The Sugar Queen

   The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

Josey Cirrini exists in a small town that holds it memories and judgements like iron fetters.  Everyone remembers what a beast of a child she was.  Everyone knows now that she lives with her harsh elderly mother and does nothing but care for her.  Everyone knows she is plump and alone.  Josey knows she loves sweets and Adam the mailman, and no one else can know.  In a totally bizarre and magical twist, Josey opens her closet one day to find Della Lee......a local waitress.  Della Lee refuses to leave the confines of the closet, saying only that she won't be there for long before she moves on.  In her rough and caring way, Della Lee helps Josey open up to life.  Soon she isn't going to her closet for sweets but to see Della Lee.  Josey finds friendship and possibly LOVE?

This book didn't seem that interesting when I heard about it.  It came with good recommendations and I did like the author's other book 'Garden Spells'.  What do you know?  I loved it.  I read it lickedy split.  The book was magical and a little mysterious.  Josey was able to make a friend after years of being alone.  Many times I don't like books that lend to a 'sisterly' theme because they tend to cut everyone else out of the picture.  This book wasn't like that.  The girls met and became a great support to each other right away.  There were also some really great quotes in this book.  Allen has a beautiful way with words.

----------

"It feels like he's taken your heart, doesn't it?....Like he's reached in and pulled it out from you. And I bet he smiles like he doesn't know, like he doesn't know he's holding your heart in his hand and you're dying from him."


"You'd be surprised how easy some things can be, things you never thought you'd do, when you take self-restpect out of the equation."


"Sometimes you weren't supposed to share pain. Sometimes it was best just to deal with it alone."



"She'd always known he didn't love her. But it was easier to bear when he didn't know she loved him. That way they were even. Now he knew he had all the power."


Rating PG  domestic abuse, an affair, murder, ghosts
Rating 4.5  Only because I probably won't read it again soon, but I loved the magical qualities and Allen's descriptiveness.

The Bell Jar

The Bell Jar

Although the book falls under work of fiction, I believe it is supposed to be semi-autobiographical. Esther is a young woman with what seems to be a bright future. She is able to travel from her home around Boston to New York for an internship that she won. While there she rooms in a hotel with ten other girls. She becomes more anxious and depressed and finds herself without any real goals. As her time in New York ends and she returns to her home in Boston she finds that she has not won a scholarship for her next years of school and is at loose ends.
She spirals into a queer depression. Finally after some half hearted suicide attempts, she buries herself under the crawl space of her house and swallows a bottle of pills. Once found, she is taken to a mental hospital. We are given intermittent glimpses of her past and future throughout the book. By the end Esther has lived through the suicide of a close friend and seems to have turned a corner in her own depression. She enters a room to take her concluding interview, the one that determines if she will be released from the hospital. Although book leaves it at that, there is a point previous where she mentions her baby. This leads me to believe that she is eventually released.

This book was on a list of books that I was determined to read. Knowing that this book is haled by many made me consider the distinct possibility that I would not like it. I was mostly right. I found the imagery and writing lovely. And I am sure if you have ever been very depressed you will be able to identify with the strange thoughts and feelings of hopelessness. What I didn't like was the thought that many young people may identify because of the popularity of the book. I felt like Esther had many more choices than she let on. And girls presently have multitudes of choices if they are willing to put forth the effort. I assume that Esther/Plath had a serious illness which I do not want to downplay. I don't think that they necessarily suffered from something that they could just think themselves happy out of. The book was just royally depressing and Esther didn't take enough responsibility for her situation.

Rating 2.5 I feel like a bit of a fence sitter here. I loved the imagery conjured by the writing. Some of the words were so lovely. I don't like that this book and many other 'memoirs' are so popular. There are somethings I would rather not know.
Also sometimes I was confused......not enough information was given to clear the muddy water.
Rating PG 13 Sex, suicide, drug use, shock therapy.

Ready or Not

Ready or Not by Meg Cabot

This is the follow up novel to American Girl. Sam is still dating the First Son and being a teen ambassador. This time Sam's conundrum is whether or not to have sex with boyfriend David. She is also publicly supporting the Presidents new Family agenda. The agenda includes ratting out young girls to their parents if they are seeking contraception. Sam mistakenly announces that she has said yes to sex during a televised town meeting held at her high school. Although Sam has not agreed to be sexual with David, everyone including their families think she has.

