Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

This book had been recommended by cousin Heather as she and I both like all things India.  I am glad I took her advice as this is a great book!  I think I have said before, I like author's first novels and this is Roberts first.  It is loosely based on his life experiences but it is fiction.  Like the main character Roberts was a fugitive from an Australian prison and fled to Bombay to "loose himself".  I have put off blogging about this book as I don't know to to capture it.  It is long, a bit complicated as the plot weaves in and out of so many characters lives.  As the novel begins, Lin (aka Shantaram) arrives in Bombay on a fake passport and is befriended by a tour guide who introduces him to his eventual circle of friends.  Being illegal and destitute, he resorts to the dark side and become involved with organized crime.  For a period of time, he lives in the slums and runs a make shift medical clinic where he learns to love Bombay and her people amid all the poverty and squalor.  Eventually with his connections to the mafia, he ends up helping his boss in a gun running war in Pakistan.  And weaving back and forth in the story is his lover, Karla.  How this all comes together and resolves itself is intriguing, captivating, irresistible, and makes you sad when the book ends - even after 933 pages.  Ah, you would be better off reading the Amazon review.  I am not doing it justice, but I would recommend it and I may even read it again - a rare, rare thing for me!

"A Rural Affair" by Catherine Alliott

Well, this was a dumb book.  It says it is a number one bestseller, but I wonder where?  I picked it up at a book exchange and thought it would be a mindless, light read and I guess I was right.  The main character, Poppy, is relieved when her husband dies - she had fantasized about it for some time.  But when he was hit on the head with a chunk of blue ice (frozen airplane waste) and dies as a result, she found that she mourned the loss of a father for her children, but not her husband.  As the story unravels, it turns out he had been having a long time affair and was as unhappy as Poppy was in their relationship.  However, he was finding love in the arms of the neighbor woman!  Of course Poppy is rescued by the dashing new man that moved to town to save the local and loved crumbling country estate.  And wouldn't you know, the dead husband hadn't got around to changing his will and Poppy inherited his vast fortune from the dot come boom.  Naturally this was contested by the "other woman" but all ends well.  I can't believe I read all 453 pages of this book!  I do not recommend it.  I am tempted not to return it to the book exchange to save anyone else from the wasting their time!