Wolf Rider by AVI

So, this is another book with an unfortunate title. It's an excellent suspense novel - but I expected it to be about Native Americans or Eskimos or something - who else would ride a wolf.

Instead this is the story of a boy, Andy, who answers the phone one evening and is told about a gruesome murder committed by the man on the other end of the phone. But, no one believes him. NO ONE! His father thinks he's crazy, his guidance counselor thinks he is hiding his anger, the police think he's making it up, and the girl who was the victim thinks Andy is coming on to her when he tries to warn her.

This story draws on the angst and frustration of a teenager who has information that NO ONE else believes. What can he do but try to solve it himself.

This is a cliff hanger and page turner!

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

What a title - right...it's more than a mouthful. But, it is the heart and soul of this story. A story of friendship, betrayal, World War II, love and simple things.

As much as I loved it I have to confess that I can't remember the details very well. I read it all in one sitting - in my bathtub. So, needless to say there was quite a bit of skimming going on!

Basically the book follows an author who has finished a successful series and is sort of poking along for another idea. She receives a letter from a man from Guernsey (a small island off the English coast) who has a book that used to be hers. This is the start of a friendship which slowly grows as Juliet, the author, and Dawsey, the Guernsey native.

Through this friendship she learns of the five year Nazi occupation of the island, the decision to send away the island's children prior to the Nazi arrival, the prisoners who were worked to death on the island and the ways that the natives sustained themselves right under the Nazi's noses.

This is one of those books that grabs your imagination and pulls at your heart. As you find out about the austerity measures and starvation, the rules and limitations.
As Juliet travels to the island to really find out about these people. As she becomes friends and discovers who they really are and what has motivated them.

This is a great WWII book, but it's so much more than just that.

Enjoy it!!!

The Hot Flash Club by Nancy Thayer

This is the January book club book. It was my suggestion and I was a little nervous about it...I was told to make a suggestions that was light and fun to read. I was very afraid this was going to be light and dumb! But, I was pleasantly surprised. It was one that I really enjoyed. A great fast December read!

The premise is four women meet at a retirement party. They are unknown to one another. Each has been introduced to the reader in previous chapters - for some of them we know a little too much! Each lady comes to the party with fears and hesitations and a problem of some sort.

Through the course of the party they bump together - bond - decide to flee for chocolate - all in WAY to short a time. But, it's a book after all.

Each woman family problem: a daughter whose husband might be having an affair, a woman approaching the upper limits of her career and sure her coworker is attempting to run her out of her job, another whose husband really doesn't know she exists, and one who has a dream of opening her own spa. Over more than one dessert they decide to attempt to solve each others problems.

Now this sounds quite contrived and ridiculous - and actually it is. But you really get to like the women and that makes it easier to overlook the book's flaws. It's all about suspending disbelief...

My very favorite part is a wonderful description of what love is for a happily and very long married couple and how that has evolved and changed. Faye is describing what she misses most since her husband's death. It is poignant and telling - it made me believe that Thayer herself is in the midst of a very long-term and loving marriage. It brought tears to my eyes!!

This is the first of a series -and I didn't love it so much that I want to rush out and read the rest.

These is my Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 Arizona Territories by Nancy Turner

This is an EXCELLENT book!
I was a little hesitant when this book was chosen for our book club. Why did I want to read an old diary and who would ever want to live in the Arizona Territories? It had to be hot and boring!

Well - I was mistaken! Sarah is the daughter of a pioneer who believes that girls should have the same skills as boys - so she could ride and shoot and work. Her family was moving East to Texas. Yes - east...
On the way they are attacked by Indians and her papa is killed. Mama goes a little off in her head and Sarah is the one getting things done. That continues when the other family in the wagon train - a Mormon family with prissy, beautiful girls, is caught up in a terrible attack. It is Sarah who has the sense to react - much to the families dismay.

The story follows Sarah back to Arizona and her toils to begin the horse ranch her Daddy wanted. It continues through a horrible, loveless marriage, the birth of her daughter and death of her husband. It is there that Sarah thinks her life will end...but... Turner doesn't stop it there.

Woven through the tail is Captain Jack Elliot. He was army leader of the wagon train and seemed to catch Sarah's eye. He appears a time or two at her ranch - finally being rescued by Sarah after his horse had gone off a cliff and trapped him. The two love/hate/love/like each other, finally, coming together in a wonderful marriage of love and respect.

Sarah is the kind of woman I imagine I would have been back there in pioneer times. But, would I have been willing to fight off a crazed mountain man as a young girl, live through a marriage to a man in love with someone else, and brave an unknown life in the growing town of Tuscon. Probably not!

I was struck again and again at how hard these women had to work. I mean REALLY hard. Late in the story, when Sarah is wealthy, living in one of the largest houses in Tuscon she still has to slave over an a hot fire to do laundry, cook, heat water for baths... I am so happy to be able to push the button for the washer and crawl into a deep relaxing bath.

