LEGACY OF LOVE (Joanna Trollope writing as Caroline Harvey))

A couple of weeks ago I was setting up an "endangered books" display in our library.  Unfortunately, we are running out of room and have many wonderful novels that are not being read and will need to be removed from our collection to make room for new fiction that is more in-demand.  No offense to prolific writers like James Patterson and Danielle Steel, but it makes me sad to see several shelves each devoted to popular but mediocre novels by authors who have, in some respects, become money-making machines,. while some breathtakingly beautiful literature, like Legacy of Love, is consigned to the book sale.

Harvey's novel is really three novellas.  The first, set in the 1840's, is about two British sisters, Charlotte and Emily.  Charlotte, a strikingly beautiful redhead, craves adventure and longs to escape from her mundane village life with her sister and widowed mother.  Opportunity presents itself in the form of wealthy soldier Captain Hugh Connell, who falls in love with the wild, impetuous beauty.  Charlotte agrees to marry Hugh, who is being posted to Afghanistan, and it is decided that Emily will accompany them as chaperone since there is no time to marry before their scheduled departure date. Their trip to Afghanistan takes one year and includes uonths traveling by boat, through Egypt and India, and finally through the Kyber Pass to Kabul and many of the locales so familiar to us today because of our current conflicts in the middle east.  Written from Emily's point of view, Charlotte's story transports the reader into life in a British outpost in a hostile country and allows us to observe Charlotte's growing love for legendary adventurer Alexander Bewick.

Years later, in 1905, we are introduced to Alexandra Abbott, Charlotte's grandaughter.  Trapped in a frustrating exisitence in Scotland with her embittered mother and understanding, tolerant father, Alexandra is invited by her great Aunt Emily, now a childless 84-year-old widow, to visit her at her home in Cornwall.  Emily introduces Alexandra to a more genteel way of life and allows her to explore her own interests and friendships.  When a prominent local artist, the reclusive Michael Swinton, paints Alexandra, his career is revitalized and she suddenly becomes an object of great interest in the small community.  When Aunt Emily dies Alexandra realizes that she has no desire to return to Scotland and her crippled mother's negative attitude.

The third and last part of the novel features Alexandra's daughter, Cara.  At the outbreak of World War II, 18-year-old Cara, who is a little spoiled and self-involved,  is determined to join the war effort and serve her country along with her brothers, friends, and former classmates.  Instead, she is forced by circumstances to remain at home in Cornwall, where she struggles to find her direction in life while laboring on the family farm to provide much needed food for the country.  Humiliated by her role in the war effort and feeling bored and unfulfilled, Cara falls in love with childhood friend Alan Langley and looks forward to his return from the war.  Naturally, fate intervenes, and Cara is forced to grow up, finding her own calling in the process.

I'm sorry for all of the boring plot description when I should be finding incredible adjectives to describe this novel.  I just finished it and can't get it out of my mind.  I would highly recommend it to any historical fiction buff.  My only complain is that I wish Trollope/Harvey had written 3 full length books so I could still be reading them!

DEATH IN A STRANGE COUNTRY (Donna Leon)

I wish that Comissario Guido Brunetti and Louise Penney's Inspector Armond Gamache could meet.  I think they would be best friends and make a formidable crime-solving team! 

When a body of Sgt. Michael Foster, an American solider stationed in in nearby Vicenza, is found floating in one of Venice's canals, the official verdict is that he was killed during a random mugging.  Brunetti's obtrusive, social-climbing boss, Patti, is content with the finding and orders Guido to drop the case, but Brunetti doesn't feel that things add up and he surreptitiously continues the investigation without Patti's knowledge.  Additional murders, cocaine, and additional skullduggery, all seemingly tied in somehow with local poilice and the American military, come to light as Brunetti obediently investigates an art theft.  This one is a winner!

THE MIDWIFE (Jennifer Worth)

The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times is on of those books that stays with you for a while.  Worth writes about her midwife training in the east end of London in the mid-1950's with such detail and candor that it almost takes your breath away.  Now I think I need to watch the BBC series based on the book!   The horrible bombed out buildings, lack of sanitation, large families living in tiny apartments, sometimes unheated and without running water, human trafficking, the miracle of birth witnessed over and over again, and the profound poverty - all are brought vividly to life here with humor and empathy.  It astounds me that people were living this way when I was born, and probably still are in many places, and I am grateful to Jennifer Worth for telling us her story.  Mixing personal anecdotes with detailed descriptions of many of the births and illnesses that she encountered as a nurse and midwife, Worth has produced a richly faceted and inspirational memoir.

A FATAL WINTER (G.M. Malliet)

November was a long month and one in which I wasn't able to get to reading as much as I would have liked!  That being said, I have FINALLY finished A Fatal Winter.  Populated with eccentric, entitled heirs, well-meaning townspeople, and handsome Father Max Tudor, MI5 agent turned Anglican priest, Nether Monkslip is again faced with murder, this time at Chedrow Castle in nearby Monkslip Super Mare.  A brief  Internet investigation has informed me that "Super Mare" comes from the Latin meaning "upon the sea" and is used to distinguish a village located at the water's edge, much like "by-the-sea."  I wish I had looked that up before!

As Max travels home from a conference in London on December 13 he shares a train compartment with Lady Leticia Baynard, widowed twin sister of Lord Oscar Footrustle of Chedrow Castle.  Later that day, after enjoying an intimate dinner with the lovely Awena Owen, proprietor of Nether Monkslip's new age store, Max learns that both Lord Footrustle and Lady Baynard have died.  Oscar has been unceremoniously stabbed, possibly by one of his family, who are gathered at the castle for the holidays at his invitation.  Lady Baynard's death appears to be natural.  Max is asked by local authorities to visit the castle in his pastoral capacity to comfort the family while surreptitiously using his investigative skills to sort through the various suspects.  Who stands to inherit?  Who is insane enough and enraged enough to stab an old man multiple times even after he is dead?  Could it be his daughter, Jocasta, the flamboyant has-been actress with the much-younger husband?   Or could Lester, Leticia's younger son from Australia be desperate for money?  What about Lamorna, the ugly adopted granddaughter suffering from religious delusions?

Malliet has produced another excellent murder mystery.  I confess that would have enjoyed it more if I had read it a little faster, but the combination of village sensibilities, crazy relatives, a drafty old castle, and, most of all, Max Tudor, make this a highly recommended read.  Max is nice guy with all of the characteristics of a good priest.  He is caring, compassionate, and intelligent, yet emotionally vulnerable and still feeling guilty over the death of his former MI5 partner.  He is also falling in love with Awena, which adds even more dimension and interest to his character.  I'm looking forward to the next installment!

BE DIFFERENT (John Elder Robison)

Robison, also the author of "Look Me In the Eye," writes simply and honestly about his struggles growing up with undiagnosed Asperger's, offering advice and encouragement to fellow Aspie's and neuro-typicals alike.  I think that the title says it all.  Simply put, Asperger's is a neurological condition that typically causes an inability to recognize and process social cues, often resulting in odd behavior and a lack of emotional connection with others.  Robison, diagnosed at age 40, has chosen to put a positive spin on his differences, celebrating being different.  His book covers 4 major areas of concern for Aspies and their families: Rituals, Manners, & Quirks; Emotions; Getting Along With Others; and Sensitivity to the Nonhuman World.  If you know or love anyone with Asperger's, you will recognize many of the feeling and situations experienced by Robison during his childhood and adult years.

 The final chapter, Finding Your Gifts, is, I believe the highlight of the book, encouraging those on the autism spectrum to use their atypical characteristics to their advantage, finding a way to turn their "disability" into a strength.  It is no secret that some of our greatest scientists and business people, including Albert Einstein and Bill Gates, are believed to have Asperger's.  These men (and most are men) have used their neurological differences to accomplish great things, finding ways to turn their "special skills" into successful careers.  Robison makes no bones about the need for hard work and focus, but believes that the Aspergian who is able to focus on their interests and apply them to the real world can achieve success.

Robison includes a handy appendix that includes the diagnostic criteria for Asperger's.  This is a wonderful resource for anyone dealing with Asperger's in any respect.  Robison is personal and insightful.

WALLFLOWER IN BLOOM (Claire Cook)

If you are a Dancing with the Stars fan you will enjoy the "insider" insight into the process of preparing to appear on the show, but Cook's real story is that of a late-bloomer who finally finds her own path to happiness.  Overshadowed since childhood by her brother Tag's charisma and the public adulation heaped upon him at every turn, Deirdre has for years been the woman behind the image.  She works as her brother's personal assistant, juggling reservations and venues and managing his Facebook and Twitter accounts.  While Tag wallows in the adoration of the public, Deirdre's life has been on hold for years.  She is exhausted and discouraged and tired of Tag getting credit for her hard work.  One day she decides to start a campaign, writing as Tag, to get herself voted in as a last-minute replacement on DWTS, taking the place of an actress who has just entered rehab.  Learning to dance, dealing with her disgruntled family, and examining her own role in her unhappiness result in some personal revelations for Deirdre.  This is a light read, for sure, but the reader becomes invested in Deirdre and her success, not as a dancer, but as a person.  Great book for a rainy weekend!

