Books, books, books

I've been reading a ton (just started with Paperback Swap, and I really like it - I'd like it a lot more if the people to whom I'm sending books would acknowledge receipt promptly...) so I thought I should update my list.

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. Blergh. The one thing I will say about this book is that it held my interest and made me a little weepy at the end. A doctor delivers his twins in a snowstorm in 1964 (two months before I was born, interestingly). Son born healthy and the daughter born with Down Syndrome and dad impulsively gives the baby to a nurse and tells her to deliver the baby to a home for disabled children. Oh, yeah, and he told his wife that the girl was born dead. The nurse ends up taking the baby herself and raises it. The dad's secret slowly tears the family apart. The mom/wife drove me absolutely insane. Hated this character. She was insipid in the beginning, and then of course turned into this hard driving career woman. Honestly, aside from the deception, I had a lot of sympathy for the father and very little for the mother. Not an awful book but just kind of annoying. The prose was lovely at times, but kind of overdone. I got sick of hearing about "Norah's delicate wrists," and "Norah's delicate feet," and let's not forget "Norah's slender neck." It made me almost embarrassed for the author at times. The jacket said that she went to the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and it surprised me. The author is no Ann Patchett (another IWW alumna).

Good thing I had a book that I completely enjoyed after reading that drivel. Avalon, by Anya Seton. I completely enjoyed this book and I liked it more than The Winthrop Woman. I thought it was a little tighter than TWW. Kind of meandering like TWW. I love this author and I'm so happy that I've found a new obsession. Anyway, Avalon was the story of an English girl, Merewyn, in the 900's. She thinks she is a descendant of King Arthur, but actually her mother was raped by a Viking. Her mother confessed to Lord Rumon, who promises not to tell Merewyn. Anyway, long and convoluted - Rumon takes Merewyn to King Edward's court and he falls in love with a scheming evil queen, Merewyn of course loves Rumon. She is taken to Iceland after a Viking raid and is reunited with her father. Okay, so it's completely implausible, but I liked the book enough to overlook this silliness. She marries and has two children and eventually returns to England (after residing in Greenland for many years) and claims to be the heir to King Arthur. Rumon finds her in Greenland, she wants nothing to do with him, he becomes a monk and upon her return she finds him. They don't end up reuniting, but rather Merewyn finds a new husband whom she doesn't really love but who takes good care of her. Finally on Rumon's deathbed, he asks her to stop claiming to be King Arthur's heir and she agrees, and her husband still loves her and she's still accepted... That's kind of a crappy review, but it was very meandering. I liked the era, it is something that I know little about (kind of like the Winthrop Woman in that sense). Just so good. I loved this book.

I'm reading my first PBS book - Through a Glass Darkly, by Karleen Koen. It kind of looks like a romance novel (embarrassing - I wish I could get over that, but I can't). I can't remember where it was recommended, but it's pretty good so far.

I'm kind of on a historical fiction bender right now. Specifically British historical fiction.