What a great read! I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this book as I eagerly learned about the daring women who helped shaped aviation in this country in the 20s and 30s. Just imagine flying without the advantages of GPS - truly I can't - or using what in most cases were experimental planes to compete in air races - one has to totally fearless - left me breathless at moments. What "moxie"!. And the great perseverance of these women to do it all in a man's world (not much as changed when only 7 of commercial pilots are women today) is inspiring. There is lot of great information in this book, especially some new detail about Amelia Earhart. But I thoroughly loved following Louise Thaden as she struggled to balance her flying with her family - not typical for the times. The book is well written and the story well crafted. I highly recommend it.

The Devoted is a strange tale of a woman's attempted journey toward self-discovery and independence. The author tells the story of Nicole Hennessey's journey through the lens of her rejection of Catholicism while growing up in Boston during the height of the Church's sexual abuse abuse scandel to her embracing Zen Buddhism for spiritual fulfillment only to later be molested by her roshI or Zen Master. The story is both ironic and tragic in its telling. Even though the story evolves around Nicole's attempt to end the abuse, she seems self destructive in her attempt. And, the author wraps up the story in a way you'd want for an outcome but it seemed to me to be too abrupt and discordant in a way. While enjoyed learning about Buddhism and the author's writing, I just couldn't resonate with the character or the story.

Motherhood is interesting for some of the literary techniques employed by the author but after that the angst over a decision to have children - actually seemingly made years previously by having an abortion and in the present by taking the morning after pill - becomes tedious reading. It became difficult to resonant with a narrator who sought to blame her mother, her lover and PMS for just about every thing that could possibly be wrong in her life. Motherhood as a calling or a decision requires some sense of selflessness. For the book's narrator it's probably a good decision for her not to have a child as I'm not sure she could ever get outside herself.

A powerful, thought provoking story of how people try to understand and accept the inexplicable things that happen in life. Set against the "miracle" of a paralyzed veteran suddenly walking 4 years post war-related injury, we experience how a host of characters and the main character, Cameron Harris, seek to understand what this miracle is supposed to mean or should mean to them and to Cameron in particular. Written with a journalistic slant, the wonderful prose weaves a powerful story that sets faith against science, acceptable versus unacceptable and expectations against human failings. Worthwhile read about how humans create their own story.

Wow! This book hooked me from the first sentence. A fascinating story of people coping with their blessings and insecurities as they try to make their houses into homes, the characters are real and heart-felt. The story's impact is felt as truths are revealed as the story closes and the characters come to acceptance and understanding that having a home is more more important than the house itself. I wanted the story to go on as the characters were so interesting. A great read.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The author has a wonderful ability to paint a picture of Havana and Cuba so that you can see the places and settings and believe you are right there. She has also created a poignant, bittersweet atmosphere surrounding the book that beautifully supports the story line of a granddaughter (Marisol) seeking to find the right place to distribute a beloved grandmother's (Elisa) ashes in the land that she deeply loved. In her search Marisol discovers a secret about her grandmother that takes her off point in finding the "right place," but puts her on a journey of discovery about herself and her grandmother that gets her to the "right place."

Set between alternating periods of time - the Cuban Revolution and current times in Cuba - and told by different voices - Elisa and Marisol - the author evokes an enduring tale of loves lost, found and enduring. I especially enjoyed the author's fine, lyrical writing and the passionate and realistic characters she created. One can certainly better understand an ex-pat Cuban's great desire to return to Havana after reading this book. I highly recommend it.

This is a "I don't want to put it down" book. You simply have to know what will happen. Beautifully written, touchingly poignant, this is a story of one woman's courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds to keep her child safe and to find a cure. The story of how the father who initially rejected her when she was first pregnant but was able to make amends and realize that parenthood is a wonderful, though taxing experience and that he should be part of it made the story much deeper too. Memoirs are not my favorite genre for reading but Happiness by Heather Harpham has made it one I will pursue with more interest. Great book which I highly recommend.

I was blown away reading this book. The prose and style were so captivating that I felt at times I was actually there in the moment as the events of the story unfold. This book is not an easy read though. The story of the rural South in the 30s with its racial attitudes, contempt for and mistreatment of blacks, and attitudes about women are hard to read at times, but the author speaks with such honesty through each of her characters you feel compelled to read on to understand motivation and what really is the truth surrounding the birth of the "Gemini Twins." While a complicated story, it is equally fascinating, rich in its many characters with their own stories to tell. Starting tragically the book rolls forward told from the perceptions of each character dealing with the vagaries of his or her life, each seeking to understand what it all means. The female characters, especially Nan and Elma, are particularly rich in their strengthens, convictions and determinations to forge a better life, which they do. The male characters seem to complicate and disrupt the lives of the women, especially George Wilson and Juke Jessup, representative of the Southern landed gentry and rural farmer respectively, patriarchs who carry on a bitter personal relationship that has an ironic and maybe fitting ending for one, at least. But this is also a story of changing times and changing attitudes. As George and Juke are representative of the racial attitudes of the South in those times, Oliver, the crippled physician, whose willingness to accept the "twins" and Nan into his home when others in the white community are deeply antithetical to having blacks in their town represents what has to change. He also serves as a foil to the other males not only because of being crippled by polio, his acceptance of and respect for the female characters is not typical of the rough-edged Southern male of that time. Finally it is the paving of Twelve Mile Straight and the demolishing of the gourd tree, where the story opens, that brings it to its rightful conclusion: life moves on, things change and barriers must come down. A very fine and worthwhile read.

