February Book Choice

We will spend the next month or so in the drug world of Mexico, since we chose Queen of the South, by Arturo Perez-Reverte. I'm guessing this to be a rather long book, so lets give ourselves six weeks, beginning discussion March 5. 

Enjoy your February.

January/February book vote

I took a trip to Costco and found lots of interesting books to read, so I'm sorry, but we have six from which to choose:

Carry Yourself Back to Me, by Deborah Reed; I know nothing about this author, but it sounded interesting to me. What the heck. I like Florida and country music (or as my husband would say, I like both kinds of music -- country and western).

Queen of the South, by Arturo Perez-Reverte; I'm not sure I've ever read this author, though I have Club Dumas at home on my to-be-read shelf. Sounds like a big epic thriller, which always appeasl to me. Totally different from the above choice.

The Dispatcher, by Ryan David Jahn; How can you resist a "bullet-strewn cross country chase," especially when it's on I-10, which many of us have traveled. I can't help it. I love mysteries. And bullets. And cross country chases.

The Bungalow, by Sarah Jio; I seriously second-guessed this one because Kristin Hannah was one of the authors they quote as liking the book. Not a Kristin Hannah fan. Still, Bora-Bora and all.....

The Well and the Mine, by Gin Phillips; I have offered this book before and I will continue to offer it until you all give in! I am a sucker for books that take place in the south, though this sounds admittedly rather dark.

Salt: A World History, by Mark Kurlansky; random, but perhaps interesting.

Let's have our votes into me (kzmclain@comcast.net) by Monday, January 23.

Holiday Treats

After seemingly months of rather depressing books, this month we were given the option to read a Christmas book of our choice out of the hundreds out there. My personal favorite was Poirot's Christmas, a mystery novel by Agatha Christie featuring my favorite detective of all time, Hercule Poirot. But, while it was a predictably wonderful mystery story, it wasn't much of a Christmas story (though there was a funny part where Poirot exchanged a Christmas gift with Chief Inspector Japp).

So for my choice, I selected 1225 Christmas Tree Lane, by Debbie Macomber. I had never read anything by this prolific author, so I enjoyed the book from many standpoints. I found her to be a good storyteller, though the plot was fairly predictable.

Apparently this book was the last in a series that took place in a small Washington state town. The main character, in an earlier book, had moved from California after divorcing her husband whom she still loved. She bought a Christmas tree farm, convenient for this Christmas novel. The gist of the story was the woman's two daughters using trickery to reunite their parents, knowing that they were still in love. Sigh. I wish life was that easy.

There were very many subplots that conveniently wrapped up stories that had taken place in earlier novels in the series. Needless to say, every story ended happily. Divorced people reconciled, barren women were able to conceive, widows and widowers found each other and were going to live happily ever after. The story even featured puppies, rescued by the main character and all given away to happy homes. Heck, some families even took two! Why not? It's Christmas.

I don't mean to sound cynical. It was exactly what I needed to read during the busy and joyful season of Christmas.

I'm not sure, however, that Macomber's writing appealed to me enough to pick up another book. Life is too short and there are too many other books to read. Next Christmas, however, I look forward to reading a light-hearted novel with a happy ending.