April Books

His Other Wife by Deborah Bedford -- what happens when your former husband and his new wife and children come to your son's graduation? Well, this book is one fictional woman's story. Just a library book that was OK. Nothing great, but not bad.

The Scent of Cherry Blossoms by Cindy Woodsmall -- one of those books from the Amish country.  I read a number of them back in the day and stumbled across this one while visiting one of the local libraries.  It's about twins Roman and Aden, and Annie's visit to their area.  Stuff like that.

The Chance by Robyn Carr -- one of those I got at a book exchange; an FBI agent takes a leave of absence, moves clear across the country after getting angry at her critical father, and falls in love with a guy with a mild criminal past; not worth your time, in my opinion

Blood Trust by Erin Van Lustbader -- another from a book exchange; a bit better than the one just above, but I could have done without the overuse of certain words; if you like books about Albanian mobs, human trafficking, and dirty federal agents and high-ranking officials, you may like this one; it kind of reminded me of watching 24...and one of the people's names is Jack, so ...

sMothering by Wendy French -- when her mom unexpectedly arrives for an indefinitely-long stay, Claire reassess her life and, you know, deals with all the fun of having a nitpicky mother around. That sort of thing. 

The Bird House by Kelly Simmons -- a pretty cute book about a grandmother and her seven-year-old granddaughter coming together to do a family project. And, of course, dealing with family secrets and stuff.

 

Inventing Scrooge by Carlo DeVito -- "The incredible true story behind Dickens' legendary A Christmas Carol" -- mostly I liked this book, but there were times I couldn't follow it very well. I did like hearing of the possible inspirations behind the characters in Dickens' famous book. And I learned that his granddaughter named Mary Angela or Mekitty and the other grandchildren called their grandpa Venerables.

Mormons An Open Book: What You Really Want to Know by Anthony Sweat -- I saw this on Amazon awhile back and had it here waiting to be read. It's pretty good. I knew quite a bit of this information already due to following Mormon blogs and just reading books and articles, I guess, but some things were new. 

Internal Medicine: A Doctor's Stories by Terrence Holt -- although I wasn't thrilled by the ending nor exactly understanding of how he created the characters in this book, I really enjoyed this peek inside one doctor's life as he goes through various stages of residency.  I was amazed at the way he could figure out which orders to give...and at times by the fact that he was so out of it when he came to dealing with certain people (the Hospice rotation.)  I liked the humanness of this, too.

The Forgotten Seamstress by Liz Trenow -- perhaps a bit predictable, but in no way a terrible book; in fact, I quite liked this story set in England - partly in present times and partly not (though it wasn't terribly far back in history). 

Faithful by Kim Cash Tate -- this book follows three good friends and various struggles with sexual purity within their families. I could especially relate to Phyllis as she prayed many years for God to answer a request for her husband only to get hope at times and then be disappointed. Though I don't struggle with having an unbelieving husband (far from it), I do have a situation that I've prayed for God to change and get discouraged about quite often. 

In Search of Fatima: A Palestinian Story by Ghada Karmi  -- the tale of a Palestinian who had to leave her country, went to live awhile with family in Damascus, and later grew up in England.  I am not sure where I heard of this book, but I added it to my wishlist and received it. 

I wrote this on Facebook to a friend who posted an article about ...something that reminded me of this.

This reminds me of a book I'm reading about a Palestinian family in England in the 1950s. I read this part just last night. The author talked about her brother and how he would go to dance parties, drink beer, and date which her parents had a vague idea about what was happening 'but did not inquire too closely, since Ziyad was a boy and might be expected to do such things.' Also this brother went off on an overnight trip with a Swedish girlfriend and registered them as married. She left a scarf behind so the hotel mailed it to the family's address. She writes, "Ziyad was summoned by our father to explain himself. It was not that our parents begrudged him the chance to sow his wild oats, as they would have us girls. The problem lay in the way he had so crassly broken the unspoken Arab family taboo where such improper actions, though suspected, were never publicised and could be ignored." -- SO MUCH bothered me about this although it's nothing new. If those daughters had done as the son did, they'd probably be hunted down by some deranged uncle or male cousin and killed for the sake of honor!    (pg. 259, 261)

Sorry, but that's one of my pet peeves. 

Winter Birds by Jamie Langston Turner -- I may have read this book several years ago as it seemed familiar at times, but it was OK for a reread.  Not the most exciting book unless you enjoy reading the musings of an eighty year old lady spending her winter years with her wordy nephew and his quiet wife.  Not sure this was the best book to read just before my grandma's and my birthdays, but I did. 

An Innocent Abroad:  Life-changing trips from 35 great writers -- some of these were much better than others. I tend to enjoy travel memoirs, and this was good in the sense that it was quite a variety, but not so good because the stories were short and sometimes you just wanted to know a bit more.  This did make me wonder what people I know would write about as their "life-changing trip."