The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

This book was published in 1989 but I never heard of it until Oprah had it as a book club selection this past year. Then my friend Aisling lent it to me this summer along with a bunch of other books, and she told me both she and her husband really enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to reading it.

At 1076 pages, it is a very thick book and a great one to keep at the side of your bed and read a bit in every night. The advantage to it being so thick is that, even if you get swept up in the story and want to keep reading late into the night, you know there is no possible way you can reach the end so you give up quicker and leave it for the next night and get more sleep! At least that's how it was for me.

And I did get swept up in the story, but at the same time I was able to take my time (a real feat for me) and savor it. At times it has the feel of a trashy romance novel, especially in the numerous rape scenes, but aside from that, it is an epic historical novel, following priests, builders, townspeople, earls, knights and the politics of a town in medieval England that is building a cathedral. I especially enjoyed the connection to real English history with the ups and downs of the crown and how it affected the local people. A great read!

Red Room

No, not "Redrum" from The Shining.... Red Room is an online social network for authors, readiers, literary agents, book clubs. My mom pointed it out to me, and it looks very interesting. Especially the "write a novel in a month" challenge! Very interesting...

Mary just sent me a new supply of New York Times Book Reviews and after reading just one issue, I have a list of at least six books I'd like to read. I don't think my local library is going to be that up to date on English language literature, so I will just have to add them to my notebook and have hope or wait til my next trip to the US or England. But it is amazing how enthralling it can be to read something written about something written and read.

Anita Shreve: A Wedding in December

My mom and I were just talking about how you can get on a reading jag with books by a certain author, voraciously devouring everything they've written and anxiously waiting for the next one to come out. And how, then, inevitably, you get tired of that particular author's books, they start to sound a bit the same, and then you stop being so enthuisiastic when a new book comes out.

The nice thing is, after you've broken up with your author for some time, you can often come back to their books and really enjoy the reunion! You read something new by them again, after a long time, and you remember why you loved their books so much in the first place.

My mom has just had this experience with Patricia Cornwall, I have recently with John Grisham (see below) and now Anita Shreve, with her novel "A Wedding in December" which was published in 2005.

A while back I read everything I could get my hands on by Shreve. I think she is an incredibly gifted writer and a wonderful craftsman of tales. This latest novel did not disappoint me. It follows a group of high school friends, now in their forties, who meet at for the wedding of two of them. They all have had their struggles over the years, some have secrets, some have major health problems and they all still grieve the death of one of their friends back during their high school days.

I certainly can relate to that feeling you start getting as you hit your forties and start ruminating about certain points in your life, the "road not taken", the "what if's", and others of your generation that you haven't heard from in years! This novel explores that for all of the characters - while they all have totally different lives, they are still touched by their shared past. It was a great read.

The Testament by John Grisham

Remember that Bookcrossing book I found a while back at Greenway in Leuven? Well I just finished it on Sunday. I was down and out with the flu and spent the whole day napping and reading and being taking care of by my husband and boys (they did a good job).

This book was exactly what I expected: a fast paced story, lots of legal twists and turns, colorful characters, and once I got into it, I was unable to put it down. I have always enjoyed Grisham's novels and this was no execption.

The story follows the legal battle over billionaire Troy Phelan's last will and testament - he excludes his six children in favor of giving all the money to a daughter he has never known as she was given up for adoption long ago. Lawyer Nate O'Riley has to track her down in the Pantanal area of Bolivia where she is a missionary, at the same time he has to keep his own demons in check.

The part of the novel that takes place in the Pantanal is well researched and captivating. So I learned something about this part of the world.

I am going to be posting about this book over on Bookcrossing, too, and will be releasing it into the wild sometime soon (although I think my husband wants to read it before I let it go)!

Something to Share

This summer we accidentally discovered a lovely bookstore in Brussels: Passaporta Bookshop. Not only was it open on Sunday afternoon and offered coffee and a place to sit, it is definitely one of those bookstores that invites browsing and perusing and generally getting lost among its stacks of treasures (my sister Christy will tell you this is one of my major character faults - do not take me into a bookstore if you have to be somewhere else on time later, for some reason "bookstore" trumps "not wanting to be late").

One of things I discovered at Passaporta was a new series by Penguin called "Great Journeys": a series of 20 slim volumes of excerpts from history's greatest adventurers' stories. I could not resist - the books have beautiful artwork and are such a dotey size, you can't help but pick them up. I actually ended up buying several of them, for gifts but also for myself, which felt really indulgent. But like I said, books are a real weakness!

I just finished number 16 in the series, "The Congo and the Cameroons" by Mary Kingsley, who writes about her travels in Equatorial West Africa in the late 1800's. It is amazing to follow her up and down the Great Peak of the Cameroons, through mangrove swamps, in all sorts of weather, narrowly avoiding bottomless pits, and doing it all on her own, in charge of her own troop consisting of a cook, boys to carry water and supplies, and several trackers. She was certainly a woman who did not let the prevailing customs of her day stop her in her love of travel and adventure and Africa itself:

Why did I come to Africa? thought I. Why! who would not come to its twin brother hell itself for all the beauty and charm of it!

After her second trip to Africa, she wrote the bestselling "Travels in West Africa" (1897), from which the Penguin book is excerpted. Tragically, during her third trip to Africa, while working as a volunteer nurse in a POW hospital during the Boer War, she died from enteric fever at the age of 37.

The Penguin series is a great opportunity to get acquainted with these obscure but amazing writers from long ago - when travelling was still a grand but risky adventure and there was so much of the world still to be discovered!

Back to Bookcrossing?

Yesterday I was so excited. You see, I was having lunch with a friend at Greenways, a nice little vegetarian spot in Leuven, and we accidentally discovered a whole pile of Bookcrossing books sitting on the table next to us. (Well, actually it was after my friend accidentally knocked over the table and we were picking the stuff up, that we discovered the books!) There were several in English, a couple in Dutch and one in French.

I had to explain to my friend what Bookcrossing is because she had never heard of it. It's basically a way to share books you've read and what you thought about them with complete strangers and at the same time be able to follow the book's journey around (ideally) the entire world, by leaving the books to be "found" in public places. First, of course, you register the book on the Bookcrossing website, whereby it gets its own specific number, which you write in the book.

I've been a member of Bookcrossing for about four years, and I love the whole idea behind it, but I gave up on it after a while because I got discouraged, none of my books ever really being "found". I did pass on some books to friends, hoping they might journal about them on the site and pass them on to others, or trade with other Bookcrossing members, but it never really took off for me. Perhaps I will have to give it another shot, now that I know I good spot to leave books in Leuven.

What book did I pick up yesterday? The Testament by John Grisham, left behind by someone from Gent. I'll write more about it here and on the Bookcrossing site as soon as I've read it!

I'm Not Scared by Niccolò Ammaniti

Another entry for Book Around the World, this time for Italy! My friend Aisling lent me this book - we always exchange books in the summer - and it turned out to be a gripping, tragic story.

The story is told from the point of view of nine-year-old Michele, a boy living with his sister and parents in a small village in Italy in 1978. It's a blisteringly hot summer and Michele and his friends bike around the hills, trying to stay out of the adults' way and have a good time. Unfortunately they make a discovery in an old abandoned barn that will change their lives forever.

It was certainly hard to put this book down once it got into the thick of things. The tension builds up as the ending approaches. Apparently it was also made into a movie. Finally, the novel bears a strong connection to many of the themes in Lord of the Flies. Not uplifting, but beautifully written.