The Girl Who Chased the Moon | Sarah Addison Allen

STATS:
Author, Sarah Addison Allen
Published, March 16, 2010
Publisher, Bantam
Hardcover, 269 pages

DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS:
In her latest enchanting novel, New York Times bestselling author Sarah Addison Allen invites you to a quirky little Southern town with more magic than a full Carolina moon. Here two very different women discover how to find their place in the world—no matter how out of place they feel.
Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. Such as, why did Dulcie Shelby leave her hometown so suddenly? And why did she vow never to return? But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew—a reclusive, real-life gentle giant—she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.
Everyone in Mullaby adores Julia Winterson’s cakes—which is a good thing, because Julia can’t seem to stop baking them. She offers them to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth but also in the hope of rekindling the love she fears might be lost forever. Flour, eggs, milk, and sugar . . . Baking is the only language the proud but vulnerable Julia has to communicate what is truly in her heart. But is it enough to call back to her those she’s hurt in the past?
Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily’s backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in.

MY THOUGHTS:

I loved this book!  I have read two Sarah Addison Allen novels so far. - The Peach Keeper and Lost Lake.  Both had hints of magic and the unexplained but this book was completely magical.  The people, the town, everything.  And in a good way.

You see - I am not big on fantasy books or science fiction.  As far as I go is the Twilight series.  And I enjoyed it in movie form much more than reading it.  But Sarah is able to put things in a novel that are completely beyond your imagination and make it seem charming and magical.  I want to move Mullaby, NC.  I want to see these people and be friends with them.  Seriously.

The story is mainly about Emily and Julia.  Emily comes to live with the grandfather that she didn't know she had after the death of her mother.  Julia went to high school with Emily's mother and is only in town to get her father's restaurant sold before returning to her life away from Mullaby. 

The two end up being important and life changing to each other.

The story is truly wonderful and full of Southern charm, interesting characters and and makes me want to go out and get other Sarah Addison Allen as soon as possible.

The House Girl | Book Review

STATS:
Author, Tara ConklinPaperback, 400 pages
Published, November 5th, 2013
Publisher, William Morrow Paperbacks

DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS:
Virginia, 1852. Seventeen-year-old Josephine Bell decides to run from the failing tobacco farm where she is a slave and nurse to her ailing mistress, the aspiring artist Lu Anne Bell. New York City, 2004. Lina Sparrow, an ambitious first-year associate in an elite law firm, is given a difficult, highly sensitive assignment that could make her career: she must find the “perfect plaintiff” to lead a historic class-action lawsuit worth trillions of dollars in reparations for descendants of American slaves.
It is through her father, the renowned artist Oscar Sparrow, that Lina discovers Josephine Bell and a controversy roiling the art world: are the iconic paintings long ascribed to Lu Anne Bell really the work of her house slave, Josephine? A descendant of Josephine’s would be the perfect face for the reparations lawsuit—if Lina can find one. While following the runaway girl’s faint trail through old letters and plantation records, Lina finds herself questioning her own family history and the secrets that her father has never revealed: How did Lina’s mother die? And why will he never speak about her?
Moving between antebellum Virginia and modern-day New York, this searing, suspenseful and heartbreaking tale of art and history, love and secrets, explores what it means to repair a wrong and asks whether truth is sometimes more important than justice.  

MY THOUGHTS:
This book had been on my reading list since before it came out.  The description of the book reminded me of The Kitchen House and I always enjoy books from this time period.  I was lucky to see it available at my local used book store.  With my book credit and their great prices, I only paid $3.50 and that is something I can always appreciate. This book is written in a structure that I really like.  It has alternating chapters telling the story of Lina in the present time and Josephine in the 1850's.  It is also beautifully written and there seemed to be little fluff.  Everything is relevant and important pieces to the story.  Lina.  I grew to like Lina.  She is a young lawyer working for a cut throat firm.  Everything is about the win and the money.  Mostly cases involving business and not overly people related.  When the reparations case falls in her hands, she is a little surprised that it is something the firm agreed to work on.  Lina's father is an artist, as was her mother, and her mother has been gone since she was 4.  Lina has a lot of questions about her mother's death and her father is finally ready to talk to her about, twenty years later.  Josephine.  You can't help but love Josephine.  She is a slave and works as a house girl.  She is bright and pretty and has known no other life than that at Bell Creek.  She has an interesting relationship with her Missus.  Although she is a slave and being kept there as property, the Missus defies the law and teaches her to read and write.  She has her basic needs met and sleeps in the attic of the main house, not the slave quarters.  The two stories melt wonderfully into each other.  The mystery of finding out who created the paintings is interesting to follow.  And the idea of being able to prove the ancestry of a slave is amazing.  The story also gets you thinking about a time period in our history that people seem to want to forget.  It also makes you consider what is owed to the descendants of the slaves.  One of my favorite quotes, "Two hundred and fifty years of nameless, faceless, forgotten individuals.  Yes, they were America's founding fathers and mothers as mush as the bewigged white men who laid the whip upon their backs". Overall - I loved this book.  I would recommend it to anyone who likes Historical Romance, Historical Fiction, and books that make you think a little deeper into history.     

