Persevere and get past the start of this book. Somewhere around page 100 when the two heroines of the story finally meet, the book takes off and soars. An ultimately beautiful story of two women at opposite ends of slavery creating an unlikely partnership.

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a great story (a memoir so presumably true) and a quick read. Even though it’s a book about poverty and suffering the author never wallows in self-pity. The details of her childhood are fascinating. How four out of five children survived the disastrous choices of their unfit parents is amazing. And yet even the parents aren’t entirely unlikable. Really good book about triumphing over rotten circumstances.

I, Mona Lisa by Jeanne Kalogridis is a very enjoyable story of the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci and the city of Florence. Very loosely historical fiction – there were several details of da Vinci’s life that didn’t match up with other biographical information I’ve read, can’t say for sure which one’s accurate though. No matter, it’s a very good read and reminiscent of The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant.

I excitedly bought The Last Days of Dogtown in November 2006 after seeing it is written by Anita Diamant, author of The Red Tent. Last Days is the story of citizens in a dwindling New England town in the early 1900’s. The characters are semi-endearing but it’s rather slow and boring. It’s taken me five months to read it because I kept getting distracted by other books far more interesting. It’s not a terrible book, just not very engrossing.

The Red Tent, however, is an amazing book and one of my all-time favorites. I will continue to seek out Anita Diamant’s books because that one is so wonderful.

I like Augusten Burroughs writing style and attempts at humor, even though this was a painful memoir of his childhood. This book is full of weird (presumably real-life) characters living their miserable lives. Ick.