2. Nights of Rain and Stars

Apparently most of my friends are shocked and appalled that prior to this I have never read anything my Maeve Binchy. Not as shocked and appalled as they were when they found out I hadn't read any Austen (and I call myself an English major) but it was a pretty close second. I guess they just figured that because she mostly writes about Ireland and I am fairly entranced with the Green Isle that she would be an author I would naturally gravitate to.

I was reading this when I was at my parents on Monday and my grandparents came over for supper and they saw my book and they too raved on and on about Binchy and how they loved this book and how between their household and one of my aunt's they had all her books and ... well, it was a little weird frankly, but also kind of cool. There aren't that many common links between me and my grandparents and to find one in such an unexpected place made me realize how little I actually know them.

This book was set in Greece and it awoke all those feelings that I had pushed aside when I realized my dream of travelling there in 2006 was unlikely to become a reality. I am still saving and hoping against hope but it just seems that everytime I turn around there is another major financial commitment that I can't get out of (moving home is not an option). The descriptions in the passages made me feel like I was in Greece and made me yearn to be in Greece. I am a reader who gets easily swept away by details - I guess you could say I have a very vivid imagination and when I read I like to create pictures in my minds eye. It helps to take me away from the ordinariness of everyday life. Nights of Rain and Stars was an excellent mode to escapism. It was exactly what I needed after the Orwell piece. And I think I will be picking up more books by Binchy in the near future.

In some ways it was rather predictable. But sometimes you (or at least I) need a book that has a happy ending. And I didn't feel that the predictability was forced. For the most part it felt natural and right that the characters would make the decisions that they did. Some authors can make that "fate" feeling come across as forced but here everything just seemed to sit right. Inevitable but right.