In a Perfect World by Laura Kasischke

I found this book on a display at Borders. I was drawn to it by the cover and it had some great comments by readers. I picked it up and read it in about a week's time. It was a different type of fiction story, but overall I enjoyed it. It is about a woman named Jiselle who marries Mark Dorn who is a single father of three. He is a pilot. The story is set in future years I believe and there is a flu that is spreading called the "Phoenix Flu". It is starting to kill people and the worry and panic is starting to spread throughout the United States. Mark gets stranded in Germany because of this "virus" which leaves Jiselle to raise and take care of his three children. As I read it, some parts to me seemed to be a bit like science fiction, but overall I would say this book is fiction. It was about the survival of people during a national crisis and the relationship that can build between people when then are doing everything they can to survive.

Say Your One of Them by Uwem Akpan

This was another book that I had seen written up in many different places. I wasn't sure I wanted to read it since it was a collection of short stories, but I decided to give it a try. I am glad I did. It really was like nothing else I had read. All of the stories are told from the view points of children in Africa. The first story is called "An Ex-Mas Feast" and is about a family trying to save enough money for Christmas. The second story is called "Fattening for Gabon" and is about two children that are being sold into slavery. The next story is called "What Language is That?" which is about two children from different worlds trying to be friends. "Luxurious Hearses" is about a boy on a bus trying to hide his identity during a crisis. The final story is called "My Parents' Bedroom" and is the powerful story about a girl and her family in Rwandan during an unspeakable time. This book is hard to read sometimes because of the names used, but I think worth it. It isn't easy subject matter to read about, but they are all things that are happening in our world and I think we need to know about them. Give it a try!