Turner has created a main character that I cared about and really wanted to know.
There are two other Sarah Prine books..Sarah's Quilt and The Star Garden. They are both in my shelves and hopefully soon on my bedside table!

The Pale Assassin by Patricia Elliott

I really wanted to like this book. It has a great title and an interesting picture of a pale heroine on the cover. But, she is not the assassin. And the book just didn't quite live up to it's potential.

There is a damsel in distress, a dashing young man, a mysterious evil older man, a hard-working and overly involved brother. All those ingredients should add up to a great story...

The story even takes place in France at a time when all the old is being overthrown by the new. It's the Revolution and the wealthy are having a hard time holding on to what they have as the poor get fed up with being hungry all the time. It's a time of sword fights, horses and carriages and even the guillotine.

So, I would challenge you to read this story and tell me what you think. Did I miss something?

Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

I am not usually a person who reads nonfiction. I read to escape, not to learn. Sounds rather bad for a librarian and teacher doesn't it!

Anyway, this book has intrigued me for a long time. I remember seeing it on a bookshelf at the High School several years ago when I was here for a school board meeting. Even though I am not paticularly interested in dead bodies, it seemed like the right time to read about corpses! You know, a cheery preChristmas read!

Actually this was a VERY interesting book. Roach has a way of presenting her facts with just enough of herself included that want to know more! The book starts with Roach visiting a retraining session for plastic surgeons on cadaver heads. And as creepy as that sounds - it really wasn't.

From there she takes us around the world to find research that depends on bodies donated to science. The subject is treated with respect - but it's not boring. Especially when she researches the ways that bodies may be 'buried' in the future...think flower beds!

If you are tired of the walking vampire stories and movies that seem to be everywhere - try a book about what REALLY happens.

Poison Study, Magic Study, Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder

I was a bit hesitant to read this series after the Storm Glass books. I liked them - but they got very predictable. These were different! I really liked the characters and the story line was much more intriguing. it may have also helped that this series actually happened before the story glass books - I read them out of order.

1 - Poison Study
2 - Magic Study
3 - Fire Study

The books follow Yelena. Her story begins as she is taken from the dungeons of Ixia to be executed for murdering her deranged orphanage master. In Ixia murder is never justified. As that moment she is given a choice to become the Commander's food taster - the one who detects if poison exists. She herself will injest a specific poison each day and recieve the antidote the next...this keeps her alive and from escaping.

This begins the saga to find out who Yelana really is...in the first book she helps to defeat a magician who has bewitched the Commander, falls in love with her Ixian keeper, Valek, and discovers that she had actually been kidnapped all those years ago. Yelana is also almost killed by a magician who is sent from the souther land of Sitia to investigate spikes of magic. As Yelana slowly understands that she has unique magic abilities she seeks out the same magician, Irys to help her.

Magic Study begins with the homecoming to her long lost parents and the reuniting with her older brother, Leif. The guilt of watching his younger sister kidnapped has warped his life almost to the point of no return. And her return did not help that. Together they travel to the Magician's Keep in Sitia for Yelena to be trained in magic. Yelana has needed to exist on her own all those years in Ixia and has a terrible time trying to follow the protocol and rules of the Master Magicians - especially Roze Featherstone the First Magician. Of course there are problems. But the biggest problem is a nasty magician named Ferde, who has been kidnapping and killing young girls to gain their magical abilities. Yelana must depend on those around her to help her defeat Ferde.

The final book, Fire Study, picks up the tale as Ferde is freed from the dungeons and takes off for the unknown Daviian Plains to rendevous with a group of disgruntled, power hungry young magicians who seek the dark power of Blood Magic to boost their ablitites. This magic requires innocent blood to be sacrificed. Yelena, Leif and a group of their friends seek to defeat this powerful band. In the quest Yelana discovers her true magical gift of Soulseeker. And faces a horrible Fire Warper - the soul who controls the underworld.

So that is the very bare bones of these books. But, that doesn't give you much of an impression of what is really in these tales.

The focus on friendship and the unexpected bonds that develop between unlikely people -even enemies. Through friendship souls are healed and destroyed. And through friendship characters discover what their potential really is - potential for good and evil.

The books also focus on magic. Magic is not the hocus pocus - say a spell and it works kind. Rather the kind that exists deep inside a person. Each person must connect with the magic source - the power blanket that wraps around the entire world. To make magic work you grab a thin strand of this power and then apply your own special gifts to it...sort of like electricity being used by different appliances. I like that idea!

And of course there is love
...family love that shapes who a person is - across miles and time.
...romantic love that takes you by surprise and reshapes you into something new and unexpected
...clan love - the loyalty that forces you to make decisions for a group, not for your self.

These are really great books - fast reads with interesting and unexpected turns!