Books I want to read in 2009
Discover the top books I plan to read in 2009, featuring a curated list of must-read titles and my personal reading journey. Find inspiration for your next great read!
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Cold Rock River
by J. L. Miles
Set in the early Vietnam era, a young white mother uncovers connections between her friendship with a black midwife and her discovery of a century-old slave girl's diary.
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Roseflower Creek
by J. L. Miles
"A powerful book. The characters haunt the reader long after the last page is turned." Earl Hamner, creator of The Waltons "The morning I died it rained. Poured down so hard it washed the blood off my face." Thus begins the story of Lori Jean, whose short life and early death are woven into this worldly-wise novel set in the rural South of the 1950s. Told from the point of view of ten-year-old Lori Jean, a sensitive dreamer of a child who longs for a "normal" family, Roseflower Creekboldly explores the dynamics of a dysfunctional Southern family. Abandoned by her father when she was five years old, her world consists of a weak-willed mother and an alcoholic step-father who can't—or won't—keep a steady job. Yet Lori Jean is filled with the curiosity and hope common to all children. After Lori Jean's step-father, Ray, begins attending AA meetings, he seems like a changed man, and Lori Jean begins to think that finally she and her mama are going to experience some long-overdo happiness—to be a real family and "git ourselves one of them futures, just like regular folks." But when Ray returns to his former ways and Lori Jean uncovers his secret, everything begins to spin out of control and she pays the ultimate price for what she knows. Humorous, yet poignant, Roseflower Creekis a story of the loss of innocence and the power of forgiveness. Above all, it is a tribute and a testament to the human heart's ability to heal. Told with an honesty and authenticity that only a child narrator could achieve, it is a remarkable novel that will move readers long after the last paragraph has been read.
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Pretty Little Dirty
by Amanda Boyden
A dazzling, racy, and exuberant debut--Amanda Boyden tells the story of two Midwestern girls of privilege in the late 70s and early 80s and their shared plunge from innocence. "Pretty Little Dirty takes a classic coming-of-age tale and turns it inside out, then gives it a few kicks in the head for good measure. Funny, sexy, inventively told, and scary as hell—a gutsy debut."–Dani Shapiro, author of Family History Lisa sees the life of her gorgeous best friend Celeste as just about perfect: she has a gigantic house, two older sisters to coach her through the hazards of high school, and loving, lively parents. As Lisa's own home has long been a place devoid of joyful noise—her mother has shut herself off in her bedroom for years—Lisa joins the Diamond household, slipping into their routine of sit-down suppers and soaking in the delicious normalcy of Diamond family life. But what begins as the story of two young women living a charmed adolescence, one of mastering dance moves and the protocols of male-female interaction, soon swirls into an intoxicating novel of art, music, and self-destructive impulses as Lisa and Celeste dare each other ever onward.
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Choke
by Chuck Palahniuk
Victor Mancini's a medical school dropout with a problem. He needs to pay for elder care for his mother, who's got Alzheimer's. So he comes up with the perfect scam: pretending to choke in upscale restaurants and getting “saved” by fellow diners who, feeling responsible for Victor's life, offer him financial support.Meanwhile, he cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops and spends his days working at Colonial Dunsboro, where his stoner colleagues are sentenced to the stocks for any deviation from the colonial lifestyle. Oh, yeah, and he's desperate to find the truth of his paternity, which his addled mother suggests may be divine.
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Swallow the Ocean
by Laura M. Flynn
Charismatic, beautiful Sally Flynn was the center of her daughters' imaginations, particularly Laura's. Without warning, life as they knew it changed as paranoid schizophrenia overtook Sally. Whether it was accusing Laura's father of trying to win her over to the side of Satan, or buying only certain products that were evil–free, glimmers of her mother's future paranoia grew brighter as Laura's early years passed. Once her husband left the family and filed for divorce, Sally's symptoms bloomed in earnest, and the three girls united in flights of fancy of the sort their mother had taught them in order to deflect danger. Set in 1970s San Francisco, Swallow the Ocean is a searing, beautifully written memoir of a childhood under siege and three young girls determined to survive. In luminous prose, this memoir paints a most intimate portrait of what might have been a catastrophic childhood.
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The Torn Skirt
by Rebecca Godfrey
At Mt. Douglas (a.k.a. Mt. Drug) High, all the girls have feathered hair, and the sweet scent of Love's Baby Soft can't hide the musk of raw teenage anger, apathy, and desire. Sara Shaw is a girl full of fever and longing, a girl looking for something risky, something real. Her only possible salvation comes in the willowy form of the mysterious Justine, the outlaw girl in the torn skirt. The search for Justine will lead Sara on a daring odyssey into an underworld of hookers and johns, junkies and thieves, runaway girls and skater boys, and, ultimately, into a violent tragedy.
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