*The Common Reader

The Uncommon Reader: A Novella by Alan Bennett
In The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, Queen Eliabeth I chances on a mobile library and, to be polite, takes out a couple of books, thereby starting herself on a literary road that takes unexpected turns, some humorous, some serious. To make such a prominent person (who [...]

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*A Woman’s Quest

Away by Amy Bloom
A tallish tale that grew taller as it went along, I read this book while in the depths of pneumonia, right after reading Nothing But Ghosts. Away did not make my breathing easier. I put it down, intending to take it up again when well, but I was so bored, and [...]

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*Assimilation and Adoption

Digging to America by Anne Tyler
My 11 year old started this book and said that the language was simple, like a kid’s book, and that she really liked it. I haven’t read Tyler for a long while, but have always liked her, and I was curious about my daughter’s reaction. The vocabulary isn’t simple, [...]

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*Intelligent Crime Fiction

The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas
As the books I’d put on hold at the library hadn’t arrived yet, I scoured the new books shelf and saw this one. I thought, Well, Vargas. I’ve heard of her. A number of book bloggers like her. It was just translated into English in 2009, but it [...]

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*Marriage in Maine

Olive Kitteridge: A Novel in Stories by Elizabeth Strout
“To sit down beside him would be to close her eyes to the gaping loneliness of this sunlit world.” This line comes from the second to last page of Olive Kitteridge and it sums it up perfectly: this is a story, or a set of stories, [...]

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*In the Bush

Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden
This is a wonderful yarn which I totally loved while reading and not quite as well afterward. Some books (and films) stay with me afterward, and as scenes linger in my mind, I come to greater appreciation. In this case the excitement of the story and setting made me [...]

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*Bread and Circuses

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
This is a running away to the circus story told from the point of view of a 20-something year old in the 1930’s and his later self, 90 plus and in an old folks’ home. It’s an old genre that was popular before I was born, and [...]

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*Prejudice and Exoneration

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson

My review

The story of a Japanese man on trial for murder in 1954, on a west coast island still reeling from the after shocks of WWII, this is a book that impressed me enough to read sentences over and over.
It is naturally a good story: [...]

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*Nothing But Ghosts

I know Beth Kephart, the author of the recently released Nothing But Ghosts, from her blog. And what I know–just from this–is that she is a lovely writer, a wordsmith but more than that, a person of heart, sensitivity, perception and dedication. As a tribute to that, the blogosphere has been rallying around this book, [...]

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*Loss and Beauty

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

My review

The writing in this novel is luscious, but it doesn’t get in the way of moving the story forward. I don’t know how Desai does it–I’m tempted to re-read the novel just to figure that out. I’ve read that there is some controversy [...]

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