March's Book of the Month

Hello Everyone! I chose the picture posted above because it reminds me of reading to my daughter Mareena when she was little. Every afternoon until she was about eight or nine years old, we would take one of her books that she wanted to read or that she was reading and we would curl up together on my big bed. 

We would spend an hour or so reading a chapter of her book, and then take a nap together. Her absolutely favorite author at that time was an English author named Enid Blyton. Ahh, nice memories...

My picks for 'Books of the Month' will be decidedly more adult these days, but they will be from almost any genre. March's Book of the Month is: 

Colony by Anne Rivers Siddons

Published as: Colony in July 1992

Publisher: Harpercollins

Birth Name: Sybil Anne Rivers

Born: 9 January 1936 in Atlanta, Georgia

Canonical Name: Anne Rivers Siddons

Pseudonyms: None

Colony by Anne Rivers Siddons was the twenty-first book that I read in 2010. I have had this book on my TBR shelf since March 1, 2009 although I didn't actually read it until March of 2010. This book took me four days to read and is a definite keeper for me.

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Catherine Cookson - The Desert Crop

23. The Desert Crop by Catherine Cookson (1997)
Length: 320 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Started: 28 March 2010
Finished: 31 March 2010
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 1 March 2009
Why do I have it? I like Catherine Cookson as an author and have read and enjoyed several books by this author in the past.


In Fellburn of the 1880's, money was tight in the surrounding farming communities. When Hector Stewart announced to his family that he was going to marry Moira - a wealthy distant relative, it was his youngest son who guessed the reason why. This is the story of Moira and the family's reaction to her. I give this a B+! It was a little too easily explained in my opinion.

B+! - (89-85%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Hillary Waugh - The Shadow Guest

22. The Shadow Guest by Hillary Waugh (1971)
Length: 256 pages
Genre: Contemporary Mystery
Started: 25 March 2010
Finished: 27 March 2010
Where did it come from? It came as the first Hillary Waugh book in a package that I bought over the Internet from Augustine Funnell Books in Canada.
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 1 March 2010
Why do I have it? I like Hillary Waugh as an author and have Sleep Long, my Love and The Glenna Powers Case by the same author on my TBR pile.


When Angela suffers a sickness, her doctor advises a change of scenery for her. She and her husband Howard move into a house by the sea in England. They soon discover strange happenings occurring at their new house. I first read this book a long time ago, and I've remembered it ever since. I've been trying to get a copy of this book for literally years. My daughter found it in Canada finally. I give this story an A+! most definitely.

A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Anne Rivers Siddons - Colony

21. Colony by Anne Rivers Siddons (1992)
Length: 640 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 20 March 2010
Finished: 24 March 2010
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 1 March 2009
Why do I have it? I like Anne Rivers Siddons as an author and have read and enjoyed several books by this author in the past.


When Maude Chambliss first arrives at Retreat, the seasonal home of her husband's aristocratic family, she is a nineteen year old fresh faced bride direct from South Carolina convinced that she will never fit in with everyone. Everyone believes the same, until she begins to make friends. As time goes by, Maude falls in love with the colony and the people who live there.


There is Maude's husband, Peter, consumed with a darkness of spirit; her adored but dangerously fragile children; her domineering mother-in-law, who teaches Maude that it is the women of the colony who possess the strength to keep it intact and Micah Willis, a Maine native who turns out to be Maude's truest friend.


I loved this story and give it an A+! I don't usually read long books, but this book just drew me in and flew by for me. I didn't want it to ever end.


A+! - (96-100%)



Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Jill Ireland - Life Lines

20. Life Lines by Jill Ireland (1989)
Length: 358 pages
Genre: Non-Fiction
Started: 16 March 2010
Finished: 20 March 2010
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 1 March 2009
Why do I have it? I like non-fiction and was always curious about Jill Ireland's life.

