Whatcha Reading Wednesday?

I haven't done one of these in a while, but I've been reading...like a lot.

Why?

Well, apparently because I like to stay up way too late, living in someone else's life, and waking up with sand inside my eyelids...every.single.morning.

Yes, I read late at night...did ya get all of that?

Okay, when we last left off, I was reading Room:  A Novel, by Emma Donoghue.

Amazon link

This book is so interesting...it's an interesting concept.  It's interestingly written.  I just love how the characters are developed and transformed as the piece moves on.

Before I didn't even know to be mad that we can't open Door, my head was too small to have Outside in it.  When I was a little kid I thought like a little kid, but now I'm five I know everything.

When I was four I thought everything in TV was just TV, then I was five and Ma unlied about lots of it being pictures of real and Outside being totally real.  Now I'm in Outside but it turns out lots of it isn't real at all.

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Then I moved onto What Crazy Looks Like On An Ordinary Day by Pearl Cleage.

Amazon link

Ya know, because I can really identify with an African American woman with HIV.  Okay, so maybe that's not me, but I could relate with this woman.  She was deep, needed love, and wanted happiness.  Who couldn't relate to that?

When you're young, there's a whole lot of stuff you say you'll never do.  Once you get a little older, the list tends to get a lot shorter.

I remember feeling lucky because I lived in a house where people didn't just fuss about what was wrong with the world.  They tried to fix it.

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I have no idea how I picked my next book.  It was Hate List by Jennifer Brown.

Amazon link

Wow...this one really threw me for a loop.  It delves into teen bullying, suicide, isolation, and fear...all of the things that our kids will one day face.  It literally scared the shit out of me, but also opened me up to what these kids deal with on a daily basis.

I knew what she was thinking:  Being pretty isn't everything, but sometimes being ugly is.

We all got to be winners sometimes.  But what he didn't understand was that we all had to be losers, too.  Because you can't have one without the other.

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Okay, I needed something lighter after that teen angst!  So, I turned to It Sucked and Then I Cried by Heather Armstrong.

Amazon link

Written by a recovering Mormon who suffered with pregnancy and depression and guilt and all sorts of other crap that comes along with being a pregnant/new mother...x10.  If you suffered with PPD or any form of depression ever in your life, this is a good read.  I'm sure there were some parts that were so painful for her to write, but I'm so glad that she did.  There are parts of this book that are absolutely hysterical and parts that make me want to give her a hug.

The only way to describe it to a man is to suggest that he lay out his naked penis on a chopping block, place a manual stapler on the sacred helmet head, and bang in a couple hundred staples.  The first two staples might hurt a little, but after that it just becomes numb, right? (this is how she tries to describe breastfeeding)

And yes, I did consider parenthood a job.  It was the most difficult job I'd ever had, a job where my boss called at least twice during the middle of the night, a job where my boss had to approve my bathroom breaks, a job that required me to wipe my boss's ass.  And not only was I really good at it, but I was also stupid enough to love it.

Why were we covering light sockets with protective plastic coverings when doctors everywhere were poking infants with sharp, disease-infested objects?  Parenthood makes no sense.

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Moving on to Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen.

Amazon link

I'll admit it...I read this because there was a movie coming out.  A movie that I have little chance of seeing in the next ten years.  So, I might as well be able to say "I read that book" when normal people bring it up in conversation...

I'm such a joiner.

I only took one note in this book and now that I reread it, it's pretty lame.  I will not share.  The book was okay...I don't know that I would love the movie, but it would probably be quicker than reading the book.

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Okay, last, but not least...The Pact:  A Love Story, but Jodi Picoult.

Amazon link

What is it with me and teen suicide?  Anyway, loved this book.  It really hit home with me for some reason...maybe because I remember the teen love affair that was the end all and be all.  The relationship where you can't bear to spend time away from each other, but something really set this couple apart.  It's gut wrenching when you look at it from the parents' point of view...all they want are answers and they're getting few.  I hate the helplessness that comes in life and I feel that raising a teenager must be full of helpless YEARS!!!  God, I'm not going to survive!!!

Chris closed his eyes.  How could he convey to someone who'd never even met her the way she always smelled like rain, or how his stomach knotted up every time he saw her shake loose her hair from its braid?  How could he describe how it felt when she finished his sentences, turned the mug they were sharing so that her mouth landed where his had been?

Being a mother give you a singular sort of vision, a prism through which you can see your child with many different faces all at once.  It is the reason you can watch him shatter a ceramic lamp, and still remember him as an angel.  Or hold him as he cries, but imagine his smile.  Or watch him walk toward you, the size of a man, and see the dimpled skin of an infant.

When you loved someone, you put their needs before your own.  No matter how inconceivable those needs were; no matter how fucked up; no matter how much it made you feel like you were ripping yourself into pieces.

So, spill it...what are you YOU reading???

Oh, and it's my birthday...I'm officially 37...go me!