Tag: Review

New Yorker Gillian Chang starts her second term at posh SpencerAcademy boarding school in San Francisco prepared to focus on her studies, her faith, and her friends. She plays a dozen musical instruments and can recite the periodic table of the elements backward. She’s totally prepared for everything–except love!
She’s falling hard for Lucas Hayes, who isn’t even a senior yet and is already aiming at a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford. The problem is, she never seems to be able to measure up and be the girlfriend he wants. He’s under a lot of pressure from his parents to achieve–maybe that’s why he’s short-tempered sometimes. But even a thick-skinned girl like Gillian can only take so much.
With her heart on the line, Gillian conceals more and more from her friends. So when she’s accused of selling exam answer sheets, even her girlfriends, Lissa Mansfield and Carly Aragon, wonder if it can be true. Gillian will need the power of honesty–with herself and with Lucas–to show what she’s really made of.

This book was nominated for the 2009 Christy Award.  I chose this book for that reason as part of the Christy Award Challenge.  As I read the book I found it to be nicely written, well-rounded characters with a lite Christian theme.  The girls were in a boarding school and there is a romance brewing between Gillian and Lucas that is pretty standard YA.   I wasn’t feeling the hardiness behind the book – what I would be expecting from a book, any book, up for an award.

And that is about the time that in my opinion author Shelley Adina hits a home run in this book with a twist to the plot – so perfectly woven throughout the books happenings that I didn’t see it coming.  Shelly takes this book to a higher level and through all my previous thoughts on the book out the door when she blind sides me as the reader, with a topic very important to young girls, abuse.

I am trying hard not to give away too much of the book here yet this is such an important part of my review.  When the abuse – not only physical but also verbal is presented I actually had to pause in my reading to consider what I had read – and how it was there, and I hadn’t seen it.  And that is where the brilliance of this book comes in.  How often do young women go about what they think is a normal relationship and not see it in the correct light?    Sometimes it takes a friend to show us the way.  And as I write this I am reminded that it is not only the young that can be caught by this … but women of all ages.

Overall, I am impressed,  Faith and Friendships flow generously through this well written book.

♥My Amazon Review♥

This book qualifies for the following challenges:

Christy Awards Challenge

2010 YA reading Challenge

Support Your Local Library reading Challenge

2010 100+ Reading Challenge

I borrowed this book from out Local Library

* My first library book read in about 20 years

As evening falls against the majestic backdrop of the Bavarian Alps, Charles Hirter, an American tourist, is savagely murdered. In the peace, quiet and pastoral splendor of this magnificent setting, Charles Hirter draws his last breath. Was Charles simply in the wrong place at the wrong time? Kommissar Franz Waldbaer, the German detective in charge of the case, faces an investigation that yields neither clues nor suspects nor motives. A gruff, go-it alone detective, Waldbaer is dismayed by the arrival of Robert Hirter, the victim’s brother, who insists on joining the investigation. But there is more to Robert than meets the eye. As Robert and the Kommissar uncover a nefarious nexus of evil past and evil present, they find themselves probing dark, long-forgotten episodes from the Third Reich in order to identify the present threat. Thrust into a violent world of fanatic passions, malevolent intentions and excruciating urgency, Robert Hirter and Kommissar Waldbaer must race against the clock to stop a sophisticated, covert, and deadly plot.

Yes, this book falls slightly outside my “comfort genre zone”.  However – always in for stretching myself I wanted to give this book a read.  Why this book?  Well, I do love a good mystery – and even a good thriller.  The stretch comes in the international espionage type books that just can’t hold my attention.  An international spy I will never be.  The hook for me was actually in the author, John J. Le Beau.   I like to read books where the authors really have a background in what they are talking about and John does have that.  He served as an operations officer in the CIA for over 25 years and now serves as a Professor of National Security Studies.   I have always heard that you should write what you know…. and John does just that.

I enjoyed the fact that the person going after Charles murderer was his brother Robert.  That made the story real to me… not so over the top that I couldn’t keep up.  By uncovering the pieces to Charles murder, Robert starts to bring in the reality that what has happened has a larger impact on the world then he could have ever anticipated.

A fast paced – and plenty of action read, John does deliver the book I believe he sat out to write.  I have to say that while this would normally not be a book for me, I found that John was able to write this style of book without overloading it with so many complications and twists that it left readers like myself in the dust.  I was pleasantly surprised.

My Amazon Review

I received my review copy of this book from Omnimystery

Style 1:  Mother:  “I have an idea, let’s start a mother daughter book club.  We can assign books that are better literature than those books you read all the time.  It will give us a chance to talk about the really important issues of life.  And when you hear the other mothers opinions you will see I am not the only one who thinks like I do”.

I can hear the footsteps fade as she runs the other direction.

Style 2:  Mother:  “What would you think about inviting a group of your friends over and their moms to read books and then have a get together with refreshments where you girls would get to relax and we’d all get to share what we thought of the story and do some fun activity with it?”

And with that, Shireen Dodson’s Mother Daughter Book Club is born.  This is the story of a group of mothers and their daughters and how their relationship was strengthened and changed by starting this monthly reading club.   I am going to be honest here, this book made me gush.  And now – I am going to gush about it to you so if you feel rain gear is required while I pour my heart out to you about this book then go – change… I will wait….

OK.  First of all it is easy to say that this book had me at “book club” books on books have always been a weakness.  And really – this book is not even a fit for me.  I have two sons.  Two grown sons….  no daughters.

BUT….  if I did have daughters, this would be the book….  this is the book.  First Shirleen writes this different from what I had expected.  I thought it was going to be  mostly great book choices for mothers and daughters to share.  It does have that – but it is not the main focus.  Shireen takes us from how the idea came about, how they started, what went right – what went wrong…. and even how this book became a reality.

There are great topics such as:

• Girl by Girl, Mom by Mom Building a Discussion Group
  
• Ice Breaker Games – for new friends and old
• Finding Books That Believe In Girl

and much more…  there are even tips in this book that I found would be fun and useful to apply to my book club.

In the back section of the book there are great book choices with book titles, descriptions, discussion questions, and project ideas that tie in with the book.

The more I read – the more I liked this book.  I would highly recommend it as a great read to get your own Mother Daughter Book Club going or even for great reading ideas to do with your daughter(s) on your own.

Shireen Dodson is Special Assistant to the Director, Office of Civil Rights attaché U.S. Department of State. Her second book, One Hundred Books for Girls to Grow On, offers a selection of both new and classic titles, and it serves as a companion to The Mother-Daughter Book Club. She lives in Washington, D.C., and is the mother of three children.

My Amazon Review

I received my review copy of this books from Harper Collins

An angry rebel, John dropped out of school and enlisted in the Army, not knowing what else to do with his life–until he meets the girl of his dreams, Savannah. Their mutual attraction quickly grows into the kind of love that leaves Savannah waiting for John to finish his tour of duty, and John wanting to settle down with the woman who captured his heart. But 9/11 changes everything. John feels it is his duty to re-enlist. And sadly, the long separation finds Savannah falling in love with someone else.

What is it about a Sparks novel?  It is like this rhythm to these books… almost like the sway of the ocean…. calming.  Yes that’s it.  His books are calming.  When I first put this audio in, I had to smile when the narrators  voice came on… there it was.  Just like in the books… this soothing voice.  Ahhhhh… Sparks.

She wore the slightest hint of perfume that reminded me of Paris…. even though I had never been there.

Nicholas Sparks’ story of John, his “not so much” relationship with his father, and Savannah, the girl with the kind eyes and welcoming smile… wrapped me right into the center of it.  I grew to enjoy the slow narrative drawl of John and liked the twist of this love story – being told from the rebellious Army guys point of view.

I learned about Asperger’s Disorder and found it a value to the book to put this within the story line.  It was a chance to learn about something I literally knew nothing about.

An enjoyable audio I highly recommend.

This book is counted in the following Challenges:

2010 100+ Reading Challenge

My Amazon Review

I received my review copy from Hachette Audio

Martha Carrier was one of the first women to be accused, tried and hanged as a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. Like her mother, young Sarah Carrier is bright and willful, openly challenging the small, brutal world in which they live. Often at odds with one another, mother and daughter are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria of the trials and the superstitious tyranny that led to the torture and imprisonment of more than 200 people accused of witchcraft. This is the story of Martha’s courageous defiance and ultimate death, as told by the daughter who survived.
Kathleen Kent is a tenth generation descendent of Martha Carrier. She paints a haunting portrait, not just of Puritan New England, but also of one family’s deep and abiding love in the face of fear and persecution.

This was a book I was so excited to get into.  I had heard so many good things about it and the topic of the Salem Witch Trials was one I  was interested in knowing more about.  It surprised me when I struggled through the first half of the book.  It was heavily filled with information about life in the 1600’s.  The action and information about the trials took so long to get to that I found myself wanting to put the book down and be done with it.

Once I made it through the first half and the information started to come out about Martha Carrier the book picked up significantly.  I was shocked and saddened how the trials came to be.  The evidence, or lack there of… really drove the story home for me.  The women that died during this trial was heartbreaking and the knowledge I was hoping to gain from this book about the trials was slow coming, but eventually made its appearance.

The Salem Witch Trials prior to this book were just something I had heard of but I really had no idea.  What a sad time in our history.

Martha Carrier

Calling her a “rampant hag” and the “Queen of Hell,” the Reverend Cotton Mather harbored no doubts that Martha Carrier deserved to be executed as a witch during the Salem outbreak on August 19, 1692. The Salem documents themselves, however, reveal that her crime was not witchcraft but an independence of mind and an unsubmissive character. A daughter of one of the founding families of Andover, Martha married a young Welsh servant, Thomas Carrier, in 1674, by whom she had four children. The Salem accusation against Martha came only two years after the selectmen of Andover blamed a smallpox epidemic on her witchcraft. Although historians have blamed her accusation on causes ranging from a conspiracy against Andover’s proprietary families to reaction against threats to patriarchal inheritance, her contentious spirit and the earlier charge of witchcraft seem the most plausible explanation.

Interview with Kathleen Kent

My book club reviewed this book for our January selection.  At the time of the review I had not finished the book having struggled with the first half.  After listening to the Bookies talk about what was yet to come in the book and how much they had learned about the Salem Witch Trials I went home form the meeting and finished the book.  They were right the second half of the book did pick up and got to the meet of the story that I was hoping for.  Over all our book club found this book to be an average read scoring a 3.4 on our scale of 1 – 5.

This book is counted in the following Challenges:

2010 100+ Reading Challenge

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge

My Amazon Review

This review copy was sent to me from Hachette Book Group