Big Stone Gap (Adriana Trigiani) **

Big Stone Gap is a real place in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia where the author grew up. It's an enjoyable story about a woman named Ave Maria who grows up there and learns more about her family after they're gone. It's got some great characters. It's the first in a series of three and I want to read the other two. It's supposed to become a movie also.

Life of Pi (Yann Martel) ***

319 pages. This was a very interesting book about a young boy (Pi, short for Piscine) who survives in a lifeboat in the ocean for 7 months. His only companion is a Bengal Tiger, who he manages to train. The first part of the book was a little slow, with a religious slant to it (Pi practices Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam). The second part was hard to put down, and the third part made me stop and rethink the whole book. I really enjoyed it.