Book For The Week - 2/18/12 - Part Three

A Mount Vernon Love Story by Mary Higgins Clark

The third book I finished this week was the one I was reading on my kindle.  It is the selection for March for the library reading group that I attend.  February's selection is "Outlander"  and I have already read that as I mentioned in my prior post.  So I read ahead and completed March's book.  Since it is a short read I finished up Mary Higgins Clark's "A Mount Vernon Love Story" on Tuesday night.  It is the story of the marriage of George and Martha Washington.   I enjoyed the book and was surprised to learn that George was in love with his best friends wife and while he was fond of Martha he was afraid to marry her because if his friend were to die he thought he might be sorry he was unavailable.   I was also surprised to learn that since Martha was a widow and had children that George and her had conflict in their marriage over the decisions that were made regarding the children.  She made it very clear that he was not the one making the decisions about the kids and he was not to discipline them.  George also felt she put the kids before him in her priorities and he resented that.  The book also shows the positive parts of their relationship and how they complimented one another.  It is a very "G rated"  book.   I am glad to have read the book and enjoyed it but I will not rush out and read another of Mary Higgins Clark's books.   Please click on the book title and the author's name at the top of this blog to follow the links to learn more.  And enjoy the following video about Mount Vernon.

Book For The Week - 2/18/12 - Part Two

Voyager

by

Diana Gabaldon

As I mentioned in the prior post I drove the grandchildren back home on Sunday.  Afterward I had the luck to meet up with my son Scott for a late lunch.  I shopped my way home - it really is not a good thing for me that they put that Carsons store in at Warsaw - and then took a little nap because I had picked up a short shift from 11p to 3a at work Sunday night.  On my way to and from work I listen to audio books and Sunday night I finished up "Voyager"  by Diana Gabaldon.   "Voyager"  is the third book of her "Outlander"  series.  I am totally hooked on the series.  It makes my commute go by very fast and I can't wait to get in the car to listen to the story some more.   In this third book of the series,  Claire returns to the 1700s from 1968.  She is reunited with Jamie and they are soon  off on an adventure to the Caribbean.   Of the three books I have "read" so far in this series I would place "Voyager"  at a close second to the original book in the series "Outlander" as far as my favorite.  The second book, "Dragonfly in Amber" , I liked but not as much as the first and third.   I think it was due to the fact it took place in France and I had trouble keeping the names straight.  But  I had no such issue in "Voyager".  It was a fun read and kept me on the edge of my seat.  Be sure and click on the title of the book and the author's name to learn more. 

Book For The Week - 2/18/12 - Part One

THE MAGIC TREE HOUSE SERIES
BY
MARY POPE OSBORNE

This has been such a busy week that I have not gotten the three books I finished up posted on Multiply.  Over the weekend I had the privilege of having Haily and Tyler for an overnight stay.  Haily and Tyler are my "ex-step"  grandchildren but we still claim each other as grand kids and grandma and their mommy is good enough to let me have them for a weekend about every other month.   Normally my daughter Nicole joins us but at the last minute she had to cancel due to a bad upper respiratory infection.    Usually when we make the two hour trip to or from their home to mine we have Nicole's dvd and two monitors set up on the back of the front seats so the kids can watch a movie during the drive.  But since I had no Nicole, I had no vehicle DVD player.   Last summer I purchased a portable deck that my IPOD plugs into  for just such situations and in the fall I had loaded some Raffi songs on it.  So after getting the kids all buckled in on the way to my house I was good for about twenty thirty minutes and the songs were done.  We made it home fine with playing I spy but we also made  plans for the to pick a book to listen to on the way home on Sunday.   Audible has a section for kids and they both picked Magic Tree House Books.  One lasted an hour and a half and was about a Haunted Castle.  The other book lasted a half hour and was about a Tornado in Pioneer times.  The books kept the kids occupied and I enjoyed listening to them too.  As always,  click on the title of the book and the author's name to follow the links and learn more. 

