"We all want to be good parents"

This past weekend, I finished reading Defending Jacob, by William Landay (see previous post for a summary).  I obviously won't give away any spoilers, but the ending...wow.  Just wow.  To be honest, I don't know if I can say that I really liked this book, BUT I couldn't stop reading it.  Does that make sense?  Kind of like how when you see an accident on I-75, you don't WANT to look, but you can't stop yourself from looking.  I think this book had such an impact on me because I'm a mom of two boys, and the fourteen-year-old boy in this book is being accused of murder.  The story really grapples with the idea of how far parents will go for their children.  I read an interview that Landay gave, and this is an excerpt from the interview that hit home with me:

I have two kids myself, boys who are seven and ten years old as I write this, so I understand how vulnerable our children make us, emotionally. We all want good things for our children. We all want to be good parents, make good decisions, do the right thing. And of course we all want to feel proud of our kids. But for a certain percentage of us, an unlucky few, it won’t work out that way. Inevitably some good parents — smart, well-meaning, conscientious people who do everything right — will see their kids wander into trouble anyway. It’s a risk you take when you have kids, and every parent knows it.  http://www.williamlanday.com/books/defending-jacob/defending-jacob-qa/

Ugh, if that doesn't give me even more to worry about with regards to parenting, I don't know what does.  As I read, I tried to put myself in the mom and dad's shoes...and then I got so bothered and disturbed about trying to do that, I had to quit.  I had the same experience one time when I read Jodi Picoult's book Nineteen Minutes, about a school shooting.  It's just a scenario that's a little too close to home, I think.

I won't tell you if Jacob is innocent or guilty, but I do want to share a picture of "Jacob" from Landay's own web site:


It seems as though Landay is wanting a certain message to be portrayed about his character, don't you think?  Yikes.

I moved on to the book Firefly Lane, by Kristin Hannah.  I had heard of this author by looking through Mrs. Palmer's "read" books on Goodreads, and the book was a monthly Kindle deal this month, so it seemed like the perfect time to give her a shot.  I'm about 25 % of the way through the book, and I'm enjoying it.  It's about two eighth-grade girls who have unexpectedly become best friends, and it takes place in the 1970s, so I love the fashion descriptions.  More on this book is to come, so stayed tuned!

Question for my readers:  In this post, I shared two books that disturbed me, yet I read them anyway.  Have you ever read a book that affected you emotionally but you kept reading?  Let me know!