The Color Purple by Alice Walker

The Color Purple

by Alice Walker

Spoiler alert: If you've already watched the film with Whoopi Goldberg,

then there are no spoilers.

Hi, here I am with another review.

Today I'm going to talk about the novel The Color Purple written by the American author Alice Walker. I wanted to read this book because I loved the film and I've seen that a lot of people on Bookstagram were reading it also, so I got curious to see if it was different from the film or not.

The book is composed by letters written by Celie, the main protagonist, and by her sister, Nettie, from which she is divided. The book focuses on the life of African-American women during the 1930s, addressing their low position in the American social life.

Celie is a 14 years old girl at the beginning, she writes her story through letters addressed to God. Almost immediately she gets married to an older man that she calls Mr. -, because she doesn't even know her name. Her life changes when she is divided from her sister Nettie, and then meet a friend of Mr., Shug Avery, a female singer, with whom she becomes friend and lover, and thanks to whom she experience her sexuality. 

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I mean, what else can I say except the fact that I loved it? It's really enjoyable, short and fast to read. It is exactly as the film, but the thing I enjoyed the most, is the fact that they actually showed Celie discovering that she's attracted to Shug and not to men, something that you can't clearly understand from the film. It's a really short book though, and I wished it was lasting a bit longer.

This month's recommended books

Hi everyone I'm back with the monthly recommended books:

«Simon vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli» 
  
Simon is a 16 years old guy, who has a secret that hasn't confessed to anyone. He's gay. No one knows, not even his friends because he's not ready to do his coming out yet. But then he starts to exchange emails with someone calling himself Blue, who seems to be attracted by him. These emails though falls into the wrong hands and Simon starts to be blackmailed by Martin, the class clown. If he doesn't help him win the attention of Simon's friend, his sexual identity will become everyone's business, and the privacy of Blue will be compromised. 

The book is really short and light and part, of course, of the LGBTQ+ community, as am I. A film was also based on it, called Love, Simon. It's not the typical teenage drama, because it shows you the point of view of Simon's family as well, making you see how hard it is to be stereotyped in this world.

✧༺♥༻∞　　∞༺♥༻✧

«Emma by Jane Austen» 

Emma Woodhouse is one of Austen's heroine, not as popular as Elizabeth Bennet or the Dashwood's sisters, but is also considered as the most captivating and vivid character of them all. She's beautiful, spoiled, vain and witty. She organises the lives of the inhabitants of the invented village of Highbury and plays to be a matchmaker, but with, of course, devastating effect. 

I must admit, I liked it, but I still prefer Pride&Prejudice and Sense&Sensibilty. In my opinion, nothing can still beat them. Anyway, this novel is enjoyable, because it's more comic and full of lovely characters as Emma, Harriet and Mrs. Weston.

✧༺♥༻∞　　∞༺♥༻✧

«The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger»

The narrator of this book is a born old 16 years old guy, Holden Caulfield, whose native of New York. He leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in NYC for 3 days. There are many feelings going on in him, but as most of the people, he keeps almost all of them inside himself. The book talks about his experience alone in NY. 

I must admit, I loved this book when I was in middle school. I know it's not probably so not easy to understand, because it's a bit confusing sometimes, but I think that's actually the point of it. That's a totally recommended book that will help you understand what is going on inside a teenager's mind.