Ashes To Water by Irene Ziegler

Annie Bartlett has returned to her hometown and the memories she fled from years ago. She received a call that her father, Ed,  has been murdered and his current girlfriend has been charged.  Annie and her sister, Leigh, grew up in a household full of anger and recrimination.  Her father was a serial adulterer and her mother, a nurse, committed suicide when the girls were still young. 

Leigh grew up to be the girl she thought her father was attracted to as she attempted to get his attention.  Flitting from man to man, her beauty her weapon, she has become mired in addiction and a dead-end life.  Annie took a different route.  She rejected everything about her upbringing and left town the minute she could get enough money to do so.  She has carved out a good life for herself, engaged to a man she loves and has a career as a photographer.

Now both girls are back and trying to make sense of what has occurred to their father.  Did the girlfriend kill him over another woman as the police believe?  Or were the other tensions in town involved?  There is an arsonist at large and Ed seemed to know something about that.  Then there is the struggle between developers who wanted Ed's lakeside house and the people in town who were fighting against having their area changed from a sleepy lakeside town to a major tourist area replete with casinos and the crime and changes that brings.  Can Annie find out what has happened before the town pulls her back into her former life and the heartbreak it brought?  Will the truths she learns as she struggles to find out what has occurred help her also make sense of her upbringing?

Irene Ziegler has written an engaging mystery.  Her characters are complex and the plot twists and turns satisfactorily.  In addition to the mystery, there are themes of past issues resolution, conflict between development and tradition, and the struggle of characters to move past what was done to them as children and to become strong, independent adults.  This book is recommended for mystery lovers.

A Separate Country by Robert Hicks

In A Separate Country, Robert Hicks takes the reader to post-Civil War New Orleans.  The book follows the life of General John Hood and his family in this period.   General Hood came to New Orleans as a feared and respected man, a Confederate general who led forces and unleashed chaos upon the land.

After the war, he flounders trying to find what his new life will be.  Grievously injured with one leg missing and one arm that won't work, he isn't sure he even knows how to fit into society when he isn't needed to lead men to war.  He finds his purpose when he meets and marries Anna Marie Hennen, a famous New Orleans society beauty.  Hood and Anna Marie have eleven children. 

Hood introduces the reader to the intricacies of Southern society.  There are cotton brokers, lotteries, freed slaves now attempting to make a living, and men in societies formed for the sole purpose of refusing African-Americans their rights.  There are many orphans who also claw and fight for a chance at a new life once their family ties have been cut asunder by war.  There are men that learn to fit in, and those who are so damaged by the war that they never find redemption.

This book is highly recommended for lovers of historical fiction.  It is rife with complex characters.  There is Rintrah and Pascale, orphans who run away from the orphanage and carve out lives for themselves.  Pascale has both black and white heritage and sometimes passes as a white man, a scheme for which he pays dearly.  Rintrah is a dwarf who fights and schemes until he controls much of the underworld of the city.  Father Mike is a priest who isn't priestly, except when the yellow fever plague arrives.  He recruits all these characters along with John Hood to fight the plague and try to save the poor people of the city who are it's first and most severely affected victims. 

Hicks has created a city where the reader feels they could walk down the streets and encounter people they know.  The characters are intricate and Hicks outlines the various relationships that tie them together.  He explores what it means to be a man at war, and a man who seeks redemption.  This is an extremely satisfying book, and readers won't be disappointed. 

The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose

Lucian Glass's life was defined by one moment in time.  As a young art student, he arrived at a galley to find his girlfriend murdered.  Attacked also, Lucian barely survives.  That event changed his life.  Rather than pursuing a career as an artist, he becomes an FBI agent who specializes in art fraud.

His current case is one of his most challenging.  His long-time nemesis, Dr. Malachi Samuels, is a doctor who explores the fields of reincarnation and past-life regressions.  Glass also believes that he is a mass murderer who kills his way to the treasures he acquires to help in his research.  When the new case evolves, he believes that Samuels must be the mastermind behind the scenes.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is involved in a custody case with Iran.  The Iranian government believes that the museum has wrongfully acquired a statue of Hypnos, the god of sleep.  As they work through the legal intricacies, a new player bursts on the scene.  The museum is sent a masterpiece; a Matisse.  But, the painting has been shredded, ruined beyond restoration.  The sender claims to have four more paintings of the same quality.  He has a proposition.  The museum can give him the statue in return for the paintings, or he will send them one at a time, destroyed.  Glass works the case, sure that his opponent is Samuels, but is he right?  He is also pulled back in time when he becomes involved with his girlfriend's cousin, who has remained in the art world.

Fans of M.J. Rose won't be disappointed in this novel.  Fast-paced with entrancing characters and an exploration of reincarnation and the art world, The Hypnotist is a compelling read.  This book is recommended for mystery readers.

The Blessings Of The Animals by Katrina Kittle

Veterinarian Cami Anderson returns from a horse rescue to find her husband of eighteen years packing.  To her shock, he tells her he is moving out.  Even more shocking, within a week she discovers that he is living with a girl not much older than their daughter, a young woman that Cami had employed at her practice.

The Blessings Of The Animals follows Cami's life after this door slams shut on a big piece of her life.  Readers get a viseral sense of what this kind of betrayal feels like.  The book explores the depths of her shock, anger and despair, and how she begins to move beyond the nightmare to carve out a new life that expands her horizons and brings her contentment, love and even joy.

Kittle fills the book with vibrant characters.  There is Gabrielle, the couple's smart, vivacious teenage daughter who reacts by breaking up with her longtime boyfriend and refusing to let anyone get close.  Cami's birth family is introduced.  Her patrician mother and father, who raised her in the horse-racing and training business, show up in stark contrast to her ex-inlaws, who are a extroverted, noisy and nosy bunch.  Her brother is gay and in a relationship that seems very stable.  Friends surround Cami, from her best female friend to a male doctor friend who has been in her life since childhood, and who now wants to make the friendship something more serious.

Then there are the animals.  There is Moonshot, the horribly abused stallion she rescued that day, who comes back to life and health under Cami's care, all the while restoring her own sense of well-being.  There is a comic goat, a rescued three-legged ginger tom, and various other dogs and horses and donkeys.  The animals unfreeze her heart and help her remember what she loved about her career.

What a joy it is to find a book that you can't wait to pick back up!  Kittle's deft portrayal of this common situation and her insight into how life can start over will strike a chord in readers.  This book is highly recommended for all readers.

The Vanishing by Deborah Willis

In the fourteen stories in Vanishing, Deborah Willis explores the ways that we lose people and items that are important to us.  Some are vanish through infidelity and some through physical separation, while others vanish through death or even loving outside accepted boundaries.  In each case, there is the person who vanishes, and those left behind, who must determine how to move on in their lives without the person who is gone.

The opening story, "Vanishing"  is my favorite.  In this story, a playwright father and husband leaves his house one day, never to return.  The story follows his wife and daughter throughout their lives after this event, outlining the various ways that his disappearance changes their lives, even decades later.  The deftness Willis demonstrates in this outline of all the repercussions caused by his decision to leave brings the story close to the reader, and makes them spend time thinking of how their life would change without their loved ones close at hand.

In this first book of fiction, Deborah Willis displays the insight into human decisions that has marked her previous work.  She won the PRISM International annual fiction prize.  She was long-listed for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award and short-listed for the Governor General's Literary Award for Fiction.  Her work can also be found in The Bridport Prize Anthology, Event, and Grain.  This book is recommended for readers interested in determining how we relate to each other, and what it means when the human connections are broken, either through actions or physical space.

