beautiful singing

To keep myself accountable to my 100 books in 365 days resolution, I have decided to post about some of my favorite (and maybe some of my not so favorite) selections. I’ll start with my fave… :)

 Bel Canto

 by Ann Patchett

 #15 / 100

I give it 5 out of 5 stars with 2 exclamation marks!! It really should not come as a shock though; my sister is the one who recommended it to me (years ago) and I finally read it.

To avoid spoilers, summary after the jump.

The story starts at a party for Katsumi Hosokawa, who is the founder of an electronics company. Hosokawa was brought to this fictional South American country to celebrate his birthday in hopes that he would open up a factory to boost the economy. He has no intention of opening up the factory, but still decided to attended because an American opera singer, Roxanne Coss, will be performing. Near the end of the party, a terrorist organization breaks into the party in hopes of finding the president of the country. Instead they take the entire party hostage, eventually releasing the majority of the hostages, leaving those who the terrorists believe to be worth a large ransom, still in holding.

Even though Hosokawa and Coss cannot speak the same language, they form a deep bond but know that their relationship will end when the standoff ends. As the standoff drags on, a love forms between not only Hosokawa and Coss, but Gen Watanabe, Hosokawa’s translator, and Carmen, who happens to be a female terrorist presumed to be male for much of the beginning of the book. They must keep their relationship a secret and they too know that when the standoff ends, they probably will not be able to see each other again.

To avoid anymore spoilers, all I will say is that the rest of the story plays out beautifully and ends very bittersweet. It is definitely a must read!! That means you MUST finish it, Meg!