and emotional. I realize she is no Bronte sister, but she is still entertaining and uplifting.
I am excited to see what the next book holds in store for the characters.

I rate this book a 4.

I also give it a G +. It is clean, clean, clean language wise. She does deal with sexual issues (ie. chastity) so I wouldn't hand this book over to my little kids. But it is totally clean.

The Big Read

The Big Read is a National Endowment for the Arts program designed to encourage community reading initiatives and of their top 100 books, they estimate the average adult has read only six.

Here’s what you are supposed to do:
*Look at the list and bold those we have read.
*Italicize those we intend to read.
*Underline the books we LOVE. (I have no clue how to underline on this thing???!! So I guess I will ** double star my loves and * single star the likes)



1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen**
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte**
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling**
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee**
6 The Bible**
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte**
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell*
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (I have to admit I didn't finish this one)
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott*
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (does MOST of Shakespeare count?)*
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger**
19 The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger**
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck*
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen*
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis*
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini*
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden**
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown**
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery*
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding*
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel*
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen**
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley**
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon**
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold*
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt (hated it)
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens*
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker (If I had a code for HATED it, don't bother yourself, it would go here)
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White*
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom*
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (didn't like it)
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare*
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl*
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Holy Crow, I've only read 49.............I guess I have some reading to do!! If you have read any that I haven't and have suggestions on where to start, let me know!!

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Well the front of the book pretty much says it all..........bleak, bleak, bleak. The first time I read Wuthering Heights was a long time ago and I hated it. This time I loved it. It was easier to get into the characters. I think that came with age. They were all nearly unredeemable, yet I could better understand how they came to be the way they were.
Most of this book is a flash back. It is told to a newcomer to the area by the servant Ellen or Nelly. It is a sordid, evil tale. It speaks of jealous love and the wicked lengths people will go to, to get what they want or die trying. The characters are mean, black hearted people. The love story is wretched. Not a one of them is ever happy.
The wrtiting style is lovely and very descriptive. I did have a hard time reading the parts of Joseph, the wretched old religious man. He spoke in broken cockney or something, with a tough accent to follow unless I read it outloud to myself. Though if you do not like English Literature you won't enjoy the writing style. Very wordy, yet beautiful.
I give the book a 4.5. I really enjoyed it this time. It truly stirs feels and emotions, although they usually aren't good ones.
The book is rated PG. The characters are mean, manipulative and violent.

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd

One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

Right off I want to say that although this is set up as historical fiction, it is NOT. Do not start reading this book thinking that these are events that actually occured.
This book takes readers back to the late 1800's when a Cheyenne Chief actually asked for 1,000 white brides for his warriors. The women were supposed to help cross the cultural bridge between the whites and the natives. (This part really did happen. A Northern Cheyenne Chief did ask the U.S. Army at Fort Laramie for 1,000 white brides. But of course, the U.S. government never allowed that.) Because in Indian culture the family follows martiarchal lines, the natives hoped that any children bred by this union would help assimilate their culture to the white man's.
I have to say I was truly intrigued by the premise. May Dodd of whose journals we read, was resued from an insane asylum to enter the BFI (Brides For Indians) program. She was originally incarserated for promiscuity by her family. Meaning she had two children out of wedlock with the man she lived with but did not wed.
May and a group of other women (not all 1,000 were ever delivered) were the first convoy to head out to Indian territory. The group was very ecclectic and likeable although they did strike me as 'characters'. There were two Irish twins that were released from jail for this program. A mannish woman named Helen that wanted to study bird habitat and was a great artist of nature. The secretary from the asylum where May was kept. She left with May. A huge Swiss girl that wasn't very pretty but longed for her own family. (By the way........all of these women volunteered for this program.) A Christian evangelist that was uppity, snooty, judgemental and gives you the full understanding of why people hate organized religion. A jilted Southern belle that had been left by her lover after her father lost all of his money. Phemie an escaped slave. These are just a few of the characters. All very likeable and believable enough.......sort of.
It seemed to me like there was a lot of stereotyping going on. This could be because there was or because I don't know enough about Indian history to know if this was true. Another thing that didn't really ring true for me was that May was such an outspoken woman. Truly ahead of her time. I guess that I always imagine women of this era to be a little more demure. This must not always be the case or we would not have had the women's sufferage movement or anything else like unto it. Still even though I mostly like May, it still seemed a little too contrived for me.
There were some horrifying moments in this book. Some rapes, not really graphically depicted, yet you full understand what is happening. Of course murder and mutilation since we are reading about 'savages'. And frankly, May is promiscuous even though she feels like she has good reason. So there are some sexual scenes. They aren't Harlequin graphic but descriptive enough to know what is going on.
I rate this book a 4 for likeability. I was slightly turned off by some of the violence.
I rate this book maybe a PG 16 for some swearing, sexual violence, violence against children, violence against mankind, and sexual content. I would have given it an R except that I felt like the sex and violence had their place. It's not like they were maming bodies in some nasty movie just so they could kill people. Also the sexual parts were there to describe acts of marraige and not overly descriptive.

