The Hate U Give

Book 74 is The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas.

GoodReads readers voted this book Best Debut GoodReads Author and Best Young Adult Fiction of 2017. That made this a must read.

Everyone has been talking about this book from the day it was release... or maybe even prior. It is a now book in the US with white cops killing black kids more often than you'd imagine and always without warrant.

When told from the mouth of a teenager, this book breaks you heart. Her family makes you smile. Her friends make you cringe. Her inner monologue makes you remember those young years you lived and how little fear you felt in comparison.

There is a reason for the hype around this very easy to read but very hard to accept story. The world shouldn't be like this but it is. Good books make you want to read them again. Great books change your entire world view. This is somewhere in between those two points.

Do read it.

5 dictator black mothers out of 5.

Should I read this? Yes, especially if you live in the racially charged USA.
What did I learn? I had an easy and safe childhood.

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki

Book 16 of 2016 is Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and his years of pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami.

I enjoy most of what Murakami writes but sometimes find it tedious in its challenges. That is why I purchased this book at the end of last year but only read it now.

Once I picked this up, I could not put it down. Over a few days, it took self control (not my forte) to put this down and actually sleep each night. Last night, I completed the book after ignoring that pesky self control blah.

This is not so much a book about friendship as it is a book about having a sense of self and self worth in friendship. That is why I connected with this book. There are many moments of self doubt when I wonder why anyone would bother being my friend, when they are such a cool person.

There were unanswered moments of supernatural fear and this book left me wondering many many things. I think that is why some hate it and some love it. Not all questions are answered but then... some unasked questions are answered so sincerely that it feels balanced.

I want to gift this book to everyone I know. The last time I felt like this was last April when I read Love in the Time of Cholera.

Four friends missing their completion out of five.

Should I read this? Yes.It is simple. Yes.
What did I learn? Writing is a talent. Some people have it in spades.