Sam is called a slut at school. The popular girls try to ostracize her. Sam's popular sister Lucy stands up for her. Many others in the school join in and Sam finds that she has more friends than she thought.

Sam has been invited to Camp David with the First Family for Thanksgiving. She thinks that David has invited her in order to have sex with her for the first time. She decides that she is not ready. She then finds that David truly invited her just to invite her and had no other plans. Let down and a bit angry she then decides she is ready for sex and 'jumps his bones'. She feels that she has come to the realization that sex did not change their relationship. She also learns that her popular sister, although having had a steady boyfriend for a long time......has not had sex.

I was a bit surprised to have this book revolving so much around the choice to be sexually active as a teen. While I am semi glad that someone as broached this subject, I was not thrilled with the outcome. Sorry Sam, but sex changes everything. Also as a book geared toward young teens I was not at all happy about other sexual tips garnered in this read.

Rating 2 I did have fun reading it, but I didn't like the message to the target audience. I know that is a totally personal opinion.......... but that's the whole point of posting.

Rating PG 13 contraception, sex, sexual acts, language

Love Comes Softly

Love Comes Softly by Janette Oke


I am learning that this author and these books are quite popular and from the picture I assume they are also movies. This series was recommended to me and so I thought I would give it a whirl.

Marty (Martha) is a young bride, in love with her husband Clem and pregnant with his child. They have moved west to settle and make their way. They have no land or home, just a wagon. Clem is killed in an accident with his horse, leaving Marty alone on the frontier. As the neighboring homesteaders come to help bury her husband, Marty sits in shock.

Clark, one of her new neighbors, bashfully and with great price, asks Marty if she will marry him. He knows she is all alone and he cannot offer her shelter if they are not married. Clark as a one year old daughter that he needs a mother for. If Marty agrees they will be married by the visiting preacher before he leaves the settlement. She will be the mother to Missy. Clark will move from the house into a lean-to. He will let Marty leave in the spring and take Missy when the time comes, if she decides not to stay.

Marty of course struggles with the loss of Clem and becoming an instant mother and wife to a stranger. Clark is a good and kind man that is supportive and positive. He is soft spoken and gentle with Marty as she learns about running a home and farm. He teaches her about God, whom she comes to love.

Marty meets the neighbors and learns to love and rely on them. Clark finally realizes that Marty is pregnant with Clem's baby and makes arrangements for her to be cared for when her time comes. Clark takes the baby as his own just as Marty did for Missy. Clark and Marty become increasingly comfortable with each other as they struggle on the western front. They make it through the destruction of their barn and much of their grain. They see through the death of a dear neighbor. Clark and Marty plant a garden and care for their children, adding more rooms onto their home. Finally when their new son nearly dies by accident, the two realize that love has finally come to them.

Sweet story. I can see why they are popular. I sometimes felt like Marty didn't give Clark a chance and thought poorly of him when he was trying to be supportive of their predicament. My biggest complaint is the speech. I'm not saying Oke made a mistake in the way she chose to have her characters talk, but it was very distracting for me to read.

Would be very interested to see the movie version.

Rating 3.5 Sweet
Rating G Great clean read

In Praise of Stay-at-Home Moms

In Praise of Stay-at-Home Moms by Dr. Laura Schlessinger

Dr. Laura's newest book is here just in time to give a boost to all full time mommies. This book is not full of statistics and science, just enough emotion to bring realization that there is nothing and no one that can top mommy love.

Obviously I enjoyed the book because it is upon the foundation of the mother relationship that I have built much of my recent life. Dr. Laura's anecdotal ways illustrates the important role mommy plays in the life of her WHOLE family. I felt like I was getting a big old pat on the back. I know the choice I have made is the right one for my family. Do I need validation from anyone else......even if I like you? NO. I don't care what anyone else thinks. I did however like to commiserate with other people by way of reading this book, that feel the same way. My reasons for staying at home are pure unadulterated selfishness. I will not allow the sweet moments of my family to be grasped by the hands of anyone else. I will receive all of the kisses, the hugs, the laughs and tears. I will receive all of the cuddles and diapers and EVERY piece of laundry. I was born to be a mommy and wife first. I have forever to do something else that doesn't matter to me as much. So thanks Dr. Laura.

Rating 4

Rating G

So B. It

So B. It by Sarah Weeks

Heidi is found as a newborn by her neighbor Bernadette. Heidi and her mother are in the hall outside of Bernie's apartment. Heidi's mom is mentally handicapped. She has only 23 words in her vocabulary. She says her own name is So B. It. Heidi and Bernie have no idea where the mother and daughter came from. Bernie becomes the mother figure for both Heidi and her mother.
When Heidi is thirteen she decides she has to know more about where she came from. Her mother has a word that she uses all of the time, 'soof'. Neither Heidi nor Bernie know what it means. Heidi finds an old camera in a draw in her apartment. She develops the film and finds pictures of her younger mother, possibly pregnant in what looks like a home for the disabled. She finds out that the pictures were taken clear across the country (Heidi is in Reno.) in Liberty New York. Bernie calls the home and after months of phoning, can get no answers.
Bernie has agoraphobia and is unable to leave her apartment. Luckily there is a door between Heidi's and Bernie's apartments so that Bernie never has to enter the hallway in order to help care for Precious (what Bernie calls So B. It.). Because of her disability, Bernie is not able to travel with Heidi. Heidi has been doing the shopping and running errands for Bernie since she was small. Before that Bernie had anything she could, be delivered. Bernie home schools Heidi.
Heidi is a lucky girl. She is able to guess numbers and win slots. She makes enough money to purchase a bus ticket to New York. She sets off, breaking Bernie's heart and leaving her ailing mother to find out the answer to questions that haunt her. Heidi makes friends with people on the bus so that she appears to be traveling with someone. She reaches New York.
When she is delivered to Hilltop Home, she finds that Thurman Hill, the proprietor, unwilling to give her any information. He thinks that she has come to blackmail money out of him. Heidi meets Elliot. As soon as he sees her he utters, 'soof'. Heidi knows now that her mother has been here. Ruby works at Hilltop Home and her husband Roy is the sheriff. They take her home until they can figure out how to get the information that Heidi has come for.
Heidi calls home to tell Bernie that she knows that her mother has been at Hilltop Home and that she met Elliot. Bernie seems uninterested and tells Heidi to come home.
Finally Thurman Hill meets with Heidi and tells her the story she has come looking for. Her mother's name is Sophia DeMuth. She calls herself So B. It because that is all she was able to say. She was born to a single woman. The woman asked Thurman to take Sophia in. He agreed and Sophia lived there for a year. During the year, she and Elliot fell in love. Despite both parents believing that their love wasn't deep enough, and their bodies not willing, Sophia becomes pregnant with Elliot's baby. Thurman feels this could ruin his establishment and everything he has worked towards for Elliot (Thurman is Elliot's father.). He sends Sophia and her mother away and pays for them NOT to give him any information about the baby or their lives. Just as Heidi is born, her grandmother is killed by a bus. This is when Bernie finds Sophia and Heidi standing outside of her apartment.
Heidi calls home to tell Bernie everything she has found out. Bernie greets her call with devastating news, Sophia has died in her sleep from headaches that have been ravaging her for some time. Heidi is crushed. She has been spending so much time trying to find out secrets that she missed out on her mother.
Heidi buries her mother in New York. She returns to Reno and begins school for the first time in her life. She still visits Liberty and sees Roy and Ruby. She hopes to get to know her father and grandfather.
Rating 4 Loved the mystery and Heidi's courage in finding out the truth!
Rating G Clean read

Fairest

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine

This book is by the same author as Ella Enchanted. It is a distant retelling of Snow White.
Aza and her family run an inn, the Featherbed. She was abandoned there as a newborn and the innkeepers raised her as their own. She doesn't look like the rest of her family. She is larger with dark hair. I think we are supposed to think of her as unattractive because she surely does.

Aza is asked by one of the guests of the Featherbed to accompany her to the wedding of the king. While there Aza meets the Prince Ijori and his dog. She also is asked by the new queen Ivi, to be her lady in waiting. Soon after the wedding, the king is injured and lies in a coma.

When Aza still lived with her parents, she taught herself to illuse. She can throw her voice and mimic any other sound. One day the Ivi overhears Aza illusing. This kingdom loves to sing. They use singing the same way that we would use prayer, or the way other kingdoms would have a ball. Ivi comes from another kingdom and is not gifted with a lovely voice, the way that most of the others around her are. Ivi asks Aza to illuse for her whenever she must sing in public.

