February 2011

THE LAKE OF DREAMS by Kim Edwards
4.5/5 Fiction Scale
Family secrets, hidden windows, an old lover, the suffragette movement, and futures told in comets and constellations--all these confront Lucy Jarrett who goes home to upstate New York for a two-week visit with her mother and instead finds a lifetime awaiting her.

EDGE OF SIGHT by Roxanne St. Clair
3.5/5 Romance Scale
This was the February 2011 selection for the B&N (Burlington, MA) Romance Readers group. His scars of war + her scars of their relationship + her witnessing a murder + some criminal elements = your basic romantic suspense plot. Toss in an extended family with plenty of characters ripe for featuring in an on-going series, and you have a somewhat enjoyable afternoon of predictable reading.

A CUP OF FRIENDSHIP by Deborah Rodriguez
4/5 Fiction Scale
Set against the backdrop of war torn Kabul, Afghanistan, A Cup of Friendship is the story of Sunny (an American who has opened a coffee shop), the people who work at the coffee shop, and the many others who frequent the coffee shop. How they come together to form that most special of friendships--a family of sorts--makes for an excellent reading experience. Deborah Rodriquez, whose first book was the memoir Kabul Beauty School, uses the fictional A Cup of Friendship to chronicle the never simple lives of women in Afghanistan as well as the always complicated inter-generational relationships in a changing society.

THE CRUELEST MONTH by Louise Penny
4.5/5 Mystery Scale
A third visit to Three Pines to answer the question of who killed the much loved Madeleine Favreau and to understand the "near enemies" of attachment/love, pity/compassion, and indifference/equanimity. Possible cracks in the pedestal of the esteemed Inspector Armand Gamache and figuring out the true roles of interlopers on his faithful staff provide a secondary--and troubling--story.

EDGE OF SIGHT was the least interesting among the four. All of the other books took me to places and introduced me to characters who made February, albiet short on days, long on reading enjoyment.