Book recommendations.

Anyone who has ever been to our home knows that we have a lot of books. Like a lot of books, more than you would think. In fact, when we moved down here our moving costs were way over the estimation because of the weight of our books! So we want to clear our shelves, but a lot of the books we're holding on to are ones that we have read individually and want the other person to read. Since we are in the unique situation of both finishing our current reads at about the same time we decided to take the opportunity to jump start the process by each picking a book for the other to read. Who will like the other's book more? Will we discover that our interests are more or less alike than we thought? Of course this will be a bit of a contest, because everything is when you come down to it, right?

For J, T has picked Bel Canto by Ann Patchett; an interesting and haunting tale of a group of strangers held hostage in a political struggle by a misfit band of rebels. Lighter than you might think and with some good twists and turns, you'll feel for the captors as much as the hostages early in the story.

For T, J has chosen Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer; the true story of an idealistic young loner who ventures into the Alaskan wild never to be seen alive again. What motivated the intelligent, affluent young man to denounce home, family and fortune for a life in society's fringes? Ooh, intrigue.