Book Talk

I'll admit it -- I do love to listen. On my long drive to convention and back, I listened to Elizabeth Berg's Home Safe. She read it herself, and I liked hearing her voice -- I often wonder about that -- am I reading this sentence with the same inflection as the author intended?

It wasn't my favorite Berg book, but it was nice: a little love story, a little mother/daughter story, a little what-it's-like-to-be-a-writer story.

When I wasn't listening, I was reading -- actually holding the book -- The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton.

As a writer (and I use that term really loosely, as the only things I have had published lately are letters to the editor and blog posts), my biggest roadblock has always been endings. I remember many a story/paper that was criticized for being wrapped up too quickly.

This book is great in so many ways -- her detail, characters, plot were fantastic. But from the beginning, you are looking forward to the end, as you are presented with the mystery in the first pages: a little girl is found in Australia on a ship from England, all alone with no identification. Without giving anything away, I'll just say that the ending left me a little empty.

I'd recommend it, though, and I think it would make good book club reading -- there are a lot of questions at the end, whether Morton meant there to be or not.

So, I'm back to Outlander. Clay finished Drums of Autumn at 3:50 this morning. He's more addicted to these books than I am! I'm about in the middle, and looking forward to getting back to Claire and Jamie.

We have Anna Quidlen's Every Last One loaded on the Ipod for vacation driving, and next on my list are The Shanghai Girls, The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, The Piano Teacher and Cutting for Stone. And, I heard a great discussion of The Scarlet Letter on NPR the other day, so I'm tucking that in my knitting bag, too. I just love summer reading.

Peace, and good reading.