Food Rules by Michael Pollan

From Goodreads: Michael Pollan, our nation's most trusted resource for food-related issues, offers this indispensible guide for anyone concerned about health and food. Simple, sensible, and easy to use, Food Rules is a set of memorable rules for eating wisely, many drawn from a variety of ethnic or cultural traditions. Whether at the supermarket or an all-you-can-eat-buffet, this handy, pocket-size resource is the perfect guide for anyone who would like to become more mindful of the food we eat. This was a "read in a hour" little book that held more than an hour's worth of wisdom. If only it also came with some willpower! I don't know that I learned anything new but it is all stuff that I need reinforcment with. Some snippets were mini-lessons on foods and science and others were just humorous reminders like this one: "If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't." I am very reliant on both fast food and prepared foods but go through spurts of trying to do better. When I need a push to do better, this book will be a good inspiration - it's a keeper! This works for the following challenges -


I am trying to reach 100 books this year - I've never done it before although I have come very close, click on the logo to see how I am doing for this year!





Click on the logo to see my progress towards the 2012 A to Z Reading Challenge hosted by Strawberry Splash Reviews.

The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier

From Goodreads: Never before published in the United States, this first novel is released by the critically acclaimed author of "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and "Falling Angels." Readers meet Ella Turner and Isabelle du Moulin--two women born centuries apart, yet bound by a fateful family legacy.

This story would have been wonderful except for one big struggle for me. The idea of the story was great, the characters in both the present day story and the historical part were interesting, I loved all of that. What spoiled it for me, was the style of writing the author used for the 400 years ago story. She didn't use quotation marks and a traditional format of he said/she said. She just used a dash and then the dialogue followed without attributing it to the speaker so you had to puzzle it out. I'm sure it flowed beautifully in the author's head because she had the advantage of always knowing who was talking but it was awkward for me, awkward enough to put this at the bottom of my Tracy Chevalier list. Remarkable Creatures is in first place, Burning Bright, and The Girl With the Pearl Earring are tied for second place and this one is last!
This works for the following challenges -


I am trying to reach 100 books this year - I've never done it before although I have come very close, click on the logo to see how I am doing for this year!





Click on the logo to see my progress towards the 2012 A to Z Reading Challenge hosted by Strawberry Splash Reviews.

The Lonely Mile by Allen Leverone

From Goodreads: When struggling hardware store owner Bill Ferguson witnesses a kidnapping in progress, he reacts instinctively, breaking up the crime and saving a young girl. But the kidnapper, a sociopath known as the “I-90 Killer,” escapes and vows revenge, targeting Ferguson’s own daughter as his next victim. Now one terrified father must unravel a plot that may go much deeper than he realizes, racing against time to save his only child from an unthinkable fate.

Sooo, these Kindle freebies are quite the crap shoot - this time I came up even. It was not bad (like some others), it was not outstanding (like maybe one or two over the past few years), it was good. The plot was good - not too intricate but complex enough that it held a surprise, the characters weren't incredibly developed but they were basically believable and somewhat interesting and varied from likable to incredibly creepy, and the suspense/mystery/action definitely held my attention. This was one of the times that I didn't feel like I was just plowing through to find out what happened - I enjoyed it and wanted to keep reading, my time felt well-spent!

The 2012 E-Book Reading Challenge is hosted by Sarah at Workaday Reads. Click on the logo to see my progress.





I am trying to reach 100 books this year - I've never done it before although I have come very close, click on the logo to see how I am doing for this year!





Click on the logo to see my progress towards the 2012 A to Z Reading Challenge hosted by Strawberry Splash Reviews.

Heavenly by Jennifer Laurens

From Goodreads: Zoe's sister darts in front of cars. Her brother's a pothead. Her parents are so overwhelmed; they don't see Zoe lost in her broken life. Zoe escapes the only way she knows how: partying. Matthias, a guardian sent from Heaven, watches over Zoe's autistic sister. After Zoe is convinced he's legit, angel and lost girl come together in a love that changes destiny. But Heaven on Earth can't last forever.

So bad, so very very bad....and yet there are 458 5-star reviews on Goodreads so maybe it's just me? I thought I would like this one because it has a family dealing with autism, a subject near and dear to my special education entrenched heart. But that was just a small part of the story. And it had teens doing bad things like drinking and drugs - hmm, a little bit of that around here these days as well (heavy sigh). But again - that was just a little part. It seemed like everything that interested me was just a side note to Zoe, the human girl, and Matthias, the angel, pining away for each other - yuck! It was torture to finish but I kept going thinking, "It has got to get better," but it never did. Needless to say I won't be picking up the next one in the series but the author needn't worry because hundreds of other folks will!

The 2012 E-Book Reading Challenge is hosted by Sarah at Workaday Reads. Click on the logo to see my progress.





I am trying to reach 100 books this year - I've never done it before although I have come very close, click on the logo to see how I am doing for this year!





Click on the logo to see my progress towards the 2012 A to Z Reading Challenge hosted by Strawberry Splash Reviews.

Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran

From Goodreads: The world knows Madame Tussaud as a wax artist extraordinaire . . . but who was this woman who became one of the most famous sculptresses of all time? In these pages, her tumultuous and amazing story comes to life as only Michelle Moran can tell it. The year is 1788, and a revolution is about to begin. Spanning five years, from the budding revolution to the Reign of Terror, Madame Tussaud brings us into the world of an incredible heroine whose talent for wax modeling saved her life and preserved the faces of a vanished kingdom.

My face to face book club decided to regroup and go back to the assigned book format versus the freewheeling read what you like version we had been doing. I hosted first and this is the book I chose and ,(whew!), it turned out great. I have loved the other Michelle Moran books I've read so I was feeling pretty confident that it would be interesting and entertaining and we had read another French Revolution book, Abundance, back in our old book club days and everyone liked that one.

Despite the fact that I read quite a bit of historical fiction, I always learn something new and this was no exception. It also never ceases to amaze me how dreadfully unclean everything was back then. Reading about the hangers on at the palace urinating in the halls and going such long periods without bathing leaves me feeling so grateful for the wonders of indoor plumbing. The details of the blood and gore of the French revolution were eye popping. We debated quite a bit about how close or far we are (depending on your opinion) from the people who carried the heads on pikes through the streets during the French revolution. We were pretty split with some ladies thinking that was beyond the pale in this day and age and others thinking they could imagine it happening easily with all the tension in the world today.

This works for the following challenges -


I am trying to reach 100 books this year - I've never done it before although I have come very close, click on the logo to see how I am doing for this year!











Click on the logo to see my progress towards the 2012 A to Z Reading Challenge hosted by Strawberry Splash Reviews.

After the Leaves Fall by Nicole Baart

From Goodreads: Julia DeSmit can't wait for her life to begin. After her mother leaves when Julia is nine years old, she's raised by an unassuming, gentle father and a saintly, matriarchal grandmother until her father dies just as Julia is becoming a young adult.
On the cusp of womanhood, Julia feels jaded by her circumstances and longs for a new identity. College seems like the perfect place to start over. But when Julia makes a mistake that will change her life forever, she returns to her grandmother's farm, defeated and convinced of her own worthlessness. Only through the gentle prodding of her loving grandmother does Julia begin to accept the imprint her childhood has left on her life and look for hope in a loving God who longs to make all things new.

If I had read the description a little more carefully, I would have seen that this was Christian fiction. Despite being a Christian and liking fiction...Christian fiction just really isn't my thing. The first half of the book caught my attention, it was a basic coming of age story with hardship and unrequited love and all the teary angsty stuff I enjoy but with a dollop of faith discussion that was just right. But then the second half of the book, the preaching began taking first place and the story seemed neglected to second place and it all fell apart for me. It wasn't that it was bad, it's just not what I would choose. I have heard that this is the first book in a trilogy, I may grab the second if it come sup as a freebie on my Kindle list, I am curious how things are going to turn out. If there is a next time, I will be going in knowing what to expect and thus will be in the proper mind set to enjoy it for what it is rather than what I wish it could be.


The 2012 E-Book Reading Challenge is hosted by Sarah at Workaday Reads. Click on the logo to see my progress.





I am trying to reach 100 books this year - I've never done it before although I have come very close, click on the logo to see how I am doing for this year!





Click on the logo to see my progress towards the 2012 A to Z Reading Challenge hosted by Strawberry Splash Reviews.

The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber

From Goodreads: Four lives knit together ...There's a little shop on Blossom Street in Seattle called A Good Yarn. You go there to buy knitting supplies and patterns -- and now it's offering a knitting class. The first lesson: how to knit a baby blanket.
For owner Lydia Hoffman, the shop represents her dream of beginning a new life free from the cancer that has ravaged her twice. A life that offers a chance at love ... and maybe marriage.
Jacqueline Donovan is stuck in a marriage that has dwindled into an arrangement of separate rooms and separate lives. She disapproves of the woman married to her only son, but if she knits a baby blanket, she can at least pretend to like her pregnant daughter-in-law.
For Carol Girard, the baby blanket brings a message of hope as she and her husband make a final attempt at in vitro pregnancy.
And tense-looking Alix Townsend -- that's Alix with an "i" -- is learning to knit her blanket for her court-ordered community service project.
Brought together by an age-old craft, these four women make unexpected discoveries -- about themselves and each other. Discoveries that lead to love, to friendship and acceptance, to laughter and dreams.

I randomly bought an audiobook at a tag sale like I have done a hundred times but this was different because I accidentally stumbled onto the FIRST book of a series rather than something in the middle - hooray! I really enjoyed this one! It was fairly predictable (actually that should probably say VERY predictable - I think I knew how everyone's story would turn out within moments of beginning!) but for a listen in the car when I am only half paying attention, predictable is not a bad thing. I'm not going to go out and search for the next books in the series...it wasn't THAT good, but I will keep one eye open for them!

Here's the author's website.

This one counts for the following challenges..

The audiobook challenge is hosted by Teresa at Teresa's Reading Corner, click on the logo to see my progress.


I am trying to reach 100 books this year - I've never done it before although I have come very close, click on the logo to see how I am doing for this year!







Click on the logo to see my progress towards the 2012 A to Z Reading Challenge hosted by Strawberry Splash Reviews.

Dashing Through The Snow by Carol Higgins Clark and Mary Higgins Clark

From Goodreads: In the picturesque village of Branscombe, New Hampshire, the townsfolk are all pitching in to prepare for the first (and many hope annual) Festival of Joy. The night before the festival begins, a group of employees at the local market learn that they have won $160 million in the lottery. One of their co-workers, Duncan, decided at the last minute, on the advice of a pair of crooks masquerading as financial advisers, not to play. Then he goes missing. A second winning lottery ticket was purchased in the next town, but the winner hasn't come forward. Could Duncan have secretly bought it?

This was a win from Teresa's Reading Corner, Teresa is also the hostess of the Audiobook Challenge. The Higgins-Clark mother-daughter team comes out with one of these books every Christmas, Christmas themed cozy mysteries. The characters were familiar faces from other Christmas books by this duo and the plot is nothing strenuous - it's just Christmas fun. But, this one was less fun than the others I have read mainly because it wasn't in print, it was on audio read by Carol Higgins Clark and her voice was a distraction. I've never been a huge fan of authors reading their own work and this is an example of why I don't like it. She has a Jersey girl accent that is fine when she is reading a character from that part of the country but when she is reading narration - descriptions and such - it is distracting to this Southern girl. She probably thinks her voice has is very plain but it just isn't! So I would have enjoyed this one more in print but it was still pleasant enough on audio.

This one counts for the following challenges..

The audiobook challenge is hosted by Teresa at Teresa's Reading Corner, click on the logo to see my progress.


I am trying to reach 100 books this year - I've never done it before although I have come very close, click on the logo to see how I am doing for this year!





Click on the logo to see my progress towards the 2012 A to Z Reading Challenge hosted by Strawberry Splash Reviews.

The Things We Do For Love by Kristin Hannah

From Goodreads: Years of trying unsuccessfully to conceive a child have broken more than Angie DeSaria’s heart. Following a painful divorce, she moves back to her small Pacific Northwest hometown and takes over management of her family’s restaurant. In West End, where life rises and falls like the tides, Angie’s fortunes will drastically change yet again when she meets and befriends a troubled young woman.
Angie hires Lauren Ribido because she sees something special in the seventeen-year-old. They quickly form a deep bond, and when Lauren is abandoned by her mother, Angie offers the girl a place to stay. But nothing could have prepared Angie for the far-reaching repercussions of this act of kindness. Together, these two women—one who longs for a child and the other who longs for a mother’s love—will be tested in ways that neither could have imagined.

I read Firefly Lane last year and enjoyed it very much, then I read Winter Garden just last week and was underwhelmed. This one puts Kristin Hannah back on my good list. Some of the reviews I read were vehement in their dislike but I was very moved by the story and the tears poured the final quarter of the book. Maybe I am old enough to have seen women go through the trials of infertility and how alcohol can destroy a family, all the combustible emotions that felt flat with some readers felt pretty real to me - I liked and cared about the characters and thought Hannah did a great job with this one.

This works for the following challenges -
I am trying to reach 100 books this year - I've never done it before although I have come very close, click on the logo to see how I am doing for this year!





Click on the logo to see my progress towards the 2012 A to Z Reading Challenge hosted by Strawberry Splash Reviews.

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith

From Goodreads: There is rarely a dull moment in the life of Precious Ramotswe, and on Zebra Drive and Tlokweng Road many changes are afoot. Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni wants be put in charge of a case involving an errant husband, and Mma Makutsi is considering leaving the agency, taking her near perfect score on the Botswana Secretarial College typing exam with her. Meanwhile, Mma Ramotswe has been asked to investigate a series of unexpected deaths at the hospital in Mochudi. Along the way, she encounters other tricky mysteries, and once again displays her undying love for Botswana, a country of which she is justly proud.

Finishing this series is going smooth and quick thus far. This one was good, just like the last few. To keep my enjoyment level high, I figure I will need to take a break before they get stale. Maybe just one more before I go on a self-imposed Ladies Detective Agency sabbatical!

I am trying to reach 100 books this year - I've never done it before although I have come very close, click on the logo to see how I am doing for this year!



Click on the logo to see my progress towards the 2012 A to Z Reading Challenge hosted by Strawberry Splash Reviews.






The Finishing the Series Challenge is hosted by Yvonne on a dedicated blog here. Click on the logo to see my progress.

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

From Goodreads: Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard: the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only connection between them was the Russian fairy tale Anya sometimes told the girls at night. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise from the women in his life: the fairy tale will be told one last time - and all the way to the end. Thus begins an unexpected journey into the truth of Anya's life in war-torn Leningrad, more than five decades ago. Alternating between the past and present, Meredith and Nina will finally hear the singular, harrowing story of their mother's life, and what they learn is a secret so terrible and terrifying that it will shake the very foundation of their family and change who they believe they are.

I have mixed feelings about this one. It was one of those that has two story lines running - one in the present and another historical. The first half of the book, the contemporary characters were completely unlikeable. As the book progresses and more is revealed, you start to understand them but I never got past my initial distaste in order to appreciate them. The other storyline, the historical one is initially told as a fairy tale; that was inventive, I have never seen that before. I enjoyed this part of the book quite a bit. Set in Russia during the first World War, this story was compelling and heart breaking, I cried for those characters.

This works for the following challenges -
I am trying to reach 100 books this year - I've never done it before although I have come very close, click on the logo to see how I am doing for this year!





Click on the logo to see my progress towards the 2012 A to Z Reading Challenge hosted by Strawberry Splash Reviews.

A-Z Reading Challenge

I'm in but the challenge I have done for the last two years appears to be gone! So I checked out A Novel Challenge and found this one over at Strawberry Splash Reviews. She sounds very excited to host the challenge so maybe I can try to be a little more particpatory than I have in years past, maybe.

Here's where I will keep track of my books...game on!
(Italics is "I' have this in my TBR pile, maybe this will work", a link is "I actually read this!")
A- After the Leaves Fall
B- Blue Shoes and Happiness
C- Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter
D- Dashing Through the Snow
E- Evidence
F- Food Rules
G- The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
H- Heavenly
I- In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
J- Just a Guy
K- Ketchup is a Vegetable
L- The Lonely Mile
M- Madame Tussaud
N- Night Swim
O- The Other Boleyn Girl
P- The Paris Wife
Q- Quiver of Arrows
R- Rumour Has It
S- The Shop on Blossom Street
T- The Things We Do For Love
U- Uglies
V- The Virgin Blue
W- Winter Garden
X- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Y- Your Two Year Old
Z- A Girl Named Zippy