Diary of an Anorexic Girl - Morgan Menzie

This book was difficult to get through. It is written in diary format by a young teenage girl. There is not much of a storyline besides the struggles that she has to go through with her eating disorder. Personal stories are always somewhat enthralling and I found a bit of that in this book, but I felt that I was twice the age of the target readers she was going for in this novel. Another thing that bothered me is that this book is only [based on a true story], so things have been edited and revamped and I was definitely able to tell. Part of the novel was written from the perspective of a grade 7 student and the vocabulary was beyond that of a child still in elementary school. However, she did follow up using these larger words and complex sentences by saying she was intelligent. It seemed contrived. I'm always drawn to memoirs, but I wish I would have left this one on the shelf.

I rate this 3 / 10

I Am Hutterite - Mary-Ann Kirkby

"I understood for the first time that freedom is not found on a Hutterite colony any more than it is found off the colony. True freedom is an inside job -- it is taking responibility for ourselves and daring to confront and release the anger and resentment that keeps us from leading meaninful lives." Mary Ann Kirkby

It was a relief to get back to reading non-fiction books again and I have been waiting to read this book for about 6 months. Thankfully, I got it for a Christmas gift. I Am Hutterite explores one girl's experience (the author) living on a Hutterite colony, leaving the colony, and her experience adapting to the english world. This book is fantastic. Kirkby does a wonderful job at giving a non biased and honest perspective about Hutterite life. I learned lots about Hutterites and have grown an appreciation for their culture. For instance, Hutterite men grow a beard once they get married. Anyways, I highly recommend this book if you have any curiousity in community living and the Hutterite faith. The only negative thing I have to say about this book is Kirkby uses a lot of High German phrases and only translates about half of them. I am able to read German so I could pick up on the some of writing, but at times I felt like I was missing out on content.

I rate this book a 9/10.