The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

I listened to this book and to be honest I was not that impressed with the narrator especially her botching up the French language. Now I have never learned French, but I have heard quite a bit of it and I know that it is not pronounced like this narrator has done so. (Think southern accent with each letter pronounced. Oy) So I suggest reading this book as opposed to listening to the version that Dean Robertson narrated.

And the reason there is a lot of French--it takes place the 1960s in the Belgian Congo where French is one of the main languages. I love the descriptions of the jungle and Africa--you really felt like you were there. The story is about a missionary family from Georgia who goes to the Congo to bring the villagers to Jesus. Lots of good characters in this and it's told from the 4 daughters and mother's perspectives so you get 5 different points of view.

I liked the book, however it wasn't my favorite Kingsolver book. I liked "The Prodigal Summer" and "The Bean Trees" better.

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo by Stieg Larsson

This book is a major bestseller in the US and it's apparent why so many people like it. This Swedish author passed away in 2005 shortly after delivering the manuscripts for this book, The Girl Who Played With Fire (currently reading) and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Next. It's sad because this would have made for a great ongoing series such as Patterson's Alex Cross books and Kathy Reichs' Bones series.

The premise: A journalist, Mikael Blomkvist, is hired by a wealthy patriarch to find out what happened to his niece 40 years earlier. Blomkvist hires a scrappy, punky young woman to help him investigate the case. Together Blomkvist and the girl, Lisbeth Salander dig deeper in the family secrets and get to know one another.

I couldn't put it down for the last 200 pages, it was that engrossing. The translation to English is pretty good and the writing style is easy to follow. The amount of characters can get confusing sometimes due to the foreign names, but the author gives you little reminders to help remember who each person is. Highly recommended again!

Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri

If you haven't read any of Jhumpa Lahiri's books, I highly recommend that you get on your local library's website and reserve them all. They are so engrossing and you learn so much about Indian culture by reading her books. She is a Pulitzer Prize winner of fiction for "The Interpreter of Maladies" a work of short stories like "Unaccustomed Earth."

Even though this book was filled with short stories there are three that have the same characters so it's more like a mini-novella. Each one is engaging and I wish she could write a book about each. She manages to develop the characters in each short story in a short time-frame while taking you on a mini-journey. I loved it.

I must admit I've been reading and listening to some great books so far in 2010. I have yet to be disappointed by one yet.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

This is my pick for book club on Saturday night. I'm not going to put my thoughts down right now about this one just in case my pals from book club decide to check out my blog (do you girls read this??? anyone? Bueller?).

I promise to write more because there is a lot to say about this one! :)