Blue Shoe - Anne Lamott

Mattie lives in Marin!! Mattie is the main character in the book. She is a devout christian who sleeps with her ex even though he is scum and at the same time she wants to kill him. She had a jumbled upbringing and, while dealing with her mother's declining health and mental capacity, is trying to come to grips with her dead father's philandering. The story gets a little annoying at times but it all takes place in lovely Marin. I recognize all the names and places as well as plants and smells and people. I have always been a big fan of Anne Lamott, so how can I not like this one as well? 8

Bel Canto - Ann Patchett

This is a fiction hostage drama in an unnamed South American country. The main characters involve a famous opera singer and a successful Japanes businessman who are held hostage after a party to honor the Japanese man's birthday. The story is interesting, the setting is interesting, and the characters are interesting but somehow it still reads a little like a romance novel. Characters spend a long time as hostages having time to develop relationships independent of the real world. In the end it is necessary to have some of them die to solve the dilemma of returning to normal life and family after such an experience. It's entertaining but not believable. 5.

Eating Heaven - Jennie Shortridge

Any book that takes place in Portland, OR, immediately moves one step up the ladder! Eleanor Samuel's life is in crisis. Her uncle--he may even be her dad we find out as family secrets unravel--is dying from cancer and she is the one taking care of him. At the same time her food article writing career is veering off along with her eating habits. Described as in her late thirties and on the heavy side, she is forced to examine her grief, her life and her relationship with food all at the same time. What's not to like? I enjoyed it. 7.

The Red Azalea - Anchee Min

Anchee Min’s story about growing up on Mao’s China is absolutely gripping. The language, her writing, is terse and unadorned and as naked and raw as the life in China she fled. Everything about her childhood is so very foreign, the food, the people, the emotions, the culture, and the brutality of oppression, which makes it so intriguing, exotic if you will. At the same time, it is not difficult to recognize the humanity in it all, the humanity that we all share despite enormous differences. Some books fade into oblivion, but this is one that never could. 9+.