WIFE 22 (Melanie Gideon)

I loved this book, much more than I expected to!  Alice Buckle, who is soon to turn 45 (the age at which her mother died), decides to participate in an online marriage survey, "Marriage in the 21st Century," after receiving an email solicitation.  As wife of 20 years to William and mother to 15-year-old Zoe and 12-year-old Peter, Alice is finding it increasing difficult to keep lines of communication open within her family.  As "Wife 22," however, she is free to communicate her thoughts and feelings about her marriage and family life anonymously to "Researcher 101."  When William loses his advertising job (after apparently revealing personal information about his marital relationship to a focus group) and finances tighten, Alice worries about her part-time job as an elementary school drama teacher.  An aspiring playwright  in her younger years, she was humiliated by the failure of her first professional production and has been haunted by that setback ever since.  Do more failures loom on the horizon?  Why is Researcher 101 becoming more and more appealing to her as their correspondence develops?  Is son Peter gay?  Will Alice serve as matron of honor at her best freind's same-sex marriage ceremony?

This is definitely a novel for the 21st century.  The Internet is the true main character of this clever story, with email, Facebook, and You Tube featured prominently.  Gideon does a wonderful job of allowing Alice to evolve emotionally.  I loved the anonymous survey premise, because aren't all of us more honest and forthright in our opinions when we are safely hidden behind a keboard and monitor? 

THE SPLENDOUR FALLS (Susanna Kearsley)

This is a little different from the other Kearsley novels that I have read in that the main characters are firmly rooted in the present.  We are, however, treated to two fascinating stories of the past in Chinon, France, both involving women named Isabelle, one a queen (circa 1205) and the other a chambermaid (circa WWII).

Emily Braden agrees to take a holiday and meet her historian cousin Harry at Chinon, where he plans to research Queen Isabelle.  When Harry, not uncharacteristically, fails to arrive as scheduled at the Hotel de France, Emily joins brothers Paul and Simon Lazarus and violinist Neil Grantham, who are also staying at the hotel, for some sightseeing.  She discovers a rare King John coin, her cousin's most prized possession, in a donation bowl at a beautiful deserted chapel and begins to wonder what, exactly, has happened to Harry.

Kearsley's novel begins as a pleasant, if a little bit dated, story that transforms into an intriguing and romantic mystery, weaving together the near and distant past with the present day.  I didn't love it as much as The Rose Garden or Mariana, but I definitely liked it a lot!  I would recommend it.  It might be a bit difficult to find, though!

ARTISTIC LICENSE (Katie Fforde)

As usual, Katie Fforde provides an enjoyable romantic adventure with characters that leave you wishing you could keep hanging out with them even after the last page has been turned.  This is an older novel (2005), Fforde's second.  Thea Orville has left her career as a globetrotting photojournalist after being betrayed personally and professionally by the man in her life.  With the help of a convenient inheritance, she has left London, invested in a large house in Cheltenham, and started taking in student lodgers, providing housing and an occasional meal for a group of messy, irresponsible university students.  When friend Molly invites her on an unexpected trip to France she decides to accept and get away from it all.  During the trip she meets Rory, a breathtakingly attractive Irish artist who has been hired to lecture to the group on Cezanne, and after arriving home to chaos and destruction in her house she decides to take Rory up on his invitation to visit him in Ireland, leaving Cheltenham behind and the mess behind.

Her unplanned visit to the Emerald Isle leaves Thea not with a new romance, as you might have presumed, but a new career as an art gallery owner, plus an Irish wolfhound and several puppies.  With the help of Molly and Molly's  handsome cousin Ben, Thea decides to find a property and exhibits Rory's beautiful landscapes.  Neither the course of true love nor the launching of a new enterprise ever run smoothly and Ffforde treats her readers to nonstop action, including potentially romantic remodeling accidents, a possible kidnapping, a vicious ex-spouse, lots of puppy antics, and some very bad weather.  This is fun! 

150 POUNDS: A NOVEL OF WAISTS AND MEASURES (Kate Rockland)

Shoshana Weiner and Alexis Allbright are successful 20-something bloggers focused on that eternal female obsession, weight.  Shoshana, at 215 pounds, writes Fat & Fabulous, a blog for overweight women that focuses on self acceptance.  Alexis, on the other hand, weighs 100 pounds writes a blog called Skinny Chick, which extolls diet, extreme exercise, and weight control for good health. 

If the truth were to be told (and it is), chubby Shoshana actually leads a healthier lifestyle than Alexis.  She enjoys a reasonably healthy, balanced diet (albeit too much food), gets some regular exercise, and accepts herself.  She even enjoys finding wardrobe pieces that flatter her zaftig body.  As part of an overweight family she grew up in Hoboken surrounded by love and acceptance, but her father's early death from a heart attack a few years before has left her with a nagging sense of worry about the future.  Alexis, on the other hand, became estranged from her perfectionist parents after the tragic death of her teenage brother.  A disappointment to her lawyer father (Alexis is a law school drop-out) and alcoholic mother, Alexis lives in New York City with her gay best friend Billy, barely making ends meet.  She is meticulous about recording every morsel of food she eats, works out religiously, and tries to control every aspect of her life.

Shoshanna and Alexis meet (and do NOT bond) as guests on the Oprah Winfrey Show, invited to talk with Oprah about weight and body image.  As fate would have it, circumstances beyond their control eventually conspire to change their thinking, their lifestyles, and their priorities, and a year later they end up together on Oprah's show again, this time each weighing 150 pounds.  I'm not going to give you any more details about how this happens, but I will tell you that 150 Pounds is much more than your average chick lit.  It's a novel about 2 women who, in the process of advising others about how to live, find their true selves and their own happiness.  I enjoyed being invited along for their year of discovery!

THE BEACH HOUSE (Georgia Bockoven)

When Julia's husband Ken, a successful and well-loved businessman, dies of a heart attack at age 39, she feels that her life is over.  All that is left is to grieve and to do her best to honor her husband's legacy by running his successful company and continuing his traditions.  She decides to sell their beloved summer home in Santa Cruz, but only after allowing their regular tenants to enjoy one more summer at the beach.

I was a little disconcerted at first when I realized that different tenants would be the featured characters of the novel during June, July, and August.  Would there be connections and an interweaving of the stories, things that I treasure in good novels?  As it turns out, Bockoven does a credible job of creating enough of a connection to provide the reader with a feelin g of continuity, largely through the presence of Eric, a doctor who is renting the cottage next door.  The tenants include a mother with a teenage son who is falling in love for the first time, an elderly couple coping with the end of life after 60 years of marriage, and a recently separated woman who discovers that sometimes true love is where you least expect to find it.  This is more like a series of connected short stories than a novel. but it is a good light summer read. 

A SURREY STATE OF AFFAIRS (Ceri Radford)

I am SO far behind with writing this blog that I feel I will never catch up!  I'd better write this while the book is fresh in my mind.

If you are looking for a light, funny read, look no further.  A Surrey State of Affairs is written as a series of blog entries.  The author is a technologically challenged, 53-year-old wife and mother whose main concerns in life are proper etiquette, cleanliness, maintaining a beautiful home for her lawyer husband, Jeffrey, the well-being of her children, Rupert and Sophie, her parrot, Darcy, and her hobby, bell-ringing.  Her blog is more of a personal diary, not meant for the public, and it usually doesn't occur to her until AFTER she has posted that maybe she ought not to be letting all of her private thoughts and feelings out into the blogosphere.

Connie is what most of us would think of as clueless.  She is exasperated by her ineffective Eastern European housekeeper, Natalia, who keeps leaving her underwear, presumably to dry on the radiator, in Jeffrey's office.  Her son Rupert resists her constant efforts to find him a nice girl to marry, finally spreading a rumor that he has leprosy in a desperate attempt to fend off one of his mother's more ardent fix-ups.  Daughter Sophie surreptitiously auditions for and wins a part on a tawdry TV reality show while pretending to be spending her gap-year summer on an ecology project.  Still, Connie manages to maintain her her dignity and decorum, always wearing a crisp linen blouse and maintaining her hair and home to exacting standards until, one by one, the people and traditions that she holds dear begin to crumble around her and she is forced to make difficult choices about what is really important.

I know that you are probably thinking that Connie doesn't sound like too appealing a character.  Who wants to read the musings of an uptight, middle-aged woman who seems oblivious to the realities of life around her?  What keeps Connie from being a caricature and makes her so endearing as a character, in my opinion, is her great love for those around her.  She would do anything, give anything, to see her family and friends happy and fulfilled, even if it is on HER terms, but she comes through every crisis and revelation with flying colors because of her love.  It's a treat to be inside her head.

HISS AND HERS (M.C. Beaton)

Is it my imagination, or is Agatha, a 50 something retired PR executive who has retired to a charming Cotswolds village, beginning to mellow?  In this, Beaton's  23rd Agatha Raisin mystery, Agatha is again in love, this time with handsome (but one -legged!) gardener George Marston.  George is a notorious ladies' man and Agatha can't quite seem to catch a break in her pursuit of this popular local Lothario.  Suspects abound after Agatha, searching for George when he fails to show up as promised for a local charity ball, discovers his body buried in compost, his head encased in a plastic garbage bag.  It soon becomes apparent that there are MANY suspects among George's former, current, aspiring, and rejected lovers and Agatha is determined to solve the crime.

Beaton's wonderful cast of characters, including Mrs. Bloxby, James, Sir Charles Fraith, Roy, and Agatha's usual investigators, all appear in Hiss and Hers, and even the enigmatic and frustrating James seems to be a bit more amiable and appealing than usual.  Maybe I'm just getting older!  In any case, if you have been following Agatha's adventures, or even if you haven't, you will enjoy this latest one.

