First up, 
The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd. One of the few books that, for me, lived up to the hype, despite my initial misgivings. I've seen it reviewed as "one of those books my mother reads", which makes me think maybe I'm older than I realize. But this coming-of-age novel about a 14-year old girl learning about identity and community set against the stark realism of the deep south of 1964 was a quick and affirming read. Themes of forgiveness, love, and humor - the chick-lit triad - abound, but in a good way. Even though my friend Dante, the bookstore owner, poo-pooed it as something a guy would never pick up, I still liked it. Bookcrossing'ed 4/22/10 - BCID: 551-7942396
The Secret Life of Bees, by Sue Monk Kidd. One of the few books that, for me, lived up to the hype, despite my initial misgivings. I've seen it reviewed as "one of those books my mother reads", which makes me think maybe I'm older than I realize. But this coming-of-age novel about a 14-year old girl learning about identity and community set against the stark realism of the deep south of 1964 was a quick and affirming read. Themes of forgiveness, love, and humor - the chick-lit triad - abound, but in a good way. Even though my friend Dante, the bookstore owner, poo-pooed it as something a guy would never pick up, I still liked it. Bookcrossing'ed 4/22/10 - BCID: 551-7942396
And then we come to Mr. Paradise. So, this is the Elmore Leonard that all the fuss is about? Not that it was a bad read, and I can see the draw for screenwriters wanting to put it on the big screen - plenty of dark, all-too-human characters, motives, & settings to exploit in a grainy way, paired with oh-so-spare writing. But really just a quickie, a noir nooner of a story. Bookcrossing'ed 4/23/10 - BCID: 478-7961370These books bring me to 13 of the 52 books and 5,419 of the 25,000 words I've set myself as a reading goal this year. That's 22 and 25 percent, respectively - a little behind for coming up on 1/3 of the year under our belts. (Jeez, already? How did that happen?)
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I'm SO not into the Oprah picks sort of books that I initially thought that The Secret Life of Bees was ... and absolutely loved it too. :)
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You make me feel like a reading slacker. I used to read two or three books a week. Lately? To embarrassed to say.
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