Light on Snow by Anita Shreve

12 yr old Nicky was taking a walk in the forest with her father when they heard the cry that would change their lives. The cry of a baby abandoned in the snow. Follow the events which cause the shadows and questions that laid still and quiet since the death of Nicky's mom and little sister surface, as does the mother of the abandoned child. Discover the choices which lead each person to be where they are and the little details which enable them to grow to be who they destined to become.

I found this book to be completely engrossing and could not put it down until the last page was turned. I could feel the emotions emanating from the characters. I was impressed with the vividness in which Anita Shreve was able to bring them to life. I found myself on a wild emotional roller coaster ride as I turned the pages. A must read.

BM Listing:
Light on Snow

Review by Tesse aka blissful2beme

Maximum Ride by James Patterson

Imagine for a moment that you genetically engineered as a child with avian DNA grafted to your human DNA by some really really bad scientists. The results of the experiment are superhuman strength and with wings that can even fly. Imagine for a moment that you were not the only successful DNA mixing experiment, instead of wings the other specimens were mixed with lupine DNA and were created to hunt and kill you. Imagine what kind of life you would lead if you escaped from the labs only to find out you were supposed to save the world in some manner no one is nice enough to tell you.. then what would you do....especially if you were also responsible for the care of your 5 siblings in your flock. And to top it all off you were only 14 years old to boot. Well this is the story of Max who just happens to be all of what I just asked you to imagine.


My reaction to the story: I ate it up in one day, well the first two books. The third is still on my wish list. I found the story to be full of action suspense and mystery. The story was refreshing and almost movie like. I would not be surprised if they did end up making a movie out of it. I found the characters to be believable as children and was happy with the character development. I liked it so much that I am considering to go buy book 3 just so I do not have to wait for a wish list hit...lol.

Books in series are:
Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment (Maximum Ride)
Maximum Ride: School's Out Forever
Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports (Maximum Ride)

The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver

The Bean Trees is the story of Missy Greer from Pittman County, Kentucky. She graduates high school, buys an old Volkswagon and leaves. She doesn't have a plan, she doesn't know where she is going, just that she wants a change. She drives till her car runs out of gas in Taylorville. There she decides to change her name to Taylor. Later, she stops for a burger and coffee at an old bar in the middle of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. As she goes back out to her car, a woman approaches her and puts a baby in the front seat of her car telling her to take it. When Taylor protests, the woman tells her she is the sister of the baby's mother. Then she leaves. Taylor takes the child with her and calls her Turtle because she clings to things like a mud turtle. Taylor's car has a blow out and she has no money for new tires. She has made it as far as Tucson, Arizona. She finds a job and rents a room from LouAnn Ruiz, another native Kentuckian. LouAnn has a brand new baby and they have been abandoned by LouAnn's husband. The story is about how they make a family out of themselves and the people around them that they grow to care about.

I really liked this book and I want to read the follow-up book "Pigs in Heaven". I went to a book talk by Barbara Kingsolver a couple of months ago and this was one of the books I purchased. I had never read anything by her before seeing her, but now have audios of several of her books and a copy of her newest book "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" on my list of TBRs.

Cloud Nine by Luanne Rice

Cloud Nine is a tender very moving story of love and loss.
After a near-fatal battle with cancer Sarah Talbot gets a second chance at love. When a friend arranges a ride in a chartered plane for her birthday, she meets Will, a man still grieving the death of his son several years ago and his teenage daughter Susan. When she later hires him to fly her to the remote island where she grew up to reconcile with her father and son, Susan stows away.
The story of Sarah and Will's romance is as sweet as it is heart-wrenching. It is a testament to the life-changing power of love.

What was She Thinking? Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller

I saw the movie version of this book before I read the book itself. I loved the movie so much that I mooched the book at BookMooch that same night when I got home from the cinema! I was curious to see if the movie and the book were remotely alike (considering how often movie versions of books end up nothing like the original storyline) and I was not disappointed.

The storyline is a disturbing one; a female teacher becomes involved in a sexual relationship with a teenage male student. This isn’t as farfetched as you might like to think (or hope) it would be as such events have been prominent in the news over the last few years. Zoe Heller’s intriguing and slightly distasteful tale introduces two of the most captivating characters I have encountered in a novel, Barbara and Sheba. Barbara is the quintessential almost elderly spinster and Sheba is the fey like upper class bohemian. The juxtaposition between these two women only serves to reinforce the many diametric opposites that permeate this novel.

The supporting characters are almost as intriguing and it would be interesting to hear their version of the events that make up this story. However the reader is only ever exposed to Barbara’s perspective. Even though Barbara maintains that Sheba has related events so many times that she (Barbara) feels like she was actually there for all of them, Barbara’s own biases are more than apparent and it is because of the filter they provide that we are spared much of the insufferable romantic outlook Sheba has on the whole affair.

Barbara is the sort of friend that you can never work out if you want them in or out of your life and the naive Sheba is enmeshed in her web. While Barbara comes across as somewhat frightening with her stalker like manner, Sheba’s ingénue makes you want to slap her. One has to wonder what would make an educated, attractive wife and mother in a position of authority take up with a student such as Stephen Connelly. Whatever it is, it is real as this type of behaviour seems to be becoming more common in the wider community. While there doesn’t appear to be any malice in Sheba’s actions and she doesn’t mean Connelly any harm, there is no excuse for her abuse of her position of power. But for some reason the reader is left not knowing whether to pity her or condemn her. A similar conundrum is experienced in relation to Barbara’s character and many of the supporting cast. I think this is a good part of why Heller’s tale is so captivating. It captures the essence of the human condition in that there is good and bad in all of us.

July Reviews: High Five and Memory Keepers Daughter

High Five by Janet Evanovich.
Fifth in the Stephanie Plum series. I wonder if I'm ever going to get tired of these? Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I probably wouldn't give it an A, simply because a book needs to do more than entertain to really hit the "A" level in my personal, completely subjective grading system. However, I love that Stephanie's world has moved forward from the 1980's to the 1990's, seemingly without taking much time at all.

The Memory-Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards.

I listened to this as an unabridged audiobook. It is a very flowery book, with tons of over-description decorating it everywhere. Normally, I would find the style irritating. In audio format, however, it's not quite as bad. I listened to it while driving and, more often, while knitting. It's definitely a good "while knitting" book. Your eyes are already engaged in something treat-ful, and then your ears start passing all this flowery imagery to your brain, so it basically gives you an overdescription high.

As for the content of the book, I sort of liked it. I think I was looking for something a little different than these very sad lives orbiting each other, each person unaware of the pain the others are in. I never found any emotional honesty between the main characters (the people who actually had agency to change). For that reason, I would label this as a family tragedy.

I give this one a B. It's good, but has some flaws that make it less than excellent.

Wating: True Confessions of a Waitress by Debra Ginsberg

Waiting: True Confessions of a Waitress is not a restaurant exposé from the point of view of a server. Rather it is one woman's memories, impressions and insights about the professon at which she has supported herself and later her son for 20 years.

Ms. Ginsberg examines "waiting" from all angles and illustrates her perceptions and theories with stories from her own experiences and those of her friends and co-workers. Beyond this it is also the story of her life and the life lessons she has learned while "at the table" and she tells this story with honesty, wit and often humor.

Having worked as a server for many years I was able to strongly identify with many of her tales and with her analysis of the interpersonal dynamics between the server and everyone else in the restaurant - the other staff and the customers.

For anyone who has ever worked at this demanding profession, you will undoubtedly see a reflection of your own life in some of her experiences. For those who have never "waited" perhaps it will give you a better understanding of the person serving your dinner.

Cheryl Brigham

http://www.bookmooch.com/m/detail/0060194790

http://www.bookmooch.com/m/inventory/cheribomb