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.

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.

Between Georgia - Joshilyn Jackson

Really quick and fun read. The only thing I was dissappointed in was that it was over so quickly. I should have paced myself better.

You will be entertained, laugh, maybe tear up a little, and thuroughly enjoy the characters.

A picture perfect small southern town with your standard family fued and crazy characters.

Nonny Frett is born late one night when 15 year old Hazel Crabtree stumbles up onto the Frett's front porch at the end of a hidden pregnancy, asking for help and demanding secrecy. Stacia Frett, who has already lots her hearing, the man she loves, and is slowly loosing her eyesight as well, and has been questioning when God was going to work something in her favor, demands that her sisters let her keep the baby, while Hazel skips town.

Thirty years later, Nonny is a successful interpreter living in Athens, GA. She's lived her entire life stuck between a rock and a hard place, caught between her Crabtree genetics and her upbringing as a Frett. She has two mothers, one deaf and blind and the other nearly flat crazy. She has two men in her life; a husband who's been sneaking around on her and a best friend who's decided to lay seige to her heart. And she has a job that keeps her stuck in the city, while there's a little girl in her small country home town who owns her heart. She has to decide, but she's not good at choosing.

And then a random event sets things in motion, and Nonny finds herself in the position of having to choose, as her family and the little town of Between, GA are rocked by secrets revealed and the chaos they set in motion.

LOVED it! Nice, entertaining, make you smile kind of book. Check out the author's site for more information.

The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

This was an interesting selection. I listened to it on audio. I chose it because the title caught my attention, and the setting of World War II Germany. I seem to be reading a lot of books set during that era lately. Kind of odd for me.

Anyway, I had a rather difficult time getting into this one, and really didnt' like it very much at all to begin with. I think mostly because I had a hard time following it, since it seemed to be hopping around a lot between characters and stories. But then it all fell together and after that, I was hooked.

Hooked, though it wasn't exactly a gripping, edge of your seat, tale. I was hooked because the telling of the story was kind of fascinating to me, and the story itself had become interesting.

A quick summary, as told from the authors website:
"It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .
Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.
This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul."

One of the things that intrigued me about the book, that I found completely novel and an interesting idea;
the story is told by one of the characters, but one who doesn't play a major role in the story, other than that of an observer and occasional participant in events. The narrator never officially identifies himself with a name, but he makes it clear from the beginning, through his description of his job and what we humans think of him, that he is Death. Yes, Death tells the story of Liesel and her family and friends. As I said, it was rather interesting.

A Separate Country - Robert Hicks

A Separate Country is set post Civil War in New Orleans, Louisiana. General John Bell Hood was one of the more controversial figures of the Civil War, and after the war he became one of it's most tragic. Loosing a leg and the use of an arm during the war, he retreated to New Orleans after surrender, where he married Anna Marie Hennon and fathered 11 children. As good and decent a man as he was, he constantly struggled to overcome his misfortunes and admit to his failures. Haunted by war memories and hunted by financial ruin due to poor choices, his loved ones were the only ones who could eventually rescue him and show him how to love and how to be loved. If only his sense of love and freedom from  the ghosts had had longer to reighn in his life. Shortly after shaking off the chains of failure, he succumbed to yellow fever, along with his wife, and two children.

I selected this book for several reasons, but primarily because I enjoy Civil War history, and because I loved Robert Hicks previous novel, The Widow of the South.

While A Separate Country was well written and an interesting story, I had trouble staying in it and it was not the novel that The Widow of the South was for me! I much prefer that one to this most recent one. Overall, I was not thrilled with this book, and probably won't read it again or encourage others to read it. However, I am eager to learn more about Gen. John Hood and how much of the story was real and how much was fictionalized. And so now that I've finished the novel, and written my blog review, I'm off to do some internet research about the real man and see what I can learn.

City of Thieves - David Benioff

This is another of my random audio selections. I hadn't heard of the author or the book. I was just scrolling through my library's online audio selection trying to find something to entertain me while driving. I stumbled across this and downloaded it because I was running out of search time. I needed something to listen to right away and hoped this would keep me interested and awake.
And it did!
Between the author and the narrator, this book had me hooked from the beginning! I love it when completly random books turn out to be wonderful!

City of Thieves is set in Leningrad, Russia during WWII. Lev is a half Jewish boy of 17, too young to join the army, but still yearning to do something of importance. One night, while working with his team of volunteer fire fighters, they find a dead Nazi paratrooper. The city is starving, being bombed nightly, disintegrating around them, and so of course, even though it is forbidden, Lev and his friends search the body for anything they can use. But the authorities saw the paratrooper descending too, and when they arrive, the firefighters are able to escape. All of them that is, except for Lev.
He is taken to prison where he is sure he will be executed. But instead the next day he is taken to the commander's office, where he is introduced to Koyla, a deserter of the Russian army. Lev and Koyla are given a mission. The commander's daughter is getting married and wants a grand wedding with all the trimmings, especially a wedding cake. If Lev and Kolya can find a dozen eggs and get them to the commander, they will be allowed to live. Fail, and they will be hunted down and killed.
And so Lev and Koyla start out on their impossible mission, to find a dozen eggs in a city of starving people, where citizens are starting to eat sawdust and the frozen dead for lack of other options. Through their struggles to survive and adventures trying to obtain the impossible, grows the strong bond of friendship and so much more.

I really did like this book a lot! It's not the type of book I normally would have chosen, but I definitely recommend it for your reading list. The narrator did a superb job, accents and all, and I enjoyed the story enough to keep my eye open for more work from this author.

The Wolves of Andover - Kathleen Kent

I'm behind in posting about my books. There's been so much going on lately. But we're stuck here in Dallas waiting for a part for the trailer that broke, and I decided to take the opportunity to get caught up on this blog.

I read the Heretic's Daughter last year and enjoyed it, so I was excited to stuble across this book by Kathleen Kent. The title gave me the shivers, and then the book description gave the setting as colonial Massachusetts, so I had to read it, or rather listen to it on audio.

First let me point out that this book was originally published under the name The Wolves of Andover. I recently found out that it's apparently being published now as The Traitor's Wife. This was a good move on the publishers part because, after reading it, I was baffled by the title. There are wolves in this book, but the literal ones only play a small and brief role in the story. And I was having trouble pinpointing who the figurative ones were, and how they were worthy of the title.

This book tells the story of Martha Allan, who goes to work in her cousin's household. Martha is a strong willed, independent thinking woman, not admirable qualities in a woman at that time. She immediately takes charge, and thus makes enemies within the household. Eventually, a strange courtship begins between Martha and Thomas Carrier, one of her cousin's farmhands. But Thomas has a strange mysterious past, one involving the English Civil War, and soon it's apparent that the wolves aren't the only ones hunting. There are others, the ones that want Thomas dead and silenced forever.

Overall, this was a good story, but it isn't one I can say "you have to read this" about. If you like the time period, or have enjoyed other books by Kathleen Kent, then go ahead and add this to your reading list. But it's not a grand must read. And truly, there are so many great books, that if your pressed for reading time, go ahead and skip over this one.

Nightwoods and Dreams of Joy

I'm sharing two books today in an attempt to catch up with myself. I want to post about each book that I read (or listen to) in 2012, and I'm already behind.

So, first is Nighwoods by Charles Frazier

This was my first audio book of the year. I listen to audio books while driving. They are very entertaining and also help to keep me awake and alert on those middle of the night driving shifts. I chose this book because I wanted to read more of Charles Frazier's work after falling in love with his other novel, Cold Mountain. Many may be familiar with that title as the movie was a bit of a hit. I, for one, loved the movie, and saw it first. Then read the book when I learned the movie was based on the book. The book...oh my gosh! It is so beautifully written, a piece of art where language is concerned, and he portrayed the Appalachian people during the Civil War so well! Also, the audio version (yes I read the book AND listened to it on audio AND saw the movie) was wonderful. Mr. Frazier narrates it himself and did a spectacular job!

Back to Nighwoods, which this post is supposed to be about anyway. This book is also set in the Appalachians during the 1960's/70's. It is a bit of a suspense novel, telling the story of a woman who has become a bit of a recluse after tragic events in her life. Suddenly she finds herself the guardian of her sister's young children, after her sister is murdered by the children's step-father. And in the midst of trying to help the children recover from their traumatic experience, the step-father shows up in town, determined to retrieve the money his wife had hidden from him, and convinced that the children know where it is hidden. In short, he comes after them and he's not planning on a happy family reunion.

This is the second book of Mr. Frazier's that I've read and I love the way he writes. His words on paper portray so well the speech of the Appalachian people. And his descriptions of the surroundings bring me home to east Tennessee, and western North Carolina. The narrator also did a good job on this book, though I preferred the author himself as he did so well in Cold Mountain.

Now for the second (really third) book for this post.

I just finished Dreams of Joy by Lisa See

This book was well written and well narrated. A few words of advice on this one. If you have not yet read Shanghai Girls by the same author, then you need to read that first, as Dreams of Joy is pretty much a sequel to Shanghai Girls and I felt that a reader who had missed the first book would not be able to fully appreciate the story in this one. Shanghai Girls was very good and I would encourage you to read that one, and then come read Dreams of Joy.

Also, as I mentioned before, I use the audio books to help me stay alert while driving, and I was worried when I first started this one. I thought it dull and was having a hard time staying awake at the wheel during my first night of listening. Fortunately, I didn't give up on it and during my second night the story really took off and I was captured through to the end.

Dreams of Joy tells the story of Pearl's daughter, Joy. It picks the story up right where Shanghai Girls left off. Nineteen year old Joy, devastated by the death of her father, and of learning that he wasn't her father at all, makes a rash decision to leave America and return to China to help build the new People's Republic of China. Pearl, knowing what her daughter is walking into, goes after her. The story follows their experiences surviving in the communist country, their reunion and their attempt to escape back to the United States.

I really enjoyed it once it got going, and knowing that the author, who is descended from Chinese immigrants and has actually returned to China to visit her ancestral village and done tons of research, I felt that I could believe the characters experiences as being based on actual conditions and experiences of the Chinese people during those early years under communism. In that, I was fascinated by the historical lesson and glimpse into a culture and society totally foreign to me.

All in all, it was a good book and I'd recommend it as an audio or self-read book. But you really must read Shanghai Girls first.

Rose in a Storm - Jon Katz

My first book this year, and what a wonderful choice! I was meandering through a book store in Reno back before Christmas, and the picture on the cover caught my eye. After reading the back of the book, I added it to my little stack, and then, when it was time to check out and go back to the truck, I had to choose from my stack what would come with me and what would stay at the store. I let myself choose two, and this one made the cut. As it turns out, I chose well!

I absolutely loved this story, from cover to finish! Rose is a Border Collie mix, a working farm dog, who knows she has a job and loves her job. Rose lives for her job. It's where her joy is, what her life is about. She has the farm to watch over, the sheep to take care of, and the farmer, Sam, to work with. She has a good life. And then one winter morning, as she and the farmer go to work early to help a ewe who is having trouble giving birth, Rose senses a change coming, a storm unlike any other.

As the storm progresses, the reader is carried along in Sam and Rose's struggle to keep the farm animals safe and survive the storm themselves. It is a gripping and emotional story of hardship, loss, devotion, and love.

I so enjoyed this book, I hated for it to end. In fact, it would be a short read, but I put it away for a couple of days because I realized it was going to end too soon, and I wasn't ready to let my relationship with Rose end.

The story is told from Rose's perspective. The way it is written is beautiful, and I formed such an attachment to Rose as the story progressed. I loved getting to see the events through Rose's eyes, to read her thought processes, to experience the storm and it's repercussions through her understanding. I loved reading her interpretations and understandings of things, and also her lack of comprehension.

For all the times I've looked at my girls and wondered what they are thinking, this book was like getting a little glimpse into their minds.

This was a wonderful start to my reading list for 2012! And even though it was a random choice from the bookstore shelf, when we get home, I'll be placing it on my "keep forever because it's a great book" shelf in my library.

If you want something a little different, something to stir your emotions, something to keep you involved, or just a quick light read, this would be a good choice!

Rose in a Storm by Jon Katz