I finally got around to reading Jeanette Wall’s Half Broke Horses. It is what she calls a true-life novel. It is the story of her grandmother, Lily Casey, and as such, it is a sort of prequel to her memoir The Glass Castle. First, I will say that it is a wonderful book. Walls is a great writer, and with subjects as compelling as her grandmother, it makes telling a good story a lot easier. Her grandmother was a very strong,…
I just finished reading Born Under a Million Shadows by Andrea Busfield. I loved this novel and I didn’t want it to end. It is the story of Fawad, an eleven year old Afghani boy growing up in Kabul, in post-Taliban Afghanistan. I was nervous to read this book because I was unsure if I was ready to delve into all the pain and tragedy that I know is a part of life for all Afghani people. I was so…
Into the Heart of the Canyon by Elisabeth Hyde is a wild ride. It is a journey down the rapids of the Colorado River through the heart of the Grand Canyon. A dozen very different people are brought together for this 2 week rafting trip. Each character is well developed, interesting and believable, and the story unfolds as they journey down the river together, learning about each other and about themselves- with some interesting surprises at the end. The most…
Reunion by Therese Fowler is a perfect book to read on a rainy day, or even better, on the beach. I liked this book a lot. The characters were well developed and I couldn’t put the book down-I wanted to find out what was going to happen. Blue Reynolds aka. Harmony Blue is the main character, who, heartbroken at 19 runs off for a year and gets into trouble and has a baby boy that she gives up for adoption without…
I enjoyed Zoe Klein’s novel “Drawing in the Dust.” I actually stayed up most of the night reading it. After finishing it, however, I feel as if there are many flaws in the story and I don’t think it merits comparison to the much better written, and totally different novel, “The Red Tent” by Anita Diamant. The novel is about an American archeologist living in Isreal for over a decade who goes to excavate underneath an Arab couple’s home, based on rumors that there…
I am a big fan of Garrison Keillor’s “A Praire Home Companion”, so when I see his Lake Wobegon novels, I will sometimes pick one up to read. The latest book I read by Garrison Keillor is called “A Christmas Blizzard.” I thought it would be fun to read at this time of year. The book is part “A Christmas Carol,” and part “It’s a Wonderful Life.” A rich, cynical man who hates Christmas and doesn’t seem to appreciate anything…
I have just finished reading ‘Petals from the Sky’ by Mingmei Yip. This is an author I have never heard of, so I was so pleased to discover such a lovely book. This is about a Chinese woman who has struggled her whole life trying to decide whether to live in the human world of “Ten Thousand Miles of Red Dust” or to go into the monestary and become a Buddhist nun. It is a lovely, lovely book. Full of…
The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman is another book about lightening strike survivors. Alice Hoffman is a brilliant writer, and I thoroughly enjoyed this book. This is a modern day fairy tale. The protaganist cannot see the color red after being struck by lightening. This is only one of the effects. She lives in a cold, white and gray, lonely world, until she meets Lazarus Jones, risen from the dead after his lightening strike. He is on fire, burning up and…
I seem to have read many books lately about lightning stike survivors. The latest being Michele Young-Stone’s The Handbook for Lightning Strike Survivors. The interesting thing about this novel is that it is written by an actual lightning strike survivor. The story is about Becca and Buckley, two completely different characters in different times and places, whose stories are woven back and forth throughout the novel. Sometimes this worked and sometimes it didn’t. I often felt lost and confused about the…
Sarah Addison Allen’s books are filled with magic realism, and her latest, The Girl Who Chased the Moon is no different. This is what I love about them actually. I have yet to read her first novel, The Sugar Queen, but I will. I was enchanted with her next novel, Garden Spells, and I loved The Girl Who Chased the Moon and I didn’t want it to end. It is full of quirky characters and small town charm. Throw in…