I have a dear friend Relyn who loves books as much as I do and is a huge fan of Elizabeth Berg and before Christmas she said that she often starts out the year reading this book and now I see why.

It is a wonderful book about life and enjoying it the good,bad and ugly.

The book starts out with Betta driving cross country and finding a house in a small Ill. town where she befriends a small boy and two college age kids and reconnects with her friends from her college days.Betta is dealing with losing the great love of her life and wondering how she will go on without him.

I found this book as I do most of Berg's writing to be applicable to life in all it's facets. I think Mrs. Berg understands us humans with all our imperfections and she encourages us to look for the good and give kindness to those around us.

The title comes from a passage in the book where Betta's friend is talking about her own loses and encourages Betta to maybe make this her Year of Pleasures.She reminds Betta that the pleasure that we as humans most enjoy are those found in simple things.

I am going to take Betta's advice and try to make this my Year of Pleasures and try to find something that makes me happy in each new day and be thankful for it.
It can be something as simple as listening to my lab snore which makes me smile because I love that dog so. That is my pleasure of the day.What is yours?

"I always think incipient miracles surround us, waiting only to see if our faith is strong enough. We won't have to understand it; it will just work, like a beating heart, like love. Really, no matter how frightened and discouraged I may become about the future, I look forward to it. In spite of everything I see all around me every day, I have a shaky assurance that everything will turn out fine. I don't think I'm the only one. Why else would the phrase "everything's all right" ease a deep and troubled place in so many of us? We just don't know, we never know so much, yet we have such faith. We hold our hands over our hurts and lean forward, full of yearning and forgiveness. It is how we keep on, this kind of hope."
— Elizabeth Berg (Talk Before Sleep)

Night Road by Kristin Hannah

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I recieved this as an ARC from Library Thing and I didn't really know what to expect but upon opening the book I was hooked from the first page. This is the first book I have read from this author and I think now I might go back and read some others.

In this book Kristin Hannah tackles real life at its core and also motherhood in all its forms.In the beginning you meet Lexi who has an imperfect life growing up with a mother who doesn't care and The Faraday's who have the perfect life . They are wealthy, affulent and with all the material things a family could want.

I will try to explain without giving away the story that the families become interwined until one tragic night when a teenage party and a mistake that happens all to frequently happens and one of the main characters is killed in an accident.

The rest of the story deals with how this affects all the rest of the families with shocking results. Although I could understand Judes grief I also got mad at her often for being so self absorbed in her grief that she forgot the others who needed her love. I have seen this so often in my work as a nurse. In the last part of the book it deals with the power of forgivenss and how when we forgive the forgiveness helps the person who is forgiving more than the person who needs the foregivenss. I cried in this part and for me to cry a book has to be really good because I don't cry easily.

I encourage you to read this book and be touched . This book reminded me of some of Jodi Picoults books.

This is a book that will touch you , make you angry and make you really think about what you would you do if put in the same situation.



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I truly enjoyed this book.It is quite possibly my favorite so far of the books Karen White has written.

I am a huge fan of books set during the WWII era and this one is no exception as it deals with the threat of German Invasion during the war and the actual historical presence of U Boats off the Coast of South and North Carolina. I enjoyed reading about this era and its context in history to Folly Beach, SC.
Karen White has the unique gift of capturing and era in time and a setting so real that I can smell the Pluff mud here in Oregon.
I visited here in 2004 and her descriptions of the area and culture are spot on.
She also crafts complex characters for which we feel empathy for even those that are unlovable like Peter and Kat.
I have always been intrigued by the Bottle Trees whose roots run deep in the MS Delta and have toyed with the idea of starting one here.
I felt that Lulu with her complex bristly personality was one of my favorites and I loved Maggie who never gave up hope to see the one she loved again.
It is a wonderful book and one I would recommend to anyone who loves a good story

The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club by Gil McNeil

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I started reading this one on a cold, dreary, rainy day here in the Northwest yesterday and finished it this morning. The book by no means was earth shattering but it was good and it was of those books that just make you feel warm inside.I think sometimes we just need books like that.



I loved all the characters especially Jo and Gran and Trevor the dog. I would love to go and visit this yarn shop and sit and take classes with all the women of the village. I wish I had a yarn shop like this close by.



