Twisted

So we’ve been remodeling our kitchen for about a month now. The hubs started the remodel while I was in Denver for ISTE and was sure he was going to be almost finished when I got back home. Now we remodeled the bathroom last fall (which he predicted we’d be without a toilet in there for 2 days but it ended up being 10 days), so I knew this would not be a quick fix. My darling husband is very handy and talented, so he’s able to do the work himself, but even he’ll admit he isn’t the fastest worker as he likes to obsess and perfect everything. So we’re in the homestretch (with a dinner party planned for tomorrow night, of course) and it was time for me to do the finishing touches with the painting. I thought that listening to an audiobook would make this a less painful task.

My public library gives me access to Overdrive, which is GREAT! I looked on iTunes and was not paying $20 for an audiobook. The downside was Overdrive and Tiff’s MacBook don’t get along too well. After about an hour of trying to find a book that I could download and put on the iPod with zero success, I pulled out the ole Dell laptop that I so passionately hate. I installed Overdrive and downloaded Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson.

Of course I loved Speak when I read it several years ago, and I thought this cover was pretty nifty. I shall not lie — I judge books by their covers. I checked out the Story Snoops review because they’re my new BFFs, and decided to go for this one. So I cranked up the volume on the Dell, grabbed my paintbrush, and got to work. Honestly, I let out a groan after the first few minutes because I was not feelin’ the narrator. He just sounded weird talking about feeling all lusty for the sexy tennis player chick. I’m a huge fan of audiobooks (the guy who reads the Harry Potter series is da bomb dot com), but ya gotta be feelin’ it to really stick it out most of the time. It was listen to his voice or the hunting channel that the hubs had going in the living room, so I stuck with it. His voice grew on me a little, but if I wouldn’t have been painting I would have gone to the library to get a paper copy to read.

Audiobook issues aside, I really liked the characters and plot of this story. It involves an instance where nude photos of a girl are spread across the internet, so this could really open up some discussions about being safe and cautious when it comes to this sort of thing. There are so many important issues in this book that could really be used as discussion openers or helping students with specific issues such as these. Just as with Speak, Anderson does an incredible job of dealing with a very tough subject matter. Definitely worth a read, but I’d recommend actually reading it as opposed to listening to the audiobook.

By the way, this is book 4 of 20! And please excuse my goofy train of thought in this post — I think the paint fumes are effecting my brain.

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