Thursday, June 11, 2009

SECRETS TO HAPPINESS by Sarah Dunn

Holly Frick has just endured the worst kind of breakup: the kind where you're still in love with the person leaving you. While Holly's wounds are still dangerously close to the surface, her happily married best friend confesses over a bottle of wine that she is this close to having an affair. And another woman asks Holly for advice about her love life--with one of Holly's exes!
Holly decides that if everyone around her can take pleasure wherever they find it, so will she. As any self-respecting thirtyish New York woman would do, she brings two males into her life: a flawed but endearing dog and a good-natured, much younger lover. She's soon entangled in a web of emails, chance meetings, and misguided good intentions and must forge an entirely new path to Nirvana.

The author did a fantastic job telling this story. Such a whirlwind of events taking place in Holly's life, all on the quest to find love and happiness. A fun book to read while lying on a blanket under a tree.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

AN HONORABLE GERMAN by Charles McCain
A novel of World War II

Mac Brekendorf is a proud young German naval officer who fights for his country with honor and courage. He looks forward to the future with his fiancee, Mareth.
In the North Atlantic, Max faces the increasing strength of the allies during his missions. Berlin is being bombed continuously, making life for Mareth dangerous.
As The Third Reich is falling, Nazi loyalists are gaining strength. They are infiltrating Max's crew, turning their terror on Germany's own armed forces. Max has to choose between his loyalty to the Reich or his own morality.

It's been said WWI was a war to end all wars, yet 25 years later WWII takes place. This is a great story told from the German side of the war. I was able to understand a different point of view after reading this. The family that was lost, of loves challenge during turbulent times, and decisions that are made that could turn something simple into something disastrous. 4.25 stars

My grandfather chose morality when he was 16 and fled Germany. Not wanting to be in the Nazi movement, he came to America, leaving his parents and siblings and never returning to see them. Talk about a lost heritage!! His daughter went to Germany to seek family but gramps spoke no English when he arrived and we believe his name was written by what the person at customs heard, not necessarily correct. He gave up minimal information before he died, just that he had a brother and a sister and wouldn't give their names. I believe because he left he was disowned and told never to come back, he was dead to his parents. So sad!!!! He was a cool "gramps" though. Would love to take us for rides in his Model A going nowhere. He had the greatest accent when he spoke and spoke German when we kids were not suppose to know what was said.
CEMETERY DANCE by Douglas Preston and Linda Child

Vincent D'Agosta surveys the crime scene of New York Times reporter William Smithbeck Jr who was brutally attached and killed. The crime is simple, disorganized and messy. The killer - deceased, Colin Fearing who was found floating in the Harlem River ten days earlier.
FBI Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast is on the case along with Caitlyn Kidd, and up and coming crime scene reporter looking for the big scoop to raise her to fame.

Prepare to take a journey with the walking dead!!! Visit the dark and creepy dungeons and catacombs under a church. Encounter "the great spirit" of a cult who own the church. Lots of ups, downs, twists and turns to find a killer. Excellent reading. 4.25 stars

Sunday, June 7, 2009

MATING RITUALS OF THE NORTH AMERICAN WASP by Lauren Lipton

Peggy Adams awakes to a strange man in her bed. She remembers nothing after celebrating with her friends the night before. Looking around she is horrified to find she is married to the stranger in her bed.
Hunky Luke Sedgwick is the last of the New Nivevah, Connecticut Sedgwicks. He lives with his eccentric Aunt Abigail in the old family home that is falling down around their ears and eating up all the family funds.
Luke would be perfect for Peggy except she is pre-engaged to her live in boy friend of seven years, Brock, who can't make up his mind to get married.

A delightful story revealing the importance of communications with others. Aunt Abigail offers Luke (down to earth poet) and Peggy (free spirited) a challenge of a lifetime. Do they stay married or get divorced? Does Peggy follow her heart? 4 star reading.

If I was Peggy, Brock would have been gone a long time ago. He's too hung on himself. Sorry! I believe opposites attract. Yes, you need some things in common but not all, for there would go the spice needed to stay together. Ex: I read, my husband sleeps! Ha! Ha! Ha!

GALWAY BAY by Mary Pat Kelly

Honora Keeley and Michael Kelly wed and start a family in Ireland. They find peace in their ancient faith, stories and songs.
Coming from a family of fishermen and tenant farmers, they sell both their crops and catch from the sea to pay the high rents and taxes imposed on them by the landlord and the government. They live on the only thing left to them, potatoes.
A potato blight in three of four years brings about The Great Starvation that kills one million Irish people. Wanting to survive, Honora and Michael join the other Irish refugees trying to emigrate from Ireland to America.

A beautifully written story spanning several generations. Follow Michael, Honora and her sister Maire in their journey of survival, the many hardships they endure while seeking a better life to carry on their Irish heritage. 4.25 stars
Could we today endure even a tiny bit of this story? Would we have the know how to even grow food? How to survive in the winter????

Wicked Game by Lisa Jackson and Nancy Bush

In the midst of the maze at St. Elizabeth school, a group of boys are trying to scare one another. They end up at the ghostly white statue of the Madonna. Pushing and shoving, one of the boys stumbles and falls, brushing his hands against the ground, unearthing buried bones.

Twenty years ago, Jessie Brentwood goes missing from St. Elizabeth's school. Her friends believed she ran away. But did she?
Jessie's old school friends gather together believing the buried body that was unearthed is Jessie's. Soon, some of these friends start dying from freak accidents.
Becca Sutcliff is rattled by the deaths and believes she is being followed. Is evil lurking in the shadows?
A great mystery unraveling supressed knowledge. What is the old family secret? Love still burst forth amid the mayhem, just like flowers in the spring. Nice 4 stars.