Book Review Time!

Post Secret
Frank Warren

This is an unbelievable piece of art. I say art because it is like a bunch of postcard sized graphic novels to be read in picture and in word. Frank Warren started it by placing bunches of blank postcards in random places and invited people to creatively write out a secret that they had never told anyone before and post it to his home in Germantown, Maryland. It's really something you have to see for yourself. The similarities in the human spirit across all places are staggering.

Here are a few that grabbed me:

I want to be in love, but I'm afraid it won't solve all my problems like I want it to.

I can't think of a secret, except that I don't think I'm interesting enough to have a secret.

I don't wear my ring because I don't love her, not because I don't like rings.

I envy the willpower of anorexics.

And the one that struck me the most:

When I'm alone I see myself as beautiful. It's when I'm around others that I feel so ugly and flawed.

Intrigued? It's quite the read.

The Shipping News
Annie Proulx

Unbelievable. I haven't read anything so raw in its descriptive narrative in a long time. The words were like pictures jumping off the page. Sometimes the descriptions were so visceral it made my stomach turn. And other times, so beautiful you wanted to be there, which really makes me want to hop a plane to Newfoundland. I've always wanted to go, but now even more. Some people have told me that the movie with Kevin Spacey is not as good as the book, but I find that movies aren't often as good anyway. I still think I'll see it. I am definitely going to be reading all her other work.

Brokeback Mountain
Annie Proulx

I'm currently reading Wyoming Stories (a collection of short stories) and of course I read Brokeback Mountain first which is why I got out the book in the first place! I saw the movie before I knew it was a story and as soon as I left the theatre I wanted to read the story. Again, unbelievable. 20 min of film made from one sentence. So much beauty and pain in such a small number of words. So much implied with so little. Made me cry and books rarely do that. Movies do though, and I cried my eyes out at Brokeback Mountain. Absolutely a new favorite writer for me.