Although I don't knit this book inspires me to try it sometime.Luckily I live in area of the country with lots of sheep and alpacas so yarn is readily available.



I also loved Jo's imperfect children especially Archie.



I hope you will like this book as much as I did.



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A sweeping, emotionally riveting first novel—an enthralling family saga of Africa and America, doctors and patients, exile and home.

Marion and Shiva Stone are twin brothers born of a secret union between a beautiful Indian nun and a brash British surgeon at a mission hospital in Addis Ababa. Orphaned by their mother’s death in childbirth and their father’s disappearance, bound together by a preternatural connection and a shared fascination with medicine, the twins come of age as Ethiopia hovers on the brink of revolution. Yet it will be love, not politics—their passion for the same woman—that will tear them apart and force Marion, fresh out of medical school, to flee his homeland. He makes his way to America, finding refuge in his work as an intern at an underfunded, overcrowded New York City hospital. When the past catches up to him—nearly destroying him—Marion must entrust his life to the two men he thought he trusted least in the world: the surgeon father who abandoned him and the brother who betrayed him.

An unforgettable journey into one man’s remarkable life, and an epic story about the power, intimacy, and curious beauty of the work of healing others.{From Good Reads}

I loved this book. It is a long book but well worth the effort. Marion was my favorite character but I came to love all of the characters.

This book is written by an MD and shows the beauty of medicine, surgery and the human body . He relays this knowledge so well to the reader.
This books also takes us on a journey through Ethiopia's recent past and the feelings all immigrants must feel when coming to America.

I read a lot of books and this book is onein which you become invested in and with the characters. I will long remember Marion, Shiva, Sister Mary Joseph Praise , Ghosh, Hema , Genet,and Matron.

I feel this book will become a classic and I think anyone who loves a good novel,heartbreakingly real characters and places will love this book.This book shows how the accidents and twists and turns of life lead us in the end to the people we are with all our faults but still capable of love and being loved.

Here is a story found on the web that seems the demonstrate what the book above was saying.



A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in front of him.
When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks, rocks about 2″ in diameter.
He then asked the students if the jar was full? They agreed that it was.
So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks.
He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
He then asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with an unanimous – yes.
The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and proceeded to pour their entire contents into the jar – effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
“Now,” said the professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The rocks are the important things – your family, your partner, your health, and your children – Things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter, like your job, your house, and your car.
The sand is everything else. The small stuff.”
“If you put the sand into the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks. The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out dancing. There will always be time to go to work, give a dinner party and fix the disposal.
“Take care of the rocks first, the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented.
The professor smiled. “I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of beers.”

Lay that Trumpet in Our Hands by Susan Carol McCarthy

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Here is one of those rare and remarkable debuts that herald the appearance of a major new talent on the literary scene. Inspired by real events, Lay That Trumpet In Our Hands is a wise and luminous story about a northern family, a southern town, and the senseless murder that sparks an extraordinary act of courage.

To this day, my family is in disagreement as to precisely when the nightmare began. For me, it was the morning Daddy and Luther discovered Marvin, beaten, shot, and dying, in the Klan’s stomping grounds off Round Lake Road. My brother Ren disagrees. He points to the small cluster of scars that begin just outside his left eye and trail horizontally across his temple to the top of his ear. Ren claims it started when the men in white robes took the unprecedented step of shooting at two white children. Others say it was when Mr. Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP and Mr. Hoover’s FBI came to town. Mother and Daddy shake their heads. In their minds, the real beginning was much earlier.... -Good Reads synposis.
I found this book by chance while looking for books to purchase from Paperback Swap. I thought it sounded like it would be a good southern novel and it definitely was.
I tells the story of the civil rights movement from the perspective of a young girl and the way in which the division between blacks and southern whites divided a small community. It depicts the civil rights movement from withing Fla which you don't often hear about as most of these type books are set in MS or ALA.
I fell that Susan Carol McCarthy captures the southern voice as only a southerner can and this book evokes To Kill A Mockingbird and The Help.
I would highly recommend this book to everyone who loves good Southern Literature.

