The Orchid House

Author: Lucinda Riley
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Atria Books, 2012
Pages: 464
Rating: Highly Recommend


Synopsis: Spanning from the 1930s to the present day, from the Wharton Park estate in England to Thailand, this sweeping novel tells the tale of a concert pianist and the aristocratic Crawford family, whose shocking secrets are revealed, leading to devastating consequences.

As a child, concert pianist Julia Forrester spent many idyllic hours in the hothouse of Wharton Park, the grand estate where her grandfather tended exotic orchids. Years later, while struggling with overwhelming grief over the death of her husband and young child, she returns to this tranquil place. There she reunites with Kit Crawford, heir to the estate and her possible salvation.

When they discover an old diary, Julia seeks out her grandmother to learn the truth behind a love affair that almost destroyed the estate. Their search takes them back to the 1940s when Harry, a former heir to Wharton Park, married his young society bride, Olivia, on the eve of World War II. When the two lovers are cruelly separated, the impact will be felt for generations to come.

This atmospheric story alternates between the magical world of Wharton Park and Thailand during World War II. Filled with twists and turns, passions and lies, and ultimately redemption, The Orchid House is a beautiful, romantic, and poignant novel.

Review: FABULOUS. What an amazing story. No wonder it's an international best seller. I wish I had Lucinda Riley's talent for storytelling.

Mystery, romance, adventure. This book has it all.

I rarely scramble to read an author back-to-back, but I'm wondering how I'm going to wait for her next novel which isn't due out until October.

Nothing Daunted

Author: Dorothy Wickenden
Genre: Historical Biography
Publisher: Scribner, 2011
Pages: 304
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: In the summer of 1916, Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood, bored by society luncheons, charity work, and the effete men who courted them, left their families in Auburn, New York, to teach school in the wilds of northwestern Colorado. They lived with a family of homesteaders in the Elkhead Mountains and rode to school on horseback, often in blinding blizzards. Their students walked or skied, in tattered clothes and shoes tied together with string. The young cattle rancher who had lured them west, Ferry Carpenter, had promised them the adventure of a lifetime. He hadn’t let on that they would be considered dazzling prospective brides for the locals.

Nearly a hundred years later, Dorothy Wickenden, the granddaughter of Dorothy Woodruff, found the teachers’ buoyant letters home, which captured the voices of the pioneer women, the children, and other unforgettable people the women got to know. In reconstructing their journey, Wickenden has created an exhilarating saga about two intrepid women and the “settling up” of the West.

Review: This book is the culmination of extensive research. What a reward.

Our lives are really just a snapshot in time. The women in this book come alive and left me longing in for a simpler time. They also grabbed life by the horns and experienced adventures most people only read about.

Charlotte au Chocolat

Author: Charlotte Silver
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Penguin Group, 2012
Pages: 258
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Like Eloise growing up in the Plaza Hotel, Charlotte Silver grew up in her mother's restaurant. Located in Harvard Square, Upstairs at the Pudding was a confection of pink linen tablecloths and twinkling chandeliers, a decadent backdrop for childhood. Over dinners of foie gras and Dover sole, always served with a Shirley Temple, Charlotte kept company with a rotating cast of eccentric staff members. After dinner, in her frilly party dress, she often caught a nap under the bar until closing time. Her one constant was her glamorous, indomitable mother, nicknamed "Patton in Pumps," a wasp-waisted woman in cocktail dress and stilettos who shouldered the burden of raising a family and running a kitchen. Charlotte's unconventional upbringing takes its toll, and as she grows up she wishes her increasingly busy mother were more of a presence in her life. But when the restaurant-forever teetering on the brink of financial collapse-looks as if it may finally be closing, Charlotte comes to realize the sacrifices her mother has made to keep the family and restaurant afloat and gains a new appreciation of the world her mother has built.

Infectious, charming, and at times wistful, Charlotte au Chocolat is a celebration of the magic of a beautiful presentation and the virtues of good manners, as well as a loving tribute to the author's mother-a woman who always showed her best face to the world.

Review: In a word. . .disappointing.


The prologue had such promise, and I hung in there, waiting for this to get good. It wasn't terrible, but I kept wondering. . ."where's the lesson", "where's the reflection". It felt more like a fiction novel  than a memoir.


The first purpose of a memoir is to entertain. Sure, there's more in it for author's than pure entertainment, but in order to keep an audience they must be entertained. This was lacking true entertainment value.


There are better memoirs out there. Keep looking.

Worth Fighting For

Author: Lisa Niemi Swayze
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Atria, 2012
Pages: 336
Rating: Highly Recommend


Synopsis: Lisa Niemi and Patrick Swayze were married for thirty-four years. When they first exchanged vows, Lisa promised to be with her husband “till death do us part.” Worth Fighting For is a remarkably candid look at what losing a partner really entails—how to care for him or her, how to make it through each day without falling into despair, and how to move forward.

Lisa Niemi Swayze shares the details of Patrick’s twenty-one-month battle with Stage IV pancreatic cancer, and she describes his last days, when she simply tried to keep him comfortable. She writes with heartbreaking honesty about her grief in the aftermath of Patrick’s death, and she openly discusses the challenges that the years without him have posed.

While this is an emotionally honest and unflinching depiction of illness and loss, it is also a hopeful and life-affirming exploration of the power of the human spirit. Like The Year of Magical Thinking and A Widow’s Story, this book is both a tribute to a singular marriage and a celebration of the healing power that each day holds, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Review: I have a stack of 15 books at home and knowing that I probably won't get through all of them before my final class in my master's program begins I have to pick the ones that seem the most interesting and focus on them.


I read the book jacket and the synopsis and I just wasn't sure if this one would make the cut, but I decided to read the first chapter and see if it was any good. (I still contend that in most cases if a book doesn't have me hooked on page 1, it's probably not going to get any better.)

I was reeled in, hook, line, and sinker by the end of page 1 and had to keep reading. It was almost midnight (I have a rule to not read after midnight - no book or ending makes 3 or 4 hours of sleep worth it the next day). I read through Chapter 3 and reluctantly put the book down for the night.

Lisa's writing style and conversational tone are perfect for a memoir. Plus, I had loved Patrick Swayze since Dirty Dancing and just recently re-watched that movie for probably the 5,000th time.

Can't believe I almost let this one go without reading it. If you love a good memoir, this one won't let you down.

PS - Expect to cry. It's impossible not to, and may we all be so lucky to find a love as strong as theirs.

Juliette Gordon Lowe

Author: Stacy A. Cordery
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Penguin Group, 2012
Pages: 400
Rating: Recommend


Synopsis: In celebration of the Girl Scouts' centennial, a lively salute to its maverick founder.

Born at the start of the Civil War, Juliette Gordon Low grew up in Georgia, where she struggled to reconcile being a good Southern belle with her desire to run barefoot through the fields. Deafened by an accident, "Daisy" married a dashing British aristocrat and moved to England. But she was ultimately betrayed by her husband and dissatisfied by the aimlessness of privileged life. Her search for a greater purpose ended when she met Robert Baden-Powell, war hero, adventurer, and founder of the Boy Scouts. Captivated with his program, Daisy aimed to instill the same useful skills and moral values in young girls-with an emphasis on fun. She imported the Boy Scouts' sister organization, the Girl Guides, to Savannah in 1912. Rechristened the Girl Scouts, it grew rapidly because of Juliette Low's unquenchable determination and energetic, charismatic leadership.

In Juliette Gordon Low, Cordery paints a dynamic portrait of an intriguing woman and a true pioneer whose work touched the lives of millions of girls and women around the world.

Review: I have a thing for visiting the homes of famous or historically significant people. I believe this interest started with my visit to Juliette Gordon Low's birthplace in Savannah, Georgia when I was in third grade. We were just passing through on our way to Orlando, Florida. Since I was in Girl Scouts and my mom was a troop leader, my parents thought this might make an interesting stop.


This is the 100 year anniversary of the Girl Scout Organization and I thought it fitting to read this newly published novel.

This biography started out strong, but somewhere in the middle I just wanted it to end. I'm not sure what kept me reading it (as an English major I read far too many books because I had to and now I read solely for pleasure). However, I'm glad I stuck with it. Once the author delved into the creation of Girl Scouting and how tireless Daisy was to grow the organization, it was fascinating on many levels.

It's interesting history, it's place in world/US History, and just how clear it is to me that some people are destined to do great things. The stars align and somehow, someway a vision becomes reality.

I wish Gordon Low would have written a memoir. It was would have been a fascinating read. It's probably the one thing in her life she didn't do.

Highly recommend this for all Girl Scouts or former girl scouts, but for the general population. . .recommend.

11/22/63

Author: Stephen King
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Scribner, 2011
Pages: 864
Rating: Highly Recommended


Synopsis: On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back?

In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King—who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer—takes readers on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

It begins with Jake Epping, a thirty-five-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching GED classes. He asks his students to write about an event that changed their lives, and one essay blows him away—a gruesome, harrowing story about the night more than fifty years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a sledgehammer. Reading the essay is a watershed moment for Jake, his life—like Harry’s, like America’s in 1963—turning on a dime. Not much later his friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958. And Al enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson, in a different world of Ike and JFK and Elvis, of big American cars and sock hops and cigarette smoke everywhere. From the dank little city of Derry, Maine (where there’s Dunning business to conduct), to the warmhearted small town of Jodie, Texas, where Jake falls dangerously in love, every turn is leading eventually, of course, to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and to Dallas, where the past becomes heart-stoppingly suspenseful, and where history might not be history anymore. Time-travel has never been so believable. Or so terrifying.

Review: My first Stephen King novel and I thought it was excellent. It's no wonder he's such a successful author - what an amazing storyteller. 


This one is a page turner - only took me about 2 days to read 842 pages, and I hung on every word. The ending wrapped everything up quite nicely, but I still felt let down a little. I wanted "more".

I did love this novel though.