Oprah's Book Picks

When Oprah Winfrey began her book club I was so excited. This was doubly so because my friends are not readers and I had no one to discuss books with. Here, then, was a format that I could at least hear others speak of books.

Some of the chosen books were pure winners. Consider Ursula Hegi's book Stones from the River. The story of a dwarf in Germany before, during and after World War II. It wasn't a war book. It was a book about people. Pure genius.

Then Oprah started picking books I did not really like. My interest started to wane. I went to work and had no time to read the assignments. I did, however, buy several of the books and they rested on my shelves for years.

I have been unemployed for a year and a half now and am finding my way to those books. Most recently I read the book Fall on Your Knees by Ann Marie MacDonald. It's the story of the Piper family who lives in Cape Breton in Canada. There's mystery and tragedy. There are fathers who mean to do well by their daughters but can't. There are mothers locked by their sense of right and wrong as dictated, not by the heart, but by tradition. There are those relationships between sisters who love each other intensely and whose actions are determined by that love. It's a big story that spans two generations. However, the writing is at times a bit vague such as when Mercedes begins to remember a night long ago....

The bottom line is that I liked this book. I enjoy any book that pulls me in for a good story and introduces characters that I like whose motivations are understandable. I would not, however, add this to the best of the year list, I would recommend it.