Thursday, February 26, 2009

Book Review... The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb


What have you been reading lately? I recently finished Wally Lamb's The Hour I First Believed and am happy to report that it was well worth the time spent! At first I thought "who wants to read a book about the shootings at Columbine", but I had read quite a few good reviews and while I was standing in Borders and it was lying on a table with a 50% off sticker on it I decided to pick it up and crack it open- just to get a feel for the writing. What I understood after a few minutes of reading was that this Wally Lamb guy can really write. I bought it. And even though I was in the middle of another book, once I started reading this book I couldn't put it down.

Caelum Quirk is a high school teacher and his wife Maureen is a school nurse. They move to Littleton, Colorado and are working at Columbine High School. While Caelum has to leave for Connecticut to tend to his Aunt who just had a stroke, Maureen is stuck in a cabinet in the school library hiding, while the shootings are beginning at the school. Maureen does survive, but just barely. This story is about Caelum trying to help Maureen get over the horror that she went thru and how far love can be stretched to cover a deep wound. Caelum and Maureen move to his family's farm in Connecticut to start over. But Maureen isn't the only one starting over- Caelum starts over too- dealing with family secrets and the past he left behind. The characters are so human. And the story is so realistic I had to keep reminding myself that this was fiction and not the real retelling of the Columbine shootings.

So, here's the gist- READ IT! A good solid story with great characters!

Monday, February 23, 2009

Is Romance Just for Women?

Is Romance just for Women? A funny thing happened at work the other day... I work in a male dominated workplace, but quite a few of us are avid readers and always have a book in hand. One day one of the guys had finished his book and asked one of the girls if she had anything he could borrow. She did - a romance! Well, Brian (I’ll protect his identity by not using his last name) is a reader and took it. Now I wasn’t there for the initial exchange, I come into the story later on while some of the other guys (that includes you Eric) I work with were talking about the book Brian had borrowed. That book was making the rounds! Now I had to ask what book they were ALL reading? I can’t write the comments I heard about the book here, but suffice it to say that this wasn’t your sweet love story - it was sizzling! And they couldn’t believe the “secret” we were keeping from them - romance books. The book was Scent of Darkness by Christina Dodd. Not only was it sizzling the story was good too! Secretary has secret desire for rich boss, who doesn’t know she exists. Secretary decides to seduce boss, but accidentally catches him transforming from a wolf to a man. From there the adventure begins. This is the first in Christina Dodds Darkness Chosen series-a paranormal/fantasy romance series. Just goes to show you - we all enjoy a little romance. And that brings up another question- has romance changed in the 21st century? Look for that in my next posting....