Saturday, November 25, 2006

Book Review: Blue Shoes and Happiness

November 25, 2006

Like all the books in Alexander McCall Smith's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, this newest is wonderful. These books just sort of radiate warmth and goodness. I want to go to Botswana and meet Mma Ramotswe. I was actually thinking just the other day, "Could we go on sabbatical to Botswana?" Skip Anita Shreve; read Alexander McCall Smith.

Book Review: A Wedding in December

November 25, 2006

I don't know why I read books like this --I really don't! I've read a few Anita Shreve books, and they're all basically the same: depressing and completely unenlightening. This one is like spending time with people you wouldn't have really liked in high school who meet again after 25 years, and you like them even less.

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Book Review: Bel Canto

November 11, 2006

In this novel by Ann Patchett, terrorists in a South American country storm a birthday dinner in search of the country's president. Instead of the president, they take hostage a group of 38 businessmen and diplomats from various countries, a famous opera singer whom everyone is in love with, and a translator. Over the course of several months, hostages and terrorists live together in their own world, forgetting the outside world and at times wishing that captivity would last forever. An excellent read. I'm adding Patchett's other novels to my reading list!

Sunday, November 5, 2006

Book Review: The Memory Keeper's Daughter

November 5, 2006

My friend Caroline told me she had an absolutely wonderful book for me to read and gave me 6 days in which to read it before she had to return it to her sister. Now, 6 days doesn't seem an unreasonable amount of time to read a book, but lately I seem to have developed narcolepsy, and I usually manage about 10 pages per night. But The Memory Keeper's Daughter (by Kim Edwards) definitely kept me awake and mesmerized. This is the story of a doctor who delivers his own twins on a winter night. His firstborn, a son, is perfectly healthy, but the girl is born with Down's syndrome. Neither he nor his wife knew that they were expecting twins, and he makes a split-second decision to "spare" his wife by giving the baby girl to the nurse. And the story goes from there...(and yes, I finished it in 6 days!)