The Broken Shore by Peter Temple ****

I found this book on NPR as one that has gone "under the radar" but was a good read. I have to agree with them.

The main character is Joe Cashin, a big city detective who has been posted to his backwater home town after a particularly vicious run in with a crime boss. He lost his young partner in the event & feels massive guilt for it.

As the story unfolds, you learn not only about the crime that occurs in Port Monro & throws Joe back into action, but about Joe's family. I wasn't really aware of the racial dynamic in Austrailia between the white & aboriginal peoples. Needless to say, there is a lot of racism going on & there is a lot of similarity to the US in that regards.

Joe had an aunt that was aboriginal (I have no idea what the acceptable term would be for the native peoples of Austrailia other than aboriginal--mostly unacceptable terms were used in the book!) & grew up with his cousins, so has a much different outlook than most of his fellow white cops.

The plot got a little predictable for me towards the end, though the scope of it was very surprising. I'm not the biggest fan of crime novels or I would have given this 5 stars. But anyone who likes to read good writing would enjoy this book immensely.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling ****

Another good one. I like this one more than the second one, though now I'm starting to get them all mixed up in my head!

Not much more I can say other than that.

Austenland by Shannon Hale ***

I had to read this, since it's Shannon Hale's only adult book to date. And now I can see why she doesn't write adult fiction. It's not that the book is bad in any way, it is just a very light read. Her books for teens actually seem to have a little more substance to them. The premise is that a 32 year old single gal gets a non-refundable trip to Pembrook Park, a resort in Jolly Old that claims to give you the full experience of being in a Jane Austen book. Like I said, it's a cute read & great for when you're not wanting to get into anything dark or morbid. If you go in with low expectations, you won't be disappointed. I had higher ones based on her teen books, but hey, you can't get everything in life.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling ****

Yep, this one was good too. Though I doubt there are many people out there who haven't read it yet. I know, I'm 10 years late getting to this one!
Snakes--boy do we humans have an obsession with them! My son loves the scaly devils, though he doesn't want to necessarily touch one or anything. But man does he enjoy the snake house at the zoo!
I guess I feel sorry for the whole serpent world for how we portray them in books. At least Harry Potter can speak to them, & thereby give them some voice. I know the late Croc Hunter enjoyed hanging out with them too, but he was definitely a little different, to put it nicely.
Well, this has been an exceedingly lame post. It's probably because I've been simply reading lately to divert my mind from the fact my dad passed away this past Wednesday. Though I'm not in the state of despair I was in for the past 3 days, I'm still not quite myself yet. I've been wondering if I ever will be. As ol' W.B. Yeats said, "..peace comes dropping slow...".

Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher *****

I'm going to keep this short--this is a good book. Read it. It is funny. I liked it. Carrie Fisher is crazy. She has lots of problems. But she has a great sense of humor. So what the hell. Don't we all?

Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling ****

If someone had told me 10 years ago that I wouldn't start reading the Harry Potter series until 2009, & that I'd start doing so to divert myself from my father's loosing battle with cancer, I wouldn't have believed them. But that's what's going on, & it's working very well in the diversion category.
I don't know yet about the other books in the series, but I can say that J.K. Rowling tapped into something we all want--a unique, wonderful world where we truly "belong". Isn't that what we all want? A place where we are accepted as we are, & where our natural talents are celebrated, as opposed to ridiculed? It's pretty universal.
I know when I was little I used to imagine that I was an alien from another planet that was dropped off here by accident when I was born. That would explain my lack of fitting in, & why even though I tried really hard to please my family, it was never enough. I think we've all felt that way from time to time in our lives. Wouldn't it be neat if we could all just go off to Hogwarts for 9 months & "find ourselves"?

Pictures at an Exhibition by Sara Houghteling ***

The premise of this book is great: a Jewish art dealer in Paris before the Nazi's march in, flees the city in advance of the invasion, returns to Paris after it's liberation to find that not only is his gallery & home destroyed, all of his art work is gone. The story follows his son, Max, as he tries to find their art in order to finally gain approval from his father. I like that the subject of disability does arise (where doesn't it arise, once you're aware of it?), but overall it just didn't click with me. Like I said, the idea is compelling. But the characters just don't come across as memorable. There is a lot of fact wrapped up in this novel, which makes me want to read one of the author's sources, The Rape of Europa . All in all, it wasn't a bad book. I just didn't find it to be the kind of book that I will think about later.