Books 2012.Numbers

“In literature, as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.” Andres Maurois

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Rating Book Author Description Comments

1 Sense of an Ending Barnes, Julian Diane Young gave a ‘booktalk’ at library group. Everyone one but me liked or loved it - just don’t get it.

4 School of Essential Ingredients

Bauermeister, Erica

Eight students gather in Lillian's Restaurant every Monday night for cooking class. It soon becomes clear, however, that each one seeks a recipe for something beyond the kitchen as Chef Lillian, a woman whose connection with food is both soulful and exacting, helps them to create dishes whose flavor and techniques expand beyond the restaurant and into the secret corners of her students' lives.

Russia - loved the flow of this story

3 As the Pig Turns CD

Beaton, M.C. Typical Agatha

3+ Death of a Kingfisher Beaton, M.C. Hamish Macbeth Mystery-

3 Hiss and Her Beaton, M.C. 23rd - Agatha Raisin

4- Red Sky @ Morning

Bradford, Richard

Coming of age - some funny moments, sad, moments and a look @ the times 1950’s

Cherrie Dubois - book discussion. Great discussion, Cherrie always does a great job.

5- Honolulu Brennert, Alan

Virtually the only way for a young girl such as Jin to escape the poverty, isolation, and desperation of Korea in the early twentieth century was to advertise herself as a “picture bride,” eagerly available for marriage to a presumably young, honorable fellow countryman who had already fled to the burgeoning island paradise of Hawaii. Possessed of an insatiable desire for education and an innocent sense of adventure, Jin accepts Noh’s offer, only to realize that she’s traded one form of oppression for another

Character of Gem was great - loved how she developed and we were able to grow in Hawaii’s history. Takes place from 1910‘s to 1957Loved the history.

3+ Why I Hated Pink Brisbois, Maryellen

Confessions of a Breast Cancer Survivor Could be a good gift - short and insightful (maybe)

3+ Heaven is for Real CD

Burpo, Todd A young boy emerges from life-saving surgery with remarkable stories of his visit to heaven.

Thought provoking

3 Echo Burning CD Child, Lee Reacher to the rescue3+ Battle Hymn of

the Tiger Mother CD

Chua, Amy An awe-inspiring, often hilarious, and unerringly honest story of one mother's exercise in extreme parenting, revealing the rewards-and the costs-of raising her children the Chinese way.

Can’t say I would call this awe-inspiring. Cannot imagine living as this family did. Think the oldest is at Harvard with Sammy.


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3+ Stay Close Coben, Harlan

Three people--a suburban housewife, a talented documentary photographer, and a detective--living lives they never wanted, hiding secrets that even those closest to them would never suspect, will find that the past doesn't recede ... and that desperation and hunger can lurk behind even the prettiest facades.

4- True Sisters Dallas, Sandra

1856. Mormon converts Nannie, Louisa, Jessie, and Anne, all from the British Isles, travel in the Martin Handcart Company, making the 1,300-mile journey on foot from Iowa City to Salt Lake City, while enduring unimaginable hardships. Each woman will test the boundaries of her faith and learn the true meaning of survival and friendship along the way.

Faith, Hope and Tragedy - really hard book to read as even tho fiction based on fact. Have heard of this incident, but the reality of it is impossible to fathom. Would recommend.

4 Language of Flowers

Diffenbaush, Vanessa

The Victorian language of flowers was used to convey romantic expressions: honeysuckle for devotion, asters for patience, and red roses for love. But for Victoria Jones, it’s been more useful in communicating mistrust and solitude. After a childhood spent in the foster-care system, she is unable to get close to anybody, and her only connection to the world is through flowers and their meanings. Now eighteen and emancipated from the system with nowhere to go, Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But an unexpected encounter with a mysterious stranger has her questioning what’s been missing in her life. And when she’s forced to confront a painful secret from her past, she must decide whether it’s worth risking everything for a second chance at happiness.

Zinnia - “I mourn your absence”

4- Bartenders Tale CD

Doig, Ivan Running a venerable bar in 1960 Montana while raising his twelve-year-old son, single father Tom Harry finds his world upended by the arrival of a woman from his past and her beatnik daughter, who claims Tom as her father.

