Ice Hunt by James Rollins

First sentence:

The USS Polar Sentinel was gliding through the dark ocean.

Description:

"Buried deep in the earth's polar ice cap -- carved into a moving island of ice twice the size of the United States -- is the site of a remarkable experiment that blurred the line between life and death. Abandoned for more than seventy years, Ice Station Grendel -- the twisted brainchild of the finest minds of the former Soviet Union -- was designed to be inaccessible and virtually invisible.

But an American undersea research vessel, the Polar Sentinel, has inadvertently pulled too close. And a crew member has seen something alive inside, something whose survival defies every natural law.

As scientists, soldiers, intelligence operatives of two powerful nations, and unsuspecting civilians alike are drawn into Grendel's lethal vortex, no measures undertaken to protect its mysteries will be considered too extreme. Because the terrible truths locked behind submerged walls of ice and steel could forever alter humankind's future. . .or destroy it. -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this fast-paced thriller set in the Arctic. The story switches seamlessly between different protagonists, and it's easy to get caught up in the action.

Date read: 12/23/2014
Book #: 45
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Thriller

ISBN-10: 0060521600
ISBN-13: 9780060521608
Publisher: Avon Books
Year: 2003
# of pages: 505
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen

First sentence:

"He is coming for me."

Description:

"For untold years, the perfectly preserved mummy had lain forgotten in the dusty basement of Boston’s Crispin Museum. Dubbed “Madam X,” the recently rediscovered mummy is, to all appearances, an ancient Egyptian artifact. But medical examiner Maura Isles discovers a macabre message hidden within the corpse–horrifying proof that this “centuries-old” relic is instead a modern-day murder victim. When the grisly remains of two other women are found, it becomes clear to Maura and Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli that a maniac is at large. Now Maura and Jane must unravel a murderer’s twisted endgame before the Archaeology Killer adds another chilling artifact to his monstrous collection." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this thriller set in a museum and featuring Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles. I especially liked how they followed the clues to places far and near.

Date read: 12/19/2014
Book #: 44
Series: Rizzoli & Isles
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Thriller

ISBN-10: 0345509390
ISBN-13: 9780345497635
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Year: 2008
# of pages: 418
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea by Gary Kinder

First sentence:

"As was his habit each morning, James Marshall rose early to walk the gravel bar along his millrace to see if the water was yet deep enough and swift enough to turn the wheel for the sawmill he had built for John Sutter."

Description:

"In one of the most exciting adventure stories of our time, Gary Kinder combines maritime disaster with visionary underwater technology. In September 1857, the SS Central America, a side-wheel steamer carrying passengers returning from the gold fields of California, went down during a hurricane off the Carolina coast. It would be the worst peacetime disaster at sea in American history, claiming more than 400 lives and 21 tons of gold. In the 1980s a maverick engineer named Tommy Thompson set out to find the wreck of the Central America and salvage its treasure from the ocean floor.

With nail-biting suspense, Kinder reconstructs the terror of the Central America's last days, when passengers bailed sea water from the hold, then chopped up the ship's timbers to use as impromptu life rafts before being cast into the sea themselves. He goes on to chronicle Thompson's epic quest for the lost vessel, an enterprise marked by hair-raising weather, the hostility of the deep ocean at 8,000 feet, highly experimental technology, and unscrupulous rival treasure-hunters. The result is a magnificent tale, filled with heroism, entrepreneurialism, and perseverance." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this book about a shipwreck - both the history of the wreck and what led to it, and the struggle to find the wreck over a century later.

Date read: 12/15/2014
Book #: 43
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Nonfiction

ISBN-10: 0375703373
ISBN-13: 9780375703379
Publisher: Vintage Books
Year: 1998
# of pages: 507
Binding: Trade Paperback
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As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling by Anne Serling

First sentence:

"The last time I saw my father, it was 1975."

Description:

In Twilight Zone reruns, I search for my father in the man on the screen, but I can’t always find him there. Instead, he appears in unexpected ways. Memory summoned by a certain light, a color, a smell—and I see him again on the porch of our old red lakeside cottage, where I danced on the steps as a child.

To Anne Serling, the imposing figure the public saw hosting The Twilight Zone each week, intoning cautionary observations about fate, chance, and humanity, was not the father she knew. Her fun-loving dad would play on the floor with the dogs, had nicknames for everyone in the family, and was apt to put a lampshade on his head and break out in song. He was her best friend, her playmate, and her confidant.

