Bullet point book reviews...

I've read some good books lately and am probably not going to get around to writing real reviews, so here's a quick a list:

Velva Jean Learns to Drive - This is about a young girl in the Appalachian mountains in the 1930s.  I don't agree with some of the book's overall message, but it was a good read.

Parrot and Olivier - This is a great book.  It's not a light read.  It's beautifully written.  It's a fictionalized version of Alexis de Tocqueville's life.  It bounces back and forth from the perspective of the Tocqueville character, Olivier, and his servant Parrot.  I love the exploration of what is beautiful and right about America alongside what is crass and overdone.  It's also a subtle study of class difference.  It makes me want to read Democracy in America.

Skin Hunger - This is a freaky book - like a cross between The Hunger Games, The Road and Room.  I wouldn't say I enjoyed it as much as I was intrigued - enough to order the sequel.

Reason for God - If I could ever compare a book to Mere Christianity, this would be it.  I love Tim Keller's style.  I love that he almost never overstates his case and that he has great respect for the person who doesn't believe.

Imperfect Birds - Traveling Mercies and Operating Instructions, also by Anne Lamott,  are two of my favorite books, so I started this Anne Lamott novel with great hopes and wasn't disappointed.  As it follows the story of a teenage girl with a drug problem, this is a great book for a mother of all boys.  I can delude myself into thinking only girls cause their parents this kind of trauma.  On the other hand, the girl's manipulation of her parents sounded uncomfortably familiar - just make the topic why I didn't clean my room when you clearly told me to instead of why I failed a urine drug test.  Hmmmm...