Seventeen-year-old Molly Ayer enters into a community service project to keep out of juvenile hall by helping an elderly woman clean out her attic. Ninety-one-year-old Vivian Daly has a lot of memories in that attic, much of it dating back to her years as an 'orphan train' child sent to Minnesota. Molly herself is a foster child, and as they work together and share their stories, they find similar ground.
Story alternates between the depression years of Minnesota and current day Maine, with some time in Vivian's early childhood in Ireland and New York.
This was one of those binge-reading books, needed when the weather outside is a mess and all you want to do is crawl under a pile of blankets and read a good story.
Z A novel of Zelda Fitzgerald Therese Anne Fowler BCID xxx 13181488
Purchased ( as on her wishlist) for the April Southern Cross Book Exchange- a new book how could I resist? Zelda, a southern gal born and raised in Montgomery Alabama married F.Scott Fitzgerald. This is an imagining of their lives. I have not read any F. Scott Fitzgerald and I am not encouraged to do so by this impression of him- although I do know he is famous and well regarded.
This has been a slow start to this challenge as I have been foccussed on the 666 challenge. But I will get there, may take me a while however.
Z A novel of Zelda Fitzgerald Therese Anne Fowler BCID xxx 13181488
Purchased ( as on her wishlist) for the April Southern Cross Book Exchange- a new book how could I resist? Zelda, a southern gal born and raised in Montgomery Alabama married F.Scott Fitzgerald. This is an imagining of their lives. I have not read any F. Scott Fitzgerald and I am not encouraged to do so by this impression of him- although I do know he is famous and well regarded.
This has been a slow start to this challenge as I have been foccussed on the 666 challenge. But I will get there, may take me a while however.
(2) Utah, Alabama
A lot of folks are fans of Fitzgerald. I'm not one of them. I can't say exactly WHY I don't like his writing - I just don't.
Matthew King's life has been turned upside down. His wife is in a permanent coma and about to be taken off life support. His daughters are spiraling out of control. He must make a decision about an inheritance that will affect family and the local economy. And he has just found out that his wife had been having an affair. During his search for her lover and how best to deal with saying good-bye, he works to repair his relationship with his daughters and salvage what remains of his marriage.
From what I remember from seeing the movie version when it initially came out, it remained pretty faithful to the book, though I do not remember the younger daughter's behavior being quite as bad as it is in the book (could be wrong about that). A decent enough read, though I probably wouldn't have picked up this book if it wasn't for the challenge.
An interesting story about a mystery in the town of Despair, Colorado. Jack Reacher with help from Vaughn, a city of Hope policewoman look into the goings on in Despair. There's a very large scrap metal plant, a military post a few miles away, a plane that leaves almost every night, women that show up in Hope waiting for someone, and nobody from the town is the least bit friendly.
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Free download from Project Gutenberg
9-year-old orphan Elizabeth Ann has lived in the city as long as she can remember, and she has always been sheltered (not to say smothered) by her great-aunt Harriet and cousin Frances. But when Aunt Harriet becomes ill, she ends up being sent to the Putney cousins on their farm in Vermont...something "Aunt" Frances thinks is the worst possible fate for a young child.
There, the newly re-christened "Betsy" learns about things like chores (horrors!) and discovers that perhaps living with the Putneys might not be so terrible after all.
A fun read: the episode at the fair is really something.
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Additional 2015 read for Vermont:
• Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin (illustrated by Mary Azarian) Caldecott Medal winning book about one of the first people to successfully photograph individual snowflakes.
At two in the morning, Jack Reacher is riding the New York subway with five others. One lady has his attention as he thinks she might be a suiside bomber. Can he walk away? Of course not, he has to get involved and this is much more than he had imagined. A good read!
At two in the morning, Jack Reacher is riding the New York subway with five others. One lady has his attention as he thinks she might be a suiside bomber. Can he walk away? Of course not, he has to get involved and this is much more than he had imagined. A good read!
Jack Reacher is moving around the states for you, isn't he?
The St. Valentine's Day Cookie Massacre by Elisabeth Crabtree. (Read on my Kindle)
Kat gives up her job as a reporter in Miami, returning to her hometown, also located in Florida. She gets a job on the paper there, but is mainly the food critic. While attending an opening of a bakery on 2/14, she witnesses a fight, which ends with someone smashing into the display of cookies, hence the title of the book. One of the people in the fight is found murdered later that night, and Kat takes it upon herself to solve the mystery. A so-so book. There is a sequel, but I don't feel interested in it at this time.
Sent to me by bookczuk from bumma's book distribution, this one has been TBR for ages. I had labeled this author "romance" based on a previous book, but this book was really women's fiction.
Lily has been slandered in the press, by taking her words out of context. She goes back to her late grandma's house to hide from the press and heal. John, the local newspaperman, once worked with the reporter responsible for the slander - and he wants to see justice done.
Set in New Hampshire, on a lake with the loons, beautiful lyrical descriptions. If you've never heard to loons in summer, it's a haunting call that you just have to hear to believe.
Wow, the master story teller King does it again. I am a fan of King's skill as a writer. I love the way he embeds his life experiences in his characters. This story of time travel and Jake/ George's attempt to save Kennedy was riveting. A large book that never dragged for a minute and I loved the ending.
This story of time travel and Jake/ George's attempt to save Kennedy was riveting. A large book that never dragged for a minute and I loved the ending.
I didn't know that about this book. I thought it was a history book
Naturally, you learn a lot of history reading it, but I also liked it for the time travel element in it. One of those..."What would you do if you could go back and change a major event...or should you?" Well worth the time to read it.
This story of time travel and Jake/ George's attempt to save Kennedy was riveting. A large book that never dragged for a minute and I loved the ending.
I didn't know that about this book. I thought it was a history book
And I liked the examination of the "butterfly effect" if you changed one thing, what would be the impact on that person and their family in generations to come? I recommend it, am dying to share with my workmate who is Californian, I think she will enjoy all the references to music, movies, TV and products of the late 50s and early 60s. King is a great researcher in my view.
Writer A Manette Ansay had trained from childhood to be a concert pianist, until a mysterious muscle disorder forced her to abandon the piano at nineteen. This memoir traces her growing up in Wisconsin through her years of trying to discover what was wrong with her and how to adapt to a life in a wheelchair.
Probably best known for Vinegar Hill, my favorite book of hers is River Angel.
Writer A Manette Ansay had trained from childhood to be a concert pianist, until a mysterious muscle disorder forced her to abandon the piano at nineteen. This memoir traces her growing up in Wisconsin through her years of trying to discover what was wrong with her and how to adapt to a life in a wheelchair.
Probably best known for Vinegar Hill, my favorite book of hers is River Angel.
I didn't know she was disabled. I have Vinegar Hill on the never ending TBR stash.
At age 12, Howard Dully was given a transorbital lobotomy (which basically means poking a stick into your eye socket and wiggling it around to destroy parts of your brain), despite the fact that most of the doctors consulted by his stepmother thought that he was a basically normal kid. Many years later, he decided to try to figure out what happened to him, and why: this book is the result.
At age 12, Howard Dully was given a transorbital lobotomy (which basically means poking a stick into your eye socket and wiggling it around to destroy parts of your brain), despite the fact that most of the doctors consulted by his stepmother thought that he was a basically normal kid. Many years later, he decided to try to figure out what happened to him, and why: this book is the result.
I think I heard of something like this book, although I don't think it was this one.
I read Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan.
It is a very strange book, so I am not even going to try to explain it. I did find that I only wanted to read one or two chapters at a time, and then I would wander off. But I kept coming back to find the answer to the puzzle in the book.
Florida The Mayor of Lexington Avenue James Sheehan BCID xxx 11851934
The story of a miscarriage of justice when a young man with an intellectual disability is falsely accused of the murder of a woman. And the parralel story of the lawyer who 20 years later fights to get him off death row.
I work as an advocate for people with an intellectual disability so this as interesting for me. And... this very week here in New Zealand we have had the news of the Privy Council in London ruling that the confession made by Teina Pora of murder and the 20 years jaile time he served are an injustice and the confession he made was not valid due to his disability because of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.
.....this very week here in New Zealand we have had the news of the Privy Council in London ruling that the confession made by Teina Pora of murder and the 20 years jaile time he served are an injustice and the confession he made was not valid due to his disability because of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.
I hadn't heard the Fetal Alcohol syndrome could be used as a defense before.
Yes, they ruled that his confession was not reliable, due to his intellectual impairment he could be " persuaded " to say what the police wanted. A police officer retired and started campaigning for him to be released as he felt an injustice had been done.
.....this very week here in New Zealand we have had the news of the Privy Council in London ruling that the confession made by Teina Pora of murder and the 20 years jaile time he served are an injustice and the confession he made was not valid due to his disability because of Foetal Alcohol Syndrome.
I hadn't heard the Fetal Alcohol syndrome could be used as a defense before.
Murder mystery set in Sun Valley, Idaho: Sheriff Walt Fleming works with Seattle detective Lou Boldt on two cases that seem to be connected. Fleming's relationship with photographer Fiona Kenshaw adds another layer of complications.
Crimes, Spies, and Secrets... the Camel Club is looking to uncover the secrets that led to the assassination of the Speaker of the House and the director of the rare book room at the Library of Congress (who happens to be neighbors with the Speaker of the House).
Ratchetsburg Pennsylvania is the setting for this novel about a group of young adults and teens, leading desperately sad lives that have tragic outcomes, Mental health, alcoholism, fundamentalism, goths, cults, violence and bullying. Growing up, and sex. It seems to me that the author was motivated to write a book to explain the tragedy of the high school killings that haunt America. More suited for a younger reader than me perhaps I did not really feel that engaged. I did a little research and learnt that the author is Stephen King's daughter in law.
Jack Reacher has been dropped off in the middle of nowhere. Well, it's actually Nebraska and there is nothing except corn fields for miles. Shortly, thereafter, he finds himself against the local clan of the Duncans, who have terrified the entire county. At the bottom of the mystery is a old case of a missing child, never solved, and Reacher can't let it be.
In 1984, a young woman and her baby daughter were murdered in Utah by two brothers who believed that they were under orders from God to kill. The book weaves this crime with the birth and history of the Mormon religion, including the faction of Mormon Fundamentalism to which the brothers belonged.
I've had this copy for a number of years and finally got it off my to be read list. I had thought it would be more of a true crime story as opposed to a history, but knowing that I probably didn't have any other Utah-centric books on hand I kept reading. I was aware of some of the history though not the extent of the violence. An interesting read, though probably too-much-information for some.
In 1984, a young woman and her baby daughter were murdered in Utah by two brothers who believed that they were under orders from God to kill. The book weaves this crime with the birth and history of the Mormon religion, including the faction of Mormon Fundamentalism to which the brothers belonged.
I've had this copy for a number of years and finally got it off my to be read list. I had thought it would be more of a true crime story as opposed to a history, but knowing that I probably didn't have any other Utah-centric books on hand I kept reading. I was aware of some of the history though not the extent of the violence. An interesting read, though probably too-much-information for some.
Interesting. I read a Krakauer book about Mt Everest. I never thought to look for other books by him.
Bobby Dodge, a Massachusetts State Trooper, is called on a domestic violence case as a sniper. When Jimmy is seen waving a gun at his wife and son, Bobby shoots Jimmy to keep save the lives of Catherine and her son. What initially seemed like a cut and dry case of domestic violence soon turns into a case of Bobby murdering the victim. With multiple people who had an interest in Jimmy's life and/or death, it becomes apparent that no one is innocent and everyone played some part in his death.
This one wasn't the one I had marked for Maryland, but it's set there and I was reading it for the ultimate challenge this month anyway...so, I'm claiming it!
Wade's father went to prison for murder, mother deserted the family and neighbor Norm took in the angry teen. Now grown and a smokejumper, he returns to the town that hates him, when Norm is dying. He takes a room at his childhood sweetheart's house, which starts oodles of rumors. Erin is barely holding her life together, and now Wade is poking around trying to save her from her own self.
Yeah, it's a romance, but with enough plot to keep it going nicely.
This goes back to when and why Reacher left the Army. He is sent to Mississippi undercover to find out who killed a young woman. He finds that there have been 3 women murdered and no one has been charged.
This goes back to when and why Reacher left the Army. He is sent to Mississippi undercover to find out who killed a young woman. He finds that there have been 3 women murdered and no one has been charged.
I can see you're on a Reacher marathon. Are there any states that he didn't visit?
Piper Kerman's past has caught up with her. Sentenced to fifteen months at the federal penitentiary at Danbury, Connecticut, she recounts her time spent there and with the women from all walks of life that she met there.
Part mystery, part suspense, The Hangman's Knot finds the acting deputy of Falls City, Nebraska uncovering long buried secrets that certain people have worked hard to keep buried. When a noose shows up on his door step, Billy Tree figures there is a message being delivered but he doesn't know where to go to find the answer. A few days later, a postcard with the photo of a lynching arrives and the people in the photograph seem familiar. Billy isn't sure who he can trust with the information he is discovering and time seems to be running out.
hyphen8 - I'll be sending you this book. PMing you for an address
Although this was number 10 in the series, and I really haven't been reading the series, this book worked well as a stand alone. Sure, you were missing the background between reoccurring people, but you could manage. The family gets together for a reunion. Gus, a brother who has been missing for over 30 years shows up...tells a lot of lies about his lifestyle and is promptly killed. Leave it to Hannah to jump in and solve the mystery...again.
Although this was number 10 in the series, and I really haven't been reading the series, this book worked well as a stand alone. Sure, you were missing the background between reoccurring people, but you could manage. The family gets together for a reunion. Gus, a brother who has been missing for over 30 years shows up...tells a lot of lies about his lifestyle and is promptly killed. Leave it to Hannah to jump in and solve the mystery...again.
Good to know they stand alone. I have #2 on the TBR stash.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. Karen Joy Fowler BCID xxx12488944 A novel, of a family, one of whom is a chimpanzee. Fascinating imagining of what makes family and what makes us human. The family unit is destroyed as a result of a child's lie. The impact devastating and life long. Redemption is sought.
Rose Mae Lolley's mother disappeared when she was eight. Raised by an abusive father and now married to an abusive husband, Rose realizes that she is making the same mistakes over and over again. A chance meeting with a gypsy at an airport propels Rose to take action to save herself, but was it a *chance* meeting?
The setting for about 2/3s of the book is in Amarillo, Texas, with side trips to Alabama, Illinois, and ending up in California. It's possible that I should have paid closer attention to the back cover and read the author's gods in Alabama book before this one as there are carryover characters (I have the book and will be reading it shortly).
This was not the original book that I thought I would read for California - this wasn't even on the radar until I got my TBR mountain cut over into librarything and realized this was the next oldest rabck in my possession.
It's an excellent book, now on reserve for the ABC VBB, and I'm sorry that it lingered so long on the slopes of Mt TBR.
Kathy is an addict, who gets evicted from the house she inherited from her father, due to what turns out to be a mistake. In the meantime, a former colonel in the Shah's military, now relocated to America to save his family from death, buys her house for a song intending to flip it and start his real estate business. And one of the cops that supervises Kathy's eviction, just wants to be a hero. He leaves his wife and kids, takes up with Kathy and does whatever he needs to, so he can get her house back. The three lives intertwine with disastrous, tragic consequences.
Arlene Fleet fled her home, family, and past in Alabama to attend school up North and had vowed never to return. Ten years later, after a confrontation with an old rival, she returns with boyfriend in tow and with the full expectation of facing - and confessing to - her past deeds, involving family secrets and a murder.
gods in Alabama and Backseat Saints cover the same time frame - I would consider them more as companion pieces rather than novel and sequel respectively (I read Backseat Saints first).
"Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism" by Barbara Weisberg
Kindle Reader
Last summer, I spent a week in Rochester, New York, and attended my 55th high school reunion. I grew up on a street which runs near the west bank of the Genesee River. From the back windows of our house, we could look across the river to Mt. Hope Cemetery, a massive place set in the rolling hills along the east side of the Genesee.
Two of my high school pals and I decided to spend a day together, and visited the cemetery since none of us had ever been inside it. Mt. Hope is an impressive Victorian gothic cemetery. Among others, we visited the graves of Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass. The suffragists and the abolitionists were but two of the groups influential in Rochester and western New York in the middle of the 19th century.
On a map of New York State, if you draw a line from near the eastern end of Lake Ontario south to the Pennsylvania border, everything west of the line is what became known as the Burned-over District because of the area's passion for religious revivals during the Second Great Awakening. There were revivalists, like Charles Finney, and people who invented religions, like Joseph Smith of the Mormons and William Miller whose beliefs eventually led to the Seventh Day Adventists.
In addition to the religious movements there were "phrenologists, mesmerists, inspirational speakers, social and political reformers, healers, doctors, and quacks hawking their cures."
Influenced by this mixture of social and political reform, hucksterism, religious fervor and invention, the Fox sisters, Maggie (15) and Kate (11) began hearing rappings that they interpreted as messages from beyond the grave. First, the word circulated around Hydesville, their village just east of Rochester. Soon, their fame spread beyond their village, and a new movement began in the United States -- Modern Spiritualism.
These two young women, whose stories are told in "Talking to the Dead: Kate and Maggie Fox and the Rise of Spiritualism" by Barbara Weisberg, were not dismissed as charlatans by many famous people of their time, including the abolitionist Fredrick Douglass who was a great friend of theirs. Others close to them were Amy and Isaac Post, radical reformers of the day, who met regularly with Douglass, Susan B. Anthony, William Garrison, and Sojourner Truth. When visiting New York City, Maggie and Kate stayed with Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune who famously wrote, "Go West, Young Man," and his family.
Many famous people of their day attended their seances, including Jane Pierce, First Lady of the United States; James Fenimore Cooper, "The Last of the Mohicans"; Harriet Beecher Stowe, "Uncle Tom's Cabin"; George Bancroft, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, minister to England, historian; Nathaniel Tallmadge, territorial governor of Wisconsin; General Waddy Thompson, U.S. Army, congressman, minister to Mexico.
Barbara Weisberg tells Kate's and Maggie's stories as objectively as possible and leaves the reader wondering just how real or unreal the rappings and other manifestations were. The sisters were repeatedly investigated throughout their lives and, at times, asked to strip down to their nether garments. No one ever figured out or proved where the source of the rappings was or how the sisters knew the things they knew.
The first several chapters of "Stillborn" by Dale J. Young describe a road trip through the Carolina swamps by newlyweds Paul and JoAnna Stedford who are headed to the Outerbanks of North Carolina for a week-long honeymoon in a rented house. The swamp trip eerily sets the mood for what is to come when the young couple returns to Charleston, South Carolina, to begin their lives together.
Both have just graduated from the University of South Carolina. Paul is set to begin a job at as a mechanical engineer at a pump manufacturing company in Charleston, and JoAnna is about to begin a teaching career.
I enjoy books which get my heart pumping, but I am not a great fan of books which put me on edge and make my hair stand up. "Stillborn" is very much in the horror/thriller genre with a heavy dose of sex added. I've read only a couple of Stephen King books, which are not my cup of tea, and I think fans of Mr. King would love this book.
Like Stephen King books, "Stillborn" is extremely well-written with interesting and well-developed characters. It was the writing which carried me through this book, the first in the Summerland Trilogy. Summerland is mentioned once in the novel. On their honeymoon, Paul and JoAnna come upon a road which leads to Summerland, a town or maybe an amusement park, but they can't go down the road. Their car won't let them.
Because of the way "Stillborn" ends and because of the mystery surrounding Summerland, I got sucked into this whole horror mess. So now, I have to know what happens next and the ultimate conclusion to this story. I hate it when writers do this stuff to me. The second book in the trilogy, "Wicked Izzy," is set in North Carolina. Wouldn't you just know it? North Carolina is the only state for which I still needed a book!
Twelve-year-old Nicky Dillon and her father have left New York behind and moved to tiny Shepherd, New Hampshire to escape the memories of her mother and baby sister, who were killed in a car accident. Living in near isolation, their lives take a turn when, while walking in the snowy woods near Christmas, they come upon a newborn baby girl who has apparently been abandoned. After the rescue, they are visited by the infant's mother, who becomes snowbound with them.
"There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate's loot on Treasure Island . . . and best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life."
