A "Devine" Reading Experience

The Inn at Lake Devine by Elinor Lipman is one of those books that make you want to go out and buy the author's entire backlist as soon as you read it. This book is well-written, well-paced, funny, poignant and relevant. It's a really fast read and once you pick it up you won't want to put it down.

The story centers around a Jewish girl named Natalie Marx. The first part of the book takes place in the 60s during Natalie's childhood. After seeing an add for the title in in a magazine Natalie's mother writes the inn for information. The proprietress politely writes back "Gentiles Only".

This is Natalie's first experience with blatant anti-semitism. She quickly becomes obsessed with the inn. On a summer trip to Vermont she convinces her family to masquerade as gentiles to see if they can get a room.

The second part of the book takes place after Natalie graduates from college. A childhood friend is marrying the son of the proprietors. Natalie returns to the inn for the wedding and her life changes forever.

Part of the joy of this book is the way the author handles heavy subjects in this book with out being heavy-handed or preachy. Highly recommended.

Late Reading

Every once and a while I will purchase a book by one of my favorite authors and sometime between the time of purchase and the time I get home I will become absolutely dead set against reading it. On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn has been sitting on my bookshelf since 2006 and I finally convinced myself to read it last weekend.

This is the eighth and final book in the Bridgerton series and I'm glad that I read it. But unlike the other books in the series (with the exception of the one about Benedict) I won't ever read it again. I can't tell you what I didn't like about it--something just rubbed me the wrong way. I know that it's probably irrational, but that's just the way it is.

Movie 10, Book 8

Like many of my generation, I have seen The Princess Bride maybe a hundred times. I can quote large passages of it ad nauseum. But until recently, I had never even though about reading the book. I'm glad I did because it gave me a prime example of a situation where the movie is better than the book.

I don't mean to imply that the book is bad. It's a great book, it really is. But the movie is so much better.

Things I liked about the book:

• Cinematic imagery
• Fezzik rhyming (he even thinks in rhyme)
• Inigo's backstory

Things I could have done without:

• Anything written by Goldman in his own voice (unfortunately there is a lot of this)
• The long lost Buttercup's Baby sequel (don't even read it--it's not worth your time)

Overall, it's a really funny book that inspired a truly great movie. Well worth the effort.

P.S. If you're the type to check the reviews on Amazon before reading a book, be sure to read the reviews by people who don't realize that there is no S. Morgenstern and the book isn't really an abridgment at all. I can't tell whether they're meant to be serious or ironic--and that's what make them art.

The (REALLY) Thin Place

I've been trying really hard to formulate my thoughts about The Thin Place by Kathryn Davis. It's been really difficult. Not because I have too many thoughts, but because I really don't have any at all.

I heard about this book on NPR and they were just raving about it. I'm not sure they really read it. I only got halfway through and I gave up. I will stipulate that the author has a talent for prose. It really was some of the most evocative writing I've ever read. And her characters are incredibly fleshed out. The problem is that nothing happens. There are way too many characters and because there isn't a plot, there's really no way to keep them straight. Because there isn't a plot, the pacing is non-existent. The slow pace isn't helped by the short, disjointed chapters that hop between around 15 characters.

Reading this book is a chore. I would rather clean than read this book again (or finish it for the first time). I really hate to clean.

Du Maurier knows Suspense!

Daphne du Maurier is the Grand Dame (literally) of British mystery writers. Rebecca is the first of her novels that I've read and it kept me guessing until the very end. This is a dark, psychological tale that starts out a little slow, but by the time the pieces start to fall into place you'll be hooked

The narrator of the book (we never learn her name) meets a dashing older man in Monte Carlo. They fall in love and marry quickly. When they return home to England, this very young, very shy woman has trouble adapting to life at Manderly (their estate). Everything is compounded by the fact that his first wife, Rebecca, was a larger than life figure. The narrator feels crushed by the weight of the comparison.

I must admit that I don't have a lot of sympathy for shy characters. I spent part of the book wishing that she's stand up for herself. Du Maurier is such a skillful writer. The sense of sympathy we feel for the narrator grows as we slowly begin to realize that Rebecca was not the paragon everybody thought she was. When the narrator finally stands up for herself I cheered.

I don't want to give too much away. The plot twists and turns until you're not sure which way is up. A reviewer on another site mentioned that Dan Brown should take lessons from Dame Du Maurier. I couldn't agree more.

A Howling Good Read

I'm always a little leery of paranormal fiction. If done well, it can be some of the best fiction out there because there is a lot of room for creative license. But, there's also a lot of potential for dreariness.

I'm ashamed to admit that I was reluctant to read the Mercy Thompson series by Patrica Briggs. Based solely on the cover art, I was sure that these books were going to be dreary to the extreme. But I couldn't have been more wrong. The fourth book in the series, Bone Crossed, just reinforces the adage that you can't judge a book by its cover.

The fourth installment of the series picks up where the third, Iron Kissed, left off and takes off fast. Mercy (a coyote shapeshifter/VW mechanic) can't seem to get rid of those damned vampires. If they're not using her as a pawn, they're trying to kill her. Or possibly do both at the same time. Someone has vandalized her business, and and old college frenemy wants her to go to Spokane to ghostbust a house (nevermind that Mercy isn't a ghostbuster). On top of this, she's entering a new phase of her relationship with her alpha werewolf significant other, Adam.

I highly recommend reading the first three books in the series before opening this one. The universe is somewhat complex and there are many characters and settings not fully explained to new readers. Also, Mercy has had some traumatic life experiences in the past and her way of dealing with them might seem strange to those unfamiliar with her personality.

On the whole, Bone Crossed, is a super fun read.

Cranford

I was inspired to read Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell after watching the PBS/BBC miniseries last year. The town of Cranford is dominated by women. There are relatively few men, at least in the social circle of the characters in this book. The main characters are all single, either spinsters or widows, and they fiercely guard their way of life.

The book, originally published serially in 1853 in Charles Dickens' magazine Household Words, is a series of vignettes of the daily life of Miss Mathilda Jenkyns. This book is definitely character driven and starts off slow. Nothing truly exciting ever happens in Cranford and you have to get to know the characters before you understand how small disruptions can make huge waves in their lives. Gaskell manages to convey how important small events are to these characters. You get the sense that if anything big ever happened they'd die from the shock. The narrator, Mary Smith, a frequent (and slightly more worldly) visitor to the town tries to keep molehills from turning into mountains and for the most part is successful. But, sometimes even she gets sucked into the daily drama.

Fans of the miniseries might be disappointed with the book. Many of the funniest storylines from the series are added. But, the loyalty and friendship the characters display towards each other should endear this book to all but the most jaded reader.