2 books are better than 1

Okay, it's been ages since I've posted anything, but that doesn't mean I haven't been thinking of millions of posts that I could have/ should have/ would have written...

I don't believe in coincidences, but it is rather uncanny that of the last 10 books I've read over the past 2 weeks, 4 of them can easily be paired together. Okay, maybe I'm not explaining the math very well, so I'll just give you some visualization:

I read these books one after the other and loved them each for their own special take on war and families. I loved the characters in AFTER ELI, but DEAR BLUE SKY took my breath away at the bold endeavors of author Rebecca Rupp to explore two sides of a confusing war for middle grade kids (I mean the book is for middle grade kids-- the war is confusing to all of us in the human race...). DEAR BLUE SKY does not seek to answer the questions about such human absurdities like: chemical warfare, genocide, war camps, dictatorships, death, disease, but it does a brilliant job of pushing us to consider the "other" side of our actions and to rethink whatever prejudices or propaganda we've decided to buy into.

Two books about cancer. 

Sounds depressing, and sometimes it is.