Believe it or not, I have found some time to read in the past few weeks. I wanted to put my two cents in on my two most recent reads. I got my copies of these books from a friend who, in turn, got it from a friend. It’s interesting how books do that, move from place to place and person to person.
At any rate, The Dog Who Danced was actually published in 2012. I really enjoyed this book a lot. In a brief summary, the book follows a woman who is returning home to care for her ailing father. On route, she gets separated from her dog. The story line also follows the dog’s point of view during this adventure, and the story of the people who found him.
Firstly, part of the story takes place in New Bedford, Massachusetts. I actually know the area quite well, so it was neat to read a story that took place in a real place. I also liked how the story lines flowed, and the transition through the characters was really quite fluid. Lastly, I loved the segments that were written from the dog’s point of view. They were very entertaining, and I could see them as being true to the dog.
As I looked up The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, I came to a realization. The book is actually a novel based off of the movie, a “Tie In” book they call it. The movie, was based on a book published in 2004 called These Foolish Things.
The premise of the book is actually quite entertaining. A doctor in Britain named Ravi, who was raised in India, comes a brilliant idea of opening “exotic” retirement homes across the world. He decides to start in India, with his cousin Sonny’s help. His motivation is partly by the need he sees in the overburdened British healthcare system, realizing that care can be provided in exotic locale for a fraction of the cost. The other precipitating factor is his Father-in-law, Norman, who has been kicked out of so many retirement homes and who is cramping Ravi’s style at home.
I LOVE the premise of this book. The execution of this version however, not so much. I would be interested to see if the original novel is as truncated at the version I read. I felt that in this book there were way too many characters to keep straight. I also felt that the story line was discontinuous and scattered. Now realizing that this is likely a very watered down version of the original book, I may track down a copy of that to compare.
What have you been reading??? Have you read either of these books??? Leave me a comment below…
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