This one hooked me early. I'm halfway through, and wish I was reading it right now.
I recently read a collection of 19th-century slave narratives. Not fun, not easy, not breezy. But important, for sure. "Sarah's Key," although fiction, presents me with the same issue. Why choose to read something dark, something that paints a horrid portrait of humankind at its worst, in living black and white? Why not just pick up a beach read, a James Patterson breeze-through, a Danielle Steel brain-free dessert topping, and let the world solve its own problems?
That's the easy way out, the one we often choose. For me, fighting my inclination to wade toe-deep in the literary waters is the benefit of belonging to a book group. It prods me to read things I know I should read.
