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)