Ivi is ruining the kingdom while the king is in his sickbed. Aza and Ijori are falling in love.

Aza tries to find a way to become beautiful. She finds a spell but it doesn't work. She looks in Ivi's mirror and sees what she would look like if she were beautiful.

Soon the secret is out. Ivi and Aza are found illusing. Ivi blames Aza. Just as the guards are to put Aza in jail, she drinks the potion that Ivi has. She becomes stunningly beautiful. She is imprisoned. She breaks free and finds one of Ivi's men ready to take her into the forest to save her. Aza realizes that the man is really sent to kill her. Aza is able to save his life when confronted by ogres. He takes her to some gnome caverns and leaves her. He returns to Ivi to tell her that Aza is dead.

Aza lives with the gnomes and finds out that she may have gnome blood in her. While in the caverns she learns to appreciate herself more. Ivi finds out Aza is alive and makes herself into a gnome. She tricks Aza into eating poisoned food. Aza is trapped between life and death and is transported and then trapped in Ivi's mirror. She also returns to her former unattractive self. Eventually she is able to break free and destroy the being in the mirror that has trapped her there.

The king recovers. He still loves Ivi despite what she has done to the kingdom and to Aza. He decides after three years he will turn the kingdom over to Ijori. The king and Ivi go into exile. Ijori and Aza marry and have children. Happy, happy, happy.

This was a fun book to read. Levine made up a lot of songs since these were singing people. Sometimes I felt like the story didn't flow very well, but overall I liked that Aza was able to come to see how valuable she was despite how she looked. She is able to have a full life and because she becomes the queen she is then thought of as stately instead of ugly. I found this to ring true as I thought about people I know that think themselves unattractive. I rarely think about what people look like. I pay more attention to the way they act and the way they treat others. If they are good people I always tend to think of them as attractive.

Rating 3.5 I really liked this and may read it again.........I just couldn't go any higher. I don't sing so the songs really threw me off and sometimes I felt like Aza's voice was confusing.
Rating G

World Without End

World Without End by Ken Follett

The epic follow up of Pillars of the Earth. World Without End is also set in Kingsbridge........just two centuries later. The Cathedral has been built and the town has prospered since the first book. Now all new characters take us through the religious and medical themed book. In this male and Catholic dominated society, women are treated like cattle........or witches. The church crushes anything in its way in the name of God. I can see why people hate organized religion.

Caris is the town wooler's daughter. She wants to become a doctor but settles for learning from the town apothecary, which turns out that she learns a whole lot more than she would have at university. She also revitalizes the town with her wool dying techniques. She is in love with Merthin the town builder. They spend most of their lives pining for each other.........and most of that is Caris' fault. She doesn't want to be the slave to a husband and family but she still wants Merthin. She even goes as far as having an abortion when she becomes pregnant with his child. Caris finally decides she wants to marry Merthin and on the eve of their wedding is tried for witchcraft by her cousin the Prior of Kingsbridge.......Godwyn. Caris is forced into the service of God and becomes a nun in order to save her skin. Through the cloth she is able to serve the town with her medical skill. The plague attacks the village and kills many but Caris learns much. Finally she is able to free herself from the priory and marry Merthin. They build a hospital that she can run properly without the heavy threat of the priory stopping her from using logic instead of myth.
Merthin witnesses a mystery as a child. The mystery is connected to the King and a knight turned monk. The mystery follows him throughout his life. Because Merthin's parents are in debt they strike a deal with the priory. They will be cared for by the priory and give their boys up.....Ralph to be trained as a knight and Merthin to train with a carpenter. Ralph becomes an evil, raping, murdering animal and Earl of Shiring. Merthin becomes a famous builder and travels to Florence to learn amazing techniques which he brings back to Kingsbridge. Merthin is able to see out his destiny and build the tallest tower in England as part of Kingsbridge Cathedral. He becomes the town leader.
The Priory goes through some changes. After many years of heavy handed, back stabbing, scheming done in the name of God the plague kills the evil Prior Godwyn. He is replaced by the soulless Philemon, Godwyn's former lackey. Finally after much tightrope walking, logic, and truth.........Caris and Merthin are able to get the village removed from the rule of the church and put under the rule of the King. This makes more money in taxes for the King and the town is able to flourish when the priory isn't taking all of their money. Finally the mystery witnessed by Merthin is discovered by the right people and with this power Merthin is able to gain a new and sympathetic prior for Kingsbridge. Philemon is sent packing!
Gwenda, the poor unfortunate soul. She becomes friends with Caris at a very young age. Gwenda's father is a landless laborer, which means most of the time he's a thief. At one point he sells Gwenda to a band of outlaws. She is to be their prostitute and her father gets a cow in exchange. The law allows this because Gwenda is not an adult, therefore she is the property of her father. Gwenda is able to break free from the band of outlaws with only one rape and one murder to count. She is desperately in love with Wulfric a sweet and devoted boy two years her junior. Wulfric is engaged to another girl, whom he adores. When she is assaulted by Ralph, Wulfric breaks Ralph's nose in her (Annet) defense. Ralph makes Wulfric pay for this the rest of his life. Wulfric is not given his father's land after the plague wipes out the whole family.......leaving only Wulfric. Annet then marries another. Wulfric is heart broken. Gwenda woos him ending up pregnant and a landless laborer. Wulfric and Gwenda marry and live a life of misery, unable to own their own land. Gwenda tries in vain to persuade Ralph to give Wulfric his land back. Ralph is the one to impregnate Gwenda but neither Ralph or Wulfric know. Years later their child Sam, having the same evil disposition as his biological father, catches Ralph attempting to rape Gwenda AGAIN and kills him. Freeing the family of the tyranny they have lived with for years. Wulfric gains his land back because Ralph had no one else to work it.
This review could end up as an epic itself! The book was so long and miserable at times. I couldn't stand the Prior or the evil committed in the name of God. Caris made me want to run screaming. She caused so much grief for Merthin but she was also a good and strong character.
Rating 4
Rating R murder, rape, violence, war, sex, disease and distress.

