bring on the books!

i finished the book The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett awhile ago and wanted to recommend it to anyone who is looking for a new title to pick up. i really enjoyed this book, even with its sometimes repetitious vocabulary, predictable events to move the story along, and the oft described hair of one of the main characters. but i suppose in over 1000 pages long, dark curls can only be described in so many ways.

i felt a guilty pleasure in reading this book, almost like it was a scottish romance novel that i just had to keep going back to to find out what would happen, but i do feel as though i learned a thing or two about medieval england and the process and politics of building cathedrals in that time. don't be afraid of the length and weight of the book, you'll fly through it and enjoy every minute. it offers genuine, wholesome entertainment.

just yesterday i finished Any Known Blood by Lawrence Hill and i am afraid that i am not nearly as enthusiastic about this book as Follett's. i must have had good luck in the book department lately because it has been a long while since i have not recommended a book i have read, but i would suggest you give this one a miss.

i liked Hill's novel The Book of Negroes and thought Any Known Blood would be of the same caliber, but it was much less intriquing and i never had much sympathy for the main character, Langston Crane the Fifth, in his quest to uncover truths about his family. i also felt that Hill was making too many blunt distinctions between canadians and americans and although there is surely truths to each of his comparisons, i felt they were forced, almost as if he had an alterior motive in positioning the two societies against one another. it was a story, a decent story, but one you shouldn't spend your pennies on.