The nightstand books

Reading is a relaxing way to fall asleep.

Crawling into bed and reading a few pages or chapters is wonderful way to wrap up a day’s event.

For my nighttime reading I don’t particularly care to get involved with a book you can’t put down.  I don’t have the luxury of reading all night long so my book can’t keep me awake at night.

Months ago I read my first Ann Patchett book, The Magician’s Assistant. The first line of the book was a bit strange – “Parsifal is dead.” Then it takes a couple of paragraphs to figure out who Parsifal is. Strangeness continues when the reader finds out that Parsifal was the magician that Sabine, the heroine of the book, was working as an assistant for the past 20 years. He was also her husband.

Although Parsifal supposedly didn’t have any family members alive it turns out he still had family in Nebraska. So Sabine travels from California to Nebraska to meet his family.

Patchett does a good job at developing her characters making for an enjoyable read – so much so that I went in search of other Patchett books. Bel Canto is on my night stand right now.

Not half-way through the book yet, the jury is still out on the value of Bel Canto.