Jodi, I read Moloka'i. I liked it, loved the characters. It is unlike anything I've read before because of the subject matter and setting. Great book! I am not crazy about a romance. But I did read a book a while back that was a really good love story at the heart of it. It was so much bigger than a love story, though. It was the most poetic, lyrical novel I've ever read. Beautiful language and just a beautiful story about the couple's life and fate. I'd put it in my top 5 favorite books ever. It's how John Steinbeck would write if he were a woman. ;o) It's a well imagined and very well told story, but it's breathtaking how artistic it is. The symbolism and metaphors are perfect. I know I make it sound all serious with my literay talk, but it is so good it can be appreciated on so many levels. I'd call it epic. Sweet, sad, funny, touching. It just flows from page to page. It's just... wow! Read it slowly, savor every word. Here it is... drum roll... "Evidence of Things Unseen" by Marianne Wiggins.

I keep a reading journal and it has a place to rate your reads on a scale of 1-10. So, I'll list the books I read this year according to how I rated them. (I know this message is way too long, but hey--I hardly ever get a chance to post, horrible lurker that I am, so a once-a-year overly long posting isn't too horrible, right?) 10-Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank B. Gilbreth, Jr. and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey Sentimental 10 rating--remember reading it as a child and it held up. Good fun. 10-Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell What a mind-blowing book with so many layers and connections. LOVED IT! 10-Gilead by Marilynne Robinson Such a beautiful and contemplative book that examines aging, new life, regrets, families, grudges, grace and God. Particularly loved how the main character finds beauty in sunlight catching a sprinkler's spray or birds roosting on a phone wire (two things that would have been impossible to see in the 1800s). 10-Gonzalez and Daughter Trucking Company: A Road Novel with Literary License by Maria Amparo Escandon This is the "One City, One Book" pick for 2009 in our town. It is such a page-turner! The main character is in a women's prison in Mexico for a crime that remains a mystery for most of the book. She starts a reading group for the inmates, only she doesn't actually read the text, rather tells her story. 10-I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith This book has been mentioned time and again on this forum and I finally got around to reading it this year--THANK YOU to whoever recommended it. I loved it so much! 10-There is Room for You by Charlotte Bacon Such beautiful descriptions of India, both in the 40s and the 90s. Loved the two intertwining narratives of mother and daughter, both outsiders in India but at two different times. A very lush book. 10-The Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys I'm sure everyone in the world had read this but me. Written in the 1960s, it imagines the story of Mrs. Rochester (Mr. Rochester's crazy wife that he kept locked in the attic in Jane Eyre.) It was hard to read and I gave it a 10 not because I loved it, but because it did perfectly what it meant to do. It said so much about patriarchy, post-colonialism, feminism, and madness in ways I'd never thought of. I need to re-read. 10-The Woman I Kept to Myself by Julia Alvarez This book of poems was so great that I am going to buy the book. There's one poem in the particular about how she can tell who her husband is talking to on the phone by the tone of his voice. Another one talks about how she can't bear to throw out her headbands, even though she has short hair now, because they are such a symbol of her girlhood. You have to read these poems out loud so that you can hear the sound of them. 9-Five Skies by Ron Carlson Loved this book! Three men out on the plains building stuff and eating really good food. I have no idea why I related so strongly to them! It was downgraded to a 9 because of the...

Ha! Indeed. I got the Rue Morgue reprint from Betterworld Books but as it had a lot of typos, the original Dell publication might have been a better choice. I think it was set in prewar times as the heroine had travelled from the US but although I first came to Australia in 1960, so many things were the same. The older men preferred their women to be ladies who neither drank much or swore but smoking was all right! Fortunately I didn't go by train across the continent until the track was standard and so I went on the Indian-Pacific with no changes or dead bodies en route!

I thought I would persist with Catch 22 but decided enough is enough (book club is tomorrow). I hope I try it again at some other time and it captures me. I only made it about halfway but I just couldn't. The Sympathizer, well, had to force myself with that one too. This was another book club book and I was the only one of about 10 or 12 who did not think it was outstanding so it might just be my time of the year. It was a good book for sure, but while others marveled at his writing, which was really superb, I thought he really went to town with the quantity of words. I found myself skimming over some important parts because it was just so many words. So today I just started The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. Not sure what I think of it but it seems interesting for now. It takes place on the Lower East Side of NYC in 1969 so at least I have a fondness for the references. I am sincerely hopeful that it was just these last 2 books which I did not enjoy and that I now will be enjoying reading again.