I read the first book, A War of Her Own, by Sylvia Dickey Smith way back in October.  Yes, October!  I kept putting off writing a review because I didn’t really love the book.  I know; a WWII book and I didn’t love it.  The shock!  I believe that I am probably alone in this feeling; the reviews on Amazon and other blogs are good.  In this story, Bea Meade has a horrible, cheating husband and a new baby.  Now on her own, she must find a way to survive so she gets a job working at a shipyard in Texas. 

The author did a great job describing the setting. I could “see” Bea’s apartment, her husband, her job, and other aspects of her life clearly.  However I had two problems with the novel.  It was depressing.  I know it was war-time and she had to go through some tough times, but all that wonderful description painted a very depressing life.  On top of that I didn’t connect with the characters, even Bea.  So I can’t say that I was hanging in there with her as she pulled herself up out of that depressing life.  She did, but I wasn’t there with her. 

The book is only 280 pages and a pretty quick read.  Even though I didn’t love the book, I was able to finish it.  I am giving this 3 stars. 

 I finished the second book, Forbidden Places, by Penny Vincenzi last week.  I liked this better, but it was a much different book.  The novel is set in WWII England and follows the main character, Grace and her two “friends” Clarissa and Florence. Innocent Grace moved up in life when she married Charles.  She has a great life, but feels distant from her husband, his family (Florence) and his friends (Clarissa).  Eventually the war kicks in and life changes for everyone.  After Charles goes off to war, Grace becomes a stronger and more independent person and gets to know these two women better as their lives become more connected. 

At 500 plus pages, this was a much longer novel than the other one and it took a lot longer to read.  However, this novel just worked for me.  The length gave the author an opportunity to really bring these characters to life.  I loved Grace, even with her faults (although there weren’t many).  I wanted her to be happy.  I was happy for her when she stood up for herself and made her own decisions.  The other two women were also developed very well and they each had their own stories that had to be worked out.  All the characters, even the minor ones, seemed to work really well together and added to the depth of the story.

As with the above review, I seem to have the opposite opinion of other reviewers.  Some said that this was a WWII soap opera.  I can see that, as there were some “detailed romantic scenes”.  I could see these coming though and, since I don’t care for that stuff, I just skipped over them.  I don’t think it detracted from (or added to) the story though.  With a story this long, there were some lulls, and in some cases, problems at the end were dealt with a bit too easily. But I enjoyed the novel and I was glad about all the outcomes. 

I give this novel 4.5 stars and I would definitely consider reading more of Ms. Vincenzi’s work.

I would like to thank Crazy Book Tours for giving me the opportunity to read and review both of these novels. 

•          As I mentioned earlier in a few posts, I am the co-president for our elementary school.  It is a fun job and I love it, but it took way more of my time than I had originally thought it would.  Our one and only fundraiser took place in October and there was a lot to do both before and after the event.  Additional responsibilities popped up along the way and they quickly became a priority for me. 
•          My daughter joined a youth football cheer squad.  I had never been involved in something like this before, but I knew it would be a good experience for her.  Well, it was but I ended up being a game day coach for the squad and I was at all the practices and all the football games. 

So it seems that if I wasn’t busy with the PTO, I was doing cheer stuff. My poor phone needed CPR at the end of the night.   All I could manage to do at the end of the day was fall into bed and sleep.  I gave up reading for sleeping.    It all worked out though.  Our fundraiser was a wonderful success, and my daughter’s team came in first at the competition and her football team won the championship.  It was a great fall.

But being busy isn’t the only reason I strayed from blogging.  I just didn’t like the last book that I read.  This book was right up my alley and the author was super sweet.  I really thought I would love the book and promised to send her a copy of my review.  But when the book was all done I just felt BLAHHHHH.  I didn’t really want to post a blah post on my blog and have her see it, and I certainly didn’t want to send her a copy.  So, like the grown-up that I am, I stuck my head in the sand and just didn’t do it.  I figured that I would feel differently if I waited and maybe I could write the review later.  Nope, didn’t work.  Now I don’t remember anything about the story except not really liking it. 

So, I took all that as a sign to take a break.  Eventually I had to stop reading other blogs, which I REALLY missed.  As I got more of my free time back, I found other things to do.  I started to play card and board games with my kids.  We all enjoy this new type of family time. 

I always knew that I would start blogging again, I just didn’t know when.  I got my answer last month in an email from a reporter from our local newspaper.  She asked me if she could interview me about my blog, reading, and book ideas for Christmas.  I was so excited.  We did the interview and sure enough, I showed up in the living well section of the Daily News Journal with pictures and everything.  My five minutes of fame.

And this week I downloaded a book on the Kindle.  It is not a novel (OMG), it is not deep or life changing but I love it.  This should be a good review and I am looking forward to writing it.

YESSSS!  Mommy’s Reading!

This is another great book that I received from Crazy Book Tours.  It seems that all my reviews begin like this lately, but honestly, they have so many great books to choose from.

As a young girl, Nora Lynch is evacuated from WWII London to the safer countryside of Kent.  There she is “chosen” by the Grace Rivers, a girl her same age.  In London, Nora shared a one room studio with her mom with barely enough to eat, but with Grace and Reverend and Mrs. Rivers, she is sharing their beautiful home and life of plenty.  

This story follows the bond the two girls formed during their time together in Kent. It is told from an elderly Nora’s point of view, switching from the past to the present, and giving some insight to the truth behind the lonely older woman.

I really liked this book.  Many have said that it is gloomy, and it may be.  But it was written so well that  I breezed right through it.  I am in a HUGE WWII fiction phase right now, and this was a wonderful example.  The war was there as a backdrop, but the story itself was very compelling.

4.5/5 stars

Well, here it is Wednesday again. It has been a long time since I have been able to join in the WWW Wednesday.  Not having any good books to read and being way to busy for one person has kept me away from blogging.  Plus my new laptop will not connect to the internet at my desk.  But three feet away at the kitchen table…… no problem! 

To play along, just answer the following three questions……

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you will read next?

Here are my answers:

I am currently reading:   A War of Her Own, by Sylvia Dickey Smith.  I received this through Crazy Book Tours.  I love that blog/tour site.   I have read some really great books thanks to them.This is a story of a young Texas mother during WWII.  I love WWII novels, and one with set here in the US and featuring a female main character sounded too good to pass up.  I just started last night, but I have to say the first few pages are great.  I hope that I keep that happy feeling straight through. The reviews look good, so I am optimistic. 

I recently finished:  Pray For Silence, by Linda Castillo.  This is her second book in this series, following Sworn To Silence, which follows Painters Mill Chief of Police,  Kate Burkholde as she tries to solve horrible murders in her town.   I loved both of these books, and I finished the second one in only three days!  Crime and suspense are not usually my cup of tea, but these were written well.  Pray For Silence kept me interested and turning the page.  I am liking the main characters in the stories and am glad Ms. Castillo is planning a third book.  As a side note, I don’t think I would ever LIVE in that little town.  Half the people are Amish (which is great), but for a small town half filled with pacifists, there sure are a ton of brutal murders….. I’m just saying!!!

What I plan to read next:  Okay, thankfully the book club keeps picking books that I have already read, or know I WON’T read, so next, I can choose just about anything.  It looks like I may read Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson.  I don’t usually read young adult, but I have read some great reviews of this and thought I would give it a try.  I have the audio version from the library also, so I may be listening to this one.  OR, a friend bought, (after I practically begged her to), Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated, by Alison Arngrim.  I know she will be done with it by the time I finish my current read.  This is something that I kept hoping would come out in an audio version.  I think it would be awesome hearing it read in her own voice.  But free is free!

I received this book from Crazy Book Tours.  Although I signed up for it, I wasn’t expecting it.  I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to fit it in, but it actually dragged me out of a book rut! 

Summary:  Nina Revskaya an elderly Russian ballerina living in Boston, has decided to auction off her extensive jewelry collection.   As Drew Brooks works on the auction, she is contacted by Grigori Solodin He decides to donate a piece of jewelry that he claims is part of the same collection.  Drew and Grigori work together to figure out just how the jewelry pieces are connected, and what part Grigori plays in Nina’s life. 

My Thoughts:  I liked this book… a lot.  It was the perfect historical fiction with a bit of personal intrigue and romance thrown in.  It started in present time Boston with Nina donating her jewelry and flashed back to her life in post WWII Russia.  I enjoyed the present time story line just as much as the historical part, which is a rarity for me. 

I knew almost nothing about this era of Russian history, so the historical accounts were sometimes confusing and sometimes shocking.  I had to ask my husband (a huge history buff) a few questions along the way.  The political climate that Nina, her husband Viktor, and their friends lived under was a very prominent aspect of this novel.  And although I know that the details were important to developing the mindset of the characters at the time, I sometimes found it a lot to take in.  However, I loved the story of Nina’s life as a ballerina rising to the top of her career.  She was living the dream of many Russian girls of that time.    The relationships that she had with her friends and family were well-developed and I felt a connection with them.

The story line with Grigori and Drew was very interesting.  Ms. Kalotay created some great characters here as well.  These two, along with Nina, each had a piece of the puzzle that finally solved the mystery of Grigori’s past and at the same time, allowed Nina some peace.

