Mistletoe and Rodeo by Janet Daley

 Mistletoe and Rodeo is an easy-to-read, feel-good book to help readers escape stressful reality for a few hours. The plot is straightforward, the characters are highly engaging and fully developed, and the action moves at a steady pace. This book kept my mind and heart engaged throughout.

The Duty of the Octogenarian

 As one reaches my age, there is a sense of responsibility to be diligent in passing along hard-learned lessons in living. We see our grandchildren and their friends beginning to make the decisions that will determine the course of their lives, and we want to help them avoid setting living/thinking patterns that will lead to dissatisfaction, and unhappiness in their personal lives. We want them to see the value that their personal choices have in the continuation of a prosperous and functioning culture. Also, we are aware that many (most?) twenty-somethings and thirty-somethings have been taught by society that all opinions and ideas are equally valuable, and they don't need to listen to anybody else's input in their decision-making (a catastrophically erroneous idea).

For those willing at attend to a few life-experience opinions and recommendations, I offer these:

1. From your early days of marriage, set a pattern of real sharing with your partner. Be sure that you discuss more than just what's for dinner and who's going to mow the lawn. If you want your marriage to endure and thrive into your old age, you must KNOW this person you married. I regret that, in the hugeness of child-bearing, child-raising, and career-building, we had few discussions about what we read, what we heard in worship service, what direction we hoped to see our country move, and many other topics that would have given us insight to our partner's thinking.

2. Read regularly.

• When you read fiction, read at least some REALISTIC fiction (as opposed to all horror, fantasy, sci-fi, or the adrenaline-inducing "action" or "erotic" novels) The reason for this recommendation is that in realistic fiction we see real people facing real problems (like some you might face) and making difficult decisions. You have the opportunity to witness and evaluate the consequences of various life decisions as you read the denouement of the story. How often in real like could you have the opportunity to see, ahead of your own experience, what the long-term complications of a decision might be?
• When you read non-fiction, read about people or subjects that will give you something to admire, strive for, learn that will contribute to the success/happiness/productivity of your own life.

3. Remind yourself regularly that the only way to improved society is to improve individuals. When you live a clean, admirable, productive, and influencial life, you are doing your part to build a good society for future generations. You have little control over how other people live their lives.

4. Recognize that old proverbs, "sayings" "folk wisdom", etc. are actually good and helpful to remember and consider. They endured through generations because people through generations recognized their truth. Some of these include famous bible verses, quotes from great thinkers of the past, such as C.S. Lewis, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Abraham Lincoln, and many others.

5. I will add to this as I think of things that I consider really important.

Three Little Lies by Danielle Stewart - a Netgalley Review

Three Little Lies is a very engrossing read from the very beginning! There is no time lost getting into the story; the author grabbed the reader right at the start. The characters are fully drawn and very engaging, the story line is easy to follow and clearly presented. The book continues at a lively pace throughout, with each new development in the story increasing the suspense and building the reader's engagement with the characters and their dilemma. There are unexpected twists in the story right up until the very end. I must say that the ending doesn't follow logic and was very disappointing to me as a reader, seeming somewhat contrived and agenda-driven instead of following the tone set by the rest of the novel. Still, overall, I enjoyed getting acquainted with these characters and seeing their story unfold.  

Advice (from an 80-something) for Teens and Young Adults

 My sister, Carol Johnston, very generously gave each of her siblings a one-year subscription of Storyworth; so I have been trying to write my memories there. I just finished writing a verry time- and energy-consuming first draft of a chapter about advice for young folks. I will probably add to it before the end of the subscription, but I want to post this here to be sure I don't lose it. 

I grew up in a household that valued education, spirituality, responsibility, and ethics, and my only older sibling was an extrovert, so it is not surprising that I was a quiet and serious child; I read, listened, and thought a lot. I always considered myself (and my friends considered me, I believe) more mature than my age-mates. I assumed I could and would do whatever should be done in any situation I found myself in. 

