99. Henry's Sisters

By Cathy Lamb
Rated:  DNF - 1 Star
From:  Library

This is IT!  I am not wasting any more of my time trying to read what is passing for "Contemporary Fiction" these days unless it's by an author I know or someone whose judgment I trust recommends it.  I think that publishers must have pushed authors into such a corner now days that they must have to stick to a strict formula.  Why else would they all read like the same book over and over again with only minor changes in names of characters and locations?  Sisters, girlfriends, dysfunctional families, illegitimate secret children and naturally, sick or disabled children, and/or  "Christian hyperbole" .

This book had it all.  There were so many gimicks and plot hooks in this book that I was amazed it didn't clink and clatter when it was moved. (sigh)  No wonder I have been enjoying revisiting Harry Potter so much.  It's so much more reality based.

PUBLISHERS DESCRIPTION:  "Ever since the Bommarito sisters were little girls, their mother, River, has written them a letter on pink paper when she has something especially important to impart. And this time, the message is urgent and impossible to ignore--River requires open-heart surgery, and Isabelle and her sisters are needed at home to run the family bakery and take care of their brother and ailing grandmother. Isabelle has worked hard to leave Trillium River, Oregon, behind as she travels the globe taking award-winning photographs. It's not that Isabelle hates her family. On the contrary, she and her sisters Cecilia, an outspoken kindergarten teacher, and Janie, a bestselling author, share a deep, loving bond. And all of them adore their brother, Henry, whose disabilities haven't stopped him from helping out at the bakery and bringing good cheer to everyone in town. But going home again has a way of forcing open the secrets and hurts that the Bommaritos would rather keep tightly closed--Isabelle's fleeting and too-frequent relationships, Janie's obsessive compulsive disorder, and Cecilia's self-destructive streak and grief over her husband's death. Working together to look after Henry and save their flagging bakery, Isabelle and her sisters begin to find answers to questions they never knew existed, unexpected ways to salve the wounds of their childhoods, and the courage to grasp surprising new chances at happiness. Poignant, funny, and as irresistible as one of the Bommarito sisters' delicious giant cupcakes, Henry's Sisters is a novel about family and forgiveness, about mothers and daughters, and about gaining the wisdom to look ahead while still holding tight to everything that matters most" -- from publisher's web site.

98. The Siege

aRated 5 Stars
From:  Library

Thank you so much Stacey for bringing this book to my attention.  It would have slipped right past me otherwise.  It was absolutely riveting.  I read it all in one long gulp.   I didn't have any other pressing things I had to do and it was so hard to put down that I just indulged myself.   I went to Stephen White's website and looked at the pictures he had posted of the locations on the Yale Campus that he used in the book.  I was delighted with the Yale Whale.  It looked like such a fun building.   I have ordered another book in this series, Kill Me - I am doing this all out of order.  Oh well

LIBRARY SUMMARY:  As a lovely weekend approaches on the Yale campus it appears that a number of students--including the sons of both the Secretary of the Army and newest Supreme Court justice--may have gone missing. Attention quickly focuses on the fortress-like tomb of one of Yale's secret societies. Suspended Boulder police detective Sam Purdy soon finds himself in New Haven, where he joins FBI agent Christopher Poe and CIA analyst Deirdre Drake to solve the riddle of what is going on inside the windowless stone tomb on the edge of campus as, one by one, students are sent out of the building's front door to die.

97. H.P. and The Camber of Secrets

,BY:  J. K. Rowlings

Rated 5 Stars
Audio Book from Library

LIBRARY SUMMARY:  Harry Potter is in his second year of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He is visited by a house-elf named Dobby and warned not to go back to Hogwarts. Harry ignores his warning, and returns. He is still famous, although still disliked by Snape, Malfoy, and the rest of the Slytherins. But then, strange things start to happen. People are becoming petrified, and no-one knows what is doing it. Harry keeps hearing a voice.. a voice which seems to be coming from within the walls. They are told the story of the Chamber of Secrets. It is said that only Salazar Slytherin's true descendent will be able to open it. Harry, it turns out, is a Parsel-tongue. This means that he is able to speak/understand snakes. Everyone thinks that it's him that has opened the Chamber of Secrets because that is what Slytherin was famous for.

