Atonement

Beautiful story, slow beginning, strong characters, great plot

All right ladies. I have a confession to make. I, Megan Selthofer, did go and see Atonement in the movie theaters (it was so highly recommended by people I trust on rated R-ness) and I absolutely loved the movie! After watching it, I was left with a few deep thought questions that lingered for a few days until I finally caved in and bought the book to read. The love story was so powerful and moving in the movie, I had to compare it to the book (for those of you who don't know this all ready, I read books before seeing the movie all the time! This was my first time doing it backwards). Now that my confessional is done, let me tell you how difficult it was to read this book. I all ready knew what the characters looked like and the storyline was no surprise to me at all, but the imagery the author uses brought more of my imagination out than I thought possible. I actually thought I was standing there right beside all the characters throughout the book. This is not a happy ending book - which I am a big fan of happy endings - but the rich substance that I absorbed more than made up for it. There is a huge twist at the end and I kept waiting for it to surface throughout the book and when it did, I was still surprised at how it was achieved. I keep saying that I am not a romance novel reader, but I do thoroughly enjoy a good love story every now and then. I was so surprised at how close the book and movie were together. Most movies I am completely disappointed in, but this one hit the spot perfect! I still recommend reading the book first - I like knowing each character before seeing the actors try to portray them on the big screen. I would give this book a 4 out of 5 stars. I think it is one of those that you will either really love or hate.

So on the rated R-ness scale: I did not appreciate a very bad word that they used in the movie (and the same one in the book) - but it did set up a major portion of the plot...

The Chosen

We just had our book club meeting last night and I was so excited to discuss this book! It was an amazing read! It took me 2 days to read through and I was captivated from the first chapter. There is a ton of Jewish history throughout. It is about 2 teenage boys that meet by chance and become best friends even though they were from 2 very different jewish faiths. They grew up about 5 blocks away from eachother in the Bronx and it took place back in the 1920's (I think - dates are awful for me to remember). It was fun to watch their friendship develop as they started out as enemies in the beginning and then humbled themselves and overcame their differences. Reuven was raised by his father and their relationship is extremely strong. They were completely open with eachother and really confided in the other with such great sense of closeness bonding them together. Danny on the other hand, was raised in silence from his father. They never spoke outside of their religious study timeframe. So it was nice when Danny and Reuven met that Danny was able to confide in someone and develop that trust and intimacy that he never had with his father. Throughout the entire book, Danny always had such great respect and reverence for his father (the rabbi of Hasidic Orthodox jews) and was expected to take his fathers place as the passage of their family's tradition as the firstborn son. After getting to know the characters, we find that Reuven is a smart boy, really good at math, and wants to go through college and become a rabbi. Danny is an exceptionally brilliant child who is expected to become a rabbi but his truest desire is to become a psychologist. That is completely against his religious beliefs and much of the book is focused on his attempt to keep this secret from his father. In the end, it is finally explained why his father had been silent to him for his entire lifetime - just him, not his brother or sister - and I don't want to give that away so you just have to read it! I fell in love with the way these boys were so hungry for knowledge! The way that they studied their Talmud (religious books) was incredible. I wish I had half that desire to keep pushing myself to the limits as far as my quest for knowledge! This is an absolute must read book! There is so much info to discuss in it and you really fall in love with the characters and feel for them. If I had a scale, I would totally give it 5 stars! So go check it out at the library today!