Book #14

Eight Days in Darkness by Angela Roegner and Anita Wooldridge

415 pages

 

 

Wow! An enjoyable read, it was not -- at times I was near tears, or near throwing up at the awful things Anita had to endure after being captured in broad daylight in her small Kokomo, Indiana suburb in the late '90s. She was taken by an acquaintance to Wisconsin where she was trapped, slept in a locked metal box and continually raped for eight days before being captured by a team of Indiana and Wisconsin police.

 

However, this read like a crime novel, and sometimes I had to stop and remind myself all of this was real. A lot of the reminders of "realness" came to me in the form of Indiana lingo -- key players in the story graduated from colleges I am very familiar with, and one at-the-time suspect's alibi was that he went to see a movie at the Castleton Mall ... which is literally about four miles from my apartment and the movie theater I frequent most often.

 

It went back and forth between Anita trapped in her hell hole to the police force desperately trying to find clues and leads on Anita's whereabouts. The result was a very complete crime story, one that remained hopeful.

 

This one will stick with me for a long, long time. Now, to read something light and pleasant!  

 

Next up: Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham

Book #13

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

244 pages

I struggled with this book.

I struggled with liking the characters and understanding their actions. At first, 13-year-old Henry's mom, who rarely leaves the house and talks to him like an adult, reminds me of the mom in About a Boy. Except in About a Boy, the mom, an atypical personality, seems to want her young son to have some sense of normalcy as he begins his teen years. Henry's mom makes no effort to even attempt to let him pretend like he's normal outside of her shut-in house.

Once Frank, an escaped convict, comes into the picture, I am rolling my eyes at the utter disregard the mother has for her son and his safety. Frank moves in to their house, and quickly falls in love with Adele, Henry's mom. They spend the Labor Day weekend in bliss, contemplating escaping the country to live freely.

Henry finally meets a friend in Eleanor, and she is truly the most interesting character in the book -- but don't worry, she seems to disappear as quickly as she comes in. Eleanor is Henry's "real-life" love interest, but has problems of her own -- an eating disorder and a mother she feels like has abandoned her.

This end-of-summer romance between Frank and Adele is ill-fated from the beginning, and watching Henry in the middle is at times down-right uncomfortable. All I wanted to do was pluck Henry and lead him to his dad, a remarried family man who still sees Henry regularly.

I love Kate Winslet, but I am unsure if I'll even be watching the movie version of this book any time soon.

Next up: Eight Days in Darkness: The True Story of the Abduction, Rape, and Rescue of Anita Wooldridge by Angela Roegner

(Sounds happy, doesn't it???)

Book #12

The Girls from Ames by Jeffery Zaslow

297 pages

 

According to GoodReads, I've had this on my to-read list since 2010! Wow!

The Girls from Ames was the real-life story of eleven women and the friendship they have continued over their lives as the eleven girls turned into ten women. Some of these friendships began before preschool, but they all extended out until the girls were high school-aged, and they were all inseparable. After high school, it talks about college and husbands and kids ... all things that could have kept these women from their beloved friendship. As the years grew on, their modes of communication changed, and these women continually reconnected when they could.

I love reading non-fiction books and memoirs. The really cool thing about this book is that they were all about normal women -- not someone who eventually become super important or famous. They are just women. They are real mothers, real employees, real wives -- that really resonated me throughout the book.

The book felt a tad too long. It definitely isn't a re-read choice, but I liked my sole time through it. It made me think of my years-long (a few decades-long) female friendships. Female friendships can be tricky; they can be complicated. But they can also be the strongest support system in place when you need it.

Next up: Labor Day by Joyce Maynard