12 Sharp

This was a entertaining novel; much different that the others we have been reading in class dealing with death, abuse, rape, self esteem issues. The Stephanie Plum is a very entertaining series with very descriptive characters. I found this novel to be pleasently refreshing. Once you start the book you seem to fall into the setting of the book and follow the charaters through the storyline. This is the main quality Evanovich is able to from the beginning of the book. She introduces you to the characters in a way that they feel like you have known them for years. This allows us to become deeper involved with the storyline.

This novel has all the characteristics for grasping the female audience - Love , adventure, and mystery. From the beginning we see that there is a love triangle from Stephanie, Morelli, and Ranger. Morelli is the good guy allows doing what is right and is reliable, Ranger is the bad boy who lives dangerously. We see from the beginning that Stephanie loves both and is confused who to be with. She is invovled with Morelli but is wanting to test the waters with Ranger. As the storyline continues and situations evolve Stephanie and Ranger get close to what she is wanting - to be with Ranger, but always gets interrupted. What would have happened the morning Stephanie and Ranger were in bed together if Morelli didn't show up at the door when he did? As I kept reading, I kept hoping that Stephanie would end up with Ranger and leave Morelli.
Another aspect of the novel that made it so interesting was her job and co workers. Being a Bounty Hunter - a cute one at that, is a job that not too many of us know about. It is mostly a mans job and to have a women doing it is just that more interesting. Evanovich takes us through her job and all the interesting people she has to go after. She describes them well so we can picture them in our head. What story's body hunters can tell. Stephanie and Lula have quite a few. Now Lula is an interesting character herself - especially her night job as a singer. This gave the story a humerous side. To picture Lula and then Grandma in the band singing to old people and the outfits were to die for.
The third aspect was the kidnapping - who would have taken a Bounty Hunters daughter. Ranger and to hear about the family that he didn't let anyone know about. Rangers ability to open up to Stephanie and allow her to help him find his daughter, showed the kind side to him that Stephanie hardly saw until this time. Eventually we find out that the kidnapper is after Stephanie and Ranger shows that he cares for her as well. I don't think Stephanie really realizes this until later in the story. He does use her to sniff out the kidnapper but he is always there to help Stephanie when she is introuble. To me this shows his love for her is more than skin deep.
I would be interested to know if sometime in the future Evanovich would finally get those two together - I think they would be a great couple.

I like the Stephanie Plum series, 12 Sharp. I would like to read the other books in the series to see if they are as good as the one I read. I have heard that they are. They are easy reads with storylines you can put yourself into and follow along. It is an easy read that I loved.

The Secret Life of Bees

I truly enjoyed this book by Kidd. The life lessons she was able to incorporate in the story was great. Her ability to incorporate the life of Bee's to life situations seems to go hand in hand and made very simple.
This story takes place in the 60's when blacks were still considered slaves and not given any rights. To live during that time would have been interesting and scary at the same time. I beleive that all people should have the same rights until they do something to lose those rights no matter what color they are. This seemed to be Lily's philosophy as well. She saw people in a different light, she saw them for the person they were not what color their skin was. During this time, it was unthought of and caused many problems for those who believed this way.
Today we don't have to think about were we go, what we say, or to who we say those comments to. Back in the time this book is written, if you were black you had to think about that for your safety as well as your families. Even when the law said you could do something it took awhile to for people to change their way of thinking. Unfortunately we still see some of this going on today. We saw this when Rosalen went to vote and ended up in jail because three white guys started verbally harassing her causing her to rebel by dumping her spit juice on their shoes. They couldn't accept that she had the right to register to vote and were going to do what they could to stop her and the law allowed it to happen. Today we see some people use the prejuidice card but is it really discrimination or is it the fact that they still feel owed by something that happened many years ago. Yes it was horrible but are they doing something to help the situation and are they doing something to better themself. Lily took this discrimination and tried to better herself through the help of August and her lessons of Bee's. It helped that she had an inner strenght that she developed as a youngster when she was with T. Ray but her life is better with the Boatrights. Lily saw people for who they were and what they were like on the inside. They were people that she would die for and beleived in.
Society was telling her to do one thing and her heart was telling something different. T. Ray isolated Lily when she was with him making her work the stand and dress differently causing her peers to isolate her even more. They never invited her to any gatherings which caused her to feel unworthy. T. Ray used his power over Lily to controll her. It was this power that gave Lily the inner strength to escape and free the one person that showed her any love and to find the one person who knew her mother - the one person she so desparately wanted to know. This time with August allowed Lily to find a family that loved her for who she was no matter what color she was.