GIVEAWAY!!!! SECRET SPEECH BY TOM SMITH

Tom Rob Smith--the author whose debut, Child 44, has been called "brilliant" (Chicago Tribune), "remarkable" (Newsweek) and "sensational" (Entertainment Weekly)--returns with an intense, suspenseful new novel: a story where the sins of the past threaten to destroy the present, where families must overcome unimaginable obstacles to save their loved ones, and where hope for a better tomorrow is found in the most unlikely of circumstances 

"THE SECRET SPEECH continues the headlong pace of Child 44." --- Wall Street Journal


Tom Rob Smith graduated from Cambridge University in 2001 and lives in London. His first novel, Child 44, was a New York Times bestseller and an international publishing sensation. Among its many honors, Child 44 won the ITW 2009 Thriller Award for Best First Novel, The Strand Magazine 2008 Critics Award for Best First Novel, the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award, and was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize. You can visit Tom's website at http://www.tomrobsmith.com/ and follow @tomrobsmith on Twitter.


GIVEAWAY RULES
YOU MUST, MUST, MUST LEAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR COMMENT. COMMENTS WITHOUT EMAIL ADDRESSES WON'T BE ENTERED.


1. The giveaway starts Sunday, August 15 and ends on Friday, August 27th at midnight.

2. There will be three winners, chosen by random number generation.
3. Winners must have street addresses (no P.O. Boxes) in either the United States or Canada.

4. For one entry, leave a comment (with your email!). You will get an extra entry for any/all of the following; being or becoming a follower, blogging to this giveaway or tweeting about it. If you blog or tweet, please include the link.

5. Winners will be emailed and must respond within three days in order to claim their prize. After three days, another winner will be chosen and notified.

Good luck!

Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese

Twin boys are born in Ethiopia.  A normal event, but this birth was not normal.  These twins were born of a mother who was a nun, someone no one had known was pregnant.  The father was an American surgeon named Thomas Stone.  The nun, Mary Joseph Praise, was Stone's assistant in the surgery and his confidant.  They had been in love for months, but never spoke of it.  Her pregnancy, hid from everyone around, resulted in her death on the delivery table as Stone tried unsuccessfully to save her.

Stunned and shocked, Stone disappears, leaving the boys in the care of two Indian doctors, Ghosh and Hema.  Hema delivered the children after Stone's inability, and claimed the boys as her own when Stone disappeared.  She named the children Marion and Shiva.  The boys grew up in Ethiopia at Missing Hospital, surrounded by love and a close family.  In addition to Hema and Ghosh, Matron and various servants were their family.

The boys had the special relationship that twins do, but they were very different.  Shiva was extremely intelligent but had no ability to conform to rules.  School wasn't something he was interested in.  Marion was the super-striver who did everything the right way, determined to make his way in the world and make his family proud. Both boys end up with medical careers.  Marion becomes a trauma surgeon while Shiva, without a medical degree, becomes a world-renowned expert in a woman's surgery method to cure fistulas.

The boys' intense childhood bond is severed when Marion discovers a betrayal by Shiva that he cannot forgive or forget.  Due to the political situation in their homeland, Marion immigrates to America.  Years later, he discovers and is reunited with his biological father.  A medical crisis brings both branches of the family, biological and adopted together to forge new relationships and learn what they all mean to each other.

Verghese has written a sprawling, extremely satisfying novel.  The reader learns of the Ethiopian culture, as well as the medical culture of surgeons and the challenges they face.  This is hardly surprising as Verghese is a doctor as well as a novelist.  Readers will not soon forget the various faces of love that are portrayed in the novel, and will remember the characters long after they finish the book.  This book is recommended for all readers interested in an engrossing novel that will entrance and entertain.

Cairo Modern by Naguib Mahfouz

In Cairo Modern, Naguib Mahfouz follows the lives of a group of friends at the university in 1930's Egypt.  Some are from prominent families, some are brilliant, some are handsome, some are none of these things.  The book focuses on the life of Mahgub Abd al-Da'im, a desperately poor student determined to make his way in life.

After much privation, Mahgub manages to get his degree, but much to his dismay, any jobs are given out only on a patronage basis.  Mahgub has no one to serve as his patron.  Desparately he contacts anyone he knows even slightly, hoping to find a job that will allow him to escape the poverty he has known his whole life.  Finally, he is offered a job, but it comes with a price.  He is offered a job by an influential rich man who needs someone to marry his mistress.  Mahgub swallows his pride and marries the woman.

This humiliating situation leads to his first job; a job where he receives respect and more money than he has ever had in his possession.  The price he pays, a sundering of his ideals and cutting ties with his college friends, is one he regards as a viable solution.  In fact, he determines that he will not be tied down by any ideals, not friendship or family ties or any kind of morality.  The book follows the outcome of Mahgub's decision as it plays out in his life.  After initial success, he is totally defeated when he is exposed as what he is, someone who will do anything and betray anyone.

Mahfouz received the Nobel Prize in 1988, and spent his prolific writing career portraying Egyptian life in all its aspects.  Cairo Modern is an analogy for what happens to his beloved country as it veers from it's principles prior to World War II.  This book is recommended for literature lovers, and those interested in the literature of other cultures. 

The Language Of Trees by Ilie Ruby

The small town of Canandaigua has a hold on its citizens.  Some have grown up and moved away, but find themselves drawn back to their childhood haunts.  Others have lived their entire lives in this small community, centered around a lake and the trees and animals and Indian heritage that is evident everywhere.

There are also secrets.  More than a decade ago, a tragedy changed the lives of several families.  Three children, two sisters and a brother, fled the wrath of their alcoholic father and took a canoe out on the lake at night.  When a storm whipped up, the canoe capsized and the young brother, Luke, disappeared and drowned.  That death had many consequences.  It broke the marriage of his parents.  One sister< Maya, had to be hospitalized with a mental breakdown, while the other, Melanie,  became a drug addict.  Now Melanie has defeated her addiction and has a good relationship and a baby she loves.  But she has gone missing....

Echo comes back to town to deal with the illness and old age of Joseph, the town's grocer and holder of many secrets.  He took Echo in when she was orphaned and provided her with love and security.  Grant has also returned to town to try to reconcile his past.  He is fleeing a broken marriage, and trying to determine why his father was so distant from him as a child.  When he and Echo see each other, they are drawn to rekindle the past where they were each other's first love.

Ilie Ruby has created a wonderous place, a land that seems shrouded in fog and secrets that the reader must push their way through to discover the secrets that bind these individuals to this place.  This is a debut novel and it's haunting voice will linger in readers' minds long after they close the book.  This book is recommended for readers who are interested in discovering the items that make people the way they are. 

GIVEAWAY!!!!! ADMISSION BY JEAN HANFF KORELITZ

"Admissions. Admission. Aren't there two sides to the word? And two opposing sides...It's what we let in, but it's also what we let out."

For years, 38-year-old Portia Nathan has avoided the past, hiding behind her busy (and sometimes punishing) career as a Princeton University admissions officer and her dependable domestic life. Her reluctance to confront the truth is suddenly overwhelmed by the resurfacing of a life-altering decision, and Portia is faced with an extraordinary test. Just as thousands of the nation's brightest students await her decision regarding their academic admission, so too must Portia decide whether to make her own ultimate admission.

Admission is at once a fascinating look at the complex college admissions process and an emotional examination of what happens when the secrets of the past return and shake a woman's life to its core.


GIVEAWAY RULES



YOU MUST, MUST, MUST LEAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR COMMENT. COMMENTS WITHOUT EMAIL ADDRESSES WON'T BE ENTERED.

1. The giveaway starts Sunday, August 1 and ends on Friday, 13th at midnight.

2. There will be three winners, chosen by random number generation.

3. Winners must have street addresses (no P.O. Boxes) in either the United States or Canada.

4. For one entry, leave a comment (with your email!). You will get an extra entry for any/all of the following; being or becoming a follower, blogging to this giveaway or tweeting about it. If you blog or tweet, please include the link.

5. Winners will be emailed and must respond within three days in order to claim their prize. After three days, another winner will be chosen and notified.

