Shadow of the Wind (Carlos Ruiz Zafon)

I read this book on my trip to London and definitely enjoyed it. It was a little slow to get into, though this could have been because I was trying to read while David's brother watched TV and his parents talked...

It tells the story of a boy (Daniel) growing up in Barcelona in the 1940s. His father is a bookseller and has instilled in him a love of books. When he is 10 or 11, his father takes him to a place called the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, where there are copies of thousands of books that people have brought there to keep them safe. He gets to choose one to keep, and it turns out that it is an extremely rare book. The other copies of books by this author have been disappearing, and not much is known about the author's life. As Daniel grows up he starts trying to find out more about the author and the history of the book. What happened to the author is until this point a mystery, and there are some interested parties that want it to stay that way. There's also some romance, though I wouldn't say it's a love story, more of a story with love as a part of it. I found the characters a little hard to keep straight at first, I was wishing there was a character tree in the front of the book and seriously considered writing my own, but it got clearer as I got farther into the book.

It was originally written in Spanish and I think that comes through in parts, there were times when I could feel how lyrical phrases must have sounded in the original. If you're familiar with Barcelona, you'll recognize places he goes in the book. (I think. I recognized a few that I know exist, so I'm assuming that most of the others do as well, I just don't know them.)

So if you like historical fiction, and you like mysteries, I think you would like this book. Now I'm reading Rule of Four, so you'll be hearing about that next. (I know I'm supposed to be reading Gone with the Wind, but they didn't have it at the airport bookstore. I'll get to it, I promise!)

The Shining (Stephen King)

I had seen the movie, so I knew the premise, but was still not quite sure what to expect. I had seen adaptations of SK novels before and none of them had the background and depth that he seems to paint to easily. This case proved to be no different.

The book is scary, yes. But not vampire scary or dead pets scary or even dolls coming to life scary - he taps into a fear that almost everyone has when they hear the house settle or something move out of the corner of their eye or hear a sound they may or may not have heard from the basement or attic. The fear of the unknown is the "scary part" of the book. Although effective for thrills, it does not touch the psychological part of the book.

The "hotel manager" uses Jack's battle with alcoholism, his guilt, his bitterness and his feelings of failure to destroy his son Danny (of whom the hotel is jealous? I am not sure what the motivation was). It does not, however, introduce anything new into Jack's mind - it simply intensifies it. I think that that is the real story, not ladies in bathtubs and animate topiary. It is Jack's battle with himself, his past, his wife, his son, his feeling of inadequacy, and worst of all his temper that is the backbone of the story. The imagery and inner thoughts are something that even the best actor could not portray. The writing sucks you in and you cannot help but internalize all the things he must be going through and the feelings he must be having.

I think what I love most about SK is that he does not write about creepy things, he writes about how the people in his novels react to these creepy things, and he is almost asking the reader to put herself into that situation. Being scared is almost a side effect; thinking about how you would react is the thing that kept me up at night, at least. All his protagonists (in the books I have read) are not bad people. They have flaws, yes, but we all do, and that it what makes the book effective as a thriller.

I would definitely recommend this book. The detail, the imagery, the characters, the fragmented writing style echoes how many people feel with they are trapped and allow their imaginations to wander. It does everything a good book is supposed to do - you enter the story not only as an observer, but, at times, as a participant. The characters and story stay with you long after you close the book.

Just don't read it when you are home alone. Trust me on this one.