1. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

This book covers two different stories that the author travels back and forth between.  The first is the story of Sarah, a ten-year-old Jewish girl living in Paris during the Jewish roundup by the Parisian police force.  To protect her younger brother, Sarah locks him in a bedroom cupboard and promises to come back for him.  The second story takes place sixty year later and involves Julia Jarmond, an American journalist investigating the roundup.  She learns about Sarah and becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her and her family.

I found the story to be very intriguing and as sad as any Holocaust book I've read.  Both Sarah and Julia are compelling characters who draw you into their stories.  Rating:  4 

64. - 71. Eight Quick Reviews

64.  A Sense of the World by Jason Roberts.  A well-researched biography of a blind man who travels the world in the early 1800's.  James Holman was a remarkable man whose life makes for great reading.  I especially enjoyed learning about how the blind were treated in that era.  Rating:  4.25

65.  Dead Man's Bones by Susan Wittig Albert.  Two old women donate a large building and a good sum of money to the local theater group and proceed to make their life miserable as the first play is produced.  By the end of the book, two people are dead and China Bayles works hard to figure it out.  Rating:  3.75

66.  Johnny and the Bomb by Terry Pratchett.  Johnny Maxwell and his weird collection of friends find adventure as they travel in time with the help of a bag lady's junk-laden grocery cart.  As always, I enjoyed Pratchett's humor and storytelling abilities.  Rating:  4

67.  Dead on Arrival by Jeff Savage.  Shandra Covington is a SLC reporter who becomes involved with a series of explosions involing people who died fifty years ago.  This is a fun mystery with a heroine who is imperfect and easy to identify with.  Rating:  3.75

68.  The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  A greal novel dealing with the complex relationship between Southern women and their black servants.  It is a pretty accurate indictment of bias and prejudice in the 60's as well as a compelling story of the individual characters.  I can't wait to see the movie.  Rating:  4.75

69.  Royal Target by Traci Hunter Abramson.  A fluffy LDS romance with a very implausible storyline.  I'm not sure why I enjoy these but I do.  It's pretty escapist to travel to a fictional country that sounds a lot like Monaco.  But Prince "Garrett"??  Odd name choice.  Rating:  3

70.  When Christmas Comes by Debbie Macomber.  A Christmas tale involving a mother, her daughter, and a best friend.  Emily travels to Boston to surprise her daughter for Christmas.  The daughter has planned a trip to Florida with her icky boyfriend, and the friend travels to Mt. Vernon, WA to surprise Emily.  All ends well with romance abounding.  Pretty sappy love story with a dollop of Christmas cheer.  Rating:  2.75

71.  The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck.  A tragic Christmas story about a twelve-year-old boy who gets a sweater for Christmas instead of the bike he really wanted.  His mother dies and the next year follows his fight against God and those who love him.  There is a surprise ending and an interesting insight into Glenn Beck's spiritual conversion.  Rating:  3.5

63. Lady Killer by Lisa Scottoline

Mary Dinunzio is an attornehy in South Philly where she brings in a lot of business and revenue for her firm from her Italian South Philly neighbors.  She is saving to buy a house and get over the death of her husband while fixing the myriad host of issues that come to her.  Then her nemesis from high school shows up and demands that Mary help her get away from her abusive boyfriend that she is afraid will kill her.  The whole situation blows up, involving Mary in a murder, a missing person case and a mob war.  There is some great humor in this book with the fantastic characters who populate Mary's life and she is a pretty fun character herself.  I found some of the story to be a bit far-fetched but I certainly would never have guessed who actually committed the murder.  I read a proff copy and found the spelling and grammatical errors a bit annoying, but overall, I liked the book and thought it was a fun mystery.  Rating:  3.75

62. The Pink Carnation by Laura Willig

The Pink Carnation is a fun tale that spins a sequele to the story of the Scarlett Pimpernel. Eloise is a college student who wants to discover the identity of another spy name the Pink Carnation.  She gains access to secret papers and this is the story she discovers: 

After the Pimpernel's true identity is uncovered, rendering him useless as a spy, the void is filled by another called the Purple Gentian.  Amy Balcourt, who was sent to England from France as a child, dreams as joining the league of the Purple Gentian and restoring the monarchy to the throne of France.  At the age of twenty, she is allowed to return to France along with her cousin, Jane, and a very determined chaperone, Miss Gwen.  On the trip across the channel, the three women are forced to share a room with a scholar, Lord Richard Selwick, who is naturally very handsome but also doing research for Bonaparte.  Amy hates him for being in the employ of her enemy but also is very attracted to him.  The rest of the book follows a very predictable course, but is fun and lighthearted with the exception of some pretty explicit sex scenes and stilted dialog.  Rating:  3 

