BOOK: the perks of being a wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

What a wonderful coming of age story. I devoured this last night, staying up too late in order to finish. Charlie, the narrator, has taken to writing letters of his life to an unknown friend as he goes through one year of his life at sixteen. Charlie is an intelligent, sensitive boy, trying to fit in and make friends, deal with his family and girls and school, and lots of 'home problems'. I really enjoyed this story; Charlie's voice was wonderful, and I kept hoping for him to make it through the angsty teenage years. I've seen the following quote before, but didn't realize it was from this book:

I walk around the school hallways and look at the people. I look at the teachers and wonder why they're here. If they like their jobs. Or us. And I wonder how smart they were when they were fifteen. Not in a mean way. In a curious way. It's like looking at all the students and wondering who's had their heart broken that day, and how they are able to cope with having three quizzes and a book report on top of that.

This was a book I picked because it made the top 20 books of the 50_books list and I can see why it did. I will hopefully go back and read about Charlie again. A poignant, sweet read.