It's a Thin Line...

With Love and Haight I have read one more book this year (146) than I did in 2011 (145) though I have not yet reached my goodreads.com goal of 175.  Will I make it?  Who knows!  Good Reads is VERY encouraging!  It tells me that now I am 65 books, 37% ahead in my reading and it keeps telling me to increase my goal.  No way!  I want to complete one goal this year and so far that looks like it will be the only one that MIGHT happen!  So I will keep pushing along, trying to make 175.
In the meantime, I must say that Love and Haight was just what I needed.  I have read good books lately, but a few that were okay.  I needed one of those "suck you into the world of the book" books and this did it, even though it is historical fiction, set in 1971 in San Francisco.  1971 would have been the tail end of the hippie movement in Haight-Ashbury but the characters in Chloe's life are still living the hippie vibe.  Chloe has come from Arizona with her best friend, MJ, to have an abortion.  At the time, in California, abortions were legal with a doctor's permission.  LAH is the most thought-provoking and honest book I have read in a long time.  I admire Susan Carlton for her complex treatment of the subject.  I admire the way in which Chloe makes her decision, though it would not be my decision, and that part of that decision-making process is a return to her faith.  This is book real, honest and a great discussion-starter.