All Around the Town

by Mary Higgins Clark

Four-year-old Laurie Kenyon was abducted from her front lawn and then released two years later in the early morning hours at a school house where she was found by the caretaker.

When she is picked up by her parents, they are just glad to have her home and deny that she might need counseling. Her sister Sarah had vowed to keep Laurie safe hoping it would make the "gift" of her own birth as wonderful as the "miracle" of Laurie's birth. The nuns had told her a miracle was always better than a gift.

It is now 15 years later; Sarah and Laurie's parents have been killed in an automobile accident. It has become evident that Laurie's parents made a mistake by not allowing her to go through counseling. She is now a senior in college and has been accused of murdering her English professor, Allan Grant. She has no memory of the murder. The investigation reveals Laurie exhibiting other personalities that have been hidden these past years. Each personality takes turns to protect Laurie, making find the truth more difficult.

Did Laurie kill Professor Grant or was it one of her other personalities that murdered him? Sarah, who is now an attorney has quit her job and decided to spend her time investigating the crime and representing her sister in court.

While much of the story is predictable, there are a few twists and turns I didn't see coming. I found it quite enjoyable.

The Second Mrs. Hockaday

by Susan Rivers

Seventeen-year-old Placidia, a bride of two days, is left to care for her husband's farm and his small son when Major Gryffth Hockaday is called back to the Civil War. Coming from a well-to-do family, she is unprepared to run a farm or raise a child and must depend and trust the very few servants who also live on the land.

Two years later when Major Hockaday returns, he is hurt and angry at the rumors that his wife bore a child and murdered it. He immediately demands that she be arrested. Alone at home while Placidia is in jail, the Major comes across pages of a favored book where the true story has been handwritten in the blank end pages. The secret she tried to hide is now brought to light.

Based on a true incident, we see order and relationships amongst Southerners in a new way. Wartime has brought its own desperate order. This is a love story that reveals how the Civil War brought about the beginning of changes in the country's racial divide.

As I read this book, I was struck by the sometimes difficult relationships between land owners and their servants or slaves. People were either ruled by attitude of the day or they could go against it and be ruled by what was just and right. It takes a lot of courage to go against convention to protect those who may need it most. 

Vinegar Hill

by A. Manette Ansay

James had always been interested in Ellen's sister, but since she rejected him several times, he decided to take Ellen out on a date. On the way home, they were stranded in his car by a snowstorm. When it finally ended the next morning, they knew that marriage was the only option for both of them.

But now James has, with no warning, quit his job. He's just announced that he's moving his family in with his parents. Ellen has no idea how much her life is about to change.

Helen and her two children have moved into a house filled with hate, bitterness, cruelty, greed, false piety and horrifying secrets. The only time I found myself cheering was when she finally got enough backbone to leave.

The only thing I can say about this book is it was the most depressing book I've ever read. I don't care how the characters came to their circumstances, I don't care that it has the Oprah Book Club seal on the front cover, getting through the book was like going through hell with these characters.

Halfway through the book I was tempted to trash it, then I started skimming and skipping through the pages enough to get the gist of the rest of the story. By the time I finished, I actually ended up with a headache.

All I can say is that the book is aptly named.

The Almost Sisters

by Joshilyn Jackson

Leia Birch Briggs is a comic book writer and illustrator, tasked with writing a prequel for her most loved character Violet. However Leia discovers that a one-night stand with the cute black "Batman" she met at a comic convention has resulted in pregnancy, and now it's difficult come up with Violet's beginnings. Her mind is consumed by her pregnancy.

The first person she wants to tell is her grandmother, "Birchie," who lives in Alabama. But she soons find out that Birchie has been diagnosed with Lewy Bodies, a form of dementia. Birchie mostly sees bunny rabbits everywhere - doing what they do best. Birchie and her bosom buddy Wattie have tried very hard to hide the disease, but after the recent church fish fry it can't be hidden any longer. And because of her outburst, a few members can no longer show their faces at the little Baptist church. Leia realizes that she has to help her grandmother. However, before she leaves home, she also finds herself in the middle of the marital woes of her half-sister Rachel and winds up taking along her niece, Lavender.

Conversation during the first dinner hints of the trouble that is on the horizon. Birchie flatly refuses to go into assisted living, but just in case she's forced, she orders that a trunk be moved into Leia's car and she and Wattie attempt to drive off with it. But as they're driving out of the yard, Wattie accidentally backs into the mailbox and the trunk is discovered. In front of nosy neighbors no less. Neighbors who have called the police who feel they need to open the trunk - the trunk that contains human remains!

So the book about the comic book writer who gets knocked up by a black Batman is about to become much more interesting than I originally thought.

It deals with small southern town values, prejudices, rape, bi-racial children, two churches within a church, two towns within one town, and "almost sisters" or does the word "almost" really apply?

The Red Garden

The Red Garden

by Alice Hoffman

Hallie Brady saved early settlers from starvation that first winter in 1750 by catching eels and stealing milk from a hibernating bear. She befriends six-year-old Harry Partridge who learns her secret, only he was too late.

In later chapters, the descendants of the Brady and Partridge families encounter John Chapman, the planter of apple trees; the ghost at Eel River; the fisherman's beautiful wife who may or may not be an eel; and in 1986 Gratitude and Apology cakes - all within distance of the Red Garden in the back yard. The Red Garden where the soil is red and everything that is planted there grows red - even green beans. But the tomatoes grown there - they are magic - they can make dreams come true. And during the year of no summer, trees bloomed in the snow.

Alice Hoffman weaves a tale full of magic, secrets and loyalty generation to generation in the town of Blackwell, Massachusetts.

The Poisonwood Bible

The Poisonwood Bible

by Barbara Kingsolver

Missionary Nathan Price along with his wife and four daughters have arrived in the Congo for a one-year mission trip. The year is 1959. Although they have planned for this trip and have packed all things they believe will be necessary - down to garden seeds - at the airport they find that they are allowed only 44 pounds per each person's luggage. Trying to lessen the weight of their luggage, they resort to unpacking and wearing every item of clothing they own onto the plane.

Once they've arrived, they find the Congo is absolutely nothing like they imagined. They are vastly unprepared for this climate. The seeds they planted are washed away by the torrential rains, the cake mix they brought for a birthday cake is ruined by the humidity. Nathan does not understand why he cannot baptize even one convert in the nearby river. What he does not understand is that no one goes into the river - ever - it's full of crocodiles.

He never seems to "get" that these people, native to the Congo, whose culture is drastically different from his own, understand the land of their birth. They have learned how to survive in this violent atmosphere. They know that the wisdom handed down generation to generation will help them survive the jungle where they live and the American missionary has no idea what he's talking about.

One thing I found interesting is that had it not been for the natives coming to the aid of this family, they would never have survived.

The story is told by his four daughters - 15-year-old Rachel (who hates everything about her new life); 14-year-old twins, Leah and Adah (Leah enjoys observing the culture, while Adah enjoys studying plant life and insects), and five-year-old Ruth May (who enjoys her childhood and playing with the native children). His wife, Orleanna who speaks in five of the chapters, is a southern woman who has been beat down by Nathan's sour attitude and an unfortunate belief that God is really on the side of her husband - no matter how wrong he might be and how much he has subjected his family to danger.

The story revolves around Missionary Price's uncompromising beliefs, his failure to understand the land and culture, and the political discontent and eventual uprising at the time.

After 18 months in the jungle, disaster struck. The young girls grew up overnight, and their characters seemed to solidify into their adult characters. As with so many long historical narratives, I found the ending to be rambling. This could be my own problem, as I found while reading James Michener's books, the first three-quarters of the novels were absolutely fascinating, then as he started narrating characters in modern times and I lost all interest.

Overall, I loved the book until the last few chapters.

A Lady’s Life

in the Rocky Mountains

by Isabella Bird

Isabella Bird was born in 1831 in Yorkshire. She was a precocious child, but both she and her father (a minister) were in frail health. Their family doctor suggested travel for their ailments. She had already written several books about her travels when she penned these letters to her sister.

The letters written in the year 1879 are about her travels from San Francisco through the Rocky Mountains and on into Denver - 800 miles on favorite horse, Birdie. During these three months, as she travels the terrain, watching the sunrises and sunsets, one wishes she'd had a camera; but her descriptions are so vivid that I'm not sure photography would do justice to what she saw.

She travels alone much of the time with only her Birdie. And even when she thinks that she can't go another mile, one step ahead is a lit cabin - a place of refuge from the cold and snow for the night. All cabin dwellers were welcoming. Even the men, including the desperados. I did not get the sense that she had many fearful moments from people - only the land and the weather. Her travels take place from September through December - and she only in light clothing. How she did not freeze to death at times is a wonder to me. She speaks many times of traveling through snow up to the horse's shoulders, trying to walk on ice or waking up in an "unchinked" log cabin with snow all over her and as she is cleaning out the cabin, she doesn't just "sweep" it out, she sometimes has to "shovel" it out.

Folklore has it that she had a romantic relationship with Mountain Jim Nugent - a gentleman outlaw. She had a relationship with him it seems, though in her writings romance is played down. In fact she says something to the effect that it would be easy to fall in love with him, but only a foolish woman would marry him. It is evident that they did greatly value each other's friendship.

I'm amazed at her bravery, her tenacity and her overall positive attitude. She definitely believed in pulling her own weight and while she appreciated help from men, she did not expect it nor demand it.

I would very much like to read her other writings if I come across them. As I started to research her before writing this, I found that after she left the Rockies and Mountain Jim died, she married. She again fell into ill health - until her husband died - and she began to travel again - around the world. Apparently her doctor - even way back then - knew what she needed. Because as soon as she began to travel, her health improved tremendously until her death at age 73 in 1904 in Edinburgh.