The Art of Racing in the Rain

by Garth Stein
PRMS paperback 321 pages
genre: dog fiction

Told from Enzo's point of view, this is a story of life and racing. Chapter one started with an old dog, ready to die. It was sad from the get-go. Enzo tells his life's story, especially as it intertwines with his owner Denny's life. I was crying so hard toward the end that I couldn't finish reading it until later. I was so angry at Denny's in-laws! And to know that there are people like that makes me sad.

I am not a believer in the idea of reincarnation, but for Enzo to want to come back as a human made sense for the story. Loved it!

Code Orange

by Caroline B. Cooney
PRMS paperback 198 pages
genre: YA science thriller

I wish I'd finished it *before* the 7th grade book club discussed it, but it was enjoyable. Mitty is a slacker rich kid at a private school in NYC. He has to research an infectious disease and what he learns about smallpox changes his world. Based on a true event (someone finding smallpox scabs in an old, old book), Cooney has used modern technology, situations, and politics to write a believable story. I didn't like Mitty as a character - he is WAY too much of a slacker kid with attitude, it was an enjoyable read.

Animal Farm

by George Orwell
Dakota County Library audiobook, 3.25 hours
read by Patrick Tull
genre: ? dystopia? Social commentary

Again, wrong book for me at the time. This is one I feel I ought to have read at some point in the last 25 years, so I finally read it. I'm glad it's short. The corruption and growing cruelty of the pigs toward the other animals frustrated me. Their willingness to consider their own memories wrong and accept whatever Napoleon told them made me sad. I had to take many breaks from the story, just because it bothered me so much. I probably should read some analytical studies of it, but I'm just glad I'm done.

The Lost Quilter

by Jennifer Chiaverini
Carver County Library, paperback 337 pages
genre: historical fiction, slavery, quilting

Sigh. When I impulsively grabbed this at the library TWO MONTHS ago, I was in the mood for a little quilting "escape." Too busy, it sat & I renewed it & it sat . . . until I could renew it no more. So I HAD to read it. Alas, it was a slavery story with quilting in it and not the sweet quilting escapism I longed for. But of course I read the whole thing, because that's the kind of person I am. So now I have to pay the late fees, I haven't done any quilting, and I find slavery stories in general to be incredibly depressing. What human beings have justified as acceptable is absolutely intolerable.

Joanna's story is ultimately a story of triumph over evil, but it wasn't an especially fun read. Well-written, but not what I was looking for in a Chiaverini book.

Freedom

by Jonathan Franzen
Chanhassen H.S. hardcover, 562 pages
genre: ? Realistic fiction, relationships

This was torture. It has taken me way, way too long to read. I kept looking for redeeming qualities. . . it was our PRMS April book club title, but we kept having to reschedule. Now we're going to discuss it in May with our May title. I think a lot of people bailed on it. Not sure why it garnered so much attention this past year. I think Patty, Walter, Richard, Joey, Lalitha, etc. think too much of themselves and their sex lives. It will be interesting to hear what others have to say about it.

On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God

by Louise Rennison
Dakota County Library, audioCDs
read by Stina Nielsen
genre: YA humor, British

This wasn't as funny as the first book, but I still chuckled a few times (mostly at Angus). Georgia is a bit too self-centered and selfish (especially in her treatment of her best friend Jas) for me to enjoy her much. She is obsessed with Robbie (aka The Sex God) and doesn't really take any one else's feelings into much account.

Buried

by Robin Merrow MacCready
Carver County Library hardcover
genre: YA realistic fiction

From Amazon: "Claudine Carbonneau, a high-school senior in Deep Cove, ME, wakes up to find her alcoholic mother gone, leaving the teen to clean up their trashed home and to explain her mother's absence."

This book really gripped me. As Claudine's behavior becomes more & more obsessively OCD and more clues come to light about her mother's disappearance, I just wanted to hug her and get her some help. The story (to me) is more about OCD than alcoholism. Her mother's choices really impacted this girl. Powerful.