My first book of the new year, this is a huge but incredibly rewarding read. This is a full, wonderful, and engaging story that is ostensibly about finding Lata Mehra a suitable boy to marry. In actuality, this is a sprawling novel of four families in India about 5 years post-partition and all of the swirling history and politics surrounding the families. Seth lays out the conflicts of the time, which are still shaping Indian life today, very carefully and without bias within the framework of this love story. The view into Indian life, both village and city, modern and traditional, Hindu and Muslim was fascinating and beautifully rendered. The characters were many but they were very individual and recognizable so keeping them seperate was not difficult. Their lives were interesting and interwoven in surprising ways. The detailed historical and political background isn't overwhelming but necessary and adds complex layers to the story. All in all, I am very glad that my bookclub decided to tackle this huge book because it was definitely worthwhile.

A historical Regency-set romance, this offering by Beverley adds to her Rogues series. Lady Mara is a bit reckless and quite the determined young miss. She is one of several siblings but as only one of two with the hair coloring of a famous ancestor, she is expected to be precipitous in her decisions. When she sneaks out of her sister's house to meet a man, she doesn't really understand the consequences but when the man tells her he is going to ruin her so they must marry, she escapes and is taken in by her older brother's friend, Lord Darius. Dare is one of the fabulous Company of Rogues but he is a damaged hero, being addicted to opium after being wounded in France and presumed dead. Mara decides that she will rescue Dare and be there for him as he fights the demon of addiction. Both the hero and heroine are realistically drawn and flawed but they are appealing to read about and while the reader knows that the convention of romance novels means the ending will be happily wrapped up, the journey to the ending is less sappy than it could be.

I am not a mystery reader. Repeat with me, I am not a mystery reader. However, I am instantly suckered in by titles with the word book in them. I picked this up and put it down at the store 3 different times because, that's right, I am not a mystery reader. But it had "books" in the title. I finally decided that any book that tried that hard to come home with me should be granted its wish. And I am so glad I overcame my non-mystery bias (although I will say that I think this is basically a mystery in name only). This was quite simply a wonderful book. Israel Armstrong is a rather scruffy, slightly chubby, endearingly obtuse Jewish man from London who comes to Tumdrum Ireland to take up the post of librarian. When he arrives, he discovers that the library is closed permanently and that he will be in charge of the mobile library. And there are no books to put in the mobile library. But more than finding the books, Israel learns how to live peaceably with the slightly eccentric Irish who have, in many ways, closed ranks against the outsider. This has the same sort of warm feel to it as the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books even though it is so very different on the surface. I am definitely adding this series to my must buy list, at least until Israel encounters a body!

Just as Alexandra is about to marry again, her husband, who was presumed dead after Waterloo, reappears at the church to stop the wedding. Alex has loved Bryce forever so she is secretly thrilled he has come back to life (in a manner of speaking) but she is incredibly angry with him for dying and leaving her and his nieces penniless. She is impatient with his insecurities now that he isn't the handsome rogue she'd once married. And she wants his love, knowing that she didn't have it before when he married her to spite his father. This is one of those constant misunderstandings and stiff-rumped pride books, a plot contrivance that I don't much like. Overall, it was a pleasant diversion but eminently forgettable.

I have no idea how this book ended up on my shelves since I am not generally a short story reader. But there it was and I decided that it was time to move it off the shelves and on to another reader (it's a bookcrossing book). So I opened the book and was confronted with short stories about counterculture kinds of stuff: goth teens, punks and the like. Not only did I not like the stories (go ahead, call me an old fogey, I can take it), but it felt to me that they were trying too hard to be edgy and instead were simply off-putting and pathetic. For once in my lief I was grateful the stories were very short so I didn't have to spend much time with the hideous or annoying characters or in their world.

In a turn-around from the conventional romance where young ladies vow to help each other find husbands or some such silliness, Alexander chooses to have a group of men make a wager about the last man to get married without vowing to avoid matrimony altogether. Gideon Pearsall is one of these men and certainly one who is quite likely to be the winner (or is that loser?) of the wager given his past romantic history. When he meets and is completely electrified by the widowed Judith, Lady Chester, it seems he will definitely not wed. Their affair, while hot and heavy, is beyond what either of them expected and they resist what is certainly growing to be love, both having been burned before. They are more mature characters than one normally sees in a romance and their decisions, while more deliberate, lead them away from each other before the final satisfying conclusion. Alexander is one of my favorite romance writers today and her books are always worth the guilty pleasure time I spend with them and this was no exception.

