Divergent by, Veronica Roth~Review

Divergent by, Veronica Roth
Synopsis:In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is—she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
During the highly competitive initiation that follows, Beatrice renames herself Tris and struggles to determine who her friends really are—and where, exactly, a romance with a sometimes fascinating, sometimes infuriating boy fits into the life she's chosen. But Tris also has a secret, one she's kept hidden from everyone because she's been warned it can mean death. And as she discovers a growing conflict that threatens to unravel her seemingly perfect society, she also learns that her secret might help her save those she loves… or it might destroy her.

My Review:
This was an interesting dystopian YA book, Chicago been split into factions, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue—Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). I have no idea if the entire country/world was split like this too or if it’s just Chicago , was Chicago the only place left with people, I don’t know these were just a few unanswered questions I had. When you are 17 you take an aptitude test to help you decide which faction you will choose most choose the one they grew up in but some don’t as is the case with Beatrice (AKA-Tris) but she is different she has an aptitude for more than one faction which is divergent and divergent is not a good thing to be. But there seems to be things wrong with this society and the factions seem to be starting to turn on each other and in some cases themselves.

A lot of people have compared this to the Hunger Games because it was the last big dystopian book but I thought it was kind of a cross between it and The Giver, because this is supposed to be a perfect society but of course in the light of day is not.

I liked the characters, Tris was strong yet so insecure but when pushed will kick some butt, the little romance you can see coming a mile away but I did like Four because his attitude was really for his own good and the good of others.

The ending felt a bit rushed, with everything leading up to it and then when the fight does come it all happens so fast. And what a cliffhanger, I look forward to the next book in this series.


With all the hype surrounding this book I am happy to say I really enjoyed this one and wasn’t disappointed I may not have loved it as much as some but I still give it a solid 4 stars.

Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints by Sam Brower ~~Review

Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints by Sam Brower
Synopsis:From the private investigator who cracked open the case that led to the arrest of Warren Jeffs, the maniacal prophet of the polygamous Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints (FLDS), comes the page-turning, horrifying story of how a rogue sect used sex, money, and power disguised under a favßade of religion to further criminal activities and a madman's vision.

Despite considerable press coverage and a lengthy trial, the full story has remained largely untold. Only one man can reveal the whole, astounding truth: Sam Brower, the private investigator who devoted years of his life to breaking open the secret practices of the FLDS and bringing Warren Jeffs and his inner circle to justice. In Prophet's Prey, Brower implicates Jeffs in his own words, bringing to light the contents of Jeffs's personal priesthood journal, discovered in a hidden underground vault, and revealing to readers the shocking inside world of FLDS members, whose trust he earned and who showed him the staggering truth of their lives.

Prophet's Prey offers the gripping, behind-the-scenes account of a bizarre world from the only man who knows the full story.




My Review:
I always knew Warren Jeffs was a bad guy, I’ve seen the news reports and read Carolyn Jessop’s book but I didn’t realize he ranked right up there with Jim Jones & David Koresh in getting people to believe everything he says and to do things no matter how bad. I think it’s a good thing he was investigated and put in the spotlight because with his personality it could have ended the way Jonestown and Waco did. I also knew that he was a pedophile marrying young girls but what I didn’t know was that he was also a pedophile abusing young boys.

This was a very eye opening book, I learned much more about the FLDS than I knew before. It did bog down a bit in the middle but I just reminded myself that this was a 7 year investigation and that Sam Brower was extremely thorough. It is sad to see how CPS dropped the ball on the majority of these children and sent them back to their abusers, which is what they are no matter how brainwashed willing these girls may have been. This FLDS sect is not a religion that should be left alone for their beliefs this one is a full out Cult with the maniacal mad man at the helm, sexual abuse, kidnapping and quite possibly murder and attempted murder.

Sam Brower’s account of his investigation is one everyone should read as it doesn’t gloss over anything , in this straight-forward account Sam reveals not only what the FLDS did to its own but how they threatened and stalked him. He also reveals who helped and who hurt the cases against this cult, which was also very interesting.

The investigation into this FLDS cult did put some awful men in jail and brought national attention to what was going on inside the “walls” of this cult but, I think the worst part is, through it all not much has changed in their little world, the men who went to jail are seen as martyrs and are still in power from their jail cells. I just hope as Sam does that one day the hierarchy will admit it was wrong and the abuse will stop but for now who knows what is still going on there.

