April- there wasn't as much pool time as I'd have liked.....

April was kind of miserable on the weekends.  And I read a 500 page book.  (Yes, these are my excuses of my slacking off.  Sue me)

The Cove by Ron Rash.  This was the book club book for my second book club (as far as my first book club book, I'd already read it, so I won't be writing about it again.)  Back to the book.  The story takes place close to the end of World War I.  Laurel and her brother Hank live in a small cover near a small town in the Appalachians.  Their parents are dead and Hank lost an arm in the War.  Laurel, who was born with a birthmark covering some portion of her body (I think it must be most of her torso), is shunned by the locals and thought to be a witch.  She has resigned herself to a life of solitude.  Until one day, she comes across an injured man near their home.  Walter is mute.  But somehow, he and Laurel overcome that hurdle and fall in love.  There is a mystery surrounding Walter though, and once Laurel discovers the truth, she must decide if love is enough.  The ending was a complete shock (I seriously did not see it coming AT ALL.)  I will say that the story was kind of hard to get into at first, but by the second half, I was hooked.  This is the third Ron Rash book I've read.  And I have enjoyed each of them.  He really captures the feel of the time, the culture, the locale, all of it.  He's slightly Faulkner-esque in his style of writing (of course he is, he won the 2007 Faulkner award).  Which is something that I really like about his writing!

The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve.  Kathryn Lyons is used to not having her husband Jack around all the time.  As the wife of a pilot for sixteen years, she's grown accustomed to his crazy schedule and doing some of the heavy lifting with their fifteen year old daughter Mattie.  But Kathryn isn't prepared for the knock on her door late one night, a knock that rocks her world.  Her husband's plane has exploded off the coast of Ireland.  As rumors start surfacing about the explosion, Kathryn's world is even further rocked by the revelations she uncovers about Jack.  And she begins to wonder if she ever really knew her husband.  I really enjoyed this novel- it drew me in from the very beginning.

The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling.  I don't really know what I was expecting when I started this novel.  I knew it wasn't Harry Potter.  But boy, it REALLY wasn't Harry Potter.  Opening chapter, Barry Fairbrother drops dead from an aneurysm on his nineteenth anniversary.  Turns out Barry was a councilman in his small British town of Pagford.  There's a lot more to Pagford than meets the eye.  The town has a rivalry with a neighboring town.  And a hatred for the government housing that lies in-between the towns (but somehow became Pagford's problem).  Barry's death leaves a casual vacancy on the council.  And quite a few of the townspeople want the job.  In typical small town fashion, there is drama behind every door.  Old family feuds, love, hatred, drugs, even more death.  Parents vs. children, husband vs. wife, neighbor vs. neighbor.  Yes, the style was reminiscent of Potter.  But the story was all its own!  Even though it took me a long time to finish (500 pages is nothing to sneeze it), I enthusiastically give it two thumbs up!  I'd give it more, but I only have two thumbs!