Weekly Book List: October 22-28

Sister's Choice by Judith Pella (Adult Fiction)
When it comes to quilting, Maggie Newcomb is all thumbs. And nobody rubs it in more than Emma Jean Stoddard. But Maggie swallows her ire for one simple reason: she has a crush on Emma Jean's handsome son, Colby, and doesn't want to ruin her chances. So she works hard to become the best quilter in Maintown.
      Her plan seems to be working...until Tamara Brennan comes to town. Tamara is wealthy, poised, and beautiful. Several of the local boys are immediately smitten with her, including Colby Stoddard. Desperate to keep Colby's attention, Maggie devises an elaborate plan with her friend Evan. But her scheme brings unexpected consequences, and before long Maggie isn't sure what her heart truly desires.
Book 2 of the Patchwork Circle series. I enjoyed this book better than the first one. It was a perfectly clean, good book. A bit slow for me but a nice, easy book to read. (347 pgs)
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Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver (Young Adult Fiction)
Thousands of years ago the land is one dark forest. Its people are hunter-gatherers. They know every tree and herb and they know how to survive in a time of enchantment and powerful magic. Until an ambitious and malevolent force conjures a demon: a demon so evil that it can be contained only in the body of a ferocious bear that will slay everything it sees, a demon determined to destroy the world. Only one boy can stop it - 12 year old Torak, who has seen his father murdered by the bear. With his dying breath, Torak's father tells his son of the burden that is his. He must lead the bear to the mountain of the World Spirit and beg that spirit's help to overcome it. Torak is an unwilling hero.
Book 1 of the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series. Enjoyable teen fiction. The plot reminded me of The Lord of the Rings series but in Native American settings. (293 pgs)

Glory by Lori Copeland (Adult Fiction)
The fourth book in Lori Copeland's popular historical romance series about mail-order brides. Glory, a young woman whose only relative has just died, joins up with a wagon train of mail-order brides en route to Colorado. Lively adventures, valuable lessons, and a heartwarming romance soon follow.
Book 4 of the Brides of the West series. I liked this one too but the plot wasn't very realistic. It was a cute, clean romance though. (320 pgs)

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A Winter's Gift by Lauren Brooke (Juvenile Fiction)
Since breaking up with Ty and throwing herself into her college work, Amy is more independent and confident than ever. But when she returns to Heartland for her winter break she learns that a lot of things have changed. A pregnant mare will need both Amy and Ty's help to save her. But will the two of them be able to work together again? Amy never realized that coming home for the holidays would be so complicated.
I loved the Heartland series when I was younger so I decided to read this 'special edition' book. I don't remember everything from the series but this was a fine book. It took me about an hour and a half to read so it's not a very challenging book. It's an easy read. (189 pgs)
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Weekly Book List: October 15-21

Tempo Change by Barbara Hall (Young Adult Fiction) New book- October 2009.
Blanche Kelly's dad is a famous indie rock icon, but not many people at the private school she attends on scholarship know this. Her father left when she was in the first grade, and she can't quite forgive her mom for not understanding that an artist like her dad needs the time and space to connect to his muse.
When Blanche creates an all-girl rock band, their sound captures a wide audience and the band is invited to compete at the Coachella Music Festival. Blanche feels this could be the perfect time for a reunion with her father. Won't he be proud to hear her band? Won't he be happy to get to know his only daughter?
Author Barbara Hall sensitively explores the expectations between parents and teens, as well as the value of learning about your past to make your own future.
This wasn't a favorite but it was a decent book. I think the real reason I liked it so much is because the cover is so beautiful. (247 pgs)

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The Summer of Cotton Candy by Debbie Viguie (Young Adult Fiction)
Sixteen-year-old Candace thinks her vacation is ruined when her father forces her to apply for a job at the local amusement park, but when she meets a mysterious 'Lone Ranger' there she finds love and learns the value of true faith and friendship.
Book 1 of the Sweet Season series. A great easy read for teens! Similar to Melody Carlson but much cleaner. Recommended. (209 pgs)

