The Memory Keeper's Daughter

by Kim Edwards

This novel is the story of a doctor who delivers his own twins--a healthy boy, and a girl with Downs Syndrome. He makes a life-altering decision to give away his daughter while his wife is unconsicous, and tells her instead that the baby was stillborn.

The story follows the parallel lives of the doctor's family, always shadowed by their missing daughter, and the nurse who takes the daughter and raises her as her own.

I thought the premise for this book was great. It starts with two emotional, gut-wrenching decisions, but fails to keep that level of intensity throughout the novel. After awhile I started to wonder why the author followed the two families for so dang long. Do we need to see the doctor's family on vacation? To know about the nurse's wooing by a trucker? A novel that moves through decades should show you the poignant, key events that shape the lives of the main characters, bringing the reader to the ultimate conclusion of the story. Though the book itself isn't long, I felt like I spent too much time with these characters at odd points in their lives. The connections we're given don't really drive the plot. They are more mile markers along The Memory Keeper's Daughter highway.

It's not a bad book, but I was a little underwhelmed.

From Potter's Field

by Patricia Cornwell

I've been on a Patricia Cornwell kick lately. She's one of the original forensic science writers, and many of her stories are similar to those you'd see on CSI or Law & Order. I like to pepper them through my reading list so I don't overdose on literary fiction. Cornwell books are like brain sorbet for my reading palate, and I mean that in a good way.

Of her Kay Scarpetta series, I'd also recommend Postmortem and The Body Farm. They're older books, but worth revisiting if crime fiction is your kind of reading.

Water for Elephants

by Sara Gruen

This book is different from anything I've read in awhile, both in plot and characters. It tells the tale of a Depression-era young man who decides to skip town after a family tragedy, and finds himself stowing away on a circus train, where he becomes the vetrinarian for the exotic animals. Along the way he meets characters just as exotic as the animals, and even more engaging.

I wasn't as smitten with the ending as I was with the rest of the book, but it wasn't enough to change my opinion about the book as a whole. Water for Elephants grabs you right away, and takes you down the tracks for a wild ride. It's definitely worth a read!

Zunafish

One of the ways I feed my reading habit is by using Zunafish, a simply awesome website that lets you trade media (paperbacks, CDs, DVDs, etc.) with others.

I had a ton of paperbacks that I had read and knew that while I enjoyed them, I wasn't going to read them over and over. Along came Zunafish, and I was able to trade these books for gently-used titles that were fresh reads for me!

It's easy to use and well worth the short time it takes to create an account and list your books. You can find it at www.zunafish.com.

Welcome!

As a word nerd, my two favorite things are reading and writing. I've decided to smush them together, peanut-butter-and-chocolate style, into quick reviews of the books I'm reading.

If you're reading good books too, share the goodness!