From the moment I first met Bessie in The Disenchanted Widow, I was cheering for her! In fact, I couldn't put the book down until I found out if she could and would make a new life for herself and her son, little Herkie after she left Belfast. The author created several memorable characters among the Tailorstown locals, and their behavior even had me laughing out loud at times. I highly recommend this book with its optimistic tone suggesting that the future will be better than the past when you have faith in your dreams and the courage to overcome many harsh obstacles along the way.

Linda Castillo's Her Last Breath captured and held my attention so completely that I read straight through, neglecting everything I was supposed to do that day. I was held in suspense as Police Chief Katie Burkholder and other law enforcement officers searched for a hit-and-run driver in rural Ohio. Their Amish community had been shocked by a tragic road accident (or was it an accident?) which demolished an Amish buggy and took the lives of a father and two of his three children. Complicating the plot is a secret from Katie's past; what would happen to her if her secret were discovered?

I highly recommend Her Last Breath, but offer this caveat to readers: when you start this book, be sure you have no other demands on your time that day. You'll never put the book down until you've read to the stunning and thrilling conclusion!

The author of Fever successfully tells the troubling story of Mary Mallon, the infamous Typhoid Mary, as she fills the background with the sights, sounds, smells, and lives of the people living in New York City in the early 1900s. As I read, I had conflicting feelings about Mary and the Health Department. My heart empathized with Mary Mallon's fear and anger when she was pursued and quarantined as a public health danger, but my head told me that Dr. Soper had to do all he could to avoid widespread outbreaks of typhoid fever. The complex and compelling story of Mary Mallon is well-written and could create lively discussions in a book group.

Julie Kibler has successfully tackled the difficult issue of racial equality in her fascinating debut novel told in the first person by Miss Isabelle and Dorrie on their journey from Texas to Ohio. The long car trip gave the women the time and opportunity to divulge their life stories in a believable way; however, the ultimate purpose of the trip came as a surprise to me. As a reader who had lived in the South before desegregation, I could empathize with the societal restraints and pressures Miss Isabelle wrestled with throughout her life.
The engaging style of the author kept me reading as I discovered more and more of the intimate secrets as the women revealed them to each other. When the book ended, I realized that the lives of Miss Isabelle and Dorrie were much more alike than their ages, skin color, and circumstances might have suggested. I highly recommend Calling Me Home to readers interested in a story filled with love, mystery, life-changing secrets, and the consequences of racial inequality.

The story of Hildegard von Bingen’s life was fascinating and enlightening. Before reading Illuminations I had only known about her from facts gleaned from the liner notes on CDs of her music; she was a medieval Christian visionary and prophet, as well as a talented musician, writer, and healer. But as I read this historical novel, I could see her talents developing and imagine what life would have been like for her as an anchorite coping with difficult people and trying situations. By the end of the book, I felt that the author had given me an inside glimpse into the heart and soul of a brilliant, multitalented woman who centuries later continues to inspire us. I highly recommend this book to all readers who want to know her, not just know about her.

Anna Quindlen’s Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake, reflections on the first six decades of her life, is especially appealing to me as an older woman. Like the author, I raised a family while working outside our home. Other older women can relate to her joys and struggles to fulfill the traditional roles of a woman (wife, mother, and daughter) while advancing in a career. Written with optimism and gratitude for all that life offers, the author’s positive perspective on aging is evident when she writes “The older we get, the better we get at being ourselves.” I highly recommend this book.

John Kralik's personal story clearly shows the transforming power of saying "thank you." As I read 365 Thank Yous, I was moved by the gradual improvement of his family and professional relationships and his financial situation. Incredibly, these significant changes were the result of simply writing thank you notes!

I recommend this easy-to-read true story to readers of all ages, but especially to young people, who may not know the importance of acknowledging gifts, favors, and kindness with a heart-felt thank you note.

Author Cynthia Keller succeeds in presenting the details of the affluent lifestyle that Meg and James Hobart and their three children enjoy in suburban Charlotte, North Carolina, before circumstances abruptly force them to leave it all behind.

