Our Souls At Night by Kent Haruf ****

This book is our December choice for Book Club- it took maybe three sittings to read it, which was nice, and I thoroughly enjoyed the book. Addie is a 70-year-old widow, Louis is a widower who lives nearby. One day Addie knocks on Louis' door and wonders if he would come and sleep with her sometimes, for company, not sex. Thus begins a wonderful friendship and a lovely story. The author died before the book was published- he knew he was dying when he wrote this book. 

Elena Ferrante novels

My Brilliant Friend: Book One of the Neapolitan novels

This is the first in a series of four novels about two girls, Lila and the narrator, and their lifelong friendship. As an insight into small- town life in Italy, and the pressures of growing up in that small town, this was interesting, but not enough to make me want to read the remaining three novels. 

May, 2016

Well, I re-read this and I enjoyed it much more the second time. It's very well- written, for one thing. Lila gets married at age 17, so we'll see how that goes. I just saw these two girls, Lila and Elena, as Sophia Loren and Sylvana Mangano, larger than life, voluptuous, fiery.

The Story of a New Name: Book Two of the Neapolitan novels.

July, 2016

Book Two commences with the wedding of Lila and Stefano, and much of this novel is about the tempestuous relationship of these two, so much so that I did get a bit bored with the excessive time devoted to such things as beach vacations. Elena is the narrator, and she has her relationships too, including a bad experience on the beach, some lengthy breaks in her relationship with Lila, and a continued lack of relationship with her mother. Again, her academic career is her main focus, and it becomes obvious that she is much more gifted than she thinks she is.

I found myself rushing to the end- at a certain point for me, books just get too long! It seems a week is about the longest I want to spend on a book- this one was 470 pages and took me 11 days to read, with "rushing". I think I will continue with these books, though. The writing is good, the detail is colourful, and it's a picture of a completely different way of life.

Slow Dancing With A Stranger by Meryl Comer ***

Harvey was a respected surgeon when he showed signs of memory loss. He denied it, as did many of his colleagues, including those who examined him. This is written by his wife, Meryl. Her mother also suffered from Alzheimer's, and for a time, the author, along with a staff of workers, nursed them both in her home.

The Illegal by Lawrence Hill ***

I thought I already posted this, but I guess not! Another disappointment, all the more so because a strong opening did not lead to a strong main line. I still don't know who was more corrupt than honest, and there were two main characters so similar it was hard to distinguish between them. Together they would have made a strong finish, but no luck. This wasn't even close to the good writing of The Book of Negroes.

The Birthday Lunch by Joan Clark ***

I was disappointed with this novel. Joan Clark wrote An Audience of Chairs and Latitudes of Melt, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, somI was looking forward to this novel. It's a week in the life of a family in New Brunswick, centred around the death of Lily, the wife, mother and sister of the remaining characters. Clark obviously wanted this to be- as she says in her acknowledgements - " as tight as a drum", but for me, it ended up being like a reporting of events, rather than a deep look into each character, to find out why Laverne and Hal hated each other, why Laverne let the driver of the truck that killed Lily off the hook, why she put water in Hal's gas tank. I know it was jealousy, but I just didn't get involved with this book at all. 

I haven't had much luck with good reads this fall- I read 700 pages of The Edge of Eternity before I just couldn't stand it any longer. Yuck- good thing I've got my jigsaw puzzles and the Blue Jays!

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr *****

I just re- read this- my first reading of this beautiful novel was in October, 2014. Since then, Doerr has won the Pulitzer Prize, just about everyone I talk to about books has read it, and it's our first book choice for the fall in Book Club, so we'll be discussing it this Saturday.

This time, I read much more slowly to revel in the beauty of the language, and the exquisitely drawn characters. Marie- Laure is representative of all that is good, as is Werner's sister Jutta. Werner is good too, but he has to come through some challenges to his character before he does become a good person. He was able to wade through the cracks at the boys' camp he was sent to because he is smart and he has an affinity for radios, a useful tool for the Germans. But he stood by and watched his friend Frederick destroyed without speaking up. Volksheimer is a hit man, basically, but is like a father to young Werner, and says often of him " what you could be!" Papa is so devoted to his daughter and the Musée in Paris that it eventually leads to his imprisonment and likely his death. 

Such care was taken in the writing of this novel, and it is for that reason that I read it slowly, and really did not want it to end. Doerr ties the three stories together so masterfully - Marie-Laure, Werner, and Von Rumpel. I just can't say enough about this book!

No Regrets by Carolyn Burke ***

I read a bio of Edith Piaf many years ago, but I downloaded this more recent one as I was preparing for the concert this week, where I am accompanying Colombe. Since this is the closest I've ever gotten to Piaf's music, I was happy to take on this gig, even though Colombe and I had less than two weeks to work together. Reading this book at this hectic time of practising and rehearsing was very helpful, and helped me understand the songs even better.

And what a life! It wasn't hard to read at all!