White Oleander

I am currently reading White Oleander by Janet Fitch. I bought this book in August at Goodwill bookstore for only 20 peso!! the actual price of it is 325.00 peso (it's a 2nd hand but the condition is still good). I started reading it the day i bought it, and i still have half a book to go. It'll be impossible for me to finish it up anytime soon since my school assignments have started to pour in. To be honest, I havent heard about Janet Fitch before until this book. I rarely buy books of authors that i am not familiar with but, the reason why i particularly bought this book is because the book is listed in Oprah's Book Club AND sold at a very cheap price.

Here is a book review of White Oleander that i got from Bookbrowse.com:

"Astrid is the only child of a single mother, Ingrid, a brilliant, obsessed poet who wields her luminous beauty to intimidate and manipulate men. Astrid worships her mother and cherishes their private world full of ritual and mystery-but their idyll is shattered when Astrid's mother falls apart over a lover. Deranged by rejection, Ingrid murders the man, and is sentenced to life in prison.

White Oleander is the unforgettable story of Astrid's journey through a series of foster homes and her efforts to find a place for herself in impossible circumstances. Each home is its own universe, with a new set of laws and lessons to be learned. With determination and humor, Astrid confronts the challenges of loneliness and poverty, and strives to learn who a motherless child in an indifferent world can become.

Tough, irrepressible, funny, and warm, Astrid is one of the most indelible characters in recent fiction. White Oleander is an unforgettable story of mothers and daughters, burgeoning sexuality, the redemptive powers of art, and the unstoppable force of the emergent self. Written with exquisite beauty and grace, this is a compelling debut by an author poised to join the ranks of today's most gifted novelists."