Books

I never mentioned that I'd read Alice Munro's short-story collection Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage. Unfortunately, I read it over the course of a couple of months in the spring—a story here, a story there—and can't really remember much about it except that I had the same initial reaction I had to Runaway: I'd already read so many of the stories in the New Yorker that I felt cheated! I just love the way she writes, the way she fleshes out her characters, and the way she describes life in her part of Canada. If you like Munro (who doesn't?), you'll like this collection. Sorry I can't be more specific!

I loved Three Junes by Julia Glass. It's a novel told in three parts, each narrated by a different character—a technique that works really well here because you get to find out about the characters through different points of view. The writing is lovely and the diverse settings very realistically drawn, but it's the characters that really made the book for me. Several of them truly "came to life" for me, so much so that I found myself thinking about them long after the book was over—always a good sign! It was light enough reading for summer vacation, but by no means "fluff."