3.02.2008

Books Read February 2008

Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
Susan Fletcher is a brilliant code breaker and works with the NSA – which some people think stands for “No Such Agency.” It seems a disgruntled ex-employee is trying to hold the NSA hostage by releasing a code so complex that if it was released world-wide would cripple US intelligence, and destroy the NSA. Fletcher, along with her fiancé and co-workers work to save the agency, the country, and as it turns out her man.
O.K. I know this book has been out a long time, but I’ve just gotten around to reading it! It’s got a killer plot (in more ways than one) and I was really excited as I got into it especially after I got past the corny love dream. There are some interesting twists and turns but all-in-all it was disappointing.

Perfect Match by Jody Picoult
Nina Frost is an assistant district attorney with a great husband and equally wonderful five-year-old son, Nathaniel. She prosecutes child molesters and does a decent job -- that is until the victim is her own son.
Picoult writes about hot issues, intertwined with moral and ethical questions – usually things we don’t want to imagine are possible, but never-the-less, her stories are powerful and spellbinding. Desperate for something to read, I snatched this book from my Mother’s bookcase. It’s an older Picoult novel, but I must say it’s now one of my favorites!

The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich
Faye Travers is hired to appraise the estate of a family in her small New Hampshire town, and because the deceased is an ex-Indian reservation official, she isn't surprised to discover valuable Native American artifacts. However, when she finds a rare drum -- made from a huge moose skin stretched across a hollow of cedar, and finely ornamented – she knows she must return it to its rightful owner’s descendants. This is a beautiful story of the Ojibwa tribe and a drum so powerful some people can hear it sound with out it being touched.
Erdrich traces the drum's passage backward and forward in time, and we discover how powerful it is and the effect it has on the lives of those whose paths it crosses.
This book is as much about basic human relationships and how choices in life affect those relationships, as it is a beautiful narrative on Native American beliefs. Erdrich is a wonderful writer.

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