Three Bags Full by Leonie Swann
Straight off, I will say: This is a book about sheep. Yes, you read it right. Sheep. It’s a sheep detective story. It’s about a flock of Irish sheep who try to solve the murder of their beloved shepherd, George. Along the way you find out a lot of things about him, about the people in their village, and nothing is what it seems. I know this sounds strange but it is so well crafted that the sheep don’t appear to be doing anything out of the ordinary–they eat clover, they walk around, stare at clouds, stand on cliff edges–but somehow they manage to solve the mystery and make themselves known not through some cheesy miracle or by suddenly speaking, but through something a bit more creative than that. (I’ll let you read the book!)
I will warn you that this is not a typical book. You have to be willing to suspend disbelief in that sheep are not just woolly, uniform grass-munching creatures but have their own individual personalities. Once you do that you are in for a wonderful, witty adventure featuring characters such as the smartest sheep in Glennkill, possibly in all the world, the dark black sheep with two sets of horns and who has a mysterious past, the dreamy sheep obsessed with clouds, the memory sheep who remembers it all, and a cast of others that make this book truly engaging.
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The Godfather by Mario Puzo
It’s been a while now since I’ve read a book that has stayed with me for days. I finally read The Godfather for the first time, and … wow. I loved the first two movies (can barely remember the third–I only watched it once), and I wanted to see if it’s one of those rare times when the film version of a story surpasses the book. No, it doesn’t. But it is one of those even rarer times when the movie changes the book just enough to make it great in its own right without taking anything away from the book. On balance, I think the storytelling in the movie is much more sophisticated, but the book gives a far better insight on the characters.
I wouldn’t consider the book to have the greatest storytelling I’ve ever read. In some parts, the exposition is awkward, and maybe I’ve been spoiled by having read some fabulously written romances recently, but at some points in the novel, I wished Puzo would tell less and just show, show, show, because there’s so much opportunity for showing that there rarely seems a real need to tell. But there are also times when he gets the balance right and produces something exquisite.
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