My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares

While it isn't a lot like it, this book reminded me an awful lot of The Time Traveler's Wife. Ann Brashares also wrote The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. The two main characters, Sophia and Daniel, are old souls who have been reincarnated several times over hundreds of years and thousands of miles. Daniel narrates that reincarnation happens all the time but that most people have no memory of their past lives, except in random flashes or in their dreams.

Daniel is one of the rare few who does remember his pasts, and feels the burden heavily. He met Sophia in one of his first lives and has tried to find her in each one since. This may sound like science fiction or New Age drivel, but the book is so well written, and the characters so interesting, that I really wanted to read it and find out what happened. Daniel struggles to convince Sophia (in each of her successive forms) that they know and love each other.

I will warn anyone who wants to pick it up, though, the ending is one of those non-endings that leaves you vaguely unsatisfied. I'm not sure if there is a sequel planned, or if the author had another purpose. I did see on her website that the book is going to be made into a movie.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I think I first saw this in Lemuria Books in Jackson, MS. It's set in Jackson in the early 60s, and goes between the points of views of housekeepers and the women for whom they work. I thought it was well written for a first novel. It's now being made into a movie. It is detailed and a real eye-opener for someone who doesn't remember that time in the South firsthand. There's a moment in the book where I felt about one of the maids like I did about an Iraqi young woman in a book I read earlier this year: they can't escape their lives. I can't imagine how you deal with that sort of suffocating culture. The book doesn't just detail the bad side of things it also shows the good (or just better?) relationships, all on the verge of the Civil Rights movement.

The Sunday Philosophy Club by Alexander McCall Smith

This is very different from his African series. These take place in Edinburgh, Scotland and center on philosopher Isabel Dalhousie. She is an amateur detective, or maybe she just sorts things out because she's a philosopher. In both of the books of his that I've read, he doesn't wrap things neatly up in a package. It's kind of nice since life isn't usually as neat as it is in most mysteries. No one is led away in handcuffs at the end, even though the mystery is solved. I liked that about the book. As for the philosophy, some of it was a bit much for me. I'd ask Art to explain, but I'm afraid he would!

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith

I'm so sorry that it's taken me years to get around to reading one of Alexander McCall Smith's books. I just haven't been interested when I picked them up. I finally got this one and I loved it. I can't wait to read the rest of them. The main character is such a good one, and has such common sense. She sorts out mysteries minor and major and helps the people in her village. It's also a great picture of Botswana which has had a much more peaceful history than its neighbors. The author really lets you see the country and its people. I immediately asked for the next in the series from the library and started on another of his series.

Trespass by Rose Tremain

The review of this book in the Atlantic Monthly made me check it out. It won a prize. I can't remember now why it sounded so good. It was an interesting book about English ex-patriates in France, and French locals around them. I can't say that I liked the book, but I did have to finish it to see how it ended. Like I said, it was hard to like.

UFOs by Jacqueline Laks Gorman

Another Alex book. I am please to report that he is extremely skeptical about this whole UFO business. Thankfully, he seems to have missed out on part of Art's genetic conspiracy makeup.

Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss

I am so, so, so excited about this! Alex has denied being able to read (and sometimes to even recognize letters that are actually IN his name) for quite a while. Recently it dawned on me that while it was fun to read bigger books, we probably needed to cover some that he could read, too. So I pulled out the trusty Dr. Seuss. The first time we read it he sounded out several words. Now that we've read it the requisite 3 times to put it on his reading list for school, he's reading more than half of it by himself. Yay, Alex!