The Lincoln Myth by Steve Berry

This book was a good read once you got past the slowness in the beginning. It does make you think about what may be the secrets passed down through the office of the Presidency that we as mere mortals will never know.


Do we know all that the Founding Fathers wanted for our United States? Is there possible paperwork hidden in places that would reveal all their purposes? One such myth may surround our revered Abe Lincoln. A myth that if known could transform what we as a nation can be allowed to do which would destroy all we know.


Read on and find out what Steve Berry's well known characters Cassiopea Vitt and Cotton Malone have to do in order to keep the secret or let it be known.


What would you do?

Girl in Translation by Jean Kwok

Do you have a trip you have to take and you need a good book to keep you company on the plane or in your hotel room between meetings or you just want to take a staycation on your couch with a fuzzy blanket over your legs?


Then pick this page turner up wherever you can get it. Of course you know where I got this one, right? That's correct. Goodwill.


Make sure you have food around you as well because you are not going to want to put it down to grab a bite from the fridge, or even take a bathroom break, or even answer your cell phone. Why? Because you have just entered Jean Kwok's semi-autobiography about growing up in America with English not being your first language. You will live with her and her mother as they try to navigate their new world. Understanding how others live from hand to mouth day in and day out but with an unswerving determination to succeed is inspiring.


Kudos to you, Jean.

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.