The Island

Author: Elin Hilderbrand
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Little, Brown, and Company, 2011
Pages: 512
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Birdie Cousins has thrown herself into the details of her daughter Chess's lavish wedding, from the floating dance floor in her Connecticut back yard to the color of the cocktail napkins. Like any mother of a bride-to-be, she is weathering the storms of excitement and chaos, tears and joy. But Birdie, a woman who prides herself on preparing for every possibility, could never have predicted the late-night phone call from Chess, abruptly announcing that she's cancelled her engagement.

It's only the first hint of what will be a summer of upheavals and revelations. Before the dust has even begun to settle, far worse news arrives, sending Chess into a tailspin of despair. Reluctantly taking a break from the first new romance she's embarked on since the recent end of her 30-year marriage, Birdie circles the wagons and enlists the help of her younger daughter Tate and her own sister India. Soon all four are headed for beautiful, rustic Tuckernuck Island, off the coast of Nantucket, where their family has summered for generations. No phones, no television, no grocery store - a place without distractions where they can escape their troubles.

But throw sisters, daughters, ex-lovers, and long-kept secrets onto a remote island, and what might sound like a peaceful getaway becomes much more. Before summer has ended, dramatic truths are uncovered, old loves are rekindled, and new loves make themselves known. It's a summertime story only Elin Hilderbrand can tell, filled with the heartache, laughter, and surprises that have made her page-turning, bestselling novels as much a part of summer as a long afternoon on a sunny beach.

Review: This was my choice for a book set on an island from my 2016 Reading Challenge. This is the second Elin Hilderbrand novel I've read (The Castaways was my first). Generally I like a little more substance in my fiction, but these are fun beach/summer reads and move quickly.

Other Elin Hilderbrand Novels:
The Five-Star Weekend
Summer of '69
The Blue Bistro
Golden Girl
The Hotel Nantucket
The Castaways

The Winter Street Series
Winter Street
Winter Stroll
Winter Storms
Winter Solstice

The Winter in Paradise Trilogy
Winter in Paradise
What Happens in Paradise
Troubles in Paradise

In the Beginning was the Sea

Author: Tomas Gonzalez

Genre: Satire

Publisher: Steerforth Press, 2015

Pages: 224

Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: The young intellectuals J. and Elena leave behind their comfortable lives, the parties and the money in Medellín to settle down on a remote island. Their plan is to lead the Good Life, self-sufficient and close to nature. But from the very start, each day brings small defeats and imperceptible dramas, which gradually turn paradise into hell, as their surroundings inexorably claim back every inch of the 'civilisation' they brought with them. Based on a true story, In the Beginning Was the Sea is a dramatic and searingly ironic account of the disastrous encounter of intellectual struggle with reality - a satire of hippyism, ecological fantasies, and of the very idea that man can control fate.

Review: From my 2016 Reading Challenge, this was my choice for a book translated into English. I found this book to be entertaining in that all I could picture were families or couples from House Hunters International on HGTV, a show Sal and I watch from time to time. One particular family stands out to me. Their daughter loved horses, but it was too expensive for them to own horses in Texas so they picked up and moved to Panama. The final clip showed them with a pasture full of horses, living the dream. This book was how I picture life will be for them once the novelty wears off. I thought it was great.

The Sleeper and the Spindle

Author: Neil Gaiman

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishing, 2015

Pages: 64

Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: In this captivating and darkly funny tale, Neil Gaiman and Chris Riddell have twisted together the familiar and the new as well as the beautiful and the wicked to tell a brilliant version of Snow White's (sort of) and Sleeping Beauty's (almost) stories.

This story was originally published (without illustrations) in Rags & Bones (Little, Brown, 2013). This is the first time it is being published as an illustrated, stand-alone edition, and the book is a beautiful work of art.

Review: I started my 2016 Reading Challenge a little early. This was the first book on my list, "a book based on a fairy tale." I don't typically read such things and was sort of dreading this category, but I loved the re-imagined or fleshed out tale of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. 

I started this book when Sal said he was going to go get a shower. I was done by the time he came downstairs after, so it's not a huge time commitment. I was sorry it was so short actually since it had left me wanting more. That's why I typically don't read short stories.

The illustrations are true works of art as well. Enjoy!

Love Anthony

Author: Lisa Genova
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2012
Pages: 309
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In an insightful, deeply human story reminiscent of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, Daniel Isn't Talking, and The Reason I Jump, New York Times bestselling author and neuroscientiest Lisa Genova offers a unique perspective in fiction - the extraordinary voice of Anthony, a nonverbal boy with autism. Anthony reveals a neurologically plausible peek inside the of autism, why he hates pronouns, why he loves swinging and the number three, how he experiences routine, joy, and love. And it is the voice of this voiceless boy that guides two women in this powerfully unforgettable story to discover the universal story truths that connect us all. 

Review: Lisa Genova just doesn't disappoint. This wasn't my favorite of her books that I've read this far, but it was still excellent reading. 

Inside the O'Briens

Author: Lisa Genova
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2015
Pages: 352
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: From the New York Times bestselling author of Still Alice Lisa Genova comes a powerful and transcendent new novel about a family struggling with the impact of Huntington’s disease.

Joe O’Brien is a forty-four-year-old police officer from the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their twenties, and respected officer, Joe begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family’s lives forever: Huntington’s disease.

Huntington’s is a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure. Each of Joe’s four children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting their father’s disease, and a simple blood test can reveal their genetic fate. While watching her potential future in her father’s escalating symptoms, twenty-one-year-old daughter Katie struggles with the questions this test imposes on her young adult life. Does she want to know? What if she’s gene positive? Can she live with the constant anxiety of not knowing?

As Joe’s symptoms worsen and he’s eventually stripped of his badge and more, Joe struggles to maintain hope and a sense of purpose, while Katie and her siblings must find the courage to either live a life “at risk” or learn their fate.

Praised for writing that “explores the resilience of the human spirit” (The San Francisco Chronicle), Lisa Genova has once again delivered a novel as powerful and unforgettable as the human insights at its core.

Review: I drank the Genova Kool-Aid. I don't think this author can write a bad book. I felt a little ripped off by this ending, but on the other hand, it's actually brilliant. Good luck putting this one down before you turn the last page.

Orphan #8

Author: Kim van Alkemade
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2015
Pages: 416
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In this stunning new historical novel inspired by true events, Kim van Alkemade tells the fascinating story of a woman who must choose between revenge and mercy when she encounters the doctor who subjected her to dangerous medical experiments in a New York City Jewish orphanage years before.

In 1919, Rachel Rabinowitz is a vivacious four-year-old living with her family in a crowded tenement on New York City’s Lower Eastside. When tragedy strikes, Rachel is separated from her brother Sam and sent to a Jewish orphanage where Dr. Mildred Solomon is conducting medical research. Subjected to X-ray treatments that leave her disfigured, Rachel suffers years of cruel harassment from the other orphans. But when she turns fifteen, she runs away to Colorado hoping to find the brother she lost and discovers a family she never knew she had.

Though Rachel believes she’s shut out her painful childhood memories, years later she is confronted with her dark past when she becomes a nurse at Manhattan’s Old Hebrews Home and her patient is none other than the elderly, cancer-stricken Dr. Solomon. Rachel becomes obsessed with making Dr. Solomon acknowledge, and pay for, her wrongdoing. But each passing hour Rachel spends with the old doctor reveal to Rachel the complexities of her own nature. She realizes that a person’s fate—to be one who inflicts harm or one who heals—is not always set in stone.

Lush in historical detail, rich in atmosphere and based on true events, Orphan #8 is a powerful, affecting novel of the unexpected choices we are compelled to make that can shape our destinies.

Review: I thought this was a good book until I started considering all the research that must have gone into it, and some of the creative events that happened. I flipped to the back of the book and that's when I read that the plot and characters were inspired events and circumstances that had actually happened to members of the author's family, long ago and far away. She had photographs and details about her family written in an extra chapter. It was fascinating.

This is thought-provoking and controversial at almost every turn.

I could have done without the "leave nothing to the imagination" lesbian sex details (and that's the reason this "only" gets a "recommend" rating), but I'm not one for reading about the details of sex regardless. Just not my thing. The theme of homosexuality itself didn't bother me, but the details did. So there you have it.

Black-Eyed Susans

Author: Julia Heaberlin
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Random House Publishing, 2015
Pages: 368
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: I am the star of screaming headlines and campfire ghost stories. I am one of the four Black-Eyed Susans. The lucky one.

As a sixteen-year-old, Tessa Cartwright was found in a Texas field, barely alive amid a scattering of bones, with only fragments of memory as to how she got there. Ever since, the press has pursued her as the lone surviving “Black-Eyed Susan,” the nickname given to the murder victims because of the yellow carpet of wildflowers that flourished above their shared grave. Tessa’s testimony about those tragic hours put a man on death row.

Now, almost two decades later, Tessa is an artist and single mother. In the desolate cold of February, she is shocked to discover a freshly planted patch of black-eyed susans—a summertime bloom—just outside her bedroom window. Terrified at the implications—that she sent the wrong man to prison and the real killer remains at large—Tessa turns to the lawyers working to exonerate the man awaiting execution. But the flowers alone are not proof enough, and the forensic investigation of the still-unidentified bones is progressing too slowly. An innocent life hangs in the balance. The legal team appeals to Tessa to undergo hypnosis to retrieve lost memories—and to share the drawings she produced as part of an experimental therapy shortly after her rescue.

