Book 65 (2011): Burnt Mountain

Thayer grows up loving camp in North Carolina where she meets her first love and gets her first broken heart. She was an unloved child after her father died when she was young and could only find solace and happiness at summer camp or with her grandmother.

As an adult, Thayer marries Aengue, a Irish folklorist, and they move into her deceased grandmother's home, near her beloved childhood camp. Instead of finding happiness as an adult with a man she loves in a place bequeathed to her by her beloved grandmother, near her childhood haven, she finds scary truths about her past and present.

This is a wonderfully told story, spinning a Goth Southern tale. (323 pages)

A

Book 64 (2011): The nineth Wife

I love love loved the book The Nineth Wife. And I am so glad. I checked it out from the library thinking it was probably going to end up as lighthearted chick lit cotton candy junk and I was so wrong and I am so glad!

The premise is that thirtysomething Bess had given up on love and marriage and then she meets Rory, an Irish musician and they fall in love. Then Rory drops the bombshell that he's been married before-- 8 times and she, Bess, would be wife number 9. Bess is taken aback and isn't sure that's a good thing for her so she decides to meet some of the exs, unbeknownst to Rory, as she takes a cross country trip with her fighting grandparents (helping them move), her gay neighbor, a mannequin, and a shar-pei.

Yes it is witty and silly sometimes, but it's also insightful. I like the changing narrator voice of Bess and Rory and how we, the readers, gets let in on Rory's marital history before Bess-- and we know far more than Bess.

Good read! (448 pages)

A

Book 63 (2011): South of Superior

I loved South of Superior! I loved the complex characters, the setting location, the characters felt like people I would want to know. I LOVED the voice of the story and I fell in love with the hotel and the UP. It was a story I didn't want to end.

Amazon says:

When Madeline Stone walks away from Chicago and moves five hundred miles north to the coast of Lake Superior, in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, she isn't prepared for how much her life will change. Charged with caring for an aging family friend, Madeline finds herself in the middle of beautiful nowhere with Gladys and Arbutus, two octogenarian sisters-one sharp and stubborn, the other sweeter than sunshine. As Madeline begins to experience the ways of the small, tight-knit town, she is drawn into the lives and dramas of its residents. It's a place where times are tough and debts run deep, but friendship, community, and compassion run deeper. As the story hurtles along-featuring a lost child, a dashed love, a car accident, a wedding, a fire, and a romantic reunion-Gladys, Arbutus, and the rest of the town teach Madeline more about life, love, and goodwill than she's learned in a lifetime. A heartwarming novel, South of Superior explores the deep reward in caring for others, and shows how one who is poor in pocket can be rich in so many other ways, and how little it often takes to make someone happy.

Wonderful!!! (384 pages)

A

Book 62 (2011): Winters In Bloom

Amazon says the following about The Winters in Bloom:

Together for over a decade, Kyra and David Winter are happier than they ever thought they could be. They have a comfortable home, stable careers, and a young son, Michael, whom they love more than anything. Yet because of their complicated histories, Kyra and David have always feared that this domestic bliss couldn't last - that the life they created was destined to be disrupted. And on one perfectly average summer day, it is: Michael disappears from his own backyard.

The only question is whose past has finally caught up with them: David feels sure that Michael was taken by his troubled ex-wife, while Kyra believes the kidnapper must be someone from her estranged family, someone she betrayed years ago.

As the Winters embark on a journey of time and memory to find Michael, they will be forced to admit these suspicions, revealing secrets about themselves they've always kept hidden. But they will also have a chance to discover that it's not too late to have the family they've dreamed of; that even if the world is full of risks, as long as they have hope, the future can bloom.

Lyrical, wise, and witty, The Winters in Bloom is Lisa Tucker's most optimistic work to date. This enchanting, life-affirming story will charm readers and leave them full of wonder at the stubborn strength of the human heart.

I didn't find it enchanting at all, not optimistic or charming. I didn't really care for it at all... (288 pages)

D

Book 61 (2011): The Uncoupling

From Amazon:

When the elliptical new drama teacher at Stellar Plains High School chooses for the school play Lysistrata-the comedy by Aristophanes in which women stop having sex with men in order to end a war-a strange spell seems to be cast over the school. Or, at least, over the women. One by one throughout the high school community, perfectly healthy, normal women and teenage girls turn away from their husbands and boyfriends in the bedroom, for reasons they don't really understand. As the women worry over their loss of passion, and the men become by turns unhappy, offended, and above all, confused, both sides are forced to look at their shared history, and at their sexual selves in a new light.

Even though it sounds like something I should enjoy with it being set in a school, about sex, directing plays, relationships.... well, I just didn't like The Uncoupling at all. I didn't care for the subject matter. I figured out the "conceptual ending" about 40 pages in. I didn't like the voices of the characters or of the author. It's not a favorite book, obviously and it just didn't set well with me--- the characters rang so false and I don't like "all angry, all the time". Feh. (288 pages)

D

Book 60 (2011): Cemetery Girl

When I read Cemetery Girl I thought I liked book overall but it left me feeling creepy about the end, something just so off and wrong and it gave me the heebeeejeebees, it was so twisted. With a society like ours, unfortunately, maybe the twisted part that creeped me out was too real and it felt like a story we could hear on 20/20 or read about in the papers. So I think that means author David Beil did his job. This story was good but still left me.... icky at the same time.

Summery from Amazon:
Four years after Tom and Abby's 12-year-old daughter vanishes, she is found alive but strangely calm. When the teen refuses to testify against the man connected to her disappearance, Tom decides to investigate the traumatizing case on his own. Nothing can prepare him for what he is about to discover. (400 pages)

A-

Book 59 (2011): Fragile

Here is a summery of the book Fragile by Lisa Unger that I've taken from Amazon who took it from Publisher's Weekly:

Set in the Hollows, a secluded town about 100 miles outside New York City, Unger's contemporary thriller offers solid entertainment, but lacks the tension of her 2008 stand-alone, Black Out. Psychologist Maggie Cooper and her husband, Det. Jones Cooper, disagree on how to handle their rebellious son, 17-year-old Rick, who prefers to spend time with his band or holed up with his girlfriend, Charlene Murray. When Charlene disappears one night after a fight with her mother, Maggie and Jones wonder if she ran off to Manhattan, but are reminded of the disappearance 20 years earlier of Sarah Meyers, whose mutilated body was found after she vanished on her way home from school. Though the alleged killer confessed, there are still unanswered questions, and Maggie and Jones find themselves forced to revisit the past as suspicion falls on Rick.

I liked the book well enough. It was better than some I've read this year. There's a very small group of characters and their development is shallow. (336 pages)

B-

Book 58 (2011): The Midwife's confession

I LOVED this book. Here's a great summary I found, written by a reviewer at Amazon. com, named DC:

On a beautiful day in September, Noelle commits suicide. Her two closest friends, Tara and Emerson, are completely shocked that the woman they had known -- caring, committed midwife, champion of babies-in-need, strong independent Noelle has done this. Why? Turns out that Noelle had a lot of secrets -- a history of lies, betrayals and a hidden past that neither of them knew.

The story is a mystery and also a study in friendship and family relationships. The ability to write believable characters is a definite strength of author Diane Chamberlain. The women in her books are mothers, daughters, wives, etc. who are able to form strong bonds that are tested but that don't break even in the face of tragedy or heartache. Ultimately, this is a book about the extent that someone could go to in an attempt to make a wrong a right; or how loving someone too much can cause a person to do things that ordinarily wouldn't be considered. And at what cost? Told from the viewpoints of the key characters in the novel, the story also shifts back and forth in time as Noelle's friends and their children Jenny and Grace try to make sense of the suicide and to find answers to the questions it brought to light. It seems that none of them really knew Noelle at all!

This was a great thriller and an amazing look at people, and definitely makes you ask the question "How well do we know anyone?" Great read! I tore though it in an afternoon and went in search of other books by Diane Chamberlain. Great voice of characters, and I liked how all characters were presented, even though I didn't 'like' them all! Wonderful, jarring and a good mystery, too. (432 pages)

A

Book 57 (2011): Everwild

The second book in the Skinjacker series just didn't excite me like the first one did. I LOVED the first book, but again, it's a case of an author writing a great first book and then spinning it into a series, which was weak.

I guess it's not fair to say the whole series is weak, but this second novel is.

Nick, "The Chocolate Ogre" is still trying to get every kid in Everlost to take a coin and "go to the light", which is against what Mary High Tower wants. Mary joins with scary allies, and Allie the Outcast joins with Skinjackers, learning more about her powers. There's also a wicked twist ending, which of course will lead readers to the third novel of the trilogy.

It was ok. Again, not the target audience and I'm sure this appeals to junior high kids. I like the creative-ness and I like the idea of the world of Everlost. Otherwise, I think Everlost as a novel should have stood alone. (432 pages)

C

Book 56 (2011): The Imperfectionists

It's been awhile since I read this book but I did like it well enough.

A bunch of folks work at a English speaking newspaper in Rome. The cast of character- editors, reporters, staffers, management- all have their own stories of how they came to Rome and to the paper. The paper was originally started by a millionaire and it's struggled to stay afloat for 50 plus years. The Imperfectionists tell the stories of the current staff while blending the back story of the previous staff and the newspaper's history.

Each chapter tells the story of a different member, almost like a bunch of short stories tied together with a central theme, setting, etc, and how they all come together. (288 pages)

B

Book 55 (2011): Forever

Forever is the last book in the Wolves or Mercy Falls trilogy.

I remember when I read the first one I was really excited and as it went on.... I became less enchanted, like I did when I read all the Twilight book series. I liked each one less and less with each book I read.

We know Sam is human and Grace is a wolf. Isabel's father is trying to get a legal wolf hunt to wipe out the pack behind the property and Cole is trying to find a cure for the shifting.

All these stories blend together in a race against time to save them all and let true love prevail.

I think teens will like it the way they like Twilight, but I just felt it was forced and would've enjoyed Shiver had it been a stand alone novel. (400 pages)

C

Book 54 (2011): Sworn to Silence

When Kate Burkholder was 14, she experienced a horrifying encounter with a serial killer that left her alive but scarred for life, which caused her to shun her Amish community upbringing and become an "English" police officer. She is now the Chief of Police in her hometown, Painter's Mill. Kate's biggest problems were stray cows until a girl is found dead and all the traces are similar to Kate's past horror.

Although Kate is an excellent police officer, she is a woman and inexperienced so the town officials bring in more help with more experience. BCI agent John Tomasetti, a federal agent who's on the verge of being washed up and has his own secrets is sent to help Kate catch the killer.

The murders get more and more gruesome as the killers takes more victims. Kate, who is trying to do her job, protect her family and their secrets as well as protect herself, might have to quit her job to save the next victim, as well as herself.

It was a fine mystery and an interesting new character but Kate had too much personal angst to keep me interested in reading her any more. And having all these cops with issues when trying to solve a murder just made it an unpleasant read all the way around. I just couldn't seem to like any character! (336 pages)

C