I dug this one out specifically to send to someone who likes Fern Michaels but finds her books hard to find. I don't know when I acquired it but it isn't my usual cup of tea for romances/women's fiction. The book opens with Emily Thorn marrying her long-time sweetheart despite her best friend's reservations. As we are treated to the tale of years of Emily's marriage, we see why her best friend thought Ian was a loser. Emily gave up college and worked to save money for the early years of their marriage, worked two jobs to put him through medical school, and sacrificed all of her dreams to help him open medical clinics. Once she has done everything she can do for him, he leaves her by FedExing her a "Dear Emily" letter. Overweight, forty, and facing the same financial situation she started the book in, Emily makes massive changes in her life. But Ian has a hold over her life and mind that even the slim, wildly successful Emily can't shake, especially in her personal life. How Emily finally changes completely and which man she'll choose provides the tension in the latter half of the book. Unfortunately Emily was a doormat in the beginning and an immature brat in the second as far as I was concerned. And not liking the main character in a fluffy book is the kiss of death for me so this one was not high on my list of good reads.

Major Lucas Winter, who hates the British with his whole soul, must suffer through some of the London season as he tries to pick up the trail of the American traitor who destroyed his family, ran off with their money, and betrayed the Navy in the process. He, is of course, undercover but Lady Amelia Plume finds out that he is looking for a woman with the same name as her beloved step-mother almost immediately and goes out of her way to protect the sweet woman from this dangerously appealing man. So our hero and heroine work at cross-purposes while on the surface Lucas seems to be courting Amelia and she seems to be instructing him on ways not to annoy the British upper-crust. Their opposition allows for some nice tension given their almost immediate physical attraction. This was a lovely, fun book with a bit of a surprise ending, that fitted nicely.

Gloria has a young son when her husband dies of leukemia. Gloria interweaves her struggle to keep her head above the almost overwhelming grief she feels at the loss of this good man with her dysfunctional family history. As we see her grapple with the decision to have a retrospective of Bill's work, she also examines her emotionally distant parents, their relationship, and the inevitable outcome of their mismatch. The whole books resonates with grief, loss, and retreat from the world but it does offer a small ray of light in the distance. Gloria is pitiable but beautifully drawn and her life with Bill, although in the past, helps to heal the gaping wounds that were a result of her cold mother and overly-needy father so it is devastating as the reader to come back to Bill's dying (the book opens with his funeral but Gloria relives some of their history as she reveals her parents'). This is a well-done book, especially given the author's young age and it makes me wonder what she's done in the years since.

I had had this book on my shelves since graduate school, oh so many eons ago, and never read it. I finally convinced a group to read it so I'd be inspired to pick it up too and I'm glad I read it, even if it wasn't my favorite book ever. Nnu Ego is an Ibo woman, daughter of a very important chief and his much beloved late mistress. She is a tribal village woman through and through until she fails to bear her first husband a child and is returned to her father. When she is sent off to be married a second time, she travels to the city of Lagos, which proves a more cosmopolitan Nigeria than the one she has always known. Emecheta showcases the growth of an unquestioning young woman as she encounters life experiences that slowly make her question her own beliefs in this more modern world. Why, afterall, is a woman judged by her ability to bear sons and how can Nnu Ego survive the death of her first infant son and then the subsequent abandonment of her other sons. This novel allows the Western reader a glimpse into a small portion of Nigerian life in the middle of the last century and while there are flaws, the most glaring of which to me was the exposition where slow unfolding of the plot might have served better, this was still an interesting read.

Chastity Somers was married and widowed in the space of a few days but that doesn't stop her from stealing her late husband's young relatives from the workhouse and trying to claim his inheritance as the long-lost Earl of Barrington. The problem is that as a woman, she is unable to inherit anyway but the estate's trustee tells her that if no other heir is found in the next three months, the late Earl's will stipulates that the house can be given over to the charity of the trustee's choosing and he is willing to let the penniless Chastity open a children's home there. Enter the other possible claimant: Reed Gilbride, who knows he was (poorly) raised by parents not his own, and who is in possession of the same letter that Chastity's husband had been carrying. Are Reed and Chastity's late husband the twin St. Yves sons, long believed dead? Reed moves into the house to provide handyman talents for Chastity and the children, whom he initially hates, as he also searches for proof of who he is. If he finds it, Chastity and the children will have to leave. With the dueling claims and a lack of trust, it is a bit surprising (ok, maybe not given that this is a romance and these are the hero and heroine) that Chastity and Reed fall in lust and then love. And to add a little spice of danger, there's a malevolence about that appears to have it in for Reed. This last bit did me in. I found it annoying and out of place and the book would have been far better without it. As it was, it was not my favorite anyway and I find it hard to recommend.

