Diane T

The Resurrection of Joan Ashby neither has anyone or anything rising from the dead. I have never shied away from books of 500 pages plus, however after plowing through 275 pages of verbosity and convoluted multiple storylines, I concluded that there were too many other books I wanted to read. Perhaps if the author was more economical in her writing and wove the storylines in a more cohesive manner, the book might be a better read. The main storyline is interesting, a female writer who is well on her way to fame marries but with the caveat that she wants no children. Of course, she becomes pregnant and with the birth of her first child realizes the mystery of motherhood in a positive way. Not so with her second child. And so begins the push and pull of her initial desire. I'm going to pick up a less emotionally complicated and intense book to read just to bring me back to earth. With that, watch The Resurrection of Joan Ashby be nominated or better yet, win a Pulitzer Prize!

You are immediately drawn into "My Last Lament" by the main character, Aliki, as she recounts her life in a small Greek village during the last days of the German occupation of WW II and the ensuing Greek Civil War. As the story unfolds, she takes us on a journey of growing up amid the remains of a war that not only devastated her homeland but changed her personal life in ways that would impact her and her family forever.

The agony that families endured during the Civil War in Greece is so vividly described by the author that you are caught up in the treachery that pitted brother against brother. Aliki's family is not immune to this and we witness her valiant effort to keep the family together at all costs. "Stelios once said that our stories never finish. They just get braided with those of others into some larger strand that only later generations can understand." This is Aliki's last lament.