Seeds of Yesterday

The Seeds of Yesterday.  V. C. Andrews.  #4 Dollanganger series. Published by Pocket.  Originally 1984.  408 pages.  Source: Purchased from betterworldbooks.com.

First sentence: And so it came to pass the summer when I was fifty-two and Chris was fifty-four that our mother's promise of riches, made long ago when I was twelve and Chris was fourteen, was at last realized.

Plot:  Cathy and Chris, entwined with the evil that haunts their children, living with the fearful spectre of Foxworth Hall, are awaiting the final, shuddering climax... prisoners of a past they cannot escape.

My thoughts: This family needs more therapy than can be provided by one professional. Just saying. Cathy's youngest boy terrorized the family his entire life and she fed his crazy behavior instead of actually addressing it. Now in his manhood he is very wealthy thanks to his grandmother leaving him the vast majority of the Foxworth estate. And he continues to terrorize them all.  This story will make you believe that insanity is hereditary.  

Cathy lives in an alternate reality.  Thinking that life can be normal when your spouse is your brother!  This really is a sick and twisted story but I have to see it to the end.  One more book left in the series.

The Remains of the Day

The Remains of the Day.  Kazuo Ishiguro. Faber and Faber Publishing. May 1989.  258 pages.  Source: Audio Library

Plot: In the summer of 1956, Stevens, a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall, decides to take a motoring trip through the West Country. The six-day excursion becomes a journey into the past of Stevens and England, a past that takes in fascism, two world wars, and an unrealised love between the butler and his housekeeper.

My thoughts: I really enjoyed this laid back story of the life of a butler as the end of an era was coming to a close.  I like to read books set in England and about the history of England even if it is fiction. 

Me After You

Me After You. Jojo Moyes. Penguin Books. September 2015. 352 Pages. Audio Library

First line: The big man at the end of the bar is sweating.

Plot:How do you move on after losing the person you loved? How do you build a life worth living?
 
Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.
 
Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .
 
For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.

My thoughts:  I loved this second book in this series!  Louisa Clark is such a good person and I felt a connection with her since the first book.  I did find her accident to be ironic.  I half expected her to be paralyzed like Will but I was wrong. When she begins to have feelings for Sam I found myself cheering her on.  Hoping she would fall in love and move on with her life.  She is torn between her love for him and doing something with her life.  Apparently she can't seem to do both at the same time.  I guess I will find out how this all ends in the next book... Still Me.  Which I can't wait for but I will because I'm on a wait list!

The Sound and The Fury

The Sound and The Fury.  William Faulkner. Published by Vintage.  First published 1954.  326 pages.  Source:  Audio library.

First Sentence: Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting.

Plot: The novel reveals the story of the disintegration of the Compson family, doomed inhabitants of Faulkner’s mythical Yoknapatawpha County, through the interior monologues of the idiot Benjy and his brothers, Quentin and Jason.

My thoughts:  This one was chosen for my classic club challenge.  I started it once but tabled it.  I pushed through it this time because I just had to.  Wow, there is enough disfunction in my life but to add this family just about made me go crazy! 

This is one messed up group of people.  It took me several chapters to even get the gist of what was going on.  Faulkner's writing style is not my idea of a good time.  Back and forth and who is narrating... Since the story is set in Mississippi the dialect was so very southern it difficult to take at times.

As you can tell I did not enjoy this book and don't really recommend it.  Especially for younger adults.  I only gave it 2 out of 5 stars on Good Reads.

The Witch's Daughter

The Witch's Daughter.  Paula Brackston. Thomas Dunne Books.  December 2008. 305 pages. Source: Audio library.

First Sentence: Bess ran.  The clear night sky and fat moon gave ample illumination for her flight.

