a good read

Confession. I read a lot. I have shelves and piles of books. I am a picky reader. If I start something that doesn't fit my current mood it gets put aside for awhile or forever. Something languishing on a shelf for years can suddenly be exactly what I want to read now. I occasionally fill bags and cartons to give away (this requires ruthlessness) and thoroughly enjoy my Kindle. Fiction, non-fiction, classics, memoir, poetry, biography - I'm selective about who I read, but not the genre. I especially welcome a good contemporary novel but mostly they tend to be entertaining and then quickly forgotten. In recent weeks I have read four extremely entertaining, intelligent, interesting novels with substance. This is today's favorite novel list.

A Pocketful of Names by Joe Coomer
Great settings, characters, interesting plot, nice twist. I'm eager to read more of this author.

The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman
A bit of practical magic (the title of one of her past novels), interesting women, good plot, a bit of suspense.

The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
Just finished. Didn't want it to end. Follows a man from childhood on in loosely constructed memoir form. Set in Mexico, New York, North Carolina. Weaves well-known real personalities into his fictional life, with politics and kinds of love thrown in.

The Lollipop Shoes is the British title of this book by Joanne Harris who wrote Chocolat. The USA title is The Girl With No Shadow. This was my second reading. It is a continuation of Chocolat. Also filled with magic and such vivid descriptions of things chocolate that I often had to put the book down and eat some. Harris has also co-written two French cookbooks - (the chocolate cake in My French Kitchen could be chocolate suicide - I haven't attempted it yet). Warning! Her novels set on islands in France and in the city of Paris will make you hungry for sweets and crepes and brandies and that legendary French way of living. Good characters. Great settings and stories.

During my friend's illness, over last summer and fall, she raided my bookshelves and discovered Harris. She said the books transported her from the sharp reality of her daily life of treatments, new problems, recoveries - and kept her spirits up (she was very good at keeping her spirits up as well as inspiriting those around her). She also discovered May Sarton's journals for the first time. She said they changed her in a way she wasn't able to pinpoint. I know Sarton influenced me many years ago - so much so that I had regular dreams about meeting her and taking her picture! Alas, I never did meet her but the books still speak to me. Especially the later memoirs and poems. She lost dear friends and had to adjust her life to old age and encroaching ill health. Almost ten years ago I quoted her on the invitations to my birthday party...

Intrinsic, beyond tears,
Splendor that has no age.
Take your new-fangled beauties off the stage!
                                              May Sarton