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The Host by Stephanie Meyer (Adult Fiction)
Melanie Stryder refuses to fade away. The earth has been invaded by a species that take over the minds of their human hosts while leaving their bodies intact, and most of humanity has succumbed.
Wanderer, the invading "soul" who has been given Melanie's body, knew about the challenges of living inside a human: the overwhelming emotions, the too vivid memories. But there was one difficulty Wanderer didn't expect: the former tenant of her body refusing to relinquish possession of her mind.
Melanie fills Wanderer's thoughts with visions of the man Melanie loves-Jared, a human who still lives in hiding. Unable to separate herself from her body's desires, Wanderer yearns for a man she's never met. As outside forces make Wanderer and Melanie unwilling allies, they set off to search for the man they both love.
WOW. This book was SO fantastic. (the cover is creepy though) I can't even begin to explain how wonderful it is. I would recommend this book for 16 year olds and up. View my book review website (link below) to see my whole review. (619 pgs)

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A Thousand Shall Fall by Bodie Thoene (Adult Fiction)
The Shiloh Legacy series covers the lives of four young soldiers and their families through these great events: the end of World War I in France, the return of the soldiers to America, the Roaring Twenties, the stock-market crash, the resulting Great Depression, and the rebuilding of lives that must follow. Yet with all the racial, social, and cultural intolerance that marked the day--seemingly immovable mountains in the lives of these characters--God works through the tragedy, the laughter, the pain, the joy, the dramatic, and the ordinary to create a yearning in their hearts for a faith that moves mountains.
Book 2 of the Shiloh Legacy series. It was good, not a favorite. (425 pgs)

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The Blue Bottle Club by Penelope J. Stokes (Adult Fiction)
In the wake of the depression of 1929, four friends gather in a cold, dusty attic on Christmas day to make a solemn pact. Our dreams for the future, they whisper, as they place tiny pieces of paper holding their life wishes into the blue, cabin-shaped bottle. Letitia dreams of marriage and children; Mary hopes to be a painter; Eleanor aspires to help those in need as a social worker; Adora longs to be a Broadway actress. Four girls, four dreams, and four futures sealed in a cobalt blue bottle. Sixty-five years later, local news reporter Brendan Delaney stumbles upon the bottle, discovering the most meaningful story of her career and possibly the meaning missing from her own life.
Another enjoyable book from Penelope J. Stokes. I liked 'The Amethyst Heart' better though. (342 pgs)

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Weekly Book List: October 8-14

June by Lori Copeland (Adult Fiction)
Book 2 of the Brides of the West series.
Mail-order bride June Kallahan arrives in Seattle from Michigan to discover that her intended, Eli Messenger, the assistant to a famous evangelist named Isaac Inman, is ill. After he dies, June stays on to work at the local orphanage, where she realizes Inman is allowing the orphans to go without in order to build a showy tabernacle. A romance blooms between June and Parker Sentell, a friend of Eli's, as they try to convince Inman of the errors of his thinking
Not as fun as the 1st and 3rd books but still good.
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Hope by Lori Copeland (Adult Fiction)
Book 3 of the Brides of the West series.
Federal agent Dan Sullivan shelves his retirement to infiltrate a band of payroll thieves. But he didn't expect to meet stubborn mail-order bride Hope Kallahan, who gets kidnapped by the gang and held for ransom, or that she would be a veritable magnet for danger. As she intimidates hardened criminals into cleaning house and talks Dan into rescuing her, Dan believes God had a reason for throwing her in his path.
A very fun book. I liked it a lot. 
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Jimmy Stewart: A Biography by Marc Eliot (Biography)
Born to reserved parents in Pennsylvania, Stewart dipped his feet into theater at Princeton, joining the University Players troupe and cementing a fateful friendship with Henry Fonda. In the lean years of the Depression, Stewart won acclaim for Broadway roles, striking out West in 1935 to star in Capra films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington....
I made myself finish this because I was about 2/3's of the way into it. The book was interesting but it focused too much on the "love" lives of the actors and actresses in Hollywood.
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In My Father's House by Bodie Thoene (Adult Fiction)
From every conceivable culture, men joined together in foxholes to fight World War I the Great War that would bring the world together in peace, for all time. Jews and Irish, blacks and whites fought side by side and formed bonds of friendship that would tie them together forever. Max Meyer, a Jew from New York; Ellis Warne, an Irish doctor's son from Ohio; Birch Tucker, an Arkansas farm boy even Jefferson Canfield, the son of a black sharecropper.
An interesting book. It was good but not my favorite. I liked it enough that I'm planning on reading the sequel.
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Sala's Gift: My Mother's Holocaust Story by Ann Kirschner (Biography)
Kirschner knew that her mother was born in Poland, the youngest of 11 children, and that she had survived a Nazi camp and came to the U.S. as a war bride. In 1991, when Sala Kirschner was 67, she learned that she needed triple-bypass surgery and then showed her daughter a collection of more than 350 letters, postcards, and scraps of paper, some written in barely legible, tiny, cramped handwriting, others in beautiful italic script, and some dashed off in blunt pencil scrawls. They were from her years in seven labor camps from 1940 to 1945. The letters were written by more than 80 people and they told the story of a family, a city, and an elaborate system of slavery. There are hand-drawn birthday cards, some with poems, and love letters
WOW. This has to be one of the best books I've read in such a long time. It was fantastic.
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Homecoming by Jill Marie Landis (Adult Fiction)
For the first time, Eyes-of-the-Sky prayed to the white man's God. One look in the mirror told her she was not a Comanche.yet she remembered no other life. She watched the whites who had taken her in after her "rescue," the mother, Hattie, and her handsome son, Joe, and wondered what her life had been like before her childhood abduction. She looked at Joe, who had suffered much and forgave little, and knew longing in her heart. But questions remained: What am I? Who am I?
Jill Marie Landis weaves an unforgettable story about a young woman adrift in two worlds, and her courageous journey to discovery, belonging and love..
It was cute =) (311 pgs)

