This is a romance novel with overtones of fantasy particular to the Scots.
Claire Randall is a WW II nurse. In the tome the war is over, she and her husband are having their second honeymoon in the town if Inverness, Scotland. One day during an idle walk Claire visits a standing group of stones at Craigh na Dun. This is where the fun starts. For reasons unknown to Claire she gets catapulted back in time to seventeenth century Scotland.
There she meets dozens of very interesting Scotsmen from various clans, including one from her husband's clan who is nearly identical in looks to her husband. During Clair's time travel she becomes a witch , has a couple of near death experiences and marries. During this time Claire retains all of her nursing knowledge therefore is able to perform some medical "miracles" for the Scotsmen warriors hurt in battle. This is a real Scottish feast, brogue and all.
The novel is good, yet I was hindered in the reading of it by the Scotish brogue which runs throughout the book and is unfamiliar to me.

This story is about Grace. She is a recent arrival from Trinidad. From "the bush" as she herself puts it. Grace is very young, employed by an American couple residing in Brooklyn. Herein starts the fun. Caribbean nannies of all shapes and sizes, with different dialects from their respective islands, congregate, with their charges, in a local park on most mornings. Of course they all know each other and all the gossip from the households they work in. This outing is the ultimate social life for these women. There is a parallel, or even one could say an underground culture running alongside the every day life of Americans. A culture of people who live among the Brooklynites, as well as, other sections of New York, who speak patois, an island tongue, cook their island foods, observe their own customs, have their own troubles, spend time criticizing their employers but still manage to have a lot of fun. Grace and her friend Kathy are marvelously depicted as to their fascination with our land and its opportunities, as well as, their nights out in their own dance halls with that spicy way of dressing plus the loudest music ever.

Victoria Brown has caught the spices and hot winds of Trinidad in her book.

"Wrecker" is an important tome. Should be read by young and old. Several people, having adversely suffered from the winds of life, come together in a remote spot of nature, to heal themselves. To start anew. By his accident of birth, they find Wrecker in their midst, a very young boy who needs healing himself, as well as, an inordinate amount of care and love. The story is vibrant, full of most interesting characters. Of resiliency of the human spirit. Of never giving up. Of adults, more or less strangers to this small child, being able to put themselves aside in totality and place the boy and his needs first and actually learn to love him. I recommend this book to all, regardless of age, the story has backbone.

Sailors world over, for centuries, have talked of rogue waves a hundred feet high. Waves which sink huge cargo ships leaving no one behind to tell about it. "The Wave" is a book not for the faint hearted. Susan Casey is traveling across the world to observe, experience, these monster waves. She talks to famous surfers, Hamilton, a surfing legend, others as well, the daring, the fearless and the just plain crazy. They chase these waves as a sport and a means of living.

The author gives minute details on the preparations of these men prior to riding these taller than a skycraper, nasty, unforgiving waves. They come from Tahiti, Hawaii, Australia to ride, many times encountering sharks deep in the waves. Much is talked about the families, children, lovers of these guys. This is a closed society. One which lives only for the thrill of riding the waves wherever they can be found. Any time.

"The Wave" is also a terrific geography lesson on the waters covering our world. Many well known scientists and oceanographysts are mentioned here. Lloyd's of London has several pages explaining to the reader as to whom and what Lloyd's has insured and a description in detail of their method of assessing resulting claims. Much information is logged in this tome in term of names of ships, cargoes, dates and their time of disappearance or serious damage after surviving one of these monsters. Interesting discussion on tsunamis, their origin and size. The author's description of being in a boat to catch the swell of Ghost Tree a monster wave on the west coast of Calilfornia, is nothing short of sublime.

I like this book as there is not one boring page in it.

