Breakfast with Buddha by Roland Merullo


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Just now I finished a book that was the most spiritual moving I have read in a long time and the funniest! I am reeling with its images.

It is “Breakfast with the Buddha” by Roland Merullo. A novel.

“Otto Ringling is a food-book editor and a happily married father of two living in a New York suburb. After Otto's North Dakota parents are killed in a car crash, he plans to drive his ebulliently New Age sister, Cecilia, back home to sell the family farm. But when Otto arrives to pick up Cecilia in Paterson, N.J. (where she does tarot readings and past-life regressions), she declares her intention to give her half of the farm to her guru, Volvo Rinpoche, who will set up a retreat there. Cecilia asks Otto to take Rinpoche to North Dakota instead; after a fit of skeptical rage in which he rails internally against his sister's gullibility, he accepts, and the novel is off and running.” (Publisher’s weekly). But the book is not about a road trip, it is about a spiritual journey. As we read, Otto changes before our very eyes. It is funny and profound.

I don't want to write about the wisdom of the book for fear of diluting it. I could not put it down and yet, it was not suspensful nor was there a mystery in the genre sense to solve. It was about the life of good people.

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Four Card Draw/Get Out of Town/One for the Pot by Louis L'Amour


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
An audiobook- Three short stories by Louis L'Amour, what a delight! Each one takes about an hour, just right for a drive to Plattsburgh. There is mystery and charm and a sense of the old fashion in each.

On the first CD, L'Amour elaborates on his research and fascination with the Old West. Give it a try. You will be pleasantly surprised. I think you would also be surprised by his books, especially the ones in the Sackett Saga.

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When You Reach Me - A winner!

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Having just read Time Traveler's Wife, I was ready when this Newbery Award winner suddenly stepped into the complexities of time.
Miranda, a sixth grader moves through the relationships of her life trying to sort things out when she begins to get strange letters. She realizes they are from the future. But who is sending them?
The story is well written and cleverly constructed. If you have not read a Newbery winner in a long time, this one is well worth the read. It offers insight into the youthful mind.

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The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It is snowing, snowing heavily, so I spent the evening finishing Barbara Kingsolver's new book, The Lacuna. What a beautiful story! The book is about so many things, I find it hard to narrow it down to a simple book recommendation. Harrison Shepherd, the shy, articulate narrator holds the book together. When young, he goes to Mexico with his mother after she divorces his father. There he lives with Rivera and Kahlo, artists of the time and cooks for their friend Trotsky who was in hiding from Stalin. I love stories where history is made understandable and new insight emerges. Thus it was.

Later Shepherd fled to the US to write novels and was caught in the net of the House of Unamerican activities Hearings. The fear and frustration of the time is laid bare. The scenes are moving and I leave the book still wrapped in its story.

A great novel, well researched and steeped in the imagination and beauty of Kingsolver. it starts slowly, so don't give up in the beginning.

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Hardball by Sara Paretsky


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Good story, perfect in fact for a cozy Sunday afternoon of reading. The book takes us to the race riots and civil rights marches of Chicago in the 1960s. At that time a young black man disappeared when a black woman was murdered. With a clear writing style and sympathetic characters, Paretsky weaves the story in and out and around till everything is connected in the end.

Passions and fears of the young men in the 60s are still with them as they wield power in the political world of 2010. Intesting and well written.

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Ghosts of War: The True Story of a 19-Year-Old GI by Ryan Smithson


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I would like to recommend to you a book I finished in January, Ghosts of War by Ryan Smithson. It was the most moving book I had read in awhile. Smithson is a young man from Albany who returned from Iraq in 2004 or 5. The story has local appeal with many references to camping in the ADKS, etcs. The book is being used as a textbook in some Albany area high schools.

Smithson takes us from his enlistment at age 19, through basic training, a tour of Iraq and the healing he did when he returned. He marries before he leaves and takes about night terrors and PTSD when he returns. He fears for his wife's safety from himself. Smithson,an aspiring journalist, is a good storyteller. It is a fast, page-turning read offering insight into the troubling Iraqi war and into the mind of a soldier.

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The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Just because I cried at the end doesn't mean I thought the book was good! It did become more engaging in the last 100 pages but for the first two thirds of the book, I kept tossing it down, saying, "She is too whiny", "no one would make THAT decision!", or just "No way!" The story is predictable.

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a week of books for the young

Fire by Kristin Cashore


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
An interesting week for reading.
My grand daughters voted on the Best books of the week. The winners: Olivia and Olivia Saves the Circus by Falconer. And we enjoyed Angelina Ballerina and The Mitten by Tressault and of course who can foret the memorable Pokey Litttle Puppy and Moses the Kitten. Everynight there was a new favorite. So serious reading, deep and profound, was laid aside. I read Fire by Cashore, part of the same series as Graceling by Cashores. Very enjoyable. I always like a fantasy novel with a new twist, in this case monsters.
The young adult novel is a companion novel to Graceling, neither prequel or sequel. It can be read independently but sheds light on one Graceling character.
Fire, a human monster, so beautiful that she has to hide her hair for fear of attack by both raptor monsters and human men, is able to enter other people's minds and exert power over them. Her talent is pivotal in saving her kingdom. Her character is complex; she struggles with inner conflict and accepting who she is. A strong coming of age story.

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Graceling by Kristin Cashore


My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Time for a story with fantasy, romance, and adventure.

Katsa, a strong-willed warrior-girl in her late teens with one blue eye and one green eye defies her king and refuses to be his thug and henchman. Instead She forms a council of justice to keep the people of the kingdom safe.

Katsa wrestles with questions of freedom and truth amid confusion and discovery of her true self. And she finds love.

This book has won much recognition and was named Publisher weekly's Best Book of the Year. The story is engaging, the characters strong and the fantasy well used.

This is the first in the series and I am about to start the second, Fire.

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A Gate at the Stairs by Lorrie Moore


My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I hesitate posting this review in a library blog. I like to recommend books, not caution the reader about them; but this has been said to be one of the five best books of 2009 and I have my doubts.

The initial story was interesting. Tassie, a college student becomes a nanny for a busy, mysterious couple. She accompanies the couple on their baby "shopping" journeys and then is totally commited to the biracial child experience. There are twists and surprises and the story has promise.

But I put the book down and when I picked it up again, it was a different story. And then another. What happened? The baby was gone. The "Brazilian" Muslim boyfriend came and went, and suddenly it was a story about Tassie's brother.

When the book ended, I still had questions. What happened to.....? and who was that? Maybe someone out there had a different experience; let me know. I might have missed something.


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