The Vintner's Luck by Elizabeth Knox

6/10 - Ummm... I don't think I got this book. It's about a man's relationship with an angel, and is set on a Vintyard in France during the mid 1800's. Some parts were interesting, some parts bizarre, and some parts just disturbing. There were some interesting theological plot turns that were quite thought provoking. I found the language, while elegant in parts, was overall difficult to understand. I don't think it's a bad book overall, but not one I would recommend to anyone.

The Book of Joe by Jonathon Tropper

10/10 - You can't judge a book by it's blurb, and this book is a perfect example why. The blurb made it sound like a quirky funny light read, but there's really so much more to the story. It was also very touching and insightful. I really liked how he wrote about his high school years. It made me very nostalgic. Beautiful right to the very end. I highly recommend it. I just finished it tonight, and I've already passed it on.

Inspired Passages ~ The Book of Joe

Another revelation. I think this one requires a little more background. Joe has written a highly controversial book that portrays his home town and its inhabitants in an unflatterly light. Now he's back in town after 17 years and has reunited with one of his high school buddies who is dying of AIDS. They go out for bender and he runs into his friend's mother after dropping him off at home.

"So, you're a famous author now," she says in the same tone she might have used to say, "So, you're a convicted pedophile."
"I guess so," I say.
"Well," she says disdainfully. "You won't find me reading that trash."
"If you haven't read it, how do you know it's trash?"
"I heard about it," she declares gravely. "And believe me, hearing was plenty."
"Well," I say, placing the book back on the shelf and heading for the door, "I guess that's my cue."
I head down the stairs, now noticing the crucifix and assorted Jesus artwork that occupies every available bit of wall space. Wayne's mother follows behind me, muttering something quietly to herself. As I reach the front door, she calls my name softly. I turn to face her. "Yes?" I say.
"I'm praying for your father," she says.
"And what about your son?"
She frowns and looks heavenward. "I pray for his soul."
"He's not dead yet," I say. "I think he could use a little less praying and a little more compassion."
"He has sinned against the Lord. He's paying the price."
"And I'm sure the Bible has nothing by praise for the woman who denies her suffering child a mother's love in his final days."
She flashes me a dark look, her eyes filled with the defiant righteousness of the dogmatically pious. "When was the last time you read the bible, Joe?"
"You won't catch me reading that trash," I say. "I've heard about it, and believe me, hearing was plenty."

Good Grief by Lolly Winston

8/10 - I was really impressed by how well the author handled this topic. I think it's hard to center a book around grief, because you want things to turn out well for the person that lost a loved one, but you have to make it believable at the same time. You can't just make everything happily ever after at the end. I thought the book progressed a a perfect pace, and was entertaining. I would read more by this author.

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

8/10 - My Grandpa inspired me to read this book. It is one of his favorites. I always pictured him as a cowboy of sorts, and danced to Marty Robbins in his living room many a time. I was a little worried that I wouldn't like it for two reasons. One, it's a western. Two, it's a 1000 page western. The first half of the book was okay. I think it dragged a little just because there were sooooo many characters you had to get to know. The last half however went quite speedily and I enjoyed it much more. There are some really phenomenal characters in this book, my favorite for sure being Gus McCrae. Boy I just loved Gus! I also found myself wanting to speak with a drawl, and use phrases like "it was the derndest thing". I was more than a little dissappointed with the ending. You spend all this time with these characters, and then you don't even get to find out what happens with half of them, unless they're dead, which is a fair number. I could have made it through another 100 pages to find out what became of them. Mr. McMurtry? I could have used an epilogue.

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly

10/10 - This book was VERY dark and VERY gory! Don't read it at night when you are by yourself. That could be VERY detrimental to your blood pressure. However, it was also VERY interesting and VERY creative. Are you VERY sick of me writing VERY in all caps yet? I really enjoyed this book, but it's not for the faint of heart. Imagine if Stephen King was into writing fairy tales, that's what this book is like.

Zorro by Isabel Allende

6/10 - Although this story had it's entertaining moments, I found it to be rather cheesy and drawn-out. There was a lot of background at the beginning that didn't end up to be of any importance to the story. Too much at the front and not enough at the back of the story if that makes sense. I was expecting a lot more action and romance, and ended up with a lot of build-up to a flat climax. A rating of "I read it, it was okay" is a perfect description.

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

10/10 - Oh, this took me back to the days when all I used to read was Anne Rice novels. I just love the supernatural genre. This book also gets the award for most appealing male character. Can I trade places with Bella, please? Edward is, literally, to die for. I could gush about his attributes forever. Mmmmm..................... Oh, what was I doing. That's right, I was telling you about this book. So much fun, the perfect read for October. Lots of greats suspense, and did I mention Edward?

Inspired Passages ~ One True Thing

This inspired passage comes from the lovely Anna Quindlen. It is the best descriptions of what marriage is that I've ever read. It's hard to describe to someone who is not married how love changes over time, but she does it so well in this dialog between Ellen and her mother. I think any married person who reads this will appreciate the truth in it.

You make concesions when you're married a long time that you don't believe you'll ever make when you're beginning," she said. "You say to yourself when you're young, oh, I wouldn't tolerate this or that or the other thing, you say love is the most important thing in the world and there's only one kind of love and it makes you feel different than you feel the rest of the time, like you're all lit up. But time goes by and you've slept together a thousand nights and smelled like spit-up when babies are sick and seen your body droop and get soft. And some nights you say to yourself, it's not enough, I won't put up with another minute. And then the next morning you wake up and the kitchen smells like coffee and the children have their hair all brushed and the birds are eating out of the feeder and you look at your husband and he's not the person you used to think he was but he's your life. The house and the children and so much of what you do is built around him and your life, too, your history. If you take him out it's like cutting his face out of all the pictures, there's a big hole and it's ugly. It would ruin everything. It's more than love, it's more important than love.

Inspired Passages

I'm creating a new type of post, entitled inspired passages. I'm going to include an excerpt from a book that I found particularly poignant, inspiring, or just plain hilarious. The kind of passage that you would bookmark to have a friend read later. Or that you would pass to a spouse and say, "You have to read this part!". I find things like this all the time, and since I'm usually reading alone (or my husband wouldn't get it) I have noone one to share it with. So now I'm going to share it here. Isn't the internet a wonderful thing!!

One True Thing by Anna Quindlen

10/10 - I think a better name for this book would have been Many True Things. Quindlen just hits the nail on the head so many times in this book that it has inspired a new type of post for me. I'm entitling it "Inspired Passages". More on that in the next post. What amazed me the most was how Quindlen is able to write so convincingly from so many perspectives. The dialog in this book is just amazing. To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this book. To read the description, the story sounds so "done". But it was so much more that I thought it would be. I definitely want to read more by her, and will take every description with a grain of salt now.

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

10/10 - This is one of the most eloquent books I've ever read. It was amazing, and heartwrenching. The kind of book that you could read a 100 times and never understand all of it's meaning. I feel spent from reading it. It's hard for me to give a book that is so sad a perfect 10, but this book is perfect and sad. Side note - Why is this book categorized as Young Adult?

The Red Tent by Anita Diamont

10/10 - The mention of the word 'biblical' always makes me nervous. I start imagining pages of So and So beget So and So, then So and So beget So and So and so on and so forth. Although there is quite a lot of begetting in this book, the story is so beautiful and touching it is easily forgotten. I can't believe I waited so long to read it. There are so many key elements; love, mysterious places, different times, strong female characters. Working in labor and delivery gave me special perspective, although I think most women who have gone through childbirth appreciate midwives stories. This book earns a place on my highly recommended list.

Tangerine Dream by Ken Douglas and Jack Stewart

1/10 - Ooooohhhh Puke! Was this book written by a 15 year old porn addict or what? Lesbian twin sisters!?! I've never read a more ridiculous story line in all my life. For the love of Pete! I don't know how this book got such good reviews. It was a title that kept coming up on my Listmania searches on Amazon, so I put it on my Fiction Lover's Challenge List for this year. That is the ONLY reason I finished it. I can feel the bile rising in my throat even now as I look at the cover.

A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks

7/10 - A pleasant, quick little read. I did enjoy some of the more heartwarming parts, but I found it, overall, incredibly cliche'. This was over the top even for the sap queen here. I liked the author's writing style. It was very comfortable, like sitting and listening to your Grandpa tell a story. I just wish there was something, anything, original in the story.

The Other Boleyn Girl by Phillipa Gregory

8/10 - Again, I'm surprised to find myself liking historical fiction. It has never appealed to me, but I've picked up a few highly recommended books of the genre and I've not been dissappointed. I think it's especially poignant to read as a women. You can't help feeling appreciative of how far women have come. I was a little daunted by the length, but the author really kept the story moving. A very entertaining read.

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

8/10 - Quick, fun read. I loved Mma Ramotswe's straightforward matter-of-fact personality. This is a rare book because I wished it would have been more detailed, more in depth. You got a taste of Africa, but it would have been great to have that really immersed feel you get with more detailed writing. Fun read although very predictable. The characters and the unique African culture make it very entertaining.

The Book of Bright Ideas

10/10 - Heartwarming! It was everything I love in a book. Great characters, good mix of happy and sad, and a good if not somewhat predictable ending. Reminescent of Lorna Landvik, whom I love. I thought the story line was very believable. But the characters were fabulous! Can't say enough good things.

Gifted by Nikita Lalwani

2/10 - I really wanted to like this book, really I did. It was an advanced reading copy that I was given to review. But the truth is, it wouldn't have passed my 100 page rule under normal circumstances. It is utterly lacking in warmth, and the first half of the book is excrutiatingly repetitious. It reads like The Memory Keeper's Daughter (which I hated) and has elements of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (which I loved for it's humor and warmth, two characteristics which this book was completely lacking). There are secondary characters that we explore in detail, yet add nothing to the story. And the ending leaves us hanging over a precipice with nothing close to resolution or epiphany. I had to force myself to finish it, and when I did, I threw the book to the floor in disgust. I feel like such a jerk for writing this, this is the author's debut book, but I promised to be truthful, so there it is.

The Brothers K by David James Duncan

8/10 - It was a long journey, and I'm not sure where we were or where we've ended up, but I can say I enjoyed my stay. When the book came to an end, I didn't feel as emotional as I expected, being a lover of character driven fiction. I mostly felt disoriented, if that makes sense at all. I think my favorite part was the how the boys came of age in there own understanding of theology and their beliefs. I thought the advice their father gave them was so simple but important, and I liked how he really pushed them to be their own men, by not pushing them towards anything at all. That's how I hope to be as a parent. I want my daughter to chose her own path, but hopefully set an example that she'll want to follow. Very interesting book to say the least.