The Seven Sisters

by

Lucinda Riley

I was complaining to my brother that the wait list for this book was very long on Libby and he graciously sent me a copy in my kindle for my birthday so I was able to read it this week.  It had caught my eye because its premise sounded interesting to me.  It is based on a fictional family of sisters whose adoptive father names them after  the seven sisters constellation.  At the onset of the book the father passes away but leaves each daughter information about their biological parents.  This is a book series where every book covers one of the sister's search for her origins.  The book is a dual timeline novel.  One timeline being the eldest sister looking for her mother and father and the other timeline being the 1920s during her great grandmother's lifetime.  Most of the book takes place in Brazil and tells the story of the coffee plantations and the building of the statue of Christ, which is considered one of the seven modern wonders of the world and is on a mountain top over looking Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Two primary love stories also are weaved throughout the novel.  I am now on the wait list on Libby for the second novel in this series.  This book was one that I stayed up late at night reading.  I enjoyed it very much.  Please watch both videos at the links below and click on the book title and author's name above to follow additional links to more information.  

Statue info

Coffee barons info

 

My Name Is

Mary Sutter

by

Robin Oliveira

We got home from vacation and I came down with mild cold symptoms so it was a good excuse to stay curled up with a book.  Therefore  I finished My Name Is Mary Sutter quicker than I normally would have.  This novel is set during the Civil War and is about a young woman who has aspirations to be a surgeon at a time that women were not welcome in medical schools.  She is able to utilize the great need of medical personal during the war to obtain experience and achieve her goals.  She starts in housekeeping at the worst facility in Washington DC and works her way up from there.  The book really explains the horrible conditions soldiers had to endure at the onset of the war when they needed medical care and highlights some progress that was made.  Much of the progress in medical facilities and care occurred after the war was over as a result of the need the Civil War exposed.  Things were really dirty because germs had not been discovered.  Soldiers were drinking out of the same water sources they went to the bathroom and bathed in.  Disease killed more of them than bullets or cannon balls did.  Robin Oliveira did a lot of detailed research in writing this book.  Besides battles and disease there is family dynamics and romance.  The character of Mary Sutter is a very determined and strong willed woman.  The book held my interest and I highly recommend it.  Please watch the video that follows and click on the links above for more information.  

Click Here To Watch The Video.

 

The Great Trouble

by

Deborah Hopkinson

I have not been reading for enjoyment this year.   I slipped away from my bedtime reading routine and the months flew by with no books enjoyed.  I decided to remedy that and chose an easy book to start.  The Great Trouble by Deborah Hopkinson is the sort of book I would have read to my kids when they were in grade school.  We would call them chapter books.   Or a youngster in the  upper elementary and middle school grades could easily read at this level.  It was a fun quick read.  It also is in my interest area.  It is a historical novel which is my genre and it covers medical history which always appeals to me since I am a retired RN.  The story takes place in London during the 1854 Cholera outbreak.  It explains how it was discovered that the disease was water borne instead of airborne and the process used to determine that.  It would be a great novel to teach kids about the scientific process.  The basic story of Dr John Snow and his work is true but the kids who help him with the scientific process are fiction.  Please take the time to watch the video below and click on the links above to learn more.  

Click here to watch video.