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Weekly Book List: October 1-7

Where The Wild Rose Blooms by Lori Wick (Adult Fiction)
Clayton Taggart dreams of the day when he can fulfill his longing to teach school. Then he meets Jackie Fontaine, a strong, opinionated young woman, and the spark of love ignites. But the course of true love never runs smoothly, and the couple is soon separated by circumstances beyond their control. Will their love for each other be strong enough to survive their separation?
Book 1 of the Rocky Mountain Memories series
I thought this book was really cute! It was another of the books I purchased at the library sale last week.
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The Amethyst Heart by Penelope J. Stokes (Young Adult Fiction)
The only possession Miss Amethyst Noble loves as much as the antique brooch she wears at her throat is Noble House-a symbol of freedom, faith, and a family history proudly and inextricably entwined with the history of a nation. For a hundred and forty years, Noble House has been a place of shelter, hope, and healing in Cambridge, Mississippi. A place of miracles.
When she discovers her dissolute son has designs to sell the ancestral home out from under her, Miss Amethyst-ninety-three years old and as sharp as eve- isn't about to let that legacy go. If her son is lost to her, there's still her granddaughter. Little Am, who had once held such sweet promise, but the gentle, good-natured child has mutated in her teenage years into something else altogether. But whatever it takes, Little Am is going to know that the Noble family heritage is worth fighting for.
I was so excited after I read this book! It was fantastic! (and another of the books I got at the sale)
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The Sorcerer King by Frewin Jones (Young Adult Fiction)
Tania has brought the long-lost Queen Titania back to Faerie from the Mortal World of modern London. But when they cross between the worlds, they find only devastation.
The Sorcerer King of Lyonesse—ancient enemy of the Faerie Court—has been released from his amber prison. As the wicked sorcerer regains his power, King Oberon, Tania's father, is imprisoned and the Faerie Court is being destroyed.
Tania and her true love, Edric, must travel the Realm to try to find and rescue King Oberon, who is their only hope for defeating the evil Sorcerer King. And Tania must prepare for battle . . . and to fight a war that she may not survive.
The 3rd book in the Faerie Path series. I think I liked the first two books better but this was good too.
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The Immortal Realm by Frewin Jones (Young Adult Fiction)
Tania has finally found a way to bring her two worlds together, and while enjoying a long-awaited meeting of her Mortal and Faerie families, with her beloved Edric by her side, all seems right for the princess.
But when a Faerie baby suddenly falls ill, followed by more and more Faeries - including her own sister Cordelia - Tania knows that something is terribly wrong.
With no time to lose, Tania joins forces with her sisters to find a cure before this dark plague kills everyone she loves. Yet as the illness spirals out of control, Tania realizes that what they really need is help from the Mortal World. But will bringing another stranger to Faerie only make things worse? With countless lives hanging in the balance and a fast-growing Faerie suspicion of all things Mortal - including Tania herself - Tania makes a desperate move that will either save the land and people she has come to hold dear . . . or destroy their only chance for survival.
The 4th book of the Faerie Path series. Again, I liked the first two better but it was enjoyable.
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Sir Gawain and the Green Knight translated by J.R.R. Tolkein (Literature)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" is the famous Arthurian tale about Sir Gawain and his encounter with the Green Knight. The work was written around the 14th century by an anonymous writer. J.R.R. Tolkien is one of the most renowned translators of the work. (review taken from: http://classiclit.about.com/od/sirgawain/tp/aatp_sirgawaing.htm)
This was an odd story but really interesting.
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Whispers of Moonlight by Lori Wick (Adult Fiction)
When Travis and Rebecca marry, rumors quickly spread that he has done so only for her dying father's ranch. Convinced that Travis can never truly love her, Rebecca disappears to make a new life for herself in a town far away.
Book 2 of the Rocky Mountain Memories series. A fun read!