After his unexpected death at 50, Anne, just 20, was left stunned. Gradually, she found solace for her grief—talking to his friends, poring over old correspondence, and recording her childhood memories. Now she shares personal photos, eloquent, revealing letters and beautifully rendered scenes of his childhood, war years, and their family’s time together. Idyllic summers in upstate New York, the years in Los Angeles, and the myriad ways he filled their time with laughter, strength, and endearing silliness—all are captured here with deep affection and candor.

Though begun in loss, Anne’s story is a celebration of her extraordinary relationship with her father and the qualities she came to prize through him—empathy, kindness, and an uncompromising sense of social justice. As I Knew Him is a lyrical, intimate tribute to Rod Serling’s legacy as visionary, storyteller, and humanist, and a moving testament to the love between fathers and daughters. -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This is a wonderful biography of Rod Serling and memoir of his daughter Anne. Like many, I am a Twilight Zone fan, and this book revealed not just how the show began but Rod's heart and interest in telling the stories he wanted to tell.

Date read: 12/13/2014
Book #: 42
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Memoir/Biography

ISBN-10: 0806536152
ISBN-13: 9780806536156
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.
Year: 2013
# of pages: 276
Binding: Hardcover
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The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

First sentence:

"There was a time in Africa the people could fly."

Description:

Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world.

Hetty "“Handful" Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid.We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.
As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.

Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.

This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved." -- Amazon.com

My thoughts:

I liked this book about the Grimke sisters and the early years of abolition and women's rights. I also liked learning about African customs through Handful and her mother Charlotte.

Date read: 11/29/2014
Book #: 41
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Historical Fiction

ISBN-10: 0670024783
ISBN-13: 9780670024780 
Publisher: Penguin Books
Year: 2014
# of pages: 373
Binding: Trade Paperback
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Daddy's Girl by Lisa Scottoline

First sentence:

"Nat Greco felt like a cup in a double-D bra."

Description:

"Natalie Greco loves being a teacher, even though she can't keep her students from cruising sex.com during class. She loves her family, too, but her boyfriend fits in better with the football-crazy Grecos than she does. Then a colleague, handsome Angus Holt, talks Nat into teaching a class at a local prison, and her world turns upside down.

A violent prison riot breaks out, and Nat rushes to save the life of a mortally wounded guard whose last words are: "Tell my wife it's under the floor." Nat delivers the cryptic message, but before she knows it, she's suspected of murder and hiding from cops and killers alike. She is forced on the run to solve the riddle of the dead man's last words and to save her own life—and find real love." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this fast-pace thriller. It had many twists and the characters were engaging. I especially liked the way Nat gained strength and confidence.

Date read: 11/1/2014
Book #: 40
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre; Thriller

ISBN-10: 0060833157
ISBN-13: 9780060833152
Publisher: HarperCollins
Year: 2007
# of pages: 378
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Chasing Shackleton by Tim Jarvis

First sentence:

"I thought I knew Antarctica by now."

Description:

"In this extraordinary adventure memoir and tie-in to the PBS documentary, Tim Jarvis, one of the world's leading explorers, describes his modern-day journey to retrace, for the first time ever—and in period clothing and gear—the legendary 1914 expedition of Sir Ernest Shackleton.

In early 1914, British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and his team sailed for Antarctica, attempting to be the first to reach the South Pole. Instead of glory, Shackleton and his crew found themselves in an epic struggle for survival: a three-year odyssey on the ice and oceans of the Antarctic that endures as one of the world’s most famous tales of adventure, endurance, and leadership ever recorded.

In the winter of 2013, celebrated explorer Tim Jarvis, a veteran of multiple polar expeditions, set out to recreate Sir Ernest Shackleton’s treacherous voyage over sea and mountain, outfitted solely with authentic equipment—clothing, boots, food, and tools—from Shackleton’s time, a feat that has never been successfully accomplished.

Shackleton's Epic is the remarkable record of Jarvis and his team’s epic journey. Beautifully designed and illustrated with dozens of photographs from the original voyage and its modern reenactment, it is a visual feast for readers and historians alike, and an essential new chapter in the story that has inspired adventurers across every continent for a century." -- from Amazon.com

My thoughts:

I enjoyed reading this adventure that recreated Shackleton's voyage and mountain crossing. After I read the book, I saw and enjoyed the documentary which included Jarvis and his crew toasting Shackleton at his grave on South Georgia island.