Erika, main character of story is a Brahmin of Boston. She comes from a well to do family, lives on Beacon Hill. She also has a magnificent mezzo soprano voice. Her studies with renowned music teachers started early, in her teens. Erika sings in the opulent music rooms of Boston society. Gives small, well attended concerts. Clearly has passions are her music and her husband Peter. After several years of marriage both Erika and Peter find themselves childless, so they enlist the expertise of one Dr. Ravell who is reputed to have success in such cases. As fertility treatments were nearly unheard of in the early nineteen hundreds and what there was was veiled in great secrecy, the novel at this juncture is a historical account of these practices. quite interesting and informative. However, Erika's search for her own personal fulfillment and a channel for her beautiful continues. She leaves her husband, her family and she travels to Florence, Italy. The colors, sounds, music, cafes, food, impresarios are described in great detail, nearly to the point where one is able to experience it as if one was there. Erika's quest to display her talent takes her to Trinidad, also another island off the shores of Venezuela. Vegetation of the tropics, wildlife, the beaches, sudden tropical storms, life on a plantation between the owners and serving people are depicted with great writing skill. Erika's return to Florence with her never faltering drive to express her talent, is a most interesting read. The consummate drive of this woman on behalf of her talent is something all women can appreciate and learn from. I enjoyed it immensely.

(This review contains plot spoilers)

This book is a treat. Pearl was born in the last part of the eighteen hundreds to a missionary father and a long suffering mother. Her father treated her as a regular parishioner of his church, rather than a daughter. From early childhood on, Pearl and Willow, both living in same village, became inseparable friends. Pearl was used to accepting reality so Willow's destitute, full of thieves, family circumstances did not in any way impact the friendship. Pearl's curiosity about everything around her, combined with her intense blue eyes and cascading blonde hair made her stand out among the villagers. She wore a black knitted cap, every day, regardless of the weather, so she would fit in among the villagers. The two girls were each other's strength as well as sounding boards.

Time marched on. Japan penetrated into China and took Manchuria. The girls became teenagers ,then young adults. There was a great deal of political persecution everywhere in China. WIllow got a job as a type of underground journalist. Meantime, Pearl was putting her feelings, her observations, her soul on paper. She wrote dozens of short stories, political columns and novels. Finally Pearl had the opportunity to study at university in America. Of course Willow was left behind. They corresponded by letter. Their friendship endured, grew, became an unbreakable bond. Pearl was married and had a child, mentally challenged. Pearl dealt with this blow as she had dealt with all other adversity in her life. In 1932 Pearl won the Pulitzer Prize for "The Good Earth" and in 1938 she won the Nobel Prize for Literature. There were many who very envious, in China and the USA, included a well known American author who was quoted as saying " if a woman can win the Nobel Prize for Literature, anyone can" . Pearl S. Buck wrote eighty books. She is still today read in a hundred countries, in their native language. Her favorite quote was of Madame Curie " the weak waits for opportunity, the strong one creates". Pearl S. Buck was denied an entrance visa by the Chinese government when President Nixon wanted her to accompany him on his visit to China. A few years later Pearl died, she was in her eighties. She is buried on her estate in Pennsylvania. Her grave is surrounded by trees, plants and flowers which she loved as part of her Chinese heritage. In her books Pearl depicts the life and strife of Chinese women of times gone by, yet true to history of China.

I highly recommend this book as it gives one a bird's eyes view of a great woman and a talented writer. A woman who never loved for herself. I also recommend one pick up a couple of Pearl's titles and lose themselves in a world we can not even imagine.

"Serena" by Ron Bash is a page turner. We first meet Serena as she gets off the train from Boston in the company of her new husband, George Pemberton. On the platform awaiting their arrival is a man with his pregnant daughter at his side. Gossip has it the young girl's child is George Pemberton's. Ensues a violent scene between one of Pemberton's hired men and the girl's father. At the end of this violent scene Serena informs the pregnant girl that from now on, she, Serena, will be the mother of any and all children George sires. This moment sets the pace for the unfolding story.

Life and work in a logging camp in North Carolina in year 1929 is hard and dangerous. The day by day work of loggers is fraught by constant threat of death from falling trees, catapulting frozen tree limbs in winter, runaway saws and a marauding panther. Nature in that vast wilderness is unforgiving. Serena rides among the loggers, shares meals, is constantly vigilant over their mistakes, has no mercy for anyone. A man hurt in a logging accident is sent home without pay.

She also relentlessly hounds the mother of her husband's illegitimate child, to the point where the young mother opts to leave North Carolina for fear of harm coming to her son from Serena.