Total Money Makeover

The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey

Okay, I know this isn't a novel. I really don't enjoy reading things I have to work at. Dumb kind of. But reading is almost always purely for enjoyment for me. Well guess what? I enjoyed this book. It was FUN to read. Not only did I learn a lot. I loved every minute. Dave Ramsey got me all pumped up about money. I know I was probably snookered by some psychological something.......but so what.
This book is about how to rethink what money means in your life. Everything is broken down into baby steps. You are shown how to get rid of debt and live a life free of the slavery of credit cards, loans, even a home mortgage. Dave honestly and intelligently points out the myths our society lives by as a religion built on money. Then he breaks them down and shows us how they are so wrong. His motto is "Live now like no one else so later you can live like no one else." Meaning if you sacrifice a little now you can live free and wealthy in the years to come. Dave has included worksheets to help with a budget, debt snowball, retirement and showing how much you are BLOWING in interest on your home loan. (Just for kicks I did a financial calculator on his website daveramsey.com and found that if I go haywire on my finances I can retire with 3-8 million dollars. I was feeling pretty good, considering I am po'. And you aren't so nutty with your money that life sucks until you retire.)
There are 7 Baby Steps..........1) $1,000 emergency fund which can go to nothing but dire emergency, not wants. 2) Debt Snowballing , list your debts from smallest to largest and begin by paying off the smallest. Then take the money you were paying on that debt and move it up to the next one. By doing it this way you feel a sense of accomplishment (yay!) and are able to keep going because you see progress. These debts do not include your home loan. 3) Build Emergency Fund. Build up enough money to cover 3-6 months of living expenses. This doesn't mean 3-6 months of income, but 3-6 months of essentials. Probably around $10,000. 4) Invest. Begin investing 15% of your income for retirement. 5)Save for College. He also shows you other ways to pay for college than just forking out the cash. 6) Pay off the mortgage!!! He also cautions never to get into a 30 year mortgage. Try if you can to only lock into a 15 year. 7)Build wealth like crazy........invest and make your money work for you.
I rate this book a 5. I loved the information. I even took notes. Also, it was a great read for me because it was emotional. That is usually what pushes me from a 4 up to a 5, great emotion. The book is also a G. Clean as clean can be. Good for a 3 year old and up. I recommend it to everyone.

The Mysterious Benedict Society

The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart

This book makes it cool to be smart, Yay!! First off I want to say I had to be coerced a bit to read this book. I wanted to read it. It just wasn't an urgent want. So it took required reading (book club) to finally convince me to put aside everything else and pick this one up. Sounding a little lack luster, isn't it?
Reynie, Kate, Sticky and Constance are all orphans in some manner, that are brought together by answering a strange add in the newspaper. The add asks for gifted children looking for special opportunities. Each child is shear genius in one way or another. They come together and form the Mysterious Benedict Society. They have a secret mission, which as you journey on with them, you can also try to solve the puzzles put forth to the children. This was really fun. I have only read the very beginning to my kids and so far they love it. The characters become endearing rather quickly. The book is paced quickly enough and quirky enough to keep everyone's attention. It is a great read for a family, for 9 year olds and up (on their own) and for any adult.
I rate this book a 4. I wasn't in love with it. I didn't cry and didn't mull it over for very long after I finished it. There were some surprising moments and fun brainy puzzles. It is out of the ordinary and fun. I would surely give it a G also. Incredibly clean with no parts you will have to worry about for kids reading it on their own and no parts you will have to edit if reading aloud.