UNDER THE DOG STAR (Sandra Parshall)

A large number of missing pet dogs, a mysterious feral pack of canines attacking livestock during the night, and one prominent physician with his throat ripped open wouldn’t ordinarily add up to a compelling, can’t-put-it-down reading experience for me, but this time they did!  I am generally more of a cozy, crafty mystery reader.  Give me an amateur sleuth with an English accent or someone who bakes or knits in a sweet small town and solves crimes on the side and I’m good to go.  Sandra Parshall, however, is a genre unto herself, and she knows how to write a mystery!  From the Appalachian setting, to the developing relationship between Sheriff’s investigator Tom Bridger and veterinarian Rachel Goddard, to the intricately laid out web of clues, suspects, and sub-plots, Parshall’s Rachel Goddard series is wonderful and, I think, worthy of notice from the most discerning mystery fans.  This is the fourth Rachel Goddard mystery and number 5 is waiting for me in my living room.  I usually need to take a break between different novels in a series and this time is no exception, but I have a feeling that I won’t be able to resist reading her next, Bleeding Through, for long.  If you haven’t discovered Sandra Parshall yet you have a treat in store!  Start with Heat of the Moon.  You won't be sorry!

STILL LIFE (Louise Penny)

I think I am in love with Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec and I can't wait to read the rest of Penny's award-winning series!  Gamache is a unique literary sleuth in his intense humanness, but he does remind me in some ways of Donna Leon's Inspector Brunetti: he devotes his mind and his body to his work, but his heart and soul belong to his wife and family.  In Still Life we are introduced to the community of Three Pines, where the much-loved but unfortunate  Jane Neal, a retired teacher and aspiring artist, has been found dead in the woods, killed by an arrow through her heart. Gamache and his team, including devoted second-in-command Beauvoir and the irritating rookie agent Nicole, set up shop in Three Pines to investigate the unusual death.  Was it a hunting accident, as many believe, or a deliberate killing?  Why would anyone want to rid Three Pines of the the beloved schoolteacher who meant so much to so many?  Could her untimely death have anything to do with the recent acceptance of her painting, Fair Day, in the local art show?  Why has no one ever seen Jane's living room and what is her niece and supposed heir, Yvonne, up to?

Two of the best things about Still Life are the incredible sense of place and the wonderfully drawn and developed characters.  I felt as if I could smell the autumn air and hear the dried leaves underfoot.  Penny draws the reader into the life of Three Pines as surely as if we were sitting at the Thanksgiving table with her  characters.  We feel agent Nicole's awkwardness and Beauvoir's frustration and his concern for Gamache as a partner and friend. We understand Gamache.  He is a dedicated, upstanding man who is also human and compassionate.  He cares, so we care.  I understand from talking to others who have read some of Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache series that a surprise twist at the end is one of her signature touches.  It works well, and so does this series.  I can understand why she keeps winning Agatha awards year after year!

THE WINTER SEA (Susannah Kearsley)

Author Bernard Cornwell describes The Winter Sea as "engaging" and "compelling," and I couldn't agree more.  From start to finish I was enthralled with the alternating stories of Sophia (1708) and Carrie (present time) and the beautiful setting, Cruden Bay in the north of Scotland.  Carrie McLelland is a novelist whose current work focuses on the struggle of the Jacobites to restore King James to his rightful throne in Scotland during the early 18th century.  When Carrie sees Slains Castle for the first time she is drawn to the area and inspired to include it in her story.  Her agent and good friend, Jane, suggests that her novel might be enriched by including a character from whose point of view the story is told, so Carrie chooses a female character that she names after her several-times-great grandmother, Sophia Paterson.  Suddenly Carrie is creatively inspired beyond her wildest dreams and Sophia's story flows swiftly from her fingers.  During conversations with her father, a genealogist, and through historical documents provided by a local retired physician, Dr. Weir, Carrie discovers that the story she is writing about Sophia is, for the most part, true.  Dr. Weir introduces her to the concept of genetic memory, the theory that memories, like physical traits and personality, might be passed down randomly through the generations.  As coincidences continue to pile up Carrie seriously considers that her writing may in fact be Sophia's actual memories rather than fiction.

Kearsley's sense of romance and love of history are evident in The Winter Sea.  The reader roots for happy endings for Sophia and John and for Carrie and Graham. Kearsley expertly weaves together the present and the past, leaving the reader feeling every emotion, almost experiencing firsthand the dedication and desperation of the Jacobites.  I couldn't put to wonderful book down and the one thing I regret about reading it is that it had to end!  Kearsley uses chapters of Carrie's novel, interspersed with Carrie's own story, to tell a magical, compelling story that I will not forget for a long time to come.  I've already read The Rose Garden and Mariana. Now I'm desperate to read more!

ALYS, ALWAYS (Harriet Lane)

Frances Thorpe is a nondescript, competent book reviewer relatively unconcerned with her appearance or with decorating her apartment.  She is at that age where she is considered "on the shelf" in terms of romance and her company is rumbling with rumors of downsizing.  One icy winter night, while driving home to London from a weekend at her parents, Frances spots a light in the distance and discovers an overturned car occupied by a woman, whom she can hear but not see.  She calls emergency services and comforts the woman until help arrives, then continues home.  As it turns out, the woman, who did not survive, is Alys Kyte, the wife of a celebrated author, Lawrence Kyte, and mother of 2 grown children.  At the family's request, Frances eventually meets with them and tells them a lie, that Alys's last words were, "Tell them that I love them."

This novel is described as a "psychological thriller, " but I didn't quite see that.  If it had ended differently, it could have become a Lifetime movie, but there were no psychotic breaks or frenzied killings.  Instead, we are guided through Frances' realization that her association with Alys's death has made her a "person of interest" to important people in the literary world, and she decides to take advantage of her new reality by developing a deeper relationship with Alys's family, particularly with Alys's daughter, Polly, and her widower, Lawrence. Frances is subtle, patient, and not always honest in her quest transform herself from uninteresting Frances Thorpe to a woman of mystery and compassion, sought after both personally and professionally by people who count.

Lane's first novel is a fascinating psychological study of an opportunist, a woman who takes advantage of a tragedy to transform her life.  I kind of hope that there is a sequel because I keep wondering if Frances will eventually be exposed or if her transformation is so complete that she becomes real, like the velveteen rabbit!

DEVIL'S FOOD CAKE MURDER (Joanne Fluke)

Joanne Fluke just cannot go wrong with her Hannah Swenson series.  This was our August selection for the Christie Capers book club and we were as pleased with the recipes as we were with the mystery!  When Rev. Bob Knudsen and his wife Claire finally take a honeymoon in Hawaii, Rev. Mike, who spent his teenage years in Lake Eden. arrives to take over pastoral duties at the parish during their absence.  Grandma Knudson remembers Mike and his cousin Paul from their youth and soon raises some concerns with Hannah about Rev. Mike's actual identity.  What happened to his chocolate allergy?  Why does he "remember" her couch as being a different color than it actually was?  Is he really who he says he is?  Are the sacraments he is performing really valid?

Hannah and her sister Andrea investigate Rev. Mike and come up with logical explanations for the changes in him, setting Grandma's mind at ease.  Hannah, however, is agitated as a new dentist, Dr. Bev, joins Norman's practice.  Bev was once engaged to Norman, Hannah's devoted boyfriend (well, one of them), and Hannah suspects that Bev is looking to rekindle the relationship.  When Hannah discovers Rev. Mike dead in the parish office, though, Norman willingly turns his back on Bev and joins Hannah in investigating the apparent murder.

Fluke provides some interesting twists and turns in the 14th Hannah Swenson mystery and her recipes are mouthwatering. Try the Butterscotch Bonanza Bars.  They are easy to make and absolutely delicious!  Oh, and read the book, too.  You'll want to go back for seconds!

THE CORPSE OF ST. JAMES'S (Jeanne Dams)

Dorothy Martin, American ex-pat, and her husband, retired Chief Constable Alan Nesbitt, are invited to Buckingham Palace to attend the presentation of the George Cross to Alan's friend Jonathan Quinn.  Jonathan is a retired police officer who was severely wounded during an act of heroism.  After the ceremony they discover the body of a teenage girl under the shrubbery in Saint James Park and Jonathan later admits that he recognized the vistim as the daughter of his childhood friend Jemima.  Against Alan's better judgment, the trio decides to investigate on their own rather than immediately informing the police of the girl's identity in hopes of protecting the girl's mother, who works at the palace.

As usual, Dorothy's investigation runs into twists and turns and roadblocks, but both her husband and the local police have come to realize that her reputation as a superb amateur sleuth is well-deserved and they value her insights even when they are exasperated by her involvement.  I love Dorothy's hats and her bad knees (now greatly improved due to knee replacement surgery).  She is such a lovable character, more worldly than Miss Marple and more down-to earth than Agatha Raisin.  She and Alan enjoy occasional love scenes that fade out in a pleasingly old-fashioned way and their home in the shadow of the Sherebury Cathedral s is the perfect English cottage.  As usual, I recommend this series highly.  The mysteries are always good and the sense of place is wonderful!

