February is a difficult month to spell. It also must be a difficult month to find time to read.
I read only seven books in February, which is not many for me. Of those, I rated one non-fiction and one fiction book highly.
My favorite non-fiction book was Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell by Jack Olsen.
It makes me feel strange to write that this was one of my favorite books because the subject matter is so terrible. The book is about a family doctor in a small Wyoming town who raped and molested unsuspecting female patients for 25 years.
The book exposes the terrible injustice that occurs when people abuse trust, power and authority. I honestly wouldn’t have believed the story, that a man was able to get away with this, if I hadn’t known it was true.
My favorite fiction book was My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh.
Oddly and ironically, this book also is about rape, but it focuses more on how a seemingly random act of violence changes a neighborhood community and the people in it.
Everything changed in the Baton Rouge neighborhood in the summer of 1989. That’s when Lindy Simpson, 15, was raped while riding her bike home one evening. The story of how things changed (and sometimes how they did not) after Lindy’s rape is told through the eyes of the boy who lives across the street and who loves her. He also was a suspect in her rape.
Walsh’s storytelling was incredible. The characters were vivid. I just had to know how it ended. So much so that I stayed awake long after my bedtime reading until my eyes blurred. That’s my sign of a good book.
I hope you don’t find me strange that my two favorite books of February were about rape. It’s just an odd coincidence. But, if you can take the tough topic, both books certainly are worth reading.
Let’s Talk Nerdy!
What were your favorite books of February?
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TammyL says
In February, I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I loved it. It has definitely inspired me to me change my behavior. She was right: eating farm-fresh, seasonal food is so much better than the stuff shipped half way around the world.