105. Death is Forever by Elizabeth Lowell – This book is set in Western Australia, in a landscape that is altogether foreign and fascinating, described with intimacy by the author, as if she’d lived there for years. Her bio says she lives in Seattle, so I don’t know if I can credit that to her imagination, her research or her earlier years. Either way, it’s a helluva place and makes a great setting for a story of the brutality of the diamond business in the 1980s. The main characters are sympathetic, interesting, conflicted, believable. The story doesn’t drag out, but the explanations of the politics of the world economy and the diamond trade, even coming from the mouths of the major characters, were too complex to grasp quickly while I was reading for the story’s main plot points. And, frankly, I don’t read this type of book for the politics that underlie the plot. I read for the characters and their relationships. Still and in all, it’s a good book and well worth reading. (finished 12/4)
106. Lisey’s Story by Stephen King – I really enjoyed this book, which combines the fantastic with all-too-real human experience and adds a heavy dash of suspense. The female protagonist, an older and grieving widow of a famous author, is believable and sympathetic. Highly recommended. (finished 12/18 )
107. Free-Range Knitter by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee – This is my favorite Harlot book to date. I loved her essays, which cover funny, touching, practical and personal topics. While many of the characters/people she writes about are unique to her world, they are tenderly captured in such a way that I wish they were in my world too. Thanks, Stephanie, for such a good book. It was a Christmas gift I bought myself a few months ago, so I made myself wait until this week to read it. It will be one of my favorite Christmas presents for a long time. (finished 12/27)
