Now that I’m done, I can say it; What the heck was this? A person who was an editor and writer once told me that readers have to be able to like, empathize, or at least understand a character in order to be able to enjoy a book. In this book NONE of the characters are likeable, and what’s more they are all verbally abusive to one another; mother to child, child to father, sister to sister. Set in India, the mother keeps her teenage daughters locked in their rooms for most of their lives, supposedly to keep them safe, but then says things to them like “Your days are numbered” and “I wish you were dead”. And the book starts off with one of the daughters being approached by a man in town, and there is this whole back and forth between the two where he goes after her, then she goes after him, then he drives her home and……nothing. Nothing more is said about the relationship or what happened. I could not wait for this book to be done and then felt like I needed to wash.

Full disclosure: I am a Stephen King fan. But as I read this I was a little disappointed in the first half as I found it predictable. But I should have had faith in King, because the second half delivered what I was waiting for. A young man hitches a ride from his college to the hospital where his mother has been taken. When it comes to choosing a ride, do you use your head and logic, or do you listen to your instinct? King will help you look at this a whole new way.

I could not wait for this book to be over. It is an autobiographical novel about the author’s experience growing up gay into young adulthood. The trouble is that it reads like a list of her sexual exploits beginning when she was 9 years old. And what little story there is revolves entirely around the fat that she is gay, as if that is the determining factor in every event that happens.

This is a compilation of short stories set in Africa. They involve, for the most part, issues between man and animal or animal and animal. They are interesting and fun but also have a larger message.

This book follows the 2 daughters of the man who was responsible for people seated on the throne of England in the 1400's. It follows the 2 girls through their lives and does a beautiful job of following their changing view of the position of Queen from their childhood until their death. It is a wonderful, albeit at times a grim, look at the life of powerful women during that time period.

This is a wonderful tale that everyone can relate to; the anxiety and anticipation surrounding a high school reunion, and Smith tells a wonderful tale here. And as the old classmates gather, grudges come to the surface, and secrets behind them are revealed.

OK, so this book has an interesting beginning. A highly successful pistachio grower in Italy in the 1920 becomes a popular man in his town. Citizens love him and value his expertise. Then enter the Mafia, who begin to shake down the town’s people. The grower resists and encourages others to do the same. This makes him and his family a target and thus begins a years long battle between the Mafia, along with the police, and the Sacco family. It is based on a true story and while the beginning is interesting, the rest of the book is just a back and forth of fighting and arresting. It was informative but not really interesting.

This was an OK romance book; not too sappy and portrayed the female central character as strong and independent. But there were just too many characters and unnecessary short sub-plots. For example, one of the side characters is losing and then does loose his mother to brain cancer. How can you make this a sub plot? And because the side characters were not well developed it took me a while to remember who everyone was.

A wonderful book

I did this book as an audio book, and I felt like someone was telling me a story nor reading an audio book to me. This is based on a true story and is sad, and wonderful, and hopeful, and amazing. It’s about a small group of people who live isolated, though harsh and beautiful, lives until someone comes and wants to help them. The display of humanity here will evoke feelings here and make you think about how society creates rules and how people are affected.