4 Stars
I received this book from Librarything Early Reviewer program

The Weird Sisters by, Eleanor Brown~~Review

The Weird Sisters by, Eleanor Brown
This is the story of 3 sisters raised by a Shakespeare scholar who talks in quotes from the bard a mother who stayed at home but seemed melancholy at times, the sisters were close and not close 3 very different personalities Rose is the caretaker, Cordy (Cordelia) the wild child and Bean (Bianca) who wanted to make her way in the big city with all its trappings. Their mother has been diagnosed with cancer which brings Cordy & Bean home but is it the only reason or are there secrets that would have brought them home anyway?

You could fill up a notebook with all the great quotes in this book. Here are a few:

Instead, we were going to wrap ourselves in cloaks woven from self-pity and victimhood, refusing to admit that we might be able to help each other if we’d only open up. Instead, we’d do what we always did, the only thing we’d ever been dependably stellar at: we’d read.


“What I mean is, I still feel like me. It’s not like I wake up and think, I am a responsible adult. I just look in the mirror and see myself. The same stupid person I’ve been looking at for years.”



She never managed to find herself in these books no matter how hard she tried, exhuming traits from between the pages and donning them for an hour, a day, a week. We think in some ways, we have all done this our whole lives, searching for the book that will give us the keys to ourselves, let us into a wholly formed personality as though it were a furnished room to let. As though we could walk in and look around and say to the gray-haired landlady behind us, "We'll take it."



"There are times in our lives when we have to realize our past is precisely what it is, and we cannot change it. But we can change the story we tell ourselves about it, and by doing that, we can change the future."



"We all have stories we tell ourselves. We tell ourselves we are too fat, too ugly, or too old, or too foolish. We tell ourselves these stories because they allow us to excuse our actions, and they allow us to pass off the responsibility for things we have done-maybe to something within our control, but anything other than the decisions we have made."

This a book for the reader and lover of books it also reaffirms that you can go home again. These sisters each with their own set of problems 2 who ran far from home and 1 who never wants to leave. The growing up the looking at your life and analyzing everything you’ve done and how it brings you to who you are now. This was a very enjoyable book and I fell in love with these sisters and their parents watching the sisters bond through their troubles and differences.

I highly recommend this book to readers and book lovers whether you are a Shakespeare fan or not I think you will enjoy this character driven book.

4 ½ Stars

Our Librarian's Favorite Books of 2011

5 Stars
Sarah’s Key by, Tatiana de Rosnay
Snowflower and the Secret Fan by, Lisa See
Madame Tussaud by, Michelle Moran
Revolution by, Jennifer Donnelly
The Bird Sisters by, Rebecca Rasmussen
Rivermarked by, Patricia Briggs
The Peach Keeper by, Sarah Addison Allen
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by, Rebecca Skloot
The Kings Speech by, Mark Logue
Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by, Ransom Riggs
I Shall Wear Midnight by, Terry Pratchett
Daisy Fay and the Miracle Man by, Fannie Flagg
The Eyre Affair by, Jasper Fforde
Love You More by, Lisa Gardner
Trespasser by, Paul Doiron
The True Meaning of Smekday by, Adam Rex
The Legacy by, Katherine Webb
Dracula by, Bram Stoker
We All Wore Stars: Memories of Anne Frank from Her Classmates by, Theo Coster
A Christmas Carol by, Charles Dickens

4 1/2 Star
The House on Riverton, The Forgotten Garden & The Distant Hours by, Kate Morton
Changeless,Heartless, by, Gail Carriger
Nobodies Album by, Carolyn Parkhurst
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by, Helen Simonson
Left Neglected by, Lisa Genova
Seer of Sevenwaters by, Juliet Marillier
You Had Me At Woof by, Julie Klam narrated by, Karen White Audiobook only available
A Discovery of Witches by, Debrah Harkness
The Wake of the Lorelei Lee by, LA Meyer
Maisie Dobbs by, Jacqueline Winspear
Ashfall by, Mike Mullins
The Weird Sisters by, Eleanor Brown
Ingenue by, Jillian Larkin
The Winter Sea by, Susanna Kearsley

4 Stars
Sidewalk Thoughts by, Mickey Renner
My Bonny Light Horseman & Rapture of the Deep by, LA Meyer
Year of Wonders by, Geraldine Brooks
O Pioneers by, Willa Cather
Live to Tell by, Lisa Gardner
Room by, Emma Donaghue
Wicked Appetite by, Janet Evanovich Available in Hardcover & Audiobook narrated by, Lorelei King
The Art of Racing in the Rain by, Garth Stein
A Northern Light by, Jennifer Donnelly
The Reversal by, Michael Connelly
Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's by, John Elder Robison
Water for Elephants by, Sara Gruen
Blameless by, Gail Carriger
Skellig by, David Almond
Crunch Time by, Diana Mott Davidson
Dead Reckoning by, Charlaine Harris
Smokin’ Seventeen by, Janet Evanovich
Dragontime by, Anne & Todd McCaffrey
Forever by, Maggie Steifvater
The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club: True Tales from a Magnificent and Clumsy Life Available in paperback & Audiobook & I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies): True Tales of a Loudmouth Girl available in audiobook only by, Laurie Notaro narrated by, Hillary Huber*-
Variant by, Robinson Wells
The Night Circus by, Erin Morgenstern
The Woman in Black by, Susan Hill
Hide by, Lisa Gardner (Re-read)

3 ½ Stars
The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by, Jacqueline Kelly
Still Life by, Louise Penny
Storm Front by, Jim Butcher
Bloody Valentine by, Melissa De La Cruz
The Demon Trapper Daughter by, Jana Oliver
The Sherlockian by, Graham Moore
Lost in a Good Book by, Jasper Fforde
Water Witch by,Deborah LeBlanc
Save Me by, Lisa Scottoline
Lethal Lineage by, Charlotte Hinger narrated by, Karen White Available in Audio only
The Lantern by,Deborah Lawrenson
Praise Jerusalem! by, Augusta Trobaugh
3 Stars
The Murderer’s Daughters by, Randy Susan Meyers
American Gods by, Neil Gaiman
I am Number Four by, Pittacus Lore
The Haunting of Hill House by, Shirley Jackson
Deck the Halls by, Mary & Carol Higgins Clark
Mary Bolelyn Mistress of Kings by, Alison Weir

2 ½ Stars
The Twentieth Wife by, Indu Sundaresan
City of Bones by, Cassandra Clare
The Winter Ghosts by, Kate Mosse
The Borrowers by, Rebecca Makkai narrated by, Emily Bauer Available in Audio Only
The Ballad of Tom Dooley by, Sharyn McCrumb
The Red Pyramid by, Rick Riordan

The Winter Sea by,Susanna Kearsley~~Review

None of the descriptions I have found of this book do it justice they all make it sound like time travel and it's not so I'll just say see the pretty cover the book lives up to the cover!

The Winter Sea by,Susanna Kearsley
This was a nice mix of historical fiction and a modern day story set in Scotland, this was recommended to me because I love the Outlander Series. First off this doesn’t have time travel as I’ve seen some people say it has genetic memories which was a new device for me, but it worked well. It was interesting how modern day author Carrie is writing her novel and the characters in her head tell her how the story should go then she checks the historical records and they match perfect so there is this little bit of genetic memory, possible ghost story. I have heard from authors when they talk about their writing process that the characters decide where the story goes and not the writer and how they feel like their characters come to life, so this was kind of a take on this concept.

Both the present day and historical stories are blended well with the historical story set during the Jacobite rebellion of 1708 which was very well done and researched. There is romance in both stories that kind of mirror each other but both are kind of chaste and bittersweet neither is a big passionate affair just a nice addition to the story.

I enjoyed this story very much and would recommend it to fans of historical fiction. I will be reading more by this author!

4 ½ Stars

Variant (Variant #1) by Robison Wells ~~Review

Variant (Variant #1) by Robison Wells
Description: Benson Fisher thought that a scholarship to Maxfield Academy would be the ticket out of his dead-end life.
He was wrong.
Now he’s trapped in a school that’s surrounded by a razor-wire fence. A school where video cameras monitor his every move. Where there are no adults. Where the kids have split into groups in order to survive.
Where breaking the rules equals death.
But when Benson stumbles upon the school’s real secret, he realizes that playing by the rules could spell a fate worse than death, and that escape—his only real hope for survival—may be impossible.

My Review:
I’ll just start by saying I Want More!

This was a unique story, foster kid Benson gets a scholarship for a private school, thinking things are finally looking up he is excited to be given this chance, but as soon as he gets to the school everything changes and things are not at all what they seem.

This story kept me on the edge of my seat it was intriguing and action packed however it ended too soon and left me wanting the 2nd book right now! The writing was good and kept me guessing right along with Benson. I don’t want to give anything away so I will say I highly recommend this new Young Adult series and I believe Robinson Wells is an author to watch out for!

