The Bachelor's Cat: A Love Story by L. F. Hoffman: the story of a struggling artist and how his life changes when he adopts a kitten.

The titular bachelor in this novel is a struggling artist with a gorgeous girlfriend. Unfortunately, she has left him time and time again for other men only to return when her interest in them wanes.

Shortly after his first gallery opening, the bachelor finds a tiny grey kitten on his front porch. He adopts her and their relationship, one built on mutual trust and love, develops. Presently he meets a woman that is very much unlike the women he usually dates (she's almost his age and is somewhat chubby). However, he has conversations with her that intrigue him and he finds himself gradually spending all his time with her. She's so different, though, from the girlfriend that he struggles with what he really wants and needs and can only decide with the help of his cat.

I wouldn't really classify this little tale as a romance novel, though there were definitely elements of that there. To me, this book was more about finding out who you are as a person and finding the person that makes you happy with what you and they are.

I finished it in under an hour, but it was so charming that I honestly wished it would have been longer though it probably didn't need to be. Well worth reading.

(Finished on August 8, 2004 for Zuly's Reading Room.)

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Bluebird Cafe by Carmel Bird: as much as I wanted to get through this short little book, I just couldn't. There was something about the writing stlye that just made it impossible for it to hold my interest.

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Felicia's Journey by William Trevor: a strange little book about a pregnant Irish girl and the man that attempts to befriend her.

Felicia is seventeen and pregnant. Her lover, Johhny Lysaght, has returned to his job in England, so determined to find him even though the circumstances around her points to the fact that he doesn't want her any longer, Felicia follows him.

While searching the town that Johnny is supposed to work in, she meets Mr. Hilditch, an overweight canteen catering manager. Mr. Hilditch befriends young girls in need and we are left to wonder for what purpose he feels compelled to do this.

The first two thirds of the book I spent trying to determine Mr. Hilditch's motives. They seemed shady, but since nothing was ever definitely said, I was left wondering. Once his motives are made perfectly clear, however, I found myself not enjoying the book as much and by the last fifty pages, I really just wanted to be done with it. I also must admit that the twist revealed in the last chapter, I didn't see coming at all.

All in all, a decent read and at two hundred pages, probably worth the read.

(Finished on August 7, 2004 for Zuly's Reading Room.)

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When Night Falls by Linda Anderson: a thriller set deep in the mountains of North Carolina.

Lannie Sullivan lives alone, seculed in a hidden cabin atop a mountain. Two years earlier, her young daughter drowned in the swimming pool. Her ex-husband blamed her, and after their bitter divorce, she fled her life to live alone. Slowly, though, she has begun to seek out the company of others and meets Drummond Rutledge, a timber baron with secrets in his own past.

Drum and Lannie have an instant attraction for each other and begin a passionate affair. However, a convicted rapist has been let out of jail who is obsessed with Lannie and putting into place a plan to make her his.

For the most part, I didn't really like this book. It wasn't until I was on a plane and didn't have anything else to do that I even managed to finish it. The romance between Drum and Lannie seemed just too sudden. Jeb, the rapist obsessed with Lannie, also seemed like your typical run-of-the-mill crazy, though his ploy to get near Lannie was pretty ingenious. I did like the dark secret that Drum's past held and I found myself liking the book more by the time I got to the end. However, I would really only suggest this one if you've got absolutely nothing else around to read.

(Finished on August 1, 2004 for Zuly's Reading Room.)

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I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson: a novel about the life of Kate Reddy, a British working mother.

When we first meet Kate Reddy, she's in her kitchen at 1:37 a.m. distressing mince pies for her daughter's Christmas party at school so that they will look homemade. Kate is a hedge-fund manager, one of the best in her office. She's also the mother of two children, Emily and Ben, whom she hardly ever gets to see. She has a lovely husband, Richard, whom she also never sees.

Her days are measured by seconds and each one of them is used in the most efficient manner possible. She tries to be the best mother, wife, and employee, but things are starting to give.

I really enjoyed Allison Pearson's novel for many reasons. First of all, I liked Kate. I wanted her to be happy and spend some time on herself and have a peaceful life. Secondly, Pearson's writing style was just beautiful. It walked the line between funny and poignant while making us really care about Kate and her family. While I'm not a mother, I still sympathized with Kate and would highly recommend this one, especially to all the working mothers out there.

(Finished on July 17, 2004 for Zuly's Reading Room.)

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Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears by Ellen Datlow (Editor) and Terri Windling (Editor): a collection of fairy tales written especially for adults.

