Pulitzer Prize winner

I am constantly drawn to works written by women, about women. The pages of history are littered with the public lives of men: their wars, their treaties, their adventures, and their ambitions. But, as Virginia Woolf asked, Why are these stories anymore more interesting than the story of a woman's life? Why is the storm and tempest of a parliament any more relevant or revealing of the human condition than the management, feuds and periods of peace of a home? Indeed, I find that the stories of the private are always far mor honest and pertinant than the history of men - which is oftentimes no less fictional than a story.

So it was with great pleasure that I devoured my copy of 'The Stone Diaries' by Carol Shields. She takes the least likely protagonist and makes her relevant and even representative of her times. A lovely insight to the real developments of the 20th century - not the bombs and wars, but the people and their stories. Along the way Shield draws exquisite portraits of even the most marginal of characters: the long-living Magnus Flett, the exuberant 'Fraidy' Hoyt, the late-blooming 'Beans', the chameleon like Cuyler Goodwill and of course the protagonist herself, Daisy Goodwill-Hoad-Flett.

Written in a fascinating blend of mock-autobiography, third person voiced commentry and speculative assumption, 'The Stone Diaries' is one of the best books I read in 2009.