Inner Beauty Friday Returns! Book Club!

Hello!

Once again I am linking up with Heather from Blonde...Undercover Blonde, for Book Club!




I have read a couple of books lately.  First up Someone Else's Garden by Dipika Rai



Here's the synopsis from Goodreads.com : "
The eldest of seven children, born low-caste and female in rural India, Mamta is abused and rejected by a father who can see no reason to “water someone else’s garden” until a husband is found for her. Seeking escape in matrimony, Mamta begins her wedded life with hope—but is soon forced to flee her village and the horrors of her arranged marriage to the bustle of a small city. Saved from becoming one of the nameless and faceless millions of rejected humanity by the salvation of sublime love, Mamta struggles to find a precarious state of acceptance and make peace with her past."

My thoughts:  It took me a while to figure out when this book took place, I would have guessed the 1950's but it was the 90's (from political references in the book). The level of poverty and gender inequality these women live in is hard to believe, I don't doubt it, but it is shocking.  It makes for a very eye-opening read.

I also read The Boy in the Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbol (and then translated to English):




The synopsis from Goodreads.com: "Nina Borg, a Red Cross nurse, wife, and mother of two, is a compulsive do-gooder who can't say no when someone asks for help—even when she knows better. When her estranged friend Karin leaves her a key to a public locker in the Copenhagen train station, Nina gets suckered into her most dangerous project yet. Inside the locker is a suitcase, and inside the suitcase is a three-year-old boy: naked and drugged, but alive.
 Is the boy a victim of child trafficking? Can he be turned over to authorities, or will they only return him to whoever sold him? When Karin is discovered brutally murdered, Nina realizes that her life and the boy's are in jeopardy, too. In an increasingly desperate trek across Denmark, Nina tries to figure out who the boy is, where he belongs, and who exactly is trying to hunt him down".

My thoughts: At first it was a bit hard to keep the characters straight (probably because the cities they are mentioning are unfamiliar so your trying to keep geography straight too - thanks Google maps!).  But from the beginning it grabs you and you want to know what happened - I guess it's the first in a "series" about Nina Borg and her mystery adventures.  I might try another, but I worry it will be like Sue Grafton's "A is for Alibi" series and just get repetitive. 

That's it for this week - any must read suggestions?

Jasmine