Jane: Three books

My Reader's Notebook says: "A coming-of-age tale along with the story of a compelling book and its author in Barcelona; a mystery, melodrama, horror story, reminding me of Harry Potter and Name of the Rose." It's a big, fat book that makes you take your time even though it reads like a page-turner. I loved it.
I read Marley and Me because we're considering it for our Linn Area Reads program. By the way, that's the best committee I've ever served on: we read and talk about books, then talk about how to celebrate them with the community!

The book's a lightweight; I read it in about 3 hours. I'm not so enchanted with this dog, either. Seems like he's badly trained. And there are readers out there in the internet who also feel that way. But we may use it; some of us like the idea of a book that's really for non-readers, to get more people into the library and talking about books. My friend Dan gave me this book. I'm especially fond of Dan. I'd heard of the book--a best-seller though published by a really small press. Word-of-mouth kind of sensation. I was looking forward to reading it.

The plot is that a man who's experienced a terrible tragedy--the abduction and murder of his youngest child--confronts God in the shack where his daughter was murdered. He's brought face to face with unconditional love, and learns that "religion" isn't necessarily what God wants, that God isn't who he expected, and that we are not alone through loss and tragedy.

While it has some odd bits of theology in it, the basics of the story make a wonderful parable, reminding people of what it means to say "God is Love." I'm going to pass this one on to a friend.

I don't know what non-Christians would think of it. They may find some of the theological apology a bit much--lots of stuff on the trinity, especially. Actually, I found that a bit much, too.

If you've read any of these, tell me what you thought!

My next book is The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri. But after that . . . well, give me a suggestion!