The Year of Fog by Michelle Richmond

This is an amazing book. A difficult topic - losing a child - but written with such beauty and sensitivity. There are so many deep and thoughtful passages about memory, about how the mind works, and how we see. The protagonist is a photographer and the author brings the theme of photography into the mix with such relevance to the story. there were passages that I wanted to read over and over again.
"We take pictures because we can't accept that everything passes, we can't accept that the repetition of a moment is an impossibility. We wage monotonous war against our own impending deaths, against time that turns children into that other lesser species: adults. We take pictures because we know we will forget. We will forget the week, the day, the hour. We will forget when we were happiest. We take pictures out of pride, a desire to have the best of ourselves preserved. We fear hat we will die and others will not know that we lived."
This is just one passage dealing with how photography reflects life.
The book seemed a little long because I wanted SO much to know the outcome. Will she find Emma? But the fact that it went on so long was just the point that the author was making. When something like this happens, every day must seem like an eternity. I kept thinking....she will find Emma, or else the book would have been 100 pages shorter. But then I would think.....NO, she will NOT find Emma and that IS the point. Every day there is the same pain, but different feelings. She is capturing this so realistically.
Anyway, I am not giving away the end. It is worth reading this book. I LOVE the author's website too. Here is a link:
http://michellerichmond.com/

The Garden of Last Days by Andre Dubus III

Interesting premise.... Takes place in the days prior to 9/11 and has many characters whose lives are touched in strange ways. The stripper who "entertains" one of the hijackers in Florida before the hijackings - true situation, I hear. And all of the other people who are involved with her. Her daughter, Franny, who she takes to the strip club that night because the babysitter is hospitalized with a panic attack (that is interesting, in retrospect!) AJ, the client who is thrown out of the club for touching one of the strippers and who finds the crying child and takes her away from that den of iniquity, saving her from a rotten mother. His wife, Deena, his mother, who was raped in a hotel room, where she is employed as one of the cleaning staff.
A whole motley crew of characters, not sympathetic when you consider them and their lives, what they do, how they act, etc. but Dubus manages to make them all human and nearly likeable, or at least gives us a glimpse into their heads, into their motives for what they do, their dreams, ideals, etc.
A lot like his other book "House of Sand and Fog," which I liked a lot better
But this was good and thought provoking and exciting. Glad that I read it.

Goldengrove by Francine Prose

Prose....what a perfect name for this author. The writing is impeccable. I loved this book about a family of four, who becomes a family of three when the oldest daughter dies tragically after diving into a lake and never resurfacing. Seems she had a heart ailment that went untreated. How the family copes with this tragedy is a beautiful journey - mostly told through the eyes of the younger daughter, Nico, who gets involved with her sister's boyfriend after the tragic death. Very well written and subtle story with a truly beautiful ending. Read each word.

Goldengrove

Went to the library today and got three books from my "Want to Read" list. There were more of them there as well! I have to read quickly! Really excited about Goldengrove. Started it and am sucked in already! Suberb writing!

"Forever" - Finally Done!

Glad that I finished the book, but I was a bit disappointed in the ending. Very Hollywood and NOT what I expected. Overall, an interesting book but not on my list of "faves."

AFTERWORD: Now that much time has passed since I read this book, I do want to say that much of it still resonates with me, so it WAS a good book, better than I indicate above. That is a litmus test for me: what I remember of the book months after finishing. Forever was epic, historic and grand in scale. A bit preposterous for me - who likes realism. The underlying premise, that the main character lives forever, was hard for me to swallow, but if you can treat reading as "escape," then I should be more forgiving.

Nearing the End of "Forever"

Now I know why it's called "Forever." It is taking a long time to read, but now I am in the beginning of what I know is the climax...and I can predict it, I think. We'll see if I am right.
I am liking the book more now. There was a point in the middle where I nearly gave up, but moved on and ahead and am looking forward to finishing this weekend. Need to get something to read in Florida.

Forever by Pete Hamill

Heard about this book on the radio. Heard that you "have to read it; the best book I ever read." I will not go that far. I am about half way through. The beginning was mesmerizing....but it has gotten a bit slower since then. I am finding the history very interesting. Takes place in NYC from about 1740 to the present.
Very long book, however. Still have almost 300 pages to go.