The Cookbook Collector: A Novel by Allegra Goodman

The flyleaf refers to the author as a modern-day Jane Austen. Um, yeah. Why would you do that to someone? This book was good, but clearly, it was going to be a disappointment. The story lacks the humor of Austen, but it was good.

It's about two sisters who are complete opposites. One is about to be rich in the dot.com explosion. The other is a wanderer who can't seem to get it together but is blissfully unaware (they are no Elinor and her sister in Sense and Sensibility). It was interesting and a good read.

Leaving Earth: A Novel by Helen Humphreys

Lately, I seem to be reading a lot of books with :A Novel as part of their title. Not sure what that's about.

This book is about 2 women who are trying to beat a stamina record for time in flight. It seems about the turn of the century, there were constant contest as to who could fly the fastest, the furthest, the highest and the longest. It was an interesting story of the dynamic between the two women who stay in flight for 18 days straight. There are side-stories of a young girl who is fascinated by the 'girl fliers' and the husband of one of the flyers. It was an interesting read about a period of time that I do not know much about. It really made me want to find out if the characters are fictional and who they are based upon. I think it could lead to some really great discussions.

The Killing of Strangers by Jerry Holt

This book is based around the Kent State shootings. I was interested in this book because I had heard about this event, but didn't know any details. I now live not far from Kent State and have several friends who graduated from the school.

The Killing of Strangers follows Haggard, a former police officer turned fired security guard, who has been hired as security for one of the central figures of the shootings, a woman named Crystal. At the time of the shootings, Crystal was a star in the anti-establishment movement. She was married to Delbert who disappeared in the aftermath of the shooting leaving Crystal pregnant and bewildered. Now, years later, Crystal is a drunk who believes that Delbert is back. A lot of government agencies are also interested in where Delbert has been and what he knows about what really happened on the day of the shootings.

The story involves Haggard traveling back and forth across the state of Ohio tracking down a conspiracy. I enjoyed the recognition of places in Ohio but thought the book wasn't well written or polished. I did learn some about the history of the Kent State Shootings but am left wondering which parts of the story are truth and which are fiction. It was just 'alright'.

Waiting: A Novel by Ha Jin

This book was very interesting. Especially if you like reading about other cultures. It takes place from 1960s through 1990s China. It is the story of Lin. He is a doctor and lives in the city, away from his wife and daughter who are in the rural countryside. His wife was chosen for him by his parents who needed someone to take care of them in their ailing states. Lin and his wife never really lived together, sharing a home only during brief holidays. Lin is embarrased by his rural wife and starts a romantic, non-physical relationship with a nurse at his hospital. Yearly, he returns to the country-side to ask his wife for a divorce which is not granted for 19 years.

The book portrays life in China which is quite different than life in the US during the same time period. It brings up topics for discussion as to the nature of love, marriage, home, friendship, duty and the power of anticipation. What is worth waiting for? At what point should you give up waiting and make a life out of what you have? What is love? Is the love you want as a young person the same as the love you want as an older person? Can you grow to love someone? I found the book interesting and thought provoking.

The History of Love

Most of my book club didn't like this book. I did. It's a complicated story. Leo, a holocaust survivor lives in New York. He feels so alone, he constantly draws attention to himself to be sure he exists. The one thing he ever did in life was to love Alma. He wrote a book for her called The History of Love but it was lost in the horrors of the war. He also has a son with Alma who doesn't know that Leo exists.

Enter Alma Singer, who was named after Leo's Alma. Her parents read The History of Love in Spanish. Leo doesn't realize that his book has been published under another man's name. Alma Singer is trying to save her family. Her mother is depressed after the death of her husband, Alma's father and Alma's brother just keeps getting stranger and stranger. Eventally, the fates conspire to bring Leo and the second Alma together.

This is a lovely story. Sad but full of hope.

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

My friend loaned me this book and OH! was it good! A psychological thriller as good as Shutter Island. I don't even want to tell you anything about this book. Basically though, it involves a man who sends off for A Reliable Wife through mail-order. He doesn' exactly get what he expects. Spooky and thrilling and surprising.

This was Goolrick's first work of fiction, he also wrote a memoir which I will never, ever read (Think the Glass Castle) called The End of the World as We Know It.

Swann: A Novel by Carol Shields

I love this author and I had never heard of her before! I stumbled across her in an article about the origins of the Margaret Atwood novel, Alias Grace (fabulous book, by they way). The article was about true murders that occurred in Canada, which leads us back to this book.

Mary Swann is a 50 year old Canadian farm wife who writes poems that she sends in to the local newspaper. One of the few people in town that she associates with is the local librarian who tells Mary of a publisher who is looking for poems. Mary goes to meet the publisher and leaves with him a bag full of her poems which are written on scraps of paper. She then heads home to the farm where her husband murders her, dismembers her and then kills himself.

This story follows the 4 champions of Mary's career. The young female professor who 'discovers' Mary's small book of poetry; the retired newspaper editor who is Mary's publisher; a biographer who is planning a book on Mary and the town librarian.

Throughout the story, all evidence of Mary's work seem to be disappearing and each of the four had hidden secrets that reveal more than they know about Mary's work.

I really liked this book!!