Coming of age story, that grew on me. However Dancing at the Rascal Fair cannot be beat!!!

3 Little Women Letters

Donnelly, Gabrielle

While I enjoyed the March sisters' letters and the stroll down Little Women memory lane, the modern day family was not as entertaining to me as a reader. It is clear that the modern day sisters were written to resemble their March sister relatives. Lulu acts like Jo would have and of course Amy is represented by the theatrical sister Sophie. It's just that the modern family was never as engaging as the original sisters. Sisters fight, sisters sarcastically put each other down, sisters rally to the aid of each other...

Picked up because of the cover and then it sounded interesting- ‘perfect’ ending - no significant conflicts

3+ Elizabeth Street CD

Fabiano, Laurie

Fabiano paints an entrancing portrait of Giovanna Costa, who, reeling from personal tragedies, tries to make a new life in a new world. Shot through with the smells and sights of Scilla, Italy, and New York’s burgeoning Little Italy, this intoxicating story follows Giovanna as she finds companionship, celebrates the birth of a baby girl, takes pride in a growing business, and feels a sense of belonging during a family outing to Coney Island.

Early 1900‘s - Life was not easy for new immigrants.

3+ Eat Fat, Look Thin Fife, Bruce About coconut oil Statewide

3+ Fool’s Puzzle Fowler, Earlene

Still mourning her recently deceased husband, Benni Harper tries to make a fresh start of things when she takes a job as curator of the Folk Art Museum in San Celina, California--but her new beginning includes more death. Just as she's facing a deadline for a new quilt exhibit, a potter is found murdered inside the museum.

1st- Benni Harper and the chief of police Gabe Ortiz become a team


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3+ Zoo Story CD French, Thomas

Zoo Story crackles with issues of global urgency: the shadow of extinction, humanity's role in the destruction or survival of other species. More than anything else, though, it's a dramatic and moving true story of seduction and betrayal, exile and loss, and the limits of freedom on an overcrowded planet--all framed inside one zoo reinventing itself for the twenty-first century.

Fascinating - non fiction

3 Left Neglected

CDGenova, Lisa

Sarah Nickerson is like any other career-driven supermom in Welmont, the affluent Boston suburb where she leads a hectic but charmed life with her husband Bob, faithful nanny, and three children-Lucy, Charlie, and nine-month-old Linus. Between recruiting the best and brightest minds as the vice president of human resources at Berkley Consulting; shuttling the kids to soccer, day care, and piano lessons; convincing her son's teacher that he may not, in fact, have ADD; and making it home in time for dinner, it's a wonder this over-scheduled, over-achieving Harvard graduate has time to breathe. A self-confessed balloon about to burst, Sarah miraculously manages every minute of her life like an air traffic controller. Until one fateful day, while driving to work and trying to make a phone call, she looks away from the road for one second too long. In the blink of an eye, all the rapidly moving parts of her jam-packed life come to a screeching halt.A traumatic brain injury completely erases the left side of her world, and for once, Sarah relinquishes control to those around her, including her formerly absent mother. Without the ability to even floss her own teeth, she struggles to find answers about her past and her uncertain future. Now, as she wills herself to regain her independence and heal, Sarah must learn that her real destiny-her new, true life-may in fact lie far from the world of conference calls and spreadsheets. And that a happiness and peace greater than all the success in the world is close within reach, if only she slows down long enough to notice.

Main character whinny - if reading, might have skimmed as the premise is interesting. One can just tell ½ way thru she will not go back to her hectic life and life will be ‘better’.

3+ Safe from the Sea CD

Geye, Peter Set against the powerful lakeshore landscape of northern Minnesota, Safe from the Sea is a heartfelt novel in which a son returns home to reconnect with his estranged and dying father thirty-five years after the tragic wreck of a Great Lakes ore boat that the father only partially survived and that has divided them emotionally ever since.

Don’t know why I ‘read’ this book, but it had it’s moments

3+ I Never Promised You A Goodie Bag

Gilbert, Jennifer

a memoir of a life through events --the ones you plan and the ones you don't

Memoir - really liked it @ the beginning, but toward the end started to get whiney.

