I think it’s time to reflect on the last five books again, where I randomly try and figure out what the last five books I read have in common. This time around, I got a little stumped. These books cover a lot of themes but the only shared characteristic I could come up with is the idea of opening your eyes to a ‘new world’.
My Last Five Books
Delirium by Lauren Oliver
Room by Emma Donoghue
Brooklyn Was Mine edited by Valerie Steiker & Chris Knutsen
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
In Delirium, a young girl challenges the world she knows; the conventions, the ideals and the values she has grown up with. All of her preconceived notions are turned on their heads and she yearns for a world where she can be free to love.
Room is also a story about being confined in a world with certain rules and expectations and then being released into a new world for the first time.
Brooklyn Was Mine is a series of essays about Brooklyn. Each writer’s experience in the borough is told through a different gaze. As you pass through each story you enter a new Brooklyn.
I’m not sure that Olive Kitteridge completely fits the theme. But why let one unique book ruin the party? It is a series of short stories about the residents of a small town and a woman who is not always accepting of the world around her.
And When You Reach Me is all about opening ourselves up to the possibility that we can travel beyond this world and live parallel to it in a new space.
What are the last five books you read? Any shared themes you notice?
Last five? My eyes are in a reading daze. Currently, I'm reading John Green's An Abundance of Katherines. Before that, Nocturnes by Kazuo Ishiguro, The Pen O'Henry Prize Stories (2010) and One Day. Themes? I don't know, but all contain terrific writing.
ReplyDeleteAfter your review, I really want to read the Olive Kitteredge book!
The last five books I've read lately are: "The Boleyn Inheritance' by Philippa Gregory, 'Around the World in 80 Days' by Jules Verne, 'Misery' by Stephen King, 'We are all Made of Glue' by Marina Lewycha and 'A Swift Pure Cry' by Siobhan Dowd. I don't think there are ANY themes in my choice of reading, but it shows just how diverse my reading choices are!
ReplyDeletei picked up olive kitteridge from my library after you had written about it a few posts ago- haven't had a chance to start it yet tho-
ReplyDeletehm. i've never tried to see if my last 5 books i've read can be connected with a theme thread- i'll have to think about that one!