In Jill Ireland's first book, Life Wish she chronicled her inspirational struggle to survive cancer. In Life Lines - the sequel - Jill Ireland recounts the multiple tragedies that threatened at times to overwhelm her. With her first husband, Scottish actor and musician David McCallum, Jill had three sons, one of whom, Jason, was adopted at birth from a teenaged mother. Jason's differences were noticed very early, especially when the McCallum children joined the Bronson household in 1968, when Jill Ireland married her second husband, Charles Bronson.

But in that sprawling Bel Air mansion, buzzing with activity, Jason's addictive personality was initially obscured from those who loved him. The painful journey of mother and son through his recovery from and subsequent relapses into alcoholism and drug dependency reached a turning point with the intervention of Jason's birth mother and Jill's acknowledgement of Jason's problems. Concurrently, tragedy strikes in the form of the steady physical deterioration of Jill's father, rendered speechless by a stroke.

Unfortunately, Jason died from an accidental drug overdose in 1989, six months before his mother passed away from breast cancer. I definitely respect Jill Ireland for the struggles she went through in her life, but I do have to say that Life Lines, while extremely enjoyable, was slightly annoying because it occasionally went back and forth throughout Jason's life - calling him 'Kier' before birth, and 'Jason' during his life with her. 'Kier' might have been Jason's name before he was adopted, but it was just slightly confusing for me to read as she occasionally wrote passages where 'Baby Kier's cries for his mother's love struggled to be heard through Jason's constant drug abuse.' Overall, I give Life Lines by Jill Ireland an A!

A! - (90-95%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Diane Masters - Nothing But the Best

19. Nothing But the Best by Diane Masters (1983)
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 12 March 2010
Finished: 16 March 2010
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 1 March 2009
Why do I have it? I like contemporary fiction and Diane Masters is a new author for me.

When her husband takes her children and leaves her, Jennifer struggles to get her life together and get her children back. I could really relate to Jennifer as she becomes a bartender at the local pub, and I've done my share of bartending myself. I give this story an A!

A! - (90-95%)


Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

George Christian Ortloff - A Lady in the Lake: A True Account of Death and Discovery in Lake Placid

18. A Lady in the Lake: A True Account of Death and Discovery in Lake Placid by George Christian Ortloff (1985)
Length: 51 pages
Genre: True Crime
Started: 10 March 2010
Finished: 12 March 2010
Where did it come from? From Paperback Swap
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 24 February 2010
Why do I have it? I like true crime and hadn't ever heard of this case before.


This is the odd but true story of a successful lady whose body was found in Lake Placid 30 years after her death. It was unknown whether or not her death was murder or suicide. I liked this story very much and give it an A!

A! - (90-95%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Belva Plain - Blessings

17. Blessings by Belva Plain (1989)
Length: 340 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 8 March 2010
Finished: 10 March 2010
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 1 March 2009
Why do I have it? I like Belva Plain as an author and have read and enjoyed several books by this author in the past.


At thirty-six, Jennie Rakowsky's life couldn't be better. She was engaged to a wonderful man, her career as a lawyer was skyrocketing and she was never more beautiful. Then a secret from nineteen years ago threatened to shatter it all. I really love Belva Plain's books. I think she is a wonderful writer and I give the story an A+! I definitely love books about family relationships rather then straight romance.

A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Peter Straub - Julia

16. Julia by Peter Straub (1974)
Length: 304 pages
Genre: Horror
Started: 5 March 2010
Finished: 8 March 2010
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 1 March 2009
Why do I have it? I like horror and Peter Straub is a new author for me.


When Julia Lofting loses her child horribly, she moves to a new house to deal with her grief. What she finds is that her house is haunted by a little girl who died mysteriously. Now she must deal with her own grief and discover how the child from her house died. I sort of enjoyed this book and give it a B+!

