Checked Out: Week 2

I read a lot of books, and on any given day I’m probably carrying around two or three books with me. In fact, I’m in a library right now, sitting at a table with a book on it (I brought the book here). The book I have with me is Teardrop, by Lauren Kate, and if you recall, I discussed it in last week’s “Checked Out.” I actually haven’t gotten too far in it because I’ve been caught up in two other books at the moment, but I brought it with me because I want to play catch up.

People are usually surprised when I tell them I read more than one book at a time, and routinely at that. They wonder how I don’t get confused with characters or with plots, and I honestly don’t know how I do it. Maybe some of you out there are the same way, but it takes me probably a couple of minutes to get back into a plot and I’m all set. The only way it doesn’t work that way is if I’ve “paused” a book and then I come back to it a long time later. And that’s because odds are that I’ve been through a lot more plots and characters in a multitude of books in-between.

It happened to me last week when I got back into The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling. I hadn’t read the book in about three months and I was thoroughly lost at the spot where my bookmark was. When I get caught in that type of situation I take a deep breath and just go back to the part that makes sense to me and read forward from there. I hardly ever let books lie like that, but sometimes life intercedes. I know. I said the “L” word.

Then there’s the one thing that can make me stop all other books on the spot, when one of my “Top” authors releases a new book and I’m lucky enough to get it from the library or someone gives it to me as a gift shortly after it is released. That happened this week when I bought the new Laurie Halse Anderson book, The Impossible Knife of Memory, with a gift card I received from my mom for my birthday. Oh yeah, and I  bought it electronically to read on my Nook. The horror.

I’ve talked before about reading actual books vs. reading electronic books, and I’m very much on the fence about it. Usually I will champion actual books instead of electronic ones, but, as the phrase goes, the price was right, and it’s convenient. Instead of having to go to a book store on Friday, I bought the book from home, and was able to read it immediately. Now, without missing a beat, I got right into it. It’s the subject of this week’s “Checked Out.”

If you’re not familiar with her or her work, Laurie Halse Anderson writes young adult novels (YA) that delve into the complex thoughts and relationships that teenagers have. In precious novels, she has tackled the subjects of anorexia (Wintergirls), rape (Speak), suicidal thoughts of the outcast (Twisted), historical fiction (Fever 1793, Chains), and serious family issues (Prom). I have had the honor of meeting her on multiple occasions, and she’s incredibly down to earth for someone who has sold so many copies of her novels. So, when I heard she had a new novel out, I had to get my hands (or fingers) on it. And already it has hooked me in.

The protagonist is a girl named Hayley who has come back to the small town she was born in but has hardly any recollection of because she and her father moved when she was young. She is an avid reader and is incredibly book smart, but she has issues connecting with people on any kind of deeper level. Her friend Gracie is working hard to get her to write an article for the school paper, which she is sure will open up all kinds of doors for Hayley.

This knife hinted at in the book’s title is double-edged, so far as I can tell already (I am on page 60), making reference to her father’s haunting memories from his tour in Iraq, and to Hayley’s own vague memories that will apparently come more to the forefront of her mind as the book goes on, from the depths she has plunged them into in order to save herself. I think both sets of memories will be dealt with, if not overcome, throughout the course of the novel, but it won’t be easy. I’m already developing relationships with the main characters, and I have something invested in the outcome, something I’ve come to expect from Miss Halse Anderson.

Sam

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