Fantastic medley of stories by the 2000 winner of the Pulitzer.

I received this book in the mail about a week ago. It is our Book Club pick for February, so it is just in time. Mahalo, abott!

BTW: The BCID plate on the inside cover was wrong, so I changed it to the proper number.

It's tough to give one comprehensive rating for a collection of stories. The first one is a 10 and made me teary-eyed thinking about how one can still feel alone in the arms of another. The second one is a 7, a nice story about cultures meeting. The last one is an 8, reminding me of my father. The ones in between fall somewhere between a 5 and 8, sometimes within the story itself. Overall, the writing is often so vivid I could easily imagine myself in the story. An enjoyable read.

This is my husband's review, paraphrased:

The writing was pretty good, but the book on the whole left me feeling depressed. It still scored above the bar in storytelling. The first story was especially depressing, more so because it almost gave you hope as you read it, before your hopes are dashed in the end.

I am sending this book to windbird to trade for Bill Bryson's Neither Here nor There. Thanks, windbird!

Released on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 at about 8:00:00 AM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Espresso Bay at Front and Cass in Traverse City, Michigan USA.

RELEASE NOTES:

On the fireplace

My wife and I both enjoyed the stories in this book, and I'm glad to release it so that others can enjoy it.