THE SECRET LIFE OF OBJECTS (Dawn Raffel)

Have you ever looked at a simple, everyday object and really thought about its history, the stories associated with its travels through various lives?  I recently bought a beautiful antique Limoges plate at a flea market.  It has lilacs, my favorite flower, on it and gold trim and I wonder if it was part of a set of wedding china, or a special memento that someone purchased on a trip, or perhaps a treasured decorative object displayed lovingly in an elderly woman's living room.  Maybe it was used to serve delicious cakes with tea or filled with cucumber sandwiches at a bridal shower.  Someday it will have memories for me and, perhaps, for my family.   I also have a little teapot that I bought for a couple of dollars at a shop in Bellows falls, VT and I wonder about where it came from and if someone loved it and used it, or if it was a cute gift that eventually took up room better used for something else. I have it displayed with my teapot collection in my kitchen.

What Raffel has done in this wonderful little book of essays (recommended to me by my good friend Helen) is to  look at various objects and reminisce about the people and events linked to them that have been significant in her life:  her mother's death, a trip, the loss of her engagement diamond, an eccentric relative.  There is some sort of magic in Raffel's writing, bringing memories ans experiences to life through the objects that defined them.  I can relate to this and, quite frankly, I wish I had written this book.  My only complaint is that I didn't really enjoy the illustrations.  I don't require photographs, but some of the drawing just didn't evoke the feelings that they should and it kind of detracted from the experience of reading it.  Other than that, though, it was wonderful and I recommend it highly!

THE ODDS: A LOVE STORY (Stewart O'Nan)

Sustaining a marriage for life can be a difficult task, and dealing with poor decisions, financial problems, infidelity, and the physical problems of aging can make loving one person for life seem like an insurmountable task that may not be worth it.  Art and Marion Fowler have reached such a point in their marriage.  After years of dedicated service to a financial institution, Art has been unceremoniously downsized.  The big fixer-upper that turned out to be a money pit is on the verge of foreclosure.  The affair that Art had 20 years ago still weighs on Marion's mind and emotions, but she has never confessed that she herself has dallied.

The couple decides to determine the fate of their marriage, literally, on a gamble.  They return to Niagara Falls, their honeymoon destination, taking all of the money they have in the world with them.  Their plan for their second honeymoon is to see the sights, perhaps rekindle their passion, and to either lose everything ( to return home to divorce and build separate lives) or to return home with enough casino winning to begin life, and their marriage, anew.

Quite frankly, Art and Marion's vacation is awful.  Long lines, stomach troubles, fatigue, and too much alcohol  create a sort of little vignette of their miserable life back home, but somehow they work as a team toward their goals.  Will love (and luck) triumph?  Think about the title, then read and find out!

SUMMER BREEZE (Nancy Thayer)

I was expecting Nantucket, often Nancy Thayer's locale of choice, but Summer Breeze takes place near Amherst, MA in a wonderful lake community populated by interesting characters at various decision points in their lives.  Slim, elegant Natalie Reynolds is an artist, house sitting for her Aunt Eleanor for a year while trying to figure out if she can really make a living with her talent.  Her brother Slade, an antiques dealer, is based in Boston and irresistible to women.  Bella Barnaby, a teacher, has returned to Dragonfly Lake to temporarily run the outdated family gift shop, Barnaby's Barn, while her Louise, her mother, recovers from a broken leg.  Bella is on the verge of engagement to handsome architect Aaron, but is resistant to his dream of a career in San Fransisco.  Bella's brother Ben is an attractive scientist and professor living in Amherst who may have Asperger's (my conclusion, not part of the story!).  Married couple Joel and Morgan O'Keefe live in an impressive lake-front home, with a life-style designed to impress potential investors in Joel's company, but Morgan, despite loving many aspects of stay-at-home motherhood, misses her career in bio-safety and is lonely in the too-big, too fancy house.

As usual, Thayer does a superb job of building friendships and allowing her characters to naturally evolve in terms of relationships.  They make mistakes, they jump to conclusions, they think that they desperately want things that turn out to be temporarily satisfying.  Natalie, Bella, and Morgan form a strong relationship and work together to mutually support each others' goal and dreams.  If you enjoy first class women's fiction with appealing characters and a plot that keeps you interested, try taking this book on vacation.  You won't regret it!

HEARSE & BUGGY (Laura Bradford)

We are in the middle of remodeling our kitchen and, as a result, I do not seem to be able to read as much as usual!   This is the first in Bradford's new Amish mystery series and, if this debut is any indication, we will be seeing many more.

Claire Weatherly, still hurt and uncertain after a failed marriage, has moved to Heavenly, PA to stay with her Aunt Diane at her charming B&B, Sleep Heavenly.  Claire's new business, Heavenly Treasures, features gifts and household items handmade by local Amish artisans.  The shop that Claire rents was formerly occupied by Walter Snow, who left town owing money to Amish furniture makers whom he had cheated.  When vandalism occurs at the Shoo Fly Pie Shop next door, Claire finds it hard to fathom why anyone could be deliberately targeting its Amish owner, gentle Ruth Miller. Nor is she inclinded to believe, as many in the commun ity do, that Ruth's younger brother Eli could be guilty of murder when Walter Snow is found strangled in the alley between the two shops. 

No cozy mystery is complete without the potential for a little romance!  Jakob Fisher, shunned by the Amish community, has returned to Heavenly as a police detective.  Old rivalries and a longing for contact with his Amish family add depth and interest to this character, a potential future love interest for Claire.  With Claire's unresolved relationship issues from her marriage, her attraction for Amish widower Ben Miller, and her newly discovered talent for sleuthing, a future relationship between Claire and Jakob promises to be intriguing.

Laura Bradford has done a thorough job of researching Amish customs and practices and with this series she manages to transport the reader to the heart of Amish country and, more importantly, into the Amish way of thinking.  Aside from a credible, entertaining mystery, which Bradford definitely delivers, one of the most important facets of the cozy genre is the creation of genuinely interesting, likeable characters who are firmly woven into the fabric of the setting and plot.  Bradford has accomplished that, and this visit to Heavenly, PA leaves the reader looking forward to the next installment!

SUMMER HOUSE (Marcia Willett)

Reading Marcia Willett always takes me to a more peaceful place.  This one is a little different than some of her novels, because it includes a bit of a mystery involving childhood memories and unexplained nightmares.  Somehow I didn't find it quite as satisfying as Summer in the Country or A Week in Winter.  I felt like it was a little bit incomplete, like I was on the outside looking in at a story that I couldn't quite be a part of and characters whose emotions I couldn't quite get to the heart of.  Did I dislike it?  Not at all.  Willett creates an ambiance reminiscent of Rosamund Pilcher and her characters are endearing, if a bit remote.  Milo and Lottie, with their decades old friendship, are an odd couple that is not actually a couple.  Milo's old lover, Venetia, appears frequently and seems rightly oblivious to any romantic threat from Lottie, while Lottie's sister Susanna, ex-wife of Milo and mother of Nick, remains on the periphery of the story, embittered, impatient, and demanding.  Mark and Imogen are the grown children of the late Helen and Tom, whose lives intertwined over the years with Milo's and Lottie's.  Each in the middle of their own crises.  Introspective Mark is unable to commit to a relationship and suffering from a lack of inspiration after writing a hugely successful first novel.  New mother Imogen and her husband, Jules, are unable to come to a meeting of the minds regarding where to live, and Nick adds another layer of complication to their already strained existence.

This is not Willett's best effort, in my opinion, but I'm glad that I didn't pass it by.  It left me feeling like there is another book left unwritten out there somewhere, but perhaps that's a story that Willett is reserving for the future.  The sense of place and strong emotional bonds between the characters are very appealing and it did leave me thinking about what what might eventually happen in Mark's life.  In my book, any novel that makes me want more can be considered a winner!

SPRING FEVER (Mary Kay Andrews)

Mary Kay Andrews' novels are always relaxing and fun, with just enough quirky characters to to pique your interest without being too unbelievable.  In Spring Fever, Annajane Hudgens is attending the wedding of her ex-husband, Mason Bayless, who is also the brother of her best friend Pokey.  The problem is that Annajane has never quite fallen out of love with Mason despite her recent engagement and her plans to move out of state.  She has worked for years for Quixie, the North Carolina soda company owned by Mason's family, but has recently sold her loft and accepted a position with a PR firm in Atlanta to make a fresh start and be closer to her fiance, Shane.  Mason's wedding to the despicable Celia, who is eager to push Annajane out of the company and out of the Bayless family's lives, is the impetus that Annajane needs to move on with her life.  When Mason's daughter Sophie has an attack of appendicitis, though, the wedding is brought to a screeching halt and Annajane is caught in the middle of yet another Bayless family crisis.

One of the things that I found very enjoyable is the sensible way Annajane and Mason conduct their lives and relationship.  There are no hysterics, no wild car chases, no murders.  There is a hastily rescheduled wedding (will it take place?), an unplanned pregnancy, and some intriguing corporate shenanigans, though, so don't worry about being bored by good sense.  Celia is obviously a gold-digger, Davis is a jerk, and Sallie is a snob, so there are plenty of colorful characters to go around and there are a couple of nice twists near the end..  I would have liked to have seen a bit more of Celia's trailer-trash family, but overall, this book was a delight from start to finish.

TILL DEATH DO US PURL (Anne Canadeo)

Like Sally Goldenbaum's Seaside Knitters, the Black Sheep Knitters are all about friendship, but I think that Canadeo's characters are more true-to-life.  We were lucky enough to have Author Anne Canadeo visit the Windsor Locks Public Library last Friday to talk about her career as a writer and how she develops her wonderful characters.  Anne admitted that she is not an expert knitter (but she has friends who are) and she develops all of the recipes in her novels herself.  The flourless chocolate cake in this one is delicious, by the way!

When bride-to-be Rebecca Bailey's society wedding is moved forward to accommodate deadlines at her in-law' chemical business, she asks Maggie Messina and the Black Sheep knitters to help her complete the unique wedding gown that she has been knitting. Then, just 2 days after the nuptials, an explosion at the At-Las laboratory tragically takes the life of brilliant young scientist Jeremy Lassiter, Rebecca's groom.  The town of Plum Harbor is stunned, especially when doubts are raised about the actual circumstances of Jeremy's death.  Could bride Rebecca be implicated?  What about Jeremy's own father or his former business partner, Lewis Atkins?  When Maggie's car is vandalized it becomes evident that someone doesn't want the Black Sheep knitters investigating!

As usual, the characters are what draw the reader into Canadeo's series.  The mystery is excellent, but it is the  Black Sheep knitters that give the reader that warm and fuzzy feeling and make you want to come back for more.  Maggie, widowed and a little lonely, is a giver who shares her knitting expertise and sympathy without reservation.  Lucy, still wary after a divorce, left her law practice to find peace and a new life in Plum Harbor. She also finds handsome veterinarian Mat!.  Suzanne, with her large family and busy real estate career, still finds time to knit and dish out creative snacks, and college student Phoebe, with her multi-colored hair and rock-star boyfriend, proves an able shop assistant, tenant, and friend to Maggie.  Psychologist Dana always has some insight into the criminal mind. Together, with the addition of sundry locals who come and go in each novel, they make up the Black Sheep knitters.  I want to be friends with these women!  This series is highly recommended for the characters, plot, and excellent writing.  Great job, Anne!

A FATAL FLEECE (Sally Goldenbaum)

While Sally Goldenbaum's Seaside Knitter mysteries are wonderful cozies, they are mostly about close friendship and community.  Nell, Ben, Izzy, Sam, Birdie, Cass, and the rest are, in many respects, too good to be true:  They exercise faithfully, eat abundantly without ever gaining weight, and they age gracefully without worrying about excessive sun exposure, senior moments, or retirement funds.  You will not find an edgy mystery here, but you will find an intriguing group of people who support and love each other while relentlessly investigating crimes against cherished friends and neighbors.  I would consider this series to be inspirational in tone.

Francis Finnegan is an eccentric old man who owns a piece of prime Sea Harbor real estate.  Since the death of his beloved wife, Moira, he has let his beachfront property become unkempt and overgrown and has developed a reputation for being surly and uncooperative, especially when it comes to those who propose developing his land.  Trespassers and potential buyers are not welcome.  His contentious relationships with his adopted daughter, Beverly, and Sea Harbor Councilwoman Beatrice Scaglia add to the tension, and when Finn, as he is called, is found dead on his beloved property there are numerous suspects to consider, even lobster woman Cass, who is his unexpected heir.  Why was Beverly cut out of the will?  Why was Finn so determined to keep people off of his land?  What is  Birdie's visiting brother-in-law, Nick Marietti, up to and why was he seen arguing with Finn just before he was killed? There are some interesting and unexpected twists and turns here that blend so seamlessly into the plot that most readers would think, "Of course!  That makes sense!" without ever having suspected the truth ahead of time.

If you are in the mood for a gentle mystery, this one might be for you.  This time around, for me, the characters in this series just seemed TOO perfect, their lives TOO well-ordered and their relationships TOO supportive.  However, Goldenbaum creates a wonderful sense of place in Sea Harbor and the sleuthing that takes place is clever and subtle.  I actually would love to live there and know these people, especially if I were invited to the Friday night barbecues on Ben and Nell's deck! You don't have to be a knitter to enjoy reading this one.

MARIANA (Susanna Kearsely)

For the past 24 hours I have been trying to pick up Mariana and continue reading, but I can't because I've finished the book and now I feel like I've lost a good friend.  I don't know what makes Kearsley's writing so compelling and her characters so unforgettable.  They are just ordinary people (well, except for Geoff, who is a millionaire) thrust into extraordinary situations, caught between two vastly different lives and searching for meaning in both. I believe that Susanna Kearsley must have lived a past life.  I can't think of any other explanation for her ability to absolutely transport her readers through time!

"I first saw the house in the summer of my fifth birthday."  As this novel begins, Julia Beckett is speaking of Greywethers, the house that she would eventually buy in her thirtieth year.  After moving into this house she begins to experience brief periods of life as Mariana Farr, a young woman who lived in England's treacherous Jacobean era, when Charles Stuart was on the throne and the plague devastated Europe.  As Mariana, Julia has no memory of her future existence as Julia, but when she returns to the present she remembers Mariana's life and becomes obsessed with learning why she has such a strong connection to the past.  As Mariana she falls deeply in love with Richard DeMornay, ancestor and image of her neighbor, Geoff deMornay, the current squire of Crofton Hall.  There is, it seems, no record of Richard in local historical or burial records, yet Julia is sure that his role in Mariana's life has significance for her in the present.

Susanna Kearsley has populated the village of Exbury, present and past, with richly drawn personalities and romance.  Originally published in 1994, Mariana preceded The Rose Garden by many years.  The author's talent has grown, if possible, over time.  I can't wait to see what comes next!

THE BODY IN THE BOOKCASE (Katherine Hall Page)

It's funny how a couple of years away from an author causes you to notice little things that you never did before!  I love Page's Faith Fairchild series.  Faith Sibley is a native New Yorker, daughter of a clergyman, who falls in love with handsome Tom Fairchild before she realizes that he is exactly what she had hoped to avoid, a man of the cloth like her father.  She and Tom marry and settle in Aleford, MA, a suburb of Boston, where they raise their two small children in the vicarage while Tom tends to his flock and Faith tends to her catering business, Have Faith.  Faith, in the grand tradition of cozy mysteries, manages to stumble upon a dead body every couple of months and cannot resist investigating.  Here she has a personal stake in solving the crime:  her neighbor, gentle retired librarian Sarah Winslow, has died  during home invasion and thieves with the same MO have burglarized the vicarage, making off with many Sibley and Fairchild family heirlooms, jewelry, and sentimental trinkets. 

Since the police seem rather casual about attempting to find and recover her family's stolen goods, Faith, enlisting the help of neighbors, friends, and even the reluctant Tom, takes matters into her own hands and begins combing pawn shops, auctions, and other places that might lead to clues as to who burglarized their homes and killed Sarah.  Business as usual must go on, however, and Faith is also caught up in planning food for demanding bride Samantha Bullock's society wedding and rehearsal dinners (this is a culinary series, after all!).

I suddenly realized while reading this that Faith has a certain Lucille Ball-like quality that I had never noticed before, keeping details from her husband and putting herself into situations that are both dangerous and comical.  Though she is a devoted wife and mother, I kept wondering how she could endanger herself and her family life by getting too closely involved with the investigation, but I guess that's one of the things that define a cozy.  She does, to her credit, enlist the aid of her state policeman friend John Dunne in critical decisions.  

One of the things that is so endearing about Faith is that she is a real woman, one whom most of us could identify with.  She is not a hilarious caricature like Agatha Raisin (M.C. Beaton) or Helma Zukas (Jo Dereske) or a wealthy philanthropist like Olivia Limoges (Ellery Adams), or even a cheerful crocheter/events organizer like Molly Pink (Betty Hechtman), although I LOVE all of these characters.  Faith is a working small-town mother who has left behind a more glamorous life in new York City to raise a family as the wife of a small-town vicar.  She worries about child care, picks her kids up at nursery school, and worries about Tom's sermons.  Page does an excellent job of making Faith a real (despite the Lucille ball moments), mother and wife.  She is someone that might live on my street, except for the murders!  I like her.

READING TO HEAL (Jacqueline Stanley)

Bibliotherapy as a means to improve life and psyche is not a new idea. Most avid readers probably engage in therapeutic reading on a regular basis without even realizing it: to deal with stressful jobs or home situations, solve relationship dilemmas, examine faith issues, analyze family relationships, etc. Professional therapists use bibliotherapy to help patients deal with illness or emotional issues, but it can also be used by individuals to enhance everyday life. Stanley, who is a lawyer, not a mental health professional, discusses bibliotherapy here as an art rather than as a science. Although dated (published in 1999), this book would a valuable resource for anyone interested in using reading as a means to gain insight and make positive changes to their behavior or attitudes. I am toying with the idea of presenting a program on fiction bibliotherapy at our library, but that will take some time to develop. I'll keep you posted!