The Murderer's Daughters by Randy Susan Meyers

In The Murderer's Daughters, Randy Susan Meyers outlines how a domestic abuse crime affects not only the participants, but how the event causes ripple effects throughout the entire social structure around them.  Lulu is ten and her baby sister, Merry, is five when their father comes to their apartment, fights with their mother and kills her.  While Lulu runs for help, the father tries to kill both Merry and himself, failing at both.

The girl's father is imprisoned, but the girls are also.  Their lives change immediately and for all time with the thrust of that knife.  There are few relatives; elderly grandmothers on both sides and an aunt and uncle.  The grandmothers are not able to care for the girls, and the aunt convinces her husband that they cannot take the girls in.  Lulu and Merry are sent to an orphanage.  It is a bleak and terrifying place.  After several years, they are fostered out and remain with this family until they are grown.

Lulu has survivor's guilt and stuffs her feelings down, down, down until they cannot be uncovered.  She concentrates on becoming the perfect child, making excellent grades and becoming a doctor.  She feels that she must protect everyone, and attempts to control everything in her environment. 

Merry is left with questions about why her father would do such a horrible thing, and why he tried to kill her also.  Far from stuffing her feelings down, she is consumed by them, and moves from man to man, always afraid to commit to anyone or anything.  She doesn't forgive her father, but cannot break the connection and visits him in prison over the years.

Randy Susan Meyers has done an excellent job of describing the aftermath and fallout in families from violence.  She expertly outlines the different relationships the girls have, and how this one event controls how they handle every other event in their lives.  While each copes in a different manner, both are less than whole, always attempting to determine why this happened and what it means.  This book is recommended especially for readers with family tragedies.  It will help them come to terms with what has happened to their families and how to move on from disaster. 

Taroko Gorge by Jacob Ritari

A Japanese middle school has taken the entire class on a field trip to Taiwan as they graduate to high schools.  Since Japan's system for high schools is based on achievement tests, the students who have gone to school together for years will be separated in the future.  There are friendships and rivalries, but no one can really imagine how it will be when they don't see each other each day.  Their teacher, Mr. Tanaka, is the chaperone on this trip to Taiwan.

The children visit a famous temple, then break into groups to walk back to the park, which is built around the natural beauty of Taroko Gorge.  Everyone comes back except for three girls.  No one has seen them leave; but they have disappeared and can't be found anywhere.  What could have happened?  As time goes by, the police are called in.  An older detective and his young relative come.  He seems nonchalent about the disappearance, and says nothing can be done until morning when there is light.

There are other visitors to the park that day.  Peter Neils is a journalist who has roamed the world.  He tries to help with the search and to calm the children.  His cameraman, Josh Pickett, is a young man who can't seem to handle the pressure and becomes drunk and useless in the search.

The students quickly form alliances.  Although they have been good friends, it doesn't take long for accusations to be hurled and blame to be attached.  The event brings some students together while forcing others apart.  Regardless, this is an event that will shape the student's lives going forward.

Jacob Ritari uses his knowledge of Buddhism and Japan to set the book in a realistic setting.  Although he grew up in the United States, he studied Japanese language and literature at Japan's Sophia University.  This book is recommended for readers who are interested in how quickly a situation requires a moral choice, and how different individuals make that choice. 

The Glass Room by Simon Mawer

In the late 1920's, Czech honeymooners Viktor and Liesel Landauer consider themselves part of the new, vibrant European philosophy of liberal thought focused on the arts and benignly agnostic.  They meet an architect starting his career in Vienna who exemplifies the new thought and hire him to build them a house created from the minimalist school where the heavy designs of the past are out.  Instead, they want a house with open areas, minimal furniture and clear visions both inside and out.  Spare in design, the house has living quarters upstairs and the lower floor is one vast glassed room that overlooks the city.  Young, wealthy and valued patrons of the arts, the Laundauers seem to have it all.

