Review: Obedience by Will Lavender

From the back of the book: When the students in Winchester University's Logic and Reasoning 204 arrive for their first day of class, they are greeted not with a syllabus or texts, but with a startling assignment from Professor Williams: Find a hypothetical missing girl named Polly. If after being given a series of clues and details the class has not found her before the end of the term in six weeks, she will be murdered.

At first the students are as intrigued by the premise of their puzzle as they are wary of the strange and slightly creepy Professor Williams. But as they delve deeper into the mystery, the boundary between the classroom and the real world is blurred and the students wonder if it is their own lives they are being asked to save.

Thank you to whichever book blogger(s) posted about this book. It is from one of the genres I enjoy most - psychological thrillers. Things are not what they seem, there are twists in the plot throughout the book, and the ending is a surprise that I hadn't predicted. There are some loose ends and details that are less than believable, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a quick reading, suspenseful story.

In other reading news...I finished The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield last weekend. I will refrain from creating the possibly 250,000th book blogger post about it, and simply say that I really liked it. It truly speaks to the heart of a book lover through Margaret and ends in a perfect but not totally predictable way.

I'm hoping to make a dent in my non-fiction TBR pile soon. However, the knowledge that I will begin graduate classes again in September is motivation to suck up all the fiction I can in the next couple months.

Review: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

From the back of the book (for those few, who like me, had been oblivious to this book until recently): "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again." So the second Mrs. Maxim de Winter remembered the chilling events that led her down the turning drive past the beeches, white and naked, to the isolated gray stone manse on the windswept Cornish coast. With a husband she barely knew, the young bride arrived at the immense estate, only to be inexorably drawn into the life of the first Mrs. de Winter, the beautiful Rebecca, dead but never forgotten…her suite of rooms never touched, her clothes ready to be worn, her servant – the sinister Mrs. Danvers – still loyal. And as an eerie presentiment of evil tightened around her heart, the second Mrs. de Winter began her search for the real fate of Rebecca…for the secrets of Manderley.

Before reading numerous glowing reviews on a variety of blogs, I had never heard of this book. Shocking! In discussing it with a co-worker who just happened to be reading it too, she compared it to a soap opera in the form of a classic novel. I finally started reading my bookmooched copy during Memorial Day weekend. I loved it as much as all the reviewers said they did!

I believe what captured me from early on was the development of the narrator. (How observant I am to just have realized we never learn her first name.) The reader really gets to know her, as we are privy to her innermost thoughts. And, despite being published in 1938, the inner world of our narrator illustrates enduring themes of the human tradition – love, insecurity, maturing from adolescence to adulthood, and self-perception. In addition, the narrator’s internal processing of certain events mirrored mine in an uncanny way. The first time I noticed this was as the narrator was preparing to leave Monte Carlo (early in the book):

"Packing up. The nagging worry of departure….I am aware of sadness, of a sense of loss. Here, I say, we have lived, we have been happy. This has been ours, however brief the time. Though two nights only have been spent beneath a roof, yet we leave something of ourselves behind. Nothing material, not a hair-pin on a dressing-table, not an empty bottle of aspirin tablets, not a handkerchief beneath a pillow, but something indefinable, a moment of our lives, a thought, a mood."

And I always thought I had a uniquely sentimental view of good-byes.

I look forward to reading more of Daphne du Maurier’s work in the future.

Did Agatha Christie Have Dementia?

As a counselor to family caregivers, many of whom care for a loved one with dementia, this article caught my attention today. How fitting that I had just finished my Agatha Christie book review a few minutes before. (That particular book was first published in 1950 – when Christie was 60.) Commentors on the article had mixed opinions about the validity of the study, but based on my experiences so far and other research I’ve read, I wouldn’t write it off as nonsense.

Review: A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie

Synopsis from BarnesandNoble.com: You are cordially invited to a murder. A personal ad in the newspaper inviting strangers to participate in an evening of murder mystery fun and games at the home of Letitia Blacklock is an invitation that Miss Jane Marple cannot pass up. A good thing, too, because when the lights are dimmed real gunshots ring out, killing a young boy. Now it’s time for a new, much more serious game of “whodunit.”

Since watching the movie version of Murder at the Vicarage this winter, I have wanted to read some Agatha Christie. I randomly picked A Murder is Announced because it would satisfy two reading challenges at once. The premise sounded good, but I was underwhelmed.

What I have determined is that Agatha Christie books should probably be read in large chunks over a short time span. I read much of this one in little pieces. There were many characters with fairly shallow development, and I found them hard to keep straight when only reading a few pages at a time. I read the last 50 pages at one time, and enjoyed it more. Maybe that was also because I was learning how the crime really occurred.

That said, I am interested to read more Agatha Christie. Based on this experience, her books are focused on the architecture of the crime versus the characters involved. And, her crimes really are well thought out. She also creates humorous traits in her characters that gave me a chuckle from time to time. A lady in this book was named Murgatroyd. Everytime I read her name I heard Snagglepuss, of Laff-A-Lymipcs fame, saying “Heavens to Murgatroyd!” Ok, not the humor Christie intended with that one, but still entertaining to me.

Review: Dear Mr. Henshaw

Beverly Cleary was definitely my favorite author growing up. I read all the Ramona Quimby books multiple times, but I think the prize for the most rereads of one books is this one...Dear Mr. Henshaw.

This was the first time I had reread it as an adult. What a difference of perspective! Leigh Botts' favorite author is Boyd Henshaw. He writes to him for the first time in 2nd grade, and a couple years later sends him a list of questions to answer as part of a school report. Mr. Henshaw answers his questions and sends a list back for Leigh to answer. So begins a mentorship and friendship in writing. Along the way, Leigh deals with feelings surrounding his parents' divorce and being the new kid at school, all while developing the skills he needs to become an author someday.

I was struck by the talent it takes for an adult to write authentically from a kid's perspective. We see the world through Leigh's eyes - even how he interprets Mr. Henshaw's advice. And, we see Leigh develop over the years he writes to Mr. Henshaw. His thinking becomes less concrete, and he is able to view a situation from multiple perspectives. He also develops self-awareness. I think it takes a skilled author to convey so many things in language plain enough that it can be understood by young readers.

When I opened the book last night, I could have told you that the book was in letter format between a kid and an author. I had forgotten almost all of the details, but as soon as I read them again they came back. I could hear some of them being read by my second grade teacher, while others were familiar because I'd read them so many times before. It was a fun trip down memory lane.

From the book jacket: There is a story that is usually told about extremely successful people, a story that focuses on intelligence and ambition. In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell argues that the true story of success is very different, and that if we want to understand how some people thrive, we should spend more time looking arond them - at such things as their family, their birthplace, or even their birth date. The story of success is more complex - and a lot more interesting - than it initially appears.

This was a quick read, despite the fact that I still incurred overdue charges at the library. The first half of the book discusses how a person’s environment and circumstantial opportunities contribute to amazing successes or lack thereof. The second half of the book looks at the role of one’s culture and heritage as it relates to success as well as failure. He has a variety of interesting examples that illustrate each of these points.

Two main thoughts kept coming back to me as I read. The first is that, if taken from a certain perspective, this book could cause some readers to give up on their dreams. (Depending on a person’s determination, of course.) After reading the first half of the book you could easily make the argument that if certain conditions don’t exist, your exceptional talent will never result in amazing success. However, the conditions that led to the successes discussed in the book were likely much more apparent in hindsight. So, to anyone who might find the book demotivating – you better not give up because your ultimate path to success won’t be clear until it’s history!

Secondly, and completely unrelated, I was in awe over the amount of research that must have been involved in the book. At the very least you must be skilled at seeing patterns in data in order to form the conclusions that Gladwell did. And, once you’ve formed your theory, you likely need to identify additional resources that support this theory. Lots of work!

I have read all three of Gladwell’s books and, although it’s been a few years since I read it, I believe Tipping Point was the best. I still think back to its main concepts every now and then as it relates to business and marketing. Each book has its merits and clearly illustrates that Malcolm Gladwell has a unique perspective on everyday concepts. Lucky for us, he is also skilled at explaining that perspective to those of us who typically think more inside the box.

Review: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

From the book jacket: A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue.

It’s about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden…and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder.

It’s about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet’s disappearance…and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age – and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with it – who assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism – and an unexpected connection between themselves.

After seeing many great reviews of this book on other blogs several months ago, I requested it from my library. It finally became available three weeks ago.

The book begins with Mikael’s libel case, and I was nervous for a chapter or two that the book would be filled with details of financial corruption that I tend to find dry (despite being an accountant by training). Lucky for me, 2/3rds of the book focuses on Harriet’s disappearance and Mikael’s investigative experiences. Larsson intricately weaves connections among many of the characters, and introduces multiple complicated relationships in a way that is, surprisingly, not confusing. As you may have gathered from previous reviews, my ability to feel the essence of the characters is essential to my satisfaction with a book Larsson achieved this well. Though the ending may have tied things up a little too neatly, it was satisfying.

Stieg Larsson died of a massive heart attack in 2004. He left the manuscripts of three completed but unpublished novels in a series. He wrote them for his own pleasure after returning home from his job in the evening, making no attempt to get them published until shortly before his death. The first of these was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The second, The Girl Who Played with Fire was published in 2006, and I will definitely be adding it to my TBR list. According to Wikipedia, the series was intended to be 10 books, and he had a partial manuscript for book four, along with synopses of books 5 and 6.

Edited to add: One down in my Mysteryreader Cafe challenge!

This was not a dream...

I have at least one childhood "memory" that I'm aware of that didn't actually happen. It involves visiting the other side of my grandma's duplex while there was some kind of gathering taking place. The best I can figure, I had a dream that lodged itself in my long-term memory.

During the past couple days I was somehow reminded of a series of books I enjoyed during late elementary school. They were historical fiction, probably for teens, and each book was named after a girl...the only two I'm certain of are Joanna and Caroline. A lot of the books in the series were thick, at least in sixth grader terms - probably 250 pages or more. I remember keeping a log of how much time I spent reading one of the particularly long ones. (It's no wonder I thought I should be an accountant.)

The specific details of the stories have escaped my long-term memory, but I have fond feelings about those books. So, yesterday I went on Amazon to search for them. No luck. Even after various combinations of search criteria. Bookmooch, I thought. No luck. Maybe the online database for the library from which I actually check out those books 20 years ago. (Ack! 20 years ago?! I don't feel old enough to have actual memories of life 20 years ago.) Anyhoo, no luck, again.

I know I didn't dream these books. They existed! I swear! Does anyone else out there remember them?

Review: The Reader

Amazon.com Review. Oprah Book Club® Selection, February 1999: Originally published in Switzerland, and gracefully translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway, The Reader is a brief tale about sex, love, reading, and shame in postwar Germany. Michael Berg is 15 when he begins a long, obsessive affair with Hanna, an enigmatic older woman. He never learns very much about her, and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. But, to his horror, he does. Hanna is a defendant in a trial related to Germany's Nazi past, and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime. As Michael follows the trial, he struggles with an overwhelming question: What should his generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust? "We should not believe we can comprehend the incomprehensible, we may not compare the incomparable.... Should we only fall silent in revulsion, shame, and guilt? To what purpose?"

In the mood for a book that I could, hopefully, finish more quickly than some I’ve read recently, I searched my TBR shelf. I was surprised to find a copy of The Reader, which I had borrowed from my dad at least six years ago. The fact that I had hung on to this book that has now regained popularity by becoming a movie gave me some sort of satisfaction along with the happy surprise of finding that I owned it. As if it somehow helped prove my case that books are never a bad investment…they don’t get moldy or slimy like the bulk container of baby carrots that made its way into my cart during the first trip to Costco.

Unlike the carrots, I finished this book in less than a week. Although it wasn’t light reading, it was engaging. Bernhard Schlink’s writing style was uncomplicated, yet rich. I had no trouble connecting with Michael and understanding his fascination, confusion, and self-doubt surrounding his interactions with Hanna. Their affair impacts him throughout life, leading up to the trial and long beyond it. The end took me by surprise, but seemed perfectly fitting.

The moral questions go far beyond those specific to the Holocaust. How do you reconcile your personal experience of an individual when it conflicts so drastically with his/her past actions? How do you balance your emotions with logic? How do you reconcile a past that still influences you with the present?

If you enjoy books that make you ponder life, I recommend this one.

Review and Giveaway: The Broken Parachute Man

From the book cover: After middling pharmaceutical company executive Clyde Young boards an airplane to attend a national meeting to make a presentation concerning his employer's premium drug, his schedule is thrown into a curve when terrorists hijack the plane. After refusing to keep his head down, he is hurled out with a parachute that barely functions.

He is able to survive in the wilderness, but upon his arrival back to civilization, no one believes his story. They assume he is one of the terrorists that hijacked the airplane, so Young escapes to Las Vegas to determine why he was targeted and who was responsible for his ordeal. He lives as a street person and meets four people who believe his story: a sociopath, a prostitute, an alcoholic doctor and a pickpocket.

These people become his allies. They travel with him to the east coast and then to Europe. As Young continues his investigation, he discovers abuses on the part of his employer that could result in mortal danger for innumerable innocent patients. He must act quickly to expose the danger by staying one step ahead of the unknown criminals who are closing in on him and his allies.

I received an promotional review copy of this book early in February. The author, Robert Bolin, is an oncologist, and that fact, probably unfairly, made me skeptical of his creative talent. The beginning of the book sucked me in, as I read of Clyde’s struggle to survive in the wilderness amidst flashbacks to his corporate life. He even talks to us, the readers, at some points. I got to know him as a person with complex emotions and a drive to survive. Clyde’s escape to Las Vegas and his connection with the group of homeless people kept me interested. I was reading of a man who found a way (if at times far-fetched) to take charge of a situation into which he had be thrust and, in doing so, evolved as a person.

The second half of the book is where Clyde really begins to connect the dots regarding his employer’s scheme with the help of his homeless allies. I have to admit that my interest waned at points that were crucial to the plot. As I considered why this was, I decided it was at this points that I lost touch with the characters. Their personalities were overshadowed by the logistics of the plot, which was at times pretty complicated.

Clyde happens upon some extremely lucky opportunities for a homeless person and, with the help of his homeless friends, is able to capitalize on all of them in ways I think would be tough for anyone, much less people afflicted with mental illness, addiction, and other complicated life issues. I also felt that the pieces of the puzzle came together too cleanly. I can’t say it wasn’t captive suspense that kept me reading to the end, but simply the need to know what Clyde would do with what he learned. I must admit I was underwhelmed.

This being my first promotional review, I had hoped it would be glowing, as I appreciate the opportunity to help authors promote their creative efforts. I can only begin to empathize with the energy that goes into producing a novel and getting it published. The book does have its merits, as I mentioned above, and I think someone with a particular interest in the pharmaceutical industry might find the motivations of the big, bad drug company and related players entertaining. But, it probably won’t make my list of best reads in 2009.

Though I’m new to blogging and my readership is low, I am offering my copy of this book as a giveaway to anyone in the U.S. who might be interested. Just leave me a comment on this post with a way to contact you. I will draw a winner (if there is more than one interested party) on March 28, 2009.

I Fell Off the Wagon

I have no library books in my house, I was reading a book that qualifies for the Mysteryreadcafe Challenge, and I was looking forward to whittling away the books on my TBR bookcase...and then the Animal Humane Society annual book sale happened...

Last year I went to the book sale on the third day it was open. This time, I went on the day it opened, and when I saw people walking out with grocery bags full of books, I was hoppin' to get in there and shop. Pictured above is the "damage." But how can you feel bad about supporting such a good cause? :-)

In addition to my book sale haul, I received my first ARC ever, The Broken Parachute Man by Robert Bolin. I'm only about 30 pages in so far, but I'm liking it. I also borrowed two books from my mom and one from a collegue that had been on my Bookmooch wish list. I need to start practicing all those techniques I learned in my high school speed reading class!

Review: A Blessed Child

From Publishers Weekly: Amid Summering tourists on the tiny Swedish island of Hammarso, a blended multinational family comes together in this arresting and well-observed saga from Ullmann (Grace). Isak, professor prone to fits of rage, has a loving second wife in Rosa and three daughters by three different women. The eldest, Erika, 13, and the youngest, Molly, five, are flown to Sweden in the summer by their mothers to spend sometime with their brilliant, and infuriating father. Middle girl, Laura, Rosa's daughter, welcomes them; together, the girls apprehend terror in Isak's irrepressible fits and, tragically, in Ragnar, a local boy Erika's age who doesn't fit in. The narrative moves back and forth in time, as the three daughters converge 25 years later on Hammarso to visit their aging father, now mourning the loss of Rosa. In adulthood, each woman possesses a profound inner life haunted by buried childhood memory.

I finished reading A Blessed Child by Linn Ulmann right after Christmas. I had read good reviews of it and was interested by the fact that it had Scandinavian roots, being of Norwegian heritage myself. The book had its strengths. The descriptions of the island were vivid, and the use of what I assume to be common Swedish expressions, helped set the geographic tone. The emotions of the girls as daughters, sisters, friends, and adolescents, though sparsely described at times, were real to me and kept me interested in reading the book through to the end.

The overall sparseness of the book is what left me feeling somewhat empty at the end. There was so much material that could have been expanded...the daughters' relationship with their father; their reactions to being shipped of to live with him and their half sisters for the summer (I suppose it may not seem odd to them if it's the only life they've known); their relationships with their mothers; Ragnar's inner thoughts. My training in psychology is showing, I think. For some, the beauty of the book is likely that so much is left to the imagination. For me it felt hollow.

I don't feel like I wasted my time reading this one, but it wasn't near the top of my favorites for 2008.

I Won!

There are many generous bloggers out there who host giveaways, either sponsored by an author or publisher or by the blog authors themselves. When I come across a book that looks particularly interesting, I enter the giveaway.

Well, I just won a blog giveaway for the first time! Dawn from She is Too Fond of Books hosted this giveaway recently. H.L. Mencken is an author I have heard much about and never read. Additionally, this book picqued my interest and is outside the realm of what I would typically choose at the library or bookstore. I am excited to read it. Thanks again, Dawn!

Mysteryreadercafe Reading Challenge

Lynda helped me out again when she posted about this challenge hosted by Kari at Another Book on the Stack. This one only requires four books, and I'm betting I can make at least one of my Agatha Christie books fit the requirements for this one too. Here are the rules:

1. Read a mystery with the word "murder" in the title

2. Read a mystery set in your region

3. Read a mystery that has been on your shelf for at least a year

4. Read a mystery from a "new to you" author

Again, I don't want to designate all the books, but I can say that I will likely choose to read a Tammy Hoag mystery to meet rule 2. I have read her books before and enjoyed them. As for a mystery that's been on my shelf for at least a year, we'll go with The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. I picked it up at a charity book sale last winter after reading a lot of good reviews of it. That gets me one less book on my TBR shelf!

Review: Affinity

Synopsis (from http://www.bn.com/): An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women's ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London's grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work. Amongst Millbank's murderers and common thieves, Margaret finds herself increasingly fascinated by the one apparently Innocent inmate, the enigmatic spiritualist Selina Dawes. Selina was imprisoned after a seance she was conducting went horribly awry, leaving an elderly matron dead and a young woman profoundly disturbed. Although initially skeptical of Selina's gifts, Margaret is soon drawn into a twilight world of ghosts and shadows, unruly spirits and unseemly passions, until she is at last driven to concoct a desperate plot to secure Selina's freedom and her own.

I first learned of author, Sarah Waters, at A Work in Progress. I am not typically drawn to historical fiction, but that review of Fingersmith made it sound too good to resist. I read that book last year and really enjoyed it. There were definitely unexpected plot twists. I think my previous experience with historical fiction was that it was not written in modern English, which slowed down my typically slow reading pace even further. Sarah Waters' books are quick reads.

Last month I picked up Affinity at the library. I finally finished reading it last weekend after an extended break two-thirds of the way through to read Edgar Sawtelle.

