16. The House at Riverton

By Kate Morton
Rated 4 1/2 Stars

Recommended to my by Tammy this is a turn of the century mystery with a riveting plot, a touching but tense love story and a haunting ending.

At 14, Grace Reeves leaves home to work for her mother's former employers at Riverton House. She is the same age as Hannah, the headstrong middle child who visits her uncle, Lord Ashbury, at Riverton House with her siblings Emmeline and David. Fascinated, Grace observes their comings and goings and, as an invisible maid, is privy to the secrets she will spend a lifetime pretending to forget. But when a filmmaker working on a movie about the family contacts a 98-year-old Grace to fact-check particulars, the memories come swirling back. The plot largely revolves around sisters Hannah and Emmeline, who were present when a family friend, the young poet R.S. Hunter, allegedly committed suicide at Riverton. Grace hints throughout the narrative that no one knows the real story, and as she chronicles Hannah's schemes to have her own life and the curdling of younger Emmeline's jealousy, the truth about the poet's death is revealed.

14. The Commoner

Rated 5 Stars
By John Burnham Schwartz


This was a great change of pace book for me. It is a fictionalized account of the Japanese royal family as they transition from a pre WWII mindset to the more modern Japan that has been changed almost beyond recognition. I highly recommend this book.

"It is 1959 when Haruko, a young woman of good family, marries the Crown Prince of Japan, the heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne. She is the first nonaristocratic woman to enter the mysterious, almost hermetically sealed, and longest-running monarchy in the world. Met with cruelty and suspicion by the Empress and her minions, Haruko is controlled at every turn. The only interest the court has in Haruko is her ability to produce an heir. After finally giving birth to a son, she suffers a nervous breakdown and loses her voice. However, determined not to be crushed by the imperial bureaucrats, Haruko perseveres. Thirty years later, now Empress herself, she plays a crucial role in persuading another young woman - a rising star in the foreign ministry - to accept the marriage proposal of her son, the Crown Prince. The consequences are tragic and dramatic." "Told in Haruko's voice, The Commoner is the story of a brutally rarefied and controlled existence at once hidden and exposed, and of a complex relationship between two isolated women who, despite being visible to all, are truly understood only by each other."--BOOK JACKET.

15. Firefly Lane

By Kristen Hannah
Rated 3 Stars

From THE LIBRARY REVIEW: "A touching story of the friendship between two very different women. Cee Cee Bloom, with her loud mouth, loud personality and flaming red hair, is determined to become a Hollywood star. Bertie White, delicate and conservative, hopes for a loving husband and family. They meet as children in 1951 in Atlantic City, and, as pen pals, keep in touch with each other. Their reunions through the years always occur at or near the beach, whether in Sarasota, Malibu or Hawaii. Their story jumps back and forth between past and present. Cee Cee and Bertie are genuine, and readers will like them and understand why they are friends. Both characters suffer much, particularly Bertie, whose life seems most unjust. Young adults will be pulled into their lives, caring greatly about them and the steady stream of tragedies that befall them. In a particularly moving ending, Cee Cee leaves a show in the middle of production to care for Bertie, who is dying of cancer."

Oh wait, this review is for Beaches, by Iris Dart. Sorry about that, I got confused there for a minute. But Kristen Hannah does a pretty good job with this story too. Change a few dates, a few names, the location and Presto, your in business. I also Liked it when she used Bob Woodward's injury in Iraq to add a little extra drama to the story. Very touching.

13. Veil of Roses

By Louisa Fitzgerald
Rated 4 Stars

The plot iof this book is 100% predictible but it was saved from being just another puffy piece of chic lit by the voice of the main character who was also the narrator.

Copied from an amazon review: "Tamila Soroush, a 27-year-old Iranian woman, flies to Tucson, Ariz., to stay with her older sister, Maryam (whom she hasn't seen in 15 years), and Maryam's orthopedic surgeon husband, Ardishir. Tami is there for a three-month stay, courtesy of a visa arranged by her loving parents, who want her to marry an Iranian with American citizenship and stay in the States. Tami concurs with this plan: "being married is a small price to pay if I can stay in the land of Opportunity." But on her way to her ESL class, Tami meets Ike, an affable American working at Starbucks while he raises money to open his own chain of coffee shops. Potential Iranian fiancé setups move forward while Tami and Ike's mutual feelings deepen. As she nears the end of her visa, Tami faces some tough choices."

