I'm putting my favorite things on hold to write this post on the book I read this week. This book is for my book club... in December. I'm a little ahead so hopefully this post will help by the time the December meeting rolls around.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. The book flap convinced me that it was a good story: the main character, Izzy, feels like she doesn't fit in with her family, and when her father dies, leaving her a cryptic note and a mysterious amulet, she sets off to Morocco to discover her life, love and the history of the people of the desert (I just made that summary up myself... maybe I should write summaries for book flaps!).

However, the actual writing of the book is what was hard to read. There are essentially two stories in the book: the one mentioned above and a story about the history of a woman of the desert tribe who has the amulet in the first place. I really like books when there is more than one story going on and then you're trying to figure out how they all fit together (The Forgotten Garden *cough*), but in this book I was sorely disappointed. 

The second story of the woman and the amulet was actually my favorite part because it was full of history and life. The first story of our modern day woman was lacking... everything. Yes, I understand she was unhappy with her childhood. Yes, I understand that she had a traumatic incident and that she built up her adult life to protect herself. But did it have to be so boring and predictable? And choppy? It was hard to trudge through. 

Oh, and the so-called "climax" of the novel was predictable and could be seen from a mile away. Like an elephant. When I even came across it, I didn't understand at first that it was the climax because I already knew what was going to happen.

If you like books with multiple stories like me then I suggest (less subtly now) The Forgotten Garden and sadly, not The Salt Road. The only thing that can help me now is ice cream...

The Wakeful Dreamer 






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