Flowers For Algernon by: Daniel Keyes

What a tragic story.
This novel actually began as a short story and was later elongated to become this book. In mid elementary school, we read either an excerpt or that short story and it had been on my to read list ever since. What finally got me to read the book was one of my roommates (who was Russian) happened to see it on my bookshelf and got super excited and borrowed it and read it in English for the first time. (apparently it is a part of their curriculum over in Russia as well, which is actually pretty amazing if you think about it).
This is one of those books that took me a day to read. Yes, it is pretty short only 216 pages, but it was more along the lines of how unbelievably empathetic you are towards Charlie and how much shit he goes through. At first he is the most lovable and sweet man. He goes through the testing for these experiments to make him smarter than, or at the very least as smart as the average adult. You read his diary and walk with him through the changes first in simple things such as vocabulary and spelling, next to being aware of social cues and notices that his friends are actually not so friendly at all.
He grows in knowledge at an incredible rate and with that does not necessarily come wisdom and understanding.
Charlie progresses through his learning and he becomes more and more isolated, as he quickly reaches an intelligence far outshining the doctors who did the surgical procedure on him. he withdraws into himself as it becomes more and more apparent that his treatment is not a permanent situation and has a time limit. He experiments with love and sex and experiences loss and grief.
When the treatment runs it course and he begins to degrade, he lashes out and is in such turmoil that the reader feels as if they are in the same situation. By the end of the novel he has to be institutionalized and you experience with him, every intelligence level on the spectrum.
Genuine in its raw emotion and moving in its personification of the affects intelligence has on the individual and how they relate to the world and those around them. Definitely a book I will be reading again as it was so engaging (and I really do need a dictionary at some points just to understand the enormity of Charlie's intellect).

REST IN PEACE ALGERNON.

The Ruins by: Scott Smith

Can I just say how refreshing it is to find an author who is so successful in being terrifying and disturbing that you have nightmares, and I mean wake up lurching out of your skin nightmares.
I have read Jaws, which is one of my deep terrors I might add, several Stephen King novels, Clive Barker and several miscellaneous horror novels over the years, and none of them have ever left me wide eyed clutching my blanket in the dark.
I picked up this book at a thrift store more out of a whim than anything. I had seen the movie a few dozen times when it came out in 2008 and loved it. Not that it was scary but because it was the ultimate sleepover movie and it was awesome. So when I ran across it at a used book store I was amazed that it was a book and I was intrigued but didn't buy it, it was something like eight dollars for a torn book, no thanks. So when I ran across it THE NEXT DAY at a different store for one dollar in perfect condition I bought it and started reading.
At first I was honestly a little shocked. There was no waiting for the story to begin. No boring back story you have to get through before you can get the meat of it. The second day of reading this, the group was stuck on the ruin and poor poor "Pablo" was having his legs eaten away by the accursed vine. Didn't even realize this bothered me until I was calling my oh-so-supportive-and-understanding  boyfriend, at something like 230 am, going on and on about how the flesh was hanging off my arms.
For the next three nights the same thing. Every night I was tossing and turning with these damn vines haunting my subconscious.
Glorious.
Till the end when the author is describing the exact sound you would hear as you cut off your own ear. I was literally sitting there squealing with disgust. And that my friends, is a beautiful thing.
This is one of those gems you find that is the very definition of horror. It has everything you want in a book from gut wrenching gore, to drama between the characters, and a villain (in this case a plant) that can creep into your brain and latch on for months to come.
A must read. I am most intrigued as to whether this is one of those authors who do a one hit wonder, or if he is the second kind who does nothing but outstanding books.
Opinions?