Sarah Canary by Karen Fowler

This book is set in Washington in the late 1800s near Steilacoom. It is the story of a monster like woman who escapes from a traveling show named Sarah Canary. She can sing but not speak. A Chinese man named Chin who works in the logging camps and railroads, tries to help her. Along the way they end up picking up a rag tag band of followers- a man named B.J. from the insane asylum, a women's rights speaker named Adelaide. Small poems from Emily Dickinson start each chapter. This book did a nice job describing the setting of the NW in that era. I was interested to learn about the Indian canoes that were made for the dead and put in the trees. Sarah Canary played an interesting foil for all those who tried to keep up with as she continue to slip away from their guidance.

The Seville Communion by Arturo Perez-Reverte

I decided to branch out and read a mystery book. I found this one at a mystery book store in Tacoma. It is set in Seville and Rome. The Pope's personal computer is broken into by someone in Seville who wants the Pope to save a small church, which is scheduled to be sold to developers. Lorenzo Quart, a priest from the Pope's staff is dispatched to investigate. He meets a host of characters -- Macarena Bruner and her mother who are some of the very few parishioners who attend the church. Several mysterious murders take place of officials who come to inspect the church and Father Quart is left to piece things together. As with most mysteries who did it is a mystery until the end with plenty of suspects along the way. Entertaining but not amazing.

Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie

I must be on an Indian jag. I have always wanted to read something by Salman Rushdie. Somehow his other books seemed too big and daunting. The main characters in this book are Max Ophuls, an Ambassador at one time to India, Booyni Kaul, his lover, India Ophuls, their love child, and Shalimar the Clown who is Booyni's husband. The settings are in Kashmir. England and California. The book is well written but takes awhile to absorb the many names and tensions between Hindi and Muslims, Anglos and Indians, etc. This is another tragic story about poor Indians who get caught up in the callous life of the rich. Boony leaves her husband for Max and comes back disgraced and slightly crazy. I think what impressed me the most was how Salman could write about historical events from a European perspective and from an Indian perspective. Ironically this book has a chauffeur also murdering his boss. Must be a popular Indian theme! I might even take up one of his other books now.

The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

I picked this book up in the Portland airport while Doug and I were waiting for my dad to arrive. The Powell's book salesman said he really liked it. I thought the author did a good job of describing the lives of the rich new Indians as well as the rural poor who go to work for them in the big city. Ultimately it was pretty depressing as the rich are corrupt and abuse the poor. Balram starts out in school with the name boy (munna) because his family never named him. He shows talent and wins a scholarship. Alas he has to leave school and go help his brother work in a tea shop. Balram is interested in getting ahead as an "entrepreneur". He says, " And our nation though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy, or punctuality, does have entrepreneurs. Thousands and thousands of them. Especially in technology. And these entrepreneurs- we entrepreneurs have set up all these companies that virtually run America." He learns to drive and becomes the chauffeur for Mr. Ashok and Pinky Madam, a wealthy couple. Balram moves to the big city with them and they all begin a downward spiral, murdering his boss in the end.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

This book is a series of letters written by Juliet the writer to her publisher, best friend, and a group of people on Guernsey Island which is one of the English Channel Islands. At first I found the letters amusing as Juliet searches for the topic for her next book. Her letters are bright and clipped and witty, particularly to Sidney her publisher and Mark her American pursuer. She uncovers a fellow named Dawson on Guernsey Island who shares the life of the islanders and their literary society born out of an excuse to foil some Nazis who found them breaking curfew. Juliet goes to the island and discovers much more. All the islanders love her. She learns about the brave Elizabeth who dies in a Nazi prison and leaves a young daughter on the island. Alas this all ends up with too many coincidences and a too happy an ending for my liking. Half way through the book, I was done. My mother in law liked this as I knew she would! Of interest is that the niece Annie Barrows edited and finished the book for her aunt who was dying of cancer (and it was the aunt's first book)

The Other by David Guterson

This book has a lot of familiar Northwest woods and Seattle scenes in it. It is the tale of two boys who become friends at a track meet. Their friendship evolves over the years with one of the boys who comes from a wealthy family becoming a hermit on the Olympic peninsula. While at times it is not totally believable, I liked the faithfulness of the friend who continues to visit his hermit as the years go by and in the end receives a surprising bequest some 29 years later. Guterson is a poetic writer and this book evokes the foggy damp green of the woods well. Here is one of my favorite images "... the express (train) had just gone through at high speed a minute or so before and the passengers in it flashing past like kings, queens, and jacks in a thumbed deck of cards, ephemeral as thoughts" p. 47

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

I liked this book which I think is semi-autobiographical of Sherman Alexie. Junior decides to switch from his rez school in Wellpinit to Reardon an all white kids' high school. He writes about the challenges of being Indian and deserting his tribe to go to the white school. He leaves because he opens up a math book and sees his mom's name in it from 30 years ago and realizes that the rez school will always have the worst textbooks, teachers, etc. He loves to read and play basketball. He talks about getting erections, crushes on girls, friends, getting beat up, being scared, his parents, sister, and grandmother and what it feels like to be Indian. He knows he has to leave the rez to live-- many of his family members die due to drinking themselves or someone who is drunk does something harmful to them.