What I'm Reading Archives


FEBRUARY, 2003

I'm always looking for a good "southern" novel. Some titles that come to mind are GONE WITH THE WIND, THE PRINCE OF TIDES, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA YA SISTERHOOD. So I was pleased to read Lee Smith's THE LAST GIRLS, recently chosen for the Good Morning America book club.

THE LAST GIRLS is the most recent of Lee Smith's "southern" novels. It's about four college friends who meet aboard a paddlewheeler to tour the Mississippi River to dispose of the ashes of another friend who died recently. After reading HUCKLEBERRY FINN in a college English class, the girls, as students, had taken a similar trip 35 years ago, on a raft!. The book tells the stories of their lives now and their lives then, how things turn out thirty-five years later. For me, it brought back vividly, as no book has before, memories of my own college years, living in a dormitory, meeting new friends, studying, professors...

According to the Library Journal, the characters are called the "last girls" because they came of age at a women's college in Virginia just as young women ceased to enjoy being referred to as "girls".

The author has a website, leesmith.com. Visiting there, you can find a synopsis of all the novels she has written, including this one. When you click on the LAST GIRLS page, you can listen to the author herself appearing on public radio in an interview where she discusses the book and readers call in their questions.

On my "what-to-read-next" list, is at least one of her other books, FAIR AND TENDER LADIES.


MARCH, 2003

Reading NORTH OF NOWHERE by Steve Hamilton was like meeting an old friend again after a long, dry spell without a good thriller. This is the fourth in the Alex McKnight series. Since it's mid-winter here, it's a relief that the story, which takes place in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan near Lake Superior, is set in the summertime. Others in the series have chronicled the cold, cold winters up that way where it's hard enough just to stay warm, let alone solve a mystery. Alex, former baseball player, former cop, and a group of characters live in and around Paradise, Michigan, a town that's actually on the map! Alex doesn't want to be a cop anymore, but somehow trouble always finds him. And this time, he saves an old friend while losing another. To read a synopsis, click here. Click here to read the first chapter. And go to more thrillers to find a complete title list.

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