Datlow and Windling are some of the best editors, especially in the horror and fantasy fields, that almost any book they put together is wonderful and this one is no exception. As Ellen Datlow herself says, there's nothing new in this collection in regards to the themes of the stories since in literary fairy tales, uniqueness and novelty are besides the point. However, even with nothing new, these stories are still amazing.

The stories themselves range from light fantasy to darkly horrific and are retellings of such well-known tales as "Beauty and the Beast," "Sleeping Beauty," "The Little Match Girl," "The Wizard of Oz," and more. Even though we may be familiar with these tales, the authors invariably give each one a bit of their own style or idea and it becomes something entirely different in most cases.

Personal favorites in this anthology included "The Beast," "Masterpiece," "Roach in Loafers," "Brother Bear," "The Real Princess," "The Huntsman's Story," "Match Girl," "Waking the Prince," "The Fox Wife," "The White Road," and "The Printer's Daughter."

(Finished on July 13, 2004 for Zuly's Reading Room.)

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Heartstone by Phillip Margolin: a mystery involving the murder of a young couple in 1960.

In November of 1960, Richie Walters and Elaine Murray are brutally murdered. Roy Shindler, one of the detectives on the case, is convinced that two brothers, troublemakers and gang members, are behind the crimes. It becomes his life's mission to bring them to justice, no matter what the cost. In the process, the lives of several people are changed irrevocably, most of them not for the better.

Since the novel is done as a flashback, we know that Bobby Coolidge, one of the brothers was brought to trial. This, however, just makes the journey that much more interesting, in my opinion, and I definitely was surprised by how the book ended. I always appreciate a book that can lead me down one path and still surprise me that way. I also enjoyed the trial, especially the glimpse into some psychological beliefs of the era.

All in all, the book was solidly written, the characters very believable, and the plot really well done. Well worth a reading.

(Finished on July 8, 2004 for Zuly's Reading Room.)

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Trust No One by Harlen Coben: an intruging novel about a man who loses his wife only to find out that she might not really be gone after all.

Eight years ago, Dr. David Beck lost his wife Elizabeth when she was kidnapped from the cabin that they had gone to every year since they were teenagers. Ever since he’s been essentially just walking through his life in a daze, missing her every day and not moving on. Suddenly, out of the blue, he gets an e-mail containing references and phrases that only his wife would know. Who could send something like that? Could Elizabeth still be alive? If so, where has she been and why has she been hiding?

I enjoyed this book quite a lot. The characters were interesting (from his best friend - a lesbian fashion model who’s his sister’s domestic partner - to one of his patient’s drug dealing fater), the mystery puzzling, and the book was just generally well written, as you would expect from an Edgar winning author. I look forward to reading more of his books in the future.

(Finished on July 7, 2004 for Zuly's Reading Room.)

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Parting Gifts by Charlotte Vale Allen: a touching look at the relationships between people and their families.

The novel starts off with Kyra, daughter to a well-know director father and actress mother, learning that her husband Gary has died in a freak accident. A few days later, while coming home from Gary's funeral, Kyra is confronted by a teenage mother that insists that Kyra is her own mother and that she must now watch her son whom she plans to leave with social services if Kyra won't comply. Kyra is confused to how this girl could think she's her mother (she was born with a birth defect that left her sterile, so it's an impossibility), but agrees to accept the neglected boy since she always wanted children. The rest of the book deals with Kyra and Jesse learning to live together and Kyra coming to terms with her family until an important decision that Jesse must make changes life for everyone.

I haven't read any of Charlotte Vale Allen's books before, but I must confess that at first I didn't think I was going to like it. The book seemed to start off a little stilted and while we're reading about Kyra's family as she comes to grips with Gary's death, I thought it was going to go right off into the land of caricature (which, in retrospect, is probably the point). Fortunately, as soon as Jesse was introduced, this proved not to be the case.

Ultimately, I found the novel to be really touching - I even cried towards the end. The characters were very real and believable and while some of it was pretty predictable, it was still very enjoyable.

(Finished on March 1, 2004 for Zuly's Reading Room.)

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The Six Messiahs by Mark Frost: the sequel to Frost's adventurous The List of 7.

Ten years after the events of The List of 7 we find Arthur Conan Doyle a celebrated writer. He has been made famous by the creation of Sherlock Holmes, loosely modeled on Jack Sparks, his old friend who died pursuing his evil brother, Alexander.