This book was kind of a cross between Lord of the Flies and The Hunger Games but I don’t really feel it is dystopian because I think it is happening in our time and I got the impression that the world outside the school is normal to our present standards.

4 Stars

Ashfall by, Mike Mullins~~Review

Ashfall by, Mike Mullins
Alex lives in Cedar Rapids Iowa his parents have left him home alone for the weekend but it’s not the weekend he is hoping it will be when something crashes into his house and burns it to the ground you’d think that would be the worst of it but it is only the beginning. A Supervolcano in Yellowstone has gone off and changed the world as we know it; Alex sets off to find his family in a trek of survival, starvation and terror. Along the way Alex’s will is tested he does find some nice people that help him along the way but he also runs into people who would do him harm. He ends up at the farmhouse of Darla and her mother but tragedy strikes there too so he and Darla set off cross country to find his family.

The vivid descriptions of our world after the volcano the ash fall, the blocking out of the sun, the noise, the snow, and just trying to survive. This book doesn’t show our government in a very good light but honestly I could see it happening. Alex is a strong willed boy but Darla is strong and being a farm girl knows things about survival that city boy Alex never could. They make a great pair and I don’t think either one could have survived without the other. It was refreshing to have a male lead character yes there is a female but she is later in the book and compliments our male lead very well.

This book was scary in the way that this could really happen and since I live only a few states away from Yellowstone it hit home a bit. This book also made me curious enough about the Supervolcano that I looked things up and watched the BBC movie Supervolcano.

One of the best quotes from this book about the inhumanity these kids saw was...

“For the first time ever, I felt ashamed of my species. The volcano had taken our homes, our food, our automobiles, and our airplanes, but it hadn’t taken our humanity. No, we’d given that up on our own.”

I enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down and look forward to the next installment in this series. Though this is a series it did have a conclusion but with more story to come!

4 ½ Stars

Snowflower and the Secret Fan by, Lisa See~~Nov.Book Club Pick

This was our book club's first pick and a great one it was! Everyone loved this heartbreakingly beautiful book; this book will stay with you long after you finish reading it. Highly recommended by all members of our library book club!

Susie's Review:This book is heartbreaking and beautiful all at the same time. I just want to go on and on about how much I loved this book. This book made me care so much about Lily & Snow Flower that the last part of the book broke my heart. Lisa See’s writing is so beautiful this story just flowed and was so hard to put down.

The foot binding part was so very hard to read about and the way women were treated was so appalling some of the things said that stood out:

The loss of a child is hard even if it is only a daughter.
Thank you Baba for raising a worthless daughter.
Better to have a dog than a daughter.

The relationship between these two women was so real, even with your best friend you will fight and make up and you may not be living the same type of life at the same time. The trials & tribulations these two women went through and the change of status was so fascinating to read helped along by the fluidity of the writing. As young girls Snow Flower seemed to have it all but thanks to Lily’s perfect little feet she found a prestigious match for a husband who I think through it all treated her with kindness for the most part in the day and age they lived in. Snow Flower was not so lucky and life was much harder on her.

I finished this book awhile ago for our book club and we will be discussing it tomorrow night so I waited so my thoughts wouldn’t influence what others thought of this book and they wouldn’t influence my review. I finished this about 2 weeks ago and am still thinking about it this book will stay with you and make you think and realize how far women have come!

I highly recommend this book to... well everyone!

5 Stars

We All Wore Stars: Memories of Anne Frank from Her Classmates~~Review

We All Wore Stars: Memories of Anne Frank from Her Classmates by Theo Coster
Description:In 1941, Theo Coster was a student at the Amsterdam Jewish Lyceum, one in a class of 28 Jewish children that the Nazis had segregated from the rest of the Dutch population. Among Theo’s fellow students was a young Anne Frank, whose diary would later become one of the most important documents of the Holocaust. In this remarkable group portrait, Coster and five of his fellow classmates gather their personal stories and memories of Anne. The accounts collected here do not just help us to rediscover Anne Frank. They also stand on their own as remarkable stories of ingenuity and survival during the Holocaust--from Albert Gomes de Mesquita, who hid in ten different towns across Europe--to Hannah Goslar, who experienced the horrors of Bergen-Belsen but also made a miraculous reconnection with Anne days before her death.

