A man goes has a brain injury and forgets his dominant language. He can only speak in English, the language he learned and used as a child. He can no longer communicate with his family and they enlist the help of a famous US neurologist, who specializes in bilingual amnesia.
The book is about the difficulties of language and how communication is the most important part of relationships. I feel the characters were very real and I could easily sympathize with them. The novel is beautifully written but I feel the ending could have been better.

This book is a great historical fiction novel that puts together magic, religious persecution, and witch hunts. Bess Southerns a poor widow starts using her gifts to help those in her village. She teaches her cunning craft to her granddaughter and best friend. One goes to the dark side with the craft and a witch hunt begins. Before this novel I have only really heard about the Salem Witch Trials so this was a nice change. It was written beautifully in the first person. A lot of research went into this novel.

This work of art transformed me to the Carolina's during the Great Depression. It was a dark novel and I felt what all the characters were feeling, especially the author's Lady Macbeth herself, Serena. It was amazing to see how greed transforms the characters from beginning to the fantastic twists and turns of the plot. I will look for more novels by Ron Rash in the future.

During the Christmas Truce in WWII, a moment when enemies stopped fighting to celebrate life and Christmas, two men shared a moment that would change their lives forever. A British soldier made a promise to find the German soldier's girlfriend and tell her that he was thinking of her. After getting hurt on the battlefield the British soldier, Hal, went to keep his promise. He didn't expect to fall in love with the girl himself. The novel is not just a love story, but is a mix of espionage, adventure, families, and the "moral cost of war." This has been one of my best reads this year.

In this powerful memoir Asha shares her life with the reader. Her emotions are so beautifully shared and it is not just about being a single mother or about loving an unavailable man, but a book about depression, family, and reflection. The writing feels a bit disjointed at times but I think it is Asha's poetic style of writing. I am looking forward to reading her other novels.

This is the third and in my opinion, the best Cape Weathers' Investigation novel. The characters are all very unique, including the reappearance of Sally, the beautiful trained assassin sidekick. The novel includes politics, drugs, the environment, and murder--everything to make a great crime novel. I hope to see more from Tim Maleeny and Cape Weathers.

I had never heard of this novel when I received it, although it has been a bestseller all over Europe. I had a long plane ride from Seattle to Tokyo and needed a long book to get me through it. What a delightful surprise this novel ended up being. I fell in love with the characters, especially Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo. I didn't sleep on the plane because I couldn't put the book down. It is filled with scandals, politics, computer hacking, and murder. I am usually good about guessing endings to novels and I was surprised at the ending. I can't wait until the other two in the trilogy are translated into English.

I can't believe this is a work of fiction. I felt like a member of Beth's family with the wonderful character descriptions in the novel. The family felt so real and you could tell that the author loved them with the amount of care she put into each character. I think any person that loves reading about family ties, strong women, or generation gaps in 1960's Canada would enjoy this book.