Book: The Dark Mirror

 Book: The Dark Mirro

Author: Samantha Shannon

Pages: 576

This is my 50th read for the year

What Amazon says:

Everything is about to change.  Paige Mahoney is outside the Republic of Scion for the first time in more than a decade-but she has no idea how she got to the free world.  Half a year has been wiped from her memory.  Her journey back to the revolution soon takes her to Venice, where the Domino Programme has uncovered evidence of a secret Scion plan. Before Paige can return to London, she must help the network unravel the sinister Operation Ventriloquist, which threatens to bring Europe to its knees in weeks.  And it soon becomes clear that the one person who could recover her memories-Arcturus Mesarthim- might also hold the key to thwarting Scion, allowing the revolution to strike an unprecedented blow.

This is my most anticipated book for this year.  I am a Samantha Shannon fan - first reading the Priory of the Orange Tree series, and then going back and starting The Bone Season series - which now has 5 books.  There has been a long lull between book 4 and 5, but I was not aware of it until I read the author's note because I just started reading her books about 2 years ago.  Hopefully that is the end of the lull because this book's end showed that it is not a finished series and there are more to come.   Anyway!  The book was good.  The story flows well, and there is good character devleopment.  Paige and Arcturus further their relationshop and - side note - what I like about Shannon is that she doesn't make their relationship the center of her stories.  This would not fit well in a Romantasy category and I am glad and probably why I like her fantasy novels.  The story is pushed a long nicely making strides to what we readers believe is the ultimate goal.  What knocked this book for me one star was that I still feel that Paige is written a little too weak.  She is supposed to be the Underqueen of the whole criminal underworld, and yet she constantly need a nap.  It just seemed to be a little overdone.  Not enough for me to not want to keep reading the storyline.

Stars: 4

Book: Born on a Blue Day

 Book: Born On A Blue Day

Author: Daniel Tammet

Pages: 258

This is my 49th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Daniel Tammet is virtually unique among people who have severe autistic disorders in that he is capable of living a fully independent life and able to explain what is happening inside his head.  He sees numbers as shapes, colors, and textures, and he can perform extraordinary calculations in his head.  He can learn to speak new languages fluently, from scratch, in a week.  In 2004, he memorized and recited more than 22,000 digits of pi, setting a record.  HE has savant syndrome, an extremely rare condition that gives him the most unimaginable mental powers, much like those portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in the film Rain Man.  This book explores what it's like to be special and gives us an insight into what makes us all human - our minds.

This book was okay. It has been on my shelf forever - I inherited it from a friend's book haul years ago.  I liked a lot of parts of it - when Daniel really delve into his life story.  But a large part of this book is just factual information which distracted from the overall picture you try to form of what it is like for people like Daniel.  It was like he was trying to tell two different stories and it just didn't flow well.  

Stars: 3

Book: The Night Watch

 Book: Night Watch

Author: Jayne Anne Phillips

Pages: 304

This is my 48th book for the year

What Amazon says:

In 1874, in the wake of the War,erasure, trauma, and namelessness haunt civilians and veterans, renegades and wanderers, freedmen and runaways.  Twelve-year-old ConaLee, the adult in her family for as long as she can remember, finds herself on a buckboard journey with her mother, Eliza, who hasn't spoken in more than a year.  They arrive at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, delivered to the hospital's entrance by a war veteran who has forced himself into their world.  There, far from family, a beloved neighbor, and the mountain home they knew, they try to reclaim their lives.  The omnipresent vagaries of war and race rise to the surface as we learn their story: their flight to the highest mountain ridges of western Virginia; the disappearance of ConaLee's father, who left for the War and never returned.  Meanwhile, in the asylum, they begin to find a new path.  ConaLee pretends to be her mother's maid; Eliza responds slowly to treatment.  They get swept up in the life of the facility - the mysterious man they call the Night Watch; the orphan child called Weed; the fearsome woman who runs the kitchen; the remarkable doctor at the head of the institution.  

