The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

This book is about Lucky, age 10, who lives in a tiny town in California (population 43), with her dog and the young French woman who is her guardian. Lucky, who is totally contemporary, teeters between bravado--gathering insect specimens, scaring away snakes from the laundry--and fear that her guardian will leave her to return to France. Her best friend, Lincoln, is a boy with a fixation for tying knots; another acquaintance, Miles, seems a tiresome pest until Lucky discovers a secret about his mother. This is a fun plot and the characters are endearing. Lucky is not perfect and she does some cowardly things, but she takes pains to put them to rights.  It says Grades 4 to 6 but I would say Grades 7 to 8.  A cute read.

Rating: 3 OK

East of Eden by John Steinbeck

I wanted to like this book.  I read 300+ pages of this book and although I can appreciate the literary gifts of Steinbeck, the characters are flat. No anger, no passion, no happiness….nothing. My g/f Ann is reading this book and thoroughly enjoy it so now I feel like a heathen!  I may try to go back to this book but, right now, I just need a break from it.

Rating: 2 Do NOT recommend

The Summer Guest by Justin Cronin

How to do this book justice?  From the first page, I was enthralled and couldn't wait to turn the next page. Light, easy and completely a pleasure to read. This is such a beautiful book.

Each chapter is told by a different person and at the end of each chapter, I miss that person's voice until I start the next chapter and am completely engrossed by the new voice. This amazing book spans 30 years and the individual's stories and perspectives unwind and interwine seamlessly. A definite MUST read. including love, war, disease, loss, betrayal, and redemption. The book revolves around the story of Harry Wainwright, a wealthy entrepreneur who falls in love with the camp as a young man and returns decades later for one last day of fishing before he succumbs to terminal cancer. I was sad to finish it as I didn't want it to end.

Rating: 4.7  Definite Recommend!

The Miraculous Journey Of Edward Tulane

I absolutely LOVED this book! It is *perfect* for a young girl as it is a young adult book but, even old adults will enjoy this charming story. A quick and thoroughly enjoyable read.   Thanks to Melissa for loaning this to me or I never would have discovered this wonderful book.

Edward, a china rabbit, is the main character in this thoughtful tale by Kate DiCamillo. Edward is dearly loved by a young girl named Abilene. One day he is lost over the side of a boat. His journey leads him to a older couple who dress him like a girl rabbit, a hobo and his dog, a young girl and her brother and, finally, to a doll shop. Along the way, Edward learns to love the people he encounters. He also learns that family members can be cruel to one another; that hobos have family that they love dearly and don't want to forget; that no matter how much you love someone, she may still die; and that no matter what happens in life, never give up on love. A beautifully crafted telling with beautiful drawings to accompany it.  It says for Grades 2-4.  I don't have children but think that it may be for older children as it deals with death, being homeless and other facts of our cruel world that younger children may not be equipped for.

Rating: 5 - Definite Recommend for Young Adult, especially a young girl

The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer

Cutsey and light. Enjoyable but not a MUST read. Interesting how the story unfolded in letters.

Set in both London and Guernsey Island, this novel follows author Juliet as she becomes friends with the inhabitants of the island shortly after the end of World War II. Told in epistolary style, Juliet learns of the occupied island and its deprivations, as well as the resounding spirit of the people who live there. As she writes, she becomes more and more intrigued with the stories of the people who survived the hard times, and she decides to create a book based on their experiences. In order to gather more information, Juliet moves temporarily to the island and soon finds herself immsersed in the culture and relationships.

Rating: 3.7 Ok

Matilda by Roald Dahl

From the author of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is, Matilda the story of a precocious four-year-old whose parents are crass, dishonest  and regard her as "nothing more than a scab." (ala Lemony Snicket).  Life with her beastly parents is bearable only because Matilda teaches herself to read, finds the public library, and discovers literature. When she starts school, the headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, is "a fierce tyrannical monster".  Thankfully, her teacher Miss Honey is an angel who sees the brilliant promise of Matilda and encourages her.  A cute read for ages 9-11.

Rating 3.4 Ok

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan

Each chapter is told from a different person's perspective. A wonderful read.

Laura marries Henry but gets more than she bargains for when Henry moves her from the city to a remote farm (no water or electricity!) where she also has to try to get along with Henry's Pappy who is a very ornery man and his charming brother Jamie. One of their tenants on the farm is Hap, his wife Florence and their children, including their grown son Ronsel who has been serving in the first Black infantry in WWII. A great plot that the author unfolds in an effortless way. A truly good story that I kept wanting to get back to.


Rating: 4.8 Recommend

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

A light and thoroughbly enjoyable read that tackles a heavy topic.  Southern whites' guilt for not expressing gratitude to the black maids who raised them threatens to become a familiar refrain. But don't tell Kathryn Stockett because her first novel is a nuanced variation on the theme that strikes every note with authenticity. In a page-turner that brings new resonance to the moral issues involved, she spins a story of social awakening as seen from both sides of the American racial divide.


Rating: 4.8 Recommend

Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway

A tense and haunting novel following four people trying to survive war-torn Sarajevo. After a mortar attack kills 22 people waiting in line to buy bread, an unnamed cellist vows to play at the point of impact for 22 days. Arrow, a young woman sniper, picks off soldiers; Kenan makes a dangerous trek to get water for his family; and Dragan, who sent his wife and son out of the city at the start of the war, works at a bakery and trades bread in exchange for shelter.  All the while, the cellist continues to play. With wonderfully drawn characters and a stripped-down narrative, Galloway brings to life a distant conflict.

Rating: 4.7 Recommend

Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

There is a reason that I picked this book as the first book to start my recently founded Book Club.  It is spectacular and I wanted to set the bar high for all future reads.  In a magnificent, sweeping novel that moves from India to Ethiopia to an inner-city hospital in New York City over decades and generations. Sister Mary Joseph Praise, a devout young nun, leaves the south Indian state of Kerala in 1947 for a missionary post in Yemen. During the arduous sea voyage, she saves the life of an English doctor bound for Ethiopia, Thomas Stone, who becomes a key player in her destiny when they meet up again at Missing Hospital in Addis Ababa. Seven years later, Sister Praise dies birthing twin boys: Shiva and Marion, the latter narrating his own and his brothers long, dramatic, biblical story set against the backdrop of political turmoil in Ethiopia, the life of the hospital compound in which they grow up and the love story of their adopted parents, both doctors at Missing. The boys become doctors as well and Vergheses weaving of the practice of medicine into the narrative is fascinating even as the story bobs and weaves with the power and coincidences of the best 19th-century novel.

Rating: 5 Definite Recommend!

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

I don't care for any other of Ann Patchett's work but, this was a beautiful quiet story that I found mesmerizing.  Persevere through the first chapter and you won't be sorry.  In an unnamed South American country, a world-renowned soprano sings at a birthday party in honor of a visiting Japanese industrial titan. His hosts hope that Mr. Hosokawa can be persuaded to build a factory in their Third World backwater. Alas, in the opening sequence, just as the accompanist kisses the soprano, a ragtag band of 18 terrorists enters the vice-presidential mansion through the air conditioning ducts. Their quarry is the president, who has unfortunately stayed home to watch a favorite soap opera. And thus, from the beginning, things go awry.

Joined by no common language except music, the 58 international hostages and their captors forge unexpected bonds. Time stands still, priorities rearrange themselves. Ultimately, of course, something has to give, even in a novel so imbued with the rich imaginative potential of magic realism. But in a fractious world, Bel Canto remains a gentle reminder of the transcendence of beauty and love.  This book unfolds like the beautiful opera that it is centered around.

Rating: 4.6 Recommend

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

I normally like to know a high level plot before I start reading a book.  With this one, the publishers of Chris Cleave's new novel "don't want to spoil" the story by revealing too much about it, and there's good reason not to tell too much about the plot's pivot point. All you should know going in to Little Bee is that what happens on the beach is brutal, and that it braids the fates of a 16-year-old Nigerian orphan (who calls herself Little Bee) and a well-off British couple--journalists trying to repair their strained marriage with a free holiday--who should have stayed behind their resort's walls. The tide of that event carries Little Bee back to their world, which she claims she couldn't explain to the girls from her village because they'd have no context for its abundance and calm. But she shows us the infinite rifts in a globalized world, where any distance can be crossed in a day--with the right papers--and "no one likes each other, but everyone likes U2." Where you have to give up the safety you'd assumed as your birthright if you decide to save the girl gazing at you through razor wire, left to the wolves of a failing state.

Rating: 5 Definite Recommend

Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill

Rating: 4.9 Definite Recommend

Stunning, wrenching and inspiring, the fourth novel by Canadian novelist Hill (Any Known Blood) spans the life of Aminata Diallo, born in Bayo, West Africa, in 1745. The novel opens in 1802, as Aminata is wooed in London to the cause of British abolitionists, and begins reflecting on her life. Kidnapped at the age of 11 by British slavers, Aminata survives the Middle Passage and is reunited in South Carolina with Chekura, a boy from a village near hers. Her story gets entwined with his, and with those of her owners: nasty indigo producer Robinson Appleby and, later, Jewish duty inspector Solomon Lindo. 

During her long life of struggle, she does what she can to free herself and others from slavery, including learning to read and teaching others to, and befriending anyone who can help her, black or white. Hill handles the pacing and tension masterfully, particularly during the beginnings of the American revolution, when the British promise to free Blacks who fight for the British: Aminata's related, eventful travels to Nova Scotia and Sierra Leone follow. In depicting a woman who survives history's most trying conditions through force of intelligence and personality, Hill's book is a harrowing, breathtaking tour de force.

The Reader by Bernard Schlink

The richness of the translation comes through in every page.  Michael Berg, 15, is on his way home from high school in post-World War II Germany when he becomes ill and is befriended by a woman who takes him home. When he recovers from hepatitis many weeks later, he dutifully takes the 40-year-old Hanna flowers in appreciation, and the two become lovers. The relationship, at first purely physical, deepens when Hanna takes an interest in the young man's education, insisting that he study hard and attend classes. He never learns very much about her, and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. But, to his horror, he does. Hanna is a defendant in a trial related to Germany's Nazi past, and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime. As Michael follows the trial, he struggles with an overwhelming question: What should his generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust? "We should not believe we can comprehend the incomprehensible, we may not compare the incomparable.... Should we only fall silent in revulsion, shame, and guilt? To what purpose?"

Rating: 4.7 Definite Recommend

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates

A young, ostensibly thriving couple living with their two children in a prosperous Connecticut suburb in the mid-1950s. However, like the characters in John Updike's similarly themed Couples, the self-assured exterior masks a creeping frustration at their inability to feel fulfilled in their relationships or careers. Frank is mired in a well-paying but boring office job and April is a housewife still mourning the demise of her hoped-for acting career. Determined to identify themselves as superior to the mediocre sprawl of suburbanites who surround them, they decide to move to France where they will be better able to develop their true artistic sensibilities, free of the consumerist demands of capitalist America. As their relationship deteriorates into an endless cycle of squabbling, jealousy and recriminations, their trip and their dreams of self-fulfillment are thrown into jeopardy. I will be reading more Yates in the future.

Rating: 4.8 Recommend