Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Please Look After Mom by Kyung_Sook Shin (#19) and Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz (#20)

A novel within a novel; people start turning up dead in a small town where a brother and sister team have a small business growing pot.
Not my cup of tea!









The elderly mother of a Korean family goes missing while catching a train with her husband in Seoul. The story of the search is told through the perspectives of the people involved. We realize the mother was hardworking, always putting family first, and no one recognized or
appreciated what she did until she was gone. Sad!

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand (#18) and Unexpectedly Milo by Mathew Dicks (#17)

So well written, the story of Olympic runner Louis Zamporini who joined the army during WWII, was shot down and drifted on the Pacific for 47 days until his capture and imprisonment in a Japanese POW camp. He endured the harshest treatment until his release at the end of the war. His life story is really the triumph of the human spirit over adversity.









Milo is a funny and quirky guy. He has OCD which results in several odd and compulsive behaviors, such as popping open jelly jars, singing a certin song in karaoke, bowling a strike, and others. He goes to a lot of trouble to conceal these behaviors from others. We meet Milo as his marriage is at a rocky point and he finds a stranger's video camera with recordings in a park. I very much enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more books by this author in the future.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy (#16)


Maeve Binchy is a favorite author, writing warm hearted novels of quirky cute characters in Ireland, causing me to want to visit that country. This concerns the residents of a particular street and their activities in that community. Frankie is the baby suddenly arriving in a surprise to the unsuspecting Noel, a sad young alcoholic with little hope for the future. Lisa is a talented young woman who hopelessly loves the charming Anton, but he is only using her when he feels like it, not really loving her in the way she hopes. Emily is a visiting American cousin who quickly settles into the neighborhood, making it all run like a charm. These and several others are the cast of characters in this lovely book. It comes to a tidy close but there are a couple of tiny lose ends that I wish were cleared up.