The Buffalo Soldier - Chris Bohjalian

I liked the first Bohjalian book I read - Midwives very much. It took a difficult topic and presented it with a narrative and a variety of voices. The Buffalo Soldier is similar. As I was reading this book, I kept wondering why I hadn't read more of Bohjalian after I finished Midwives. The story moves along slowly, exploring the story from several viewpoints. Each chapter is written from a different point of view, and normally that is something that I hate. Normally, I have trouble remembering which character is in the lead at the moment. But in this book, Bohjalian brings out the character in more than what is in their head or the events they lead. The chapters have a different feel based on which character is in the lead. But the entire book feels like flowing down a stream - moving along toward the final moments - but not urgently, just drifting.

I'll be picking up more of Bohjalian either at the library or the bookstore.

Traveling around Facebook is a list of books that supposedly the BBC thinks you will have only read 6 of. I kept my count at the end of the line. I was doing good with 6 out of 7 to start.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (1)
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien (2)
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (3)
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling (4)
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (5)
6 The Bible - the whole thing and not just parts. (I tried and gave up, several times)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (6)
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell (7)
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman (8)
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens (9)
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott (10)
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller (11)
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien (12)
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (13)
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger (14)
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (15)
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald (16)
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (17)
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck (18)
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (19)
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (20)
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens (21)
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis (22)
34 Emma - Jane Austen (23)
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen (24)
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis (25)
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini (26)
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden (27)
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (28)
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell (29)
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (30)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (I tried several times - 2)
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving (31)
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery (32)
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood (33)
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (34)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan (35)
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel (36)
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons (37)
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen (38)
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon (39)
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens (40)
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley (41)
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon (42)
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez (I tried - 3)
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (43)
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt (44)
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold (45)
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas (46)
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding (47)
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville (I tried multiple times - 4)
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens (48)
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker (49)
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (50)
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson (51)
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante (52)
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (53)
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (54)
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker (55)
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (56)
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White (57)
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (58)
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (59)
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams (60)
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare (61)
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (62)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo (63)


So out of the 100, I read 63 and 4 of them I tried to read and decided they weren't worth it.

Iodine - Haven Kimmel

This was just a strange book, a puzzling book. I still enjoyed the style, but I had to really pay attention to follow along. It follows a girl who is coming close to graduating from college when she becomes involved with a professor - that is the easy part. But the rest of the story is the flashback to how she got there; her relationship with her family and her past. It is these flashbacks and remembrances that are the bulk of the book - and where the confusion comes in. Trace/Ianthe, the main character, is trying to reinvent herself but her past keeps coming back in. It makes it painful to read, painful to think about living like she does.

It is the kind of book that I am still thinking about a few weeks later. But it is not a book I am likely to read again.

by Haven Kimmel

• The Solace of Leaving Early by Haven Kimmel
• She Got Up Off the Couch: And Other Heroic Acts from Mooreland, Indiana by Haven Kimmel
• Something Rising (Light and Swift): A Novel by Haven Kimmel

These are the books by Haven Kimmel I have read in the last month. She is one of the few authors I read all the way to then end and then read the acknowledgements. Love her! If you haven't read her you should. A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Up Off the Couch are memiors, but she also have 4 novels (I've only read two so far). She has a wonderful sense of humor - wry, dry, with sarcasm (of course).

Kat's Cradle - Karen Kijewski

My fun, silly, book club book. This is one of those books that are part of a series with the attendant silly caste of characters. We needed something fun for book club after the stuff we had been reading, so I suggested this one. It has an interesting twist that is something to discuss at the end. Did the mother know - and did that change how she reacted? I look forward to discussing that on Thursday.

I might even go back and reread the entire series.

So many books so little time (6)

After reading In a Dark House, I wanted to read more - more brain candy, so I went to my local independent bookstore and picked up what he had for Deborah Crombie (including 2 of one by accident). And then I went on a binge of junk reading the first 5 books in the series. I don't think I read any of these over more than 1 day:

All Shall be Well
A Share in Death
Leave the Grave Green
Mourn Not Your Dead
Dreaming of the Bones

These are not as good as In a Dark House, but I feel I know the characters more.

