I'm back! And I've been reading!

Where have I been, you ask? During my year-long blog hiatus, I have bought a house, sold a house, moved to another state, and I think I have just finished filling out the last of about 200 pages of forms for the kids' new school.
Now, however, I will have loads of time to write my blog. When the wee ones return to school, I will have hours and hours of nothing to do. Well, nothing but unpacking and putting away the 50 boxes of junk that fill two rooms of our new house. And buying or sewing window treatments for 22 windows. And reading!
There has, of course, been some reading over the last year. The book that has really stuck in my mind is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It's a book about a German girl growing up during World War II. Her parents are taken away because they are Communists, and she is taken in by a foster family. The husband is kind and patient; the wife is a foul-mouthed shrew who takes a long time to show the better sides of her personality.
I liked the book in part because it shows a less commonly portrayed view of the war and the Holocaust - ordinary German kids who have nothing against the jews, but who hate the Hitler Youth mostly because the teenage leaders are such jerks. The book also has an unusual style, including occasional illustrations. The narrator of the story is Death. He's pretty weary from all the extra work Hitler is creating for him, so he seems pleased to be distracted by this young girl and her story. At first I didn't like the style of the writing, but I kept reading and was pulled into the story. Somehow the narration by Death ended up working for me.
After I finished the book, I discovered that it was marketed as a young adult book. Although the main character grows from child to teenager during the story, I didn't think of it as a juvenile book when I was reading it. Any adult who likes a good story with interesting characters and relationships might enjoy this book. And although many sad things happen in the book, I didn't feel depressed when I finished it. That Death guy tells a good story.

The Thirteenth Tale

I loved "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield, which I read for my book group. I probably shouldn't be surprised that I liked it, because I am the person who suggested it to the group. It is a Gothic tale about a strange, mysterious family. It involves a manor house, twins, faithful servants, abandoned children, old book dealers, fires, and other wonderful, spooky things.
Personally, all you have to do is set a story in a dark, mysterious house on a moor and I'm there. "The Moonstone", "The Woman in White", "Jane Eyre", anything by Daphne du Maurier ("Rebecca") or Phyllis A. Whitney - it's all good. But everyone else in the book club who read it loved it too, so I can safely recommend it to almost everyone. It is a well-written story that pulls you in.
It starts with a young woman who has written some rather obscure literary biographies. She receives a letter from a old woman who is one of the world's most popular authors. The author says that she has been lying about her past for years in interviews, but she is ready to tell the truth at last. She is willing to have only one person write her authorized biography.
Off goes the young woman to the mysterious manor house in the middle of the moor. There is a cryptic servant, protective of her mistress. There is the author herself, elderly and ill, but seemingly ready to tell her true life story. But is it really the truth? How does she convince the young woman to stay and hear her story?
I refuse to give any more of the plot away. Read the book yourself! I must admit the final ending was a tiny bit disappointing, but I think this is mostly because the journey was so enjoyable that it would be hard to end it in a way that would truly be satisfying and make the reader happy to come to the end.
We discussed this book in book club, and then we talked about a lot of other things. I can't tell you about that, because what happens in book club, stays in book club. If I told you, I'd have to kill you, etc. etc. Let's just say it was a lively discussion!

Larry's Party

"Larry's Party," by Carol Shields, is about the life of a guy named Larry. Larry seems to think he has a pretty ordinary life, but as you get to know the various characters and hear all the anecdotes, it adds up to a very rich and interesting life. Larry's parents immigrate to Canada (for a reason which is so awful and yet so funny that I wouldn't dream of spoiling it for you) and raise him and his sister in lower-middle-class neighborhood. His mother orders a brochure from the community college about "Furnace Repair" but by accident receives one about "Floral Arts" instead. So Larry gets a degree in Floral Arts. As Larry sees it, much of his life involves stumbling into various places and relationships without really intending to go in that direction. Larry literally stumbles through a maze on his honeymoon, and develops an obsession with mazes that turns into a career.
There is a lot of humor in this book (how seriously can you take a book with a chapter titled, "Larry's Penis"?) but the characters and situations seem very real. Larry has a tendency to look at his life and think, "how the heck did I end up here, doing this?" which I have often wondered about myself. But the pieces of Larry 's life really do fit together in a fascinating way. I liked this book a lot.