Wednesday Books - Rules of Civility

Well, I finished Rules of Civility on Monday, and I ended up liking it well enough.

Thanks for the pic, Goodreads...

In the end, Katey talks about how one decision can affect a lifetime, and how these decisions she made from 1938-1940 really defined her and made her who she is. While Tinker is a running theme, Eve kind of disappears after the first half of the book. While at first I was annoyed because she was easily the most entertaining character I've read about in awhile, at the end she talks about how you meet these people, they come in and then they leave and you're left with the memories. In that way, the whole missing Eve thing really worked. And since Eve is just one of those people that makes friends wherever she goes and is always moving on (we see this from her rejection of Tinker), it fits that she's only in the book part of the time. This book really was a snapshot of life - the happiness, the sadness, the anxiety of a new job, the excitement of new, young love, the sadness when friends move on, and towards the end, the wisdom of age. It ended up being really interesting. I first found this book on a list of "Books You Can't Put Down", and I ended up putting it down for awhile, but I'm glad I picked it back up and read to the end. I kind of want to read it again knowing how everybody turns out, you know those type of books? I wish I had the time, but I've got a whole stack due back at the library soon.

(Plus, there's a whole chapter about shooting guns, and that was awesome.)

My next book, sticking with the whole 1940s theme, is Prisoner of Light and Fog by Anne Blankman. It's set pre-WWII. The protagonist, Gretchen, is the niece of "Uncle Dolf", or Adolf Hitler. So far, it's weird to see her talking about him so lovingly, but he dotes on her. I'm not sure if that's historically accurate, but this is historical fiction right? And since this is my favorite genre this better be good. I mean, really good.

-K