Between the Covers

"Between the Covers - What do you read at the end of the day?" is the theme for the Adult Summer Reading Program at Gibson Memorial Library this year. Requirements to enter and be eligible for one of the prizes is to read or listen to at least 1000 pages between May 29 and July 27. (One hour of listening to an audio book = 50 pages.) The materials have to be checked out from our library, pictured above.
At first I wasn't going to enter, then I thought, "Well, why not? I'm going to be reading that much anyway; might as well take a chance on winning something." I didn't start keeping track of the books I've read until the middle of June and I'm already at 2,920 pages read. I'm debating whether to turn in my list when I go to the library today, or whether to add on another nine days of reading.

 When I first started reading John Shors, The Wishing Trees, I was so impressed. I looked him up to see what else he had written and discovered he is from Des Moines - which led me down another path to determine if he is the son of a Pulitzer prize winner I know - and found that he has written several acclaimed books. Why had I never read him before? (His mother is not the person I was thinking of - Jane Schorer - another case of my mixing up names [Holden-Holdren].)
From the blurb on the dust jacket: "Almost a year after the death of his wife, Kate, former high-tech executive Ian finds a letter that will change his life. It contains Kate's final wish - a plea for him to take their ten-year-old daughter, Mattie, on a trip across Asia, through the countries they had planned to visit to celebrate their fifteenth anniversary.
Eager to honor the woman they loved, Ian and Mattie embark on an epic journey that retraces the early days of Ian's relationship with Kate. Along the way, Ian and Mattie leave paper "wishes" in ancient trees as symbols of their connection to Kate and their dreams for the future."
As I said, at first I was impressed with the book and was even planning on reading his other books. But after they left the first country on their itinerary, Japan, and went to Nepal and then to Thailand and India, I realized he was basically writing the same thing over and over with just descriptions of the country to make it somewhat different. Ian was an Aussie and I got so tired of him calling Mattie "Roo" and "Mate". Weren't there any other ways the author could identify Ian's nationality? I may try another of Shors' books in the future. Or, I may not.  

"All morning I struggled with the sensation of stray wisps of one world seeping through the cracks of another. Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous books with ideas and themes - characters even - caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you."
This is one of my favourite quotes from Diane Setterfield's New York Times best seller, The Thirteenth Tale. 
Vida Winter is a best-selling author. She has always been secretive about her personal life, becoming reclusive as she nears the end of it. Before she dies, she has decided to reveal the truth about herself and tell the final 'Thirteenth Tale' which was missing from one of her most celebrated novels. She chooses a relatively unknown biographer, Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain.
 Ms. Winter's rules are clear: she will relate her story her way: "Beginnings, middles and endings, all in the correct order. No cheating. No looking ahead. No questions." Thus begins a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins, Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire.
Oh, what a satisfying read! The book was published in 2006. A quick search does not show anything new coming from Ms. Setterfield, but I have high hopes she is working on another novel. Another quote from writer 'Vida': "My gripe is not with lovers of the truth but with truth herself. What succor, what consolation is there in truth, compared to a story? What good is truth at midnight, in the dark, when the wind is roaring like a bear in the chimney? What you need are the plump comforts of a story. The soothing, rocking safety of a lie."
Diane Setterfield delivers the 'plump comfort' of a very good story.

Sara Shepard is the author of bestselling young adult books which are the basis for the hit TV show, "Pretty Little Liars". I haven't watched the show and that isn't the reason I picked up her second adult novel, Everything We Ever Wanted. I checked it out because one of my very favourite authors, Adriana Trigiani wrote this on the cover: "Sara Shepard delivers the perfect read....A delicious story loaded with mysterious twists and turns and a vault of secrets that will keep you turning pages long into the night. Sara is a brilliant storyteller."
The book description from Amazon: "Recently widowed mother of two, Sylvie Bates-McAllister finds her life upended by a late-night phone call from the headmaster of the prestigious private school founded by her grandfather where her adopted son, Scott, teaches. Allegations of Scott’s involvement in a hazing scandal cause a ripple effect, throwing the entire family into chaos and exposing a tangled web of secrets that ties the family together. The quest to unravel the truth takes the family on individual journeys across state lines, into hospitals, through the Pennsylvania woods, and face-to-face with the long-dormant question: What if the life you always planned for and dreamed of isn’t what you want after all?"
My thoughts: Adriana let me down. I liked the premise of the book, but I kept thinking: "Why don't you people just talk to one another?" But I suppose there wouldn't have been a 340 page book if they had.

Michael Shaara won the Pulitzer Prize in 1975 for his classic novel of the Civil War The Killer Angels. I've been reading novels about the Civil War lately, and this one about the Battle of Gettysburg is extremely readable. I liked the way the author humanized the real-life generals and other commanders on both sides of the battle, as well as some of the thousands individuals who fought and died in what seemed to me, after reading the book, a senseless, wasteful fight. Lee should have listened to Longstreet.

Between the covers - what do I read at the end of the day? - whatever book I happen to be reading at the time. The simple fact is that I never go to sleep without reading at least a few pages first. The only two nights in my recent memory that I haven't read were the two nights after I had shoulder replacement surgery. I was so afraid it would be weeks before I could read in bed again. I was thankful it was only the one night I was in the hospital and the first night I was home. I'll let you know if I'm one of the adult summer reading program winners.