What they don’t know is that Tessa and the scared, fragile girl she was have built a fortress of secrets. As the clock ticks toward the execution, Tessa fears for her sanity, but even more for the safety of her teenaged daughter. Is a serial killer still roaming free, taunting Tessa with a trail of clues? She has no choice but to confront old ghosts and lingering nightmares to finally discover what really happened that night.

Shocking, intense, and utterly original, Black-Eyed Susans is a dazzling psychological thriller, seamlessly weaving past and present in a searing tale of a young woman whose harrowing memories remain in a field of flowers—as a killer makes a chilling return to his garden.

Review: Although I will never look at black-eyed susans the same, probably for the rest of my life, this was a fantastic read. This was heavily researched as far as CSI and forensics go, and the story itself was engrossing. I flew through the final pages.

Ida Tarbell

Author: Emily Arnold McCully
Genre: Biography
Publisher: Clarion Books, 2014
Pages: 288
Rating: Do Not Recommend

Synopsis: Born in 1857 and raised in oil country, Ida M. Tarbell was one of the first investigative journalists and probably the most influential in her time. Her series of articles on the Standard Oil Trust, a complicated business empire run by John D. Rockefeller, revealed to readers the underhanded, even illegal practices that had led to Rockefeller's success. Rejecting the term "muckraker" to describe her profession, she went on to achieve remarkable prominence for a woman of her generation as a writer and shaper of public opinion. This biography offers an engrossing portrait of a trailblazer in a man's world who left her mark on the American consciousness.

Review: More textbook than novel, this is written to young adults, which probably made it more palpable. Growing up in the "oil region," not far from Titusville, PA, Ida Tarbell was a household name. I knew of her, but not much about her. I can't imagine this will appeal to many readers for pleasure reading, but I got through it. I hadn't realized Tarbell was so influential or so well-known.

Pioneer Girl

Author: Laura Ingalls Wilder

Editor: Pamela Smith Hill

Genre: Historical Biography

Publisher: South Dakota State Historical Society, 2014

Pages: 400

Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Follow the real Laura Ingalls and her family as they make their way west—and discover that truth is as remarkable as fiction.

Hidden away since 1930, Laura Ingalls Wilder's original autobiography reveals the true stories of her pioneering life. Some of her experiences will be familiar; some will be a surprise. Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography re-introduces readers to the woman who defined the pioneer experience for millions of people around the world.

Wilder details the Ingalls family's journey through Kansas, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, back to Minnesota, and on to Dakota Territory— sixteen years of travels, unforgettable stories, and the everyday people who became immortal through her fiction. Using additional manuscripts, diaries, and letters, editor Pamela Smith Hill adds valuable context and explores Wilder's growth as a writer.

Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography also explores the history of the frontier that the Ingalls family traversed and the culture and life of the communities Wilder lived in. The book features over one hundred images, eight fully researched maps, and hundreds of annotations based on census data and records, newspapers of the period, and other primary documents.

Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote her autobiography, Pioneer Girl, in 1929-1930 when she was in her early sixties. Throughout the 1930s and into the early 1940s, Wilder utilized her original manuscript to write a successful children's series. She died in Mansfield, Missouri, at ninety years of age on February 10, 1957.

Review: I'm just a little bit Little House and Laura Ingalls Wilder obsessed. My only criticism about Pioneer Girl is that it ended. It was a fascinating read and I loved the pictures. Some of what is included was a review, but there was quite a bit of new information that I found completely fascinating.

I found the best way to read this was to read the original manuscript to a logical stopping point and then go back and read the notes pertaining to what I just read. This means that I read each page twice. It's amazing to me that I finished it in just over 10 days. There's a lot of text, and I stopped a few times to reference previous notes, pages, or pictures.

I'm hoping we can visit one or two of the Laura Ingalls Wilder sites in the Midwest on our trip next summer. A few things must fall into place first, but it would be a dream come true.

The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey

Author: Rinker Buck
Genre: History
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2015
Pages: 464
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: An epic account of traveling the length of the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way—in a covered wagon with a team of mules, an audacious journey that hasn’t been attempted in a century—which also chronicles the rich history of the trail, the people who made the migration, and its significance to the country.

Spanning two thousand miles and traversing six states from Missouri to the Pacific coast, the Oregon Trail is the route that made America. In the fifteen years before the Civil War, when 400,000 pioneers used the trail to emigrate West—scholars still regard this as the largest land migration in history—it united the coasts, doubled the size of the country, and laid the groundwork for the railroads. Today, amazingly, the trail is all but forgotten.

Rinker Buck is no stranger to grand adventures. His first travel narrative, Flight of Passage, was hailed by The New Yorker as “a funny, cocky gem of a book,” and with The Oregon Trail he brings the most important route in American history back to glorious and vibrant life.

Traveling from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Baker City, Oregon, over the course of four months, Buck is accompanied by three cantankerous mules, his boisterous brother, Nick, and an “incurably filthy” Jack Russell terrier named Olive Oyl. Along the way, they dodge thunderstorms in Nebraska, chase runaway mules across the Wyoming plains, scout more than five hundred miles of nearly vanished trail on foot, cross the Rockies, and make desperate fifty-mile forced marches for water. The Buck brothers repair so many broken wheels and axels that they nearly reinvent the art of wagon travel itself. They also must reckon with the ghost of their father, an eccentric yet loveable dreamer whose memory inspired their journey across the plains and whose premature death, many years earlier, has haunted them both ever since.

But The Oregon Trail is much more than an epic adventure. It is also a lively and essential work of history that shatters the comforting myths about the trail years passed down by generations of Americans. Buck introduces readers to the largely forgotten roles played by trailblazing evangelists, friendly Indian tribes, female pioneers, bumbling U.S. Army cavalrymen, and the scam artists who flocked to the frontier to fleece the overland emigrants. Generous portions of the book are devoted to the history of old and appealing things like the mule and the wagon. We also learn how the trail accelerated American economic development. Most arresting, perhaps, are the stories of the pioneers themselves—ordinary families whose extraordinary courage and sacrifice made this country what it became.

At once a majestic journey across the West, a significant work of history, and a moving personal saga,The Oregon Trail draws readers into the journey of a lifetime. It is a wildly ambitious work of nonfiction from a true American original. It is a book with a heart as big as the country it crosses.

Review: This was a fascinating read because it piques the readers interest on so many different levels. On the surface, this is a tale of the author's trip and adventures along the Oregon Trail today, but he also pulls in accounts and experiences of the original pioneers on the trail. It is also part social commentary on the state of these united states, and our challenges as a "connected," fast-paced society. There is a bit of memoir feel to it as well as Buck sorts through his feelings about his father and the dynamics of his family.

At times the details of their adventure became a little tedious, but with a story so "American" it's easy to see why this is a hot book right now.

Luckiest Girl Alive

Author: Jessica Knoll
Genre: Fiction / Thriller
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2015
Pages: 352
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: HER PERFECT LIFE IS A PERFECT LIE.

As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School. Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiance, she's this close to living the perfect life she's worked so hard to achieve.

But Ani has a secret.

There's something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything.

With a singular voice and twists you won't see coming, Luckiest Girl Alive, explores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to
"have it all" and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that's bigger than it first appears.

The question remains, will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for - or, will it at long last, set Ani free?

Rating: Even now I can't believe I'm giving this a "Recommend" rating. I hated (h.a.t.e.d) this book for the first 190 pages. I kept telling my husband that it had to get good at some point. It was compared to Gone Girl for heaven's sake, a book I had loved.

I don't know that any book has started out more slowly than Luckiest Girl Alive. It stayed slow, and then BAM. Never saw it coming. I flew through the second half of the book.

Yellow Crocus

Author: Laila Ibrahim
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Amazon Publishing, 2014
Pages: 248
Rating; Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Moments after Lisbeth is born, she’s taken from her mother and handed over to an enslaved wet nurse, Mattie, a young mother separated from her own infant son in order to care for her tiny charge. Thus begins an intense relationship that will shape both of their lives for decades to come. Though Lisbeth leads a life of privilege, she finds nothing but loneliness in the company of her overwhelmed mother and her distant, slave-owning father. As she grows older, Mattie becomes more like family to Lisbeth than her own kin and the girl’s visits to the slaves’ quarters—and their lively and loving community—bring them closer together than ever. But can two women in such disparate circumstances form a bond like theirs without consequence? This deeply moving tale of unlikely love traces the journey of these very different women as each searches for freedom and dignity.

Review: This novel has gotten rave reviews, and it lived up to the hype. It may have been predictable at times, but I was sucked into the characters' world. They felt very much alive to me. The ending was a neatly wrapped package and quite unlikely, I think, in real life, but sometimes you need a warm-fuzzy, feel-good book. All-in-all, I loved it.

One Minute After You Die

Author: Erwin W. Lutzer
Genre: Christian
Publisher: Moody Publishers, 2015
Pages: 208
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: One minute after you die, you will either be elated or terrified-and it will be too late to reroute your travel plans.