Fablehaven

Fablehaven by Brandon Mull

This is a young adult/juvenile fiction book. I read it out loud to my four children (ages 8,6,3, baby......but he didn't listen, he just bit me until I paid attention to him)
The story is about a secret preserve which houses fairytale creatures. Awesome premise. The caretaker's grandchildren come to visit and eventually find out the secret. The grandchildren are Kendra and Seth. Kendra seemed a bit flat and Seth drove me nuts. He was the catalyst for most of the events, so I see that it was necessary that he was irritating and extremely disobedient. I felt like the book moved slowly at the beginning. This could have been because it did or because I was reading aloud and therefore could not read at my normal pace. Once it gets moving though, the book is truly magical. The children take part in fun, scary, wonderful, empowering experiences. There are fairies, magic milk, demons and other outrageous creatures.
I can see how the kids can really get into this. The story shows how powerful and brave one child (person) can be. This is a definite recommend for anyone. It is a fairly good read aloud book also.
I will rate Fabelhaven a 4. It was great at parts, and slow at the beginning. It is a definite G for language and such. Neither I or my children found it scary.........although for the tender and faint of heart, there is a festival night where scary things happen.

Lost Boys

Wow, okay the book picture turned out bigger than I expected!!

This is Lost Boys by Orson Scott Card.

OSC is LDS. He is an author. I don't think that makes him an LDS author though. (He's better known for his Sci Fi series 'Ender's Game" which is also really good.) With that said............

I was absolutely shaken by this book. It is one of those things you read and then it sort of stirs about your brain for awhile after. Step and his wife DeAnne have 3 kids and one on the way. Step is a computer programer. He moves his family to a small southern town for his job. In the town, there have been a rash of disappearing boys. How the family ever overlooks this and doesn't know every single fact, including the missing children's favorite color is beyond me. I mean........ maybe I'm a nut, but I am a mother living in a small town. We obsess about these kinds of things. The Fletchers don't. Many crudy things befall this family. It seems for a bit that the book isn't addressing what you think it is supposed to be about. Then at some point I realized the whole story is what the book is about. How bad things happen to good people, even the ones that pray and go to church. (The family is LDS and that does play a part in their characters. I would say that it doesn't detract from the book, for anyone not wanting to read LDS fiction. This IS NOT LDS fiction.) The oldest son Stevie has an incredibly rough, even painful time at the new school. He begins haning out with what the family assumes are imaginary friends. The friends just happen to have the same names as the 'lost boys'. (Hello parents, get a clue.) Beyond the fact that the parents seems to be missing a screw and not worrying themselves into a good mouth foaming................I LOVE this book. I totally identify with Step's personality. He's a little mouthy and totally defends his child. Yeah Step, you're the man. Way to whoop some tail! DeAnne is okay too, very motherly. I like her. Great story line, not too many holes. Characters you can totally get into. Then you get freaked out. Then you bawl your eyes out. That is what I call a wicked good read. Make me FEEL something!
So I give this book a 5. I would rate it between PG and PG 13. Step has a mouth on him. Remember.............I have a high threshold for language. I really don't remember much of it, but I do know DeAnne gets mad at Step for his language, other wise I probably wouldn't remember anything. Sorry about any vagueness, I don't want to spoil any parts of the book. Go read something wicked good!

Reading is in My Blood

Well, this is my stab at blogging about books. I've often wondered what talent, if any, I possess. I still haven't come up with an answer. But, if being literate were a talent........then that's about all I've got.
I read for pure enjoyment. It is the only way I can relax or zone out. So.....don't expect this to be a blog about classic literature. I don't read to pick apart the writing. I don't read to edit. Sometimes I read to learn. Lots of times I read to experience something I never will any other way. Mostly reading is just FUN!!
I will grade the books on my taste. I will also try to warn of explicit language and content, because I always wish someone would do that for me. Be forewarned............I have a high threshold. I don't like to read nasty content or lots of cursing for no reason. I really don't like the F word. But, because I read a LOT and I read fairly quickly, I don't always pick up on some things that would offend others.
Also, I am no book editor. I usually read for the way it makes me feel. I may not give a great synopsis. I may ramble about how I felt. I'll try to give some sort of overview, otherwise I guess this would be sort of pointless. Mostly though, this is just my own personal book journal. I like to see what I have read in the past because frankly I read so much I often forget. Plus if I'm not going to do the laundry, I have to get my sense of accomplishment somewhere else. So instead of stacking all of the books up to the ceiling..........I'll log them here.