This is the story of 4 girls, Bree, April, Celia and Sally who meet as freshmen at Smith College and live in the same dorm.  Their relationships last through college and afterward.  As a group, they are always there to help each other in good times and bad.  Each has a separate life but they still know that no matter what happens in their lives, one of the other girls will be there to help.

The writing started out good, but seemed to dwindle as the book went along.  I was disappointed in the way the story turned out. 

Elly Griffiths has created one of my favorite mystery characters in Ruth Galloway. She's smart and aggressive. While she appears very self-confident, especially in her field of archaeology, she has her own insecurities. I found it really enlightening the way she grew as a character, most notably in her relationship with her parents. Harry Nelson, the other main character and Ruth's foil (and possible love interest) was drawn equally well. I'm sure we've all known his type: outwardly gruff men who take no nonsense from the world, going through life like a bull in a china shop. Their growing mutual respect (and affection) in this story seems natural and realistic. It makes you wonder if there may be something more between them in the future. Other than what happens in this book, of course. The remaining characters seem equally believable, if not quite as deep.

Nelson and Galloway meet when he calls upon her to examine some bones found buried in the marsh. He's hopeful that they belong to a young girl who was kidnapped ten years before, so he can bring some closure both to the case and to the girl's parents. Of course, they're much older than ten years. That would appear to be the end of the story, but when a second girl is taken and all signs point to the crime being related to the earlier case, Ruth becomes more involved with the police investigation. Letters received in both cases require Ruth's special knowledge to unravel, and they point to a location has having particular importance.

This location (and its setting) become a third major character in the book. It's the tidal marsh along Norfolk's north shore and, coincidentally, where Ruth Galloway lives. It's very isolated, with few neighbors. The book takes place in the dead of winter, with storms coming in off the sea. It's dark, cold, and the perfect location for the book. Griffiths knows her location well, and uses her knowledge to create one of the most, moody, claustrophobic atmospheres I've ever encountered. Ruth participated in an archaeological dig on the marsh ten years previously, and has stayed there ever since. The marsh becomes such an integral part of the story that I can't imagine it happening anywhere else.

I can recommend this wholeheartedly to anyone who likes contemporary British mysteries, especially if they enjoy stories with a unique atmosphere and a pretty surprising ending. I know I'm really looking forward to checking out the second Ruth Galloway book, The Janus Stone, as soon as the library gets it.

Find out more at Elly Griffiths' website.

A very good book about families and relationships. Ruth Plank, the 5th daughter in a family of only girls, is artistic and seems not to fit in with the rest of her sisters and parents, who are practical New Englanders.  Her parents have always been friends with the Dickersons since the birth of their daughter, Dana, coincides with Ruth's.  Dana is practical in a family of arty, unorganized, somewhat intinerant parents and brother, Ray.  Both girls grow up thinking that the just don't fit in with their families.  Dana forms a strong bond with Ruth's dad and his love for farming, while Ruth goes of to art school and earns a degree in art, not unlike Dana's mom.

Ruth, who has always had an attraction to Ray Dickerson, ends up running away to Canada to be with him.  When she becomes pregnant, and they tell the happy news to their families; they are met by a strange silence.  Next, Ruth's mother comes to fetch her daughter and takes her to have an abortion.  Ruth can not understand why, but all the secrets will be revealed at the end of the book. 

To reveal more would spoil the ending.  The writing is very good.  The story is told by Ruth and Dana, with a little of Ruth's father thrown in to draw the views of the two girls togehter.  Many secrets are unraveled by the end of the book.

This book is a biography of the actress Ashley Judd.  She talks about her emotional suffering from her childhood and her inability to cope with clinical depression.  She felt lonely as a child and grew up in the shadow of her mother and sister’s fame.  This is not a very flattering book to her mom, dad and sister, who frequently neglected and forgot about her.  They come across as selfish, manipulative and callous.  Ashley has learned to recover and survive her past by doing humanitarian work.  She has taken breaks from her acting career to travel as a world ambassador and is an advocate for Population Services International.  This is now her passion.  Ashley Judd comes across as a very sensitive and thoughtful person, who is happy in her marriage.  She has healed the wounds from her childhood and is working on better relationships with her family.

