BOOK 52: A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute

Rating: 5 stars

Cover synopsis: A tale of love and war, follows its enterprising heroine from the Malayan jungle during World War II to the rugged Australian outback.

I love when I can find a good, clean, feel-good novel that's not boring! A Town Like Alice follows Jean Paget from a death march in Malaya during WWII, to post-war London, to the Australian outback. She's a wonderful character -- strong, independent and level-headed, but still generous and feminine.

This book's got it all: drama, romance, history, adventure...my only (minor) complaint was that the novel seemed to hit its climax 2/3 of the way through the book. And the main twist in the story is revealed on the back cover. (Who writes those things?!!!) The last part of the book was neatly wrapped up, but there weren't any more surprises. You knew exactly how it was going to end. But I didn't mind too much, because it ended exactly how I, as a reader who cared about these characters, wanted it to end.

BOOK 51: Riopelle Grands Formats, published by Acquavella

Rating: 4 stars

Cover synopsis: Exhibition September 17 - October 23, 2009. The Prat essay is in French and English; the Riopelle essay is only in French. 4to, pictorial paper-covered boards. 69 pp, 11 color plates + 9 text photographs and portraits, chronology

I saw a painting of Riopelle's in a book, and I've been dying to learn more. He was a lesser-known Canadian abstract expressionism artist whose colors, movement and sense of nature fascinate me. I could stare at "Forestine" all day. Seriously.

Some other favorites: Festin, Le Lac du Nord-Est, Quinze Chevaux Citroen, Untitled 1964, and Dark Background With White Squares.

The only reason I give this book 4 stars instead of 5 is that one of the essays is entirely in French -- with no English translation. I'd love to know what it says. But as far as the artwork goes, 5 stars! Someday I'll have to visit the Pierre Matisse Gallery in NYC and see his work firsthand.

BOOK 50: Persuasion, by Jane Austen

Rating: 5 stars

Cover synopsis: 27-year-old Anne Elliot is Austen's most adult heroine. Eight years before the story proper begins, she is happily betrothed to a naval officer, Frederick Wentworth, but she precipitously breaks off the engagement when persuaded by her friend Lady Russell that such a match is unworthy. The breakup produces in Anne a deep and long-lasting regret. When later Wentworth returns from sea a rich and successful captain, he and Anne's paths cross again.

This is one of my favorite Jane Austen novels. It's about forgiveness, second chances and the power of persuasion. It's a very simple plot, yet it's a complex personal and emotional journey. Anne loses the love of her life, only for him to come back and rub it in her face. Yet Austen doesn't make the reader hate Wentworth. Rather, we feel equally sorry for him as we do for Anne.

BOOK 49: North And South, by Elizabeth Gaskell

Rating: 5 stars

Cover synopsis: When her father leaves the Church in a crisis of conscience, Margaret Hale is uprooted from her comfortable home in Hampshire to move with her family to the north of England. Initially repulsed by the ugliness of her new surroundings in the industrial town of Milton, Margaret becomes aware of the poverty and suffering of the local mill workers and develops a passionate sense of social justice. This is intensified by her tempestuous relationship with the mill-owner and self-made man, John Thornton, as their fierce opposition over his treatment of his employees masks a deeper attraction.

I had to pick up this novel after watching the BBC movie. I loved the movie and have been recommending it to everyone with a pulse. I loved the book too, though there are quite a few differences. I liked the nice mix of romance with social awareness. I enjoyed watching Margaret grow as a character, as well as Mr. Thornton. And, of course, I enjoyed watching them grow together. :)

BOOK 48: A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes #1), by Arthur Conan Doyle

Rating: 3 stars

Cover synopsis: A murder that takes place in the shadowy outskirts of London, in a locked room where the haunting word Rache is written upon the wall. Quickly picking up the "scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life," Holmes does not fail at finding the truth -- and making literary history.

I was excited to read this book, because I've been watching the British Sherlock Holmes miniseries on Netflix, and I've enjoyed it immensely. It takes Doyle's actual stories of Sherlock Holmes, and transplants them into the 21st Century. The acting is wonderful and the writing is smart.

However, I found this book tough to rate. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting the characters of Sherlock Holmes and Watson. They are a fascinating pair, comical yet brilliant. But the book has a 5-chapter flashback to the killer's background which reveals Doyle's ignorance on Mormonism. He perpetrate falsehoods on the religion -- my religion. And it made me very uncomfortable!

And I'm not sure the Utah interlude added a whole lot to the story.

So. If you excise the lies in those 5 chapters, this would border on a 5-star book. The characters are vivid, fully fleshed, and a pleasure for the reader to decipher. But for Doyle's part in spreading anti-Mormon sentiment, I was sorely disappointed. (Thankfully, the mini-series adaptation of this story had nothing to do with Mormons!)

BOOK 47: The People of Sparks, by Jeanne DuPrau

Rating: 2 stars

Cover synopsis: The people of Ember are above ground, and they come across a town where they are welcomed, fed, and given places to sleep. But the town’s resources are limited and it isn’t long before resentment begins to grow between the two groups. When anonymous acts of vandalism push them toward violence, it’s up to Lina and Doon to discover who’s behind the vandalism and why, before it’s too late.

This is the 2nd book in the City of Ember series. And I just didn't enjoy it as much as the first. I thought the premise was interesting: How does a small town handle a population doubling overnight, and how will the people of Ember adjust to life above ground. But the execution of the premise was off.

The writing was flat. The foreshadowing was insultingly obvious. I didn't like or care about any of the characters -- even Lina and Doon became even more cardboard-cutout than they had been in the last book. And I found the storyline contrived and unlikely. I felt like the author came into this with a theme -- War Is Bad -- and twisted the characters around her moral to make them fit, instead of letting the characters take the story in a more natural direction. She created conflict and strife where it felt unnatural and contrived.

I probably won't venture on with the series.

BOOK 46: The Accidental Tourist, by Anne Tyler

Rating: 3 stars

Cover synopsis: Macon Leary is a travel writer who hates both travel and anything out of the ordinary. He is grounded by loneliness and an unwillingness to compromise his creature comforts when he meets Muriel, a deliciously peculiar dog-obedience trainer who up-ends Macon’s insular world–and thrusts him headlong into a remarkable engagement with life.

I waffled back and forth on what to rate this book. On the one hand, I found it depressing, and I didn't agree with many of the choices the characters made. I also found it predictable -- sad lonely stick-in-the-mud is taught how to live by a crazy vivacious woman! However, I did find the character development fascinating, the story well-written, and many situations that made me stop and think about how I would handle that situation.

I read this for my book club. One person has already told me she LOVES this book. Another one told me she DETESTED the book. Should be a pretty interesting discussion next week!