Not worth reading

I listened to maybe half of Nicholas Sparks's At First Sight trying to get interested in it, then finally quit. Usually when I get that far I just finish, but it wasn't worth it. The whole plot was about arguments leading up to the main characters' wedding and I just wasn't impressed.

River of Hidden Dreams

Mom mentioned enjoying this book (by Connie May Fowler) earlier in the year. I just read it and liked it also. It was interesting enough that I could pick it up after not reading for a few days and still get back into it. It's written from several different perspectives, and I had a hard time going back and forth between them all because I was often reading just a short passage, then waiting several days. I think listening to books really helps with that because the narrators make the voices really stand out.

Freakonomics

I started reading this book, by Steven D Levitt, while on Kodiak, then had to leave it behind. I just listened to the whole thing. It's definitely worth reading. It's full of fascinating facts and figures and ideas about how society works. Since I've been listening to it, I keep wanting to spout out bits of info I learned. I'll have to look into the next book, Super Freakonomics, also.

Major Pettigrew's Last Stand

It's always fun to listen to a book set in England because you get to hear the proper British accents. This book, by Helen Simonson, was full of proper British ideals that were being turned upside-down by the characters. Major Pettigrew is a man of high moral standards and all things properly white and British, and he finds himself falling in love with a lady from Pakistan.

I was impressed with the richness of detail in this book, and the characters were very interesting with their various quirks. It also was an interesting look into the 'country club society' clashing with the 'lower class.'

The Chosen One

This is a young adult book by Carol Lynch Williams, and I highly recommend it. The Chosen One is about teenage girl in a polygamous community. She has been chosen as a bride for her uncle who is 5o years older than she. The story tells of some of the awful things going on in her community, and then how she runs away and is caught. Parts of this story made my stomach turn because it describes some pretty graphic scenes, and it's just plain disturbing to think of a 13-year-old being forced into marriage. It's a fascinating look into the religious bondage that the fundamentalist LDS have gotten into and one girls' struggle to get away. This was fiction, but it's made me interested in reading some non-fiction, first-hand accounts about these people.

Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

With a name like that, you know the book is going to be entertaining. And it was. I laughed out loud many, many times--but also wanted to cry as parts of World War II were described.

I listened to this book while riding in the car, and it definitely made the miles pass faster. It's written as a series of letters from several different people, so listening to it you get the different voices and the British accents.

This book is written by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows and is definitely worth reading.

The Last Song

I've read most of Nicholas Sparks's books, and I think this one is the best. It seemed to have a depth that the others don't have. His books are good for easy-to-read, sweet romances, but I was really impressed with The Last Song.

However, I read it a couple weeks ago, so I can't give you a very good description of it........but one of the things that was different from most of his books is that it was written from a younger perspective.

Has anyone else done any reading this summer? Am I really the only one?

The Invisible Bridge, by Julie Orringer

This is a book that struck me with awe. I listened to it, and I don't usually listen to books this long because it's hard to keep my attention all the way through (it was 27 hours long), but The Invisible Bridge was really interesting, heart-breaking yet encouraging, and well written. Some of her descriptive language made me stop and say 'wow'--which is especially amazing because I have found I notice language a lot less when I'm listening than when I'm actually reading.

The book's narrator is a young Jewish man from Hungary, and it follows his family's story through the years leading up to and during World War II.

I can only find one other book by Orringer, and it's a collection of short stories, which I rarely read--but I was impressed enough with her writing that I might have to look into them.

The Invisible Bridge is definitely worth the time it takes to read.

Ally Carter

I highly recommend all of Ally Carter's books. I just finished listening to Heist Society and would read it again. Carter writes for young adults and keeps me entertained all the way through.

Heist Society is about a girl who is part of a family who steals art. She cheats her way into a boarding school because she wants to get away from the family 'business,' but when her dad is accused of stealing some art he didn't steal, she decides to steal the art from the man who stole it to return it to the owner--who really shouldn't have owned it anyway, but was threatening to kill her father if it wasn't returned. Makes total sense, doesn't it? But they are worth the waiting list that all of Carter's books are on in the audio portion of the library.

