A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor and The Love of a Good Woman by Alice Munro

I group these two books together because they are both collections of short stories. I have not read very many short stories before this year, and it has been a little difficult to get used to. The style used for a short story is quite different than that for a novel. It made me rather uncomfortable at first. However, now that I am a little more used to the short story, I have been able to enjoy them.

The first collection I read was "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor. I can't say that I overly enjoyed her writing, but by the end of the book I started to get used to it. One thing that I immediately liked about it was that it's easy to read a story and then put the book down. When I read novels I tend to keep reading and reading, no matter how late it gets. Since reading Flannery O'Connor's biography, knowing her background has also made her short stories make more sense and gave me a better understanding for her writing.

The second collection that I read was "The Love of a Good Woman" by Alice Munro. I enjoyed her stories more. There were a couple that really struck me, particularly the story called "The Children Stay" about the process/rationalizations a woman goes through when leaving her husband and two young children for a short-lived affair.

The American by Henry James

I picked this book up for 25 cents at the Idaho Youth Ranch Thrift Store. It was one of the best purchases I have ever made.

This is one of the rare books that I have liked from the very first chapter and enjoyed the whole way through on the first reading. One thing that surprised me about this story was that, although this book is about an American it does not take place in America, most of the story takes place in France.

It is a love story, but not one of those overly romantic love stories. It doesn't even have a typically happy ending. In fact, when I think back on it, the ending isn't happy at all, but I didn't notice so much because all the very sad parts took place well before the end of the story, so that I suppose by the time I got to the end of the story I was used to the idea of the sad things that happened. And although there was no happy ending, it was a good ending.

I highly recommend this book.

Christmas, Present

I just finished Christmas, Present by Jacqueline Mitchard. This book was wonderful. It was such a beautiful story about a woman spending her last few hours surrounded by her family and her throughts about what she needs to get done before she leaves this earth. It had me in tears and I just could not put it down.

I also finished A Bend In The Road by Nicolas Sparks. This book is definately my very least favorite book by him. Although it was typical Nicholas Sparks (love, heartache, what is he going to do, twists and turns) it was slow and I had a hard time getting through it. Usually I can't put his books down and am in tears...but I was glad that this one was done and I could take it back.

The Judas Tree

D.J. Delffs' book The Judas Tree is a surder mystery who-done-it book where a local pastor becomes involved in the intestigation of the death of one of his friends. It takes place in the Amish country of Tennesee and really highlights the simple life of the Amish culture. Although I finished the book, it was kind of slow. I did appreciate learning about the Amish, but really was distracted with how the police allowed man to become so involved in the case, including encouraging him to do his own investigative work. I got through the book and know a little more about the Amish...so I guess knowing a little more than I did a week ago is a positive.