Blood Feud: The Hatfields and McCoys: The Epic Story of Murder and Vengeance

Blood Feud: The Hatfields and the McCoys: The Epic Story of Murder and Vengeance by Lisa Alther
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Lisa Alther tries to uncover some of the myth and legend surrounding the blood feud surrounding the West Virginian Hatfields and Kentucky McCoy rivalry with a touch of dry humor in her new book. In her quest to discover new information and dispel untruths, Alther discovered that her family, by marriage, tied into the infamous Fighting McCoys. Running on the heels so closely to the History Channel's miniseries, "The Hatfields and McCoys," Blood Feud is a good book to fill in all the spaces.

I was fortunate enough in 1978-80 to attend the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. One of my acquaintances and fellow art students was a young man who resembled Johnse Hatfield in the movie. Guess what his last name was?

Websites to visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatfield...

http://www.wvculture.org/history/crim...

http://www.history.com/shows/hatfield...

www.trailsheaven.com/

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Sea Glass Summer

Sea Glass Summer by Dorothy Cannell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Leaving behind a crummy divorce, thanks to her ex and best friend's dalliance, Sarah Draycott is delighted to move to the pretty little town of Sea Glass, Maine. With the coast at her back door and her front door facing the town, Sarah is ready for a do over in a big way. Right away energetic, 90 year old Nellie Armitage, knocks at the front door and makes friends. Then, Sarah makes the acquaintance with 70 something Gwen and her son, Sonny plus little Oliver, an orphan with a huge vocabulary. Sarah finds herself fitting in rather comfortably with the residents of Sea Glass.

I've never read Dorothy Cannell until this book and and found to my surprise that I really enjoyed her writing. I must say she really get detailed and sometimes that can derail your reading but Cannell also has a sense of humor that makes it fun.

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Why can't Karl get ebooks from the library?

Reunion

Reunion: A Novel by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Great contemporary, Christian fiction by Snelling - this read is based on two families, related by blood but also best friends. Keira Johnston has just been presented a trip to Norway by her husband. The only thing stopping her from getting her passport is finding her birth certificate. When it is finally found, she is shocked and unsettled to discover that her beloved father was not her birth father. Why didn't her mother tell her and how can Keira tell the big Sorensen clan at the upcoming reunion? At the same time, her niece Kirsten Sorensen is days away from her high school graduation when she's overcome by nausea and uncertainly takes a pregnancy test. The results may keep Kirsten from accepting a college scholarship in the Fall and break her family apart. The secrets kept by both women tug at the close kinship and need to brought into the open for healing.

Very contemporary and moving, Snelling's main characters are strong women who have human flaws. Please read the Afterword to see how the story personally relates to the author.

I'm also a big fan of Snelling's Red River of the North Series - again the characters face real life and death issues as they try to farm and settle the land in the Dakota Territory, amidst sickness, hardships, and blizzards.

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The Time Keeper

The Timekeeper by Mitch Albom
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dor and Alli live near the beginning of "time", before time was even a word. Dor is a curious child who studies the movement of light and darkness, the sun and the moon and who actually creates the first calendar and becomes the "Father of Time." When Alli's becomes ill Dor tries save her life by climbing the highest tower to reach the gods and stop time. As the only human to reach the top of the tower, Dor finds himself in a cave, trapped for what seems like forever, listening to the cries and groans of the mankind below - crying and groaning for more time, less time, and the misery of counting the moments. After 6,000 years Dor is allowed to return to earth but only to teach two souls the real meaning of time.

Most of us are short on time, in a hurry, and want things done yesterday. A small, quick read by Mitch Albom - although it isn't my favorite book by him, it does remind us how to "enjoy our time" and live in the moment.