Stanley covers all of the basics of reading both fiction and nonfiction as a means to heal, including how to find books, the benefits of bibliotherapy (things like awareness that others have similar problems, learning practical skills, escape and diversion, reinforcement of self-worth), and what to look for in different types of novels. She also makes some very valuable and practical suggestions for getting the most out of what you read, overcoming problems that stand in the way of reading, and personalizing a reading plan. One of my favorite quotes that Stanley includes sums up what I believe to be the basis for all reading: "The only important thing in a book is the meaning it has for you." (W. Somerset Maugham). Thinking back, when I was very young I was eager to fill my mind with historical adventures and family dramas written by Elizabeth Enright, Louisa Mae Alcott, and Frances Hodgsen Burnett. As I grew into adolescence I immersed myself in the classics (Thomas Hardy and George Eliot were my favorites!) and, of course, toe-curling horror by authors like Bram Stoker and H.P. Lovecraft. As I matured I enjoyed exploring topics like the mysticism of Carlos Casteneda and the pop psychology of Marilyn French. Medical and legal thrillers were my main literature of choice during those years when my husband and I were nearly overwhelmed by the realities of trying to raise two wonderful kids while making ends meet after a job layoff and big drop in income. As my parents and in-laws aged and we took on new roles as their caregivers and decision makers, I have found myself most drawn to cozy mysteries (Elizabeth Lynn Casey, Anne Canadeo,or Maggie Sefton, for example), funny chick-lit (Hester Browne, Katie Fforde, Isabel Wolff), or to women's fiction that often features people dealing with similar issues in life (Joanna Trollope, Marcia Willett, Barbara Delinsky) I can see distinct patterns in my reading habits over the years and I can, in many cases, see why I have chosen certain authors at specific times in my life. Of course, sometimes a good book is just a good book! I think that bibliotherapy is fascinating, though, and I'm looking forward to reading more on the subject.

SHEER ABANDON (Penny Vincenzi)

Jocasta, Clio, and Martha meet and become fast friends while traveling to Bangkok during their gap year in 1985. Martha, the quiet daughter of a vicar, plans to study law. Clio, plump and pretty, has her sights set on medical school, while beautiful, blonde Jocasta is thinking about a career in journalism. Thailand and similar environs have never appealed to me and Vincenzi does an excellent job of confirming my desire NEVER to travel there. It's amazing to me that British parents would send their 17-year-olds alone to experience the drug and sex saturated culture of Thailand for months on end, but I guess I am also flabbergasted by the idea of sending an 8-year-old to boarding school! Obviously I'm not British!

Well, I'm getting off track here. Nearly a year after meeting, one of the girls (who remains unidentified for a good part of the novel) gives birth and abandons her baby at Heathrow Airport, then we fast forward 15 years and find that all 3 of the girls have grown into women with issues. Clio is a physician specializing in geriatrics, engaged to an overbearing surgeon who believes that she should give up her career to support him in his. Martha is an extremely successful solicitor who focuses 24/7 on her law career until she meets a much younger man, Ed, and is chosen by the new Centre Forward party to run for political office. Jocasta is a journalist working for a tabloid-like paper and in love with commitment-shy Nick, also a journalist. Jocasta's brother, Josh, who was also in Thailand with the girls, has been unfaithful to his his wife multiple times and is trying to save his marriage. At this time the reader is also introduced to Kate, a beautiful 16-year-old adopted by Helen and Jim after being found abandoned at Heathrow. Kate is desperate to find out where she came from and why her mother abandoned her. Much drama ensues, of course, as our basic cast of characters reconnects. What is especially interesting is how different British politics, law, medicine, and family life are from ours here in the U.S.A.

One of my complaints about Vincenzi's excellent novel, The Best of Times, which I read last month, was that there was no listing of characters to remind the reader of who was who. She does provide that in Sheer Abandon and I have to confess that I referred back to it frequently. I love Vincenzi's imagination, her language, her ability to juggle multiple threads of a story and bring them all together in a way that seems uncontrived and logical. I do believe, though, that if she could have cut this novel to about 2/3 of it's 626 pages it would have been a big improvement. I almost gave up and I did read ahead because I wasn't sure I could make it to the end! I did, and I'm glad that I did. It was worth it, but i have to warn you that you'd better set aside a good chunk of time for it!

THE ROSE GARDEN (Susanna Kearsley)

I originally chose this book because it had two of my favorite elements: an ancient family mansion on the coast of Cornwall and mysterious voices from the past. I was a great fan of both Mary Stewart and Victoria Holt back in the day and I still remember the Cornish prefixes, tre-, pol-, and pen-, and the magic associated with Cornwall. The main story takes place at Trelowarth, an estate in the fictional Cornish town of Polgelly and the scene of many happy childhood memories for Eva Ward. It is currently the home of Trelowarth Roses, a business originally started by George Hallett, a friend of Eva's late father. Eva's old friends Mark and Susan Hallett and their step-mother, Claire, welcome Eva to Trelowarth with open arms when she returns after 20 years in North America to scatter her sister's ashes from the Cornish cliffs.

The first line of the novel immediately sets the mysterious mood: "I lost my only sister in the last days of November." Kearsley's writing is magical and the sense of place that she creates is haunting. I wasn't sure about the time travel aspect of the story. I normally associate time travel with fantasy and science fiction, but here it felt so like something understandable and right. Trelowarth is located on a ley line, a supposed alignment of ancient sites that has, in modern times, been adopted by New Age occultists as a source of energy or supernatural power. When Eva suddenly starts noticing disappearing paths that did not exist before and a strange man standing on the lawn at Trelowarth, a lawn that is strangely changed, she begins to doubt her sanity. She comes to realize that she is glimpsing snippets of life at Trelowarth nearly 300 years ago and eventually begins interacting with Daniel Butler, the owner of Trelowarth in 1715, in his time. One of the most delightful things about Daniel Butler and his friend, Fergal, is that they accept that Eva is from the future and react to her with kindness and curiosity instead of fear.

Eva has no control over when she travels through time and is always caught unaware, which adds a bit of an adrenaline rush to the experience of reading The Rose Garden. Clothes that she wears in 1715, courtesy of Daniel, are old and worn when she returns to the present in them and, while she researches the Butlers and the history of the time with the help of her friend Oliver, she is careful while in the past to avoid doing or revealing anything that might change the course of history.

Kearsley has produced a phenomenal novel. it is, in many ways, a typical love story, but the author brings it to the next level by allowing her readers to feel as if they are experiencing the sights and sounds of 1715 along with Eva. This book is enchanting. When I wasn't reading it I was thinking about it and longing to return to the past with Eva. Kearsley provides a couple of unexpected twists near the end of the story that i absolutely loved. You may not be as delighted with this novel as I was, but it couldn't hurt to try it out. I recommend it wholeheartedly!

THE SHOEMAKER'S WIFE (Adriana Trigiani)

I'm not Italian, but my mother-in-law was, so my husband and children all possess robust northern Italian genes. This story makes me wish I did, too! Trigiani's wonderful novel is a story of enduring love and strength, family ties, sacrifice, and freindship.

Enza Ravanelli is a gifted seamstress and the eldest daughter of a close knit family and Ciro Lazzari is a young man who has been raised by nuns, along with his brother, after the death of their father.  The two meet briefly and fall in love as teenagers in Italy.  Unbeknownst to Enza, Ciro is soon sent to live in America after being banished by the unscrupulous local priest.  Eventually Enza and her father also travel to America to earn money to build a home for the family in their village in the foothills of the Alps. Throughout the ensuing years, the two meet several times as Ciro masters shoemaking and joins the army during World War I and Enza sews costumes for the Metropolitan Opera Company, including the great Caruso.  Eventually the two marry and settle in Minnesota, building a new life and a new family.

Trigiani manages to fill every page of this novel with color, texture, and historical ambience.  Based on the lives of her grandparents, Lucia and Carlo, the novel transports the reader into pre-war Italian village life, the trenches of France, the glamour of back-stage life at the Met, and the streets of Hoboken and little Italy.  The Shoemaker's Wife is a testament to family love and inner strength and is filled with characters that are both admirable and endearing.  Please read it!

MAN DOWN (Dan Abrams)

Man Down: proof beyond a reasonable doubt that women are better cops, drivers, gamblers, spies, world leaders, beer tasters, hedge fund managers, and just about everything else...
Finally, a man has the guts to admit the truth!  In this tongue-in-cheek series of short essays, Abrams quotes studies and statistics from around the world that support his assertion that woman really are the superior sex in most respects.  He describes Adam as a sort of test model that God used before finally perfecting his creation in the form of a woman.  In general, women are better looking, more compassionate, more successful competitive eaters, they vote more, sleep better, run longer, endure pain better...the list just goes on and on. Not that every woman is superior to every man, but as a gender we have been undervalued for years,  apparently.  Abrams paints a rather bleak possible future for men, who most likely will be consigned to roles as househusbands and clerical workers as women's success in education, business, and politics continues to burgeon.  This nifty little tome is humorous, to be sure, but it does inspire one to wonder why men have been in charge of so much for so long while obviously under-performing when compared to what women could have achieved.  "Behind every great man there is probably an even greater woman..."  Abrams, an attorney, presents some compelling evidence here.  Food for thought!

A KILLER PLOT (Ellery Adams)

Ellery Adams Books by the Bay series is a little different from some of the cozies that I have read, less humorous and more introspective.  Main character Olivia Limoges has a secret, vulnerable side and the kind of thoughtful intelligence that make the reader want to get to know her better.  In A Killer Plot, first in the series, she has recently returned to Oyster Bay, NC, the home of her painful childhood.  Wealthy and community-minded, she runs a successful restaurant and is landlord to many thriving local businesses.  Olivia's greatest love is her wonderful dog, Captain Haviland, the smartest and best-trained poodle I have ever encountered in the pages of a novel (or in real life!), but she is lonely for human company and in need of social contact despite her long history in the town. 