In the winter of my life, looking back, I think I was mostly right in that evaluation. I believe that I have lived an honorable and valuable life, and I have had significant accomplishments at every stage of my life. However, there are things I would change about my teens, twenties, and thirties had I the opportunity to live them again -- with the wisdom that has come through life-experience. So here are a few bits of advice I'd like to pass along to anyone with ears to hear (or eyes to read as the case may be.) Some bits of advice come from my successes, and some come from my failures.

Learn and think about old adages. 

Those bits of folk wisdom are not intentionally taught like they have been in the past, so you might have to work to learn them. They have survived generations and been passed down because they have been proven true over and over. Many of those adages come from precepts in the Bible. Here are a few that I particularly value. This list is far from exhaustive.

• ·         Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Called “The Golden Rule) (based on Matthew 7:12)
• ·         Know thyself.
• ·         Knowledge is power.
• ·         Carpe Diem. (Seize the day.)
• ·         A stitch in time saves nine.
• ·         No man is an island.
• ·         There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
• ·         Measure twice, cut once.
• ·         Time is money.
• ·         You reap what you sow.

Learn them. Think about them.

Live by Biblical Principles

These have sustained millions of people through thousands of years. Many of these are included above. The following list is FAR from complete. Here are some particularly good ones:

• ·         Romans 12:12 is one of the most important guides for living. The more you think about this verse, the more wisdom is there. Your MIND is where change begins. Renew your MIND (your thoughts, your day-to-day focus) and you will transform your life. You want a better life? Have better thoughts.
• ·         And that leads to Philippians 4:8. Think about: whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable…”
• ·         Galatians 6:7.  Your actions have consequences (good or bad) on you and those around you – and even on those who come after you. Choose to have a good influence on the world.  This goes along with the adage listed above: “No man is an island” (a quote from a poem John Donne wrote this poem in the 1500s. Read and think about this scripture and this poem.)

Take every opportunity you have to travel.

Seeing a variety of cultures, customs, and lifestyles broadens your mind exponentially.  Travel is one the best and quickest ways to learn that all people are more alike than we are different. I had very little exposure to cultures different from my own until midlife. Reading is the best substitute for travel. My extensive reading (experiencing other ways of life second hand) gave me more of the advantages of travel than I would have had otherwise.

Make conscious and thoughtful decisions about life changes.

Don’t let life just “happen” to you. Don’t choose a college major because it’s expected or easier. Don’t get married just because it’s the time most people are getting married. I think I lived from 15-25 mostly on autopilot. Went to college where it was expected and because it was expected. Decided on a major I was comfortable with. Decided to get married without much thought. Had little input in wedding planning or living arrangements. 

Live Life NOW!

Your teens and twenties are not preparation for life. They ARE life. Start now to BE the person you intend to be throughout life. Don’t waste the best years of your life waiting for something. Do it now.

Take early charge of your education.

Schools in the late 20^th and early 21st century have become focused on teaching skills instead of educating people to think and acquire the wisdom that has been developed through the centuries. Take charge.

·        Force yourself to read classic literature (both prose and poetry), at least some basic ancient philosophy, and history.

·        If possible, find someone to discuss your ideas with. This teaches you to understand what you have read and find the ideas that you question. It helps you clarify your thinking. It also teaches you to express why you think/believe what you think/believe.

·        Find some creative outlet, writing poetry, painting, drawing, producing music in some form. It is essential to a well-rounded and full life.

·         I PROMISE YOU this approach to life will give you a happier life than you would have living on just the surface, doing mundane things through the years.

Life is full of hard and/or unpleasant jobs that HAVE to be done.

This unpleasant fact has taught me several lessons.

1.       What you do NOT do exhausts you. My mother told me this dozens of times through the years. Worrying about it. Dreading it. Dealing with insurance. Handling confrontations of any kind. Making decisions about financial or interpersonal matters. Hard. Unpleasant. I learned the hard way. Just do it! The sooner you do it, the less it burdens you.

2.       Life is a matter of CHOOSING which “hard” you will deal with. It’s hard to budget; but it’s also hard to be in debt and embarrassed. It’s hard to stay in shape, but it’s also hard to deal with illness and dying young. It’s hard to diet, but it’s also hard to be fat. Marriage is hard, but so is divorce and singleness.

 

As one who’s been where you are, these are things I wish I had really understood earlier in life. 

The Truth about The Accident by Nicole Trope

I read a prepublication copy of this book; and I have discovered a new favorite author. This novel is structurally well-written; the style is highly readable; the characters are fully fleshed out; the plot is complex but suitably paced and easy to follow.

Reading in 2022

 Since I started keeping track of the books I read on Goodreads in 2009, I have read and recorded 3,469 books. My reading-est year was 2015 when I read 300! In 10 of those years I read more than 200 books. This year is the smallest number I've read since I began keeping track. I finished the year yesterday with 141 (My lowest year had been 2009 with 165.) After my retinal stroke in April, I hardly read at all for several months due to eye strain and had to cut way back on my walking (while listening to audiobooks) as well; so that cut into my totals a lot. The 13 books I read in 2022 that I rated 5-star were authored by Andrew Klavan, Lisa Unger, Lisa Wingate, Sean Dietrich, Francine Rivers, Kristina McMorris, Ana Johns, Jeanine Cummins, Dean Koontz, Lisa Scottoline, and Nicholas Sparks. Only one of these was non-fiction.

Here are a few I've rated 5-star: The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer; Chasing Fireflies by Charles Martin; Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers; The Untethered Soul by Michael A. Singer; The Shack by William Paul Young; Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos; Peace Like a River by Leif Enger; Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand; Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate; The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah; I'll Be Your Blue Sky by Marisa de los Santos; Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris; The Woman in the White Kimono by Ana Johns; American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins; The Book of Lost Friends by Lisa Wingate; the Incredible Winston Browne by Sean Dietrich; The Perfect Daughter by D.J. Palmer; My Wife is Missing by D.J. Palmer; The Truth and Beauty by Andrew Klavan.

Autumn Trees

 As I admired the glowing-yellow ghinko trees on Broad Street in Rome over the past weekend, a strange thing happened. 

My mind focused on a couple of little three-word phrases that had apparently slept in my mind for years and suddenly awakened at the sight of the brilliant trees. "A solitary maple" kept playing silently in my head.

 "What!? Crazy Lady, that is not a maple. That is a ghinko!" my rational mind scoffed. 

"But it's dressed for the ball" my subconscious mind insisted.  

The phrases kept playing hopscotch, leaping over each other constantly as I went about my tasks

"solitary maple, dressed for the ball..."

I realized that the words were from some long-ago read literature. So, being the me that I am, I took out my laptop when I got home and began to research.(I have found as I've aged that I am becoming more me every day that I live. I am becoming so "me" somedays it's frightening!) And, thanks to DuckDuckGo, I found the source of the voice in my head. 

Apparently at some time in my school years I had read or studied Henry James's writing. DuckDuckGo showed me the quote that was stuck in my head, but life intruded before I found the longer work from which the quote comes. 

"A solitary maple on a woodside flames in single scarlet, recalls nothing so much as the daughter of a noble house dressed for a fancy ball, with the whole family gathered around to admire her before she goes."

Several observations:

1. A classical education, including good literature, is a gift that lasts a lifetime; so children need to read good literature in school instead of (or at least in addition to) the shallow witch/dragon/wizard/babysitter/amateur sleuth stuff around which much reading curriculum of our day is clustered. They need to store words of LIFE in their heads - appreciation of nature and nature's God. 
2. A watered-down general vocabulary leads to a watered-down mundane life. See, think, live, speak in specifics. 
3. I am grateful for the words that other thinkers through the years have passed down to us. 
4. The fear (wonder, amazement) of God is the beginning of wisdom. (Proverbs 9:10) Young people need to be shown the majesty of God's creation and encouraged to absorb and appreciate it. 

