The Best Man by Richard Peck

Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017--Villa de Leyva, Colombia

I finished reading The Best Man by Richard Peck.  It is actually categorized as adolescent literature, but so much young adult fiction is now popular even with adults.  I read a good review of it somewhere--probably in TIME or Entertainment Weekly where I read book reviews regularly and added it to my list of books to download from the library.  It's been on a wait list for months, but it was available recently.  I enjoyed the story which is told from the point of view of a young boy from the time he is 6 until he is about 14.  I laughed a number of times.  One of the first stories where he is dressed in too-tight blue velvet pants to be the ring-bearer for a wedding, splits the rear open trying to go down the first step and eventually has to go down the steps backwards with his rear showing through the tear is hilarious.  Anyway, it is a quick read and seems pretty true to what life is like in elementary and middle schools today.  I gave it 4 stars out of 5.

The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017--San Gil, Colombia

I finished The Good Lord Bird by James McBride late last week.  I really enjoyed the book which won the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction.  It is about John Brown of Harper's Ferry fame back in the mid-1800s just before the official beginning of the Civil War.  It tells the story of his private efforts to free the slaves in the Missouri/Kansas border area through the observations of a slave he took with him when the father was accidentally killed and concludes with Harper's Ferry 5 years later.  Although I enjoyed the story, I gave the book a rating of 4 out of 5 because the writing could have been a bit better.

An Unnecessary Woman by Rabin Alameddine

I returned home and finished reading my current book while drinking the beer.  The book is An Unnecessary Woman by Rabin Alameddine.  It was nominated for several major prises and is really an interesting story of a woman in Beirut whose life has had lots of disappointments.  Over the years, she has created a life of please in books and music and does not think she needs human companionship.  She uses lots of quotes from well-known books by famous philosophers and novelists.  (I often get the impression that authors are constantly saving up favorite lines from books they have read and are looking for ways to insert them in their own works.)  The quality of the writing as well as the unique, interesting aspects of the character's life caused me to give the book a rating of 4 1/2 out of 5.