Book Review: Atonement

I've had Atonement by Ian McEwan on my shelf for over a year now. I was never really excited to read it nor had I been interested in watching the movie.

After finishing the book last night, I moved the movie version to the top of my Netflix queue. This is a quality book and heartbreaking. It is the story of a young girl's misunderstanding of a situation between her grown sister and a boy. A lie changed everyone's lives before and during the first days of World War II in England.

I don't want to include any spoilers here, but I sobbed, SOBBED, last night when I read the final chapter. I had to remind myself that the book is fiction - this did not happen. It doesn't help that the two stars in the movie are two of my favorite actors and the love scene between them is incredibly well done and sensual - both in the book and in the movie (yes, after reading it, I looked it up on Youtube).

Speaking of books, I'm purging. And I'd like to try a book swap. If you live in the Denver area and are interested in any of these books, let me know. I'll put them in our milk box and you can pick them up any time. I just ask that you leave $2/book or a used book of your own (always good to purge!)/book. If you're from out of town, I'll offer the same deal: $2/book or a used book of your own, as well as money for shipping. This is an experiment, so I'll let you all know how it goes!

Atonement by Ian McEwan
Madam Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Female Quixotism by Tabithal Gilman Tinney
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey (not mine)
Shopgirl by Steve Martin
The Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost (also not mine)
Beneath a Marble Sky by John Shors
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki (again, not mine - Nate must have gone through a finance phase)
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
The Girls from Ames by Jeffrey Zaslow
The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
Ten Days in the Hills by Jane Smiley
The Family Fang (hard cover) by Kevin Wilson
Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins
The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez