What I Read Wednesday

The Thursday edition. All of my posts got pushed back a day because I was out of town Sunday and didn't get home until Monday afternoon/evening, so pretend you're reading this yesterday. In the interim, however, I read another book, so it works in your favor.


Schroder: A Novel
I really like this book. One thing that stuck with me was that you only ever get Schroder's point of view. I just finished reteaching my students about unreliable narrators and it struck me that this would be an excellent example of one. While you want desperately to side with Schroder, there are so many things that make you wonder if he's really reliable. You hear so little from his wife or from other people in the book that you aren't really sure if you can trust his perspective and while you're watching the events in the book tumble out of control, you're kind of powerless and have no choice but to trust him.


Firefly Lane
This is by the same author as Winter Garden, which I really enjoyed. Like Winter Garden, I did a full on ugly cry at the end. It explores to relationship between girls, best friends especially, as it follows two girls from 8th grade into adulthood and the complexities they face. It also looked at the struggles faced by both working women and women who choose to stay home. I liked this one a lot and found it really true to life. When I looked this up for the review link, I noticed that it's only $2.99 for Kindles, so this is a good purchase if you're looking for something easy and enjoyable to read (but keep the tissues close by).


Eleanor & Park
This is a young adult novel, but at times, it seemed thematically more than that. The main characters were young adults, but parts of it were heavy--though I can definitely see how it was geared toward young adult. Told entirely through the alternating view points of Eleanor and Park, this novel talks about young adulthood, children growing up with unsupportive/abusive parents, bullying and falling in love. I was pulled in to the storyline pretty quickly and this was one of those books that I was dismayed when I got to the end, simply because I wanted more of their story.


The Demonologist: A Novel
The main character of this novel, David, is a Milton expert who doesn't really believe in demons, until he's thrown headfirst into a world seemingly filled with them. While I loved aspects of this novel and was really gripped by certain elements of it, especially the relationship between David and his best friend, as well as David and his own inner demons, there were parts that I wish the author had expanded upon, especially the ending and some other character development pieces. That said, I overall enjoyed this book and was really gripped by some of the horrific aspects of it and how powerless David felt at points.