The Berry pickers by amanda peters

| lindacw53

I waited a long time for this title to become available at the library. I love blueberries, I love Maine. I thought for sure I would love this book. I’ll get right to the point, I didn’t.

An Indigenous family travels each year from Nova Scotia to Maine to pick blueberries. One day the youngest of the family, four year old, Ruthie, goes missing. The authorities are unwilling to look for her. She is never found.

Norma is raised by an affluent family in Maine. Their over protective ways suffocate her and lead to her suspicions. She dreams of a Ruthie which her mother quickly tries to suppress from her daughter’s memory.

By chapter two, any reader could figure out where this story was going. One family searching for Ruthie and another trying to push anything and everything about Ruthie and her past into the darkness. Why I continued to read, I don’t know. I waited for something exciting, some anger, some tension. But sadly nada. Skip this one if there are other books in your to be read file. It’s a snoozer.

The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon

| lindacw53

I belong to many book groups on Facebook. At times it can be overwhelming, so many good book suggestions, so little time to read them all. Believe me I want to read them all. The Frozen River came up over an over, so when my turn came on the library list, I jumped on it.

Martha Ballard is a midwife in a small town in Massachusetts in the years shortly after the Revolutionary War. The laws are in a state of flux and women must stay in their place, cooking, cleaning and having children. By the fact that Martha is a midwife and an advocate of women, makes her very modern, indeed yet stuck in a more primitive world.

At first, the story moved slowly. It’s a long, cold winter in New England after all. Wondering where this all was headed meant I couldn’t stop. Martha, her family and her life are always moving forward. I’m not going to say much else about this story, not wanting to give away anything, other than you must read it. It’s that good and how all the story lines are resolved will leave you speechless.

The Frozen River is a must read if you love historical fiction. The Frozen River is a must read is you are simply looking for a good book that will knock your socks off. Don’t pass this one by.

The queen of sugar hill by reshonda tate

| lindacw53

The Queen of Sugar Hill starts with Hattie McDaniel winning the Oscar in 1936 for her role as Mammy in Gone With the Wind. She’s seated at the very back of the room and given a plaque that doesn’t even have her name engraved on it. Being the first woman of color. to win an Oscar although quite an accomplishment came with a price.

Hattie struggled to land roles other than those of a black maid or servant. She fought the white movie moguls of Hollywood for better roles. She received criticism from other black people for accepting those roles. Hattie worked hard to change the perceptions of both groups.

Sugar Hill was a white neighborhood in Los Angeles where Hattie was able to buy herself a very nice home. She took pride in ownership but there too she had to fight to keep the home she loved. Hattie wasn’t perfect and she had many flaws especially when it came to choosing husbands. They all managed to manipulate her while her heart refused to see them except through rose colored glasses. The last husband was the straw that broke the camel’s back, dethroning Hattie as the Queen of Sugar Hill.

I didn’t think The Queen of Sugar Hill was a particularly well written book. At times the book dragged on repeating bits and pieces throughout the story. But it’s the person who is important. Hattie McDaniel was a trailblazer in breaking down racial barriers. If we are ever going to break the chains of racism, we need to learn the stories of women like Hattie, women who came before us and their efforts to make life better for us all.

How to eat a cupcake by meg donohue

| lindacw53

I didn’t choose a book with the word book in the title this time, so I did the next best thing, one with something sweet instead. Cupcakes! Impossible to resist, especially the tempting flavors sold in Annie and Julia’s new cupcake shop, Treat.

Annie and Julia have a long difficult past between them. Julia is the daughter of wealthy parents living in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. Annie is the daughter of an Ecuadorian immigrant who is employed as Julia’s family live-in cook and nanny. As children the girls are the best of friends. When the teenage years approach, their raging hormones manage to drive a wedge between them.

When Julia comes back home from her high powered job in New York City to plan her wedding, she harbors a secret. When she tastes one of Annie’s delicious cupcakes at her mother’s charity event, Julia decides the two of them must go into business together. Annie hesitantly agrees.

Working together turns out not to be all fun and games for the pair. Repairing the past is no easy task, for either of them. How to Eat a Cupcake is entertaining, suspenseful, and charming. It will leave the reader feeling good while they drool all over the pages for one of the delicious sounding cupcake flavors. If I knew where I could get a treat that was as decadent as it sounds in this book, I’d be on my way right this instant. And I won’t come back until I’ve had my fill.

At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier

| lindacw53

I recently wrote a review on The Girl with the Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier. I was so impressed I wanted to see what else she’d written. At The Edge of the Orchard was the first of her books to be available from the library so I jumped on it.

To my surprise, the first section was titled, Black Swamp. James and Sadie Goodenough came in their wagon from Connecticut until the wagon stuck in the ‘Black Swamp’. Without reading any further, I knew exactly where they were. In Ohio. Most of Northwestern Ohio is covered in what is called muck, a black muddy organic soil that can grow vegetables to perfection. James Goodenough, however, brought apple trees with him and was determined to put fifty apple trees on his land so he could call it his own as a settler. He wanted to grow his precious and sweet Golden Pippins. Sadie, however wanted more spitters to make applejack to feed her alcohol habit.

