Heaven is Real by Todd Burpo

Regardless of your religious affiliation or beliefs, most of us are curious about what really happens when we die. While no one can answer this question completely, Heaven is Real by Todd Burpo gives some excellent food for thought. This Nebraska pastor shares details that his 4 year old son, Colton, revealed over a period of several years after his near death experience. Meeting his great grandfather and John the Baptist, as well as describing Jesus’ horse and his “markers” are just a few of the incredible stories and observations that are included in this compelling account. Concise and well written, this little gem is easy to read and hard to put down. Lesley McKinstry

The Scent of Rain and Lightning By Nancy Pickard

The Scent of Rain and Lightning

By Nancy Pickard

 

A decades-old mystery is solved and a woman’s haunting questions put to rest in Pickard’s latest thriller. When she was just three years old, Jody Linder lost both parents in one night, when her father, Hugh Jay—eldest son of the wealthiest rancher in the small town of Rose, Kansas—was killed and her mother, Laurie, vanished. Raised by grandparents, Hugh Senior and Annabelle Linder, and with loving support from three uncles, Jody spends years collecting human detritus around the area’s towering Testament Rocks, where authorities once searched for clues to Laurie’s disappearance. Jody’s world is rocked 23 years later when Billy Crosby, the vicious drunk convicted of her father’s murder on circumstantial evidence, is released for a new trial; his return to town brings events to a head.--Booklist

This book has an unexpected twist that I never saw coming. I like reads like this that keeps you on your toes and is not so predictable. Every now and then it got a little slow, but you barely noticed it from all the build-up of what you knew (or thought you knew) was coming.  In the midst of all of the sadness, there is a happy ending , Yay! 

N.B Library Catalog

http://seoipac.seo.lib.oh.us/ipac20/ipac.jsp?profile=nba&lang=eng&reloadxsl=true#focus

Book Review - The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell

   The Burning Land is the latest in the historical fiction series about Alfred the Great written by Bernard Cornwell.  The series of books features the life and career of Uthred, a Saxon captured by the invading Danes as a child and raised in a Danish home.  As a young man, he found himself orphaned by the death of his adopted Danish family and goes to the Saxons in the south of England to live.  His fighting abilities bring him to the attention of Alfred, the sickly but well-educated King of Wessex.  In spite of his pagan beliefs, Uthred rises to be one the principle warlords of Christian King Alfred, being instrumental in many of the major battles between the Saxons and the invading Danes.

   In this, the fifth book of the series, Uthred sets out to counter the invasion of Harald Bloodhair, a savage warrior leading the Danish invaders, who is encouraged to cruelty by his evil woman, Skade. But Uhtred, the unwilling warlord of an aging and ailing King Alfred, has to take the lead in the battle against Harald.  Alfred’s heir is too weak to lead the army, but is quick to take credit for Uthred’s work.  The Danes are finally led into a trap at Farnham in Surrey, where the Saxons inflict one of the greatest defeats they ever won over the Danish invaders.

   I have loved every one of the Saxon series of stories written by Cornwell.  He writes the stories as though they are being dictated right from the lips of Uthred himself.  You find yourself drawn into the plot quickly and can almost feel the sword in your hand as Uthred raises it to battle another foe bent on the conquest of Wessex.

   The author weaves much historical fact with fiction to tell these stories about what was perhaps England’s most desperate time. 

   I give this book 5 stars!  But if you’ve never read any of these stories, start with “The Last Kingdom” and follow Uthred’s life from the beginning. 

   And the good news is that this book leaves the door open for at least one more installment in Lord Uthred's odyssey.

Stephen Cram

North Baltimore Public Library

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Book Chatters’

  We are an informal book discussion group of 8.  We have been reading and chatting since May 2001.  Members alternate selecting titles.  New members are always welcome to join us.  We usually meet the fourth Tuesday evening of each month. 

Some of our favorite books are:

THE GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Walls

THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows

THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett

THE HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET by Jamie Ford

LIFE OF PI by Yann Martel

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES by Sue Monk Kidd

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS by Sara Gruen

Our February 2011 selection was:

PARROT & OLIVIER IN AMERICA

by Peter Carey

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, April 2010: In this vivid and visceral work of historical fiction, two-time Booker Prize winner Peter Carey imagines the experiences of Alexis de Tocqueville, the great French political philosopher and author of Democracy in America. Carey brings de Tocqueville to life through the fictionalized character of Olivier de Garmont, a coddled and conceited French aristocrat. Olivier can only begin to grasp how the other half lives when forced to travel to the New World with John "Parrot" Larrit, a jaded survivor of lifelong hardship who can’t stand his young master who he is expected to spy on for the overprotective Maman Garmont back in Paris. Parrot and Olivier are a mid-nineteenth-century Oscar and Felix who represent the highest and lowest social registers of the Old World, yet find themselves unexpectedly pushed together in the New World. This odd couple’s stark differences in class and background, outlook and attitude—which are explored in alternating chapters narrated by each—are an ingenious conceit for presenting to contemporary readers the unique social experiment that was democracy in the early years of America. --Lauren Nemroff

Our thoughts:  Certainly not one of our favorite books!  In fact, several of us did not finish it!  The best part of the book was the developing friendship between the main characters.  Unfortunately, the first half of the book was spent on their very different childhoods before they even met.  The characters and story are certainly memorable, but this is not a title we can recommend.  Cheryl J 

Our March 2011 selection is:

SHADOW OF THE WIND

by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

From Booklist

Call it the "book book" genre: this international sensation (it has sold in more than 20 countries and been number one on the Spanish best-seller list), newly translated into English, has books and storytelling--and a single, physical book--at its heart. In post-World War II Barcelona, young Daniel is taken by his bookseller father to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a massive sanctuary where books are guarded from oblivion. Told to choose one book to protect, he selects The Shadow of the Wind, by Julian Carax. He reads it, loves it, and soon learns it is both very valuable and very much in danger because someone is determinedly burning every copy of every book written by the obscure Carax. To call this book--Zafon's Shadow of the Wind-- old-fashioned is to mean it in the best way. It's big, chock-full of unusual characters, and strong in its sense of place. Daniel's initiation into the mysteries of adulthood is given the same weight as the mystery of the book-burner. And the setting--Spain under Franco--injects an air of sobriety into some plot elements that might otherwise seem soap operatic. Part detective story, part boy's adventure, part romance, fantasy, and gothic horror, the intricate plot is urged on by extravagant foreshadowing and nail-nibbling tension. This is rich, lavish storytelling, very much in the tradition of Ross King's Ex Libris (2001). Keir Graff
Copyright © American Library Association.

March Meeting:  We plan to meet on Friday, March 25 in Findlay.  After discussing the book at a local restaurant, we will attend the CommunityREAD event, featuring Jamie Ford, author of THE HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET.  For more information, contact me – cheryl@nbpubliclibrary.org. 

For information on the annual Hancock County event – http://www.community-foundation.com

Happy Reading!  Cheryl J