3+ No Sugar, No Flour Diet

Gott, D. Peter


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3+ V is for Vengeance CD

Grafton, Sue A woman with a murky past who kills herself-or was it murder? A spoiled kid awash in gambling debt who thinks he can beat the system. A lovely woman whose life is about to splinter into a thousand fragments. A professional shoplifting ring working for the Mob, racking up millions from stolen goods. A wandering husband, rich and ruthless. A dirty cop so entrenched on the force he is immune to exposure. A sinister gangster, conscienceless and brutal. A lonely widower mourning the death of his lover, desperate for answers, which may be worse than the pain of his loss. A private detective, Kinsey Millhone, whose thirty-eighth-birthday gift is a punch in the face that leaves her with two black eyes and a busted nose.

Mysteries that seem plausible. Especially they way the detective follows clues.

3 Lieutenant CD Grenville, Kate When I got into the ‘meat’ of the book it lost some of the appeal had in the beginning.

3 French Women Don’t Get Fat CD

Guiliano, Mireille Wanted to see if her thinking followed that of French Kids Eat Everything and it does.

4 84 Charing Cross Rd

Hanff, Helene BookTalk @ library - liked better this 2nd time around

3+ Duchess of Bloomsbury Street

Hanff, Helene Sequel to 84 Charing Cross Road - Delightful memoir of Hanff’s visit to London after writing 84 Charing Cross Road.

3+ Peaches for Farther Francis CD

Harris, Joanne Sequel as such to Chocolat. Could be a stand alone. Enjoyable, but not great

3 Iron House CD

Hart, John At the Iron Mountain Home for Boys, there was nothing but time. Time to burn and time to kill, time for two young orphans to learn that life isn’t won without a fight. Julian survives only because his older brother, Michael, is fearless and fiercely protective. When tensions boil over and a boy is brutally killed, there is only one sacrifice left for Michael to make: He flees the orphanage and takes the blame with him.

Too violent - with so many good mysteries out there do not need violence for violence sake.

3- Dog Sox Hill, Russell Sheila Fair said last month an enjoyable read - not for me

3+ My Korean Deli CD Howe, Ben Ryder

It starts with a gift. When Ben Howe's wife, the daughter of Korean immigrants, decides to repay her parents' self-sacrifice by buying them a store, Howe, an editor at Paris Review, goes along. Things soon get complicated. When the business struggles, Howe finds himself living in his in-laws' Staten Island basement, commuting to the Paris Review offices in George Plimpton's Upper East Side townhouse by day, and heading to Brooklyn to slice cold cuts and peddle lottery tickets by night. My Korean Deli follows the store's tumultuous life, along the way painting the portrait of an unlikely partnership between characters with shoots across society. Owning the deli becomes a transformative experience for everyone involved as they struggle to salvage the original gift.

Think Kenny would enjoy


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3- Girl Who Stopped Swimming CD

Jackson, Joshilyn Laurel Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty but her estranged sister Thalia, an impoverished Actress with a capital A, is her polar opposite, priding herself on exposing the lurid truth lurking behind middle class niceties. One night Laurel is visited by the ghost of a her 13-year old neighbor Molly Dufresne. The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly floating lifelessly in the Hawthorne's backyard pool. She enlists Thalia's help and, Laurel sets out on a life-altering journey that triggers startling revelations about her family's guarded past, the true state of her marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming.

4- Judgement Call Jance, J.A When Joanna Brady's daughter, Jenny, stumbles across the body of her high school principal, Debra Highsmith, in the desert, the Cochise County sheriff's personal and professional worlds collide, forcing her to tread the difficult middle ground between being an officer of the law and a mother.

Like a mystery where one can imagine this is how things work. Not like Iron House which seems to have violence for violence sake.

3+ Left for Dead Jance, J.A. Ali Reynolds gets involved helping people like her former academy classmate, Jose Reyes, who was shot and left to die while making a traffic stop.When Ali leaves her home in Sedona and heads down to Mercy Medical Center in Tucson, she is hoping to be able to help Jose's pregnant wife with their two little girls and investigate the events surrounding the shooting. At the hospital Ali runs into her old friend, Sister Anselm Becker, who is there as a patient advocate for a young woman who was left for dead in the desert and is still unconscious. As each of them starts investigating the details of the two incidents, they begin to put the pieces together and discover that there may be a connection.

