Ok, here's what happened. I went to Barnes and Noble.com (bn.com) to look up all the books that had been written by Elizabeth Berg. While I was looking at the list I noticed that a HARDCOVER edition of one of her recent books was on sale for 2.99! Well, I couldn't pass that up so I put it in my cart and started perusing the other 6,500 books that were on sale because it said if I spent more than 25.00 the shipping was free. So...after numerous "add to cart"s I have a shelf full of new books, mostly hardcover (this one was paperback so it was 1.00 more...can someone please explain that to me??) in my collection. I usually don't shop at the big stores but this was too much to resist. The most amazing part was how many were fairly new bestsellers...

I was looking for what to read next - and it needs to be said that I have LOTS of books that I haven''t read but none were ''speaking to me'' at the moment - I found this on DianaCoats bookshelf. I have recently been fretting about my own parenting with my grown (are they really grown? are they ever grown?) children - both of whom were raised in a home where reading was encouraged. Also I just read The Family Tree, which explores the nature vs nurture issue. I''ve had many a discussion about raising children, how our culture is so very different from when I was young, how the culture encourages kids to seek instant gratification and so on. And I know that people are born with certain characteristics and temperaments. For instance, I wanted them to be readers. I did everything I could to ensure that they would love to read - read to them when they were little, had books around ALL the time, bought them books, went to the library, talked with them about what they were reading, etc., etc. One of them reads, the other doesn''t read much. Too much culture-influence on TV and movies? I did what I could.
So this book, a fictional portrayal of a mother of a kid who killed a bunch of his classmates, kind of jumped out at me. I do realize that my kids and their love or dislike of reading isn''t anywhere close to the magnitude of ''issues'' that are addressed in We Need to Talk About Kevin. AND it all begs the question - what DOES make a kid do something like that? Where does that come from? Where does any of it come from?
I am interested to see what this book says about it all...

A difficult book to read in many ways. I slogged through the first 1/4 - 1/3 of the book and seriously considered quitting entirely. Only after reading some journal entries of others who had finished and said the ending was so good did I go back to it and read on. The first bit was tough in part because it seemed it took Eva, the narrator and mother of Kevin, forever to talk about the kid. I didn''t like her style, I didn''t like that she didn''t ''get to it''.
Eva herself was not the most likable character - she is superior - by admission and shown through how the character writes - long, detailed, letters to her husband after Thursday. She is also, however, honest. Eva doesn''t know if she will like her child(ren), her fears confirmed when Kevin is born and she finds she doesn''t like him, doesn''t really love him. Does she just perceive him as unlikable from her own ambivalence toward parenting? Or is he actually a little shit destined to do evil?
The entire book is spent on her struggle with being a parent - as well as seeing Kevin as not only unlikable, but also hurtful and malicious. At the very end (POSSIBLE SPOILER HERE!) she describes a glimmer of humanity in Kevin. While it was welcome - as it had all been rather bleak - I wasn''t sure I believed it.
A tough read, and I did appreciate the ''issues'' - motherhood, nature vs nurture, children committing heinous crimes.

...being sent to a BookMoocher who (hopefully) will consider becoming a bookcrosser!

I found this food at half price books. I'm currently reading it, and I hope to release it again in the coming weeks.