Thirteen Moons

Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier

My review
rating: 4 of 5 stars
I love Charles Frazier. I enjoyed this book much more than Cold Mountain (maybe because the story was "fresh" because there isn't a movie). The story was funny, heart-wrenching and just plain good.

Pub. Date: October 2006

Synopsis: At the age of twelve, under the Wind moon, Will is given a horse, a key, and a map, and sent alone into the Indian Nation to run a trading post as a bound boy. It is during this time that he grows into a man, learning, as he does, of the raw power it takes to create a life, to find a home. In a card game with a white Indian named Featherstone, Will wins – for a brief moment – a mysterious girl named Claire, and his passion and desire for her spans this novel. As Will’s destiny intertwines with the fate of the Cherokee Indians – including a Cherokee Chief named Bear – he learns how to fight and survive in the face of both nature and men, and eventually, under the Corn Tassel Moon, Will begins the fight against Washington City to preserve the Cherokee’s homeland and culture. And he will come to know the truth behind his belief that “only desire trumps time.”


Recommended Reading:
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
The Lake of Dead Languages by Carol Goodman
Three Junes by Julia Glass
Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles

Received: January 2008 Kept

2008 In Review

Well, another year of books read. I'm bumping up 2009's goal to 60. Now that I've gotten a few of the door stoppers (Harry Potter and Diana Gabaldon) off my shelf, I can handle reading a few more books in the coming year.
Books Read: 45
Audiobooks: 22
Uncompleted Books: 6
Uncompleted Audiobooks: 5

Favorites:
Strange Candy by Laurell K. Hamilton: A fantastic collection of short stories.
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier: I love this book. It was everything that I love about the movie and more.
Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling: Amazing right up to the last page. I feel like I've lost a friend with the end of the series, but look forward to seeing what Rowling follows up with.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield: A twisted, dark fairy tale.
The Devil in the Junior League by Linda Francis Lee: A wonderful and witty bit of chick-lit.
On Writing by Stephen King: It's hard to define why I liked this book. Maybe the fact that he had me laughing on the first page and his humor continued throughout the book. Or maybe the fact that it was honest and unpretentious writing. Every writer, whether a Stephen King fan or not, should read this.
Diana Gabaldon's Outlander Series. These books are doorstoppers, but so durn good!

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NIght-Time

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon


My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
A fast read. Funny and sad.


Pub. Date: May 2004

Synopsis: Christopher Boone is a fifteen and has Asperger's, a form of autism. He knows a great deal about math and very little about human beings. When he finds his neighbors's dog murdered he sets out on a terrifying journey which will turn his world upside down.

Recommended Reading:
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry, Robert Nemiroff

A Breath of Snow and Ashes

A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This series has been amazing to read. I look forward to re-reading this series again (although not any time soon). Amazing. Absolutely amazing. I can't wait for the next book.

Pub. Date: September 2005
Series: Outlander Book 6

Synopsis: The year is 1772, and on the eve of the American Revolution, the long fuse of rebellion has already been lit. Men lie dead in the streets of Boston, and in the backwoods of North Carolina, isolated cabins burn in the forest.
With chaos brewing, the governor calls upon Jamie Fraser to unite the backcountry and safeguard the colony for King and Crown. But from his wife Jamie knows that three years hence the shot heard round the world will be fired, and the result will be independence -- with those loyal to the King either dead or in exile. And there is also the matter of a tiny clipping from The Wilmington Gazette, dated 1776, which reports Jamie’s death, along with his kin. For once, he hopes, his time-traveling family may be wrong about the future.

Recommended Reading:
The Fiery Cross (Outlander Book 5) by Diana Gabaldon
Drums of Autumn (Outlander Book 4) by Diana Gabaldon
Voyager (Outlander Book 3) by Diana Gabaldon
Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander Book 2) by Diana Gabaldon
Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati

Shopgirl

Shopgirl by Steve Martin


My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This was a complicated book. The writing was beautiful, filled with witty sarcasm, poetry and startling truths about life. I'm torn between loving it and hating it. The story was slightly boring, but I kept reading because the words were thoughtful - almost too plotted out.

I'm curious to see how this book plays out in the movie, I struggled with visualization alot reading this.

