The Book of Life by Deborah Harkness

I liked this book much better than the second one in the trilogy. Back to present day; back to family; back to characters that I know; back to the main point of the story. Harkness is certainly verbose - and I really don't need to read about every characters every thought and movement - but she does paint a picture!

I love books about strong women, and Diana continually got stronger as the story developed. Diana and Matthew's relationship was more of a partnership instead of a dictatorship in this third book. I really liked how Diana became the person of knowledge and power in the Bishop-Clairmont scion, as well as the Congregation itself.  Diana made a point though of saying her knowledge and skill would be used for justice rather than a pursuit of vengeance or power.

This story is another example of people not accepting each other's differences - or being afraid of the differences; an abuse of power by the strongest; a resistance to change. These are very common themes, in books and in life.  The "discovery of witches" that happened so long ago and now finally resurfaced with the Bishop-Clairmont family: a willingness to change is the secret of survival. Vampires, Witches, Daemons all wanted to keep their "species" pure, with no "corruption" from the other species. Sound familiar? It was interesting that Harkness carried the scientific research throughout the story, which added to the impact that they were not different "species", but all of the same species, with differences.

I thought The Book of Life was a well-written conclusion to this story.  I liked it as much as The Discovery of Witches.  (Maybe more so because Diana was such a stronger person in this one.)

Wendy's Rating: ****

The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg

This book drove me a bit crazy, especially the first half!  Really, it was Sookie who drove me crazy! I would have thought she was 20 years older than she really was based on her actions and reactions about things. What what supposed to be "charming and funny", simply irritated me. At one point, where she was exceptionally shallow, I had to put the book down for awhile. Ditto about the shallowness of her daughter, Dee Dee.  And what's with the ridiculous names: Dee Dee, Le Le and Ce Ce??  Honestly, this was an exasperating read at times. I love humor in books - very much in fact - but I did not find this book humorous. I found it annoyingly silly at times.

When Sookie finally reads the letter (that whole thing irritated me too!) that exposes her adoption, I just didn't get her reaction. Yes, it would be shocking. Yes, it would be upsetting. Yes, one would need some time to adjust to the news. But Sookie went on and on and on about how nothing was real and her family wasn't her family and the things that she was doing (like going to her grandfather's grave) was under false pretenses. She acted like she needed to stop caring for and loving these people because they were not her blood relatives. It was just too much for me!

I do understand that they had all been connected to the Simmons name their whole lives, and that prestigious names mean something, but Sookie and Dee Dee were still connected to the Simmons name even though Sookie was adopted!! They were just so shallow about the whole thing! Enough about that.

The redeeming quality of this book was the story of Fritzi and her family. I loved Fritzi and I loved her story. She was so fiercely independent and daring and I really enjoyed reading about the WASPs. I also like how her story was told mainly through letters. To put icing on the cake, once Sookie meets Fritzi, Sookie stopped being such a doormat and seemed to become a stronger, more interesting person in her own right. I thought it was awesome how supportive Sookie's husband was of her search for her birth mother - and basically, supportive in general.

The evolution of the filling station was interesting too. Fritzi's family seemed "forward-thinking" for the times - and her parents seemed to support everything their daughters wanted to do - including flying airplanes for the war effort! Again, I really liked the Jurdabralinski story from beginning to end.

It is because of the Jurdabralinski story that I rate this book:

Wendy's Rating: ****