Great read during my flight from Bahrain to Japan. Even though the ending was abrupt, I thought it was a great lead in to a sequel; the ending was more of a beginning. The poverty broke my heart but the lessons and fortitude that the author gained are priceless. “What doesn’t break you, only makes you stronger”….

this was such a disappointment. I admit to have been intrigued by the cover, the actors (I love Clive Owen), the genre and mistakenly thought it was more like a “Sin City” storyline. How wrong I was and what a waste of time.

Flynn has such an interesting way with words, a way that can gently breathe an image to life and spawn in my head.

I can see her words before me, her characters, their motions, their realizations quickening then paced.

Flynn truly has a new fan and I hope to read her second novel, something about 80’s rock, big glam rock idols and devil worship.

Page 174 changed my life: “‘I remember when we lived like that. Always moving. Always running away.’ … To break free from that fear, to run in hope and despair, to run and to find that all the time you were carrying him inside you like a malignant child …”

How foolish, but yes I think I too have for many years carried my fear with me like a malignant child, unable to abandon it yet unable to live without it.

Put into this perspective, I find it possibly easier to let go of than I thought. I’m glad I read this book.

Hearing “The Last Time” takes me back to 2004 during my military deployment to the Middle East. I love Julie Doiron’s voice which is so simple, haunting and cuts straight into tender emotions of isolation and longing.

(Photo: Summer in the Middle East)

Zahra Freeth’s description of Kuwait and her people before the discovery of oil explains a vivid culture of the badu, the traditional Arab family, & the seclusion of a hidden, quiet and simple way of life. Her words have provided insight to the old Arab culture, traditions and superstitions.

She alludes to the conflict that a flood of oil wealth could cause for a country of people who had not the education nor the character to manage or understand what being wealthy meant or what it could do to change them forever. I wish I could have read “Kuwait Was My Home” before Kuwait became my home.

I would have viewed Kuwait through Freeth’s eyes, with her understanding of the Arab culture and with her appreciation & respect for the old traditional ways that have since vanished from Kuwait.

I found this book on the “free books” shelf at the Navy Base library. It was the best selection on the shelf amongst the harlequin romance novels and outdated programming guides.

If you are the type of person who enjoys reading and has enjoyed it since childhood, you will appreciate the work that the author and entrepreneur John Wood committed his life to.

During a vacation in the Himalayas, Wood visited a local school and library that had but few books none of which were suitable for the young growing minds of children. When asked if he could bring more books to their library perhaps the next time he visited Nepal, he made a promise that he would. From this promise burgeoned Room to Read an organization whose goal became to provide global education.

Countless children who would have otherwise stopped their schooling at a young age now have the ability to continue due to the scholarships, libraries and schools provided by the organization.

I for one really enjoy reading and I can honestly say I wouldn’t be the person I am if not for the many books my Grandfather provided to us as children. I can’t imagine my life without books and a love for reading; now so many children in many third world countries can experience the same.

Beautiful written and emotionally haunting. I hope to read this book again.

As March is the 2006 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, I was inclined to buy and read this novel as I am out of ideas on what to read next.

Against the backdrop of the Civil War, I found it interesting to read about the happenings in Virginia (where we moved from), especially when towns / cities are named and their conditions given: racism, discrimination and hatred.

Most appealing: the character is the father from “Little Women” and in this book (no I haven’t read it nor care to actually) upon the father’s return, all his daughters sit around him, joyous upon his return from the war and ask the most inconsiderate questions such as, how different do I look to you? what about so and so … how different does she look to you? how have I changed in your opinion? notice anything different about ME?

Not once do this little brats ask their father how different he feels, or how fighting the Civil War has changed him personally.

In March, all these questions are answered as it follows him from youth to the moment he returns home to Concord, MA. It is told from the perspective of the father who leaves for war, experiences so much (pain, hatred of whites, love for blacks, adultery, failure and in the end, self-doubt).

The idea is not unlike Wicked by Gregory Maguire where the perspective is the untold story of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Finally, a voice for the unspoken, miffed yet wholesome and monumental characters silenced by the author’s opinion of whose voice the audience wants to ‘hear’.

Good read indeed but not one I’m hanging onto …

I fell in love with my sweetheart during the time I fell in love with ‘Music & Wine’. It reminds me of us sitting on our patio, listening to music, drinking, flicking cigarettes over the edge and watching him talk about his life. It’s a great song I’ll always associate with this precious time of my life.