Pub. Date: October 2001

Synopsis: From the comic genius of Steve Martin comes a contemporary fable of life an love from the point of view of a shopgirl behind the glove counter at Neiman Marcus. Mirabelle, a semi-glamourous young woman who is making her way through the romantic jungles of Beverly Hills/Los Angeles, is an aspiring artist who prides herself on her clothing aesthetic. Unfortunately, she doesn't always have the best taste in men. When she meets a young Turk named Jeremy, whose idea of a great second date is a visit to the Laundromat, she sees him through a haze of prozac and other anti-depressants, and through the prism of her own poor self-esteem. But then she meets Ray Porter and thinks he could be her Knight in Shining Armor. In fact, he does turn out to be a worldly, rich gentleman who is a kindly and even exciting lover, but he never really takes Mirabelle seriously. Together, Mirabelle, Ray, Jeremy, and a few other suporting characters populate this insightful piece that is sometimes quirky, sometimes comic, and sometimes languid as a summer day.

Recommended Reading:
Born Standing Up by Steve Martin
Everyman by Philip Roth
The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger
Best Day of Someone Else's Life by Kerry Reichs

With Every Breath

With Every Breath by Lynn Kurland

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This isn't my favorite Lynn Kurland.

A fast paced story and a decent romance. Too many head injuries and blacking out/throwing up. At some point both the hero and heroine should have become retarded. Too much crying.

While I think Kurland hit every major character in her series, the name dropping was just that, a list of who's doing what for her fans and not necessary to the story.

The hero was a cookie cut-out of a few of her other characters, only slightly more wimpy than the others.

Those new to Lynn Kurland would be advised to not read this book first. Those who are already fans, let's hope this was a fluke and that new books will be up to her standard.

Pub. Date: May 2008

Synopsis: When medieval laird Robert Cameron pounds on Sunny Phillips's door, he isn't paying a social call. He's braved a trip onto enemy soil to fetch the MacLeod witch, a crone renowned for her healing powers. But the woman who opens her door to him is enchanting and young... and not from his century.

Recommended Reading:
Till There Was You by Lynn Kurland
When I Fall in Love by Lynn Kurland
A Dance through Time by Lynn Kurland
Thirty Nights with a Highland Husband by Melissa Mayhue
Highlander of Her Own by Melissa Mayhue

The Fiery Cross

The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is a hard book to review. Besides the fact that it's over 1400 pages and took me over a month to read... it's Diana Gabaldon. She writes fascinating accounts of history, trivia, mythology, a great love story, science fiction and people with great detail.

In some places I wanted to hurry through the details and get to the heart of the story, and other places I savored every word. That's the beauty of her writing, you have to read every word, absorb every detail because it will come back (maybe 700 pages later, but it does come back) and it has some importance.

I also love the fact that she doesn't waste time with back story, she throws you right into the action where the last book left off. She repeats a few of the important details, but for the most part lets the reader read between the lines or call upon their own memory of the previous books.

Pub. Date: November 2001
Series: Outlander Book 5

Synopsis: The year is 1771, and war is coming. Jamie Fraser's wife tells him so. Little as he wishes to, he must believe it, for hers is a gift of dreadful prophecy -- a time-traveler's certain knowledge.
Born in the year of Our Lord 1918, Claire Randall served England as a nurse on the battlefields of World War II, and in the aftermath of peace found fresh conflicts when she walked through a cleftstone on the Scottish Highlands and found herself an outlander, an English lady in a place where no lady should be, in a time--1743--when the only English in Scotland were the officers and men of King George's army.

Now wife, mother, and surgeon, Claire is still an outlander, out of place, and out of time, but now, by choice, linked by love to her only anchor -- Jamie Fraser. Her unique view of the future has brought him both danger and deliverance in the past; her knowledge of the oncoming revolution is a flickering torch that may light his way through the perilous years ahead or ignite a conflagration that will leave their lives in ashes...

Recommended Reading:
Drums of Autumn (Outlander Book 4) by Diana Gabaldon
A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander Book 6) by Diana Gabaldon
Voyager (Outlander Book 3) by Diana Gabaldon
Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander Book 2) by Diana Gabaldon
Into the Wilderness by Sara Donati