Monday Moments - More Than Enough by Anna Quindlen

More Than  Enough by Anna Quindlen is a good solid read. I love that it's about the fact that your book club knows a lot about you. From book choices to discussions to the after book discussions, Polly Goodman, an English teacher counts on these close friends. The club friends give her an ancestry kit as a joke. She matches with a stranger and that causes Polly to look at family history. Polly learns how friendships can change your life. 

Polly after meeting with Barbara -  Sometimes our minds protect us, but not enough. You walk along with this pain in your head, thinking about things you know, the things you've discovered, the things you've lost, and all those things that run around and around in your mind, like a stone in your shoe. And then everyday life saves you. Weather talk - maybe snow, maybe rain. You go to the laundromat and a neighbor ask if you have detergent. Life happens. 

Anna Quindlen draws you in with her writing and her characters. You are along for Polly's search and solutions to a life mystery. Twists and turns and surprises amidst ordinary life.  Enjoy the journey. 

 

Finally Friday - Let's go random

 I like this quote. I've always liked Anna Quindlen's writing. Alas, I believe there is one grandchild who likes to read...Obviously I've failed!

Moving on...

Quick book review - The Cellist by Daniel Silva is almost scary in how straight from headlines is this novel.  Apparently he re-wrote the ending in six weeks due to fast changes in the world situation. 

We have Viktor Orlov, a Russian exile, who is killed, in his London mansion, by documents contaminated by deadly nerve gas. An investigative reporter had delivered the papers and now she's gone. 

Who do you call?  The intrepid Israeli super spy extraordinaire - Gabriel Allon, Silva's hero in his thriller series. 

London, Amsterdam, Geneva. Gabriel's group of spies must  work fast to stop Russia's rich from dividing America into further chaos. 

cover blurb - Elegant and sophisticated, provocative and daring, The Cellist explores one of the preeminent threats facing the West  today - the corrupting influence of dirty money wielded by a revanchist and reckless Russia.  

Whew!  This book is a page turner and Gabriel Allon is SO cool. Silva is on top of his game. 

Book Review - Still Life With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen

 Still Life With Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen is another winner in her batch of books - fiction or nonfiction. I can always count on her for good solid writing. 

Rebecca Winter is a photographer but now facing a declining career and a bit of a crisis of faith, plus her bank account is dwindling.  She flees to the country for a new perspective.  (cover blurb) There she discovers, in a tree stand with a roofer/birder named Jim Bates, that what she see through a camera lens is not all there is to the world. 

p. 6 I like her description of the country.  It was quiet now. There was a smell. So many smells. Mildew, damp linen, trampled plants. The bananas in the glass bowl on the drainboard. A whiff of what might be skunk, or skunk cabbage. In the backyard she'd taken a deep breath. It had smelled as though the entire forest around her was rotting by inches.

p.  213 She has a new agent, a new project The White Cross series, and a new lease on life.  This series of enigmatic tableaux is both mysterious and heartbreaking. Each as it was found: some images reflect the disintegration wrought by wind and weather. 

Rebecca's journey at age 60ish is well written by Quindlen. She captures the questioning, the endurance, and the world of a creative. Flee with Rebecca and restore your soul, too. Enjoy this book.