allmyprettybooks-new

(via My hero: Mary Shelley by Neil Gaiman | Books | The Guardian )

Once again I'm thankful to Amazon's "100 Books" list for recommendations of books I would otherwise have missed. Patchett's Bel Canto is described as "a literary page turner", and it certainly lives up to the description, but is so much more. To me, reading Bel Canto was "comforting". I enjoyed reading this novel because it made me feel calm. Does that make sense? Probably not, when we consider the subject matter contemplates the experiences of a hostage situation, but the way the story is brought out expresses such beauty in words and the invocation of our imagination. I knew from very early on what would be the inevitable conclusion of the tale. It is actually written in the early pages, though you'd be forgiven for missing this line amidst the descriptions of love and beauty with which it is surrounded. Despite this, and despite the most unlikely scenarios and coming-together of characters which ensued, I couldn't help but become abs