Are You Happy/Michal

I finished 2 books this week. The first was Are You Happy by Emily Fox Gordon. I found this book on the shelf of a dollar store back when we lived in Brandon, MS. So, it was at least 6 months ago. I am thinking, it was probably last summer. The cover caught my eye, and I don't always obey the cliche not to judge a book by its cover. At least, I sometimes pick books out based soley on the design. I will then read the book before making a judgment call, but I must admit to being attracted to pretty books.

Are You Happy is a memoir, and I enjoyed it very much. I like memoirs, because I like feeling as though I have made a new friend, while reading. Emily and I shared some experiences of teasing in school and bad decision making, etc... I like how she writes.

Finishing that, I picked up Michal by Jill Eileen Smith. I had read a fictional account of the life of Michal, years ago. That book was Queenmaker by India Edghill, and I wasn't in love with it. Queenmaker painted David as a womanizing ego-maniac and Michal as sheer virtuous perfection. This newer account of their life together is much more balanced. Sometimes, the story does seem to side more with one or the other, but mostly you can see a realistic idea of how their relationship might have played out. I like Biblical fiction, because it allows me to slip freely into the stories and think about the characters as real people.

Both books are worth reading.

Heather

Choosing Books After Lent

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams was "the chosen one" for my first novel after the no-books-for-Lent experience. I was hooked, pretty much instantly. First of all, it has my favorite kind of heroine - a little girl who uses books to escape her life. In this case, Kyra is trying to escape the compound where she lives, daughter to a man who has 3 wives. Kyra, herself, is betrothed to marry her 60-year-old uncle. Having not actually grown up in the polygamist life, myself, I cannot speak to the accuracy of this novel's account. I can, however, tell you that the author is a good writer. I was drawn into the story and kept waiting for what would happen next.

Moving on from that, I picked up How To Buy a Love of Reading by Tanya Egan Gibson. The title intrigued me, so I requested it from the Amazon Vine program. The premise of the book is that the main character, Carley, has no "passion" in her life, at least, academically. And, her parents just can't have this, in their social class and private school mentality. Her father decides to hire an author to live in their house and write a book for/about Carley, in an effort to force her to love reading. I could not get into this book. They whiny rich kids annoyed me.

Heather