Book 2

Book 2
Keyes, Marian. This Charming Man. London: Penguin, 2009. 884 pages, ISBN: 978-0-14-103969-5

Description on back: 
‘Everybody remembers where they were the day they heard that Paddy de Courcy was getting married’

But for four women in particular, the big news about the charismatic politician is especially momentous …

Stylist Lola has every reason to be interested in who Paddy’s marrying – because she’s his girlfriend, yet she definitely isn’t the bride-to-be... Journalist Grace wants the inside story on the de Courcy engagement and thinks Lola holds the key...  While Grace’s sister, Marnie, still can't forget her first love: a certain Paddy de Courcy.  And what of the soon to be Mrs de Courcy?  Alicia will do anything for her fiance and is determined to be the perfect wife. But does she know the real Paddy?

Four very different women. One awfully charming man. And the dark secret that binds them all …

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I got this book free in a contest from Penguin books.  It was an interesting read, I liked how it told the story from 4 different womens' viewpoints.  The ending was not what I expected when I first started reading the book but I do like how the author tied the story together in the end.  Even though it was close to 900 pages, it was a pretty quick read, I may even pick up some other Marian Keyes books in the future.
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Total pages read so far in 2010:  1079

My first read of 2010

Book 1
Khadra, Yasmina. The Swallows of Kabul. Trans. John Cullen.  New York: Anchor, 2005. 195 pages, ISBN: 978-1-4000-3376-8

Description on back: 
Kabul under the Taliban, a devastated city ruled by executioners and crows, where laughing in public brings down the wrath of the religious police.  This is the world in which Yasmina Khadra -- the pseudonym of a former officer in the Algerian army -- sets his caterizing novel of fanaticism and tenderness.

With an implacable eye, Khadra follows two couples:  Mohsen and Zunaira are dispirited survivors of Afghanistan's educated middle class; Atiq is a brutish jailer bound by a debt of gratitude to his dying wife, Musarrat.  One day the horrified Mohsen finds himself taking part in the stoning of a condemned prostitue, an action that will impel all four characters toward new destinies.  As spare as carved bone and filled with images that explode like bombs, The Swallows of Kabul is a work of haunting power.

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I've owned this book for probably more than a year and finally got a chance to read it.  Interesting start to the year.  Even though it is a rather short book (195 pages) I found it was a little hard to get into at the beginning; I think my frame of mind just wasn't ready for this book at first, but by about a third of the way through I got more into it.  I don't have time for a long review right now but I may come back on here later and write some more.  Overall it was a well written book.  It was translated from the french by John Cullen, so perhaps there was something lost in translation.  I am able to read and understand french reasonably well so maybe I will read it in french one day.

Books, Books, Books.

This blog will record the books I am reading over the next year.  I'm going to try and reach at least 50 books before December 2010.  At least for the first part of the year, most of the books I read will be ones I already own but have never had a chance to read - they were either gifts or ones that I previously purchased (usually at used book sales or with gift cards).   I think I should be able to keep this up.  Normally I keep track in a book so a blog might actually be easier.

Only a few pages left in my first book of the year so I will post it once complete.