I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Meet Ed Kennedy—underage cabdriver, pathetic card player, and useless at romance. He lives in a shack with his coffee-addicted dog, the Doorman, and he’s hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence, until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery. That’s when the first Ace arrives. That’s when Ed becomes the messenger. . . .

Chosen to care, he makes his way through town helping and hurting (when necessary), until only one question remains: Who’s behind Ed’s mission?

Brilliant, brilliant book!  While the language is a bit rough the message and story it has to tell more than makes up for it.  It is a story of caring and compassion unlike any I have read before. Zusak is from Australia so there is a bit of ‘down under’ lingo which can be confusing.

5 Stars (Rated PG for language and violence)

The Pursuit of Alice Thrift by Elinor Lipman

Meet poor Alice Thrift, surgical intern in a Boston hospital, high of I.Q. but low in social graces. She doesn’t mean to be acerbic, clinical, or painfully precise, but where was she the day they taught Bedside Manner 101? Into Alice’s workaholic and romantically challenged life comes Ray Russo, a purveyor of fairground fudge, in need of rhinoplasty and well-heeled companionship, not necessarily in that order. Is he a con man or a sincere suitor? Good guy or bad? His well-engineered cruise into carnal waters introduces Alice to a new and baffling concept, chemistry—and not of the organic kind. Is it possible for a woman of science to cure her own loneliness in the unsuitable arms of a parental nightmare? Luckily, Leo Frawley, R.N., who has a high threshold for Alice’s left-footed people skills, and Sylvie Schwartz, M.D., fellow resident and woman of the world, take on the task of guiding Alice through the narrow straits of her own no-rapport zone.

Elinor Lipman does great characterizations, from socially inept Alice to ‘flower power’ midwife Meredith, to ‘swarmy’ salesman Ray, all are delightful in their own way.  There was a bit of sex and whereas the last book I read, those scenes detracted from the story, in this book I found myself giggling behind my fingers.  Very, very funny. 

You can see what might happen in the book, but continue to wish for a happy ending.  I won’t tell you which one you get!

3 stars (I would have given it 4 if it hadn’t been for the sex.  Rated R)

A Secret Kept by Tatiana de Rosnay

It all began with a simple seaside vacation, a brother and sister recapturing their childhood.  Antoine Rey thought he had the perfect surprise for his sister Mélanie’s birthday: a weekend by the sea at Noirmoutier Island, where the pair spent many happy childhood summers playing on the beach.  It had been too long, Antoine thought, since they’d returned to the island—over thirty years, since their mother died and the family holidays ceased.  But the island’s haunting beauty triggers more than happy memories; it reminds Mélanie of something unexpected and deeply disturbing about their last island summer.  When, on the drive home to Paris, she finally summons the courage to reveal what she knows to Antoine, her emotions overcome her and she loses control of the car.

Recovering from the accident in a nearby hospital, Mélanie tries to recall what caused her to crash.  Antoine encounters an unexpected ally: sexy, streetwise Angèle, a mortician who will teach him new meanings for the words life, love and death.  Suddenly, however, the past comes swinging back at both siblings, burdened with a dark truth about their mother, Clarisse.  

Trapped in the wake of a shocking family secret shrouded by taboo, Antoine must confront his past and also his troubled relationships with his own children.  How well does he really know his mother, his children, even himself?  Suddenly fragile on all fronts as a son, a husband, a brother and a father, Antoine Rey will learn the truth about his family and himself the hard way.

I was anticipating a book on the level of “Sarah’s Key” and was disappointed.  As much as I loved “Sarah’s Key” I felt that the ending of it kind of fell flat.  This book was the same but without the enthralling beginning.  I only was mildly interested in the first half of the book and was a bit repulsed with the ending.  Also there was way too much unnecessary sex.

2 stars (Rated R – sex)

The Last Noel by Heather Graham

A friend gave me this book to read, and me being the “book chain-smoker” that I am I just picked it up and started reading it expecting a sweet Christmas story.  I didn’t realize those were drops of blood on the cover.  In the first chapter there is a robbery and the shop-keeper is killed.  But I was hooked.  It moved fast and was an intriguing story with a few surprises.  But I won’t be reading any more of these types of books.  I read 100+ pages the first night and then had nightmares.  Yup, I’m a real wimp.  I just don’t do scary.

3 stars (Rated PG-13)

The Christmas Letters by Lee Smith

It all begins with Birdie Pickett’s first Christmas letter in 1944.  A lonely young war bride, Birdie is far from home and taking care of a new baby while her husband is fighting overseas.  At Christmastime, she writes home to her family about the joys and sorrows of her new life, and—being a wonderful cook—includes a recipe.  As her life changes and her children grown up, Birdie continues to write gossipy letters to her family and friends every holiday season.

Birdie’s daughter, Mary takes on the Christmas letter tradition—recipes and all—when she leaves college in the 1960’s to start a family of her own. Like her mother, she goes from poverty to prosperity, but she loses herself—and her marriage—along the way.

Finally, in the 1990’s, Mary’s daughter, Melanie, pours over the letters and lives of the women who came before herm and writes her first Christmas letter.

I can’t say that I highly recommend this book.  It was only 125 pages—I think too much happening in too short a time.  It didn’t seem to go anywhere, it fell kind or flat.  The last chapter (letter) written by Melanie seemed to be an advertisement or teaser for a book to come, but as far as I can tell, Ms. Smith has not written anything with the outline given in that letter.  In all, nothing special, and none of the recipes were all that special either! I would, however try another book by this author.

3 stars (Rated G)

Prayers For Sale by Sandra Dallas

It’s 1936 and the Great Depression has taken its toll.  Eighty-six-year-old Hennie Comfort has lived in Middle Swan, Colorado—up in the high country of the snow covered Rocky Mountains—since before it was Colorado.  When she first meets seventeen-year-old Nit Spindle, Hennie is drawn to the young grieving girl.  Nit and her husband have come to the small mining town in search of work, but the loneliness and loss Nit feels are almost too much to bear. One day she notices an ode sign that reads “Prayers for Sale” in front of Hennie’s house and takes out her last nickel.  Hennie doesn’t actually take money for her prayers, never has, but she invites the skinny girl in anyway.  The harsh conditions of life that each has endured help them to create an instant bond, and a friendship is born, one in which the deepest of hardships are shared and the darkest of secrets are confessed. 

One of the vehicles that keeps the book moving forward is Hennie’s stories.  While the story of the current day is happening, Hennie is always telling Nit stories of things that happened in Middle Swan in days past.  Hennie’s stories are a treat and you find yourself drawn in and then she comes back to the present and the story of the book is just as delightful. She also speaks in the jargon of the time and day.  She uses words like ‘harbornation” instead of ‘hibernation’ and ‘disremember’ instead of ‘forget’.   Lovely, lovely book.

Mormon Mention:  This is a new feature I want to try out.  When Mormons are mentioned in a book I am going to call it out just for fun.  In this case it was a very brief ‘mention’.  The women were having a quilting bee and the quilt had a cotton batten which was not common as they were expensive.  One of women mentioned how nice and easy it was to quilt, that the needle went through the material so easily.  She said she was glad it wasn’t made of overalls (which was a common material to use for the middle of the quilt) to which another woman say, “A Mormon blanket. That’s what you call an overalls quilt.”   Then someone changes the subject so you are never told anymore about why it’s called a Mormon blanket.  Anybody ever heard of it?

4 stars (Rated PG for topics only.)

The Girl in the Garden by Kamala Nair

When Rakhee Singh is just ten years old, her world is shaken irrevocably when her beautiful yet troubled mother spirits her away from her father and their Minnesota home to visit her ancestral estate in an Indian village untouched by the centuries.  It is there that Rakhee meets her enigmatic relatives for the first time, seeks adventure with her three cousins and learns the devastating truth about why her mother fled the childhood home she loved. During the course of the scorching summer, Rakhee will discover the mysterious jungle behind the house, a walled-up garden holding a terrifying secret.  It is a secret that will expose long-hidden family skeletons and forever influence her beliefs about fidelity and love.

I really enjoyed the story and the mystery behind the ‘girl in the garden’.  It kept me guessing until the end. Ms. Nair has a real talent for descriptive prose.

4 stars (Rated PG-13 for themes)

The Modern Magi by Carol Lynn Pearson

Oh, I love Carol Lynn Pearson.  Her stories are almost as good as her poetry. 

This is a sweet short novella about fifty-seven year old Annabelle Perkins who lives alone in a small Midwestern town and works as a waitress.  She dreams of traveling to the Holy Land and giving a gift to Jesus at his birthplace, just as the Magi did two thousand years before.  After saving her money for months, her dream is about to come true.  Then something unexpected happens and forces Annabelle to make a series of difficult decisions.

Lovely story.

5 Stars (Rated G)

The Christmas Clock by Kat Martin

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm addicted to Christmas books.  This one was just a quick romantic book, but the story was sweet.  Mostly about a young boy who lives with his grandmother and his relations with the other adults in the town. His grandmother has Alzhiemer's and eventually can't care for him anymore.  The question about who he will live with is the major play of the book and the romance is between two of the adults that love him the most.

3 stars (Rated PG-13 for one brief scene of unnecessary sex-talk)

The Last Time I Saw You by Elizabeth Berg

Elizabeth Berg is always entertaining.  This book is about a 40th high school reunion and it follows four main characters. We hear what they are anticipating, what happens leading up to the reunion and then the actual reunion itself.  It was interesting that it was a 40th reunion.  People are way past the anxities of high school (or should be).  There is a scene where they all sit down and actually discuss their real feelings from high school.  During this scene the following was said... 

"So many people go to reunions thinking they can change what happened to them.  That the person you've become might erase the person you were then. But of course that doesn't happen.  In some respects this reunion has shown me that it's not that you can't go home again; it's that you can never leave."

4 Stars (Rated R for brief sex talk and a sprinkling of f-bombs)

Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn

This delightful diversion was a lexicon lover’s treasure trove of wonderful words.  It was so much fun!  It is the story of 18 year-old Ella Minnow pea who lives on a fictional island called Nollop off the coast of South Carolina.  Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal pangram, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”  Now the memorial to Nollop and his pangram (a sentence using all 26 letters of the alphabet) is starting to loose its letters.  As the letters drop from the monument they are outlawed by the island’s Council and people start to desert the island for the safety of the United States.  The book follows Ella and others as they try to save their beloved island from total desertion and loss of language. 

So much fun!

5 stars (Rated G)

Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb

I almost didn't read this because...Wally Lamb...meh!  So glad I did.

It's 1964 and ten-year-old Felix is sure of a few things: the birds and the bees are puzzling, television is magical, and this is one Christmas he'll never forget.

LBJ and Lady Bird are in the White House, Meet the Beatles is on everyone's turntable, and Felix Funicello (distant cousin of the iconic Annette!) is doing his best to navigate fifth grade—easier said than done when scary movies still give you nightmares and you bear a striking resemblance to a certain adorable cartoon boy.

Great quick Christmas story!

4 stars (Rated PG-13 brief prepubescent-teen-boy talk)

Maynard and Jennica by Rudolph Delson

Maynard Gogarty is a defeated musician, who makes a hobby of surreptitiously filming the fashion faux pas of New York City commuters. On an uptown 6 train in the sweltering summer of 2000 he meets Jennica Green, a nostalgic Californian who calculates that she s been lonesome 68.53 percent of her adult life. Though their initial acquaintance is fleeting, when fate next brings them together, at a screening of Maynard s film, romance intrudes. And as with most things in life, everyone has an opinion.  

This is a very unusual novel.  If you like a multiple-voice novel, this is for you.  The story is told in no less than 35 voices…and done in such a way that the reader doesn’t get thoroughly confused. Mr. Delson’s characters are unforgettable and his imagery is often hilarious.  Take this excerpt as an example…

“…[it was] a wet furnace of a morning. My armpits were—have you ever used a droplet of water to test the heat of a wok?  While I was waiting on the platform for the train to City Hall, ay armpits were informing me that the wok was ready.”

3 stars (Rated R – some bad language and brief sex)

The Snow Angel by Glenn Beck

Rachel Price’s one happy memory from her childhood is of playing outside with her father, Mitch, on a cold and snowy day. In that moment he took her hands in his and called her his angel. She felt safe, loved, and protected. Rachel’s mother dies in a car crash a few years later—a sudden and unresolved ending to a complicated relationship. Mitch’s reaction to certain realities surrounding the death pushes Rachel away and confirms her fear that Mitch never truly loved her at all.

Years later, Rachel’s daughter, Lily, is the only light in her dark life. Rachel is consumed by an abusive marriage but too afraid to escape. On Christmas Eve, Rachel’s husband raises a hand to Lily in a moment of aggression that finally snaps Rachel out of her docile state. She realizes immediately that she must protect her daughter in ways her own parents didn’t protect her, and remove Lily from the situation. Through the help of an old and dear friend, Rachel has a safe place to go, but first, she must say goodbye to her father.

As the snow falls on this Christmas Eve, Rachel learns that it’s never too late to start over. The Snow Angel is a tale about family, forgiveness, and learning to treasure our memories while allowing ourselves to move forward.

Glenn Beck just gets better and better.  This is the best of his books yet...emotional, real, faith-filled and very moving, a perfect Christmas story.

4 stars (Rated PG for abusive situations)

Loose Diamonds by Amy Ephron

I received this book as an Advanced Reading Copy from www.librarything.com .  I love getting free books!  Amy Ephron is a screenwriter and the sister of Nora Ephron of “Sleepless in Seattle” and many other wonderful chick flicks. This book is a selection of essays which one can imagine that Amy wrote throughout her life and finally had a chance to publish.  Some are more interesting than others.  Some funny…some sad…some downright creepy.

The ‘downright creepy’ one was “My Afternoon with Squeaky Fromme”, yes THAT Squeaky Fromme.  When Amy was nineteen and didn’t know enough to be too scared to do it, she went to the Ranch where the Manson Family lived and interviewed Squeaky Fromme.  This was right after the murders of the “Helter Skelter” fame and most of the ‘family’ was currently on trial.  Squeaky had nothing to do with it, so she wasn’t behind bars.  Amy speaks of the eerie feeling of the ranch and the oddness of the few people that were there.

Some of the pieces had to do with growing up in Hollywood and the odd circumstances there.  Her mother’s obsession with everything on the table had to be in a dish of it’s own, including mustard and ketchup. And then when she had her first child she was in the hospital next to Elizabeth Taylor daughter-in-law.  The entrance of the famous movie star with her small dog and assistant at her side caused quite a stir.

Several of her chapters discuss her marriages and children.  Her first husband and his girlfriend who rams Amy’s car with her Land Rover in the car pool lane at her children’s school.  She tells of trying to get all the family (first and second husband and all their children) together for a vacation.

Overall it was an interesting read.  I enjoyed reading of a life so completely different from mine.  I didn’t agree with all she had to say…but that’s ok.

3 stars (Rated PG-13 for themes and brief language.)

A Prairie Christmas Collection by Tracie Peterson et al.

This was a book of 9 different Christmas stories.  They all take place in the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, etc. in the late 1800’s.  They are all Christian romances.  It was a nice gentle read.  Not great literature, but a fun read.

3 stars (Rated G)

So Big by Edna Ferber

This is another Pulitzer Pize winng book. The back of the book touts this as “A rollicking panorama of Chicago's high and low life, this stunning novel follows te travails of gambler's daughter Selina Peake DeJong as she struggles to maintain her dignity, her family, and her sanity in the face of monumental challenges."  I found this rather misleading as after the first 50 pages or so, Selina's father passes away and she leaves Chicago to live in the country as a school teacher.  Selina sees the beauty in everything she sees. Her observation on first seeing a field of cabbages, "Cabbages are beautiful" becomes a source of mocking from the country folk and is repeated throughout the novel as a means of separating Selina from the people with whom she lives among.

She quickly marries a ‘truck farmer’ and has a child…a son, Dirk or “So Big”.  Her husband dies after only a few years of marriage and then the story really begins. Selina is forced to work hard to give her son all the things she longed for and was never able to attain. 

I really enjoyed the first part about Selina, but when the story switches focus to Dirk, it falls kind of flat to me, but maybe that was intentional...hmmm.  I keep going back and forth about the ending.  I can’t decide if it was a ‘cop-out’ or a brilliant way to end the book.  I am looking forward to discussing it with the women of my book club to see if they felt the same way.  It definitely has a message to deliver and it does that well, whether you like the ending or not.

3 stars (Rated G – for young audiences as well)

The Tennis Partner by Abraham Verghese

I chose this book because I loved Abraham Verghese’s Cutting for Stone (highly recommend it).  If I had read the summary more clearly, that it was not fiction, but a memoir, I probably wouldn’t have chosen to read it.  I mean, tennis...really?  That said, I did enjoy parts of the book and it did read like a novel.

Verghese is a doctor working in a hospital in El Paso.  David is a intern from Australia.  David and Abraham strike up a friendship that originally revolves around tennis and then grows deeper.  David has a drug problem which is exacerbated by working in a hospital. 

I enjoyed reading about the cases in the hospital and the friendship and drug issues were quite fascinating.  Ironically, the parts that did not work for me were the excerpts about tennis.

3 stars (Rated PG-13 for drug-use and language)

The Angel of Bastogne by Gilbert Morris

Chicago newspaper reporter Ben Raines is a full-fledged cynic trying to bypass what he feels is the least wonderful time of the year. But his plan to escape Christmas on an overseas vacation is foiled when he’s assigned to write the big front-page holiday story.

In a humbug twist, Ben decides to sour the sugar coatings of December 25^th with a piece that will debunk a World War II legend involving his father.

Willy Raines fought in the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne on Christmas Day in 1944, and, to Ben’s embarrassment, openly believe a real angel saved the lives of his men in the 101^st Airborne unit.
Along with a new friend, Ben makes a cross-country journey to find other veterans who witnessed the angel of Bastogne, sure to return empty-handed.  Instead, he comes home with a heart that is overflowing.

Not very well written but a lovely Christmas story with a Christian influence.  I loved it.

4 stars (Rated G – for everyone)

The First Day of the Rest of My Life by Cathy Lamb

Madeline O’Shea tells people what to do with their lives.  A renowned life coach, she inspires thousands of women through her thriving practice—exuding enviable confidence along with stylish suits and sleek hair.  But her confidence, just like her fashionable demeanor, is all a front.

For decades, Madeline has lived in fear of her traumatic past becoming public.  Now a reporter is reinvestigating the notorious crime that put Madeline’s mother behind bars, threatening to destroy her elaborate façade. Only Madeline’s sister, Annie, and her frail grandparents know about her childhood—but lately Madeline has reason to wonder if her grandparents also have a history they’ve been keeping from her.

As the demons from the past swirl around her, a childhood friend with a gentle heart is urging Madeline to have faith in him—and in herself.  As she allows her resistance to thaw, the pain she expects pales in comparison to the surprises headed straight to her door. With one bold, unprecedented move, Madeline O’Shea may just wake up out of the sadness and guilt that have kept her sleepwalking through life for so long—and discover that the worst thing that can happen is sometimes the very thing we desperately need.

Cathy Lamb is a master storyteller, with the ability to craft characters that go right to the edge of insane and then pull back.  I have know read all of her books and I have loved every one of them.  This book is no exception.  You will laugh out loud and cry all on the same page.  This is a book where lavender fields, a violin and the color pink are all characters right along with the people that occupy its pages.  Treat yourself...you will not be disappointed.

5 stars (PG-13 for abuse situations and randy talk by a dementia-driven grandmother)