I have read all of Earlene Fowler’s Benni Harper mystery series.  I enjoyed the story of Benni’s relationship with her husband Gabe as much, if not more, than the mystery storyline in each book.  Therefore, I was excited when I learned Fowler had a new book outside the series.  I thought I would get more of her keen insight on relationships.

When Ruby’s husband of less than a year dies in a single car crash, she discovers he has a family she never knew about.  In trying to figure out who her husband really was, Ruby discovers a family and town with many secrets.

Unfortunately, The Saddlemaker’s Wife did not live up to my expectations.  The characters were overly burdened with tragic pasts, and they suffered from guilt over past choices.  Although the story is set in a small town, the way the main characters run into each other on the street or in the café seems too convenient.  I think Fowler was trying to create edgier characters, à la  Jo-Ann Mapson, but missed her mark.  Their personalities were not strong enough to evoke either feelings of like or dislike.

I’m still looking forward to the next Benni Harper mystery though…

When I read a novel, it is always a nice little bonus when the author teaches me something about history, geography, technology or any topic that I’m not familiar with. This is the first book I have read by Jodi Picoult, and she managed to teach me about the Yup’ik Eskimos, comic book pencilers, Dante’s Inferno, rape investigation, teen “cutting”, and DNA profiling. This is a lot of education to pack into one story, on top of the emotional stories of teen love gone bad, the effect of an extramarital affair, and a history of violence.

Obviously, this is not a happy story.  Picoult does an excellent job portraying the confused emotions of Trixie, a 14 year-old girl spurned by her first boyfriend. Each choice Trixie makes leads her further down a path of destruction. Meanwhile, Trixie’s parents, Daniel and Laura Stone, are struggling with the effects of an affair on their marriage, and they miss many of the signs of Trixie’s struggles.

Daniel is a comic book penciler who has been given his first comic book series. Laura is a Dante scholar and college professor who teaches a course named “What the Devil is the Inferno?” These two themes are woven through the story in the form of a comic book Daniel writes about a father with a tortured past who navigates the ten circles of Hell to save his daughter. The book includes the actual comic drawings between the chapters, and there is also a hidden message woven into the drawings.

I found the personalites and emotions of Trixie and Laura to be very believable, but Daniel’s tortured past and metamorphosis into mild-mannered, stay-at-home dad was less convincing. I would have liked to know more of the thoughts and feelings of Jason, the teen accused of raping Trixie.  His plight seems lost in the destruction of the Stone family.

The Tenth Circle was a very engaging read, and I will definitely pick up another Picoult novel.

A few years ago, I read Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes. She painted beautiful scenes of Tuscany and the Italian way of life. Although she and her partner had difficulties while renovating their Tuscan villa, I was still ready to quit my job and move to Tuscany just to partake in the tranquil, late afternoon lunches and evening walks on the piazza.

In The Reluctant Tuscan, Phil Doran takes the same setting and story line, renovating a 300 year old farm house in Tuscany, and turns it into a sit-com. This shouldn’t be surprising as Phil Doran was a sit-com writer and producer for 25 years. The book was an easy read and good for a laugh. Some characters were so over-the-top, I wondered what was true and what was caricature.

This was Dino, who traveled everywhere with a mangy pack of dogs named Ninja, Luna, Torpedo, Cosimo, Scheherazade, Pipistrello, Puccini, and Tiberius. The dogs swarmed around him peeing, pooping, snarling, and fornicating, while Dino, oblivious, went about his business.

Flavia was an energetic lady who, had circumstances been different, could have enjoyed a flourishing career in public relations, given her fondness for throwing in flattering sobriquets for each person she introduced us to. Thus, the dour, cantankerous old man muttering to himself in the corner became the “irrepressible” Uncle Carmuzzi. The hulking, barrel-chested guy stuffing himself with crostini was the “urbane” Cousin Aldo. The three black-shrouded old women huddled together like a scene out of Macbeth were the “convivial” Nina, Nona, and Nana. And finally, the pompous aesthete holding court on the sofa was introduced as the “genial” Dottore Spotto, with his wife, the “pious” Monica, and their “mythically gifted” children Leonardo, Rafael, and la bimba Artemisia.

Phil and his wife, Nancy, navigate their way through their trials with government bureaucracy, meddling neighbors, unreliable construction contractors, and even an used car salesman; typical American scenarios, but somehow funnier when placed in the Tuscan landscape. If Bill Bryson and Dave Barry are more your style than Frances Mayes, this is the Tuscan travel guide for you.

This is the first book I've read by Ann Patchett, and I found her style somewhat reminiscent of Anita Shreve (a favorite of mine). The story takes place in an unnamed South American country and revolves around the relationships of 40 international hostages and their 18 terrorist captors. It is more love story than intrigue, but I enjoyed the development of the characters and the relationships they formed as they lived together in a hostage situation for many months. You do wonder why the hostages don't attempt an escape though.

My favorite character was Gen. He is a Japanese interpreter who has been taken hostage along with his employer. Due to his multilingual skills, he is the one character who interacts with the hostages, terrorists, and the negotiator. Sometimes his translating skills put him in the middle of uncomfortable and emotional conversations that would normally be private.

There is a theme of opera and music throughout the story because the one female hostage is an opera singer. She seems to have profound effect on both the hostages and the terrorists. Not being an opera fan, I could not relate to her mesmerizing qualities.

All in all, a good read. I will definitely try another book by Patchett.