Restless Virgins

I had a hard time getting into this book. The descriptions were tedious. I thought this book was going to be more about the actual "sex scandal", when in reality they only talked about it for 20 pages or so and I felt it wasn't even a "scandal". The focus, I thought, was a bit off. There was no pattern to it and it seemed to jump from student to student without any really structure. One student they write about in the book, Josh, who I thought was interesting, they only talked about for maybe 15 pages in the whole book, where the focused on other students for large sections. I usually love coming of age books and books about prep school, but I found myself bored and annoyed through most of this book......

Half In Love

I admit, I have always had a hard time with short stories. I feel like there is never enough character development and that the endings are always mashed or hanging and it drives me crazy. With that being said, I thought this was a really really great book of short stories. Now, not all of the stories were stars to me, and some of them had the same problems I already stated. A few I couldn't even finish because I was either bored or too much information was packed in that I didn't understand the plot. I did however, enjoy most of these stories because they were set in the Southwest. (That's just me). I really liked Garrison Junction and Paint (even if they were both disturbing in their own.. I tend to kind of like stuff like that anyhow) and I also really liked Kite Whistler Aquamarine, Ranch Girl and Thirteen and Half. The other stories were just so-so. I didn't like Last of the White Slaves. I couldn't figure out what was happening and there were too many characters for a short story I thought.

Anyhow, these stories for the most part were beautifully written and it was a quick read. The nice thing about short stories (and poetry) is that when one of them really strikes a chord in you it really sticks with you. I like that. I hope to find other works of short fiction like this in the future.

Forever Lily

I thought I was really going to like this book, but I had a hard time relating to it. I guess maybe because I have no kids of my own, or step-children. I have always thought the idea of adopting from another country very intriguing and I still do. Her story was very touching and it was interesting to hear about her trip to China. I really hated her friend Alex, however. I was really happy to hear in the end that they no longer speak. She was a very selfish person and couldn’t believe she kept changing her mind about this poor child. I think what she did was pretty horrible and she was not a good friend. I understand why the author felt and did what she did.

I had a real hard time with all the dream sequences, so much so that I just started skipping over them. I mean, I got that she thought and felt she had this really strong connection with China and Chinese culture, but it was a bit hard to swallow with all these dreams. In the end however, I felt good that was able to adopt Lily in the end.. but wish that she might have written a little more about how the process went after she arrived back in the states... but so it goes.