August'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. August's Book of the Month is: 

Testimony by Anita Shreve

Published as: Testimony: A Novel in October 2008

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Birth Name: Anita Shreve

Born: 1946 in Dedham, Massachusetts

Canonical Name: Anita Shreve

Pseudonyms: None

Testimony by Anita Shreve was the forty-fourth book that I read in 2011. I have had this book on my TBR shelf since April 25, 2011 although I didn't actually read it until August of 2011. This book took me two days to read and is a definite keeper for me.

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Agatha Christie - The A.B.C. Murders

46. The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie (1936)

The Hercule Poirot Series Book 12
Length: 240 pages
Genre: Contemporary Mystery
Started: 29 August 2011
Finished: 30 August 2011
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 27 August 2011
Why do I have it? I love Agatha Christie as an author even though I haven't read that many books by her.

The little Belgian detective exercises his "little grey cells" against a mysterious correspondent who writes to him predicting the murders of several people. Poirot is forewarned when the first two murder victims' names begin with an A and a B, now he must solve the case before the killer strikes again in an attempt to complete the alphabet. I must say that I enjoyed this book very much.  I had first read this years ago but had forgotten who the murderer was and why he actually committed the murders. I give it an A!

A!- (90-95%)



Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

John Hart - The King of Lies

45. The King of Lies by John Hart (2006)
Length: 432 pages
Genre: Contemporary Mystery
Started: 27 August 2011
Finished: 28 August 2011
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 27 August 2011
Why do I have it? I certainly like contemporary mysteries but this is my first John Hart book that I've read.

Jackson Workman Pickens - 'Work' to his friends - is an unambitious lawyer in a small Southern town. He also has some serious baggage. His mother died a year ago in a fall down the family's colonial staircase and his father, Ezra, has been missing ever since.

Work is left to deal with his psychologically damaged sister, his father's legal caseload and his own rocky marriage. Power and greed make many enemies, especially for a man as cruel as Ezra Pickens, so when his body turns up almost everyone in town is considered a suspect - but only one man is charged with the murder! With time, his wife and public opinion against him, Work embarks on his toughest case yet: proving his own innocence. His investigation will uncover a web of intrigue that he couldn't have imagined - and he soon realizes that no one is above suspicion - even those he loves.

I did really enjoy this book, even though, in my opinion, the story could have been wrapped up earlier. I thought it was a good plot with beautiful writing. I give it an A!


A! - (90-95%)


Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Anita Shreve - Testimony

44. Testimony by Anita Shreve (2008)
Length: 305 pages
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Started: 23 August 2011
Finished: 25 August 2011
Where did it come from? From Bookmooch
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 25 April 2011
Why do I have it? I like Anita Shreve as an author and have read and enjoyed several books by this author in the past.

At Avery Academy - an expensive private school whose students have the brightest possible futures ahead of them - the students are carefully screened and selected to attend. These privileged and rich teenagers who enjoy the best education money can buy, can also indulge in any secret teenage vices they fancy. When a sex scandal threatens to break wide open - one that includes a video tape of seemingly consensual sex acts between a fourteen-year-old freshman and two seniors - the girl cries rape and in the resulting scandal no one comes out unscathed. Not the students involved, not the parents who send their children to the Academy. not the headmaster himself; not even the community that ignores what goes on behind the gates of the prestigious Avery Academy. I enjoyed this story very much. The writing style was slightly different from anything from Anita Shreve that I'd read before. I give this book a definite A+!
 
A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Jim Schutze - Preacher's Girl: The Life and Crimes of Blanche Taylor Moore

43. Preacher's Girl: The Life and Crimes of Blanche Taylor Moore by Jim Schutze (1993)
Length: 320 pages
Genre: True Crime
Started: 20 August 2011
Finished: 22 August 2011
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 15 July 2011
Why do I have it? I like true crime and have never actually heard of the Blanche Taylor Moore case.

Blanche Taylor Moore was a loving wife and mother, a doting grandmother, a born-again Christian. She was also a paragon of Southern womanly virtue whose husband - the Reverend Dwight Moore - was suddenly stricken with an inexplicably violent, wasting disease. As the doctors tried to diagnose the Reverend Moore's illness, the community admired Blanche's concerned care for her husband. She constantly was at the hospital, tending to him with loving care by wiping his brow and making him her delicious peanut butter milkshakes.

I thought this book was extremely interesting; I had never heard of this particular case before, but was drawn in by Mr. Schutze's discussion of Blanche's various crimes and her psychopathy. It was an interesting look at the makings of a psychopath. I give this book an A+!

A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Lois Battle - Storyville

42. Storyville by Lois Battle (1993)

Length: 432 pages

Genre: Historical Fiction
Started: 6 August 2011
Finished: 11 August 2011
Where did it come from? From Bookmooch
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 6 August 2011
Why do I have it? I enjoyed reading Bed and Breakfast by Lois Battle and I went on a bit of a Lois Battle mooching spree. :)

This is the story of two very different women living in 1880s New Orleans. Innocent Kate - seduced by a rake and abandoned - turns to a life of prostitution to support herself. She wins the heart of the wealthy son of a distinguished New Orleans family. Meanwhile, transplanted Boston blueblood, suffragette Julia, has just discovered that her husband Charles owns brothels in Storyville, the prostitution district of New Orleans.

This severely damages their marriage through Julia's bitterness and lack of trust. Eventually, tragedy adds another dimension to their domestic squabbling; then Julia befriends the luckless Kate and comes into her own as a activist for women's rights. I liked this story very much, although I did think that it was a little slow for me to get into at the beginning. I give it an A+!


A+! - (96-100%)



Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Reading Wrap-up for July 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 July with 651 unread books lying around the house and ended the month with 645 books unread. All of the books that I acquired this month came from a library book sale we went to on the 15th; I have bought books though the library book sale this month (50 cents for paperbacks, $1.00 for hardcovers. The money goes to help our library's upkeep and stocking some latest releases.) We generally try to go to the library once a month if we can. Quite a number of my books that I read this month left my house to go to new homes so that's something I guess. :)

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 :))
- Crosswordoku by Patrick Blindauer and Frank Longo
- The Miracle at St. Bruno's by Philippa Carr
- Harvest by Belva Plain
- Breathe, Little Boy, Breathe!: An Emergency Room Doctor's Story by Stephen B. Seager, M. D.
- Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
- The Lonely Furrow by Norah Lofts
- Bed and Breakfast by Lois Battle

Added to my TBR pile (oh well, you win some and you lose some! Not too bad though, I suppose:))
- Beach Roses by Jean Stone
- Lightning by Danielle Steel
- Ordinary Love and Good Will by Jane Smiley
- Preacher's Girl: The Life and Crimes of Blanche Taylor Moore by Jim Schutze

Taken off my TBR pile and sent to a new home (Yay! Happy Dance! :))
- Love me Not by Deanie Francis Mills
- Faithless by Karin Slaughter
- Grave Matters by Margaret Yorke
- Ruin Creek by David Payne
- Marie: A True Story by Peter Maas
- Sanctuary by Nora Roberts
- Crosswordoku by Patrick Blindauer and Frank Longo

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

Books Read: 6
Pages Read: 1,893
Grade Range: A+! to A!

So, there you go! The reading month that was July. 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