My Review:
This was a very thought provoking book, we have all read her book or at least heard of Anne Frank but we’ve never heard about the kids from her class that survived. So many Jewish kids in the Netherlands went into hiding some were fortunate to be taken in with families that took good care of them some had freedom and some had to stay hidden.

This was a project that encompassed not only a book but a documentary too, (which I really want to see.) Theo Coster went looking for other classmates that also survived to see how they did it and to talk about Anne what they remembered of her, what was her personality really like and did as many boys have crushes on her as she wrote about in her now famous diary. Some of the survivors did end up in camps and some were in hiding with families risking their lives to help them, some hid in villages in the woods. A couple of the girls even saw Anne in Bergen-Belsen before her death.

These stories, as all stories of the Holocaust are so important to tell because the age of survivors is rising and their stories need to be remembered so these atrocities don’t happen again.

This book made me search out the documentary which I unfortunately could not find, but I did watch a different one about other hidden children of the Netherlands and the families that helped them are so amazing. But that is what a book like this should do is make you think, make you research and remember so nothing like this ever happens again. It also makes me want to go back and read Anne’s diary which I haven’t read in quite a few years.

I think this book should be a companion to The Diary of Anne Frank and any classroom that reads Anne’s diary should read this book along with it to hear from people that did survive to tell their tale.

I highly recommend this book.

5 Stars

I received this book from the Librarything Early Reviewers Program

Woman in Black by, Susan Hill~~Review

My Review:

This was a good spooky ghost story not gory but psychologically suspenseful. Arthur Kripps is given the task of going through the papers of a woman he has never met her, but his firm is handling her affairs after her death. What Arthur finds in the town and house is something that will stay with him for the rest of his life.

This book was written very well with just the right amount of suspense and trepidation, as events happen to Arthur I found myself with butterflies in my stomach and was glad no one came up behind me while I was reading. I liked that the author made you feel the darkness, smell the marshes, and hear the sounds and that’s what’s great about this book it has great atmosphere and does a good job at pulling you in.

If you are a fan of Victorian ghost stories I highly recommend this book this will be a book I will recommend to anyone who likes ghost stories that are suspenseful without any blood & gore.

This was my first book by Susan Hill and after her descriptive writing in this book I will try others by her.

4 Stars

Don't forget this is the play at DPRCA call for info; 1 701.947.2174 or visit their website here

There is also a movie coming out starring Daniel Radcliffe see trailer and more info here

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs ~Review

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

My Review:This combination of great story and spooky old pictures is a hit! I could not put this book down! This is the story of Jacob whose grandfather tells him ,what he thinks are tall tales, about a home he was evacuated to during WWII from Poland to Wales and the other peculiar children there. Interspersed in this book are great old photographs which enhance this story and serve to make you a believer too.

This quote from the book I think describes Jacob’s journey and this book well:
And that is how someone who is unusually susceptible to nightmares, night terrors, the Creeps, the Willies and Seeing Things That Aren’t Really There talks himself into making one last trip to the abandoned, almost-certainly-haunted house where a dozen or more children met their untimely end.

But what he finds is even more fascinating this is hard I don’t want to give anything away because I want you to have the pleasure of reading this magical book. This story will keep you on the edge of your seat as each secret is revealed I was riveted.


This was a great book I just want to gush about it and I am really hoping that we will get more of this story because I didn’t want it to end and would really love a second book. This was the perfect book to kick off my spooky reading month!

As you probably have figured out I highly recommend this book.

5 Stars

Cut By:Patricia McCormick

Summary:

Callie was put into Sea Pines to work on her "issues". She is not at Sea Pines voluntarily. Callie refuses to talk to anyone. Its not like she cant talk. She used to talk all the time. Then she was forced to go to Sea Pines. She thinks therapy is torture. She thinks group therapy is worse. The other girls "issues" are terrible, stupid things they shouldn't do. She does not think she has "issues". But what if she does?

This story relates to real issues that real people have. Its really hard to find a story that relates to teens without making our problem seem so immature. Patricia McCormick has found a way to write about real teen problems in a way that make a person realize how real they are. This is a great story about real issues.

Rating:

4 stars

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai Audiobook ~~Review

The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai Audiobook narrated by, Emily Bauer

Synopsis from Goodreads: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?