Beautiful Ruins | Book Review

STATS:
Author, Jess Walter
Paperback, 337 pages
Published, April 2, 2013
Publisher, Harper Perennial

Description from Goodreads:
From the moment it opens—on a rocky patch of Italian coastline, circa 1962, when a daydreaming young innkeeper looks out over the water and spies a mysterious woman approaching him on a boat—Jess Walter's Beautiful Ruins is a dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to the back lots of contemporary Hollywood, Beautiful Ruins is gloriously inventive and constantly surprising—a story of flawed yet fascinating people navigating the rocky shores of their lives while clinging to their improbable dreams.

Description from Amazon:
The acclaimed, award-winning author of the national bestseller The Financial Lives of the Poets returns with his funniest, most romantic, and most purely enjoyable novel yet. Hailed by critics and loved by readers of literary and historical fiction, Beautiful Ruins is the story of an almost-love affair that begins on the Italian coast in 1962...and is rekindled in Hollywood fifty years later.


My Thoughts: I added the descriptions from two different places because I am not sure that either of them really give you an idea of what takes place in this book.  There are so many things happening and so many characters that it is hard to narrow it down. It all starts in the 1960's in Italy in a small, remote village hotel.  It takes you back and forth between the 60's and present day.  It also gives you a few chapters of seeing what happens to the main characters during the 70's, 80's, and 90's to explain where they ended up. I am a huge lover of Historical Fiction and I love the fact that it had history and present day in order to get some closure for the events that happened in the 60's.  I did feel that the complete back stories of the smaller characters in present day was a little irrelevant.  They weren't the characters that I was dying to find out about. Overall, I really liked the book.  I didn't love it.  I did love the characters of Dee and Pasquale though and I really enjoyed the ending to their story.

The Language of Flowers | Book Review

STATSAuthor, Vanessa Diffenbaugh
Hardcover, 322 pages
Published August 23, 2011
Ballantine Books
Series - No

DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS:
A mesmerizing, moving, and elegantly written debut novel, The Language of Flowers beautifully weaves past and present, creating a vivid portrait of an unforgettable woman whose gift for flowers helps her change the lives of others even as she struggles to overcome her own troubled past.
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 grief, 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, Victoria has nowhere to go and sleeps in a public park, where she plants a small garden of her own. Soon a local florist discovers her talents, and Victoria realizes she has a gift for helping others through the flowers she chooses for them. But a mysterious vendor at the flower market 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.

MY THOUGHTS:
I loved this book. I really did. It is one of those that I hated to see end and I will pass it along to someone else. I can't thank Linaeenough for adding it to my Cara Box she sent.
Victoria is such a sad girl. Her entire story is just awful. She goes through life thinking the absolute worst of herself and that there is no possible way anyone could love her. She can only bring pain and sorrow to others.
Then she meets a florist that puts her knowledge of the language of flowers to work and her world not only changes but opens up to amazing possibility.
This one by far one of my favorite books of the year.

More about this author can be found here.

My previous review can be found here.

I am linking up with Book Club Friday.

The Girls of Atomic City | Book Review

STATS:
Author - Denise Kiernan
Hardcover, 400 pages
Published March 5th, 2013, by Touchstone/Simon & Schuster

Description from Goodreads:
The incredible story of the young women of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who unwittingly played a crucial role in one of the most significant moments in U.S. history.
The Tennessee town of Oak Ridge was created from scratch in 1942. One of the Manhattan Project’s secret cities, it didn’t appear on any maps until 1949, and yet at the height of World War II it was using more electricity than New York City and was home to more than 75,000 people, many of them young women recruited from small towns across the South. Their jobs were shrouded in mystery, but they were buoyed by a sense of shared purpose, close friendships—and a surplus of handsome scientists and Army men!
But against this vibrant wartime backdrop, a darker story was unfolding. The penalty for talking about their work—even the most innocuous details—was job loss and eviction. One woman was recruited to spy on her coworkers. They all knew something big was happening at Oak Ridge, but few could piece together the true nature of their work until the bomb "Little Boy" was dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, and the secret was out. The shocking revelation: the residents of Oak Ridge were enriching uranium for the atomic bomb.
Though the young women originally believed they would leave Oak Ridge after the war, many met husbands there, made lifelong friends, and still call the seventy-year-old town home. The reverberations from their work there—work they didn’t fully understand at the time—are still being felt today. In The Girls of Atomic City, Denise Kiernan traces the astonishing story of these unsung WWII workers through interviews with dozens of surviving women and other Oak Ridge residents. Like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, this is history and science made fresh and vibrant—a beautifully told, deeply researched story that unfolds in a suspenseful and exciting way.

My Thoughts:
I love history and I love wartime stories.  I usually pick historical romance but I had to pick this up after it was compared to The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  (A book everyone should read.)
This book was so interesting.  It is a collection of stories from real women that worked in Oak Ridge during the WWII.  If you don't know the history behind it, it is pretty simple.  Women were brought to Oak Ridge, TN, from all over the South.  They were promised more money than they could make anywhere else and the fact that they would be helping a secret project that would end the war.  So - they went and didn't ask questions.  The women and men working in Oak Ridge had no idea what they were really making or how it helped to the way until the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan.  After finding out what they worked on, they also had to live with the consequences.  
I loved hearing the stories of the women.  It was not hard to believe that in the time period they didn't ask questions.  I think that it would be impossible in today's age of information to not know what you were working on.  But in the 1940's in the height of the war, I think many women would have seen the choice to move there as a no brainier.  More money and helping the war.  What other choice could they make?
I truly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone that loves history and the personal accounts that tell so much more than we learned in history class.

Mistletoe Memories: Four-In-One Romance Collection | Book Review

STATS: Paperback, 352 pages
Published September 1, 2013
Barbour Books
Series - No

Desription from Goodreads:
Spend a heartfelt Christmas on Schooley’s Mountain as four generations make a house a home. Carpenter Stephan Yost vows to build a precocious spinster a home by Christmas. Civil War widow Mary Ann Plum learns the greatest peace on earth comes from giving and receiving love. Olympia Paris must protect the orphanage she grew up in from a man intending to play Father Christmas to most of the town. Joy Benucci turns to a modern-day Scrooge to save a transitional home for foster kids. Will Christmas be a season of miracles in their lives?

My Thoughts:
This book is a collection of novellas all taking place in the same house over a huge span of time and history. Each novella is written by a differnt author. I loved that they were different and still had so many things in common.
I also love reading novellas. They are great when you don't have time to commit to a long book. I was able to read each story in a sitting or two and when I finished the book, I really had read four. The books are also faithbased, Christian Lit, that are set around Christmas Traditions. I loved all four and it would be hard to pick a favorite. Although, I really loved Mercy Mild.
I must also say that I love a good Christmas book as much as I love a good Christmas movie. I would read and watch them all year long.

Season for Love - 1820 German Valley, NJ
Annaliese is a very sprited doctor's daughter who falls for the town carpenter, Stephen. The two met due to her horses being startled by a boy who whistles to get medical attention for his uncle. Annaliese and Stephan are from different social classes and are looking for different things. Neither are looking for the love that they find. Annaliese's father buys a large farm house that he has Stephan work on. This is the same house in the coming stories and what ties them together.

Mercy Mild - 1968 German Valley, NJ
Zeke is the town deputy and a former soldier of the Civil War. He is the person in charge of finding homes for the orphans. He is love with a widow, Mariane. He wants children and she doesn't. He places a girl that need a temporary home with Mariane. We soon find out why she doesn't want children. It is a story of truth, love, hope, and courage.

Midnight Clear - 1910 German Valley, NJ
This is the story of Teddy and Olympia. They grew up together in the same orphanage and were even childhood sweethearts. After becoming adults they went separate ways. Olympia now runs the orphanage that she has always felt was her home. She owes back taxes which leaves the house in danger of being autioned off to a company that wants to build a resort attraction. And it seems Teddy is that person.

Comfort and Joy - Present Day German Valley, NJ
Joy runs a halfway house for foster children. The ones that are too old to still be in the system yet not ready to be adults in charge of their own lives. Her boss and owner of the house dies leaving the house to a new owner who wants to evict her and the children. Evan is a handsome lawyer that shows up to bring the eviction papers. And once again we are given two people from different worlds, in the same house, that fall in love with the magic of the mistletoe.

I would totally recommend this book to anyone looking for romance and wanting to get in the mood for Christmas.

More About Jennifer AlLee, Carla Olson Gade, Lisa Karen Richardson, and Gina Welborn.

It is important to note that I received this Kindle edition as a courtesy from Barbour Books via NetGalley in return for a book review. That being said, the feelings expressed in this review are my own and were not influenced by an outside source.

I am linking up with Book Club Friday.

Edisto by Padgett Powell | Book Review

Stats: 

Paperback, 192 pages

Published April 15, 1985

Description from Goodreads:

Simons Everson Manigault ('You say it 'Simmons.' I'm a rare one-m Simons") lives with his mother, an eccentric professor (known as the Duchess), on an isolated and undeveloped strip of South Carolina coast. Convinced that her son can be a writer of genius, the Duchess has immersed Simons in the literary classics since birth ("Like some kids swat mobiles, I was to thumb pages") and has given him free rein to gather material in such spots as the Baby Grand, a local black nightclub. ("It was an assignment. I'm supposed to write. I'm supposed get good at it.")

My thoughts:

I was looking at books on NetGalley and Edisto caught my attentions. It is set in the South in the 1970's. I love books set in the South when they are written well and truthful. Edisto is one of those books.
The narrator is a twelve year old white boy named Simons. He lives with his mother, who surrounds him with literature and wants him to be a writer, and has an absent father. He is very bright and has an incredible vocabulary.He meets a mixed race man named Taurus, and is then immersed in the African American culture of south Carolina.
While it is hard to believe that a twelve year old boys speaks the way Simons does and acts the way he does, the writing style is wonderful. The book is fast paced and fairly short. It is a great coming of age story and it's comparison to Catcher in the Rye is inevitable.
I would highly recommend this book.

