The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

I really don't think I need to even comment about this book as you all may have seen the movie. I did not see the movie but I read the book and don't want to muck up my own imagination by seeing the movie. Does that make any sense? I am sure that it was a fabulous rendition of the book but sense I have my own mental image of the characters, the train, the scenery, the homes, the park, etc. I just want to stay within those confines.


That said ...


this book was definitely a page turner. It's dark. But not all books can be Mary Poppins.



Tarzan the Untamed by Edgar Rice Burroughs

I remember the first time I saw a book about Tarzan written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. It was a paperback with a drawing of Tarzan, half clothed, on the cover. It was laying on my mother's night stand and I thought as a child, "My mother is reading something wild! Something about a half naked man right here in her bedroom. How can that be?"

I asked her about it and why she liked it and she told me all about it and about the author and I realized it was more then my little brain thought. Later when a movie came out about Tarzan, we saw it together and she and my twin sister had a code word we could say to one another ... "Ray-zore" or we would just put our head down and lift the other person's hand to the top of our head so that they would have to pat it and while they did we'd go "oooh oooh" imitating a quiet ape sound. If you saw "Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, 1984" you would understand.

As my mother was dying I lifted her frail hand up to the top of my head and patted it for her on my hair and did the little ape sound hoping she knew what I meant. That I loved her and I would miss her and that we were and would forever be connected.

This little book I picked up somewhere ages ago and it sat on my bookshelf for ages as well. I the embossed letters on the red cover. The "Z" especially. They don't seem to make them like this anymore. It's a work of art. Then inside the cover are beautiful drawings of Tarzan. I have another Tarzan book on my shelf waiting for me to peruse. Of course when I read them I think of my mother and how she opened my eyes to many books.

The Postmistress by Sarah Blake

 The year is 1940.

The setting is a small town on Cape Cod in Massachusetts.


War is raging in Europe.


And that's the scene set for you to enter with female characters being the main subjects. One is the postmistress of this small town called Franklin. She tries to keep everything in order and moving in proper sequence so that the mail is delivered professionally. But can she keep any back from being delivered so that others won't be hurt? It's not proper but can she do it? Is it for the best? Can she hold her little section of the world together while the rest is falling apart?


Then there's the overseas female voice that comes over the radio at night that tells of the bombings, the faces, the voices recorded, the lives lost in front of her eyes. A letter handed to her to deliver to someone if he is dead. Does she finally have to deliver it? In person? What should she do?


How are lives affected back home in Cape Cod while families wait for their loved ones to return home whole or lost forever to them.


I think you may like this read. It's not fast paced but neither is a small town.


Of course, I bought this at my wonderful Goodwill where I can find all kinds of genres.


As Martha Stewart used to say, "It's a good thing".



The Solomon Curse by Clive Cussler

I was in the grocery store and decided to go down the magazine/book aisle for the fun of it. After all I knew I was almost at the end of the book I was presently reading and due to time constraints could not go to Goodwill. So I paid the big bucks for this paperback and it was worth it. I can pass it along to my father who also likes Clive Cussler.


I have always enjoyed Mr. Cussler's Dirk Pitt novels so to read a Sam and Remi Fargo one sounded like a plan to me. I liked the picture on the front cover too. As you might know I have an Anthropology Minor so I like all things archaeological. Who doesn't like unearthing treasure? Or civilizations? Etc.


This story is set in the Solomon Islands. Duh, right?


The adventurous married couple of Sam and Remi Fargo are on another adventure uncovering what could be a lost civilization that was engulfed under a tidal wave due to an earthquake. To find the city you have to be a diver and it looks like the natives weren't interested in diving that deep or they just didn't have the money to hire a big research ship and professionals to help out. But the Fargos are made of money so in comes the ship and professionals and before you know the whole island is in unrest but not because of the reasons you may think.


Thus one has to keep reading to find out the real deal to all the killings, mystery, myth and/or reality behind the lines in someone's old journal that only a language guru can decode. We like that too. Keys that unlock the truth that are in a diary? That's good stuff.


So catch this one if you want a good and fast paced read in which you won't be bored.



Micro by Michael Crichton

I've always enjoyed reading books by Michael Crichton. My first one was Congo. That was thrilling and unusual at that point in time for me and I knew I would enjoy any book written by him. Of course you all know Jurassic Park which he wrote and it doesn't get any better than that unless you are talking about The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.


At any rate, I picked Micro up at Goodwill and I couldn't put it down. Do you have to completely suspend reality in order to read it? Yes. But you are glad to do so as people and machines are reduced to being a microorganism in order to study other microorganisms in a certain location in the Hawaiian Islands. It draws you in and you realize that the dirt that you walk on and the plants that surround you are truly alive even if you cannot see the life pulsing with your naked eye. It makes you want to get a microscope and explore all the inner worlds that are just as unknown, vast and fascinating as the Universe that surrounds us up above.


Check it out. I don't think you'll be disappointed.



Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier



I don't think anyone wouldn't like Girl With A Pearl Earring. I think everyone has also seen the excellent movie which follows the book so well. I could picture Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth as I turned the pages.




I bought the book at Goodwill, where else?! And I read it this past weekend. I felt guilty that I wasn't getting anything more productive accomplished other than picking a few ripe tomatoes for a bacon and tomato sandwich that dribbled down my chin. Yum.




If you haven't read this book or even seen the movie then do one or the other or both because you won't be disappointed either way you look at it. And if you don't know the premise of the story it is how the painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring by Vermeer, came about. Who is that girl? What was the painter like? The village? The era. The social restraints.




Of course this is fiction but it could be true. All I know is that I wish I had the original masterpiece hanging on my wall. It's stunning, captivating and mysterious. Up there with the Mona Lisa. You either agree or disagree on that perspective as art is subjective but this is my blog so I get to voice my thoughts!

Plum Island by Nelson DeMille

This book may be thick but well worth picking up and holding in your hands to read. In fact, put all your "to do  list" aside for the weekend and just find a cozy place to sit and read this engrossing novel where John Corey convalesces in his Uncle's beach house after getting shot in the previous episode. He thinks all he needs to do is restore his health while having some beer on the deck watching time go by and the sun setting.

But Plum Island across the waters calls him or rather someone does who gets him to 'consult' on the confounding case of a double homicide. What's the motive? Why were they murdered? Will the U.S., as Corey knows it, become infected with a deadly virus? How does Captain Kidd's lost treasure fit in?

Those are the questions and you'll eventually find the answers in this story that keeps you turning the pages.

Mr. DeMille has a sense of humour that he liberally sprinkles on the pages. I think you'll like it.