This was an okay book.  I had picked it up after I saw it in A West Virginia University bookstore while visting family.  I was intrigued by this Pulitzer Prize winner, but was disappointed with the story in the end.  The writing is good - but the story didn't pull me in.  It was almost too unbelievable.  A lot of questions remain unanswered.  The ending was satisfactory, but in this type of story, a "happily ever after" didn't seem to fit. The story of Papa is deeply disturbing and if I had know it ahead of time, I would not have picked this book up.

Stars: 3

Book: Preventable

 Book: Preventable

Author: Andy Slavitt

Pages: 336

This is my 47th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

From former Biden Senior Advisro Andy Slavitt, Prevenable is the definitive inside account of the United States' failed response to the Coronavirus pandemic.  Slavitt chronicles what he saw and how much could have been prevented - an unflinching investigation of the cultural, political, and economic drivers that led to unnecessary loss of life.  With unparalleled access to the key players throughout the government on both sides of the aisle, the principal public figures, as well as the people working on the frontline involved in fighting the virus, Slavitt brings you into the room as fateful decisions are made and focuses on the people at the center of the political system, health care system, patients, and caregivers.  The story that emerges is one of a country in whice - despite the heroics of many - bad leadership, political and cultural fractures, and an unwillingness to sustain sacrifice light a fuse that is difficult to extinguish.  This book addresses the uncomfortable realities that brought America to this place.  And, he puts forth te solutions that will prevent us from being here again, ensuring a better, strong country for everyone.

This was a great book - as great as you can rate a book that is about a very tough subject.  It was hard to relive what it was like for Americans during the height of the Coronavirus, and the consequences of so many things that we wish had gone differently.  I was lucky that I road a large chunk of the beginning of the virus out in Switzerland where we were living at the time.  The response there was vastly different and my kids actually got to go back to school about 8 weeks after the virus hit.  Everything reopened.  Citizens took care of each other. Followed rules that were not only good for them, but for everyone around them.  This book gave me even more information because Slavitt was an insider.  He was part of the day to day decisions - bridging the gap between the outside world and a White House that was less than cooperative.  I only knocked it a star because no one is perfect.  Everyone had a part in the blame, and I think Slevitt should made that more clear.

Stars: 4

Book: Olivia Strauss Is Running Out of Time

 Book: Olivia Strauss is Running Out of Time

Author: Angela Brown

Pages: 325

This is my 46th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Olivia Strauss is turning 39.  No major milestone.  She still considers herself young.  At least young enough to assume she has decasdes (emphasis on the plural) to check the unchecked boxes of her life's to-do list.  Ballerina?  Too late.  But not too late for poet.  Or for reigniting the romantic spark in her marriage, spending more quality time with her son, switching careers, learing to cook, or even dyeing her hair a bright bohemian pink. She'll get to that one.  There's time - until Olivia's best friend, Marian, gives her a birthday present she could have lived without.  It's a visit to a trendy wellness clinicl with a state-of-the-art genetic test that can predict the exact date of one's death.  It's just what Olivia's always wanted: an expiration date.  As for her aspirations, who knew they were limited-time offers?  One thing's for sure.  Olivia's got a lot of living to do.  At this point, what could go wrong?

This book wasn't that great.  I got it as a Prime First Reads - liking the idea of a clinic that could guess your time of death and seeing where it was going.  But what I got was a self absorbed main character that could not be more out of touch with the people around her.  Lots of me, me, me.  It is overly flowery, and it didn't flow well - very choppy.  I had a hard time keeping track of all the side characters.  I would pass on this one.

Stars: 2

Book: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

 Book: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd

Author: Agatha Christie

Pages: 226

This is my 45th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Poirot retires to a village near the home of a friend, Roger Ackroyd, to pursue a project to perfect vegetable marrows.  Soon after, Ackroyd is murdered and Poirot must come out of retirement to solve the case.  The novel was well-received and was voted by the British Crime Writers' Association as the best crime novel ever.  Its innovative twist endinghad a significant impact on the genre.  