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Book Synopsis from Good Reads:

Fresh off the success of his Edgar® Award-winning, New York Times bestseller Down River, John Hart returns with his most powerful and intricately-plotted novel yet.
Thirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: happy parents and a twin sister that meant the world to him. But Alyssa went missing a year ago, stolen off the side of a lonely street with only one witness to the crime. His family shattered, his sister presumed dead, Johnny risks everything to explore the dark side of his hometown in a last, desperate search. What he finds is a city with an underbelly far blacker than anyone could’ve imagined— and somewhere in the depths of it all, with the help of his only friend and a giant of a man with his own strange past, Johnny, at last, finds the terrible truth.

Detective Clyde Hunt has devoted an entire year to Alyssa’s case, and it shows: haunted and sleepless, he’s lost his wife and put his shield at risk. But he can’t put the case behind him—he won’t—and when another girl goes missing, the failures of the past year harden into iron determination. Refusing to lose another child, Hunt knows he has to break the rules to make the case; and maybe, just maybe, the missing girl will lead him to Alyssa...

The Last Child is a tale of boundaries: county borders and circles on a map, the hard edge between good and evil, life and death, hopelessness and faith. Perfectly blending character and plot, emotion and action, John Hart again transcends the barrier between thrillers and literature to craft a story as heartrending as it is redemptive

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I saw this book recommended so many times here and on other sites and blogs and knew I wanted to read.it. I didn't know what to expect but this book well exceeded my expectations.
The novel was fas tpaced and well plotted with believeable but flawed chracters.
I loved the main character and felt he was believeable . You feel his frustrations, hurt and hope throughout the book.
I sometimes wanted to sock his mom !
This is one of those books that will stay with you long after you read it. I feel this book will also establish John Hart as a major player in the fiction world today. I also can very easily see this made into a movie.


Book Synopsis from Good Reads:

Fresh off the success of his Edgar® Award-winning, New York Times bestseller Down River, John Hart returns with his most powerful and intricately-plotted novel yet.
Thirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: happy parents and a twin sister that meant the world to him. But Alyssa went missing a year ago, stolen off the side of a lonely street with only one witness to the crime. His family shattered, his sister presumed dead, Johnny risks everything to explore the dark side of his hometown in a last, desperate search. What he finds is a city with an underbelly far blacker than anyone could’ve imagined— and somewhere in the depths of it all, with the help of his only friend and a giant of a man with his own strange past, Johnny, at last, finds the terrible truth.

Detective Clyde Hunt has devoted an entire year to Alyssa’s case, and it shows: haunted and sleepless, he’s lost his wife and put his shield at risk. But he can’t put the case behind him—he won’t—and when another girl goes missing, the failures of the past year harden into iron determination. Refusing to lose another child, Hunt knows he has to break the rules to make the case; and maybe, just maybe, the missing girl will lead him to Alyssa...

The Last Child is a tale of boundaries: county borders and circles on a map, the hard edge between good and evil, life and death, hopelessness and faith. Perfectly blending character and plot, emotion and action, John Hart again transcends the barrier between thrillers and literature to craft a story as heartrending as it is redemptive

View all my reviews >>

This was another 5 star read for me.

I have always been an avid lover of storms so I can identify with the brother in this book.
This book is an honest depiction of sibling love and mental illness . In this book the main characters brother has severe bipolar disorder and Mrs. Blum deals with the disease honestly without sugarcoating it.I have a friend with this disease and it is heartbreaking to see the struggles someone with this disease goes through and the effect the meds to control it have on the person.
I felt that the author made me be in the car with them when they were storm chasing and made me identify with both the main characters.
I hope you will read it and enjoy it as much as I did.
Below is from Pulishers Weekly:

Jenna Blum (Those Who Save Us) visits Tornado Alley in this vivid novel about a set of twins with a dark history. At home in Minnesota, Karena Jorge gets an unexpected call informing her that her twin brother, Charles Hallingdahl, whom she hasn't seen in the 20 years since something went very wrong during a storm chase, has been admitted to a Kansas mental hospital. Charles suffers from rapid cycling bipolar disorder, and all Karena knows is that he refuses medication, he can be a danger to himself and others, and he is still obsessed with storm chasing. When she rushes to the clinic and finds he has already left, Karena joins a professional storm-chasing tour company, hoping to find her brother in the caravan of watchers who follow major storms. In the course of the tour, Karena confronts the past and the way it has shaped her life. The unpredictable and dangerous storms provide a framework for an exploration of the bond between siblings (and its limitations), and Blum renders the stormy backdrop as richly as she does her nuanced characters. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

I would give this book five stars. I really loved this one.

I know I haven't blogged in awhile and the main reason is I couldn't decide what to do with this blog so for right now I am mainly going to do book reviews.I find that at this point in my life I am trying to simplify my life and don't really have that much to say about my personal life right now. I will from time to time share things from my life but mostly will let this space be about books.

I love sharing good books that I have read with others and this is one of them.

It tells the story of Sarah who is in her 70's and how her life changes after the death of her husband in unexpected ways. I so identified with her in this book in that in my 46 th year of life I have reached a place where I am comfortable with who I am .I am like Sarah in that the only peoples opinions that I care about are those whom I love and otherwise I am a take it or leave it type person. I live a simple life and am okay with that .
I found that the author's description of passion and mature love was heartbreaking and poignant.,real and worth the price of the book.I think that our youth focused society believes that when when you reach middle age you no longer have passion or sexual urges and yet at any age that is still a part of life.I also love that she portrays an acceptance of her body later in life and is finally okay with it.
I also felt that she conveyed to the reader the joys of finding love in unexpected places at any stage of life.
I would highly recommend this book to all.
I hope everyone has a lovely 4th of July weekend.

Three Cups of Tea

I highly recommend this book. I am about halfway through it but it is a wonderful read.Greg Mortenson the writer of this book has started 55 schools in the remotest parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan.The schools he starts are mainly for girls who otherwise would not be able to get any type of education.. He proves that one man just like you and I can do great things.He believes as do I that the best way to combat terrorism is to build individual relationships with others and provide the youth a chance to get an education.He started the Central Asia Institute to promote and continue this work.

In this book he speaks to the culture shock he feels as he goes between the privileged world and the third world.I often feel that I don't possess the ability to do great things like this in the world but I know there is something I can do right here where I live. I think there is need everywhere for compassion toward our fellow man if only we look. I have decided that one of the things I want to do is become a literacy volunteer. This is an obvious choice for me given my love of reading and all things bookish. I cannot imagine not being able to read and through a workplace program that my employer provides they will donate 3 hours of my base pay per hour a month to whatever literacy program I volunteer for so it is a win/win situation for all.

I am really inspired by Jen Lemen and her desire to help her friend Odette I encourage you to go to her blog and read their story.I also encourage you to go to Ali Edwards blog and view her thoughts on telling our stories.

Thanks for all your encouragement toward me and I just want to thank all of you for continuing to stick with me and be my friends.Have a good rest of the week. I will be back this weekend. This is the week I work 4 12 hour shifts out of 5 days.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. Do the thing you think you cannot do. -- Eleanor Roosevelt

My thoughts and prayers are with those in Myanmar.

Off to cook Tiki Masala for supper.

Books

I just finished this book and I really enjoyed it. I did a review of it at the Mermaids Bookshelf or click on the link in my sidebar.

I really enjoy her writing style because of the way she tackles the really tough issues we face today. This one was about Teen Rape.Mrs. Picoults other books deal with issues of sacrificing one child for another, infanticide,school shootings, and the paranormal. She often has undertones in her books of faith and its effects on the hard choices we all must make in life.I encourage you to check her out and I feel you want be disappointed.

On another note I must be getting old , in fact I know I am not far from the AARP discount when it takes so little to make me happy. This is an example from today.I went to our local library to get a book and they have shelves of library book sale books. I spied and bought Eat,Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert(*****),Firstborn by Robin Lee Hatcher,and a Luanne Rice book The Edge of Winter all for less than $3.oo. I then went to the Goodwill and found The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield which I have been wanting to read for quite sometime, The Rice Mother and a Rachel Ray 30 minute Get Real Meals all for $10.00. It amazing how books make my day. I am surely the dullest person on earth don't you think?

I have found this new Blogger that is hilariously funny that I want to share with you Mrs. G. Go check her out and you will roll with belly laughs.

Sorry it has been so long since I posted but I have worked 4 12hour shifts of the last 6 days.

I got an email that these books which I had reserved weeks ago are in at the library. I really like this author and these stories. This is technically teen fiction but the story drags you in and you really like the characters. So Wednesday when I am off and the library is open I will go pick these up and escape into the world of Bella,the Cullens and Forks, WA.

Now I am off to watch the Patriots and the Colts play.I am rooting for the Colts.