96. HP and the Socerer's Stone

By:  J. K. Rowlings
Rated:  5 Stars
Audio Book from Library



I am waiting for the DVD of the latest Harry Potter movie to come out and while I am waiting I am going to revisit all the books so that my memory will be fresh.  I am loving this audio format.  Lucky for me my library has all the books on CD in unabridged format and I am uploading them to my IPod.

Product Description
Amazon.com Say you've spent the first 10 years of your life sleeping under the stairs of a family who loathes you. Then, in an absurd, magical twist of fate you find yourself surrounded by wizards, a caged snowy owl, a phoenix-feather wand, and jellybeans that come in every flavor, including strawberry, curry, grass, and sardine. Not only that, but you discover that you are a wizard yourself! This is exactly what happens to young Harry Potter in J.K. Rowling's enchanting, funny debut novel, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. In the nonmagic human world--the world of "Muggles"--Harry is a nobody, treated like dirt by the aunt and uncle who begrudgingly inherited him when his parents were killed by the evil Voldemort. But in the world of wizards, small, skinny Harry is famous as a survivor of the wizard who tried to kill him. He is left only with a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead, curiously refined sensibilities, and a host of mysterious powers to remind him that he's quite, yes, altogether different from his aunt, uncle, and spoiled, piglike cousin Dudley. A mysterious letter, delivered by the friendly giant Hagrid, wrenches Harry from his dreary, Muggle-ridden existence: "We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Of course, Uncle Vernon yells most unpleasantly, "I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" Soon enough, however, Harry finds himself at Hogwarts with his owl Hedwig... and that's where the real adventure--humorous, haunting, and suspenseful--begins.

95. THE EMPEROR, #11

H, fRated 4 Stars
From:  Amazon

This book left me with a slightly sour taste in my mouth after reading it.  Then I figured it out.  It was James.  I really don't like James.  I did when he was a boy but as an adult he is turning into a whining wimp.  I don't think much of Lucy either but I do feel sorry for her husband. I wish Harrod-Eagles would stop killing off the characters that I like and letting the ones I don't care much for live to such an old age. *sigh*

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
It is 1705, and the shadow of Napoleon is falling across Europe, and a restlessness seems to be changing mores and loosening society’s restraints. At Morland Place, James’ marriage to Mary Ann is falling apart; Lucy’s to Chetwyn is in the balance as she embarks on a blatant affair with a sea officer; and William supports a mistress he cannot marry. Mary goes to sea with her husband Captain Haworth and is caught up in the battle of the Nile; and as war becomes inevitable, Lucy knows she must say goodbye to her love as every fighting captain waits eagerly for his commission.

94. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

By John Berendt
Rated 3 Stars
From:  Library


I have always meant to read this book, and now I have.  Interesting.

From Publishers Weekly
After discovering in the early 1980s that a super-saver fare to Savannah, Ga., cost the same as an entree in a nouvelle Manhattan restaurant, Esquire columnist Berendt spent the next eight years flitting between Savannah and New York City. The result is this collection of smart, sympathetic observations about his colorful Southern neighbors, including a jazz-playing real estate shark; a sexually adventurous art student; the Lady Chablis (' "What was your name before that?" I asked. "Frank," she said.' "); the gossipy Married Woman's Card Club; and an assortment of aging Southern belles. The book is also about the wealthy international antiques dealer Jim Williams, who played an active role in the historic city's restoration--and would also be tried four times for the 1981 shooting death of 21-year-old Danny Handsford, his high-energy, self-destructive house helper. The Williams trials--he died in 1990 of a heart attack at age 59--are lively matches between dueling attorneys fought with shifting evidence, and they serve as both theme and anchor to Berendt's illuminating and captivating travelogue.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover editi

93. Happiness Key

By:  Emilie Richards

Rated 4 Stars

From:  Library

My Romance fix for the month.  It may be Chick-Lit, I cannot tell the difference.  I quick and easy read.

