Author: Anna Quindlen

UPDATE: This is one of the books included in Kathryn’s 2025 birthday bag. I saw the idea on Facebook and decided to pass it along. On her birthday Kathryn received a bag of books (second hand that I’ve pre-read) each wrapped in brown paper. The idea was that once a month (on her birthdate) she could pick a book to read. Each book included a bookmark of some sort.

Maybe it’s because I haven’t read a really good book in so long that I rushed through this one. It wasn’t necessarily one that I couldn’t put down but I was truly interested in the characters and their story.

Rebecca is a sixty-year old photography artist who had great success in her earlier years. But she has gone out of style and she has money troubles for the first time in her life. She decides to rent out her expensive New York apartment and moves to a cabin in the woods. The people she meets in the town are quirky but she comes to love her new life. The photos she takes in her new environment bring her back into the artistic spotlight.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Author: Umberto Eco

I read another book by this author and really like it but I sure didn’t like this one. In fact, I think I liked it less than Moby Dick.

Here’s what Goodreads had to say about the book:

“Three clever editors (who have spent altogether too much time reviewing crackpot manuscripts on the occult by fanatics and dilettantes) decide to have a little fun. They are inspired by an extraordinary fable they heard years before from a suspiciously natty colonel, who claimed to know of a mystic source of power greater than atomic energy.

On a lark, the editors begin randomly feeding esoteric bits of knowledge into an incredible computer capable of inventing connections between all their entries. What they believe they are creating is a long, lazy game – until the game starts taking over… “

Can you see how I might have been fooled?

Goodreads Rating: *

Author: Robert James Waller

This had been on my Kindle for a long time and I was in the mood for a quick read and something light.

Carlisle McMillan arrives in the small town of Salamander near Wolf Butte. His arrival is not celebrated, with the exception of a Native American and two women. Carlisle, a master carpenter, buys a rundown farmhouse and begins to rebuild it. Just as it is finished the state plans to run a road directly through his house. Can the few people opposed to the new highway stop it before it destroys his home and the endangered birds living near his property?

Goodreads Rating: * * *

Author: José Saramago

I have always enjoyed books by this author but this one certainly isn’t one of my favourites. His unique way of writing was obvious – long sentences and thoughts going off in all directions – but there wasn’t much of a story.

I would certainly recommend books by the author, but it would probably be best if you didn’t start off with this one!

Goodreads Rating: * *