Oh Our Poor Little Neglected Book Site!

Anyway, enough with the lamenting.

Not everyone had the three solid weeks' worth of vacation time I did, so not all of us had the time or the wherewithal to spend catching up on our reading lists.

Of course, every time I visit the bookstore, I make a list of books I intend on buying because I want to read them (or re-read them, as the case may be), and I do occasionally indulge in a copy of something for myself. Especially if they're running one of those "buy # get # free" deals that I'm such a sucker for.

Anyway, I recently finished reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.

Ordinarily, this isn't the type of book I'm burning to read, nor is it usually the type of book I usually pick up or even recommend.

However, there are exceptions to every rule and seeing as how this is yet another example of how self-publishing a novel can get someone noticed (see Christopher Paolini's Eragon, which is now a major motion picture, for the other example in recent years) I figured it was worth a try. Plus, parts of the story actually hit very close to personal experiences. (No, I was never a nurse, or from Kentucky, nor did I ever live in Pittsburgh or West Virginia; I am not a twin, nor are any of my relations physics professors or orthopaedic surgeons or Julliard-trained classical musicians . . . well, that's not entirely true, but seeing as how I've never met Nana's cousin Walter, that's a moot point. More than that I will NOT say.)

You can get the plot summary from Amazon, or from the cover-copy, but whichever you choose, it's a very interesting book. I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did, nor did I think I would connect with it as I had. Ms. Edwards is a thoughtful, sensitive and careful writer, who I would love to read again.

And now, back to the biography of John Adams I promised to lend to my grandmother when I'm finally finished with it.