Good mystery, not great

4- Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry CD

Joyce, RachelHarold Fry--retired sales rep, beleaguered husband, passive observer of his own life--decides one morning to walk 600 miles across England to save an old friend. It might not work, mind you, but that's hardly the point. In playwright Rachel Joyce's pitch-perfect first novel, Harold wins us over with his classic antiheroism. Setting off on the long journey, he wears the wrong jacket, doesn't have a toothbrush, and leaves his phone at home--in short, he is wholly, endearingly unprepared. But as he travels, Harold finally has time to reflect on his failings as a husband, father, and friend, and this helps him become someone we (and, more important, his wife Maureen) can respect. After walking for a while in Harold Fry's very human shoes, you might find that your own fit a bit better. --Mia Lipman

touching

3+ 7 Day Energy Surge Karas, Jim Health and exercise Like his information.


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3+ Defending Jacob CD

Landay, William

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: his fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student. Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him. But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, and as the crisis reveals how little a father knows about his son, Andy will face a trial of his own--between loyalty and justice, between truth and allegation, between a past he's tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive.

This ‘smart’ father really had no clue or lived with blinders.

3+ WoodsWoman LaVastille, Anne A young ecologist meets the challenge of living alone in the Adirondack Wilderness in the 1970’s .

A much stronger woman than I am. Fascinating! Might read more.

4+ French Kids Eat Everything

Le Billion, Karen

Combining personal anecdotes with practical tips and recipes, the author shares her observations on how the French foster healthy eating habits and good manners in babies and children, and tests ten French Good Rules for a family food revolution.

This book blew me away!. Made me want to rewind my teachings to my children. Did some of them, but not enough. And I have ‘bad’ habits to work on even to this day. While reading was snacking and shocked - mindless eating.

2+ Family Album CD

Lively, Penelope

All Alison ever wanted was a blissful childhood for her six children, with summers at the beach and birthday parties on the lawn at their family home. Together with Ingrid, the family au pair, she has worked hard to create a real old-fashioned family life. But beneath its postcard sheen, the picture is clouded by a distant father, Alison's inexplicable emotional outbursts, and long-repressed secrets that no one dares mention.

4- How It All Began

Lively, Penelope

When Charlotte Rainsford, a retired schoolteacher, is accosted by a petty thief on a London street, the consequences ripple across the lives of acquaintances and strangers alike. A marriage unravels after an illicit love affair is revealed through an errant cell phone message; a posh yet financially strapped interior designer meets a business partner who might prove too good to be true; an old-guard historian tries to recapture his youthful vigor with an ill-conceived idea for a TV miniseries; and a middle-aged central European immigrant learns to speak English and reinvents his life with the assistance of some new friends.

“You are on the edge of things now, clinging on to life’s outer rim. You have this comet trail of your own lived life, sparks from which arrive in the head all the time, whether you want them or not.” Would be great for BookClubs

3+ Sister CD Lupton, Rosamund

When her mom calls to tell her that Tess, her younger sister, is missing, Bee returns home to London on the first flight. Bee is certain that Tess didn’t commit suicide. Their family and the police accept the sad reality, but Bee feels sure that Tess has been murdered. Single-minded in her search for a killer, Bee moves into Tess's apartment and throws herself headlong into her sister's life--and all its secrets.

A bit long, but again a ‘sister’ follows ‘leads’ in an effort to prove her sister was murdered, did NOT commit suicide.


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2 Borrower CD Makkai, Rebecca

Lucy Hull, a young children's librarian in Hannibal, Missouri, finds herself both a kidnapper and kidnapped when her favorite patron, ten-year-old Ian Drake, runs away from home. The precocious Ian is addicted to reading, but needs Lucy's help to smuggle books past his overbearing mother, who has enrolled Ian in weekly antigay classes with celebrity Pastor Bob. Lucy stumbles into a moral dilemma when she finds Ian camped out in the library after hours with a knapsack of provisions and an escape plan. Desperate to save him from Pastor Bob and the Drakes, Lucy allows herself to be hijacked by Ian. The odd pair embarks on a crazy road trip from Missouri to Vermont, with ferrets, an inconvenient boyfriend, and upsetting family history thrown in their path. But is it just Ian who is running away? Who is the man who seems to be on their tail? And should Lucy be trying to save a boy from his own parents?

An odd book, couldn’t get into

3+ Catherine the Great CD

Massie, Robert

This narrative biography tells the extraordinary story of an obscure young German princess who traveled to Russia at fourteen and rose to become one of the most remarkable, powerful, and captivating women in history. Born into a minor noble family, Catherine transformed herself into Empress of Russia by sheer determination. Possessing a brilliant mind and an insatiable curiosity as a young woman, she devoured the works of Enlightenment philosophers and, when she reached the throne, attempted to use their principles to guide her rule of the vast and backward Russian empire. She knew or corresponded with the preeminent historical figures of her time: Voltaire, Diderot, Frederick the Great, Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, Marie Antoinette, and, surprisingly, the American naval hero, John Paul Jones. Reaching the throne fired by Enlightenment philosophy and determined to become the embodiment of the "benevolent despot" idealized by Montesquieu, she found herself always contending with the deeply ingrained realities of Russian life, including serfdom. She persevered, and for thirty-four years the government, foreign policy, cultural development, and welfare of the Russian people were in her hands. She dealt with domestic rebellion, foreign wars, and the tidal wave of political change and violence churned up by the French Revolution that swept across Europe. Her reputation depended entirely on the perspective of the speaker. She was praised by Voltaire as the equal of the greatest of classical philosophers; she was condemned by her enemies, mostly foreign, as "the Messalina of the north." Catherine's family, friends, ministers, generals, lovers, and enemies, all are here, vividly described. These included her ambitious, perpetually scheming mother; her weak, bullying husband, Peter (who left her lying untouched beside him for nine years after their marriage); her unhappy son and heir, Paul; her beloved grandchildren; and her "favorites", the parade of young men from whom she sought companionship and the recapture of youth as well as sex. Here, too, is the giant figure of Gregory Potemkin, her most significant lover and possible husband, with whom she shared a passionate correspondence of love and separation, followed by seventeen years of unparalleled mutual achievement.

Going to Russia in May - Great history


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4 Tumbleweeds Meacham, Leila

Tumbleweeds is the story of three young friends-the saint, the sinner, and the angel-growing up together in the sort of small Texas Panhandle town that lives and dies by its Friday night football games. A fateful event casts a long shadow over these three intertwined lives and leaves the reader turning the pages desperately to see how it all plays out.

Finally a story to get into. Knew I would like from the beginning! Ending keeps you running from event to event, but did enjoy.

3+ What is Left the Daughter CD

Norm, Howard

Orphaned by the sudden suicides of both his parents (who discovered they were in love with the same woman), seventeen-year-old Wyatt Hillyer is taken in by his aunt and uncle in the small town of Middle Economy, Nova Scotia, where he is apprenticed to his uncle's toboggan business and falls in love with his ravishing adopted cousin, Tilda. Setting in motion the novel's chain of life-altering passions is the arrival of German student Hans Mohring, carrying only a satchel. Tilda's feelings for Hans stir up tensions that will test the bonds of love, family, and community to its limits. Wyatt's personal account of the astonishing events leading up to his fathering of a beloved daughter spills out twenty-one years later.

This book grew on me - didn’t love it, but found it somewhat compelling. Takes place during WW2

3 Priest O”Donovan, Gerard

His name is the Priest. His weapon is a crucifix. His victims don't have a prayer. A killer is stalking the dark streets of Dublin. Before each attack, he makes the sign of the cross; then he sends his victims to God. After a foreign politician's daughter is brutally assaulted and left for dead, her body branded with burns from a blazing cross, the case falls to Detective Inspector Mike Mulcahy. Mulcahy is one tough cop, but this crime is beyond comprehension - and The Priest is a nemesis more evil and elusive than any Mulcahy has ever faced: an angel of death with a soul dark as hell. As a media frenzy erupts and the city reels in terror, Mulcahy teams up with ambitious journalist Siobhan Fallon in a desperate bid to stop The Priest in his tracks before he can complete his divine mission of murder.