Life in a logging camp of those days is described as incredibly full of squalor, hunger for whole families unable to buy food at the company store. Daily life of young girls working in the kitchens is full of fear since they are daily subjected to the whims of carousing men.

This book is mesmerizing in its subject and the manner in which this tale is told.

I recommend this tome because one is never bored throughout its 371 pages.

The novel Valeria's Last Stand, takes place in the small country village of Zivatar, Hungary. Predominantly the story twirls around two women Valeria and Ibolya. The latter owns a bar in same village. The women are not friends, they are competitors for much of the length of the story for the traveling chimney sweep. The action depicted is mostly among the over sixty crowd. I do not recommend this book because it is disjointed, not a flowing work, not positive. Has no redeeming characters or moments. Worst of all, describes the women as some slovenly beings unable to keep their men home, away from the bar and its owner. Given the fact that half the action takes place in the open market, nothing is said about how and who is working the fields to produce all the food sold in this market. That would have been the positive. The numerous references to sex, on behalf of the women mostly , are quite vulgar. Lots of corruption on behalf of the village officials. One gets the impression that all this takes place in the fifteenth century and not during the time of great changes in all of Europe a little more than a decade ago. When democracy and freedom was on the mind of all of Europe. I did not like this book and do not recommend it.

It is the most comprehensive book on Russia I have ever read, in English.

If one has been harboring a desire to travel through Mother Russia of long ago, as well as, experience the current Russia, after the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991 but has been afraid to do so because of language barriers , this is the guide. Armed with this book and a good map, a dictionary of all languages and dialects of Russia, all is possible.

This is the largest land mass on our planet. All climates, all terrains, all levels of education, all levels of ignorance due to what we know as civilization having not touched some of these people since the days of Genghis Khan.

Jeffrey Tayler starts his journey by train in Moscow. He covers all nations and peoples from that point to Beijing, China. The boundaries, histories and peoples of Chechna, the Tatars, the Yakuts, the Ingus.The lands and history of the Kazaks are discussed at great length. The Greeks brought Christianity to the people of Ossetia and the Georgians. Facts such as: the Ural River being the waterway that to Russian tradition divides Europe from Asia. Descriptions of Suleyman Mountain and Kyrgyzstan's Capital Osh. Mention of many writers on the classic list of Russia's elite, such as Turgenev, Pushkin, Lermontov and most interesting the ballet dancer Boris Gudonov having been born a Tatar. Aside from these little tidbits of history and geography "Murderers in Mausoleums" holds a wealth of information useful to the amateur or the serious scholar of Russia, its former satellites and current crop of countries seceaded from Soviet Union. The book also has a chapter on Karaganda the architecturally ugly site built by the Soviets and even more ugly in human decadence of the soul, a place that was used as a Gulag during the Soviet Regime. Many interesting interviews and conversations between Jeffrey Tayler and young people he meets in his travels and throughout it all the marvelous feeling that one is not reading a dry travelog but a novel with sensual characters and history celebrating the spirit and traditions of a great people.

I recommend this book to anyone whois interested in Russia and its history from the time of Genghis Khan to the present.

This novel is a narrative. A historically well researched tome. A bird's eye view of the last months of WW II as experienced by a German family. It makes one cry, laugh and be proud to be a member of the human race. A trek on foot, across snowy, frozen Germany in the last months of the war. With dangers lurking behind every tree and inside every barn. A tale of heartbreak, loss, love and resilience of the human spirit.

Fabulous. Insightful. Heartbreaking. Full of hope for the future of that era. A testimonial for the indestructible human spirit. Quite truthful historically as well as in terms of human suffering during that war. I know this because I was there.



This well written, well researched book would be enjoyed by all ages.

Harper's dad is getting a divorce from her stepmother , Jane. Just when Tarper thought that nothing could get worse , Tarper has lost her stepsister Tess because to divorce divides them.

To escape this terrible nightmare Tarper signs up to a volunteer program to build a house for a family in Tennessee that lost their home in a tornado.

This book kept me on the edge of my seat and always entertained me. I will recommend this book to all ages.