My Review:
This is a very odd unbelievable story as our children’s librarian tries to help out 10 year old Ian who may or may not be gay but his Christian parent’s think he may be so they send him to an anti-gay Minister/treatment and only want him to read God-filled stories. This author does have a good grasp on children’s literature with the quotes and characters from other books, however as a librarian not so much. When Ian runs away to the library and ends up in Lucy’s car they end up on a road trip and this where this story goes off the rails for me. Lucy talks about oh what I’m doing is wrong but she doesn’t take the boy home just because his parents don’t let him read the books he wants to read??I’m sorry as a librarian I am all for Intellectual freedom but I also believe that it is a parents right to decide what their child reads He Is 10 years old and who are you as a 20 something children’s librarian to decide what is good for him? I felt she was helping enough letting him read what he wanted while he was in the library and helping him smuggle out books but the whole road trip/kidnapping was just going too far.

Lucy and Ian are both a bit annoying and actually unsympathetic and I found it really hard to continue with this book but since I received this as an Early Review Copy I must finish, between the story, the characters and the Audiobook narrator this is really hard to keep going. Honestly I have tried 4 times to finish this one because I have to stop for awhile and get away from the grating voice and whiny narrator.


I listened to this on audio and I just want to clarify I listen to a lot of audiobooks in a month and I have heard some wonderful narrators unfortunately Emily Bauer isn’t one of them she sounded like a little kid while narrating Lucy then when she was doing the voice of Ian it was even worse and was extremely grating. If she was narrating as a child she may be ok but she is narrating the voice of an adult and sounds like a whiny preteen.

However her voice and the story grew on me… I wrote the above when I was half way through. The road trip as a whole had its cute parts but it was still really hard to understand why there wasn’t an amber alert and the parents weren’t on TV wringing their hands so I decided to kind of put it in my head it set in an earlier decade it was easier to suspend my thinking and just enjoy the story.

All in all this isn’t a bad book you just have to be willing to suspend your belief about the circumstances and just let the story tell itself.

Hovering between 2 ½ and 3 Stars
FYI My Rating System:
3 Stars- Good Book but some things didn't connect with me
2 1/2 Stars- just didn't connect to this book but was ok

Full Disclosure: I received this book from Librarything Early Reviewer Program

Bloodroot by, Amy Greene~~Review

Bloodroot by, Amy Greene~~Named for a flower whose blood-red sap possesses the power both to heal and poison, Bloodroot is a stunning fiction debut about the legacies—of magic and madness, faith and secrets, passion and loss—that haunt one family across the generations, from the Great Depression to today.

My Review:

This was a very different story and kind of hard to review without giving the story away. It has a beautiful magical quality to it. The characters are all very flawed and the story jumps between time periods and narrators. It’s a family saga that spans 3 generations in the Appalachian Mountains.

The main focus is Myra Lamb whose parents died in a car accident when she is small and her grandma Byrdie then raises her, we hear the story of Myra’s parents and Myra’s life and the life of her children. Myra is a tomboy who loves the mountains and is always looking for her next adventure. She has a pretty good life until she meets and marries John Odom then things go downhill for her. The main part of the story is about her children Laura & John who do not have a very good life.

The story does keep you guessing about a few a things until the end and there are some storylines that didn’t seem to needed but then there are these coincidences you find out as the story progresses that lend to the magical realism of this book.

I did enjoy this book the whole feel of it is good although I must warn you it is not a happy story its sad and I wasn’t totally satisfied with the ending and kind of wished the characters had known what I knew about the coincidences. But all in all I would recommend this book if you like southern fiction with magical realism and family saga’s.

3 ½ stars

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay~~Review

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay Description from goodreads:
Paris, July 1942: Sarah, a ten year-old girl, is taken with her parents by the French police as they go door-to-door arresting Jewish families in the middle of the night. Desperate to protect her younger brother, Sarah locks him in a bedroom cupboard—their secret hiding place—and promises to come back for him as soon as they are released.

Sixty Years Later: Sarah's story intertwines with that of Julia Jarmond, an American journalist investigating the roundup. In her research, Julia stumbles onto a trail of secrets that link her to Sarah, and to questions about her own romantic future.

In Sarah's Key, Tatiana de Rosnay offers up a mesmerizing story in which a tragic past unfold, the present is torn apart, and the future is irrevocably altered.

My Review

What a great book I had heard good things about it and can’t keep it on the shelf at the library but I didn’t realize just how good of a story this was.

The two stories merge together so flawlessly and you come to care so much for both Sarah and Julia. Sarah’s story is set during the holocaust in Paris during the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup where the French police rounded up all the Jews including thousands of children and sent them off to their deaths, but Sarah’s story goes so far beyond just the holocaust it is so heartbreaking. Julia is in modern-day Paris and a journalist hired to do a story about the roundup but what she finds hits so much closer to home than she ever imagined.