More from the Author:  Visit his website.

My previous review:  The Longings of Wayward Girls

It is important to note that I received this book from NetGalley in return for a book review. That being said, the feelings expressed in this review are my own and were not influenced by an outside source.

The Longings of Wayward Girls by Karen Brown | Book Review

STATS:Paperback, 336 pages (I had a Kindle version)
Published July 2, 2013
Washington Square Press
Series - No

Description From Goodreads:
It's an idyllic New England summer, and Sadie is a precocious only child on the edge of adolescence. It seems like July and August will pass lazily by, just as they have every year before. But one day, Sadie and her best friend play a seemingly harmless prank on a neighborhood girl. Soon after, that same little girl disappears from a backyard barbecue—and she is never seen again. Twenty years pass, and Sadie is still living in the same quiet suburb. She’s married to a good man, has two beautiful children, and seems to have put her past behind her. But when a boy from her old neighborhood returns to town, the nightmares of that summer will begin to resurface, and its unsolved mysteries will finally become clear.

My thoughts:
I am so glad that I was able to get an ARC of this book on NetGalley. From the first page of a news report about missing girl Laura Loomis, I was drawn completely in. The story is mainly focused on Sadie Watkins, who is now an adult. it alternated between summers in the 1970's to her present day which is the summer of 2003. But it did take a little reading to see how Laura and Sadie are connected.
Throughout the book, you see the longings of Sadie as a child to have a "normal" mother and of her as an adult trying to find peace with a recent miscarriage. The story turns out to be as much about a Town haunted with missing children as that of Sadie being haunted by her past.
I truly enjoyed this book even if it was a little macabre. It reminded me of Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn that I read earlier this year. I completely recommend it to anyone ready to but down the beach reads for fall.

More About the Author: Visit her website.

My Previous Review: The Chaneysville Incident

It is important to note that I received this Kindle edition as a courtesy from Washington Square Press via NetGalley in return for a book review. That being said, the feelings expressed in this review are my own and were not influenced by an outside source.

The Last Camellia | Sarah Jio

Description from Goodreads:

A romantic and suspenseful tale about two women whose destiny is bound across the years.

On the eve of World War II, the last surviving specimen of a camellia plant known as the Middlebury Pink lies secreted away on an English country estate. Flora, an amateur American botanist, is contracted by an international ring of flower thieves to infiltrate the household and acquire the coveted bloom. Her search is at once brightened by new love and threatened by her discovery of a series of ghastly crimes.
More than half a century later, garden designer Addison takes up residence at the manor, now owned by the family of her husband, Rex. The couple’s shared passion for mysteries is fueled by the enchanting camellia orchard and an old gardener’s notebook. Yet its pages hint at dark acts ingeniously concealed. If the danger that Flora once faced remains very much alive, will Addison share her fate?

My Thoughts:

I love this book.  Oh course, I love all Sarah Jio's books and she is totally one of my favorite authors of all time.  Seriously.  Her novels  get better and better.  I am a true lover of Historical Fiction and Romance.  She weaves the two together beautifully in all her novels.

I loved the character of Addison and of Flora.  Both had secrets and both were believable and like able.  The setting was described in a way that you felt you like had been there before and I was unable to put the book down.  I had to go to sleep about half way through and literally dreamed about the characters.  That my friends, is a perfect book in my mind.  The kind that you are upset to see end.

You can read reviews of the other Sarah Jio novels by clicking on the links.
The Bungalow
The Violets of March
Blackberry Winter

Linking Up With:
Book Club Friday @ Blonde, Undercover Blonde & The Nerdy Katie

Just One Day | Book Review

Just One Day

by

Sharla Lovelace



Description from Goodreads:

She has nothing but time . . .

Twenty-four hours. That’s how long Andie Fremont has to say yes—or no. At forty-four with a daughter in college, she’s no young kitten with starry-eyed ideas of what love is. Still, when the man who is everything she should want pops the question with a ring he knows isn’t her style, during a party she didn’t want to have, Andie balks. Something tells her that it isn’t right.
Looking to clear her head, Andie hits the Texas highway in search of an answer. And when she stumbles upon an old roadside diner she decides waffles might be it, at least for now. What she didn’t expect to find was Jesse Montgomery. The man who stole her heart and broke it all in one day, two decades earlier.
As a Texas-size storm takes shape outside, the electricity between Andie and Jesse builds inside. Suddenly Andie is faced with more than just yes or no. As the storm clears there are two men who will want answers  

My Thoughts:
Just One Day is a novella. I was needing something that would be a fast and easy read. This was it! I main character, Andie, is a woman. What makes this different from what I usually read is that she is not a twenty something looking for love. She is a forty something with a past and a life and real problems. She is totally believable and even thought the story is shorter than a novel, you really get to know her since it is packed with information and still has little to no "fluff". The descriptions of the party on the yacht and the storm were amazing.  You could feel like you were there with her.  The twists and turns in the book were unexpected and wonderful. I think that the story of a woman having to make tough choices about her relationships is pretty common in a romance novel and we think we know what is going to happen.  This book really surprised me and kept me wanting to know more. This is the first Sharla Lovelace that I have read and I look forward to reading more from her.  Overall - I think that it is well written, a nice story, and perfect when you are looking for something quick and attention grabbing.  
Happy Reading!
Kyetra

Other reviews this week -
Forever Friday by Timothy Lewis
Change The World Before Friday - Mark Kimball Moulton (Children's Book)

It is important to note that I received this book from NetGalley in return for a book review. That being said, the feelings expressed in this review are my own and were not influenced by an outside source.

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Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize that they were the big things.

-  Robert Brault

Forever Friday | Book Review

This week  I read:

Synopsis from Goodreads:

After a devastating divorce leaves Adam Colby heartbroken, he is not sure how he can put the pieces of his life back together. He wonders if even God can make sense of the mess that remains-until a package of mysterious postcards that direct Adam to the story of Gabe and Huck Alexander. Drawn by her desire to find a true soulmate, Pearl "Huck" Huckabee breaks a turbulent engagement with her fiancé to marry Gabe Alexander, a man she's known just a few short weeks. Wanting to celebrate and protect their love, Gabe mails her a meaningful postcard every week-beginning in 1926-for the next sixty years. Designed to arrive on Fridays, each postcard not only contains an original poem, but holds precious truths, the sum of which answer the universal question: what makes a marriage last? As Adam begins to uncover the Alexanders' secret, he records Gabe and Huck's extraordinary romance. It's a process that will change his life forever.

What I Thought:

When I chose this book, I thought that I would like it.  But I loved it.  I love romance novels and I almost always select Historical Fiction.  This book had it all.  

It is not only the story of Huck and Gabe but also the story of Adam.  Adam found the postcards and the story of the Alexander's at just the right time in his own life.

The book is told from two perspectives.  It is told by Adam, who is the man in charge of selling off the final belongings of the Alexander's.  This is more or less in the present day.  It is also told beautifully from the Alexander's stretching from the 1920's to present day.

I fell in love with Huck.  She is amazing and her story is well written that you can see her in every situation.  And Gabe is just about as perfect a man as you could imagine.  

The novel itself is well written, full of hope and laughter, and wonderful banter between Huck and Gabe. The beginning pulls you in and the ending leaves you feeling wonderful.

 I could hardly put it down once I started and I can't wait to pass it on.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BloggingforBooks.orghttp://www.waterbrookmultnomah.com/bloggingforbooks/book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize that they were the big things. 

 - Robert Brault

Book Club Friday | Those Who Save Us

This Week I Read: 

Description From Goodreads:
For fifty years, Anna Schlemmer has refused to talk about her life in Germany during World War II. Her daughter, Trudy, was only three when she and her mother were liberated by an American soldier and went to live with him in Minnesota. Trudy's sole evidence of the past is an old photograph: a family portrait showing Anna, Trudy, and a Nazi officer, the Obersturmfuhrer of Buchenwald.
Driven by the guilt of her heritage, Trudy, now a professor of German history, begins investigating the past and finally unearths the dramatic and heartbreaking truth of her mother's life.
Combining a passionate, doomed love story, a vivid evocation of life during the war, and a poignant mother/daughter drama, Those Who Save Us is a profound exploration of what we endure to survive and the legacy of shame.

My Thoughts:
I saw this book reviewed last week and it happened to be at the used book store when I went on Saturday.  I thought maybe it might be a sign.
All the other Holocaust era books that I have read have been from a Jewish point of view. I loved that this book is told from a German point of view instead of a Jewish point of view.  
I like that the book in no way tries to say that what happened in Germany during WW2 was not the fault of the German government.  I believe that it was but I also believe that there were good Germans that tried to do the best they could.  People seem to forget that they could be killed also for going against the SS and Hitler.
It is great story of survival and just how far a person will go to stay alive and protect a child.  It is so worth the read.  Even to me who likes all things cleared up in the ending.  This one just leaves you with an understanding that sometimes the past is the past and you can't judge someone when you don't know what they have been through.

I am linking up with:

Book Club Friday | The Cradle & The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

This week I read:

The description from Goodreads: 
Early one summer morning, Matthew Bishop kisses his still-sleeping wife Marissa, gets dressed and eases his truck through Milwaukee, bound for the highway. His wife, pregnant with their first child, has asked him to find the antique cradle taken years before by her mother Caroline when she abandoned Marissa, never to contact her daughter again. Soon to be a mother herself, Marissa now dreams of nothing else but bringing her baby home to the cradle she herself slept in. His wife does not know-does not want to know-where her mother lives, but Matt has an address for Caroline's sister near by and with any luck, he will be home in time for dinner.
Only as Matt tries to track down his wife's mother, he discovers that Caroline, upon leaving Marissa, has led a life increasingly plagued by impulse and irrationality, a mysterious life that grows more inexplicable with each new lead Matt gains, and door he enters. As hours turn into days and Caroline's trail takes Matt from Wisconsin to Minnesota, Illinois, and beyond in search of the cradle, Matt makes a discovery that will forever change Marissa's life, and faces a decision that will challenge everything he has ever known.
Elegant and astonishing, Patrick Somerville tells the story of one man's journey into the heart of marriage, parenthood, and what it means to be a family. Confirming the arrival of an exuberantly talented new writer, THE CRADLE is an uniquely imaginative debut novel that radiates with wisdom and wonder.
My Thoughts: 
I picked up this book at Dollar Tree.  It looked nice if you judge a book by it's cover (and I do).  The description was interesting so I thought that I would give it a try. 
This really was a great read and was worth my time.   It is a story about what really matters in life and how choices effect so many people.  Good things can happen at odd times.

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I also read:

Description from Goodreads:
In the middle of tending to the everyday business at her vintage-clothing shop and sidestepping her married boyfriend’s attempts at commitment, Iris Lockhart receives a stunning phone call: Her great-aunt Esme, whom she never knew existed, is being released from Cauldstone Hospital—where she has been locked away for more than sixty-one years.
Iris’s grandmother Kitty always claimed to be an only child. But Esme’s papers prove she is Kitty’s sister, and Iris can see the shadow of her dead father in Esme’s face. 
Esme has been labeled harmless—sane enough to coexist with the rest of the world. But she's still basically a stranger, a family member never mentioned by the family, and one who is sure to bring life-altering secrets with her when she leaves the ward. If Iris takes her in, what dangerous truths might she inherit?
A gothic, intricate tale of family secrets, lost lives, and the freedom brought by truth, The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox will haunt you long past its final page.
My Thoughts:
This is another book that I knew nothing about.  I saw it in our local used book store.  It had history and mystery so I decided to give it a chance.
I am glad that I did.  The book was very interesting.  There are no chapters.  Just one ongoing story told from  3 different angles.  Kitty, Esme, and Iris.  
It is very sad to see how people were treated years ago and what little you had to do to be put in an insane asylum.  There are so many secrets and it keeps you thinking about what could have been.
The one thing that I didn't love was the ending.  It just ended.  It stopped.  That was it.  While what happens in the last few pages is easy to figure out, there is not a lot of closure for the characters.

Linking up with -

Book Club Friday | The Violets of March

Description from Goodreads:
A heartbroken woman stumbled upon a diary and steps into the life of its anonymous author.
In her twenties, Emily Wilson was on top of the world: she had a bestselling novel, a husband plucked from the pages of GQ, and a one-way ticket to happily ever after.
Ten years later, the tide has turned on Emily's good fortune. So when her great-aunt Bee invites her to spend the month of March on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, Emily accepts, longing to be healed by the sea. Researching her next book, Emily discovers a red velvet diary, dated 1943, whose contents reveal startling connections to her own life.
A mesmerizing debut with an idyllic setting and intriguing dual story line, The Violets of March announces Sarah Jio as a writer to watch.   My Thoughts: This was my third novel by Sarah Jio.  I now have to wait for her new book to come out.  And I can't wait. I loved this book.  From the moment I picked it up, I could not put it down and read it in a little over a day.  It had the perfect mix of history, mystery, and love.  Which all of Sarah Jio's novel have in common. I love Emily and Bee.  Their relationship changes throughout the book and both come to terms with their pasts.  It was a great read!   *** If you love Sarah Jio, she has two books that I know of that are being published in 2013.  The Last Camilla is coming in late May, and Morning Glory in November.    I am linking up with Book Club Friday and Literary Friday.  

 

Book Club Friday | Two Books This Week

This week I read:

Description from Goodreads:
While in the midst of a breakup-induced depression, Aurélie Bredin, a beautiful Parisian restaurateur, discovers an astonishing novel in a quaint bookshop on the Ile Saint-Louis. Inexplicably, her restaurant and Aurélie herself are featured in its pages. After reading the whole book in one night, she realizes it has saved her life—and she wishes more than anything to meet its author. Aurélie’s attempts to contact the attractive but shy English author through his French publishers are blocked by the company’s gruff chief editor, André, who only with great reluctance forwards Aurélie’s enthusiastic letter. But Aurélie refuses to give up. One day, a response from the reclusive author actually lands in her mailbox, but the encounter that eventually takes place is completely different from what she had ever imagined. . . . Filled with books, recipes, and characters that leap off the page, The Ingredients of Love by Nicolas Barreau is a tribute to the City of Lights.  

My thoughts:

I picked up this book at Target.  I had not heard anything about it and bought it solely from the jacket description.

It was a bit slow in the beginning but I was glad that I stuck it out.  Aurelie is very likable and you have to feel for her at times.  The characters are great, the story is sweet.  There are a few phrases in French, but they are mostly common and well known.  The last few pages of the book are even the recipes to the special dinner that occurs in the book.

