Pond Hopper

I put off buying this book for months because I was afraid it would be too disturbing for me as the front of the book read: Jack is five. He lives with his Ma. They live in a single, locked room. They don't have the key. Jack and Ma are prisoners. I couldn't have been more wrong. I started the book at 3:00 in the afternoon and by 11:00 that night, I had 90 pages (of the 336) to go - that's with stopping to do the dinner, bath time & bedtime routines with my 2 year old. This is one of the most thought-provoking and beautiful books I've ever read. The first half of the book was almost difficult to read due to the images and visions it provokes, but written from Jack's point of view it was innocent and much more bearable. I have never read a book that made me feel so much - the gamut of emotions from sadness to elation, just a wonderful and revelatory novel. I did not find the second half to be as compelling as the first, but overall it was five stars. Check i...

Synopsis: A wife learns that her pilot husband has been killed along with the people on his plane. Several mysteries surround the death & the place of the crash. As the plot unfolds other issues arise that help the wife learn her husband was not what he seemed. Since I have only recently come back to my love for books (after a very long absence), I am reading books from all different time periods. This is book is from 1998 and was my first novel by Anita Shreve. The plot was good and at the beginning I was compelled, but by the middle of the book, I almost gave up. For me, reading a Shreve novel is an exercise in patience. The pacing is slow, but ultimately if you can hang in there, she offers a rewarding read. That being said, I don't know if I'd buy another one of her books. Check it out on Amazon.com by clicking the title above or on Amazon.co.uk by clicking here

After her mother’s sudden death, Emily Benedict moved to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the questions surrounding her mother's life. But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew, she realizes that mysteries aren't solved in Mullaby, they're a way of life. There is a room where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the garden in the night. And a neighbor, Julia, bakes hope in the form of cakes, offering them to satisfy the town's sweet tooth - but also in the hope of rekindling a love she fears might be lost forever. Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily's back garden? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in…. MY REVIEW - What a magical book! Some might think this book is directed towards the teenage genre, but I’m pushing 4...

This was one of those times that I felt like I must have read a different book than all of the other people who gave this book such rave reviews! Words cannot express how much I hated this book. It was brutal & deeply disturbing. I only wish I hadn't finished it. I will have to read a fluff novel (or two) to detox from this one!