THE YELLOW HOUSE (Patricia Falvey)

Eileen O'Neill is a 10-year-old girl in early 20th century Ulster when her younger sister Lizzie falls gravely ill and is taken to the fever hospital and subsequently reported dead.  This event marks the beginning of Eileen's bad luck.  Her mother, after giving birth to brother Paddy soon after the loss of Lizzie, takes oldest son Frank and leaves the family's home (the Yellow House of the title) to return to her father's house.  Eventually Mrs. O'Neill's guilt and sorrow drive her into a deep depression and she is institutionalized.  Eileen struggles to help her Da raise Paddy in the midst of Northern Ireland's violent struggle over Home Rule. Eventually losing their Da to IRA violence, she and Paddy move in with Eileen's godparents and she goes to work in the local mill, owned by the wealthy Sheridan family. Eileen's dream, to reunite her family in the yellow house, slips further and further away as her marriage to James Conlon founders and the increasing violence of the IRA threatens to destroy all that she holds dear.

In addition to Falvey's wonderful historical research, she has created vivid characters with depth and richness that reflect the tumultuous political climate beautifully.  The reader will leave feeling that they have been both educated and captivated.

BEHAVING BADLY (Isabel Wolff)

Anyone who thinks that chick-lit is primarily mindless fluff needs to have another think!  Behaving Badly is a wonderful story with several layers of plot that keep the reader engaged throughout the novel.  Miranda Sweet is a veterinarian turned animal behaviorist who is recovering from a recent traumatic (not in the usual way) break-up with her actor fiancé.  During a session with a client she notices a picture of the woman's familiar-looking husband, an up and coming member of Parliament.  Eventually she realizes that MP James Mulholland is Jimmy Smith, with whom she shares a radical and possibly criminal past.  Weighed down by guilt for 16 years, she seeks out the victim of her youthful mistake intending to confess and take the consequences, but "Jimmy" has other ideas that might destroy her life and career.  Wolff manages to combine an endearing heroine, political intrigue, and romantic suspense with thoroughly fascinating glimpses into various animal behaviors. This novel is a must read for anyone who is looking for something fun that will keep them interested from start to finish.

AS HUSBANDS GO (Susan Isaacs)

The great Susan Isaacs has done it again, adding an irresistible touch of mystery to her usual Jewish woman-with-a-problem story.  Happily married and the mother of triplets, Susie Gerston is in a state of shock when her husband and best friend, successful Manhattan plastic surgeon Jonah Gerston, is found murdered in the seedy apartment of "escort" Dorinda Dillon, who is eventually tracked down in Vegas and arrested for the crime.  The police are happy with their open and shut case, but Susie won't be satisfied until she is convinced that the real killer is being brought to justice.  She enlists the aid of her look-alike grandmother, Ethel O'Shea, and her best friend Andrea, and husband "Fat Boy", to help her investigate.  Susie thought that Jonah was happy with their life and their three rambunctious boys and cannot believe that he sought out the services of a prostitute.  Adding to her stress are Jonah's parents, who are anxious to see Dorinda convicted, and brother-in-law Theo, who is more concerned with a possible inheritance from Jonah than seeing justice served.  As Susie discovers signs of problems in Jonah's medical practice and reviews evidence gathered by the private investigator that she had hired initially to investigate Jonah's disappearance, she becomes convinced that there is much more to Jonah's murder than meets the eye.  How can she convince the authorities to reopen the case?

The one thing that bothered me about this novel (and it's only a little detail) is the transition just before the ending, whne we see that the killer has been arrested and convicted.  I'm not quite sure how that happened so quickly but, like Susie, I was glad to have all of the pieces of the puzzle finally put together.  One thing that makes this novel stand out from a typical whodunnit is the emotional development of the characters.  I recommend Isaacs' latest wholeheartedly!  Check it out!

THE BODY IN THE TRANSEPT (Jeanne Dams)

American widow Dorothy Martin is possessed of the best traits of Jessica Fletcher with a touch of Hyacinth Bucket.  She is intelligent and inquisitive, sensitive and self-sufficient, but doesn't feel completely decked out without a beautiful hat.  Having recently lost her beloved husband, Frank, Dorothy has decided to continue with their plans of settling in Sherebury, an English academic town, in the shadow of a great cathedral.  After the Christmas Eve service Dorothy trips over the dead body of a brilliant but universally disliked canon of the church in the transept, and so begins her career as an amateur sleuth.  Dorothy is wonderful: low key, logical, and refined.  Dams manages to present Dorothy as a fully developed character despite the fact that this is the first in the Dorothy Martin series.  Will I read more?  Without a doubt (and I already have, come to think of it!).  The mystery is great and the characters are even better.  The setting is thoroughly Englad - you can almost feel the damp and cold fog coming in under your door as you read.  This is a great series for any time of year and any time you want to just escape from everyday life and be thoroughly entertained.

A VINTAGE AFFAIR (Isabel Wolff)

What can I say but that I loved this book!  It is full of layers and texture and color, all woven together in Phoebe Swift's struggle to forgive herself for the death of her best friend, Emma.  Phoebe has broken her engagement and left her prestigious position at Sotheby's, partly to fulfill her dream of owning a vintage clothing shop, but also to attempt to heal emotionally and begin life anew.  During the course of setting up her shop she encounters new friends and possibilities for new romances.  She also meets Therése Bell, a dying woman with a closet full of beautiful vintage outfits plus one handmade blue woolen coat with a story all its own that becomes an important part of Phoebe's story as well.

Wolff succeeds on several levels with this novel.  The detailed descriptions of the clothing in Phoebe's shop will delight vintage fashion afficionados as well as anyone who loves fabrics, colors, and textures.  There is just enough romance to satisfy, and enough humor to lift a readers' spirits.  The characters are lovable and quirky, especially Phoebe's mother and Dan.  There is a universal psychological aspect not found that often in "chick lit" and the parent-child dynamics are true-to-life. The heart of the book, however, lies with Therése Bell and her unexpected friendship with Phoebe, a friendship that allows Phoebe to come to terms with her own emotions and to move on with her life.  My verdict?  Two thumbs up for this one!

31 BOND STREET (Ellen Horan)

Horan manages to combine all of the elements of a good mystery with excellent historical detail.  In January,1857 Dr. Harvey Burdell is found dead in his room, his throat slashed from side to side and his torso riddled with stab wounds.  His housekeeper / fiancé, Emma Cunningham, is the prime suspect and, despite lack of any solid evidence, she is arrested for the crime.  Attorney Henry Clinton, at the cost of his successful law practice, agrees to take the case and defend Emma, whom he believes to be innocent of the crime.

What sets Horan's novel apart from your typical mystery is the texture.  She skillfully weaves together several storylines, all related to the murder, in such a way that the reader, although privy to knowledge and motives that Clinton and Cunningham are not, is still in the dark about how the crime was committed until the very end.  The historical details are wonderful.  The legal system in pre-Civil War New York is frightening, but Henry Clinton, based on a real person, rivals the best fictional attorneys with his dedication and willingness to possibly ruin his career in his quest for justice.  Everything in this novel is fascinating because, despite the passing of 150 years, the role of the media, human nature, and the greed that drives humans to abuse and kill are all the same now as they were back then.  I would recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys a good historical or an intriguing mystery, or both!

HEARTS ON A STRING (Kris Radish)

Hearts on a String is  novel of sisterhood.  Five disparate, troubled women meet by chance in a Tampa airport restroom  and end up sharing a luxury hotel room when all flights are cancelled due to a giant storm.  As far as female bonding goes, I would recommend some of the others books that I have read, like Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons (Lorna Landvik),  before this particular novel.  It was not bad by any means, but something was off for me.  That doesn't mean that you as a reader would feel the same.  Holly (a shy hairdresser with psychic tendencies), Nan (a troubled business woman with a foundering marriage), Cathy (a sexy exceutive), Patti (a lounge singer), and Margo (a nurturing mother) are all unique and interesting characters, but they are a little too glib and their situation seems a little forced, not quite comfortable or natural.  I could be that Radish manages expertly to communicate the stress and anxiety of the women's situation through her writing, but I think I would rather watch the story unfold from the sidelines rather than feeling the angst of the characters so closely.  There are some interesting surprises as the secrets and problems of the women are revealed and the book did hold my interest.  I just had trouble feeling love for this book.

PATTERNS IN THE SAND (Sally Goldenbaum)

Knitting fiction is very popular nowadays and reading a knitting mystery is a fun way to spend a relaxing summer evening.  Patterns in the Sand is set in an art colony in Sea Harbor, MA.  The mystery action begins when fiber artist Willow Adams is found in the display window of Izzy Chambers' knitting shop, not dead, but asleep! When popular artist Aiden Peabody is poisoned Willow is a suspect, especially when it is discovered that she is the sole beneficiary of his will.  When yet another suspicious death occurs Izzy and her knitting group are determined to discover what's going on.  Goldenbaum does an excellent job of interspersing clues and suspects throughout the story without giving away the plot and several surprises in the latter part of the book make this a mystery worth reading.  This is the second in a series.

ROSES (Leila Meacham)

Roses is an old-fashioned family saga covering more than a century in the lives of the Toliver, Wawruck, and DuMont familes of Howbutker, Texas.  The younger sons of these three wealthy and prominent eastern families make their way west to seek their fortunes during the 1800's, eventually deciding to settle on an area of land that came to be know as Howbutker, a variation of "how about here?"  All decide to continue in the tradition of their families back home, establishing successful businesses in Howbutker:  the Tolivers in cotton, the Wawrucks in lumber, and the DuMonts in retail.  By the early 20th century the familes are firmly established as leaders of commerce and society in Texas.  The focus of this saga is on Mary Toliver, the love of her life, Percy Wawruck, and sweet, patient Ollie DuMont, who also loves Mary.  As in every family saga worth its salt, bad choices are made, love goes awry, tragedies strike, and history repeats itself over and over again.

Although I enjoyed Roses, I did not find it to be a satisfying read.  How can a love be true when it is so carelessly thrown aside for a greater love, the land?  I guess in some respects you could compare Meacham's saga to Edna Ferber's Giant or Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, but Mary is much more capable and independent than Scarlett and should have know better, been able to foresee the consequences of her actions.  They do share the ability to use men to further their own ambitions and I guess this trait is what turned me off to the novel as a whole.  I would say go ahead and read it if you like family sagas.  This one has all of the elements necessary to a good saga.  I just couldn't get over the poor decisions, but without them I guess there would not have been a story!

SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE (Alan Bradley)

Everyone has favorites that they return to over and over again: the restaurant with the best burgers ever, that song that reminds them of the senior prom, or the author that keeps getting better and better with each new novel.  Every once in a while something new and different comes along, something that unexpectedly appeals to your sense of whimsey or makes you look at life a bit differently, and you find yourself falling in love yet again! 

Chances are that an 11-year-old girl detective with a rich fantasy life and a brain for chemistry sounds like a great reading choice for a middle-schooler, but not for a fully developed adult bibliophile.  Wrong!  Alan Bradley's Flavia de Luce is wonderful!  In her dealings with her two obnoxious older sisters, boy-obsessed Ophelia and bookish Daphne, she is self-possessed and wildly imaginitive.  For example, in her fully equipped chemistry lab, once the domain of great uncle Tar, she infuses Ophelia's favorite lipstick with poison ivy then waits patiently for symptoms to manifest themselves.  How many of us with sisters wish we had the skill and gumption to have done something like this?

When Flavia discovers a nearly-dead man in the family cucumber patch, the Latin word "vale" whispered in his dying breath, she embarks on her first murder investigation.  Her widowed father, a philatelist and acquaintence of the victim, is the prime suspect, and Flavia uses every resource at her disposal to solve the crime, displaying powers of deduction, scientific knowledge, and attention to detail rivaling those of the great Sherlock Holmes.  There are no "boring" interludes in this wonderful mystery;  it will hold your interest from beginning to end.  I am looking forward to reading the next installment very soon!

KNIT, PURL, DIE (Anne Canadeo)

The Black Sheep knitters are at it again!  Maggie Messina, owner of the Black Sheep knitting shop, has invited old friend Gloria Sterling, a wealthy, fifty-something beauty recently married to a much younger man, to join the knitting group that includes graphic artist Lucy, realtor Suzanne, psychologist Dana, and student Phoebe.  The women are delighted to see Gloria's newfound marital bliss with Jamie Barnett, a struggling artist who is completely besotted with his bride.  The group is nearly as devastated as Jamie when Gloria drowns  in her swimming pool one night while Jamie is in Bosoton arranging a gallery showing of his artwork.  The police believe that Gloria's death was an accident, the sad result of too many painkillers and too much wine.  The Black Sheep knitters are not convinced.  To whom did the second wine glass found by Suzanne belong?  Why did Gloria sound so upbeat on the phone just before her death if she was despondent?  Why was her favorite deck chair on the other side of the pool when she died?  What about her real estate holdings?  Read this charming cozy and find out!

NEEDLES AND PEARLS (Gil McNeil)

Widow Jo MacKenzie has settled into her new life in the seaside English village of Broadgate and her boys, Jack and Archie, are thriving in the community as Jo's yarn shop, McKnits, slowly grows.  A year has now passed since Jo's husband, Nick, announced that he was leaving her for another woman and then promptly died in an auto accident.  Jo's grandmother, Mary, and best friend, Ellen, have fallen in love and are planning their weddings, both of which will prominently feature Jo and her sons.  In the midst of trying to expand her business online with the help of handsome carpenter Martin and dealing with all of the wedding preparations and other dramas in her life, Jo makes a discovery that will change her life forever.

Needles and Pearls continues where The Beach Street Knitting Society and Yarn Club leaves off.  This installment (and I hope there will be more!) is just as charming.  McNeil has a way of making the reader feel like they actually  know her characters and that comfortable feeling permeates the novel.  I hated to see ithe last page!

PUSHING UP DAISIES (Rosemary Harris)

Small town politics, a wise-cracking cafe owner, gardening, murder, a beautiful bff, and a couple of good-looking potential love interests ... What more could you ask for in a good cozy?  Paula Holliday has left her high pressure media job in New York to pursue a new, more relaxing (or so she thinks) career as a master gardener in fictional Springfield, CT.  One of her first accomplishments when she is hired to restore the historic gardens at Halcyon is to dig up a box containing a mummified  baby.  Her investigation into the identity of the baby and its mother leads her into an increasingly complicated web of intrigue and the discovery of several local scandals from the past.  Rosemary Harris does an excellent job of weaving all of the plot lines seamlessly into a delightful novel, the first in her "Dirty Business" series.

KNITTING UNDER THE INFLUENCE (Claire LaZebnik)

I took this novel on a recent trip to Atlanta for my nephew's wedding (Congratulations, Matthew & Brittney!) and managed to finish it soon after our return home.  I was disappointed, but that is not a reflection on LaZebnik's talent.  The book had a little too much "earthy" language for my taste, but a younger reader would probably not even notice because that's the way most people converse nowadays.  I also had a strange feeling that I had read this novel before, but I really don't think I have.

Kathleen, Lucy, and Sari are three longtime friends of around age 27.  Lucy is a respected researcher with an overbearingly egotistical boyfriend, Sari is a therapist who works with autistic children, and Kathleen is a triplet who has spent her adult life working for and catering to her 2 sisters, who are identical and have enjoyed a career much like that of the Olsen twins.  The three meet and bond every Sunday over knitting.  Kathleen, after an unfortunate comment to the press about her famous sisters, quits her job and ends up living in an apartment below a much older man, a friend of the family, who arranges a job for her and becomes her unwilling confidante as she embarks on a romance with the son of her wealthy employer.  Sari, single and lonely, finds herself fighting an attraction for an old classmate, the father of one of her clients, whom she believes tormented her autistic brother during high school.  Lucy finds herself increasingly irritated with James, her intolerant and critical lover.  Through it all, they knit! 

LaZebnik uses the process of knitting a project as the chapter headings in this book, which is a clever way to enhance the knitting theme.  This is definitely a romance, and definitely chick-lit.  I would not recommend it for an older, more conservative knitter, but the under-thirty crowd would definitely enjoy it.

THE THREE WEISSMANNS OF WESTPORT (Catherine Schine)

This novel has been compared to Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, and rightly so.  The 3 Weissmanns are dumped wife Betty and her daughters, practical librarian Anne, who is divorced and the mother of 2 grown sons, and flighty Miranda, whose successful literary agency has been destroyed by several James Frey-like memoirists.  Betty's husband, Joseph, has recently become enamored of co-worker Felicity and decides that the time is right to end his 48-year marriage and embark on new adventures in love.  Joseph, with Felicity's encouragement, freezes 70-year-old Betty out financially until the details of their divorce are settled, and Betty is forced to leave their New York city apartment and move to a small cottage in Westport, CT, available due to the beneficence of eccentric cousin Lou, to whom almost everyone is "like family".  Miranda, on the verge of bankruptcy and with her professional reputation in ruins, decides to accompany her mother to Westport.  Anne sublets her apartment and moves to Westport with them, commuting daily to her library job in the city.

Betty is in denial about her divorce and decides to adapt the persona of a grieving widow.  Rather than being angry at Joseph's legal maneuverings, she believes that she will return to her home and that things will eventually straighten out financially.  Miranda, whose pattern of short-lived love affairs and poor choices continues, meets a younger man with an adorable son and falls in love with them both while pretending that her business dealings haven't drained her of all her resources.  Both Betty and Miranda spend Anne's money with total abandon while she struggles to maintain their home and keep their heads above water.

This entertaining novel, like Jane Austen's, has a bit of everything: tragedy, thwarted love, revenge, and the universal struggle to survive against great odds.  Schine shows us a family of women who are survivors and whose story is well-worth reading.

WHILE MY PRETTY ONE KNITS (Anne Canadeo)

Initially, I had a little bit of trouble remembering who was who as I read this entertaining cozy knitting mystery, but I quickly straightened out the cast of characters in my mind.  Lucy, Suzanne, Maggie, Dana, and Phoebe are a group of woman at different stages of life who share a love of knitting and a close friendship.  They meet on a regular basis to knit and socialize at each other's homes or at the Black Sheep.  Maggie Messina, a widow and the owner of the Black Sheep knitting shop, is the mother-figure of the group.  She is also the prime suspect when Amanda Goran, who runs a rival knitting shop in Plum Harbor, MA, is murdered in her store.  When the murder weapon is found in Maggie's shop among the stock that she purchased from Amanda's estranged husband, Peter, the police close in, ready to close the case and arrest Maggie.  I did figure out who the murderer was early on in the book, but this was probably a function of my keen eye for detection rather than a problem with the plot! :) There are a couple of VERY likely suspects here!  I thoroughly enjoyed Canadeo's first knitting mystery.  This is truly a cozy, complete with small town charm, an unlikable victim, an amateur sleuth who is thrust by necessity into the role, and a perfect setting that evokes warmth and friendship.  I certainly plan to read the next installment in this series!

BRAVA VALENTINE (Adriana Trigiani)

Sometimes it bothers me to return to quickly to the same characters and at other times I can't wait to find out what happens in their lives.  "Brava Valentine" is one of the ones I couldn't wait to read.  Valentine Roncalli is probably one of the most true-to-life literary characters that I have encountered.  She is driven yet vulnerable, uncertain and confident at the same time.  She loves her family deeply, yet doesn't always like them.  In her mid-thrities, she has yet to discover what she really wants out of life.  Her career path is certain: she is a cobbler, a creator of custom wedding shoes, the carrier of the family torch.  Her personal life, however, is in chaos as she is torn between two countries and just beginning to consider her biological clock.  She is the unwilling keeper of secrets and the solver of past mysteries.

Trigiani has a knack for mixing humor with pathos, joy with sorrow.  The Angelini/Roncalli family is SO typical, yet so unique, laced with humor, stress, marital angst, and money worries.  They have evolved and become more human since the first installment in Valentine's story and I like them even more now.  Adriana Trigiani excels at writing about love among family members, friends, lovers, and generations linked and unlinked by decisions of the past.  She also provides detailed glimpses into the world of fine shoe manufacturing that are fascinating enough to make me want to know more about the whole process.  I can recommend this novel on so many levels, so I will.  Read it, but read Very Valentine first, if you haven't yet.

EGGS IN PURGATORY (Laura Childs)

Laura Childs' new Cackleberry Club series lives up nicely to her two others.  The Cackleberry Club is a restaurant devoted primarily to egg dishes, but the business also includes knitting and book nooks, so readers can look forward to future mysteries focusing on book clubs and yarn crafts as well as eggs!  The business is run by a recent widow, Suzanne, along with Toni, who has a sort of "reputation' in town and is in the process of divorcing her husband, and Petra, whose husband suffers from Alzheimers.  Suzanne Deitz's physician husband died recently as a result of pancreatic cancer, and now he may be linked to an illegal kickback scheme that could be related to 2 recent murders that hit way to close to home for Suzanne's comfort. Childs throws in a cult complete with a messainic leader, lots of quirky local characters, and some great down-home cooking that all combine into an entertaining and very promising new series.

THE FINISHING TOUCHES (Hester Browne)

One the day of Charles and Diana's wedding, a baby girl is left on the steps of the Phillamore Academy, an exclusive finishing school in London.  Adopted by Lord and Lady Phillamore, the foundling, named Betsy, lives for the day when she, too, can become a Phillamore girl.  Her world is turned upside down when her adoptive parents advise against her attending the academy because she is not the sort of girl who would fit in there.  Instead they suggest that she hone her mathematical skills at university.  She sadly accepts the fact that she is not seen as good enough for high society.  She excels at school but, unfortunately, her career hits a snag and she becomes a shoe store manager while leading her family to believe that she is a successful management consultant.  When Betsy returns home for Lady Frances Phillimore's memorial service she is dismayed to see that the academy is in disrepair and that the classes being taught are hopelessly outdated.  At Lord Phillimore's request she agrees to hire on as a consultant to find ways to improve the school and, hopefully, at the same time find her birth mother.  With the help of her dilettante best friend, Liv, and Liv's brother, on whom Betsy has an unrequited crush, Betsy plans a series of new trial classes and an Open Day to attract new students, all the while fighting against the horrible headmistress and the gold-digging widow with her sights set on Lord Phillimore as her next husband.

Like Hester Browne's other novels, The Finishing Touches is hilarious, heartwarming, and a significant cut above many of the single-girl novels that are popular today.  Her heroines have both a heart and a brain and quickly endear themselves to the reader.  I can't wait for the next one!

THE LONG WAY HOME (Robin Pilcher)

Claire Barclay is a young girl when her widowed mother, Daphne, meets Leo Harrison, a Scottish plant expert who captures her heart.  Leo and Daphne marry and the new family settles in at Leo's estate in Alloa, Scotland.  Leo's two nasty children make Claire feel like an outsider, and Jonas Fairweather, the son of Leo's tenant farmer/mechanic, becomes her only friend.  As the two mature their relationship becomes closer, but when Claire finally declares her love for Jonas she is summarily rejected and flees Alloa to see the world and get over her heartbreak.  In New York she meets restaurant owner Art Barringer and quickly falls in love.

Years later, Claire's mother dies and Claire and Art discover that Leo has developed the beginnings of dementia.  In an effort to help him, they plan to purchase the estate and convert it into a conference center that will include a home for Leo and access to his beloved greenhouses.  They are dismayed to learn that Jonas, who has been helping Leo to manage his finances, also has plans for the property and they come to question his apparent devotion to Leo.

Robin Pilcher has crafted a fine novel, a combination of romance, financial intrigue, mystery, and complicated family dynamics, with a very satisfying conclusion that could easily have been written by one of today's many popular mystery novelists.  This one is a winner.  I miss Rosamund Pilcher's novels, but I'm glad that her son is continuing in her fine tradition!

GIRL IN A BLUE DRESS (Gaynor Arnold)

....A novel Inspired by the Life and Marriage of Charles Dickens.
Young Dorothea (Dodo) Millar is mesmerized by the wit and humor of the brilliant actor / writer Alfred Gibson, a protege of her father, and she contrives, with the help of a becomingly altered blue dress, to win his admiration and his heart.  During her marriage to "The One and Only", a marriage revolving almost exclusively around her increasingly successful husband's wants and needs, Dodo strives to support her husband's career.  Her own problems and desires are lost in the demands of his rising popularity as eight pregnancies deplete her strength and attractiveness.  Eventually Alfred turns Dodo out of their home, publishing a very public and humiliating (to Dorothea) message suggesting that her inadequacies as a wife and mother made it impossible for him, a loving and caring father, to continue with the marriage.

Girl in a Blue Dress is a heartbreaking novel.  It provides us with a very non-idealized view of Dickens the man and with first-hand insight into how his talent and life experience propelled him into becoming the most celebrated and revered writer of the Victorian era.  Dickens spent part of his youth in the workhouse and began working to support his family at the tender age of eight, and many of his experiences from childhood and beyond found their way into his novels.  His talent was indisputable but, if Arnold's interpretation of his life is accurate, he was a megalomaniac whose ego demanded constant stroking.  He had magic, though, and something akin to the celebrity that surrounds today's top athletes and movie stars.  Even his cruelty and his self-serving use of his wife and children did not in any way diminish the public's or Dorothea's love and admiration.

I found the first half of this 414 page book to be somewhat plodding.  Dorothea's depression and inability to cope with Alfred's increasing lack of interest in her, her lack of spunk (she left her six living children behind and regretted that they never came to see her in ten years, never venturing to look at the separation from their point of view!), and her tireless devotion to the man who had cast her out of his life and never looked back, all combine into a portrait of a rather tiresome woman.  I won't even comment on her nickname, "Dodo"!  What makes this novel interesting is Ms. Arnold's detailed portrayal of Gibson /Dickens and the way in which Dorothea begins to come to life and into her own after her husband's death at the age of 58, 10 years after their separation.  After reading this, I want very much to learn more about the literary phenomenon that was Charles Dickens and about his marriage to Catherine Dickens, the real-life Dodo.

WEDDING SEASON (Katie Fforde)

Katie Fforde's novels are always fresh and different.  They are chick-lit, yes, but Fforde has a witty, comical style and creates characters that the reader can care about.  We know that the ending will be happy becausre it wouldn't be a romance without that! 

The main characters in this novel are Sarah, a wedding planner, Elsa, a dress maker, and Bron, a hairdresser who is also talented at makeup and cake making.  I think that one of the unique features of the story is that all three young women are very talented, hard working, and innovative.  No one falls into a career with the help of a handsome man, no one is working in publishing, and no one lives in a grotty apartment or sleeps around with a bunch of low-lifes before finding true love.  Sarah has been hurt in the past and doesn't believe in love, but Bron and Elsa certainly do.  Sarah's loopy sister, Lily, is sweet and comical, a typical chick-lit character whose wedding is planned for the very day that Sarah is supposed to plan a celebrity wedding that could make her career.  With the help of Hugo, James, and Laurence and the requisite misunderstandings and near disasters, Sarah, Elsa, and Bron form a winning team and everyone lives happily ever after.  If you love English ambience in your reading, how could you resist a book populated by a run-down country estate and people named Hugo, Fenella, AND Rupert!  I was in Anglo-Heaven throughout.  This is a great, relaxing book, perfect for a rainy weekend or anytime you want to escape from everyday worries!

THE BAKER'S APPRENTICE (Judith Ryan Hendricks)

I think the thing that I enjoyed most about this novel was the bread-making.  I myself am great at cookies, but very bad at creating edible food that contains yeast (Hooray for bread machines!), so I enjoyed learning how the kneading of the dough develops the texture of the bread and how slight changes in the comBination of ingredients  can completely change the final product.

This is a sort of coming-of-age story for thirty-somethings.  Wyn is in the process of divorcing and in dire financial straits.  She has been part owner of a bread bakery for about a year as the story begins and is newly in love with Mac McLeod, a friend and comforter who is seeking to publish his first novel.  Mac is rough around the edges and Wyn is worried about the transition from friends to lovers.  Everyone is worried about money and no one seems to have any.  This was a pleasant book, but I am still not sure about the title.  Tyler, a blue-haired waif with a difficult family background, becomes Wyn's apprentice, working the night shift by her side creating delicious bread.  Tyler, the apprentice, is not the focus of the novel though; that is the relationship between Wyn and Mac, who for a good part of the novel is living in the Yukon where his truck broke down on his way to Alaska to think for a few months.  The main characters are all well-developed and three-dimensional, easy-going in their relationships despite a significant amount of angst and indecision in their lives.  Wyn and Mac sort of mirror Tyler's transition from aimless child to focused adult.  I'm sure that a good book critic would pull out the symbolism represented by making the bread and figure out the significance of the title.  If you have read it I would appreciate your comments.

RED HOT MURDER (Joanne Pence)

Angie Amalfi is a little out of the ordinary as amateur sleuths go. She has the requisite handsome cop / boyfriend, San Francisco homicide detective Paavo Smith, an interesting career (cooking related), and an insatiable need to investigate any crime that crosses her path. What sets her apart is her wardrobe (designer all the way) and her romantic nature (she spends quite a bit of time waiting for Paavo in bed!).

In Red Hot Murder Angie and Paavo travel to Arizona, he to meet someone to discuss the mysterious death of an old friend, she to scout it as a possible venue for their upcoming wedding. On arrival they find another missing person and a hilarious herd of ostriches that manage to disrupt most of the events in novel. Pence has created a very endearing and likeable character in Angie and overall I enjoyed the story, but I found the large cast of characters difficult to keep track of. Hal, the original victim, was an eccentric retail giant and ranch owner, divorced from Clarissa and father to Joey, who hopes to inherit the ranch. Maritza, Lupe, and Teresa are three generations of a family whose lives are intertwined with several of the other characters. Dolores is the charming cook/housekeeper at the ranch, devoted to the late Hal, and Doc is the local medicine man, in love with the divorced Lupe, who cannot marry him because of her strict Catholic faith. Junior is Hal's cousin, I think, and Lionel runs the ranch, Ned is the vanished friend that Paavo had hoped to meet, and Laverne is the chef with a secret that causes people to run in the other direction when she offers a new recipe for tasting. See what I mean? Overall though, Pence's novel, one of the most recent in this series is colorful and hilarious. If you pay close attention to names and relationships you will enjoy it from the first page to the last.

THE SIDE OF ANGELS (Christina Bartolomeo)

I admit that reading 3 books by this author in 7 weeks is a little excessive, but I enjoy her style and her themes so much!  In this novel we met Dominica (Nicky) Malone, an Irish-Italian single woman employed by a "2nd rate" PR firm.  Nicky has been unlucky in love, leaving Tony, the love of her life, after 5 years of cohabitation and emotional disconnect.  Her most recent ex-boyfriend Jeremy, is an English stunner with questionable morals (he cheated on her for 6 months before she found out) who badly wants to to re-establish their relationship, aided and abetted by Nicky's mother.  Nicky has a quirky, lovable cousin, Louise, who is like a sister to her and runs a successful matchmaking agency.  Nicky's somewhat smarmy boss, Ron, concerned brothers, a close male cousin who shares an unackowledged love with Louise, but is engaged to Betsey, who is all wrong for him, and her interfering mother round out Nicky's immdiate family.  All of them are delightful additions to the mix.

Nicky is assigned to travel to RI from her home in Washington, DC to handle the PR for a threatened nurses strike, a strike being adeptly handles by none other than Tony Boltanski, Nicky's former love.  The details surrounding the strike, the personal situations of the participants and the PR working that go on behind the scenes, are fascinating.  All of the characters are colorful and, amazingly, both believable and, somehow, lovable.  I can't wait for Bartolomeo's next novel to come out!

THE PRODIGAL WIFE (Marcia Willett)

Sometimes the word "twee" comes to mind when I am reading Marcia Willett.  I find her books sweet and relaxing, peopled with real individuals who are just a bit stilted but very human and imperfect.  In this novel the title character is Maria, a recent widow who years ago left her husband and young son, Jolyon, to live with the love of her life, taking her younger son, Edward, with her.  Now that her husband is dead and Edward has lost much of her money in a bad investment and left for greener pastures in America with his girlfriend, Maria is alone and at loose ends.  She seeks to reconnect with her previous life by visiting the Keep, home of her former husband Hal and son Jolyon.  Hal is now married the love of HIS life, Fliss, a widow and his first cousin, from whom he was separated (romantically) by his family years before.  Jolyon is a well-known entrepreneur and television personality who has very mixed feelings about his mother's new interest in him and in the Keep.  As he finds himself falling in love with Henrietta, daughter of old family friend Cordelia (herself embroiled in a romantically intriguing situation), Jolyon tries to deal with his mother and establish a role for her in his life.  In addition to all of the family angst, Willett also creates an interesting and mysterious subplot involving Cordelia and her lover.

Willett's characters are a sometimes a little bit shallow and under-developed and the outcomes of their problems a little bit too neat, but I love her books.  Picture yourself in an English cottage on a gray day with a roaring fire to dispel the damp, a cup of tea and some scones fresh from the Aga, and a couple of large dogs and a pair of wellies by the door.  If this scenario appeals to you, so will Willett!

CUPID & DIANA (Christina Bartolomeo)

After I read "Snowed In" I started looking for more novels by Bartolomeo.  The subtitle of this one is "A novel about finding the right man, the right career, and the right outfit", which screams chick-lit, I will admit, but Bartolomeo's characters and plots are so much richer and involving than most mainstream chick-lit.  In this novel Diana Campanella is in a comfortable relationship with Philip, an aristocratic lawyer with an impeccable pedigree and impossibly high social standards.  Two years ago Diana left her steady but boring job to buy a vintage clothing consignment shop, which seems to be going down the tubes at the moment.  She and Philip are unofficially engaged (i.e. they talk about eventually marrying), but her family doesn't like him and he doesn't seem to have much interest in her shop or her career ambitions.  Philip's family is equally dismissive of earthy, Italian Diana, whose ethnic looks and vintage wardrobe are foreign to their pure WASP culture.  Diana feels that she and Philip are very compatible and comfortable,  at least until she is introduced to recently separated lawyer Harry by her sister Cynthia, a wildly successful international model.

This is a wonderful novel about impossible families, sibling rivalry, sisterly bonds, self-esteem, trying to fit in, and the delights of true love.  I'm sorry I finished it because I didn't want it to end!

BALTIMORE BLUES (Laura Lippman)

Tess Monaghan is an unemployed reporter who survives financially by working part-time for various relatives.  She is, by her own admission, a mediocre rower, but each morning she hits the river with her friend, Rock Paxton, for a rowing workout on Baltimore's Patapsco River.  It's not that I found Tess completely unlikable, but as sleuths go she does not inspire confidence, nor do her personal values (she smokes pot and sleeps frequently with a former boyfriend who is now in a relationship with someone else) make her an appealing character. 

Despite her lack of experience as a private investigator, Rock hires Tess to tail his girlfriend, Ava, an aspiring lawyer who works as an assistant to controversial lawyer Michael Abramowitz.  Rock believes that Ava is in trouble and wants Tess to find out why.  What Tess uncovers possibly plays a large role in Abramowicz's murder and Rock, due to his relationship with Ava, becomes the prime suspect.  Rock's lawyer, Tyner, uses Tess to investigate further in hopes of clearing Rock's name, or at least finding enough evidence to cast doubt on his guilt.

I had very mixed feeling about this novel, but I will have to admit that Tess comes through with flying colors in the end.  I have read that her inept investigative techniques do improve in future novels of this series and they certianly do get better as the story progresses. As a lead character she has a lot of flaws, but so do some of the best sleuths in popular crime literature.  There is definite promise here.

THE BEACH STREET KNITTING SOCIETY AND YARN CLUB (Gil McNeil)

One thing that struck me about this book, aside from the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed it, is to wonder about the title.  The knitting group in this novel is called "Stitch and Bitch", although Jo McKenzie's yarn shop IS located on Beach Street, though.  Strange!

That being said, McNeil's novel is wonderful, a series of glimpses into a year in the life of a British wife and mother whose husband is killed in an automobile accident just after telling her that he is leaving her for another woman.  Amidst the confusion of dealing with sudden widowhood and raising two small boys on her own, Jo, an expert knitter, decides to move back to the seaside town of her youth and take over running her grandmother's old fashioned yarn shop.  Jo is refreshing, dealing diplomatically with her grandmother's longtime assistant who prefers tradition to change, providing encouragement and friendship to a famous movie star that happens into her shop one day, and interacting with her long-time friend, Ellen, a local celebrity.  Jo is not desperately looking for love or immobilized with grief or regrets.  She is practical, loyal to her friends, realistic about money and family (including her adorable grandmother, her active sons, and her "crap" mother), and approaches every part of her life with a sense of humor.  She is endearing, just the type of friend I would like to have.  McNeil manages to combine self-deprecation, practicality, intelligence, and charm into one woman who is not not necessarily looking for someone to take care of her or complete her life.  This story is an uplifing tale of friendship, family, and survival.  I loved it and I can't wait for the next installment, Needles and Pearls, due out this spring!

SNOWED IN (Christina Bartolomeo)

Sophie Quinn and her husband, Paul Stoddard, experience culture (and climate) shock when they move from Washington, DC to Portland, Maine for a year for Paul's career.  Sophie is by nature meek and non-confrontational, and making friends is a problem until she meets Stephen, a charming and talkative gay man, at a coffee shop and joins his walking group.  Through her friendship with the group and with Stephen's brother and business partner, Ned, Sophie's small world begins to expand.  She purchases a car and hones her driving skills with the help of Ned, venturing out on foot and by highway to new areas around Portland, gaining confidence as her free-lance art career takes off and her social circle expands.  In the meantime, Sophie's marriage to to uncommunicative Paul deteriorates as he buries himself in his work and, perhaps, in the arms of his co-worker, Natalie. 

Bartolomeo's novel is charming.  Her characters are appealing and realistic.  I plan to read another of  this author's novels ASAP.  I really liked this one!

DEATH OF A VALENTINE (M.C. Beaton)

Hamish MacBeth fans will not want to miss this 25th book in M.C. Beaton's Scottish series.  Hamish is once again headed for the altar, this time with his new constable, Josie McSween.  When Lammas Queen Annie Fleming is blown up by a letter bomb, Hamish investigates with the help of new, love-struck assistant, Josie, whose focus is more on landing the handsome policeman than on solving the case.  Will Hamish finally settle down to domestic bliss in his beloved highlands?  What about love-of-his-life Priscilla, or sometimes-love Elspeth Grant?  As usual, Hamish sees through the chaos of life in Lochdubh to solve the murder.  Can he also solve the mystery of love?

THE DOCTOR'S DAUGHTER (Hilma Wolitzer)

Alice Brill, the doctor's daughter, is in her fifties, somewhat uncomfortably married, and the mother of three grown children, a downsized editor who now works for herself as a "book doctor", editing works in progress for aspiring authors.  The passion and communication are gone from her once happy marriage and her youngest son has ethical issues that help to drive a wedge between Alice and her husband, Everett.  Alice's mother, Helen, a poet, died of cancer when Alice was a graduate student.  Her father, Sam, once a brilliant surgeon, is now confined to a nursing home with dementia.  Alice and Everett's marriage cannot, in Alice's mind, live up to the "perfection" of her parents' union.  Alice and Everett's relationship began with competition (Alice and Everett were once both aspiring writers) that blossomed into passion, but Sam Brill wanted Alice to marry a doctor, to form a partnership like that shared between her parents.  Throughout her marriage (Everett ends up working in the family printing business) Alice, an only child, is cognizant of the fact that she has failed to live up to the idealized standard set by her father and mother.

Throughout Wolitzer's novel the reader is treated to something out of the ordinary.  Alice is not focused primarily on repairing her marriage or interfering in the lives of her children.  There is no "crisis" that compels her and Everett to realize what they might have to lose.  She experiences a vague "pain" in her chest, not physical but emotional or psychological, an emptiness or unidentifiable longing that prompts her to set out on a quest to discover what subconscious event is driving her marriage and current life off of its proscribed course.  Bit by bit Alice recovers the memory that has set her at odds with herself and with her father and she is able to move on with her life, always the doctor's daughter, but now with a new understanding of what that means. The unattainable perfection that she saw in her parents' marriage may not be the answer to a happy life for Alice and Everett.

BEST FRIENDS FOREVER (Jennifer Weiner)

In the 15 years since her painful high school sojourn, Addie Downs has transformed herself from an overweight misfit into a lovely, fit, but still awkward woman.  Her life, until now devoted to redecorating her parents' home and caring for her brain damaged brother, changes suddenly when childhood best friend Valerie, now a TV weather girl with delusions of grandeur, shows up on Addie's doorstep one evening.  Valerie has come from their high school reunion and is covered with blood.  For some reason Addie readily agrees to help Valerie find out what happened to her old high school flame Dan Swansea, whom Valerie left naked in a parking lot and possibly dead after accidentally hitting him with her car.  Despite the fact that Addie has not seen Valerie since high school, they embark on a Thelma and Louise type journey that involves a psuedo bank robbery, a disillusioned cop, and facing the trauma of the past that destroyed their relationship.  While on the lam they rediscover their friendship while local authorities try to find out whose blood is on the belt in the parking lot, what happened to the victim, and whether or not a crime has been committed.

Valerie is wacky and out of control while Addie is practical and down-to-earth, two opposites who bonded initially because they were outsiders, in part due to their family situations.  Valerie's single mother is an irresponsible dreamer who failed to notice that her daughter needed meals and clean clothes.   Addie's mother, now deceased, was generous and practical, but embarrassingly (to her children) obese, and her disabled brother, a once popular athlete, was brain-injured in an automobile accident.  This is story of two damaged people who gradually come to terms with their past and future.  Weiner has another winner here.

SIX STROKES UNDER (Roberta Isleib)

I am not a fan of golf.  I am bad at it, really bad.  I had to take golf as part of a gym class back in college in the 70's, and it was NOT a high point of my life!  That being said, Isleib's book is a pleasant surprise.  The author thoughtfully includes a comprehensive glossary of common golfing terms at the beginning of the novel, which is very helpful in allowing the non-golfing reader to enjoy the mystery without feeling as if they are in a completely foreign world. 

Cassie Burdette is about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime, the LPGA's Q-School, which could qualify her to participate in the LPGA tour.  Before she is scheduled to leave, she discovers the dying Dr. Bencher, a psychologist who has been involved in helping patients "recover" memories of sexual abuse.  Dr Bencher's office is in the same building as that of Cassie's therapist and he has been shot in the neck in his office.  Despite the fact that she has no connection with Dr. Bencher, Cassie immediately becomes a person of interest in the crime, but is allowed to travel to Florida for Q-School providing that she checks in with the odious Officer Pate when she arrives.  Cassie is an interesting character, flawed and colorful.  As Q-School progresses readers are introduced to quite a few enjoyably quirky characters, golfers and non-golfers alike, and along the way another murder is comitted.  Are the two crimes connected?  Will Cassie get out of Q-School without becoming the 3rd victim of this murder spree, if the crimes are actually connected?  Read and find out!  Don't let the golf theme put you off if you are not a fan of the game. I do have one word of caution, though.  Isleib is a delightful writer, but the crimes themselves seem to be a bit disconnected from the main Q-School story.  I (and the other members of the Christie Capers) think that Ms. Isleib might have done better (and perhaps will in future novels) to keep the murders directly connected to golf and the Q-School.  The murders themselves seem a bit contrived when the novel is considered as a whole because they are separate from the main theme of the novel, golf.  That being said, I am actually enjoying my new golf knowledge and I am happy to have discovered an interesting new author in Roberta Isleib!

ALL THINGS AT ONCE (Mika Brzezinski)

During the time that Mika Brzezinski was a reporter and news anchor in the Hartford  area, she married, had her first child, and then moved on to, presumably, bigger and better things in the the New York metro news market.  Today she is co-host on MSNBC's Morning Joe, well paired with conservative Joe Scarborough.  This very readable memoir, which covers the major events of her childhood and the pitfalls and rewards of trying to "have it all", should be required reading for anyone who yearns for the glamour and excitement of a career in television news, and especially for any woman who wants marriage and a family in addition to a successful career in broadcasting or any other field.

Brzezinski is well-grounded.  Her parents, a former National Security Advisor and a talented sculptor, raised her in an atmosphere of intellectual richness and instilled her and her two brothers with an admirable work ethic and solid values,  Her life has not been a fairy tale, but her own commitment to marriage and career has enabled her to overcome setbacks that might have caused a different type of person to choose another path.  The book opens with a description of Mika's horrific fall down a flight of stairs with her infant daughter in her arms, a fall caused by total exhaustion and resulting in months of medical treatments for her daughter, whose leg was broken .  Initially doctors suspected a spinal injury and Brzezinski was investigated for child abuse as a result of the incident.  She makes no excuses for the accident and expresses both profound regret and vast relief over the outcome.  This accident was a wake-up call, jarring her into the realization that no one can work for 24 hours a day at a job and as a mother, and that she needed to pull back and take a look at what she was doing to herself and her family.  Her fabulous, understanding husband hovers in the background of the story throughout.

Mika Brzezinski is a woman who has worked hard, personally and professionally, not just at a career, but at her life.  She has been the victim of an attack by a pedophile, the privileged daughter of a government official, a struggling reporter, a loved and cherished daughter, wife, and mother, a down and out has-been, and a confident on-air partner.  Most of all, she has been and is a work in progress.  Her book is a wonderful insight into real life, its rewards and consequences, its ups and downs.  Two-way strong family ties are and always have been at the center of her life.  I hope that she gives us an update in twenty years or so.

THE SCHOOL FOR ESSENTIAL INGREDIENTS (Erica Bauermeister)

This wonderful and totally appetizing little book is actually a series of vignettes rather than a "novel", stories of eight people brought together for a monthly cooking class.  The author focuses attention on one of these people during each chapter, each a different class.  The stories are blended together seamlessly into a delightful experience for all of the senses as the characters chop, sauté, fold, and season ingredients into delectable feasts for the heart and soul as well as for the palate.  Each character has experienced a loss, a disappointment, a trauma, or a lack of focus in their life and through the experience of creating meals that nourish in every sense of the word, they work their way towards answers, acceptance, and life-changing friendships.

This novel opens up a whole new world for those of us who have never thought of cooking as a creative and even life-affirming activity.  Bauermeister's descriptions of each class are a feast in themselves.  The characters are vulnerable and likable.  I think that the author has a rare and wonderful talent for providing brief glimpses into her character's lives that are simultaneously satisfying and unfulfilling, like briefly meeting someone that you'd like to know better and then losing sight of them in a crowd.  This is a charming, short homage to both the culinary world (your mouth will water!) and the resilience of the human spirit.

MORE THAN YOU KNOW (Beth Gutcheon)

Gutcheon's novels are always exceptional, and each one is unique in theme and setting.  "More Than You Know" is a ghost story, a love story, a historical novel, and much more.  Gutcheon manages to juxtapose vividly the stark coldness of life and an unhappy marriage on a barren island more than 100 years ago with the excitement of young love and the terror of unexplained phenomena in Depression-era Maine.  The novel spans many years, alternating between the life, marriage, and family of Claris Haskell and the budding romance between young Hannah Gray and Conary Crocker, both of whom have witnessed the chilling apparition that seems to haunt both the schoolhouse-turned-cottage that Hannah's grim stepmother and mostly absent father are renting for the summer, and deserted Beals Island, off the coast of Maine. During the course of the novel we learn, along with Hannah, the story of the brutal murder of Danial Haskell, Claris' husband, and their daughter Sallie's inconclusive trials for his murder.  Gutcheon begins and ends with Hannah as a very old woman, widowed now and in the twilight of her years.  Hannah acts as a sort of narrator, ensuring that the story is finally told before she is no longer able to tell it.

I read this book over a weekend.  It is short (268 pages), intriguing, and definitely worthwhile.  I recommend it wholeheartedly to both adults and teens.  Gutcheon maintains the suspense of the story right up until the end, when we finally discover the truth about the horrifying apparition that haunts Hannah and Conary.

THE TEN YEAR NAP (Meg Wolitzer)

Since the feminist revolution of the 1960's, it seems like mothers have had a choice between feeling guilty over working or feeling guilty over neglecting fulfilling careers to stay home and raise their children.  Meg Wolitzer's "Ten Year Nap" is about 4 New York based women who have made the choice to give up careers, some promising, others not, to devote their lives to their families. 

Amy is a Trusts & Estates lawyer and the daughter of an ardent feminist and an economics professor.  She and her husband, Leo, met and fell in love at the law firm where they both worked.  When their now 10-year-old son, Mason, was born they decided that Amy would give up work for a couple of years to raise their baby.  Two years stretched to ten and now Amy, believing that their finances are stable, is considering volunteer work. 

Amy's friend Roberta is a failed-artist-turned-puppeteer.  She and her husband, Nathaniel, also a puppeteer, live with their two children in a family owned apartment in the city.  Karen and Wilson Yip are MIT-educated mathematicians with twin sons.  This couple is successful and financially comfortable and Karen's choice to stay at home with her two boys is applauded by both of their traditional Chinese families.  Jill, whose doctoral thesis was rejected and whose mother committed suicide while Jill was in college, welcomes the opportunity to stay at home with her adopted daughter, Nadia, instead of trying to figure out how to live up to the promise of her Vivian Swope Award, honoring her as the student in her prep school class most likely to achieve success.  Jill and her husband have moved to the suberb of Holly Hills, NY, where she feels isolated from her friends and depressed by the fact that her daughter seems "different", perhaps intellectually slow.

Throughout this novel the reader is introduced to various characters from the past and present that have helped to form the fears and values of the four women.  Chapters featuring mothers, lovers, friends, colleagues, and even Margaret Thatcher, are interspersed throughout the book, giving us insight into where these women came from and where they might choose to go next.  This novel is a story about difficult choices and the balancing act that is everyday life for parents.  I would recommend it to anyone who has ever witnessed, considered, or lived through the process of raising child while dealing with the pressures of maintaining friendships and living up to societal expectations.  I think that the title is genius!

SUMMER ON BLOSSOM STREET (Debbie Macomber)

I keep wondering why I can't stay away from Macomber's Blossom Street knitting series!  Although I don't read "romance", I like books that include some romance.  I always considered Macomber's various series too "romancey" for me, though.  I guess what appeals to me about this series is the happy endings.  The stories are not unrealistic: people have problems, including serious illnesses, broken families, and deaths, but they manage to work through their problems and find happiness.  I feel inspired by Macomber's characters to pursue life and to live it.  I'm sorry if that sounds trite or fluffy.  Sometimes I enjoy thought-provoking philisophy, historical detail, or exciting action, but sometimes I just get tired of the gore and the angst and the depression of many modern novels.  Sometimes happy endings are just what you need, and Macomber has them!  I feel happy after reading this book.

