The Tortilla Curtain by T. Coraghessan Boyle

This is the story of two couples in Los Angeles: one, a wealthy writer and his real estate agent wife who live in an exclusive hilltop community; the other, illegal Mexicans, just trying to find work to survive. They are thrown together by a freak accident and series of events. The story is alternately told from each person's point of view. It explores the issues of immigration and racism in a very compelling story; it is very well written. I rate it 3 out of 5.

Dewey - The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter

Dewey was stuffed into the book return slot of the Spencer, Iowa, library on the coldest night of the year and found the next morning (Jan. 18, 1988) by the library director. It was love at first sight for both. Dewey spent the next 19 years charming the people of Spencer. It's a heartwarming story of a special cat. I read it for the January selection of Bookworms Reading Group. I'm not sure that there will be all that much to discuss. I rated it 3 out of 5.

New Book

Well, it happened again. I started a new book on Sunday (A Thread of Grace), and then a book I'd placed on hold at the library came in on Wednesday (Dewey - The Small Town Library Cat Who Touched the World). Dewey is the January selection for Bookworms Reading Group, and other people have the book on hold after me, so if I want to read it soon, I had to check it out today and start reading it. I'm a fairly slow reader, so by the time I finish Dewey, I'll probably need to read the book my Four Star Reading Club is discussing in January (The Namesake). So I'm not sure when I'll get back to A Thread of Grace - I may even need to start it over (I don't read more than one novel at a time). I hate it when that happens!

The Queen's Bastard by Robin Maxwell

I actually finished this book in November and forgot to post about it.

This book is a sequel of sorts to The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn. The premise of the book is that Queen Elizabeth gave birth to a bastard son, whose father was Robert Dudley. Elizabeth hid her pregnancy from all but a few close to her. At the birth, Kat Ashley took the baby away, replaced it with a dead baby, and told Elizabeth the baby was stillborn. She took the baby to her former sweetheart, Robert Southern, to be raised as his own child. It turns out there really was an Arthur Dudley who claimed to be the son of Elizabeth and Dudley. And in the early years of her reign, there were rumors of bastard children. Interesting idea. Well written. It kept my interest. I rate this book 4 out of 5.

The Gift by Pete Hamill

I read this for my online bookclub - Bookworms Reading Group - which is a Yahoo group. It is the story of a young sailor who is home on leave during Christmas of 1952. His family is poor, his girlfriend has left him, and he's back in the dreary apartment his large family lives in. While it was a fairly well written story, it seemed a bit simplistic and even sappy to me. I rate it 2 out of 5.

John Adams by David McCullough

I stopped reading this book at page 153 (of 651). Parts were interesting, but it was SO DETAILED, almost to the point of street addresses. That made it very tedious in places. And when it got to details of battles in the Revolutionary War, I decided to put the 3-DVD HBO movie series on my Netflix queue instead of finishing the book (I've never been good with battle scenes).

I did read enough to learn that John Adams was a remarkable man who was very instrumental in our independence from Great Britain. And his wife, Abigail, was just as remarkable a woman. They were completely devoted to each other. Both were very intelligent, well read, and well educated. I would really like to learn more about them, so I hope the movie version is good.

Persuasion by Jane Austen

This is the second book by Jane Austen that I've read. Not quite as good as Pride and Prejudice, but enjoyable. This is "a love story tinged with the heartache of missed opportunities." Anne Elliot, at age 27, is unmarried. She had been engaged to Frederick Wentworth 8 years earlier, but her friend Lady Russell persuaded her to break off the engagement. All of Jane Austen's novels end "happily ever after," but getting there is always enjoyable. She had a real knack for writing about society and manners and what was really important. I rate this 3 out of 5.

