The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace

A privileged childhood, a wonderful friend, a doting father, her own cottage by the lake...what more could a girl ask for......Carolina's life was like a fairy tale come true. All was perfect until she knew something was wrong with her eyesight...no one believed her, but she knew she was going blind. No one except Turri her childhood friend that is...he believed everything she said.

He told her that she would be totally blind by New Year's Day....she didn't want to accept it would happen, but Turri was correct as usual. New Year's Day was when it happened.

Carolina's days were never ending. The nights were better because she was able to see again in her dreams, but all remained dark the minute she woke up. She began to roam the house at night feeling for familiar things. What was frightening about her nightly roaming was she would hear footsteps that would stop when she stopped and doors that kept creaking in various rooms. Then one day Carolina HAD to see Turri, and she made her way to the lake and the cottage where she and Turri had always met. Right after the trip to the lake, whenever she tried to leave the house, she but wasn't able to get out...the door was locked.

One night while she roamed, she chased someone into the basement and found a surprise. The following day Turri visited her with another surprise....a writing machine....she could now type out notes to friends without spilling ink everywhere, and most importantly she could write to Turri..

The book turned from a story about a girl held prisoner by her blindness and her husband to a mystery about the characters and the person who roamed the house at night.

I enjoyed the book…it was a heartwarming read even though the blindness factor was distressing.

I would recommend reading it while wrapped up in a blanket on a cold, winter’s night next to the warm fireplace. 5/5

Old Border Road by Susan Froderberg

Old Border Road has exceptional descriptions of characters, situations, and Arizona scenery.  The characters are unique, and the storyline is appealing.

The main character, Katherine, lives with her in-laws in southern Arizona and must work with them in their everyday routine of keeping up their ranch while her husband is habitually absent at night.  Katherine has to work hard, deal with unhappiness, deal with loneliness, and with THE KNOWING.  

As time goes on, could her second thoughts as she walked down the aisle as a seventeen-year-old bride have been an omen for her life's path?

Katherine....aka as "Girl" learns how to rope cattle, ride horses, make dinners, repair clothing, and cope with a drought plaguing Arizona.  All characters mesh well together even though they are distinct in their own ways.

Ms. Froderberg's style is splendid...her beautiful prose reels you into the tale and allows you to become absorbed in the lives of Girl, Son, and Rose's Daddy.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book...it is one you will want to read as well.  5/5

The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender

A brother that disappears, a father who works all the time, a bored mother who works in a wood shop, and Rose who tastes feelings in food.

"So every food has a feeling, George said when I tried to explain to him about the acidic resentment in the grape jelly."  Page 36

Poor Rose...besides not liking her favorite cake anymore and having an aversion to food because of what the taste brings out, she had to try to stay clear of  her older brother so she wouldn't bother him and "make him flip."  Her brother didn't want any parts of her, but his friend George helped her with finding out what was going on with her taste buds.

With George's help, Rose figured out that she could tell what kind of  mood someone was in and what stage of life the ingredients in food had been simply by tasting the cookie or whatever food she happened to be sampling.  She hated food because of this.  Later on she found out something about her grandfather that gave her some insight into her “problem.”

Rose could taste her mother's feelings in all the food she made each night and found out something that she really didn't want to know about her mother.

The book was a sweet read sharing all the good and bad things that go on in families with the adults and the siblings. It also had some odd situations, which I am still confused about, but on the whole I enjoyed it and will give the book a 4/5.   Overall, a very creative and different idea for a book.

Todos Santos by Deborah Clearman

Guatemala, a mother's love, summer, painting, having fun, fear, daily life, superstitions......

A summer in Guatemala....this definitely sounded exciting to Isaac and much better than spending it in summer school in Iowa.  Isaac accompanied his mother to Guatemala and stayed with his aunt while his mother made a trip to Todos Santos to do some painting.

While his mother was away, Issac met another American boy who was bad news, but whom Isaac continued to befriend.  The boys planned a trip of their own without actually telling anyone the truth about their destination.  Their adventures as well as the adventures of Catherine made up most of the book...Catherine found things she wasn't expecting and Isaac did as well.  The trip Issac and Bernie took was frightening to me....seeing the risks they took in a foreign country made my heart race.

Meanwhile, Catherine was enjoying herself and learning many things about the culture of Guatemala...both good and bad aspects.  The book had vivid descriptions of the beautiful landscape of Guatemala and the lifestyles of its people. The characters were interesting and colorful.

The book took me a while to read not because it was difficult, but because I was afraid to see what was going to happen to Catherine and her son. It also was heart wrenching to learn how the citizens of Guatemala actually lived on a daily basis and how the leaders were so self-centered, corrupt, controlling, and superstitious.

 Deborah Clearman is a very talented author...she has fantastic descriptions of characters, scenery, and emotions.  You could feel the emotions of each character as they were dealing with the situation occurring at the moment......the well-described scenes and emotions made the book unique for me.