Plot: My name is Elizabeth Anne Hawksmith, and my age is three hundred and eighty-four years. Each new settlement asks for a new journal, and so this Book of Shadows begins.
In the spring of 1628, the Witchfinder of Wessex finds himself a true Witch. As Bess Hawksmith watches her mother swing from the Hanging Tree she knows that only one man can save her from the same fate at the hands of the panicked mob: the Warlock Gideon Masters, and his Book of Shadows. Secluded at his cottage in the woods, Gideon instructs Bess in the Craft, awakening formidable powers she didn't know she had and making her immortal. She couldn't have foreseen that even now, centuries later, he would be hunting her across time, determined to claim payment for saving her life.

In present-day England, Elizabeth has built a quiet life for herself, tending her garden and selling herbs and oils at the local farmers' market. But her solitude abruptly ends when a teenage girl called Tegan starts hanging around. Against her better judgment, Elizabeth begins teaching Tegan the ways of the Hedge Witch, in the process awakening memories—and demons—long thought forgotten.

My thoughts:  I enjoyed this story of a young girl who was put in a position to either "become a witch" to escape burning or die for being one even though she was not.  

She lived saving lives working with herbs and medicines then into actual operating rooms and working as a Doctor in the earliest of times when this was not the norm for a woman to be practicing surgical procedures.  She tired to do nothing but good and not to use "magic" for crazy selfish things.  All her life as a witch was spent trying to hide from the warlock Gideon Masters.  Gideon loved her (or so he said) and pursued her for centuries.

Elizabeth (Bess) spent a lot of lonely years because she could not get close to anyone.  A life of mostly solitude.  

This is not a book promoting witchcraft.  I would recommend it to young adults as there are some light suggestive situations over the centuries.

If There Be Thorns

If There Be Thorns. V. C. Andrews. Published by Pocket. November 1981. 374 pages. Source: Purchased from Betterworldbooks.com

First sentence: In the late evening when the shadows were long I sat quiet and unmoving near one of Paul's marble statues.

Plot: Out of the ashes of evil Chris and Cathy made such a loving home for their splendid children...
Fourteen-year-old Jory was so handsome, so gentle. And Bart had such a dazzling imagination for a nine year old.

Then the lights came on in the abandoned house next door. Soon the Old Lady in Black was there, watching their home with prying eyes, guarded by her strange old butler. Soon the shrouded woman had Bart over for cookies and ice cream and asked him to call her "Grandmother."

And soon Bart's transformation began...

A transformation that sprang from "the book of secrets" the gaunt old butler had given him... a transformation fed by the hint of terrible things about his mother and father... a transformation that led him into shocking acts of violence, self-destruction and perversity.

And now while this little boy trembles on the edge of madness, his anguished parents, his helpless brother, an obsessed old woman and the vengeful, powerful butler await the climax to a horror that flowered in an attic long ago, a horror whose thorns are still wet with blood, still tipped with fire....

My thoughts:  This is a re-read for me.  I read this series as a teenager in the 80's.  I had forgotten much of it but if you can enjoy such a demented read I guess I did.  It makes me think just how messed up someone can be from not having a loving and caring environment while they are young children.  This story brings in a fourth generation of "mental illness" in my opinion.  The kind of mental illness brought on by greed and love of money and a twisted and false belief in God.

There are two more books in this series and I own them all so I am anxious to get on with this next generation.

The Book Thief

The Book Thief. Markus Zusak. Alfred A. Knopf. 2005. 550 pages. Source: Audio Library

First sentence: First the colors.  Then the humans.  That's usually how I see things.

Plot: It is 1939 Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath.

Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

My thoughts: There are lots of books about WWII from different points of view.  The Nazi soldier, the sympathizer, the Jew, the decendents but never have I read it from Death's point of view.  With Death being the Narrator you can be sure it doesn't have an especially happy ending.

I don't take these subjects very lightly but this was a great read.  Two children, Liesel and Rudy, are for the most part the main two characters in the story.  They have a strong friendship and they share just about everything.  Everything except a hidden Jew in Liesel's basement.  The children survive through this awful time the best way that they can.  That sometimes has them stealing food.  Liesel also steals books. Probably because it helps her to get through each day with something to read.

