the curious incident of the dog in the night-time

A dog is murdered in the middle of the night. Someone has stabbed it with a garden fork. At seven minutes after midnight, Christopher finds it and realizes he has a murder mystery to begin detecting. Thus is the storyline of The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time by Mark Haddon. The story is told by Christopher, a fifteen year old boy who we discover has a form of autism. He is very honest about what he can and can not do and his thought processes are very evident in the dialogue. He is writing the book to solve the murder mystery. When Christopher's father finds out, he becomes very angry and takes the book away. The book is discovered in a hiding place; and, when Christopher finds it, he also begins to solve another mystery, one about his mother. The dialogue could be difficult for some readers to follow due to the way Christopher thinks and expresses himself. But I found it gripping and it allowed me to see things in his perspective and not mine. His descriptions can be very entertaining as well as insightful. In an NPR interview, the author shares why he wrote the story the way he did. I appreciated the narrator's point of view so that I could see a different way of how some people process what they see, feel, and think, especially those who are challenged in some way.

Christopher says in the final lines of the book: I know that I can do this because I went to London on my own, and because I solved the mystery of Who Killed Wellington? and I found my mother and I was brave and I wrote a book and that means I can do anything.

It is Christopher's belief in himself and doing the right thing that helps him function day to day. I very much enjoyed this book.

Banned Books Challenge Completed

I am happy to report that I have completed the Banned Books Challenge. I set a goal of two challenged books and completed them within the past two months.

The first book I chose and read was I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.

The second book I chose and read was To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

I thoroughly enjoyed both books and they did leave me thinking about how people treat others in this world. I highly recommend both books to other readers.

To Kill A Mockingbird

To fulfill the last reading for my Banned Books Challenge, I chose a book that my teenage son has recommended to me for the past two years: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. When the book showed up on the challenged list, he told me it was time to read it. I also had a chance recently to read a review by a fellow book blogger that highly recommended it as well.

Before reading the book, I read from its cover:

The timeless classic of growing up and the human dignity that unites us all.

To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos.

So, what more can I say? Wow, what a reading experience! The layers of character, description, and human interaction make for a very thoughtful and enjoyable read. The innocent "eyes" and thoughts of the main character Scout remind us all of how we forget to "walk in another's shoes" as her father taught her. This is truly a classic and I am glad I took the time to read it.

So, why was this book on the challenged list? Perhaps the candidness of Harper Lee in her look at how people are labeled and treated according to their skin color, family heritage, education, and finacial or social position is too strong or hits too close to home for some readers.

At court, Atticus states in his closing comments:

Thomas Jefferson once said that all men are created equal, ... We all know that men are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe --- some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity because they're born with it, some men make more money than others, some ladies make better cakes than others --- some people are born gifted beyond the normal scope of most men.

And as I read the story and saw how the various characters of this family and their small, southern town thought and lived these views, I could see how some people would be offended by the actions and words of the book. But I find that it creates thought and an evaluation of one's own actions and words toward mankind, especially those who are very different from one's self.

Food for thought for all of us.

Angels & Demons

Angels & Demons by Dan Brown is my second book by this author, the first being (of course) The Da Vinci Code. I had to remember to not compare the two books while I read this one, but at first that was hard to do. The main character, Robert Langdon, is the same in both books. The location and the battle between opposing views of the Catholic religion are also present in this book. However, Angels & Demons was written first and I have had many people tell me that this one is the better of the two. So, once I got past the first few pages and my comparisons, I really enjoyed the story. The plot revolves around the belief that science and religion don't and can't agree. It also involves the discovery of antimatter, something that could soon abolish that argument. However, a murder has taken place, the antimatter is stolen, a young beautiful daughter becomes involved, and a secret society is out to administer revenge after hundreds of years in hiding. Enter Robert Langdon and his knowledge of symbology and this secret society. Now you have an instant thriller, chase, and love story. Although this is not my favorite thriller, it was a very good read and I agree with others that say this one is the better book.

Two of my favorite quotes (and thoughts) from this book include:

Does one need to believe in miracles to experience them?

and:

Have we become so spiritually bankrupt that we would rather believe in mathematical impossibility than in a power greater than us?