The Miracle Girls by Anne Dayton & May Vanderbilt

So, I read this based on a friend's review.  And all I can really say about it was that it was okay.  Not bad.  Not great.

The story is a sweet idea and it might have resonated with me more if I was a teenager.  It was refreshing to read something wholesome, not filled with violence, profanity, and/or sex.  I would have no issue with letting my daughters read this if they were so inclined.

I really liked two of the Miracle Girls – Zoe and Christine.  Their characters worked for me because they were similar to girls that I knew in high school, but didn’t feel like stereotypes.  They had personalities that felt believable.  But Ana and Riley felt like forced caricatures of typical types found in high school.  This made me really not care about what was going on in their stories.  And several of the situations presented to further to plot just felt trite and cliché.

Though I wasn’t super impressed with character development, I really enjoyed the writing style.  The way things were described wasn’t over the top in detail, but I knew exactly what was happening.  Specifically the scenes of Maria and Ana in the kitchen, when she was getting food out of the fridge.  Or whenever they were drinking diet coke.  I enjoyed the way these descriptions were written because they felt natural and real.

So, to sum up.  I enjoyed the ideas and writing style, but felt the character development was lacking. 

Atlas Shrugged

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a hard book to rate. There were parts that I really enjoyed and parts that I hated. Parts that I wholly agreed with and parts that I vehemently disagreed with. It was definitely the most difficult book I have ever read. I decided on four stars because even the parts that I didn’t necessarily enjoy or agree with were still excellently written when one thinks of terms of what was her point. But when one thinks of terms of literary excellence and things like character development, there was a bit lacking. My dissatisfaction more came from the fact that I have never really enjoyed being lectured when I already agree with the point being made (and there is a sixty page monologue that is a lecture towards the end of this).

Atlas Shrugged is fairly pertinent to today’s political atmosphere and a good read for that reason alone. True, it shows things in extreme, but that is often the best way to make a point in fiction. It is very obvious that Rand was an atheist at the time she wrote this – and there was where most of my disagreement with her was rooted. I don’t agree with her viewpoints on pride, sexual morality or those that believe in God. On a non-religious note, I didn’t agree with her portrayal of farmers. I firmly believe that if this country were to fall apart, the farmers that own their land would be one of the few groups not to starve. They might learn to live w/out certain luxuries, but I don’t think being unable to sell their crop would cause them to starve. Most farmers I know are very practical and would use their land to grow food for their family if things got this bad.

But I whole heartedly agree with Rand’s viewpoints on capitalism vs. socialism. Those that think socialism is the way to go will hate this book. But as I’m a capitalist, I agreed with and enjoyed reading much of it. She cuts right to the heart of what socialism is and does to societies – and some people just hate to hear the truth.