This book grabbed me within the first few pages and kept me rapt right to the end. Two people with no desire to hurt each other as they try to go through a hopefully amicable divorce see their lives turned upside down and out of their control.

This book was an interesting incite into the Oxford campus and the differences in how things are done as well as the language and British kind of class divisions. I thought it rather lacking in a story line, plot and even anything other than the passage of time driving it forward. Was almost relieved when it ended. It read more like a diary where the writer could even stay on a timelinemore than anything else.

A very engrossing story. I liked Leonie Russell from beginning to end and cheered her struggle to be herself and think for herself against the wishes of both her father and her husband. An inherently kind and thoughtful person it isn't always easy for her to make waves but she learns to seek her own life and happiness. Enough surprises to keep you really interested.

This story is true to it's name and for the two central characters the things they want and strive for are truly lost causes. I was never really sympathetic to either one of them because they seemed so self absorbed that I did not like them. The title is probably a mistake as it removes all question of the ending before you even get into the book.

Being an invaluable member of the household of Pope Alexander VI who is the head of the influential House of Borgia is a tricky job for a young woman. To our modern minds the Pope does not act like a Pope, has three children, many enemies and is besieged on numerous sides. Europe in the 1400’s is unstable politically and all the major powers are vying for more land, more influence and a piece of the new continent just discovered by Columbus. Francesca’s position in the household as poisoner insures she is busy not only doing in the Pope’s enemies but checking everything that comes into contact with members of the household to prevent them being poisoned. She is privy to all of the controversies and also to the attentions of the Pope’s oldest son.

Getting into this book was a little difficult for me. Lucy Hamilton seemed a flippant and totally self absorbed stay-at-home mom of a 3 yr old telling a 1st person story that was a bit boring. As insights into her past life unfold she becomes a bit more interesting. The development of her back-story through jumps to tales from the past was not especially smooth and sometimes a bit confusing. Eventually the past and present start intersecting and things move more quickly. By the end of the book I liked her a lot but found myself feeling that too many of the things that happened seemed a little too unbelievable to make me take her and her story seriously.

Oh So Good

Bury Your Dead grabbed me on the first page and with quick transitions in time and place pulled me through a whole series of characters and events that were intriguing, likeable, believable and hard to put down for the demands of my real world. The day after I finished it I was at the local library finding another of Louise Penny’s books. Chief Inspector Gamache of the Quebec Province and his family, friends and associates are real, interesting and part of three mysteries that are all unfolding at the same time and keep you enthralled and guessing to the end.

A vivid and inside view of war time Vietnam that is not always pleasant reading. Connections and loyalties are constantly tested, questioned, and changing, for the principle characters. Ceaseless bombing creates an ever-changing landscape not unlike the changes occurring in the deepest parts of these people. I have a clearer view of what happened in Vietnam than I was ever able to obtain from my contemporary family and friends who served in that war. I also now 'get' why they chose not to speak of it much.

I will definitely read any future books in this series. The archeological significance of this coastal England setting is key to the identity and presence of the characters involved. Fortyish Ruth, single, reclusive, college professor, is pulled into the investigation of a murder/disappearance of two little girls. Her fusty specialty in ancient bones is no proper preparation for dealing with colleagues and friends who turn out to be different than she thought and her self acknowledged lack of fitness is a serious handicap in some most unpleasant forays into an inhospitable landscape. I liked the character, the plot and the writing style.