The Secret River - Kate Grenville

This was my most recent audio selection. I'd probably give it 3 1/2 or 4 stars. It was interesting and entertaining but it had it's slow moments. I also was frustrated with the main character for not having the morals I hoped he'd demonstrate towards the natives in the story. I wanted him the one voice of reason and kindness and....

Well for the period it's set in, the fact is that Thornhill is written as a real man, and acted exactly how he would have realistically acted at that time.

Which makes sense, since this novel is based on real people and real experiences.

The Secret River is set in and near Sidney, Australia, at it's beginning, when it was where Great Britain dumped it's convicts to rid the country of them.

It's a story of colonial settlement, of reaching beyond the circumstances life plants you in and making the most of them. It's a survival story. It is also an interesting little glimpse into Australia's history.

The Secret River is the first in a trilogy, based on the author's family. I'm not certain if I'll read the other two. I would possibly be interested in listening to them on audio, but my library doesn't always have all the books in a set available. If I can't get them from the library, I don't know if I'll pursue reading them or not. I'm curious to hear the rest of the story, but their are so many other books on my wish list, that if I can't get these for free, I probably won't spend money on them in order to finish the story.

The Scent of Rain and Lightning - Nancy Pickard

Ventured forth from my historical novel norm to read a modern day murder mystery. Then again, I didn't get to far from my standard because it's set in a little farming town in Kansas. :) Can't help myself.

Really enjoyable read, just enough suspense and mystery to keep you attentive. About half way through I thought I had it figured out, only to have my theory totally blown out of the water at the end.

Really likable characters who seemed like real people, not so made up for a book. You know what I mean?

So here's the basic gist of the story and then you decide if you want to read it or not, but I really enjoyed it so I'd encourage you to go for it. I've got another of Pickard's mystery novels on my wish list now, another one set in Kansas.

Jody is suspicious of happiness because it always seems to deceive you so that the bad things that follow can sneak up on you. And the bad always follows. When she was three, life was good and happy and then one stormy night her father was murdered and her mother vanished, and she's never trusted happiness since.

Twenty-three years later, life is going well and Jody is happy and suspicious. She's landed a job teaching high school English in her home town, she's surrounded by her loving grandparents and uncles, and has been loved and cared for by the citizens of her home town. But happiness is deceiving and now her uncles are standing in her living room telling her that the man who killed her father is being released from prison and he's coming back home to Rose, KS. His son, Collin, now a lawyer and the one responsible for his father's early release is coming too, convinced his father is innocent of the murders, and determined that Jody is going to take a closer look at the events that happened that night so many years ago.

I checked this book out from the library for my Kindle so you can get it in that version if you want to.

The Blind Contessa's New Machine - Carey Wallace

I loved this book! I would love for everyone to read it. The story is touching, the writing is beautiful, the characters are believable and loveable.  The Blind Contessa's New Machine is set in early 19th century Italy. It is fiction, but based on the invention of the typewriter.  

Carolina is a young woman who loves nature and beauty. Turri is her neighbor and friend, an eccentric inventor who the community accepts, but laughs at behind his back. No one understands him except for Carolina.

Carolina is slowly going blind. She's told her parents and her fiance, but no one believes her. No one except Turri. As her world closes in around her, and darkness claims all the beauty of the world and takes it from her, Turri becomes her closest confidant and friend...and more.

Thirteen Moons - Charles Frazier

This is my third Charles Frazier book, the first two being Cold Mountain and Nightwoods. And once again Frazier took me back to my homeland in the Appalachian mountains with descriptions and voices that conjured up nostalgia in my heart.

Thirteen Moons tells the story of Will Cooper, a boy of twelve who finds himself indentured to a stranger. He's given a map and a key and told to go run the mans store out in the Cherokee Nation in the Appalachian mountains. He quickly develops a bond with the people of the region, adopted by Bear, a Cherokee chief, and warmly welcomed by the community.

Will's story is a story of the search for a home and belonging, fortune and adventure, friendship and loyalty. The adventures he leads and the love he pursues work together to build his character and future.

I really enjoyed this story, and the manner in which it was written. I guess Charles Frazier is just one of those writers who creates a success every time he puts pen to paper.

Next to Love - Ellen Feldman

This book seemed to have mixed reviews on Amazon, but I didn't read them until I was already caught up in the story. Seeing as how I was already caught up, I guess you can assume that I didn't agree with the negative reviews.

Seemed like the biggest complaint was that the story jumped around between character perspectives and went back and forth in time. But I kind of like books that tell you the story from every one's perspective. The time bouncing did get a little confusing, but it didn't disrupt the story, and it wasn't drastic. We're not talking like leaping forward or backward by decades. It would just let one woman tell her part, and then bounce back a year to pick up what someone else was experiencing during the same time and events.

I'm having trouble with words today, so I'm just going to share the synopsis from the author's web page. It describes the story to a 'T'.

"When their men go off to war, Babe, Millie, and Grace, three childhood friends in Massachusetts, live on letters, and in dread of telegrams that can bring only bad news. But as the war drags on, and when peace breaks out, they experience changes that move them in directions they never dreamed possible. The women lose their innocence, struggle to raise their children, and find meaning and love in unexpected places.
And as they change, so does America—from a country in which people know their place in the social hierarchy to a world in which women’s rights, the Civil Rights movement, and technological innovations present new possibilities and uncertainties.
Yet Babe, Millie, and Grace remain bonded by their past, even as their children grow up and away and a new society rises from the ashes of the war.
A story of war, loss, and the scars they leave, Next To Love depicts the enduring power of love and friendship, and illuminates a transformational moment in American history."

