Pretenders by Lisi Harrison
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I like the books the Lisi Harrison writes and I liked this one. It was a fun, fast read.

The book follows the journals of five students from Noble High. They are assigned the journal writing exercise by their English teacher who just wants them to learn to disconnect from the computer.

Some of them aren’t sure how to do it at first but they all get into it and you follow their Freshman year through the entries.

I know this is probably the beginning of another series and I’m looking forward to reading the books that come after. But I kind of feel like this one stopped really abruptly.

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Under the Jewelled Sky by Alison McQueen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a beautiful book! Set in India, during the Partition, Under the Jewelled Sky is about Sophie, the daughter of a British doctor and Jag, the son of the Maharajah’s bearer. A love that was not supposed to happen.

Life in the palace was boring for Sophie until she found a secret door. Behind the door, she also found Jag, who would show her all the secret passageways in the palace and become her friend, confidant, and eventually, her lover.

Palace scuttlebutt caught up to the two and Jag’s father, horribly ashamed, leaves the employ of the Maharajah and heads to his family’s home. There is much death and destruction along the way, traveling by foot and living in camps. The father doesn’t make it.

Sophie’s parents are equally horrified and her mother beats her. While Sophie is sent to a home where she can have the baby and give it up, her mother goes back to England, unable to stand what her life has become.

Aterwards, Sophie goes back to England and eventually marries a diplomat and they are sent to India. The story takes us through the lives of Sophie who never stops loving Jag, and Jag’s endless searching for Sophie.

A beautiful, but sad story. I didn’t want it to end.

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Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat: The Paleo Chic Diet for Rapid Results by Esther Blum
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Cavewomen Don’t Get Fat is a terrific book! I’ve read just about every book out there on the paleo diet since we adopted this style of eating in 2010.

I enjoyed the female focus of this book. Blum writes in a style that is comfortable and you feel like her friend. As an aside, I signed up for her newsletter and it comes addressed to, Dear Gorgeous. I love that!

In the book is a lot of solid information about how the paleo diet can get, and keep, you healthy. Blum addresses various female health concerns and offers a plan to right them.

I like how the detailed instructions are given and, yet, the encouragement that even taking a small step in the right direction is better than no step is also there.

I’d highly recommend this book to any women who has considered the paleo diet. And we ALL should be considering it at the minimum. Terrific book! I can’t wait to get my hard copy of it so I can write and make notes in it. 🙂

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Roomies by Tara Altebrando
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Roomies is a cute story of two girls who will be roommates when they get to Berkley in the fall. Lauren is from San Francisco and EB is from New Jersey. The story begins when they receive their roommate assignment at the beginning of the summer.

Over the course of the summer, these two different girls grow up and grow together via email correspondence.

Very sweet and very readable. 🙂

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Diner Impossible by Terri L. Austin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fun, fun, fun! This is a fun book! When I began reading, I didn’t realize that this book was part of a series.

Rose Strickland is a waitress and part time crime solver. She comes from money but decided to live on her own, independently of her family. In this book, she pops back into her family to help solve the murder of the police chief’s secretary. The police chief’s wife is her mom’s friend.

The characters in this book are awesome and larger than life. Entwined with the story of the investigation, is the hilarious story of two rival Star Trek clubs and their missing prize uniform. I guess it was made even funnier in that it was unexpected to me from the way the story began.

I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to read the two Rose Strickland Mysteries that came before it! 🙂

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Léonie by Sveva Casati Modignani
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well, here’s another book I really loved. It was translated from Italian to English and there were just a couple of places where I thought it read “funny” but the story is excellent.

I love books that travel through generations and this is a book like that. You grow to love the characters so much by the time the book is over you don’t want it to end.

Leonie, is a poor French girl who was basically unwanted by her mother and raised by two older neighbors. She was very smart in school and, in the end, life.

She marries Guido Cantoni, the son of an industrialist who has left the family, plumbing fixtures business. She feels he has a secret that makes him sad. Eventually, she has a secret, that takes place every year, that makes her happy.

Through the course of the story, Leonie has five children and joins the family business and is a factor in growing and modernizing the company.

At the end of the story, after so many years of secrets, Guido and Leonie realize they have loved each other all along.

If you like getting lost amidst the story, this is a great book suggestion for you. 🙂

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Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was an intriguing book. I’ve read the Bible but this is an historical account of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

As a Christian that hasn’t done much study about the history of Biblical times, I found that the author did a good job of describing the evolution of the Christian church, the Roman Empire and the Jewish peoples of that time.

The book was thought provoking and I stopped many times to discuss different ideas that were presented with my husband who is a better student of history than I.

If a book about the history of anything can keep my attention, and this one did, it’s a good book.

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Seven Deadlies by Gigi Levangie Grazer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love, love, loved this book! It was funny and off the wall and sort of twisted.

I used to love reading Kurt Vonnegut for the same reasons: because his books were funny, off the wall and sort of twisted. Having read all of his books, I was thrilled to find a similar read with a Beverly Hills twist.

Perry Gonzales, a high school freshman at an elite Beverly Hills school relays stories that describe the Seven Deadly Sins but happen in her life as a tutor to the very kids she goes to school with.

Perry’s mom is a nurse and Perry thinks the world of her. She is also very wise, like Buddha according to her daughter.

I read this book straight through and it is so clever. I adore clever and I think you’ll adore it too! 🙂

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Empty Mansions: The Mysterious Life of Huguette Clark and the Spending of a Great American Fortune by Bill Dedman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Fabulous book! I have made no secret of the fact that I’m not really into reading historical works. Real history, fictional history, just not my thing. But I loved this book. It is fascinating and interesting and it never felt like “history” but, rather, a really good story.

The book is about Huguette Clark, the last daughter of millionaire industrialist W.A. Clarke who made most of his wealth in copper.

The descriptions of the empty mansions and the life of the Clarks was awe inspiring. The jewelry, the artwork, the gatherings. But most endearing and readable was the information about Huguette herself.

Huguette had a sister who died when she was young, the sister only 17. After that she was extremely close to her mother, even more so after the passing of her father. Her mother wanted her to be married and she did marry briefly but ended up getting one of the first Las Vegas divorces. Huguette was a loving soul. She enjoyed children very much. She loved and collected dolls and miniature castles. She was an artist and a photographer. She outlived so many in her family, only recently passing in 2011 at the age of 105.

I highly recommend this book if you are interested in the history of America or learning of this wonderful woman who was seemingly a hermit but had many loving friendships over the years.

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