Book report

Sheesh I have one little post on how I'm going to cut back on my magazine addiction and now all my favorites are folding! Domino, Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion, Country Home.  What is going on?  I take it back!  I'll keep buying you! 

I guess this may be the universe's way of telling me to spend my reading time with books.  I have a few that I've read lately that I really, really liked and a few that no matter how much I wanted to like them as soon as I picked them up I fell asleep.  I'm just going to review the one's I liked.  Keep in mind that I listen to books just as much (if not more) than I actually read them.  Sometimes I think the story is really enhanced by listening to it. 

Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book

This is actually a children's book (ages 9-12) but it is so entertaining that I think it is great for all ages – like the Harry Potter books.  Well maybe not for children under the age of nine because it starts off with a rather horrific murder.

It's the story of Bod (short for Nobody) Owens who is the sole survivor of the murder and how he is raised by the citizens of a graveyard.  Spirit/Ghost citizens.  He learns some spirity like tricks and gets a fabulous education from the dead but he has to be on constant guard because the man that murdered his family is still looking for him.

This is a book that I listened to and it was narrated by the author himself which I think greatly adds to the story.  He has a great story telling voice and I was quite on the edge of my seat for a great deal of this book.

Mary Ann Shaffer's The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society 

I'm sure everyone has read this book already – it's been mentioned on so many blogs.  And for good reason.  I love a book where there is a clever way of telling the story. 

This story is told by the use of letters between a writer and the citizens of the previously German occupied island of Guernsey.  You get to know each character through their own letters and from other's mentioning them in their own.

I admit that I resisted the book initially because of the title.  I thought it was going to be a chick-lit type of book (a genre I don't care for) but once I started seeing it pop up all over the place I read it.  In one sitting. 

One other thing about this book – the author, Mary Ann Shaffer, became gravely ill during the writing of the book and asked her niece, Annie Barrows to take over – I think you can tell when that happens – towards the end the writing isn't as evocotive and I got the sense of 'wrapping things up.'  That's the only negative thing I have to say about the book.

Julia Glass's Three Junes

I thought this was going to be the story about three women named June but it is the story of a Scottish family told in three parts.  Each part takes place over the month of June.  

The first part you meet the patriarch of the family who is vacationing in Greece after the death of his wife.  You learn the story of their courtship, their marriage and raising their three sons. 

The second part is the told from the perspective of the oldest son after the death of the father.  He has moved to New York and this section weaves together his history and his return trip to Scotland for his father's funeral.  

The third part is through the eyes of a young woman who met the father on his trip in Greece.  It is ten years later and she meets the oldest son in New York after the death of her husband.

Even though the book is in three parts I think the main character is Fenno, the oldest son in the second part.  The author includes him as a secondary character in her second novel, The Whole World Over.  I didn't enjoy the second book nearly as much as the first but it was fun to run into Fenno again.

This is another book I listened to but I think the narration was a little distracting.  The person narrating does great job with his native Scottish accent but the times he uses a French or American accent I found to be awkward. 

Veronique Vienne's The Art of Doing Nothing:  Simple Ways to Make Time For Yourself

Okay I don't actually have this book yet – I just ordered it but it was only a penny!  Yes one cent plus $3.95 for shipping.  What a deal.  I ordered it through an Amazon used book seller. 

I've ordered a number of books from various sellers this way (always going through Amazon) and have had terrific luck.  It's great for decorating books that generally get thumbed through quickly and never opened again. 

Let's see what kind of shape a book for a penny is!

Happy Reading!