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Monthly Book List: September

The monthly book lists will make it easier to browse the books read in a certain month, rather than needing to view each weekly post. If you are interested in seeing a picture of the front cover and my general assessment of any specific book listed below, go to that week's original post.

All books read in September:

Week 1 (September 3-9):

Lady of Milkweed Manor by Julie Klassen
The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry
The Edge of the Sword by Rebecca Tingle
The Far Traveler by Rebecca Tingle
A Circle of Silver by Maxine Trottier
Beowulf translated by Charles W. Kennedy

Week 2 (September 10- 16):
Meet Dorothy Day by Woodeene Koenig-Bricker
The Story of My Life by Helen Keller
Tomboy Bride by Harriet Fish Backus
Faith by Lori Copeland

Week 3 (September 17- 23):
The Apothecary's Daughter by Julie Klassen
No Place For A Lady by Maggie Bendan
A Promise For Spring by Kim Vogel Sawyer
Into the Wild by Sarah Beth Durst
Bachelor's Puzzle by Judith Pella
Just Another Girl by Melody Carlson

Week 4 (September 24-30):
Rebecca's Reward by Lauraine Snelling
A Gift of Grace by Amy Clipston
The Song of Roland by Annonymous
White Chocolate Moments by Lori Wick
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20 books total! =)

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Weekly Book List: September 24-30

I went to a library booksale this week! It was fun! =)

Rebecca's Reward by Lauraine Snelling (Adult Fiction)
Nineteen-year-old Rebecca Baard has experienced more than her share of sorrow, and now she is afraid to open her heart to love. Besides, no man has ever shown enough interest in her to come courting. So Rebecca's friends set out to remedy the situation, concocting social events to attract all the eligible bachelors in Blessing and advising her in the use of feminine wiles. When none of these efforts seem to work, Rebecca tries yet another tack, only to discover that even the best of intentions can't keep events from taking a surprising turn. Will Rebecca overcome her fears, or will she settle for something less than love?
This was an enjoyable book but sometimes it went too slow.
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A Gift of Grace by Amy Clipston (Adult Fiction)
When Rebecca Kauffman's older sister, who left the Amish community when she was a teenager, dies in an automobile accident, Rebecca is left custody of her two modern non-Amish teenage nieces, Jessica and Lindsay. Will she be able to reconcile the two worlds in her home - or will the clash of cultures tear her world, including her marriage, apart?
Similar to Beverly Lewis' 'The Redemption of Sarah Cain'. In this case though, an Amish woman is taking in her "English" nieces, not the other way around. It was good.
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The Song of Roland translated by Dorothy L. Sayers (Literature)
Presents the classical epic, glorifying the heroism of Charlemagne in the 778 battle between the Franks and the Moors.
Read it for school. It was pretty gruesome but it was interesting and historical.


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White Chocolate Moments by Lori Wick (Adult Fiction)
After losing her parents, Arcineh Bryant lives with her grandfather as a girl. But growing up without her family causes her to hold resentment toward the man who took her in. Years later, when she meets a man she thinks she may love, she doubts whether she can trust her own heart.
A character - rich journey leads Arcineh back to her grandfather's home where there are surprises, questions, and for the first time in her life, an answer to “who will love me forever?” This compelling story about a woman's hunger for acceptance and wholeness points the reader home to God's love.
An enjoyable work of contemporary Christian romance by Lori Wick. This is one of the books I got from the library sale so I'm excited that it was worth buying!
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Currently reading:

James Stewart by Marc Eliot (Biography)
He had an interesting life but this author focuses too much on the "love" lives of people in Hollywood -which is not what I was interested in when I picked this up. I'll finish it but do not plan to read it again.








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