I loved this book it was so hard to put it down because I just had to know what had happened to Sarah. It also, like all good historical fiction should do, made me research the facts of this horrible day in France’s history because I like Julia had never heard of it and to me that is what this book is about as she says To Never Forget. This glimpse into history is a fictionalized account of the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup but it made me aware of it and the lives lost in a section of the Holocaust I knew nothing about. Also that these atrocities were carried out by the French Police on the orders of the Nazi’s not the Nazi’s themselves just seems to make it all the more heartbreaking.

If you follow my reviews you will know I love books that have a modern and a historical story and this one was no exception Tatiana de Rosnay beautifully blended these stories together. Ok I will stop gushing now.

I highly recommend this book, I listened to it on audio and narrator Polly Stone does a great job at bringing these characters to life.

5 stars

The Distant Hours by, Kate Morton~~Review

The Distant Hours by, Kate Morton

Kate Morton does it again with this great gothic feeling story of the 3 Blythe sisters and the ward they kept during the evacuation of the children from London during WWII, Meredith. The story we have in the present day is Meredith’s daughter Edie finds a letter to her mother from Juniper Blythe youngest of the spinster Blythe sisters and Edie finds out her mother was billeted with them at Milderhurst Castle during the war a fact her mother has never spoken a word about, especially considering Edie’s favorite book as a child "The Mudman" was written by the Blythes eccentric father. So Edie decided to travel to the castle and find out what she can about her mother’s time there and the reclusive author of her favorite childhood book. But what she finds out about the Blythe family goes so far beyond her mother and the ramifications of the secrets of the past and how they have affected the sisters.

This book had the great twists and turns and family secrets that Kate Morton has become known for I didn’t want to stop reading/listening to this one and was sad when I had to stop! I just want to gush like a fangirl about Kate Morton I can’t say enough about how much I enjoy all her books. I also can’t say enough about the audio versions Caroline Lee’s narration is so good and I highly recommend all Kate Morton’s books in audiobook format. They are a great read either way and I can’t wait for a new book by this author since I have now devoured everything she has written so far!

4 ½ Stars

The Library has this book in softcover and also The Forgotten Garden & The House on Riverton I highly recommend all books by this author!

Ingenue (The Flappers #2) by Jillian Larkin~~Review

Ingenue (The Flappers) by Jillian Larkin

We start up this second book in the Flapper’s series in New York City, Gloria and Jerome hiding out from the mob, Lorraine working for the mob, Clara is back in the city that almost ruined her, can she stay away from her old life or is it too much of a temptation and Vera trying to find her brother and hopefully save his life and make up for what she had done in Chicago. Relationships go through some growing pains in this one! You’ll be surprised who ends up the happiest in the end.

This one was a lot of fun again with some major intrigue as the stories and people converged for the climax and what a climax it was! It isn’t really a cliffhanger but the end of one chapter and the next book will be a new one because parts of this story were wrapped up very well, yet with just enough mystery to keep fans reading to see what happens next.

I so enjoy the atmosphere in this series, the 20’s ,flappers, bootleggers, booze, gangsters and some famous people of the time play into this story! I love who Vera meets backstage at the Cotton Club and who engineers some of the bad things that happen! (No Spoilers)

I think this is a great YA historical fiction series that teens and adults alike will enjoy no fantasy involved just a look at life in a different time when women were just starting to come into their own, segregation is in effect except of course that it’s ok for the African Americans to entertain you but they must come in the back door and an interracial relationship will get you in trouble I think it gives a great look at a life we can only imagine and hope that we have moved far away from. I do love books that that show strong women and this one is full of them , women in 1920 leaving the notions and traditional roles their parents have laid out for them to make their way in the world on their own, scary as that is.

I look forward to the next installment of this series!

4 stars

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by, Helen Simonson ~~Review

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by, Helen Simonson
Description:Major Ernest Pettigrew, retired, of Edgecombe St. Mary, England, is more than a little dismayed by the sloppy manners, narcissism, and materialism of modern society. The decline of gentility is evident everywhere, from tea bags, to designer sweaters, to racism masquerading as tolerance.
Mutual grief allies him with Mrs. Ali, a widowed local shopkeeper of Pakistani descent who has also resigned herself to dignified, if solitary, last years. The carefully suppressed passion between these two spawns twitters of disapproval in their provincial village, but Pettigrew hasn't time for such silliness: real estate developers are plotting to carpet the fields outside his back door with mansionettes and his sister-in-law plans to auction off a prized family firearm. Meanwhile, Mrs. Ali's late husband's Muslim family expects her to hand over her hard-won business to her sullen, fundamentalist nephew, a notion she finds repellant and chauvinistic.

