Author: Boyne, John

I downloaded this book for our recent Saskatchewan trip and completely forgot about it until I got a notice that it was due in a couple of days. I was able to renew it for three weeks but it only took a week to finish it.

As I started reading I thought it was more of a children’s story and I could see reading it aloud to someone about the same age as Noah. I had a bit of an insight into what the story was really about very close to the end when the second character in the story wishes he had never become a real boy. Yes, it is the story of Pinnocchio but long after Geppetto has died.

I’m not so sure it is a good kid’s story but I certainly enjoyed it.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *

Author: Clinton, Hillary Rodham & Penny, Louise

Pat picked up this book on our recent Saskatchewan trip. I’d heard of the novel but until we had it in hand I wasn’t terribly interested.

It was slow to get going and there was no escaping the parallels between the fiction and the reality of today’s world. I managed to get over that and into the book but lost it again at the end when Three Pines and Inspector Armand Gamache were added to the plot. I understand why they were added but felt it was unnecessary.

Goodreads Rating: * * *

Author: Follett, Ken

On our Saskatchewan trip the book I planned to continue reading was finished before we left and I didn’t want to take a “real” book with me so I downloaded the last book of the Kingsbridge series.

Two centuries have passed since the end of the previous story and the links to the characters from the first two novels are mentioned but not obvious. I wasn’t very familiar with the history of this time period – the tensions between the Protestants and the Catholics in England, France and Spain.

This was my least favourite book of the series but there were still plenty of characters to like and dislike.

Goodreads Rating: * * *

Author: Follett, Ken

After reading a couple of tomes from this author I thought I was done but on our last trip to Texada I needed a book to read and this one was on the shelf. The technicality of reading the book was unique. I had the paperback edition but I didn’t want to carry such a large book with me on my trip so I downloaded it onto my iPad. Then I loaded Libby onto my phone so I could read while I waited on appointments. I always tried to finish reading at the end of a chapter so that I could synch the electronics with the paper. As it turned out I finished the book before we left.

I was into the story in the first couple of pages. It takes place 200 years after the first book in the Kingsbridge series so I didn’t need to remember much about the first book. Many of the names were familiar and one of the main characters Merthin is a builder; the love of his life seems unreachable after being accused of witchcraft and forced to become a nun. There are several despicable characters and I was so mad at them until they met their ends.

Goodreads Rating: * * * *