Audrey Niffenegger **Double Feature** Part II

It is time to bestow upon you another one of my obsessions: twins. It's possible that this might even be worse than my obsession with Jewish people. While I can't convince myself that I am a Jew (although my mom likes to point out that we are "a little German-Jewish" on her dad's side), I have yet to give up on the idea that I had/have a twin.

The conversation with my mom usually goes like this:

Me: Mom?

Mom: Yes, honey?

Me: Tell me the truth.....I had a twin right? She died at birth? You had to give her up? You can tell me. It's ok. I just need to know.

At which point my mom rolls her eyes and continues doing whatever she was doing before I interrupted her with my ridiculous question.

I have had close encounters with fulfilling my life long dream of twin-dom. My sister and I always get confused for each other, and on one family vacation, my mom even got asked how old her "twins" were, that has to be something right? Did I fail to mention we're 8 years apart? Mere technicality.

My second encounter is with my friend L. There are so many things in our lives that mirror each other, it's just uncanny. We both sang in high school, our parents are divorced, our names rhyme, our moms are from South America, we both went to BC, we both had boyfriends named Steven...the list goes on and on!

I don't know why I am so intrigued by this. I guess I like knowing that people can be connected even when they are not together just because they shared a womb. Like when you hear those stories about a set of twins being separated at birth and then when they find each other, they find out they broke the same bones when they were little, they grew up to have the same jobs, they have spouses with the same name, they have the same number of children....etc. It's just so freaking AWESOME!

So you can just imagine when I started reading Her Fearful Symmetry and found out that the main protagonists were twins, my heart fluttered with excitement. Even though it was Audrey Niffenegger and things got dark and weird, it didn't really matter because I got to feed my obsession. Of course, this book wasn't all about twins. It was about deception, family secrets, unhealthy dependence and ghosts.
I definitely recommend you read this!


Stop Reading If You Don't Want to Know What I Thought Of the Ending (I do not actually tell you what happens, just thought I've give you the option. I know how it is when someone tells you something vague about a book and then all you want to do when you're reading it, is know what the heck she or he was talking about):




Once again, Niffenegger didn't disappoint with her whacked out twist that filled me with anger and uncontainable rage. How could she do what she did?!?! I think I actually had to put the book down before I finished the last 70 pages because I just couldn't believe it. I mean I had been suspecting that something like that would happen, but really? REALLY? ....BREATHE......Even with all that anger and rage, I still would recommend this book, because it was a great read, and shouldn't we be having these passionate reactions to books no matter what side of the emotional spectrum they land on?

100 Breakfasts, Coming Right Up!

Yet another goodreads giveaway!! Gotta love it when your friend* wins something and you reap the benefits! The responsibility of reading a giveaway book and writing up a review for others to use as a reference on goodreads makes me feel super important (simple pleasures, simple minds, I guess).

Here is my second effort at being a "critic" for goodreads.com:

If the first sentence of a book doesn't immediately draw me in, it can go one of two ways. Usually, if it is highly recommended by a friend, I will try my hardest to get past the first blunder, but if it doesn't get better after the first 50-100 pages* I have to make an executive decision about whether or not I want to continue torturing myself. More often than not, I will trudge my way through the bad pages and end up liking the remainder of the book.

That being said, I really enjoyed The Secret of Everything, even if the beginning did drag through an immense amount of foreshadowing. It was overpowering, but eventually I started cracking away at the actual story. Luckily, after I started to bring down those layers, I was rewarded with something that was both heartbreaking and uplifting.

What I loved about this book was the tight-knit community with small town superstitions that weaved through each chapter. Los Ladrones is marked by its past, but each character is concerned with moving forward. I really liked that eventually every one's story intertwined in some way. I do think that some of the story lines were a bit far fetched, but even with that they still managed to be refreshing. This book was both guarded and open, fresh and comforting.

Each instance lead someone to a turn of self-discovery. It didn't matter how hard or trying it was, the characters embraced their new findings with grace and awareness. People helping others with no expectation of something in return. You know, that's been a recurring theme in my life these past couple of weeks. Is it the universe telling me to be less selfish? Or more appreciative of the wonderful friends that I have who are truly that genuine in their selflessness?

There are two definite reasons I recommend a book. One is if the matter makes me stop and think about something bigger than myself. The other is if I find myself trying to avoid the end of the book. The first reason enables me to do that reflection thing that "adults" do so little of, due to life and other pressing responsibilities; and the other reason usually means that I don't want to leave the world I've encountered. I don't want to let go of my new friends. With that being said, I would probably still be reading this book, if I had been able to stretch out those last pages more than I already tried.