MY REVIEW:
HarperCollins|April 29, 2014|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-1-44341-601-6
Have you ever wondered what doctors and nurses are really saying as they zip through the emergency room and onto elevators, throwing cryptic phrases at one another? Or why they do it? Do you guess at the codes broadcast over the loudspeaker, or the words doctors and nurses use when speaking right in front of patients?
In THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF DOCTORS, bestselling author Dr. Brian Goldman opens up the book on the clandestine phrases doctors use to describe patients, situations and even colleagues they detest. He tells us what is means for someone to suffer from incarceritis, what doctors mean when they block and turf, what the various codes mean, and why you never want to suffer a horrendoma. Highly accessible, biting, funny and entertaining, THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF DOCTORS reveals modern medical culture at its best and all too often at its worst.
Goldman's second book is very different from his first titled "Night Watch". Although I enjoyed reading this second, I was finding myself a bit bored after a while. There were too many quotes from other books, too many statistics and not enough "secret language". I thought the book was going to be packed with more slang than it contained and less statistical information. To be honest, by three-quarters of the way through the book, I found myself skipping page after page after page just to hurry the book along. I felt too mired down in quotes from this person or that, or this book or that. Although I learned a few things, it wasn't what I thought it was going to be which is a bit disappointing.
MY REVIEW:
Thomas Nelson|January 20, 2014|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-59554-783-5
Elegance and wealth. Privilege and politics. The extravagance of the Butterfly Palace overwhelmed Lily's senses and nearly smothered her painful memories. She pushed away her misgivings...She was perfectly safe in this huge house.
Austin, Texas--1904: Abandoned by the love of her life and still mourning the loss of her mother, Lily Donaldson has turned her back on the pain and come to Austin for a fresh start, working for the Marshall family as a kitchen maid in their luxurious mansion, the Butterfly Palace. The tasks before her are legion, and her mistress less than pleasant, but at least Lily's new life will be, if nothing else, distracting.
But one night, while serving at a dinner party, Lily recognizes the man who abandoned her, Andy, her liaison from the livery stable, the blacksmith's son...sitting among the distinguished guests. Though he recognizes her, Andy does not acknowledge her aloud, and Lily is left reeling, flabbergasted, and irate.
But before she can get an explanation, the path of the Servant Girl Killer swerves very close to the Butterfly Palace, sowing terror among the maids. Having come to Austin to start anew, Lily suddenly feels trapped in a spider web. How can she know who to trust in a house where lies come dressed in fine suits and deceit in silk gowns the colors of butterfly wings?
If you love historical fiction, you'll love BUTTERFLY PALACE. I couldn't put it down and promised myself that I'd pace my way through to make it last longer but I just couldn't do it. Before I knew it, I was turning the last page!
There was so much mystery, suspense, intrigue, and guesswork throughout this entire novel and I thought for sure I had the culprits pegged several times but I was dashed every single time. This was an excellent novel that is highly recommendable.
MY REVIEW:
HarperCollins|March 31, 2014|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-06-228314-6
It's summer, and after ten years away, Allie Beckett has returned to her family's cabin beside tranquil Butternut Lake, where as a teenager she spent so many carefree days. She's promised her five-year-old son, Wyatt, they will be happy there. She's promised herself this is the place to begin again after her husband's death in Afghanistan. The cabin holds so many wonderful memories, but from the moment she crosses its threshold Allie is seized with doubts. Has she done the right thing uprooting her little boy from the only home he's ever known?
Allie and her son are embraced by the townsfolk, and her reunions with old acquaintances - her friend Jax, now a young mother of three with one more on the way, and Caroline, the owner of the local coffee shop - are joyous ones. And then there are newcomers like Walker Ford, who mostly keeps to himself - until he takes a shine to Wyatt...and to Allie.
Everyone knows that moving forward is never easy, and as the long, hazy days of summer take hold, Allie must learn to unlock the hidden longings of her heart, and to accept that in order to face the future she must also confront - and understand - what has come before.
UP AT BUTTERNUT LAKE was a story I could sink my teeth into. I totally fell in love with Allie, she was such a good mother and Wyatt was her entire world. I could picture Butternut Lake in my mind's eye and see the glistening water and Walker's cottage across the bay from Allie's dock. It was a peaceful, serene read and I was just absolutely lost in the pages of this novel. Very well done! I totally loved it and had such a peaceful feeling when I turned the final page.
My Review:
Kensington|April 1, 2014|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-7582-7342-0
Welcome to the quirky town of Cherico, Mississippi, where potluck meetings at the local library provide a feast for mind and stomach alike...
If some folks had their way, the Cherico library would have shut down long ago. Councilman Durden Sparks aims to divert funding to a cause dear to his heart - and his wallet. With the aid of gumption and good friends, librarian Maura Beth Mayhew has finagled a one-year reprieve, and the burgeoning book club is raising the library's profile one mouthwatering meeting at a time. But more members mean more opinions...
While the Forrest Gump-themed shrimp dishes are a universal hit, meetings don't always go according to plan. Between spirited debate over book choices and surprising revelations and relationship hiccups - including Maura Beth's fledgling romance - there's a lot to discuss. And just when bad luck threatens to finish the library for good, the Cherry Cola Book Club may learn that the best stories have twists - and heroes - you never expected.
I despised Durdin Sparks, a selfish man who didn't do anything unless there was something in it for him. I just wanted to slap that man up side of the head! Maura Beth on the other hand, was a sweet and honest woman who just wanted her library to be saved from destruction and she was willing to do everything in her power to see that through to conclusion. This was a great light read and one that I enjoyed very much.