Date read: 10/24/2014
Book #: 39
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Nonfiction/Adventure

ISBN-10: 0062282735
ISBN-13: 9780062282736
Publisher: William Morrow
Year: 2014
# of pages: 272
Binding: Hardcover
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The Art of Cartography: Stories by J.S. Marcus

First sentence:

"I read, in several newspapers, about a man from Los Angeles who wanted to go to Oakland."

Description:

"The young men and women who inhabit these mordantly alive stories move around -- as do the stories themselves -- from city to city, country to country.The characters are in and out of graduate schools, apartments, love affairs, marriages. They go from New York to London to Los Angeles, compulsively studying the facts of their own lives and the facts they can guess at in the lives of those around them, as a way, perhaps, out of their solitude, as if they could map themselves into the world. They long for perspective, permanence -- truth -- although what they find is often something quite different.

A young American working in a London bank is propelled by a random happening -- he gets off his train one day because an unexploded bomb from World War II has been discovered on the tracks -- into a series of chance meetings and invitations that illumine the nature of his loneliness.

A New Yorker, the author of 'unpublished travel books and eight-millimeter documentaries,' while visiting a South Pacific island famous for its archaeological dig, accidentally brings together, and then less accidentally puts at odds, the people at his hotel.

A woman named Sheila, who appears -- at various periods of her life, and in and out of a relationship with a music critic -- in several of the stories, is last seen in southern California, holed up in a mansion, smoking  grass with the maid, and expecting to end up where she began: back with the critic, as if the best she can do is 'shift weight.'

In all twelve stories, we see people in motion, in flux -- again and again deflected by the succession of chance encounters that has become their way of life.

A remarkable collection of stories, a memorable debut." -- from the inside flap.

My thoughts:

This is an interesting collection of short stories. I liked the narrator meeting different people and reflecting on who they are.

Date read: 10/20/2014
Book #: 38
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre; Fiction

ISBN-10: 0394559460
ISBN-13: 9780394559469
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Year: 1991
# of pages: 129
Binding: Hardcover
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The Circle by Dave Eggers

First sentence:

"My God, Mae thought. It's heaven."

Description:

"When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency. As Mae tours the open-plan office spaces, the towering glass dining facilities, the cozy dorms for those who spend nights at work, she is thrilled with the company’s modernity and activity. There are parties that last through the night, there are famous musicians playing on the lawn, there are athletic activities and clubs and brunches, and even an aquarium of rare fish retrieved from the Marianas Trench by the CEO. Mae can’t believe her luck, her great fortune to work for the most influential company in the world—even as life beyond the campus grows distant, even as a strange encounter with a colleague leaves her shaken, even as her role at the Circle becomes increasingly public. What begins as the captivating story of one woman’s ambition and idealism soon becomes a heart-racing novel of suspense, raising questions about memory, history, privacy, democracy, and the limits of human knowledge." -- from Amazon.com

My thoughts:

I loved this book about an apparent utopia with an eventual decline. Mae's journey was fascinating and eerie to watch.

Date read: 10/18/2014
Book #: 37
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre; Thriller

ISBN-10: 0345807294
ISBN-13: 9780345807298
Publisher: Vintage Books
Year: 2014
# of pages: 497
Binding: Trade Paperback
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George Washington's Secret Six by Brian Kilmeade

First sentence:

"He was twenty-one years old and knew that in a matter of moments he would die."

Description:

"When General George Washington beat a hasty retreat from New York City in August 1776, many thought the American Revolution might soon be over. Instead, Washington rallied—thanks in large part to a little-known, top-secret group called the Culper Spy Ring.

Washington realized that he couldn’t beat the British with military might, so he recruited a sophisticated and deeply secretive intelligence network to infiltrate New York. So carefully guarded were the members’ identities that one spy’s name was not uncovered until the twentieth century, and one remains unknown today. But by now, historians have discovered enough information about the ring’s activities to piece together evidence that these six individuals turned the tide of the war.

Drawing on extensive research, Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger have painted compelling portraits of George Washington’s secret six:

• Robert Townsend, the reserved Quaker merchant and reporter who headed the Culper Ring, keeping his identity secret even from Washington;
• Austin Roe, the tavern keeper who risked his employment and his life in order to protect the mission;
• Caleb Brewster, the brash young longshoreman who loved baiting the British and agreed to ferry messages between Connecticut and New York;
• Abraham Woodhull, the curmudgeonly (and surprisingly nervous) Long Island bachelor with business and family excuses for traveling to Manhattan;
• James Rivington, the owner of a posh coffeehouse and print shop where high-ranking British officers gossiped about secret operations;
• Agent 355, a woman whose identity remains unknown but who seems to have used her wit and charm to coax officers to share vital secrets.

In George Washington’s Secret Six, Townsend and his fellow spies finally receive their due, taking their place among the pantheon of heroes of the
American Revolution." - from Amazon.com

My thoughts:

This is a fascinating book about another side to the American Revolution. Recently I've started watching the AMC drama Turn: Washington's Spies about the same topic and I highly recommend it.

Date read: 10/3/2014
Book #: 36
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre; Thriller

ISBN-10: 1595231102
ISBN-13: 9781595231109
Publisher: Sentinel
Year: 2014
# of pages: 272
Binding: Trade Paperback
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The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

First sentence:

"I was born a colored man and don't you forget it."

Description:

In 1856, Henry Shackleford is a young slave living in the Kansas Territory, a battleground between anti-and pro-slavery forces. When legendary abolitionist John Brown arrives in the area, an argument between Brown and Henry's mater quickly turns violent. Henry is forced to leave with Brown, who believes he's a girl. Over the ensuing months, Henry--whom the eccentric Brown nicknames "onion" -- conceals hist rue identity to stay alive, eventually finding himself with Brown at the historic raid on Harpers Ferry in 1859." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This is an engaging, powerful story about John Brown, slavery in the west, and the abolitionist movement. I liked the voice of Henry who could both see the reality Brown wasn't seeing but who could also be self-interested.

Date read: 10/1/2014
Book #: 35
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Historical Fiction

ISBN-10: 1410464857
ISBN-13: 9781410464859
Publisher: Thorndike Press
Date:  2013
Edition: Large Print
# of pages: 635
Binding: Hardcover
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Julie and Julia

First sentence:

"Thursday, October 6, 1949.
Paris. At seven o'clock on a dreary evening in the Left Bank, Julia began roasting pigeons for the second time in her life."

Description:

"Nearing 30 and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, Julie Powell reclaims her life by cooking every single recipe in Julia Child's legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking in the span of one year. It's a hysterical, inconceivable redemptive journey - life rediscovered through aspics, calves' brains and crème brûlée." -- from Amazon.com

My thoughts:

I liked this book about challenges both culinary and personal. I especially liked the stories about buying and cooking lobsters and how Julie learned that things didn't need to be perfect.

Date read: 9/13/2014
Book #: 34
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Memoir

ISBN-10: 031604251X
ISBN-13: 9780316042512
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Year: 2009
# of pages: 400
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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On the Prowl by Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, Karen Chance and Sunny

First sentence:

"The wind was chill and the cold froze the end of her toes."

Description:

"On the make. On the scent. On the edge.

On the Prowl. . .

Alpha and Omega by Patricia Briggs

The werewolf Anna finds a new sense of self when the son of the werewolf king comes to town to quell unrest in the Chicago pack -- and inspires a power in Anna that she's never felt before.

Inhuman by Eileen Wilks

Kai has a secret gift of sensing thoughts and desires. What she senses in her neighbor Nathan could be dangerous. Because he has a secret gift, too, and it's about to be let loose.

Buying Trouble by Karen Chance

In a New York auction house, a Lord of the Fey crosses paths with a fiery redheaded mage named Claire. But in this strange underground society, the rarity up for sale is Claire herself.

Mona Lisa Betwining by Sunny

Among the children of the moon, Mona Lisa is of Mixed Blood--part Monere, part human, and destined to be alone. Then she meets a man who could be her salvation -- or her downfall." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed these stories of paranormal romance. Each one introduced me to new characters and I look forward to learning more about Claire, Anna, Kai and Mona Lisa.

Date read: 9/8/2014
Book #:33
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre; Paranormal Romance

ISBN-10: 0425216594
ISBN-13: 9780425216590
Publisher: Berkley
Year: 2007
# of pages: 541
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer

First sentence:

"Straddling the top of the world, one foot in China and the other in Nepal, I cleared the ice from my oxygen mask, hunched a shoulder against the wind, and stared absently down at the vastness of Tibet."

