Hatteras Girl by Alice J. Wisler

 

I always have a few "summer" books that I will find that are always fun to read during the summer season. They get you in the mood and keep you there. I was lucky to find this story at, where else, my neighborhood Goodwill store!

 

Alice J. Wisler may have been "born and raised in Japan" but she is now a Durham, NC girl. But she sounds like she's lived on the Outer Banks all of her life. She captures the vibe of Cape Hatteras in this story centered around a young woman who has always had a dream of continuing a Bed and Breakfast that she has loved since a child. Her best friend has that same dream and this tory tells how their shared dream may or may not come to pass.

 

You'll have to put your flip flops on and read this book in order to find out if dreams really do come true. I'm not telling!

The Third Heiress by Brenda Joyce



This may be the first book I have read by this author and I have to say she kept me reading.

And that was a good thing because it had rained and rained and rained here in Raleigh, N.C.

I was wondering when the Arc would be floating by and if I could catch a ride.

Ate any rate I sailed through this novel and also enjoyed every morning cup of coffee that went with it. Well I had to make the coffee, it didn't just appear out of nowhere.

This story has mystery, romance, doubts, fears, tragedies and you name it tangled in a family that is as old as a British ancestral line can be.  Enter someone from America who gets obsessed with solving a murder that may have been committed by one of those people perched on the wall of portraits.

Or is it just a mystery that needs to be solved and a vision put to rest?

I think you may enjoy this one. As usual I picked it up at my neighborhood Goodwill.

It's Summertime!

Pretty soon the Summer Soltice will arrive announcing the official start of the tanning season. With that in mind I always pick out a book to read that is summer related or romantically inclined. Nothing too heavy.

Yesterday I went to my fabulous Goodwill which has turned out to be my 'library' where I can browse through the titles on the three shelves and buy whatever grabs me. I brought home two books, one is a mystery and one is pure summer romance. How do I know? Catch the titles; Hatteras Girl by Alice J. Wisler and The Third Heiress by Brenda Joyce.

I have decided to start with Hatteras Girl since it is a paperback and seems to be breezy. Just the right tone to start off the summer. Not only is it beachy by it turns out it will be a romance as well. I'll let you know how it turns out.

The Third Heiress seems to be more weighty, not only because it's a hardback but because the jacket cover implies there's mysterious disappearances, car accidents, "a secretive and hostile family". So once I skip through the first book I will be ready for mystery and intrigue in the second.

Both seem good to read on cloudy, rainy days or in bed in the morning with a cup of coffee.

I'll keep you posted.

Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos

 

This book needs to be on every one's shelf. Pronto! It's so full of story telling and metaphors that you will want to use a marker. I know it's sacrilegious to mar a book page but you'll want to remember her similes. They are like no other. Possibly The Ironwood Bible matches it but nonetheless, grab this book at the library. Better still ... buy it! Read it. Underline what you will and make others read it too. Make sure they give it back to you!

 

Mine came from my neighborhood Book Club. It's such a good book. I really was hard pressed to put it down. Fortunately I didn't have to because we got some snow! And everyone knows that if Raleigh, N.C. gets snow we all shut down and hibernate. Even if it's only an inch of snow we bring out the sleds, pans and mufflers and walk around like we are in a fairytale.

 

Ok. Back to this book.

 

Stephanie weaves the characters in this book in their own mosaic pattern of joy, pain, disappointment, searches and private thoughts. She brings people together in a home that, by the time you are into the book, you wish you lived too because the people are so different yet fascinating. You want to be a part of the world within Margaret's mansion where you can be yourself amongst others being themselves. But being the best of themselves whatever that may be. Letting others 'be'. It's freeing. It's a surprisingly perfect world even if the people are flawed.

 

The lifestyle within the house creates a masterpiece or masterpieces out of broken pieces glued and grouted together to form a story from stories. To bring life from death.

 

You'll see what I mean when you read this book. I don't want to spoil it for you. But you will come to see that our lives are made up of broken pieces that through much effort can be put back together. It may not look the same but then so is life ... ever evolving and changing.

The Long Way Home by Robin Pilcher

 

Here is a book that my father received for Christmas this year. Once he finished it he passed it along to me so that I could enjoy it too. We like sharing books. It's something we can talk about and it's a passion that my mother enjoyed as well.

