More Important Than Clothes

I am gathering books to take on our upcoming vacation. It's kind of fun to look at my little pile and decide if each book will make the cut and into the suitcase. For me, deciding which books I'll take is just as important, if not more so, than which clothes to take.

Right now I'm looking at five books...

SHADOW TAG by Louise Erdrich, was recommended by a friend. The main character, Irene, discovers that her husband is reading her diary. So she starts another diary, a secret one she calls the Blue Notebook. In the Blue Notebook she tells awful truths about her life and marriage. This one she keeps in a safe deposit box. In the Red Diary that her husband reads, she keeps up a charade. The friend who recommended it usually likes darker, broodier, books than I do, but this one sounds fascinating. I'm having a hard time NOT reading this one before the trip!

       

I also have MAJOR PETTIGREW'S LAST STAND. Customers and co-workers have really liked this. Major Pettigrew, retired, lives in the English countryside, living a proper life. That is until his brother dies, and he befriends a Pakistani woman in the local village, which causes much consternation among the villagers. Fun!

       

It used to be that poison was the perfect weapon for murder because it was undetectable. It wasn't until scientific discoveries meshed with criminal investigation and forensic pioneers started to be able to trace poisons back to crimes. THE POISONER'S HANDBOOK: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York sounds like a fascinating read. "Twyla" read it and loved it.

       

Wesley Stace wrote MISFORTUNE, the story of an orphan baby taken home and raised by the richest man in Britain. He raises the baby as a girl to replace his sister, who died in childhood. Unfortunately, the baby is a boy. How s/he grows up and deals with gender issues was brilliantly done by Stace. I really enjoyed MISFORTUNE, so was pleased to discover his new one, CHARLES JESSOLD, CONSIDERED AS A MURDERER. I don't know much about it, except that it's written by Stace. There are also blurbs on the back from Sarah Waters and Audrey Niffenegger, authors I also enjoy.

            

I am still mulling over taking this last one, P.S. I LOVE YOU by Cecelia Ahern. One of my co-workers and I share similar taste in books, and she loved this. She liked the movie as well (with Hilary Swank, which I haven't seen) and has reread the book several times. The main character is happily married and then her husband dies. She gets very depressed, and then finds letters written to her by her husband. That's pretty much all I know about the book, which may be enough.

       

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