THE STONE ANGEL (Margaret Laurence) - September 5/07

This was a really well-written and extremely dense book revolving around a nasty old woman who, in the course of reflecting on her life, comes to the realization that she's been far too closed-off and mean. I wound up reading about half of the book before I saw the movie, which strangely enough didn't ruin the latter half of the novel. I did find it odd, however, that the film invented a far more conventional final confrontation between Hagar and her son Marvin (it actually got me a little choked up), but in the book said confrontation was far more low-key and in keeping with Hagar's hands-off nature. *** out of ****

THE DIVING-BELL & THE BUTTERFLY (Jean-Dominique Bauby) - August 31/07

Extremely short but quite interesting, The Diving-Bell & The Butterfly - which isn't even remotely as compelling or moving as the film - consists of several short chapters in which Bauby talks about his situation (he was afflicted with "locked-in" syndrome). The book works best when Bauby focuses on his day-to-day problems, though the final chapter - which revolves around his memory of his last day as a functioning humanoid - is certainly the most poignant. *** out of ****