Book Notices | The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett / Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith
Ken Follett, The Evening and the Morning |
Amazon I've been reading Ken Follett's novels for some 40 years. Used to be, he was the one author whose books I'd snatch up the moment they were published. I kind of fell off the wagon about a decade ago, though, because I couldn't get into the Century Trilogy books, despite starting the first one a couple times. So I had to wait out their publication. But with the appearance of The Evening and the Morning (somehow I missed A Column of Fire and have to get to it), I'm back. Follett's latest novel is a prequel to his very popular Kingsbridge books. And it's got everything you'd expect from the author: A strong heroine, true love, scheming monks, an evil bishop, and a brilliant builder. (Sure, maybe the book is predictable to an extent, but maybe predictable isn't always a bad thing.) Edgar is the son of a boat builder who is left homeless after a Viking raid on his town. His family migrates to a farm and a new way of life in Dreng's Ferry, where Edgar's genius for constructing things will come into play. Meanwhile, Ragna, the daughter of a Norman count, falls for a visiting English lord, one of three brothers whose bad behavior undermines the good intentions of the story's heroes. The book weighs in at more than 900 pages, but it goes down easy. |
Alexander McCall Smith, Friends, Lovers, Chocolate (Book 2) |
Amazon I read the first Isabel Dalhousie novel (The Sunday Philosophy Club) just a few months ago and said then that I wasn't sure I'd read more in the series. But here this one was, already on my shelves; I couldn't say no. I find myself growing fonder of Isabel and more interested in her increasingly complex relationship with Jamie, her niece Cat's ex-boyfriend. In this installment, Isabel looks into the strange experiences described to her by a man she meets by chance in Cat's delicatessen. Sure, she's meddling in other people's affairs again, but she feels she has a moral duty to do so sometimes, and she seems to leave people better off than she found them. Philosophical musings abound, of course, and there is more talk of poets and more conversations with Isabel's housekeeper Grace, who is something like the Mma Makutsi of this world. An increasingly charming series: I'll doubtless be reading more. |
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