The Brethren

The Brethren by Beverly Lewis

Louisa has stayed in Denver and has started teaching art classes again. Michael wants to get back together. Louisa still talks with Julia, Annie's Mennonite cousin. Because of this Lou is beginning to believe in Christ. Her Amish love, Sam, has decided to leave the order. Nothing with Lou is ever resolved.

Ben comes back from Kentucky after finding out that he was adopted. He was found when he was four and no one ever claimed him. He only spoke Dutch and his family suspects that he came from an Amish community. Ben and Annie discover together that he is Isaac, Zeke's brother and the little boy that disappeared from their community years ago. The bones that were found by the preacher were not Isaac's. They were a little girl. Ben and Annie have a hard time convincing the community that Ben is Isaac.

Zeke is taken to a mental hospital. He is treated for depression and anxiety. He finds out that Esther is pregnant again. The Mennonites pray with him and he is convinced of a Savior. He returns home a better man. He will be banned or shunned for disobeying the laws of shunning and sleeping with his wife.

Annie decides that she will leave the Amish community and become fancy so that she can be with Ben. She cuts off her hair and buys fancy clothes.

As Annie makes this choice, Ben decides that he will be baptized and join the Amish community. His birth father returns and begs forgiveness of the community and is embraced by them. He identifies Ben as Isaac. He sees Zeke and Esther even though they are shunned.

Annie decides to also be baptized and give up her art so that she can marry Ben. After a year of marriage her father talks to the other brethren and Annie is allowed to paint and draw as long as she doesn't paint people.

Although I liked this book because it finally came out that Ben was Isaac.........which I already knew, I still think things never seemed to come full circle. Louisa just sort of left the picture and never came to any conclusions in her life. Esther and Zeke have Mennonite beliefs and are shunned from the Amish community, but instead of becoming Mennonites they just stay shunned Amish.

Rating 3
Rating G

Speak Softly. She Can Hear

Speak Softly. She Can Hear by Pam Lewis

I can't even give this book a star. I usually never back down from a book but this was such trash that I couldn't spend any more time when there are such great things out there to read. The characters were disgusting, loser, manipulative, nasty freaks. The plot was sick. I thought it sounded intriguing from the blurb, but it didn't really give a good idea about what the book was about.

Saints

Saints by Orson Scott Card

Caution..........this book is FICTION!! It won't seem like it, but it is.

I'm nearly certain this could be Card's ticket to Hell. Yet I loved it.......so maybe I'll be on the train next to him. Do you feel like this is turning into the unofficial Card blog? I do..........