When Olivia discovers the Bayside Book Writers group, she is drawn to one of the group's members, Camden Ford, a charming, talented, and very flamboyant writer (I picture him as Carson Cressley).  Camden is visiting the town to do research for his novel, a thinly disguised take on the life of Oyster bay's prominent Talbot family.  An aspiring author herself, Olivia offers the group the use of her dilapidated lighthouse cottage as a meeting place and then proceeds to refurbish and redecorate it for the next meeting.  When Camden uncharacteristically fails to show up to hear the group's critique of his work, they decide that something is amiss.  Camden's body is discovered behind a local dive along with a seasonal haiku painted on the wall, leading Olivia to conjecture that the killer they are dealing with is both literate and likely to strike again.  With the help of her newfound friends and gentlemanly police chief Sawyer Rawlings, Olivia finds herself involved in the investigation.  Check out this series! You won't regret it.

DIFFERENT... NOT LESS (Temple Grandin, PhD)

Inspiring Stories of Achievement and Successful Employment from Adults with Autism, Asperger's, and ADHD.

Temple Grandin has compiled the personal success stories of fourteen people with Asperger's, Autism, and ADHD into a wonderful, inspirational book that should be required reading for, well, everyone. Most of us will have to admit that, despite our best intentions, we have at some time minimized someone who seems a little "weird" or decided that it wasn't worth the effort to include a coworker or acquaintance who is a little too overbearing or too withdrawn for comfort. Dr. Grandin's book gives us the opportunity to see the world of those who are "different" from the inside and in their own words. Being bullied, failing in relationships, experiencing near constant anxiety, and struggling to earn a living can be the norm for those of us whose brains are wired a little differently.  We "neurotypicals" have a great opportunity here to learn something that could make us more compassionate and understanding people.

ANOTHER PIECE OF MY HEART (Jane Green)

I read with interest some of the Goodreads reviews on this novel and I tend to agree with the people who mentioned "old Jane" and "new Jane."   There has been a definite change in Jane Green's writing and themes over years, from earlier chick lit novels like Babyville and Bookends to her more recent publications, which remind me much more of Barbara Delinsky or Nancy Thayer than Sophie Kinsella and Helen Fielding.  Maybe it has to do with growing older (as we all do) or moving to America.  I tend to like the chick lit phase more, I have to confess.

Overall, I did not dislike Another Piece of My Heart, but I found it to be a bit too angst-filled for my taste.  Andi and Ethan met and married after his divorce from Brooke, an out-of-control alcoholic who shares custody of their two daughters, Emily and Sophia.  Longing for a family of her own, Andi enthusiastically embraces her role as stepmother to sweet 8-year-old Sophia and Emily, who is a sullen teenager.  Despite their commitment, things go from bad to worse for Andi and Ethan as they battle infertility and Emily's constant competition for Ethan's attention.  Emily's disruptive behavior and Ethan's guilt at his daughter's unhappiness drive a wedge between the couple, and Andi has almost reached her breaking point when Emily's pregnancy at 17 becomes a further stress in their lives.

Emily is a deeply troubled drama queen, for sure, and I still cannot quite fathom why her parents decided to forego individual or family counseling.  It might have ruined the plot line, but it might have made a big difference for this poor family. Fortunately, they work it out in the end.  You'll have to read it to find out how!

THE BEST OF TIMES (Penny Vincenzi)

Where has Penny Vincenzi been all my life?  Interestingly, I choose most of the fiction at the library where I work and I have discovered that we own at least five of her novels, all purchased by ME!  I wonder why I never noticed them before?

The Best of Times is a long book (593 pages) with a LOT of characters whose lives intersect dramatically on a hot August afternoon when some of them are involved in a tragic multi-vehicle accident on the M4 just outside of London.  Jonathan and Abi are bitterly ending a brief affair, Georgia is desperately trying to get to the audition that might result in her big break as an actress, and Mary is on her way to the airport to meet Russell, with whom she shared a war time romance.  Toby and Barney are late for Toby's wedding and Patrick, whose truck goes out of control and causes the accident, is just trying to get home to his family.  Will Grainger witnesses the accident from his farm adjacent to the highway and his life slowly becomes entwined with the heroes and victims of the crash.

Full of intrigue, suspense, and romance, Vincenzi's novel is a must-read as far as I am concerned.  I loved it.  A The only thing I could suggest to make it better would be a list of characters to refer to.  It does get confusing at points!

BY HOOK OR BY CROOK (Betty Hechtman)

Molly Pink stumbles on yet another crochet-related murder! Molly is the events organizer at Shedd & Royal Books, where her local crochet group, the Tarzana Hookers, meets weekly.  When she comes across a strange filet crochet piece at a local festival, left deliberately at the Shedd & Royal table, Molly begins to wonder what the strangely designed squares mean and who wants her to decipher the message.  When Molly finally tracks down the crocheter, the owner of a local dance studio, she discovers that the woman has died after eating marzipan apples.  Much to the chagrin of her detective boyfriend Barry, and to the apparent amusement of her lawyer friend Mason, Molly and her friends quickly become involved in solving yet another murder.  The investigation takes them from Tarzana, CA to Catalina Island and back again, all with the background rhythms of Molly's mother and the She La La's, in rehearsal at Molly's house for their big comeback audition.


Hechtman's Tarzana Hookers series is fun.  Molly is a 40-something widow trying to build a new life and enjoy friends, career, and maybe a little romance, putting up with frequent interference by her parents, sons, and romantic interests.  Her friends are likable with well-developed backgrounds and personalities, although they don't figure as prominently in this novel as in some of the others.  I love all of the knitting mysteries out there, but I love crocheting more, so I'm thrilled with this series.

GOSSIP (Beth Gutcheon)

Lovey French, Avis Binney Metcalf, and Dinah Kittredge Wainwright meet at Miss Pratt's, an exclusive Connecticut high school  (presumably a thinly disguised Miss Porter's) in 1960.  Gutcheon's fabulous book traces their lives throughout the next 50 plus years, with Lovey acting as the inadvertent conduit for the confidences and gossip that define and sometimes direct the course of their lives. All of us wonder "what if?" at various times in our lives.  Gutcheon allows the reader to imagine what might have been over the course of these 3 women's lives if someone had made a different choice, spoken up, corrected a misconception, encouraged a confidence, or simply given in.  All three women are successful: Lovey as an exclusive boutique owner and fashion consultant, Avis as an art buyer, and Dinah as a writer.  Lovey is the common bond between Dinah and Avis, who are polar opposites, until their children, Nick and Grace, fall in love and marry.  The book alternates points of view among the three women.

How would I describe Gossip?  Compelling, elegant, subtle, insightful, and frightening are all words that come to mind.  How fragile are our human bonds, how sacred the trust between friends.  I'm still thinking "What if?" long after finishing this wonderful novel.  Each of us is entrusted with confidences that could change the course of others' lives.  When should we share and when should we respect the trust?  We may not even be aware of what we should just forget we heard and when we should have spoken up, and we may feel guilty about the times that we decided that something is "none of my business."  I always think that one of the signs of a good book (aside from not being able to put it down) is not being able to stop thinking about it when you are done reading.  This is a good book!

KING PEGGY (Peggielene Bartels & Eleanor Herman)

On hold for the moment!  Very interesting memoir by a DC secretary who becomes King of her village in Ghana....

HOW TO EAT A CUPCAKE (Meg Donohue)

A cruel (and untrue) remark by Julia St. Clair, made to impress a boy in high school, set off a series of events in Anna Quintana's life that ultimately resulted in her suspension from school and delayed her acceptance into college.  A short time later Anna's mother, Lucia, died of an aneurysm, leaving 18-year-old Anna  alone in the world.  Lucia had fled Ecuador as a pregnant 16-year-old years before and found work as a nanny and housekeeper for the St. Clair family.  As a result, Anna and Julia were raised as sisters and best friends in the St. Clair mansion until the differences in their social status and Julia's lie tore their relationship apart.  Now, 10 years later, Anna has been hired to cater the dessert for a charity luncheon at Lolly and Tad St. Clair's mansion, where she encounters Julia for the first time in years.

Stories about foundlings or servant's children raised together with the children of wealthy can often end badly (remember all of the problems between Darcy and that bounder Wickham in Pride & Prejudice, or Heathcliff's nasty behavior towards Catherine in Wuthering Heights?).  Sometimes, however, the children in question can end up owning a business together!  The question then is how much the bitterness, lies, and  recriminations from the past will get in the way of a happy ending.  Both Julia and Anna are nice people and Donohue throws a little mystery and some hidden agendas into the mix that add a bit of adrenalin rush to the story.  The best part of this novel, though, is the cupcakes!  I would love to taste some of the flavors that Anna comes up with.  Yum!

MISSING CHILD (Patricia MacDonald)

Patricia MacDonald writes terrific domestic thrillers and this one is no exception.  Caitlin Eckart is happily married to Noah and is a loving stepmother to 6-year-old Geordie, but she has a secret.  Nearly four years ago her 16-year-old brother (and ward) James was the driver in a hit-and-run accident that killed Noah's first wife, Emily.  James died of a drug overdose before Caitlin could convince him to turn himself in to the police.  At a memorial service for Emily a year later, Caitlin's intention is to introduce herself to Emily's widower, Noah, and confess her brother's role in the tragedy and her own failure to report her knowledge to the police.  Instead, she falls in love with Noah and the right time for confession never seems to come.  Now part of a happy, loving family with a son that she thinks of as her own, Caitlin still worries about her deception and how it could destroy their happiness.

