Two Sides

Winter Break has not been relaxing in the way I had hoped. A virus invaded my body and has forced me to stay home, keeping warm under quilts and drinking many mugs of tea. Reading, writing thank-you notes, and knitting the right side of a sweater have occupied by waking moments. Being sick necessitates a stillness I do not usually allow myself to enjoy.

One of the books I read - reluctantly at first - captivated me from the beginning.

"I AM A COWARD. I wanted to be heroic and I pretended I was. I have always been good at pretending."

I continued to read the words of the two narrators in Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity until I finished just minutes ago, alternately horrified at the unimaginable things the women experienced and entranced by the way their story was revealed. It was not the story I expected from the jacket flap. It was not a story I would normally want to read with its violence and honesty. But I heartily recommend it.