Then comes the day when Death visits very close to Liesel.  She is left to start over again at the age of 14 with another "foster mother". 

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Ann Brashares. Delacort Press. 2001. 294 pages. Source: Audio library

First sentence: Once upon a time there was a pair of pants.

Plot: armen got the jeans at a thrift shop. They didn’t look all that great: they were worn, dirty, and speckled with bleach. On the night before she and her friends part for the summer, Carmen decides to toss them. But Tibby says they’re great. She'd love to have them. Lena and Bridget also think they’re fabulous. Lena decides that they should all try them on. Whoever they fit best will get them. Nobody knows why, but the pants fit everyone perfectly. Even Carmen (who never thinks she looks good in anything) thinks she looks good in the pants. Over a few bags of cheese puffs, they decide to form a sisterhood and take the vow of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants . . . the next morning, they say good-bye. And then the journey of the pants — and the most memorable summer of their lives — begins.

My thoughts:  I enjoyed this story.  It was light read about four teenage friends and their summer.  I say light in that it wasn't a classic novel! :)  But the issues they each faced as teenagers was not necessarily light. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.  

Hard Times

Hard Times. Charles Dickens. Penguin Publishing (first published in 1854). 321 pages. Source: Audio Library

First sentence: Now what I want is facts.  Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts. Facts alone are wanted in life.

Plot: The 'terrible mistake' was the contemporary utilitarian philosophy, expounded in Hard Times (1854) as the Philosophy of Fact by the hard-headed disciplinarian Thomas Gradgrind. But the novel, Dickens's shortest, is more than a polemical tract for the times; the tragic story of Louisa Gradgrind and her father is one of Dickens's triumphs. When Louisa, trapped in a loveless marriage, falls prey to an idle seducer, the crisis forces her father to reconsider his cherished system. Yet even as the development of the story reflects Dickens's growing pessimism about human nature and society, Hard Times marks his return to the theme which had made his early works so popular: the amusements of the people. Sleary's circus represents Dickens's most considered defence of the necessity of entertainment, and infuses the novel with the good humour which has ensured its appeal to generations of readers.

My thoughts:  This is a hard one for me as are all Dickens novels.  The story that I in my head most followed was that of poor Louisa.  The youngest daughter of Thomas Gradgrind.  She was married off to a man twice her age and went to live in a home where there was no love at all.  Louisa had never had a love interest but when James Harthouse arrives and tries to win her heart she runs back to her father and tells him what an error he made in having her marry the old Mr. Bounderby.  

Mr Bounderby is furious that Louisa left him but he is determined to find the man who has robbed his bank.  The thief all along is Louisa's older brother who has fallen on Hard Times and has taken money consistently from Louisa to cover his debts.

This story was a little hard to follow at first but I soon had it figured out in my head who everyone was.  I'm glad that I have read this one but it's not my favorite Dickens novel.

Anges Grey

Anges Grey. Anne Bronte. Wordsworth Classics. Originally published 1847. 168 pages. Source: Purchased from Betterworldbooks.com.

First sentence: All true histories contain instructions: though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely for the trouble of cracking the nut.

Plot: At age 19 Anne Brontë left home and worked as a governess for a few years before becoming a writer. Agnes Grey was an 1847 novel based on her experience as a governess. Bronte depicts the precarious position of a governess and how that can affect a young woman. Agnes was the daughter of a minister whose family was in financial difficulty. She has only a few choices for employment. Agnes experiences the difficulty of reining in spoiled children and how wealth can corrupt morals.

My thoughts:  I like Bronte's style of writing.  After the last book I read this one was a calm and enjoyable read.  Not all of the situations that Anges was in was calm and enjoyable but over all I enjoyed this one. 

Anges was a very kind young woman. She had no skill or trade in which to earn money to help support her family so she convinced her mother to help her secure a position as a governess.  Having no real knowledge of raising children other than her own experience as a child she found her first position.  It was not a favorable experience as the children were greatly spoiled and she had no control over them at all.

Her second situation was somewhat better as the children were much older.  The issues she dealt with were along the line of lack of character building.  She did have some villagers that she was able to minister to through acts of kindness.  The new parson was very kind and Agnes had some very tender feelings for him.  But she was tormented by Miss Murray in that Miss Murray wanted every man to love only her.  

Anges returned home after the death of her father to help her mother with a school she had started in order to make a living.  Anges was sad to be leaving Mr. Weston, the parson, but she had hopes of seeing him again.

This was a nice read and I wish I had taken the time to sit and enjoy it more.  It took me a lot longer than it should have being as busy as I was in March.  I would read this one again.

The Thirteenth Tale

The Thirteenth Tale. Diana Setterfield. Atria Books. September 12, 2006. 406 pages (Source: Purchased from BetterWorldBooks.com)

First sentences:  It was November.  Although it was not yet late, the sky was dark when I turned into Laundress Passage.

Plot: All children mythologize their birth... So begins the prologue of reclusive author Vida Winter's colletion of stories, which are as famous for th myster of the missing thirteenth tale as they ae for the delight and enchantment of the twelve that do exist.

The enigmatic Winter has spent six decades creating various outlandish life histories for herself - all of them inventions that have brought her fame and fortune but have kept her violent and tragic past a secret.  Now old and ailing, she at last wants to tell the truth about her extraordinary life.  She summons biographer Margaret Lea, a young woman for whom the secret of her own birth, hidden by those who loved her most, remains an ever-present pain.  Struck by a curious parallel between Miss Winter's story and her own, Margaret takes on the commission.

As Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good, Margaret is mesmerized.  It is a tale of gothic strangeness featuring the Angelfield family, including the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire.

Margaret succumbs to the power of Vida's storytelling but remains suspicious of the author's sincerity.  She demands the truth from Vida, and together they confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.

The Thirteenth Tale is a love letter to reading, a book for the feral reader in all of us, a return to that rich vein of storytelling that our parents loved and that we loved as children.  Diana Setterfield will keep you guessing, make you wonder, move you to tears and laughter and, in the end, deposit you breathless yet satisfifed back upon the shore of your everyday life.

My thoughts:  I don't know where to begin with this one.  This is an amazing author.  She kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time!  Once I thought I had the mystery solved but I was wrong.  I like that in a good story.

I struggle with reviews on how much to tell without spoiling it for a potential reader.  Margret is what I would consider an introvert.  She helps her father in his book store, she reads, and writes a few books.  She is called upon by Ms. Winter to write the correct version of her life because she has told many false stories over the years.  Come to find out her story isn't one she would have wanted known while she still had lots of life to live.

While listing to Ms. Winter's story Margret is dealing with her own life issue of being a twin.  Her sister dying in infancy.  She feels the loss deep into her bones.  She is grieving for the other half of herself that she never new.

I will be looking for more books by Diane Setterfield!

Before We Were Yours

Before We Were Yours. Lisa Wingate. June 2017. Ballantine Books.  352 pages. Source: Audio library book.  

First sentence: August 3, 1939 My story begins on a sweltering August night, in a place I will never set eyes upon.

Plot: Two families, generations apart, are forever changed by a heartbreaking injustice in this poignant novel, inspired by a true story, for readers of Orphan Train and The Nightingale.

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize that the truth is much darker. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together—in a world of danger and uncertainty.

Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions—and compels her to take a journey through her family's long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or redemption.

Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong. (Goodreads)

My thoughts: This was a gripping tale from the very beginning.  I loved the flow of this book.  Back and forth from present to past it was easy to follow.  Although the content was not one that I would say I loved.  In fact it was very difficult at times to think that people would actually do such things to families. 