A pet photographer, Olivia has spent her whole life believing that her mother died when she was born and that it was just her and her father. Imagine her surprise when a lawyer appears at her door and tells her that she has just inherited her fabulously wealthy mother's estate. Not only was her mother an entrepreneur without equal, but her death offers Olivia another surprise. Adrian Ames, Olivia's mother, leaves behind a letter telling Olivia of the bank robbery she and two friends committed as college seniors and asks Olivia to redress that crime by finding the other women and repaying the money. Olivia is saddled with anger towards her father for his lie to her about her mother, the need to find her mother's accomplices and repay the money, the desire to have nothing more to do with anything from the woman who gave birth to her, and a blossoming romance with a lawyer who is the handler for a wealthy Yorkie whose owner left the pooch all her money. There's a lot going on in this novel and complete chaos with dogs but somehow, surprisingly, it works. It's a light and fun read and the ending is as satisfying as all good romances should be.

I winced when this review book crossed my front stoop because I am not a mystery reader (does this sound familiar yet?) and I pushed it off to the side, dreading the day I actually had to tackle it. Maybe I lucked out because my expectations were so low (this one claimed a cross between Nancy Drew and Dirty Harry--what is with the Nancy Drew comparisons lately?) but this was a fun and funny read and I am only sorry it took me so long to gear up to reading it. I liked the main character Izzy right away and her screwball family was just icing on the cake. The Spellmans are all investigators but their investigations and interrogations aren't limited to their cases. They spy on each other too. When Izzy's mom wants to know about Izzy's new boyfriend, she sends Izzy's younger sister on surveillance missions. The whole family gets the dirt on each other, pays hush money (mostly to Rae, the youngest), and bumbles along lovingly if differently than most. When Izzy decides she has finally had enough and she's going to get a normal life, her parents push one long cold missing persons case on her before she goes. As she becomes obsessed with this case, her own life careens as wildly out of control as it always has. This novel is a wild ride and one I am so glad I held on through. I loved the characters and enjoyed the craziness and I look forward to revisiting Izzy in the future.

This is the story of Austin, an elderly American painter, and the life he led as a young man. He receives the bequest of a small house in Canada from his former lover and model and that sends him down the road of unvarnished memories. He doesn't try to disguise the fact that he was a bit of a pompous snot as he turned into his idea of a New York artist. But in his twilight years, he recognizes his attitude for the protective (an pretentious) armor it was. Austin takes us through the emotional minefield of his friendships and his life-altering affair, telling us what he thought at the time and what he recognizes to be true now. As we meet Sara and George and Vivian, and Augusta and Rockwell, we see them solely from Austin's perspective, even when he supposes he knows what they thought or meant in a particular instant. He is regretful but distant too, as his series of current paintings mirror. He is painting the languid memories that he recounts and then painting over them so that they are mostly obscured (hence the title The Underpainter). It is up to the read to decide whether Austin's memories are the clearly delineated underpainting or whether they are the obscuring overcoat with the actual experiences being underpainting. There's a sort of dreamy drift to the novel as art theory merges with life so this isn't the book for those who need a fast moving plot, more for those who appreciate and enjoy the contemplative.

Andrew Terwillger, Earl of Dugdale (can you believe these goofy names?) comes back to London, he is the last of his friends to remain unmarried and he vows to keep it that way while he resumes his carefree existence. Unfortunately for him, he and Miss Olivia Banning are discovered kissing in his room and they must marry to preserve her reputation. He enters the marriage believing that she has trapped him purposely since her story about looking for a ghost is too ridiculous to be believed. She thinks that he's an arrogant jerk but is still incredibly attracted to him, as he is to her. How they overcome their preconceptions and the events that force them to face their feelings for each other are pretty predictable. Worse yet, there are numerous historical inaccuracies with titles and appellations here and they are incredibly distracting. The writing is mediocre and while the plot is fine, everything else conspires against this being a fun read.

I had the mistaken impression that the inclusion of Donne's love poems both partial text and in terms of theme would make this a slow moving and difficult, if thoughtful kind of book and therefore I hesitated to pick it up despite having it on the shelf for several years. Happily there was nothing either slow moving or difficult about it at all. On the surface, this is the story of Jasper Jackson, who is a calligrapher, as he goes about transcribing 30 of Donne's poems for a wealthy American patron. He is, in the beginning, quite a charming (to the reader) womanizer but as the book goes on, he falls, and falls hard for one woman. Docx uses the titles and portions of Donne's poems to title and open each chapter describing the progress of Jasper's affaire de coeur. Madeleine, the girlfriend who may indeed inspire Jasper to monogamy, is not particularly well rounded as a character but she is essentially only partially necessary for Docx's exercise. I found that I liked happy-go-lucky Jasper, despite his often being a schmuck. And while I thoroughly enjoyed reading the novel, I was a little disappointed by the denouement, which was hinted at before the end. I do think that the scene on which Docx chose to end this novel was perfect because any more or less would have been either anticlimactic or too much. I did enjoy this one and will look for Docx's next work based on this one.

I like these authors when I am in the mood for historical romances but unfortunately, that doesn't negate me being disappointed in the novella form for romances. Loosley connected by the idea that the heroines were all students at Miss Harris's School for Heiresses (the name given it by the ton), these short works all have young women who rush into relationships, and especially sexual relationships with the heros. I understand that there's little time to develop the relationship in a mere 100 pages but what are the odds that well-raised Regency misses would be allowing the sort of liberties they allow in only a day or two? I could not buy these as properly placed in the context of their times. And since I know that the romance itself is a fairy tale of sorts, I was disgruntled because the stories passed my allowable number of fantasies per book. None of the stories were outstanding either and that certainly didn't help.

A sweet and fast reading memoir about Cascone's Italian-American family, this was a nice little book. Cascone starts off when her family lived in a small house in a predominantly Italian-American neighborhood before she really discovered that she was not a son but instead a tomboy daughter. She writes of the special time she spent with her father, drawing both him and her mother as fairly stereotypical for their community. Then her father moves them to a large new home away from everything that feels natural to her and she must even contend with trying to blend in at her private WASP high school. Once the Cascone's no longer lived among other Italian-Americans, Gina felt less confident in herself, except when she was hustling pool and telling stories about her father's Mafia connections without ever actually saying that he was close to the organization (mostly the connection was in her classmates' imaginations). Simply told, this is a very straightforward peek into an ethnic childhood and while it was nice enough, I guess I have enough Italian-American relatives of my own to wonder that she thought her childhood was so different or exotic in some way. I spent a lot of the book (minus the eels as my family is not Neapolitan thank heavens!) thinking, "well, yeah, of course," and wondering what the big deal was. I do plan to read her Pagan Babies memoir and hope that one sparkles a little more for me.

Shew, I finally finished this big honker of a book. Billed as Harry Potter for adults, I must disagree entirely. Just because a novel is about a world where magic is possible does not make the novel itself magical. While this wasn't bad, it was a very slow moving book that acted much as the author would have us understand the theoretical magicians in the book did. Mr. Norrell has devoted his life to magic and he can actually perform real magic, despite the fact that magic has essentially been gone form Britain for generations. Much of the beginning of the book is taken up with placing Norrell in his environment, showing the reader his character, and explaining his efforts to have magic returned to the esteem in which it was held in the Raven King's day. This is very slow going and the pace doesn't pick up substantially when Jonathan Strange comes onto the scene, also capable of magic and becomes Norrell's student. The two magicians and their odd working relationship help Britain win the war with Napolean and otherwise perform magical acts that seem quite impressive. In addition to Strange and Norrell, there is a fairy who is also quite important to the plot and he will, of course, wreak havoc that will ultimately twist the storyline in unexpected directions. I have to say that it took some serious determination to work my way through this story, not so much because it was slow moving (although that didn't help) but because the characters were such that I just didn't much care what happened to them. The ending certainly picked up speed but I found that I never quite understood exactly why the things that were happening happened. All told, I don't think I'll search out more of this world, general non-fantasy reader that I am.

I picked this up to do a buddy read of 2 chapters a day but I found it so readable I finished it the day I picked it up. Gelman's marriage is in trouble and her children are in college when she realizes that the person she's become over the years is not who she wants to be. She goes back to school and then ends up spending several months in Mexico while on a trial separation. Finding that she likes travel and certainly likes it best when she immerses herself in a totally new culture, learning the language and the customs as an insider instead of as a tourist, she decides that this is how she's going to live her life from now on (the marriage did fail and friends thought the travel was her running away from facing that). Gelman is obviously an extroverted confident woman (although she says she's not particularly confident at the start) and her travels are fascinating. She is open to whim and goes where the winds blow her for much of her time on the road. Because she is a children's book writer, she does have an income while she travels but as she admits, it is much less expensive to live other places. She finds wonderful people everywhere she goes (Mexico, Bali, Guatemala, the Galapagos, Israel, and more) who open up their lives and often their homes to her. She finds out much about herself during her travels and her insights are interesting and not the least bit navel-gazing. I don't think I could free myself enough to give up everything and rely on the kindness of strangers but I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the wonders of a life in which this is the case.