I would recommend this for fans of historical fiction.  It took me longer to read through it than I thought it would, but then, I did find some parts a bit tedious.  All in all, it was a great story that kept me carrying the book around and reading every chance I got.

4/5 stars

Sworn to Silence  (Audio book narrated by Kathleen McInerney).  This is the first book in a crime series set in Painters Mill, a small town in Ohio with a large Amish population.  Kate Burkholder, is the chief of police in Painters Mill, but she grew up there as an Amish girl.  Sixteen years ago there were four murders in the area, and each of the victims was raped and found with a sequential roman numeral carved on the abdomen.  Now, Kate is faced with another murder with a similar carving.  But, she was sure that she had secretly killed the murderer after he had sexually assaulted her in her family’s home.  Now Kate has to solve this new murder and find out if she really did kill the man responsible when she was a teenager.

I listened to this book on audio.  I thought the narrator was great.  She was able to change her voice for each character, and there were a lot of them.  I liked that she brought a “just the facts ma’am” attitude to her voice while she was narrating, and I think it really added to the police investigation plot. 

The story was well written.  There were just enough twists and turns to keep me guessing.  I liked Kate.  She wasn’t perfect.  Her flaws kept her human, and even though I am not a woman cop, I could still identify with her.  The cast of characters was great.  Kate’s employee’s were each unique and played an important role in the story.  The suspects were interesting and I had a chance to wonder about each one’s innocence as they were interrogated.  I didn’t like John Tomasetti, a state police profiler, when he was first introduced.  But as the story played out, I came to enjoy the parts with him the most.  His interaction with Kate was great. 

If I had one concern with this novel, it was the language.  I know that cops and murderers can have foul mouths, and I have been known to say a bad word or two myself, so I don’t know why these words stood out so much for me.  I don’t usually read murder mysteries, so I don’t know if it is common for this genre.  But, I suspect that it had more to do with it being an audio version.  The words were said in anger and therefore given more emphasis, so I probably just noticed them more. I think they would have blended in more if I had been reading them.  Of course that one little issue didn’t change my opinion of the novel or the narration.  I give this book 5/5 stars and a huge thank you for pulling me out of a rut!

Pray for Silence.  Since I enjoyed the audio of the first book, I was hoping to listen to this one also.  The library only had the hardback copy, but I could still remember the different voices in my head as I was reading (the narrating was that good).   In this second book, we are back in Painters Mill with Chief Burkholder.  As the first pages unfold, 7 members of an Amish family are found murdered and tortured on their farm.  Kate and her team work just as hard trying to figure out this mystery, but with no survivors and so many secrets, they are struggling.  I was pleased that John was back, although he doesn’t seem to have as much of a role in this novel.  Eveything that I loved about the first bok holds true for this one.  Kate’s Amish background helps her get information from this normally closed community, even though she has been excommunicated and is currently under the “baan“.  I will say that I was able to figure out some of the ending about half way through, but not all of it.  And, I think that only happened because I was focused on the details more after just finishing the first book.  Ms. Castillo does refer back to information from the Sworn to Silence from time to time, so I am glad that I read them in order

It is hard to compare these two books since I listened to one and read the other.  I think I enjoyed the first one more, but I blew through the second one in just three days.  Also, the use of language didn’t stand out as much in Pray for Silence.  I’m not sure if she didn’t use as much, or if it all blended in like I thought it would.    Either way this gets 5/5 stars too.  I can’t wait for her next book.

I started out at McKay’s used bookstore in Nashville on Thursday.  I had so much fun there.  My daughters were both in school and so my friends and I were free to browse the shelves as long as we wanted without any “mommy, let’s go”.  They had so many good choices.  I had a pile of twenty books picked out, but in the end I only bought 6.  Plus I got a few selections for older daughter. So what did I finally choose:

• Fixing Shadows, Susan Barrett
• The Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren Groff
• Between Friends, by  Kristy Kiernan
• The Red Tent, by Anita Diamant
• Breakfast with Buddha, by Roland Merullo
• Moloka’i by Alan Brennert

This store is so wonderful.  There are three in Tennessee.  The one we went to is huge.  I could spend the whole day in the fiction and children’s sections, but there is a great audio section too.  They also have music, movies and video games.  If you live in Tennessee near one of their locations, it is worth a visit.

Aside from the bookstore, there was a weekend full of eating.  We visited the Cheesecake Factory on Thursday, The ChopHouse on Friday and then Carrabas on Saturday. Yum!

