I have been a reading fool the last three weeks !! I have read three Elin Hilderbrand books. My friend M passed on a stack of four, one of which I had already read. It was almost like a challenge getting that many at once. Hildebrand writes what she knows , which is Nantucket Island... the romance, the twists of fate, the landscape or should I say seascape. So in this stack that I devoured was:
The Blue Bistro, Season of Love and Beach Club. I love it when author intertwines novels..like when you read a good book and you wish it didn't have to end. Well, these Nantucket novels all have a familiarity that puts you in the middle of a community of people, and in every house on the island, there is a story. Anyway..I recommend all of the above by Elin Hilderbrand.
I also read Shanghai Girls by Lisa See. It was the story of two sisters growing up in China in the 40's and 50's and how their lives were brutally turned upside down when war broke out. I read about 1/2 to 2/3 of this book and then skimmed the rest. I started to lose interest (which doesn't happen to me very often). It just felt too much like See's other novel Snowflower and the Secret Fan. So if you liked See's first novel, you may like her second or you may feel like I did -that the style and susbstance were too similiar.
I picked up another Annie Proulx book called Close Range. (she wrote Shipping News, which I really liked)A book of short stories about life in Wyoming. They were really good short stories. One in particular called Brokeback Mountain. Yes, that movie that won awards was based on a short story. I had never seen the movie, and was I surprised to see that short story in her book. I am so glad I read it before seeing the movie. It was THE most powerful story I have ever read. When I read the last sentence, I felt like I had the wind knocked out of me, it was that good. Then I rented the movie and every line from the story is in the movie. Of course they had to embellish the home lives of these two cowboys so that the movie could go beyond 45 mins, but the two screen writers did a good job. One of the screenwriters was Larry McMurtry, who is one of my favorite writers. I HIGHLY recommend that you both read the story and see the movie, in that order . It was a powerful and poignant love story.
I am now almost halfway through Folly Beach by Karen White ( new author for me) , so I will be reviewing that in a week or two.
Spring is definitely in the air, so sooner than we think we will laying on the beach with a good book !! Peace.
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