When you slip behind the parted curtain, your life will not be over.  Rather, it will be just beginning-in a place of unimaginable bliss or indescribable gloom. One Minute After You Die opens a window on eternity with a simple and moving explanation of what the Bible teaches about death.

Bestselling author Erwin Lutzer urges readers to study what the Bible says on this critical subject, bringing a biblical and pastoral perspective to such issues as:

• Channeling, reincarnation, and near-death experiences,
• What heaven will be like
• The justice of eternal punishment
• The death of a child
• Trusting in God's providence
• Preparing for your own final moment

Review: This wasn't at all what I was expecting, or what I was looking for when I thought it sounded interesting. I figured that out pretty early on, but decided to stick with it since it's a pretty short book.

After my son was born and I was in the hospital recovering I experienced an interlocution. At least that's what it was according to my mother. I requested this book in an attempt to learn more about that. I know, nothing in the synopsis says that that's what this book addresses, but the "parted curtain" got my attention.

At the end of the day, this wasn't a bad read. It just wasn't what I was looking for at the time. 

I had a hard time rating this. If this is a topic you're interested in, then you will probably find One Minute After You Die interesting. If you're not interested, that's okay too.

The Inner Circle

Author: Brad Meltzer
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2015
Pages: 640
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: There are stories no one knows. Hidden stories. I love those stories. And since I work in the National Archives, I find those stories for a living.

Beecher White, a young archivist, spends his days working with the most important documents of the U.S. government. He has always been the keeper of other people's stories, never a part of the story himself...

Until now.

When Clementine Kaye, Beecher's first childhood crush, shows up at the National Archives asking for his help tracking down her long-lost father, Beecher tries to impress her by showing her the secret vault where the President of the United States privately reviews classified documents. After they accidentally happen upon a priceless artifact - a 200 hundred-year-old dictionary that once belonged to George Washington, hidden underneath a desk chair, Beecher and Clementine find themselves suddenly entangled in a web of deception, conspiracy, and murder.

Soon a man is dead, and Beecher is on the run as he races to learn the truth behind this mysterious national treasure. His search will lead him to discover a coded and ingenious puzzle that conceals a disturbing secret from the founding of our nation. It is a secret, Beecher soon discovers, that some believe is worth killing for.

Gripping, fast-paced, and filled with the fascinating historical detail for which he is famous, THE INNER CIRCLE is a thrilling novel that showcases a brilliant author writing at the height of his craft.

Review: A little bit of history. A little bit of mystery. What's not to like? This is a respectable work of fiction. I would have loved a bit more Revolutionary War history, but I still liked it, and already started the second book in the series.

Also by Brad Meltzer:
The First Conspiracy

In the Skin of a Jihadist

Author: Anna Erelle
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Harper Collins, 2015
Pages: 240
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: A young French journalist’s riveting and unprecedented look at how today’s most ruthless terrorists use social media and technology to reach disaffected youth—witnessed through the undercover investigation that led to her deep involvement with a key member of ISIS.

On Facebook, “Melodie”—a twenty-year-old-convert to Islam living with her mother and sister in Toulouse—meets Bilel, a French-born, high-ranking militant for the Islamic State in Syria. Within days, Bilel falls in love with Melodie, Skypes her repeatedly, and adamantly urges her to come to Syria, marry him, and do jihad. The honey-tongued suitor promises the innocent, fatherless young girl a life of material comfort and spiritual purpose. 

But “Melodie” is actually Anna Erelle, a Parisian based journalist investigating the recruitment channels of the Islamic state, whose digital propaganda—Jihad 2.0—constitutes one of its most formidable and frightening weapons, successfully mobilizing increasing numbers of young Europeans.

In this taut and riveting true story, Erelle chronicles her intense, month-long relationship with Bilel—who turns out to be none other than the right hand man of Abou Bakr al-Baghadi, the self-proclaimed caliph of ISIS. Impatient for Melodie to join him, Bilel tells her that, according to an imam, they are already all but married, and will be officially when she arrives in Syria. As she embarks on the final, most dangerous stage of her investigation, Melodie leaves for Amsterdam to begin her journey to the Middle East. But things go terribly wrong.

A gripping and often harrowing inquiry into the factors that motivate young people to join extremist causes, and a shocking exploration of how technology and social media are spreading radicalism, The Mind of a Jihadist is a riveting page-turner that helps us better understand the appeal of extremism—and how an Islamic militant attempts to brainwash, seduce, and manipulate a vulnerable young woman.

Review: What a crazy read. I don't think I would have the guts to do what Anna did. What an important story to tell and to read.

The Girls of August

Author: Anne Rivers Siddons
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Grant Central Publishing, 2014
Pages: 240
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Every August, four women would gather together to spend a week at the beach, renting a new house each year. The ritual began when they were in their twenties and their husbands were in medical school, and became a mainstay of every summer thereafter. Their only criteria was oceanfront and isolation, their only desire to strengthen their far-flung friendships. They called themselves the Girls of August. But when one of the Girls dies tragically, the group slowly drifts apart and their vacations together are brought to a halt. Years later, a new marriage reunites them and they decide to come together once again on a remote barrier island off the South Carolina coast. There, far from civilization, the women make startling discoveries that will change them in ways they never expected.

Review: This might be the fluffiest and most pointless book I have ever read. The characters were flat, stereotyped, and uninspiring, and the plot cliche. However, somehow I got sucked into their little world. I actually liked The Girls of August. It took me about two hours to read so it's perfect for the beach.

I've also read King's Oak by Siddons, and didn't care for it.

The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street

Author: Susan Jane Gilman
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2014
Pages: 528
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: Now in paperback, bestselling author Susan Jane Gilman's IndieNext Pick novel about an immigrant girl's transformation into an indomitable businesswoman in early 20th century New York.

As a child in 1913, Malka Treynovsky flees Russia for New York with her family—only to be crippled and abandoned in the streets. Taken in by a tough-loving Italian ices peddler, Malka survives. When she falls in love with Albert, they set off together across America in an ice cream truck to seek their fortune; slowly, she transforms herself into Lillian Dunkle, "The Ice Cream Queen of America"—doyenne of an empire of ice cream franchises and a celebrated television personality.

Spanning 70 years, Lillian's rise—fraught with setbacks, triumphs, and tragedies—is inextricably linked to the course of American history itself, from Prohibition to the disco days of Studio 54. And when her past starts catching up with her, her world implodes spectacularly.

Review: Not the most likeable, but certainly to be admired, although not necessarily respected, Lillian Dunkle is an interesting character. She is survivor. This is an immigrant story like you have never read.

I enjoyed Lillian's voice, the smattering of Yiddish throughout, and her non-apologetic approach to life.

I cannot even imagine the hours of research Gilman put into writing this novel. There is so much historically-accurate detail that it is hard to tell where fiction ends and truth begins. Did people really think ice cream caused polio? Yes, they did. Is there really such a thing as a Mocktail Milkshake? Yes there is.

In this novel, Lillian Dunkle and her husband Bert invent soft serve ice cream, but the manner by which it happened is loosely based on how it really happened (read the Carvel Ice Cream story here). Who knew ice cream was not only delicious, but fascinating as well. It's true, sometimes the best things in life happen by pure accident, or by capitalizing on a opportunity.

I enjoy well-written family sagas, and following Lillian over the course of 70 years struck that same sweet spot. This is an entertaining summertime read.

So, why not a highly recommend rating? There are times when the essence of Lillian gets lost in too many historical details, cliches and stereotypes run rampant, and the middle pages of Part III were downright tedious to read. 

Her Last Death

Author: Susanna Sonnenberg
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Scribner, 2008
Pages: 288
Rating: Recommend*

Synopsis: Her Last Death begins as the phone rings early one morning in the Montana house where Susanna Sonnenberg lives with her husband and two young sons. Her aunt is calling to tell Susanna her mother is in a coma after a car accident. She might not live. Any daughter would rush the thousands of miles to her mother's bedside. But Susanna cannot bring herself to go. Her courageous memoir explains why.

Glamorous, charismatic and a compulsive liar, Susanna's mother seduced everyone who entered her orbit. With outrageous behavior and judgment tinged by drug use, she taught her child the art of sex and the benefits of lying. Susanna struggled to break out of this compelling world, determined, as many daughters are, not to become her mother.

Sonnenberg mines tender and startling memories as she writes of her fierce resolve to forge her independence, to become a woman capable of trust and to be a good mother to her own children. Her Last Death is riveting, disarming and searingly beautiful.

Review: *I waffled on whether or not this should be a "Recommend" or "Do Not Recommend." Perhaps it receives both. If you are offended by "vulgar" language/sex/drug use, a book that is about a negligent mother who is heavily into cocaine and promiscuous sex is probably not your best choice of reading material. Therefore, I don't recommend Her Last Death. If you want to see what all the crazy is about, then read it. This is well-written, and my awestruck self couldn't read the pages quickly enough.

As a mother, there is simply no way I would raise my daughters as Susanna's mother raised hers. In fact, this memoir left me feeling sorry for Susanna and wondering how she could even "turn out" somewhat normal given her childhood, and it also left me wanting to read her mother's memoir. What happened in her past that made her the way she was? It's very strange.