Doyle is getting ready to embark to America for a book tour and taking his younger brother Innes with him to serve as his secretary. While on board their American-bound ship, Doyle becomes embroiled in a plot to steal a priceless religious book. This leads him to once again put his life on the line to help stop a terrible event from occurring.

The 6 Messiahs follows the same kind of formula as The List of 7, but I don't see that as necessarily a bad thing. I enjoyed it for the same reasons I enjoyed the other book - lots of adventure and wonderful characters. I found this one easier to get into and also thought that it resolved some of the abruptness of the ending of The List of 7.

If you're looking for rollicking good fun and an entertaining read, look no further.

(Finished on November 14, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

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The List of 7 by Mark Frost: a mix of adventure and occultism with a tiny bit of romance thrown in for good measure in Victorian England makes for quite an interesting book.

Arthur Conan Doyle is a physician of modest stature in the late 1880s in England. He has a few patients and submit manuscripts to local publishing houses. He also has a keen interest in the occult and spends a fair amount of time investigating spiritualists and mediums trying to find the real thing.

All this is abruptly thrown into disarray when he finds himself the target of a group of seven people that wish him dead before he can disrupt their plot - one he has unwittingly stumbled into.

At first, while I liked the book, I found it really hard to get into. It wasn't until page 60 or so that I really started to enjoy the book and the direction it was taking. I was eager to see what would happen next and what the fates of various players in the book would be.

My only real complaint with the book is that at times it the prose was a bit windy. Also, while the book was set in Victorian England, I myself don't know all their terms and slang. It would have been nice to have had some translations. The only reason that I knew that an alienist is, basically, a psychiatrist, is because of the excellent book by Caleb Carr The Alienist.

All in all, the novel contained quite the adventure and I look forward to reading the next book in the series The 6 Messiahs.

(Finished on November 11, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

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Stolen (Women of the Otherworld, Book 2) by Kelley Armstrong: an absolutely stunning book that grabs you and never lets you go.

Elena, the world's only female werewolf, is looking into the possibility that a human knows that werewolves exist and aren't merely myth. She then discovers that it's not only werewolves that aren't myths but also vampires, demons, witches, and more. While trying to deal with this, she's captured by an egomaniacal billionaire and ends up in his own supernatural menagerie.

I had enjoyed the first book in this series, Bitten, so I was prepared to like this one. However, I was surprised by how exciting it was and how much I loved it. I literally could not put this book down and stayed up reading way later than I should have.

From page one this book starts out with a deadly hunt and never lets up on the tension and excitement until the book is over especially, once Elena is kidnapped. Her fury and fear are so real that I could only begin to imagine how it would feel to be in somone's personal zoo.

I cannot recommend this book enough. Bitten was good, but Stolen is one of the most exhilarating novels I've read all year. It really sinks its teeth into you, if you'll pardon the pun.

(Finished on November 5, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

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Dead Girls Don't Wear Diamonds by Nancy Martin: the second book in the Blackbird Sisters mystery series, picking up where How to Murder a Millionaire left off.

Nora Blackbird is dealing with her pregnant sister Libby and her on-then-off boyfriend Michael "The Mick" Abruzzo when one of her acquaintances, the wife of her old college boyfriend, ends up dead. At first it looks like suicide, but soon both her and the husband, Flan, end up as suspects. To clear their names, Nora begins an investigation into the murder which leads to jewel theft, intriuge, and the lies covered by high society.

When I read the first book in the series, How to Murder a Millionaire, I thought that while the book wasn't all that great, it could definitely work itself into a pretty decent series. This book, however, was almost a carbon copy of the first and I found it almost a little too frothy for a murder mystery. I keep wanting more from both the characters and the story and I'm not sure if that's going to happen.

While the book makes for quick, easy reading, it's still not as good as one of Janet Evanovich’s or Carolyn Haines’s female mystery series. I guess the best I can say about this book is that it's okay and I'm not sure if that's enough to continue through the series.

(Finished on November 3, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

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Swagbelly: A Novel for Today's Gentleman by David Levin: a tale of a pornographer and the events and memories that make up his life.

Elliot Grubman is an extremely wealthy publisher of Swagbelly - a pornographic magazine who's quality is below Playboy but above the crude, typical magazine that dominate the industry. Newly divorced, Elliot's life is slowly falling apart despite the fact that he is worth over $100 million. He tries to put his life back together by dating models from his magazine, learning polo, and other measures, but what really is it that he needs and wants?

