From the bestseller list

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my library? They should pay me for mentioning them so much in this widely popular blog. Except that they lend me books for free...so really I should be paying them...not really making much of a case for myself here. Moving on.

Recently there have been so many new books out that I want to read, and there's this beautiful thing where, with a few clicks of my mouse, I can get these brand new fancy pants hard back books delivered straight to my mailbox in a gorgeous purple cloth envelope. I do a little happy dance every time one arrives. I'm not sure my mail carrier is as thrilled, since I don't bring my mail in very often and that box gets pretty full.

The two I've read most recently thanks to this ingenious system are The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan and The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.

I would have to say I usually enjoy Amy Tan but don't rave over her. Her books offer that glimpse into another culture that I so enjoy. What I find interesting about her is that her focus is sometimes Chinese culture and sometimes Chinese American culture. Multiculturalism and the questioning nature of people raised with multiple ethnic backgrounds is a really important theme to Tan. This story includes the best of both, as a young American girl in China is forced into the life of a courtesan, which is a fancy prostitute. The characters make it clear that in Chinese culture of the 1920's, courtesans and prostitutes are not the same, but Tan makes even more clear that no matter what you call it, the sex industry is an evil perpetrated against women. In the cultural and romantic side of the story, it's similar to Memoirs of a Geisha, but I love that Tan tries hard not to glamorize powerless women being forced as children to become sex workers. Also, she does it all in a pretty package and with complex characters.

While I kind of labored over The Valley of Amazement, I finished The Fault in Our Stars in a few days. This young adult novel just totally slayed me. I cried for about 45 minutes at the end and made my husband hug me for a long time. It's still totally worth it. The synopsis will tell you why I cried: two teenage cancer patients meet, fall in love, change each other's lives, and have an ending that is hinted at in the Shakespearean title. The writing is why it's worth it: I have never loved two teenage characters more. These kids are fantastic. They're who I hope my children become, witty and respectful and compassionate and friends with their parents and completely their own selves. It also helps that cancer is the only bad guy in this book. You can truly love everyone else. Well, almost everyone. There's sort of an anti-hero. But the rest of them are awesome parents, funny and supportive friends, and the two main characters who I can't wait to see in the movie version because I just want to hear them talk some more. Worth the tears, believe me.

Next up on my nightstand (in this order since this is the order in which they are overdue): Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, and The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. That's a lot of names with double letters.