Last week I finished:
I love a good book set in another country. And I love a good mystery. The Widows of Malabar Hill combined these, and I absolutely loved it. Set in 1920s India, the book is about Perveen Mistry, Bombay's first female lawyer, who is in business with her father. Although she cannot appear in court, she finds a role that only she can fill. She goes to the home of three Muslim widows who observe purdah (they do not leave the home), to determine if they are being taken advantage of by the family guardian or if they are signing over their inheritances from their late husband willingly. Things heat up when someone in the household turns up dead--was it an outsider or someone within the house? Interspersed with the current action, we go back in time to learn about Perveen's short-lived marriage. This was a wonderful book. I'm so glad I picked it up, and I hope the next installment isn't far off. If you enjoy a good, well-written mystery, I don't think you'll be disappointed. My rating: 5 stars.
I've hit upon a spate of wonderful books about the Kennedys lately. I bought The Good Son awhile ago, but I was always a little afraid to start it because I had the idea that Christopher Andersen (father of Kate Andersen Brower, author of The Residence, First Women, and Next in Line) wrote sensational books. How could one man have so many contacts that he could write about the Kennedys, Katharine Hepburn, Mick Jagger, the royal family, Barbra Streisand, the Clintons, the Bushes, and on an on? But I decided to listen to the book before donating it. Let me tell you, I won't be donating it. This is the story of the Kennedys with emphasis on the relationship between Jackie and John Jr. There isn't a lot of new information here if you're a Kennedyphile like I am, but it's a fun read. It's a bit gossipy, and there were a couple things I wish I hadn't read (I didn't want to know about Jackie and Ari Onassis in the bedroom, for instance), but it's quite well done. Andersen does seem to land on the side that thinks there was a romantic relationship between Jackie and the married father-of-ten, Bobby Kennedy, which I've mostly just read rumors about. I take it with a grain of salt. But the relationship between mother and son was always a sweet one. John was a high-energy, spirited, polite kid, who didn't do particularly well in school (he failed the bar exam twice before passing), and Jackie was supremely concerned that he grow up with a sense of who his father was and what was expected of him (in a word: politics). Jackie forbade him to learn to fly, and he quit his lessons in deference to his mother, but took it up again toward the end of her life. She'd had premonitions about John Jr. dying in a plane crash, which played themselves out to the horror of the nation. There is a lot here, and it's never a slog. The audio version was very good, with a good (male) narrator who even tried to tackle Jackie's wispy delivery. All in all, I really enjoyed this book. I found myself wishing Andersen would write one focusing on Caroline Kennedy, and then, come to find out, he did. I'll be tracking down a copy of his out-of-print Sweet Caroline soon. My rating: 4.5 stars.
This week I'll finish:
I loved Homer Hickam's Rocket Boys last summer. The Coalwood Way is the second book in the memoir series. It's very good, too. Hickam is a natural storyteller.
I'm continuing with this on Kindle:
I'm at about the two-thirds point with this one. It's a quick, enjoyable read.
My poetry read:
Still loving this one.
Last week I began:
Earlier this year I tried a book by Max Lucado on Kindle. I loved it so much, I bought his latest, Unshakable Hope, when it came out on August 7. I'm not very far in it, but I'm enjoying it so far.
And on a wild hair, I began Ruth Reichl's little book, For You, Mom. Finally.
My audiobook:
I'm listening to the sixth in the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies. I love these books.
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