This was a good book.  I listened to it and it is very short, but I found this a good way to take this book on.  I like Poirot the character.  He does come in later than normal in the story, and for awhile I was worried I had picked up a non-Poirot book.  There is good suspense and good mystery, and the ending wraps up nicely.

Stars: 4

Book: Ushers

 Book: Ushers

Author: Joe Hill

Pages: 29

This is my 44th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Martin Lorensen is a 23 year old counselor for disturbed teenagers.  He's bright, compassionate, attractive, and outgoing.  He's also - and this is the most interesting thing - not dead.  Martin has improbably survived not one but two deadly disasters that claimed dozens of lives.  The kid is riding one heck of a lucky streak.  Two federal agents thing there is something darker at play.  Now that they've arranged to interview Martin, they want answers.  Martin is ready to share everything he knows.  One thing is for certain: when it comes to escaping death, luck doesn't figure into it at all.

This was a great short story.  I got it from a Prime First Reads and was excited to see Joe Hill listed among the choices.  It is a packed story even for its size, and I read it quickly enjoying every page.  Would I have liked more?  Of course.  But I know short stories are hard to pull off, and they are not my favorite, but this was a good one.  Good character developement, interesting plot, and a satisfactory ending.

Stars: 4.5

Book: The Bookshop

 Book: The Bookshop

Author: Evan Friss

Pages: 416

This is my 43rd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Bookstores have always been unlike any other kind of store, shaping readers and writers, and influencing our tastes, thoughts, and politics.  They nurture local communities whilecreating new ones of their own.  Bookshops are powerful spaces, but they are also endangered ones.  We see the stakes: wat has been, and what might be lost.  Evan friss's history of the bookshop draws on oral histories, archival collections, municipal records, diaries, letters, and interviews, with leading booksellers to offer a fascinating look at this institution beloved by so many.  The story begins with Benjamin Franklin's first bookstore in Philadelphia and takes us to a range of booksellers including the Strand, Chicago's Marshall Field and Co, the Gotham Book Mart, specialty stores like Oscar Wilde and Drum and Spear, sidewalk sellers of used books, Barnes and Noble, Amazon Books, and Parnassus.  The Bookshop is also a history of the leading figures in American bookselling, often impassioned eccentics, and a history of how books have been merketed and sold over the couse of more than 2 centuries - including, for example, a 3,000-pound elephant who signed books at Marshall Field's in 1944.  This book is a love letter to bookstores, a Charming chronicle for anyone who cherishes these sanctuaries of literature, and essential reading to understand how these vital institutions have shaped American Life - and why we still need them.

This was a fantastic read.  The history of all these different bookstores was fascinating.  The writing is superb - as well as the research done on the history and the people behind the bookstores.  From small shops around the time of Ben Franklin to Amazon today - he covers a wide history of what bookstores were and what they have become.  A lot of great anecdotes and personal touches, I am glad I found this one.

Stars: 5

Book: Cold Falling White

 Book: Cold Falling White

Author: G. S. Prendergrast

Pages: 576

This is my 42nd read for the year

What Amazon says:

Xander Liu survived the alien invasion - just barely.  For more than a year, he has outsmarted, hidden from, and otherwise avoided the ruthless intruders, the Nahx, dodging the deadly darts that have claimed so many.  When the murder of his friend leaves him in the protective company of August, a rebellious Nahx soldier, Xander is finally able to make his way back to human controlled territor and relative safety.  But safety among the humans is not what it seems.  When Raven awakes on a wide expanse of snowy sand dunes, she has many questions.  What has happened to her and the other reanimated humans gathered around her?  What is the meaning of the Nahx ships that hover ominously above them?  And most pressing of all, where is August, who promised to keep her safe?  In the shadow of n unforgiving Canadian winter, Xander and Raven find themselves on opposite sides of an alien war.  Left with little choice about their roles in the looming battle, they search for answers and allies all while being drawn back to the place where their respective fates were determined, and to the one who determined them: August.

This book was pretty good.  I read the first one, so I wanted to do what I usually do - continue a series no matter how I felt about the first book. The story is interesting enough.  The writing is decent.  The story flows well.  It took me a bit to get into, but I didn't read the first one that far in the past, so soon I was back on track with the characters.  This one has a new main character, but Raven does make an appearance quickly and is back to being a main POV.  Got a little more insight into the invasion and who the Nahx are.  I think there is going to be a third one so I will that if it becomes so.

Stars: 3.5

Book: Girl Factory

 Book: Girl Factory

Author: Karen Dietrich

Pages: 272

This is my 41st read for the year

What Amazon Says:

It's 1985 in a small factory town near Pittsburgh.  8 year old Karen's parents are lifelong workers at the Anchor Glass plant, where one Saturday, an employee goes on a shotting spree, killing four supervisors, them himself.  This event splits the young girl's life open, and like her mother, she begins to seek comfort in obsessive rituals and superstitions.  This memori chronicles the next 14 years as Karen moves through childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood.  It illuminates small-town factory life; explores a complicated mother-daughter bone; thoughtfully unfolds a smart, but insecure girl's coming of age; achingly recounts her attempts to use sex to fit in; and ultimately uncovers the buried secret from her childhood - a medical file with an unbearable report.  The book travels the intersections of memory and origin.  Karen'ts body remembers details her mind has tried to control.

I want to start this review with saying that I knew this author through my childhood..  I grew up with her and her older sister - she went to my same small elementary school, junior and senior high schoool, and was a good friend of my brother.  She changed the names of just about everyone but herself, but I knew the people she spoke of.  The teachers she mentions were ones I had an loved as well and was happy to see their names.  But Karen'ts childhood was a termoil one.  This book is not badly written, but it is choppy.  There are a lot of uncomfortable parts - for me - that were heavy on sex.  She did not have much good to say about her mother and the story was quite sad.  I picked up the book because in 1985 when the book takes place was the year our town had its one and only mass shooting where a gunman shot 4 people at Anchor Hocking Glass and then himself.  We knew one of the people very well - he has a good friend of our family.  I thought it was going to circle around that more because her parents worked there, but it was just a small part.  I am glad I read it, but I would not recommend it.

Stars: 3

Book: The Signal Moon

 Book: The Signal Moon

Author: Kate Quinn

Pages: 57

This is my 40th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Yorkshire, 1943.  Lily Baines, a bright young debutante increasingly ground down by an endless war, has traded in her white gloves for a set of headphones.  It's her job to intercept enemy naval communications and send them to Bletchley Park for decryption.  One night, she picks up a transmission that isn't code at all - it's a cry for help.  An American ship is taking heavy fire in the North Atlantic - but no one else has reported an attack, and the information relayed by the young US officer, Matt Jackson, seems all wrong.  The contact that Lily has me on the other end of the radio channel says it's 2023.  Across an eight-year gap, Lily and Matt must find a way to help each other:  Matt to convince her that the war she's fighting can still be won, and Lily to help him stave off the war to come.  As their connection grows stronger, they both know there's no telling when time will run out on their inexplicable link.

This was an okay book.  I like Kate Quinn, and I liked the idea of the book.  I think the short 50+ pages made it hard to put this level of story in place.  A "time travel" book in 50 pages?  It is hard to pull off.  The beginning was actually a little slow, but the ending was good.  It was a clever idea, and I liked the two main characters.  I would have liked to have had more.

Stars: 3.5

Book: Skin of the Sea

 Book: Skin of the Sea

Author:  Natasha Bowen

Pages: 336

This is my 39th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Simi prayed to the gods, once.  Now she serves them as Mami Wata - a mermaid - collecting the souls of those who die at sea and blessing their jouneys back home.  But when a living boy is thrown overboard, Simi does the unthinkable - she saves his life, going against an ancient decree.  And punishment awaits those who dare to defy it.  To protect the other Mami Wata, Simi must journey to the Supreme Creator to make amends.  But all is not as it seems.  There's the boy she rescued, who knows more than he should.  And something is shadowing Simi, somthing that would rather see her fail.  Danger lurks at every turn, and as Simi draws closer, she must brave vengeful gods, treacherous lands, and legendar creatures. Because if she doesn't, then she risks not only the fate of all Mami Wata, but also the world as she knows it.

This book was just meh.  I listened to it on a 10 hour car ride - all in one sitting, and don't know if that was the problem or I just couldn't get into it.  It was slow moving until about the last 20% of the book, but by then I just wanted to get through it.  It is YA - and mythology.  Mythology I like - YA not so much.  

Stars: 3

Book: The Collapsing Empire

 Book: The Collapsing Empire

Author: John Scalzi

Pages: 336

This is my 38th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Our universe is ruled by physics.  Faster than light travel is impossible - until the discovery of The Flow, an extradimensional field available at certain points in space-time, which can take us to other planets around other stars.  Riding The Flow, humaity spreads to innumerable other worlds.  Earth is forgotten.  A new empire arises, the Interdependency, based on the doctrine that no one human outpost can survive without the others.  It's a hedge against interstellar war - and, for the empire's rulers, a system of control.  The Flow is eternal - but it's not static.  Just as a river changes course, The Flow changes as well.  In rare cases, entire worlds have been cut off from the rest of humanity.  When it's discovered that the entire Flor is moving, possibly separating all human world's from one another forever, three individuals - a scientist, a starship captain, and the emperox of the Interdependency - must race against time to discover what, it anything, can be salvaged from an interstellar empire on the brink of collapse.

This was a great book.  I am a Scalzi fan, no doubt, but I was worried this one might be too heavy on the Sci Fi.  It was not.  It was not a complicated read, had a cheeky character, and a clever story.  The characters are well developed, and the story flowed well.  I was kept on the edge of my seat once the main "problem" was brought to the front of the story, and read late into the night to see where it was going.  This is the first book of a trilogy, but I did feel that it wrapped up well.  Not a big cliff hanger that would make you feel like you would need to continue if you didn't want to.  Easily a stand alone for those who are looking for a good story, but not a contiuing one.

Stars: 4.5

Book: How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund?

 Book: How Does That Make You Feel, Magda Eklund?

Author: Anna Montague

Pages: 256

This is my 37th read for the year

This is what Amazon Says:

Most days, Magda is fine.  She has her routines.  She has her anxious therapy patients, who depend on her to cure their bad habits.  She has her longtime colleagues, whose playful bickering she mediates.  She's mourning the recent loss of her best friend, Sara, but has brokered a tentative truce with Sara's prickly widower as she helps him sort through the last of Sra's possessions.  She's fine.  But in going through Sara's old journal, Magda discovers her friend's last directive: plan for a roat trip they would take together in celebration of Magda's upcoming seventieth birthday.  So, with Sara's urn in tow, Magda decides to hit the road, crossing the country and encourntering a cast of memorable characters - including her sister, from whom she's been keeping secrets.  Along the way she stubmles upon a jazz funeral in New Orleans and a hilarious women's retreat meant to "unleash one's divine feminine energy in Texas, and meets a woman who challenges her conceptions of herself - and the hidden truths about her friendship with Sara.  As the trip shakes up her careful routines, Magda finally faces longings she locked away years ago and confronts questions about her sexualty and identity she thought she had long put to rest.  And as she soon learns, it's never too late to start your next journey.

This was a decent book.  I was hoping it was going to be more like "The True Story of Tanner and Louise", but it wasn't.  It is a thoughtful story about grief, but  was hoping for a little more humor.  It just fell a little flat for me.  Couldn't really get invested with most of the characters.

