Book Notes

Well, I read the introduction to Liberal Fascism and then gave it to my husband who is more interested in it than I am. Jonah Goldberg is a decent writer and makes the point about liberals today (read Democrats) that they are direct descendants of the classical fascism of old, whatever that is - and even he can hardly define it. I leave it to him to figure it out.

Next, I finished off another book from the Read for a Lifetime list, Cage of Stars by Jacquelyn Mitchard - story of a Mormon teenager who is an eyewitness to a horrible family tragedy and how she deals with it in subsequent years. Mitchard writes like a few other women popular fiction writers these days (Jodi Picoult, etc.) - takes a compelling story from current news and turns it into a novel. Although the sampling of titles I've read are all pageturners, I always feel manipulated by the authors at the end. There are always surprise plot twists, but everything is too neatly tied up at the end.

Finally, I feel like I have to explain why I'm reading Sandra Brown's romantic suspense novel, Ricochet. I'm actually reading my way through a list of suggested titles for self-education in adult fiction genres from the Adult Reading Round Table (ARRT), a group of Illinois librarians who are interested in improving their readers advisory skills. Sandra Brown is up next. I've also heard from reader's advisor librarians that no one should ever apologize for their reading tastes, so I'm going to read it and might even enjoy it! And I promise not to quibble about it if I do.