On Mystic Lake

This was a delightful way to spend a day when you are so tired you can hardly keep your eyes open! Definitely a good read, though I am finding, as with so many authors, that they just keep writing the same book. But I enjoyed it. Definitely.

Sarah's Key

Absolutely heartbreaking story, this poor jewish family gets taken away and because she doesn't understand locks her brother in a hidden closet they had in their apt. Of course she isn't aloud to come back... The story is very good beyond all the sadness adn I never really knew about the Vel d'Hiv (sp?) that occurred in France.... SO sad.

Great read though.

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

So I am totally behind the boat on reading this book but I really really enjoyed reading it. I loved how Kingsolver talked about growing and tending to a garden and it was fun to see how her kids were so enthusiastic about joining in on this quest to eat localy for an entire year! Pretty much every page either made me want to cook the provided recipe or go and bake bread or make cheese! (something I will totally do in my life!) It was also fun to read now because my mom has been gardening for the past couple of years and so I had a better idea of what growing a garden actually entails adn I was able to relate more. not that I do any of the hard work of a garden. I definetly can't wait until I have the space to grow some fresh vegetables!

Tomasen: It would be so amazing to be able to do this for a year. I admire her and the tenacity it took to stick with such a process!

Denial: A Memoir of Terror

LISA: This book was suggested by Liz, whose sister had read it and said that she couldn't put it down. I wouldn't give it that kind of a recommendation -- but I did have no trouble reading it through. It just wasn't great. The writer, Jessica Stern, was raped when her sister and she were alone in their house. She was 15 and her sister was 14. It was in the small town of Concord, Mass. and such things didn't happen there. As a result, the police department did not really DO anything. And this was not the first trauma that Jessica had experienced. She had lost her mother to cancer when she was four, and then her father remarried a much younger woman. Who sort of became her mother, but she was young and didn't know how to be one. Later this woman divorced her father for a younger man -- and Jessica and her sister were sort of left in no-mommy-limbo once again. She never had a very strong relationship with her father's third wife, and was rebellious through her teen years. She believes now it was because of the rape. I believe it was because of a lot of things, combined.

As an adult, Jessica became an expert on terrorists. She believes that it is a result of her rape that she was drawn to this. Maybe so. The book is sort of a record of how she goes about dealing with the rape as an adult, and subsequently realizing she has post traumatic stress disorder. But there are no happy endings here. Not really. She sort of seems to deal with the idea of having been raped. But the reader is left with a a feeling that she is just kidding herself. She repeats things, and I presume it is on purpose. Part of her overall issue is that her father never really showed any love or feeling because he was a child who grew up in Nazi Germany and experienced things like the SS coming in and possibly raping his mother. But his philosophy is more of a buck up, move on, and stop contemplating your naval.

As I keep writing, I realize that I got more out of the book than I thought I did! Perhaps it was a worthwhile read!!!!

HALLIE: I really couldn't decide how I felt out about this book. The book kept me reading along but more so because I kept thinking there would be this big revelation or occurence that explained why Stern wrote the way she did. First off she wasn't a great writer and then as Lisa mentioned above she repeated large portions of the book a couple of times. I was never able to understand what these technical moves were meant to portray. I did appreciate how cleanly she described peoples emotions, thoughts, and actions. I was almost able to connect with everyone she described whether it was herself, family, her rapist, a terrorist and that is usually hard to do. She was able to almost avoid the emotion, which i guess is maybe what she was trying to get across. I ended it all with a somewhat eh feeling so this def wouldn't be my first suggestion for someone else, but maybe these things intrigue you.... if they do it's worth a read.

Nantucket Nights

LISA: While I have enjoyed her books, this one was quite silly. Short, not very well thought out and the characters were not believable. Very little emotion was portrayed for the big events that took place. I was disappointed in this book and wonder if this was one of her earlier ones.

TOMASEN: I too was disappointed as I have enjoyed her other novels so much!! Great beach reads...this one...not so much!

HALLIE: Agreed with above, the premise was weird, people were just making excuses and doing what they wanted and overall the ending was just silly and totally expected. bleagh read.

The Island, by Elin Hilderbrand

I have read nearly all of her beach read books, and The Island does not disappoint! I read it pretty much non-stop the past few days, and it is well written and extremely engaging. This author, as many do, writes the same story over and over, and yet, it is forgiveable because you never want any of the books to end!

Tomasen: This is one of my favorite Elin books!! I never thought of them as the same story, but of course they are. Still love them though!

One Day

This book was FABULOUS! I couldn't stop reading it -- it sucked me in and I could not put it down. I loved the way it was written -- it felt very realistic, not chick-lit (probably due to the fact it is written by a man!) and really really good. I hated the ending, absolutely HATED it, but that is because it's not a Happily Ever After story, not from the beginning, certainly not in the middle, and absolutely not in the end!

Loved it! MUST READ!

Hallie, this is on the kindle, I will send it to you!

Somewhere Towards the End

Which is where I wished I was the entire time I read this book! I am not sure why I was drawn to it, but it had received good reviews. Well. She is 95 I think, and while some of her observations are astute, for the most part the book is indulgent. She was in the publishing industry herself, an editor, but she was not a very forceful woman. She was always underpaid, never married and never had children. It is mostly meanderings about this and that, and sort of like, really, not sure she had a very GOOD life!

I would NOT recommend it, and I only read it through because that is the way I roll!!!