Long Lost

I think I devoured this book in two big gulps! Harlan Coben really knows how to tell a good story.

This novel features Myron Bolitar and it was so nice to visit with him again. This time he rushes to Paris to help his friend, Terese, locate her ex-husband and the daughter she thought had died ten years earlier.

Their investigation lands them in all kinds of tough situations and keeps the story moving at breakneck speed.

This one is definitely a winner!

School started today with two days of teacher workshops and preparation. The kids begin on Wednesday. I'm already pooped!

Dark of the Moon

This was a pretty good book. I liked the crisp and tight writing. It stars Virgil Flowers in his own book. Fans of Lucas Davenport and the Prey series by John Sandford will recognize him. In this novel he's on his own trying to figure out who killed several people in a small town. There are quite a few suspects and Virgil uses his unique style to solve the mystery.

One thing bothered me though. On page 111 Roman Schmidt hears someone at the door in the middle of the night. He figures it can't be good news and as he's on his way to the door, he hopes it doesn't involve his son or daughters. On page 117, after he's been killed, Virgil asks about family and the sheriff answers that Schmidt had no family. And that was it. There was no mention of Schmidt's family after that. I thought there would be a deep, dark secret revealed later but...nothing!

And that bothered me the whole way though kind of spoiling it for me.

The Weight of Silence

This should say, "Tuesday Salon"! I can't believe how late I am this week. Our son and his girlfriend visited over the weekend so we were busy. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!


I did manage to finish this book quite quickly and liked it. Two little seven-year-old girls disappear from their bedrooms early one summer morning. One girl, Calli, is mute and Petra, her friend, speaks for her.

The novel is told through several voices including Calli's.

Really, I couldn't put it down! It was that good.

Mom update: Her doctor injected silicone in her back. It will take a couple weeks to alleviate her pain. In the mean time she's been moved to a rehab facility to help her get back on her feet. Wish I lived closer!

This is my last week of vacation so I'm determined to bike to the beach each day to read for a couple hours. So, I'm outa here!

The Shadow of the Wind...and a Tuna!

It's going to be 90 degrees and humid here in Maine today. After a horrible July, August is turning out quite summery, finally!



My mom fell Friday morning and ended up in the hospital. The procedure for her back has been rescheduled for Monday.




This is a long book at almost 5oo pages so it took me awhile to finish it. It was worth it, though. Mystery, intrigue, love, humor, death. This novel has it all.



The foreign setting of Barcelona is fresh and I loved all the Spanish names. They add so much flavor.


I see that Carlos Ruiz Zafon has a new book out. I saw it at Border's and it looks like a winner, too, so I will have to pick it up sometime.



In other news, my husband caught a tuna on Thursday. It weighed in at over 600 lbs. and was 100 inches long. He fought it for almost 8 hours! This is the largest one he's ever brought in. The six-hundred pounders are usually in their prime and this one was fiesty and refused to give up. It pulled the boat backwards in circles for hours. My husband was soaked. Luckily he had a buddy with him to help. You can see more pictures here.


So, lots of excitement here. Just two more weeks of vacation before school resumes. I really need a little boredom so I'll be happy to go back to work. Hopefully, this week will be a beach and reading one!

Just an Update

I'm back in Maine from Florida. My mom is still in agony from her four compression fractures. She'll find out tomorrow if she is a candidate for a precedure where they inject cement into her spine. If so, it will happen on Friday. We're keeping our fingers crossed that this will occur.

I'm still working on The Shadow of the Wind. It takes place in Barcelona so that makes it interesting. I don't think I've ever read a book set there.

Daniel Sempere finds a book written by Julian Carax and it leads him on a quest to find out more about the author. The novel is full of quirky characters and mysteries.

I'm enjoying it but haven't had much time to read since getting back because my granddaughter, Kylie, is visiting for the weekend. We went to the library yesterday and she picked out three books that we are going to read today.

Two Books in One Week

I'm in Florida this Sunday caring for my ailing mom. She has a compression fracture and is in a great deal of pain.

I finished this book before leaving Maine. I had read Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and loved it so thought I'd try this one of hers. It is well written but just doesn't have as interesting a story as her other one.

Peony is almost 16 and falls in love with with a guy she meets at her parents' showing of a play called The Peony Pavillion. Peony really identifies with the main character. No one realizes that she slips away and meets the love of her life...and death. Unfortunately, Peony is betrothed to another and will be marrying him once she turns 16. To avoid that she starves herself to death. The majority of the book tells of Peony's struggles to get into the afterworld.

The rites of the dead are very interesting but it was just so hard to care about a dead character!

This is the book I took with me to Florida and I gulped it! Usually, when I'm on a plane, I doze off but, not this time. I just kept turning the pages.

There are two main characters. Sarah lives in 1942 France during the round-up of thousands of Jewish children by the French under orders by the Germans. They ended up being gassed in a concentration camp. This is a part of French history they would rather forget. When the police come knocking on her door in the middle of the night, 10-year old Sarah doesn't realize that she'll never return. She locks her little brother in a secret hiding place and takes the key with her.

Fast-forward sixty years to 2002 France. Julia Jarmond is an American married to an arrogant, philandering jerk. They have an eleven-year-old daughter. Julia works for an American magazine and her boss gives her the assignment to write about the 60th anniversary of the round-up. Her investigation leads her to the realization that her husband's family's home had originally housed a Jewish family.

The more Julia learns about Sarah, the more she learns about herself. Their two stories alternate in short chapters that I just couldn't stop reading!

We have a retirement home in Florida so I'm staying there overnight but visiting with my mom during the day. So, it's time to get on the road.