#48

Wow! I've lucked out again with my last of my Mother's Day purchases. "22 Britannia Road" by Amanda Hodgkinson was another excellent read. I was worried that I was going to be in a funk from too much WWII, but this one had a different twist. Young Janusz and his bride, Silvana, are separated when he goes off to join the Polish Army but is attacked by Germany bombers while on the train fresh out of Warsaw. He is sidelined and is hidden and helped to get to France and eventually England where he finally becomes a soldier. His bride and young son are left to try to make their way to her husband's family and end up being bombed. Left to live in the forrest for the remainder of the war and avoid German soldiers, they have to survive eating what they can find. Six years later, Silvana is found by the British army and reunited in England with Janusz. Both burdened with secrets that are threatening to rip them apart. Now I have to delve into my stack of books and hope that there's something in there to compare to what I've recently read.

#47

Running out of the books I bought with my Mother's Day gift card. I found some real treasures though and "The Seamstress" by Sara Tuvel Bernstein is a winner. This is a true story that was co-authored by Louise Loots Thornton and Marlene Bernstein Samuels. Sara's life started in Transylvania and the majority of this novel took place during World War II. Sara was a Jew who made a pretty good living as a seamstress but as all Jews in any proximity of Germany, she had a horrible story to tell. This story was written in the 1980's but sat on a shelf in the author's home without a publisher to put it into print. Finally, after many years and Sara's death, her daughter found someone to publish it. It's a must read!

#46

Another great novel. Geraldine Brooks' "Caleb's Crossing" was excellent. She took a real character from history and wrote a fictional depiction of his life. Caleb is an American Indian born in the 1640's on what would become Martha's Vineyard. He befriends a young white girl who's father is a local minister and educator. She teaches him English and he teaches her more of his language which she had already somewhat mastered by listening to her father teach her brother. Her education stopped at the age of 9 which was typical at that time. Her thirst for knowledge kept her continually paying attention to what her brother was being taught even though she was to be doing woman's work. Caleb is taken into her home and further educated with the hope that he would be able to attend the prestigous Harvard College. Help from England is being sent to support the Indian's education and a new building has been built in anticipation of the new students. Parts of the story are documented and the rest are the author's fictional account based on what records she could uncover.

#45

Cute little novel by Sarah Addison Allen, "The Peach Keeper," made for an easy read over the last couple of days. Set in the south, it involved a third generation of society women who had lost the focus of why the original group had formed 75 years ago. The mystery was solved when a skeleton was discovered and the remaining two original members had to come clean as to what happened.

Sad to have missed the family reunion yesterday but having it on Father's Day was a negative for me. I've seen posted pictures on Facebook and I missed quite a few cousins that I haven't seen in a long time. Apparently having it on Father's Day wasn't a problem for everyone.

#44

"The Kingdom" by Clive Cussler and his author of the month was very exciting. It's the series about the Fargo's. Wealthy adventure seeking couple who spending their time looking for treasure. This time they were trying to find an old friend when they discovered they were pulled into this trip under false pretenses. Their search for the "The Golden Man" led them to Shangri-la and into danger which is usual for them. Fun read!

Was looking forward to a family reunion tomorrow for my Dad's side of the family when I realized that it was being held on Father's Day. Don't know why they did that but it ruined my plans to attend. Can't drag my hubby away from the kids on Father's Day and I'm not going to miss out on time with them either. Hope they plan better next year.

Is the world turning mean?

I've found that most of the customers that I have to deal with on a daily basis are just plain mean. I'm so tired of being abused! Just today a man couldn't understand why I couldn't just swap out his returned item for another different item that was the same price. Couldn't get the concept that we have inventory to maintain. You can bend over backward and not make a difference. It gets so difficult to give a smile when you don't get a smile in return. I've noticed that they use the least little thing to try to get a discount. Sure the economy sucks, but do you have to pretend you didn't get good service just to get a free ride. I get to hear all the sob stories about other employees that didn't treat them right and they want to be compensated for it. Put your big girl panties on and deal with it!

#43

Kathleen Grissom has written a wonderful novel. "The Kitchen House" is about life in the late 1700's in the South. A young Irish girl named Lavinia shows up on the plantation when her parents both die at sea and she's taken by the Captain to be indentured as a kitchen helper in his home. Having no one, she's taken into the life of the plantation slaves and becomes part of their family. Disruption occurs when the Captain dies and she's taken to Williamsburg to live with her insane mistress' sister when it's realized that the mistress has to be hospitalized. Her new station and refinement is not missed by the Captain's son. He takes an interest and when he inherits the plantation he marries her and brings her back to the only home she knew. Hoping to bring changes to her "family's" lives as the new mistress of the plantation, she soon realizes that she can not change the ways of her new husband and she's forced to live a nightmare. Excellent read!!

#42

"The Winter Sea" is a novel by Susanna Kearsley. She basically wrote two novels in one. The main character, Carrie McClelland, is the author of historic novels and she's researching the possible connection to her family of a young woman named Sophia Paterson who was thought to have married into the McClelland family in the early 1700's. It brought Carrie to Slain Castle in Scotland and from there she's caught up in the story and feels she's actually a recipient of Sophia's thoughts. The time frame is when King James the VIII of Scotland and the III of England. He's in exile in France while his sister rules England. The Jacobites want him to have the throne and conspiracy abounds with the effort to get him back to Scotland. Very enjoyable.

#41

The latest read was an excellent choice. Little known adventure that took place in the 1896 when Helga Estby took a wager from a group of fashion designers to walk across America. She took her eldest daughter, Clara, against the daughter's wishes and set off on the trek to New York City. The amount they were to win was $10,000 but the terms were that they had to arrive on a certain date. They money was to save their family farm and even though it meant leaving her husband and other younger children, she was determined to get to New York on time. There was a clause that covered time off for sickness but the sprained ankle that Clara suffered was not allowed and it set them back too much to arrive on time. There was no money to get back home and the women ended up having to beg for a train ticket. Arriving back home they discovered that two of the children had died of diptheria and the family had turned against them for abandoning them. The trip was never to be mentioned and Clara who found out a secret on their journey was turned out and left to make her own way. Thus the name of this novel, "The Daughter's Walk by Jane Kirkpatrick. I will be looking for the novel by Linda Lawrence Hunt which covers the walk in more detail. Kirkpatrick's account covered the walk but went on to try to cover what happened to the daughter from records she found.

#40

Had to put aside a book I was enjoying because it fell apart on me. It's on it's way back to Amazon for a replacement. I finished "Lilies in Moonlight" by Allison Pittman. Cute little novel but not an author I'll be looking to read again. 1925's and a young woman is trying to make her way in Florida selling door to door products. She stumbles into a home where the lady of the house is not playing with a full deck but develops a liking for the young woman. The son is a former baseball player who had a rotten career and went running off to war, but came home damaged by mustard gas. Get the scenario? Hoping to find something a little more meatier in my stash of books.

Spending the day tomorrow with a newly found cousin-in-law. We met through ancestry.com and we are going to do a little cemetery searching in my home town. Her husband was my third cousin on my maternal grandmother's side. She's been curious about that side of the family so we're off on our adventure in the am.