524-The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Title: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Authors: Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Genre: Gentle Reads

I loved this book!  But hated that I bought it and a week later my mother says "Oh Christ gave me this book for you to read, she thought you could use it for your class."  What do you know, same book!  ug!  There goes $14!!!

This is set in the aftermath of WWII in London and Guernsey which is an island in the channel.  The author begins to write letters back and forth with a man who had read her book and wanted to see if she had information on another book.  Through their correspondence, she realizes she could write an article about thier lives during the war.  She then begins to write to other islanders and learn about thier stories during the war.

She also writes to her editor and his sister whom she met while in boarding school.  After falling in love with her friends on the island she decides to visit them and falls in love with island.  Through the book her friends learn that girl, Elizabeth, who started the society on a whim when being questioned by the Nazis as to why they were out after curfew, died in the concentration camp she was sent to for harboring a worker.  Her daughter was being raised by the other members of the society and after Juilet (the author) comes to the island she stays with her in her mother's cottage.

Juliet stays on the island for a few months and realizes she does not want to leave and would be content living there and adopting Kit.  She also realizes she has fallen in love with Dawsey who was the man who originally wrote to her.

Through reading all the letters written amongst them, you learn so much about each of their lives and about how life was during the war.

I was originally worried about the format of the book since it was written completely in letters.  After a while you don't even notice the letters and just get caught up in the story.  It is a smooth quick read and very enjoyable.  I feel like it ended too quickly, however.  We never knew if Juliet was able to adopt Kit.  Even so, it gets 5 stars from me!

524-Smart Girls Think Twice

Title: Smart Girls Think Twice
Author: Cathie Linz
Genre: Romance

I think for genre we should really call this "Hot Romance" since it isn't for the those who like sex to be a "behind closed doors, private thing that nobody talks about thing."  Linz does a good job of making us wish we were Emma being seduced by Jake in this story.  Emma is the "smart sister" as the people in her hometown refer to her.  She is a sociologist who teaches and works at a university in Boston.  She has come back home to her very small town for the summer to attend her sisters's weddings and to do research on what attracts outsiders to her hometown.  She is teased by her family for being boringly dressed and not into snatching up a man.  Emma walks into a bar to interview a newcomer to town and finds herself distracted by the hot bartender (who is the newcomer.)

Jake is an extreme sports athlete who left the sport after a tragic accident on a mountain that he barely survived and which unfortunatly killed his best friend.  He is on a personal journey to find his birth mother who is from this very small town he has found himself tending bar in.  Jake is used to being with "ski bunny" model type women and never thought a sociologist would bring him to his knees.

Even though this is a very hot and steamy romance, I enjoyed the story itself as well.  The characters in the book were entertaining and brought a lot to the story.

To spare anyone any uncomfortable reading, I won't go into detail about the "hot" parts, but if you need to get your engines revved up be sure to read this one!  (Be sure to warn your man first since you will be liable to jump him after you have finished the book!)

524-Finger Lickin' Fifteen

Title: Finger Lickin' Fifteen
Author: Janet Evanovich
Genre: Mystery/Humor

I had never picked up a Janet Evanovich novel until I read this one.  I always wondered what all the hype was about.  My aunt is addicted to them which is why it gave me the idea to read one.  I can remember over the past few years on family vacations or get togethers that my aunt would be reading and all of a sudden be laughing so hard she had to close the book until she was done.  She would laugh so hard she was crying...and my aunt does not laugh quietly.  Those of us around her would simply be laughing because she was.  It is hysterical to watch. 

The week after we started class I was sitting with our text thinking "what books do I want to read?"  I called my aunt and asked her what genre those books would be.  She said Humor and when I said that wasn't in our book she suggested mystery.  She gave me "Finger Linckin' Fifteen" and assured me I would not need to read the first 14 before reading this one.  She was right.

Stephanie Plum, the inept "bounty hunter," goes off another adventure trying to track down the men who jumped bail as well as the men ripping off the Rangerman accounts.  While trying to manage all that, she has to deal with her friend, Lula, who is trying to not get killed by the guys she witnesses decapitate a man in front of her car.  Lula and Grandma are also trying to create a winning barbeque recipe that is mission impossible since Lula can't cook and Grandma is used to a much different type of cooking.  The two men in Stephanie's life also prove to cause her stress and drama.  Should she go for the hot Ranger or cop Morelli?  Personally I vote for hot Ranger.  In the end, as any good mystery or fun read, everything works out for the best and along the way we have laughed ourselves silly.

Lula in tight bright yellow pants and a black flak jacket stuck hanging out the car window.....and her breasts falling out of her shirt....need I say more????

524-A Thread of Grace

Title: A Thread of Grace
Author: Mary Doria Russell
Genre: Historical Fiction

This book is set in Italy during World War II.  A group of Jewish refugees is trying to get to Italy to be safe only to find out that once they have climbed and reached the other side of the mountain that Italy had been turned over to the Germans and they were still not safe.  Italian soldiers ran with them and found them safe places within the hills of Italy with patisans who are willing to help anyway they can.  The story takes you through the later years of the war and many things happen that don't make it a "happily ever after" type book.

While I think this book is very well written and a very realistic picture of what the war must have been like in that part of the world, I found it hard to keep track of since there were so many different story lines.  I felt like I needed a felt board of Italy with character cut outs so I could move them along and figure out who was where and doing what.  Each section would be about different characters and you would have to remember who they were talking about.  As the book progressed, the characters did meet and come together so it made it easier. 

The ending was unexpected and very sad, but one should expect the unexpected when it comes to World War II.  I have been reading WWII books for years but this one was very different for me.  I am used to the stories of Jewish families or just children being sent away and tortured in the camps, or being hidden and then found and tortured.  I have read many books of survivors and what they went through to survive.  This one took on a different perspective of how the Italians and Catholic in particular helped people in need.

Over all I give it a thumbs up, but be prepared to get out that felt board or some other way to keep track if you choose to read it!

524-Disgrace

Disgrace by J.M Coetzee
Genre: Domstic Fiction (also my classic)

In Disgrace, a 52 year old projessor at Cape Town University who has been divorced twice finds himself unemployed after having a sexual relationship with a student.  He refused to defend himself or seek counseling to save his job.  He feels that he acted as a man should....act on desire.  I have a feeling this is what probably ended his two marriages.  Before the relationship with the student, he found desires filled by a weekly "working" woman who left the business.  He was lost without her and not willing to settle for another one of the agencies women so instead he started the affair. 

Once he finds himself unemployed, he decides to visit his daughter who lives on a farm taking care of stray dogs.  He finds life there to be very different from city life and much more dangerous.  After his daughters house was robbed and they were both attacked, she changes and becomes more determined to stay and have a life there.  He wants her to leave before she is killed by the local thugs. 

Through the story, he is trying to find his place.  Who is he and where does he belong?  He begins to acknowledge that his relationship with the student was a bad idea and after returning to the city months later apologizes to her family.  He finds his home robbed and still he has no job.  With nowhere else to go, he returns to his daughters town and rents a room while he tries to repair their relationship which was strained from the time spent living in the same house.  Upon his return he finds his lesbian daughter is pregnant---from the men who robbed them on his first visit.  He is outraged that she insists on keeping the child and refuses to press charges on the one of three suspects.  He doesn't understand their way of life, but in an attempt to be there for his daughter he remains to assist in any way he can. 

While this book is called Domestic Fiction which has been compared to the genre Women's Relationship, it is written from the man's prospective.  It is what I would call a gentle read.  There is no suspense or thrill....nothing that makes you unable to put the book down because you HAVE to know what will happen next.  It was an enjoyable read with a good story and some interesting lessons.  I am not sure however why it is considered a classic.  It was published in 1999 so I am not even sure it has been out long enough to be considered a classic.  Overall, I enjoyed this book.

524-Wicked

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Macguire
Genre: Fantasy

Elphaba is born to a minsiter father and a immoral mother as a girl with green skin and huge sharp teeth.  To go along with her odd physical appearance, she seems mean spirited and has to constantly be watched.  While her father is off preaching her mother has an affair with stranger from a different land that happened upon their home.  When her sister, Nessarose, is born with no arms the mother is unsure who the father is.  Elphaba grows into a strong willed woman who is insistent on saving the Animals from the life that the Wizard has condemed them to.  Her life takes her in different directions and many different experiences.  She encounters a young man with whom she has an affair, she is involved with plots against the Wizard as well as her head mistress from her school, she ends up in what is comparative to a convent and leaves wtih a child she is not sure is biologically hers or not, and finally ends up settling down in the land of her lover and ironically with his wife and family since he died more or less as the result of Elphaba's political activities.  From there she is informed that her sister has taken over as ruler of thier homeland nicknamed Wicked Witch of the East.  When Elphaba visited her sister the people then assumed she too was evil and called her the Wicked Witch of the West which Elphaba kept simply becuase it was amusing to her.  Upon Dorothy's arrival to Oz which resulted in the death of Nessarose, Elphaba went in pursuit of the red shoes that Glinda (nicknamed the Good Witch) cast a spell on to make Nessie stand unassisted.  Sadly, the measures Elphaba took to get Dorothy to her home were wicked indeed and in the end resulted in her accidental death at Dorothy's hand.

On a personal note, I feel the book has a good story line, however, the way in which it is written is difficult to read and follow.  There are scenes in the book that are even inapporpriate for my 30 year old self and could have easily been left out as they did not apply to the story line at all.  Along with that, some of the language and descriptions were crude and vulgar and again could have been left out.  While I am interested in the story that the next two books have to tell, I do not plan on reading them for fear of the same writing style, language, and sexual scenes.