Book Fifteen: State of Wonder

State of Wonder, Ann Patchett

Okay, this is more like it. Adventure! Moral dilemmas! An ever-present sense of foreboding! Actual science! Great writing! Thanks, Ann Patchett, for saving the day! I fell hard for this book. I totally understood Marina, her love of home, and how being sent off into a strange city in Brazil and then even further down the Amazon into the jungle was such a terrible, terrible experience for her. But I understood her drive to know more and why she did what she did. And her love and fear of her former professor. But really, what this did, was grab me from the first page and not let go until the end. I finished it while flying back home from Atlanta, and, honest to god, I was crying on the plane. In front of strangers. I didn't care, it was that good.

Aside from the non-fiction Truth and Beauty why have I never read any other Ann Patchett? I must change that soon.