THE DA VINCI CODE BY DAN BROWN

THE DA VINCI CODE BY DAN BROWN is a re read for me. Actually its a re re re re read(you get the point!)  I love the way Mr.Brown takes history and puts it into a suspense novel. If you like your historical fiction with a dash of intrigue/mystery & suspense the the DA VINCI CODE BY DAN BROWN is the book for you.

SISI:EMPRESS ON HER OWN BY ALLISON PATAKI

SISI-EMPRESS ON HER OWN BY ALLISON PATAKI introduces the reader to Empress Elizabeth of Austria-Hungry, young and very beautiful but wanting nothing more than to ride her horses & be as far away from Vienna and her husband as possible.  The author takes historical facts and weaves the tales of Sisi's life in a way that makes you want to read more. The book lets you walk ( or in Sisi's case ride at times) with her, her husband, her children & her insatiable mother in law Sophie. And I did find myself captured in Pataki's words and did follow Sisi and her life.  I lived with Sisi thanks to the work of this author. If you are into historical fiction,then I highly recommend SISI: EMPRESS ON HER OWN BY ALLISON PATAKI

i recieved this book free from goodreads in exchange for a review

A GOOD MARRIAGE BY STEPHEN KING

A GOOD MARRIAGE BY STEPHEN KING: I have been a Stephen King fan for many many years.  I am not saying that I like all Kings books because that would be a lie.  So when I tell you that A GOOD MARRIAGE, a King short story is ten stars I mean its GREAT!  This is old school King, meaning that the book starts out innocent enough( a woman describing her marriage) and concludes with an ending that is so typical King. I have always thought that his short stories are always his best efforts, and A GOOD MARRIAGE is no different.

THE TEA PLANTER'S WIFE BY DINAH JEFFERIES

THE TEA PLANTER'S WIFE BY DINAH JEFFERIES is about Gwen Hooper, who at the age of 19 marries a tea grower after a whirlwind romance. She knows very little about Lawrence, her new husband ,and even less about Ceylon the country, or how to be a married woman.  She arrives in Ceylon and realizes she is way over her head in all aspects of this new life.  Her duties are to manage the accounts of the house(which she has no experience in) manage the household staff ( which hate her) & to be the wife of a man she barely knows.  Secrets abound at the plantation & about her husband & Gwen is determined to find out all the answers.

THE TEA PLANTER'S WIFE is historical fiction with a dash of mystery to keep it interesting.  Since I adore both genre's it was a great read for me!  I recieved this book free from goodreads in exchange for a honest review

THE HELP BY KATHERYN STOCKETT

THE HELP BY KATHRYN STOCKETT taker the reader back to the sixties in Mississippi. A time where segregation was the norm and Martin Luther King's famous march in Selma AL is about to happen.  New college graduate Euphina Phelan who is white has questions.  Questions like where is Constantine the black maid of the Phelan house? No one will give her the answer so she sets out on her own to find out one way or another.  With the help of two black maids Minnie and Aibileen she gets her answers and more.
 Euphina is writing a book, a book about what it is like to be black in Mississippi &  what the maids and all blacks deal with.  Everything from listening to white people talk about black diseases to having to use a bathroom for blacks only to having to go to black doctors at black hospitals, black libraries,black grocery stores and more.  The covers of discrimination are being tossed back and the picture is NOT pretty, and its a white woman who's doing it!

I loved this book!  The characters are right out of the pages of the early sixties.  So real you can reach out and touch them!

HOUSE RULES BY JODI PICOULT

HOUSE RULES BY JODI PICOULT:  Believe me when I tell you I would have never chosen to read a book from this author but it was my "blind date" book from my local library so I picked it and I read it.  I did not read all of it because the middle part of the "mystery"  was the trial which drug on and on.  Needless to say I was very surprised that what sections I did read I enjoyed.  I enjoyed the characters they were well rounded and very believable, from Emma the mother to Oliver the attorney  the author created a  pretty well rounded story.  If only the murder trial had not slugged its way thru most of the book it would have gotten higher ratings from me.

THE HORSE WHISPERER BY NICHOLAS EVANS

Every February our local library does a "blind date with a book"  They take all genre's of books,wrap them in newspapers & put a red bow on them.  Patrons "pick a blind date" check it out and rate the book for prizes.  My first "blind date" this year is THE HORSE WHISPERER BY NICHOLAS EVANS.  Keep in mind you do not know what type of book you get until you unwrap it,which is part of the fun!

I have a love/hate relationship with these subjects of books.  I loved it( I read it in only three days) and I hate it because I cried thru parts of it & I hate to cry while reading,my husband and son make fun of me!  This book plays to basic emotions. The characters could be your best friends or relatives .  I cried when Grace had her accident. I cried for her I cried for Promise! (I am a horse lover) I was hurt when I read of the extensive damage Promise lived thru.  I cheered when Tom Booker started working with Promise & I cried and cheered all the way thru the book.

THE HORSE WHISPERER  is a rollercoaster of a book that plays on emotions of the reader.  No wonder the movie of the same title did so well.  I would give it a ten star if I could.  

FINDING JOSIE BY WENDY BILEN

FINDING JOSIE BY WENDY BILEN takes the reader (and Wendy Bilen) back to the life of her grandmother Josie Broadhead.  Most of us have had or still have grandmothers like Josie.  From the first page I not only got to know about Josie, but it brought back all the memories of my grandmother who like Josie was born and raised on a farm.  Josie, her life, her love & her passion of writing and taking in the strays of the world that just happened to stop at her house to ask for a handout or a bed.

Its not very often that I find a biography that can hold my interest page after page.  Wendy Bilen did just that with FINDING JOSIE.  The author ( and Josie's granddaughter)  did a fantastic job of bringing Josie back to life in this book.  I kept wanting to know more about Josie & her family. About how Josie herself found a passion in writing even though it was not perfect enough for publication, just perfect for Josie though.  FINDING JOSIE BY WENDY BILEN is that rare biography that does not bloviate the subject nor make them larger than life.  FINDING JOSIE is about a real woman who, not famous, was the perfect subject for a biography, a normal woman. Who better than a real, average, American woman to be a person who's life story must be shared by all.

I recieved this book free in exchange for an honest review.