I truly enjoyed the book except for the fear factor that I brought on myself.  :)

Also stop at Black Lawrence Press to view Ms. Clearman's video of the background for her novel...quite intriguing.

http://blacklawrencepress.com/ - go to the side bar and choose Authors.

Solomon's Oak by Jo-Ann Mapson

"The chapel had been Dan's final project. One summer morning over his oatmeal he'd said, "I've got a bug to build myself a chapel. Nothing fancy, just a place to worship out of the rain." Page 9

Thanksgiving day, the oldest white oak tree on the Solomon property, a chapel built by Dan Solomon, a wedding, and now a foster child dealing with grief just like Glory Solomon.

Glory had to do something since Dan died...her savings was gone, and her part-time job didn't really pay the bills.

One day she was asked/begged if a wedding and a reception could be held in the chapel that Dan had built. Glory hesitated and then decided the $3,000 she would get would definitely help pay the bills that were mounting. The wedding party wanted a Thanksgiving dinner and also a reception with a pirate theme and a sword fight.

The wedding was a huge success and brought a few surprises as well.....a former policeman who happened to be photographing the oak tree and a new foster child that unknown to Glory had some connection to her family dog. The connection was too close to home, and Juniper wasn't going to be too bad to have around or so she thought, so Glory told Caroline she would keep the new foster child.

Joseph the policeman was also pretty interesting...his grandmother had lived a few miles down the road from Glory when Joseph was a child, and he remembered the oak trees of California and especially the one on the Solomon property.

Solomon's Oak told the life stories of the three main characters who definitely fit and worked well together even though the connection was through their misfortunes. The book was a cozy read for me...family life, real-life situations, talents we all have hiding inside and waiting to emerge, and just plain heartfelt warmth in the book.

You will fall in love with Glory, Juniper will drive you crazy, and Joseph's patience will amaze you.

Enjoy the book....I definitely did.  Solomon’s Oak was very touching….it will make you smile, it will make you laugh, it will make you cry, and it will restore your faith in mankind’s goodness.
5/5

Great House by Nicole Krauss

 

An empty apartment, a friend who has furniture to give away, and now a furniture-filled apartment with lots of stories and a wonderful desk.

Then....after twenty-five years, the desk that she loved was being claimed by a relative of its original owner...she knew it would happen one day, but now that it has happened, she wasn't sure how she felt about it...not having the desk would cause a hole in her life.   She couldn't even be there when the original owner's daughter came to pick up the desk, and physical as well as mental things began happening after the loss of her beloved desk.

After the desk was gone, she got on an airplane to Ben Gurion airport...then the book went to another story.  This second story opened with a funeral in progress.

I thought it was going to be a great read since the desk plot sounded intriguing, and the cover caught my interest.

I really was lost reading this book... the beginning was good, but as the book continued, it was very puzzling, and the sections seemed detached from each other.  I had no sense of what the author was saying....the narrator talked to a "your honor," and she referred to characters by letters...R and S.

I really didn't enjoy the book because of how each chapter really wasn't connected to the others....not a continuous flow throughout the book.

I do have to say, though, that Krauss is a fantastic author....very deep and descriptive.  Krauss’s book was too over the top for me....I don't read fluff, but the book was very profound, complex, and to me disconnected.  I enjoy a flowing story that fits together.

I have seen great reviews for the book, but I just couldn't connect or follow the plot.

Best of luck with the book...I am sure it will be a best seller, but I guess I missed the point...I tried but was not able to continue reading it.  2/5.

Almost Home by Pam Jenoff

She HAD to get to London but had no explanation for her boss.  He granted her permission, and she left that very evening.

Jordan arrived in London ready to take a cab to see her very ill friend, but her co-worker met her at the airport....oh no, they do have an assignment for her.  An assignment in London wasn't the real reason she wanted to return to London, and when she does arrive, all the familiar landmarks she remembered when she was at Cambridge, make her heart twist and bring tears to her eyes as she remembers the reason that made her leave right after graduation.  Seeing Chris, a former college classmate, and then seeing him disappear from a dinner party, also didn't help with the memories.

When Chris finally does appear, he tells Jordan something that she can't ignore, and she must return to Cambridge University to find answers.  The journey back to her college days is emotionally painful, particularly since she wanted so desperately to never have to re-live an experience that changed her entire life and up to now had almost been put out of her conscious thoughts.

Meanwhile as Jordan is dealing with this information from Chris, her assignment and this situation seem to have some connection...people go missing, papers disappear, someone is following her, betrayal among friends and lovers, people are dying in "accidents" and more information comes to the surface along with a direct order to stop the investigation of a company who they know has something to hide. 

The story unravels, the mystery is solved, Jordan's pain doesn't disappear but she finally does have some hope about what caused all this in the first place.

To me the book was not as good as her other two books...it really didn't get interesting until page 200 or so…it didn’t seem tied together until toward the end.   The ending was suspenseful and a surprise, though.

I will give it a 4/5 only because it did come together toward the end of the book.