HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Don't eat too much candy!

LOW COUNTRY SUMMER

LOW COUNTRY SUMMER by Dorothea Benton Frank

From Publishers Weekly:

Here's one for the Southern gals as well as Yankees who appreciate Frank's signature mix of sass, sex, and gargantuan personalities.  In this long-time-coming sequel to Plantation, opinionated and family-centric Caroline Wimbly Levine has just turned 47, but she's less concerned with advancing middle age than she is with son Eric shacking up with an older single mom.  She's also dealing with a drunk and disorderly sister-in-law, Frances Mae; four nieces from hell; grieving brother Tripp; a pig-farmer boyfriend with a weak heart; and a serious crush on the local sheriff.  Then there's Caroline's dead-but-not-forgotten mother, Miss Lavinia, whose presence both guides and troubles Caroline as she tries to keep her unruly family intact and out of jail.  With a sizable cast of minor characters with major attitude, Frank lovingly mixes a brew of personalities who deliver nonstop clashes, mysteries, meltdowns, and commentaries; below the always funny theatrics, however, is a compelling saga of loss and acceptance.

I get a kick out of Ms. Frank's books.  Full of great characters and plenty of fun, with some romance and a little sadness thrown in for good measure.  Plus lots of good Southern cooking!  What more could you want?

My library finally got on the bandwagon and now has books for the Kindle available.  This was the first one I borrowed.  It took some effort and a lot of mouse-clicking, but I finally got it downloaded.  Now I have to figure out how to get it back to the library!

ANOTHER NIGHT AT THE PLAYHOUSE

Last night, Dom and I went back to one of our favorite spots, the Cumming Playhouse.  This time we saw the musical production, 42nd Street.

I wasn't sure if Dom would like the show, since his "girlfriend" Lauren wasn't in this one.  (Lauren played Marion in The Music Man and Dom and I just adore her.)   But we both thoroughly enjoyed it.  It was a show about putting on a Broadway musical.

Lots of great singing and the dancing - these kids can really tap!  A large cast with tons of energy.  The star of the show, Kathy Russell, is an outstanding talent - we've seen her many times before.  The girls on "the line" - the singers and dancers - were just as great.  And the lead men were fabulous.  Who knew there was so much talent in this little town!

This is one show I wouldn't mind seeing again!

IN THE COMPANY OF OTHERS

IN THE COMPANY OF OTHERS by Jan Karon

From the back of the book:

Vacation.

The very word has been foreign to Episcopal priest Tim Kavanagh.  Now retired from tending his flock in the village of Mitford, he is making good on a promise to show his wife, Cynthia, the land of his Irish ancestors.  But after arriving at a Lough Arrow fishing lodge in the midst of a torrential downpour, they find their holiday upended by an intruder, a vanished painting, and a bitter family conflict dating back nearly a century.  As three generations struggle to find deliverance from the crucifying power of secrets, Tim and Cynthia stumble upon a faded journal that might just explain the crime - and offer a chance at redemption.

I loved the Mitford series.  I think I've read all the books at least 3 times.  When they ended, I was happy to hear that Ms. Karon was planning a three-book series about Father Tim.  I read the first of that series, HOME TO HOLLY SPRINGS, about 2 years ago.  Although different from the Mitford books, I did enjoy it.

This one, however, I didn't really like that much.  Being set in Ireland, I should have loved it for that reason alone.  But I didn't get the same warm and fuzzy feeling about Father Tim and Cynthia.  In fact, there was one part where I didn't like Father Tim much at all, and Cynthia really got on my nerves.

I can't say why this book was so different.  At times it was hard to follow the story as the time period had changed without warning.  I think too much of the book was devoted to the old journal that they were reading.  There were a lot of characters and their stories were confusing.

Overall, I was not impressed by this book.  I will, however, want to read the last book in this series - hopefully they will be back in Mitford and some of the wonderful little town characters will make an appearance.