Watching Tami find her voice through such small comforts as being able to sit alone in a house, walk to school unescorted or buy lingerie with her sister will leave you rooting for her.

12. Every Last Cuckoo

By Kate Maloy
Rated 4 Stars

This is one of those books that I would have completely missed had it not been recommended on the Weekly Reads group. I think I enjoyed it so much because I really empathized with Sarah. Below is the description from the book jacket:

"At age seventy-five, Sarah Lucas imagined the rest of her days would be spent living peacefully in her rural Vermont home in the familiar, steadfast company of her husband. But when Charles succumbs to an injury he suffered in the woods, she is left suddenly and inconsolably alone." "As grief settles in, Sarah's mind lingers on her past. She remembers the intense joys and tough trials of her fifty-year marriage to Charles and the challenge of raising three very different children, particularly a daughter whose needs she never quite understood. And she lovingly recalls her own childhood, when her parents generously opened their home to friends and relatives during the Great Depression." "Curiously, her past comes full circle when several displaced people seek shelter in Sarah's big, empty home - breathing new spirit into a life she had thought was spent and done, and even offering the opportunity to mend the relationship that had troubled her the most. The first to arrive are Sarah's rebellious teenage granddaughter, Lottie, and two of her disaffected young friends. They are soon followed by an Israeli pacifist in need of a retreat, a young mother and son who've lost their home in a fire, and a woman and her infant fleeing a violent partner. This unlikely flock forms a family of sorts, whose members nurture and protect each other. Together, all of them, including Sarah, face their fears - both real and imagined - discover their hidden strengths and abilities, and slowly rebuild their lives."--BOOK JACKET.

11. Silent in the Sanctuary

By Deanna Raybourn
Rated 4 1/2 Stars

I took of half of a star because the book had what I considered to be kind of a messy ending. But this book is really not about the story so much, it's about enjoying Ms. Raybourn's excellent writing style and wonderful characters. I highly recommend it. Thanks Kathy.

Left homeless by fire, wealthy widow Lady Julia Grey has been recuperating in Italy. With Christmas approaching, Julia returns to England, where she joins her large and eccentric family at their equally large and eccentric ancestral estate, a former monastery that retains some monkish ghosts. Nicholas Brisbane, a private enquiry agent with whom Julia has shared both a heated embrace and a stint at detection, is among the holiday houseguests, and to Julia's astonishment Brisbane is in line for a title and engaged. Then a local curate is murdered in the former church sanctuary, and a set of priceless pearls goes missing. Headstrong and clever Julia joins Brisbane in investigating the crimes, deciphering his personal situation in the process. Readers may wish for a bit more romantic development, but the complex mystery, a delightfully odd collection of characters and deft period details produce a rich and funny read.

10. Sword Song

by Bernard Cornwell
Rated: 4 1/2 Stars

Once more into another exciting breach, and this time, Uhtred has to defend the ancient and decayed Roman city of London against the rampaging Vikings, who aim to conquer England and enslave the native Saxons. Like the others before it's filled with bloodletting, battles, political schemes, and just a little romance. Ethelflaed, the daughter of Alfred is introduced as a character in this book and I am hoping that she will become a player in books to come. She had an interesting roll to play in the history of Mercia and I am taking this as a sign that Cornwell intends to explore it.

This book should have been an easy 5 star plus but Cornwell's portrayal of Alfred really annoys me. I am usually a pretty easy going reader and am not one to insist on total historical accuracy in a book of fiction. As long as the author keeps it somewhat plausible I am willing to go down almost any road. But to my mind, the man Cornwell is calling Alfred the Great comes off the pages as Alfred the Weak and Stupid. And once an author looses credibility with me if affects my enjoyment of a story as a whole. I feel like I am no longer reading Historical Fiction but have been pushed over into the Fantasy genre. It's like being invited out to eat hamburgers and being served hot dogs instead. Nothing wrong with hot dogs, it just wasn't what I was expecting.

