Tall Tales from Kansas

Tonight it’s an update from what I have been reading. As usual it’s a mish-mash of things that catch AND hold my interest. First let me tell you about The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell. Sister told me I must read it; sometimes I listen to her about books and sometimes I don’t. This was one of the did listen times and I am glad I did.

First let me say that I knew it was about a young woman who was committed to an “asylum” because of her “behavior”. That is all I knew about it, and in retrospect I am glad. I finished it this morning on my way to work and immediately sent a Marco Polo to sister to discuss the ending, never mind that it was 4am on the west coast when I sent the message. I listened to this book and the Scottish brogue was completely wonderful and added to the whole atmospheric feel of the story.

I am reluctant to tell you a lot about the book and instead encourage you to dive in with an open mind and let the story take you where it will. THEN I will want to hear what you thought. The ending caught me off guard, but I have worked out in my mind exactly how the intertwined futures of Esme and Iris play out. Highly recommended.

I finished The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose in the last week too. It is one of those “nice” little reads about a quirky character in a familiar place and it was a lovely thing to read before bed. As soon as I finished that, I put my head down on the pillow for a few minutes, let it all sink it, ran my hands over the cover, then took out the bookmark and put it in Italian Shoes by Henning Mankell.

Dianne told me about it, it sounded intriguing, and they had it at the library. I read another book by him several years ago and enjoyed it very much. The older I get, the more I like to read authors from other countries. It takes place on a small island in the Swedish Archipelago and I love the references to all the places in Sweden that sound familiar after Sister and I visited there, back then, whenever it was, I can’t remember the year, but I remember everything else. I am about 6 chapters in and completely caught up in it. Something happened to the main character that caused him to isolate himself on the island – I don’t know what that was yet. Right now I just love saying the names of the places out loud in my best Swedish accent and imagining living on a small island inhabited by me alone, with a dog and a cat. Or maybe 2 cats. That right there is a good reason to get caught up in a book.

This concludes my first book report on WordPress. The end.