Mary Jo C

"It was the day my grandmother exploded." Now I ask you. With a beginning sentence like that and when the author is Iain Banks you know you have a winner! The Crow Road is the multigenerational story of a Scots family - I know the breed. As with all
good stories The Crow Road gives us a look into lives not our own and makes them seem almost familiar. This familiarity , however, breeds not contempt, but a feeling of warmth, of humor sadness - of a good story very well told. Everyone feels real. No situations seem strained. I want to re-read this book and look forward to many others.
The Crow Road has my highest rating!

Life Class lives up to the excellence and economic elegance of Pat Barker's previous offerings. Winner of the Booker Prize for fiction, Barker is a
marvelous chronicler of WW1 England. While not a part of the Regeneration Trilogy, Life Class covers the same time period - just before and during the early part of the "war to end all wars."

Four characters, three from art school, are presented. They are young and ignorant of the world about them. Two go off to the ambulance corps. No one remains the same.

Barker paints her subjects with a light brush. Paul is the most described but this does not matter. The real topic is the war and its impact. For those who have read the Regeneration Trilogy, Barker's newest book will be very welcome. To those who have not had that pleasure, you have some great reading ahead!