Away by Amy Bloom

Away

by

Amy Bloom

Chosen by my old library book group in Columbia City  for their February selection,  I looked forward to reading Away by Amy Bloom.   It is the story of a young Jewish mother,  who after her family is all murdered in Russia in the early 1920s and her toddler daughter goes missing and is presumed drowned,  immigrates to the United States.  After living in New York for a few years she learns that her daughter may still be alive so she sets out to return to Russia.  Such a story  strongly appealed to my preference for historical novels.   But I was in for a disappointment.   I didn't really care for the main character named Lillian.  It wasn't so much that the majority of the book involved her sleeping her way across North America, I am not a prude,  as it was her attitude about it.  Whether she was sleeping with a man or woman,  she had nothing but contempt for her partners.  She also  had nothing but contempt for her murdered husband back in Russia.   In fact she didn't seem to like anyone. On a positive note,  I listened to this book on audio and the narrator did a nice job with the book.  And, in the last hour of the book,  Lillian finally slept with someone she liked.  At risk of being overly harsh,  I would label this book as raunchy.  It certainly will not make my top ten list this year.  If you have an interest to learn more you can click on the author's name and book title above to read more about them.  And the video below is about the community in Russia where Lillian believes her daughter may be living.  

The Kindness Of Strangers by Katrina Kittle

The Kindness 

of 

Strangers

by

Katrina Kittle

At the January meeting of the daytime book group at our local library I announced that I would not be at the February meeting and that I was not reading the book.  I explained I felt that it was a bad time of year to deal with such a depressing subject.  Because,  The Kindness Of Strangers deals with sexual abuse of children, I felt that it was a poor choice for mid winter.  After our leader explained that Katrina Kittle was an author from Dayton (which is pretty close to our little town of Wilmington Ohio)  and that she really liked the book,  I decided to start the book but was resolved that if it was upsetting I was not going to finish it.  I can assure you that the author had me reeled in very early in the novel.  It is a great book about the ability of the human spirit to heal after great tragedy.  It is also a book that teaches the reader signs to look for to keep the children in their lives safe.   The book is  a fictional story about a community in Dayton where doctors and lawyers live that is rocked by the discovery of a ring of child pornography film makers living in their midst.   It is a novel that everyone should read.  Please click on the title and the author's name above to follow three links for more information.  And please watch the first two videos that follow.  The third video is wonderful but a little longer for those interested in more information from the author.  

Product Review: Quesadilla Maker

This past Christmas,  my daughter and son in law purchased us a Quesadilla maker as our gift.   I have been meaning to get the ingredients for the past few weeks. Finally on Friday I obtained what I wanted and last pm,  I cooked it all up and we made our quesadillas for Sunday supper.  I got along fine with mine and really liked it.  Husband put too much stuffings in his and the edges didn't seal so good and his quesadilla  fell apart.  In conclusion the quesadilla maker works very well if you follow the directions.   The ingredients I had to choose from were:  Sliced and sautéed mushrooms, green peppers and onion,   cooked shrimp,  imitation crab,  and grated cheeses (both cheddar and mozzarella).  I used the mozzarella in mine which is less weight watcher points than the cheddar.  But the tortilla are each four points so it is a splurge meal.  But worth it to me.  I really enjoyed my quesadilla.  

Product Review: Vegetti Pro

One thing that I have found that happens when I mall walk is that besides getting some good exercise I spend money.  This past week I picked up a new pair of slacks and a Vegetti Pro.  Last pm I used the Vegetti Pro for the first time and I really like it!  To add some background,  a couple of years ago I asked for a hand held spiral tool for my birthday and I received one but I could never get it to work.  I just ended up working hard and getting only small pieces of vegetable - when I had small enough veggies to fit into the tool.  Then a few weeks ago I saw the Veggetti Pro on the news.  So as I was walking around the mall and passed the kitchen store I decided to duck in and price them.  On a whim I picked one up and I really like it.    I find it worked good and is easy to clean up afterwards.  I also enjoyed the meal I made with the "noodles"  and there are many recipes online to choose from for "zoodles".    Here are mine.  I cooked them in a wok with a little olive oil. 

