Have any of you read this yet? If not, I would highly recommend it. Salvage the Bones is the story of an impoverished family from a coastal Mississippi town preparing for the arrival of Hurricane Katrina. What made this story so powerful to me was that, initially, the characters were completely foreign to me - Southern, black, poor - and by the end of the book I saw myself in them.
What books have you read lately that knocked your socks off?
I haven't even heard of it but it sounds like a wonderful book so I put it on my to-read books for this year. Occasionally I read books like that (where I feel like I can never even come close as a writer). I just reread The Hunger Games and Catching Fire and remembered why I loved those the first time I read them (and why The Hunger Games was made into a movie).
ReplyDeleteI also read a book earlier this year called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (nonfiction) that blew me away
in this blog post.
Leslie! I actually have read The Immortal Life and that is one phenomenal story!
ReplyDeleteOkay, I'm over to read your post now...
what a wonderful review! thanks for sharing it!
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of this book, but I totally know what you mean about books being so good they almost make you stop writing. That's happened to me plenty of times :)
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great read - I've never heard of this book before. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it!
ReplyDeleteOoooooh! I LOVE books like that. I'll check it out for sure :)
ReplyDeleteI wear flip flops actually ...
ReplyDeleteJoshin'.
Two novels I read/am reading recently/currently that I enjoyed/am enjoying were/are, 'The Cardturner,' by Louis Sachar (sp? -- too lazy to look it up, at the mo) which was YA with a very likeable male narrator and I'm about halfway through 'Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,' which has had moments of tedium and moments of sublimity. For the most part, though, thumbs up.
Don't ever let a book paralyze you. Let it inspire you. If you're reading and you have the taste and intellect to appreciate it, you can get there in the way that only you were meant to.
Didn't Louis Sachar write Holes? I loved that book.
DeleteAs always, my dear, thanks for your encouragement :)
Yep. I didn't read 'Holes,' though. I looked it over after I read 'Cardturner' and didn't feel enough interest. The end of 'Cardturner' left something to be desired, but overall I deeply enjoyed it and have recommended it to more than one person.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy latest books to do that have been the Kristin Cashore books, Graceling and Fire. I just ordered them and Bitterblue because I already want to reread the first two, so I'm sure the third will be AWESOME.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I know this is random for this post, but I saw your comment on Leigh's blog. Falling for Fiction will be doing another CP/Beta Mixer soon. We'll announce it before we do it. But everyone lists what they're looking for and if they want a sample of their work.
ReplyDeleteHaven't read this... but I've totally read books that make me depressed because they're so well written and I'm not sure if I'll ever get there, LOL.
ReplyDeleteCame to say thanks for following my blog and to reciprocate! (I'm also a fellow Utahn ;)) Go us! :D
Hi, thanks for following my blog. I like the sound of this book so I added it to my growing TBR list! (Glad I joined Goodreads recently.) I can't remember the last book that did this to me, but I know what you mean. Just look at it as an example of what can be done with writing and try to learn what it was that was so good - but remember you always have to stay true to your own voice.
ReplyDeleteDitto, Nick :) And I can relate to a TBR list gone wild :) There is just too much to read...
Delete