Half Broke Horses, Jeannette Walls

I loved The Glass Castle, but wasn't sure what I would think about the new Jeannette Walls, a story of her grandmother as a first person narrative. I ended up loving the book, even though I often get so depressed reading about the depression, the dust bowl, poverty, etc.

Walls does a fabulous job, as in Castle of showing and not telling. I didn't particularly like the main character, and often despised how she treated some people, especially the emotional development of her daughter (now i know how Rosemary ended up the mother she was portrayed in Castle.) I didn't agree with many of her philosophies in life, or some of the conclusions she came to or assumed about everyone. But i definitely got to know her, I felt as if I met a real person with an intriguing story, and recommend taking the time to read the story (and Walls memoir!)Tawn

Tomorrow's Treasure, by Linda Lee Chaikin

This book is the first in a trilogy about the late 1800s when South Africa was being explored for its diamond and gold mines. The story follows a family heavily involved in diamonds and the scandals and society that surrounded the mines. The main character in this book is a girl who was orphaned during a Zulu uprising and then sent to England to grow up as a vicar's daughter.

This is another author from the Christian genre that is worth reading. A very interesting story line, lots of intrigue, etc--left me wanting to read the rest of the books in the series (I'm now in the middle of the second book, Yesterday's Promise.

Mrs. Mike

Benedick & Nancy Freedman originally published this book in the 40s. It's about a girl from Boston who left home at age 16 and married a Canadian mountie, who took her to live in the far north of Canada.

The story tells of all sorts of harrowing experiences in very untamed country at the turn of the century. The style of writing was interesting in that it didn't take much time for reflection until the very end, so the book moves quickly. It's a sweet love story but is also filled with tragedy. I recommend reading it.

Hmmm this isn't a very good review either, but it's a book worth reading (if you can find it, since it's probably been out of print since the 70s).

The Red Necklace

This is a novel by Sally Gardner about the French Revolution. I listened to it in short bursts over the last month, so I didn't retain a lot of it. But it was good enough to keep listening to in spite of being so broken up. It's a bit of a mystery, some drama, history and a little romance thrown in. Listening to it was especially entertaining because all the dialogue was in French and English accents. This is a pitiful review, but suffice it to say that it was a good book.

A good book and a cup of tea

Hasn't anyone been reading anything lately?!? I haven't read anything besides my Bible, cooking records, and recipes for the last several weeks, so I'm sorry I can't contribute much beyond recommending Hebrews 11 as a great preps study. Plus I have a good recipe for Shrimp Fettuchini (except I really can't recommend it yet, since I haven't actually tried it, plus the recipe is geared for 200 people). Maybe someday I'll have time to read books again.......

The Goodbye Season

I just listened to The Goodbye Season by Marian Hale, and recommend it. I wish I had read it, simply because I kept getting distracted while I was listening so didn't pay quite enough attention.

It's about a girl who loses her family to the Spanish flu, and she goes around trying to find work. One of her main hopes in life is to not end up like her mother, trapped in a marriage instead of living her dream, so that desire shapes her decisions.

From the Christian Genre

Having found myself in a home with shelf upon shelf of Amish/Christian books and plenty of time on my hands to read, I'd like to announce that with the exception of being clean, a lot of these books are poorly written and not worth reading. So of the four authors I've read in the last several days, here's how I rate them, worst to best:

I won't bother to read another of Wanda E Brunstetter's books. I read Going Home and the plot was totally predictable and the dialogue was horrible.

Even though I only skimmed the second half of B.J. Hoff's A Distant Music, I was just curious enough to read/skim the second book in the series. But I didn't bother with the third.

Beverly Lewis is a pretty decent author, with an intriguing insight into Amish culture in the book I read, The Parting.

I was about to give up on the shelf of books when I read When the Heart Cries, by Cindy Woodsmall. And then I stayed up too late last night finishing it. The plot was in-depth and heart-wrenching, and made me cry. Today I'm almost through the second in the series, When the Morning Comes, so except for the titles that shout pretty loudly that they are Christian books, I do recommend them. They aren't your typical "everything works out in the end because of their faith" books.

The Gift of an Ordinary Day, Katrina Kenison

If you google the title of this book you will find a YouTube video of the author reading a portion of the book. Just that made me want to buy this book to keep in my home library. Tammy Langill said she bought it and is reading it now and the report is "it's very good"! So I'll be making an Amazon order soon.

Thanks for the tip

I just listened to Mennonite in a Little Black Dress and really enjoyed it, thanks for the recommendation Tawn. It's a book that I would like to read in book form because I think I missed a lot by listening to it and not being able to re-read and focus on some parts. Plus when I listen while I walk it's hard to grab a dictionary.

Gordon Korman

I remember enjoying Korman's books as a teen, and recently have read a few of his newer books and enjoyed them too. Korman's first books to be published were written while he was still in high school. I just read No Coins, Please, one of his earlier books, and there was a definite lack of believability in it--no parent in their right mind, even in the 80s, would send their 11-year-old child on a road trip with a couple of 18-year-olds they had never met--but I still enjoyed the sense of humor.

Awhile back I listened to Pop, which I recommend for an entertaining read that also has some depth to it.

Another Jodi Picoult

I just finished Picture Perfect, one of Jodi Picoult's older books. It's about a girl married to a movie star who ends up being abusive, and her struggle to get out of the relationship. It was intense, especially the second half, but I felt like there were too many things going on at once: a movie star's career, anthropology, Native American culture, whirlwind romance, amnesia, pregnancy, abusive backgrounds. It felt a little like Picoult was trying to bring way too many things in to the story. The ending felt rushed, too--like you had just begun getting into the heart of the story and she ended it. Still, a good book, but I would say her writing has improved through the years.

Brooklyn - by Colm Tóibín

I'm a sucker for character driven novels. I discovered this book by accident while randomly pulling books off the shelf in the library and looking at their covers to see if they looked interesting. Toibin is an Irish author, and in this story the main character is an Irish young woman who sails across the ocean to Brooklyn because she can't find work in Ireland.

The story follows her from Ireland to Brooklyn and is narrated, albeit in the third person, in her voice. It tells of her experiences in the strange world of America and about how she copes with her distance from her family, and how she falls in love with an Italian boy. I think what I loved so much about this story is that the reader grows and changes with the girl (I keep calling her that because I can't remember her name!) as she experiences new things. The writing style is not fussy or overdone; the prose is elegant and interesting and doesn't interfere with the story.

Although this work is fiction, long after I've finished this book I find myself wondering what happened to her, and what her life was like after the story ended. The book covers only about a year and a half of her life. Definitely worth reading if you like in depth character studies.

More Orson Scott Card

I know Amy already posted about Orson Scott Card, but he is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. Besides Enders Game, I've also read some of his other books in a series called "Women of Genesis". These are historical fiction novels about, you guessed it, the women in Genesis. Since OSC is an devout Mormon, he has a healthy amount of respect for Biblical stories and instead of skewing the story (like Anita Diamonte does in the Red Tent) he tells mostly faithful "interpretations" of the stories of women we've all read about in the Bible. So far I've read "Sarah", "Rachael and Leah," and half of "Rebecca." I like "Sarah" best so far. OSC's gift is his ability to create believable dialogue, and these books are beautifully written depictions of the culture and struggles of these women.

Additionally, I have listened to book One in OSC's "Memory of Earth" series on CD. These books are a return to the science fiction he is best known for and worth reading in my opinion. Like the book Amy reviewed, this story is set in the future on a planet called Harmony where the last survivors of earth fled after destroying their own planet in nuclear war.

Comment on The Help

I'm afraid that no one else will go back over the comments and find this one that Tawn recently posted about The Help so I want to encourage you to go back and read it--or at the very least read the book as she urges you to do in her comment: http://readreviewcrew.blogspot.com/2010/02/help.html.

In case you're interested, your email address can be added so you receive an email when someone posts a comment. I hate for follow-up comments to be lost in the archives.

Enders Game, Orson Scott Card

I really dislike sci-fi, but this book was well written and made me think and definitely kept me interested. This is set in the future, but as it was written in the 70's, it's a little interesting how things are skewed (Russians are the super bad guys on earth.) It's mostly about a boy who is groomed to save the world from the "buggers" and all that this entails, and incorporates all sorts of plot points from boarding type/military school, family love/bonds, keeping religion, etc. Try it, you might like it.

Songmaster, by Orson Scott Card

Thanks for the tip, Tawn. I probably wouldn't have read one of Card's books without encouragement, since they are sci-fi, but I really enjoyed Songmaster. There were some strange parts, but mostly it was a great book. It reminded me of Lois Lowry's The Giver trilogy (which I also recommend).

I listened to this book, which I recommend--one thing I don't like when reading a book is having character names that I'm not sure how to pronounce. The whole book I feel kind of disconnected from the characters because I'm not sure what their name is. It was only as I listened to the last half hour on my computer that I discovered one character's name is spelled "Rruk"---but since I'd been listening to it, I had no problem pronouncing it.

I have to admit it is fascinating to get someones take on what an alternate reality would be like. Songmaster is set thousands of years in the future, and it mentions the once-huge city of Seattle and how it's become just a small town.

I just realized that part of the reason I resist science fiction is because the mere thought of it brings to mind the few times growing up when I saw Star Trek episodes on TV and how much I didn't like it. I'm scarred for life...

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate

by Jacqueline Kelly. Some books you read and read and read and keep hoping to get to the good part, and it never comes. This is not like that.....you read (actually I'm listening to it on my walks) just because it captures your interest, and it doesn't matter where it leads! And, it makes me laugh out loud! A 12-year old girl, Texas, 1899, and delightful, so far.

A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True

by Brigid Pasulka. Several times I thought about putting this book down, because of frequent crudeness, but I persisted and really did enjoy the book, and the last bit of the story brought me to tears. It's about the people in a little village in Poland, beginning before WWII and jumps back and forth to the present time.

The Apothecary's Daughter

Julie Klassen wrote this book, set in the early 1800s. In a lot of ways it's a typical romance from that time period, with one girl trying to decide between her many suitors. But, there is also the struggle of a young girl trying to keep her father's apothecary going in the face of a culture that doesn't approve of women accomplishing anything in the medical field. I especially enjoyed reading details about outdated medical treatments (leeches, blood-letting, etc.) and the tensions between physicians and apothecaries.

I was a little annoyed to keep coming across typos--sentences that didn't read smoothly because of missed, added, or changed words.

I would rate this worth reading, especially if you're looking for a clean historical romance that has only the slightest hints of religion in it.

Songs of the Humpback Whale

I just finished reading this book, by Jodi Picoult, and it was typical to Picoult's writing: emotionally charged, interesting characters, well written.

I have only recently been able to put into words an observation about writing: Just because you have an interesting story to tell doesn't make you a good writer; even if you don't have an interesting story to tell, you can still write a good story. Picoult is from the second category. Not that this wasn't an interesting story, but some aspects of the story line were cliches: a marriage in which the husband and wife have grown apart due to him being a workaholic; a daughter caught in the midst of it; the wife's past of abuse comes back to haunt her; falling in love with people they shouldn't fall in love with; the husband realizing what he is missing when the wife and daughter run away and going to find them.

But the book is incredibly well done. Same old story, yet told in an interesting way. That, to me, is a fantastic author.

One of the techniques that Picoult used to make this book unique is she wrote the story from the perspective of several different people. All of the narrators told the story front to back, except for one, who tells the story back to front. So you know what happens at the end in the very beginning of the book, but the book is so engaging that you want to read it anyway.

The Lobster Chronicles

I recently listened to The Lobster Chronicles: Life on a Very Small Island, by Linda Greenlaw. I was intrigued by the title since my life lately has been spent in very small, isolated communities. (Okay, Juneau is not so small, but it is very isolated since you have to get here by either boat or plane.)

This book is almost more a series of essays than a novel, yet it still flows well as a whole. Greenlaw describes lobstering and some of the perks and shortcomings of living in an isolated place. It kept my interest, but wasn't riveting by any means (great as far as I'm concerned--interesting enough to make me pick it back up, not so fascinating that it keeps me up at night until I'm finished).

I'm pretty sure that Greenlaw did the reading herself for the audio book, which I'm not a fan of in general. So the audio wasn't great, but I would be interested in looking for her other books in the paper form.

Two Old Women

This is a short book by Velma Wallis, recording a legend from a native tribe in northern Alaska. The story is about two old women (imagine that!) who are left behind to die by their people in a time of famine, and how the two manage to survive and develop a friendship. It has some interesting looks into survival and betrayal and culture, all in a very quick read.

mennonite in a little black dress

Although in general I'm coming to despise this genre of books; the middle aged woman writing a memoir about finding herself after a failed marriage she has spent her adulthood cultivating (ugh, double ugh, and why didn't you realize this years ago or before you married him?), this book I can recommend to others.

The author, Rhoda Janzen, has a great vocabulary (i used the dictionary several times), interesting and fresh ways of describing things, and overall has a comedic style of writing. I dislike her overall viewpoint on life and the conclusions she comes to, but enjoyed learning more about the mennonite culture (and all that cabbage inspired food.)

Hiroshima

Our book club is reading Hiroshima for this month.  I am the one  'chairing the meeting'!
 If you didn't read this book in school... I didn't... then I recomend reading it now.  A very factual point of view about how the bomb effected the people in the city.  This book follows 6 people's lives from the morning of the bomb drop to a year later.  It seems to me that the book is writen in such a way as to let the reader make up their own mind about how to feel.  It just gives the facts of what happenend. 
I am making it sound very dry but this book isn't dry at all.  If you shed no tears in reading it, I would be susprised. 
It is very short, only 117 pages in the book that I read and it didnt' take long to read but it left me with deep feelings after reading it and will be one book that I will not forget.

Girl Overboard

This is a young adult book by Justina Chen Headley. I wouldn't put it on the must-read list, but it is an interesting, fun read, with some emotion thrown in there.

Girl Overboard is about a teen girl in an obscenely wealthy, Chinese-American family as she tries to find her own way in life without depending on her father's name. Syrah deals with a lot of issues--I just began typing out all the things she's confronting in this book and finally deleted the list because it's too long. She resolves a lot of problems with her family and ends up making an impact through snowboarding in a way that's all her own.

I didn't like the excessive use of capitalization on words just to give them extra meaning. Some parts of the book were a little too cutesy-wootsy. It's not going onto my list of young adult books that are truly great for all ages, but it would be a good teen book.

The Fourth Bear

The Fourth Bear is the second book in Jasper Fforde's Nursery Crime series. In a nutshell, Fforde's books are random. They make me laugh out loud and marvel over his creativity. This particular book includes a serial-killing Gingerbreadman, Goldilocks and the three bears, and of course, the ominous fourth bear.

Fforde includes so many twists and turns in his mysteries that it's hard to keep them all straight sometimes, but they are entertaining all the way. Not being a fan of fantasy, it surprises me that I like Fforde's books so much--but then, I'm not sure I'd classify them as fantasy, exactly. Just put them in the 'random' category.

I think that having the background of reading Fforde's Thursday Next series is a plus for reading The Fourth Bear, as there are lots of details that you might miss without the backstory. Mom, I think I saw you had this checked out from the library in December, did you ever read it? What did you think?

The Help

I'm almost finished listening to The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. Definitely well worth reading, and even more worth listening to.

The Help is set in the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. The book is narrated by two black maids and a young, white writer. Part of what makes it a great book to listen to is each narrator is read by a different person.

Stockett does a great job of building the characters, and I love her descriptions. The only reason I would recommend reading instead of listening would be so you could enjoy the descriptions at a more leisurely pace.

Skeeter, the white narrator, is fresh out of college and realizing that the way the black maids get treated doesn't sit well with her. She goes against her family and friends to secretly begin interviewing black maids in order to write a book. There is a lot of racial tension, but also wonderful insight into relationships.

Lurlene McDaniel

I read a lot of young adult books since they tend to be clean and are shorter, and lots of them are really well written. When I was a pre-teen/teen, I loved Lurlene McDaniel books. In the last couple of years I have found a few of them on bookshelves where I'm staying, so have re-read a few.

They aren't really worth it.

If you want an over-dramatic, quick story about a teen who is either A: dying, B: has a family member who is dying, or C: has a terrible disease, these would be good books to read. Especially if you want some teen romance thrown in there.

But they don't have much to recommend them beyond being touching stories--they aren't particularly well written, and what bothers me most is that from my limited experience of hospitals and the medical field, they aren't very accurate.

Still, I remember loving them as a teen, so if you fall into that category, you would probably enjoy them.

Library Audio Books

For anyone who hasn't heard about this or figured it out, many libraries now have an online catalogue where you can download audio books for free. Go to your library's website and look for a link for audio books. It is a great source.

I don't have a lot of time for actually reading books, but with walking and other projects that I can do while listening to books, I have 'read' many, many books by listening to them.

A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska: The Story of Hannah Breece

I just finished this book, edited by Jane Jacobs. Hannah Breece taught in remote villages in the early 1900s in Alaska (okay, all of AK was remote then, and most of it still is now). She compiled her memoir from letters she wrote, so she left out a lot of details that would have been fascinating in a book but would have worried her family and friends at the time.



As a memoir, it's not very well put together, lacking a strong narrative flow, but the tidbits of information she shares are really interesting. She is quite determined to civilize the natives and keep alcohol out of Alaska, and some of her 'proper' ideas on things make for amusing reading when considered 100 years after the fact.



It's a good read with an enlightening look at early Alaska, and Breece's editor, her great-niece, did a great job of filling in as many blanks as she could.

Slow Death by Rubber Duck, by Rick Smith & Bruce Lourie

I'm also reading "Slow Death by Rubber Duck", co-authored by Rick Smith and Bruce Lourie. It's about how the toxic chemistry of everyday life affects our health and how the living of daily life creates a toxic soup inside each of us!
If you are concerned about the level of toxins in your body and want to understand the hidden threats already in your home, this book is a good read. You'll never look at a rubber duck in the same way again!!

Lost in the Sand, by Shanna Ahmad

Right now I'm reading "Lost In The Sand" by Shanna Ahmad. The story is 90% fact but written in novel form. It's about a Kurdish woman's survival in the land of chemical experiments and genocide in the deserts of Iraq. The story is written about Najat and what was happening to the Kurdish people during the Sadam rule. I'm only part way through the book, but it's the kind of book you really don't want to put down.
Najat's village was bombed with chemicals when she was a young girl and everyone in the village died except she and a young boy. They had been up in the valley tending the boy's sheep. She was taken in by a family in another town who raised her and she attended university in Bagdad. While there she was noticed by Sa'adoun Alwan who was a high up memeber of the Ba'ath Party and he decided he wanted to marry her so he pretty much forced her family to agree to the marriage...the alternative most likey being death for the whole family! During her time in University, she was smuggling information out of Bagdad to her home in Sarkan which was passed on to someone who was trying to get information out to the West. Her purpose was to still try and help in any way she could even in her forced marriage. I'll know the rest of the story soon!
I was buying another book in Wall Mart the other day and I mentioned "Lost in the Sand" and the girl at the checkout got all excited about the book and told me the author, Shanna Ahmad actually lives in Penticton and works at a Shopper's Drugs. She said Shanna has been to their high school and told them about the book. This was confirmed by the man who owns "The Dusty Cover" book store in Osoyoos as well. So, maybe some day I'll get to meet this lady and get my book autographed. The book sells for about $40 but it has a copyright of 2007, so I'm sure one could order it from a library.

