Five Diverse and Delicious Reads...

Queen Camilla by Sue Townsend.

My favorite author of light and humorous reads. I don't know what I'll do if she ever quits writing. Surely she won't grow old and die before me? It's kind of like how Agatha Christie and Margaret Maron novels are comfort reads but I know there is a finite number available for reading in my lifetime - consequently I savour and save. That's my practical side really, saving good books for rainy days. Too bad I'm not so good at saving coin.

I was more than half way through Queen Camilla when I left Canada. I read it on the way to the airport even...it calmed me amidst all the family drama.

Imagine that the Royal Family has been outlawed, disolved and what's more, banished to an Exclusionary Zone. Estates carefully patrolled and sealed, permits are necessary to leave and the various undersireables of society live there...well so do Camilla and Charles. Doddering around with their garden and their dogs while politics swirl onwards in the real world. So good for a chuckle.

Five Quarters of an Orange by Joanne Harris.

I loved Chocolat, so this was a sure fire thing for the plane (also with my gift card, merci, merci!) Definitely darker, sweeping in it's emotions, portrayal of unhappiness, and the darker needs and sides of the inhabitants of a small French village. Not quite as satisfying as I anticipated...but a lovely glimpse into an interesting past, and a fine piece of storytelling, a writer telling the story within the story...

The In-Between World of Vikram Lall by M.G. Vassanji.

Written as a memoir, alternating between past and present, Vassanji is a master of telling just as much as necessary to keep the reader tantalized....

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

I read this book for it's preface. I purchased it for my trip with a lovely gift card from some friends. I was a little disapointed with it overall, despite the aclaim it felt a bit like one book in a series from a self-help guru. However it was the right book at the right time, quite providential really...

The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh.

I purchased this book for my trip to England two years ago where I was to complete my library practicum. I forgot it at home, my mother stayed in my apartment and returned it to the library (not a library book), retrieved it, and I haven't seen it or finished it since. I picked it up from the English collection at the library here and haven't put it down. This past week has been consumed with the images of India, of tidal country, of Luisibari and the elusive river dolphins sought