Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier

If you enjoyed reading Girl With A Pearl Earring then you will enjoy this book as well I think. Why? Because the author is one and the same.

Tracy Chevalier researches her true characters in this novel as well as the time in which it is set. You begin to see everything she sees because Tracy writes vividly of the scenery and the people.

It is specifically about two women who really existed. Two women who changed the thinking of men who thought they knew all there was to know. But who realized that these women were indeed more knowledgeable even though one came from an uneducated background.

One women older than the other. How their lives enhanced one another. How their knowledge fed each other's hunger for the remarkable creatures they found who were not of this century or era. Were these creatures really alive at one time before they became encased in the layers of earth that preserved them for all time? What catastrophe occurred which embalmed them in stone?

If you are an archaeology buff then I think you will enjoy this true to history novel as you vicariously go on the beach digs with these two women.



Still Life With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen

Another Bookclub book.


First of all ... don't you like the title? I do. It makes you peaceful and a bit hungry at the same time.


I enjoyed this book choice. It's about a women who becomes defined by one painting. Is that all that she is?


Read the book to find out and make sure you don't leave any crumbs in your bed!



Munster's Case: An Inspector Van Veeteren Mystery by Hakan Nesser

As usual, I picked this one off the shelf at my Goodwill. And, as usual, it was the cover that stabbed me. (Pun intended).


I had never read a book by this author plus I was in the mood for a murder mystery. So, why not?


This was not an Agatha Christie type of story. It was dryer. But it was well written and I assure you that it wasn't the butler in the pantry with the knife. But a knife was used and it was used over and over and over. What a mess!


So "who done it"? You'll have to read it to find out. No, it wasn't that person and no, it wasn't that one either. You'll have to read it through to the end to find out.


Watch your back!



The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Do you want to enter a world that you have never seen before? That you may think that you would never have been able to imagine on your own?


Then enter the magical and mysterious world of the Night Circus.


As you can surmise the circus is only open at night. Not only that, but it will appear and disappear when you least expect it. Out in a field beyond the town. Lit up by a central fire. Telling time by a unique clock.


The performers within the tents are not like any that you will ever see in a circus. Get your special ticket and enter into the minds of those that dreamed it into existence. It's enigmatic.


I picked this one up at my Goodwill. The cover caught my attention as well as the title. I wasn't disappointed but was confused at times. That's all I'm going to say except ...


Abracadabra!



Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

This book was a pick for my neighborhood book club. I am ashamed I had not read it before!


I could not put this story down and recently, when I was going through some of my daughter's high school notebooks, I saw that she had read this book. It was surprising to me that it was one of the books her class had read since I always thought that some of the classics that I was supposed to read were boring. Like what I call, 'The Tale of Two Boring Cities'. I also had read other classics last summer that I had not read, thinking I should, and found them to be just as boring. But I know that this book, if it had been one of the required readings while I was in high school, would have been enjoyed. But of course I was in high school during the time of the beginning of integration. Perhaps this book would not have sat well with our parents. To stir things up. We couldn't have that, right?


But when my children were in the same high school that I went to, it was different. It was filled with children from all backgrounds and nationalities. It had become a Magnet High School and populated with different cultural backgrounds. It was grand to see the friends that my daughters brought home.


So, about this book, get it. Read it. Enjoy.