9. Touchstone

In England in 1926, New Yorker Harris Stuyvesant is tracking the bomber who blew up his sweetheart and permanently injured his brother. A sinister operative leads him to Bennett Grey, whose injuries in World War I make him terrifyingly sensitive to every movement and gesture and who has hidden himself in Cornwall. These three, Grey's former lover Lady Laura Hurleigh, and his sister, Sarah, form the points of an intricate star drawn around the old families and the coming general strike, the legacy of the war, and the desperation of poverty and class struggle. King works her mastery not only in a vivid and sometimes terrifying psychological study but also through gorgeous evocation of the English landscape, detailed description of the dynamics in a country house inhabited by the same family for half a millennium, and perceptive analysis of the intricate complexities of politics, power and gender, and social justice. Cinematic in the intensity of its shifting points of view and boasting characters so charismatic that we can hear not only their voices but also the sound of their breathing,

7. The Diary of Samuel Pepys

Rated 4 1/2 Stars

I read this book in starts and stops since it was definalely put-downable but equally pick-upable. For a very readable peek at the life and times of the people of Britain during the 17th century this is the best I have run across.

Upon his death Samuel Pepys left six, calf-bound volumes filled with his daily diaries, pages recording the quotidian details of great but humble man living in a great time. The diaries are one of the most remarkable personal documents in the English language. Written with seriousness and humor, they are a unique blend of history and memoir, philosophy and broadsheet, gravitas and the light of wit. Samuel Pepys genius is in equal ranks with the British tradition that produced Chaucer, Shakespeare, Austen, and Woolf.

8. The Diabolical Baron

By Mary Jo Putney

Rated 4 stars

Although the cover says the name of this book is Dangerous Know, that is just a short story in the back of the book. The main book is The Diabolical Baron and is about Jason Kincaid and Caroline Hanscombe, in fact there are four main characters: Richard Dalton and Caroline's Aunt Jessica come into it as well. Jason chooses Caroline as his bride at random - he literally draws her name out of a bowl - and she accepts him under duress. But she won't accept his invitation to his country estate unless her aunt accompanies her. But Jessica and Jason have met before....

6. The flame trees of Thika : memories of an African childhood

By Edith Huxley

Rated 5 Stars

In 1913, at the age of six, Elspeth Huxley accompanied her parents from England to their recently acquired land in Kenya, "a bit of El Dorado my father had been fortunate enough to buy in the bar of the Norfolk hotel from a man wearing an Old Etonian tie." The land is not nearly what its seller claimed, but Elspeth's parents are undaunted and begin their coffee plantation. Her mother, a resourceful, adventurous woman, "eager always to extract from every moment its last drop of interest or pleasure," keeps an eye on Elspeth's education but also allows her extensive freedom. Through Elspeth Huxley's marvelous gift for description, early twentieth-century Kenya comes alive with all the excitement and naive insight of a child who watches with eyes wide open as coffee trees are planted, buffaloes are skinned, pythons are disemboweled, and cultures collide with all the grace of runaway trains. With a free-wheeling imagination and a dry wit, she describes the interactions of Kikuyus, Masais, Dutch Boers, Brits and Scots, mixing rapid-fire descriptions with philosophical musings. It is a mixture that suits her land of contrasts and unknowns, where vastly different peoples live and work side by side but rarely come together, like an egg beater whose "the two arms whirled independently and never touched, so that perhaps one arm never knew the other was there; yet they were together, turned by the same handle, and the cake was mixed by both."

5. Brothers in battle, best of friends

By Bill Guarnere and Babe Heffron
Rated 3 Stars

I think this book was just "a bridge too far" for me. I have pretty much burned out on Easy Company. Still, it was interesting and I read it to the end.


"To single out one or two of [the] Screaming Eagles as the Most Super-Duper Paratrooper or the Best Source for a free beer on VE day would be a fool's errand. But to fail to single out Bill Guarnere and Babe Heffron would overlook a grand entertainment and a stirring inspiration. "'Wild Bill' and 'Babe.' Even their names beg the telling of their tale, like great ball players from the 1920s, or legendary lawmen-or outlaws-of the Old West." Book jacket.