Plot
In Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver chronicles her family's experiment: they want to see if they can live off the land in a way that connects them to their farm and their community.
Kingsolver is not a vegetarian, although some members of her family experimented with vegetarianism at different points before they embarked on this food journey. I, on the other hand, have been a vegetarian since I was twelve. I thought I might be unsettled or shocked by some of her comments about raising and killing poultry. Instead, the book showed me that animals--when properly raised and harvested--can be an environmentally sound choice. Plus, reading about Kingsolver's youngest daughter's egg enterprise was hilarious: while most kids her age are selling lemonade, this amazing girl came up with a lucrative egg selling scheme.
The book includes family recipes and seasonal meal plans, as well as tips about canning and cheesemaking, but more than anything, Kingsolver's memoir shows how connected we are to our community by the food we eat--if we understand our food's sources and make choices that do not accept the alienation from production so typical of modern society.
For readers familiar with Kingsolver's fiction, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle touches on similar themes (Prodigal Summer could almost be the memoir's fictional sibling, with its deep investment in the interdependency of animals, plants, and people) and gives glimpses into the writer's deep connectedness to the land she describes with such vitality in her novels.
With he debut novel Shine Shine Shine, Lydia Netzer accomplishes something phenomenal: she creates extraordinary characters with unbelievably dramatic lives (a NASA scientist and a woman born bald to a missionary and his much younger wife coping with a fraught space mission, a car accident, and childbirth, to name just the first few dramatic events that come to mind) who nevertheless give insight into experiences we all have. Sunny's day-to-day emotions and her attempts at social perfection have a Stepford Wife feel, until Netzer shows things coming apart at the seams. It's in the failure of this false security and beauty that Sunny and her family find beauty, strength, individuality, and love. Every moment of this novel is achingly human.
This is the latest book in the Mitch Rapp series and an absolutely riveting read. One of the CIA's top operatives in Afghanistan is missing and his bodyguards are all shot. To add to the complications all of his sensitive information has been taken from the safe in his supposedly, impregnible safehouse. Mitch Rapp is sent over to investigate and find out just what the agency is facing. While sifting through the clues something does not make sense and sends Mitch in an area he does not like. It appears that someone is again using the political world to try and destroy the entire CIA as well as Mitch's boss Dr. Irene Kennedy. This story has a number of twists that will keep the reader enthralled as to how Mitch is ever going to save his department and his life.
Laurell K. Hamilton (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter) Series
I can't just pick one book out of this series so I am writing a review for all of the books in the series. As they all are very good reads. (Editor's note: Guilty Pleasures is the first in the series. Check here for the complete series list.)
This is an exhilarating series. This is the first supernatural series I ever got into reading since high school in which I mostly read regular romance novels. I started out with Book 7 in this series and was so enthralled with it that I immediately checked out the first book in the series and continued on until I have read all books in the series.
It has an adornment of characters that I have come to love and some that I’ve even come to dislike. I like that the lead character is a strong woman and doesn’t take any gruff from anyone. All the different characters that make up this series is quite intriging to say the least. All the investigations that Anita has to do and all the mystery makes me so engrossed that I sometimes forget to eat lunch or even supper. This is a great series to read if you like drama, romance, intrigue, mystery, and exhilarating scenarios that you just can’t wait to read the next book and so on.
This Vince Flynn thriller takes place mainly in the United States. Three Al Queda terrorists have escaped from a terrible attack on Washington that has left at least 185 people dead from bombings and are loose in the homeland. In trying to track them down the All American terrorist eradicator Mitch Rapp has troubles with one of his partners who is having problems with how they are operating. He again has to fight off incompetent politicians who want him in jail, however has garnered support from areas he did not expect it. He also has to find a way to neutralize a former employee who has committed illegal actions in order to prove that Mitch is an out of control agent and wants to bring him down. If the actions that he used to find this out is brought out he could be in some serious criminal trouble unless he finds a way to keep this from the people that want to bring down the entire CIA. It leads to some interesting situations with international implications. This is an absolutely riveting book that leaves the reader unable to put the book down.
When Israel finds a unique way to deal with the Iranian nuclear problem it creates unintended consequences. The Iranians decide to increase the rhetoric and blame the U. S. and Israel for creating a radioactive wasteland near one of their most populated cities and want reparations as well as the U S to leave the middle east or else. A newly elected President Alexander has to figure out a way to deal with this and asks his top advisors for any ideas. Enter Mitch Rapp with an idea that is very proactive and just might solve the problems that have arisen. Unfortunately people in the Iranian government feel that there are things they can do to make things go their way and team up with one of the most calculating and cruel terrorists to be on the scene in the middle east. Mitch is forced to resort to the extreme measures only he can employ and has 24 hours to protect and defend the nation and people he cares for deeply. A very hard hitting and exciting action thriller. This is what most Americans could only wish their government would do to protect them.
Frozen Stiff
The murder of a beautiful woman in a small Wisconsin town has everyone intrigued. If she moved into town the gossip would have traveled quickly.
So what was she doing when they found her dead at the edge of a harvested cornfield. She had dated a local policeman when they were in Chicago.
The policeman is being framed for her murder. A local deputy coroner teams up with the police to find out why he is being framed. The plot takes it readers inside the emergency room and the local morgue. Later they hide out in a hunting cabin during deer hunting season. The evidence mounts and they must find the murderer before they become victims too.
This is another excitement filled book in the Mitch Rapp series. It starts out with Mitch deciding that he has done his last undercover operation and is ready to settle down with the love of his life. He has only one thing left to do and that is find out who it was that had him shot and wanted him dead, along with why. When he takes the future Mrs. Rapp on a trip to Italy for a fun filled vacation and marriage proposal things go terribly wrong and almost ruin the future that he is dreaming of. He finds that he has some unfinished business to take care of and another situation arises where he has to use his unique talent to save the United States from catastrophie. The twists and turns in this make it a book that is very hard to put down.
This intriguing book takes the reader through another of Mitch Rapp's adventures. While working on what Mitch has determined to be his last operation things go terribly wrong and he is left wondering just whom he can trust. He heads back to the U. S. where he is supposedly on friendly ground to find out exactly what has happened. It turns into a tangled web with politicians that are once again acting against the best interest of the government for their own personal gain. This is a fascinating tale of just what can happen if the appropriate action is not taken, the third option.
Story revolves around several families who own thouroughbred horse farms. Naomi Chadwick finds herself in a complex complex tragedy in which she is convicted of murder. Twenty years later she reaches out to her daughter Kelsey who was lead to believe her mother was dead. The reunion leads the well-educated but poorly focused Kelsey to uncover the truth of what happened so many years ago. The trail leads Kelsey to the answers and the people behind it all and changes everything she believed about her family.
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