Book 9: The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs explores the relationships and lives of women in our modern culture while they practice the time-honored crafts of knitting and supporting each other with friendship. It affirms the strength that women give each other through caring and networking as they struggle with life changes and a host of good and bad decisions in marriage, child rearing and business. I struggled a lot with the ending because Georgia Walker, the young mom and knitting store owner, is stricken with the same kind of cancer I had four years ago. The outcome of her struggle with ovarian cancer is sad but makes for a good read. Just be aware that you may be crying at the end of this touching story.
Book 10: "O" is for Outlaw by Sue Grafton, my traveling companion as I drove up and down US 95 this weekend. Another in the great alphabet mystery series with Kinsey Millhone as the heroine submitting her report on the events of her investigation into the shooting of her ex-husband in LA 14 years after the demise of their marriage. So great to use the drive as a time to "read"! Always a good story!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
I very much enjoyed Water for Elephants last year when we read the book for our book club. I probably read it too fast and need to read it again!
A book that I will be reading again, also, is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I, too, had a WOW experience. I keep thinking I am not a sci-fi reader until I look at some of my favorite books over time - Contact by Carl Sagan, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle. Ender's Game is thoughtful and provocative while being a great book for action. Children vs. adults, power vs. empathy....very well done
A book that I will be reading again, also, is Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. I, too, had a WOW experience. I keep thinking I am not a sci-fi reader until I look at some of my favorite books over time - Contact by Carl Sagan, Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, and A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle. Ender's Game is thoughtful and provocative while being a great book for action. Children vs. adults, power vs. empathy....very well done
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Book 7 -
One of my favorite authors is Geraldine Brooks. I had not read her first book before this week, so was glad to pick up Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague - and it did not disappoint at all! It is a dark and depressing era (1666-67 - middle of England) but Brooks develops her characters and story so well that the ending was truly a surprise for me.
The story revolves around a young mother who loses her husband in a mining accident and is then asked by her parish rector to rent a room to a tailor from London. As the tailors business grows, bolts of fabric arrive from London in the small community along with rats and fleas bearing bubonic plague. The rector and his wife convince the town to close itself off from all other communities in an attempt to contain the disease. The ethical and moral questions posed by the situation, as well as the personal live of the community members, are woven into all facets of this story of caring and survival.
I am of the mind that all the things that the heroine, Anna, achieved and survived in this book would have destroyed a real person, but it makes for a great read. Brooks' subsequent novels, March and People of the Book are just as well-written, well-researched, compelling and entertaining. She does include things in all her novels that seem somewhat implausible for ordinary lives.
One of my favorite authors is Geraldine Brooks. I had not read her first book before this week, so was glad to pick up Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague - and it did not disappoint at all! It is a dark and depressing era (1666-67 - middle of England) but Brooks develops her characters and story so well that the ending was truly a surprise for me.
The story revolves around a young mother who loses her husband in a mining accident and is then asked by her parish rector to rent a room to a tailor from London. As the tailors business grows, bolts of fabric arrive from London in the small community along with rats and fleas bearing bubonic plague. The rector and his wife convince the town to close itself off from all other communities in an attempt to contain the disease. The ethical and moral questions posed by the situation, as well as the personal live of the community members, are woven into all facets of this story of caring and survival.
I am of the mind that all the things that the heroine, Anna, achieved and survived in this book would have destroyed a real person, but it makes for a great read. Brooks' subsequent novels, March and People of the Book are just as well-written, well-researched, compelling and entertaining. She does include things in all her novels that seem somewhat implausible for ordinary lives.
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