Night Road

5 out of 5

My first reading experience with Kristin Hannah was when I read and reviewed her book, Firefly Lane back in June 2009. Now comes her latest book, Night Road, which was just released on March 29, 2011. All I can say is WOW! A powerful story of tragic loss, grief, in all it stages and then some, and redemption.

Since I am surrounded by teenagers all the time, I was more than 130 pages into the book with three very likable teens, before I was sure I wanted to continue on, not because the story was dragging or dull but because I sensed that something, possibly something terrible, was going to happen and I was not sure I wanted to be subjected to it. I liked all the characters, each for different reasons, and I wasn't prepared to lose one of them or hate any of the others. Each of us come to a book's theme with our own set of baggage. I don't like to post spoilers in a review so I will just say that having experienced some of the topics covered in this wonderful, deeply moving story, I came away with a renewed sense of how we each must find our own peace. This is a book that you can recommend to teens as well as their parents.

There are many lessons to be learned about family,lessons for teens, lessons for friends, and lessons for parents, some of them are subtle and others are the ones that are right up there "in your face". Share this book with someone you care about.

The Knitting Diaries

4 out of 5

I was very pleased with these three short stories. If you like Debbie Macomber, you will like the first story, The Twenty- First Wish in this collection, The Knitting Diaries. Even more than that, you will have possibly discovered two new writers, at least they were new to me, in the process. The first story by Debbie brings back one of the characters from Blossom Street, Ann Marie Roche, the owner of the bookstore, who adopted a young foster child after she become a widow, only to learned that the child's biological father wanted back in his daughter's life. Their lives are picked back up from the last Blossom Street book, as Ann Marie has just bought a new home since their little apartment over the bookstore was simply not big enough for her and Ellen and their little dog, Baxter.

As always there are some good moral lessons here as well as a some laughs, smiles, and good feelings.

The second story, Coming Unraveled takes you to Texas and another yarn store owned by a lovely grandmother. It is the story of her granddaughter, Robyn, returning home after several years from pursuing an acting career in New York. Robyn, is thrilled to see everything as she left it except for one thing. There is a man, T. J., in the shop's knitting group. Someone who looks terribly out of place and does not seem to like Robyn at all. He is even maybe a little hostile. As this story unfolds, it becomes obvious that both Robyn and T. J. are not being honest with each other, their friends at the knit shop or themselves. The depth of friendship and loyalty in this story was quite moving and kept the story moving.

This is the first thing that I have read by Susan Mallery so I had no point of reference but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I don't think it was just because of the yarn connection that I was taken with the story but rather the way she handled how people hide behind their pain and block out the very people that can ease that pain.

The last story, Return to Summer Island,by Christina Skye, I think, resonated with me the most, because of the animal connection rather than the yarn connection. As with Ms. Mallery, I had not read anything else by Ms. Skye, so I had not reference to her style or theme of writing.

My One and Only

5 out of 5

Kristin Higgins has a real winner with this new novel, My One and Only. I must say that the main character, Harper, could not have come from a more dysfunctional family. Yet she has a sense of humor that carries you throughout the book. I can't count the number of times that I just laughed out loud as she was able to lighten what could have been an otherwise pretty sad story about mother, daughter relationships and how they affect every aspect of one's future relationships with others. Harper's mother walks out of her life the day after her 13th birthday never to return. Her father walks in to their house a few weeks later with a new wife and little step sister and so the saga begins as these lives are intertwined for the next 20 years.

It is a moving story of the impact that we humans all have on one another, whether intentional or not. Be glad for the humor as otherwise you might only cry throughout the whole book. When you first meet Harper she is a tough as nails divorce lawyer who seems to have her whole life very organized. However, the organization is really a way of compartmentalizing her life to not let in any more hurt. This story takes many twists and turns and leaving you guessing right up until the end. Ms. Higgins has given each character full dimension of personality so you truly feel a part of this extended family.

This is my first read of Ms. Higgins work, but I will pick up her other titles as they come along. Enjoy the Read!

The Invisible Wall

5 out of 5

There are so many amazing aspects to The Invisible Wall, the first of three volumes of a memoir by Harry Bernstein, I am not sure where to start. I guess the most amazing fact I learned was that it is never too late to write your story. Mr. Bernstein started this first book at the age of 96. Almost unbelievable given the clarity of the story. His memory of the pain, poverty, and racism that prevailed in his early life is still as vivid in his writing as it must have been then.

