Only seventeen more days… how are you doing? Finishing up?

This week’s quote, from Travels With Charley, by John Steinbeck (thanks Becky; there’s a link to her review below!):

When I very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job.

Finishers this week are: Corinne and Sandra. Congrats! We’re coming to the end… remember to put links to your finisher posts (or just leave a comment saying that you’re done) here.

As for reviews… I was surprised that two people — Becky and Sandra — provided the bulk of them for the week!

Callista was our lone other review, reading The Polygamist, by Ndabaningi Sithole. Callista writes, “I picked this book up at a local thrift store because the title caught me. This was an incredibly interesting book and fairly well-written, considering it was written by a man in a Rhodesian prison.” She goes on to say that the publisher is now defunct, and the book is unavailable for purchase. “I wish this book was available to a wider public because I most definitely recommend this to everyone.”

Becky went on a Steinbeck reading binge, and counted two towards the challenge: Tortilla Flat and Travels with Charley. I liked what she said about Tortilla Flat: “I recommend this one to folks wanting to read a classic…but who feel somewhat intimidated and bored by more traditional ‘classics.’ It was just a joy to keep reading.” She almost (almost!) has me convinced to read Steinbeck, an author I’ve avoided for decades.

She also read Tropical Secrets, a novel in verse by Margarita Engle. She writes, “I don’t know about you, but I’d certainly never heard about Cuba in regards to the Holocaust. It’s interesting to see how this one island, small in size especially when comparing it to Canada and the United States, was able to provide some shelter to Jews fleeing Hitler.” And also: “This book is fascinating. It’s absorbing. Read. This. Book.”

Sandra checked in with The Madonnas of Leningrad, by Debra Dean; The Rabbi’s Cat 2, by Joann Sfar; and The Seamstress, by Frances de Pontes Peebles. She liked Madonnas and Seamstress best, writing this about Seamstress: “Richly detailed, the writing is good and the characters as real as they get. Highly recommended.”