In less than one minute, I managed to delete five years worth of reviews, so please bare with me as I begin to post new reviews. This is a love hate relationship that I'm having with technology!!!

As a young adolescent the book that took me to my next level of reading was Watership Down by Richard Adams.  After reading and re-reading Watership Down, I knew that I would NEVER stop reading!  I treasured this find among many others at a yard sale. My girlfriend and I scoured yard sales as teenagers every month and while she enjoyed vintage clothing…I became ecstatic over books.  Everything regarding books excited me... from the smell, to the dust jacket and the older the book the better.  I liked (like) old books because I feel that they contain so much history within the pages.  I like to look at the year they were written and imagine that era and circa!  Hence, today, I have a nice collection of old, smelly books!

I am a very broad reader.  I never limit myself to any particular genre.  I enjoy historical fiction along with non-fiction, I love a great biography and young adult books are also strong favorites! A classic on occasion is also a must read for me.

I hope you enjoy my reviews.  In a few cases you will note that I do not recommend a title a two!!

The titles that I am currently reading:  Inkheart by Cornelia Funke and From the Vine – Exploring Michigan Wineries!

Wow!  What an inspirational book!  Why?  Well... let's start at the end of the book with a quote from the "Afterword".  "Their eyes...is a bold feminist novel, the first to be explicitly so in the Afro- American tradition."  That was a sentence I had to read twice.  I suppose to be born the year Zora Neale Hurston died - in the early sixties made me ponder what life must have been like to think that this title compared to more recent, modern titles is a feminist novel.

This book was wonderful in that I was able to follow a young black woman's search for herself and a comfortable place in her world in what must have been the late 1800's or early 1900's.  It was heartfelt.  I laughed out loud, cried silently and applauded "Janie " the character in the book. Young Janie was married off at a young age and was miserable.  She then ran off with an entrepreneur to start an "all black town".  She lived miserable for the most part until finding the love of her life.  Her new life was full of adventure, much laughter and tragedy 

When I consider that this book was first published in 1937 and then Zora Hurston was all but forgotten for nearly three decades lives me amazed.  This was a very written book where the characters are descriptive and vivid.  The narrative of the novel shifts from third to to a blend of first and third person.  It took a number of pages until I could get into the rhythm of Creole, Southern Drawl and African American slang. 

I loved this book and will highly recommend it for years to come!

Okay, Let's start with one of my all time favorite reads!

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell - by Susanna Clarke.  What can be dreadful after reading a book like this? Nothing can compare!  :)  Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a book regarding magic. Yes, faerie's too.  No, I normally do not read fantasy but the title, dust jacket and thickness of the book drew me in immediately.  This my fellow readers is a literary book of genius in my mind.  Go slow, take your time, get cozy and enjoy the humor of which was intended in this 800 page novel. Waffling mirrors and up to no good faerie's left me looking under my bed!!!  Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell meet, become friends, then enemies and then friends again.  They are competitive and extremely funny.   Folklore and extremities are flying from every page.  READ THIS BOOK!

Shadow Divers: The True Adventure of Two Americans Who Risked Everything to Solve One of the Last Mysteries of World War II - By Robert Kurson

Prior to reading this book - I had only snorkeled.  While reading Shadow Divers, I felt as though I had been diving 160 feet down, broke up a fight between two deep wreck divers (John Chatterton and Richie Kohler) and discovered the meaning of "decompression".  This book moves, moves well and is very well written.  John Chatterton discovers a German U-Boat off the Jersey Coast and what he can't figure out is what the hell it is doing there. All U-boats had been accounted for during the war.  So, the dives begin..  Yes, many, many dives and loss of lives to discover the mystery that surrounds this U-boat and the men, some mummified that are still on board.

I read this book in a day simply because I couldn't put it down.  Riveting, absolutely riveting.

The Book Nook & Java Shop was blessed to have the author and both divers a few years ago.

five stars!

I thoroughly enjoyed The Best American Short Stories 2007!  It had been quite some time since reading a book of short stories and it took me back to when I would visit with my Grandma and other relatives in the summer.  It seems they all had Readers Digest - Short Stories laying around and I loved them as a teenager.

This is the title I selected for our Take Five Book Club for January and I was not disappointed.  As a few members of the book club pointed out...there were a number of dark stories with sad endings.  Come on...Stephen King was the guest editor this year! 

Another mentionable, in my mind regarding a book of short store is this - the stories are only 30-40 pages so you can easily sit the book down while reading another or if your time is limited!  I recommend this book to anyone and everyone!  It was fun and very diverse in its content. 

For reference, a few of my favorites in the book are:  L. DeBard and Aliiette: A Love Story by Lauren Groff, Eleanors Music by Mary Gordon and Dimension by Alice Munro.  Beware, they all have a dark ending but are very well written!

Listen to what Catherine Beherendt and Stephanie Webb of TV 13's Take Five and Anne Erler have to say about this book!

Lisa Bush   Reverend Everett Klein   Zac Pawlowski    Maddie Timmers

Tom Hinken   Debra Lambers    Erin Lambers   Paul Lambers   

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