But gilded perfect lives rarely stay that way.  There are strains on the marriage as the years pass. Children arrive and their love moves to a settled relationship and each starts to venture outside the marriage for friendship and romance.  As the years pass and move inevitably towards the mid-1940's, all of Europe changes with the advent of the Nazi Party and Hitler's unstoppable drive to rule all that he sees.  Viktor is Jewish.  He is not observant, but that makes no difference.  Viktor clearly sees what is coming.  He manages to convince Liesel that they must leave, and with their children, nanny and her child who has been raised with their children, they move to Switzerland.  They learn what is going on from friends and family that remain behind.  All that they treasured is lost.  Many of their friends are caught up in the Nazi horrors and their glorious house built to celebrate a new age is now a "research station" where people are measured in an attempt to find the markers that separate Jew from non-Jew.

The Glass Room has a 2009 finalist for the Man Booker Prize.  In it, Mawer leads the reader through the horror of what man can do to man without clubbing them over the head with unceasing details.  He also shows how men and women hurt each other while trying to carve out a place of safety and love for themselves.  The book not only covers the years of World War II, but the Communist era that followed in this area.  It is highly recommended for all readers and is a book I'll remember for a long time. 

AUDIO GIVEAWAY!!!! THE ART OF CHOOSING BY SHEENA IYENGAR

In an era of ever-expanding choices, HOW WE CHOOSE addresses the simple-yet-mystifying question : How do we know what we want?
The answers are strange, impressive, and profound. Sheena Iyengar, a Columbia University professor whose work on choice is widely recognized and cited by companies like AOL and Citigroup, looks into the heart of what we desire-- and what we think we desire-- to show how tangential factors enter into (and run roughshod) over our decisions.

GIVEAWAY RULES


YOU MUST, MUST, MUST LEAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR COMMENT. COMMENTS WITHOUT EMAIL ADDRESSES WON'T BE ENTERED.

1. The giveaway starts Sunday, July 17th and ends on Friday, July 3oth at midnight.
2. There will be three winners, chosen by random number generation.
3. Winners must have street addresses (no P.O. Boxes) in either the United States or Canada.
4. For one entry, leave a comment (with your email!). You will get an extra entry for any/all of the following; being or becoming a follower, blogging to this giveaway or tweeting about it. If you blog or tweet, please include the link.
5. Winners will be emailed and must respond within three days in order to claim their prize. After three days, another winner will be chosen and notified.

The Prosecution Rests by Linda Fairstein

The stories in The Prosecution Rests have a common theme; all revolve around courtrooms, trials and justice meted out to criminals, sometimes formally and sometimes informally. Edited by Linda Fairstein, herself a prosecutor for 25 years in Manhattan, the book pulls together some of the most interesting crime novelists in the genre. It is a book by the Mystery Writers of America, an organization for both beginning and established mystery writers. The focus of the organization is promoting both the crime writing genre and those novelists who choose it as their focus. This anthology meets both goals.

The twenty-one stories in the book are varied and interesting. They cover murders, insurance fraud, robbery, adultery and other crimes. The protagonists are prosecutors, defense attorneys, police investigators and judges. Some of the stories are fairly straightforward while others incorporate a twist that surprises the reader. The list of authors reads like a Who's Who of mystery writing. It includes Linda Fairstein, James Grippando, Phyllis Cohen, Jo Dereske, Charlie Drees, Eileen Dunbaugh, Kate Gallison, Joel Goldman, Diana Hansen-Young, Edward Hoch, Paul Levine, Leigh Lundin, Michele Martinez, Anita Page, Barbara Parker, Twist Phelan, John Putre, S.J. Rozan, Morley Swingle, Joseph Wallace and Angela Zeman. The authors chosen include in their ranks Edgar winners, past Presidents of the Mystery Writers association and Sisters In Crime writing awards. They also include writers who are new to the genre.

This book is recommended both to those readers who enjoy crime and mystery writing, and to short story fans. Each will find stories that intrigue, amaze and surprise them. With a variety of writing styles, the reader is assured of finding stories that match their taste. The reader has an opportunity to revisit established authors' work and the chance to discover new authors in the field whose work they may want to follow in the future. The Prosecution Rests gives the reader a chance to sample quality crime writing at its best.

The Bed & Bisket Gang by M. Rene De Paulis

In The Bed & Bisket Gang, M. Rene De Paulis illustrates to children ways in which they can make those different from them feel accepted and valued.  Sarah's family has moved to a farm.  She already has two dogs, but as the days go by she expands her family to include another dog, chickens, a donkey, a mouse, a lamb, a cow and a goat.  Each comes with problems, but Sarah and the other animals help them overcome or adjust to their difficulties and learn to lead a happy, fulfilled life.

Each chapter introduces another animal and illustrates a way in which others can be different.  There is abuse, depression, handicaps that one is born with, handicaps that are thrust upon people, and difficulties brought on by one's own actions.  In that case, the chickens were making themself miserable as a result of spying and gossiping on the other animals. 

Children will internalize the message that each of us is different and each has value to contribute.  One of the cutest features in this book are the names.  Who couldn't love cows named Mother Utter and Sir Loin, or chickens named Attila the Hen and Chicken Noodle?  The author is also the illustrator and has created simple drawings that make the characters real.  This book is recommended for young children and readers.  It would also be useful in a church setting as it uses Christian terminology and concepts. 

Commuters by Emily Gray Tedrowe

In Commuters, Emily Gray Tedrowe explores a topic rarely discussed, that of love found by the elderly and the complications a late second marriage entails.

Winnie McClelland is seventy-eight on her wedding day; Jerry Travis a few years older.  Winnie has lived in the same commuter town outside New York City her entire life; Jerry is a successful businessman who is very wealthy.  Neither expected to be lucky enough to find love again at their age.  Nor did they expect the complications and joys that would arise from their union.

As in all second marriages, the children of the first marriage have a major adjustment to make.  Winnie's daughter, Rachel, also lives in town.  Rachel's family has had major life adjustments after her husband is in a horrific accident that leaves him in a coma for several weeks and needing major rehabilitation afterwards.  Now she has to adjust to her diminished role as her mother's confidant and advisor.  Jerry's daughter, Annette, is adamantly against the marriage and regards Winnie as a gold digger, only after Jerry's money.  She ups the ante by suing her father for control of the business he has built and left in her charge.

Annette's son, Avery, has had little contact with his grandfather.  But he is now on his own in New York, and develops a relationship with both Jerry and Winnie.  He is starting out in many ways.  He has just found a new love, Nona, and is feeling his way towards a career as a chef.  For the first time in his life, he is feeling the comfort and reassurance of an accepting family life.

All the characters react in different fashions as Jerry's health deteriorates, and these reactions make up the second half of the book.  Emily Tedrowe explores what it means to get older and what is important to us as we age.  She delves into family relationships and the difficulties that they bring along with the joy.

This book is recommended for all readers.  The characters are vibrant, and the reader will remember them long after the book is put away.  The topic is one that many readers will encounter, either as the participant in an older love relationship, or as the child of someone in the situation.  Commuters gives guidance and hope; an uplifting book that lyrically explores the facets of love and family.

Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay

In Under Heaven, Guy Gavriel Kay has created a masterpiece of an Oriental culture, that of the land of Kitai. It relates a time of intrigue, political maneuvering, rebellion and change. The book's hero, Shen Tai, is suddenly thrust into this environment and must adapt to survive.

The book opens in a remote location called Kuala Nor. It is the site of an ancient battle where thousands of men were killed, their bleached bones still hungering for honor. Shen Tai spends two years at this site, during his time of mourning for his father who was a famous General. He spends his days far from all he knows and those he loves, burying the bones of the dead soldiers, both Kitan and those of the enemy force. Although he expects nothing from this labor, it does not go unnoticed. At the end of his time, two events happen. First is that an assassin, sent by enemies back at the Kitan royal court, attempts to kill him. Second, a Princess, who is the daughter of the Kitan Emperor but who was sent to a bordering country in a political marriage, makes a life-changing gift to Shen Tai.

Horses are the lifeblood of the armies and of trade. Most valued of all are Sardian horses. One is more than most men can ever hope to attain. The Princess sends Tai two hundred and fifty of these magnificent horses. This is a life-changing gift; a gift that will echo down the ages. Shen Tai must find a way to get to the Emperor's Court and give this gift to him for national prestige and honor. There are many who will try to stop him and gain the horses for their own gain. The Court is full of rival factions, each vying for favor and the possibility of future honors as the Emperor weakens with age. In addition to the political relationships, there is also the effect of love. Men do anything for the women they love, but at the same time the women also are caught up in the intricate games of statesmanship that are the daily fare of Court life. These love relationships are finely honed and the reader must read more to find out what will happen in the rivalries that exist between men over love.

Kay has written a masterpiece. It straddles the genres of historical fiction and fantasy and in doing so, takes the reader on a fascinating and engaging journey. The characters are finely drawn and their intricate relationships are revealed slowly to the reader. The political intrigue and themes of honor, entitlement and military maneuvering is presented in a complex story that leaves the reader with a sigh of contentment as they turn the last page. This book is recommended for all readers.

GIVEAWAY!!!! THE IMPOSTER'S DAUGHTER BY LAURIE SANDELL

Laurie Sandell grew up in awe (and sometimes in terror) of her larger-than-life father, who told jaw-dropping tales of a privileged childhood in Buenos Aires, academic triumphs, heroism during Vietnam, friendships with Kissinger and the Pope. As a young woman, Laurie unconsciously mirrors her dad, trying on several outsized personalities (Tokyo stripper, lesbian seductress, Ambien addict).

 Later, she lucks into the perfect job--interviewing celebrities for a top women's magazine. Growing up with her extraordinary father has given Laurie a knack for relating to the stars. But while researching an article on her dad's life, she makes an astonishing discovery: he's not the man he says he is--not even close. Now, Laurie begins to puzzle together three decades of lies and the splintered person that resulted from them--herself.

GIVEAWAY RULES


YOU MUST, MUST, MUST LEAVE AN EMAIL ADDRESS IN YOUR COMMENT. COMMENTS WITHOUT EMAIL ADDRESSES WON'T BE ENTERED.


1. The giveaway starts Saturday, July 10th and ends on Friday, July 23nd at midnight.

2. There will be five winners, chosen by random number generation.

3. Winners must have street addresses (no P.O. Boxes) in either the United States or Canada.

4. For one entry, leave a comment (with your email!). You will get an extra entry for any/all of the following; being or becoming a follower, blogging to this giveaway or tweeting about it. If you blog or tweet, please include the link.

5. Winners will be emailed and must respond within three days in order to claim their prize. After three days, another winner will be chosen and notified.

Good luck!  This is a graphic novel, but not intended for children!

Big Bad Wolf by James Patterson

Women are disappearing.  It's happening all over the country, and it appears that the women are targeted specifically.  The FBI are brought in, and that brings in Detective Alex Cross.  Alex has left the DC Police Department and is being fast-tracked in the FBI for a top position.  He soon discovers that the women are being ordered as if they were on a menu on a secret website for very rich, very depraved men.  The women are kidnapped and sold to these men as sex slaves.

In addition to the perplexing case, Alex has other issues to worry about.  He is separated from his new love, Jamilla, who is on the West Coast while he is on the East.  And a former love, Christine Johnson, has reappeared in a move that bodes trouble.  She is the mother of Alex's youngest child, the baby also named Alex.  Christine walked out of their lives a year ago to go find herself after a brutal crime, and now she is back and wants custody of Alex.

As Cross works the case, he discovers that the mastermind behind the kidnapping ring is a Russian man known only as the Wolf.   The Wolf is never seen, but his intimidation extends to everyone he has any contact with.  Anyone who talks about him at all is brutually murdered with no questions asked.  That makes tracking him down and stopping his spree more difficult than any other search Alex can remember.

Big Bad Wolf is a fast-paced thriller that reminds readers why they love James Patterson.  The action is non-stop and heart-pounding.   The reader is caught up in the action and also becomes involved in Alex's family concerns.  This book is recommended for all mystery readers.