I watched the movie, Chocolat, several years ago, so I recently decided it was time to read the book. Perhaps I wasn't paying close enough attention when I watched the movie, but I expected something very different when I sat down to read the book. I expected the book to be more... romantic, sensual... Instead I found it to be an exploration of the effects of intolerance. Harris takes the intolerance so rife in our world and concentrates it in one small community showing how limiting we can be when we refuse to see beyond that which we've always been taught. She deftly explores the effects of exclusionary behavior and the harm of not bothering to get to know other people. With the story set around a newcomer who opens a chocolate store during Lent and the priest who opposes not only the chocolate shop but her mere presence, the town seems divided down the middle with people willing to blind themselves to other people's pain in order to maintain the status quo of their lives. I'm not sure the book was intended to make me feel sad, but it often did because it so aptly displayed how divisive human beings can be toward one another while wrapping their judgment up in a warped version of religious righteousness or even concern. Chocolat is a thought-provoking, entertaining book with characters that touch the heart and take up residence in one's imagination.
Sunny Frazier always delights, and A Snitch in Time is no exception. She writes the Christy Bristol series in a way that feels lighthearted even in its darkest moments. When Bristol goes on vacation to visit her friend, Lennie, she never expects to get drafted into working for a different department doing her job. Bristol is intrigued enough by the crime at hand that her protestations seem half-hearted at times though her annoyance is very real. When she and Lennie get into a fight, she's left with nothing but the work the department expects her to do. Frazier drops the reader in the Sierra Nevada Foothills creating a sense of isolation that makes the reader cheer for Bristol to stand up to her superiors and get out of there while simultaneously wanting to her to solve the crime. When a witness contacts Bristol via phone she doesn't take her seriously at first only to discover she might have vital information. With suspicion cast in multiple directions, Bristol isn't sur...
Larger Than Life: A Novella by Jodi Picoult is, at its heart, a story of mothers and daughters. Picoult explores the expectations of mothers and daughters in a story that draws parallels between mothering styles in humans and elephants. The story explores the roles of both nature and nurture in the mother/daughter relationship all through the eyes of a daughter who can't leave behind a baby elephant to die and becomes its mother figure even as she struggles to reconcile her relationship with her own mother in her heart and mind. Larger Than Life explores how expectations can damage not only a relationship but individuals. Currently Reading: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer The Bad Friend by Carolline Kepne Harlem by Eric Jerome Dickey When We Were Friends by Jane Green Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions: The Global Struggle for Palestinian Rights by Omar Barghouti Popular Resistance in Palestine: A History of Hope and Empowerment by Mazin B...
Brad Meltzer's Heroes for My Daughter is an excellent book for girls and boys alike! His short biographies of each person in the book spark the imagination, inspire confidence, and uplift spirits. He includes famous people and people from his own life giving all equal weight thereby demonstrating that everyone has the potential for greatness inside them. Heroes for My Daughter often made me want to know more about the people Meltzer included. His way of writing directly to his daughter makes the book feel intimate, sweet, and, perhaps, a tad like looking in on a private moment between father and daughter. About a third of the way through the book, I started making a mental list of all the girls I'd like to buy a copy of Heroes for My Daughter if I could afford it. I also realized there are a few boys I'd like to buy it for as well, so it's more a book of heroes whose life stories will benefit all children and even adults!
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