Double-Stacked Bookshelves

Julia Glass' Three Junes is by far, hands down the BEST book I've read this year.  It was the 2002 winner for the National Book Award for Fiction and definitely deserved it.  I picked this book up for my scattered Edinburgh bookclub and I can honestly say that it's my favorite of all that we have read in the past nearly three years (ugh).  It makes you laugh, cry, smile, and think.  That's what makes this book so good. The story centers around the McLeod family, natives of Scotland, and follows members across continents, years, relationships, sexuality, heartache, anguish, and happiness.  It's told in sections from the perspective of the patriarch, Paul, his oldest son, Fenno, and Fern, a woman who manages to weave herself into the lives of these two men without much effort and who, after the first section of this book, the reader does not really think about again. We first meet Paul in 1989 and are welcomed into his personal anguish over the death of his w...

I finished Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go a few days ago and have not had the time to write about it until now.  I read this book for one of my online book clubs and I have to say that I really enjoyed it.  The novel centers around Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy; three people who have been friends since they were small children.  It is through Kathy that the reader travels through the lives of these three and experiences the many ups and downs that each character goes through.  Having read the synopsis, you are not given much detail about the plot of the novel.  Really, the only thing the reader knows is that they're going to be exploring the characters through flashbacks narrated by Kathy.  You don't know much about the characters except that they are "special" in some way and how they cope with what they learn as they grow up. Ishiguro really makes an effort to flesh out all three characters, but he does the best with his narrator.  Obviously we get to...

Having just finished Janet Evanovich's Smokin' Seventeen I have to say that I was disappointed.  Yes, it's better than the last book in the Stephanie Plum series, but they've just gone downhill for the past seven or eight books.  I hate to say that because I loved the first few, but after a while you just have to make a decision.  The love triangle is getting old, the skips all sound the same, the characters don't evolve.  It's monotonous! This book finds Stephanie, yet again, attempting to catch skips with her sidekick Lula, going back and forth between cop Morelli and security system designer Ranger, and being hunted down by a couple of people who want her dead.  It's entertaining at times (mainly when Lula is involved) and has some good scenes sprinkled throughout, but overall it's rather hum-drum.  The book does end on a nice cliffhanger that leaves the reader wondering who she is going to take with her on vacation and hints at a final decision ma...

Who knew that reading about Medieval queens could be so interesting!  I just finished Helen Castor's She-Wolves:  The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Castor, a historian from the UK, writes this history book with a real narrative flair that draws the reader in and presents true accounts without being boring or humdrum as so many historical books are.  The readability makes this nearly 500 page book a rather quick read and keeps you interested the entire time. As the title suggests, Castor focuses the book on four prominent ruling queens prior to that of Queen Elizabeth , the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn .  She starts the book with Mathilda , only surviving child of Henry I and eventual Empress of England, and chronicles her struggle to maintain order in the kingdom that she ruled for a few short months after her father's death.  She then jumps forward and examines Eleanor of Aquitaine ...

I just finished reading Randy Susan Meyers' The Murderer's Daughters for one of the book clubs I'm involved in.  This was our June pick, though we had to extend it to July due to everyone having such a packed month and being unable to finish it.  I was happy when this book was chosen because it's been on my To Read list for awhile and I just hadn't gotten around to actually reading it. As the title suggests, the story follows the lives of Lulu and Merry, the daughter's of a murderer who just happened to kill their mother and tried to kill Merry and himself while at it, and spans thirty years of their lives.  As would be expected, their lives are anything but normal.  Immediately after the murder, their father is thrown in jail and the girls go to live with their maternal grandmother.  When she dies they are foisted onto their mother's sister and her husband only to be shoveled out to an orphanage quite quickly.  They experience several disturbing situati...

Originally part of my A-Z Reading Challenge, though removed because I was on a long waiting list at the library, Pittacus Lore's I am Number Four was worth the wait.  The story follows the life of Lorien Garde "John Smith" and his Cepan (keeper/trainer), Henri, as they try to evade the Mogadorian race who are hunting the remaining Garde down one by one. John's been on Earth for ten years after escaping, along with eight other Garde members and their Cepan's, the total annihilation of his planet and has done well staying hidden and blending into society, but when he and Henri move to Paradise, Ohio, things change in unexpected ways.  Having moved constantly since arriving on Earth, John's become socially isolated and doesn't make the effort to meet people when he settles into a new place.  Queue the entrance of Sam and Sarah. Of course this wouldn't be very entertaining if the novel just followed the nomadic life of John; so he's given a love i...

I had to check David Besmozgis's The Free World out twice just to finish it (stinking two week limit and other responsibilities).  I just got it back this past Thursday and finally finished the last 200 pages or so and I have to say that I really enjoyed this book. The novel centers around the Krasnansky family; three generations of Russian Jews.  Their goal throughout the entire book is to escape the Iron Curtain and make it to the West and the "Free" world.  The story is told from several different perspectives; mainly Samuil, the patriarch of the family, Karl, the straight-laced oldest son, Alec, the charismatic playboy and youngest son, and Polina, Alec's wife.  There are other members of the family who've made the journey:  Emma, Samuil's wife and Karl and Alec's mother, Rosa, Karl's wife, and Zhenya and Yury, Karl and Rosa's sons.  The journey they go on eventually lands them in Rome, Italy.  It is here that the majority of the story plays...