Stars: 3

Book: Babylonia

 Book: Babylonia

Author: Costanza Casati

Pages: 448

This is my 36th read for the year

What Amazon says:

Babylonia across the centuries has become the embodiment of lust, excess, and dissolute power that ruled Ancient Assyria.  In this world you had to kill to be king.  Or, in the case of Semiramis, an orphan raised on the outskirts of an empire:  Queen.  Nothing about Semiramis's upbringing could have foretold her legacy.  But when she meets a young representative of the new ASsyrian king, a prophecy unfolds before her, one that puts her in the center of a brutal wrld and in the hearts of two men - one who happens to be king.  Now a risen lady in a court of vipers, Semiramis becomes caught in the politics and viciousness of ancient Assyria.  Instead of bartering with fate, Semiramis trains in war and diplomacy.  And with each move, she rises in rank, embroiled in a game of power, desire, love, and betrayal, until she can ascend to the only position that will ever keep her safe. 

This was another excellent book from Casati.  It is well written and a well developed story.  Great character development.  Her books are not hard reads, but her story lines are captivating.  There are a lot of characters, and they all have complicated names, but it did not distract from the story.  I liked it ALMOST as well as Clytemnestra.  It is a close second.

Stars: 4.5

Book: Warm Bodies

 Book: Warm Bodies

Author: Isaac Marion

Pages: 256

This is my 35th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

"R" is a zombie.  He has no name, no memories, and no pulse, but he has dreams.  He is a little different from his fellow Dead.  Amongst the ruins of an abandoned city, R meets a girl.  Her name is Julie an she is the opposite of everything he knows - warm and bright and very much alive, she is a blast of colour in a dreary grey landscape.  For reasons he can't understand, R chooses to save Julie instead of eating her, and a tense yet strangely tender relationship begins.  This has never happened before.  It breaks the rules and defies logic, but R is no longer content with life in the grave.  He wants to breathe again, he wants to live and Julie wants to help him. But their grim rotting world won't be changed without a fight.

This was a pretty good book.  I have seen the movie a few times and really like it.  The book and the movie are pretty similar so no surprises here.  But it was decently written and the story flows well. I like R and Julie.  There is good character development there.  Story is sweet and this is a first book in the series, so it ends with a "Sort of" cliff hanger, but enough of a wrap up that you could stop here and be satisfied.

Stars: 4

Book: Brigadoon

 Book: Brigadoon

Author: Alan Jay Lerner

Pages: 56

This is my 34th read for the year

This is the musical - yes.  It is on the Rory Gilmore reading challenge, so I grabbed it to "read".  It is mostly the songs, but the story is in there too.  It is one of my favorite musicals, so it was fun.

Stars: 4

Book: Mabuhay!

Book: Mabuhay!

Author: Zachary Sterling

Pages: 240

This is my 33rd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Can two kids save the world and work their family food truck?  First-generation Filipino siblings JJ and Althea struggle to belong at school.  JJ wants to fit in with the crowd, while Althea wants to be accepted as she is.  To make matters worse, they have to help their parents run the family food truck by dressing up as a dancing pig and passing out samples.  And their mom is always pointing out lessons from Filipino folklore - annoying tales they've heard again and again.  But when witches, ogres, and other creatures from those same stories threaten their family, JJ and Althea realize that the folklore may be more real than they'd suspected.  Can they embrace who they really are and save their family?

This book was not well written.  I KNOW it is a kids graphic novel (and I read it for a reading challenge where a food truck needed to be on the cover), but reading many many of these over the years with Finley - there are much better GNs out there for this age group.  Not well written, the character development wasn't there, and I just wanted to get through it.

Stars: 2

 

 Book: Red Rising

Author: Pierce Brown

Pages: 416

This is my 32nd read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future.  Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations.  Yet he toils willingly, trusting that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.  But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed.  Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago.  Vast cities and lush wilds spread across the planet.  Darrow - and Reds like him - are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.  Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity's overlords struggle for power.  He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society's ruling class.  There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies - even if it means he has to become one of them to do so.

