It sounds wonderful and I ca truly loved it. Now tell me me if I will be able to read it. I have a close friend and colleague who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in May She has gone through chemo and radiation and the tumor did not shrink and has spread to her liver. She will be on another round of chemo for 2 months. She actually has 2 types of pancreatic cancer. Her husband died 5 years ago of colon cancer and she has never gotten over that and misses her husband dearly. She is 57 and has 3 grown children also. She is an ESOL teacher and is an advocated for all those non English speaking children. She is an avid reader to those children and believes strongly they should be read to all the time. Her lessons are amazing. I see many connections between this lady and my friend. Sorry to go on and on but will I be able to read it or should I put it on my list for when I am ready?

Years ago when The Far Pavillions first came out, it was very popular and was hard to get from the library. I finally found it on the shelf (and I worked at that library too!) and took it home. It went back unread at the end of the borrowing period. This happened a few times; for some reason, I just couldn't sit down to read it. Finally, my sister in law gave me a paperback copy as a birthday present and it again sat on my shelf unread for quite a while. One day, bored, I picked it up and started reading it. Hours later, my eyes closing despite my efforts to stay awake, I put down the book with only 60 or so pages to go and fell asleep. I finished it the next morning and couldn't understand what took me so long to get into it. For those who think Tolkein is too wordy, Rosefolly explained it much better than I could. She said he wrote as if the books were being presented orally. (Rosefolly, you explained it more clearly in a much earlier post.)In other words, his works are meant to be read aloud. If you listen to an audio presentation of LoTR, you will hear this.

i finish most books that i start, but i have no trouble stopping one if i really don't like it!! it is interesting how some books really appeal to some people and not at all to others! one of my fav books is crime and punishment- probably only because i took a class in college that analyzed it in depth and reading it that way was really amazing!! i loved it and read it a couple of times-- but, i'm sure that i would have put that book down if i had just picked it up and started to read it...

That's interesting, Donna. And I don't doubt for a minute that the author is correct, considering our current political environment. I certainly prefer to read about characters with flaws, because characters without flaws are just not very interesting. BUT in the 'Harriet' book, it's the narrator (who I don't think of as a character) that is bothering me. This narrator speaks directly to the protagonist in second person, and here is an example that bothers me: ...You miss the sense of purpose and the vitality of downtown. You miss lunching at the Continental. Most of all, you miss having a career, some other yardstick besides household cleanliness by which to measure yourself. In a month or so, you'll have all that. Look at you, controlling your own destiny! You've done your work: typed those letters fastidiously (eighty words per minute; you haven't lost a beat), licked those envelopes, delivered those resumes (in person, dressing the part perfectly). ... There is no mention that Harriet wrote the letters and resume - only that she typed, licked envelopes, and delivered them while nicely dressed. I mean really, would the narrator say those words to a man who had done exactly the same thing? And the "Look at you..." sentence is just downright condescending. BUT if the narrator is to be considered a character ... well, then he (presumably "he") is just a character I don't like.