Category: Reviewed by Chrissy E.

This is the follow-up to Discovery of Witches.  There’s a third one in the works, too.  This book was chock-full of literary and scientific characters that are intimately involved with the two main characters, Diana and Matthew.  There are also references to the Salem witches (Diana is a distant relative of the Bishops from Salem, MA).  There is lots of moving around as Diana and Matthew time travel to find an ancient manuscript.  It is sometimes confusing to keep it all straight, but it’s worth it to keep reading.  I’m looking forward to Book 3 in this series.

I saw this on a book list and ordered it and couldn’t remember what it was about.  Then I started it and found out it was about a girl who is a Junior in high school, who just happens to be a Little Person.  She just started a new school because she is a very talented singer.  However, she gets involved with a boy and then becomes involved in a scandal at school.  I enjoyed it and I thought it was a pretty good representation of kids in high school and the peer pressure that they encounter.

I had only heard occasional comments about there having been a woman that was Pope.  This book does a great job of telling the story.  It’s absolutely a page turner, and Joan was an amazing character — strong, smart, witty, independent — everything we should encourage our girls today to aspire to be.  A very well-told story that I couldn’t put down, a great book.

I will read almost anything written by doctors or nurses about their experiences, so I grabbed this book, knowing how much I enjoy Sanjay Gupta’s reports on CNN.  This book, however, was not his finest work.  It’s almost laughable the way he sets up conversations, and he throws around silly cliches.  When he gets down to the nitty gritty of a medical procedure or a surgery it’s very cool, but otherwise very rudimentary.  Sanjay should stick to his medical practice and continue to do the great stories on CNN.

This book was written by Goldman about his life with his wife Aura.  They met, fell in love, and were married despite a large age difference and over the objections of Aura’s mother.  Unfortunately, Aura died in a freak accident, leaving Goldman to deal with the aftermath of her death.  Goldman does a great job describing Aura and her gifts as a writer;  with her death we may have lost a promising artist.  A beautifully written book about a man’s love for his wife.

I read the first one because I wanted to say that I read it like the rest of the world had done: and I read the other two just to see if they would be any better than the first one.  And so, were they any good?  Answer : no. If the author had made the main character a 35-year-old woman who had lived a life and now wanted to “explore” a little, I could have understood that.  Instead, she makes the main character a 22-year-old college graduate.  The author then wants the reader to believe that this young woman would give a sadomasochistic stalker the time of day!  I like to think that young women today would tell this guy to take a flying leap!  But that’s just me; anybody else feel the same?

Regardless of the fact that this book was published in 1975, this is one of the best Vampire stories I’ve ever read.  Stephen King is a master at fleshing (pardon the pun!) out a character like nobody else.  And his portrayal of small town American life is spot on as well.  I’m also a fan of the way he portrays kids as being strong, opinionated, and brave human beings and often they are the ones in his stories to be reckoned with.  A word of warning : with the summer months upon us, you may not want to read this book at night, with your windows open – or you could, if you dare!

I found this book on a Summer Book List, and while it is not the kind of book I would normally gravitate toward, I am so glad I did.  This tells the true story of pilots on missions over Greenland during WWII who crashed, and the rescue efforts to save them.  The story also takes place in the present, as the author recounts efforts of a group to recover the men and the planes still left behind in Greenland.  Amazing to read about the fortitude of the men that survived those awful crashes and spent months on such an unforgiving landscape and in light of devastating medical issues.  Also so wonderful to know that there are people who care so much about bringing the bodies left behind back home to surviving family members for closure.  I absolutely could not put this book down and recommend it highly.

This book is what I like to call “Scary, creepy good!”  It was written by Joe Hill, who is one of Stephen King’s sons.  Boy, did this kid pay attention to Dad!  I took a break a long time ago from Stephen King and was ready to jump back in, but didn’t find anything of his I wanted to read. Then I found this book and boy, I was not disappointed.  It follows the story of a 140-year-old Vampire named Charlie Manx and a young girl who figures out his secret.  Her name is Victoria and her character is so well drawn you will be hooked from page one.  Joe Hill is a writer to read for sure!

This review will be short and sweet –  I was very disappointed with this book as I have read and enjoyed Dante’s Inferno.  I listened to it as an audiobook and stopped listening halfway through as I found the book to be too tedious to continue.  Life is too short to read/listen to a book I don’t like anymore!  PS – In my estimation Angels and Demons was his best book!

Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald were the embodiment of the Jazz Age.  With the newest adaptation of The Great Gatsby  showing at movie theaters recently, I thought this book would be interesting. The author writes as if Zelda herself is telling the story of her life that pre-dates her meeting Scott, her courtship and then marriage and their resulting married life, with the many ups and downs they have. They lived life as large as they could, often without the money to back that up and consequently were in debt to friends, family and banks, waiting for the next great book to be written by Scott. That was hard to accomplish though when they were expected at so many parties, often drinking to excess, making any work on future novels impossible for Scott. And while Scott had successes, there was no way to keep up with his voracious drinking and carousing with women to sustain any normal family life. Zelda had her work cut out for her, especially after the birth of their daughter, Scottie. Zelda tried at different points in their marriage to write as well, but Scott was often jealous of his wife’s accomplishments and made sure to squash any attempts she made. Sadly, Zelda also had struggles with her mental health and spent long periods of time in sanitariums. I would highly recommend this book, and enjoyed the way the author spoke in Zelda’s voice. It really gave the reader a new take on this famous couple’s life.

I was intrigued by this book since I had read a previous book by this mother/ daughter team called Come Back.  A mother and daughter taking time together to travel is something I’ve done to a lesser extent with my own mother, and I’ve thought about doing it with my own daughter as well. Both Claire and Mia have a chance to explain in their own words their take on different aspects of their trip. It’s fascinating to hear from both of them what they are thinking about situations they’ve been in while traveling. As you can imagine, they learn about each other on a much deeper level, and that enhances their understanding of each other. This was especially  interesting to me because my own daughter and I are on a similar path to our new relationship since she’s been in college these past two years. I really enjoyed this book.