And for book club, I read Kim Stanley Robinson's The Years of Rice and Salt. That one took a week of dedicated reading every night. It was interesting, but if the author hadn't been coming to book club, I would have stopped after 100 pages. I don't feel like it was a waste of time and after talking to Stan, I would have to say I think more favorably on it now than I did before.

But I've just been too busy to think about what I read and then write - sorry.

In fact, I keep think I read something else since I last wrote. For the life of me, I can't think of what it would be? I know I started Your Money or Your Life - maybe that's what's nagging at me?

In a Dark House - Deborah Crombie

Set in London, this detective story must be part of a series. Rarely do I pick up a book in the middle of a series, but this time I did without even knowing it. I don't even know how this book ended up on my "To Read" pile - probably the friend I currently work for... I enjoyed the obviously recurring characters along with the mystery itself. While many mystery books rely on coincidences to make things happen, this one turned them around a little bit.

I find myself wanting to read the books that precede this one and the ones that come after; a good sign. I may keep it and re-read it when I get to it's spot on the chronological order of the series. But I'll definitely pass it around to other readers.

The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri

I don't know where to start in reviewing this book. As I was reading it, there were several paragraphs that described perfectly how I have felt at different stages in my life. Other parts were wholly unfamiliar. I enjoyed the introspective nature of the main character, but didn't feel a good connection with many of the supporting cast. There were passages that made me ache and other ones that didn't touch me at all. Overall, it has me thinking and that is a good thing.

I would recommend this book, but I am still not sure whether it will be going on the permanent shelves. I already lent it out.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

As I read this book, I kept wondering why it is considered a classic. The only thing I can think of is the fabulous description of the bull fights. The rest of the book left me bored and struggling to pick it up. I even went looking for reader guides or discussion questions to give insight into what I failed to notice. Even with those questions, I don't see what the fuss is about.

I'll be sending this back to the person I borrowed it from - and I'll have to think of something to say at book club next week.

Safe Haven - Hannah Alexander

This one was lying around my parents house when I was taking a break. As expected, I picked it up and made it through 80% of the book before I headed back home. It's part of a Christian medical thriller series and I won't be going out of my way to finish it. I would pick it up if I happened to see it, but I have a pretty good idea where it will end up. The beginning of the book was pretty light on the save your soul message but the references to finding / relying on God are getting more and more frequent. The mystery isn't all that mysterious or thrilling to me, although I suppose if I finish the book I could be surprised.

Update March 7, 2008: Mom hand delivered the book to my house, so I finished it. I had barely 30 pages to go. Yup, just as a suspected. Not terrible, but not brilliant either. Since I am reading so much less these days, I am trying to be more selective in what goes onto my To Read shelf. Books by this author are unlikely to make it.

Deadly Gamble - Linda Lael Miller

Yup, I read a book that isn't from my "To Read" shelf - which is packed so full it should be shelves. My mom handed me this on and said she wanted it back when I finished. What a perfect excuse to read the introduction to the wacky Mojo Sheepshanks. This is fun in the vein of the Evanovich Plum series, but I don't feel that I need to keep it around. I look forward to more Mojo adventures in the future.

Now, back to A History of the World in 6 Glasses. I'm almost halfway through, or I think I am, since I am up to coffee having completed the beer, wine and spirits sections.

The Edge - Catherine Coulter

Brad, owner of Book Lovers, recommend I read the Catherine Coulter's FBI series. She will be signing her next book at his store in the summer. Since I am generally looking for a new series of brain candy reading, I picked up The Edge.

It was good as brain candy of the mystery, detective goes, but it wasn't spectacular. I enjoyed the story when it was in Edgerton, Oregon. But once they were assaulted and whisked to South America, I lost all ability to suspend belief.

I will try another book in the series, but at this point, I would only pick these up used and when I am running low on my "To Read" pile.

