On the Banks of Plum Creek by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I read this one for the Little House on the Prairie Read-a-long and the Newbery challenge.

Harper and Row

Laura and her family have moved from the wilds of Indian Country to the cooler climate of Minnesota. Pa plans to make a fortune off of wheat crops, but the unpredictable weather and grasshoppers may change his plans. While in Minnesota, Laura is able to go to church and school for the first time and she meets Nellie Oleson, a spoiled child. Through all the changes, the Ingalls family weathers the storm and hope to make a life on the banks of Plum Creek.

I love how Laura gets back at Nellie with the leeches. Nellie deserved so much worse, but Laura patiently bides her time until she tricks the brat. I also like that Laura has such positive teachers who build her up, both her regular school teacher and the Sunday school teacher. I loved the idea of the Christmas tree using presents as decorations and how the rich people in the East sent wonderful items to those in the West who had less. Again I marvel at how much the Ingalls survive through, floods, insect plagues, and blizzards! I wish she had talked a bit more about the quilt making, that is what I missed in this one, the details about how they made things that were in the first three books.

As far as being a Newbery honor, it was well deserved. There were so many memorable scenes and you really feel like you can understand what life was like for people back then. I remember this was one of my favorites in the series, because of the secondary characters Laura really brought to life. I can also see why these were the characters chosen for the TV show, like Reverend Alden and Nellie and her family.

I love revisiting Plum Creek and this one is a 5 cups of cocoa read for me!

Spring Into Horror Read-a-thon Wrapup

This is hosted by Michelle @ Seasons of Reading and True Book Addict, Castle Macabre and The Christmas Spirit blog. I listened to 5 CDs of Blood of Olympus, read 60 pages in Frankenstein, and read 360 pages in World Without Princes and finished it! So not too bad on the reading end, but I did not socialize at all. I planned to not have to work as much as I did this week and it really cut into both socializing and reading. Hope everyone had fun and thanks again to Michelle for hosting!

Still Alice by Lisa Genova

This was another book club book and works for the New Authors challenge. It also works for Book Club worthy book for the Full House Challenge and a Book the Made you cry for the Reading Bingo challenge. It also works for the Story Sprite challenge, purple path, Story with a Strong Family Bond.

Gallery Books

Dr. Alice Howland has always worked with language and is shocked when her linguistic skills betray her. As she begins struggling to find words and getting lost in familiar places, she goes to a neurologist and learns the worst news possibly, she has early onset Alzheimer's. As she begins planning for her lack of future, her family is devastated. Her husband cannot deal and denies the truth for as long as he can, but her children step up, particularly her daughter, Lydia, who moves her life around to be with her mother. As Alice loses herself, she gains love, love for her actress daughter and her grandchildren. Even without her remarkable mind, she is still Alice.

I am tearing up just writing this review, but this is a scary and mind-blowing read. Mental illness is never treated as well as physical diseases and those who suffer from them are ostracized by others, even well meaning others. Alice mentions that if she had cancer, she would have a support group, but since she has Alzheimer's, people scatter. I think it makes us all rethink how we treat those with mental illness and that there are worse things than dying. Living is hard, particularly with a diagnosis like Alice's, but underneath it all, she is still the mother her children love and she can still feel love. This is a powerful, but extremely challenging read and it will break your heart. 5 cups of cocoa and a book every one should read! 

Spring into Horror Read-a-thon Midweek Checkin

This is hosted by Michelle @ Seasons of Reading and True Book Addict, Castle Macabre and The Christmas Spirit blog. So far I have listened to 3 CDs of Blood of Olympus and read 16 pages in Changeless. I hope to start Frankenstein tonight, to get in a little of the horror element. I am enjoying the Facebook page, even though I haven't participated on it yet. Thanks again to Michelle for hosting!

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield

This was another book club book and counts for Reading Bingo as a book with a number in the title. It also counts as a New Author and Debut Novel on Full House.

Atrium Books

When Vida Winters, the best selling novelist, contacts Margaret Lea to write her biography, Margaret is surprised. True, she writes biographies of dead authors, but to write a living author's biography, Margaret is not sure, however she reads one of Winters' books, The Thirteen Tales, with only twelve tales, and she is intrigued. Mrs. Winters promises to tell Margaret the truth and to reveal the elusive thirteenth tale and that begins a story, part ghost story, part Gothic novel about twins. Both Mrs. Winters and Margaret are drawn to the idea of twins, both through tragedy, and as Mrs. Winters tells the story of Adeline and Emmeline March, her story, the truth of both Margaret's life and Mrs. Winters' life are finally told, but it may be too much for either of them to bare. How does one go on without the other half?

Wow, this was a twisting, turning, wonderful read! You do feel like you are reading Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, and several classics rolled into one and you will not guess all the ends of the plot. Once a huge twist is revealed, you have to go through and rethink the whole book and like Margaret at the end of the Thirteenth Tales, you are going to feel like the story should go on. This book was awesome for discussion and every single person in our book club loved it. 5 cups of cocoa and I will be hunting down her next book soon!

Life Sentences by Laura Lippman

This was a book club book and will count for Setting begins with a B on the Full House challenge.

William Morrow

Set mainly in Baltimore, the story is about Cassandra Fellows and her desire to remain a well-known and well-paid author. Cassandra wrote two stories of her life, both bestsellers, and then a novel, which tanks. She believes the best thing to do would be go back to nonfiction and when she hears about a case involving a former classmate, Calliope, and the use of the fifth amendment to hide the disappearance of Calliope's child, Cassandra believes she has hit the jackpot. She goes off in search of her former classmates and becomes involved in an affair with a classmate's husband, learns that her father and stepmother lied to her, and learns her own story is not as straightforward as she always believed. When she learns the truth about Calliope, she also learns what telling the truth really costs and how lies can become life sentences.

I wanted to like this one, especially because one of the ladies in book club loves her books, but it was unanimous that no one really ended up enjoying the book. I really liked Lippman's style, but hated all of the characters and by the end I didn't care what happened to them. They were all selfish, self-indulgent people and the story was too much about Cassandra and not enough about Calliope. I also wanted there to be more of an ending to the story, but it really was just about living with lies. 2 cups of cocoa, although I might try one of her other books someday.

Telling the Bees by Peggy Hesketh

This was a book club book read and will also count for New Author to You on Full House challenge and for the New Authors challenge.

G. P. Putnams' Sons

 Alfred Honig has lived his whole life next door to the Bee Ladies, growing up with Claire and her sister. When he finds them murdered, he begins to wonder about their lives and particularly about Claire and how their friendship had become estranged. As Alfred begins to regret the decades of not talking to his friend, he also learns who she truly was and how he had misjudged her and the depth of his love for her.

This will be a short review, but it was a pretty good read. The book is full of details about beekeeping and Hesketh does a good job making that part interesting, although if you have no interest in the subject, it could drag you down. I really think I could have my own beehive now and take care of bees after reading this one. The relationship between Claire and Alfred and Claire and her family is intriguing and I did not make the connection with the murderer and the Bee Ladies, until right before the author told it, so that was good. It was a clever read and I liked it well enough. 3.5 cups of cocoa.