The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George

I finally finished this book - it took me almost 2 months because it's over 900 pages. It was a fascinating book about a subject I knew nothing about. I never got bored with it, but I'm glad to be through with it. Very well written. Told from Cleopatra's perspective, there is a lot of historical fact in the book. A lot of conjecture as well, since Cleopatra left no actual memoirs. I rated this book 4 out of 5.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

This is an auto-biographical novel about a young woman's breakdown. The book opens with Esther Greenwood on an apprenticeship to a fashion magazine in New York. When she returns home, she is already deeply troubled. Her mother seems to believe she can just snap out of it. She tries to kill herself with sleeping pills and is found. She is institutionalized for six months.

Just before her release from the asylum, her doctor tells her that a lot of people will avoid her:

"My mother's face floated to mind, a pale, reproachful moon, at her last and first visit to the asylum since my twentieth birthday. A daughter in an asylum! I had done that to her. Still, she had obviously decided to forgive me.

" 'We'll take up where we left off, Esther,' she had said, with her sweet, martyr's smile. 'We'll act as if all this were a bad dream.'

"A bad dream.

"To the person in the bell jar, blank and stopped as a dead baby, the world itself is the bad dream."

I rate this book 3 out of 5.

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I finished this today. I liked parts of it, found other parts to be rather boring. It is the story of Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza, who fall in love as youths. Fermina decides to marry a wealthy doctor instead. Florentino is devastated, but he waits over 51 years for Fermina's husband to die. He declares his love for Fermina again the day of her husband's funeral. The book starts right before Fermina's husband's death, proceeds through Florentino's declaration, then flashes back to their youth. Most of the book follows the 51 years of their separate lives.

I was disappointed because I was expecting the book to be better. I liked the beginning and the ending, but it often bogged down in the middle. I would rate it 2 out of 5.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I finished this book a couple of weeks ago. I know I've said this a lot lately, but this really is one of the best books I've ever read. I don't even know where to begin to describe this book (in fact, I've had this post in draft form since I finished the book, not sure what else to add; I finally decided I better just post it). So I'll start with what's written on the back cover:

"It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

"By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hnidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, whereever there are books to be found.

"But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down."

I rate this book 5 out of 5.

The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

OK, we've been back for several days now, and this is my first chance to post here. The Nationals were fantastic! I will be uploading a few pictures we took as I have time. I also finished one book while we were gone and started and finished a second since we got back. Both books were for Bookworms Reading Group Yahoo Group.

The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue - The story is told by Razi, who stays "between" after her tragic death as a young woman. She tried to find out what happened to the love of her life, Andrew, after she loses track of him. She also becomes interested in a young couple 70+ years after her death. The story moves back and forth between past and present in no particular order (like random memories popping up). You would think that that would be very confusing, but it isn't. It turned out to be a very effective way of telling the story. I rated this book 4 out of 5.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho - Santiago is a young shepherd boy who dreamed of finding treasure at the Egyptian Pyramids. He is advised by a gypsy woman and a mysterious king to pursue his dream. Along the way, Santiago meets several people who teach him many things that help him on his search. It was a kind of mystical story that was well written, but I couldn't really identify with. I rated this book 2 out of 5. My favorite quote from the book was this - "'It's not what enters men's mouths that's evil,' said the alchemist. 'It's what comes out of their mouths that is.'"

Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult

I finished this book today. It was good - not the best book I've ever read, but good. And it had a pretty surprising ending that I won't give away. It was about an 18 year old unmarried Amish girl who gives birth to a baby and is accused of the baby's murder. Through some unusual circumstances, the girl's attorney ends up living with the girl and her family, and so there is a lot of interesting information about Amish life in addition to the basic story. I would rate it 3 out of 5.

Now I'm starting Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen.

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

I finished A Thousand Splendid Suns yesterday. It was one of the best books I've read in awhile. A very well written, gripping story that often made me angry; I think the story will stay with me for a long time. I highly recommend it - I rate it 5 out of 5. And by the way, this author's first book is The Kite Runner, which is also a really good book. I've been told that the movie stays pretty close to the book, but I always think a book is better; you can get so much more from the book. So, read the book, then go see the movie.