Speak - Laurie Halse Anderson

The other night my hubby and I met with some of my best friends (and their partners) for our annual Christmas dinner. I couldn't think of anything I wanted more for Christmas off them than books, so I put my requests in a while ago. About 3 months ago I was contemplating writing a novel about depression as I have suffered from it on and off since I was 15, and in my research I discovered a book that screamed at me to be read. It was called Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson and I asked Rach to get it for me for Christmas. She did. I have since moved away from the idea of depression as a theme for a novel, but that's not relevant. I may revisit it at another time.

Anyway, I had to take my husband to hospital 2 nights ago (he's fine now) and while we waited the agonising eight hours in emergency, I dug out Speak and started to read it.

Here is the blurb off the cover of the book:

'Melinda Sordino busted an end-of-school party by calling the cops, so her old friends won't talk to her, and people she doesn't know hate her from a distance. It's no use explaining it to her parents; they've never known what her life is really like. The safest place for Melinda to be is alone, inside her own head. But even that's not safe. Because there's something she's trying not to think about, something about the night of the party that, if she admitted it and let it in, would blow her carefully constructed disguise to smithereens. And then she would have no choice. She would have to speak the truth.'

Oh. My. Goodness.

I haven't read a book this good in a very long time. I know what it's like to have a tough time at school and this touched me deeply. The way Anderson captured the internal and external voices of high school students (especially Melinda) was phenomenal and the way she wrote the book was superb. I love books that are written a little differently.

This novel covers some very important issues that plague children at school and have done so for a long time. It's even being studied at schools now I think, which is wonderful.  Speak was sad, dark, funny, and witty and had me captivated from the first word, to the last. It was amazing.

I won't be posting many reviews over the next 4 weeks or so due to Christmas/New Years festivities, but I am still reading and will post my reviews when the holiday season comes to a close.

Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year!

Sam I Am

The School of Essential Ingredients - Erica Bauermeister

This book was the November/December pick for the book club that I attend. The name put me off straight away. I don't like to cook. At all. But, I expect that the other girls in the book club read what's on our list, regardless of their preferences, so I picked it up (12 hours before the meeting) and gave it a go.

The School of Essential Ingredients is about how Lillian, who has had a passion for cooking since a young age, decides to start a cooking school on Monday nights when her restaurant is closed. The book is split up into a portion for each member of the cooking school and explores how they came to find the school.

This book took me about 2 hours to read. It's quite small and, despite my prior reservations about the book, it's pretty damn good. After each characters' story I found myself disappointed that I had to move on to the next one and wishing I could read another 100 pages about each of them. It describes food in a way I had never read before and I even caught myself slowing down while I was eating to think about the flavours - me, who puts tomato sauce on everything. The book made me feel warm and fuzzy and I'm so glad that it was picked for our reading list.

Can't wait to see what books are picked for next year.

Sam I Am