Lovely Bones

Lovely Bones isn't a book that I would have searched for, but once I got past the first chapter Alice Sebold allows us to watch individuals go through the grieving process as well as watch and remember some of the struggles our kids go through day in and day out.
Like I said this is not the type of book I would have chosen to read and had to struggle to get through the first chapter. Alice Sebold describes in detail a parents worst nightmare they can imagine for their child - to be raped and murdered. There is no one person who should have to experience the tragedy as Susie - we should all be able to live a long productive life but our society does not operate like that. Unfortunately we hear stories that are very similar and disheartening everyday in the media or on a TV show and as parents we are sad and our hearts go out to the family suffering but are glad it didn't happen to our child and our family. As parents we take all the precautions for our children trying to protect them as did Susie's family did but all it takes is a brief moment of curiosity on our child's part and a monster who is trying to feed off our child to have everything you dreamed for your child to be gone and your child to be gone as well and all we are left with is a void in our heart and unanswered question "WHY".
After the first chapter and the devastation of the rape and murder, we are able to watch with Susie the trials and errors of growing up for her siblings and friends, the grieving process, and how one town finally pulls together to get past the horrible tragedy. Sebold does a great job of letting us see and feel the aches and pains of many of thi characters through the eyes of Susie as she watches overhead to see how her family, friends, and even her murder are able to move on. For instance with her sister, Lindsey, we are able to see that she takes on a motherly side for her dad and brother especially after her mother leaves. We also are able to see her struggle with her feminine side. It was actually her grandmother who helps her find and guides her through her adolescence and answers many questions that should have been her mothers job. But seeing how her mother was absent we saw a grandmother step up and take this young lady with many questions on how to be a lady and helps her develop into quite a positive young lady who has many goals. What would have happened if her grandmother didn't step up and help out the family in their time of need? Would she have developed into the same nice young lady or would she found the attention else where?
Also throughout this story we are able to see a variety of ways people handled their grieving process. Everyone handles death differently. For instance, Ray sought friendship with Ruth because Ruth was a friend of Susie's and seemed to know how Susie felt. Jack, her dad, seemed to hang onto material things and the situation. He didn't let the story die and kept at the police to try and find her murderer. While her mom tried her best to ignore and running away from the situation instead of dealing with the problem at hand. Lindsey become like a second mother to her brother and father taking care of the family. And Buckley kept his anger inside and stayed close to his family members. For awhile these are coping skills but as we go further into the story we were able to see that by not dealing with the issue - Susie's death - that other problems developed. Such as Jack's heart attack. This was the last straw. Everyone was brought together to aid in his health and being made to face the tragedy and find hope in something so terrible.
I am not sure if members of her family will ever have complete closure but I do think that they will be able to move on with their life. Never having found the body and seeing the body is hard for anyone to accept. There is always the chance that no body equals no death which means that the person might come through the door. Unfortunately many times that does not happen and closure has to be accepted no matter if there is a body or not you have to move on with your life.
While reading this novel Lovely Bones gave me hope for the end. Whether our life is taken early for what ever reason or if we live a long productive life. There is hope that one day we will meet our loved ones in heaven and be able to enjoy their company again in a wonderful, peaceful environment.

Jimima J

Jimima J was a great novel. It had all the elements needed for a chick lit book - love, struggles, men, job troubles, and everyday life situations. Jane Green created a theme that was easy to get into and follow because as humans we deal with these situations daily or know someone who is struggling with these same problems - weight issues, job issues, friends - boy or girl.

In the beginning Jane Green introduces Jemima as a large women who believes that the only way to get ahead in life is to be "thin". Unfortunately that is how our society thinks as well. All you have to do is look at what is on TV or in our magazines and the pictures are worth a thousand words. We see thin attractive young ladies. This is the message our youth is receiving and trying to be " thin" is what guys like and the "thinner the better". As a high school teacher I have witness many young girls who believe this and develop a serious life threatening disease - anorexia nervosa. The message that this book is sending is that the only way to get the guy of your dreams or ahead in your job is to be thin. As JJ takes us through her battle to be thin and the inward thoughts about the thin people in her life we also see that she has gone from one addiction - food- to another - exercise and not eating properly. This addiction brings rewards that are glamorous to all - a promotion, attention from all men, and the guy on the net, and finally the guy of her dreams but what are the costs physically? In the book it mentioned that she received a fitness test and her personal trainer set up a program of exercise and diet. That is all good and should have been followed. Why did Jane Green insist on having JJ lose 20 more pounds then what the trainer recommended as healthy and why mention that she was hardly eating anything. This could have been a great opportunity for the young and old to see that listening to the trainer of eating properly and exercising is the best route to getting fit. JJ finally realizes this at the very end but the message was long sent prior to her figuring this out and still getting all that she wanted when she was 20 pounds under the recommended weight. Another message that was conceived was the promotion. Couldn't JJ have still received the promotion prior to losing the weight? Why couldn't her boss finally noticed the hard work that she did and realized that she was doing Geraldine's job as well? It seems like the only reason she was held back was because of her weight not because she could not do the job. We see that today, in some places it is not what you do or how much you know but how you look and who you know that gets you moved up the ladder.
Another big issue in this book is the fact that Jemima and the Internet. This is a important piece of technology in our world today that opens many doors for our jobs and personal life. I believe that the Internet has down played the face to face interaction with people today. It is much easier to type our views than it is to say them to people via the phone or in person. We have lost the personal touch. That being said I do believe that the Internet was a tool that helped JJ start to open up and share her inner self because she could hide behind the screen and people would not judge her by how she looked. She was able to talk with Brad and develop a relationship with him for who she was on the inside before he saw what was on the outside. Unfortunately that relationship did not work out. JJ was lucky in the way that Brad was not someone out to hurt her physically - he just did not know how to live his life the way he wanted without feeling like he was going to be judge by how his date looked. She was lucky, we hear horror stories about predators searching the net for a new victim. JJ was able to have an experience that she probably would never have thought she could have and that was good for her because it allowed her to finally realize what she wanted and how she wanted her life to be. She finally decided that she was the happiest when she gained some weight and was a voluptuous, feminine, curvy size 10. This is important to note, because she decided that being that thin was not making her happy but what made her happy was finding someone who shared the same interest that she had- her love for books, technology, being able to talk about issues, and staying fit and healthy.

I liked this book a side from all the negative messages that it holds for the young and naive. As an adult I was able to relate to JJ because I have been in those shoes or known someone who has struggled with the same issues. This book gives us hope that our dreams can be reached with a little effort and not to forget our values and morals just to get someone or promoted. If we do forget those then we will still be unhappy until we go back to what we believe in. Who we are on the inside is what will make us happy.