I find it hard to really describe this book. I guess it's a "Day in the Life" kind of novel, even if that life does involve lots of money and models. It would be hard for most to like a man who uses women, intimidates people, and deals in the sex industry, but Elliot is a surprisingly rich character who I really liked. I wanted things to go well for him.

While the tale of an extremely rich pornographer may sound like an off-putting idea for a novel, I thoroughly enjoyed it and would like to see more of Levin's work.

(Finished on October 29, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

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Cannibals of the fine Light by Simon Brown: a short story collection from an Australian author that never quite lived up to its potential.

These stories, set in a not-to-distant future, almost all revolved around biochips planted in people's brains and their relationships with other humans, machines and animals.

For the most part, I didn't really enjoy too many of the stories. I wanted to know more about the time and place that they happened in. Kind of like with William Gibson's Neuromancer, I felt that I was missing key elements as to why people did the things that they did. I just never really felt myself drawn into the story.

Saying that, however, I did enjoy a few of them. They were "The Mind's Eye," "The Final Machine," "Brother Stripes," "Rain From the New God," and "The Truth in Advertising," a clever little co-written piece that made reading the book worth it. Not really recommended, but fans of anthologies may find enough gems in here to make mining the book worth it.

(Finished on October 27, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

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A Cup of Light by Nicole Mones: a surprisingly good novel that deals with Chinese history, art fraud, and romance with a deft hand.

Lia Frank, a deaf porcelain art export, has been called to China to check the authenticity of twenty expensive, rare pots. When she arrives there, she finds out that it's not twenty pots she's checking, but rather 800. At this point, the mystery of where the pots came from begins since a collection of this magnitude is a rarity and valued at almost $200 million.

Lia is almost a mnemonist and is able to recall every pot that she's ever looked and every catalog or book that she's read dealing with porcelain. This allows her to relive Chinese history in trying to track the pots and I found these interludes some of the most interesting in the whole book.

While in China Lia also meets an American staying in the same place and they immediately click. Since she's only in China for a short while, it leads to questions about whether she should get involved with him or not.

On a side note, while I know you should never judge a book by its cover, the cover on this novel is absolutely stunning. The colors are beyond lovely and it actually seems to glow. The subtle Chinese characters repeated throughout the background and the beautiful picture of a cup is so perfect - very hoi moon.

I enjoyed reading this book immensely. It seemed almost like poetry as opposed to prose. The flashbacks to ancient China were amazing and the rich details of the porcelian pieces made me want to immediately visit a museum to see the type of perfection that she was describing. Mones is an extremely talented writer and I look forward to reading her first novel, Lost in Translation, and any others that she writes.

(Finished on October 25, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

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The Chrysalids by John Wyndham: this is science fiction at its best, relevant and enjoyable still even though it was published almost fifty years ago.

David Strorm lives in a community where genetic mutations are an every day part of life. Whenever these mutations occur (ranging from small differences like an extra toe or finger to the extreme like a two-headed calf), they are rooted out. In the case of livestock and crops they are destroyed and for those humans unlucky enough to deviate from the Divine Image of God, they are cast out of the community and sent to live in The Fringes.

David has the ability to communicate via telepathy, something he's been able to hide for most of his life. However, as he gets older and the risks are more serious, it becomes inevitable that his secret will be found out.

I completely devoured this book, enjoying every minute of it. Despite that it was written almost fifty years ago, the language and people of the book were as fresh as if their stories had just been conceived.

I wish that Wyndham would have written a sequel to this book so that I could see how everyone's lives played out and if information about The Tribulation was ever discovered (my money's on nuclear war).

Great book and at just 200 pages, a perfect, quick read. Recommended for all, especially sci-fi fans.

(Finished on October 18, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

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Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland: an incredibly powerful and hypnotic novel that pulled me in immediately.

In the beginning of the novel, Richard and Karen have sex for the first time on top of a snowy mountain. A few hours later, after giving Richard a note that she warns him not to read since she wants it back unopened, Karen inexplicably lapses into a coma. Her coma changes everything in the life of her friends and family and sets into motion unexpected outcomes. I won't mention anything more (and I suggest not reading the reviews on Amazon since they contain a fair amount of spoilers. Best to just read this one and let you take you where it goes.

From the start, I could not put this book down. I found Coupland's voice to be engaging and his characters so real. I could not wait to see what was going to happen next.

Almost the entire novel was a surprise - I could not predict what was going to happen next and where it would end up. Saying that, I felt that the ending was weak. It seemed to just kind of end. The last thirty pages or so were very disappointing in light of how much I enjoyed the book, but I would still highly recommend this one to others.