Reading My Last Lament was a captivating and enthralling experience. I hated to put it down for wanting to know what would happen next and how the threads would call come together. Aliki, the narrator, offers her story as a lament for things that are lost and cannot be returned but are necessary and worth the telling. As we share her story set against the backdrop of WWII and Greek resistance, we grow to admire her courage and her tenacity for sticking with what she views as right and necessary to do. Her decisions may not always seem to be the ones we, the readers, might do, but somehow we sense her choices are necessary as tragic as these might be. Aliki is never allows her to be diminished in life. In fact, her story ends with a great crescendo of awareness that in the telling, her lament is that we had have choices and life goes on in spite of them. The book has some great lighter moments as an older Aliki interacts with the Greek women in the village who carry on the Greek traditions of death and mourning. The highest compliment I can give a book is to read it again. This is a book worth reading more than once and I will be reading it often.

Our Short History is a poignant but powerful story of love. Karen Neulander is an every woman figure of sorts but with a twist. She is a determined, self-motivated, successful career woman and single parent to son, Jacob, who now is facing her death from ovarian cancer. We meet her as she is starting a journal for him, something he can read when he is older so her memory doesn't fade. She wants to impart wisdom and give him a sense for who she but also to explain his family of origin. It is at this point she must introduce a man whom she deeply loved but who did not love her enough to commit to a relationship. Jacob's father is the bane of Karen's existence. He represents a profound loss of love in her life and giving Jacob to him would be the ultimate betrayal, especially because of an earlier misunderstanding that caused her to bar him from knowing he had a son. As we get to know Karen and feel her pain, anger, regrets, resentments and fears, we get to learn a lot about ourselves too. There are moments when as a reader you want to throttle her, say "grow up" or think "I wouldn't have done that" only to ask yourself: why are you thinking this way, at which point you realize her power as a character. The author brilliantly weaves in other characters whose lives touch Karen's and support the theme of what it mean to love. You will not be sorry for having read this wonderful book.

Set against the darkness of the scare tactics of the McCarthy era, the concerns raised in this book resonate today and make this book worthy of a read. If you didn't live through the McCarthy era, it may be easy to dismiss this book, but if you did, you know that the intensity of the unrealistic hate based on inference and unproven information that the period generated is a very real one. Based loosely on a true story, the author writes of decent people trying to make the world a better place who must come to terms with deep-seated and often unwarranted prejudice, all of which are based on unproven and distorted information. There are reaffirming moments in the book when good people realize that what bad people do should be countered. The chilling ending is haunting and that it occurred almost 30 years after the original events of the story is intensely thought provoking. The book's structure, however, sometimes got in the way of the story line and its conclusion but nonetheless, I would still recommend the book.

Lillian Boxfish Takes A Walk is a gem of a book and must read for anyone who enjoys good writing and delightful story that will enchant. Kathleen Rooney has managed to create a woman who has lived a life of great highs and experienced moments of great despair but has somehow prevailed to embrace life with guts and gusto and never looked back in the process. Lillian never fails to delight as you share her walk and her life. Her wit is nonpareil and most funny. I had many a good laugh! The book is beautifully written too. Ms. Rooney is an excellent writer who captures your imagination from the first sentence. You cannot but be enchanted by Lillian and Lillian's New York City of 1984. Don't fail to get this one to read. You will not be disappointed.

If you are interested in reading a story that will hook you from the first sentence, this is a book for you. From the very beginning you want to know more about the tea plantation, its current and previous inhabitants and their secrets. The author's lush descriptions of the plantation serve as a vivid and atmospheric backdrop to a story about human and race relationships in early 20th C Ceylon where the British rule and its attitudes affect the heroine's acclimation to her role as wife and mistress of a tea plantation. Gwen is faced with understanding and making sense of the differing perceptions of the native Ceylonese groups with those of her own and her husband, her sister-in-law and others she meets in the British company she socializes with. The perceptions of others often differ greatly from her own and at one point she has to grapple with a heart-wrenching decision of gigantic proportions as a result. The underlying story of race relationships is especially compelling as this issue is no different from those of today making the story line particularly compelling. You simply can't put the book down. In fact, if I could have, I would have read the book from start to finish to the end in one sitting, I was that intrigued. While an historical romance, don't be fooled; this story has substance. I highly recommend this book.