This is a "bittersweet" story about the friendship of Henry (who parents were Chinese) and Keiko (who was of Japanese descent).  Henry and Keiko were about 12 when the story opened; they each were more or less ostracized by their peers because of their nationalities, and became friends as a result.  It was W.W. II time in Seattle, and Keiko and her family were sent to a Japanese internment camp -- a lot of information about internment camps is gained from reading their story.  The author (Jamie Ford) switched back and forth between Henry's friendship with Keiko in the early to mid 1940's and the 1980's, when Henry was in his 50's.  Henry's difficult relationship with his parents is echoed in his relationship with his own son.  I won't tell you more, because it's too easy to spoil this story for anyone who hasn't read it -- but it's definitely worth reading!   

This is a story about friendship, here on earth and from beyond the grave.  The characters are really well developed and the plot is fairly good.  4 friends from high school grow close as adults.  One of the the friends, Mina, dies of cancer,  and to honor her the friends get together with some of the parents for a yearly vacation.  Kendra, one of the friends, is having relationship problems with her significant other and does not attend.  (She is pregnant and knows her boyfriend does not want the child).  She does not give a reason why she can't come.  Her friends think she is just too busy. 

The vacation goes along fine until Samantha and Isabel, two of the friends, nearly drown in a freak wave.  Sam has an out of body experience and sees Mina, who tells her what is going on with Kendra.  I enjoyed the book to this point, but did't like the ending.  With Mina's influence, all the other members of the group help Kendra decide to keep her child and volunteer to help her raise it.

The author Cooper Lawrence describes the book as making peace with your inner overachiever.  Ms. Lawrence says one in six women is an overachiever, constantly striving to get more done.  She says overachievers set a higher standard for themselves than for anyone else and they are never fully satisfied with their lives.  The book offers practical advice on how to monitor and ease stress.  The volume tells how to build self-esteem and always feel in control.  Personal stories of fellow overachievers give insight into the way other women were raised that caused them to be the overachievers they are today.  The work suggests balancing your needs and setting your priorities so that your life is more under your control.

I enjoyed reading the book.  I learned quite a bit about myself from reading it.  We can put unreasonable demands on ourselves when it is not necessary.  I would recommend the book.

In the village of Vranille, where perfection is a requirement, Abisina is an outcast. When Charach comes to Vranille, Abisina must flee from her village to keep her life. She embarks on a dangerous journey over the mountains to find Watersmeet and, potentially, her father. To survive the journey, she must overcome years of fear and prejudice and learn to accept help from others.

Toward the end of the book, it seems as though the author is trying to tie everything up quickly to make the story work in as few pages as possible. This book could easily have been five hundred pages. There are several aspects of the story that simply cannot be rushed without appearing unrealistic or leaving the reader unsatisfied in some way. There were also a couple of times that I felt the writing a bit too juvenile for the intended audience and other times I felt the writing was too advanced for the intended audience. It just wasn’t uniform.

These are, however, fairly minor objections in comparison with the story as a whole. Watersmeet is very imaginative and unique. There are many lessons to be taken from it. While it wasn't an "I couldn't put this book down" experience, it was a good read. I recommend it to anyone who loves Quest Fantasy or High/Epic Fantasy.  I give it four stars!

9/2/11

Lime Creek by Joe Henry

I really liked this book.  I think anyone who enjoys reading about horses, living on a ranch, the great outdoors, or families would also.  This book was described as spare—I would have to agree—I would have loved to read more about these characters. The book contains eight stories from the life of a rancher named Spencer and his wife and sons.  The writing is very descriptive, beautiful, and powerful.  Love of family, horses, and the land is key in these stories.