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Reviews by Lucy B. (Urbana, Ohio)

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The Things We Cherished: A Novel
by Pam Jenoff

Holocaust Hero's brother (5/6/2011)

I loved this story of love and suspense. There is a love connection not only between the public defender and the brother of her ex-lover but between the accused Nazi collaborator, who the public defender is asked to help defend, and the accused's brother's wife.

The book starts in 2009, jumps to 1903, 1922, 1940, 1942, 1961, and 1911, jumping into 2009 in and about the earlier years. I sometimes got confused as to where I was.

All in all, a lovely story.

Outside Wonderland: A Novel
by Lorna Jane Cook

Love and beyond (1/31/2011)

The main subject of this book is the love lives of the brother and two sisters whose mother and father died when the children were very young. There was a lot of sadness in each of the three adults' lives. I personally felt that the book would have sustained itself without adding the viewpoints of the mother and father throughout the story.

Minding Ben: A Novel
by Victoria Brown

Coming to America (12/30/2010)

The prologue was about a sixteen-year-old girl coming to America and then not being met by her cousin at the airport. The first chapter was a year or so later and it was hard for me to try to understand how she fit in with the characters at this point. The rest of the story was told well and I felt sorry for how she was treated by her employers.

Raising Wrecker: A Novel
by Summer Wood

Wrecker (11/9/2010)

When choosing a book, the title would be deceiving. It was a wonderful story about a three-year-old who was taken from his single mother and placed with a member of the family. There is a lot of true-life children in the same situation. As I followed the story of the young man growing up, I was looking forward to see how he would finally end up. I recommend this book. It was a good read.

Man in the Woods
by Scott Spencer

Paul's Undoing (7/3/2010)

Man in the Woods had my attention from beginning to end. It just goes to prove that it only takes a moment for something to happen to you that changes your life, in this case not for the better. Including the dog in the story provided some heartbreaking but also some lighter, tender moments. I have not read any other books by Scott Spencer, but I definitely will be reading others.

Learning to Lose: A Novel
by David Trueba

Losing (5/11/2010)

I had a difficult time with this book. It was not one that I started reading and couldn't lay down; I had a lot of starts and stops. Personally, I could not recommend this book to my reader's group. There are too many really interesting books out there to waste time on this one.

The Swimming Pool
by Holly LeCraw

Cape Cod family and friends (3/1/2010)

The story bounces back and forth from present day events to the beginning of the story at an around-the-pool cookout on Cape Cod a few years earlier. Two families' lives, the McClatcheys and the Atkinsons, are entwined throughout. The book was gripping, suspenseful, and well-written. I couldn't lay "The Swimming Pool" down once I started reading. I'm looking forward to more books by Holly Lecraw

The Bricklayer: A Novel
by Noah Boyd

Great Read (12/9/2009)

Once I started reading this book, I could not wait to see what the bricklayer's next challenge would be in delivering and then finding the ransom money that was paid to keep another person from being killed. I was hooked from the beginning of the book when this former FBI agent single-handedly kept the bank robbers from getting away. I can't wait for Noah Boyd's next book(s) to become available.

Serena: A Novel
by Ron Rash

Serena's revenge (9/1/2009)

The writer was very descriptive with his words and I could visualize the story vividly. Oh Serena! What a bad girl you were. Nobody was safe if you had a grudge. I particularly liked the setting for the story in North Carolina. I have been to Asheville and the mountains and it is a lovely place. I tried to visualize that area as as it would have been back in the early days the story was projected. The author included some history into the story and that was interesting to me. Even though the story was gruesome, I enjoyed reading it.

Dragon House
by John Shors

Children of the street (7/16/2009)

Dragon House is a great read. Several topics were covered by the author: children with no parents, persons handicapped by war injuries, people using drugs who use children to benefit themselves, people looking after the interests of the children by providing a place for them, a child dying from cancer because the parents were not able to afford a doctor, the love between a child and her grandmother, etc. I enjoyed the book even though it made me sad to read about all the problems involved. But the fact that there were people willing to help those children in need made it not so sad.

A Girl Made of Dust
by Nathalie Abi-Ezzi

Children of War (5/22/2009)

I read a lot, all types of books, and belong to a local reader's book club sponsored by an independent book seller in a mid-western small town. I felt the author did a good job depicting the life of an eight-year-old who is living in a country at war and who is surrounded by a family with secrets that she does not fully understand. I feel we tend to forget that the lives of young people are very much affected by the war of adults.

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