102. The Motion of the Ocean

By:  Janna Cawrse Esarey
Rated 4.5 Stars
From:  Amazon

I ran across this book on beachreaders blog.  It's another one of those books I would have missed left to my own devices.

This book is part travelogue and part the story of the beginnings of a marriage.  I thought that the author had a tendency to nit pick her relationship with her husband to where I would have understood if he had thrown her overboard once or twice.  But then I thought about it and gosh, living for 18 months on a 35 foot sail boat with no once else around for most of it, I mean what else was there to do other than over analyze things.  I think she finally saved her life and her sanity by using her computer and journaling her thoughts and experiences.

But annoying spots aside, this is the story of a very gutsy couple who had a dream and just went out there and DID IT!  On a shoe string budget, storms, break downs, pirates and lack of open ocean sailing experience  - they always sucked it up and came through.  If she got a tad bit winy during the slow times, well IMO she earned the right.

But I gotta say this one last thing and that is that had I been her I would have demanded a better stove.  Trying to cook on a pitching boat with the one she had is the stuff nightmares are made of.

Amazon Review
"On her honeymoon Janna Cawrse Esarey and her fisherman husband set sail in pursuit of her childhood dream....Motion of the Ocean is a fresh and honest story on many levels. It's an entertaining read for those who enjoy a voyaging story or are contemplating an adventure, though in the end it's not about achieving the sailing dream -- it's a love story in which Janna discovers how to live and enjoy life."

101. South of Broad

By:  Pat Conroy
Rated:  3 Stars
From:  Library

 I just never really got it with this book and was never able to move away from the idea that this was some nerdy guy's fantasy life or put another way, jazzed up revisionist history.

On the other hand, it was readable.  Although I grumbled I didn't get the urge to wall bang it or just give up on it although I have to confess to much eye rolling.

I have recently criticized another author who used so many gimmicks and plot hooks it turned her book into a cliche.  Well Conroy has pretty much done the same thing.  Family drama, relationship drama, racial drama, religious drama, deaths, suicides, crimes, affairs, addiction, mental illness, natural disasters, and, for heaven's sake, not one psychopath--but two!  Whatever happened to simple but well told stories?

The waiting list for this book at my library is huge, and growing every day.  Obviously other people are seeing more in this book that I am. (sigh) I really, really don't get what the big deal is all about.  It's an OK book.  But that's about all.

LIBRARY SUMMARY:  After his brother's suicide, Leopold Bloom King struggles along with the rest of his family in Charleston, South Carolina, until he begins to gather an intimate circle of friends, whose ties endure for two decades until a final, unexpected test of friendship.

100. Fellowship of the Rings

By:  J. R. R. Tolkien
Rated:  5+++++++
AUDIO BOOK From Library

This is a revisit to one of my most beloved stories.  I have just started to seriously listen to audio books and it have been an eye opening, or should I say ear opening experience.  It's a whole other dimension.

This set read by Rob Inglis is is very well read with no drastic voicing of characters. Characters are easily distinguished and thoroughly enjoyable. This set is not full of sound effects and music, but then I  prefer the fact that this is not an over-production and is rather quite focused on what I wanted in the first place, the characters and the story.

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.