Sunday, March 16, 2008

Books

I just finished reading Milk Glass Moon by Adriana Trigiani. This is the third book in the Big Stone Gap series. It was an interesting and quick read but not very satisfying. The book jumps forward in time months or years at a time with no warning. It's a lot like a photo album in the lives of the characters. You get the highlights but not the real meat of their story.

I also read The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd. Kidd is perhaps better known for The Secret Life of Bees (which I have not read). It is a wonderful story of a middle-aged woman trying to re-identify herself after her child has left home. Perhaps, she doesn't cope with these mid-life changes as you or I would but I believe she makes the right choices in the end.

I'm still working my way through the Richard Jury Mysteries by Martha Grimes and have just finished The Case has Altered. This book was enjoyable, however, I realized after a few pages I had skipped the previous book. You really must read these in order to understand the evolution of the characters lives.

I am averaging about a book a week this year which is a lot slower than last year. I have a lot of books on my shelf to read. Even though I am not blogging much anymore I will try to still do these book updates about once a month or so.

Happy St Patrick's Day

I enjoyed Clan of the Cave Bear so much last year that I read its sequel Valley of Horses by Jean M Auel. Although, not as good as the first one (it would be difficult to achieve that level of epic again) it was certainly a satisfying read.

My one disappointment in the last month was The Collectors by David Baldacci. Baldacci used to be one of the authors I bought new in hardback but no longer. His recent efforts are just not worth that extra money. The Collectors is a sequel of sorts to The Camel Club and it is your typical government conspiracy type novel. The characters are entertaining but not very genuine.