Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett

'It was the coldest winter for forty-five years.  Villages in the English countryside were cut off by the snow and the Thames froze over.  One day in January the Glasgow-London train arrived at Euston twenty-four hours late.  The snow and the blackout combined to make motoring perilous;  road accidents doubled, and people told jokes about how it was more risky to drive an Austin Seven along Piccadilly at night than to take a tank across the Siegfried line.'
First paragraph of Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett

It's funny that I usually don't care for spy novels, but I have really liked every Ken Follett book I have ever read and this one was no exception. Set during the last days of WW II, Die Nadel was Germany's top spy. The Needle was living in England under numerous identities while ferreting out all the British secrets he could. When he uncovers the biggest secret of all, the one that will make all of the difference in Germany winning the war, he must get this secret intelligence back to Hitler.


David and Lucy Rose were in a terrible accident the night of their wedding that ended David's career as an Army pilot and severed both of his legs. David and Lucy went to live on a remote Scottish island where David's dad owned a house and sheep farm, the only other inhabitant being Old Tom, the sheepherder.

These four lives intertwine in passion, treachery and absolute bravado. You will fall in love with Lucy Rose and will find yourself turning pages late into the night. Wonderful!

An Absence So Great - Jane Kirkpatrick

An Absence So Great by Jane Kirkpatrick


My rating: 5 of 5 stars

'A photograph, like life, often reveals as much about who's absent as who's there.'
~First paragraph of An Absence So Great by Jane Kirkpatrick


Another wonderful book by one of my favorite authors! An Absence So Great carries on where A Flickering Light left off in the life of Jane's grandmother, Jessie Gaebele. Jessie is now eighteen and living and working in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She has gone away from her family and hometown of Winona, Minnesota as a punishment to herself for the longing of a married, much older man; her boss and mentor Fred J. Bauer. In Milwaukee, Jessie is working for Suzanne Johnson, a woman who has lost her husband so is now running his photography studio. She is living with the Harms family who are actually relatives of Mr. Bauer and in the course of time it comes out that Mr. Bauer is paying them for Jessie's room and board. She does not at all want this support, so begins to take photographs at the local dances in order to tuck away enough money to pay Mr. Bauer back and be once again out of his debt. When word gets to Jessie that one of the studio's in Winona is up for sale, she goes back home only for a short visit to approach the bank manager for a loan to secure the studio. Turned down on the basis that she is a woman, Jessie instead goes to work for this same studio to prove her abilities to the owner. She does so and the banker has a change of heart and gives her the loan. But all is well only for awhile and circumstances have Jessie once again leaving her family and hometown for the wide open prairies of North Dakota. Will painful memories ever leave Jessie behind? Will she come to terms with the pullings of her own heart?

Another historical novel beautifully written. Jessie Gaebele will grab your heart.

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Don't I Know You? - Karen Shepard

Don't I Know You?: A Novel by Karen Shepard

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


'August 1976
It was a Tuesday.  Steven's key worked like it always had.  His mother was lying between the living room and the front hall.  He saw her feet first.  They were bare, and at first he thought she was doing her yoga.'
                                First paragraph of Don't I know You? by Karen Shepard

This was a really interesting murder mystery written first from the perspective of the murder victim's 12 year old son, then wrapped around other lives in the neighborhood.



Gina Engel was brutally murdered in her New York City apartment in the summer of 1976. Her son, Stephen, coming home from a day playing with friends, finds his mother's body lying in the hallway of their home. Could the murderer have been Gina's current boyfriend, Phil; Stephen's abscent father; an ex-boyfriend? It's determined only that it was someone that Gina knew. Stephen caught only a glimpse of a man in green Adidas tennis shoes leaving through an open window. The story stays with Stephen throughtout the first week of the investigation and up until the time when his father comes to take him to San Diego and a whole new life.

Next, two years later with the murder still unsolved, we meet Lily Chin. Lily is engaged to Nick, a wealthy landowner. A strange woman brings it to Lily's attention that her fiance' may have a secret life that was once tangled up with Gina Engel's. Is he a dangerous man or the man that Lily thinks she knows?

Fast forward ten years to the fall of 1988. Louise Carpanetti and her son, Michael, live in the same building that Gina was killed in years ago. Michael is a slow, emotionally-disturbed man who used to water Gina's plants when she was away and had a relationship with her son, Stephen. Louise had recieved a phone call from Gina as she had lain dying. She has always had suspicions that she has kept to herself about her own son. Is it time to come forward?

I thought this book was done quite well, but was left a little disappointed with the ending. All three voices were done well and we got to know the people involved intimately, but the very last chapter that held the answer was too short and lacked the depth of the rest of the novel. I felt that it ended very abruptly.



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Death Comes As Epiphany

Death Comes As Epiphany by Sharan Newman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a fun, light read. Set in 1139 France, Catherine LeVendeur is a novice nun who has not yet taken her final vows. She is at the Convent of the Paraclete studying under the abbess Heloise. Catheine had a part in preparing a manuscript for Abbe' Sugar that has disappeared and word is that the manuscript has been defaced with heresy. Catherine is sent back to her family from the convent in the disguise of a disgraced nun, but in reality is on a mission to find the missing manuscript and determine who defaced it and why. In this quest, Catherine puts herself in much danger physically and also mortally with the evil that is involved in this mystery.

Death Comes As Epiphany is the first in a mystery series, all with Catherine as the heroine. If you are ready for a light adventure, these are really fun books to dig into.

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Innocent Traitor

Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If my faults deserve punishment, my youth at least, and my imprudence, were worthy of excuse.  God and posterity will show me more favor.
~Lady Jane Grey, in the Tower of London, February 1554

Everyone knows the basic story of Lady Jane Grey, but this novel really brought her to life for me. Author Alison Weir is a historian, so this book was painstakingly researched and all of the characters have so much depth and personality to them. I found myself either loving or hating each of them and feeling true sorrow for the innocent Jane.
Lady Jane Grey has Tudor blood; her ambitious mother is cousin to Henry VIII and in line for the throne behind Henry's son Edward and daughters Mary and Elizabeth. Jane's parents wanted a male heir, not a mere girl, and Jane's young life has been spent being the abused pawn of her repulsive parents but much loved by Mrs. Ellen, her nurse since birth. Jane has also had a loving mother figure in Katherine Parr, King Henry VIII's last wife, but when Henry dies, Katherine soon remarries and dies after a long and harrowing childbirth. Jane is sent back home to her parents, where the plot remains to marry her to her young cousin, King Edward. When Edward dies of consumption, the plot changes from marriage to a ploy to overthrow the next in line, Princess Mary, and crown Lady Jane queen instead. Poor Jane wants nothing to do with this, but as a young 15 year old girl, can do nothing but obey her parents and the all powerful Duke of Northumberland. The wheels are set in motion for betrayal and heresy that will bring the innocent girl to an early death.

This story is so well told through the eyes and imagination of the author that it left me wanting more. The story is a centuries old one that we are all familiar with, but the telling of it left me feeling very emotional and wanting to change history, if only we could.

I have done some ancestoral research and have found, before reading this book, that Lady Jane was a cousin of mine, (as was her mother, but I'm choosing to ignore that part!). I loved reading her story through the voice of Alison Weir.

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The Swimming Pool by Holly Lecraw

The Swimming Pool by Holly LeCraw


My rating: 1 of 5 stars


Hmmm...what to say about this book. It sounded interesting and I was looking forward to reading it - the plot was a seven year old murder that somehow was tangled around the lives of two different families, a clandestine love affair and summer on Cape Cod. Sounded intriguing. What I found was a disjointed novel describing the events that lead up to the murder, interspersed with present-day drama from the families involved. I felt that the author didn't do a good job of jumping from one time frame to another or from one character to another. It seemed very abrupt.

