The Things We Do for Love by Kristin Hannah

I just finished this wonderful book by Hannah. I know many others have discovered this author and really appreciate her family friendly stories. This book is scheduled to be a Book Club book in 2010 and I am quite confident that those reading it will thoroughly enjoy it. This is the story of Angie Malone and Lauren Riebadeau . Angie has just divorced her husband, Conlon after enduring the loss of a long desired child. Through much heartache and pain she heads back to her large and very loving Italian family to help out in the family business, and to heal from the pain of childless-ness. In the other part of town teen-ager Lauren Riebadeau lives with her alcoholic mothe. She has reminded Lauren her entire life that she was a mistake and that she will never really amount to anything. Lauren has spent her entire life trying to get her mother to love her just for herself and trying to be the perfect daughter, the perfect student, the perfect girlfriend. Her boyfriend David comes from a wealthy family and really has trouble relating to Lauren's poverty of love and self esteem. He only sees the smart image that she wants him to see. When he gets accepted to Standford and is prepared to head off to college without her, Lauren knows that life will never be the same...
You can probably guess at the rest of this story, it's exactly what you would think as you continue reading and Lauren ends up pregnant and her mother abandons her for yet another live in boyfriend. It held me to the end though. And it didn't end exactly the way I thought it would (hope that's not a spoiler) but it was most satisfying anyway.I think it's a lovely book and well worth the read. Pick it up at the library!

Even Money by Dick Francis

Ned Talbot is a bookmaker. And bookies are not exactly well loved in English society to say the least. A necessary evil more like. Ned is used to that, but when a mysterious man presents himself one evening after the races and claims to be his long thought-to-be-dead father, then is murdered right in front of him he has lots of explaining to do to a skeptical police audience. And, he has one very puzzling question to answer- Was this man really his father? Why would his grandparents, who raised him, have lied to him his entire life? It also seems that this father of his has really murdered his mother as well.
While Ned is off to find out the answers to his questions we watch as he struggles with his book making business and the large corporations set on swallowing him up. Dick Francis' newest Racing book, Even Money is similar to many of his other books in that it is connected in someway to English Racing. Francis gives a great deal about betting, horse identification and RFID chips, and though the information is great, it doesn't really matter if the reader 'gets it'. It is, after all, the story, the mystery that counts. The story picks up as we head to the end and we see loose ends coming together. Though, I admit, I am partial to horse racing ever since my first bet was placed on a Kentucky Derby winner and I won myself a cherry pie, and the likeable characters of Dick Francis' novels. This is Dick Francis and English style racing at its best.

Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child

This is book number 11 in the Jack Reacher series by Child. It was my first one. I love to start in the middle of a series and see if the book will stand on its own as a 'good' one. This one fits the bill! It seems the hero, Jack Reacher, has no home, no worldly goods and no place to lay his head, but he's part of a special team that 'No one messes with special teams' seems to be in a serious trouble. Half the team assembles and they begin to try to solve the riddle of what has happened to their compatriots. Terrorism, violence, murder. Everything points to an attack on US commercial airplanes. The bad guy is not just a part of some terrorist cell, he's, well...maybe that's giving away too much. If you don't want to start with number 11 I still recommend Lee Child. Go ahead, pick up the first Jack Reacher book and work your way to this one. If you're already a fan, you will enjoy this one as well.

The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer

Oooh, this was a delightful story! It's written for students from about 5th-9th grades, and any mystery or Sherlock Holmes lover will enjoy this story. Sherlock Holme's mother has gone missing and his 14 year old sister, Enola is left alone and confused. Enter Sherlock and brother Mycroft. Neither one of them are able to make headway on the case and they decide to send Enola off to a proper girls finishing school. This is not what Enola has in mind, so she runs away. On her way she gets involved in another local mystery and the fun begins! This is the first of many Enola Holmes mysteries and once you get through this one, you will surely want to read another. I loved this story and along the way you learn about 19th century London and the Victorian age as well as customs, dress, and speech. This is a great mystery for beginning mystery lovers!

Petropolis by Anya Ulinich

This month's book club discussion is about Ulinich's book Petropolis. The story is about young Sasha Goldberg, a half jewish, half black Russian Teenager living in depressing, post communist Asbestos 2 in Siberia. That her life is filled with abject misery is plain, and so is the life of almost every character we meet in the book. I did not find much redemption in this story, even in the crippled Jake, or the reunion of Sasha with her daughter and most especially not in the way Sasha ends up in America. To say that I did not enjoy the book is an understatement, but then, I don't think I was supposed to enjoy it in the traditional sense. It did, make me think, especially about our perceptions about culture and immigration. I had to force myself through the first 100 pages, but it was a bit easier after that fortunately. I will be interested to hear what others thought of this story.

The Girl With the Pearl Earring

This book, the Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier is not a new publication. In fact, even the movie (2003) based on this title is not new. But of course, sometimes that seldom matters if the topic is timeless. This is the fictionalized account of the famous painting by Johannes Vermeer in about 1665 of "The Girl with the Pearl Earring". And actually, no one really knows the 'story' of this painting, who this girl really is, or how she came to be painted by Vermeer. Was she really his daughter, or some other household member, like a maid as is suggested in this story by Chevalier. No matter, the story is a wonderful glimpse in to life, culture, and customs of the Dutch in the 17th century. Though we don't end up really knowing too much about Johannes Vermeer, we do learn a lot about some of the subjects of his paintings, of the art of, well art. This was a wonderful book, an easy read, and it certainly made me more curious about Vermeer's work and life. You can see some of his paintings here, and if you've read the book or plan to there are many things in each of his paintings that you'll find in this story.

Private Peaceful by Michael Morpugo

I finished this book on Wednesday morning. It's rare that I am surprised by an ending, but this one was somewhat of a surprise. It was also a very powerful book for young adults. It's the story of two Peaceful brothers, Charlie and Tommo who have both gone off to fight the 'Hun' in France in 1914 when Charlie is 18 and Tommo is 14. Each chapter begins with time. Tommo is remembering through one long sleepless night of his life in England with his 2 brothers and his mother and Molly. Ah, Molly. It's such a lovely sad story about family and relationships and becoming. And of course, the horror of war. In particular the horror of the "Great War". This makes warring so personal. I have read Jeff Shaara's book "To the Last Man" about the first World War and that gave quite a bit of perspective on this very personal story about it. An outstanding book. Enjoy it if you can.