Astray by Emma Donoghue

First let me start off by saying thank you to all my readers who have stuck with me the last few weeks. My life has been crazy busy lately. Most importantly I started a new job and have been crazy busy with getting antiquated with the new schedule and commute the last few weeks. But the good news is I'm back and have tons of reviews to post!

Now on to the review of Astray by Emma Donoghue.

I was looking for something different the day I picked this book up. Ironically when I picked it up and read the synopsis I thought it was extremely similar to one of my new favorite's Trains & Lovers by Alexander McCall Smith. I fell in love with McCall Smith's book instantly and read it in one night, so surely with a very similar description of adventure and finding ones self in a hodgepodge of characters I thought this book would be a good comparison.

I started off reading this thinking that each chapter was an introduction to the character and their stories. What I soon realized was that each chapter was their story. Astray is a collection of short stories that Donoghue did a wonderful job of portraying in these historical fiction pieces.

I don't like reading collections of short stories for numerous reasons, but mostly because I always feel as though the stories are left hanging. Ironically I write short stories myself, but they usually turn into full fledged novel manuscripts down the road. So when I realized that this book was short stories I contemplated on the idea of giving up and walking away out of frustration. But I'm glad I held strong and finished this collection of master pieces.

Donoghue does a great job of getting the reader to understand the characters while leaving a slight sense of mystery to the story. Each story ends with information about the characters development and where Donoghue found her inspiration. Out of the collection my favorites where Daddy's Girl and Vanitas. I won't give away much but the thought provoking questions that are asked in the mind of the reader leave to question the idea of what more in history do we not know or understand?

Our lives today are very similar in many of these stories, but the question I wonder is how far have we truly come from understanding the human mind and the beliefs we all hold true to our hearts. I recommend this read if you are looking for something a little different and philosophical to a sort.

The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

Original Book Cover

Have you ever wanted to run away? Just leave all the bad behind in the dust as you speed on forward to a better tomorrow? Sometimes all it takes is a little guts and whole lot of will to take that first step of leaving the hurt and pain in the past.

In Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees Lily does just that. She runs away from the heartache and abuse that is inflicted on her by her widowed father and the memory of something deeply suited in her soul. Lily, only 14, leaves behind the hurt and horror of her life she looks for the one place she can find comfort in the future, her mother. She knows that the physical being of her mother is impossible, the memory of how she died rooted inside of her holds deep guilt, but the clues left behind by her mother lead her to find just what her soul was looking for. The place that her mother called home.

The adventure of a teenager finding herself in the south in a time of segregation is well written and beautifully transfixed on how color really has no boundaries on the heart. Monk Kidd does a great job of telling this coming of age story in the midst of such historical context in America. The mind of a child is shown through as Lily see's beyond the color of her adoptive family and into their hearts, but understands that the outside world does not see the sames as her.

I have passed this book on to a few friends who enjoyed it so when it was turned into a movie I was trilled to see the adaptation. But what I found was that this book far outweighed the movie in comparison. I will always recommend the book over the movie on this one. The actresses did a great job in the portrayal of the characters that Monk Kidd had developed, but the editing literally botched the feel of the story.