dear @internrachel and @julia1 and bookstraddlers,
This week I’ve read two fairly short, quick reads. The first was The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, 256 pages, which is about a young woman named Taylor who gets the hell out of her small Kentucky town as soon as she can and finds herself unexpectedly looking after an abandoned toddler who she names Turtle. I really liked Taylor’s voice, she’s clever and blunt and stubborn. The book focuses on the relationships that she builds in the Arizona town she settles in. She becomes best friends with her roommate, another young mother, and I kept waiting for them to make out but apparently it’s not that kind of book. If you like descriptions of nature/the Southwest, you’ll love this book, as Kingsolver does a beautiful job writing scenery. The Southwest is almost like another character in this book. It was a sweet read and the end warmed my tiny heart.
The second book was just about as different from the first as you can get. It was We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, 215 pages, and I loved it. The main character is a teenager named Merricat who lives with her elder sister and sickly uncle in their family home. The three live a very sheltered life (Merricat is the only one who leaves the grounds and only does so once a week) because six years ago, four members of the family died due to arsenic in the family sugar bowl and Merricat’s elder sister, Constance, was arrested and was only recently acquited. I loved Merricat, she was such a fantastic nutjob. She’s constantly talking about going to the moon or picking out magic words to keep the castle safe. This book was just so well-written. It seemed to be as delicately constructed and put together as a wedding dress. I highly recommend it if you like suspense, a creepy read, and one of the most delightfully crazy characters I’ve come across.