Books I've read this week - Letters to Rosy

Letters to Rosy ©2008 by C. Ellene Bartlett

From the book cover: An ocean apart, two elderly women, Rene Dubois, in Germany and Roselee Payton, in America spent time in the late 50’s and early 60’s as teens in the town of Bartsville, Georgia, a small town outside the city of Atlanta. Mendy completed the terrible three. Bound together by love for each other once again became a trio.

 

Rene’s urge to write letters to Rosy and reveal the story of Ken Mitchell who lost his wife to insanity and the disappearance of his little girl Sasha. He was teetering on the brink of destruction. A year of grieving brought him back to his normal state of health.

 

He took a cruise to Germany. At the Captain’s Dinner, an unexpected meeting enhanced his obsession to find his daughter.

Another unusual meeting in the park, in Berlin, ignited Ken’s imagination. Bridget was elated with the turn of events when tragedy struck, driving her into the arms of a trusted friend.

Rosy was intrigued and relieved by Rene’s letter and was encouraged to tell her own story of Mendy’s abduction and rape witnessed by her six year old daughter Misty.

Mendy Arnold and Misty vanished from a busy street in Atlanta, Georgia. At the same time Trevor, Mendy’s husband was engaged in a torrid affair with an auburn-haired beauty he met the same morning.

The first letter to Rosy started a downhill avalanche. There was no stopping now; the horrors of yesteryear became a reality once again.

I’m not sure what to say about this book. If you read the synopsis above carefully, you’ll notice that some of the sentences are disjointed and don’t really make sense. In the book, there were several wrong or misspelled words like dinning instead of dining, surly instead of surely, groan instead of groin. When different people were talking, there wasn’t always a new paragraph which confused you about who said what. The dialog was stodgy many times with hardly any contractions (I am instead of I’m) that made it read like a school book at times. This really disrupted my enjoyment of the book. That said, the story itself was interesting but sometimes hard to follow. Each chapter starts with a letter written between Rosy and Rene. They then included with their letters ‘notes’ that told each other a story about other people. There was a twist at the end, of course, which explained how they knew so much. I would recommend the book but be warned about the poor writing style.  Then again, maybe it won't bother you.

Books I've read this week - The Man Who Loved Books Too Much

The Man Who Loved Books Too Much © 2009 by Allison Hoover Bartlett

About the book: “John Charles Gilkey is an obsessed, unrepentant book thief who has stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of rare books from book fairs, stores, and libraries around the country. Ken Sanders is the self-appointed “bibliodick” (book dealer with a penchant for detective work) driven to catch him. Journalist Allison Hoover Bartlett befriended both eccentric characters and found herself caught in the middle of efforts to recover hidden treasure. With a mixture of suspense, insight, and humor, she not only reveals exactly how Gilkey pulled off his dirtiest crimes and how Sanders ultimately caught him, but also explores the romance of books, the lure to collect them, and the temptation to steal them. Immersing the reader in a rich, wide world of literary obsession, Bartlett looks at the history of book passion, collection, and theft through the ages, to examine the craving that makes some people willing to stop at nothing to possess the books they love.”

This book is a true story of one man’s obsession to own rare books. Charles Gilkey felt he HAD to own these books and when he couldn’t afford them, he found imaginative ways to steal them. Ms. Bartlett does an excellent job of drawing the reader into the world of rare book buying and selling and showing how someone could become obsessed with owning them. I was amazed that there is so little that can be done to prevent book theft and the punishment when caught is so mild. Ken Sanders did what he could to alert other dealers but Mr. Gilkey outsmarted many of them. The end of the book gives the impression that Mr. Gilkey is still pursuing his passion.

Thank you to Lydia Hirt at Riverhead Books for sending me an ARC to read and review. The Man Who Loved Books Too Much goes on sale September 17.