Booknotes

My Daddy (people of Southern birth do not use the word "dad") sent me a great cozy mystery recently. Knowing I was completely stressed out, knowing that I had been through a million things he could do nothing about, he sent me a book. Nerds comfort in their own special way. Luckily, both Daddy and I are nerds, so I immediately understood his intention when I discovered my mailbox overstuffed with a book.







The Body in the Attic by Kathrine Hall Paige. Love it. It has lots of New England dark cornered houses, a long lost creepy collection of love and terror letters, a hint of ghosts, and the main character is a pastor's wife who has to "up and move" so her sweetheart can fulfill his dream of teaching at Harvard Divinity. It's a great read, and I love my Daddy for so many reasons, but one big one is because he is the guy who taught me how to read and gave me my first novel, The Hound of the Baskervilles. I will never stop loving good old fashioned mysteries before all other genres. It is his fault.



Under the Radar by Fern Michaels. A thriller about four formerly abused women who rescue presently abused women by completely illegal means. Their methods are controversial, but their motives are not. The main victims in this novel within a series are underage married teenagers from a Fundamentalist LDS polygamy group. It is not the greatest writing on earth. You won't be reading this story for its prose, but its message is clear, and I enjoyed the early morning distraction it gave me over coffee and before the children woke to demand breakfast.

Not fun, but more rewarding than a Boston Creme Doughnut and almost as satisfying as Mass on a Sunday morning...

The First Circle by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. It is the chronicle of a scientist sent to a "soft gulag" for the purpose of harvesting his genius and arresting his free spirit and sense of God. I love everything Solzhenitsyn writes. He is a true genius of modern Russian literature, a Gulag survivor, and a devout Orthodox Christian. However, his words - unlike so many great Russian writers' - are not hard to decipher and you won't get confused trying to understand what he is saying. You will fall easily into the layman's terms for everything, and into the difficult rhythm of Soviet prison life. It is really one of those 600-plus page novels that you will not be able to put down. With each page, you will need to know what happens to this sufferer and that. He sucks you in by vying for your human compassion.

So...enjoy my booknotes. Soon, my latest Reading Stupid For Fun group will meet on my front porch for lemonade and to laugh at how easily our American brains can be amused.