ROOM(s)

Okay, folks... it is time for a book update.  I have officially exceeded the weeks of the year with the books I've read as this book update will discuss 4 BOOKS (50-53)!

So, I get my book titles in many, many ways.  Back at the beginning of the year, I'd gotten some book titles from Sally Lee, editor-in-chief of LHJ.  One of those titles was a novel, Room.  So when I typed it into the library database to reserve it, many titles came up.  After reading a few of them, I ended up with Room and three others.  They were all very different stories by different authors and I enjoyed them all, though some more than others.

Up in Honey's Room by Elmore Leonard was about a German spy living in Detroit as a butcher during WW II and married to an American, Miss Honey Deal who leaves him on their first anniversary.  Fast-forward a few years, add some other spies, some escapees and a rugged US Marshall and we have a funny tale of espionage.  I wouldn't say it was a thriller, but entertaining.  Will I read more of his works?  Probably not.  Mostly, I wanted to know how it would end and the ending was satisfying and a bit surprising.

The next title that I found interesting was Twelve Rooms with a View by Theresa Rebeck.  It was filled with eccentric characters, themes of regret and deceit and had a LOT of drama.  After the beginning which I found to be very compelling, I got bogged down in the middle.  However, the ending proved to be delightful.  I actually intend to try her novel, Three Girls and Their Brother, (although I have no idea what the story is about) because I did enjoy the ending and the characters.

Then I read the title that got it all started:  Room by Emma Donoghue.  It reminded me of the Jaycee Dugard memoir that I read earlier this year, but this was fictional and not as horrific for many reasons.  Some of the most compelling parts came in section 3 when issues arose that I wonder now if Jaycee and her daughters faced.  I actually found myself comparing the situations and then reminding myself that this was FICTION and what happened to Jaycee was REAL.  It was a captivating story and I do intend to try other books by this author.

The final book with room in the title that caught my attention was The Amber Room by Steve Berry.  Although fiction, it is based on an actual artifact that was truly stolen by Hitler during WWII.  He weaves fiction and fact together creating a captivating thriller.  Out of these four books, this was by far my favorite and the most difficult to put down.  I enjoyed the characters, the plot and the ending as it even had a bit of romance in it!  He reminds me very much an author I read some years back, Nelson Demille.

So ROOM has been the theme for the last few weeks of reading.  Now onto a quick Debbie Macomber and then Kisses for Katie a novel I've been waiting for from the library for months.

Do you have some good books for me to read?