Book Review of Intensity by Dean Koontz

As posted on Goodreads:

I would give this book 5 stars except for the extreme violence. The violence is necessary to the plot, but, for my own records, I need to remember that I can't recommend this book without any reservations. Koontz's vocabulary is the most effective of any author's I've read in years; he always has the exact and precise word at hand to best express his meaning. His writing style is smooth, polished, and effective. As for the plot, one of the most engrossing I've read in years -- not only is is full of action and suspense, but it holds life-lessons within it's character studies. The classic theme of redemption ran throughout the novel, with nuggets of philosophy thrown in through both the narration and the dialogue. 

Here are a few quotes I enjoyed: 

"...victimhood was seductive, a release from responsibility and caring: Fear would be transmuted into weary resignation; failure would no longer generate guilt but, instead, would spawn a comforting self-pity."

"...the embarrassing contradictions of the situational ethics that characterize both the modern atheist and those whose religion is politics." 

"...her whole life was about survival, as any nun's life might be defined by the word faith or any politician's by power."

"She lacked the hope needed for prayer."

On her friend's family's murder: "...this grim aspect of the Templeton family's interrupted journey. The kindnesses they might have done for others. The love they might have given. The things they might have come to understand in their hearts."

"...tighter than a politician's fist around a cash bribe."

"...stubborn as a sunset."

When the monster murderer was running away on fire, "...chasing neither her nor Ariel bu an undeserved mercy."

On her teen sessions with a psychiatrist: "He wanted to help her cope with her grief, but she told him, 'I don't want to learn to cope with it, Doctor. I want to feel it.' When he spoke of post-traumatic stress syndrome, she spoke of hope; when he spoke of self-fulfillment, she spoke of responsibility; when he spoke of mechanisms for improving self-esteem, she spoke of faith and trust; and after a while he seemed to decide that he could do nothing for someone who was speaking a language so different from his own."

"There was more truth in fiction than in science."

Talking about reading a newspaper and despairing about all the news. "She read a movie review full of vicious ipse dixit criticism of the director and screenwriter, questioning their very right to create, and then turned to a woman columnists's equally vitriolic attack on a novelist, none of it genuine criticism, merely venom, and she three the paper in a trash can. Any more, such little hatred and indirect assaults seemed to her uncomfortably clear reflections of stronger homicidal impulses that infected the human spirit; symbolic killings were different only in degree, not in kind, from genuine murder, and the sickness in the assailants' hearts was the same. There are no explanations for human evil. Only excuses."

Setting up on the beach: "...where they took up tenancy side by side."

"None of them wanted anything more than to be less alone."

The main character discovers she'd been more scared of "...this new thing that she had found in herself. This reckless caring. And now she knows it is nothing that should have frightened her. It is the purpose for which we existed. This reckless caring."

Here are a few of the spectacularly precise and vivid uses of vocabulary I noticed: tenebrous, serried, pule, turbid, attenuating, antimacassars, reverse lycanthropy, soupcon, paladin, scrimshaw, lagniappe, spoor, trammeled, skink, bibelots, wadcutters, pintle, gudgeon, ichor

1776 by David McCullough

1776 by David McCullough
My rating: 5 stars

It had been at least 50 years since I studied anythiing relating to the Revolutionary War, so I began reading 1776 (upon recommendation by by brother)wondering if I even had the background to understand it. I found it a highly-readable narrative of the events of that year in American history. It was replete with quotes from the diaries and letters of the famous and relatively-unknown men who fought that fight for our freedom. I was interested to read of battle strategies and found the personal glimpses of historical figures fascinating. Particularly interesting to me were the letters giving the on-the-scene evaluations of completed battles. Time and history have given new perspective to many of these. Time does alter perception - and it is possible to be too close to a situation to accurately evaluate it. Overall, this is an excellent book.

