Recent Reading

Some books I've enjoyed  -- books  I would recommend to friends. I'm not going to even attempt to hint at plots or link to reviews --  you all know how to ask Mr. Google.

I have yet to read an Anne Tyler book that didn't instantly immerse me in a world full of very real people with very real lives -- low key, even ordinary -- if any human being can be called ordinary. I think this is Tyler's genius, that by depicting these lives with such exquisite and empathetic observation, she touches on something universal.  A Spool of Blue Thread, like most of Tyler's novels is about a family . . . and anyone who's been a member of a family will probably recognize characters and situations. Beautifully written -- Tyler at her best.

Ellen Foster was Kaye Gibbons's debut novel. This powerful first-person evocation of a young girl looking for a family after the death of her mother kept me reading till 3 in the morning. Ellen is a tough little survivor and her story is by turns heart-breaking and heart-warming.  Ellen's no-nonsense, don't-feel-sorry-for-me voice is pitch-perfect. I loved this character. 

Alice Hoffman's brand of magical realism is always enjoyable -- a little dark at times but not the kind of dark that leaves me depressed. Her writing is beautiful  --  reminding me a bit of Ray Bradbury. (She does weather and gardens especially well.)

Fortune's Daughter and The Story Sisters both kept me reading late into the night . . .

And now for something completely different. Not so much estrogen. Terry Pratchett's recent death set me thinking that I might give his books another try. Somehow the one or two I've read in the past didn't make the impression on me that they probably should have. I may have started in the middle of a series or something. So as a prelude to reading some Pratchett, I re-read Good Omens -- co-authored by Neil Gaiman (whose novels I adore.) 

I'd liked the book the first time I read it -- this time I really liked it: the goofiness, the theology, the characters, the Apocalyptic vision, and the resolution of it all.

 And I particularly like Dog -- the Hell Hound destined to be the Anti Christ's companion who, to his bewilderment, finds himself suddenly smaller and less demonic -- cute, in fact. And really interested in doing dog stuff.

Great fun!

An Amateur Marriage

Anne Tyler never disappoints me. Her books are quiet, closely observed depictions of ordinary people living ordinary lives -- even boring lives -- but just as closeup photography 

reveals new facets of everyday objects, Tyler's precise characterizations reveal the unexpected complexities in the most mundane of humans.

The Amateur Marriage (and aren't they all?) follows Michael and Pauline from their whirlwind infatuation with one another, just after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, through the years of their marriage and beyond.  Two mismatched souls, struggling for happiness in the confines of their ill-fitting partnership, these characters come alive on the page.

I'm baffled to explain just why I was so entranced by this book-- but I will say that when I crawled into bed last night, I had every intention of beginning a thriller by Lee Child. I'd picked it up at the library along with the Tyler book.  The thriller was on the bed beside me but before I turned to it, I picked up The Amateur Marriage, just to have a look.

Around a hundred and fifty pages later, it was past midnight and I reluctantly put the book down and turned off the light.  Lee Child would have to wait.