Independant Reading Book

        My current outside reading book is The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.  I have read for 175 minutes this week and am almost finished with it, 25 more pages to go!! I have found this book to be very good and well written but sometimes a little hard to understand, which is understandable because it was translated from French.  An example of this wold be the first page in Chapter 4, when Renee, the concierge, is thinking about how on some days she can read a book through and understand it all and then others when it takes a good while to get through a couple pages because you are going back to reread it over having not understood a single word of it.  I can definitely relate to that.
        Also there's Paloma, who's 12, and very opinionated but hides it.  She has her own views on the world and is quite intelligent.  She really just cant wait to grow up in a way because of how she thinks and how much she cant tolerate being around people of her age that much.  Shes curious, which I can relate to, and she wants reasons for things other than "just because".  I like her character and like how Barbery portrays her.
        The whole sense of the book is really good, I think because of well how its written and because of the sort of conflict going on individually with Renee and Paloma.  They are both smarter than they seem and hide it because of what others- in Renee's case, the tenants of the apartment building, especially Monsieur Ozu and in Paloma's her teacher and family- think of them and how it wouldn't be right.  The book dwells a lot on their thoughts specifically and not just mindless dialogue or description.  I find it makes me think more than most books I've read and I like that for a change.