An accidental meeting with David Lutz on an icy road in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, thrusts the Hobart family into the midst of the Lutz’s Amish family life. Keller again succeeds in her portrayal of the lives of Catherine and David Lutz and their large extended family as they quietly engage in their daily tasks on their farm.

Meg Hobart’s refrigerator magnet with the words of North Carolina’s state motto “To be, rather than to seem” was scarcely mentioned in the novel – once, when Meg slipped the magnet into her pocket as the family left Charlotte, and later when she found it still in her pocket as they were leaving the Lutz’s home. Although the magnet was out of sight, its words provided one of the novel’s themes when Meg realized that this motto exemplified the profound changes in each member of her family as they experienced the Amish way of life.

I highly recommend Cynthia Keller’s well-written novel 'An Amish Christmas'.

If you are the parent of a middle- or high school student or a school counselor who wants to help prepare high school students for challenging and interesting careers in a global economy, you would get practical, first-hand advice from The New Global Student. In an upbeat (sometimes almost flippant) style, Maya Frost tells why she and her husband chose to leave a comfortable suburban life in the Northwest and move to Mexico, then to Argentina, with their four daughters. The stories of many other students who studied, traveled, and worked throughout the world, became fluent in one or more languages other than English, finished college at least two years earlier than classmates who stayed in a traditional high school program in the United States, and often accomplished this without going into debt are inspiring.

Not all families who want to help their children prepare for a global career are in a position to sell everything and move abroad as the Frosts did. Those families could follow Maya Frost’s recommendations to take community college classes simultaneously with high school classes at home to earn as much as two years’ college credit before high school graduation, then to look for internships and/or jobs abroad to strengthen their language and job skills. The book is full of examples of the various paths taken by successful global students coming from wide range of economic backgrounds. In my opinion, this is a good book which shows that, with discipline and determination, a student desiring a global education could achieve this goal.

The book would be a valuable resource for families contemplating leaving the Old School way of thinking about education and going toward the Bold School of alternative education. Other parents can follow Maya Frost’s practical suggestions to give their students a richer, international education and not use up all the family savings in the process. I enjoyed the book and will recommend it to my two daughters who are now considering expensive, traditional college educations for their high school age children.

After I read the series of letters exchanged by Juliet Ashton (a London author), her publisher, her friends, and the members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, I wanted to know each person better. I particularly liked the way the authors of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society succeeded in giving each correspondent a distinct and identifiable voice. Through their letters, I saw their kind, caring natures (as well as their foibles and eccentricities). The Guernsey Islanders exhibited grace, strength, and courageous ingenuity as they struggled to survive the years of German occupation during World War II.

I highly recommend this book as a good read. The power of a reading group to expand the lives of its members shines through their letters.

Broken Colors holds the reader’s interest in the loves and losses of Sophie Marks, a talented artist, as she lives and paints in England, Paris, Italy, and the American Southwest desert.


This book would appeal to a book club for absorbing discussions of the consequences of what Sophie did or did not do as she endured tragic experiences during her long life, finally making a "wide awake decision while staring straight on at gruesome memories".

Sophie explains that “broken colors” are the result of mixing two or more pigments of different colors, creating a new color which does not reflect light as the original colors did. She says that in order to keep colors luminous and vibrant, it’s important not to muddy your palette. Although mixed through their interactions, the palette of characters remains luminous and vibrant throughout this very readable book.

Like a spider spinning its web to entice its prey, author Peter Hoeg slowly but adroitly entices readers to suspend their belief in ordinary reality as they enter a world of illusion, mystery, and suspense to join Kasper Krone in his search for the quiet girl.

Bach's music, the mysticism of Gurdjieff, the synchroncities of Jung, the spirituality of the Orthodox Church, and high technology intermingle in this fast-paced novel.

The book begins slowly as the author moves forward and backward in time to develop the characters but quickly springs into high speed action..