Good Reads

Ruth turned me on to GoodReads a little while ago and I'm hoping to keep things updated there. I was great about logging in all my books currently on my shelf but haven't been so good about updating what I've read recently. As a down fall of this whole depression issue, I've fallen from the grace of doing things that I normally enjoy. You've seen my knitting suffer drastic reduction in production and my enjoyment of taking a good book to bed has suffered just the same. Through the worst of it I just couldn't keep my mind on the swimming words in front of me. But over the course of the past few months I have successfully completed a few good books worth mentioning here, if for no other reason than to pat myself on the back for having the perseverance to truck through the crap that I've felt and have successfully accomplished something.

The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
This is an interesting book set in the past in rural eastern Montana where education still revolves around the one room school house and within the parental trades of family life. The Milliron family, who lost their wife/mother several years past, enlist the service of a woman from the east to help bring a sense of female responsibility and knowledge to their male saturated home. Although the father and head of this household holds education in the highest degree and has taught his three sons to value the gift of the word, this new addition to their 'family' brings a new light on education and experiences that lead the Marias Coulee school house in a direction they've never seen before.

Knit One, Kill Two by Maggie Sefton

When Kelly Flynn is called back to her Aunt's hometown to settle her estate after her death, Kelly finds the facts around her Aunt's death to be very unsettling. Along with members of her Aunt's knitting community who befriend Kelly, she sets out to find the real reason for the murder in her family. Along the way she finds a connection to her beloved Aunt through learning to knit. There is a distinct style difference when this author is pursuing the murder plot and when she is describing the scenes in the knit shop. It is clear this author is a knitter at heart and not an engrossing mystery author.

Perfect Match by Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult does it again for me. There are not enough words in the English dictionary to describe how much I love this author. Her writing explores the deepest and most personal aspects of each character involved in their every day tragedies. Her storylines are specific and tragic but could happen in Anytown, U.S.A. and in any family situation. She engrosses her readers into the lives, view point, and intimate feelings of each character. In Perfect Match an attorney who prosecutes child molesters suddenly finds her family struck with the pain and complications of her own five year old son being sexually abused. The story is heart wrenching and highly emotional but one not to be missed. Thanks again Stacey for this little masterpiece! I promised I would get around to reading it eventually.