Their Eyes were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston

Reasons this book should be considered a classic:

• Strong character development of the main character - insight into her thinking at different ages
• Non-idealistic view of love and how people who love each other can react - jealous, controlling, abusive, supportive, loving, friendly, etc.
• Societal norms - follow or not to follow?
• Sense of place - gives the feeling of the South during Jim Crow years

I'd never heard of this book before I found it on my "To Read" shelf. Even while I wasn't reading this book, I wondered what would happen next. I considered the life she had left behind and compared it to the life she was embarking on. I wondered how she would end up alone at the end (they tell you this at the beginning).

A wonderful book, I will be passing it on. If I wasn't paring back the bookshelves, I would keep it.

Dark Tort - Diane Mott Davidson

Another book in the Goldie Culinary Mysteries series. I wonder how long she can really keep this up. This was book 13 and I am really starting to get the hang of enjoying these. I have to read them quickly and not think about them too much. If I do think too much, I can easily figure out where things are going. Each book in the series has become less and less enjoyable. I will probably continue with the series, but I'll make sure to get them used and in paperback.

In this installment, the neighbor is murdered and Goldie discovers the body. Now, she is off to help find the killer.

This one will go to the family reading circle and then back to the independent bookstore.

Confessor - Terry Goodkind

Yippee, the Sword of Truth series is over! This last book in the series was fast paced and action packed; wrapping up all of the major characters that have played a role in the last 10 books. This is not a book that someone who hasn't read any of the rest of the series should read. I have read the rest of the series (more than once for most books) and I was thinking, "and how does this character fit again?"

Somehow he has tied up all the loose ends and still left the door open to return to this world sometime in the future. However, it wasn't enough for me to keep the series. Now that it has been finished, I'll be taking all of the books to the book store for credit.

Touchstone - Laurie R. King

I enjoy Laurie King books and usually, I enjoy her non-series books more than her series books. Touchstone was different. It is set in 1920s England with a US FBI agent investigating a terrorist who is believed to be an English gentleman involved in workers' rights. The book was slow going and in fact, I finished it a few weeks ago. I just didn't know what to say about it. I trudged through the beginning of the book and somewhere in the middle it picked up steam. It wasn't a book that made me think about larger issues as some of her other ones do, it was just a story to me.

I'll be keeping it for now, but if it wasn't a Laurie King book, it would probably get passed on with out having a permanent home in my library.

Firmin - Sam Savage

This is a book club pick and not one that I voted for. It is " Savage's sentimental debut concerns the coming-of-age of a well-read rat in 1960s Boston." The rat lives in a book store and tells his life story. It was definitely different, and thankfully quite a quick read. I started it this morning and finished it this afternoon. It wasn't terrible, it was just forgettable. Rat eats book and lives in slum...

I borrowed it and I'll be giving it back.

Stardust - Neil Gaiman

This book was a fairy tale. A boy goes off to find a fallen star for his love and the star is a girl. A delightful story filled with talking animals and all manner of adventure. It brought a smile to my face several times. But, I don't think it would be worth reading again.

I'll be passing it on.

Perfume by Patrick Suskind

Perfume is one strange book and the ending was very very disconcerting. It was a quick read and quite original. The idea of someone with a perfectly discerning nose for scents who doesn't have any individual scent of his own was unique. Set in the past, when odors were much more pronounced, it was an interesting tale. I just wish I had stopped reading before the last chapter.

I will pass this on and see if anyone else feels the same.

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

This book reminds me of Who Moved my Cheese? Simple easy reading with a hammer of a moral to the story. There were parts that made me think a little. I liked the idea that enthusiasm is as much a universal language as love is. I like the idea that everyone has a personal goal and that the universe is trying to get you to it - although not always in ways that you would understand. However, I liked the book more as I was reading it than I do in the days after finishing it. It was easy to get sucked into the philosophy of the book (much like when I read Ayn Rand). However, the lingering taste is not necessarily one that I treasure.

I think I will keep it and pass it to others and try to read it again in a while. Maybe it will improve with another reading?