No other book?

As I suspected, I felt disinclined to have Gilead as my travelling companion for the week. As is often the case I just had to go for whatever was to hand, which happened to be

NO OTHER LIFE by BRIAN MOORE

Another book written by a man. There have been quite a run of those in my recent reading but this is not just any man, this is an old friend. Such an old friend that I know that his name is not pronounced Bry-ann but something like Bree-an. His novels are usually slim, simply written, usually centred around one person in a way that is almost female. He was born and grew up as a Roman Catholic in Northern Ireland and in many of his novels there is no way to get away from the church. In fact the novels go even further and have the main protagonist as a Catholic priest often questioning his own belief.  I have just dipped into the first few pages, far enough to discover that this priest has lived in Ganae, a fictitious Caribbean country, teaching in a school for the elite of the country for thirty years. He has reached retirement and we begin to look back at his life in this poor country.

Over on Anne’s blog, she also has spread her wings for sunnier climes and has been reading a book set on the island of Crete, a place where she lived for several years, and which is the setting of her novel in progress. She confesses that she picked up the book she is reading because of where it is set. I picked up mine because of the author but other recent reads were chosen by the name of the character in the title and the delightful cover design. Is there right or wrong reason to choose a book?