The Wild Zone

I didn’t like “The Wild Zone” by Joy Fielding. The characters were bad, the plot was bad, the writing was even bad. Don’t waste time with this one!

Only With Your Love

Sometimes a book can make you feel shockingly strong emotion. One of my all time emotional favorites is “Only with Your Love” by Lisa Kleypas.

Kleypas has an amazing ability to draw strong characters. I have read this book at least 10 times over the years. Justin, the pirate, may be the first male character that I fell in love with on the page.

Some Kleypas fans criticized this one, but I loved it!

Too Good To Be True

I love to read books by Kristan Higgins. She does a perfect blend of sweet and funny.

“Too Good to Be True” is my most recent read. Higgins gives us Grace, who is reeling from a break-up with her fiancé…who is now dating her sister.

This wasn’t my favorite of Higgins work, but I still enjoyed the story.

Having It All

John Assaraf is an inspirational author. “Having It All” is one of my favorite books. In it, Assaraf coaches you to focus on yourself, to achieve your goals and dreams.

The book is easy to read and has you thinking immediately about how to tap into your unused potential. The ideas he presents are not new ones, but are presented in a way that has you wanting to better yourself.

Looking to grow and develop and live the life of your dreams? Read this one!

The Fatal Gift of Beauty

Many people were fascinated by the Italian murder trial of American Amanda Knox. The teenager was going to school in Italy when her roommate was brutally murdered. Amanda and her boyfriend were subsequently arrested and charged with the crime.

I recently finished “The Fatal Gift of Beauty” by Nina Burleigh. This book was hard to read. It is filled with a lot of historical detail about Italy and Knox, but seemed short of facts surrounding Meredith Kercher’s death and the case against Knox. I wouldn’t recommend it. I thought there was too much generalizing and not enough information, I was disappointed.

I am anxiously waiting for Amanda Knox to write her own book or memoir. I feel for the Kercher family, I wish they could know the truth about what happened to their daughter.

The Total Money Makeover

“The Total Money Makeover” by Dave Ramsey is worth a look if you are concerned with your personal finances. Ramsey gives a straightforward map to getting out of debt and achieving financial independence. He explains financial concepts in simple terms and fills the book with success stories.

Those Who Save Us

Another novel set in Nazi Germany is “Those Who Save Us” by Jenna Blum. I enjoyed this moving story.

The narration takes two views. First, Anna, a young German woman that falls in love with and hides a Jewish man. When he is discovered and sent to Buchenwald, a pregnant Anna hides in a bakery basement. She is forced to do many things over the next few years to survive.

Fast forward to the future, where Anna’s daughter Trudy, tells her current day story. She struggles to understand her mother, not knowing what she has gone through and she has her own difficult love story.

The focus of this book is on secrets and survival. How far would you go to save your life and the life of your child?

On the positive side, I was really moved by a speech given by a Jewish survivor in the middle of the book. I relished Anna's story and how she was able to find strength to survive a difficult time in her life.  

I thought the ending could have been stronger, or that some of Trudy's story could have been truncated, as Anna's was more interesting. In fact, having the entire book about Anna's struggles may have been better.

Overall, I do reccommend this story if you enjoy touching historical fiction.