Am done with violent mysteries!

3 Orchid Thief CD Orlean, Susan Fascinating Christine recommended, not quite sure why

3+ Buddha in the Attic Otsuka, Julia

In eight incantatory sections, traces their extraordinary lives, from their arduous journey by boat, where they exchange photographs of their husbands, imagining uncertain futures in an unknown land; to their arrival in San Francisco and their tremulous first nights as new wives; to their backbreaking work picking fruit in the fields and scrubbing the floors of white women; to their struggles to master a new language and a new culture; to their experiences in childbirth, and then as mothers, raising children who will ultimately reject their heritage and their history; to the deracinating arrival of war.

St. Croix - Mary gave to me after talking about Honolulu. Quick read, multi nameless voices used. Presents the stories of six Japanese mail-order brides whose new lives in early twentieth-century San Francisco are marked by backbreaking migrant work, cultural struggles, children who reject their heritage, and the prospect of wartime internment.

3 Hatchet Paulsen, Gary 13 yr. old survives a plane crash in the wilderness Abby reading for 6th grade. Really enjoyed.

3+ A Rule Against Murder CD

Penny, Louise 4th Always a good read

2 Francesca’s Kitchen Pezzelli, Peter Sappy, predictable - did a lot of skimming.


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3 Why Read Moby-Dick? CD

Philbrick, Nathaniel

Philbrick is expansive in his praise of Moby-Dick describing it variously as history, poetry, adventure story, parody, portrait of 1850's America, metaphysical blueprint and, finally, epic depiction of man's struggle against an uncaring universe.

Never read and now I know why - would really need a teacher and I would miss 99% of the story. Ralf suggested I should try.

4- Mark Pinter, Jason

1st When a newspaper interview goes horribly wrong, 24-year-old newbie journalist Henry Parker finds himself holding the smoking gun, accused of murder and on the run from both the NYPD and a vicious killer. Oh yeah, and the FBI and the mob are after him too. To clear his name, Henry must find a package that everyone believes he already possesses--with only the help of an unsuspecting NYU student.

Interesting cops and ’robbers’.

4- Calling Invisible Women

Ray, Jeanne

Feeling unattractive and unappreciated as she enters her fifties, wife and mother Clover wakes up one morning and discovers that she has actually become invisible, a condition that goes unnoticed by her family

Do we ‘always’ see the people in our lives???? Very interesting concept and interesting ending.

2 Shattered CD Robards, Karen

The past is never over. It just gets dusty. Lisa was a rising star in a prestigious law firm in Lexington, Kentucky; that is, until the firm went bankrupt and she lost her job. With an ailing mother to care for, Lisa takes the first position she can find: research assistant to District Attorney Scott Buchanan. Scott is as disagreeable as he is sexy, and Lisa suspects the only reason she got the job is because of her privileged upbringing as the daughter of a wealthy federal judge.

3+ Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea CD

Rogers, Morgan

When her mother disappears without a trace during a weekend trip, Florine's childhood is turned upside down. Her days in the small coastal Maine town were spent watching for her father's lobster boat, and making bread with her grandmother. As she finds her way to adulthood, Florine clings to the hope that her mother will return.

Easy listen - good coming of age of a 12 yr. old in Maine.

3 Over the Edge Rowlands, Betty

Melissa Craig series St. Croix

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Sanders, Neal

What happens when a bunch of "invisible" older women seek adventure by robbing the local fair? A fun, light mystery.

Plausible setting. Could see how detectives and insurance investigators work. Loved the ending. If the essence of suspense is not, 'whodunit' but, rather 'will they get away with it?', then this book qualifies!

3+ Murder Imperfect

Sanders, Neal “You can call this a confession if you must. Last year...I murdered my husband. I did it with malice aforethought-a premeditated, cold blooded killing. No. On second thought, let’s not call this a confession. A confession implies acknowledgement of guilt or remorse. I don’t feel the least bit guilty and I certainly have no remorse. The bastard got what he deserved.”

