The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker

Overall, the response to The Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker was positive.  Based on the comments, the book group would give this book a 3 1/2 to 4 stars (out of 5).

Those who had not been to Burma or another Asian country felt that the descriptions of the country and its people were such that they wished to visit.  They felt that the story was intriguing because of this and interesting to boot.  As a result of the rich setting and the interesting personalities and traits of the country's people, these readers felt that the book was, likewise, rich and interesting.  The setting provided a full backdrop for the characters populating it and made the book feel deep and complete.

Those who had been to Asian countries, however, felt that the descriptions of the country fell flat and did not do it any justice.  As a result, because the setting itself fell kind of flat, they felt that the book fell a little flat as well.  Along those lines, these readers also felt that the book was not as deep, more incomplete, and left a lot un-described or unanswered.  These readers felt that the author did not deliver on the description and the expectations created as a result thereof.

Unfortunately, we did not discuss some of the more controversial parts of the book for fear of ruining the story for those members who had not yet finished reading the book!

So, overall, 3.75 stars ;)

For March: Night Film by Marisha Pessl
For April: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

I think Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter was the last book group we read collectively as a group before taking a hiatus... About a half-year hiatus.  During that time, we "read whatever we wanted" and still came together as a group to discuss what we'd been reading, make recommendations, and just discuss books in general.  As much as we all love books, it was a welcome variation!  We have decided, going forward, to go every other month, reading as a group, and use the intervening month to read individually.  This next book will be the Art of Hearing Heartbeats by Jan-Philipp Sendker.

But, Beautiful Ruins.  Collectively, this was another book at the group loved.  Of course there were varying opinions.  For example, one of our members loved the book so much that she subsequently read every other Jess Walter book she could find (and was very pleased with almost, if not all of them!)  She was very impressed with his ability to write from so many different perspectives with so convincingly - and that was a common compliment that the group had for Beautiful Ruins as well.

The book follows several story lines - starting in the 60s in Italy with a visionistic young man who meets a hollywood starlet and falls in love, to the jaded 30-something in modern times hollywood looking for that perfect screen play to make her fall back in love with the industry, to the near-retired old director with an interesting past and an interesting perspective on success... and he does it all convincingly, interestingly, and well.  It is one of those stories that bounces back and forth until you realize that it was actually a delicate weaving together of stories, with a satisfying end.

As a group, we highly recommend this book and hope we read more that make us feel as satisfied as this one did, in the future!

An Evil Eye by Jason Goodwin

Overall, the Desert Girls were not big fans of An Evil Eye by Jason Goodwin.  Most found it difficult to get into and were turned off by the familiar use of foreign phrases and terms without a glossary or quick historical explanation.  The mystery itself was somewhat interesting, but not particularly compelling or satisfying in the end.  It was good to know, but it did not feel like a big sigh of relief once resolution was reached.

We speculated that perhaps reading the first 3 books would have given us a better appreciation for Yashim, for the foreign phrases such as efendi and pasha, and for the mystery and Yashim's backstory.  But as it was, reading the book independently and out of sequence, it felt like wading through mud to trudge through.

Additionally, everyone agreed that the insertions of cooking instructions and ingredients was a distraction and annoying.  It did not flow smoothly from the text and instead felt like too much effort was being made to be cute.

No one seemed to think it was a particularly *bad* book, but it felt rather "meh" overall.  We were all excited to move on and think about our next book, Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter.

(For my personal review, see All Book Reviewer review of An Evil Eye.)