Comments

• Jan Wislocki

  "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen is a great story. Even though there are some "cruel" parts the majority of the story is wonderful. The way the author goes back and forth between the present and past keep you turning the pages. It feels like an historical fiction as you learn about the early circuses in our country. Great ending!

  6/20/2008 1:41:40 PM
• Debbie Hourigan

  Girls of Riyadh: by Rajaa Alsanea The book tells the love stories of four young Saudi girls, Lamees, Michelle (half Saudi, half American), Gamrah, and Sadeem in the form of emails. It is cleverly written and a quick read.

  7/11/2008 8:39:13 AM
• Debbie Hourigan

  In The Poet of Baghdad by Jo Tatchell, the life story of one of Iraq’s most revered poets, Nabeel Yasin, is framed against the turbulent crises in his homeland that took place before, during, and after the brutal regime of Saddam Hussein. Yasin’s poetry became a call to arms for his generation (he is known as the “Iraqi Bob Dylan”), but made him an enemy of the state; ultimately, in order to stay alive and protect his family, in 1979 he fled Iraq for Europe, where he lives today.

  7/11/2008 8:41:17 AM
• Debbie Hourigan

  The Red Scarf by Kate Furnivall. This is the story of two young women who have been placed in Davinsky Labor Camp in Siberia. Sophia strikes up a frienship with Anna and learns of her past life. Sophia takes it upon herself to escape and find the love of Anna's life so that they can come back and rescue the ailing Anna.

  7/11/2008 8:44:50 AM
• Beth

  I read Saturday by Ian McEwan, the author of Atonement. It is the day in the life of a man in our current times. It took me to the end of both books to appreciate the stories and the interesting writing. This one is about an introspective neurosurgeon who understands the brain, but not the minds of people. There are phrases I remember, such as when he is cleaning out his elderly mother's house. "Objects became junk as soon as they were separated from their owner and their pasts - without her, her old tea cosy was repellent..."

  7/11/2008 9:34:00 AM
• Eileen D.

  I was deleting old e-mail and came upon Beth's message re: this blog. I was also going to recommend Water for Elephants; it's an engaging read that hit home for me since both my father and Dave's had to spend some time in a nursing home. I'm planning to read The Shack by William P. Young because it comes highly recommended by several friends. The Forward claims: "Who wouldn't be skeptical whan a main claims to have spent an entire weekend with God, in a shack no less?" Here's a brief summary from Titlewave: "After Missy is abducted during a vacation and evidence of her murder shows up at a shack in the forests of Oregon, Mackenzie Philips, her father, receives a strange note inviting him to return to the scene of the tragedy where he wrestles with nightmarish religious questions."
  Please let me know if you read this book.

  10/30/2008 9:17:58 AM