This week I finished two books. First up…
After finishing this next book, I understand the cover (it’s a butterfly), but I still don’t think the cover does it justice. After all, the book is about an illuminated manuscript.
People of the Book
Really, I’m trying to cut back on the book buying and focus on reading the books I already have. But I was in Borders last week, and I saw the title of this book…and how could I not buy a book about a book?
First, let me confess that I didn’t read March. I had no interest and no intention of ever reading it. But now…I might just change my mind. People of the Book is an engaging book, although towards the end I was having a bit of difficulty keeping it all straight in my head.
This is the fictional story of a real book, the Sarajevo haggadah (the story of Jewish liberation from slavery in Egypt, told during Passover). In Brooks’ story, Hanna Heath is a book conservator/restorer/analyst, hired to do repairs on the Sarajevo haggadah. As she works on the book, she finds a white hair, salt, a wine stain and insect wings. As she learns more about each item, the book moves forward and backward in time, revealing the story of how each item came to be in the book. In the end, the individual stories were more compelling than Hanna’s. Hanna’s own problems are interwoven with the history of the haggadah, and while her story was interesting, at the end it got muddled. However, not so muddled that I didn’t straighten it out and still enjoy the book.
The movie Whale Rider is better than the book, at least in my opinion. I saw the movie first, and loved it, so that may have influenced my decision. Even so, I think Sky Dancer sounds interesting (even if it is bogged down with birds).
As for Geraldine Brooks, I liked her first one (the plague one of which I can’t remember the title now) but March was only so-so (I started it but abandoned it), again IMHO. This one sounds like it could be interesting, though.
Both sound nice to me. Thanks for the reviews.