Books of the Month

I've decided to list books I've read each month on the last Friday of the month. I want to see how many I read in the next year. December's won't count, but I wanted to mention them anyway. You'll see that my reading tastes are eclectic. I read fiction, non-fiction, poetry, books on widowhood and grief. Some are book club choices--I belong to two book groups, but one reads only short stories. Some are what one book club member calls Guilty Pleasures. Others are just topics I find interesting. So here's my list for December:

12 Secrets for Healing by William Hablitzel, M.D. He's the kind of doctor you'd like to have and his stories about his patients are inspiring.

Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson. This isn't a newly released book. I picked it up at a book swap and really enjoyed it. The setting, an island in the Pacific Northwest, is beautifully described; it's a character in itself. This book is a murder mystery, a courtroom drama, a love story, and a study of prejudice. I recommend it.

God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World and Why Their Differences Matter by Stephen Prothero. A professor of religious studies, he asks his first year students to invent a religion. He discusses each of the eight religions in terms of its view of mankind's problem and that religion's solution. Interesting. One of the reviewers on Amazon remarked that it was a Reader's Digest view of religion. Maybe so, but I enjoyed it.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. His magnificent story of a brutal murder in Kansas and the two killers who committed the crime.

Cry of the Giraffe by Judie Oron. A Young Adult book based on the true story of a young Jewish girl in Ethiopia and how she made it to Israel.