The Book Bit: September 2016 Ed.

  Uh, it took so long to get through my books this month!  I was traveling a lot, but managed to get through all three of them.  Did I mention the Stephen King book finally came through from the library?!  I was so excited about it!  So, let's review.

"Never Never"- Brianna R. Shrum

  Has anyone else noticed the obsession with rewriting our old fairytales from childhood?  No?  Well, I have and I'm loving it!  I love reading new and twisted versions of the old classics (Disney versions, of course) that I remember from childhood.  Taking my beloved Cheshire cat and turning him evil or turning me sympathetic to the monster under the bed.  I love it!  This book was no exception.  To be fair, I have had a bit of a Peter Pan obsession the past few months.  A friend of mine pitched me this writing idea about Neverland and Peter Pan that I simply cannot get out of my head, so naturally I've been dying to read what other people have written up about our favorite boy who never grew up.  This book did not disappoint, and it also did not star Peter Pan.  (Gasp!)  That's the beauty of it!  It stars James Hook.  I know what you're thinking, 'Isn't he the villain?'  Yes, in the classic story of Peter Pan we all side with Pan and hate Captain Hook, simply because Peter tells us to (classic sheep mentality lol).  Has anyone ever wondered how James Hook became the enemy of Peter Pan?  The only grown up in Neverland?  Well, this book lays it all out.  The entire story of James Hook and how he met Peter Pan and came to Neverland.  It's full of beautiful visuals, true imagination and that explanation of Captain Hook we've all been dying to hear.  Well, at least I've been dying to hear it!  All of our favorite characters are still there!  Peter Pan, of course, the mermaids, Tiger Lily and surely, Wendy Darling and her two brothers.  You have to give this book a read, you will fall in love with James Hook and see Neverland in a whole new way.  This changed everything!  You won't regret it!

"White Oleander"- Janet Fitch

  I remember this movie from when I was a kid, starring Michelle Pfeiffer, did anyone else see it?  I was shocked when I recently found out it was a book and simply had to get my hands out it.  It was good.  Really good.  And the movie stuck very close to the book, which made my month!  Does anyone else wait to watch movies until they've read the book and then spend the entire time picking it to shreds?  It drives me crazy!  The story is already written, why do we need to change anything, it was wonderful the way it was!  Well, I was impressed with this screen adaptation.  Very well done.  This book features Astrid, the daughter of a small published writer.  A woman who takes up all the limelight and is apologetic for nothing in her life.  Soon into the book, Astrid's mother, Ingrid, gets imprisoned on a murder charge leaving Astrid alone at the age of twelve.  This books navigates through the foster system in Los Angeles as Astrid gets bumped around from place to place, surviving along the way.  Shedding her overbearing and toxic mother as the years drag on, we really get to see who Astrid is and feel for her every move into another home.  Another life, another definition of who she is.  This book is really an eye opener and makes you start asking yourself some questions about the foster care system, about who people appear to be and who they really are and make you question the human condition.  Are we really meant to be alone our whole lives?  Is being with others simply a drug that slowly wears you away until there is nothing left?  Janet Fitch is brilliant in this novel, making me think in multiple directions at once.  You'll be touched by this book.

"The Stand"- Stephen King

  Ok, this book was HUGE!  I'm not kidding.  It was over 1,600 pages.  Printed in the smallest type I have ever seen, single spaced.  It was an undertaking.  But it was also very good.  It, to me, was not the classic Stephen King horror book, laced with blood, guts and paranormal activity.  I was actually very surprised by it.  This book is about an apocalypse and in true King fashion, he spared absolutely no details!  It can be broken done into three sections, 1) The spread of the virus.  Basically how a few seconds of a mechanical hiccup cost the world 99% of its population.  Right.  A major hiccup.  So we meet a few key characters and follow the very start of the virus to the end, when all that is left of the population are the naturally immune.  Can you imagine?  99% gone?  Well, you don't have to; King already did.  2) When the immune come together.  This part of the book is when the semi-paranormal begins to happen.  The people left begin to have visions, either leading them to an old woman in a field (the representation of light and goodness) or a dark man in the mountains (representing fear and despair).  And so the fight of evil and divine begins, at the separation of the survivors.  3) The final confrontation.  Basically the end all battle between Good Vs. Evil.  Like I said, this book is an undertaking, but it was wonderful.  As you're reading it, you're asking yourself what if this really happened?  How would we survive?  You have to remember, this book was published in the 70's, people were not nearly as helpless as we are now.  I mean, would you know how to kill and process a cow?  Know how to keep the meat from spoiling without a refrigerator?  Would you be able to figure out how to get gas out of a pump without electricity?  What if someone got hurt?  How likely is it that there is a doctor left in the world and that they are traveling in your specific group?  The questions are endless and amazing.  This is a book that really makes you think.  The first 200 pages are rough, I won't lie to you, but all the details and stories are worth it.  By the end of the book, I knew everything about each of the key characters, I understood them in ways I never understood fictional characters before.  I knew each of their stories, how good they were at surviving, knew about their childhood and was with them when they buried important people in their lives.  It's worth it, I promise.  King always delivers.

  So, there they are!  Three great books!  Let me know what you thought of them and I love getting recommendations!  Like, comment, follow and subscribe; until next time!