This was a great story. I got very involved and attached to characters. I was a little disappointed in the ending. It kind of was anti-climatic, but overall, I'd recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a fulfilling read that they don't have to think too deeply on, but will still move them.

FInding Everett Ruess

- David Roberts

Weeks ago, a close friend and family member was telling Malcolm he should read Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. On a whim, I looked in my library's audio selection and found that it was available. So I checked it out and we ended up listening to it together. I remembered Chris McCandless being in the news, him missing and then his body found in Alaska. But I hadn't paid much attention to the story, which Krakauer goes into depth in telling within the pages of Into The Wild.
It was interesting listening to the story. I found myself, to some degrees, thinking his adventures sounded like experiences I wouldn't mind having for myself (I reiterate "to some degree") but for the most part I was kind of disgusted with him and his selfishness and disregard for people who cared for him.

Within the telling of McCandless' story, Krakauer devoted a few pages to a quick summary of another man's life, drawing a comparison between McCandless and a young man who disappeared into the Utah desert in the 1930's and was never heard from again. His name was Everett Ruess.

A few weeks later I was looking through the library audio selection again, and ran across a name that caught my eye. The title was Finding Everett Ruess. I wasn't intensely interested in another story like Into the Wild, but thought Malcolm might be interested, so I checked it out. Malcolm hasn't gotten to it yet, but the other night my audio book ended, and I was bored. So I flipped over to Finding Everett Ruess on the iPod and started listening.

I had never heard of Everett Ruess, though he apparently has acheived some fame in the art world, and also that of adventurers. I can't say why I was intrigued in his story, because there are characteristics about Everett that really bugged me, such as he was spoiled and seemed to have an attitude of entitlement which usually irritates me. But despite this, I was still drawn to him.  And though the book took a slow start to get going, 6 chapters in, it took off and captured me.

Everett was an aspiring writer, poet, and artist who, in his late teen years, enjoyed venturing out into the then frontier of southwestern Utah for months at a time. He was inspired by nature and the beauty of the world, and his love of these things found their way into his writing and paintings. Though I'd never heard of Ruess, I discovered that I was familiar with sayings that are apparently quotes from his journals, and also that I recognized some of his art work, though I never knew who the artist was when I had previously been exposed to his work.

In 1934, Everett, at the age of 20, walked into the Utah desert for another one of his stints in the wilderness, and was never heard from again.  Searchers found his 2 burros waiting in a canyon corral, but his gear and he were never seen again. There apparently was no trace of him ever discovered, though the searches were many and covered a vast territory. The only trace left of his being in the desert was his self-appointed nickname of "NEMO" graffitied on canyon walls in a handful of obscure, hard to reach places.

The book goes into details on searches, and hypothesis on his disappearance. And then goes into great detail on an event that occurred in 2008 that was ground shaking for the case.
 
I wouldn't have picked this book out of personal interest on a normal day. But after reading it (through audio) I came out of the last pages rather attached to Everett and interested in his work. It's an interesting story, and I would encourage anyone to read it. National Geographic backed a great deal of Roberts research, and feature the story with photographs on their website.

The Divide by Nicholas Evans

I grabbed this one off my bookshelf while we were home and read it while lounging on my couch, a wonderful place to read!  This was a loaner from my mother-in-law. Isn't it wonderful to have close friends and relatives with libraries you can borrow from?

I really enjoyed the Horse Whisperer (another of Evan's books), and so I was interested to get into this one. It didn't disappoint me. In fact, it was pretty gripping from chapter one.

The story starts out in the pristine snowy mountains of Montana, a father and son on a enjoyable ski trip, one of the last of the season. Having a great time, but suddenly they make a grisly discovery, the body of a young woman buried in the snow and encased in ice.

The investigation ensues and the girl is quickly identified as Abbie Cooper, an eco-terrorist wanted for murder. But before Abbie took this dark path in life, she was the golden child of an upstanding family. The rest of the book spends it's pages exploring what brought about this change in Abbie and how and why her death occurred, delving into family dynamics and other relationships.

As I said, the story was pretty gripping and I enjoyed it. The characters were likable and believable. I liked it and I'd recommend it as a good read.

I had no quarrels with the story. My quarrels were were the author. Throughout the whole book there was something niggling at me that didn't sit right, and I finally figured out what. The whole thing was a little too close to the Horse Whisperer in that it's a  bitter New York bitch meets wholesome Montana cowboy thing. He wakes up her softer side and there are some warm tingles, etc etc. This story didn't focus on it, and really it was just hovering at the outskirts of the story, but it was still there, and really, I feel like if an author is truly a creative writer, they can avoid repeating things in unrelated stories. I mean, Montana's not the only state with snowy mountains and New York is not the only city with bitches! He could have changed the locations at the very least!

And then I found out that Evans lives in England! England???? Wow! I thought surely he must live in Montana, since he has used that state as the setting in the only two of his books I've read. Now I feel like I must read at least a third one, just to see if he continues his pattern.