Adrift - not the book I was supposed to read!

While searching my local e-library for books featured in the August selection of my Literary Diary, the only one available was one called Adrift. So I downloaded it and started to read. This is the real life story of Tami Oldham who, with her fiancé Richard Sharp, set sail from Tahiti on a journey to deliver a boat to San Diego. However, two weeks into the voyage, they encounter Hurricane Raymond, a devastating storm which leaves Tami unconscious. When she wakes up, she sees that the tether keeping Richard on board had snapped. She was injured, in a crippled boat and all alone. We now follow Tami as she goes through forty one days on board - at first wishing she had been swept into the storm with her beloved Richard and slowly making the decision to survive and find land. We see her relationship with Richard told in flashback, from when they first met, to the day he disappears. Adrift, by Tami Oldham Ashcraft is a story of love, loss and determination and it reads very much like a thriller. The first half of the book worked exceedingly well, but as it progressed I started to find it a little repetitive. Nevertheless, it is an amazing story and worth the read ... though why anyone would head out on a journey of that nature during hurricane season totally mystifies me - but then me and boats don't really mix! It was only after I'd read the book that I realised there was another book titled Adrift, which is actually the one that I should have read. Hey ho! One adventure on the high seas is enough for me in one year!

My STAR rating: 3 STARS.

Length: 240 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from library as an ebook.
Formats available: print, audio download, audio CD, ebook.

Heart Berries - grim

Heart Berries: A Memoir, by Terese Marie Mailhot was from the July selection of suggested books in my literary diary. Again, it was the only one I could get hold of in electronic form from my library. I hadn't heard of it before, but I was looking forward to reading a memoir from a Native American woman - a voice I'd not really heard before. The origins of the book are that following the hospitalization of the author and her subsequent diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder and bipolar II disorder, she was given a notebook to write down whatever she wanted, as part of her therapy. Heart Berries is the result. I did not find this an easy read. The story of her dysfunctional upbringing to her random relationships with men, self abuse with alcohol and drugs and the removal of one child and the fear of losing another are heart breaking. But also, the way the memoir is written - which felt like a repetitive circular nightmare, where you never were quite sure what was a true memory or something a bit more hazy, I found tough to navigate. Other reviewers found this poetic and powerful. Yes, it is powerful, with some elements hitting you really hard, but poetic, I'm not so sure. It is a book I can admire for its bravery - the author really "puts it all out there, warts and all", and it definitely gives an insight into the struggle of coping with mental illness. However, I found it incredibly depressing and confusing and hard to get to grips with - maybe that's the point! It is, perhaps, one of the most disturbing books I have read and I was grateful for its brevity as I wasn't sure I could take much more. I know many people rave about this book, but it's just not for me!

My STAR rating: TWO.

Length: 160 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from the library.
Formats available: print, audio CD, ebook.