Set in Wenatchee. A backdrop of intense information about orchards as a way of showing relationships and self scrutiny. Written by a Pacific Northwest resident. Somehow vaguely disappointing. These are the trends of my summer reading. It amazes me how all of the books I've read have had one or more of these descriptors in common and yet all be so different.
"The Orchardist" is carefully written and introspective and features a male orchardist in Wenatchee. Based on that description, I could be talking about "Apples and Oranges," the memoir of a brother and sister, except that this book is set in the early 1900's, not 2001. It was written by a woman raised in Wenatchee, so the scenery is eerily familiar, much like "He's Gone" was written by a Seattle resident and totally nailed the population and mood of the city.
And yet, I didn't love it. That has been true of every book I've read since...May, maybe? I can't even remembered the last book I recommended. Yet this one was so highly recommended to me. I'm beginning to think the common denominator here is me. I'm getting to be a much harder to please reader. Is it because I'm writing, and therefore reading more analytically? Not that the books are bad, but just that I'm not allowing myself to enjoy them but thinking like a writer instead. That could be really really really really really really bad. I'd better find something I like and soon.
The next few up are an Isabel Allende, which usually rates super high with me, and the book that started the show "Call the Midwife." If they made it into a TV show, it has to be great, right? We'll see.
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