THE LADIES OF GARRISON GARDENS (Louise Shaffer)

Shaffer's sequel to the irresistable "Three Miss Margarets" is a wonderful blend of past and present, mystery and romance, Southern charm and gritty realism.  One thing on which I have to comment, however, is the incredible disconnect between the cover of this novel and its contents!  The picture on the cover shows two women in 1950's casual garb tending to a garden full of sunflowers, while the "Garrison Gardens" of the story is part of an enormous legacy (including botanical gardens, a resort, and a huge "cottage", employer to 3000 local residents) left to Laurel Selene McReady by the late Peggy Garrison, one of the Miss Margarets.  Laurel, Charles Valley's former "wild child", was a surrogate daughter to Peggy and nursed her through her final illness.  When faced with the demands of unscrupulous lawyer Stuart Lawrence, another of Peggy's legacies, Laurel is forced to evaluate her confidence in her own abilities and her idealization of the resort's responsibilities towards its employees and the community.  Eventually her values and reality clash and Laurel is forced to come to grips with Miss Peggy's life and decisions and their profound effect on her own.

While Laurel is dealing with her modern-day dilemmas, we are also treated to the parallel story of Lily and Iva Claire Rain, two mediocre vaudevillians, a mother and daughter, who tour around during the early 1930's as the Sunshine Sisters.  Throughout the novel the readers wonders about the connection between the past and the present and Shaffer does not disappoint when she eventually merges the two stories with some interesting twists.

THE LITTLE STRANGER (Sarah Waters)

Dr. Faraday is called one day to Hundreds Hall to tend to the Ayres family maid, Betty, who has been complaining of stomach pains. Despite the fact that his colleague, Dr. David Graham, is the family's physician of record, this is NOT Faraday's first visit to the Hall. Nearly 30 years before, at age 10, Dr. Faraday had attended an Empire Day festival at the beautiful mansion, where his mother had previously served as a nursery maid. It is during this current emergency visit, however, that he becomes acquainted with the eccentric Ayres family: Mrs. Ayres, now widowed and still grieving for her first-born, Susan, who died of diptheria at the age of six; Caroline, the plain, practical, daughter who will become almost an obsession in Dr. Faraday's life; and son Roderick, maimed in WWII and struggling unsuccessfully to keep the estate running and solvent.

Faraday is both appalled and fascinated by changes at the Hall and soon becomes a close friend and confidante of the Ayreses. During a dinner party at Hundreds Hall to welcome new neighbors to the area, the amiable and loving family dog, Gyp, suddenly turns on the young daughter of the guests, disfiguring her face. This is the first in a series of many disturbing occurances that eventually drive the family and the estate to near destruction, and the first hint of the "little stranger" that will alter the lives of everyone closely connected with Hundreds Hall.

Waters is a gifted historical novelist. In "The Little Stranger' she creates a rich atmosphere of decaying opulance as the Ayres family tries unsuccessfully to maintain their traditional position in the community as their home literally falls down around them. The reader can almost feel the dampness and cold and smell the mildew and soot as Waters' story unfolds and her characters' lives and sanity seem to disintegrate bit by bit. The supernatural element is introduced seamlessly into the storyline and developed so subtley that the reader continually wonders whether the events of the story are real (in the fictional sense), manufactured by someone with malevolent intent towards one or more of the family, or product of an unstable mind. I do feel that this novel would have been much better if it had been about 300 pages instead of 463. I almost stopped reading about 200 pages into the book because the story began to drag unbearably, leaving me plodding through the pages. Once the story picked up later on and it was difficult to put the book down as the ending approached.

Speaking of the ending, nothing here is cut and dried.  Those of you who enjoy a neat, well tied up finale will be disappointed by the uncertainties that remain as this novel ends.  If you enjoy a novel that keeps you wondering, even long after you close the book, this may be a good choice for you.

THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES (Cecelia Ahern)

At the tender age of twenty-eight, Cecelia Ahern has been a best-selling novelist for five years.  Her first novel, P.S. I Love You, was made into a major Hollywood film, and she co-created the now canceled televsion series, Samantha Who?  What's left for her to accomplish, you might ask?  I guess we'll just need to keep reading her work to find out!

Ahern is considered a "romance" novelist in her home country of Ireland, where her father once served as prime minister, but her books are much more than boy-meets-girl-and-they-live-happily-ever-after.  This author creates real characters who charm the reader with their alternately fantastic (as in fantasy) and vulnerable personalities.  Thanks for the Memories begins on a sad note, as Joyce suffers a fall, loses her long-desired unborn child, and is the recipient of a blood transfusion.  These events have long-reaching effects on Joyce's life as her shaky marriage comes to an end and she finds herself inexplicably an expert on art, architecture, and languages.  Meanwhile, American art and architecture expert Justin Hutchinson has donated blood for the first time and inexplicably longs to know who received it.  I'm sure you can guess where this is going!  Booklist and Publishers' Weekly  both gave Ahern's latest novel mediocre reviews, describing some of the characters as "thin" and "annoying".  Personally, I disagree.  I found the concept interesting, the characters likable, and Joyce's relationships with her father and friends very appealing.  Joyce is strong and worldly and cares deeply, a trait often lacking in the protagonists of today's violent and graphic thrillers.  Take a weekend and enjoy this novel!

KNIT ONE, KILL TWO (Maggie Sefton)

Kelly Flynn is in Colorado to settle her Aunt Helen's estate, but something is amiss.  Helen, who was like a mother to Kelly, was murdered in the living room of her quaint cottage, supposedly by a vagrant caught running from the area after the crime.  There are several problems with the investigation, though:  The police have found no trace of Helen's latest knitting project, a purple sweater torn from the needles in Helen's hands during the murder, the $20,000 in cash that Helen borrowed just before the murder has disappeared without a trace, and, unbeknownst to the police, a family heirloom quilt is inexplicably missing from Helen's living room wall.  Kelly believes that the local cops are bungling the case and sets out to look for clues to the killer herself, with the help of her new group of friends at the House of Lambspun, the knitting shop located in Aunt Helen's former home across from the cottage. 

Sefton's first knitting mystery has all the elements of an excellent cozy/craft series: a likeable heroine, hints at a future love interest, long lost relatives, secret business deals gone bad, a kindly retired cop who now spins wool, supportive friends, a charming setting, and just the right amount of knitting to satisfy yarn lovers without turning off non-knitting readers.  I've already read the next couple of installments, and I highly recommend this series.

HOME REPAIR (Liz Rosenberg)

This is Rosenberg's first novel for adults.  The author reveals at the end of the book that she didn't write it in consecutive scenes, but rather bit by bit, eventually combining all of those bits into a whe novel.  I wasn't sure how I felt about this book as I was reading it as it was in some ways depressing.  Eve was a young widow when she met and married Chuck, a very handsome "younger' man.  Now, years later, Chuck walks out on the family during a garage sale, leaving Eve to pick up the pieces of her life and to raise Marcus (her 17-year-old from her first marriage) and Noni, their 9-year-old daughter, on her own.  Eve's emotional journey is depicted through references to the "Heartbreak Diet" as she sheds pounds while dealing with her grief.  Chuck is not out of the picture.  He pops back into their lives occasionally, but he remains an annoying and superficial character (why on earth did she ever marry him?).  In contrast, Eve's mother, Charlotte, Jonah Cement, who oversees the local park, Mia, Clemente, Lev, Tracey, and other quirky characters fill out the story, all of them blossoming into better, more realistic versions of themselves as Eve comes to terms with her future.  There is a lot of humor in this novel, even in the descriptions of Eve's clothing choices as she loses weight.  In the end, I was glad I read "Home Repair", and I think you will be, too.  It looks and sounds like it should be chick-lit, but for some reason it is most definitely not!

ONCE IN A BLUE MOON (Eileen Goudge)

Lindsey and Kerri Anne are ages twelve and three, respectively, when they are taken from their drug-addicted mother, Crystal McAllister, and placed in separate foster homes.  Lindsey is eventually adopted by her foster parents, an older couple who raise her in an atmosphere of love and security, willing her the somewhat dilapitated family home on Blue Moon Bay in northern California.  Kerri Anne was not so fortunate, being bounced from one foster family to another, eventually falling in love with Jeremiah, a musician who introduces her to drugs and desserts her and their daughter, Bella. When the state steps in and removes 5-year-old Bella from Kerri Anne's care it appears that the past is destined to repeat itself, but Kerri Anne decides to clean up her act in an effort to prove that she is a fit mother.  She enters rehab, attends regular AA meetings, and finally, in a desperate attempt to prove that she can provide a stable home environment for her daughter, she finds Lindsey and asks to share her home.  Lindsey has been searching for Kerri Anne for 25 years and is both thrilled and appalled to finally meet her lost sibling after all of these years.  The two sisters appear to be as opposite as any two could be in terms of life circumstances and choices, but as they get to know each other they begin to discover a shaky common ground and to develop a strong bond.

In terms of plot, this novel is somewhat predictable.  Do we expect the sisters to bond or to reject each other?  How do you suppose the story will end?  Despite some predictability, Goudge's novel is delightful.  She has crafted interesting characters who are sometimes outlandish, yet still believable.  You'll love Miss Honi Love, the former exotic dancer with a heart of gold, and dislike Grant, the boring boyfriend who loves Lindsey but takes her for granted.  Ollie is too good to be true, but you still want him to be real, and the sisters themselves, though somewhat stereotypical, have the reader rooting for their relationship.  There are a couple of very interesting sub-plots involving corporate villains and a charming best-selling author that keep the story moving beautifully.  If I were going to rate this book, I'd give it 2 thumbs up!

COMMENCEMENT (J. Courtney Sullivan)

Commencement is a complex novel about four Smith College students embarking on lives very different from what they imagined on their first day on campus.  This book has, of course, been compared to Mary McCarthy's classic, The Group, a novel that I loved when I read it years ago.  Sullivan is a Smith graduate of great talent with an exceptional eye for details.  As the novel begins, the four main characters, Sally, Bree, April, and Celia, have been assigned to live on the same corrider in King House, a residence hall at Smith.  Sally, who recently lost her mother and is coping with and emotionally absent father, is from the Boston area, as is Celia.  Sally has her sights set on medical school, while Celia is an aspiring writer who longs to live in New York and write novels.  Bree is a Southern Belle, engaged to her high school sweetheart and longing for home, while Chicago-born April is a budding feminist who eschews shaving and fashion.