Book For The Week - 1/29/12

The Book Of Tomorrow
by
Cecelia Ahern

Cecelia Ahern,  who is the best selling author of PS, I Love You and Thanks For The Memories  is also the author of the book I finished reading on my kindle last night.    Written in 2010,  The Book Of Tomorrow is not the romantic comedy that the other two novels mentioned are.  It is more of a science fiction or mystery book.   Sixteen year old Tamera is a spoiled rich brat who suddenly loses everything when her dad commits suicide due to financial ruin.   She and her mother end up living with poor relatives and she learns to evaluate every thing she ever knew about life though a magical diary that finds her at a book mobile.   When she opens the diary she is able to read her entry about the next day that has not happened yet.  I think this book is more of a young adult type book than Aherns other two novels were but I enjoyed it.  The Book Of Tomorrow is also the first book that I checked out from my local library service for kindle so that was a new experience for me which worked out fine.   As always click on the title and the authors name to follow the links to learn more.  And enjoy the video below of an interview with the author about the book.

Book For The Week - 1/19/12

The Paris Wife

by

Paula McLain

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain is the book we selected for January for my library reading group.  I started out really enjoying the book as the character of Earnest Hemingway and his first wife Hadley are introduced and during the time of their dating life.   About the time they got married I got sad.  The feelings of disillusionment that I felt as a new bride in each of my marriages is captured very clearly by McLain in her description of what Hadley is going through in her marriage.  I have to give Hadley credit because she stayed with Earnest for five years and I am sure I would have been on the next book back to the states after they arrived in Paris.   It was very clear to me that Earnest Hemingway was an ass.  They finally did divorce and Hadley was fortunate to find a happy second marriage while eventually Earnest killed himself.   During the book all of the people in the group of friends drank way too  much.   While I would recommend the book because it allowed me to learn about Earnest Hemingway and his first wife,  I can't say it will make my favorite book list for 2012.   Be sure and click on the title and author's name to follow the links to more information.

Book For The Week - 12/29/11

Twenty Years At Hull House

by

Jane Addams

While visiting the Hull House Museum this past October I decided I wanted to read something by Jane Addams.  There are several titles available for free on kindle by her and so I selected one called Twenty Years At Hull House.  Since it was written early in the 20th Century,  I found it a long read for me although it was filled with information and brought the inner city immigrant experience of the late 1800s into a clear view.   The labor movement is also described as are reforms in education and health standards of the inner city.  This book gives insight as to why Jane Addams chose to spend her life living in a  poor immigrant neighborhood when she was a woman with resources and shows the ability she had to interact with not only the poor but with the powers of city government to initiate change.  It is an amazing true story.   It is also available for free on Project Gutenberg.  Follow the links by clicking on the title and author's name to learn more.  Or google Jane Addams/Hull House.  There is a wealth of wonderful information online. 

Book For The Week - 12/26/11

My Antonia

by

Willa Cather

Set in the late 1880s, a young man is orphaned and sent from Virginia to live with his grandparents on a farm in Nebraska.   This book is about the people he meets on the Nebraska plains who are immigrant farmers trying to make their way in the new world.  A classic book written in 1918 My Antonia by Willa Cather was a book title brought up by my library reading group as a possibility to read and discuss in 2012 but it was not selected.  It sounded like it would be good to me so I picked it up on sale from audible and listened to it during my commute.   To make a bit of a confession,  I have been MIA from social media the last month or six weeks except for occasionally peaking in quickly,  because I have been very busy with my family tree.  I have found a friend to research with and that makes it so much more fun.   Much of my computer time is spent in data entry or searching for information online.   Since there are a couple of Eastern European lines in both my kid's dad's side of the tree and on my side of the tree,  I found My Antonia   really brought those lines to life.   Even though my ancestors were in the mid west and not Nebraska,  I am sure they struggled to survive.  The book makes real the way that immigrants worked so hard in order that their children could have  a better life than they had.   It shows not only the hardships that were endured but the social outcasts that the people who had been here longer made out of the more recent immigrants.  The young Bohemian, Swedish and Norwegian women were not quite good enough dating material for the towns boys.  This book is a delightful tale of the building of the USA and does a good job of bringing the late 1800s to life.   It is available to read for free on Gutenburg.com so therefore can be downloaded to a kindle at no charge.  Be sure and click on the title and the author's name to follow the link and learn more.