Reading in the Garden

An Anniversary to Remember Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is psychological thriller where a woman disappears on her fifth wedding anniversary.  As always, the husband is a suspect—until cleared.  So, did he do it? Did the husband somehow get rid of his wife?  The author keeps you guessing while she steers you through their strained relationship.  Amy’s diary with glimpses of their past alternate with Nick’s side of the story while the mystery unfolds and refolds into an origami puzzle. This book had me so involved, it was almost interactive, as if Gillian Flynn were behind the scenes pushing buttons that would make my blood boil, my teeth grind, my eyebrows twitch, and my head shake.  The twist and turns, the doubts and suspicions, kept me turning page after page.  It was hard to put down.  This book will hit the big screen in October, 2014.  Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike play the main characters. Get ready for a wild ride. Update :...

Culinary Journey The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais is about a boy’s many journeys, each one marinated in delectable dishes that will have the reader drooling.  Hassan Haji’s journey begins in India where his family owns a successful restaurant.  After a tragic turn of events the large Haji family moves to an Indian section of London. The journey continues in a culinary awakening, as they eat their way across Europe and finally settle in the French Alps.  There they open a loud and lively Indian restaurant to the annoyance of Madame Mallory, the snobbishly stiff and structured expert chef and owner of a highly-rated restaurant right across the street. And so the conflict begins.  Madame Mallory has a “nuclear contempt for one’s inferiors” and starts a campaign to regain her rightful control in the little town of Lumière. The war rages on until something happens to change Mallory’s mind, and she eventually takes Hassan under her wing as an apprentice...

Love and Freedom Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the story of four female slaves who forge friendships at an annual retreat.  The retreat is located in the free state of Ohio before the Civil War, where their Southern masters take the women whom they also claim as mistresses. As wives are left at home, the men can each occupy a cabin with their favored slaves for a week of privacy. The idea of escaping into the woods of this free state is a great temptation for the slaves, yet only one has no inclination to even think about such a plan—Lizzie.  The book centers on the love between Lizzie and her master—a strong bond that draws pure loyalty from the devoted and trusting slave. Is that loyalty deserved?  Will it keep her from running?  Despite the dire subject matter, my book club thought this was an interesting and worthwhile book. A look into Lizzie's  relationship with her master revealed a compelling, as well as sad and  complicated , story....