This book begins in Manchester England in the 1820's. Dinah is a ten year old girl. The books opens with her father John abandoning her family. Tough, tough times follow during the industrial revolution in England. Anna her mother must find work as a servant just as she loses her last baby. Robert, the oldest brother is sent to work in a factory. Dinah soon follows Robert into the factory to earn what she can to help the family. Seven year old Charlie is sold away as a chimney sweep.
The book follows the family as the children grow.........Robert owns his own factory, Dinah is forced into marriage with Matt (Robert's friend), and Charlie runs away from the sweep that owns him and tutored by his mother's employer, then given a job. Soon the Heber Kimball enters the picture as a missionary for the LDS church. Charlie, Anna and Dinah are converted. Dinah's husband is furious. Just as their lives are changing John comes back. Anna takes him in and he is also converted. As the new Saints are leaving the country to travel to Zion........Matt and Robert try to thwart their attempts by having Dinah declared insane. When that doesn't work they take the children.........Valiant and Honor, and Dinah goes to America without them......never to see them again. This is just the tip of the iceberg in their sacrifice.
Dinah meets Joseph Smith as he is wrestling (not the stick kind either) some unsavory men at the rivers edge. Joseph went looking for a fight and got one. He wins the fight but Dinah is let down, thinking that she would meet God, but seeing a man, a man she desires......instead.
Eventually Dinah is taken as a plural wife of Joseph.
Charlie marries Sally. Within a year their baby dies and Charlie is asked to live the Principle also. He marries Harriet, Sally's sister.
This book paints a picture of its historical characters (Joseph, Emma, Heber, Vilate, Brigham.....) vastly different from anything else I have ever read........even actual history. I'm sure Card took liberties.........but I liked them. It did not make me change my mind about what I already thought of these people.
The beginning of the book takes up about 200 pages before we even hear about the missionaries. Like I always say.....it takes Card time to lay out the story but it is usually worth it.
The whole polygamy deal left me feeling mentally torched. This is something many LDS people have probably pondered on from time to time. I know this book has been offensive to many but I enjoyed seeing the more human aspect of the characters and the Principle. It made me question what I would actually give up. I came to the conclusion that I hope to God I never have to find out.
Rating 5 Don't read this book if you don't have a strong testimony, it's a heartbreaker.
Rating PG 13...........Card is always forthcoming about sex...........within marriage of course, and not just in plural marriage. Also, despite this being about LDS history, there is swearing. Attempted rape, child abuse, sexual abuse.

Sarah

Sarah by Orson Scott Card

Although I am sure there was much poetic license taken, this is the story of Sarah, wife of the great prophet Abraham. The story begins with Sarai (Sarah's first given name before it was changed by God) as a ten year old girl. She lives with her father, a king without a country. Abram (Abraham) comes to secure a bride price for Sarai's sister Qira, for his brother Lot. Abram and Sarai meet. He tells her he will return in less than ten years to marry her. She sees that he is a truthful man that worships the one true God and that the priesthood of that God is his birthright.
Abram does return. He marries Sarai and takes her off to the desert where he has many herds. There is a severe drought and they move from well to well in order to care for their herds. In the mean time Sarai becomes a great woman in a great house hold. Abram studies the stars, copies the scriptures and writes his own writings. Sarai remains barren throughout their first years of marriage despite God's promise to Abram that he will be the father of a great nation.
The drought drives Abram and Sarai into Egypt. Abram is met by the men of Pharaoh. Abram is told by God not to divulge that Sarai is his wife. He instead introduces her as his sister Milcah. They are taken to different places in Egypt and are kept separate for a year. Pharaoh wants to marry Milcah so his children will have the blood of the priesthood. If he knew she was Sarai and the wife of Abram he will kill Abram and marry Sarai because he is a princess of Ur. Sarai is given Hagar as her handmaid, a gift from Pharaoh to lessen the blow of being held hostage. Abram teaches Pharaoh of God and Sarai warns Pharaoh of an uprising by his highest advisor. Abram and Sarai are allowed to leave Egypt. They finally tell Pharaoh Sarai's true identity after he makes promises in front of his men that Abram and his household will come to no harm. They return to the desert.
Lot and Qira are living in Sodom. The city life is not for Lot but Qira loves it. Sodom and its surrounding cities are wicked. Abram gives Lot some of his herds so that he can move out to the desert. Qira comes very begrudgingly. She makes the camp of Abram miserable. Lot decides to split his herds from Abram and spend some time back in the city to make Qira happy.
There is war in Sodom and her sister cities. Abram takes some of his men to take back the prisoners of war, Lot included. Abram and his men triumph. The prisoners are set free. Sarai goes to Abram. She learns from God that she is to give Hagar to Abram that he may have a son. She can do this because she owns Hagar and so Hagar will stand in for Sarai's body.
Hagar becomes pregnant. It is miserable for Sarai but she handles it like a queen. Hagar shows her true colors and becomes a pain in the rear. Ishmael is born of Hagar. Abram loves him.
Years later Abram and Sarai are aging. Abram prophesies the destruction of Sodom and surrounding areas by meteorites. He also prophesies that Sarai will bear him a son that will build up a great nation. God changes the name of Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah.
Sodom is destroyed just as Lot escapes. Qira turns back to get her jewels and gowns and is turned into a pillar of salt..........or basically zapped by the fire from Heaven.
Sarah becomes pregnant at an advanced age. Isaac is born. Ishmael and Hagar mistreat him. Ishmael is given his herds and they are turned out of Abraham's camp in order to preserve the life of Isaac. Isaac grows into a young man and he and Abraham go out to visit wells and check herds. Abraham seems distraught.......the book ends before we find out why?????
Obviously Card and we can only know so much about Abraham and Sarah. The rest he has studied a great deal to assume. I do not take this book as truth only speculation therefore I am not bothered by anything in the book. I enjoyed it immensely. I liked getting to know Sarah as a person and how she may have felt and reacted to the situations we learn about in some vagueness from The Bible.
Rating 4 This is my second reading so I should probably give it a higher score. Tiny but necessary bits were a little dry........the political and land issues. Still worth the read.
Rating G