Crazy for the Storm - Norman Ollestad

Crazy for the Storm - A memoir of survival by Norman Ollestad (note -there are some swear words in this story)
" On February 19, 1979 I was in a plane crash with my father, his girlfriend Sandra, and the pilot of our chartered Cessna, Sandra was 30 years old. My dad was 42. I was 11. Just after sunrise, we slammed into a rugged 8,600 foot mountain engulfed in a blizzard. By the end of our nine-hour ordeal, I was the only survivor."
WOW! I really enjoyed this book. It kept me reading and I had a hard time putting it down to get other things done.
A very clearly written story from Norm as a 11 year olds perspective of how he got to the top of the mountain, ( he goes back to explained about his father and life up to the plane crash) and how he got to the bottom of the mountain ( he hears his father telling him not to give up and keeps pushing him on)
It also goes into the next years of his life of him coming to terms with his father's death.
Even though his dad pushed him to always do his best and at time Norm didn't' want to do the things his dad asked him to do, in the end this maybe have been his saving grace to pull though the crash and later in becoming an adult.
Some of the terminology is a bit over my head when he describes surfing and skiing because I don't do that, but I still go the feel of what he was trying to explain.

If you like to read a gripping story with a 'story book' ending this is a good one.

I am currently reading Remembering Blue, by Connie May Fowler. I enjoyed reading these of hers: Before Women Had Wings and River of Hidden Dreams.

Recently I read and enjoyed The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein. It had a good plot, a family love story and was interesting because it was written from the family dog's viewpoint. I'm going to mail it to Lindi.

Homestead, by Rosina Lippi was good. I sometimes got lost in the family connections. It's about different ones in a tiny Alpine village, spanning several generations.

I listened to Dawn, by Elie Wiesel, and then read the other 2 of the trilogy, Night and Day. I also read The Forgotten. Some of it is pretty gruesome, as he survived a concentration camp during WWII as a young boy.

The Dowry, a novel of Ireland, by Walter Keady was an interesting and funny story.

I listened to and enjoyed The Other by David Guterson. It's setting in WA added to the interest. It's about the friendship of 2 young boys, one from a poor family and one from a rich family and their outcomes.

For Women Only

I just finished reading "For Women Only" by Shaunti Feldhahn. - and I will be reading it again!  This is a non fiction book.  It is a few things that women need to know about the inner lives of men!  A quick read ( that is why I am reading it again)  It covers some topics that we just don't get about the men in our lives.  Shaunti did a national survey and personaly interviewed men and came up with the info for this book. 
I liked it because it was quick to read, very straight forward, and easy to understand, gives the 'problem' and then gives a 'solution'.
There is a bit of a Christian slant to this book but it only helped to make her points better.
It gave me a whole different way to look at my relation ship with the important men in my life and how the things I do and say may effect them in ways that I am not even aware of. I would say this is a book to read at any stage of your life, weather it's just getting into a relationship with a man, or even if you have been married for years and have always wondered about some of the 'funny' things that your man does...  It's kind of like a lightbulb moment book.

Don't Bother Unless You Like Werewolfs

I recently listened to Liar by Justine Larbalestier. I was a couple of hours into it when the main character turned out to be a werewolf. I was so annoyed, not being a huge fan of books involving make-believe creatures.

The problem is, I had enjoyed the book up to that point, and was quite aways into it, so I kept listening--but I kept being annoyed. Being so far into the book by the time Micah revealed herself to be a werewolf, it was that much harder for me to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the read. I suppose this is a lesson to me to read book descriptions better.

Liar is a young adult book, and if you enjoy the genre it would be a good read--but be forewarned that Micah is not a human narrator.

Protect and Defend

On the subject of legal books, I finished Richard North Patterson's Protect and Defend, and recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about the politics and court decisions regarding late term abortion. I knew very little on this subject, and felt the book did a fair job of showing all sides, even if the author was quite obviously slanted in the pro-choice/liberal/democrat camp.

The basic premise is a 15 yeard old daughter of pro-life activist who found out at 20 weeks her baby had a 99% chance of not having a brain, and birthing him would require a risky classic c-section that would possibly leave her infertile. Her parents refused to sign abortion permission, so she took them to court, and this all coincided with a new supreme court judge . . . interesting and worthwhile to read.

The Broker

I just finished listening to John Grisham's The Broker. I generally try to listen to shorter books because I'm only listening to them in short blurbs while I'm walking, so it's hard to keep interested in really long ones. However, I find his books such easy listening and so intriguing that they keep my attention.

The Broker, like most of Grisham's other books, left my mind spinning with all the possibilities that could happen in the world today in a realm that I have very little knowledge of: the court system and lawyers and espionage.