I hung in there with Susanna and accepted her flaws, but I wanted there to be more about her revelation to change and how she did it. The lesson makes a memoir a memoir, and it just wasn't developed enough.

The Girl on the Train

Author: Paula Hawkins
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2015
Pages: 336
Rating: Highly Recommended

Synopsis: Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?

Compulsively readable, The Girl on the Train is an emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller and an electrifying debut.

Review: I love a good psychological thriller. I'd love to get inside this author's head and figure out how one writes such an engrossing and twisted novel. 

And the Good News is. . .

Author: Dana Perino
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Pages: 256
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: From her years as the presidential press secretary to her debates with colleagues on Fox News' The Five, Dana Perino reveals the lessons she's learned that have guided her through life, kept her level-headed, and led to her success, even in the face of adversity.

Thoughtful, inspiring, and often surprising, AND THE GOOD NEWS IS . . . traces Dana Perino's unlikely journey through politics and television. It's a remarkable American story-made up of equal parts determination and clear-eyed optimism.

From facing professional challenges and confronting personal fears to stepping up to a podium for a President, Dana has come to expect the unexpected and has an uncanny ability to find the good news in any tough situation. AND THE GOOD NEWS IS . . . takes us from her Western childhood in Wyoming and Colorado to a chance meeting on an airplane that changes her life entirely. Then, with refreshing honesty and humor, she recounts her frustration with a string of unsatisfying jobs and living circumstances until a key career tip leads her back to Washington, D.C. to work for the Bush Administration.

Dana also shares here her best work and life lessons-tips that will help you to get your point across convincingly while allowing your own grace and personality to shine through. As someone who still believes in working together to solve the problems our nation faces, Dana offers clear, practical advice on how to restore civility to our personal and public conversations. The result is a fascinating read that can help anyone become more successful, productive, and joyously content.

Review: I liked this and found it to be an interesting read. People's stories interest me so of course I enjoyed this. My husband loves watching The Five and when I saw this book was out, I wanted to read it just to learn more about her. It was well worth my time.

If I have one criticism it's that she packed a lot into one volume. Furthermore, the structure of this could be better organized. And the Good News Is starts out strong with stories about her formative years and background which is a logical beginning. Rather than weaving advice into how to advance your own career as she talks about climbing the ladder herself and launching her own cararer. Then, Perino offers what seem to me to be pretty typical and nothing new tips. Write a thank you note after an interview, don't bite the hand that feeds you, network. It's all very run of the mill stuff, although I will admit I liked her personal examples, and I don't disagree with her advice. I would have preferred this book be broken into sections. Overall, this seems like a final draft with a little bit of work yet to be done. However, once the reader gets past that, the information is interesting and solid.

Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule

Author: Jennifer Chiaverini
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group, 2015
Pages: 400
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: The New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker and Mrs. Lincoln's Rival imagines the inner life of Julia Grant, beloved as a Civil War general’s wife and the First Lady, yet who grappled with a profound and complex relationship with the slave who was her namesake—until she forged a proud identity of her own.

In 1844, Missouri belle Julia Dent met dazzling horseman Lieutenant Ulysses S Grant. Four years passed before their parents permitted them to wed, and the groom’s abolitionist family refused to attend the ceremony.

Since childhood, Julia owned as a slave another Julia, known as Jule. Jule guarded her mistress’s closely held twin secrets: She had perilously poor vision but was gifted with prophetic sight. So it was that Jule became Julia’s eyes to the world.

And what a world it was, marked by gathering clouds of war. The Grants vowed never to be separated, but as Ulysses rose through the ranks—becoming general in chief of the Union Army—so did the stakes of their pact. During the war, Julia would travel, often in the company of Jule and the four Grant children, facing unreliable transportation and certain danger to be at her husband’s side.

Yet Julia and Jule saw two different wars. While Julia spoke out for women—Union and Confederate—she continued to hold Jule as a slave behind Union lines. Upon the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, Jule claimed her freedom and rose to prominence as a businesswoman in her own right, taking the honorary title Madame. The two women’s paths continued to cross throughout the Grants’ White House years in Washington, DC, and later in New York City, the site of Grant’s Tomb.

Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule is the first novel to chronicle this singular relationship, bound by sight and shadow.

Review: Had I realized this was written by the same author as Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker, I probably wouldn't have read it. However, this just goes to show you. . . I really liked Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule. It was well-researched and plausible. 

Chiaverini makes several references to Elizabeth Keckley as Mrs. Lincoln's dressmaker, which readers might ordinarily find odd, that such a minor character was mentioned by name and multiple times. However, knowing she was the subject of a prior novel written by Chiaverini, it's almost funny because it's not a necessary reference and there's no mention of her book by name.

God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy

Author: Mike Huckabee
Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: St. Martin's Press, 2015
Pages: 272
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: In God, Guns, Grits and Gravy, Mike Huckabee asks, "Have I been taken to a different planet than the one on which I grew up?" The New York Times bestselling author explores today's fractious American culture, where divisions of class, race, politics, religion, gender, age, and other fault lines make polite conversation dicey, if not downright dangerous. As Huckabee notes, the differences of opinion between the "Bubble-villes" of the big power centers and the "Bubba-villes" where most people live are profound, provocative, and sometimes pretty funny. Where else but in Washington, D.C. could two presidential golf outings cost the American taxpayers $2.9 million in travel expenses?

Government bailouts, politician pig-outs, and popular culture provocations from Jay-Z and Beyoncé to Honey Boo-Boo to the Duck Dynasty's Robertson family. Gun rights, gay marriage, the decline of patriotism, and the mainstream media's contempt for those who cherish a faith-based life. The trouble with Democrats, the even bigger trouble with Republicans, our national security complex, and how our Constitution is eroding under our noses. Stories of everyday Americans surviving tough times, reflections on our way of life as it once was, as it is, and as it might become...these subjects and many more are covered with Mike Huckabee's signature wit, insight, and honesty.

At times lighthearted, at others bracingly realistic, Huckabee's brand of optimistic patriotism highlights American ideals, offering a bright outlook for future generations.

With a wry eye for the ridiculous and a clear-eyed look at the most controversial issues of our time, God, Guns, Grits and Gravy is Mike Huckabee at his very best.

Review: Enpointe. This was a fantastic read. I won't say he's the best writer, but he does address and explain the issues. I was impressed and wished I had paid more attention to Huckabee when he was a presidential candidate.

Update: Mike Huckabee is seeking the Republican nomination for President in the 2016 election. Interesting.

To See You Again

Author: Betty Schimmel
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Penguin Publishing, 2000
Pages: 288
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: This is the true story of an extraordinary woman and the two loves of her life - a man lost in the tumult of World War II, and a friend who becomes her husband. It is 1944 in Budapest. Two wartime lovers vow that, if ever separated, they will find each other no matter what happens, and no matter what the cost. 

Thirty years later - having survived life in a concentration camp, and now married to another rman - Betty Schimmel returns to Budapest to confront her past, and rediscovers the lost love who has shaowed her life for decades. In the romantic city of their youth, the couple must face the most difficult decision of their lives.
Review: Truly a heartbreaking read, but so good too. Proof that life is not a fairy tale, and that there's no turning back the hands of time.

We all know Anne Frank's World War II experience, but there are others. This offered another perspective.

Love Stories of World War II

Author: Larry King
Genre: Historical Biography
Publisher: Crown Publishing, 2002
Pages: 352
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Both poignant and inspiring, these are the moving stories of men and women who met amid the chaos of the most devastating war in history and became the loves of one another's lives. Many are now enjoying their seventies and eighties together after more than fifty happy years of marriage.

They met in many remarkable ways, some in the briefest of chance encounters, and their love endured heartrending ordeals of long separation and the constant threat that a husband or lover might not return. As these couples reflect on the profound experience of the war, the stories they most like to tell are of the deep bonds they forged during that tumultuous time, bonds so strong that they lasted a lifetime. As one man put it, "We've all got war stories. Some of us like to tell them and some don't. But the story of how we fell in love with our wives, well, that's still with us every day, and I know a lot of us can still get a little choked up over it. The war was a long time ago, one part of our lives. But we're still living the love stories."

Bestselling author and master interviewer Larry King tells the stories of these love affairs just as the couples recalled them, capturing the special feeling of those times in their own words. The stories are complemented with a wealth of personal photographs and reproductions of touching memorabilia, including V-mail letters, cartoons, cards, newspaper accounts, and even the ticket stub from the movie seen on a first date.

A treasure trove of reminiscences, Love Stories of World War II offers an unprecedented view into this personal side of the World War II experience and celebrates the legacy of remarkable relationships forged in the midst of tragedy.

Review: Ordinary people's love stories are immortalized in Larry King's book. I loved that pictures from then and now are included in each re-telling. Fantastic read.

Still Alice

Author: Lisa Genova
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Gallery Books, 2014
Pages: 352
Rating: Highly Recommend

Synopsis: Genova gives us a hauntingly accurate portrayal of a young woman's descent into Alzheimer's Disease from the prime of life and the loftiest of cerebral heights.

Review: Engaging, compelling, and impossible to put-down. This book is worth every second of your time. Expect to feel a myriad of emotions as you enter Alice's world, and her family's.