Book Bonanza

Seems like there are suddenly lots of new books out there that I am interested in reading.  When I checked our library's website, most were already out on loan so I reserved a few in hopes that I eventually would get my turn.  Maybe I should have bought lottery tickets--suddenly all the books became available!  Here's what I've read so far:

Paula McLain was inspired to write The Paris Wife after reading A Moveable Feast, Hemingway's memoir of his early years in Paris with his first wife.  Apparently the author did a lot of research on the life of Hadley Richardson, and the book did seem carefully researched but the dialogue was stilted and never felt natural to me.  I suppose it might be easier to write a novel about people one invents than to attempt a novelization of such famous people whose lives have been carefully documented.  Now I would  like to read Hemingway's book to get his perspective on those days, "straight from the horse's mouth"! 

The Language of Flowers is a very original story.  I loved the way the author tied in the Victorian "language of flowers", where every plant has a hidden meaning or is a symbol of some emotion, to a very modern setting.  The heroine is a young woman who has spent her childhood in foster care and becomes emancipated from the state system at age 18.  Vanessa Diffenbaugh has fostered several children and her book has an authenticity that my previous choice lacked. The main character has difficulty relating to people in ways that many foster/adopted children do (reactive attachment disorder), and this novel shows how she reinvents herself, with many stumbles along the way. I really enjoyed this book, maybe because I believe that even one act of kindness is like a little seed that can bear fruit far into the future.

Aaahhh, how to describe Saramago?  My book group has read so many books by this Portuguese Nobel Prize winner:  Blindness, Seeing, The Stone Raft, History of the Siege of Lisbon, Death with Interruptions...and some we preferred more than others...

Although I haven't read his Gospel According to Jesus Christ, others in my book group have discussed it, and I suspect Cain is written in a similar vein. This book would probably  be considered blasphemous by any seriously religious person.  Saramago uses biblical details and pointed examples to gently poke fun at Old Testament stories and to question God's behavior.  Cain was published posthumously and to me seems more typical of Saramago's earlier works than his recent Death with Interruptions.  If you're a Saramago fan, you'll enjoy this book.  If you haven't read him yet, I'd recommend Blindness and then Seeing--both powerful books by the author at the top of his form.