aggravated
50bookchallenge 
21. Like Water for Chocolate - Laura Esquivel - 241 pages (6.5/10)
I didn't like this book very much. The narration was the most interesting factor for me. The book is separated into monthly recipes, and bits of the recipe are interspered along the narratives. Food is also given magical properties and can influence the mood and actions of people in the story. The story overall was an interesting mixture of cookbook, fairy tale, and love story, but it didn't quite appeal. Part of it was most likely the translation--at times the similes and wording were very awkward and much was lost in translation. I also thought the ending, which abruptly jumps over twenty years, dissatisfying. To be honest, I was more interested in trying some of the recipes than finishing the book, which does not bode well.
I find it interesting that evidently this book is read in junior high, as it is very sexually suggestive. I suppose it gets the kids to read it? There's also a movie version, but it's not high on my list of films to watch.
22. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon - 226 pages (9/10)
I was extremely impressed by this book and devoured it in a day. The story is the first-person narrative of Christopher Boone, a high-functioning 15-year-old autistic boy. In the beginning of the book, he discovers that the neighbor's dog has been murdered with a gardening fork, and decides to investigate the murder of poor Wellington because he likes dogs and his favourite book is The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Note to self: read this). Christopher has many quirks--he's wicked intelligent in math and science and has a particular fondness for prime numbers, but he can't stand to be touched, groans loudly when thoughts are too overwhelming, and hates the colours yellow and brown. He interacts with his father and other family members, his neighbours, his teacher/mentor Siobhan (who encourages him to write this book), and his pet rat, Toby.
I absolutely adored this book. Christopher was a sympathetic character and it was an interesting look into an autistic mind. The narrative of the mystery was a good framework to explore this character, and in Christopher's "detecting," he finds other secrets. This was one of my favourite books all year, and I can definitely see why it won the Whitbread award.
23. The Penelopiad - Margaret Atwood - 198 pages (8/10)
This was my least favourite Atwood I've read, but it still is a step above many novels. I love the myth of The Odyssey, and I enjoyed Atwood's rendition for the most part. The narration was quite interesting, for the story of Penelope was interrupted with chorus lines, like the choruses of ancient Greek plays. Sometimes the chorus would perform a jump-rope ryhme or a song, but at one point they gave an anthropology lecture . It was refreshing to see some satire and humour in Atwood's work, as she is normally very serious.
Yet the book was lacking for me in many respects. Penelope was a boring character. She was very meek throughout the piece and never grew as a character. I loved the idea of humanizing characters out of myths and giving them more psychological complexity, but there was no clear story arc. Penelope mourns being married off to a stranger, than being left by the stranger, and when he returns she mourns the death of her twelve maids. In the end, it felt unfinished.