A Library Haul and a back to the Binchy reread

One thing that I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving is having an active library card,not to mention making a little library trip to have new reads in time for Turkey Day.

My first pick was Into the Water, the much anticipated second thriller from Paula Hawkins,whose debut The Girl on the Train was truly a runaway hit. Granted, I thought the TGOTT was just okay yet it was very addictive to read(one of those stay-up-all-night deals),so I'm willing to take a shot with this one.

The leading lady of this story is Jules Abbot, who reluctantly returns to her home town of Beckford due to the death of her estranged sister Nel. She met her demise by drowning in a local lake known as the Drowning Pool, infamous for the watery graves that many women have found there over the years.

Jules not only has to untangle the mysteries surrounding her sister's death and the other Drowning Pool victims, she has a teenage niece named Lana to try and connect with as well. This set-up has an old fashioned feel to it that might be worth investigating,even with the batch of mixed reviews Into the Water has gotten so far. Who knows, I might like it better than Girl on the Train,we shall see:

The library book that I started reading,however, is Allegra Goodman's The Chalk Artist which has a variety pack of storytelling to unfold.

We first begin with a budding romance between Collin, a struggling of sort artist looking for direction in his life, and Nina, a new to the system teacher struggling to connect with her students. As things go on, Collin learns that Nina's father is a high tech mogul who invented one of the biggest video games of all time.

While Nina wants to get Collin a job with her father, she's worried about how that could change the nature of both relationships. Also, one of her students, Aidan, becomes pulled into a viral marketing scheme to promote the newest version of the game and that could have serious real world repercussions.

These story lines seem far apart but Goodman slowly yet surely draws them close together. The characters are instantly engaging, one of the author's hallmarks, and I'm more than willing to see what will become of them as the pages turn.

Meanwhile, with the holidays fast approaching(not to mention the horror of the daily headlines), I am feeling the need for some emotional comfort food and the best place for that on my bookshelf is my Maeve Binchy section.

Yes, I do have a good chunk of space devoted to the Irish authoress who is sadly no longer with us. I was well into her books before Tara Road was an Oprah pick and rereading it now is doing me a world of good.

Sure, it's a bit melodramatic at times but so what? Binchy always managed to level that out with solid characters and plots that had the ring of realism with a small town flair, even if some of her stories were set in a big city like Dublin.

The plot of Tara Road is what I always liked to call "female friendly" as two women sharing a troubling time in their lives swap houses and countries in order to recoup and reassess. We start off with Ria Lynch, a seemingly happy housewife who is willing to sacrifice for her charming husband Danny but he betrays her good nature to a point where she has to make a stand.

 Once she spends some time in America at the Connecticut home of Marilyn(who is mourning the loss of her son), she begins to get a new sense of herself as well as a new lease on life.

 The book was originally published in 1999 but still stands up as a heartfelt read. Binchy didn't sugar coat the problems that her characters faced, instead she showed just how people felt they should either deal with or ignore the situation at hand until finding the solution at hopefully just the right time.

Some might still think that Binchy's work(and other writers like her) are frivolous entertainment but they couldn't be more wrong. While her books are comforting, they're not simply candy flavored tonics for the spirit. Rather, they give readers a sense of hope that good things are possible despite the bad times in front of you and the way things are now, we could all use a nice relaxing read such as this to help us out:

Don't get me wrong, I'll be reading plenty of new books before this year is out(finally got started on my last Series-ous Reading selection,The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss). Yet, it is nice to revisit an old friend as it were,book wise.

Chances are that I will be making another library visit soon,which is great but I do wish that one of those little lending libraries that people set up in their neighborhoods was within my reach. Then again, my withdrawals vs my deposits might not be as well balanced there,so best to avoid temptation!: