Book #14 was recommended to me by my boss who, knowing I loved The Hunger Games, thought that this would be a great read for me. He was right! Fair warning though, it is super dark.
The Long Walk, which Stephen King originally published under the pseudonym Richard Bachman appears to be widely available under King's name. If you try for it under Bachman though, your library has to special order it for you from a library in Kansas. Seriously.
The Long Walk is set in the not to distant future where, on May 1st of every year, 100 boys start walking and do not stop until only one of them is left. Not to eat, not to drink, not when their sneakers fall apart, and not even to go to the bathroom. Ew. I love distopian stories (The Handmaid's Tale is my favorite book of all time) but this was a tad bit dark, even for me. Overall though, I thought this was a great story and really hit home for me (slash made me a little terrified) as I'm considering doing this next May...hopefully they'll let me stop to pee.
Book #15 was significantly less impressive than book #14. Michelle Haimoff's These Days Are Ours came recommended by Hello Giggles Shiny Happy Book Club, so I thought I'd give it a try. The reviewer, Sarah Heyward, wrote of the story "Above all, there’s an impressive balance of wit and heart at work here, and I would be lying if I said I didn’t tear up a few times". Awesome, I thought, let's give it a try.
Set six months after September 11th, recent college graduates (who live in their parent's fancy, fancy apartments) are attempting to find jobs and regain some sense of normalcy after the attacks. I was expecting a more coming of age tale (as ridiculous as that sounds) but instead I got a bunch of whiny characters who spend lots of money (or their parent's money) on shoes that they don't wear to the office. I also thought that Haimoff totally dismisses the one person in the book who has a job by describing her as "on auto-pilot" while totally legitimizing the crazy "I want to marry this guy because his apartment is beautiful and his parents seem nice" rantings of the protagonist.
Overall, These Days are Ours was an easy read set in New York (which I always like). If you're not in the mood to be totally annoyed though, I can't say I would suggest it.
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