Everything falls apart one autumn day when Geordie disappears from school without a trace.  Emily's parents, Westy and Paula Bergen, her brother Dan, ex-sister-in-law Haley, and Noah's sister and mother, Naomi and Martha, are consumed with fear over Geordie's fate, and suspicions grow and fester within the family.  When James' old girlfriend Karla, who has been born again, stops by Noah and Caitlin's house after seeing news of Geordie's disappearance on the news, she discusses Emily's fatal accident with Noah, inadvertently revealing Caitlin's "secret" and throwing the family into turmoil.  Of course, this new information prompts Noah and the police to question Caitlin's character and motivations and to wonder what else she may be hiding.

I stayed up until 11:30 last night finishing this novel.  I was shocked at the outcome, but it made sense.  These are two of the marks of a good thriller, in my opinion: you can't wait to get to the end and when you do you are simultaneously shocked and wondering why you didn't see it coming.  MacDonald is good, very good.  She gets my vote as the current queen of domestic thrillers!  Read this!

DANCING ON BROKEN GLASS (Ka Hancock)

What can I say about this novel?  I feel like my emotions have been shredded and scattered into the wind over and over again.  Ka Hancock's powerful story left me drained, yet weirdly and freshly hopeful about life choices and death.

Lucy and Mickey are madly in love, completely committed to each other and to a marriage made fragile by bipolar disorder and cancer. Years before, just days before he was killed in the line of duty, Lucy's police officer father promised his then 5-year-old daughter that there are three things that are true about death: that it is not the end, that it doesn't hurt, and that if you are not afraid you can watch for it and be ready.  Lucy soon sees death, a comforting, feminine presence, and understands that she is there for her father, not for her, not yet.  Twelve years later, when Lucy is 17, death comes for Lucy's mother as well in the form of breast cancer, which had also claimed Lucy's grandmother and aunt.  Lucy and her sisters are left to face life together, wondering what the future holds for them.

When Mickey was 12 years old his severely depressed mother took her own life and soon after he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Struggling to manage his illness over the years, Mickey is a successful club owner by the age of 29, when he falls in love with Lucy.  They decide to marry despite the trepidation of Lucy's sisters, Priscilla and Lil, choosing to live and love, dancing on broken glass with each other despite the terrible possibilities that lurk in the genes that eventually betray them.

I am trying not to say too much about what happens to Lucy and Mickey as their story progresses because this  is a book that you should feel on your own as you read it.  The two tell their own stories and their devotion to each other shines through on each page, as does the anguish they face when forced to choose between two impossible paths.  This is a love story, a tear-jerker, a learning experience.  I confess that I feel more confident about life and possibilities after reading Dancing on Broken Glass.  Bravo, Ms. Hancock!

KNIT ONE PEARL ONE (Gil McNeil)

Gil McNeil's knitting series is a pleasant way to spend a lazy spring weekend.  If you have read her earlier books, you know that Jo McKenzie is a widow (her husband crashed his car into a tree just after announcing that he was leaving her for his mistress) and the mother of 2 rambunctious boys plus Pearl, a toddler.  Jo owns a seaside knitting shop in England and, with the help of her Gran and the lovable Martin, her carpenter, sometimes boyfriend, and son of Elsie, her shop assistant, she is making a go of her business and raising her fatherless boys.  Thanks to movie-star knitting student Grace she has enough income to keep the shop and her classes going, and thanks to good friends Connie and Mark she also has opened a cafe next to the shop.  When Pearl's father, Daniel, reappears in their lives, he seems, surprisingly, to fit comfortably into the mix.

The Beach Street Knitting Society series (I still can't figure out why it is called that!) doesn't offer car chases, crimes to solve, or impossibly passionate romance.  In fact, McNeil reminds me a bit of Marcia Willett and Rosamund Pilcher, who write about the business of coping with everyday life, family, and friends.  It's not that there is no excitement here, but it's the same sort that you or I might experience - familiar and personal, but with a lot of yarn thrown in!  It was a pleasure.

I'VE GOT YOUR NUMBER (Sophie Kinsella)

I'm experiencing very conflicting emotions now, because I have just finished a delightful novel.  I listened to the first 10 chapters (great job, Jayne Entwhistle!) and read the last 1/3 of the book or so and now I am wishing for more, but I wouldn't change a thing about the way it turned out.  The thing about Sophie Kinsella is that she completely engages your emotions under the guise of fun chick lit.  At first glance, her main character, Poppy Wyatt, would appear to be a somewhat superficial young woman marrying into a family of wealthy intellectuals.  Her fiance, Magnus, finds her charming and sexy and a little bit inferior to him.  She can't believe that someone so wonderful has chosen her to be his wife and overlooks the strange behavior of his parents and wedding planner, Lucinda, a hyperactive, demanding friend of the family who constantly complains about how burdened she is with the wedding preparations.

Poppy's life changes when her phone is stolen and she finds an abandoned mobile in a trash bin.  The reader is treated to the her hilarious handling of various dilemmas, the development of her relationship with gruff businessman Sam Roxton, the owner of her new phone, and to the gradual and completely endearing emergence of Poppy the person: intelligent, caring, helpful, and insightful.  She will completely capture your heart as she almost single-handedly brings down a complicated plot to discredit a respected businessman and take over Sam's company, White Globe Consulting, in the process.  To me, one of the things that makes a novel worth reading is wanting more at the end, and I do!

SWEET POISON (Ellen Hart)

Ellen Hart's Jane Lawless series falls under the category of gay literature, and it is done pretty well.  Jane is a Minneapolis restaurant owner in a long distance relationship with a college professor, Kenzie Mulroy.  Jane's best friend Cordelia is also gay, with a partner who lives in an adjacent building within yelling distance.  Other gay characters include Jane's former partner, Julia, Jane's father's campaign IT guy, and a minister who has been the victim of a serious gay-bashing crime.

Some of the Christie Capers were decidedly not pleased with this choice and I believe that for some of them the general plot (more gritty than cozy) along with the gay theme and large number of gay characters were simply not appealing.  For others, including myself, the novel was fine, but I did find myself, like Joan Cusack fleeing that bar in her wedding gown in the movie "In & Out," thinking, "Is everybody gay?"

Jane's father, Raymond Lawless, is running for governor of Minnesota when Corey Hodge is paroled from prison just before the election.  Corey has always proclaimed himself innocent, but took a plea bargain on the advice of Ray Lawless, his lawyer, and served 10 years in prison.  Now he is accused of another, similar crime when one of Ray Lawless' campaign volunteers is found dead after being seen with him.  In addition to the press frenzy over Hodge's connection with Ray Lawless, campaign headquarters is plagued by computer problems and Ray has been suffering some perplexing health problems that he is trying to conceal until the election is over.  Jane is not as involved in "investigating" as I would have expected, but she is supportive of her father and worries about the impact of all of these factors on his bid for governor.

I read an interview with Ellen Hart in which she talks about her books being somewhat marginalized by the mainstream literary world because of their gay theme, so I went into this mystery with the expectation that the main character being gay would be a primary focus, as it was.  I admire the author for providing a good solid series in a genre that is obviously in demand and often difficult to find. I think that perhaps readers like me, who are not gay, might have a hard time identifying with Ms. Hart's novels because the number of gay characters seems out of proportion with the general population.  For someone gay who is looking for a mystery with characters with whom they can identify, though, this would be a good choice.  If Ms. Hart changed her series to appeal more to the mainstream, she might sell more books, but I think she would leave a void in an area of literature that she fills quite well as is.

DIVA RUNS OUT OF THYME (Krista Davis)

Sophie Winston is an event planner & domestic diva based in the Washington, DC suburb of Old Town Alexandria VA .  Sophie and her ex-husband, Mars, are good friends and no more, but Mars' current love, Natasha, Alexandria's answer to Martha Stewart, considers Sophie her biggest rival on both professional and personal arenas. It doesn't help that their respective mothers keep incorrectly referring to Natasha as the woman who stole Mars from Sophie and  plotting to get Sophie and Mars back together despite the fact that they are happily divorced.

Sophie's and Mars' families are all in town for Thanksgiving and to attend the finals of a stuffing contest at a local hotel, but tragedy strikes when Simon, the contest organizer, is found dead.  Unfortunately for Sophie, it is she who discovers the body and becomes the chief suspect, especially since she recently stumbled on another murder, that of a PI who just happened to have a picture of her in his truck.  Wolf, the handsome police officer with a mysterious past and an obvious interest in Sophie, seems convinced that she is a common element in both crimes.  Sophie knows that she is not guilty, but who is?  Could it be her sister Hannah's new fiance, Dr. Craig, or Mars' old friend Bernie?  What about Simon's chauffeur, Clive, or Mars' brother, Andrew, who was cheated in business by Simon?  The Colonel, whose granddaughter died as a result of a botched stunt on one of Simon's TV shows, or even Natasha could have had motive or opportunity.  With the help of neighbor / best friend Nina, Sophie sets out to wade through the suspect pool and prove herself innocent of two seemingly unconnected crimes.

Davis has created an entertaining cast of characters in this Domestic Diva series.  I wish that I had read this one before Diva Takes the Cake.  I would recommend reading them in order, but it is not strictly necessary if you have a good head for keeping track of characters.  This series is hilarious, filled with twists and turns, dead-ends and surprise clues, and adorably quirky neighbors and side characters.  Each chapter opens with a bit of Sophie's or Natasha's domestic wisdom, which serves to highlight he contrast between the two woman.  Read and enjoy!