As Good As Gone, by Larry Watson

(my photo)

This is an Early Reviewers book, which I received from Algonquin Books, asking nothing but an honest review.

I enjoyed the storyline and the characters, got really involved in it, and kept reading to see what would happen. I did not much care for the strong language and sexuality, but the language was in keeping with the nature of the characters.

A tough, rangy old cowboy, now living almost as a hermit, is asked by his son to come stay with his grandchildren, who are strangers to him, for a few days while the son takes his wife to another city for surgery. The town, which as a former real estate agent, he helped build has also become strange to him, but the widow next door remembers him well.
His son and daughter-in-law have left some situations unresolved, and as attention is needed to sort them out, "Grandpa" delves in with knife and pistol and fists and tries to settle them the old-fashioned cowboy way.

Sisters of Shiloh, by Kathy Hepinstall, Becky Hepinstall Hilliker

Read and released April-May, 2015

Received from LIbraryThing's Early Reviewers program, I started reading it right away. A fascinating plot, two sisters have joined the Confederate Army, disguised as men. Libby/Thomas is seeking revenge for her slain husband, and Josephine/Joseph came with her to try to protect her (from herself?). Quite graphic depictions of the horrors of war, not easy reading in that respect.

A Painted House, by John Grisham

Read and reviewed in April, 2004; no longer in my possession

This book was wonderful - I couldn't put it down! I was so interested in the characters and their lives, and I still wonder how some of them turned out.
Unlike most of Grisham's novels, this is a "coming-of-age" type story about a boy in rural Arkansas in the early 1950's - the trials and tribulations of farming,
and the people who populate the town and their own farm during harvesting season.
It involves detailed descriptions of violent scenes, so it is not for the squeamish.

The Book of Ruth, by Jane Hamilton

I read and reviewed this book in September, 2002. I was a new Bookcrosser, and had met another new Bookcrosser at a bookstore. We exchanged books, as Bookcrossers do. This is the one she gave me; I sent it to another Bookcrosser after finishing it, as part of a bookbox.

I found The Book of Ruth disturbing, depressing, and haunting, but I couldn't put it down. Just had to keep reading, to find out what happens next. The horriying climax is indescribable.

This book has remained in my mind like few others. It was disturbing, yes, and I didn't enjoy reading it, but it has made me think, and consider in a new way people I might not have given a second thought. The main character in The Book of Ruth was so unlike me that I had trouble relating to her, but I was able to see that people like her aren't just "poor white trash." They have feelings, emotions, dreams, hopes, and maybe make poor decisions for lack of perceiving better choices.

I won't just dismiss such people when I see them around town, or read about them in the newspaper. I will try to remember that they are real people with real lives, and problems that I can't imagine.