3+ Seating Arrangements

Shipstead, Maggie

The weekend of the VanMeter wedding of 7 month pregnant Daphne - her father, sister, mother, bridesmaids and grooms family.

Not your normal Cape Cod wedding. The father was an ‘prick’ - don’t know if I have ever used that word. Book is getting lots of hype.


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4- House of Tyneford

Solomons, Natasha

Seeking refuge from Nazi oppression, Anna and Julian are waiting for visas to America - but they can only get two. Elise must travel on her own to England, where as a refugee she will work as a maid on an English estate, Tyneford. Here, where she must learn to be invisible, she will work long hours and find herself living between not two but three worlds - her upbringing in Viennese society, the below-the-stairs life of an English servant, and eventually the milieu of the upper class English Rivers family. Here she will develop a deepening friendship with young Christopher (Kit) Rivers, and experience the complications that such a relationship will create.

Very enjoyable read

4- Dearie CD Spitz, Bob Remarkable Life of Julia Child Much more info than other books - great read3 Winter Palace

CDStachniak, Eva

The progression to the throne - Catherine the Great. Told from a lady in waiting point of view the staff - I think

Not as informative as Catherine the Great

4+ Light Between Oceans

Stedman, M. L. Good people, tragic decisions- lighthouse keeper Tom and his wife Isabel make a choice that shatters many lives, including their own.

Such a satisfying read- Isabel is in a no win situation after her 3rd miscarriage. Good booktalk for a women’s group

3 Magic Garden Stratton-Porter, Gene

It is about a five year old girl whose parents divorced. Her father was given custody of her older brother and her mother had custody of her. The mother hired some servants to take care of her and went to Europe.Leaving the girl with nobody who loved her and no other children to play with. The father lived in the city and her brother lived in a houseful of servants in the country. The children see each other very rarely and the father even less often. At the beginning of the book the girl runs away. She meets a nice boy and falls in love with him. When she is found her father realized that he did care for his children and made a nice home for them. However the girl never forgets the boy. The unrealistic part is that the girl goes for years without seeing or speaking to the boy and is still in love with him. Never even kissing another man.

A five year old girl falls in love and the rest of her life becomes is this love. - It offers a knight in shining armour and a true princess. It is not realistic, socially valuable, nor is there a "message" other then to believe in your dreams.

4- Wild CD Strayed, Cheryl

A powerful, blazingly honest, inspiring memoir: the story of a 1,100 mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe--and built her back up again.

PCT- Pacific Coast Trail - like a Walk in the Woods throughly enjoyed, but cannot imagine doing so even when I could have done so


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4- Rescue of Belle & Sundance

Stutz, Birgit ...they hadn’t formed a committee, drafted a mission statement, applied for a government grant and ensured that the shoveling groups were gender balanced. They just voluntarily went out in the cold and dark, spending time and money to rescue 2 strange horses, horses which didn’t belong to them or to anybody they knew. Those who couldn’t actively dig supported the rescue in

many other ways; the entire valley was involved. This about sums it up

Great little story - had never heard of it. Unfolded just before Christmas 2008.

3- An Irish Country Courtship CD

Taylor, Patrick Dr. O’Reilly finding love and Dr. Flaherty losing love Bit repetitive, too cute-

3+ An Irish Country Girl CD

Taylor, Patrick Kinky’s story enjoyable

2- Heads in Beds Tomsky, Jacob

A Reckless Memoir of Hotels, Hustles, and So-Called Hospitality Arrogant, deceptive. Not a person would like to be friends with no redeeming values

3+ Shoemaker’s Wife CD

Trigiani, Adriana

Two star-crossed lovers--Enzo and Ciro--meet and separate, until, finally, the power of their love changes both of their lives forever. Set during the years preceding and during World War I.

Thought this book would be a ‘4’, but got a bit ‘sappy’ at the end!!!

3+ Girl from the South

Trollope Joanna

Gillon Stokes is the odd girl out in her tradition-bound Charleston family, and when she goes to London on a typically whimsical impulse to pursue art research, she catches the eye of nature photographer Henry. When she casually invites him back home for a visit.

