I have abandoned the book Nineteen Minutes for now and no, I don’t really feel guilty about it, for once. I just feel disappointed because I did not feel the same way about this book as I did Picoult’s Change of Heart. I never felt a connection with any of the characters and the story line was too depressing for me. That’s all I have to say about that.
Now I am trying to decide on what to read next. Last night the hubby and I stopped at the PX to kill time before seeing The Chronicles of Narnia ~ Prince Caspian . I did manage to find three books in their minute book section.
My Best Friend’s Girl by Dorothy Koomson
Frannie & Zooey by J.D. Salinger
Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.
I read Frannie this morning. It was a short story that first appeared in The New Yorker Magazine in 1955. It was not quite what I was expecting. I don’t know what I was expecting though. It was ok, but I guess being a huge fan of The Catcher In The Rye, set a certain expectation for any of his other work. It was about a Yale student named Lane and his girlfriend Frannie and their first visit together in a few weeks. She had taken the train to visit him at school for the weekend from her school and after picking Frannie up at the station they went to lunch at a restaurant. There, they are silently trying to decide if they are still excited by this relationship. After one sided conversations on both parts you are led to believe that they don’t make it past this weekend together. The dialoge was interesting but very strange. Lots of “goddam”s and “I’m not kidding”s heavily peppered throughout the story.
Now, I’m off to a fun night of Karaoke with the hubby (no, he doesn’t sing but he’s my #1 Fan and claps better than the rest of ’em) and our friends Gale & Jim. I’m listening to some Aretha Franklin to get warmed up.
I hope you have a fun weekend ahead of you. Happy Friday!!!
Planet Books 
From what I’ve heard about Picoult, her books range from fab to horrible. I should have warned you when I saw that Nineteen Minutes was the second of her books you’d chosen to read, but I wanted to see what you thought of it. For me, the subject of that book isn’t nearly as compelling as some of her other stuff. I think the problem may be that it’s overkill on that subject (kind of like reading books about 9/11 a couple years ago, I just couldn’t hear one more thing about it).
If you want to try another Picoult book in the future, I highly recommend My Sister’s Keeper (you can check out my review of it if you’re interested). Most people I’ve talked to also recommend this one.
bexadler~ Hey there! Could you please leave a link to your site here? Thanks for the recommendation and the words of assurance that it wasn’t just me.
-K
I run hot and cold on Jodi Picoult’s books. I have this one “saved for later” on my Kindle. Maybe I’ll have rethink whether I want to read it or not.
BTW ~You’ve been tagged to play the Author meme. Please join the fun. Rules and link at here: http://printedpage.blogspot.com/2008/05/tagged-with-author-meme.html
I second Rebecca above when she recommends My Sister’s Keeper. One of my favorite reads of last year.
Me again.. bexadler is Rebecca from The Inside Cover:
http://www.theinsidecover.com/
Hello, I’ve tagged you. If you’d like to do this favorite author meme, go here: http://tracisbookbag.blogspot.com/2008/05/tagged-about-me.html
I never feel guilty about abandoning books or even movies on dvd (though my husband will force himself through because he just can’t quit something once he has started.
I could barely get through Ninteen Minutes and didn’t care for it at all. Read Twilight when you have a chance – it’s a fun read!
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