“Like Water for Chocolate,” by Laura Esquivel, is set in Mexico aroundthe time of the Mexican Revolution of 1910-17. It’s novel of love . . . or is it a novel of the magical power of love . . . or is it a romantic comedy? Honestly, I am not really certain. This is one […]
Novel Destination, Scriptures and 2012
It has been a fun year of virtual travel through books. I’ve been to Afghanistan, China and France during the period of my own lifetime. I’ve been in the Caribbean around the turn of the 20th century. I spent several centuries in Russia, and I am currently reading “Out Stealing Horses” set in eastern Norway […]
Novel Destinations: The South of France
A Year in Provence, by Peter Mayle, sent me to the atlas. This was a place I had never heard of. But as I was reading, I kept seeing Cary Grant and Debra Kerr visiting Grandmother in the movie An Affair to Remember. A Year in Provence is the true chronicle of Peter Mayle and […]
Novel Destination: CHINA! via “Iron & Silk”
In the book, Iron & Silk, Mark Salzman relates his experiences while teaching English to Chinese medical students during 1982-1984. It is a non-fiction work, an easy read, and very enlightening. (And there’s a movie!) I enjoyed the time I spent with Mark in China, especially meeting the people he met. There were his master […]
Novel Destination: A Thousand Splendid Suns
Whew! That was a quick trip to Afghanistan and back. That is because “A Thousand Splendid Suns,” by Khaled Hosseini, is a quick read and a good story. It opens in the 1950s in northern Afghanistan. It is the life stories of two women, and how their lives become entwined. Mr. Hosseini was able to […]
A Novel Destination: Caribbean 1880-1930
Since school started, my travels have been restricted. I finished “Love in the Time of Cholera,” by Gabriel García Márquez, after forcing myself to read such an un-appealing title. The setting is somewhere in the Caribbean, and the main characters are Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza. The meet when they are very young and love […]
