DONE

With "Water for Elephants" and "The Book of Fate." I listened to these ("Elephants" in the kitchen while I cooked, cleaned, ate, etc. and "Fate" while I drove back and forth to rehearsal) on tape.

Both were recommendations from my mother, who generally has fabulous taste. Generally. To her credit, they probably weren't recommendations as much as "by the way, these are some books I listened to..." random titles of books. Actually, I mostly enjoyed listening to them--there are very few books that I don't mostly enjoy--but I wouldn't put them on any "hurry out and get these books" lists. But, of course, I'm the one anxiously awaiting the fourth book in a series about hot, sexy, eternally 18-years-old vampires, so take that for what it's worth! On the off chance that you do want to go read or listen to either of these novels, let me give you a little background first.

"The Book of Fate" has lots and lots of swearing. If that sort of thing bothers you, be sure you don't listen to it in your car, especially when you are driving kids to soccer practice. Oops. "The Book of Fate" is seeped in intrigue and political schemings, and includes several weak attempts to add in little bits of Masonic symbolism in order to hint at the Masons' master plan to take over the world...(evil laughter erupts now, "Ah, ah, ah!). It also features a wimpy, physically and emotionally scarred leading man whose loyalty to the President makes it difficult, but eventually possible for him to save the world ("Hooray!"). Most interesting to me was the crazy man who lives only to follow the "Book of Fate," meaning God's master plan. He is deeply religious and feels himself aligned and in tune with God, yet he does terrible things. Didn't he ever read the verse that says, "By their fruits shall ye know them..."? He thinks that the things he is doing are necessary and part of God's plan to take away the evil ones in the world. Hmmm...like some other terrorists we hear about these days? Seriously, I am a little worried at the way religion is used and abused to excuse and explain away people's actions (i.e. everything from the Crusades to not letting your kids play with the non-Christians next door...). That gave me pause to think.

"Water for Elephants" is about a 93 year old man in a rest home. A circus is being set up just across the way from the home, which leads to lots of excitement and reminiscing about the good old days. It also leads to an altercation between our protagonist and another man, a man who says he used to carry water for the elephants in a circus, and one who really did. Jacob Jankowski then tells us the story of how he became a part of the Benzini Brothers traveling circus, and the love and adventures that follow suit. This was a love story all about relationships. There were parent-child relationships, boss-worker relationships, people-stuck-together-at-random relationships, romantic relationships, ruined relationships, and animals-as-your-best-friend relationships. I particularly enjoyed old-man-Jacob's narrative about his frustrating, tiresome, rather monotonous situation--the ornery old coot!

Well, if you don't end up enjoying these books, I hope you find something else wonderful to fill your time. I'm starting on "Love in the Time of Cholera" and "The Book Thief." More to come when I'm done, done, done, done, done...(did your head fill in the right musical cue for that?)

P.S. I also finished reading (and who wouldn't finish this one, it's such a short, easy read) "Listening for Lions."

I read it for the church ladies' (Church Lady, HA! Do you remember her?) book club. It was a sweet, predictable story that is meant for sweet, predictable people. I LOVED IT!!!! Not.

This is written for a young adult audience, which doesn't usually mean anything to me (owing, I'm sure to my very young adult status), because there are lots of YA books out there that I absolutely adore ("Beauty," "The Secret Garden," "Harriet the Spy," "Johnny Tremain" to name a few), but this one is meant specifically for a YA audience. It's the story of a missionary family in Africa who are hit by the dreaded influenza epidemic of 1918. Mother and Father die, as does the young neighbor girl from England, who just so happens to have "ginger colored hair" exactly like our young heroine, Rachel. The neighbor parents are devastated by their daughter's death because (we find out later) she was their one chance to get money from rich but estranged Grandfather back in England. Bad people that they are, they kidnap Rachel and send her to England as their daughter Valerie, with instructions that she gain Grandfather's affection and his inheritance. If you want to know the rest of the story you have to either think of the most predictable ending possible, or just go read the book. Either option will take about the same amount of time.

"Well, now. Isn't that special?"