(Finished on October 18, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

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Cause Celeb by Helen Fielding: a very enjoyable book from the offer of Bridget Jones's Diary despite the fact that it takes place in famine-stricken Africa.

Rosie Richardson works in publishing and is quite shocked to find herself girlfriend to one of television's stars. However, the relationship is terribly flawed and emotionally abusive, helping lead to her decision to move to Nambula, Africa to help run a refugee camp. Four years later, a famine of epic proportions is threatening to destroy all that she has helped build, so she returns to London to enlist the help of the celebrities she used to know in raising funds and food for the camp.

The first part of the book is done in flashbacks of Rosie's life before Africa while continuing to tell what is currently happening with her. I enjoyed both timelines and was almost disappointed when the book caught up with "real time" and became linear.

I found Rosie to be a wonderful character - strong without realizing it and willing to help others despite the risk to herself. While I suppose you could predict where the entire book was going, I nevertheless liked it quite a lot. Fans of Fielding and other chick lit authors should be quite pleased with this one.

(Finished on October 16, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

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The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame: while I have always heard about this book, I had never actually read it. So, when a bookring was started for it at BookCrossing, I jumped at the chance to read this classic children's novel that chronicles the adventures of Rat, Mole, Frog, and Badger as they live their lives by the river near Wild Wood.

At the start of the book, Mr. Mole is doing a bit of spring cleaning when he suddenly decides that he must be out in the lovely day. He begins to wander when he finds himself near the river. Never having seen such a thing as a river, he becomes immediately entranced and soon makes a friend of Mr. Rat, a water rat living right on the bank. Mr. Mole is soon introduced to Mr. Toad and, eventually, to Mr. Badger, the other key characters in this delightful book.

I very much enjoyed reading The Wind in the Willows and only wish I would have come upon it when I was younger. For some reason, the concept of the animals having things like motor-cars bugged me since I could not see how a toad could fit behind the wheel of a car to drive. I could readily ignore that, however, since the book itself was so charming. I particularly loved the relationships between all of the friends and how much they cared for one another.

Recommended for children of all ages, especially the younger ones who would probably most enjoy the concept of a toad driving a car.

(Finished on October 14, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

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The Law of Love by Laura Esquivel: an absolute delight for several of the senses - seeing and hearing.

This novel starts out in Mexico as the conquistadors are obliterating the Aztecs. After a brief interlude with a conquistador and an Aztec princess, we are in Mexico City still, but far in the future. We immediately meet Azucena, an astroanalyst, who with the help of a gaurdian angel help people put the karma of their past lives into balance. She is going to meet her twin soul and true love, Rodrigo. Soon after meeting him, however, she loses him and begins a journey through many lifetimes to help all the people of the world learn the Law of Love.

At first, going from ancient Mexico to futuristic Mexico threw me off. I also felt a bit lost since the book starts talking about Azucena being an astroanalyst, but I wasn't sure what that was. I quickly picked up on everything and enjoyed the story quite a bit. The occasional chapters from both a gaurdian angel and a demon always interrupted me from the story - they would always jolt me to reality.

There were several interesting concepts in this book that I found both entertaining and enjoyable. Whenever Azucena wanted to regress to a past life, she would listen to her CD player. A CD with the same tracks that she listened to was included so that the reader could hear what she was hearing. The past lives were also done in wonderful color illustrations by Spanish artist Miguelano Prado showing exactly what she was experiencing.

While the New Age talk may throw some people off, I found the book very entertaining and enjoyable. I would recommend this to anyone looking for something a little bit different to read.

(Finished on October 12, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

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The Surgeon by Tess Gerritsen: better than average "serial killer stalks victim" novel that I enjoyed quite a bit.

A series of serial killings in Boston have the police baffled. Women are bound with duct tape, have their stomaches cut open and their uterus removed, and then killed by having their throats slit.

The police are at a standstill until it's discovered that similiar killings happened in Savannah, though he was shot and killed by his last victim, Dr. Catherine Cordell. Questioning Cordell it begins to become obvious that the murders have something to do with her, but why and what?

I enjoyed this book for several reasons - the biggest being the story itself and the characters. I truly liked Cordell, Moore, and Rizzoli and wanted to see what was going to happen to each of them. I also enjoyed the plot and figuring out who the killer was and how he was choosing his victims.

Highly recommended for fans of the thriller/mystery genres and for anyone else that wants to get their blood pumping. Can't wait to read the rest of Gerritsen's work.