The first book I pulled off the shelf in preparation for the India trip, this was the only (I think) non-fiction I had. Australian MacDonald had been in India during some travels when she was younger and had hated it so despite a fortune teller's prediction that she'd return to the country for love, it was still a bit of a surprise when she decided to quit her job and follow her boyfriend's posting to India given her feelings about the country. She arrives in Delhi and is once again plunged into the huge contradiction that is India. But this time, despite her initial feelings, she is determined to make this a good experience. She pulls no punches about the negatives of the country, especially as she travels around to different areas, but she is also willing to share and appreciate her surprise about the wonderful things she encounters as well, in the people and the places. I have mixed feelings about the trip myself so this book, while not entirely reassuring, did show me that being conflicted is okay and perhaps fits well for a country that seems to be composed of opposites. MacDonald is funny and she does come to appreciate India in all its glory and poverty. As a reader, I enjoyed it, even if it occasionally dwelled a little overlong on some of the negatives. Mostly well-balanced and an interesting read though.

My oldest son is reading this for class and I decided I wanted to read it myself before he did (afterall, I bought it long before it became a class assignment--but it was for the kids...really!...okay, maybe not; it was always for me but at least when it became a class assignment I didn't have to go out and buy it!). As it's a kid's book it only took me an hour or so to read but what a delightful hour it was! India Opal lives with her preacher dad in a new town in Florida. When she heads to the grocery store, she finds a skinny, scruffy dog with loads of personality wreaking havoc inside the store and she claims it as hers rather than allow the manager to send it to the pound. Dubbed Winn-Dixie for the store Opal found him in, this dog leads her to meet and know many interesting people the first, lonely summer she's in the new town. It's a heart-warming book about the goodness of people (and Winn-Dixie the dog), looking past appearances both physical and rumored and into someone's heart. Best of all, unlike much children's stuff being published today, it doesn't beat you over the head with the message but trusts that the story will convey it well enough and it does. I think W. will really enjoy it, as I did.

Finished this f2f group read in the nick of time given that our meeting is tonight! Julie Powell is a secretary who has temped all over NYC when she decides to tackle Julia Childs' Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume One and blog about her year doing each and every recipe in the cookbook. More than just a compilation of her blog entries (actually very few entries are included), this book chronicles not only her cooking year but also the ups and downs of her life as she makes her way through her self-imposed task. Powell is funny, honest, and open throughout the book, telling of failures, successes, and general life freak-outs. There are no recipes included but they can all easily be found in MtAoFC for those so inclined. What I liked best about this is that Powell is by no means a snobby foodie either at the beginning or the end of the book, just a woman who found something she loved doing and used it for her own edification. The notoriety from the project was just gravy after conceiving of and completing the task. I must say that I'd love to have someone as scatty and chatty as Powell as a friend but I don't think I'd want to eat 3/4 of what she cooked! ;-) And the book was great fun to read too.

A much lauded book, this book was a disappointment to me. Telling the story of a crumbling household in Darjeeling, the story focuses on Sai, the orphaned granddaughter of the retired Judge, who hates his own people, their cook and his son who has emigrated to America illegally, now living a hand-to-mouth existence staying one step ahead of immigration. The stories of these four creep forward as the political background of the revolt in Darjeeling comes to the forefront. The book was beautifully well-written, exquisitely detailed and the many characters were impressively fleshed out but somehow it was missing that spark that would have elevated it to the greatness the rest of the (professional) reviewers all claimed for it. By the time I got to the end, I was dragging myself through the text. I really wanted to like it a lot but ultimately only found it to be so-so.

Another award winning book that I found hard going to get through, this story of Nomi Nickel, a drinking, drug-taking, Mennonite teenager adrift was downright dreary. The character was certainly pitiable. Both Nomi's older sister and her mother leave town to never be heard from again, leaving Nomi with her vacant, religiously unquestioning, grieving father and she is clearly depressed and angry herself. The reviewers claim that the book gives us insight into the Mennonite community but I didn't think it ever rose above being the chronicle of an aimless, rather ordinary teenager living in a place she hated and chafing against rules she found constraining (and again, what's out of the ordinary in that for a certain kind of teenager?). The book read as a map of Nomi's thoughts although not quite stream of consciousness and I'm not particularly fond of this sort of narration. Nor, frankly did I want to spend much time in poor confused and rather boring Nomi's head. A slog in general.