Free Food for Millionaires

Author: Min Jin Lee

This book started out as an enjoyable read, but it's too long and I don't really care about most of the characters. Additionally, it's in 3rd person omniscient, jumping into everyones head in every scene and that just seemed lazy on the part of the author.

The Land of Spices

Author: Kate O'Brien

Phew! This is really a week of dense reading for me, and this book is no exception. For instance: do not read this version if you, like myself, know no French. The author expects you to, and the book is seeded with bits of French ranging in length from phrases to several long paragraphs in a row (usually when the character receives a letter.) There are no footnotes or endnotes.

I decided to read it anyway, ignoring the French bits. The book divides its time between the English Mother Superior of an Irish convent/school and one of its pupils, a loner with academic talents and literary inclinations. (Anyone smell an autobiographical element?)

My immediate reaction to a book switching protagonists on me is usually negative, but this approach worked well for Spices. We look at these two characters because they have so many parallels: talent, personality, important life events. The interesting thing, though, is that these two characters are acquainted, but other than that, don't really know each other. It's a neat device.

Chance Acquaintances and Julie de Carneilhan

Author: Colette

This is the first that I've read anything by Colette, and the first thing I noticed was the tone; it reminded me a bit of Camus. Maybe it's just because they're both early 20th century French writers, but I certainly did not expect the writer of Gigi to display similarities to the writer of The Stranger and The Plague. Don't get me wrong; this was a pleasant surprise, as Camus is one of my favorite authors.

Chance Acquaintances is written in first person, and the description of the character's thoughts made me immediately identify with the main character. The plot is a little meandering, though.

Julie de Carneilhan was, I thought, even better, although Colette's third person descriptions of the main character's thoughts were sometimes confusing and distracting. The plot of this novella is more interesting than that of Acquaintances, and so it was able to hold my attention better throughout its length, twice that of Acquaintances.

The cover tells you nothing about the book, by the way. I dislike these random-art-on-the-cover budget classics. Well, I like that they're cheap trade paperbacks, but I'd rather they left the cover blank than to put something so meaningless on it.

The Secret Life of Bees

Author: Sue Monk Kidd

First, let me share with you the text from the back cover: "Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred memory of the afternoon her mother was killed. When Lily's fierce-hearted black 'stand-in-mother,' Rosaleen, insults three of the deepest racists in town, Lily decides to spring them both free from jail. They escape to Tiburon, South Carolina -- a town that holds the secret to her mother's past. Taken in by an eccentric trio of black beekeeping sisters, Lily is introduced to their mesmerizing world of bees and honey, and the Black Madonna."

If you think this sounds intriguing, it is; the book starts off strong with an original plot and two likable but believable characters. However, once the main character meets the aforementioned sisters, having run away from her moderately abusive father, the book drifts gradually downhill. The sisters, in contrast to Lily and Rosaleen, are rather flat; the character of August in particular is sweet, smart, knowledgeable, understanding, loving, etc., without a single flaw to balance her out. The book is only 300 pages long, but I was getting rather tired of it by the end.

The Golden Compass

Author: Philip Pullman

As an atheist, it's nice to occasionally come across a book that is anti-religion and anti-god. The problem is that atheists tend not to think magic is real, either. So, as usual, it is necessary to put aside any philosophical considerations and enjoy the book as a work of fiction only.

As a work of fiction, this book did not particularly impress me. It served as light reading, but I wouldn't recommend it over other books of its kind.