A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute

What a marvelous book!  I really loved it.  It is the story of Jean Paget told from the point of view of her trustee.  Miss Paget is working in Malaya during the second world war and is taken prisoner by the Japanese.  The women and children she is with are not put into a prison camp but are instead marched all over the country, dying on the way.  She survives the war and then receives an inheritance from an uncle.  She heads to the Australian outback where she helps build a "town like Alice" Springs.  It is interesting to read descriptions of Malaya and the Australian outback and the way life is lived there.  It is an intriguing story that is very different from my daily life but still feels completely believable.  It is definitely worth the time.

The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler

This book tells the story of four generations of the Pontifex family.  It particularly focuses on Ernest, a young man of the latest generation.  He struggles with questions about his faith.  He assaults a young woman and serves a term in jail.  He becomes a tailor and marries a woman who ends up being an alcoholic who is already married.  Clearly his life isn't wonderful, and it makes for a rather depressing story.  He does reach an age where he gets a financial legacy from an aunt that improves things, so it's nice that it isn't all bad. 

I didn't love it.  It's fairly interesting and well-written but it's also sad and quite unpleasant.  It isn't too long, though, so it is still worth the time. 

The Unbearable Lightness of Scones by Alexander McCall Smith

This is another installment in the 44 Scotland Street series.  These books were originally written and published in The Scotsman as serial novels.  This makes them very fast-paced and easy to read with short chapters and many characters with fast-paced storytelling.  One of the things I enjoy about these novels is that McCall Smith narrates from all different perspectives.  It is fun to see how successfully he can change from view to view, a precocious child to a scholarly woman to a committed bachelor to a dog!  This particular book has Bertie continuing to struggle with his overbearing mother, although his father does help him join cub scouts.  Matthew marries and goes on his honeymoon.  And Bruce undergoes a great change that bodes well for his likeability.

This is an easy, entertaining read that is definitely worth the time.  Because of its structure, the book seems to fly by.

Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson

This book tells the story of a young man who is banished from his family by mutual consent and sent to be the laird of a nearby family property.  He falls in love with a young lady there.  The story is confusing as two characters have the same name, and Stevenson didn't finish it, so it cuts off at an inopportune moment.

It reads fairly easily, so it's worth the time if you're a fan of Stevenson.  If not, you may not like to read it, since he never finished it.

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

I know this book is widely hailed as a masterpiece and is, of course, on many best books lists.  But I couldn't make it through!  I started it.  It is very "literary" and has many disjointed vignettes and stream-of-consciousness type passages.  Pynchon shuns the traditional narrative form.  It is also very long, and I wasn't enjoying it at all, so I quit!  It was also not awarded a pulitzer because of a scene of someone receiving sexual pleasure from feces (I never got to that part.), which I find quite gross and didn't want to read.  I guess I'm not a very "literary" person.  It definitely isn't worth the time.

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

This is a great book, particularly for younger readers.  I first read it as a kid and read it much more that time.  I had my son read it as well (he's 13), and he quite liked it, in spite of the fact that he mostly loves fantasy and doesn't usually read a lot of adventure.  Treasure Island tells the story of Jim Hawkins, almost completely from his point of view.  Jim helps take care of an old pirate at a boarding house his mother runs.  When the pirate is dying, he gives Jim a treasure map.  Jim decides to find the treasure and adventure ensues, including meeting Long John Silver, the very famous one-legged pirate with a parrot who is one of the few characters in children's literature who fits in the moral "gray" area.

It's a quick easy read that is fun and adventure-filled.  It's worth the time.

Evening by Susan Minot

This book made me think of As I Lay Dying.  Obviously Minot isn't another Faulkner, but the story line has definite similarities.  Evening tells the story of Ann Lord, who is bedridden and dying.  It tells some of the things that are happening with her family while she is there (like Faulkner's story), but it the most linear and coherent story line is her memory of the great love of her life, Harris Arden.  Even though she only knew him briefly, at the end of her life that was where her focus went.  It is well written and mostly interesting.  It does have paragraphs/small sections of rambling that doesn't mean much if anything.  I don't enjoy that sort of thing and prefer a narrative style, but they are short enough and infrequent enough to be tolerable.

Ann's reminisces include some sexual activity with Arden, so it isn't a squeaky clean book, which I prefer.  It is also quite sad as Arden is engaged before he meets Ann and stays with his pregnant fiance, even though Ann at least seems to feel a very important connection. 

It is a fairly quick read and well written but not wonderful.