I have read …

As promised dear friends, I am finally catching up on sharing my thoughts on recent books I’ve read.

After reading Cutting for Stone and giving it an emphatic thumbs up, I headed off in a different direction. Next up was A.S.A. Harrison’s thriller, The Silent Wife. The author has intentionally drawn Jodi and Todd so we don’t relate to them so it’s already not your usual novel. Well written and plotted with good character development. Her plot twists don’t occur until later in the novel but when they come, she doesn’t rely simply on one or two twists. Definitely a page turner and I give it a high rating as a thriller.

Next up was the award winning novel by Donna Tartt that I read for book club: The Goldfinch: (Pulitzer Prize for Fiction). For me, it’s hard to give it a rating because of a few personal annoyances. The beginning is fantastically written and engaging. There is a section in the middle that gets overly long and drawn out and incredibly annoying (to me). The clever use of symbolism, the beginning, and the overall story are redeeming factors. So I’d say if you read the synopsis and that appeals then go for it. This novel offered considerable discussion for book club.

So who, besides me, has not yet read The Glass Castle: A Memoir? Thanks to book club, I finally read it and am glad I did. I thought it took a great deal of objectivity to write this the way she has. If you haven’t read this one yet, it certainly is a book that will evoke all kings of emotions. A rare glimpse into the reality of a deeply dysfunctional family.

The final novel I’m covering today is one that I could relate to in a great number of ways, in terms of the religious extremism. Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is one of those novels I’d recommend to anyone to read. It portrays the “tragic riddle” of a man who completely forfeits the needs of his family over the desire to contribute generously to the lives of strangers. And that’s putting it mildly. A well told story. A great choice for any book club.

Currently open beside my bed is the exquisite novel Shantaram. I’m only half way through this 900 page tome but am loving every single word on every single page. I suspect this is going to fall into the category of one of the best novels I’ve read in my life. But I will reserve that until I’m finished. I’ll let you know.

“Do you know, … what Dom Perignon said after inventing champagne? … He called out to his fellow monks, ‘Come quickly: I am tasting the stars.’ “ –excerpt from The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (a YA book that I also recommend).

(I’ve included links to these books just in case you might like to read the synopsis.)

More to come (knitting, movies, and life) soon.