Whew

Sorry about the long hiatus from posting. Since I last posted I've been in New Jersey to see Beth's family, Minnesota to go fishing in the north woods with my family, Washington state to see my sister graduate from college, and Wisconsin to see my grandmother. Not to mention that I've finished school and started my new internship, which I'm finding leaves me with less time to blog and more work. Or rather, that my routine of doing school work at home incorporated more breaks than working at an office does. So sorry.

But I have read quite a few books recently. Here's my take.

• Salt: A World History, by Mark Kurlansky. Excellent and fascinating read for anyone who likes trivia and interesting stories. Enlightening at times, like when it explains the role that salt has played in shaping modern history, and overall a good read. I liked it better than Cod.
• Heaven Lake, John Dalton. Nice novel about a young adult who travels to Taiwan to work as a missionary, gets on the wrong side of a few people there, and ends up on a long trek to western China to bring back a bride for a Taiwanese businessmen. I enjoyed it overall, especially the Taiwan and China references that I knew, although I felt the whole loss-of-faith theme to be unconvincing and underexplained. But I liked it overall.
• The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver. An award-winning epic novel, and I can see why. Also about missionaries and loss of faith (it's coincidence, I promise!), although this family is in the Congo. It's written from the perspective of the family's four daughters coming to grips with history and a misogynistic and out-of-touch father. Utterly absorbing, heart-aching and beautiful.