Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain ***
We read this for book club. It's one of those books I probably wouldn't have picked up and definitely wouldn't have finished if it wasn't for book club. Reading it felt a lot like homework, especially since it was over 400 dense pages. I am glad I read it though. I can't pronounce Rouen, but I've been there and that is where Joan of Arc was tried and burned. I also think Joan of Arc is remarkable and this book only solidified that feeling. By the end of the book I was hopping mad at the French king and the terrible men who had her killed.
The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows ****
I can't say enough good things about this book. I had read it before (and talked about it on my blog before) but we are reading it for book club and I wanted to reread it. I am a perfect candidate for rereading because I don't remember what I read all that well.
This book is impeccable though. The story is great, the setting is great, the characters are perfectly drawn. It is set during the Depression in small town West Virginia where they greet each other with "how-do" which delighted me. One of the main characters is on the WPA and part of the Writer's Project and while she is writing a history of the town, she boards with the Romeyn family and the book is the unraveling of their complicated family history.
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