It's a testament to Simonson that in this delightful novel, Pettigrew
must navigate the tragic, the absurd, and the transcendentally joyful aspects of a familiar life turned upside down by an unfamiliar and unexpected late-life love affair. That two people from opposing and mutually distrusting worlds are able to bridge every gap with unerring respect and decorum serves as a quiet suggestion that larger conflicts might be avoided or resolved in much the same way. Finally, a way forward that Major Pettigrew would approve.



My Review:

This was a delightful story, the Major is such a charming gentleman trying to come to terms with getting older and ending some of the “proper” things he is used to. I really enjoyed the blossoming relationship with Mrs. Ali who is a Pakistani shop keeper although she was born and raised in England the people of the town don’t see her that way as the major soon finds out.

This was almost like a coming of age story but in an older very British man. This was such an interesting love story and for the Major to “see” his peers and friends in a whole new light and in turn seeing himself too. The Major’s son Roger had me mad a few times he’s a pompous git.

I just found this a great story it is all about the characters there’s no murder, no fantasy, just a wonderful group of characters beautifully written.

I think if you liked The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society give this one a try!

4 ½ Stars

The Art of Racing in the Rain by, Garth Stein~~Review

The Art of Racing in the Rain by, Garth Stein
Description:
Enzo knows he is different from other dogs: a philosopher with a nearly human soul (and an obsession with opposable thumbs), he has educated himself by watching television extensively, and by listening very closely to the words of his master, Denny Swift, an up-and-coming race car driver. Through Denny, Enzo has gained tremendous insight into the human condition, and he sees that life, like racing, isn't simply about going fast. Using the techniques needed on the race track, one can successfully navigate all of life's ordeals.

A heart-wrenching but deeply funny and ultimately uplifting story of family, love, loyalty, and hope, The Art of Racing in the Rain is a beautifully crafted and captivating look at the wonders and absurdities of human life...as only a dog could tell it

My Review:

This is an interesting book because it is narrated by the dog, Enzo. This book is bittersweet a dogs perspective on life in his family. A mix of sadness and humor as is real life. Parts of this book angered me the grandparents really made me mad! Enzo has seen enough on TV to think that if he is smart enough he will be reincarnated as a man.

When he gets left alone with the demon zebra stuffed animal that he must destroy is too funny. When they washed his stuffed animal I could just picture my old dog when I washed his toys. Also when Enzo got old it made me sad for my old dog who had a lot of the same problems when he got old and to hear it from the dog point of view was definitely something different and made me sad.

This book was so believable even if it was narrated by the dog it was a great look into the mind of a dog and as I have always believed that they understand everything. The racing jargon/talk may be a bit much for some but I enjoyed it. But it’s not really a story of a dog but about a family and the crisis’ they go through and how Enzo is there to help them through!

Bark Twice!

Warning sad ending have tissues ready! Not a spoiler you will know it’s going to happen!
I listened to this on audio narrated by, Christopher Evan Welch who did a really good job! Would listen to him again.
4 Stars

The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London

Let’s call this one a double feature, but first, a little backstory (but just a little). The Call of the Wild was published in 1903 and tells the tale of a dog named Buck and his journey to becoming a wild beast. Published three years later, White Fang focuses on a wild wolf pup who finds a domestic home, quite the mirror image. While The Call was published first, I’ve always thought of it as a sort of “sequel” to White Fang, and I don’t think those who have also read both would call that too much of a stretch. Anyway, both novels are extremely accessible considering the ever-growing gap between then and now. The writing is such that it isn’t dressed up and dragged down by unnecessary flourishes or “padding” for the sake of page length. In fact, The Call of the Wild clocks in at just over one hundred pages with White Fang at roughly three hundred. London achieves a straightforward yet eloquent style that keeps the story at an even pace and readers ever eager to turn the next page. I could go on praising these two classics, but it all comes down to this. The Call of the Wild and White Fang are both highly enjoyable and refreshing. They warrant, at the very least, a look from those who are unfamiliar with the two titles and a revisit for those who are.