The Long Goodbye and Angels Don't Die by Patti Davis are two books I read concurrently.  Patti Davis is the daughter of former President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis Reagan.  In these small books Patti Davis regrets the years she lost being angry with her parents.  Both Patti Davis and her father held polar opposite political stances for years.  Each person played out these differences in very public venues.  Fortunately, Ms. Davis was able to make amends with her father before he became too ill and he was was unable to communicate.  Of her two parents, Patti Davis particularly loved her father.  She recalls the many spiritual lessons he taught her.  At the age of forty-two Ms. Davis was able to come to a deep understanding of her mother.  They were really able to rely on each other during the final illness of her father.  Alzheimer's disease from which President Reagan died is a particularly long, slow demise. 

In my opinion Patti Davis is an excellent writer.  I enjoyed the descriptions of the emotions she and her mother experienced.  I am glad she and her parents were able to reconcile before it was too late. 

This is the story of four sisters, Amanda, Babe, Carleen and Ellie who are invited to their Uncle Ed's 75th birthday party at his estate.  They all manage to show up, but are immediately at odds with each other.  Some of the sisters blame their differences on Carleen, who accidently started a fire at their home when they were teens, burning down the house and killing their parents.

Each of them harbours a secret or two, which seems to drive a wedge between them.  Even Ed has some secrets of his own. He compounds their discomfort by disappearing before the party starts and then he lets everyone guess if he is alive or dead.  Almost everyone in the book takes a turn looking for him.  In the process of having the party, Ed hopes to help the sisters settle some of their differences. 

Eventually Ed is found, and more secrets are told.   To tell what they are would ruin the enjoyment of the book, but I will tell you that the secrets are fairly life changing for all the sisters,

Tori Murden McClure chronicles her life and her quest to become the first woman to row a boat across the Atlantic Ocean.  Between writing about getting ready for the trip and the trip itself, she writes of her childhood and how she was her mentally challenged younger brother's protector.  Neighborhood kids would pick on him, and she did her best to keep him safe.  At the beginning of the book she talks about getting the things she needs for her journey, getting the boat ready, but I felt like there wasn't enough information on why she wanted to row across the Atlantic Ocean.  I am not athletic or very competitive, so maybe I just don't get it, but I felt like there needed to be more of a lead in for this great undertaking.  She was amazing not only because of her athletic ability but with her ability to fix her equipment when it broke down.  One instance she talks about getting out her soldering iron to repair something.  With her communications equipment broken down, she was not able to communicate with people back home.  That kept her from knowing where the Gulf Stream was which would her her to move faster.  Then she struggled through a hurricane that flipped her boat about 15 times causing her to be bruised and beaten up.  She signaled for help using an EPIRB device and flares.  She hated to give up, but she was told there was another storm coming.  Her boat couldn't take another storm, so she agreed to be picked up.  She completes her quest to row across the ocean on another attempt.  This time she left from the coast of Africa and rowed west, a shorter route and less stormy one as well.  It was an enjoyable read about an amazing woman.  

Watersmeet by Ellen Jensen Abbott is a fantasy.  From birth Abisina has had to deal with treated as an outcast.  Her mother’s status as the town’s only healer has saved her from being abandoned outside the village walls, prey to centaurs, dwarves and worse.  With the arrival of the long-awaited Deliverer, the community is incited to slaughter the outcasts, her mother is killed and she escapes. Armed only with her mother’s necklace she heads off to find Watersmeet and hopefully her father.  This book reminded me of The Hunger Games…teen heroine, lots of adventure, and room for a sequel.   Teens are invited to come to the Teen Book Discussion on Tuesday, March 15^th at 5:15.    Learn more about Abisina and her journey to learning tolerance and accepting differences. 

The story of a slave woman and her relationship with her master, mistress, children, and the friends she makes when she and her master travel to Ohio. I couldn't put it down.

