christianreader | May 2008 Book List

Blessed are the Cheesemakers by Sarah-Kate Lynch
I listened to it again because it's so good. It's about two old men in Ireland who make cheese. They're getting old and they need to find someone to replace them. There's a bunch of other fun characters too who have conflicts to solve.

Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay
This is an eerie, but good, book. It's the first in a series. The main character, Dexter, is a serial killer who will always have a sort of nagging feeling to kill. He has learned to keep it under control though, by only killing other serial killers. Kind of ridding the world of horrible people. But he's kind of horrible himself. It's somewhat gory, but it also has a strange humor. Dexter feels no real emotions, and his attempts to pretend like he does are funny.

Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn
This is book one in the Tales of the Otori series. It takes place in Japan a long time ago, but it creates a different history of Japan, and there are fantasy elements as well. The country is divided into tribes that are at war with each other. A young man named Takeo escapes from his village when it is attacked, and he is rescued by Lord Otori Shigeru. Shigeru trains Takeo to fight in the hope that one day, he will be able to sneak across the nightingale floor and kill Iida, the bad guy. Another story going on at the same time is that of Kaede, a girl who has spent most of her life as a hostage/servant at a castle. I really enjoyed this book, and now I'm almost done with the second one in the series.

The Careful Use of Compliments by Alexander McCall Smith
BOOK OF THE MONTH AWARD
This is the fourth Isabel Dalhousie book. Isabel is still pondering philosophical issues, and she has yet another small mystery to solve. I can't really tell anything about the story, because I'd be giving away things that happen in previous books. I'll just keep saying that these are really good.