Books of March

Reading Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon series is one of my guilty pleasures.  Yes, he is a spy and an assassin and, strangely enough, an art restorer.  I enjoy most of the books in the series, especially this one about a young woman who falls to her death while she is surveying books for the Vatican library.  Why is an Israeli secret agent investigating her death?  Why is he buddies with the Pope?  Read and find out.

 A truly disgusting book that I read because I get a free Kindle selection each month.  I chose this one and it was a really bad choice.  A horribly disfigured family lives in a locked underground basement--the boy, the brother, the sister, the mother, the father and the baby (None of them are given names). The father is abusive, the sister wears a mask so no one will have to look at her face, the boy collects fireflies.  Characters' motivations make no sense and I agree with Amazon readers who labeled the book "sickening."  Forget about it.

I love the Iliad, but I didn't care for this retelling that focuses mostly on Achilles and Patroclus.  My recommendation:  stick to the original.