#31: Bel Canto

I finished Bel Canto by Ann Patchett this morning.  I recently started reading Patchett's books and liked several of them.  This one was an inter library loan and had to be finished by today.

I'm not going to lie, this book was VERY slow for me.  It's about an Opera singer giving a performance at a private residence when the house is taken over and all guests are claimed as hostages.  Since this was a birthday party for a government official, their were lots of important people present as well as a translator.

During the story, we learn back ground information about several characters.  We also learn that every one speaks different languages, so it's important that the have the translator for communication as well as mediation.  There are a lot of characters, so I was a little confused about who was who at certain times.  Sometimes the people were referred to by their position and other times by their names.  Over time I did get all the characters straight.

About 3/4 of the way in, I really liked the story.  Characters were starting to "come out of their shells".  It was interesting to see the interaction between the hostages and captors.  The end was very sad too.

Overall a good book, but a slow moving one.

Up Next: The Talisman by Stephen King/Peter Straub

#30: Run

I recently started reading Ann Patchett's books as a suggestion from Lindsey.  I really liked the first 2 I read, but Run, just didn't do it for me.  It was an okay story about 2 boys, Tip and Teddy, who were adopted by the Mayor.  There was a back story of a statue that looks like their adopted mother Bernadette, who died when they were young.  The main story starts when they are leaving a political speech and Tip almost gets hit by a car.  A woman knocks him out of the way and she gets hit instead.  This leaves the woman's daughter with nowhere to go, but home with the Mayor and his family.

It was an interesting enough story, there were just some things that were hard to understand.  I didn't feel like any of the characters really showed much emotion during the story.  There were a few tears from the girl, and some mention of sadness and guilt, but there was so much more that could have been felt by the readers.

I am excited to finally get to read Bel Canto soon.  I hope this will be another book I love by Patchett.

Up Next:  The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan