A must read: The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts

The Teacher's Funeral: A Comedy in Three Parts by Richard Peck is a definite must-read. It's a quick read, aimed towards YA fiction, and laugh out loud funny. I'd compare it to Patrick McManus type humor. It would be great to read-out-loud in a long car ride or read while trying to keep yourself from getting mad while stuck in an airport. A good read if you've just had a bad week or stressful day.

A Oprah Book to avoid unless bored

Cane River by Lalita Tademy started out promising with an intriquing story line of following generations of slave women from slavery to freedom from Civil War era, based on the author's family history. As I started it I didn't find the writing spectacular, but it was decent. So I hoped this book's plot would be good enough to make up for lack of fabulous writing. (After all, an Oprah book, right?)

The pace started out well with interesting but shallow characters. The dialoque was stilted, but as a historical type book, I could forgive that. The first two generations of stories kept me reading, as I think it was a good depiction of the changes the Civil War freeing the African-American people would bring to woman in general these women in specific.

But after the first two generations the story started losing my interest. I was downright bored by the time I got halfway through the "Emily" portion, and quit reading through the last part. It's almost as if the author just wanted the story to be done, but had to include all these historical facts she dug up about her family.

Upshot: this book was selected as an Oprah book because it was about black history, not because of great writing. I'm glad I read the first part of it, but not sad I got bored and missed out on the ending.