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Night and Day by Robert B. Parker

Night and Day by Robert B. Parker

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I always enjoy Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone novels. As an analyst by nature, I enjoy trying to figure out what makes Chief Stone tick. I stop reading from time to time to dissect with my inner consultant the contrasts so evident in Stone's personality. Is it believable that he can be so genuinely loving and caring in some ways while being so callous and remote in others? Can a person who understands his addiction stay addicted in such a controlled manner? I grieved when Robert B. Parker died last year because his police procedurals are so entertaining and his continuing characters seem like old friends to me. I was glad to discover that this novel and one more, Split Image, were written in his last months. So I have one more RBP novel left to read, and I understand that it is another Jesse Stone story.



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Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen

Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am catching up on best sellers from the last few years. I finished this one a couple of hours ago. I always enjoy Anna Quindlen's novels - she makes the reader think. I enjoy her use of language. I few examples: "I don't even have a dog. I tell people I'm allergic so they won't think less of me. Instead I have a cat, the pet that ranks just above a throw pillow in terms of required responsibility." "I love it," I said, which like most simple declarative sentences was an oversimplification merged with a lie and overlaid by the mists of blessed memory..." "I felt prosperous, as though I had so much, so much, as though I had been flat water and now I was carbonated..."

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Quotes from Lisa Unger's Die for You

I just read Lisa Unger's Die for You. There were several quotes I enjoyed thinking about.

(1) "I didn't want to know anything about Marc's lover...didn't want any fodder for my imagination to spin. Without it, I could just cast her as a bit player, someone who glided across the stage barely noticed. Any detail might have started me weaving her into something bigger, more important than I wanted her to be.

(2) When asked why she forgave her husband's affair: "Because I love him..."
"And love forgives." The detective sounded sarcastic, bitter.
"Love accepts, moves forward. Maybe forgiveness comes in time."

(3)"(He) thought that American women had been sold a concept that failed them miserably. Spend every free moment of your time fretting about your body, the media urged, exercise, buy diet books, primp, preen, pluck, wax, and a man will find you attractive and love you forever. Don't ever for one second worry about being loving or lovable, about kindness or finding fulfillment on some spirtual level. Just try to take up as little space as possible, be as small as possible, or you will be reviled and ridiculed by every industry posed to make a dime off of you -- the fitness and publishing industries, even the medical industry. They'll steal your money and your self-esteem. You'll give it all and still be unhappy. In spite of all the evidence to the contrary, they bought these ideas, believed wholeheartedly, built lives and lifestyles around them."

(4) (He) thought it required a special kind of ego-sickness to take a life, a core belief that your needs, your survival took precedence over all others. Unless it was a question of self-defense or to protect another, be believed you had to be at least a borderline sociopath to kill another person. Even if someone is overcome with rage, it takes amazing arrogance to kill."

(5)"I was fearless once...I remember being so sure of myself, of my opinions, passions, and goals...Everyone with a different opinion was simply wrong...But as I grew older, that passionate certainty faded. I beame more reserved, more reticent. My righteousness was less assured. I avoided the kind of heated politicl debates that I once enjoyed. Existential, religious, moral arguments made me uncomfortable. There were so many opionions, so many convinced of their own righeousness. A slow dawning that the world was impossibly complicated, that differences were too often irreconcilable, made me less inclined to do battle."


(6)Her sister commented on her mellowed approach to life. She replied, "I can't afford my own temper tantrums anymore. You owe them (your children) something you know. These kids, you bring them into the world. They didn't ask for it, you did it, for all you own reasons, good or bad. The least you can do is not be a bitch all the time, someone who's always in a rage, or complaining, or depressive."

(7) "Why didn't she see that it was about betrayal? infidelity? That it was about secrets and lies, an erosion of trust? Why didn't she know that those things cannot be fixed? You can't restore torn fabric to its original state. You can patch it, you can sew it -- but there will always be a seam, a place you can touch with your finger, a place that's weaker, prone to tearing again."

No Ordinary Joes by Larry Colton

No Ordinary Joes: The Extraordinary True Story of Four Submariners in War and Love and Life by Larry Colton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This highly-interesting non-fiction book is an enlightening look into the individual battles fought during World War II. The story was presented in a bow-tie formation. The author introduced each of the sailors individually, giving his entire background story - childhood, interests, family relationships, early adolescent experiences, and first assignments in the navy. This introduction took about 13 chapters. After the characters were well-developed, the story narrowed to the events that brought the sailors together.

The narrow knot of the bowtie showed us how the men knew each other as crew members of the same submarine. Of course this is the part of the story that caused the story to be written. The experiences these young men (ages 17-23 at the time) endured as prisoners of war, were horrifying. I hung on every word as the author showed their physical and emotional degradation and their incredible strength as they lent support and comfort to each other.

After the central events of the war were told, the author widened the story again in the other side of the bowtie. He followed each man's life after they were freed when the war ended. This enlightening follow-up story showed the reader some of the long-term positive as well as negative results of such harrowing experiences as these men suffered in early adulthood. It was interesting to me to see the changes in the individual personalities as the men aged; however, it was also clearly shown that many of their early characteristics were intensified rather than changed by the experience. The men were shown as 80-year-old grandfathers at the end of the book.

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Maximum Ride: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports by James Patterson

3 of 5 stars
As a retired Middle School Language Arts teacher, I occasionally read adolescent literature to suggest appropriate and desirable books to those who ask. I chose this book because of its authorship although the blurb was not appealing to me. Clearly the Maximum Ride books would be better understood and enjoyed if read in correct sequence. Since this is the only one of the series I read, I found myself having to deduce previous events in order to understand the current ones experienced by the characters in this book. I think that many adolescents would enjoy the science fiction nature of the book; I, on the other hand, enjoyed more the elements of realistic fiction that were mixed in. The lessons to be learned from the relationships between the characters -- their positive and negative interactions - the exhibited behaviors and consequences - their methods of reconciliation - all these experiences are good life lessons and provide good reasons for adolescents to read this series of books.

Rainwater by Sandra Brown

Rainwater by Sandra Brown

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This novel was VERY different from typical Sandra Brown books. I always find her books interesting, but they are often pretty predicable and formulaic. This unusually captivating book was set in 1934 and dealt with a number of social issues (racism, economic depression, and autism for example) In spite of the historical setting and the serious issues that the characters face within its pages, this novel is essentially a love story - portraying a slowly-developing love between a mature man and woman. I always enjoy a love story that emphasizes the sacrificial, and almost sacred, nature of real love. Rainwater meets that criteria.



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To Cut a Long Story Short by Jeffrey Archer

To Cut a Long Story Short by Jeffrey Archer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have read numerous Jeffrey Archer novels through the years; but this book of short stories bore little resemblance to those mysteries. The fourteen short stories contained in the book varied in length from 2 pages to more than 30 pages. Topics also varied, of course, ranging from confidence games, romantic mysteries, to even some with supernatural characters. Many seemed to take on the flavor of old-fashioned fables with insights into human nature in general. Although I enjoyed some stories more than others, I only abandoned one in the entire book from lack of interest. Archer brought his usual narrative skills to the composition of these stories, and he developed interesting and memorable characters. He led those characters through many interesting plot twists for our reading enjoyment.

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Interesting Quotes from The Moonflower Vine

From The Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton:

"And even though....(several characters)...mean well and feel strong bonds with the other members of their family, their choices invariably strain those bonds." Can't we all identify with these family members?

