Gifted

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neal Hurston

Adult Classic Fiction

Sometimes, rarely, you read a book and you know the author isn't skilled or masterful but gifted. Gifted in a way a virtuoso is, gifted in a way that can't be taught or bought, but only received through some divine blessing.  Such is Hurston and this book.  I have never read Hurston before and am so delighted to have discovered her.  What an absolute literary treasure.  It is a pity there are so few of her works.  I'll have to space them out so I don't exhaust them too soon. 

Janie marries first to escape from home to man picked out for her by her grandmother.  He was so much older and she found she had traded one kind of servitude for another.  It must be better to marry for love, she resolves.  Longing for that, Janie walks away from her marriage into the arms of a man who makes her a great many promises which he keeps.  She is a fine lady with nice things, held up on a  pedestal.  But still, Janie longs for love.  Finally, she takes for a lover a man twenty years younger who makes her wildly happy, wildy angry, and wildy sad.  Which of these choices is right?  Which is love?

Hurston is a true master of human emotions and can express in a few words oceans of what is unsaid and still understood by the human heart.  This is a book on women's right--and the unfairness of being a female in her time period.  I love that Hurston stays true to her voice, to the story, even though Janie's action are so difficult, so controversial, and yet, ultimately, so true.

More a Fizzle than a Spark

The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

Adult Romance

I am not a huge Nicholas Sparks fan so my review might not be to your liking if you enjoy his work.  I've read one book of this that I've loved, 2 or 3 that I've liked a lot and then the rest are kind of like this one-just okay. 

Travis and Gabby have absolutely nothing in common.  Travis is a good-natured goof, into sports and hanging out.  Gabby is focused on her life plan of career+marriage+family=happy.  Gabby's dilemma?  Stick with her boring boyfriend of several years or take a chance on love.  This book is about them before their courtship and then shoots straight to a decade in the future.  Travis has to face a major decision about their relationship.  That was a bit of a jump for me and really had me struggling to figure out what the heck happened and what is Travis so undecided about.  And, quite frankly, why does he even want to get mixed with up Gabby in the first place?  She's stuffy and demanding and irritating.  I was kind of hoping he found someone better.

It seemed liked Sparks was trying to make some grand statement about life, but I'll be darned if I could figure it out.  I do like the romance part--warm and fuzzy with a nice dash of sexy.  Overall, the book just fizzled for me with no Sparks.

I Just Don't Get All the Fuss

The Maze Runner by James Daschner

Adolescent Dystopian

I really wanted to love this series.  I mean, it was on the NY Times Bestseller list, for Pete's sake!  But, I didn't love it.  I didn't even like it.  I kept waiting and waiting for the book to live up to its reputation, but it never did.  It started out weird and boring and stayed that way.

When Thomas wakes up, the only thing he can remember is his name.  He doesn't know where he is or who he is.  All he knows is that he has to escape.  The entire book had one setting and I found myself wanting to escape it, too.  Thomas has landed in the Glade, a sort of perpetually moving bush maze with flesh-eating monsters.  The why of this is never really explained.  It's not very clear why this manic need to escape is in the story or why they have to desperately search the maze every day or, well, the 'why' of hardly anything is explained.  What is the point here?  Is it in the second book?

It mostly reminded me of a modern day Lord of the Flies, another book I didn't love.  I just don't know if I have the gumption to sit through another book....I hope a lover of this series will step forward and tell me what I'm missing. 

It Gets Better and Better

Blood Bound:  Mercy Thompson #2 by Patricia Briggs

Paranormal Romance

This is a very unique paranormal tale-not just another story where the main character falls in love with a vampire or werewolf.  In this book, the main character is ALSO a paranormal (a shape-shifting coyote) and falls is love with BOTH a vampire and a werewolf, or two.

In this second installment of the series, Stefan, Mercy's vampire friend asks her for a favor-to accompany him to the master vampire's house.  Stefan gets more than he bargained for and now he isn't safe, and neither is Mercy.  The paranormal aspects of this book get really deep as a demonic possessed vampire goes up against Mercy's werewolf neighbors. 

I really like this series.  It is the perfect amount of paranormal, adventure, mystery and romance.  My favorite part, though, is the romance with next-door neighbor Alpha-wolf Adam, who is competing with Mercy's feelings for her first love, werewolf Samuel.  The cheesy covers don't do the story justice as this series continues to get better and better.

Waverly Hills TB Hospital

With Their Dying Breaths: A History of Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Sanatorium by CC Thomas

History
With Their Dying Breaths: A History of Waverly Hills Tuberculosis Sanatorium
The book I'm reviewing today is my own.  This story, the story of Waverly Hills, is one that has haunted me for years.  Not because of the haunted history of the place, but because the history is one that stays with you. 

When I first learned of the hospital, I was writing for a local newspaper and just went to do a piece on the infamous haunted house.  But, something about the place stayed with me and I wanted to learn more.  I started to do research and the more I learned, the more I wanted to know.  Kentucky's history with tuberculosis was so fascinating that I just couldn't get enough.  So much suffering and it wasn't so long ago---yet, hardly anyone remembered how tuberculosis devastated entire communities.  I read what I could get my hands one, which wasn't much.

And, that's how the book came to be.  It isn't so much a story of the haunted-ness of the hospital as it is about the lives that lived through it.  I tried to be as comprehensive as I could, which makes some of it a bit dry, but I thought it was important to include it all.

Now that I've written it, I find the story still isn't finished.  I have so many people telling me about other stories out there, waiting for me.  Stories from beloved parents, grandparents--many of whom were touched by the hospital and by tuberculosis.  I hope to tell their stories, too.  So, contact me if you have a story to share or know someone who does.  It's the only way that history will stay alive--if we keep the stories alive.

Not My Favorite Plums

Plum Lovin': A Stephanie Plum Between the Numbers Novel by Janet Evanovitch

Paranormal Mystery

This is not the usual Stephanie Plum books I have come to love; it isn't a hard-hitting quirky who-dun-it.  As a 12.5 in the series of Plum books, it veers off the course into some type of quirky paranormal who-dun-it.  And, I just don't like these at all.

It isn't a bad series, but get a new main character, Evanovitch.  Make a new series and leave my series alone!  This series is taken.  Why doesn't the author just start something new instead of horning in on a series I already love and one that isn't paranormal in any way?

A strange man named Diesel shows up at Stephanie's apartment and he needs detective help.  Stephanie is kind of busy on a case so they trade favors:  he'll find her bounty if she plays Cupid.  The literal Cupid, who appears to be missing.  Stephanie is really having a hard time wrapping her mind around this new reality and I can't blame her--as a reader, I feel a bit that way too.

The only real similarity with the regular Plum novels is Stephanie's bumbling attempts to solve a crime, which is always a hilarious delight.  But, without Ranger or Morelli, a really important piece of the Plum pie is missing.

My First Picoult, but Not My Last

Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult

Adult Fiction

I really like this author's writing style.  It's my first book by her but won't be my last.

Ellie is a high-powered Philadelphia attorney who is having some personal issues and a professional crisis.  She heads to her aunt's home in Pennsylvania Amish country for some R&R.  Her vacation is interrupted when her aunt begs her to take on a new case--her niece and Ellie's cousin by marriage.  The cousin is an unmarried Amish teen accused of giving birth secretly and then killing the baby.

Their clash is apparent in every way-philosophical, cultural, religious, their views of women.  Their situations force them to face some hard truths about themselves.

You just don't know what going to happen or how it's going to end.  How can there be a happy ending to such a sad story and why did I even expect one?  This one is a mystery that keeps you gripped and, even though you know what's going on, you don't really know what's going to happen.  I hope all her other books are this good!