Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

So on the recommendation (you HAVE to take this book and read it!) by a family member, I've started Tales of the City.  It was published in 1978.  I was 9 that year.  Life was pretty good in the Midwest.  This book looks through the eyes of San Francisco residents in the '70's.  I've heard the stories--the drugs, the free lifestyles, the new ideas, karma, finding oneself...this book covers it all and does so in a city that was the most (and still may be) brazen in terms of lifestyles. 

As the characters cross paths, the reader starts to question life.  One man is dying, one women is finding herself, one is losing herself, one man is trying to find a stable relationship and another is defying stability.  As you read this book you know there is one crazy reason all these people are tied together.

I wonder what that might be?

This book certainly explores the idea of a community and the different personalities that make up that community.

What is your favority genre or book?

Let me know what your favorite book or genre is at this time.  Maybe I'll have a few more things to read this summer (like I don't already have a HUGE list!).

ALA | National Library Week, National Library Week 2010, 2010 National Library Week, theme for National Library Week, what is the theme for National Library Week, NLW, NLW 2010, 2010 NLW, future National Library Week dates, National Library Week 2011, National

ALA National Library Week, National Library Week 2010, 2010 National Library Week, theme for National Library Week, what is the theme for National Library Week, NLW, NLW 2010, 2010 NLW, future National Library Week dates, National Library Week 2011, National

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

I recently finished this book--a book that could not be put down.  It's a book within a book.  A story of a family, a fire, of twins.

Margaret Lea works in her father's antiquarian book shop and prefers to read old books.  She does not like contemporary writers and it's even better if the author is dead.  She has written a few essays and short biographies of old authors.  When a living, contemporary author asks her to write a biography, Margaret balks.

Once she meets Vida Winter, she wants to leave.  This is not her world, this is not the type of author she writes about in her essays.  Ms. Winter draws upon her heart--Margaret's lost twin.  In the oral retelling of her life, Ms. Winter reveals she is a twin...or is she? 

In a very popular method of writing, Setterfield tells a tale within a tale and links the two in bizarre ways.  She leads the reader through decades of lives and mysteries.  Ms. Winter states that her tale is "just a sub-plot" in the real story.  We find similar stories in Louise Penny's writing, with Inspector Gamache who says, "Murders really start years and sometimes decades before they really occur."  But, I digress.  We hear of Ms. Winter and her sister Emmeline.  We learn their mother was insane and their brother not far behind.  We learn of a governess and a doctor who try to split the twins with devastating results.  We come full circle with the story of a 60 year old man that crosses paths with Margaret as she investigates the story of Angelfield.

A thoroughly enjoyable book, I was completely drawn into the story and could not put it down.  It held my attention, because as with Margaret, I had questions.  I wanted to hear the rest of the story.  Ms. Winter draws out the tale, as she says, "All good stories have a beginning, a middle and an end."