Innocent Man

We discussed Innocent Man by John Grisham at our last book club. I liked it. For the most part it held my interest and I wanted to know what happend, even though the title clearly told you he's innocent. It's so hard to believe that people are convicted, even today, on such flimsy evidence. It seemed that because the police and detectives wanted him to be guilty, he was, regardless of the evidence or lack thereof. What was really interesting was that even at the end, they were still considered suspects! We're reading The Fig Eater by Jody Shields for next month.

The other book I read recently was How This Night is Different, a book of short stories by Elisa Albert. In general, I like short stories and I enjoyed this book. The stories were about different people, all Jewish, and their experiences in life. I'm not Jewish so it was interesting to read about customs and events that are different than what I've experienced.

Currently I'm reading two books One is The Fugitive Wife by Peter Brown about a woman who ran away to Alaska to escape a bad marriage. The other is The Calling: A Year in the Life of an Order of Nuns, a memoir by Catherine Whitney. I am Catholic, but didn't go to Catholic school, so I haven't had much experience with nuns. Should be interesting.

I've been reading a lot more lately, partly because I joined the 50 Book Challenge group at LibraryThing. As of January 26th when I started the challenge, I'd read one book. Since then, I've finished seven more and feel like I will probably be able to do it.

Dearly Departed & A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies

I recently finished Dearly Departed by Elinor Lipman and A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies by Ellen Cooney. I bought Dearly Departed a while ago at Atlantic Book Warehouse and it's just been sitting on my shelf. I'm not sure why I hadn't read it yet. I've read a few other books by Elinor Lipman and reading this one made me remember why I had enjoyed the others. I like her style of writing and enjoy her dry humor. This wasn't necessarily a funny book, but certain passages made me laugh out loud. She seems to write the way she's thinking and that's something I can never do. My writing always seems dull and stilted to me, and I don't think that's how I'm thinking. If that makes any sense. While I did enjoy it, I was left with a few questions at the end of it. If Miles was paying child support the whole time, why didn't he ever acknowledge that he had a daughter. Sunny never seemed to consider that. I think she would've liked to have had a father.

I didn't like A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies as much as I'd hoped to. The premise is interesting and certainly made me want to read it! The hotel in the title is a women's hotel where the male porters discreetly visit the women guests, if you know what I mean. The book went on too much in Charlotte's head and not enough in the present. I would've liked more development of some of the other characters, the guests at the hotel, Mrs. Petty, Hays. You only saw them from Charlotte's persepctive which wasn't enough.

Right now I'm reading The Innocent Man by John Grisham for book club. We meet next Monday.