Their oldest son, Robert, leaves the chaos at home and heads west. He learned about trees from his father and when he lands in California he connects with a man collecting redwood and sequoia saplings to send back to England. As it always has, life happens all around him.

I loved reading about the muck in Ohio, having lived and gone to college in that area. I will always be a Buckeye at heart. The storyline in California was interesting but I already knew what was going to happen to the trees. They went to all that trouble and they never grew anywhere but in Northern California. The story has a lot of heartache but ends on a higher note. The history proved interesting and the writing superb. I have to say I liked The Girl with the Pearly Earring a little better but At The Edge of the Orchard kept my attention and was equally entertaining.

The Echo of Old Books by Barbara Davis

| lindacw53

It’s highly unusual that I would read two books in a row, both with the word ‘book’ in the title. I’m drawn to books of all kinds so that really shouldn’t surprise me much. The last book I read was about magical books being used for evil. The Echo of Old Books is quite the opposite, books paving the path to love.

Ashlyn Greer is a rare book dealer whose love of books goes far beyond the words on the page or the worn leather bindings. She can hold a book in her hands and feel the emotions of a prior owner. She calls these vibrations, echoes. Some echoes are nice, some faint and others are incredibly strong. When Ashlyn finds two very similar books which appear to have been published but without an author page, she sets out to solve their literary mystery. One book tells the man’s side of a story and the other, the woman’s side of the same events.

Ashlyn uses all the resources available to her to track down, the book’s characters, Belle and Hemi. That search leads her down many different paths, mending her own heartbreak and finding true love along the way. Belle and Hemi, however are the stars and mending their true true love back together is much more difficult.

The Echo of Old Books is a love story but not without many twists and turns, ups and downs. It’s a book within two books making it a heartwarming and delightful read. I knew it would, but I wished it would never end.

the book of doors by gareth brown

| lindacw53

Books to me are an escape, a trip to somewhere unknown, magical. A book about books had me with the title and the cover. I didn’t even need to open it or read any of the blurbs on the back. I was hooked at first sight.

Cassie Andrews is content working in a bookstore in New York City. One day a customer dies in the store, on her watch, while drinking his usual coffee and reading his favorite book. He leaves a book on the table, inscribed to her. It’s the Book of Doors. Cassie studies the strange writing and drawings inside before discovering its magic. Magic, however, she must learn, often comes with a price.

She discovers the world is full of special books and people who want to possess them. Some are good, most are bad and one is downright evil. Her adventure through time, space and the shadows begins. Once it starts she can’t turn back.

I understand that this is a book about time travel and imagination. This story was so difficult to follow. The characters were poorly crafted and lacked personality. The time travel was repetitive to the same places over and over making it difficult to track what time period they were in. Most of all the story lacked any tension. The book contained plenty of fight and killing scenes and none of them was scary or gut wrenching to me as a reader. Yes, the woman was evil but what made her that way? What did she plan to do with the books once she acquired them all? And I found it difficult to separate the characters of “the woman” and the Bookseller, both women who had interests in the books but neither’s motive was ever explained.

I’m all in when it comes to books and their special powers. The Book of Doors lacked sparkle. My advice on this book it to leave the door closed.

the girl with a pearl earring by tracy chevalier

| lindacw53

I can still remember a copy of this painting hanging on the wall of my grandmother’s home. As a child, I had no idea that the artist was Dutch or that the painting was famous. I was simply mesmerized by the lovely girl with the eyes that could follow me around the room.

The author of The Girl With A Pearl Earring tells a fictionalized story of the painter, Vermeer, his family and the maid, Griet. Her father has been blinded in an accident at the Delft tile factory where he worked. The family had no choice but to send their daughter, Griet, into service as a maid for a family they believed to be wealthy.

It was no an easy transition for Griet into the working life inside a wealthy home. Catharina, Vermeer’s wife is cranky, jealous and always pregnant. Her mother, Maria Thins, runs the house with an iron hand. The other household help is quick to place blame for every misstep on Griet. Though uneducated, Griet is smart and observant and quickly learns how to navigate this strange world. When the famous painter, choses her to be his model, everyone and everything inside the household shifts.

I loved this book. The characters and the settings are rich. I watched the painting of Griet being created within its pages. I can still see it hanging in my grandmother’s foyer believing it is real. Don’t miss this one.

Seeking Sarah by M A Robinson

| lindacw53

Don Jensen loves his Sarah deeply. When she dies after a long illness, he finds himself on a search to find the real Sarah. She was an actress and as he discovers, she used her acting talent both on and off the stage. Sarah wore a mask to hide her darkest secrets from the rest of the world, even Don, the love of her life. As Don sorts through her personal effects, he peels away the layers of the life she kept hidden.

This story is full of ups and downs of the grieving process. How we all deal with grief is different as is our view of what happens to us when we die. Seeking Sarah shows the reader a view of life and death that may be different but also gives us plenty of reasons to smile.

Seeking Sarah is an Indie title that I’m happy to spotlight. The author is another of the great friends I made at a recent book festival. A reader will find this book written in a new, fresh style which is what I love about reading Indie books. They will walk you down a different path. You may not find Seeking Sarah in a brick and mortar book store, but it’s available online wherever you choose to buy your books. Seeking Sarah is story that is time well spent.