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Little Night

Little Night by Luanne Rice
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In New York City lived two perfect and exceptionally close daughters , Anne and Clare Burke. From their father's affairs they learned to keep secrets and from their mother - acceptance and resignation. To escape their parent's constant fighting, they roamed Central Park and discovered raptors in the night. Now grown up and grown apart from the horrible event, almost 20 years ago, that placed Clare in lock up for two long years, Clare is trying to slowly move on with her life. When Anne's daughter Grit shows up alone are her doorstep, memories are relived, hatred is brought alive, but healing and forgiveness that has been buried deep in the bog - begin at last....

"Their old house, the poem, birds, history, and their own imaginations delivered them from family unhappiness. Born city girls, they learned early to escape into nature. Central Park was a haven, thirty-seven blocks and a world away from home. Exploring the park and the dusty corners of their own house taught the girls to look for meaning, magic, and comfort in places they least expected it."


Another great contemporary read from Luanne Rice.

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The Cellist of Sarajevo

The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This year's choice for One Maryland, One Book, 2012 is the exquisite and hauntingly written novel of a true character, a cellist who played for 22 days straight to memorialize his 22 neighbors killed by a mortar, set in the midst of the war besieged, once lovely city of Sarajevo. The author, Steven Galloway, chose three main characters to be part of the story - a young married man with a family set on getting the basic need of water across town, an older man, a baker, who is paralyzed by fear trying to cross bullet-ridden intersections to get to his job, and a female sniper - a young, talented woman, whose job is to take out soldiers and initially against her wishes, protect the cellist. Told by each viewpoint, the reader is drawn into Sarajevo's terror and dread.

The story of Sarajevo has always pulled at my heart strings, so beautiful a city revered by its inhabitants and used as an example of fine culture and religious diversity for so many years, but finally toppled to civil unrest and greed - a lesson for us all, but all too common. The courage/fear/humanity shown by the four main characters are not soon forgotten and as I've read the book over a week ago at the time of this review - I am still moved and disquieted by its words...

On an interesting note, did you know: Sarajevo was also the first city in Europe and the second city in the world to have a full-time operational electric tram network running through the city, the first being San Francisco.

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When We Were the Kennedys

When We Were the Kennedys: A Memoir from Mexico, Maine by Monica Wood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can't describe what a wonderful feeling this book gave me - whether it's because I too live in a small town that is kept afloat by a nearby paper-mill (New Page to boot) or the sweet childhood camaraderie of the Wood sisters or that many of my childhood friends were Catholic and we grew up in the 60s... A sweet, exceptional memoir written by Monica Wood, "When We Were the Kennedys" is definitely a worthy read.

From the prologue, you will find the pivoting event that all chapters refer to: Monica's beloved father, only 57, who worked as a foreman at the huge paper-mill and biggest employer in town, the Oxford Paper Company, dies from a massive heart attack as he prepares to enter his car and go to his morning shift at the mill. At home still is Monica, nine, with two young sisters, an older sister who teaches in nearby school, and Mom, who had the three younger girls late in life, and is so distraught over her husband's sudden death that she takes to her bed. Fortunately, Monica has an uncle, Father Bob, who suffers his brother-in-laws death severely as well, but steps in until he too succumbs to despair. At the same time, on the national scene, the handsome, young Catholic leader, President Kennedy, is shot and killed and the Wood family is rallied by his brave widow Jackie O. and small children who are living through similar shock and pain. The book ends on a sweet note with an update of Monica's family and friends.

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The Coal Gatherer

The Coal Gatherer by Janet Woods
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Callie Ingram, one of the many living children of Mary and Ebeneezer, has higher hopes than to marry young, bear babies, and gather coal from the sea. She has watched her mother, once from a family of respectable shopkeepers, carry and then mourn the death of her babies and suffer the blows of her father. Befriending the local gentry opens the doors to another life that Callie can only imagine. Can Callie escape this impoverished and brutal life before Ebeneezer marries her off to cruel Sam Brown?

Being from coal country, the title pulled me in. I had never heard of coal being carted off from the sea and had to do a little research. Sea-coal is coal that has been washed up on the beach, coming from coal seams in sea cliffs or underwater deposits. For centuries this coal was collected and used for cooking, heating and forging metals. It is probable that European cultures back to the Romans and before used sea-coal. In places where this coal occurred it could be a dependable source of fuel and there were professional sea-coal gatherers and small local industries existed to gather and sell the coal. This continued in many areas, particularly in northern Britain and parts of Scotland as other sources of fuel were expensive and more difficult to obtain.

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South of Superior

South of Superior by Ellen Airgood
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Meet the people of McAllaster, a tiny rough and tumble town on the edge of Lake Superior, where times are hard and people are tough, but generations have looked out for each other. There's Mary Feather, a Scotswoman and her terrier, Jack, who lives in a couple of tool cribs bolted together and who makes maple syrup like no other. Then there is Albert the fruit and vegetable man and his helper, Gus, who set their stand up anywhere and are run off by the politically and socially correct in town.

Citified Madeline Stone from Chicago arrives in McAllaster to live with stalwart Gladys Hansen and help care for her sister, sweet Arbutus. Gladys and Arbutus are as unlike as night and day. Madeline doesn't know it yet, but Gladys has a few secrets about Madeline's estranged grandfather that had abandoned her when she was a young orphan. Feeling ever the outsider, Madeline begins to fall for the town and its unusual characters.

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Whispers in the Wind by Lauraine Snelling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Book 2 of the Wild West Wind series by Snelling continues the story of Cassie Lockwood and her rag/tag family from the Wild West show searching for her father's ranch in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The second book picks up where Cassie had just found her ranch already owned and occupied by the Engstrom family, close friends and partners of her deceased father. Trying to find a way to fit in, as she really does own the deed to a share of the Bar E Ranch, Cassie is warmly welcomed by Mavis Engstrom, her daughter Gretchen and younger son Lucas, but not so much by Ransom, the eldest son. Cassie's Wild West family, no shirkers of hard work, jump in to help where they can on the ranch before the worst of winter arrives. However, Cassie feels responsible for them, and worries incessantly over the money it will take to feed and clothe them and feed their troupe of animals as well. Can Cassie trust in the Lord to answer her many needs?

A sweet book about faith and trust and fitting in. I'm looking forward to number three in the Wild West Wind series.

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The Dawn of a Dream

The Dawn of a Dream by Ann Shorey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Luellen O'Connell, against the wishes of her parents, eloped with a man who drove freight for the railroad. When she finds that he has another wife in Chicago, Luellen is forced to move back home with her parents and soon to be married sister. Applying for a scandalous divorce, but determined to attend Allenwood Normal School for teaching several hours away by train, Luellen buckles down to classes and seems to making headway until she discovers she is with child. How will Luellen finish her schooling, work on the side to earn money to even attend college, and attend to a baby?

An honorable story of determination and strength. It is always such an eye-opener to discover how women were treated in days gone by. Female teachers were not allowed to be married. Divorce was a scandal, almost unheard of, even attending a teaching school and being pregnant was grounds for dismissal and shame. This book is the third in the series: At Home in Beldon Grove.

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Over the Edge

Over the Edge by Mary Connealy
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Another comical, historical romance about the Kinkade brothers - The Kinkade Brides #3, Over the Edge is just a hoot as was the first and second. This time the main character is youngest bro #3 Seth, the on-the-edge, blue-eyed civil war veteran, who has horrendous nightmares of the war and the accident in the caves. Because of this Seth has lost big chunks of time, including the fact that at some point he had gotten married. The book opens with Seth's Texan wife riding into town in the stagecoach, with their child, trying to hold off several robbers with her Colt in her left hand and a Winchester in her right. Tough as Texas, Callie has come to claim help from Seth and his brothers. Little does she know what she is letting herself in for with joining the Kinkade clan.

As I've said before, Mary Connealy makes me giggle with her ornery characters, their thoughts, and sayings. I hate to set this series down - I might have to reread them.

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