The Other Boleyn Girl

The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory

*This is a fictitious account of historical events...........very fictitious.*
The story of the rise and fall (crash) of the Boleyn/Howard family written through the eyes of Mary, sister of Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII is married to Katherine of Aragon. His every thought is either consumed with creating a male heir or adulterating with a member of the court. The three Boleyn children, Mary, Anne and George were birthed and bread to come to court and climb the ladder, dragging their scheming family with them.
Mary is taken as Henry's mistress at the tender age of 14. She is already married to a courtier, but once the king has his eye on her, nothing else matters to her family. Mary is able to give birth to a daughter and son for the king. As she is pregnant and birthing their son, the kings eye is turned to the darker (physically and emotionally) sister, Anne.
The Boleyn/Howard family along with Anne hatch a historically diabolical scheme to have Katherine dethroned as the queen and subplant her with Anne. Anne must use all of her energy, feminine wiles, intrigue, even incest and sorcery to keep the king and give him a male heir.
I was completely captivated by the story. I loved the historical setting and the juxtapose of the scheming Anne and the contrary and sweet Mary.
Rating 4.5
Rating R The court is wild and sexual. Sexual themes and descriptions.

The Mermaid Chair

The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd

Jessie is a fortyish woman going back to her hometown (small island) after her mother purposefully severs her finger. While she is there caring for her mother and uncovering the truth to her father's death when she was nine, Jessie falls in love (I use that term loosely) with a monk. Unfortunately for Jessie's family, she is still married to her husband Hugh.

I liked Brother Thomas the monk. He seemed genuine. I find cloistering yourself away from the world for your whole life unfathomable, so I was glad that he had reactions that I felt were normal and real. Jessies mother was intriguing. Understanding why she would cut off her own finger and what that had to do with the death of her husband so many years ago was a wonderful part of the story.

Like Sue Monk Kidd's other book The Secret Life of Bees, this had a group of women as main characters, Jessie's mother's friends. I'm not sure what really turns me off about books that are about sisterhood. Maybe because I don't have sisters myself. But I find them exclusionary and unbalanced. So that was one large part of what I didn't like about this book.

The biggest thing that I really didn't like about the book is Jessie's moaning and waahing about boredome, losing herself, and needing to rediscover herself. Of course like so many people that means leaving your life and everything important behind and having an affair. Lust somehow makes you true to yourself. In the end all she did was commit a grievous sin and tear out the hearts of loved ones, including the unassuming monk, just to discover that wasn't what she really wanted after all.

I did enjoy the journey of the book and it was an entertaining read.

Rating 3.5

Rating PG 13 sexual content and swearing