Did you ever read three books in a row that you liked very much and read quickly? That happened to me recently. Often I read excellent books but rather slowly. The three I found to be page turners are Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler, The Friend by Sigrid Nunez and Buried for Pleasure by Edmund Crispin.
Breathing Lessons centers around Maggie and her husband Ira in a 24 hour period. They attend a funeral in the morning and pay a surprise visit to their ex-daughter-in-law and grandchild age 7 in the afternoon. Maggie is a force of nature, she is known for trying to fix and change people and hopeless situations, sometimes with disastrous results.
My favorite of this trio of books is The Friend by Sigrid Nunex. I had not read any books written by this author so was delighted to find this book so refreshing and interesting. It is about a woman writing in the first person and the dog Apollo, a Great Dane dog she is stuck with, and her relationship as a dear male friend of many years to Apollo's owner. Apollo is wonderful. Nunez writes perceptively as the main character thinks while watching dogs play: You know nothing of envy. No yearnings or nostalgia. No regrets. You really are a different species.
I had not read any of the Gervase Fen mysteries by Edmund Crispin, and Buried for Pleasure was fun to read. Fen is a light hearted Oxford Don and amateur detective and there are 10 books in this series. Fen was bored with his routine of teaching and decided to run for MP in a small rural area. During his campaign he works to solve several murders and mysteries, and starts to hope he will lose the election. Fen's quips and thoughts are entertaining.
If you have found some great books to read let me know about them.
