DECEMBER READS

[rapa]

Happy December!  Busy month for most of us but always time to relax with a good read!  I've finished Amy Tan's THE VALLEY OF AMAZEMENT and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It tells the story of a mother and daughter who were both high class courtesans in China. The story covers forty years. 

Currently well into David Baldacci's KING AND MAXWELL.  Am quite enjoying following King and Maxwell--former Secret Service agents turned private investigators, as they try to help a teenage boy prove that his father who was reported killed in Afghanistan is alive and not a traitor.  Story moves quickly and lots of action!

What are you reading???????

[Mandy Muffin]

Just finished a "Dan Brown-like" story about a search for the relics of Jesus Christ that ended up under the Pyramids of Giza.  There was no snow on them, only in the story line:  "Indisputable Proof."  http://www.amazon.com/Indisputable-Proof-Gary-Williams-ebook/dp/B00...  This was one of my free Amazon Prime monthly rentals.  It was actually a pretty good story with a ton of action.

I'm beginning "Sycamore Row" by Grisham, were he revives his "A Time To Kill" cast in a case that is placed in the 1980s in a small Mississippi town.  A well to do business man, aged 71, commits suicide and leaves his fortune to his black maid.  It is kind of a "The Help" goes to court.  This story promises to be a page turner keeping me up well into the  night. http://www.amazon.com/dp/0385537131/?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=3487585...

[Carci]

I just finished A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash.

"A stunning debut reminiscent of the beloved novels of John Hart and Tom Franklin, A Land More Kind Than Home is a mesmerizing literary thriller about the bond between two brothers and the evil they face in a small western North Carolina town

For a curious boy like Jess Hall, growing up in Marshall means trouble when your mother catches you spying on grown-ups. Adventurous and precocious, Jess is enormously protective of his older brother, Christopher, a mute whom everyone calls Stump. Though their mother has warned them not to snoop, Stump can't help sneaking a look at something he's not supposed to - an act that will have catastrophic repercussions, shattering both his world and Jess's. It's a wrenching event that thrusts Jess into an adulthood for which he's not prepared. While there is much about the world that still confuses him, he now knows that a new understanding can bring not only a growing danger and evil - but also the possibility of freedom and deliverance as well.

Told by three resonant and evocative characters - Jess; Adelaide Lyle, the town midwife and moral conscience; and Clem Barefield, a sheriff with his own painful past - A Land More Kind Than Home is a haunting tale of courage in the face of cruelty and the power of love to overcome the darkness that lives in us all. These are masterful portrayals, written with assurance and truth, and they show us the extraordinary promise of this remarkable first novel."

I eagerly await his next novel coming out next year.

[Carolyn Tewell]

Mandy...I am voting that Sycamore Row will be my favorite book of 2013. And as I said before, rejected his books in past few years as too preachy...some action like that at the end but not blah, blah and blah for 50 pages!

I'm trying The Quest again...Nelson DeMille...you know that this is a re-release of his book from mid-70's? So I've been in and out of it since September. Did strap on the Cd Holder to listen while I handle the boring task of wrapping gifts.

A Week in Winter...loved that book! Also I see they have released posthumously a book of hers called....um, er, uh...Chestnut Row? Need to double check name.

Snow, Ohio, Cold, 4-letter words! Also NAPS...when other people get to have them, and you don't! Dragging tonite. More later if I get a second wind.

[Carolyn Tewell]

"Chestnut Street" by Maeve Binchy...correct title...144 holds at Library! Guess it will be awhile before I hold the book in my hand? We are part of the Geauga (means raccoon in Indian) County Library system...pretty small population so what a testimony to this Author!

Plow guy is disturbing my concentration! Ahhhh life in NE Ohio!

[Eaglewoman]

Chestnut Street is on pre-order not to come out till 4/22/2014 for $13.99

[Mandy Muffin]

Grisham is a good story teller but he does sometimes run on.  This book is crisply put together and has me hooked on the upcoming trial that is now scheduled to involve 11 lawyers.  Being a former lawyer and native Mississippian, he captures the southern culture as it was in the 1980s as accurately as anyone.  It's nice to see him back in Ford County, dealing with the locals and their way of life. 

I also have seen enough cold weather and snow to last a lifetime. I have been spending my winters in Florida for 16 years.  I came north for 5 weeks this year, as I had to attend to some family matter in Ohio and Kentucky, where they live.  I'm leaving for Florida the day after Christmas, or as soon as the roads are clear.   

[rapa]

Am still reading Wally Lamb's WE ARE WATER and enjoying every page!!!! Am looking forward to January when there will be more time to read! 

[Carci]

Just finished Look Twice by Lisa Scottoline.  It kept me turning the pages even as I kept telling myself how far fetched the story line was...  but as DH says: "That's why they call it fiction!"

Starting Defending Jacob next...  I know many of you have read and raved about this book, but somehow I am not anxious to read it... and I don't know why!  But read it I will since it is so highly praised.

[Eaglewoman]

We will be reading Defending Jacob later in the new year for one of the book clubs/

[Mandy Muffin]

I read the story a couple of years ago, when it first came out.  It certainly touches on a topic that anyone who has raised a family has considered:  What if my son (daughter) is guilty? 

[rapa]

Have any of you read Wally Lamb's WE ARE WATER? Was a good read!   I've finished it and would like to discuss the ending.

[Mandy Muffin]

I have it on my Kindle for a near future read.  I have read all of Wally Lamb's prior books and spend about 7 years of my life (1958-1965) living and working in the Norwich, Conn  (fictional Three Rivers) area.  I also am a graduate of UConn, where Wally taught school.