Rainy Day Reads

I had high expectations of this one, because “All Quiet on the Western Front” by Erich Maria Remarque is my all time favorite book (along with “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen) and this one promised something similar.   Once I got around to it though, it turned out to be a meticulous diary of trench life, but instead of the intense emotions and philosophical ponderings on life of Remarque this was a rundown of the technical workings of the trench. It was one long list of “then this person got shot in the head, then we built another shelter, then these two people got blown up, then we laid out some barbed wire, then this one was shot in nose and bled out, then it rained and stuff got muddy.” I wasn’t very far into it when I gave up, because even 50 pages of that was just too much. It was weirdly cold and unemotional and he listed deaths with the same punctuality as improvements on their shelters. I flipped through the rest of it and it seemed pretty much the same so I decided t

I thought this book sounded really interesting, and I’ve been hearing good things about Katie Cotugno, so I decided to give this one a go.   This book is about Molly, who is returning to her hometown for her last summer before college. Returning to the hometown she fled from when her mother’s bestselling novel based on her life revealed all her secrets and turned her into a pariah.  Slight spoilers below.  As I said I had high hopes for this book, but they were not met. I really wanted to root for Molly but in the end I found her really annoying and frustrating. She ruined her relationship with Patrick when she hooked up with his brother, Gabe, wrecking her friendship with their sister Julia as well. She does nothing but describe how hard her life back in this town is because of her past mistakes, but then she makes the exact same mistake!! And keeps making it!! ARGH! I have never been in love, so I don’t know if feelings can actually make you that stupid, and maybe I’m