Description:

"When Jon Krakauer reached the summit of Mt. Everest in the early afternoon of May 10, 1996, he hadn't slept in fifty-seven hours and was reeling from the brain-altering effects of oxygen depletion. As he turned to begin the perilous descent from 29, 028 feet (roughly the cruising altitude of an Airbus jetliner), twenty other climbers were still pushing doggedly to the top, unaware that the sky had begun to roil with clouds. . .

In this definitive account of the deadliest season in the history of Everest, Jon Krakauer takes the reader step-by-step from Katmandu to the mountain's deadly pinnacle, unfolding a breathtaking story that will by turn thrill and terrify." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

This is a bittersweet true adventure tale of the 1996 tragedy on Mount Everest that claimed the lives of twelve climbers. Krakauer recounts with brutal honesty what went wrong amidst the heroism of climbers both on his expedition and from others.

Date read: 9/1/2014
Book #: 32
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Nonfiction/Travel/Memoir

ISBN-10: 0385492081
ISBN-13: 9780385492089
Publisher: Anchor Books
Year: 1997
# of pages: 378
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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Man in the Dark by Paul Auster

First sentence:

"I am alone in the dark, turning the world around in my head as I struggle through another bout of insomnia, another white night in the great American wilderness."

Description:

"From a "literary original" (The Wall Street Journal) comes a book that forces us to confront the blackness of night even as it celebrates the existence of ordinary joys in a world capable of the most grotesque violence. Seventy-two-year-old August Brill is recovering from a car accident at his daughter's house in Vermont. When sleep refuses to come, he lies in bed and tells himself stories, struggling to push back thoughts about things he would prefer to forget: his wife's recent death and the horrific murder of his granddaughter's boyfriend, Titus. The retired book critic imagines a parallel world in which America is not at war with Iraq but with itself. In this other America the twin towers did not fall and the 2000 election results led to secession, as state after state pulled away from the union and a bloody civil war ensued. As the night progresses, Brill's story grows increasingly intense, and what he is desperately trying to avoid insists on being told." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I liked this book about families and secrets. I especially liked Brill's imaginary story of a parallel world and how it eventually meets up with reality.

Date read: 8/24/2014
Book #: 31
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre; Fiction

ISBN-10: 0805088393
ISBN-13: 9780805088397
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co.
Year: 2008
# of pages: 192
Binding: Hardcover
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A Game of Spies by John Altman

First sentence:

"Hagen had not slept well; his head was throbbing with fatigue."

Description:

"It is February 1940, and England is desperate to find out when and how Hitler will make his move toward France. Sleeper agent Eva Bernhardt comes into possession of vital information-and makes a run for it. Uncertain whom to trust, whether she is racing to safety or death, Eva is about to take her future into her own hands-and with it, perhaps the future of the entire war..." -- from the back cover


My thoughts: 

This was a good thriller set during World War II. I liked learning along with the characters whom to trust and whom to definitely avoid.

Date read: 8/21/2014
Book #: 30
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre; Thriller

ISBN-10: 0515134635
ISBN-13: 9780515134636
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons
Year: 2002
# of pages: 292
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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The Door to Ambermere by J. Calvin Pierce

First sentence:

"To an observer viewing the avenue from behind a low garden wall, the object, passing as though in languorous flight, would have been something of a mystery, though one perhaps more likely to prompt speculation than active investigation."

Description:

"This World. . .is tough if you play your cards as badly as Daniel. He's a gambler whose luck is about to change from bad to weird.

The Other World. . .is in shambles if you cast a spell as poorly as Rogan the Obscure. He's a wizard who can literally raise hell.

Between the Two Worlds Lies. . .

The Door to Ambermere

It is the gateway between an ordinary bar in an ordinary city and an extraordinary tavern in a magical realm. But when magic goes wrong, anything can happen. Like a trade-off. The gambler Daniel enters a world of sorcery in which the odds are far more dangerous than a poker game. And in exchange for Daniel, a creature is unleashed in humankind's city streets. . .a demon! " -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this meeting of two worlds fantasy. I especially liked the way Daniel figured out how to navigate in Ambermere and how he met his love, Modesty. I look forward to reading the next book in the series, The Sorceress of Ambermere.

Date read: 8/19/2014
Book #: 28
Series: Ambermere, #1
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fantasy

ISBN-10: 0441159443
ISBN-13: 9780441159444
Publisher: Ace Books
Year: 1992
# of pages: 229
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

First sentences:

"So, then. You want a story and I will tell you one. But just the one."