LIBRARY SUMMARY:  "When her husband was sent to prison, pampered Tracy Deloche was left with twenty-five acres of Florida Gulf Coast sand, five tumbledown beach houses and no idea how to start over. An exile in a strange country, Janya Kapur left her wealthy, close-knit Indian family for an arranged marriage to a man she barely knows. Plainspoken Wanda Gray is tired of watching her marriage fail, so she takes a job guaranteed to destroy it--if her husband cares enough to discover what she's doing. Since her daughter's death, widow Alice Brooks has grown forgetful and confused. Her son-in-law and granddaughter have come to stay, but Alice isn't sure she's grateful. When the only other resident of Happiness Key dies alone in his cottage, the four women warily join forces to find his family. Together, they discover difficult truths about their own lives and the men they love--and uncover the treasure of an unlikely friendship."

92.The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

By Sherman Alexie
Rated 4.5 Stars
From:  Library

A very fast but uplifting read.   Just what I needed at the time.

PUBLISHERS DESCRIPTION:  Arnold Spirit, a goofy-looking dork with a decent jumpshot, spends his time lamenting life on the "poor-ass" Spokane Indian reservation, drawing cartoons (which accompany, and often provide more insight than, the narrative), and, along with his aptly named pal Rowdy, laughing those laughs over anything and nothing that affix best friends so intricately together. When a teacher pleads with Arnold to want more, to escape the hopelessness of the rez, Arnold switches to a rich white school and immediately becomes as much an outcast in his own community as he is a curiosity in his new one. He weathers the typical teenage indignations and triumphs like a champ but soon faces far more trying ordeals as his home life begins to crumble and decay amidst the suffocating mire of alcoholism on the reservation. Alexie's humor and prose are easygoing and well suited to his young audience, and he doesn't pull many punches as he levels his eye at stereotypes both warranted and inapt. A few of the plotlines fade to gray by the end, but this ultimately affirms the incredible power of best friends to hurt and heal in equal measure.

91. Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle

By Dervla Murphy
Rated 3.5 Stars
From:  Library via Bookflurries

This book certainly had it's good moments for me.  However I had problems with understanding why anyone in their right mind would start out to make a trip like this in the dead of winter.  The first third of the book was almost a diary of a test of endurance and I couldn't help thinking about how much she was missing by having to concentrate all her energy on surviving rather than enjoying the region she was traveling through.  Maybe if I was more of a bicycle enthusiast instead of a died in the wool tourist I could have appreciated that bit of it more.

The other problem I had was not the author's fault unless you want to say that appreciating the countryside and writing beautiful descriptive prose about the scenery and people she met is not a good thing.  Almost every where she traveled has since been turned into battlegrounds either by regional strife or by invasion of not one, but two super powers (Russia and the UN.)  I imagine that if you traced her steps today you would find everything much different.  That really makes me sad because the people she met who were so nice to her are probably either dead or their lives are so changed that she wouldn't recognize them.  Neither I imagine would she be greeted with such open hospitality.

From Library Journal
This book recounts a trip, taken mostly on bicycle, by a gritty Irishwoman in 1963. Her route was through Yugoslavia, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and ended in New Delhi. She carried a pistol, got sunstroke, and suffered the usual stomach disorders. She endured bad accommodations but reaped much local hospitality, too, including a dinner with the Pakistani president. Most of the book concerns the high mountain country of Afghanistan and Pakistan. First published in England in 1965, the book is neither current, nor quite old enough to be of much historical interest. Nonetheless, it is a spirited account, suitable for larger public library collections. Unfortunately, it lacks illustrations, and the two maps included give us little idea of the remote areas she visited. Harold M. Otness, Southern Oregon State Coll. Lib., Ashland
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

90. The Late George Apley

By:  John P. Marquand
Rated 4 Stars
From:  Library

This is another one of those books that I saw listed as "Forgotten Pulitzer Prize Winners" and decided to give it a try.

