I did not read a great quantity of books this week, but the quality was amazing!! Recently, my adult book club read South of Broad by Pat Conroy. I really enjoyed it, and a friend recommended one of Conroy's books I hadn't read: The Lords of Discipline. All week long, I have managed to read little pieces of Lords of Discipline at a time on my Kindle Fire, but on Saturday evening, I got to a part that I just couldn't stop reading. I had to know how the story was going to end. So I read until 2:30 in the morning. I was exhausted all day Sunday, but it was so worth it. Lords of Discipline was a great inside look at what it is like to attend a military academy as a male, and the different meanings the word "honor" has to the graduates of the academy. I found myself both fascinated and repulsed by the unique initiation rituals performed at the military academy in this book. The academy in this book is based on the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina (the setting in the book as well). This is a piece of fiction, but I'm betting many of the events run very true to actual events.
The other book I read Sunday is more of a middle school / high school read. The title is If Only, and it centers around a 13 year old girl who is trying to work her way through the grieving process. Her mom died very quickly and unexpectedly of cancer one summer. One of my closest friends lost her battle with breast cancer, and she left behind two daughters very similar in age to the girl in the book, so this book felt very personal for me. The question "if only..." is one the main character asks time and time again as she tries to deal with her mother's death.
What I'm looking forward to reading in the near future:
- The Arrow Finds Its Mark: A Book of Found Poems edited by Georgia Heard
- the 2nd in the graphic novel series of Mal and Chad -- Food Fight by Stephen McCranie
- Forgive Me, I Meant to Do It: False Apology Poems by Gail Carson Levine
- The Mostly True Story of Jack by Kelly Barnhill (a 2011 book I never got around to reading)