B+! - (89-85%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

David Payne - Ruin Creek

15. Ruin Creek by David Payne (1993)
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Started: 28 February 2010
Finished: 5 March 2010
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 20 November 2009
Why do I have it? I like historical fiction and David Payne is a new author for me


This is a story about the breakdown of a marriage in the 1950s. It's told from three perspectives: Jimmy, the would-be doctor, May, daughter of a wealthy and influential southern family, and Joey, their unplanned 12-year-old son. It's a story about broken dreams and new found realities and how this family deals with them. I give this story an A+! - it was well-written and thought-provoking.

A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Reading Wrap-up for February at Moonshine and Rosefire

Hello everyone out there and I hope that you all had a terrific reading month for yourselves. I am known as Rosefire around the Internet and this is my new personal reading blog. I originally posted my reviews over at my daughter's blog, Emeraldfire's Bookmark but am now in the process of transferring them all over to my own blog. My daughter makes blogging look like so much fun that I thought that I would try it out for myself! :)

Anyway, I started out February with 646 unread books lying around the house and ended the month with 639 books unread. All of the books that I acquired this month came from Bookmooch and Paperback Swap.

Let me try to break down the influx for you:

Changes to the TBR pile 


Read from my TBR pile (Yes! I am a reading machine :))
- The Unholy by Michael Falconer Anderson
- Homecoming by Belva Plain
- The Forbidden Zone by Whitley Strieber
- The Visitor by Jere Cunningham
- The Perfect Summer by Luanne Rice
- Whitethorn Woods by Maeve Binchy
- Celebrity Detox: (The Fame Game) by Rosie O'Donnell


Added to my TBR pile (oh well, you win some and you lose some! :))
- Hunter's Blood by Jere Cunningham
- The King's General by Daphne du Maurier
- The Good Mother by Sue Miller
- A Lady in the Lake: The True Account of Death and Discovery in Lake Placid by George Christian Ortloff
- The Sight of the Stars by Belva Plain
- Victims by Dorothy Uhnak
- Needlepoint For Everyone by Mary Picken
- Breaking Point by Daphne du Maurier

Taken off my TBR pile and sent to a new home (Yay! Happy Dance! :))
- Woman Vanishes by Caroline Crane
- Ghost Train by Stephen Laws
- The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd by Jana Bommersbach
- Castle Barebane by Joan Aiken
- The Shop on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber
- The Keys to the Street by Ruth Rendell
- A Dark Place by Aaron Elkins
- Through Violet Eyes by Stephen Woodworth
- Timeless Healing by Herbert Benson
- Blind Eye: How the Medical Establishment Let a Doctor Get Away With Murder by James B. Stewart
- The Falcon at the Portal by Elizabeth Peters
- The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen
- Lincoln by Gore Vidal
- Cutco Cookbook World's Finest Cutlery Volume 1 by Margaret Mitchell
- Cabal by Clive Barker
- The Doubleman by C. J. Koch
- At Weddings and Wakes by Alice McDermott
- Act of Darkness by Francis King
- My Sister the Moon by Sue Harrison
- Speak For the Dead by Margaret Yorke
- Women's Work by Anne Tolstoi Wallach
- The End of the Dream: The Golden Boy Who Never Grew Up: Ann Rule's Crime Files Volume 5 by Ann Rule
- A Painted House by John Grisham
- Britannia Mews by Margery Sharp
- Taltos by Anne Rice
- Sacrificial Ground by Thomas H. Cook
- The Misbegotten Son by Jack Olsen
- Kiss me Again, Stranger by Daphne du Maurier
- Glass People by Gail Godwin
- And a Voice to Sing With by Joan Baez
- The Complete Home Decorator: More Than 200 Practical Projects to Transform Your Home, With Over 1000 Color Photographs by Stewart and Sally Walton
- A Sleeping Life by Ruth Rendell
- The Daughters of Cain by Colin Dexter
- The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

Well, there it is...the breakdown! All in all, a very good reading month for me. Here's a further breakdown:

Books Read: 7
Pages Read: 1,996
Grade Range: A+! to C!

So, there you go! The reading month that was February. I hope that you all had an equally good reading month; if not a little better. :) See you all next month! :)


Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight