'Stoner' and 'The Shadow of the Wind'

(Book recommendations from JMF) : Stoner by John Williams. I reread this book in a day this summer. It's a sad and very moving story of a young man from a poor farming background in the American mid-west. He discovers he loves literature and becomes an English teacher at an American university. He makes a disastrous marriage, but never loses his gentleness and love of teaching.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. This is a real page-turner, set in Barcelona after the Civil War. The narrator, starting at the age of ten, becomes involved in a thrilling mystery after his father introduces him to a very enthralling novel. It added spice that I read it while I was in Barcelona this summer!