My husband and daughters gave me the best gifts too.  I got a zable bracelet, which is pretty much a version of a Pandora bracelet.  I got a little family bead to start my collection.  Then I got the best gift ever.  My very own red dell laptop with a pink wireless mouse.  This laptop is beautiful.  It is quiet, the battery lasts more than 15 minutes, it does not burn my lap when I use it in a comfy chair and it matches my kitchen walls (my husband pointed that out, who knew).  It was over all 0ne of the best birthdays I can remember.

It was a crazy few days.  I spent most of Sunday recovering.  This “40 again” year old body can’t take all that eating and cocktailing like it used to.  Life was back on schedule this week.  Cheer, PTO, gymnastics, reading, blogging, cooking, cleaning.  My goals this week were:

1. Finish listening to Sworn to Silence, by Linda Castillo. I did it.  It was very good and something a bit out of my comfort zone.  The only complaint I had with it was some of the language used, but I excused it since it was a murder mystery full of cops. 
2. Finish In the Shadow of the Cypress, by Thomas Steinbeck.  Nope I just gave up.  I wanted to love this book.  It had everything that I like in a book.  I bit of history, a bit of mystery.  But it was BORING!
3. Brush up on Hidden Wives, by Claire Avery.  I finished this earlier this month but our meeting is Thursday.  If I want to contribute, I better go over the details again.  This book was really good and our discussion was just the same.  I think that there were some really good issues to discuss in this story but my book club has some ADD issues (which are completely my fault) and we skipped around a bunch.  We ended up talking more about the book for September.
4. Decide whether I will read September’s book for our bookclub.  Rush Home Road, by Lori Lansens was chosen.  Two people have read it so far and one liked it and one really didn’t .  I am not sure I will enjoy it, and with my recent and CURRENT reading slump, I am not sure if I want to attempt another so-so book.  After the spirited debate about this book on Thursday, I have pretty much decided to skip this book.  I am sure it is good, but I have received two books to review from Amazon and two to review from Crazy Book Tours.  So , if I have time after those four, I might give it a try…..

Well, the reading rut that was July 2010 is over and August has started out very nicely.  I was so excited to participate in weeks WWW Wednesday because I actually finished some books.  However, PTO has picked up and cheer practice is keeping me on my toes.  ANYWAY….. here is my WWW Thursday.  I did so good this week, I just couldn’t skip it.

To play along, just answer the following three questions……

• What are you currently reading?
• What did you recently finish reading?
• What do you think you will read next?

Here are my answers:

I am currently reading A Stranger in the Family, by Robert Barnard.  I read post awhile back about this book and it caught my interest.  This book is so far from my usual.  Covers play a big part in my selecting a book and I don’t really care for this one, and I am not really a mystery or intrigue type of girl, but so far so good.  It is interesting and keeping my interest.

I just finished: oh boy here is where it gets good.   Sweet Dates in Basra, by Daphane Jessica Jiji.   I liked it but didn’t love it.  I think it started out better than it ended.  Then I finished Hidden Wives, by Claire Avery.  I started this so long ago and had to get it finished before book club.  Once I picked it back up it was a very quick read.  I enjoyed it overall.  It was well written and interesting, and I think there will be a lot to discuss, but some of the storyline was disturbing.  AND…. I finished Tomorrow Tomorrow River, by Lesley Kagen.  This was another book that I started and put down to read something else.  I figured that since I was on a roll with finishing books I would give it another try.  I am glad I did.  The first 241 pages of this book took me forever to read and were kinda dull.  The last 100 pages were wonderful.  The story got so interesting that I just couldn’t put it down.  A complete book 180. 

Whew…. Next:  I downloaded a sample of  The Red Tent, by Anita Diamont and I am planning on seeing how I feel about that one.  I also have In the Shadow of the Cypress, by Thomas Steinbeck.  I need to review that one soon.  We will have to see what I finally choose.

This week, Jen asks what type of music (if any)  we listen to while we read.  I just started listening to music while reading this summer.  Whenever I would read on the back porch, one of the mommy birds out there would sit on the play set and squawk at me until I went in.  So I put some relaxing music on my iPod and problem was solved.  Of course since then it has been too HOT to sit out there, but this also works wonders at drowning out my loud children while I read IN the house.  So my favorite music to read by combines rain and or thunder with light piano music.  My favorite one right now is Lifescapes, Garden Rain.  I mean who doesn’t like to read during a rain storm. 

Have a great reading weekend everyone, and enjoy your hop!

Way back in the spring I was contacted by Tracee with Pump Up Your Book Promotions, about  Buying Time, by Pamela Samuels Young.  It was the first time I had ever been contacted to review a book.  I was scheduled to participate in the virtual book tour in August and so here is my review.

Thanks go out to  Tracee for sending me a copy of this book to read and review.