Gods in Alabama by Joshlyn Jackson

"There are Gods in Alabama. I know because I killed one." - says the back cover of Joshlyn Jackson's book. How could I not be intrigued?

I started reading the first chapter and immediately found out about the body that Lena successfully hid and the deal she made with God, certain things she promised to change in herself and in her life if the body was never found. Thing is, Lena's past is catching up with her and her future beckons. How can she agree to a serious longterm relationship when she has these kinds of secrets?

Gods in Alabama is about teens who think they know it all and about the adults they become, trying to correct some of the mistakes they made along the way. It's also about the power of family and the loyalty that comes with it.

It's a good book about the American south and about personal values. Enjoyable.

Challenges: 2010 Countdown Challenge, What's in a Name 3

The Friday Night Knitting Club

This was another recommendation, which unfortunately I was expecting much more from. Kate Jacobs' book was ok, but I found it only that, I wanted to enjoy it more than I did.

The premise is great - Georgia owns a  wool shop and loves to knit. With time, several women become regular customers and end up spending Friday night together, some knitting, some learning to knit. They share and grow and generally have a good time. It works, although they are of different ages and backgrounds and have very different problems.

What was the problem for me? I didn't care enough about the characters... I suppose they didn't jump off the page for me. It's a nice enough light book to relax with, but that's about it. I did love the knitting focus though, so who knows if I won't be reading about the characters' further knitting adventures!

Challenges: 2010 Countdown Challenge, A-Z Challenge

Children of Men

I finished reading P.D. James' Children of Men a few days ago, but was waiting to watch the movie before I posted my thoughts... Truthfully, I don't know why I still insist on sometimes watching the film after reading the book. It's almost always a disappointment. The film had nothing of the atmosphere of the book. And the story was SO different!! That really bugged me, even relationships between characters differed. I'm no movie maker but I could think of a few places where sticking to the original story would not have been that difficult. Oh and the ending was so cheesy that even I couldn't stand it.

The book was good. I'm not normally a fan of suspense/thriller type books, but I wanted to read this one because I loved the storyline. It's the future and the youngest human dies at 18. People are infertile and the human race is close to dying out. Aside from the storyline, I liked the detail with which P.D. James painted the world where children don't exist. All the little touches were fascinating. Some were horrifying - the book reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go in that it explored what people are capable of ignoring or pretending not to know if only it benefits them.

I decided to try rating books and I'm giving this one 3-stars: good, enjoyable, I'd reccommend it as a fun read. The movie gets one star. If that.