Two Book Reviews -- "The Bloodletter's Daughter" and "War Brides"

 "The Bloodletter's Daughter" by Linda Lafferty

Four out of Five Stars

I have absolutely no idea how I ran across this book on the Kindle -- but I'm glad I did!

It's the early 1600's, in Prague and Bohemia.  Emperor Rudolf II has no legitimate heirs, but his illegitimate first-born son is much-loved, if only by the Emperor and his mistress.  This son, Don Julius, suffers from what is undoubtedly schizophrenia -- he hears voices, he has mad rages, he acts completely recklessly and inappropriately (and illegally).  To keep the townspeople from revolting, the emperor sends his son to be held in a castle in a small town in Bohemia.

In this town, the barber surgeon (or blood-letter) is tasked with bleeding Don Julius to get his "humors into balance".  His daughter, Marketa, is headstrong and wants what no girl is allowed -- to be a doctor.  Marketa does assist her father, handling tools and such, and when Don Julius sees Marketa, he realizes the voices in his head go quiet.

That's the main gist.  There's also a mysterious Book of Wonder that no one can translate, and several interesting side stories.  The ending is exciting and fascinating, considering the book is based upon a real murder of the time.

I was captivated by the characters (even when they irritated me) and it's a unique story worth reading.

"War Brides" by Helen Bryan

Five out of Five Stars

I had to think for a bit about the rating on this one.  On the one hand, I had a hard time putting it down.  On the other hand, the ending had parts that were completely unrealistic, and one of the themes in the story was a bit hard to digest.  HOWEVER -- the characters stayed with me past closing the book, and I was genuinely surprised and delighted with a couple of the endings, even if some would say they were too neatly tied up.  I don't care -- I liked it.

The story is about a group of women during WWII in a small town in England.  It's about sacrifice and love, bravery and secrets.  There's a bunch of back story which has been off-putting to some readers, so you have to be able to mentally jump from here to there and back again.  My copy didn't have the spelling and grammatical errors that others found, but there are some historical inaccuracies -- for instance, the Air Force wasn't the Air Force when Bryan says it is (and I say this as a USAF veteran).  I can overlook that, though.

However, I have to give the book five stars because it stuck with me and I was sad to see it end, even if the ending was a little sloppy.  I actually got into the characters and their lives and maybe it was just the right time for me to read this sort of thing, but I enjoyed it.  The best WWII fiction book ever?  No.  Worth reading?  Yes!

Lori Anderson creates jewelry and bead kits as well as collaborative mixed media art with her son, Zack.  Visit her shops by clicking here.  She is also the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party®   and author of the book Bead Soup.

Book Review -- "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn

Five out of Five Stars

Absolutely amazing book.

I'm lying in bed, reading, reading, enjoying her way with words and how excellently the book is coming together.

I get to the middle of the book and WOAH!

Big change. Plot twist? Plot Twister/Rollercoaster/Sidewinder. And it's 2am in the freaking morning so I have to wait until tomorrow to keep going.

But wait! There's more!

So you have yourself all settled in. OK, got the plot now. And SKID on the brakes. What? What is happening here???? And THAT is what makes this book spooky scary and makes me wonder how many people are on death row who shouldn't be. Or marriages that aren't what they seem in a BIG way.

EXCELLENT book.

Lori Anderson creates jewelry and bead kits as well as collaborative mixed media art with her son, Zack.  Visit her shops by clicking here.  She is also the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party®   and author of the book Bead Soup.

Join her at the Facebook group Bead Soup Cafe for bead chat, swaps, challenges, and lots of eye candy!

Book Review -- "Loud in the House of Myself"

"Loud in the House of Myself" by Stacy Pershall

Five out of Five Stars

This is a book that resonated with me on a visceral level. 

As a sufferer of depression and a past anorexic, reading Stacy Pershall's story was like reading bits of my own.  Her fight and her issues were so much worse than mine, yet she came out of it with humor and dignity -- and at several points in her life, dignity wasn't even showing its face.

I underlined and marked up this book on so many pages.  I don't know how well someone will like it if they don't understand bipolar, depression, or suicide attempts, but if you are looking for a voice that rises from rock bottom, this is it.

