LIZ: BOOK #41

Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity by Kerry Cohen

224 pages

Completed 11/16/10

This sad tale of a girl who realizes far-too young her power as a female over men was deep. Cohen's young what-the-hell attitude is both freeing and terrifying at the same time. As her promiscuos ways continue throughout high school and college, the tales - told tastefully, not raunchily as I had expected - grow sadder. Her own self-reflections cannot help but allow the reader to feel for this woman.

With her dysfunctional family proving what could possibly be deemed one of the best memoir-featured ones, Kerry attempts to use her physical beingness as means to escape, but when finding herself in the process, is haunted by what she sees. With actual relationships thrown in along with cross-country moves, this memoir is a must-read.

LIZ: BOOK #40

What Happened to Henry by Sharon Pywell

352 pages

Completed 11/6/10

This was the first book I've managed to finish in a few weeks; hectic schedule really cuts into my leisurely reading time. This was a novel that piqued my interest and then bored me throughout the rest. Centered around a trio of siblings and their unspeakable loss during childhood and the after-effects of it, Pywell writes of the two brothers and sister's bond, despite their maturing and taking separate paths.

With an accident forever changing the once-predictable eldest brother's mind, the younger two are left to cope. With Henry's odd behavior progressing as the three aged, the siblings struggle with their own changes. Somewhat unrealistic, and mostly strange, but a story to get through, in my opinion, if only to find out the ending of the story.

The story of the unbreakable sibling bond of the Coopers is established an flourishes under Pywell's way with words, but her repetitive nature of the push and pull of life is somewhat tiring.