True Colors by Kristin Hannah

True Colors is the perfect name for this novel. Kristin Hannah has done it again with a story line that makes you never want to put the book down. As usual, my tears were flowing also. For some reason her books always make me cry.

The novel is about a family who loses their mother in their early teens and how the three sisters and their father carry on. They are sisters thru thick and thin with several occasions that are harder for them to get thru than others. You follow them thru their lives and loves, their ups and downs and find yourself rooting for them to just be happy!

I always read Kristin Hannah's books and this was definitely worth the read!

Blown Coverage: a Riley Covington Thriller by Jason Elam and Steve Yohn

Wow! What a fast paced thriller this book was! Last year I read Monday Night Jihad by the same authors and loved it. This is just a continuation with the same cast of characters.

Blown Coverage is about Riley Covington who is a professional football player and a former special ops member. Riley is still trying to recover from the attack in Monday Night Jihad and is returning to football, even though he isn't sure this is what he wants.

Things change quickly when he is attacked and survives and realizes that the Cause is after him and will not stop until they get him. The story plays out with his friends trying to help him amidst several more terrorist attacks on American soil.

This book is classified as Christian fiction and is exactly what I love about that genre. It's a thrilling ride with plenty of action with the basis of the main character's life relying on the guidance and protection of his Lord.

The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian

The Double Bind is another book discussion book. It was a very easy read. The thing I really loved about it was all the references to The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. We just read that book for our Classics discussion and it was perfect timing.

The Double Bind is about a young lady who works in a homeless shelter. She had been brutally attacked during college and withdrew into herself for awhile afterwards. During her work at the shelter she meets Bobbie Crocker, an elderly homeless man. He suffered from mental illnesses. After he passes away they find a bag of photographs that he claimed to have taken. She is assigned to go thru them in an attempt to possibly have a showing of these wonderful pictures. The photos become an obsession with her when she recognizes herself in one of them and also places where she grew up.

As the story progresses and her obsession grows she withdraws from her friends and co-workers. The ending was a bit of a shock for me. If you decide to read this book please let me know if you figured things out before the end. It took me a while to start wondering!

The Gate House by Nelson DeMille

What was I thinking when I picked up this book to read next ---after finishing Mary? I had just said that 700 pages was entirely too long. Well, this book came very close to that with 670+.

I stumbled upon Nelson DeMille a few years ago when I listened to his books Wild Fire and Night Fall. I loved the sarcastic sense of humor in his characters. This book was no different.

The Gate House is about a man and woman who had divorced after she had an affair with a Mafia neighbor, who happened to be the client of her husband. She ends up shooting the Mafia man when he tells her he doesn't love her, and it was just about the sex. Fast forward 10 years when the husband and wife are reunited at the deathbed of another neighbor and things start to progress from there. The slain man's son has taken over the "business" and is seeking revenge to show his power and control.

The husband/wife team start to realize they've never stopped loving each other, and he does everything in his power to protect her. Throw in a pair of in-laws that detest him, his mother who drives him crazy, a meddling priest and a killer out to get them and you've got a great ride!

Interestingly enough, as I was searching for the titles I listened to on tape I found out The Gate House is a follow-up to the book published in 1990 titled The Gold Coast. So maybe if you think The Gate House sounds interesting you might want to start with The Gold Coast! Happy Reading!

Mary by Janis Cooke Newman

Mary was a great book. I have to admit it was a bit daunting when I picked it up. After all it is over 700 pages long and it took me a week and half to finish. That was hard. I'm used to reading 2 or 3 books a week.

Mary tells the fictional account of Mary Todd Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln has long been a favorite president of mine. I think mostly because I've always loved the fact that he was determined to read anything and everything that he would go to great extents to get books to read. I truly admire that and would like to think that I would have been the same way.

I was totally unaware of any information on his wife. She apparently suffered from mental illnesses. This book tells of how after President Lincoln was killed how her oldest son committed her to an insane asylum. The story goes back and forth between her stay at the asylum and her married life with Mr. Lincoln and her sons. I also learned how he suffered from a type of depression throughout most of his life.

The book flowed wonderfully and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Keep in mind that it is fiction and should be read as such. I have not yet done any further research on the true facts of Mrs. Lincoln's life, but hope to do so soon. We will be discussing this book in my book discussion group and am anxious to see what the response is of my members. I'm hoping it will be at least half and half. I know some really do not like fiction based on true stories, but I'm sure there will be some who have just read it and enjoyed the story. We shall see!

The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri

The Namesake was a surprise to me. I really didn't think I'd like it. Just recently we read The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, a winner of the Booker Award, for our book discussion and it was a very difficult read. So of course, when I realized the Namesake was of an Indian culture too, I thought, "Oh, here we go again!" I was pleasantly surprised. Lahiri is able to write in a flowing manner.

The book tells a story of a family who moved to America from their homeland of India and began to form their own roots here. The parents retain many of the traditional values and rituals of their homeland while beginning to incorporate American traditions and holidays into their lives for their children's sake. The book follows Gogol thru his life and the ups and downs that come with being "different" in a foreign land, even though I feel he leans more toward the American way of life than the Indian culture of his parents.

In the past several years I have become very interested in reading books about foreign lands. They have to be fiction and I know that many things in there may not be all factual, but I get a feel for what it is like there without reading those dry non-fiction titles. I admit I am a FICTION kind of girl! I would recommend this book to others and would even read more things from this author.

We plan, as a group, to get together and watch the movie and compare it with the book.