This book grew on me. Until near the end would have ranked it a 3, but the ending bumped it up to a 3+


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3 A Passionate Man Trollope, Joanna Archie seems to have it all: a loving wife, three adorable children, a close relationship with his widowed father, and a thriving medical career. But when Archie's father falls in love again and marries Marina de Breton, Archie is angry and petulant. Then, just as Archie thinks he's coming to terms with his resentment, his father dies, and everything else in Archie's life begins to disintegrate. Estranged from his wife, Liza, unable to relate to his children, and losing track of his career, Archie finds himself infatuated with his stepmother. Both he and Liza are richly multidimensional characters, both passionate in their own ways but unable to communicate their feelings, a conundrum Trollope examines through Archie's eyes as she also considers the bigger picture, the conflict between loyalty and passion, both in the context of marriage and the family structure. Fast-paced and stirring, this is a strongly emotive and, at times, disturbing novel, but Trollope's no-nonsense prose makes this a compelling journey into the lives of two ordinary people coping with extraordinary events

St. Croix

3+ More than You Know CD

Vincenzi, Penny OK - but nothing compares to the first one I read.

3 Laced with Love Walker, Sheila

Inspired by rereading her mother's letters to her grandmother about raising seven children during World War II and after, the author chronicles life in central Massachusetts small towns at mid century.

Russia- takes place around Athol - Kay had given to me

1 Beautiful Ruins Walter, Jess The story begins in 1962. On a rocky patch of the sun-drenched Italian coastline, a young innkeeper, chest-deep in daydreams, looks out over the incandescent waters of the Ligurian Sea and spies an apparition: a tall, thin woman, a vision in white, approaching him on a boat. She is an actress, he soon learns, an American starlet, and she is dying. And the story begins again today, half a world away, when an elderly Italian man shows up on a movie studio’s back lot searching for the mysterious woman he last say at his hotel decades earlier.

Terrible and on the best seller list to boot. Reviews gush about this book. Too many stories and an epilogue even too much for me.

4- 10 ½ Things No Commencement Speaker Has ever Said

Wheelan, Charles The antidote to those cotton-candy platitude often heard @ graduation. Whether praising the time “wasted” in fraternity basements; mentioning that, frankly, the worst days of your life still lie ahead; or simply asking that graduates avoid wreaking the kind of havoc that others before them have, Wheelan softens his candid conclusions with good-natured charm and tales of unconventional success.

Will probably buy for Sammy for Xmas.


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3 Summer House Willett, Marcia

In the small inlaid wooden box, Matt's mother had kept all his childhood memories. Amongst them are many photos of Matt as a child, growing up. But something about the photos has always puzzled Matt - was that really him? Why did he not remember those clothes? The toys? And where, in the photos, was his sister Imogen? He has a strange unresolved feeling that there is something missing in his life. Imogen is living with her husband, a country vet, and their gorgeous baby in a rented cottage. Since her childhood she has loved the Summer House, a charming folly in the grounds of her oldest friends' beautiful and ancient house on Exmoor, and now they have the chance of buying. But her marriage is threatened when her husband refuses to live so far from his practice. Meanwhile, Matt begins to discovers the strange and tragic secret which has affected his whole life...

Weak story- flows nicely, but bland

3+ Atlantic: Great Sea Battles, Heroic Discoveries, Titanic Storms and a Vast Ocean of a Million Stories CD

Winchester, Simon Fascinating ‘skimmed’ or didn’t really

listen to some of it.

4+ Elegy for Eddie

Winspear, Jacqueline

“She knew from experience that following even the most innocent passing, something always came to light that was not known before.”

9th - many authors rush to finish a book, with Maisie all loose ends are tied in a comfortable way. And of course something is left for another story

3+ Ernie’s Ark Wood, Monica

9 intertwined short stories - small town in Maine during a paper mill strike

Appreciated these stories because of Olive Kitteridge. Did not enjoy Olive until heard many discussions about it and from people who really loved the stories.

4- Lost in Shangri-La CD

Zuckoff, Mitchell

Untold story of an extraordinary World War II rescue mission, where a plane crash in the South Pacific plunged a trio of U.S. military personnel into the jungle-clad land of New Guinea

Fascinating

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