DNF - Home Safe

By Elizabeth Berg
Rated - DNF
From Library

Elizabeth Berg has gone from a hit and miss author to a mostly miss author for me.  The characters and story in this book were so uninspiring that after about 40 pages I just gave up.  I did try skipping to the middle and then to the ending to see if I could salvage something but it just wasn't there for me.

 Helen Ames–recently widowed, coping with loss and grief, unable to do the work that has always sustained her–is beginning to depend far too much on her twenty-seven-year-old daughter, Tessa, and is meddling in her life, offering unsolicited and unwelcome advice. Helen’s problems are compounded by her shocking discovery that her mild-mannered and loyal husband was apparently leading a double life.

DNF - Walking the Trail :

One Man's Journey along the Cherokee Trail of Tears 

By Jerry Ellis
Rated - DNF

There was just  something about this guys writing style that really put me off.  On top of that it was mostly about himself, what he was thinking and feeling and not enough about the actual experience of hiking this historic trail.  This was a shame because I was really looking forward to reading this book.

LIBRARY SUMMARY:  One fall morning Jerry Ellis donned a backpack and began a long, lonely walk: retracing the Cherokee Trail of Tears, the nine hundred miles his ancestors had walked in 1838. The trail was the agonizing path of exile the Cherokees had been forced to take when they were torn from their southeastern homeland and relocated to Indian Territory. Following in their footsteps, Ellis traveled through small southern towns, along winding roads, amid quiet forests, encountering a memorable array of people who live along the trail today. Along the way he also came to glimpse the pain his ancestors endured and to learn about the true beauty of modern rural life and the worth of a man's character.

60. The Forgotten Garden

By:  Kate Morton
Rated 4 Stars
From:  Library

LIBRARY SUMMARY:  In 1913, a little girl arrives in Brisbane, Australia, and is taken in by a dockmaster and his wife. She doesn't know her name, and the only clue to her identity is a book of fairy tales tucked inside a white suitcase.  When the girl, called Nell, grows up, she starts to piece together bits of her story, but just as she's on the verge of going to England to trace the mystery to its source, her grandaughter, Cassandra, is left in her care. When Nell dies, Cassandra finds herself the owner of a cottage in Cornwall, and makes the journey to England to finally solve the puzzle of Nell's origins. Shifting back and forth over a span of nearly 100 years, this is a sprawling, old-fashioned novel, as well-cushioned as a Victorian country house, replete with family secrets, stories-within-stories, even a maze and a Dickensian rag-and-bone shop. All the pieces don't quite mesh, but it's a satisfying read overall but it's still a good read.

59. The Accidental Time Machine

By Joe Haldeman
Rated 5 Stars
From:  Library

Science fiction is another one of those genres that I am fond of saying I never read.  I need to learn to keep my mouth shut since this is the second book I have read in that genre this month, both of which I enjoyed.  It's getting to where I can't believe a word I say anymore. *sigh*

LIBRARY SUMMARY:  "Since H. G. Wells' heyday, the time travel scenario has undergone so much variation that it's easy to envision the river of ideas finally running dry. But here the ever-inventive Haldeman offers a new twist: a device that travels in one direction only, to the future. Lowly MIT research assistant Matt Fuller toils away in a physics lab until one day he makes an odd discovery. A sensitive quantum calibrator keeps disappearing and reappearing moments later when he hits the reset button. With a little tinkering, Matt realizes that the device functions as a crude, forward-traveling time machine. With visions of Nobel Prizes dancing in his head, he latches it to a car and leaps into the future. The interesting wrinkle here is that each jump ahead is 12 times longer than the last. Matt's successive futures involve jail time, unwelcome celebrity, and assorted holocausts in the earth's climate. He begins to long for his native era. As usual, Haldeman's ingenuity delivers cutting-edge technological speculation and irresistibly compelling reading."--"Hays, Carl" Copyright 2007 Booklist

58. Seducing an Angel

By Mary Balogh
Rated: 3.5
From Library

Mary Balogh is my fall back light reading author.  She generally writes plesant. feel good regency romance books that are well writen and make me smile.  This particular series, not so much.  This is the fourth book in this latest series and only two of them have been remotely readable.  I abandoned the one before this one because It was so silly that I could not finish it.  This one is marginally better.  I am looking forward to the fifth one however as it is supposed to address the story of Constantine, the only really interesting secondary character in the series.  Lets hope Balogh gets her grove back.

LIBRARY SUMMARY:  "Here Stephen will risk his reputation and his heart as he enters a scandalous liaison with the infamous beauty intent on seduction. But when passion turns the tables on them both, who can say who has seduced whom? He must be wealthy, wellborn, and want her more than he wants any other woman. Those are the conditions that must be met by the man Cassandra Belmont chooses for her lover. Marriage is out of the question for the destitute widow who stands accused of murdering her husband and must now barter her beauty in order to survive. With seduction in mind, she sets her sights on Stephen Huxtable, the irresistibly attractive Earl of Merton and London’s most eligible bachelor. But Stephen’s first intriguing glimpse of the mysterious, alluring Lady Paget convinces him that he has found the ideal woman to share his bed. There is only one caveat. This relationship fueled by mutual pleasure must be onhisterms. As the two warily circle each other in a sensual dance of attack and retreat, a single night of passion alters all the rules. Cassandra, whose reputation is already in tatters, is now in danger of losing the one thing she vowed never to give. And Stephen, who wants Cassandra more than he has ever wanted any woman, won’t rest until she has surrendered everything—not as his mistress—but as his lover and wife. . . ."

57. Replay

By Ken Grimwood
Rated 5 Stars
From:  Library

This was a re read for me.  I first read it about 5 years ago and recently someone on one of the groups mentioned they were reading it and I decided it would make a nice change of pace for me to "Replay" for myself.

LIBRARY SUMMARY:  The possibility of traveling back in time to relive one's life has long fascinated science fiction writers. Without a single gesture toward an explanation, this mainstream novel recounts the story of a man and a woman mysteriously given the ability to live their lives over. Each dies in 1988 only to awaken as a teenager in 1963 with adult knowledge and wisdom intact and the ability to make a new set of choices. Different spouses, lovers, children, careers, await them in each go-round of the past 25 years, as well as slightly altered versions of world events. Their deep commitment to one another continues through the centuries of their many lifetimes. This delightful and completely engrossing story will appeal to a wide variety of readers

56. Silent on the Moor

By Deanna Raybourn
Rated 4 Stars
From:  Library

This is the third book I have read by this author in a continuing series in which she uses Lady Julia Rayburn as an accidental amateur detective to solve crimes set in 19th century England.  She has a very tongue-in-cheek writing style and they are, to me at least, very entertaining.  However I do have to wonder where she is going to go next since she has resolved a major and continuing plot device from the stories.  Guess I will just have to read the next one and find out.

FROM AMAZON:  Despite his admonitions to stay away, Lady Julia arrives in Yorkshire to find Brisbane as remote and maddeningly attractive as ever. Cloistered together, they share the moldering house with the proud but impoverished remnants of an ancient family--the sort that keeps their bloodline pure and their secrets close. Lady Allenby and her daughters, dependent upon Brisbane and devastated by their fall in society, seem adrift on the moor winds, powerless to change their fortunes. But poison does not discriminate between classes... .A mystery unfolds from the rotten heart of Grimsgrave, one Lady Julia may have to solve alone, as Brisbane appears inextricably tangled in its heinous twists and turns. But blood will out, and before spring touches the craggy northern landscape, Lady Julia will have uncovered a Gypsy witch, a dark rider and a long-buried legacy of malevolence and evil.

55. Among the Mad

By Jacqueline Winspear
Rated 4 Stars
From:  Library

LIBRARY SUMMARY:  Maisie Dobbs must catch a madman before he commits murder on an unimaginable scale. It's Christmas Eve 1931, on the way to see a client, Maisie Dobbs witnesses a man commit suicide on a busy London street. The following day, the prime minister's office receives a letter threatening a massive loss of life if certain demands are not met and the writer mentions Maisie by name. After being questioned and cleared by Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane of Scotland Yard's elite Special Branch, she is drawn into MacFarlane's personal fiefdom as a special adviser on the case. Meanwhile, Billy Beale, Maisie's trusted assistant, is once again facing tragedy as his wife, who has never recovered from the death of their young daughter, slips further into melancholia's abyss. Soon Maisie becomes involved in a race against time to find a man who proves he has the knowledge and will to inflict death and destruction on thousands of innocent people. And before this harrowing case is over, Maisie must navigate a darkness not encountered since she was a nurse in wards filled with shell-shocked men.

54. Bill Bryson's African Diary

Rated 4 Stars
From:  Amazon

Thank you Beth for recommending this book.  I would not of known it existed otherwise.

All royalties and profits from this book go   to CARE International.  It's short, only 49 pages and in parts it is genuinely funny and in other parts genuinely moving.

FROM AMAZON:  Bryson visits Kenya at the invitation of CARE International, the charity dedicated to eradicating poverty. Kenya is a land of contrasts, with famous game reserves and a vibrant culture. It also provides plenty to worry a traveller like Bill Bryson, fixated as he is on the dangers posed by snakes, insects and large predators. It is also a country with many serious problems: refugees, AIDS, drought, and grinding poverty. The resultant diary, though short in length, contains the trademark Bryson stamp of wry observation and curious insight.

53. Jesus Interrupted

By Bart D. Ehrman
Rated 5 Stars
From:  Library

I'm not quite sure what to make of this book but it certainly was interesting. I do know though that I need to get off this religious reading kick that I have been on this month.  For someone who claims not to read books with a Christian theme it seems like that's all I've been reading lately.

LIBRARY SUMMARY:  Jesus, Interrupted addresses the larger issue of what the New Testament actually teaches-and it's not what most people think. Here Ehrman reveals what scholars have unearthed: The authors of the New Testament have diverging views about who Jesus was and how salvation works. The New Testament contains books that were forged in the names of the apostles by Christian writers who lived decades later. Jesus, Paul, Matthew, and John all represented fundamentally different religions. Established Christian doctrines-such as the suffering messiah, the divinity of Jesus, and the trinity-were the inventions of still later theologians. These are not idiosyncratic perspectives of just one modern scholar. As Ehrman skillfully demonstrates, they have been the standard and widespread views of critical scholars across a full spectrum of denominations and traditions. Why is it most people have never heard such things? This is the book that pastors, educators, and anyone interested in the Bible have been waiting for-a clear and compelling account of the central challenges we face when attempting to reconstruct the life and message of Jesus.

52. Ultimate Prizes

By Susan Howatch
Rated 5+ Stars
From:  My keeper shelf

This is the third book of Howatch's six book Church of England series but it is the second one I have picked up in my eratic re read of these books.  That Neville is a piece of work. *sigh*  The next book I am going to read will be Scandalous Risks which is actually book four in the series.  I know I am going to start being furious with Neville all over again.  Stay tuned.

BOOK SUMMARY:  Neville Aysgarth, an ambitious archdeacon takes center stage in this book to narrate the story of his lifetime quest for the "ultimate prizes." WW II has started, and Neville's marriage to Grace, the perfect wife and mother, is cracking under the pressure of being worthy of her perfection. After Grace dies, Neville marries socialite Dido Tallent, but when their first child dies at birth, his faith in both God and his own motives is rocked. In crisis, Neville asks his colleague Jon Darrow (narrator of Glamorous Powers ) for spiritual first aid and, guided by a wise abbot friend of Jon's, is forced to an honest appraisal of himself and his ambition--which has its roots in his early life. He struggles back to spiritual health and eventually emerges a wiser man, more honest and loving toward his family and his flock.

This is the third in Howatch's incomparable series about the Church of England in the 20th century; it's a measure of her achievement that, besides telling a fascinating story boldly and well, she illuminates often quite abstruse religious and ecclesiastical questions. Here, Neville's ministry to captured Germans in a local prisoner-of-war camp leads to the discussion of Christian--ethical, moral--behavior during war, a topic that can never be out of date.

51. People of the Book

By:  Geraldine Brooks
Rated 4 Stars
From Library, Audio Book

This is another one of those split into time books.  In a way this is very similar to The Source by James Mitchner in that it is a journey back in time.  This book traces the history of a sacred 500 year old Jewish prayer book.  I loved that part of it.

What I didn't love so much were the contemporary characters of Hannah the rare book expert and  Ozrem the librarian who saved the book from being destroyed in the siege of Sarajevo.  Hannah was way to abrasive for me to be able to muster up any sympathy for her personally although I had plenty of it for her cause.  Ozrem was a whiner who came across as a person who had a flash of courage and integrity every once in a while but didn't have enough character to sustain it over the long haul.  So my rating for this book is actually split, 5 for the history of the book, 3 for the parts of the story involving Hannah and Ozram.  In my mind that averaged out to a 4.


One of the earliest Jewish religious volumes to be illuminated with images, the Sarajevo Haggadah survived centuries of purges and wars thanks to people of all faiths who risked their lives to safeguard it. Geraldine Brooks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March, has turned the intriguing but sparely detailed history of this precious volume into an emotionally rich, thrilling fictionalization that retraces its turbulent journey. In the hands of Hanna Heath, an impassioned rare-book expert restoring the manuscript in 1996 Sarajevo, it yields clues to its guardians and whereabouts: an insect wing, a wine stain, salt crystals, and a white hair. While readers experience crucial moments in the book's history through a series of fascinating, fleshed-out short stories, Hanna pursues its secrets scientifically, and finds that some interests will still risk everything in the name of protecting this treasure.

50. The Devlin Diary

By Christi Phillips
Rated 4.5 Stars
From:  Jani

I really liked this book in spite of the problems I always have when an author jumps back and forth in time or POV.  That just a personal thing with me.  But this book is very well written and I can't thank Jani enough for sending me the books she reviews that she knows I will like.  This book is off to Texas next week.

FROM  AMAZON : London, 1672. The past twelve years have brought momentous changes: the restoration of the monarchy, a devastating plague and fire. Yet the city remains a teeming, thriving metropolis, energized by the lusty decadence of Charles II's court and burgeoning scientific inquiry. Although women enjoy greater freedom, they are not allowed to practice medicine, a restriction that physician Hannah Devlin evades by treating patients that most other doctors shun: the city's poor.

But Hannah has a special knowledge that Secretary of State Lord Arlington desperately needs. At the king's Machiavellian court, Hannah attracts the attention of two men, charming courtier Ralph Montagu and anatomist Dr. Edward Strathern, as well as the attention of the powerful College of Physicians, which views her work as criminal. When two influential courtiers are found brutally murdered, their bodies inscribed with arcane symbols, Hannah is drawn into a dangerous investigation by Dr. Strathern, who believes the murders conceal a far-reaching conspiracy that may include Hannah's late father and the king himself.

Cambridge, 2008. Teaching history at Trinity College is Claire Donovan's dream come true -- until one of her colleagues is found dead on the banks of the River Cam. The only key to the professor's unsolved murder is a seventeenthcentury diary kept by his last research subject, Hannah Devlin, physician to the king's mistress. With help from the eclectic collections of Cambridge's renowned libraries, Claire and historian Andrew Kent follow the clues Devlin left behind, uncovering secrets of London's dark past and Cambridge's equally murky present, and discovering that events of three hundred years ago may still have consequences today...

49. A lady's life in the Rocky Mountains

by Isabella L. Bird
Rated 4.5
From Library

I learned about this book on Bookflurries, a weekly Diary/book chat written by my friend Connie on The Daily Kos.  

Isabella L. Bird was a truly remarkable woman who traveled alone all over the world in the mid 1800's  and described her adventures in a series of letters to her sister. Here is a link to Wikipedia you can follow to learn more about her.  Isabella L. Bird 

FROM LIBRARY SUMMARY:  "In its simple and disarming style, it is a great piece of reporting on a rugged frontier."--San Francisco Chronicle "The book is a jewel case of keen perception, social analysis, and masterful description for this era."--Chicago Tribune In 1873 Isabella Bird embarked on a trip that called for the high level of stamina expected of an explorer or anthropologist. But the middle-aged Englishwoman who toured the Colorado Rockies on horseback--alone, for the most part--was neither of these. Painting an intimate portrait of the "Wild West," she wrote eloquently of flora and fauna, isolated settlers and assorted refugees from civilization, vigilance committees, lynchings, and the crude manners--yet gentle civility--among the men she encountered in the wilderness. A thoughtfully written, captivating narrative that provides a vibrant account of a bygone era and the people that forever changed the face of the American frontier.

48. Promises to Keep

By Joe Biden
Rated 5 Stars
From: Library

My friend Connie mentioned that she was reading this and it occurred to me that I ought to read it as well.  I knew practically nothing about Joe Biden and here he is, our Vice President, just a heartbeat away from the presidency.

I feel like I learned a lot  from this book about the kind of person he is.  He  is a very intelligent, savvy and principled man.  It's such a relief to have people in the White House that you can respect and feel safe about.  I'm glad I read it.

In the book he discusses frankly what causes he has supported during his 37 years in the U.S. Senate.  The ones fought for and won as well as the ones he fought for and lost.

FROM LIBRARY SUMMARY "He’s observed Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and two Bushes wrestling with the presidency; he’s traveled to war zones in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa and seen firsthand the devastation of genocide. He played a vital role by standing up to Ronald Reagan’s effort to seat Judge Robert Bork on the Supreme Court, fighting for legislation that protects women against domestic violence, and galvanizing America’s response (and the world’s) to Slobodan Milosevic’s genocidal march in the Balkans. In Promises to Keep, Biden reveals what these experiences taught him about himself, his colleagues, and the institutions of government. With his customary candor, Biden movingly recounts growing up in a staunchly Catholic multigenerational household in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware; overcoming a demoralizing stutter; marriage, fatherhood, and the tragic death of his wife Neilia and infant daughter Naomi; remarriage and re-forming a family with his second wife, Jill; success and failure in the Senate and on the campaign trail; two life-threatening aneurysms; his relations with fellow lawmakers on both sides of the aisle; and his leadership of powerful Senate committees.

Through these and other recollections, Biden shows us how the guiding principles he learned early in life–the obligation to work to make people’s lives better, to honor family and faith, to get up and do the right thing no matter how hard you’ve been knocked down, to be honest and straightforward, and, above all, to keep your promises–are the foundations on which he has based his life’s work as husband, father, and public servant.

Promises to Keep is the story of a man who faced down personal challenges and tragedy to become one of our most effective leaders. It is also an intimate series of reflections from a public servant who refuses to be cynical about political leadership, and a testament to the promise of the United States.

46. The Language of Bees

BY:  Laurie King
Rated:  5 +Stars
Purchased

 I just finished The Language of Bees by Laurie King. I't the latest book in her Sherlock Holmes Mary Russell mysteries. it a little bit ago. IMO it's one of Kings best books in this series. It certainly kept me spellbound.

Without giving any spoilers I would like to make a couple of comments. The first is that it feels to me like King is gently shifting the focus from Holmes to Russell. I thought that Mary was pretty much the lead detective in this one with Holmes giving her strong support instead of the way it was in the beginning with Mary being the assistant to Holmes. Also there were bits of this book that I thought were very exciting and kept me up way to late reading because I couldn't stop with all that going on.

The other thing is that I would like to reassure Connie about it being a story to be continued. It's that all right - but it didn't end with a cliff hanger. Well, maybe just a little one because I sure would like to know why Mycroft . . .   ooops, that's a  spoiler - sorry.   I will just have to make sure to read the next book when all will be revealed and the story will (hopefully) come to a satisfactory  conclusion.

LIBRARY SUMMARY: In a case that will push their relationship to the breaking point, Mary Russell must help reverse the greatest failure of her legendary husband’s storied past—a painful and personal defeat that still has the power to sting…this time fatally. For Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, returning to the Sussex coast after seven months abroad was especially sweet. There was even a mystery to solve—the unexplained disappearance of an entire colony of bees from one of Holmes’s beloved hives. But the anticipated sweetness of their homecoming is quickly tempered by a galling memory from her husband’s past. Mary had met Damian Adler only once before, when the promising surrealist painter had been charged with—and exonerated from—murder. Now the talented and troubled young man was enlisting their help again, this time in a desperate search for his missing wife and child. When it comes to communal behavior, Russell has often observed that there are many kinds of madness. And before this case yields its shattering solution, she’ll come into dangerous contact with a fair number of them. From suicides at Stonehenge to a bizarre religious cult, from the demimonde of the Café Royal at the heart of Bohemian London to the dark secrets of a young woman’s past on the streets of Shanghai, Russell will find herself on the trail of a killer more dangerous than any she’s ever faced—a killer Sherlock Holmes himself may be protecting for reasons near and dear to his heart.

47. Insight

By Deborah Raney
Rated 4.5
From Library

I was halfway through this book before I realized it was an Inspirational Romance.  I was surprised that it was so well written.  The author managed to weave her "message" into the story so well that it actually made sense and she didn't feel like she had to repeatedly bash the reader over the head with it by having her characters suddenly shout out scripture in inappropriate places and declaring that they were Christians at the top of their lungs.  I gave it a little extra rating because of this.  Good for Deborah Raney.

LIBRARY SUMMARY:  She's having a baby.  It's a blessing that brings comfort to newly widowed Olivia Cline. Yet with no insurance, no job and precious little money, how will Olivia care for herself and her child?The answer is a handsome and brooding artist seeking an assistant. Reed Vincent has recently regained his eyesight, thanks to a donor. And through his eyes, Olivia begins to see all the possibilities before her. Before them. Until, in a flash of insight, she knows why his signature is so hauntingly familiar….The revelation could tear the couple apart…or open their eyes to a new journey from sorrow to joy.

45. A Good Confession

By:  Bridget Whelan
Rated 4.5 Stars
From LIbrary

A book very much reminiscent of Meggie and Father Ralph. (Thornbirds)

 LIBRARY SUMMARY:A captivating debut novel about forbidden love . . . Cathleen Brogan is a young widow, struggling to bring up her family in 1960s north London. Times are tough for the Irish immigrants who live there, their hardships comforted by the presence of their local Catholic priest, Father Jerry Brogan, Cathleen's cousin-in-law. Over time it becomes clear that Cathleen feels more for Father Jerry than perhaps she should. She hopes confession will ease her troubled mind, not realizing that she is confessing to the man she loves When a tragedy forces Cathleen back to Ireland, she must face the truth of her feelings and accept the consequences of such a forbidden love