It's a link that binds us.

 

Some of you may know that Robin is Rosamonde Pilcher's son. If you didn't know that already then you do now! And as you know by now, if you have been reading my blog, that Rosamonde is my father's all time favorite writer. So it came naturally to like her son's books.

This story is set in a very small town where some grow up and stay forever but some leave to explore the great beyond or escape from their own history. For some it is a long way home but once they arrive they realize that their fears were unfounded. And the love that they had for someone in particular is still strong. It had not faded with time. Time did not heal all but rather the merging once again of heart and soul was the healer that smoothed the past and its wrinkles.

I think you'll enjoy this book!

 



Dracula by Bram Stoker

 

Ok so this book is not appropriate for Thanksgiving weekend I agree but I really did start it before Halloween which did seem appropriate. Really! However it wasn't the only book I was reading at the time soooo. At any rate when I saw it on the Goodwill shelf I grabbed it because, as you know, the previous summer was "read classics" summer. So I figured this book was a late continuance of that theme. I had wanted to read it a few years ago but never got to it for whatever reason.

 

So I finished it yesterday. I have to say that I do like the front cover of this edition. I think the artist did a great job. During October I saw on the TV a thing about Bram Stoker and I have to say that the original design imprinted on the original book cover was demurely simple. I like it too.

 

So how was the story? Did I like it?

 

Well it wasn't what I thought it was going to be because I was expecting gore and frightful scenes but it didn't live up to my expectations. I can see how it was different from other books written during that time period and that it would catch people's attention but it was slow and plodding and slow and plodding. I think my favorite character was Van Helsing. Why? Because Bram gave him a funny way of talking and I liked reading it and I could picture him. I suppose I used the visual in Polanski's "Fearless Vampire Killers" I saw a billion times one summer in a drive-in theater in 'Little Washington'. All the snow and the scenery and the non-reflection in the mirror of Dracula during a ballroom dance and the horses pulling a carriage through the small villages and out in the wild towards Dracula's castle. And Van Helsing being this lovable, funny but fearless old man. Wow! I really need to see that movie again!!! 

 

But you never see that movie anymore? Why don't they show it during all the ones that are on the TV leading up to October 31rst?

 

So the question is ... should you read it?

 

Of course. It's a classic after all.

A Midwinter's Tale by Andrew M. Greeley

Hey folks!! I'm back with another one of Andrew Greeley's books. Again, it came from my mother's book shelf, handed to me recently by my father saying, "I thought you would like to have this book."

"Of course!"

And thank you, Dad.

I read this tale before when my mother handed it to me. She had just finished reading it and thought I would enjoy it too. She was always amazed that a priest (yes, Andrew is a Catholic priest) could write so candidly about sex. It really fascinated her. Where did he get his knowledge of it? Was it first hand or from the confessional?

I am sure that she and Father Greeley would have had great conversations if they could have known each other. To be a fly on the wall would be a good thing in order to listen. My mother was a smart cookie and knew her history of the Catholic church, the Templars, Cathars and you name it. I've already forgotten what she told me. History was never my strong suit. Or Algebra.

Nevertheless, here's a story that Greeley says is "autobiographical only in that Charles O'Malley (his main character) and I have lived through the same historical events" and that "Charles Cronin O'Malley did indeed graduate from 'St. Ursula' in 1942, as I did".

The story takes place mostly in Germany (Bavaria) during the two years that Chuck is stationed there as a very young man. It is in a Nazi's arms that he loses his virginity and in the cold, bombed out landscape that he proves to continue to be a 'hero' even though he doesn't feel like one. After all he had saved his Rosie the night of his high school prom, didn't he? But it was just a reflex. He didn't have time to put on a red cape and fly through the air. Although jumping from a pier into cold water could apply as a leap of faith.

I think you would like this book as well. You will learn what is was like or could have been like in Germany in 1947. The hardship that the people had to survive. The lack. The cold. The desperation. What can an eighteen year old do to make a difference?

As you will see life can pull you into situations that you willingly walk into and then find yourself with anothers' life in your hands. What will you do?

Check this one out and see how a priest writes of love and war and family.