Garden Spells

by Sarah Addison Allen

Review pending....

Huckleberry Finished

by Livia J. Washburn

I don't know that I would have picked this book up at the store or library, but when it was offered from the publisher I accepted it on a whim.  This is book 2  in a mystery series that features Delilah Dickinson.

Delilah is a travel agent who specializes in literary tours.  Sounds like a great job, doesn't it?  The first in the series Frankly My Dear, I'm Dead was a romp through the Old South.  This one is, you guessed it - a riverboat trip down the Mississippi.

I thoroughly enjoyed this light-hearted cozy.  Interesting characters and quite a few twists and turns.  I liked it well enough to recommend it to my daughter.  She thought it was a fun read, too.

The Swan Thieves

by Elizabeth Kostova

I am so far behind with my book reviews.  Hopefully, getting this one posted will get me past the barrier.  I received this book from Hatchette and I was delighted to have the chance to reading Kostova's 2nd book.  I thoroughly enjoyed The Historian a few years ago when I read it shortly after reading Dracula.

The Swan Thieves is not at all like The Historian except that both are long and circuitous.  I have often heard people talk of character studies without fully comprehending the term.  I think I understand it now.  The Swan Thieves concentrates significantly on the characters, painting each character with layer after layer of description. 

The story can be summed up briefly:  An artist is caught with a knife attempting to stab a famous painting and is incarcerated in a mental hospital.  The psychiatrist caring for him becomes obsessed with him and searches for answers to the artist breakdown.  This search leads to interviews with the 3 women in the painter's life and a story told through letters the painter obsessively reads.

I liked The Swan Thieves but not as much as The Historian.  I wanted to learn why the artist would stab a beautiful piece of artwork and that small mystery kept me reading.  I was intrigued with the story told in the letters and thought it the most enjoyable part of the book.

I'm not strongly recommending this book.  I think there are many who will like it and even a few who will love it.  It doesn't make my list of memorable books or my rereads list.  A quick look at amazon. com shows a higher rating for The Swan Thieves than for The Historian.  That surprises me.  And the ratings may change as more people read it as currently there are only 5 posted reviews - none are mine.