18. The Eye of Jade

By Diane Wei Liang
Rated 4 Stars
Audio Book

This is a pretty  a good  book but I had to adjust my expectations in order to enjoy it.  I was expecting a mystery, and it is that, but only sort of.  But he whole mystery thing is not developed very well.  What interested me about the book was place and people.  I enjoy arm chair traveling and this book did a pretty good job with time-and-place.  It says this book is the first book in a series that the author is planning and I think she was laying a lot of background introductions to the characters and Mei's family situation.  If there is a book two I plan to give it a try.  There was just enough in this book to like that I will give this author another chance.  But if she doesn't get a handle on the mystery thing then Ms. Wei Liang and I will part company.

Here is a link to this book on amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Eye-Jade-Mystery-Mysteries/dp/1416549560

11. The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British

By:  Sarah Lyall
Rated 4.5
Audio Book


Publisher's Description


Sarah Lyall, a reporter for the New York Times, moved to London in the mid-1990s and soon became known for her amusing and incisive dispatches on her adopted country. As she came to terms with its eccentric inhabitants (the English husband who never turned on the lights, the legislators who behaved like drunken frat boys, the hedgehog lovers, the people who extracted their own teeth), she found that she had a ringside seat at a singular transitional era in British life. The roller-coaster decade of Tony Blair's New Labor government was an increasingly materialistic time when old-world symbols of aristocratic privilege and stiff-upper-lip sensibility collided with modern consumerism, overwrought emotion, and a new (but still unsuccessful) effort to make the trains run on time. Appearing a half-century after Nancy Mitford's classic Noblesse Oblige, Lyall's book is a brilliantly witty account of twenty-first-century Britain that will be recognized as a contemporary classic.

12. Omar Nelson Bradley, General at War

By:  Jim DeFelice
Rated 5 Stars
Kindle Book


I was drawn to read this because he was from Moberly, Missouri a small midwestern town where my Grandparents lived in the years before my Grandmother died and where a lot of my relatives still live.  He was a principled man who reflected the values I was raised to believe instead of the "family values" that currently are in vogue.  Kind of comforting.

Book Description

Publication Date: September 12, 2011

In the years since World War II, military historians have focused on two larger-than-life personalities: George S. Patton and Dwight D. Eisenhower. But what of Omar Bradley, the American hero who led the forces at D-Day and was the head of the largest body of U.S. soldiers to serve under one field command? Picked by Patton to be his deputy during World War II, Bradley rose to become Patton’s commander. He was known as the “soldier’s general” for his compassion toward his troops, and he eventually became the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as well as an advisor to several presidents. Yet despite these achievements, Bradley has been largely overlooked by biographers. In his intriguing new book, Omar Bradley, award-winning author Jim DeFelice brings an American hero to life with a comprehensive and compelling biography about one of the most important—and overlooked—generals of World War II.

17. Elegy for Eddie

By:  Jacqueline Winspeare
Rated 4 Stars
Audio Book

 I ended up kind of conflicted about this after I finished it.  On one hand I liked it very much but there were a couple of things that bugged me.  One of them was that some of the character's started taking pot shots at Maisie regarding the way she was handling her new found wealth.  They were telling her that trying to help some of the people she cared about was putting them under an obligation to her that was not a good thing.  Not a word about how Maurice, Lady Compton and Priscilla did the same thing for her. 

As a result I thought that then Maisie over reacted with what seemed to me with teenage angst (and believe I have seen enough teen age angst to recognize it when I see it) and started clutching her working class background like a hair shirt she was afraid to take off for fear she wouldn't be normal anymore unless she was itching. 

I also thought  her willingness to swan around in Priscilla's cast off's and her reluctance to buy herself new clothes or even, for heaven's sake pay to have her car tuned up went beyond thriftiness and bordered on parsimony.  If I'm going to continue this series Masie is going to have to do a little growing up and moving on.

But on a positive note II thought the mystery was good and I could see the basis for some darn good stories in the future.  And as ever, Windspeare does a stellar job of nailing the time and place.  She obviously is as fascinated with that era as I am.

Product Description:

Early April 1933. To the costermongers of Covent Garden—sellers of fruit and vegetables on the streets of London—Eddie Pettit was a gentle soul with a near-magical gift for working with horses. When Eddie is killed in a violent accident, the grieving costers are deeply skeptical about the cause of his death. Who would want to kill Eddie—and why?

Maisie Dobbs' father, Frankie, had been a costermonger, so she had known the men since childhood. She remembers Eddie fondly and is determined to offer her help. But it soon becomes clear that powerful political and financial forces are equally determined to prevent her from learning the truth behind Eddie's death. Plunging into the investigation, Maisie begins her search for answers on the working-class streets of Lambeth where Eddie had lived and where she had grown up. The inquiry quickly leads her to a callous press baron; a has-been politician named Winston Churchill, lingering in the hinterlands of power; and, most surprisingly, to Douglas Partridge, the husband of her dearest friend, Priscilla. As Maisie uncovers lies and manipulation on a national scale, she must decide whether to risk it all to see justice done.

The story of a London affected by the march to another war years before the first shot is fired and of an innocent victim caught in the crossfire,Elegy for Eddie is Jacqueline Winspear's most poignant and powerful novel yet.

16. Bridge to Happiness

By:  Jill Barnett
Rated 3.5 Stars
Kindle Book

This was one of the el cheapo kindle deal books and I was looking for a change of pace book.  It wasn't bad but just let me say that it was marked way down for a reason.

Publisher's Description

rom the luxury of San Francisco's famous hills to the wild freedom of the majestic snow-covered Sierra Mountains, BRIDGE TO HAPPINESS is the intensely dramatic story of one woman's life, the idyllic moments, her humanity, her love, and finally, the difficult road she must walk alone...to discover the strong woman she is destined to become. When March Randolph meets Mike Cantrell, she has no idea how her life will change, and how time will change her. For over three decades she and Mike forge a marriage, a family and a business together, helping to make snowboarding into a popular, worldwide winter sport, and raising four strong-willed and independent children into a adulthood, never once fearing the future won't be as golden as their past. In a heartbeat everything changes, and March and her family suffer a tragic change, one that drives a schism into her once perfect life, and will test the bonds of love and family far beyond any definition of recovery. Suddenly March is stuck in the past, unable to move forward, and only if she, alone, finds the strength and will to move on, can any of the Cantrells have a single, glimmer of hope at a new life of happiness. "Bridge To Happiness is a beautiful and poignant exploration of loss, love and unexpected opportunities. This book is for any woman who has ever loved and lost and dared to reach for happiness." Kristin Hannah, New York Times Bestselling Author of Winter Garden

8. Death of Kings

By:  Bernard Cornwall
Rated 4 Stars
Audiobook

By Bernard Cornwell
Rated:  Currently Reading
Audio Book

Publisher's Summary

The fate of a new nation rests in the hands of a reluctant warrior in this thrilling sixth volume in the acclaimed New York Times best-selling Saxon Tales series.

As the ninth century wanes, Alfred the Great lies dying, his dream of a unified England in danger and his kingdom on the brink of chaos. While his son, Edward, has been named his successor, there are other Saxon claimants to the throne - as well as ambitious pagan Vikings to the north.

Uhtred, the Saxon-born, Viking-raised warrior, whose life seems to shadow the making of England itself, is torn between his vows to Alfred and his desire to reclaim his long-lost ancestral lands and castle in the north. As the king’s warrior, he is duty-bound, but Alfred’s reign is nearing its end, and Uhtred has sworn no oath to the crown prince. Despite his long years of service, Uhtred is still loath to commit to the old king’s Saxon cause of a united and Christian England. Now he must make a momentous decision, one that will forever transform his life... and the course of history: take up arms - and Alfred’s mantle - or lay down his sword and allow the dream of a unified kingdom to fall into oblivion.

©2011 Bernard Cornwell (P)2011 HarperCollinsPublishers

10. Watergate; A Novel

By:  Thomas Mallon
Rated:  Rated 4.5 Stars
Audio Book

I read about this book in bookgirls Diary Contemporary Fiction Views "Watergate"

She gave it a pretty good review.  Good enough that it made me want to read it for myself.  At the time The Watergate Hearings were going on and televised I was one of those rare periods of my life when I had lots of time.  We were getting ready to move overseas and I had taken the summer of 1974 off to pack and play. So I stayed glued to the television set because truthfully it all played like a soap opera to me.  I would even take notes so that I could keep my husband up to date.  I was very politically naive back in those days.  I still have a very vivid picture in my mind of us sitting at a picnic bench in the Canadian Rockies listening a portable radio to the announcement that Nixon had resigned .

But on to the book.  First off, it's a re-telling, written from various points of view. To quote bookgirl in her  Diary on KOS " I did look at the reviews on amazon and they are pretty mixed over there.  I really think that this is one of those books that while it's a pretty good read, you really had to "be there" to fully appreciate it.  bookgirl also complains that the author has made the story into a farce.   Well folks, that's exactly what it was.  Watching the hearings from May until August 1973 that was exactly what I felt like I was watching.  That's why it felt so much like a soap opera.  At one point it seemed to me that the conspirators were all running around acting like Keystone Cops.  I don't see how the author could have made it into more of a farce than it actually was.  What idiots we elect!  And STILL ARE!!!!!!!!!!!

I did like the authors explanation of how the 18 1/2 minute gap on the tape happened

Book Description

Publication Date: February 21, 2012

From one of our most esteemed historical novelists, a remarkable retelling of the Watergate scandal, as seen through a kaleidoscope of its colorful perpetrators and investigators.

For all the monumental documentation that Watergate generated—uncountable volumes of committee records, court transcripts, and memoirs—it falls at last to a novelist to perform the work of inference (and invention) that allows us to solve some of the scandal’s greatest mysteries (who did erase those eighteen-and-a-half minutes of tape?) and to see this gaudy American catastrophe in its human entirety.

In Watergate, Thomas Mallon conveys the drama and high comedy of the Nixon presidency through the urgent perspectives of seven characters we only thought we knew before now, moving readers from the private cabins of Camp David to the klieg lights of the Senate Caucus Room, from the District of Columbia jail to the Dupont Circle mansion of Theodore Roosevelt’s sharp-tongued ninety-year-old daughter (“The clock is dick-dick-dicking”), and into the hive of the Watergate complex itself, home not only to the Democratic National Committee but also to the president’s attorney general, his recklessly loyal secretary, and the shadowy man from Mississippi who pays out hush money to the burglars.

Praised by Christopher Hitchens for his “splendid evocation of Washington,” Mallon achieves with Watergate a scope and historical intimacy that surpasses even what he attained in his previous novels, as he turns a “third-rate burglary” into a tumultuous, first-rate entertainment.

9. In a Sunburned Country

By Bill Bryson
Rated 5 Stars
Kindle Format

I recently became very curious about Australia after reading a book about Australian Pioneer Women.  And for me, who better to turn to than Bill Bryson who is my very favorite travel writer in the world.  In fact, I admire him so much as a writer that I am making plans to be just like him in my next life.  I have, unfortunately, left it a little late for this one. ;)

But the description below is right about it being a dangerous place.  Australia is one tough country. Aside from having one of  some of the most inhospitable terrain on the planet it also has an awful lot of scary critters running around loose.

The upside is that if the people I know from that part of the world are typical then some of the nicest people in the world live there.  Australia, New Zealand (They Have Hobbits!) and Tasmania are high on my places to visit in my next life.

What, they don't really have Hobbits?  Darn!!!

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2001

Every time Bill Bryson walks out the door, memorable travel literature threatens to break out. His previous excursion along the Appalachian Trail resulted in the sublime national bestseller A Walk in the Woods. In A Sunburned Countryis his report on what he found in an entirely different place: Australia, the country that doubles as a continent, and a place with the friendliest inhabitants, the hottest, driest weather, and the most peculiar and lethal wildlife to be found on the planet. The result is a deliciously funny, fact-filled, and adventurous performance by a writer who combines humor, wonder, and unflagging curiousity.

Despite the fact that Australia harbors more things that can kill you in extremely nasty ways than anywhere else, including sharks, crocodiles, snakes, even riptides and deserts, Bill Bryson adores the place, and he takes his readers on a rollicking ride far beyond that beaten tourist path. Wherever he goes he finds Australians who are cheerful, extroverted, and unfailingly obliging, and these beaming products of land with clean, safe cities, cold beer, and constant sunshine fill the pages of this wonderful book. Australia is an immense and fortunate land, and it has found in Bill Bryson its perfect guide.

---

7. Great Pioneer Women of the Outback

By: Suzanna De Vris
Rated 5 Star
Audio Book

While browsing through a book list the other day I noticed this book "Great Pioneer Women of the Outback," and because I now know a few people from this part of the world I thought I would give it a try. I have read my fair share of books featuring our American pioneer women riding west in covered wagons, fighting off indians, living in sod houses and fighting off spiders, enduring dust storms, etc. etc.

But while I have the greatest respect for them and their ability to endure hardships I think that at the end of the day their lives were much easier than the lives of the women who braved the Australian Outback. What really stunned me about Australia was the sheer size of the place.  If you whacked off Alaska Australia is bigger than the US and our Southwest could be tucked away neatly into a corner of your outback.

It's now obvious to me that this is a very interesting country that I would like to know more about.  And because I am a person who likes to learn things the easy way I am off to the library to find Bill Bryson's book "In a Sunburned Country"  In my next life I am going to be a travel writer and be able to write just like him.  That will be OK because he will be off doing something else leaving the field clear for me. :) I would like to add that I ended the book very angry about the way Georgiana Molloy (1805-1843) was treated during her life time by . . . . well . . . . by the men in her life.  It's reading about women like her that has given me definite feminist tendencies.

Publisher's Summary:

From the 1800's to the onset of World War I, pioneers making their homes in outback Australia were joined by their wives, many of whom had no idea of the difficulties and dangers ahead. These women encountered conditions which would test their resilience and resourcefulness to the utmost: relentless heat, dust and isolation; hostile wildlife; no medical facilities; and never-ending, backbreaking work. Great Pioneer Women of the Outback profiles 10 female pioneers, from Jeannie Gunn, author of We of the Never Never, to equally remarkable but lesser known women, such as Emma Withnell in Western Australia and Evelyn Maunsell in Queensland. Building on the women's records and her own knowledge of Australian history, Susanna de Vries documents the grit and determination it took to build what many today would consider an extraordinary life.

6. Sick of Shadows

By:  Sharon McCrumb
Rated 4 Stars
Kindle Book

I read this back way back when  and loved it. Re-reading it recently left me a bit nostalgic for some of the wittier books in this series.  I will continue to work my way through them as they are released on Kindle. But this is still a good book and I have always loved McCrumb's writing.  Elizabeth and her brother are compelling characters, and the rest of the wacky family are -- well, no spoilers! A light, easy and fun read, and the must-read intro into the other MacPherson tales.


Book Description

 The book that started it all for Edgar Award winner Sharyn McCrumb's widely acclaimed series featuring amateur sleuth Elizabeth MacPherson.
When delicate Eileen Chandler is set to marry, her family fears the man is a fortune hunter. Thank goodness, Eileen's cousin Elizabeth MacPherson comes early for support. Unfortunately, Elizabeth also has some detecting to do, as a dead body is found, and none of the wedding party is above suspicion....
"A good deal of suspense...McCrumb writes with a sharp-pointed pen."
LOS ANGELES TIMES

5. 20 Miles per Cookie

By:  Nancy Sathre-Vogel
Rated 4 Stars
Pixel of Link
Free Kindle Book

I downloaded this free book on a whim.  The premise of the book was about a family of four who bicycled from Boise Idaho to New York city via Mexico's Baja Peninsula.

It was a quick but interesting read.  These are very gutsy people.

Here is a link to the families blog where the chronicle their adventures. http://familyonbikes.org/index.htm












About this book:

4. Summers End

 by Kathleen Gilles Seidel. 

Rated 5 Stars

Keeper Shelves

Re-read

This is an old favorite romance and it  didn't require me to use a single brain cell.

Book Description:

To their respective families, Jack Wells and Amy Legend are outsiders. A free-spirited man-of-all-trades, Jack takes life as it comes—not at all like his supremely organized mother, the admiral’s widow, and his methodical lawyer sister. Amy, a professional athlete with exquisite taste and golden beauty, has a glamorous career a world apart from her bookish older siblings and college professor father.

When Jack’s mother marries Amy’s widowed father, they invite all the children to spend the summer at the Legends’ retreat in northern Minnesota. They never imagine just how well Jack and Amy are going to get along—as affection unexpectedly flares into a burning attraction that threatens to damage already fragile familial bonds. Agreeing to deny their desire until the vacation is over—caught between long-simmering conflicts and clashing personalities—Jack and Amy find, nonetheless, that they are falling deeply in love. And passion this strong couldn’t possibly wait until summer’s end . . . no matter what the consequences.