Description:

"AN EMOTIONAL, PROVOCATIVE, AND UNFORGETTABLE NOVEL ABOUT HOW WE LOVE, HOW WE TAKE CARE OF ONE ANOTHER, AND HOW THE CHOICES WE MAKE RESONATE THROUGH GENERATIONS.

Broad in scope and setting, wise and compassionate in its storytelling, And the Mountains Echoed is a profoundly moving, captivating novel that demonstrates Khaled Hosseini’s deeply felt understanding of the bonds that define us and shape our lives—and of what it means to be human.

It begins with the heartbreaking, unparalleled bond between two motherless siblings in an Afghan village. To three-year-old Pari, big brother Abdullah is more mother than brother. To ten-year-old Abdullah, little Pari is his everything. What happens to them-and the large and small manners in which it echoes through the lives of so many other people—is proof of the moral complexity of life. In a multigenerational novel revolving around not just parents and children but also brothers and sisters, cousins and caretakers, Hosseini explores the many ways in which family members love, wound, betray, honor, and sacrifice for one another; and how often we are surprised by the actions of those closest to us, at the times that matter most. Following its characters and the ramifications of their lives and choices and loves around the globe—from Kabul, to Paris, to San Francisco, to the Greek island of Tinos—the story expands gradually outward, becoming more emotionally complex and powerful with each turning page.

Propelled by the same remarkable instincts and philosophical insight that made The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns so remarkable, And the Mountains Echoed shows once again that Khaled Hosseini is a born storyteller." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

I liked this book about family told from different points of view. I especially liked how the events in the past rippled into the future in unexpected ways.

Date read: 8/10/2014
Book #: 27
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 159463176X
ISBN-13: 9781594631764
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Year: 2013
# of pages: 402
Binding: Hardcover
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The Bartender's Tale by Ivan Doig

First sentence:

"My father was the best bartender that ever lived."

Description:

"Tom Harry has a streak of frost in his black pompadour and a venerable bar called The Medicine Lodge, the chief watering hole and last refuge of the town of Gros Ventre, in northern Montana. Tom also has a son named Rusty, an “accident between the sheets” whose mother deserted them both years ago.The pair make an odd kind of family, with the bar their true home, but they manage just fine.

Until the summer of 1960, that is, when Rusty  turns twelve. Change arrives with gale force, in the person of Proxy, a taxi dancer Tom knew back when, and her beatnik daughter, Francine. Is Francine, as Proxy claims, the unsuspected legacy of her and Tom’s past? Without a doubt she is an unsettling gust of the future, upending every certainty in Rusty’s life and generating a mist of passion and pretense that seems to obscure everyone’s vision but his own. As Rusty struggles to decipher the oddities of adult behavior and the mysteries build toward a reckoning, Ivan Doig wonderfully captures how the world becomes bigger and the past becomes more complex in the last moments of childhood." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

This is a beautifully written book about family and life in a small Montana town. I loved the descriptions of daily life and the interactions between the characters, especially between Rusty and his dad, Tom.

Date read: 8/7/2014
Book #: 27
Rating: 4*/5 = great
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 1594487359
ISBN-13: 9781594487354
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Year: 2012
# of pages: 387
Binding: Hardcover
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Ghostwalk by Rebecca Stott

First sentence:

"Unrepaired and swollen with rain, the gate in the orchard wall refused to move until Cameron put his full weight against it and pushed, hard."

Description:

"A Cambridge historian is found drowned, leaving her study of Isaac Newton’s alchemy incomplete and a spate of mysterious deaths surrounding Newton's rise in fame unsolved. Her fellow writer, Lydia Brooke, agrees to finish the book as a favor to the historian’s son, a neuroscientist with whom she had a long affair. But her attempt to complete the book’s final chapter, and her return to her former lover’s orbit, put her in mortal danger as she uncovers troubling evidence surrounding Newton. As Lydia becomes ensnared in a conspiracy that reawakens ghosts of the past, the seventeenth century slowly seeps into the twenty-first, with the city of Cambridge the bridge between them." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this mix of history and fiction. I especially liked how Lydia figures out how the past is influencing the present.

Date read: 7/29/2014
Book #: 26
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0385521073
ISBN-13: 9780385521079
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Year: 2008
# of pages: 322
Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing page