Book Reports

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold was such a good read. This book is about a girl named Susie Salmon who was murdered and is now in heaven looking at her family and friends and seeing how they cope with her murder. Each member in her family handles her murder in their own separate hell and instead of leaning on each other for support the murder seems to rip the family apart. And poor Susie can only watch the repercussions.

Sebold’s view of heaven and death is that every person has their own personal heaven and that heaven is always changing and evolving as that person grows into their death. The dead are always with us, watching us live our lives; some people such as Susie tend to watch more than others. And by no means is this a scary ghost story where it will creep you out.

It’s a compelling story about life, love and death. It’s about a family struggling to gain control over their lives after their devastating lost and how one cruel vicious act can turn your world upside down. Susie struggles to accept her death and the life that she will never get to live and it’s so sad to see her experience moments through her younger sister and brother.

I really want to read Sebold’s Lucky: A Memoir, which is about her own rape and the outcome following it including her addiction to heroin. I hear it’s a very raw and emotional read, and she wrote that before she delved into fiction, so I am curious to see if there are any parallels between her own experience and Susie’s. But that will be for another time.


I also just finished reading The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella. After reading a few very emotional driven novels, I needed some good old chick-lit. I actually hate this new wave of chick-lit because I feel that the stories are dumb-downed and only driven by plot, not real character depth, but another day to rant on that subject. Sophie Kinsella is one of the few authors in that genre that I really enjoy.

The Undomestic Goddess is pretty much how it sounds. Samantha Sweeting is an attorney who is over-worked and completely stressed out. She discovers that she made a huge error that could cost her client $50 million pounds (I can’t find the Pound symbol anywhere). She has a mental breakdown and ends up in the English countryside as a housekeeper.

And of course by the title, Samantha has no idea how to be a housekeeper. She doesn’t even know how to hoover (in the states we call it vacuum) or iron. Hell, I can hoover and iron, but I think I need a new iron. It doesn’t seem to be working properly and its brand-new too! Stoopid iron. Eventually Samantha learns all that she needs to know to become a good housekeeper and realizes that she does not want her old life back as a stressed out lawyer.
I can actually really relate to Samantha. Around this time last year I was in a job that I hated and almost drove myself to panic attacks and nervous breakdowns every other day. I hated it and once I quit my job, I felt this huge sigh of relief and the tension in my shoulders disappeared. I realized that no job is worth making your life miserable for and you need to do what makes you happy. Now if only I could find a job that I really enjoy. And again, another day on that topic.