My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this quiet story of Rachel DuPree. Set in the early 1900's, it starts with Rachel working as a cook in a boardinghouse in Chicago and follows her life as she gets married and she and her husband stake a claim and move to the Badlands of South Dakota. It is a wonderful glimpse into the African American homesteaders and what they endured.

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The Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy

My rating: 3.6 of 5 stars

 A wife who's husband has gone off to war and is left in their home on Guernsey Island to take care of their two daughters and his mother-in-law while the Germans occupy the Island. So many beautiful descriptions that make you feel the conflicting emotions and what it would have been like to have lived in that time.

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My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is going to be my pick for my next bookclub month. A mix of the horrid autrocities of the Japanese on the Filipino people in WWII, and the wonderful magical tales of the Philippines - all told with such beautiful eloquence.


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My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow. Bernard Cornwell is an amazing author. I wish he had been my history teacher as he makes history fascinating......even if he does too eloquent a job in capturing the gory details. I will definitely be reading the rest of the books in this series.

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My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wow, what a book. I love how Cornwell allowed Uhtred's to grow and develop throughout the book. The history lesson on the 9th century was fascinating and captured the brutality of the day. I need a break from the vivid violence but, will definitely be returning to Uhtred's adventures in the 2nd book of this riveting series.

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My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So beautifully written. This is the story of Raj, a nine-year-old middle son of an illiterate and impoverished native family. Do not read too much else about this novel. Just pick it up and read it and savor. This is one I want to read again.

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My rating: 5 of 5 stars

From the plot description, I didn't think I would like this book. I was right. I LOVED it! I found I couldn't wait to get back to this book. Fabulous read, character development and story line. I am glad this is a series.

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Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen

This story of the Revolutionary War is told from the perspective of a 13 year old boy.  Samuel spends his days in the forest, hunting for food for his family. He has grown up far from any town, or news of the war.  Soon, the war comes to him as the British Army and Iroquois attack his home and take his parents away as prisoners.  Each day he confronts the enemy, and the tragedy and horror of this war.

The depiction of war and how impacts both soldiers and local families is realistic and somewhat graphic, so squeamish people might squirm.  The fictional story of Samuel is told with alternating non-fiction chapters telling historical notes that illuminate the sobering realities of the Revolution and add some enlightening context of the conditions, (prisoners of war were fed by their families as their captors weren't expected to be fed by their captors until the 1900's)  This is a quick read that, not being raised in America, educated me on how things were for soldiers and families during this time.  

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

Let me preface this review by saying I do not care for mystery thrillers or books about ghosts.  I also am one of the heathens that didn't care for East of Eden and, this book had quite a few similarities in my mind to the characters of East of Eden.  The fact that I loved this book and was able to get past all of those things is a testament to the expertise of the author.


This mystery thriller is about Vida Winter, a famous author, whose life story is coming to an end, and Margaret Lea, a young, unworldly, bookish girl who is a bookseller in her father's shop. Vida has a reputation of giving everybody a different version of her life, each time swearing it's the truth. Vida now swears she wants Margaret to write "the truth".

The writing is excellent and the story unfolds in such a way that I couldn't wait to read what would happen next.  Just when I would piece two things together and would think "Oh"  And then "Oh!"  And then "OH!", Margaret Lea would also put those two things together and Setterfield would lead me further in to the story to discover the next two inter-connecting pieces right before Margaret Lea did.  I realized the author was skillfully leading me into the forest as I happily followed the crumb trail.  Only at the end did Margaret Lea go "Oh"  And then "Oh!"  And then OH!", while I sat reading going "What?!?" and the author skillfully led me to the final unfolding of the story.

Setterfield does so many beautiful things that I can not do justice to her writing by trying to capture it here.  Read the book and discover it for yourself.

I can't wait for Miss Setterfield's next book which, unfortunately isn't due till July 2012.


Rating: 4.8 Excellent

The Highest Tide by Jim Lynch

This is a wonderful coming of age story.  Jim Lynch's extraordinary first novel centers around a runty thirteen year old boy who knows more than the local marine biologist about the teeming life in the mud flats of Puget Sound and its coves. Narrator Miles O'Malley is an insomniac who takes his battered kayak into the sound at night while his parents and the rest of the town sleep. He collects unusual specimens for aquariums and collectors, and digs for clams with his friend Phelps to sell to local restaurants. In the middle of the night, Miles hears the final exhalation of a dying giant squid. His discovery of the enormous creature never before found on the shores of North America prompts a rush of media attention.

At first, no one questions how Miles managed to find the squid in the middle of the night despite his poorly fabricated lie, but when he discovers other non-native sea life and anomalies in the sea and tidal pools, he becomes an object of local fascination. Miles just wants to remain invisible. He is neglected by his parents, who have their own problems, and he struggles with his awkward crush on Angie, an eighteen-year-old, body-pierced girl who plays bass in a grunge band.

Much of Myle's world is consumed by nature and the ocean.  Lynch's confident style guides the reader through an odd yet believable world where sea stars can be of any color and thirteen-year-old boys can befriend judges, psychics, and cult leaders. Readers will finish this novel with a sigh not unlike that of the giant squid marooned on the beach.

