Do I have great friends, or what?

I hope that any of you that read this blog realize that I don't find all these excellent books by myself. I have wonderful friends that lend or recommend or even bring books to my house. Yesterday, I finished reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (1996). You may have heard of this book, as they just recently released a movie that was based on it.
This is the true story of a young, idealistic, financially secure college graduate who gave away all of his possessions and his money to set out alone looking for adventure, self-reliance, and equality with his fellow human beings.
He eventually ended up in the Alaskan wilderness where he starved to death. I'm not giving anything away by telling that; there's been a lot of publicity.
Sounds grim, doesn't it? Surprisingly, it's not. The book is very well written, and though the ending leaves you sad, you're also somewhat awed by the single-minded resolution of this young man that any of us would have been proud to know.

Scary Title

It caught my eye in the library. A softcover in the "New Books" section with a picture of a pile of brown dirt against a backdrop of blue sky. A hand holding a shovel can be seen throwing dirt skyward, which seems entirely appropriate for a book entitled Gravedigger. It was written by Peter Grandbois, and published in 2006.
It tells the story of a man in a small Spanish village whose inherited job it was to dig graves. The unusual part is that the recently deceased visits him while he is preparing the grave to tell him the story of their life, which he, in turn, passes on to the bereft family for their comfort.
We not only hear the stories from the dead, but also we learn his story, and that of his daughter. It's a well-written book telling an interesting tale.

An Exception --- At last!

I've gone quite a while between postings because although I've been reading a lot, none of the books were anything I cared to write about. They weren't bad, just kind of run-of-the-mill.
Finally, a friend loaned an excellent book.
It's The God of Animals by Aryn (that's a girl) Kyle (2007).
This book tells the story of a young girl/woman growing up on her daddy's horse ranch. The father was a horse trainer whose big dreams got in the way of any practicality. The mother was severely depressed and confined herself to her upstairs bedroom. There was an older sister who had been the darling of the ranch community because of her innate ability to ride, perform and bond with horses.
Then there's Alice, the younger girl. Alice's sister had run away with a young cowboy, leaving Alice and her dad trying get a little financial stability out of their ranch. Eventually, they were desperate enough to offer to board horses for the wealthy young matrons of the community. There's such a contrast between the lives of the characters in this book, and I can't imagine that it would fail to hold the interest of any reader.
This is Aryn Kyle's first novel. Let's hope she writes a whole lot more.