Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier

First off, let me began by saying that I read Cold Mountain twice. I remember in great detail laying in bed while I lived on Sutherland Dr., recuperating from a D&C and reading the book in one long drink, and crying out loud, sobbing at the enc.

As with Cold Mountain, I did not want Thirteen Moons to end.

A magical book, but I read it in one long week. I found the book in the Goodwill on Madison, the clerk was putting up all the books from those large canvas carriers that I love so dearly. He allowed me to dive in and wade among the books he had yet to shelve and there it was!

I grabbed it and clutched it to my breast and knew that I had a book that was going to be a treasure if remotely akin to CM.

And was it? It was like magic. I could not rip through the pages as I am prone to doing. I did not skip, skim or grow bored at any time of the week's read. Last evening as the last pages loomed ahead of me, I laid down the book and thought, "I'll finish it in the morning..."

I loved it. Magic on the pages.

Travel Writing - Peter Ferry

I liked this book quite a bit. I have a few questions about the plot, like I couldn't grasp why the Doc killed the girl. I assume it was a crime of passion due to two lovers (or patients) finding out about each other and the one who was offed would have done something about the betrayal. It never was exactlly explained. Nor why the victim's sister also was a patient (lover) of the evil Doc.

And the travel pieces were just thrown in. The Mexico picies were OK. The canoe piece was so boring. The Mexico piece brought us and introduced the character Charlie to us, who traveled to IL on a bus and stayed one day. That made no sense whatsoever. He could have stayed logner, but then another story would have emerged and I guess that Peter had little use for him then killed him off.

The Irelenad piece was good only because Ihave been in those places! County Clare. I know he called some other city the musical hot spot of Clare, but in fact it is Ennis. Anyway, the little trip back to memory lane was nice, but uneccessary.

Still, I enjoyed the writing if the story was a bit too male fantasyish.

Bordeaux - paul torday

At times I will call up Amazon and read the reviews before finishing a book. I was not certain what I was feeling reading Bordeaux. Perhaps a bit of confusion. The reviews compared it to Memento a disjointed film from the 90's that had no linear path through the story.

I never understood the motivation behind the character until the very last pages, which quite honestly I skimmed over. The people he was so enamoured with bored me to tears.

yet, the total outline for my own "novel" (god help me) was revealed to me during those last paragraphs.

i guess to say I finished the novel ant at times the prose was wonderful, the images were very satisfying. But I'm glad it's over and that it's time to move on to another story, maybe this one with more sympathetic characters.