Book For The Week: Wild Orchids by Jude Deveraux

Wild Orchids

by

Jude Deveraux

Jude Deveraux is known for her love stories and I am not a fan of love stories.  No Harlequin Romance Novels for me!  But when a contact from another site recommended this book to me it sounded interesting and I thought it would make a good book to read in October since it included the occult in the story line.  So I moved it from my wish list to my kindle a week or so ago and two nights this last week I was up way past my bed time with my nose in my kindle.  This book is a comedy/ romance/mystery/scary kind of book and I really enjoyed it.  I actually laughed out loud more than once while I was reading it and was on the edge of my - well I don't read in my chair but it is obvious what I mean.   In this novel a young woman takes a job as an assistant to an author and they move to a small southern town to write a novel about an old unsolved murder mystery.   The murder turns out to be involved with a spell from the devil as the author and his assistant do the research to solve the crime.  Perhaps the book would have been a lot more frightening to me if I were a person that believed in a personified evil but since evil to me is more of a negativity rather  than a man dressed in red with a pitch fork I was not overly terrified.   Jude Deveraux does a nice job with character development and the book is an easy read.  I flew through the book.  While I would say this is under the category of "fluff book",  there is a time and a place for fluff.  I highly recommend this for a Halloween novel.  Remember to click on the author's name and the title of the book above to follow the link to more information. 

Book For The Week: One Thousand White Women

One Thousand White Women:

The Journals Of May Dodd

by

Jim Fergus

This is the second time I have blogged about this book.  About a year ago I listened to it for the first time on audio.  I enjoyed it so much that I nominated it to be one of my library reading group selections for this year and it was selected for this month.  Therefore I listened to it again to refresh my mind on the details and I enjoyed it just as much the second time through.  It is a fun read.  This is one book that really lends itself to the audio presentation.  There are two readers and the female voice did a superb job of changing her voice to reflect the different accents of the different female characters.    If an audio book fan this is a good choice.  Historical fiction is my favorite genre and I really got lost in this book and swept away to another world.  It starts out with a historical fact that once a Native American Chief did ask for white brides as part of a peace treaty.  His request was not granted and took place fifteen years prior to the time the novel is set.  The novel is fiction and great fun.   In it one thousand white women set out in answer to a request to help our government in a secret program to assimilate the Native Americans by agreeing to marry into the tribe and have a child.   They come from various backgrounds and problem environments that they seek to escape from.   Their story is told through the fictional diaries of a woman named May Dodd which are uncovered from a medicine man's bags by May's great grandson during  his genealogical research.   While it is not realistic on some fronts it is a delightful fiction story that I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend.   Be sure to click on the link at the author's name and title for more information and to enjoy the video found below. 

Book For The Week - 10/03/2012: The Poisonwood Bible

The Poisonwood Bible

by

Barbara Kingsolver

A novel written through the eyes of five women,  The Poisonwood Bible is a masterpiece.    A mother and four daughters accompany their mentally unstable husband and father to the Congo as missionaries. As each speak,  first the mother and four young daughters and later the mother and three grown daughters,  both their personal experiences and the history that is being made around them unfold.  The book begins in 1959 and explains the end of colonial rule of Belgium and the wars that followed.  Exploitation becomes real as it takes place in front of them and has taken place in the past for people the girls  develop relationships with.    The family struggles with the differences in culture and the ways their original message emerges as inappropriate.   This book challenges one's belief system,  one's political opinions,  and one's entire life outlook.  While I listened to it on audio book,  I felt from the beginning I should have read it on my kindle instead.  During the beginning,  the reader switched from voice to voice with out enough of a pause and I became lost more than once.  But as the book went on, either I got a hang of the rhythm or she slowed down as I was able to follow much more easily.  If the audio book had used different people for the various voices it would have been clearer.   In spite of the challenges of listening to the novel,  it will definitely be in my top ten for 2012 and might even be in the number one spot.   For people who are not offended to have their opinions and beliefs challenged I recommend this book.  For those who prefer the status quo I would not encourage them to read it as it is an apple cart upsetter.  As for myself,  I will read more of this author.   Click on the author's name and title above to follow links to more information and be sure and enjoy the short video that follows.