She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb ✔✔✔✔

I read this probably about 20 years ago, and have read every novel since written by Wally Lamb.  I believe it qwas a very early "Oprah book" and was loaned to me by Janie.  I was recommending books to the girl who does my nails - she's in her mid-twenties, and; I mentioned Lamb's name to her at that time. Then when we visited Bracebridge, I saw it on Rynnetta's "give-away shelf", so I brought it home for her.  In the meantime, I re-read it - in four days, all 465 pages!  Rainy days helped this for sure,but it is a very easy read and so good!

Dolores  is thirteen when we meet her, her childhood behind her because of a particularly harmful experience she had.  She's beached like a whale in front of her TV, nourished only by junk food and an anxious mother, whose life has not been terribly functional, either. Now at age 27 and 257 pounds, she's ready to give herself another chance.

I guess what I appreciated the most is that the author - a man - was able to so accurately write about a young girl's growing up.  And the book is loaded with detail, although very clearly written - you never have to turn back pages to figure out who someone is.  There's neighbours in the apartment upstairs, a grandmother who agonizes over her daughter and her grand-daughter, a guidance counsellor who ends up a close friend, a tattoo artist who also ends up a mentor and advisor, spoiled girls at college, bratty girls at work, a psychologist who spends seven years re-working Dolores' childhood - the characters are as colourful as Dolores herself, and few of them are forgettable.

This is a funny, painful, wise, heart-rending story, and I saw so many of young girls I taught at school in Dolores.  A very good book for everyone to read, and I'm glad I re-read it.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachael Joyce ✔✔✔✔✔

FINALLY - a book I could fall into!  First off, I must say I tried reading Elizabeth George's new book  '"The Edge of Nowhere" but gave up on it, too - it was just plain boring and so predictable.

But this one was marvellous - Harold Fry gets a letter from Queenie, a co-worker from 20 years ago, telling him she is dying of cancer. He writes her a letter and takes it down the road to post it, then somewhow decides he would rather deliver it in person, and not only that, but he would walk to 800 miles to get to the hospital where she is spending her last days.

It's the story of friendship, marriage, love and loss, and how at age 68, Harold finds himself again in the journey.  I LOVED this book and I didn't want it to end.

The Three Miss Margarets by Louise Schaffer ✔✔

I don't know how I heard about this, and I was likely more intrigued by the title than anything.  It was  pretty quick read, and I skimmed over a lot.  It's hard to decide whether she was trying to emulate really good Southern writers like Anne Rivers Siddons, Fannie Flagg, or Kathryn Strockett, but no matter - it didn't work.  I grow tired of characters who (a) have a drinking problem because of some deep dark past (b) had rotten parents, or (c) fell in love with the wrong person.  And that about sums up many of the characters in this book.  'Nuff said - there's another book I want to get started on.

Seems a while since I read a REALLY good one!

The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson ✔✔✔✔

Allan Karlsson has had a long and eventful life, but as he approaches his 100th birthday, he is very unhappy living in a nursing home.  He's very healthy and he hates Nurse Alice, the administrator who is planning a big birthday party, so the morning of the celebration, Allan steps out of his window in his slippers and embarks on an amazing, unexpected and hilarious journey.

During his adventures, we also learn of Allan's history, and it is an impressive one for he has taken part in some of the most important events of the 20th century, met and mingled with such people as Harry S. Truman, Mao Tse-Tung, Stalin and even LBJ in a unique capacity.

The opening part had me laughing till tears ran down my face, and I thoroughly enjoyed the whole book.  It's a sort of Forrest Gump as Allan embarks on this remarkable journey as well as an interesting look back at events of the 20th century. And if I hadn't checked the credits, I would not have even guessed that it had been translated from Swedish.

The Guilty Plea by Robert Rotenberg

I read the author's first book and really enjoyed it, and this one is even better.  I could not put it down, as much for the fact that the settting is Toronto - with visits to Cobalt and New Liskeard, too - as it is a good crime/legal thriller.  Short chapters, swift action, hardly any screwing!  Good read!!

Death of a Schoolgirl by Joanna Campbell Slan

This book is a continuation of "Jane Eyre", one of my all-time favorite classics.  Jane has given birth to a son, and is very happy in her marriage to Rochester.  But his ward,Adele, who is attending a private school in London, writes a strange letter, and Jane is sent to find out what is going on.  Of course, there's a big mystery - well not really, it's actually a little mystery but the author drags it out like crazy and by about 2/3 of the way through you're just crazy for it to be over.

No one does Jane Eyre like Charlotte Bronte, I guess.  I did like The Flight of Gemma Hardy, though, which is a re-writing of Jane's story - this is a continuation.  Two stars.....

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh ✔✔✔

This is the story of a young woman who, because she was taken away from her mother at a very young age, is not able to form relationships. She's gone through many foster homes and is usually removed from most of them because of her behaviour, until she comes to live with Elizabeth.  Early on, the reader knows that she has not continued to live with Elizabeth because on her 18th birthday when the book begins, she becomes homeless.  However, she has developed a close relationship and understanding of flowers, and it is this that ultimately - but not without lots of hurdles along the way - saves her.

This was a quick read and entertaining enough.  The best parts are the flowers, and their meanings, and at the end of the novel there's a dictionary of flowers with their meanings.  For example, red carnations mean "my heart breaks", daisies mean "cheerfulness". Holly means "foresight".
Roses:  orange is "fascination",  pink is "grace", red is "love", white is "a heart unacquainted with love" and yellow is "infidelity"  Hmmm - I love yellow roses!  Who am I being unfaithful to, I wonder?