To start - this is pretty deep Sci Fi.  And while I am a fan, this is a bit futher than I was interested in to continue the series.  I liked Darrow.  I liked the twist - didn't see that coming.  Once he discovered the secret and he infiltrated the "enemy", it lost me a bit.  It moves very fast - even for a 400 page book.  Too many adversaries  It is Darrow's point of view for the whole book which actually got a bit tiresome.  I didn't love the writing style.  The world building was interesting, but not enough to make me want to continue with book 2.

Stars: 3

Book: The Snow Child

 Book: The Snow Child

Author: Eowyn Ivey

Pages: 389

This is my 31st book of the year

What Amazon says:

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel.  Childless, they are drifting apart - he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair.  In a moment of levity during the season's first snowfall, they build a child out of the snow.  The next morning the snow child is gone - but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.  This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods.  She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness.  As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, tey come to love her as their own daughter.  But in this beautiful, violent place things are arely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.

This was an okay book.  I liked the beginning and the idea.  But as the story progressed, and definitely the end, it was just okay.  Ending got predictable and was underwhelming.  In the beginning the characters were well developed and the mystery of Fiana was intriguing.  But one the mystery was solved and then Fiana enters a relationship with a neighborhood boy, I lost interest.  I am glad I read it, but I wouldn't really recommend it.

Stars: 3

Book: The Traveling Cat Chronicles

 Book: The Traveling Cat Chronicles

Author: Hiro Arikawa

Pages: 288

This is my 30th read for the year

What Amazon says:

With simple yet descriptive prose, this novel gives voice to Nana the cat and his owner, Satoru, as they take to the road on a journey with no other purpose than to visit three of Satoru's longtime friends.  Or so Nana is led to believe.  With his crooked tail - a sign of good fortune - and adventurous spirit, Nana is the perfect companion for the man who took him in as a stray.  And as they travel in a silver van across Japan, with its ever-changing scenery and seasons, they will learn the true meaning of courage and gratitude of loyalty and love.

This was a great little book.  It is a fast read - the book is very short in stature so 288 pages flew by.  The story is sweet with the cat and Satoru - traveling to find the cat a new home.  It is pretty obvious from the beginning why the search, but it isn't until near the end when it is revealed.  It is well written and the characters are great.  Glad I read it.

Stars: 4

Book: History of the Nashobah Praying Indians

 Book: History of the Nashobah Praying Indians

Author: Daniel Boudillion

Pages: 192

This is my 29th read for the year

What Amazon Says:

Littleton, Massachusetts was originally the Praying Indian Plantation of Nashobah.  Prior to 1654 it was the Native village of Nashope under Chief Tahattawan, a Massachusett Federation Sagamore.  For the first time ever, the history of the Nashobah Praying Indians is told here in full, from 1654 to 1736.  It is a story of suffering and loss, of a people who kept both their faith and heritage in the face of encroachment, war, and disease.  The book begins at the roots of the Praying Indian experiment, follows the doing and sifferings through King Phillip's war and Deer Island, and the long decline afterwards as the Plantation was sold off bit by bit, eventually to become the town of Littleton.  It has been more than 280 years since Wunnuhhew (Sarah Doublet), the last of the Nashobah Praying Indians that lived in Nashobah, passed away, and the Plantation was lost.  Here her story, and the story of all the Nashobah Praying Indians told in full for the first time.  The Nashobah Praying Indians are alive and well in the world, and are still Praying Indians more than 350 years later.  This is their story.

This was a pretty good book.  I am a little biased because I live in Littleton and walk the Sarah Doublet forest often.  I knew a little of the history, but this book is so much more.  We get a good indepth history of the land, the people, and Sarah herself.  I learned so much that as soon as our weather turns for the better, I want to seek out some of these spots, and rewalk the forest with a different view.  He did an excellent job with the writing and the history.  Glad I found this one.

Stars: 4.5