Then I served them with Sweet Italian Turkey Sausages cooked in half Marinara Sauce half chicken broth.   It was very yummy and when I put it in my recipe builder on Weight Watchers it came out to six of the new smart points.  

  

Some Luck by Jane Smiley

Some Luck

by 

Jane Smiley

This novel is the first of a trilogy that covers 100 years in the lives of an American family.  The book starts with a couple who are starting out on their Iowa farm in 1920 and ends as the children now have their own children.  One couple live-in New York City and one in Washington DC.  They have shared memories of WWI,  experienced the great depression,  and WWII.  There is an aunt that moves to Chicago and marries a Jewish man and when he is killed in WWII she moves to San Francisco with her daughter.  Toward the end of the book she is being interviewed by the un-American Activities people.  I really liked Some Luck and can't wait to get to the second book of the trilogy.  I am sure it will make my top ten list for 2016.  Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the video that follows. 

Andrew's Brain by E. L. Doctorow

Andrew's Brain

by

E. L. Doctorow

This book was the selection for my prior book group for this month.  Since moving away from the NE Indiana area in 2013, I still read a long with them at times, but since I am reading a different book on my kindle at this time, I chose to listen to this one on audio.  It was about four hours long and narrated by the author.  The book is an unusual one.  It is a hard story line to follow,  even by the time one has completed the book.  In reading online reviews,  it becomes clear that reviewers don't have any consensus about what the book was about either.   In my opinion,  it is the story of the aftermath of 911 for one heartbroken individual.  A woman leaves her downtown New York home early on the morning of 911 to go jogging, leaving her infant in the care of Andrew, who is her husband and who is also the child's father.  The young mother never returns and her body is never found.  Andrew has a mental break down and the book is a series of interviews by Andrew's psychiatrist.   Andrew is so psychotic that it is very difficult to tell delusions and hallucinations from actual events that really happened in his life.   Through out the book the author makes statements regarding religious and political viewpoints.  It is a hard book to follow but very thought provoking.  I am sure it will not make my top ten for the year but it might have an appeal to some reading audiences.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

The Wrong Girl by Hank Phillippi Ryan

The Wrong Girl 

by

Hank Phillippi Ryan

The January selection for the Wilmington Library Daytime Book Group is The Wrong Girl by Hank Phillippi Ryan.   I chose to listen to it on audio and finished it on the plane today on my way home from vacation.  It is a mystery romance about foster care and adoption agencies.  It has several different stories and plots happening at once and some tie together at the end and some do not.  There is no graphic violence or sexual scenes in this book.  It is a clean cut mystery story that can be enjoyed by all ages.   For people who enjoy mystery books this book will be a winner.  It is not my normal genre of historical novels but I do enjoy an occasional mystery fluff book to fill in between more serious reading.  I did find this book entertaining and I may well reach again for something by this author.  Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow the link for more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

My Top Ten Favorite Books For 2015

In looking over my blogs of the more than 40 books I have either read or listened to on audio in the past year it was clear that there were more than ten that I liked very much.  So I left off Ken Follett because I had him in the top ten at least once the last two years.  Please know that his work is always in my overall top ten!  I also cheated a little and combined two titles by one author for number seven. But below find the top ten I finally settled on,  beginning with number ten and working down to my number one of the year.   Each title can be clicked on to follow the link to the blog that I reviewed that particular title on.  Happy New Year to all who follow my blog and best wishes for 2016!

#10 Paper Towns by John Green

#9   The Mirror by Marlys Millhiser

#8    Wicked by Gregory McGuire

#7    Go Set A Watchman & To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

#6    Leaving Time by Jodi Picoult

#5    Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver 

#4    The Handmaids Tale by Margaret Atwood 

#3    The Invention Of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

#2    A Land Remembered by Patrick D. Smith

#1   Raquela by Ruth Garber