The story is told from the journals of Selina and Margaret - Selina's journal kept up to the point of the seance-gone-wrong and Margaret's current journal. It touches on several themes, the first being depression. Depression, and mental illness in general, was not well-understood. Margaret was treated by her mother as being physically frail, and the prescribed charity work was basically an attempt to distract her from her depressed thoughts. The result is that she really just trades one set of troubling thoughts for another.

Hope is a second theme running through the book. People were drawn to Selina as a spiritualist because they believed she helped them connect with deceased loved ones. As she communicated on behalf of the lost loved one, the survivors are given hope that the person still exists out there somewhere and they will see him/her again. Margaret also finds herself drawn to Selina. Their relationship gives Margaret the hope that a life worth living is within her reach, and this becomes her driving force.

There is not much else I can say without giving something away. Consistent with my previous Sarah Waters experience, there is a very unexpected twist at the end of the story, and all along the way things are not what they seem.

Review: The Story of Edgar Sawtelle

From Publisher’s Weekly:
Starred Review. "A literary thriller with commercial legs, this stunning debut is bound to be a bestseller. In the backwoods of Wisconsin, the Sawtelle family—Gar, Trudy and their young son, Edgar—carry on the family business of breeding and training dogs. Edgar, born mute, has developed a special relationship and a unique means of communicating with Almondine, one of the Sawtelle dogs, a fictional breed distinguished by personality, temperament and the dogs' ability to intuit commands and to make decisions. Raising them is an arduous life, but a satisfying one for the family until Gar's brother, Claude, a mystifying mixture of charm and menace, arrives. When Gar unexpectedly dies, mute Edgar cannot summon help via the telephone. His guilt and grief give way to the realization that his father was murdered; here, the resemblance to Hamlet resonates. After another gut-wrenching tragedy, Edgar goes on the run, accompanied by three loyal dogs. His quest for safety and succor provides a classic coming-of-age story with an ironic twist. Sustained by a momentum that has the crushing inevitability of fate, the propulsive narrative will have readers sucked in all the way through the breathtaking final scenes."

Last night I reached the end of the journey that is "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle." In a word, it was heavy. Within the first 20 pages a dog and a baby had died, and that set the tone for the rest of the book. I raced through the first 250 pages, continuously curious about what would happen next but always uneasy about what the next chapter would bring. Somewhere after that, Edgar was on the run, and there were nights I looked at the book sitting on my nightstand and almost didn’t want to pick it up. The effort that was his life was making me tired, even though he was persevering. But, I had come to care about Edgar as much as one can care about a fictional character, and I knew I would finish the book because I had to know how things turned out for him.

There are so many themes threaded throughout the book, all of which contribute to the realness of the characters and the overall literary value of the story. First, the human-animal bond. Edgar’s relationship with the Sawtelle dogs, particularly Almondine and the litter of pups Edgar’s dad assigns to his care, demonstrates the strength of non-verbal communication, the power and value of the bond, and the purest kind of love. The personalities of the dogs are as real as Edgar’s, and we experience them through Edgar. Not much more can be said without giving something away, but it is a certainty that any animal lover will be deeply touched by the Sawtelle dogs and their bond with Edgar. Second, the impact of family legacies – both positive and negative. Edgar demonstrated unwavering devotion to preserving the Sawtelle breed first created by his grandfather. Along the way he encountered evil, corruption, and greed, but honored the breed and its intended purpose in every way he knew how. He believed in it will all his heart and tried to do right by those who came before him and preserve their traditions. Edgar’s story also speaks to overcoming adversity, the impact of grief and trauma, self-reliance, and moral responsibility.

The final scenes are breathtaking, and I will not giveaway the ending here. Be assured it is the type of ending that leaves you silent and reflective for a long time after you turn the final page. It’s a story that draws you in from the beginning and is worth every emotion-filled minute.

Latest Start

I had read about "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" on other blogs and added it to my library request list before it was announced as an Oprah selection. This weekend a copy became available for me, and I picked it up yesterday. (Three books followed me home from the library book sale too.) Twenty pages in and already a mix of emotions are at play. I'll take this as a good sign.

The real challenge will be finishing it in the two weeks I have before it's due. I must find a place to read other than in bed...and find the will power to ignore the new stitching project in the name of reading deadlines. Pictures of that to come whenever we find the charger for the camera battery :-(