(Finished on October 8, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

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The Santaroga Barrier by Frank Herbert: a science fiction novel by one of the best in the field that seemed to hold more promise than was ever delivered.

In Santaroga, a valley town in California, everything appears to be normal - until you look closely, that is. No one ever moves away for long, there's no business in the town that aren't local, and outsiders aren't welcome.

Gilbert Dasein is hired by a group of corporate marketers to visit Santaroga and discover its secrets. Since Gil once dated and is still in love with a local girl named Jenny, it's hoped that he'll have more luck than the previous researchers, all of whom died in a series of accidents.

This book had a very strong Twilight Zone feel to it, but I ultimately felt that it never really delivered on its promise of being a scary, intriguing sci-fi novel. It's not that it was bad, but it just wasn't as good as I had hoped. I felt that it lacked a strong resolution of what the mysterious Jaspers was and how it came to be in the town.

Also, the book was first written in 1968 and I felt that it seemed a little dated to me. Nothing huge, but some of the issues of race and the like didn't quite feel right. If you're a sci-fi fan, this one may still be up your alley, but I don't strongly recommended.

(Finished on October 6, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

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Wake Up by Tim Pears: surreal novel that never could hold my interest as much as I would have hoped it would.

The novel starts out with John, co-owner of a very successful potato company in England, driving out to see his brother (and business partner) to tell him about two fatalities that occured in an experiment to give people vaccines administered by genetically altered potatoes. John is frightened to what these deaths are going to mean to his company and he can't quite get himself to take the exit he's supposed to. Almost all of this short novel takes place on that Monday in John's car as he thinks to himself about his life and what is going to happen now.

John's thoughts wander all over the place and he frequently changes them ("Did I say (I met my wife this way, etc.) earlier? Oh no, that's not what happened at all; it was like this..."), which kept annoying me.

Listening to John prattle on about his life never quite could get me as interested in him as I wanted to be, so the book's events never really mattered much to me. I will admit, however, that I wasn't expecting the surprise revealed at the end of the book.

Would I recommend this book to others? Probably not. I didn't really like it and ultimately, that's what I read for - enjoyment. No enjoyment out of the book means it wasn't worth my time. Good thing it was short.

(Finished on October 1, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

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Eat Cake by Jeanne Ray: a wonderful feel-good type of book that probably most people could easily relate to.

Ruth, a housewife in Minneapolis, loves to bake cakes. Baking a cake is her form of both relaxation and therapy, something that she's going to need a lot of in her near future.

Ruth lives with her husband Sam, her difficult teenage daughter Camille, and her mother Hollis who moved in after her house was robbed. To complicate things even further, Sam loses his job and Ruth's father Guy, whom she hardly even sees and her mother hates, has a serious accident and has to move in. Needless to say, tension in the household increases and Ruth begins baking even more cakes.

In reality, this book was pretty easy to predict what was going to happen next, but I loved reading every word of it. Ray's voice is soothing and funny and very easy to get sucked into. I enjoyed her characters, especially Ruth, Hollis, and Guy, and the interaction among the family was a joy to experience.

Like a piece of cake, Eat Cake was both light and enjoyable - perfect summer reading or to just take a break from every day life.

(Finished on September 24, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

.: 213 words at 05:18 PM in Zuly's Reading Room :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (2) :.

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An Ocean in Iowa by Peter Hedges: a quirky novel by the author of What's Eating Gilbert Grape that turned out to be a quick, but wonderful, reading experience.

At the beginning of An Ocean in Iowa Scotty Ocean announces to his mother, Joan, that "Seven is going to be my year." Turning seven does bring about many changes for Scotty, including his alcoholic mother's decision to leave her family and try to live on her own.

The novel is set in the late sixties when the war in Vietnam raged and when man had yet to walk on the moon. Scotty experiences most of these things on the periphery since his main focus in life is his mother and how to get her to come back home.

While I enjoyed the book very much, after finishing it, I thought about how really it was quite a melancholy novel - most of the book is just life and picking up the pieces after major changes. However, Scotty's character was so engaging (it was interesting to see a book take place through the eyes of a young child) and I wanted things to work out for him that I was compelled to read it in just a day or so.

All in all, not a very cheery book, but one that I would still suggest reading.

(Finished on September 23, 2003 for Zuly’s Reading Room.)

.: 235 words at 04:23 PM in Zuly's Reading Room :: Link :: Pings (0) :: All the Voices Say... (0) :.

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