2006 books 6, 7, 8, 9

normally i'm the sort of girl who's overprepared (or indecisive--i usually pack extra outfits for trips just so i can have options!) but since my quick jaunt to new york was just an overnighter, bringing extra clothes and books seemed silly. after being faced with multiple delays and ending up stranded overnight in atlanta, i have realized what a fool i was! never again will i go on a trip without extra socks and undies. (this will be put into practice in less than 48 hours, when i leave for texas.)

onto the books:

hilary mantel's a change of climate
weirdly, this had a similar plot to kate atkinson's behind the scenes at the museum (book 148 last year), but it was still a good read about a couple who were went to africa as missionaries, the tragedies that unfolded there, and their aftermath for the family even twenty years later.

david grossman's someone to run with
i really liked this book! its lynchpin is a dog; a teenager on his summer break is assigned the task of tracking down the apparently abandoned dog's owner, and gradually his life becomes intertwined with hers (which has become hectic of late).

arthur golden's memoirs of a geisha
ok, you're stuck in laguardia and out of reading material. you quickly exhasut vogue and ew and browse the newsstand for something else to read (dammit, why doesn't laguardia have bookstores????). hey, mass market paperbacks. maybe this will be ok. and actually it is, till about 100 pages from the end when you realize the narrator is a hopeless prat, and the abrupt hollywood ending (as christina dubbed it) is pretty lame.

alice hoffman's the ice queen
this book was even lamer than the end of memoirs of a geisha. i mean, i get that the narrator is tormented by her mother's death. YOU DON'T NEED TO TELL ME THAT EVERY PARAGRAPH!!!! i don't know how a novel whose major characters are victims of lightning strikes can be so trite and boring, but it really, really is.