It is not on my all time favorite list, but it was a nice read.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I also read:

Description from Goodreads:
The author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be delivers her most ambitious and powerful novel to date: a captivating story of two very different women who build an unexpected friendship: a 91-year-old woman with a hidden past as an orphan-train rider and the teenage girl whose own troubled adolescence leads her to seek answers to questions no one has ever thought to ask.
Nearly eighteen, Molly Ayer knows she has one last chance. Just months from "aging out" of the child welfare system, and close to being kicked out of her foster home, a community service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping her out of juvie and worse.
Vivian Daly has lived a quiet life on the coast of Maine. But in her attic, hidden in trunks, are vestiges of a turbulent past. As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly discovers that she and Vivian aren't as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance.
The closer Molly grows to Vivian, the more she discovers parallels to her own life. A Penobscot Indian, she, too, is an outsider being raised by strangers, and she, too, has unanswered questions about the past. As her emotional barriers begin to crumble, Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life - answers that will ultimately free them both.
Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of second chances, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are.

My thoughts: 
This is another Target find that I stumbled upon.  I knew the second that I read the jacket, it was a book right up my alley.  Mystery, love, history & present day, all together.
The fact that there were orphan trains in the early 1900's was very interesting and sad at the same time.  Vivian is wonderful.  You feel so sorry for her and can't wait for her to get some happiness.  The same is true for Molly. 
I was unable to put this book down once I started, and absolutely loved it!

I am linking up with Book Club Friday and Literary Friday.

The Bungalow | Book Club Friday

I read:  The Bungalow by Sarah Jio.

The Desciption from Goodreads:   In the summer of 1942, twenty-one-year-old Anne Calloway, newly engaged, sets off to serve in the Army Nurse Corps on the Pacific island of Bora-Bora. More exhilarated by the adventure of a lifetime than she ever was by her predictable fiancé, she is drawn to a mysterious soldier named Westry, and their friendship soon blossoms into hues as deep as the hibiscus flowers native to the island. Under the thatched roof of an abandoned beach bungalow, the two share a private world-until they witness a gruesome crime, Westry is suddenly redeployed, and the idyll vanishes into the winds of war.
A timeless story of enduring passion from the author of Blackberry Winter and The Violets of March, The Bungalow chronicles Anne's determination to discover the truth about the twin losses-of life, and of love-that have haunted her for seventy years.
My thoughts:  I loved this book.  In fact it is the first book that I have read this year.  I am not getting off to a great start.  :)
I love Historical Fiction and books set during World War II are always a favorite of mine.  This one was great.  It is told from Anne's point of view and memories.  It shows that small misunderstandings an secrets can change the direction of your like in more ways than one.
I completely recommend it.  And I will be reading more by Sarah Jio.

I am linking up with Book Club Friday.

Book Club Friday | The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary and Sewing Circle

I have been so behind in reading.  And in everything else to be honest.  I have been so tired.  But now that my asthma and weird food allergies are back to being control, I have a lot more energy.  It seems that I am not only feeling better, but I a lot more organized and able to plan things again.  I was a LOT unorganized.  Mainly from the lack of oxygen to my brain.  Lucky for me - I am all good in time for Christmas and may even get some projects done. 
This is the last book in my Goodreads Challenge.  I made it to 30 books in 2012.

This week month I read:

The Florabama Ladies' Auxiliary and Sewing Circle by Lois Battle

Here is the description from Goodreads:
A New York Times bestseller A Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club Selection Welcome to Florabama, Alabama—a place where you can stop to sip a co'cola or iced tea and think about money and love. If you had'em, you were free to think about other things. If you didn't you couldn't think about anything else.
"We've been screwed blue and tattooed," quips Hilly Pruitt, upon hearing the news of the closing of Cherished Lady, the local lingerie factory where she's worked a lifetime. The same day the plant closes, Bonnie Duke Cullman, former-deb turned Atlanta-society-wife, has herself been downsized—right out of her marriage and picture-perfect life. In an unlikely alliance, Bonnie, Hilly, and the rest of the ex-bra seamstresses join forces in the "Displaced Homemakers Program" at a podunk community college. Together they endure a midlife survival course where the events of a single year forever alter the way they see the world and their places in it.
My thoughts: 
I must admit that the only reason I bought this book is 1) it was in the buy to get one free at BAM 2) it was set in Alabama.
Lois Battle did a great job of getting dialect just right.  It was great.  By reading you can really hear the characters talking to you.  And she used a lot of great Southern sayings also.  Like, "She is a few sandwiches short of a picnic".
It took me awhile to read this book.  Partly because I was not feeling well and partly because I just never got completely taken in by the book.  But - I never wanted it to end up in the "half read and abandoned" stack either. 
I loved the character of Hilly Pruitt.  She reminded me a lot of a wonderful woman that I worked with years ago and I continued to picture her that way.  For that reason, I always wanted to know how it ended. 
It was enjoyable, short, and an easy read.  If you love the South, I think that you will really enjoy it.  You end up pulling for these ladies has they are forced to change things about themselves that they never envisioned.  It is truly a book based on the friendships and love of women.

I am linking up with Book Club Friday.