Rating: 4.6 Very Good

Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett

I picked this book as it was in my queue.  I couldn't remember who recommended it (thank you!!!) or what it was about.  The only preconceived notion I had was that Ann Patchett had written Bel Canto and I enjoyed that immensley.  I was probably 100 pages in before I discovered that one of the "characters" name was Ann Patchett and I quickly realized I wasn't reading a beautiful work of fiction but, an even more amazingly beautiful memoir.

This is about friendship -- between Lucy Grealy and Ann Patchett -- and shares many insights into the nature of devotion. One of the best instances of this concerns a fable of ants and grasshoppers. When winter came, the hard-working ant took the fun-loving grasshopper in, each understanding their roles were immutable. It was a symbiotic relationship. Like the grasshopper, Grealy, who died of cancer at age 39 in 2002, was an untethered creature, who liked nothing more than to dance, drink and fling herself into Patchett's arms like a kitten. Patchett tells this story chronologically, in bursts of dialogue, memory and snippets of Grealy's letters, moving from the unfolding of their deep connection in graduate school and into the more turbulent waters beyond. Patchett describes her attempts to be a writer, while Grealy endured a continuous round of operations as a result of her cancer. Later, when adulthood brought success, but also heartbreak the duo continued to be intertwined, even though their link sometimes seemed to fray.

This gorgeously written chronicle unfolds as an example of how friendships can contain more passion and affection than any in the romantic realm. And although Patchett unflinchingly describes the difficulties she and Grealy faced in the years after grad school, she never loses the feeling she had the first time Grealy sprang into her arms.

Rating: 4.6 Recommend

Labor Day by Joyce Maynard

I fell in love with Joyce Maynard in reading "The Good Daughters" and couldn't help but return to her work right away.  Historically, when I fall in love with an author and read another book too quickly, it is a mistake and I quickly realize that I should space them out and not o.d. on them.  Not so with Joyce Maynard.  I can't get enough of her and this book just added to my craving.

On Labor Day weekend,13 year old Henry manages to coax his mother, who rarely goes out, into a trip to PriceMart, where they run into Frank, who intimidates them into giving him a ride. Frank, it turns out, is an escaped convict looking for a place to hide. He holds Adele and Henry hostage in their home, an experience that changes all of them forever, whether it's Frank tying Adele to the kitchen chair with her silk scarves and lovingly feeding her or teaching the awkward, un-athletic Henry how to throw a baseball. The bizarre situation encompasses Henry's budding adolescence, the awakening of his sexuality and his fear of being abandoned by his mother and Frank, who are falling in love and planning to run away together. Maynard's prose is beautiful and her characters winningly complicated, with no neat tie-ups in the end. A sometimes painful tale, but captivating and surprisingly moving.  I cried at many points of this novel.

I continue to be amazed how Maynard can make her novels light, easy to read with a "beach read" feel and yet, when you read the final page, you realize how many complex layers have been captured and that it is a much deeper novel than it felt like the whole time you were reading it.  Exquisitely wonderful.

Rating: 4.9  Fabulous!

The Good Daughters by Joyce Maynard

Two families, the Planks and the Dickersons, are mysteriously entwined in this exquisite novel that centers on decades of life at a New Hampshire farm. Youngest daughters Ruth Plank and Dana Dickerson, born on the same day in the same hospital, take turns narrating the struggles they face as children. Ruth feels a coldness from her mother; Dana is unsettled by her kooky parents constantly uprooting her and her brother Ray. Regardless, the Planks pay a yearly visit to the Dickersons no matter where they've ended up living.

Each daughter narrates a different chapter and, between the two, you get the complete picture of their lives.  This feels light but, ends up being a much deeper book on many levels.  Thoroughly enjoyable.

Rating: 4.7 Recommend

What I Was by Meg Rosoff

An unnamed man recounts his time as a disgruntled student at St. Oswald's boarding school; upon ditching an outdoor physical education class jog, he stumbles upon a mysterious fellow teen named Finn who lives alone and off the grid in a hut by the sea. The protagonist, enraptured by his newfound friend, makes it his business to spend as much time as possible with Finn, a major challenge considering school curfews and that the hut can only be accessed during low tide. Weeks go by and Finn falls ill, setting the stage for a surprising revelation that will dramatically transform both boys. Rosoff's unconventional coming-of-age tale is elegantly crafted and elegantly portrays how we often become who we need to be.

I really enjoyed this book and find myself reflecting on it.  I think it will stay with me for a long while.

Rating: 4.6

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Louie Zamperini--a juvenile delinquent-turned-Olympic runner-turned-Army hero. During a routine search mission over the Pacific, Louie’s plane crashed into the ocean, and what happened to him over the next three years of his life is a story that will keep you glued to the pages, eagerly awaiting the next turn in the story and fearing it at the same time. You’ll cheer for the man who somehow maintained his selfhood and humanity despite the monumental degradations he suffered, and you’ll want to share this book with everyone you know.

This is extremely well written and an absolutely amazing story.  It makes me even more grateful to all the wonderful service men and women  - thank you..

Rating: 4.5 Recommend