It was worth my time as I found it very interesting but very sad.   A perfect example of a person caught up in a web of the circumstances of his life and whom the readers just knows would have been so much happier had he been born into a "lower class" family.  It was an close look at how people who are "high society" and "the right sort" live behind closed doors.  As I said, sad.

BOOK DESCRIPTION:  Sweeping us into the inner sanctum of Boston society, into the Beacon Hill town houses and exclusive private clubs where only the city's wealthiest and most powerful congregate, this novel gives us-through the story of one family and its patriarch, the recently deceased George Apley-the portrait of an entire society in transition. Gently satirical and rich with drama, the novel moves from the Gilded Age to the Great Depression as it projects George Apley's world-and subtly reveals a life in which success and accomplishment mask disappointment and regret, a life of extreme and enviable privilege that is nonetheless an imperfect life.

About the Author
John P. Marquand (18931960) wrote several widely admired and bestselling novels, among them the Pulitzer Prizewinning The Late George Apley (1937), Wickford Point (1939), and H. M. Pullham, Esquire (1941). He was the author also of the highly successful series of Mr. Moto detective novels.

89. The Tangled Threads, #10

Rated 4 Stars
From Amazon

It finally dawned on me that these books were pure Soap Opera.  Great historical detail, very well written but never the less, Soaps.

I do not mean this in a detrimental way.  I come from a long line of Soap Opera addicts.  I can remember clearly as a very young child watching my paternal Grandmother bake bread in her farmhouse kitchen while listening to Stella Dallas and Our Gal Sunday on the radio.  And Martians could be landing in my Mother's back yard and she would have still sat down at 1 p.m. every weekday to watch One Life to Live.  Only the medium has changed for me.  I am hooked.

PUBLISHER'S DESCRIPTION:  It is 1788, and in France, as the revolution begins, Henri, the bastard offshoot of the Morland family, strives to protect his family. He binds his daughter Heloise in loveless marriage to a Revolutionary, and allies himself with the vigorous Danton. But in the bloodbath of the Terror and the fall of Danton, Henri goes to the guillotine and Heloise flees to England where she is welcomed warmly by the Morland family. In Yorkshire Jemima’s troublesome brood cause her anxiety—especially her youngest, Lucy, who disguises herself as a boy and runs away to sea—but at last she sees three of her children marry and the hope of an heir to Morland Place.

88. Innocent's Abroad

By:  Mark Twain
Rated 4.5
Audio Book from Libravox


I love Mark Twain's dry wit and humor.  And although this book was published in 1869 I can easily compare many of his experiences and reactions to those I have had myself while traveling to some of the same places.

I dearly loved his take on keeping a faithful travel journal since I always attempt and fail to do the same thing.

PUBLISHER DESCRIPTION: One of the most famous travel books ever written by an American, here is an irreverent and incisive commentary on the "New Barbarians'" encounter with the Old World. Twain's hilarious satire impales with sharp wit both the chauvinist and the cosmopolitan.

87. The Flood Tide, #9

Rated 4 stars
From:  Amazon

I need to stop and write the journal entries immediately as I finish a book because they are all starting to run together for me.  This book is one of the more peaceful reads I have run across in the series.  It's as much as pure romance as these books ever get and no really big crises presents its self other than the death of one child.  Just the regular ups and downs of raising a houseful of otherwise healthy, headstrong children.

PUBLISHERS DESCRIPTION:
It is 1772, and England is peaceful under George III, and Morland Place flourishes under the careful tending of Jemima and her loyal husband Allen. Their seven children often bring them heartache, but they are sustained by their love for each other and their absorbing interest in improving the estate lands. But beyond England’s shores things are not so calm. Morland cousins find themselves embroiled in the American war for independence, and the family’s bastard offshoot, Henri, disports himself in the salons of Paris while outside revolution creeps closer.

86. Dangerous games : the uses and abuses of history

By:  Margaret MacMillan
Rated 4 Stars
From:  Library

This turned out to be a much longer read than it first appeared.  It's a slim, 170 page book and I can usually read a book like that in an afternoon.  I was at it, although not steadily, for over a week.  I had to stop and think about it, which is a wonderful thing for any book to do whether you agreed with the author or not.

I distrusted my own reactions because I more often that not agreed completely with the author.  That, IMO not always a good thing because I am already old and set enough in my ways without a lot encouragement.  So I checked out the reviews on amazon to see what others made of the book and it's drawn some of the most mixed reviews I have ever read.  Some folks wanted to see it all as purely political with a Left v. Right bias, others complained that it was not academic enough, and others like me thought she made some excellent points and drew fair conclusions.  So I guess it all depends on the readers particular POV.  Me, I liked it.

From Booklist
MacMillan, a professor of history at Oxford University and the University of Toronto, views the study and utilization of history as a double-edged sword. History, of course, can show us where we have been; it can also provide a sense of shared culture that binds otherwise diverse populations and forms the basis of the nation-state. For many, the study of history is plain fun, filled with colorful characters and real-life drama. But the abuse of history often provokes tragic consequences. Tyrants, including Stalin and Hitler, wrapped themselves in the mantle of national icons to enhance their personal power. Karl Marx saw history as a process leading inexorably to a classless society, which allowed his adherents to justify mass murder. The refusal to let go of some aspects of the past has prolonged a sense of grievance, hatred, and entitlement among numerous groups across the globe. For both historians and lay readers, this thoughtful and provocative work will be enlightening and useful. --Jay Freeman

DNF - Honey in the Horn

 This book simply could not hold my interest.  It was basically variations of the same thing over and over.

It's possible that I was already biased against this author after I read the Forward.  He sounded like a person who was very puffed up with his own importance and had very overblown opinion of his own writing style.  He considered himself the greatest writer ever to come out of the Pacific Northwest.  A comment tailor made to put my nose out of joint before I even read the first page.

Publisher Comments:

In this epic work by award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist H.L. Davis, the virtues of the frontier live again in the lives and characters of Oregon settlers during the homesteading period from 1906-1908. Winner of the 1936 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

85. The Maiden, #8

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Rated:  4 Stars
From:  Amazon

There are so many rich characters in this series but Annunciata is the one that stands out the most for me so far.  I have a list of characters in my head that I Love to Hate and she is definitely on it.  I really admire an author who can create a character that will stick in a readers head long after the last pages have turned on them.  I have to give CHE credit for wringing the very last drop out of Annunciata before she finally let her die, and like the Specter at the Feast, the consequences of her reckless behavior, dangerous fantasies and delusions of grandeur will probably haunt her descendants for at least a couple more books.  She stands toe to toe with Margaret Lennox on my Love To Hate list.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:
1720: political intrigue besets the kingdom as the Stuarts try to claim the throne occupied by the Hanoverians and the Morlands have to use all their wiles to keep their fortunes intact.

Jemmy Morland, sole heir to his father's will, has no option but to marry the cold-hearted Lady Mary to secure Hanoverian protection and safeguard his inheritance. Then the rebellion of '45 and the bloody massacre at Culloden thrust his daughter Jemima into the spotlight as the savior of the family.

Intelligent, single-minded, and a rare beauty, Jemima is a capable caretaker of the Morland heritage. Although Morland Place and its lands suffer from the excesses of her dissolute husband, Jemima's quiet courage earns her an abiding love and loyalty.