As a voracious reader, I’m always looking for recommendations for good books. So, I thought you also might enjoy that info here on my website. You’ll find favorites I’ve read in the past—which could be a classic I read decades ago or what I enjoyed in the past year—and what I’m reading right now. I’ll be candidly honest about the good, the bad and the ugly.
My favorite novel from last year? Tough call, but I’ll say Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. Conjoined twins born to a nun in Ethiopia—causing her death—are adopted by two doctors. It’s an incredibly moving story, so well written, capturing a feel for the land and culture of Ethiopia, and creating characters you don’t want to let go of when the story ends—the number one sign of a great read for me.
Others making my best list from last year:
- State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
- The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
- The Cat’s Table by Michael Ondaatje
- In the Shadow of the Banyan by Vaddey Ratner
- The Red Chamber by Pauline A. Chen
Anyone else read Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn? On the best seller list…a creative structure…and it certainly kept me interested and guessing. But that ending? Please. Definitely not buying that over-the-top mess of a conclusion!
I’ll come back to some of last year’s books with synopses later, but here’s a heads-up for a novel I just recently finished: The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton. Very sweet story about Laurel’s quest to understand her mom, Dorothy, and the secret Dorothy keeps from her years in Britain during World War II. Lovingly written with a twist at the end—isn’t that always fun? (Unless the author’s defrauded you; that’s definitely not a fun surprise. But more on that topic later too.)