[Deskisamess]

I've read 3 books since last week. A Pale View Of Hills, The Girl Who Came Home, & Sea Escape, a Novel.

I was let down by A Pale View Of Hills. I like his writing style, but the book never seemed to go anywhere. The ending left me more confused than anything. I have recently watched some documentaries about Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so the book seemed a good fit. My hope going in was that I would like it as much as Remains of the Day but I now realize that was a tall order.

I enjoyed The Girl Who Came Home a great deal. The Titanic is another event I've always been interested in. Some readers seemed to not like the jumping back and forth in time, but that generally doesn't bother me when it's handled well. The author's "drawing" of her characters worked for me. Some were very minor, but I was able to picture them in my head, something I appreciate in a book.

I started another book by the same author, The Girl from the Savoy, a Novel. but haven't read very far yet.

Sea Escape was ok, I liked it well enough. Like the other two books, it's told via flashback and current time frames. The secret foretold in the beginning isn't much of a secret by the time you get to the end. The book deals with mothers and daughters and their relationships, which was handled fairly well.

Earlier this month I read The Leisure Seeker and give it a full thumbs down. I didn't believe the characters, and had the ending pegged by the 15th Page. I don't buy an elderly husband who has advancing Alzheimer's being able to drive an RV across the country, let alone park it correctly for hook-ups etc. He didn't know his wife most of the time, or where he was...The elderly wife is horrible, and I just flat out didn't buy it.

I haven't read much this summer, so it was good to back into some new books.