Half a Life, a memoir, by Darin Strauss - A review by Toni

I sat down and read this book a week ago, on a Thursday. I read the book in one sitting.  The writing style is magnificent and resonates as sincere and honest.  The memoir is articulated in a very deep, and moving way.   "Half my life ago, I killed a girl."  When Darin Strauss is 18, he is driving with friends in a car and a girl on a bike swerves across two lanes into his car and she dies.   The book is about a half a life of  thoughts, actions, and  memories all connected to a single life altering instance in this young man's life.  It is  powerful and emotionally rich. It is one of the best bits of honest prose that I have read in a long time.  You can open up the book on any given page and find a piece of incredible soulful writing.

I received this advanced readers edition of the book a year ago from Random House.

*** photo taken from the Author's Website.

edited for a correct link and grammar.. sheesh!

Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins - A Review by Toni

This is the second book in The Hunger Games Series.  As the story opened up, I did not have any idea where the story was going to go.   I did not have any clue what was going to happen in this book at all!  And I am not going to spoil it now that I do know.  Once the book got going, it was a complete page turner until the end.  There were a lot of "wow" moments, tons of action, and quite a cliffhanger ending.  It was great reading.  I really enjoyed it. This book should translate well onto the big screen.   I had planned to take a break and read something else, but Mockingjay is already loaded on my Ipad and I started it last night.  I have no idea what the next book holds, but I am very excited to read on.

Thanks for stopping by!
Toni