Categories: book-review
Tags: book review
Date: 12 February 2008 21:06:21
I'm in a couple of book groups (although I've just bowed out of one of them, at least for the next few months) and I'm finding that I have so little time to read that I haven't finished a book this year. So, here are a couple of half-baked reviews of two half-read books.
"The Memory keeper's Daughter" by Kim Edwards - set in the 60s, about a rural doctor who delivers his wife's twins - a healthy boy, and a girl with Down's Syndrome. He gives the girl to the nurse who's assisting him, and tells his wife the girl is dead. The book then follows the young family - the mother never getting over her daughter's "death" - and the nurse and the girl who move away and start a new life. I'm about a third of the way through it. It's OK - an interesting premise which I think could work, but it's not grabbed me enough to want to make time to read it. I'll get round to it eventually, but it's not a priority.
"The Kite Runner" by Khalid Hosseini. I've read the first 7 or 8 chapters, and think it's gorgeous - he's a great writer. I know the horrible thing that happens to Hassan, one of the boys and the Kite Runner of the title, because I've read enough reviews, but I haven't reached that bit yet. I really wish I had time to sit down and get into it - the writing is lovely, and I really care about the characters. Definitely going back to this one if I can manage a long train journey without having to read for work!
The next book group is in a couple of weeks. I wonder if I'll get any further with the book for that - who knows, maybe I'll be able to give you a review of a book I've actually got all the way through!