Book #21, Missing Mom
Again! I'd been meaning to read a Joyce Carol Oates book since she was referenced on The Simpsons, when Lisa thinks she's going to go to prison and imagines her grown-up self in a cell, as the "book cart" comes by. (Guard: "Bookmobile. Want anything?" Lisa: "Got anything by Joyce Carol Oates?" Guard: "Nah, I think they're all Danielle Steel." Lisa: "NOOOOOOOOOOO!!") So anyway, I got Missing Mom off Swaptree for...something. I dunno. I think it was that extra Saiyuki DVD I mysteriously ended up with.
Missing Mom was a very emotional book - in a good way. The main character Nikki is a thirty-something, independent woman who thinks she really has no need for her mom, and her mom's attempts to stay in touch and stay connected are just a hassle. But when she loses her mother in an unexpected and horrible way, she realizes just how important her mother really was. This book chronicles the first year after her mother's death, and how she (and her other family members) cope with tragedy. It takes on some really emotional and difficult topics, without portraying them in a way that makes it too hard to read. It kind of, for some odd reason, reminded me of The Lovely Bones, except it didn't suck. >.>
Total book count: 21/50 - 42%
Total page count: 6296/15000 - 42%
Up next: I haven't gotten any farther in the Houdini book because I was hooked on this one. I'll probably start through that again, and also I've been meaning to start The Other Wind, since it's the last in the Earthsea books. I mean, I need to just finish them! So I can start over! XD