At this point one would expect a reasonably typical homage to female friendship and sisterhood, but Sullivan explores the darker and often sexual side of life at Smith.  I have to admit that if I were a high school student considering attending Smith, reading this novel might make me think twice because it goes so far beyond the typical "college" experiences.  It focuses very strongly, at times, on SLUGs (Smith Lesbians Until Graduation), gender issues, and sexual experimentation, but the main focus is really the strong bond of friendship and love among the four woman during college and after graduation.  One of the most interesting threads, and one that especially makes this novel stand out from other "girlfriends" stories, is April's involvement/employment with a self-aggrandizing, radical feminist film maker who documents abuse and exploitation of women, using April callously to further her own relentless pursuit of her cause.

This is one of those books that might leave you alternately horrified, laughing, or nodding your head in agreement.  It will definitely leave you thinking, though, as you process all of the layers and levels of Sullivan's first novel.

HOT ON THE TRAIL (Jane Isenberg)

Bel Barrett, Isenberg's post-menopausal amateur detective, is trying to find the time to marry Sol, the love of her life.  When one of her elderly night school students dies in a fall from his roof, Bel is invited by the man's daughter to investigate the tragedy, delaying the wedding yet again.  At first no one except Dom's daughter Flora, another of Bel's students, supects foul play, and Bel herself is skeptical at first.  Like any amateur detective worth her salt, though, Bel changes her mind several times about who might be responsible for Dom's death and she also manages to take several foolish chances in her quest for information.  Women in their 50's and beyond will identify with the physical, mental, and emotional changes that plague Bel and her two post menopausal friends and will especially enjoy the humorous way in which Isenberg portrays women of a "certain age" as lively, competent, imaginative, and adventurous.  readers of all ages will savor the evolution of clues that eventually lead Bel to the killer and to a lifetime of happiness with her soul-mate, Sol.

KNIT THE SEASON (Kate Jacobs)

Dakota Walker is living her dream of attending culinary school.  if you haven't read "The Friday Night Knitting Club" or "Knit Two" I would recommend checking them out before reading this one.  It's not that this seasonal novel is not enjoyable as a stand-alone, but that the expereinec will be so much richer if you have already gotten to know Dakota, James, Anita, Peri, and the rest of the Friday Night Knitting Club.  This book is like getting together with old friends to enjoy some holiday cheer.

THE CASTAWAYS (Elin Hilderbrand)

First of all, I didn't finish this book.  I usually like Hilderbrand's style and characters and I love that she sets her books on Nantucket, despite that fact that I have never been there (I did spend a lot of time in Manomet, MA and on Cape Cod as a child, though).  The Castaways, however, is depressing and I just had to stop reading.

The Castaways are a group of 4 couples who live year-round on the island and vacation together: Police Chief Ed and his wife Andrea; farmer Jeffrey and his wife Delilah, who helps to manage a restaurant/club, the Blue Begonia; real estate mogul Addison and his wife Phoebe, a beautiful, fragile woman who is dependent on prescription drugs; and Greg, who sings at the Blue Begonia and Tess, who is Andrea's younger cousin.  At the beginning of the novel we hear that Tess and Greg have drowned in a boating accident on thier 12th wedding anniversary, leaving 7 year-old-twins, Chloe and Finn, behind.  This drowning sets off a series of reactions in each of the characters.  Andrea, who used to live with Jeffrey and almost married him before she met Ed, slips into depression, feeling that she is responsible for Tess's death since she failed to join the convent as she promised in a pact with God years ago when she saved Tess from drowning.  Delilah, who was on the verge of an affair with Greg, is disturbed about his supposed daliance with a provocative high school girl who claims to have been with him the night before he drowned.  Addison was having a love affair with Tess and is the executor of Tess and Greg's estate.  He uses this role as a means of combing their home for clues about Tess's real feelings for him.  Phoebe, Addison's wife, has been in a depression since her twin brother, Reed, died in 9/11, but somehow Tess and Greg's deaths cause her to finally break free of her grief just as Addison is descending into his own private Hell.

Hilderbrand's writing style is enjoyable and the characters here are reasonably well-developed, but there is just too much depression, grief, and angst.  There are nuances that there may be something suspicious about Tess and Greg's deaths, but no real hint of any sort of foul play.  I admit that I do kind of wonder what really happened, and for this reason I wouldn't discount the novel or suggest that you not read it.  If you choose to try this one, though, be prepared to feel agitated and sad.

FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE (Patricia MacDonald)

What a good thriller!   I really had no clue whatsoever about who might be guilty in this novel until almost the end. 

Graduate student Morgan Adair travels to West Briar, LI to be godmother to Drew, the infant son of her childhood friend, Claire, and her husband, Guy.  When Morgan arrives she finds Claire suffering from severe postpartum depression and Guy at his wit's end trying to help his wife hold up under the strain of caring for their new son.  A week later, as Morgan is preparing to board a plane for England, where she is planning to share research (and, hopefully, a bed) with her colleague, Simon, she receives a call from Claire telling her that she is in police custody, charged with murdering her husband and her son, and that she is guilty of the crime.  Morgan postpones her trip to come to the aid of her friend.  On arrival back in West Briar she is confronted with family, friends, and even Claire's lawyer, who seem to be unanimous in believing that Claire is guilty as charged and will spend the rest of her life in jail or, at best, confined to a mental intitution.  With the occasional help of guy's best friend, Fitz, Morgan sets out to prove that someone other than Claire is responsible for these unspeakable crimes.

MacDonald has a wonderful talent for throwing in red herrings so subtle that you see the possibilities but are never really sure if they are clues or just coincidences.  If you enjoy psychological suspense and superb old-fashioned amateur detective work, try reading this one.  There are no hacked up bodies or machine guns here.  I guess they call it "domestic suspense" because it really COULD happen in your house or your neighborhood, and that makes it even scarier than serial killers or things that go bump in the night!

BIKINI SEASON (Sheila Roberts)

I know!  I hate to be writing about a novel with this title because it is SO chick-lit/romance, but it was also good.  Erin is engaged to Adam, the "perfect" man, but for some reason she is rapidly outgrowing her wedding gown.  Best friend Angela is happily married but afraid that her husband is turned off by her expanding waistline and turned on by his svelte assistant.  Megan is an overweight lawyer in a high stress job, and Kizzie, a small-business owner, has been told by her doctor to lose weight, but her husband Lionel likes her bootie just the way it is.  The four women form a club and resolve to meet weekly to support each other by sharing low-fat recipes.  Soon everyone is losing weight except Erin, the bride-to-be.  As her wedding approaches she keeps running into Dan Rockwell, a dorky old friend of her brother's who works at the local supermarket and has blossomed into an attractive man.  I'm sure you can see where this is all leading!  That being said, Sheila Roberts writes in an easy, entertaining style and makes you care what happens to these 4 woman.  Reading this book would be a wonderful way to spend a day when you just want to enjoy a break from reality, immerse yourself in female bonding, and smile.

THE WILDWATER WALKING CLUB (Claire Cook)

I am so jealous of Noreen Kelly!  Yes, she has taken a buyout and agreed to be downsized from her newly merged athletic shoe company, but she has 18 months to enjoy full pay and benefits.  Yes, she has been betrayed by her "boyfriend", Michael, an executive her company who urges her to take the severance package and then stops taking her calls, but he is a jerk and she is better off without him.  At first Noreen is at loose ends, wondering how her career had accidentally become her whole life, but then she meets neighbors Tess, an advocate of green living and air-dried laundry, and Rosie, who runs a lavender farm.  Together the three embark on a goal of 10,000 steps per day, walking in the early morning (in walking shoes from Noreen's company) while getting to know themselves and each other.  This short book was pure pleasure, a sort of coming-of-age story set 20 years later than usual.  If you enjoy novels about female friendships, pick this one up.  You'll love every minute of it!

DEATH AT HILLIARD HIGH (Carole Shmurak)

I attended an interesting talk by author Carole Shmurak a couple of years ago where she described her method of coming up with ideas for a mystery novel, things like wondering what would happen if a body fell out of that tree you are walking past right now.  Carole is a wonderful speaker and discussion leader.  She has visited out library several times to introduce her own novels and to lead our annual "Big Read" discussions of The Maltese Falcon and To Kill a Mockingbird, and she will be here again on November 18 to give us the scoop on this, her latest Susan Lombardi novel.  In this story Susan is invited by former student Shauna Thompson, now an English teacher at exclusive Hilliard High, to help solve the mystery of who is leaving Shauna, an African-American, puzzling messages clues that are obviously racial in tone and possibly dangerous.  During the process of investigating Shauna's problem, Susan (of course) becomes involved in the discovery of a body, the wife of Shauna's fellow teacher Leo Loops.  Loops has disappeared, leaving the community to conjecture about the reason: guilt, fear, or foul play?

What I love about this series is that it is set in the Hartford area with references to local towns and roadways.  Susan Lombardi is a capable, likable woman with a happy marriage, the requisite best friend, and an intelligent, resourceful approach to solving crimes.  As with Beth Groundwater's novel, I would enjoy a bit more ambience and detailed descriptions, but that's just my personal taste.  I'm a person who loves to immerse myself in the atmosphere of whatever I'm reading.  Carole's writing is clean, straightforward, and easy to enjoy.  I am looking forward to the next Susan Lombardi mystery.  I wonder if Susan's husband, Michael (Swash) Buckler, will get tired of cooking and devote himself to vintage autos instead?

TWENTIES GIRL (Sophie Kinsella)

I'm not quite sure why I delayed reading this novel by Sophie Kinsella, one of my favorite chick-lit authors.  I think it may have been because it features a ghost and my first reaction to that was, "Oh, no!  Does EVERY author now have to start featuring the paranormal?"  Well, as it turns out it was well worth the wait.  There is always something beguiling about Kinsella's heroines.  In the hands of many other authors the same characters might be shallow and fluffy, but Sophie Kinsella brings them to life in a way that makes you laugh and cry as they develop into "real" people.