MY REVIEW:
HarperCollins Publishers|February 4, 2013|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-44341--353-4
Virginia, 1852. Seventeen-year-old Josephine Bell decides to run from the failing tobacco farm where she is a slave and nurse to her ailing mistress, the aspiring artist Lu Anne Bell. New York City, 2004. Lina Sparrow, an ambitious first-year associate in an elite law firm, is given a difficult, highly sensitive assignment that could make her career; she must find the "perfect plaintiff" to lead a historic class-action lawsuit worth trillions of dollars in reparations for descendants of American slaves.
It is through her father, the renowned artist Oscar Sparrow, that Lina discovers Josephine Bell and a controversy roiling the art world: are the iconic paintings long ascribed to Lu Anne Bell really the work of her house slave, Josephine? A descendant of Josephine's would be the perfect face for the reparations lawsuit - if Lina can find one. While following the runaway girl's faint trail through old letters and plantation records, Lina finds herself questioning her own family history and the secrets that her father has never revealed: How did Lina's mother die? And why will he never speak about her?
Moving between antebellum Virginia and modern-day New York, this searing, suspenseful and heartbreaking tale of art and history, love and secrets, explores what it means to repair a wrong and asks whether truth is sometimes more important than justice.
A gripping tale if I ever did read one. A page turner at it's best.
STORY DESCRIPTION:
Harper Collins Publishers|April 11, 2014|Hardcover|ISBN: 978-0-06-2237-47-7
The astonishing and inspiring true story of the 1939 rescue mission of fifty Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Austria to America - the single largest group of children allowed into the United States during that period - told for the first time in book form.
Two ordinary Americans.
Fifty innocent lives.
One unforgettable journey.
In early 1939, few Americans were thinking about the storm clouds gathering in Europe. Nor did they have much sympathy for the growing number of Jewish families that were increasingly threatened and brutalized by Adolf Hitler's troopers in Germany and Austria. Public opinion polls revealed overwhelming support for America's rigid immigration laws, which made it virtually impossible for European Jews to seek safe haven in this country. Neither President Franklin Roosevelt nor Congress was interested in coming to their aid. In fact, anti-semitism was so rampant throughout the United States that even Jewish community leaders were reluctant to support widescale refugee rescue efforts for fear of fueling an even greater backlash.
Despite all of these challenges, a Jewish couple from Philadelphia decided that something had to be done.
In 1939, Gilbert Kraus was a successful 42-year-old lawyer in Philadelphia, whose business and social life revolved around the city's well-heeled German-Jewish community. Gilbert's wife, Eleanor, was a 36-year-old beauty with a penchant for stylish cocktail dresses and fashionable feathered hats.
The dramatic events that unfolded next in their lives provide the rich narrative of a never-before-told story of personal courage and triumphant heroism. It is a story of two ordinary individuals who, at a critical moment in history, rose above themselves to become extraordinary heroes, traveling to Nazi-controlled Vienna and Berlin in Spring 1939 to save fifty Jewish children from an unimaginable fate.
Shockingly, fewer than 1,200 unaccompanied children were allowed into the United States throughout the entire Holocaust, in which 1.5 million children perished. The fifty children saved by the Krauses turned out to be the single largest group of children brought to America.
50 Children grew out of a one-hour documentary of the same name that Steven Pressman wrote, directed, and produced about the Krauses, which aried on HBO in April 2013. The film and the book are based on extensive research including interviews conducted with nearly a dozen of the surviving children and members of the friends and family, as well as Eleanor Kraus's unpublished memoir.
MY REVIEW:
The story description is so well-written that I don't really have anything else to add to the above except to say that I read this book in record time. It amazes me the generosity, compassion, strength, and courage some people have for others. Gil and Eleanor took up this endeavour under great potential harm to themselves but that didn't matter to them whatsoever. There is a lot to learn for all of us in the pages of this book which I highly recommend for everyone.
My Review:
Hyperion|January 21, 2014|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-1-4013-4194-7
Recently widowed and rendered penniless by her Ponzi-scheming husband, Julia Bishop is eager to start anew. So when a stranger appears on her doorstep with a job offer, she finds herself accepting the mysterious yet unique position: caretaker to his mother, Amaris Sinclair, the famous and rather eccentric horror novelist whom Julia has always admired...and who the world believes is dead.
When she arrives at the Sinclairs' enormous estate on Lake Superior, Julia begins to suspect that there may be sinister undercurrents to her "too-good-to-be-true" position. As Julia delves into the reasons of why Amaris chose to abandon her successful writing career and withdraw from the public eye, her search leads to unsettling connections to her own family tree, making her wonder why she really was invited to Havenwood in the first place, and what monstrous secrets are still held prisoner within its walls.
I fell in love with Amaris and Julia both. One minute, Amaris was acting like an old frail woman and the next she was out horseriding. Depending on the day, you just never knew what to expect from her.
Julia was a sweetheart but very intelligent and she knew something was amiss in this house of horrors she entered but didn't know what exactly. How she stayed in that house is way beyond me because after my first sighting of a ghost I would have been long gone. Just the description of the old house was enough to put some trepidation in me and I doubt very much I could sleep in a room, on one floor by myself. Maybe with heavily armed guards but not alone.
This was a very fast paced book that kept me turning the pages faster and faster. I just couldn't put it down and couldn't turn the pages fast enough. This is definitely a keeper and I'll be looking for more of Wendy Webb's work for sure. Great book!
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