The Alchemist

The Alchemist (1993) by Paulo Coelho. A young shepherd from Spain goes looking for his Treasure, journeying to Africa and eventually to the Pyramids of Egypt. He finds wisdom and treasure along the way, but to tell the truth there seemed to be less to this book than I had hoped. I didn't feel that I had gained any wisdom in reading it. It's entertaining enough, but I suspect that it suffered somewhat in the translation from Spanish into English. Grade: B-

The Senator's Wife

The Senator's Wife (2008) by Sue Miller. Delia is the senator's wife, and Meri is her new young neighbor. The senator, Tom, has been unfaithful to his wife numerous time's over the years, but she has always loved him, always forgiven him, even though they have come to live separate existences. Meanwhile, Meri is pregnant with her first child. The lives of Meri and Delia become interwoven when they take possession of the two sides of a townhouse in the small college town of Williston, New York. And the climax approaches when Tom has a stroke, and must move back to Williston, where Delia can care for him. It's an interesting, but not deeply affecting, story. Grade: B

Atonement

Atonement (2001) by Ian McEwan. A thirteen-year-old girl concocts a tale of sexual assault out of her fevered imagination, and the result is that an innocent man goes to jail and a family is torn asunder. This novel has a historical sweep that really caught me up in it once I got started (the first section of the book seemed to move rather slowly). Grade: A-

Her Last Death: A Memoir

Her Last Death: A Memoir (2008) by Susanna Sonnenberg. Sonnenberg's mother, Daphne, was the ultimate con artist, and she conned her daughter most of all. Daphne snorts cocaine in front of her daughter, and even gets Susanna to start using it by age twelve. Daphne speaks freely of her sexual exploits and expects Susanna to do the same. Daphne feigns illness any number of times, always something fatal, which later turns out to be a "mistake" on the part of doctors. So when Daphne is injured in an auto accident, Susanna at last makes the decision not to go to her mother's side, convinced that it will once again prove to be a fraud. Whether it does or not, we never find out, but after reading the harrowing story of Susanna's childhood and early adulthood, it scarcely matters. Grade: A

There's No Place Like Here

There's No Place Like Here (2007) by Cecelia Ahern. Sandy Shortt, who is neither sandy nor short, has been on a lifelong mission -- to find lost things. As an adult, she founds a missing-persons agency, in which she tries to help the families of missing persons to find the lost, or at least to deal with the loss. It comes as quite a shock to her when, during a search for a missing man, she finds herself among the missing. She is transported to Here, which is where all the lost and misplaced things and people go. It's not an unpleasant place: "The atmosphere was relaxed; people were peaceful and went about their daily duties efficiently yet without rushing or panic. There was room to breathe, space to think, time to spend wisely, and lessons to be learned." Yet she feels, unlike the others, that it is not her destiny to stay there. It's a charming fantasy with a satisfying ending. Grade: B+

My Life as a Traitor

My Life as a Traitor (2008) by Zarah Ghahramani. At the age of 20, Ghahramani was arrested and taken to Iran's infamous Evin Prison, where criminals and political dissidents were held in conditions of legendary brutality. Born in 1981, she had lived her entire life under the Mullahs, the fundamentalist Muslims who had overthrown the Shah and still rule Iran. Not realizing the seriousness of her actions, she had joined in student protests at the university where she went, and now found herself in serious trouble. At Evin, she was subjected to psychological and physical torture and beatings, forced to undergo grueling interrogations and other humiliations. But she managed to hold on to her sanity, and her story makes for insightful reading about Iran and its people. Grade: B+