Hey, I'm back!

I think I've found a new favorite author. The latest book I read Cloudsplitter is by Russell Banks. He's written a lot of books, but I've never heard of him until now. Incredibly talented writer. This book was almost 800 pages long, and yet, I had a hard time putting it down. You wouldn't think a story about John Brown would be so interesting, but it was. I mean John Brown the abolitionist. It's told from the point of view of his son Owen, who I think was the only one who made a break from the fateful Harper's Ferry debacle. I didn't know much about John Brown except for what was told in history books at school. He kept everyone in thrall to him and his religious preachings. This book is a portrait of a driven man who expected everyone around him to follow him and his dream. His dream was to free all the slaves in the Union. He thought they would all follow him( there were over 4 million slaves at the time!) He was fervent in his desire to free these slaves and did so on a continuing basis. This story gets brutal, extremely brutal, at times unbelievably so but it couldn't be put down. It's a compelling story and should be read by all who care about what is going on in our country today. There are a lot of parallels.

The Lacemakers of Glenmara by Heather Barbieri

Oh, yes this story is romantic, but it is also about the women of a small village in Ireland who make lace on a regular basis, sell it at the local fair and then have a young American woman show up to shake up their world.  She was dumped by her fiance which sent her into a tailspin. She decided to go to her mother's homeland and possibly find her way back to the world. She winds up in the village & sets the women there up in business selling their wares beyond their small area. Of course she encounters the handsome guy who has a tragic history and they fall in love. It doesn't end the way I thought it would, but that is a plus because then it would have been too predictable. Good story for a beach day!

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Loved this book! Has many short chapters and is VERY much told in a philosophical vein. The setting is an upscale apartment building in Paris. Each floor is an apartment with 5 floors total. the main character is the concierge who doesn't want any of the tenants to know she is an educated person, well-read & world-knowledgable. She thinks that she must keep up the appearance of a dull person without any outside interests beside her tv. Then there is the soon to be teenager who is planning suicide because she doesn't think that growing up and being an adult is an advancement in life. Her view of her family is very negative and depressing. What happens between her, the concierge & a new tenant are what keeps the story alive with suspense. Can't reveal the end of course, but read it if at all possible. You won't be disappointed. 

Linwood Barclay's Too Close to Home

Linwood Barclay's Too Close to Home is definitely a thriller! It's a book that is hard to put down from the very beginning. It starts out with a triple murder that is witnessed by a teenage boy at his best friend's house. Because he wasn't supposed to be there he can't tell anyone about it. The mystery is who would kill a whole family like that? Several kinds of reasons develop along the way & the reader is totally unsure of who the killer might be until very near the end. The book is written sorta like a made for TV movie, but that okay because the story is compelling.  

The Book of Evidence by John Banville

What a find this book is! Wow! I'm looking forward to reading more of his books. This is the story of a man who gets so completely lost in himself & doesn't have the will to change the path he is going down. The story is told as a first person narrative of his explanation of why he did what he did, which was to steal a painting & subsequently commit a murder. He's telling this supposedly while he is in court to determine what charges should be leveled against him. He's telling this as a means to convince himself and others that he had no choice in his actions. John Banville's telling of this story is so eloquent it is hard to put the book down. I didn't expect such beautiful construction and expression in a crime novel, but there it was. 

It's funny that I can find some really good writers and their books in the library & other times I wonder how the book got published. This one was truly a gift.  

Into the B section!

I love this book We Are All Welcome Here by Elizabeth Berg. I wasn't really sure of it at first because of the subject matter but I was enthralled eventually and absolutely captivated by the time I was finished. It's a story of a woman who contracts polio while pregnant but doesn't know until she is rushed to the hospital in distress. She gives birth while in an iron lung which would under normal circumstances spell death for the baby. She decided to raise the child and did so while in a wheel chair and on a respirator. She had help from Social Services but not much so she had to fudge a bit on her income. Nevertheless she manages to raise the child with help. The story is told through the eyes of the child. Loved the story.  

The B Section!!!!

Finally got to the Bs, yeh!!! I started with Honore de Balzac's Cousin Bette. Couldn't finish it because I couldn't stand the thought of referring to a woman as a spinster. She was a supposedly homely woman with attitude, but the reference to her as a spinster or someone to be pitied was too much. So the next book is by a British author using his pseudonym Benjamin Black. His real name is John Banville and he writes mysteries under that name. This book Christine Falls is set in Dublin. It involves a pathologist who does love his drink and who discovers his brother-in-law is involved in something not quite right. His brother-in-law is a beloved doctor who delivers babies. And this is part of the problem that brings the pathologist to realize he can't give up trying to find out what happened in his lab. Good story & unusual. Lots of soap opera, but intirguing to read.