61. Einstein by Walter Isaacson

 

I really enjoyed the many things I learned about one of histories most iconic figures.  We all know about Einstein and his theory of relativity and how it  changed physics forever.  This book explores how the man's personality, the culture he lived in and the basic scientific tenets believed at the time led him to make his remarkable discoveries.  While I did not personally get a lot out of all the scientific discussion that Isaacson included to explain Einstein's theories, I did find the in-depth exploration into his life fascinating.  He was truly a genius and deserving of the adulation that he created but also a flawed and eccentric man which made the book so incredibly interesting.   I love the picture on the cover which shows such a twinkle in his eyes.  That sense of humor is portrayed very well in the book as well as his love of humanity but a inability to connect well with those close to him.  All in all, a great book to read to learn more about one of the great ones.  Rating:  4.25

60. When the Bough Breaks by Kay Lynn Mangum

Rachel Fletcher is fifteen, just entering high school and tired of being different.  Her father was killed four months earlier and her older brother comes home drunk every night.  And her mother is so depressed that she is unaware of the problems her children are facing.  Then the mother meets a man who lost his wife to breast cancer.  They get married and now Rachel has a stepfather and a stepbrother who also attends the same high school.  Rachel really struggles with all this complications and tragedies.  Things start to come together by the end of the book, but it is not a happily ever after type of story but an ongoing tale of facing life's challenges with courage and hope. 

I like this author.  She writes LDS fiction that is believable, deals with tough issues such as teen alcoholism, and presents a subdued picture of LDS faith that is refreshing.  Rating:  4.5

59. The Little Country by Charles de Lint

"When folk musician Janey Little finds a mysterious manuscript in an old trunk in her grandfather's cottage, she is swept into a dangerous realm both strange and familiar.  But true magic lurks within the pages of The Little Country, drawing genuine danger from across the oceans into Janey's life, impelling her --- armed only with her music --- towards a terrifying confrontation."  From back cover

I really like de Lint's books.  He writes dark, urban fantasies which are imaginative and clever.  The characters are complex and real.  This book differs from other de Lint books I 've read in that there is almost no reference to fairies and other magical creatures.  The story deal entirely with the use and misuse of magic.  There is a story within a story and the two intertwine in a creative way leading to a suspense-filled ending.  Just a tad-bit too much philosophizing for my taste, but overall a great read.  Rating:  4.25

58. Twenties Girl by Sophie Kinsella (Audio)

"Lara has always had an overactive imagination. Now she wonders if she is losing her mind. Normal twenty-something girls just don’t get visited by ghosts! But inexplicably, the spirit of Lara’s great aunt Sadie – in the form of a bold, demanding Charleston-dancing girl – has appeared to make one last request: Lara must track down a missing necklace Sadie simply can’t rest without.


Lara’s got enough problems of her own. Her start-up company is floundering, her best friend and business partner has run off to Goa, and she’s just been dumped by the love of her life.

But as Lara spends time with Sadie, life becomes more glamorous and their treasure hunt turns into something intriguing and romantic. Could Sadie’s ghost be the answer to Lara’s problems and can two girls from different times end up learning something special from each other?"  Random House review

Like all Kinsella books that I have read, there are parts in this book that made me wince because I can just see disaster coming for the main character.  Of course, things always work out for the best giving you a very predictable ending.  Still, it was a fun book to listen too with the narrator's English accent and Kinsella's irreverent humor. 

Rating:  3.5

57. The Book of Lights by Chaim Potok

This book took me forever to read.  Potok's books are quite dreary and this one is no exception.  The main character, Gershon Loran, takes the whole book trying to figure out his life and what to do with it.  He goes to rabbinical (sp) college and studies Kaballah.  But you never get the feeling that he is touched by anything he learns, just amassing knowledge.  After his degree, he becomes a chaplain assigned to Korea.  This is the most interesting part of the book as Gershon shows himself to be compassionate and approachable to the men he serves as well as astute about the best ways to do his work.  At college, Gershon rooms with Arthur Leiden whose father helped build the atomic bomb.  Arthur also becomes a chaplain in Korea and fights against the feelings he has about the destruction his father helped caused.  As always, Potok's books give the reader a view into the conflicts of Judaism, but it seems his other books offered comforts from that faith as well.  I didn't feel that with this book.  Plus, there never seemed to be any resolution to Gershon's inner search.  I had a hard time connecting with any of the characters and find some of the philosophy tiresome.  Rating:  3

56. A Woman Named Smith by Marie Conway Oemler

"A Woman Named Smith is a delightful surprise. Originally published in 1919, the main character is Sophy Smith, a businesslike thirty-something New England bred spinster. Her staid world is turned upside down when she inherits a South Carolina mansion from her eccentric great-aunt by marriage. Heading south with her best friend, confidante, and protegee, the beautiful young Alicia, she turns the mansion into a winter retreat for wealthy clients. In the process, she acquires friends and cats, solves a mystery, and finds romance. The "down sides" to the book include occasionally archaic language, and an old-fashioned view of race relations. Otherwise, it's a fun if lightweight read." Diane Peabody Review on Amazon.

This book was a fun read.  Sophy is fantastic, matter-of-fact, smart and knows how to stick up for herself.  Not a stereotypical woman of the early 1900's.  My only complaint was the racial slurs which would never be published in this day and age.  It was a free download to my Kindle so I was pleasantly surprised.  Rating:   3.75

55. Blessed Are the Cheesemakers by Sarah-Kate Lynch

"Set on a small Irish dairy farm, this tender and funny debut novel follows two lost souls as they try to carve out new lives amid a colorful cast of characters reminiscent of those in the hit film Waking Ned Divine. Abby has been estranged from the family farm since her rebellious mother ran off with her when she was a small child. Kit is a burned out New York stockbroker who's down on his luck. But that's all about to change, now that he and Abby have converged on the farm just in time to help Corrie and Fee, two old cheesemakers in a time of need. Full of delightful and quirky characters--from dairy cows who only give their best product to pregnant, vegetarian teens to an odd collection of whiskey-soaked men and broken-hearted women who find refuge under Corrie and Fee's roof--BLESSED ARE THE CHEESEMAKERS is an irresistible tale about taking life's spilled milk and turning it into the best cheese in the world."  From back of book

I really liked this book.  Corrie and Fee are great characters and I really like Kit once he gets to Ireland.  The book is full of delightful characters and the story is funny with a touch of magic thrown in.
Rating:  4.25

54. To Have and to Hold by Josie Kilpack

Emma is twenty-one, newly divorced with a fifteen-month old daughter.  She moves back to Utah to rebuild her life and perhaps find her place in the LDS church.  But she struggles finding a job that will allow her to support her daughter.  In steps Andrew Davidson, a rich developer who lives in California and keeps a home in SLC.  He hires Emma to keep house for him and learns that she is also a fantastic cook.  Then he finds that he stands to inherit a fortune if he meets the stipulation that he geet married and stays married for a year.  He gets Emma to agree to marry him for part of the inheritance and the rest is pretty predictable.  Even if you know immediately how the story will turn out, Kilpack still tells a good tale.  There isn't a lot of deep thinking involved, but also no profanity or sex and an interesting look at a medical condition that I had never heard of before.  I like LDS romances and this book is a pretty good example.  Rating:  3.75

54. Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

This book is a slow, easy story about the life of boy growing up in rural Kentucky.  He travels around a bit as a young man and learns the barber trade.  Finally, he ends up in Port William, Kentucky close to his boyhood home.  From the door of the his barbershop with an apartment above, he watches the goings-on in the small town and becomes friends with his customers.  He tells about his life and those of his neighbors in a straight forward manner with quite a bit of philosophy thrown in.  Some of the stories are funny and some heartbreaking.  The saddest story is how progress and growth changes the sleepy, easy going nature of the town.  I enjoyed reading about times back in the thirties and forties and about some of the great characters that Jayber comes to know.  There is a love story that is a bit weird but overall I liked the book.  Rating:  4

53. How to Stuff a Wild Zucchini by Heather Horrocks

I thought this looked like a cute LDS romance with a writer whose play just failed on Broadway moving to Brighma City to write a gardening column in the local newspaper.  The fact that she pulls this off when she knows nothing about gardening is a bit unbelievable.  On the whole, the plot is predictable and the main areas of conflict seem a bit forced and easily solved.   Still, the characters are likable and there is some fun LDS humor.  Rating:  3.5

52. A Stab in the Dark by Lawrence Block (audio)

Several years ago, I really enjoyed reading Block's "Burglar" series, but this is the first I've read of  Matthew Scudder.  It was a good enough mystery to help me stay awake as I drove to Salt Lake and back, but I found Scudder spends way too much time thinking about his drinking.  It's obvious that he is an alcoholic but he hasn't realized it yet.  I suppose that will happen in a future book, but I don't think I will stick around to read it.  Scudder is a former policeman who became disillusioned with the job and goes into free-lance detecting.  He is hired to solve the murder of a woman who was killed nine years earlier and was originally believed to be the victim of a serial killer.  Of course, he is able to solve the crime through an amazing piece of luck but loses his love interest and drowns his sorrow in the bottle.  Just so-so.  Rating:  2.75

51. Desert Storm by Logan Forster

I found this book in some of the mom's old books and remember loving it when I read it as a girl.  So I decided to give it another go before giving it to my brother whose name in on the front page.  It was just as fun to read as I remember:  a great story about a boy who rescues an Thoroughbred filly and nurses it back to health so she is able to run in the Santa Anita race.  There were a few things  that struck me as odd that I would never have noticed when I was young.  Both Ponce and Barbara had some very immature moments for fifteen-year-olds; especially when Ponce seems abnormally wise and mature the rest of the time.  Still, I enjoyed this walk down memory lane with an old friend and recommend this book to third or fourth graders.  Rating:  4

50. Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick

This book tells the tale of the first fifty-seven years of the Plymouth Colony.  Beginning with William Bradford's conversion to Separatism in England, his journey to Holland and then crossing the Atlantic on the Mayflower, Philbrick delves into some rich history and interesting facts about our forefathers.  I'm amazed at how little I knew about these intrepid travelers.  There was much to admire about these people:  their bravery, determination and spirituality.  There was also bad qualities as well:  racism, narrow-mindedness, and some pretty stupid decisions.  Of course, it is easy to judge the Pilgrims with 20/20 hindsight.  I don't think I had ever heard of King Philip's War and the devastation it caused to both the colonists and the native Americans.  All in all. I found Mayflower to be a fascinating look at this country's early history.  Rating:  4.5

49. Love, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli

The sequel to Stargirl was just as enjoyable and fun to read.  Stargirl has matured and maybe toned down her outrageous behavior but not much or it would be boring.  After leaving her boyfriend, Leo, in Arizona when her parents move to Pennsylvania with no closure or resolution of their mixed up relationship (WARNING:  run-on sentence), Stargirl is lonely but determined to make the best of her new home.  She once again makes friends with a host of odd characters and has all kinds of fun and heartwarming adventures.  The novel is told in a series of letters that Stargirl writes to Leo over the course of a year but never sends.  You can't help falling in love with her as she is quirky, strong-willed, determined and very human.  It's an especially good novel for young women with a great message.
Rating:  4.5

48. Land of Echoes by Daniel Hecht

This book is a classic ghost story.  Tommy Keeday is attending a boarding school for gifted Navajos when he starts exhibiting all the signs of possession.  Cree Black, a renowned parapsychologist, is called in to investigate.  She soon becomes embroiled in all the drama of a aging beauty queen against the son of her rich ex-husband who died a few years earlier.  So is the ex-husband the ghost or is it Tommy's parents who also died recently?  In order to learn the answers, Cree must get close to the spirit while trying to save Tommy from the practioners of more traditional medicine who want to medicate him and weaken his resistance to the possession.  Normally, I don't like ghost stories or tales of hauntings, let alone possession by a foreign spirit; but this book is very well-written with some intriguing characters, beautiful descriptions of the harsh landscape of New Mexico, and a great study of the Navajo culture. 
Rating:  4.75

47. Glass House by Jane Haddam

I have always loved the Gregor Demarkian mysteries.  They used to always be named after some holiday, but I guess the author ran out.  I tried reading the one before Glass House but couldn't finish it because it seemed to run on for pages about these far right groups planning some big event.  When I quit, Gregor still had not been introduced into the story.  Fortunately, this book jumps right into the mystery and Gregor's odd life.  He is really is a great character and surrounds himself with very colorful people.  This book involves the serial killings of eleven women.  Gregor is called in by the Philadelphis police because they have picked up an alcholic scion of a Main Line family and want to make sure the charges stick.  It's a very convoluted mystery, but Gregor figures it out quite quickly all while trying to get his own life back in order.  In fact the ending is a bit anticlimatic because it wraps up so quickly.  Still, it was a fun read.  Rating:  4