He retells the story of his life as well as the lives of his families from his first memories of being brought up in a small mill town in England where the segregation is block by half block. Jews on one side of the street and Christians on the other side of the street. They seem to interact only on Friday evenings when the Christians will help them by coming into their homes to light their fires after sundown for the sabbath evening meal.

With the bleak weather, bleak living conditions, bleak education options for the Jewish children, this could easily be a very bleak story but it is in fact a story filled with love, a son's love for his mother, a daughter's love of her Christian neighbor, and a mother's love for her family that enables her to rise above huge obstacles, the largest being her alcoholic, abusive husband. The backdrop of all of these smaller stories is the story of England during World War I. The Great War seems to be a uniting factor in some ways for all the families of this small town but it is not enough to overcome many of the roadblocks between the different factions residing there.

I am ready to dive into the second volume of Mr. Bernstein's life as he immigrates to the United States and finds his way. Be uplifted and read this amazing story of life and how giving up was not in the vocabulary of the Bernstein family.

Everything I Was

4 out of 5

Irene is very much like a lot of kids I know, or know of, these days. Maybe her parents were a little more well-to-do than some kids I know but they were really just a middle class family with a job and living a very nice life, maybe too nice a life. When Irene’s father loses his job as a part of a corporate downsize, Everything she was, changes. And it changes rather quickly.

Corinne Demas has captured the delicate balance bubble that most kids seem to be living in today in her soon-to-be released YA novel, Everything I Was. They place a lot of face value on the materialistic side of life, the school they attend, what they wear, where they go on vacation, and many times they seem unaware of the important basic family values that are far more important and count for more when times get tough.

Irene’s world seems to have been turned upside down, as she is being uprooted from their beloved New York Manhattan apartment, her private all girls school, and are moving in with her grandfather outside of New York in a small town in the countryside. For kids in high school, any change can seem like the world is working against you and you alone, but this was beginning to feel like the end of the world to Irene.

This is the kind of book that I would recommend to not only my own high schoolers but also to middle schoolers who may be having great concerns as they get ready to make that transition to high school. One of the reasons I continue to read new YA fiction is to keep a perspective of how our young people approach new trials. Any time I able to place the right book in the right hands, and that book speaks to a child in a language they understand and relate to, it is a good thing.

Plum Gorgeous Meal - Marmalade Chicken

Just had to post that I DID make the Marmalade Chicken just as I said I would out of the inspiring new soon to be released work, Plum Gorgeous. It was absolutely amazing. The whole family loved it. The tastes were as wonderful as they sounded just reading the recipe. I will be trying more of the enticements Ms. Steele offers us up in this beautiful book.

The sauce that the marinade makes was delicious over rice flavored with cilantro and lemon oil. We completed the meal with a tossed salad with red onion and mandarin oranges, and a sprinkle of lemon olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

The Other Life

5 out of 5

Ellen Meister has posed the question in The Other Life that many of us have asked ourselves silently but have not expressed out loud or visited even in our wildest dreams. What would have my life have been like if I had taken that other life? The Other Life we have all had, those forks in the road, where we parted ways with or lost a love, a family member, or a course in our career. What if we were able to go back and revisit ourselves in that other life as it went along a separate dimension prior the fork in the road, separate from the life we live now? Would we choose the same one or "The Other Life"? Tough question, and for each of us, the circumstances both present and past are different but no less difficult to choose between.

In the novel, Quinn Braverman is trying to choose between her present life which includes her adoring husband, her first child, and occurs during the pregnancy of her second child or her previous life with a very famous but needy, non committal boyfriend of 10 years and her mother. Her mother had committed suicide shortly after her "fork in the road" and the marriage to her present husband, and before the birth of either of her children. Her mother is who she misses terribly, and needs to connect with her for advice. Even though she is angry at her mother for leaving all of them, she can revisit the place where neither of them knew what the future held or what part the past had played to set up their future lives. Unfortunately, for Quinn, when she visits this other life she does so through the apartment that she occupied with her boyfriend of 10 years and he becomes a participant in her other life.

This may be starting to sound like another version of The Time Traveler's Wife but it isn't. Don't get me wrong. I loved that book as well but I did not even associate the two until long after I finished The Other Life.

Enjoy this book, and see if you can answer the question and make the decision Quinn had to make.