Late Mentions

I read Lisa Gabriele's, "Tempting Faith DiNapoli" about a month ago. I saw another of her books in a friend's pile of "to read"s and this was what my library had by her. I had even picked the book of the shelf a number of months ago, but was put off by the cover. I thought it was too coming-of-age or too chick-lit. But I enjoyed it thoroughly. It made me think my life is pretty tame, in comparison to the main character's life and that's always good because after a bad spell of something I am always grateful for those quiet, more mundane parts of my life. The characters are off the wall, but realistic in a crazy way. I recommend it, will even look for other titles by her.

And after three long weeks, I finished Pascal Mercier's "Night Train to Lisbon". The one thing I didn't like about this book was the ending. I like my endings, if not sewn up, at least with a clue as to where they are going. This left me wondering what the whole point of the protagonist's quest was if we aren't offered a hint as to whether he finds his grail. It is beautifully written, definitely literature and not fiction. And a whopping 400+ pages. It is not the type of book I can devour, even though I might put a lot of time into it but I was glad to have read it. Now I've started Jennifer Haigh's, "The Condition" and am loving it. The kind of book where I look forward to the next few moments I can steal to read a few pages here and there. In fact I found it started off poorly and I almost put it down for good. The beginning is stereotypical, trite and what I considered to be predictable but it has proved me wrong. I'm completely sucked in now.