Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

If I taught in a high school, I would probably teach the novel Speak.  I had the pleasure of reading it this year after a few friends recommended it.  Speak chronicles Melinda's first year in high school.  She was the infamous girl who called the cops at a summer party.  The reason she called the cops?  She'd been raped.  Anyway, I enjoyed the novel.  It's well written and poetic.  [It's also a movie starring Kristen Stewart... no vampires, though.  Who knew?  Also, did you know that Kristen Stewart was the diabetic kid in Panic Room? Weird.  Thank you, IMDB . Maybe one day I will divide my internet "research" time equally between you and YouTube. ]

Anyway, Laurie Halse Anderson wrote Speak and she also wrote Wintergirls, which I read today.  Yes, I read a whole book today.  It happens.  There were some really creative elements to it.  Its protagonist is Lia, a young girl who has been institutionalized previously for anorexia.  Lia's ex-best friend dies prior to the start of the novel from complications due to bulimia, and proceeds to haunt Lia throughout the story.  Some of the creative things I noticed were the way the chapters were numbered (001.00 through 065.00, like a scale), the hotel where the ex-best friend dies is called "The Gateway", the irony that Lia loves baking and knitting but struggles to eat and can never get warm.  There are more, but I think they would be spoilers to those of you who would like to read it.

I probably should get around to writing about some of the other things I read this summer.  Here's a partial list that doesn't include any of the readings for either of my two courses.

• Wicked (just getting into it)
• Fifty Shades of Grey (ashamed)
• part of a terrible Lionel Shriver one called Game Control
• The Weird Sisters - Any Shakespeare buffs reading?  You'd like it!
• Prisoner of Tehran, which was on the Canada Reads list?  Really?
• Committed by Elizabeth-who-wrote-Eat Pray Love - yes, I finished this one.
• Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast (yay, Mom! - good find)

And I'm going to throw this summer's television series in the ring:  Breaking Bad, how did I not know about you?  There might be some kind of Lost-esque ending in the works where we find out that the male characters are all parts of Walt's personality:  Hank is his sense of protection, Jesse is impulsiveness, Chicken-Man is the calculating side, etc.  And what is with all the purple crap at his sister-in-law's place?  She even wears purple most of the time.  Did I mention that I <3 Netflix?