Book-a-thon

I've really dropped the ball on my book reviews but that doesn't mean I've dropped the ball on my reading.

On the flight home from Atlanta last month I finished The Deep End of the Ocean. The basis of the book is a mother takes her three kids to her high school reunion. Her best friend is holding the baby and she tells the other two (3 and 5 years old) to stay put while she checks into the hotel. After check in she walks back and the three year old is missing. The rest of the story is told from the perspectives of the mother, the father and the five year old who was told to hold his brother's hand. EXCELLENT read. I can't imagine how much more I'd be able to relate if I had kids but the author does such a good job that my heart broke at all the right times, healed at the right times and smiled at the right times.

Mid-travels on the same trip I picked up The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown while in the NOLA airport. I figured Dan Brown is usually pretty interesting, a page turner if nothing else and heck, it was only $10. Big freakin flop. Last week - as in 3 full weeks later - I finally made it to page 120-something and after struggling through another chapter just decided I was done with it. So what, I essentially lost $10. I can deal with it. No go y'all, no go.

After giving up on that book I cracked open The Help which I'd heard nothing but good things about. It's been about a week (with the birthday party in the middle so kinda a slow week reading wise) and I'm on page 80ish. I love it. Fantastic. The book is told by three women: two black housemaids and a single white woman who despite being just all of 23 is practically considered an old maid since its 1962 and white women were supposed to go to college for their Mrs. (Imagine her parents' disappointment when she came home with a BA instead, about the same way my parents would have felt if I had forgone the BA for an Mrs. and the BU debt) Their common denominator is their frustration with the status quo. Now I'm not sure yet if its going to be the way things are regarding race exclusively or if there's going to be some girl power in here too. But dang, it's so good so far. One thing I really like is that it is written with each character's dialect. That is one of my favorite writing styles. If I ever write a novel, that'd be my stylistic aspiration.

Go forth and read (just not The Lost Symbol)!