Betsy was the woman murdered; I felt nothing for her as her character was not given any time or depth. Marcella, the woman having an affair with the murdered woman's husband, is now, seven years later, having an affair with the murdered woman's son since his father had died of heartbreak after the murder. Can you say yuck? I kept reading, thinking the plot would redeem itself, but towards the end, I found myself just skimming so that the pain would end.


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The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I loved this book! I usually mark my favorite passages and quote them in my review, but it would be simply ridiculous to tap out all 451 pages, now wouldn't it?

This book grabbed me right from the beginning and kept me turning pages long into the night. I'm really impressed with the writing style and the ease that the author takes us from one persons perspective to another throughout the entire story. I really felt that the characters all had a lot of depth to them, letting the reader either connect with a character or loathe them. Not being from the south myself, this isn't a lifestyle that I am familiar with, but Kathryn Stockett wrote the stories so that I feel as if I was there. She picked such a hard time in the south to set her story in. A time when racial tensions were running extremely high and horrible things were happening to both the blacks and the white "sympathizers". We meet Miss Skeeter, a young woman who was raised and loved by her family maid. Skeeter wants to find out what happened to the woman who raised her and she wants to make some changes that will make life easier for the black families in America. Being a writer, Skeeter sets off to interview as many maids as will talk to her, telling their stories about the hardships, and pleasures, they have found working for white families. Jackson, Mississippi is one of the most dangerous places at this time and Skeeter and the maid's that finally agree to talk to her for her book are in great danger everytime they meet. Emotions are high when the book finally goes to press. Will the people of their community read it? Will they know who the people in the stories represent, even though names have been changed? Was it worth the risk?

Okay - I'll do it. Here are two of my favorite passages-
Minny is one of the maids that Skeeter is interviewing. It took awhile to talk her into it, but she finally decided to do it. Skeeter has to be really careful with Minny, making sure that she doesn't scare her off. In this passage, Minny is talking to her friend Aibileen, who Sketter is interviewing as well.
'"Oh, fore I forget, Miss Skeeter wants to come over early Tuesday night," Aibileen says. "Bout seven. You make it then?"
"Lord," I say, getting irritated all over again. "What am I doing? I must be crazy, giving the sworn secrets a the colored race to a white lady."
"It's just Miss Skeeter, she ain't like the rest."
"Feel like I'm talking behind my own back," I say.

In this next passage, we are listening to Minnie again, after a tough run-in with her mean husband.
' "I guess I got to go," I say, even though I'd rather spend the rest of my life right here in Aibileen's cozy kitchen, having her explain the world to me. That's what I love about Aibileen, she can take the most complicated things in life and wrap them up so small and simple, they'll fit right in your pocket.'

If you haven't yet read "The Help", pick it up. You will be so glad that you did!

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood - Rebecca Wells

Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells


My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I've had this book languishing on my to-be-read shelf for a year - maybe more - and I was prepared for a book that I was just kind of meh about. Instead, I couldn't put it down and absolutely loved it. This was a wonderful story about a not so perfect mother and the harsh realities of life.


Sidda is a 40 year old theatre director who has fallen in love with the fabulous Conner McGill, but Sidda doesn't know if she knows how to love somebody right. She feels that she was not loved right as a child and does not want to pass that legacy on to her own family. She decides to take some time away to think so heads to a friends cabin in the pacific northwest, taking along her Mother's scrapbook "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood". Inside this wonderful scrapbook, Sidda finds more questions than answers about her mother's life in the bayou of Louisiana. It's not until her Mom's best friends, the Ya-Ya's, show up that Sidda begins to get some answers and understand that life is messy. As her mom, Vivi Dahlin says - "It's life, Sidda. You just climb on the beast and ride."


This was a wonderful, deeply moving book that had me in turns laughing out loud and wiping the tears from my eyes. I thoroughly enjoyed it!




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