I came to really adore Avery Stafford.  She begins to find herself in searching her grandmother's secret out.  I was so happy when she made the choice to live for herself and not for the sake of a family name.

I was sad to see this story come to and end.  But all goods ones do.  I appreciated the author telling how the tale was based on a true story.  Georgia Tann was the actual lady who ran the home back in the day.  She died of cancer before she could be charged for her crimes. 

I highley recommend this one.  It kept a good pace and read really quick.

A Man Called Ove

A Man Called Ove. Fredrik Backman. Atria Books. August 2012. 337 pages.  Source: Audio library book.

First sentence: Ove is fifty-nine. He drives a Saab.

Plot: A grumpy yet loveable man finds his solitary world turned on its head when a boisterous young family moves in next door.

Meet Ove. He's a curmudgeon, the kind of man who points at people he dislikes as if they were burglars caught outside his bedroom window. He has staunch principles, strict routines, and a short fuse. People call him the bitter neighbor from hell, but must Ove be bitter just because he doesn't walk around with a smile plastered to his face all the time?

Behind the cranky exterior there is a story and a sadness. So when one November morning a chatty young couple with two chatty young daughters move in next door and accidentally flatten Ove's mailbox, it is the lead-in to a comical and heartwarming tale of unkempt cats, unexpected friendship, and the ancient art of backing up a U-Haul. All of which will change one cranky old man and a local residents' association to their very foundations. (Goodreads)

My thoughts: When I first started this book I wondered why in the world everyone would be all up in arms about this cranky old man!  The more I read the more I felt it had a similar feel to his book "My grandmother wanted me to tell you she's sorry".  It too had a sort of depressing feel about most of the book and then the end surprised you.

This story kept going from current day events to events in Ove's past.  Sometimes so quickly it took me off guard as to what was going on.  But I soon got the feel and flow of the story.  Ove is a very lonely man since his wife Sonya passed away.  So lonely in fact he had tried to commit suicide on countless occasions.  There was always someone there to interfere with his plans.  The ending left me feeling very warm and after all, happy to have read this one!

The Friday Night Knitting Club

The Friday Night Knitting Club. Kate Jacobs. 2007. G.P. Putnam's Sons. 352 pages. Source: Audio library book.

First sentence: Choosing your wool is dizzying with potential: the waves of colors and textures tempt with visions of a sweater or cap (and all the accompanying compliments you hope to receive) but don't reveal the hard work required to get there.

Plot: Once a week, an eclectic group of women comes together at a New York City yarn shop to work on their latest projects - and share the stories of their lives...

At the center of Walker and Daughter is the shop's owner, Georgia, who is overwhelmed with juggling the store and single-handedly raising her teenage daughter. Happy to escape the demands of her life, she looks forward to her Friday Night Knitting Club, where she and her friends - Anita, Peri, Darwin, Lucie, and K.C. - exchange knitting tips, jokes, and their deepest secrets. But when the man who once broke Georgia's heart suddenly shows up, demanding a role in their daughter's life, her world is shattered.

Luckily, Georgia's friends are there for encouragement, sharing their own tales of intimacy, heartbreak, and miracle making. And when the unthinkable happens, these women will discover that what they've created isn't just a knitting club; its a sisterhood.

My thoughts:  Not what I expected at all.  A group of women, most of them vitual strangers, come together to knit on Friday nights and soon develop deep friendships.  Each woman has her issues but knitting gives them a sense of peace.  Yes, I must agree it does once you get the hang of it.

It turns out that I liked this book a lot despite some very strong language (not a lot just a few here and there) and if I come across anymore in the series via audio book I will check it out.

The Old Man and The Sea

The Old Man And The Sea. Ernest Hemingway. 1952. Charles Scribner's Sons. 132 pages. Source (purchased Betterworldbooks.com)

First sentence: He was an old man that fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish.

Plot: It is the story of an old Cuban fisherman and his supreme ordeal: a relentless, agonizing battle with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. Using the simple, powerful language of a fable, Hemingway takes the timeless themes of courage in the face of defeat and personal triumph won from loss and transforms them into a magnificent twentieth-century classic.

My thoughts: From the beginning I felt sorry for this old Cuban man.  He's all alone except for this very thoughtful boy who brings him food without making him feel like a charity case.  Good kid!  
Now he's out at sea, alone, fishing and he hooks the biggest fish he has every caught.  It's a struggle for days!  Me being the worrier that I am fretted through most of the story.  Will he be lost at sea, will this fish capsize his little boat?

If I go into much more I will spoil the story for you.  It was a good little read though.  I read it in just two sittings.

The Great Convergence

The Great Convergence (The Book of Deacon #2). Joseph R. Lallo. Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. July 31, 2012. 314 pages. Source: audio library book.

First sentence: A story half told is a crime, and there is no crime greater.

Plot:  The Great Convergence continues the tale of young Myranda Celeste. With fresh knowledge of magic and steadfast resolve to see the end of the war that plagues her land, Myranda sets out to find and unite the five fated heroes, the Chosen. Each new warrior brings her world a step closer to peace, but does she have the strength to survive the trials ahead. (Goodreads). 

My thoughts: I feel that this book went on and on.  It could have been 100 pages shorter than it really was.

That being said I did feel like the story continued well albeit too long, was left with an ending preparing for the next book.  Which I probably will not seek out right away as I have a lot of reading to get done from my 2018 reading plan.  

Myranda has to learn to use and control her magic in order to help combat the enemy.  The hardest part I felt of this  mission is getting the Chosen to work together.  Each having their own powers and they feel the greatest and best and nobody will work together.  

This is a good read for middle readers to young adults.

The Book of Deacon

The Book of Deacon.  Joseph R. Lallo. Createspace. 322 pages (Source: Audio book)

First sentence: The end of an era is always a time of great importance. 

Plot: The tale of Myranda Celeste, a young woman orphaned by a century long war, and her chance discovery of a fallen soldier's priceless cargo. The find will change her life, sending her on an adventure of soldiers and rebels, wizards and warriors, and beasts both noble and monstrous. Each step will bring her closer to the truth of her potential, of the war, and of the fate of her world. (Goodreads)

My thoughts:  I have a hard time describing these fantasy books but here goes...  Myranda is a wizard but doesn't know it.  If that's possible.  She has powers that weren't ever developed.  But while running from the people who are trying to capture her for what reason she doesn't know she escapes to a land that is full of wizards of various types.  Because her powers are exceptional, without much effort, each wizard wants to train her first.  She passes each test with flying colors, she must be one of the chosen!  The Chosen have the abilit to stop the war that has raged for 150 years but refuses to do so because he makes his money as an assascin.

Deacon... The reasoning to this title didn't hit until Myranda arrived in the land that the wizards resided in.  Deacon was a record keeper of sorts.  The ending left us hearing from Deacon as he had been writing all these events and leading us into the next book.

It was good and I am looking forward to The Great Convergence (The Book of Deacon #2).

Brave New World

Brave New World. Aldous Huxley. Harper Perennial Modern Classics. 2006 (first published 1932). 259 pages. (Source: audio library book)

First sentence: A squat grey building of only thirty-four stories.

Plot: Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order--all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls. “A genius [who] who spent his life decrying the onward march of the Machine” (The New Yorker), Huxley was a man of incomparable talents: equally an artist, a spiritual seeker, and one of history’s keenest observers of human nature and civilization. Brave New World, his masterpiece, has enthralled and terrified millions of readers, and retains its urgent relevance to this day as both a warning to be heeded as we head into tomorrow and as thought-provoking, satisfying work of literature. Written in the shadow of the rise of fascism during the 1930s, Brave New World likewise speaks to a 21st-century world dominated by mass-entertainment, technology, medicine and pharmaceuticals, the arts of persuasion, and the hidden influence of elites. (Goodreads)

My thoughts: This book was way advanced for the year it was written.  What a wild imagination this author had!!  I did not particularly care for this one but I must give him that credit.

