[MissInformation]

Round 2! You didn't really think I would list so few, did you? The following are books I've read in the past year that have impressed me.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel. A 16 year old boy from India, who practices Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam, gets trapped in a lifeboat with a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and a 450 pound Bengal tiger named Richard Parker (it quickly gets down to him and the tiger). I bought the book thinking it would be a whimsical little tale and was completely amazed at how ugly and beautiful, how stark and cold and warm and wonderful the whole thing was. I hope everyone could do so well against their tigers in life.

Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs. Scissors is a memoir of a man whose mother gave him to her crazy psychiatrist when he was 12. It's another abusive childhood story, but one of the weirdest ones I've ever come across, and the fact that this man survived the chaos of his life with such humor and grace is astounding.

Children in the Holocaust and WWII their secret diaries various authors, some never to be known. It's not a book for everyone, it is dark and heartbreaking, I can't think of a single book that has ever made me cry as much as this one. Never forget.

Finding Fish by Antwone Quenton Fisher. Another memoir of a childhood gone wrong and the man who bravely overcame it.

Reading Lolita In Tehran by Azar Nafisi. The memoir of a teacher in Iran who secretly gathered 7 of her most committed female students to read forbidden Western classics. This is a book that will warn you to never take for granted the smallest, most insignificant freedoms you have. And personally, for me, it's renewed an interest in reading "forbidden" books, books that our own country has banned at various times.