From One More Day & Orange Is Not The Only Fruit.

[samatethecookie]

I finally read a book this month! Two books, actually!

"From One More Day" by Mitch Albom, which is a story about a broken man who spends one more day with his mother, who had been dead for a few years. I bought this book because bangflip reminded me of it, and I've read his previous books and enjoyed them. It's an easy read and it's cliched, but it's not so cliched like Jodi Picoult's books are. (I'm sorry, Jodi Picoult's My Sister's Keeper was horrible and I hope you guys never read it.) Albom writes them in such a natural and sincere manner that draws the reader into his characters' world and predicaments. That, and the mother described in this book reminded me so much of my own. Reading it on the way to Ohio really made me homesick. XD;

"Orange Is Not The Only Fruit" by Jeanette Winterson. This one is about the author herself. Jeanette was destined to become a Pentecostal Christian missionary through her adoptive parents' upbringing. The novel follows her inner-struggle with her sexuality and the "exorcisms" she undergoes through her church. It's the first novel I've ever read from Jeanette Winterson. It left a pleasing impression. I'm not sure how factual this autobiography is, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was all true, based on what I know about certain religious groups. If you want an idea of who Jeanette Winterson is, I recommend this book. Also, if you want an idea of what her work looks like, I've taken a direct quote from the book and placed it under the cut.

I kept looking at her, and wondering how we ever had a relationship; yet when she first left me, I thought I had blood poisoning. I couldn't forget her. Now she seemed to have forgotten everything. It made me want to shake her, to pull off all my clothes in the middle of the street and yell, 'Remember this body?' Time is a great deadener; people forget, get bored, grow old, go away. She said that not much had happened between us anyway, historically speaking. But history is a string full of knots, the best you can do is admire it, and maybe knot it up a bit more. History is a hammock for swinging and a game for playing. A cat's cradle. She said those sort of feelings were dead, the feelings she once had for me. There is a certain seductiveness about dead things. You can ill treat, alter and recolour what's dead. It won't complain. Then she laughed and said we probably saw what had happened very differently anyway .... She laughed again, and said that the way I saw it would make a good story, her vision was just the history, the nothing-at-all facts. She said she hoped I hadn't kept any letters, silly to hang onto things that had no meaning. As though letters and photos made it more real, more dangerous. I told her I didn't need her letters to remember what had happened. Then she looked vague and started to discuss the weather and the roadworks and the soaring price of baby food.

Comments

[bangflip.livejournal.com]

ah I'm so glad that you liked for one more day :') I was too enthralled to notice how cliché it was but now that you mention it...

I might read this orange book! It sounds great from that excerpt since I really love that style. Even if I don't understand it half of the time. :O

[samatethecookie.livejournal.com]

I DID! It made me cry lots. Thank you for giving me the heads up about it.

XD It's something I've noticed with his writing in the third book. Mitch Albom always had a nice balance with it to the point where you never notice it.

The book is good! It's only semi-autobiographical, but it seemed to be honest, especially with the crazy religious upbringing. Her style took some time to get used to, but once you get into it, it's hard to put it down. (It's also a light read, at 176 words.) :D There's other quotes from her works in literaryquotes, too.

[make-meabird.livejournal.com]

I loved For One More Day. I think Picoult is pretty much terrible too! ;)