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.

Halsey's Typhoon by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin

So why was I reading a book about the US Navy Admiral Halsey during WW II? I was at Barnes and Noble looking for a Father's day book for my 91 year old dad. He loved the Navy and I like to find him good Navy books. It is amazing that new ones keep popping up-- most of the folks who served in WWII are no longer living-- where is the audience for these books? I should also say that I did have a particular affinity for WW II things in the 1950s-- I watched Gallant Men and Hogans Heros religiously with my parents and yes I liked the movie South Pacific, which may explain why I decided to read the book before sending it to my dad. OK so Admiral Halsey was another one of those ego maniac guys who follows the rules even in the face of a typhoon coming. While he is charged with giving General McArthur cover as he "retakes" the Philippines, a big storm whips up. Halsey does not clear out his Blue Blanket Naval fleet of destroyers who get tossed around like balls on a blanket as the typhoon grows to a very scary size. The main interest in the book is how the captains and their shipmates handle the storm- some are complete Captain Queeg nut cases and others are heros. Ships go down (3 of them) and about 800 men are lost. Somehow Halsey never gets really blamed for his dumb decision to make them all stay in the path of the storm instead of getting away. I was surprised to learn that some of the men who were interviewed for the book had never told their families about what happened to them- those who were rescued from sea where sharks and the blistering hot sun literally ate away at them. In the end I decided the book was a little too junky. I found another one called the Cobra Strikes -- which was also written about the typhoon and what happened to Halsey's fleet.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

This book was a big hit in France. A 12 year old suicidal girl Paloma and the concierge Renee in her apartment building share similar passions- observing life with "deep philosophical thoughts" and hiding their inner lives from others. At the end they learn to reach out beyond themselves and make friendships and realize they can be appreciated for who they are. A little trite. The first half of the book was very slow...the second half perked up with Mon Ozu a rich Japanese chap with a singing toilet joins the inhabitants of the apartment house. This was Nora's choice for book club. She loved it ...perhaps her thoughts are deeper and more philosophical than mine! She teaches high school German.

Palestinian Walks by Raja Shehada

This is another slow and sad book about a Palestinian lawyer, Raja Shehada, who finds himself more and more confined in his walks in his beloved Palestinian hills outside of Jerusalem. Israeli settlers are grabbing Palestinian lands and building roads and compounds to keep the Palestinians out. He has spent his life trying to fight in the courts to save the land grabs for Palestinians and is worn down by his inability to make a difference. He felt that the Palestinians sold out at the Oslo Peace Accord when Israel agreed to recognize the PLO but did nothing to stop their continued settlements on Palestinian land. Raja turns to writing to make some peace for himself and describes the many rambles he takes and the beauty he finds in the wadis, flowers and geology. This was our book club book and Mea put out a nice spread of Middle Eastern treats to eat. I appreciated how he could look at both sides even though he disagreed with the Israelis who see this as their land even though it has been 3,000 years since many of them lived in the area. They also feel the Palestinians could move to one of the many Arab nations if they are unhappy.

Waiting by Ha Jin

This is a slowly told tale about a Chinese army doctor, Lin Kong, who lives in two worlds- one with his traditional wife and daughter in his rural village and the other in the army in a city where he works and secretly pines away to marry the nurse he works with, Manna Wu. Lin Kong and Manna Wu eventually express their love to each other and have a very slow courtship, as they are not allowed to engage in any physical love with each other at the army hospital unless Lin Kong gets a divorce. Each year on vacation he goes back to his country wife, Shuyu , to ask for a divorce and each year she refuses until after 15 years of requests she finally gives in. Lin Kong marries Mannu Wu, but as alas finds that he may have made a mistake. Life is not peaceful, she bares him twin sons and he regrets that he gave up his previous wife and daughter (they have since moved to the same city so his daughter can find work) as well as his ability to loose himself in reading books. The rigid life of the Chinese who follow traditions as well as the new strict communist regime make me appreciate the culture I live in and take for granted most of the time.

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan

This is a book about the love affair between Mamah Borthwick Cheney and Frank Wright. It is not until about 3/4ths through the book that you learn how to pronounce Mamah's name. Small things like that drive me crazy. So do the big things such as how Mamah walked out on her family including two young children to go to Europe with Frank. I never felt the character development was strong in this book- it seemed mostly like an obsessed rambling from Mamah who was bored with her husband and smitten with the architect who designed their home. I feel she gets her just desserts when the house in Wisconsin Taliesan where she and Frank lived burned down - unfortunately it killed her kids but not Frank who manages to keep building houses and adding 2 wives to his portfolio.

Identical Strangers by Elise Schein and Paula Bernstein

This is a book about two girl twins who are adopted as babies and find each other at the age of 35 without realizing they were twins. The NY adoption agency was part of an experiment to separate twins whose mothers had mental health problems and observe them growing up in different families to see what part heredity vs environment plays in the twins' mental health. While the writing is a bit sloppy, I liked how the twins Elise and Paula wrote about the experience each from their own perspective. Elise was the eager one (also single and living in Paris) seeking out her twin, the mystery of the adoption agency and her birth mother. Paula was reluctant to have Elise become apart of her life- she was married and had a little girl. They had many similar interests such as film, and yet were also quite different. I was struck by the nasty and secret nature of the adoption agency and their unwillingness to help the twins piece the puzzle together about why they were separated for adoption. I found it touching when their birth uncle agrees to meet with them just once at the end to share the story of their severely depressed mother and what happened to her. This will make for some good book club discussion next week!

Eclipse and Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyers

I have now finished the Twilight series. In these last two books, I definitely preferred Eclipse and the major role Jacob plays. The tension between him and Bella works nicely. Things I did not like about these books was how Bella always manages to hurt herself. "Be careful Bella" is Edward's patronizing phrase. In Breaking Dawn things get weird as Bella marries Edward and then becomes pregnant. I really lost interest in the last book but plowed through the big fight scene and ending which wraps things up way too nicely. Thank you Stephanie for not writing a 5th book in this series. The first one is still the best!