25

While I love being able to order books from the library and know that I can read them for free, the one problem I seem to have is that they don't come in an orderly, timely manner. So I have long gaps between books and then they'll all either come at the same time or during a particularly busy period of time.

That happened to me recently and two books I really wanted to read had to be returned half read. Because if you keep a hold book past the due date, the fines are CRAZY.

So, not counting the two I've re-requested, I did read a book this week, Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi. This was a book I found during one of my used book store scavanges last year. I'm not sure what exactly drew me to this book (maybe the fact that the cover said she hid Jews in her basement?) Here's a synopsis of the book from Chapters.Indigo:
A charming and quirky novel set in a small German town and spanning the two World Wars, Stones from the River follows the story of Trudi Montag, a dwarf. Living in Nazi Germany isn't easy for Trudi, but neither is living with her slowly teetering on the edge of insanity mother, or seeing her best friend, Georg, dressed as a girl and continually humiliated by his parents who wanted a girl.

See? Not sure why I wanted to read it. But the book was brilliant. At least, I could barely put it down. I was sucked right into the story and unfortunately it was one of those heavy books that just sucked my spirits down with it. Though I think that's a personal quirk of mine. Almost anything written about war makes me sad.

I loved this book though, just next time I read it I probably should wait till we don't have houseguests. I was a little too emotional this time!