The idea is to show how the world could be controlled through medical advances.  Don't know if this author considered it a warning or not.  The State believes that if it controls the people and they have nothing to worry about then everyone is safe and happy.  Peace abounds.  Really it was a strange read.  Had a really bad ending in my opinion.  Don't know why I continue to try science fiction.   It promoted promiscuity over chastity.  Free living as apposed to the more "oppressed" life of marriage and family.

Ripper

Ripper. Isabel Allende. Harper. 2013. 496 pages. (Source: Audio library book).

First sentence: Mom is still alive, but she is going to be murdered at midnight on Good Friday.

Plot: The Jackson women, Indiana and Amanda, have always had each other. Yet, while their bond is strong, mother and daughter are as different as night and day. Indiana, a beautiful holistic healer, is a free-spirited bohemian. Long divorced from Amanda's father, she's reluctant to settle down with either of the men who want her-Alan, the wealthy scion of one of San Francisco's elite families, and Ryan, an enigmatic, scarred former Navy SEAL.

While her mom looks for the good in people, Amanda is fascinated by the dark side of human nature, like her father, the SFPD's Deputy Chief of Homicide. Brilliant and introverted, the MIT-bound high school senior is a natural-born sleuth addicted to crime novels and Ripper, the online mystery game she plays with her beloved grandfather and friends around the world.

When a string of strange murders occurs across the city, Amanda plunges into her own investigation, discovering, before the police do, that the deaths may be connected. But the case becomes all too personal when Indiana suddenly vanishes. Could her mother's disappearance be linked to the serial killer? Now, with her mother's life on the line, the young detective must solve the most complex mystery she's ever faced before it's too late.

My thoughts:  I liked this book despite the slow start for me.  There were may characters to be developed and introduced.  I think the more characters there were the more likely you would not figure out the crime too early in the book.

Recent murders in the San Francisco area is trying to be solved by a group of online people in a game called Ripper.  One Amanda Jackson heads up the group and has an inside connection of sorts.  Her father was in law enforcement, Deputy Chief.   When the murders hit close to home, her mother's fiance, things get tense.  Then Amanda's mother is kidnapped.  It's a race against the clock to find her before midnight on Good Friday.

There was some bad language in this one as I am finding is common in all Allende novels.  Over all a good suspenseful read.

Flowers in the Attic

Flowers in the Attic. V. C. Andrews. Pocket Books. 1979. 389 pages. (Source: purchased from Betterworldbooks.com)

First sentence: It is so appropriate to color hope yellow, like that sun we seldom saw.

Plot:  Such wonderful children. Such a beautiful mother. Such a lovely house. Such endless terror!

It wasn't that she didn't love her children. She did. But there was a fortune at stake--a fortune that would assure their later happiness if she could keep the children a secret from her dying father.

So she and her mother hid her darlings away in an unused attic.

Just for a little while.

But the brutal days swelled into agonizing years. Now Cathy, Chris, and the twins wait in their cramped and helpless world, stirred by adult dreams, adult desires, served a meager sustenance by an angry, superstitious grandmother who knows that the Devil works in dark and devious ways. Sometimes he sends children to do his work--children who--one by one--must be destroyed....

'Way upstairs there are

four secrets hidden.

Blond, beautiful, innocent

struggling to stay alive...

My thoughts:  This was a suspensful read.  It's hard to say that something like this was enjoyable as it was stressful at times.  I found myself hoping and praying that an old man would die soon so that these children could run in the sun and enjoy life.  But it wasn't to be.  These were bright children  ages from 5 to 14.  Their mother bought them everything that money could buy except their freedom.  A home to call their own.

I am looking forward to the next one as I want to see how these children fare in a life.  I can't go into much detail or it will be a huge spoiler!  If you like mystery or drama you will like this one.