Lara Lington begins as a typical chick-lit heroine, career challenged and unlucky in love, with understanding parents, an unscrupulous business partner, an ex-boyfriend whom she is convinced is "the one" (if only she can convince him!), and a host of not-so-nice relatives.  When Lara attends the funeral of her 105-year-old great-aunt Sadie she meets Sadie's ghost, a carefree, twenty-three year old flapper who cannot rest until she recovers a lost necklace, which she expects Lara to help find against seemingly impossible odds (since Lara is the only person around who can see or hear her aside from when she SCREAMS in people's ears).  With Sadie's help and interference Lara begins to see her life and her relationships in a different light.  Comedy is one of the mainstays of Kinsella's novels and no one will be disappointed here, but there is also a strong element of pathos as Lara begins to look at Sadie's life and her years in the nursing home after a stroke.  One of the best scenes in my mind is when Lara goes to Sadie's nursing home and drops off chocolates and some CDs of music from the first half of the 20th century.  When nurse Ginny starts to play one of the CDs for the residents Lara sees their reactions and suddenly envisions them as beautiful young people dancing the Charleston.  Her sudden realization that every one of them is still a young, energetic person trapped in an aged body is sort of profound, if I may use that word.  It certainly struck o chord with me!
I would wholeheartedly recommend "Twenties Girl".  It was a delightful, uplifting, and satisfying experience!

THE HELP (Katherine Stockett)

It kind of frightens me to realize that I was alive and in elementary school while real versions of these fictional events were unfolding in Mississippi.  I remember hearing about civil rights - the marches, the riots, the speeches, the violence - and seeing the headlines in the paper.  I remember my mother commenting on Martin Luther King's shooting.  My father told us the story of getting on a bus somewhere down South during World War II and being told by a black woman that he had accidentally sat in the colored section and that this was not allowed.  In the late 60's a young black man attended our small, Catholic school for one year and our reaction was fascination and an interest in how he would feel and how he would interact, whether he would feel welcome or out of place in our primarily white (with a few hispanic students) school.  Never did I imagine the kind of everyday abuse and contempt heaped so casually on "the help" and other people of color in other parts of our country.  These events were all happening somewhere else, outside the scope of my northern world.  The Help brings a whole new perspective to the struggle for equality between the races; listening to the audio version truly brings the events and characters to life. The various dialects add so much depth to the story of Aibileen, Minny, Skeeter, Hilly, Elizabeth, and all of the other characters here. 

Stockett writes The Help in the first person, with Aibileen and Minny, who are black maids in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 60's, and Skeeter, a college-educated white woman of 23, sharing narration duties.  Skeeter is an aspiring writer who failed to catch a husband in college, to her mother's despair.  She is tall and gawky and pitied by her friends, Hilly and Elizabeth, for her lack of social success.  Aibileen works for Elizabeth, a mother without a maternal bone in her body.  Aibileen comforts Elizabeth's children, cooks her meals, cleans her house, shops for her groceries, and polishes her silver.  Short, fat Minny works for Mrs. Walters, Hilly's mother, until Hilly successfully installs her mother in a nursing home and fires Minny, telling everyone that Minny is a thief and warning them not to hire her.  She finally finds employment with a woman who has secrets.  Skeeter recruits Aibileen to help her write a home cleaning column for the local paper, but eventually they end up working on a bigger project that grows to unanticipated proportions, refecting the social changes that characterize the 1960's.

The personalities of the women of  The Help are varied.  Skeeter is at once thoughtful, sympathetic, and ambitious.  Minny is sassy, Aibileen is calm and nurturing.  The women of "the league" are like a herd of sheep, unthinkingly following their leader, but I suppose that this is what they were raised to do.  Hilly is hateful, spiteful, and power-hungry, without an ounce of compassion or generosity.  I feel like I know all of them after listening to this wonderful novel.  It is complete unto itself, but I would welocme a sequel someday!

BACK ON BLOSSOM STREET (Debbie Macomber)

I couldn't resist continuing to follow Lydia's life, now as a married woman with a step-son and an improved relationship with her sister, Margaret.  I love knowing these characters and witnessing the development of Blossom Street, which began as an urban renewal project and has now "blossomed" into a beautiful little neighborhood.  I think there are more still to come, so I will be reporting on those as well.  As I have said before. I'm a sucker for novels that feature yarn and knitting!

A REAL BASKET CASE (Beth Groundwater)

This is Beth's first published mystery and it is a pretty good one.  I was bothered by the local police and their lack of initiative in looking for a killer other than Claire's husband, Roger, but this is probably not far off the mark for any seemingly open & shut case.  Overall, I found the novel intriguing.  Claire Hanover is very appealing in her desperation to prove that someone other than her husband shot Enrique despite Roger's conviction that she has been unfaithful.  She reminds me a bit of the heroines from vintage films like "The Perils of Pauline".  She is not fearless, but she takes hilarious chances that would be stupid in the real world.  Here, however, they are part of the charm of the story.  This novel would make a GREAT comedy/mystery film.  I did look at the ending, as I sometimes tend to do, because I began to suspect who was the actual killer (I was right!), for some reason.  Maybe it was feminine intuition, because it certainly wasn't any obvious clue in the story.  There WERE subtle hints in the dialogue that, in retrospect, led me to a suspect.  This novel lacks the ambience of Diane Mott Davidson's Goldy Bear culinary series, which is also based in Colorado.  I would like to see a little more reference to the setting as well as a little more affection and connection between the ongoing characters, maybe more background to fill out their relationships.  Hopefully these will evolve as the series continues.  I do look forward to reading "To Hell in a Handbasket", and finding out what pickles Claire Hanover manages to involve herself in next!

A GOOD YARN (Debbie Macomber)

A Good Yarn continues the story of cancer survivor Lydia and her customers / knitting students.  I'm really enjoying this series!

THERE GOES THE BRIDE (M.C. Beaton)

Agatha Raisin is one of my favorite sleuths, but in this 20th entry in the series (yes, I HAVE read them all), she seems a little bit tiresome and scattered.  Agatha is a 50-something tough-as-nails retired PR executive and entrepreneur who now runs her own detective agancy in Carsley, a small village in the Cotswolds.  When Agatha's ex-husband (#11, Agatha Raisin and the Love From Hell), James Lacey, becomes engaged to a much-younger woman, Agatha is invited to the festivities.  The beautiful young bride is murdered on her wedding day and Agatha becomes a prime suspect because she is thought to have been stalking James and his fiance in Istanbul.  When the bride's mother hires Agatha to find her daughter's killer she learns that neither the bride nor her parents are what they appear to be and that James was having second thoughts about his pending nuptials.

Beaton includes all of our favorite characters in this novel, including the wealthy and amoral Charles Fraith, Mrs. Bloxby, who always provides a steadying influence and voice of reason for Agatha, Toni, Agatha's young associate, and James, the infuriating ex-love.  Beaton has created a wonderful world full of quirky characters, but I think the time has come for Agatha to find true love.  I envision her continuing to worry about her waistline and aging skin, and perhaps even skulking around behind her lover's back, but she really needs someone to love her unconditionally and to provide an anchor for her life.  Agatha will always be Agatha, but she could use a little break in the love department!

LADIES OF THE LAKE (Haywood Smith)

When the free-spirited grandmother of sisters Dahlia, Iris, Violet, and Rose dies, she leaves them her dilapidated home on Lake Clare, with the stipulation that they spend 3 months living together at the house.  All of the sisters accept the challenge, deciding to rehabilitate the property to sell at the end of the summer.  The sisters are all in their fifties.  Dahlia is a ballerina turned dance teacher, the favorite of her grandmother, Cissie, and is now divorced and desperate to hang on to her house and reunite with her 18-year-old son, who has moved to the South Pacific with his father.  She and Iris, the only non-blonde sister, have always clashed over anything and everything, and this summer is no exception.  The sisters gradually learn to overcome rivalries and find the value in each other in this comic novel.  Among the more memorable incidents in the book are the discovery and disposal of 2 mummified corpses in their grandmother's cellar, the evening that sisters decide to skinny-dip in the lake. and the discovery that Ernest Hemingway might possibly be their grandfather.

Despite being a comedy, Ladies of the Lake is a richly textured study of sibling rivalry, generational angst, class consciousness, love, and community.  Haywood Smith's novels are always entertaining, but this one is exceptionally thought-provoking as well.  I recommend it!

INTERVENTION (Robin Cook)

This book is a departure for Robin Cook, starting as a medical thriller and gradually evolving into something similar in theme to the DaVinci code. Dr. Jack Stapleton and his wife, Dr. Laurie Montgomery, both NYC Medical Examiners, are the parents of a 4 month old boy with neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nerve tissue. While waiting for additional treatments to begin, Jack and Laurie consider the possibility of alternative medicine, but when Jack autopsies a healthy woman in her 20's and discovers that her death was the result of chiropractic manipulation of her neck he begins to investigate alternative therapies and their consequences. He discovers in the course of his inquiries that many people choose chiropractic or other remedies in lieu of a general practicioner/physician because these alternative practitioners are able to provide personal, unhurried care, something that is now lacking in the medical profession.

At this point in the novel I was ready for an interesting thriller about the dangers of alternative medicine used inappropriately, but this did not come to fruition (note to Robin Cook: this would make a great theme for a future novel!). Instead, Jack becomes involved with 2 old college friends, a high-ranking cardinal, James, and an anthropologist, Shawn. While attending a conference in Egypt Shawn comes across evidence that the bones of the Virgin Mary are buried in an ossuary that has been placed near the tomb of Saint Peter in the Vatican. Shawn believes that he and his wife (conveniently an expert in DNA analysis) can retrieve the ossuary and prove that the bones belong to Mary, the mother of God, who was, according to Catholic doctrine and under the cloak of Papal infallibility, assumed bodily into Heaven after her death. Cardinal James, on the other hand, fears that this venture could destroy both his career and Catholic acceptance of Papal infallibility, the notion that the Pope is free from the possibility of error in matters of Church dogma..

The whole idea that the mother of Jesus could have had other children (as evidenced by the bones) and that her bones could actually exist somewhere is an intriguing concept. I think that overall the book is well written and adequately researched. I think that the plot concerning aleternative medicine should have been developed more fully and brought to some sort of conclusion, and I believe that the ending of the drama concerning the ossuary was a little contrived. I almost felt as if Cook had gotten tired of the whole thing and wanted to finish up and move on. Overall, though, it was worth reading. Anytime I keep thinking about a book after I am done I know that it was worth my time!