La Quinta Cove

This from Lauren:

“Time is a River” by Mary Alice Monroe

This is a story within a story, of a survivor, Mia, who goes to a retreat in the Appalachian Mountains to gain some perspective after her battle with breast cancer.  Its aim was to teach women the art of fly-fishing, but the opportunity to bond with other cancer survivors and create a support group was implied.  The teacher was a warm and empathic woman named Belle.

When Mia returns early to her home in Charleston, she finds her husband has been unfaithful and she returns to the mountains seeking a place to hide out and regroup.  Belle allows her the use of her fishing cabin for the summer and Mia begins to rediscover some of her past interest that been set aside during her marriage, as well as continuing her new interest in fly fishing.  Before she left for the summer, Belle’s only request for the free use of the cabin had been that Mia not delve into the family scandal surrounding her grandmother.  Very soon Mia finds herself fascinated with a diary she finds in the cabin that was written by Belle’s grandmother.  Unable to keep her word to Belle, she beings to try to unravel the truth of a 70-year-old mystery, feeling great affinity with the grandmother, who is deceased.

Mia meets a man while she is fishing and forms a friendship with him around their common interest.

The story is well written and interesting on several levels; Mia’s self exploration, the mystery surrounding Belle’s grandmother and the tentative steps toward intimacy after mastectomy.  I recommend it .

“Plum Lucky” by Janet Evanovich

This is a book by Evanovich that uses the same characters as her books titled by numbers.  Her Stephanie Plum character, who is employed as a skip tracer, or bounty hunter, embarks on a series of adventures with her side-kick Lula and a new addition, a man named Diesel.  As with her other books, this one provokes some laughs at the group’s misadventures, but fails to live up to the level of quality of her previous numbered series.

I was disappointed.

Our own Anonymous Reviewer submits this for your consideration:

The Shack by Wm. Paul Young

Missy, the youngest  child in Mackenzie Phillips’ family was abducted from a family fishing trip and her family went into a depression.  Especially Mack, who blamed himself and Katie, his other daughter.  Although no body was ever found, the authorities were certain that Missy was dead.

Mack labeled his depression “the great sadness”  which he seemed unable to shake off.  His wife’s strong relationship with God, whom she referred to as Papa, saw her through her grief and enabled her to go on, but Mack was stuck, until one day a note appeared in his mailbox.  The note told him to meet at the old shack in the woods where Missy’s bloodied dress had been found.  It was signed, Papa.  Unwilling to share his trepidations or his hopes with even his wife, Mack sets off for the shack, uncertain what he hoped to find there. 

What he found there was a new relationship with God, one that he could never have imagined.  This was a journey that changed his perceptions and his life. 

Very thought provoking and interesting concepts.  I recommend it.

AR

Our Anonymous Reviewer has polished off another tome and offers this review:

“Light of the Moon” by Luanne Rice

After the death of her mother, with whom she was extremely close, Susannah Connolly decides to take a sabbatical from work as an archaeologist and visit the French Camargue, where a special breed of white horses are found.  Her mother had told her of these horses and the legend of a saint connected with them.

Upon her arrival in the area, Susannah discovers that there are a group of gypsies, called Roms who have a special connection with the saint.  She meets a man whose daughter has suffered a trauma that has left her colorblind.  The daughter is very protective of her relationship with her father, so a budding romance is doomed to failure.

Through a series of revelations and efforts on both their parts to behave responsibly, a happy ending becomes possible.

Pretty typical romance with an interesting setting and story about the gypsies and the horses.  Quick read.

Our intrepid Anonymous Book Reviewer submits third tome for your consideration:

“Lady Killer” by Lisa Scottoline

Mary DiNunzio is an attorney in a small law firm doing well with small cases, mostly from people in her neighborhood in south Philly.  She is surprised when an old schoolmate arrives in her office seeking her help.  This woman had been part of the fast crowd in their high school days, while Mary had been a quiet, straight A student.  Trish is now involved in a relationship with another old schoolmate of theirs, who, Trish reports, is abusive to her.  He’s also connected with the mob.  He has threatened to kill her.

Mary remembers Mike; he was the guy she’d tutored in high school and secretly wanted to be with.  How could he have become this abuser?  Trish disappears, which leads to a series of misadventures with Trish’s “mean girls” friends from high school, who are trying to find her.  Mary learns more about Mike and tries to save Trish’s life.  She agonizes over the feelings about Mike that this case has resurrected in her.  Feelings of rejection and inferiority that no longer fit with the successful lawyer she has become.

Mike turns up dead in an alley and Mary risks her livelihood and her reputation trying to solve his murder.

The story is plausible and has some good twists and turns.  Readable lite fare.

“Last Light”  by Terri Blackstock

This book is the first in a series of stories about a family living in a small community in the southern United States where a national disaster of epic proportions occurs.  Due to a mysterious extra-terrestrial disturbance, all electricity and telephones and computers and anything that is electronic is shorted out in one instant, nationwide.  The story of how one family’s lives are affected and their efforts to survive in a world that is no longer functioning in any way familiar to them is very compelling.  This family is very religious and finds much comfort in their faith in this dire situation, as they begin to discover how to survive in a 21st Century world under 17th century conditions.

Neighbors who had barely waved to each other in the past needed to workcooperatively in order to figure out how to survive without food, water and automobiles.  With no means of communication with the rest of the world, they are on their own.  Only caring for one’s own family and trying to help your neighbors seems an insurmountable problem.

The story takes many twist and turns, demonstrating difficulties common to human beings under stress.

The story continues in the second in the series, “Night Light”  and the third, “True Light.”  Another book, “Dawn’s Light” will continue the saga in the future.  I found the story believable if one can accept the original premise of the disaster. 

Some people may be a bit put off by the very strong religious tone of the books, but the insights into human character are excellent.

Book reviews scored high on the recent website survey.  Here’s the first in a series of quick reviews by our Anonymous Reviewer.  Feel free to add your comments to the review.  Thanks AR for the review.

“The Appeal”  by John Grisham

Another legal thriller by Grisham, done in his concise, great style. The story involves a David and Goliath contest between a small town law firm and a team of big city lawyers representing a large company whose long term dumping of toxic waste into a nearby ravine has polluted the groundwater leaching into the town’s aquifer.

A jury finds for the family represented by the local Payton law firm in the death of two members, but the decision will be appealed to the State Supreme Court.  If the Court upholds the jury’s verdict and damage award, there will be a flood of other cases to be filed.  The Company, rather than admit its guilt in probably causing many deaths and serious illnesses in the community, chooses to fight in a different way.  They set out to place a new judge on the Court who will vote the way they want and overturn the jury’s verdict on a Court split 5/4.

The process involves manipulating both their young and inexperienced attorney of choice and using many dirty campaigning and fund raising methods to control the outcome of the electron.  It demonstrates all the unsavory aspects of politics and power gone wrong, but it was a good read and a lesson in politics.