Visit me on Goodreads.com by clicking here!

Lori Anderson creates jewelry and bead kits as well as collaborative mixed media art with her son, Zack.  Visit her shops by clicking here.  She is also the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party®   and author of the book Bead Soup.

Join her at the Facebook group Bead Soup Cafe for bead chat, swaps, challenges, and lots of eye candy!

Book Review -- "Heresy" by S. J. Parris

Four out of Five Stars

Italian monk Giordano Bruno is on the run from the Inquisition because he dares to agree with Copernicus and his theory of the earth revolving around the sun.  Excommunicated and now residing in England, Bruno has become a favorite of nobility, and is on his way to Oxford University to debate the Copernicus theory -- quite a change from six years prior!


While at Oxford, several suspicious deaths occur, and Bruno finds himself trying to solve the mystery and not get himself killed in the process.  Oh, and he's also acting as a spy to find out anything he can about anti-Queen-Elizabeth plots.  So he has his hands full.


I enjoyed the book, and will be reading the two subsequent novels.

Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party tm.   

Join me at the Facebook group Bead Soup Cafe for bead chat, swaps, challenges, and lots of eye candy!

Book Review: "Fifty Shades of Grey" by E.L. James

"Fifty Shades of Gray" by E. L. James

Three out of Five Stars

This book was almost impossible to rate.

On the one hand, I wanted to give her Five Stars just for the huge amount of press she was able to generate for this genre of book. On the other, I wanted to give her one star for seemingly mixing Twilight-esque teen writing with serious BDSM. And while she's liberal in using the F-bomb, she leaves a lot left to the imagination -- and this can be both a good thing and a bad thing.


It's also a bit disconcerting to read about a recent college grad, (and virgin) Anastastia, who captivates a 20-something year old billionaire, Christian. I've heard of Lana Turner being discovered in a soda shop, but this is an entirely different animal. Anne Rice (writing under various pen names) wrote about BDSM the way it probably deserves to be written about -- and this ain't it. The premise (and writing style) is on such a juvenile level that I kept thinking it was a teen book until woah Nelly, out come the whips and restraints and the F bombs. That discontinuity was jarring, to say the least.


Also, if you turned the book into a drinking game and took a shot every time the author wrote "murmur", you'd be drunk in three pages. Add to that the annoying and constant reference to her computer as "the mean machine", biting her lower lip so often you're surprised it hasn't been bitten off yet, all the eye-rolling, overuse of the word "clamber" (which, in my not so humble opinion, should *never* be used in an erotic text), and Christian's sudden departure from ten-year past of strong BDSM to considering a major change for Ana -- well. It was hard to know whether to laugh, roll my OWN eyes, or keep reading. The book is not the best of this genre I've ever read by far.


Yet, I couldn't look away.


I'm not sure what that says about either me OR the book. I'll finish the trilogy, but I'm certain the story won't change, the style won't rise above a fifth-grade level -- but the author has SOMETHING here, and whatever it is, I'll give the next book a chance.

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Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party tm.

Book Review -- "Generation A" by Douglas Coupland

"Generation A" by Douglas Coupland

Three out of Five Stars

Douglas Coupland is one of those authors whose work I collect. I vividly remember being handed his first book, "Generation X", and I was hooked. His dry wit, gift of parody, and excellent story-telling have made it such a pleasure to hunt down all of his books.


This book, however, left me wanting more. The story is a little off. Five people in five different countries are stung by a bee -- yet all the bees disappeared years ago. Each of these people is whisked away to a "clean room", observed and tested upon, and then let loose to meet up with each other.


When these people meet up with each other, one of the scientists ask them to tell stories they've made up on the spot. This figures into the bees, and why these people were essentially kidnapped after being stung, but the stories the people tell were really what kept my attention. The sub-story, if you will.


I suspend belief when reading because in order to enjoy certain books, you have to believe that what's happening is true. This book, though, no matter how hard I tried, couldn't keep me from going, "Oh, come on!" a few times. Fortunately, I laughed more than a few times so that redeemed it.


Definitely not Coupland's best, but die-hard fans should still read it.

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Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party tm.

Book Review -- "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother"

"Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by Amy Chua

1 out of 5 Stars

I'm quite glad I've never met Amy Chua, and if she met me, I'm sure the feeling would be mutual.  I picked this book up while passing the child-rearing section of the book store.  I should have left it there.

The book is about the "secret" behind Asian (in this instance, Chinese) children's stereotypical success.  I have two half-Chinese stepsons, have lived in Korea and Japan, so I wasn't entirely unacquainted with how family dynamics in Asia usually work.  My sons did not get raised the "Chinese Way", as Chua calls it.  According to her, therefore, my sons should be degenerates and vapid automatons who only watch TV and eat junk food.  Happy to report that they both have Ph.D's, one in Physics and one in Molecular Plant Biology. 

So there, Amy Chua.

I was horrified at how Chua talks to her daughters, pushing them, forcing in many ways, to play piano and violin, respectively.   The things her daughters aren't allowed to do because they're "stupid" (i.e., sleep-overs) are things that I wonder if they'll one day regret.  They both are phenomenal musicians, but at what cost?  So many times the kids rebel, only to get shouted down.  I didn't find that funny, OR endearing.

Of course, how to raise your child is a polarizing subject, and I didn't expect to 100% agree with everything in this book.  I also didn't expect to have a visceral dislike for it, either.

Not recommended.

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Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party tm.

Book Review -- "We Need to Talk About Kevin" by Lionel Shriver

 2 out of 5 Stars

*** Warning -- Mild Spoilers ***

There was quite a lot to dislike about this book.


The subject matter alone is disturbing enough -- a child is seemingly "born bad" and goes on to commit a horrific crime, a crime he planned out painstakingly and shows no remorse for.


That alone would make this a sobering read, but the mother is the most despicable character I've ever met, and I had far less sympathy for her than I did for the boy born bad.


Eva is a business-woman, a woman who built a highly successful travel book business, and she relishes the time she spends out of country.  Throughout the book, she has very little, if anything good, to say about America.  She also has a distasteful habit of spouting off her problems with America -- "fat people" (I got sick of her talking about that) and SUV's, among other things. 


Eva did not want her first child at ALL.  Her husband talked her into it, and Eva begrudges the entire pregnancy, feeling like her life was taken over and her life itself is over.  When Kevin is born, she completely fails to bond with him, and her son doesn't bond at all with her.  Reading about Kevin's childhood is painful.  He is a nasty little boy, but his mother is equally nasty to him.  Her husband, on the other hand, completely doesn't see it.  Without much surprise, the story doesn't end well.  It ends horrifically, but sadly, predictably.


I wonder -- is it true that a child can be born bad?  Did Eva's complete distaste at being pregnant make her son bad?  Was the lack of mother/father unity the culprit?  Who knows.  But it was awful.


While the story matter was horrid, I didn't give this book more than two stars for another reason -- way, WAY too many words that had to be looked up.  I'm not a stupid person, but it's jarring to try to read a book that uses words like "quotidian", "puling", "perfidy","ocherous", "aphorism", "comestibles" --- my Nook dictionary couldn't find some of them.   It just made Eva that much more unlikeable.  I can't imagine trying to socialize with her.


The book is worth a read if you're prepared for the wordiness and the shock value.  But don't expect a single character you can warm up to.

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Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

Two Book Reviews : Laura Lippman and Nicholas Sparks

 Four out of Five Stars

This is billed as a mystery but to me, it was more of a novel with a twist at the end of the book. I kept getting confused between what was a flash back and what was current time, but I'm going to blame myself being too tired when I read for that.

The story reminded me the tiniest bit of "It", in that it's about a group of adolescents who play in the woods, and a tragedy causes a total loss of innocence. Fast forward to the kids, all grown up, and the secrets they've kept for years come to a head when one of their group suddenly dies.


The last line of the book will stick with me for a while.


A good read, but do better than I did at keeping up with who is who and when is when.

Five out of Five Stars

Oh I should know better than to read Nicholas Sparks.  He'll drive you to tears every single time.

My only complaint about this star-crossed lovers tale is Dawson was way too complacent.  FIGHT buddy!  Get the girl!  Make yourself happy for once!

Read with tissues.

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Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

Several Book Reviews

(couldn't finish)

I tried really hard, but I couldn't finish this.  There was something weird about Lestat talking in modern speak.  I also couldn't keep up with the Blackwood part of it because it had just been too long.  I'm sorry.  I couldn't get through it.  To be fair, I've liked several of the Vampire Chronicles, but this one, I guess I wasn't in the mood for.

5 out of 5 Stars

I absolutely loved this Pulitzer-prize winning book, but then I'm a fan for lots of characters, lots of side stories, and a sympathetic character. 

Highly recommended.

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Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

Several Book Reviews

Four out of Five Stars

"A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers

 

I had a little trouble with this book.

I gave it Four Stars because it did make me laugh out loud at parts, the story was interesting enough, and for the most part, I liked being in his head. But "being in his head" often made me exhausted -- punctuation, PLEASE! I realize that was his unique way of writing, but I swear sometimes one thought would go an entire page without a punctuation mark, and that just exhausted me and hurt my head.

Sometimes I felt like the story was a little too "precious", but I still rather enjoyed it for what it was. 

 4 out of 5 stars

"A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey

I read this knowing about the controversy around it -- was it true, was it partly true, was it total fiction?

I enjoyed it regardless -- but then, I liked "Girl, Interrupted", too.  Any story where the protagonist lifts themselves out of a crap life is a decent story to me.  If I had read this thinking the entire thing was real, I think I'd feel the same way, and consider any fabrications an issue with a completely trashed mind from all the drugs and alcohol.  Of course, I only read one article about the many discrepancies, so if you have others I should read, please let me know!

4 out of 5 stars

"A Bum Deal" by Rufus Hannah

I picked this up on my Kindle during one of their sales.

It's interesting that the last two books I've read have been about either addiction or some sort of misery, true, or in some cases, nearly true.

This book is about the controversy of a group of college boys who thought it would be fun to hire bums (with booze and a free hotel room) purely to see what stupid and dangerous thing they could get the homeless to do, and then record it and sell it. 

The way these idiots treated human beings, human beings incredibly down on their luck, is nauseating.  Rufus Hannah writes about his rise from homelessness to the courtroom when the men who profited handsomely from their ridiculous videos were brought to trial.

An interesting read about homelessness.

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Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

Three Book Reviews -- "Speaks the Nightbird", "About Alice", "Memory"

"Speaks the Nightbird" by Robert McCammon

5 out of 5 stars

I love Robert McCammon so when I got into a conversation with a fellow GoodReads.com book-lover, I decided to search out some titles I may have missed. 

"Speaks the Nightbird" is a nice, thick book - just the kind I like. It's rich in characters and plot development, and there are twists to the plot just when you think all has settled down. 

The book is set in 1699, on the cusp of a new century when people in the New World are wondering if the next 100 years will be full of wonder or full of fires from Heaven. It centers around a town in the Carolinas and a witch trial, but it's so much more than a book about a witch trial! There's Spanish gold, Native American healers, mysteriously-set fires, rat catchers, secrets of the heart, -- loads of things. 

The main character is a young clerk to an aging magistrate who was called to the town to deem the witch guilty or not. He's inquisitive almost to annoyance, but he's the one that unearths most of the mysteries of the town. 

I was sorry to reach the end but happy to have rediscovered a favorite author. Highly recommended. 

"About Alice" by Calvin Trillin

 4 out of 5 stars

I picked this book up on a whim for .50 at the local library. It's a very thin book, so a quick read. While it's a quick read, it's also a GOOD read.

Calvin Trillin, a long-time writer for the New Yorker magazine, talks about his wife Alice in this book. Alice passed away, but for him, she's always there.

It's a love story, it's humorous, it's heart-breaking. I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I'd read all of Trillin's other books where Alice has a starring role, but it was a wonderful book standing on its own merit.

Recommended.

"Memory" by Phillipe Grimbert

5 out of 5 stars

Another short book with a powerful voice, "Memory" is about a boy's discovery of the intense secrets of his parents. It's also about the love between his parents, and what comes to pass when a person realizes they've married the wrong mate. 

I won't tell you more than that -- pick up the book for a quick but astonishing read. 

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Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

Three Book Reviews

"Electric Brae" by Andrew Greig

4 out of 5 stars

A friend gave me this book to read and for the first 40 pages I was dubious, but it didn't take long to fall in love with it.  The author has a way with words, and I kept finding myself pausing to mark passages I particularly liked.

It's hard to describe this book.  It's billed as a romance, but it's from the point of view of a man who works on an offshore oil rig.  The love of his life is a younger artist who struggles with a dark past and staying out of mental institutions.  And a lot of rock climbing.

The book is also about the love between friends (male and female) as well as the relationship of fathers with their kids.

Written by a Scottish author, a few of the Scottish words can through you at first, but it most definitely didn't detract from the book.

Recommended.

"Doctors From Hell" by Vivien Spitz

Four out of Five Stars

This book was written by one of the court reporters during the medical portion of the Nuremberg trials.  It includes fewer photos than I expected, but far more substance.  I've been interested in the Nuremberg Trials but had yet to find a book about it, so this was a lucky find.

DEFINITELY not for the squeamish, as explicit testimonials from survivors are included.  The book also includes Spitz's thoughts on life in bombed-out Germany (no hot water or heat even after 18 months since the end of the war) and observations that offered me new insight.

Recommended for the WWII memoir enthusiast.

"Silent Tears"

by Kay Bratt

Four out of Five Stars

My husband and I considered adoption from a Korean or Chinese orphanage and had heard a lot about the neglect that was prevalent there.  I accidentally ran across this memoir by Kay Bratt and learned a lot.

Kay followed her husband to China with her young daughter and while her husband worked at setting up a new facility for his work in China, Kay threw herself into working to bring about change in a Chinese orphanage. 

One thing Kay emphasized -- don't go into a Chinese orphanage going gangbusters and expect things to work.  They'll bar you from coming back.  Rather, volunteer, keep quiet, and let the nannies get to know you. 

I also realized that a lot of the neglect has to do with not enough nannies per baby.  There never seemed to be enough time in the day between rapid feedings, quick cold rinse-offs, changing diapers, and dressing the children.  Imagine two people trying to deal with 22 babies -- that gives you some idea.

Eventually, Bratt was able to start a fund-raising campaign in the US to help severely hurt children get operations (for cleft lip/palette and heart problems, predominantly).  The book showed the massive amounts of red tape involved in what we as Americans would consider a no-brainer.

I came out of this book with not only an appreciation for all the expat volunteers, but for the Chinese nannies as well.  The majority of them want to help -- they just can't.

A quick read, and worthwhile.

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Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

 

Lots of Books to Review -- (favorite= Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)

I've got several books to review today -- hope you enjoy (and as always, leave me ideas for new books, and join me at GoodReads.com).

"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"
by Jonathan Safran Foer

5 out of 5 Stars

I had bought this book well before the movie was promoted.  When I saw the movie trailers, of the burning World Trade Center towers, I knew I'd never be able to see it.  It's still too close to me to watch anything like that.


The book, however, I felt ok about.  And after reading it, I wanted to start reading it all over again.  I also wondered how the heck there could be a movie that would ever evoke the WORDS.  Because this book is about the WORDS and how they're said and when.  That doesn't make sense, perhaps, but if you read the book, you'll see.


I couldn't figure out if Oskar, the child, was a prodigy, had Asperger's, was an autistic savant, or what, but he's definitely unique, clever, hilarious, irritating at times, and poignant.  He travels throughout NYC looking for the lock to a key he found in his father's closet -- his father who died in the Towers.


Intertwined in the book is also the story of Oskar's grandfather and his tumultuous relationship with his wife, and Oskar's many relationships with the people he meets as he looks for the lock.  Sometimes it's hard to keep up, but you'll get it.


Please read this book.

"Sarah's Key" 

by Tatiana deRosnay

Three out of Five Stars

This is the second time I've read this book, as it's the pick for next week's book club and it's been a long time since I first read it.

"Sarah's Key" was hard to rate. The story line that followed Sarah through her trials and tribulations during the Holocaust was interesting -- heart-breaking, but interesting and well-written. However, I disliked the story line of the journalist and her husband. I found the husband detestable and the wife far too ... I don't even know what the right word is -- but I didn't find her sympathetic at all. The last half of the book I just wanted to rush through and get it over with already. 

Not sure how I feel about recommending this -- on the one hand, parts were quite good. And it's entirely possible that I have too much personal opinion wrapped up in the rest of the book to make a decent recommendation. So I'll leave it to you. 

"A Dance with Dragons" 

by George R. R. Martin 

Three out of Five Stars

I absolutely loved the first four books of this series -- devoured them, even.  But I think the author made a critical mistake in splitting Book Four and Book Five into separate books.  Book Four and Book Five take place during the same time period, but each book ONLY focuses on certain characters.  Book Four handled the happenings of some characters, and then whack, they were cut off and Book Five rarely, if ever, mentioned them.

I am fortunate I picked up this series when all five books were already published, but those poor people who have had to wait five and six years between books!  How confusing!


I just could NOT get into this book.  My favorite character, Tyrion, was in this portion, but his sections stumbled.  And I really, really don't like the entire Daenerys.  I get why she's important, but her world is so far removed from Westeros, where everything else takes place, that I can't get the two to come together.  I'd compare it to England and the Middle East, and even in real history, with England and the Crusades, it has to be written just so -- and that's missing here.


I'll absolutely read the rest of the series (whenever Martin decides to write them!) but this book disappointed me.

Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

Book Review: "Eyewitness Aushwitz" by Filip Muller

Eyewitness Auschwitz: Three Years in the Gas Chambers by Filip Muller

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

***** WARNING -- graphic descriptions ****




I've mentioned this many times -- I like to read Holocaust and WWII memoirs because they show the beauty of man overcoming the ugly.


Well, this book is indeed about the ugly -- the ugliest I've ever read.


This is an unprecedented memoir of a man who ends up being a prisoner at Aushwitz as a crematorium worker. He managed to smuggle out plans of the crematoria and the camps and seeing them in detail is more than sobering. He also gives detailed, intense commentary on exactly what went on in selections, details that many could never even dream of or imagine.


He talks about the progression of extermination of Jews -- how the SS figured out they needed the prisoners to undress BEFORE being gassed so as to save their clothing -- previously, prisoners had to undress every corpse. He explains the trickery the SS used, implementing the crematorium workers to fool the prisoners into thinking they really WERE going to have a shower and return to get their clothes back. He speaks about digging enormous ditches and how the SS burned bodies in these pits when the chimneys needed repair.


This is not an easy book to read.


However, it's a necessary book to be in the world, because no one should ever forget how quickly and easily so many people can die. It's also a testament to how quickly humans can turn into demons when a leader paves the way for them.

Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

Book Review -- "Lord John and the Scottish Prisoner" by Diana Gabaldon

Five out of Five Stars

Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" series is hands down my favorite set of books ever. 

A related but separate branch of the Outlander books, the Lord John series, has been good, but not the same as a book with Jamie and Claire.  THIS book, however, is a wonderful addition to BOTH series as it ties in to the time right before "Voyager".  It also goes into detail about Jamie's time at Helwater.  The book fleshes out Jamie's relationship with both his son and Lord John and adds a new adventure to the mix. 

I loved it.  Now I can't wait for the last "Outlander" book, which I'm told should be out at the end of the year. 

(And a HUGE thank you to Lisa for giving me an autographed copy of this book!)

Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

LOTS of Books to Review!

I love to read.  Love love love.  In fact, today I spent a long time getting a bit dirty and having stacks of books fall on top of me when I visited my favorite used book store.

Anyway, I've been sick so had a lot of time to read, so this is a mega-review post!

