Author: Ashley Audrain

Blythe is hesitant about becoming a mother but it is something her husband really wants. But when Violet is born her motherly instincts don’t kick in and she has trouble bonding with her child. She watches Violet as she grows and has concerns about what she sees in her daughter’s behaviour but her husband says she is imagining things. When their son is born it is a completely different feeling. Blythe dotes on Sam and Sam dotes on her. Until a terrible accident takes Sam’s life. But was it really an accident?

In the beginning I didn’t like the format of the book; very short chapters, often only two or three pages. But since each chapter was so short it was easy to read “just one more” and the book was finished in no time.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Author: Annie Lyons

Eudora is an eight-five year old who is feeling her age. She hasn’t had an easy life and she finds herself without friends or family. Her beloved father was killed in the war and she had a difficult relationship with her mother and younger sister. She’s been unlucky in love a couple of times and all she wants to do is die with dignity. So she approaches a clinic in Switzerland that will help her with a voluntary assisted death.

But will she be accepted? And will her new neighbours convince her to change her plan?

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Author: José Saramago

I’ve always enjoyed books by this author but I had a hard time getting through this one. I was averaging about a chapter a night (although the book isn’t actually divided by chapters) and not getting very far into it. I had a chance today to spend a few hours reading and I have to admit I enjoyed it more today than I did before. The author has a very particular way of writing, and often more than one characters is speaking in the same very long sentence. I mentioned to Pat that I thought I might have enjoyed an audio version of the book.

In the story the Iberian Peninsula has split apart from Europe and is floating in the Atlantic Ocean. As scientists and governments try to figure out how this happened tourists and the wealthy begin fleeing the area. When it appears that this new island is going to crash into the Azores the residents along the ocean front begin to flee inland to avoid the impending disaster.

Four people had strange experiences at the time of the separation. One is followed by a swarm of starlings, and one threw a stone into the ocean that turned out to be a rock so large it seemed impossible that he could have even lifted it. A third man could feel the ground trembling beneath his feet and one woman drew a line in the dirt with a stick and no matter what was done the line would not disappear. They all meet during the story and are led to a fifth person by a dog who cannot bark but clearly expects the group to follow him.

Strange? Yes, but somehow it is entertaining rather than weird.

Goodreads Rating: * * *