Winter Books

Our Book Club at church was reading The Book Thief which I'd wanted to read for quite awhile. Although I knew I couldn't go to club that month, I still read it. It was World War II Nazi Germany narrated by Death. The main character is a girl whose habit of stealing books kept her alive physically and emotionally. It was very well-done although the narrator Death was a little off-putting. But, it is a German book that was translated and after reading Kafka's Metamorphosis (in German, I might add, so thought I was mis-translating when the main character turned into an insect), I can expect anything in German literature.

That was followed by The Good Earth by Pearl Buck. While others enjoyed re-reading a classic they'd read 30-40 years ago, I did not. I loved it when I read it as a teenager, but just became angry at the role of women in that culture in that time. I couldn't get past that and couldn't enjoy it.

Next, was the very light Redbird at Christmas by Fannie Flagg. This was about a Chicago man who goes to Alabama to live, for his health. (It reminded me to get my reservations for Spring Break. . .the book takes place close to Perdido Key where we like to vacation.) There are many loveable characters, but most of us in Book Club thought the end was hurried. And, although we'd have enjoyed a sequel, we had the feeling Fannie Flagg either didn't want to write anymore about them or her editor didn't want anymore. But, take away the last chapter and it could have been another Mitford Series set in southern Alabama rather than North Carolina.

January's book club selection was Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton a "rediscovered classic". It is a fictional memoir about a family with four daughters in rural southwest Missouri in the early 1900's. Each section is told from a different family member's point of view---some events are repeated, but I really liked how the author moved the story forward while reflecting the various points of view rather than rehashing the same event six times. The family's story, like the moonflower, gradually unfolds.

Just for fun, I read the Spellman Files by Liza Lutz---a witty, crazy book about a family of private investigators who can't help but spy on each other. It was fun, but I'm not sure I can handle more of the same in the next book---there are only so many times I can read about them taking a hammer to each others' tail lights and head lights.

Now, I'm reading Sarah's Key for Book Club. Although I'm a little "tired" of Nazi era books, this one takes place in Paris. I'm not very far along, but I really enjoy the double story line---Sarah, a young Jewish girl in Vichy France and Julia Jarmond an American journalist living in Paris in the 21st century researching an event most Parisians want to forget about.