A DUBLIN STUDENT DOCTOR

A DUBLIN STUDENT DOCTOR by Patrick Taylor

From the book jacket:

Patrick Taylor's devoted readers know Doctor Fingal Flahertie O'Reilly as a pugnacious general practitioner in the quaint Irish village of Ballybucklebo.  Now Taylor turns back the clock to give us a portrait of the young Fingal - and show us the pivotal events that shaped the man he would become.

In the 1930's, fresh from a stint in the Royal Navy Reserve, and against the wishes of his disapproving father, Fingal O'Reilly goes to Dublin to study medicine.  Fingal and his fellow aspiring doctors face the arduous demands of Trinity College and Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital.  The hours are long and the cases challenging, but Fingal manages to find time to box and play rugby - and to romance a fetching, gray-eyed nurse named Kitty O'Hallorhan.

Dublin is a city of slums and tenements, where brutal poverty breeds diseases that the limited medical knowledge of the time is often ill-equipped to handle.  His teachers warn Fingal not to become too attached to his patients, but can he truly harden himself to the suffering he sees all around him - or can he find a way to care for his patients without breaking his heart?

This is the sixth book in the Irish Country Novel series, and I've loved every one.  How could I not - they're set in my favorite yet-to-visit place, Ireland.

I  enjoyed reading about Doctor O'Reilly's days in medical school, and his anxiety about performing a new procedure for the very first time.  It reminded me of my early days in nursing school.  I could also relate to his fear of some of his instructors - I had one nursing instructor who scared the devil out of me.

The characters in these books are so real and so human.  They have faults and feelings.  As usual, Doctor O'Reilly's housekeeper, Mrs.Kincaid wrote the afterword and included some yummy recipes.  And there is also a glossary in the back of the book, explaining many of the Irish terms.  I think this book is the best in the series so far.

HARMFUL INTENT

HARMFUL INTENT by Robin Cook was read for the Medical Mystery Madness Reading Challenge 2011.

From the book jacket:

A physician turned fugitive must save himself and stop a lethal drug-tampering plot in Robin Cook's most disturbing techno-chiller yet.

Anesthesiologist Dr. Jeffrey Rhodes's nightmare begins with nerve-shattering swiftness, but it will haunt him always: he administers routine anesthesia during a normal birth. Suddenly the young, healthy mother goes into inexplicable seizures and dies; her infant survives but is severely disabled and brain damaged. But the living nightmare is only beginning: sued first for malpractice, then brought up on criminal charges, Jeffrey is convicted of malpractice - to the tune of $11 million - then of harmful intent and reckless disregard for human life...second-degree murder carrying a mandatory prison term.

A ruined man, Jeffrey must pull himself from the depths of despair to try to salvage the wreckage of his life. A subtle clue puts him and Nurse Kelly Everson on the trail of a crazed killer. With Kelly's aid, Jeffrey remains in hiding in order to find the truth and gain the evidence he needs to prevent more "malpractice" deaths and to clear his name. But that truth is even more shocking than Jeffrey imagined. For there is a third dimension to the whole affair that neither he nor Kelly could have anticipated....

I've read many of Dr. Cook's books, and when I started this one, I wasn't sure if I had read it previously or not. But by page 15, I knew I had read it. Two obstetricians were mentioned on that page - Dr. Braxton and Dr Hicks - I remembered that little inside joke. But it was so long ago that I read this book, I didn't remember anything about the story.

This was a typical Robin Cook book - plenty of suspense, lots of medical jargon, a fast-moving plot that doesn't resolve itself until the very end of the book. I enjoyed this re-read.

I have a couple more Robin Cook books on the shelf to either read or re-read for this challenge, then I think it's time to look for a new medical-mystery author. I think I'm slightly "overCooked."

REASONS TO BE HAPPY

REASONS TO BE HAPPY by Katrina Kittle

From the back of the book:

Reasons to be Happy:

21.  Cat purr vibrating through your skin
22.  Jumping on a trampoline in the rain
23.  Raw cookie dough
24.  Getting yourself all freaked out after a scary movie
25.  Dancing like an idiot when no one is watching

What happened to the girl who wrote those things?  I miss that girl.  She used to be bold and fun.  Now she's a big chicken loser.

How could so much change so fast?

Let's see, you could be the plain Jane daughter of two gorgeous famous people, move to a new school. have no real friends, and your mom could get sick, and, oh yeah, you could have the most embarrassing secret in the world.  Yep, that about does it.

So, the real question is, how do I get that girl back?

Narrated by Hannah, this is the story of a young teenage girl who has lost control of her life.  Things are happening around her that she doesn't like but is powerless to change.  She doesn't see herself as others see her; she has lost all confidence in herself.  But she finds one thing that she can control and it makes her feel happy.  She calls it her Secret Remedy.  Until the day that her SR takes control and Hannah's life changes.

This book tells how Hannah, with the help of her aunt and a lovely girl named Modesta, gains control of her life again and finds the girl who had been hidden inside.

Katrina Kittle has written some very good books; this is another one.

FALL OF GIANTS

FALL OF GIANTS by Ken Follett was read for the Just For Fun Reading Challenge 2011.

From the back of the book:

A thirteen-year-old Welsh boy enters a man's world in the mining pits....An American law student rejected in love finds a surprising new career in Woodrow Wilson's White House....A housekeeper for the aristocratic Fitzherberts takes a fateful step above her station, while Lady Maud Fitzherbert herself crosses deep into forbidden territory when she falls in love with a German spy....And two orphaned Russian brothers embark on radically different paths when their plan to emigrate to America falls afoul of war, conscription, and revolution.

From the dirt and danger of a coal mine to the glittering chandeliers of a palace, from the corridors of power to the bedrooms of the mighty, Fall of Giants takes us into the inextricably entangled fates of five families - and into a century that we thought we knew, but that now will never seem the same again....

One of my favorite books is PILLARS OF THE EARTH by Ken Follett.  I loved his way of combining true historical events with a mesmerizing fictional tale.  He has done the same thing in this book - this time telling of the events leading up to and including World War I and the Bolsevik Revolution in Russia.

It was a little difficult distinguishing the different characters - the German, the Welsh, the English, the Russian.  So many names and places.  Luckily, there is a map of 1914 Europe and a list of characters in the front of the book to which I referred often.  I had a little knowledge of this era, but Mr. Follett brought out so many interesting points in the 985 pages.

This book is the first in a trilogy.  The next book, WINTER OF THE WORLD, covering the Depression and World War II will focus on the children of the main characters of this book.  I'm looking forward to it.

NAME CHANGE

Blanche didn't like her name.  So in honor of Dom's Italian heritage, she has changed her name to Bianca.

She also said this is her better side!

INTRODUCING...BLANCHE

She arrived yesterday, October 1, at 2:20 PM.  She weighs a hefty 3042 pounds and is 175.6 inches long.  She's definitely a keeper!

SEPTEMBER BOOKS

September is gone already?  How did this happen?  I really need to pick up on my reading - just 9 books this month.

Here's what I read this month:

A KNIGHT IN CENTRAL PARK by Theresa Ragan

HOT FLASH by Kathy Carmichael

THE DAYS OF SUMMER by Jill Barnett

FRECKLES by Gene Stratton-Porter

LEFT NEGLECTED by Lisa Genova (Just For Fun Reading Challenge 2011)

1102 YAKIMA STREET by Debbie Macomber

MUTE WITNESS by Robert L. Fish

BEST KEPT SECRET by Ann Hatvany

NAUGHTY IN NICE by Rhys Bowen (What's in a Name 4 Challenge)


For a change, I liked most of the books this month!

What did you read this month?  And can you explain why time moves so quickly???