Two in a row!

I'm not a particularly fast reader. People are surprised when they hear the librarian say that. I think they expect me to read a book a day, or at least every few days. Nope, sorry. But it is true that the more I enjoy a book, the faster I read it. When I sat down with The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, I had no expectations of whether I would enjoy this book, or how long it would take me to finish. But just a few pages in and I was hooked. Six hours later, I had finished the book, and immediately wanted to turn to page one and start all over again.

The Road is now the second book I have read this year that I would rate an A+. In fact, I think it should be on our required reading list for English. There is so much to discuss, and the story really gives you pause and makes you think about your own life in a way that few other books can.

Without giving too much away, the gist of the story is a man and his young son trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic U.S.A. Mostly everyone has perished. In fact, in one scene, the father mentions that they have gone an entire year without seeing or speaking to another human being. When they do encounter other people, father and son have reason to fear. With food and water scarce, practically nonexistent, scavengers resort to cannibalism in order to stay alive.

Despite all of the horrors that McCarthy describes in this hellish setting, it was the love of father for son that resonated the most. Throughout their journey, he risked his life to keep his son alive, and was intent on keeping the boy sane and stable in their chaotic world. While the reader's head is trying to grasp the larger picture of what happened, when it happened, and what's going to happen, in the mind of the young character, it just boils down to good guys vs. bad guys. He seeks assurance from his Papa that they're the good guys, and when his father concurs, there is a sense that the boy accepts his fate, with resignation, as long as he believes they're on the side of good.

I'm not the only one who thinks this book is amazing. Oprah chose it as her Book Club pick in the Spring; and more importantly, the Pulitzer Prize Board awarded it the best fiction prize in 2007.

Read it for yourself, and let me know.

The best book I've read this year

In case you didn't know, I keep lists of what I've read on the West Library website. I do this mainly so I can remember what I've read, and then I use the lists to offer suggestions to students and staff looking for a good read. One book I will be adding to my list is the biography A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah. However, it's not enough for me to just list this book with all of the others I've read this year. I want to strongly encourage everyone who reads this blog to head to your library, bookstore, or Starbucks, and start reading this book today.

Early on in the book we meet Ishmael, a 12 year-old boy who likes to lip sync and dance to rap music in his village in Sierra Leone. But when rebels invade his village in 1992, and burn it to the ground, Ishmael flees and spends months hiding in forests, trying to find food to survive, and hoping to reunite with his parents and siblings. Just when it looks like there's a bright spot in his miserable life, and his family is within eyesight, rebels attack again with disastrous results.

By age 13, Ishmael is taken in by the government army which houses and feeds him, and also trains him for war. He is issued an AK-47 and the reader watches his chilling transformation from a boy who loves soccer and rap music, to a killing machine. Most painful are the stories he shares about the two boys Sheku and Josiah, only around seven years-old, who can barely lift the machine guns, let alone hold them up to shoot them; the guns were taller than the boys.

Ishmael is eventually removed from the fighting by UNICEF, and rehabilitated and reunited with family. But once again, in a cruel twist of fate, war comes to Ishmael's doorstep. He flees Sierra Leone for good this time, and while his physical journey ends in NYC, his personal journey toward forgiveness and healing goes on indefinitely.

This is an extraordinary story that reflects one man's life, but mimics the lives of millions of other children in war-torn nations. And fortunately, Americans are reading it. It's currently #5 on the New York Times Best Seller List and is in the running for being one of Amazon.com's Best Books of 2007. Even the NY Times gave it a flattering review.

Without a doubt, this is my pick for the best book I've read so far in 2007. If you've read it too, let me know what you think.