Page Sixty-Two

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

A troubled girl finds work in a flower shop and thinks back to the events that lead to her present-day life. Victoria uses her gift for flowers and arrangements to battle her inner demons and help others. A good read.

Page Sixty-One

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein

Narrated by Enzo, a dog, this book is sad and heartwarming. A light read.

Page Sixty

Alone in the Classroom by Elizabeth Hay

Excellent.

"Here is the country not in its Sunday best, but in its old clothes, unpaved, unfenced, full of character, ungroomed, unvisited, barely penetrable" (180).

"It seemed to me that going deeper into my mother's past would help me understand all the life that was blocked up inside me, that is blocked up inside each of us" (269).

"I'm reminded of what Michael said about memory: the facts don't matter; everything you learn blurs and merges and contributes to a way of seeing the world" (275).

Page Fifty-Nine

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

This book brings the lives of four individuals together during the conflict in Sarajevo: the cellist, who vows to play every day at 4 o'clock for 22 days for the 22 victims of a bombing while standing in line for bread; Arrow, a sniper who must protect the cellist, Dragan, who is trying to simply cross an intersection, and Kenan, a man who travels to collect water for his family on the other side of town. An excellent novel.

Page Fifty-Eight

Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine

A young girl with Asperger's struggles to understand empathy and find "Closure" after her older brother is a victim of a school shooting. A great young adult book.

Page Fifty-Seven

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Magical.

Page Fifty-Six

The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney

Alex attends Themis Academy, a boarding school where the staff believes everyone to be perfect and does not engage in dealing with disputes among students. After Alex is date raped, she enlists the help of a group at the school called The Mockingbirds, named after the book To Kill a Mockingbird. With their help she attempts to seek justice for what happened to her.

This is a good young adult book that deals with a serious issue in a realistic way, as the author herself was date raped in college.