I generally enjoy reading Elizabeth Berg’s novels. Many are like reading a good issue of People magazine from cover to cover and being fully engrossed in the stories as I read, then forgetting them the second I finish the magazine. Her latest novel, The Last Time I Saw You, is much the same. This is the story of a group of people reuniting at their 40th high school reunion. Some have led happy lives, others less so. I won’t go…
I’ve gotta stop reading depressing books set in small towns on the seacoast of Maine. That pretty much sums up Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. To be fair, I will say that I enjoyed Strout’s writing style- a novel set in stories, revolving around her main character, Olive Kitteridge. I think she is a talented writer and I enjoyed the format. However, the first story, Pharmacy, was my favorite and it went downhill from there. Henry, Olive’s husband was my…
I’ve been reading a lot of pretty good books lately, but finally I read one that I loved! Debra Adelaide’s The Household Guide to Dying is a wonderful novel. Although from the title, it seems a bit depressing, this is actually a very life-affirming novel. Delia, the main character, is dying of cancer, and with all her typical organizational skills, she writes a guide about it, along with lists and other preperations for her family-she even orders her own coffin and…
Read Hook Road, the new novel by Ayelet Waldman is set on the coast of Maine, and if you haven’t been there, then this book will take you there-complete with lobsters, blueberries, sailboats, and the tension between locals and “from aways.” It is the tragic tale of the death of two young newlyweds just minutes after they are married. It could have been a depressing novel, but in Waldman’s talented hands it became a story not only of grief, but of…
Outside the Ordinary World by Dori Ostermiller is a very good first novel. It follows the present life of Sylvia Sandon, as an adult and mother stuggling with her marriage, and it takes us back to her childhood, when she was 12 years old and a witness to the dissolution of her parents marriage. It is the best book I have ever read about affairs. How and why they start, how they fulfill parts of us, and how they sometimes destroy…
Heads by Harry, a novel by Lois-Ann Yamanaka, is set in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Since I spent many years living on the Big Island, I fell in love with reading the Pidgin English that this book is written in. However, this was a difficult novel to read. It was graphic, often violent and fiercely honest. These are also the things that made it a good book. The story is about Toni, the middle child of 3,…
Long for This World is the wonderful debut novel by Sonya Chung. Chung’s writing is precise and effortless, with nothing superfluous to get in the way of a good story. It is the story of a Korean family and their Korean-American relatives. There are many fascinating characters whose lives are woven together throughout the story. Although there is a lot of tragedy and loss, there is also a lot of hope here. Some are not “long for this world,” but…
The Buddha is Still Teaching-Contemporary Buddhist Wisdom selected and edited by Jack Kornfield is a wonderful book. I tend to read very fast and this was just the book to slow me down-way down. I have been fortunate enough to meet and study with several of the teachers whose writings are included in this book, and I am familiar with many more from having read their books in the past. Some were entirely new to me. These are our present day…
The Gift by Cecilia Ahern is a magical holiday novel. It is the story of Lou, a workaholic, who meets Gabe, a homeless man, outside his building and gives him a cup of coffee and then a job in a moment of unusual generosity. Things get strange from there. Gabe (the angel Gabriel?) seems to know more about Lou’s life than he knows himself, and he always seems to be in two places at once. The novel is set in Dublin, where…
In the spirit of full disclosure (and this blog was started as a place to record everything that I read) I must mention The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes-A Calvin and Hobbes Treasury by Bill Watterson. I checked this book out from the library for my husband who does computer animation, then I proceeded to read the entire thing myself. It has been so many years since I’ve read Calvin and Hobbes, I’d forgotten how funny it is. I now have a…