Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea

Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea by Morgan Callan Rogers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Twelve years old and on the edge of puberty, Florine is looking forward to her teen years, when her young, lively mother disappears on her annual getaway. Florine and her father are left to flounder along in the small fishing village in Maine. Even with her stalwart Grand across the road with her comforting arms and her small, close knot of friends, Florine becomes more and more depressed - especially when her father's old flame comes around, full of sympathy and toting delicious meals. When another great loss happens, Florine begins to sink beneath the waves of loneliness and depression.

Florine is such a vulnerable character - that you'll fall in love with her and feel her losses and happiness. The other characters, especially Grand, are so real, the setting of coastal Maine described so beautifully, and you'll understand that life is not neat and tidy - and not always tied up with a bow.

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Swimming to Elba

Swimming to Elba by Silvia Avallone
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Best friends in the impoverished town of Piombinao, Italy - 13 year olds, going on 18, dark-haired Anna and the blonde Francesca live in the giant, filthy, concrete barracks that line the beaches. They dream of swimming over to Elba, a resort town just across the bay, to escape the life that lays ahead of them. Most of the men in Piombinao work at the local Lucchini steel mills, including Anna's too handsome brother, Alessio, and Francesco's brutal father, Enrico. It's the summer of 2001 and Anna and Francesca, with their new shapely bodies, are teetering on the edge of new, powerful sexual identities and experiences.

Very gritty and sometimes very uncomfortable to read, Avallone never minces words...her first novel won 2nd place in the 2010 Strega Prize competition and will make a good book club choice.

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A Gift of Hope by Danielle Steel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Danielle Steel writes about her secret plight to help the homeless in San Francisco, taken up after her son, Nick, committed suicide. She writes with an honest, respectful look at the troubled men and women that she and her team Yo! Angel! have come across. It all started out with one outing, a stack of sleeping bags, down jackets, and some wool socks and gloves and grew from that. This book is a call for help...

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Circle of Grace

Circle of Grace: A Novel by Penelope J. Stokes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What is truth? A midterm exam question that got four college students together and their answer: Truth is the core of human experience, the center point which keeps us balanced and aligned, the hub which connects us to all we value. It goes by many names - faith, beauty, love, justice - but whatever we call it, however we experience it, it is the source of meaning and purpose in our lives. 4 college friends; 4 different views on life; 4 different careers planned - but things don't always turn out the way we plan them and college friends do not always stay in touch...

When 50-something Grace gets the results of her testing, she rethinks getting in touch with the college friends Grace hasn't seen in 30 years. But, Grace will have to come clean with the lies she's written in the journal passed around to each of them over the years.



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A Parchment of Leaves

A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"There is so much writ upon the parchment of leaves, So much of beauty blown upon the winds,
I can but fold my hands and sink my knees
In the leaf pages." James Still, "I Was Born Humble"

Vine is a dark haired Cherokee woman living in the mountains who falls in love with a tall, quiet, freckled, redheaded man named Saul. She moves from her home in Redbud Camp to the home of Saul's mother, Esme, and brother, Aaron, in God's Creek, Kentucky until their own home can be built. Aaron, younger than Saul, and a bit spoiled, also falls in love with Vine and his crush turns into more when Saul takes a logging job away from home.

A lovely, deep book, with dreamy descriptions of the mountains...this novel will touch your heart as well as mine...

A quote to think on: "I walked out to the tree and put my finger to a leaf, smooth like it was coated with wax. I could feel its veins, wet and round. I had always found comfort in the leaves, in their silence. They were like a parchment that holds words of wisdom. Simply holding them in my hand gave me some of the peace a tree possesses. To be like that - to just be - that's the most noble thing of all." p. 218



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Touching the Sky

Touching the Sky by Tracie Peterson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Somehow I missed reading Book 2 in the series, Land of the Lone Star, and jumped from Book 1, Chasing the Sun to Book 3, Taming the Wind. Although the books could be read alone, I think there is enough re-mentioned in each, but it's nice to be able to tie the missing bits and pieces together.

Laura Marquardt meets the handsome, Union Captain Brandon Reid, in of all places, an alley where she had been accosted by two Confederate sympathizers. Unfortunately, Captain Reid jumps to the wrong conclusion and mistakenly takes her for a sympathizer as well and so he rebukes her. When Captain Reid is ask by his superiors to join a party for Union supporters, he runs into Miss Marquardt again and is quickly set straight where her sympathy lies! As the two butt heads and learn about the other, Laura's younger sister Carissa has been making plans to marry her Confederate fellow, Mr. Malcolm Lowe - but to Laura there is something shifty and fake about him. Unknowing to her, Captain Reid has been watching Lowe, undercover, and has come to the same conclusion.

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A Wreath of Snow: A Victorian Christmas Novella

A Wreath of Snow: A Victorian Christmas Novella by Liz Curtis Higgs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I so loved this little inspirational book that I read it twice - yep! I've always been drawn to
a. novels set in Scotland
b. 1890s, Victorian era
c. chivalry - excuse me, where is it now??
d. train stations
e. novels set around the Christmastide

Well, I could go on, but this little gem covers all the above bases and more. Gentle and lovely, set in snowy Stirling, Scotland, it's Christmas Eve and unfortunately Miss Margaret Campbell has fled her parent's small home, due to her injured brother's unreasonable demands and bitterness, and is ready to take the next train back to her lonely home in Edinburgh. When the train with all its passengers finally gets underway, all her plans are derailed when a huge snowbank blocks their way. Fellow travelers join together to help or carry the injured and children walk the several miles back to Stirling, including red-haired Mr. Gordon Shaw, a quiet, young newspaperman who had sorry Christmas plans of his own. When Margaret finds out who Mr. Shaw really is - can forgiveness be extended, especially since it's the Christmas season?

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A Christmas Home

A Christmas Home by Greg Kincaid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Todd loves working at the local animal shelter - all his best friends are there. There's 50plus beloved animals that need love and homes, and Hayley Donaldson, the shelter boss, and his close friend, Laura, a volunteer and fellow dog lover. In fact, Todd trained Laura's golden retriever Gracie. All are shocked and saddened when the mayor announces that due to economy issues - cutbacks will be issued and the shelter will be closing its doors before the new year. Todd feels even more pressure to find good, loving homes for his four-legged friends. Todd's parents are worried that Todd, who gained his semi-independence from the working at the shelter, will lose ground and hope. Todd will also need to find another job, but where in the small struggling town of Crossing Trail?

We loved Todd and his family in the previous book, "A Dog Named Christmas" and the beloved, furry but older Christmas is back in this small novel.

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