The Nightingale by Morgana Gallaway

All Leila al-Ghani wants is to be a modern woman and a doctor. That's pretty hard, however, when you are living in Mosul, Iraq during the height of the insurgency.

Leila's father, Tamir, was a respected judge during Saddam's reign. The family lived an upper-middle class lifestyle. Leila was encouraged to dress in western jeans and to get an education. Leila has an undergraduate degree in biomedicine from the University of Cairo. Once the Iraq war began, everything changed. Leila's father has become a hard-line Muslim who supports the mujahideen.

Leila puts her life in danger when she secretly becomes a translator/medical assistant at a US field hospital in Mosul. There, she meets and eventually falls in love with a special forces solider, Captain James Cartwright.

Leila finds herself with divided loyalties. Does she obey her once beloved father, whose nickname for Leila is Nightingale or does she help the Americans advance their war efforts by betraying her fellow countrymen and later her own father?

This book is an excellent read. It gives you the war from an Iraqi's perspective -- dealing with violence, curfews, and shortages and American's treatment of Iraqi detainees. However, it also doesn't sugarcoat the fanatical Iraqis' cruelty. Honor killings, beheadings of traitors and tyranny toward women is all addressed. You experience the war through the eyes of Leila.

The Nightingale is also just one heck of an exciting, page-turning read. You'll find yourself rooting for Leila to make her escape from a god-awful situation.

Eat, drink and be from Mississippi by Nanci Kincaid

Courtney and Truely had what I think was an idyllic childhood in rural Mississippi. They had land, a stable family and a fishing pond right outside their house.

So, of course, the first thing Courtney does when she becomes an adult is leave for California. Truely a few years younger, follows his sister when he is able.

The brother and sister find material success in California. Courtney marries a wealthy real estate developer and Truely joins up with another young entrepreneur and makes his fortune. He marries an idealistic young teacher.

Several years later, they still have the success, but they don't have their spouses or their parents -- their spouses have divorced them and their parents have died.

Courtney and Truely become a two-person family unit. They find a common purpose when Arnold, a young, troubled black man enters their lives. They make it their goal to save Arnold from the streets. Courtney tutors him and encourages him to get his GED. Truely invites him to move into his upscale loft.

The two-person family unit becomes an unconventional three-person unit. Some of this transformation is interesting to read, while some of it is rather banal and boring. It took me a long time to get through the book -- it wasn't a "page-turner."

Yet, the characters were so admirable and likable that I managed to finally finish the novel this morning. My favorite parts of the book were the Mississippi portions. I thought it was moving when Truely found out that his father had secrets and flaws. I enjoyed the descriptions of plain ole Mississippi cuisine. It was cool to read how even sophisticated Californians took pleasure in simple things like fishing.

This is a good book with a satisfying ending. Be prepared to renew it at the library, however, you won't get through it in a weekend.