Book Club Friday

I am linking up with Book Club Friday at Blonde, Undercover Blonde and The Nerdy Katie.
This week (and for a few weeks) I read:

Here is the description from Goodreads:
In this stunning first novel, Mary Sutter is a brilliant, head­strong midwife from Albany, New York, who dreams of becoming a surgeon. Determined to overcome the prejudices against women in medicine-and eager to run away from her recent heartbreak- Mary leaves home and travels to Washington, D.C. to help tend the legions of Civil War wounded. Under the guidance of William Stipp and James Blevens-two surgeons who fall unwittingly in love with Mary's courage, will, and stubbornness in the face of suffering-and resisting her mother's pleas to return home to help with the birth of her twin sister's baby, Mary pursues her medical career in the desperately overwhelmed hospitals of the capital.
Like Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain and Robert Hicks's The Widow of the South, My Name Is Mary Sutter powerfully evokes the atmosphere of the period. Rich with historical detail (including marvelous depictions of Lincoln, Dorothea Dix, General McClellan, and John Hay among others), and full of the tragedies and challenges of wartime, My Name Is Mary Sutter is an exceptional novel. And in Mary herself, Robin Oliveira has created a truly unforgettable heroine whose unwavering determination and vulnerability will resonate with readers everywhere.
My thoughts:
It has taken me forever to read this book.  It isn't that it's not good, it's just that my head has not been in the reading mood lately.  I have to make myself sit down and do it.
The character of Mary Sutter is great.  I love her.  She reminds me of a smarter Scarlet O'Hara.  Scarlet knew how to flirt her way through life, Mary wants to be educated and make her way through life.  The history of the book is correct as well as I can tell.  I love the way Lincoln is portrayed.
I feel sorry for Mary a lot, and without giving anything away, I just want her to find love and be happy.  To get into medical school (even though it is only for men), and show the world who she really is.

Just a little reminder - 

This is going on over at All Things Bright and Beautiful and From The Guest Room.

Book Swap

On Friday's, I try to link up with Book Club Friday which is hosted by Heather and Katie.  I was thrilled to see that they were doing a book swap!  How fun is that?  So here is the reveal of what I got and what I sent.
For the Book Swap, I was matched up with the lovely Amy Byrd.  After a little looking on Goodreads, I realized that we seem to both like the same type books and we decided to send each other a book from our To Read lists.  We also sent an additional book that we enjoyed and thought the other would also.
I recieved (from my To Read List):  The Soldier's Wife by Margaret Leroy.  I have been wanting to read it for awhile and can't wait to get into it.

And also (A favorite of Amy's):  The Glass Lake by Maeve Binchy.  I read the summary and it sounds great!  Maeve Binchy is one of her favorite authors.

I am also going to show up the books that I choose for Amy since she doesn't have a blog.  :(

Amercan Heiress by Daisy Goodwin which was on her To Read List

and Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay which was the book that started me reading again after years of not turning a page.

I can't wait to see what everyone got!

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Book Club Friday

This week I read:  The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan

The description from Goodreads: 
Tom Cole, the grandson of a legendary local hero, has inherited 
an uncanny knack for reading the Niagara River's whims and 
performing daring feats of rescue at the mighty falls. And like the tumultuous meeting of the cataract's waters with the rocks below, a chance encounter between Tom and 17-year-old Bess Heath has an explosive effect. When they first meet on a trolley platform, Bess immediately recognizes the chemistry between them, and the feeling is mutual. 
But the hopes of young love are constrained by the 1915 conventions of Niagara Falls, Ontario. Tom's working-class pedigree doesn't suit Bess's family, despite their recent fall from grace. Sacked from his position at a hydroelectric power company, Bess's father has taken to drink, forcing her mother to take in sewing for the society women who were once her peers. Bess pitches in as she pines for Tom, but at her young age, she's unable to fully realize how drastically her world is about to change. 
Set against the resounding backdrop of the falls, Cathy Marie Buchanan's carefully researched, capaciously imagined debut novel entwines the romantic trials of a young couple with the historical drama of the exploitation of the river's natural resources. The current of the river, like that of the human heart, is under threat: "Sometimes it seems like the river is being made into this measly thing," says Tom, bemoaning the shortsighted schemes of the power companies. "The river's been bound up with cables and concrete and steel, like a turkey at Christmastime." 
Skillfully portraying individuals, families, a community, and an environment imperiled by progress and the devastations of the Great War, The Day the Falls Stood Still beautifully evokes the wild wonder of its setting, a wonder that always overcomes any attempt to tame it. But at the same time, Buchanan's tale never loses hold of the gripping emotions of Tom and Bess's intimate drama. The result is a transporting novel that captures both the majesty of nature and the mystery of love.
My thoughts:
I really enjoyed this book.  I loved that it is written almost like a diary of Bess.  There is a section in the middle of the book that seemed very slow and almost like it could have been left out completely, but in the end, it makes sense and gives you a better understanding of Bess and Tom.
Bess's world completely changes and you see how little a young girl in this time period knows about anything in the world.  Her parents lose everything and Bess is able to still do what will make her happiest.  
The historical perspective of the book is wonderful.  It gives a great look World War I in Canada and the beginnings of the hydro-electric business.  If you like Historical Fiction, I think that you would really enjoy the book.


I am linking up with Blonde, Undercover Blonde, for Book Club Friday.

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