"To me...these visits (by relatives who visited yearly)...were like income tax, an annual inconvenience. There were always so many other ways we could have spent the time. But, old as we were, our parents were still the government. They levied the tribute, and we paid it."

"Suddenly it seemed to me that I looked back from a great distance...on all the days we had spent here together. What was I going to do when such days came no more? There could not be many; for we were a family growing old. And how would I learn to live without these people? I who needed them so little that I could stay away all year -- what would I do without them?" This one puts a catch in my throat.

"'Oh Tom -- I love you!' With a little cry she put her arms around him and married him in her heart."

"Jessica's face knotted like a fist, and a lump the size of a locomotive formed in her throat. ...sick with the knowledge that this was how it would be all the rest of her life. She couldn't stay, but she couldn't stay away, and she would come back time afer time, doomed forever to come and go and endure these ghastly partings...." Parting is such sweet sorrow.

"With a shudder he thought of all the ears and eyes and intrusive female voices waiting for him at the end of the street. He wished there were somewhere else he could go. But there stood the house, baited with supper, and he was trapped."

"Indeed it was the foolishness more than the sin that rankled. One can repent of a sin and have done with it; but the wages of foolishness is the eternal recalling of it."

"He watched the light empty out of the sky and darkness blot up Missouri."

"Maybe she would never go away. Maybe she'd just stand there till she took root and put out branches and a squirrel made a nest in her head."

"A leaf that had hung on the tree since April suddently let go and made its slow journey to earth, tilting this way and that in its new fatal freedom, but falling, steadily falling." The term "fatal freedom" gets the thought processes grinding away. Which of my freedoms will be be fatal for me?

"And time, that great gift that he had given so charily! He dropped his head in shame. the sins of omission...."

"Maybe that was the way it went, that all your life you heard the singing and never got any closer. There were things you'd wanted all your life, and after a while and all of a sudden, you weren't any closer than you ever were and there was not time left.....Where was the fine white house on the corner, where her mind had lived all these years?"

The Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton

The Moonflower Vine by Jetta Carleton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is one of those old books that has not received the recognition it probably deserves. Jetta Carleton never published another book after this one first published in 1962. That was about the same time that The Hobbit came out, I believe. Perhaps the hoopla accompanying that novel and its sequels accounts for the little attention given to other books published at the same time. I enjoyed this book about as much as anything I've read in several months. It is set in the early 20th century and following the lives of a couple and their four daughters. Each section of the book is from the viewpoint (though not in the voice) of a different character. This approach allows the reader to make judgements about characters based on the perceptions of the others; then when the character's viewpoint is given, a new understanding and perception is experienced. This is much like real life -- if we really knew the stories behind the actions of others, we would be much less judgmental.

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Interesting Quotes from Let It Snow

Let It Snow - by John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle

"She had to get up and slice me a thick piece of cake before she could answer. And I do mean thick. Harry Potter volume seven thick I could have knocked out a burglar with that piece of cake. Once I tasted it though, it seemed just the right size."

"These houses had been plunked down with an alarming randomness -- unevenly spaced, on crooked lines, like whoever had designed the place had said, 'We'll just follow this cat, and wherever he sits down, we'll build something."

"Take Jeb, for instance... he is going to grow up to be the kind of man who spends his Saturdays teaching his little boy to ride a bike.... Charlie, on the other hand, will be off playing golf while his kids kill people on X-box"

Let It Snow by Green, Johnson, and Myracle

Let It Snow by John Green

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


What a clever book! The three romances included here all share the same setting and plot. Each romance is written by a different author and features a different point-of-view character. The major characters of each story are minor characters in the others; some minor characters appear in all three stories while others are unique to only one story. When a huge Christmas Eve snowstorm causes a train to become stranded in a small town, passengers' lives intersect with those of locals at a Waffle House and a nearby Starbucks. The three authors have somewhat similar writing styles and do an excellent job of blending the three love stories.



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