Five out of Five Stars

First up is "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot.  Skloot spent almost ten years researching Henrietta's family -- why, you ask?  Henrietta, while being treated for terminal cancer at Johns Hopkins in the '50s, had her cells taken and cultured by doctors, all unbeknownst to her.  Her cells ended up being unique in that they were "immortal" cells -- they didn't die in culture and could be traded and eventually sold to doctors and companies worldwide.  Named HeLa cells, they've been responsible for helping create the polio vaccine, develop in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping.  They've been shot up with atom bombs and sent into space.

However, Henrietta's family didn't even know about it until years later, and have never received a dime for the miracles her cells created.  Her family couldn't afford health care while the HeLa cells made millions for other people.  

Something I found strikingly, unbelievably sad -- Henrietta is buried in a family plot, but her grave is unmarked.  They didn't have the money for a tomb stone.

Even if you don't have interest in biology or cell science, the book is fabulous.  I highly recommend it.

3 out of 5 Stars

Disclaimer:  Giving Three Stars to this book does NOT mean 

I don't like it and does NOT mean it's not important.

I've read many, many books on WWII history and Holocaust memoirs.  This particular book had a unique story, but to me, it seemed to drag and I found myself scanning.  I feel so very much for the author -- finding her father not to be the person she thought him to be has to have been devastating.  I did like when she talked about her relationship with her mother.  So I liked the book, but it was just harder for me to read than others.

 

 Five out of Five Stars

A friend recommended this gothic Victorian horror thriller.  "Horror thriller" might seem a little slow for modern-day thriller readers, but this particular book was written in 1864.  

The premise -- a young girl/teenager's father dies, leaving her a fortune.  Her uncle, Uncle Silas, is the black sheep of the family, yet the girl's father sends Maud to live with Uncle Silas, in part to try to prove to high society that no, Uncle Silas was NOT involved in a murder later deemed a suicide in his home.  Fun times.

Enter a nefarious French governess, a well-meaning relative who just never seems to get there in time, and the "did he or didn't he?" bit, and an ending that really races into the last pages, and you have a really good Victorian read.  And it's free on Kindle!

4 out of 5 Stars

This was actually written for the older child/teen market.  It covers true stories of children who survived the Holocaust against all odds, using ingenuity, skill, and often, sheer luck.  It's a very interesting read, but I'd read it first before letting your child read it.  There are some pretty intense scenes in there, but I do think it's important that everyone not forget this part of history.

Five out of Five Stars

Oh boy.  This is a truly sobering read.  Twins were Mengele's favorite subject, and his experiments were truly horrific.  What's interesting about this book is through the words of the surviving twins, we learn how some of them grew to trust Mengele, in large part because he kept them from the crematoriums.  It's also an interesting insight into Mengele himself, how he grew up, and how he handled himself at the camps.  The point of a finger, and he rules lives.

On to more books!

Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.

Book Review: "The Photograph" by Penelope Lively

5 out of 5 Stars

SPOILER ALERT
Go no further if you want to read the book.

This is a story of how lives can change even ten years after the death of a loved one. 

Glyn, widow of Kath, is a driven professor.  Kath's sister is an equally driven landscape artist.  Kath reads as a free-spirit.  Ten years after Kath's death, a photograph found of her holding hands with her sister's husband.

The book hops chapter to chapter among various people.  One chapter may focus on Glyn's relentless search to find out if Kath was unfaithful in other ways.  (I despised Glyn, by the way.  What a horrible husband.)  Kath's sister struggles with her feelings  of ennui with her husband Nick and uses this new revelation as a way to kick Nick out of the house. 


As I read the book, I was struck by how little ANYONE knew Kath.  She would reach out, but was increasingly left behind and alone by all the people who should have mattered to her.  Ultimately, this strikingly beautiful free spirit commits suicide, but only after phoning and leaving a message to please call back - to her husband, and to her sister.  Neither called until some ten hours later, showing once again, as throughout the book, how little Kath figured into any of their lives.

I read the book in a day, and while it's gotten some bad reviews, it resonated with me, and the way Lively uses words is reason enough to read it.

Recommended.

Lori Anderson creates jewelry for her web site, Lori Anderson Designs, and wrote the blog An Artist's Year Off.  She is the creator of the Bead Soup Blog Party.