I loved this book, right from the introduction. It follows the story of a group of women who have been friends since childhood: how each of them develops apart from the group and how they all come back together to support each other when needed. What I loved about the story was the sense they all had of who each other was as a person:  not as mother or sister or child, but as person.  A great read.

This is an inspiring book by a former Homeless teen who lives in New York City.  Liz's parents were both drug addicts and alcoholics who never encouraged their two daughters.  Lisa, Liz's sister, at least went to school, graduated and got a job.  Liz was never encouraged to go to school.  Her parents hardly had clothes or food for her and she often went to school without bathing or combing her hair, only to be made fun of by her classmates.  She pretty much left school for good in her teens, left home and lived with friends and boyfriends for several years.  After her mother's death from AIDS, her dad's AIDS dignosis and a cruel encounter with a boyfriend, Liz decided to go back to school. 

She found an alternative high school, finished 4 years of work in 2 years, applied for and won a New York Times Scholarship, applied to Harvard and was accepted.  She graduated in 2007 and founded Manifest Living, an advocate organization that fights homelessness and the problems associated with being homeless. 

I admire her very much for what she has accomplished.   

In The Girls from Ames (by Jeffrey Zaslow, columnist for the Wall Street Journal), the author researched the lives and friendship of a group of 11 girls who grew up in Ames, Iowa.  The girls experienced many life situations that are familiar to all of us -- dating, marriages, births and raising of children, severe illness of a child, divorces, deaths of siblings and parents, and severe illnesses of a couple of the girls themselves.  Through it all, the friends consulted each other, celebrated together, mourned together, supported and comforted each other.  Although they now live in eight different states, the girls manage to meet for a reunion at least once each year.

This is an interesting book in which many readers can find themselves and compare their life events and friendships with those of the girls from Ames.  Though their situation seems at first to be rather unique, there are evidently quite a few large groups of friends who keep in touch in various ways for many years.

The book is an intimate profile of singer Karen Carpenter.  She came from a modest upbringing and found her way to become a Southern California superstar along with her brother Richard.  Karen was the lead singer for the Carpenters, a top-selling musical act in the 1970s.  Karen velvety voice delivered great love songs that propelled the duo to worldwide stardom and record sales of more than 100 million.  During their short musical career, the Carpenters won many awards and were touring more than 200 days a year.

Karen like many celebrities could not avoid sadness and tragedy.  She had many heartbreaking struggles with her controlling mother, brother, and husband. She often disclosed this information to her closest friends. Karen loved to play the drums, something she started in high school, and was hoping for a solo singing career.  Unfortunately, she found little support from her family, who always focused on Richard’s musical talents. The stress and emotional problems contributed to a battle with anorexia nervosa.  This was her way of having control over herself.  She went through many treatments, but little was known about this eating disorder in the seventies.  After she married her husband Tom Burris, she discovered he had lied to her and only had an interest in her money.  They were to sign divorce papers on the day of her death February 4, 1983.  Karen died at age 32 never able to have the stable love she deserved.

This biography is warm and sensitive as it explores Karen Carpenter’s life.  Randy Schmidt interviewed her girlfriends, professional associates, childhood friends and lovers.  Richard did not have any input on the book.  I always loved to listen to this group’s music and learned many new facts about a great singer’s life.

This is the story of Arlene Fleet, who grew up in Possett, Alabama and now resides in Chicago where she is a teaching assistant at a University.  When she left her hometown 10 years before, she promised God that she would never lie, never fornicate outside of marriage, and never return to her hometown.  In exchange she asked God to never let the body of Jim Beverly, high school quarterback, be found after Arlene killed him.

When her Uncle Bruster retires, her Aunt Florence invites her to come home.  Arlene tries to not go, but gets talked into it by her boyfriend.  What her family will make of Burr will need to be seen, since Burr is black.  On the way down South she breaks the other two vows she made, so she is sure that the body of the quarterback will surely show up.  After she arrives, things don't exactly go as planned, but she does find out some startling truths about her family.  To tell more will give the ending away.