They Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue

audio book

Rating 4/5

This book has gotten mixed reviews from my online bookclub, but I really enjoyed it. I found it light, but also very touching. It is about a young girl from the 20's who dies, but stays on earth as a ghost. She "moves" in with a young couple in the 90's and watches over them as they move through many hard parts in their marriage. Through Amy, the young girl, she discovers that she has ties to Razi's (the ghost's) past and can help her answer the questions of what happened to her lover, Andrew. She also helps Amy confront the ghosts of her past with losing her boyfriend and how that impacts her marriage to Scott.

The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George

rating: 5/5

First line: Yesterday some fool asked me what my first memory was, expecting me to lapse happily into sentimental childhood reminiscences, as dotty old men are supposed to ejoy doing. He was most surprised when I ordered him out of the room.


Margaret George is becoming one of my favorite authors. However, she writes such large books that it takes forever to read them. Henry VIII is one of the most intriguing people in history to me. I can't fathom a person who could be so selfish and cold to kill two of his wives and marry 6 women. George writes from Henry's point-of-view. She takes Henry and makes him a real person and addresses many of the reasons why Henry seemed so despicable. For example, the execution of Anne Boleyn was not because she couldn't bear him a son, but because he realized that she was poisoning the people around him and possibly him. In the book, he seemed to not be as cold-hearted as other books portrayed him. She showed how Henry slowly lost his mind throughout the years of his reign and that he actually cared about his daughters and others around him. He just couldn't hold onto a wife.

Dead Watch by John Sanford

Rating 3/5

audiobook

This was a political thriller about a politician who is found dead. There are many speculations surrounding his death and who killed him for political gain. Throughout the book many surprising facts come out about the dead senator, Lincoln Bowe and how and why he died. I won't say much to not give it away.

This is the first John Sanford book that I have read (listened to) and I found it pretty good. I would definitely read more by him.

Daughter of Fortune by Isabel Allende

Rating: 4/5

First Line: Everyone is born with some special talent, and Eliza Sommers discovered early on tha she had two: a good sense of smell and a good memory.

This is the first Isabel Allende novel that I have read. I have heard mixed reviews on her writing and I think it depends on the book you read. I really enjoyed this book. It takes a lot for me to give a book a rating of 5, but this one was pretty good. It followed the life of Eliza Sommers, an orphan to an English family in Chile during the 1800s. She is raised by Rose, a spinster by choice, and her two brothers. She falls in love and gets pregnant by a Chilean man who leaves her to go to America during the Gold Rush of 1849. She follows him to America, almost dying, to find him posing as a young boy. Allende tells Eliza's story, but also describes what America was going through during the Gold Rush. It was a chaotic mess and many people ended up poorer than when they started. She also explores the role of women during that time and how they were treated. Eliza, in some ways benefited by posing as a boy in that she could not be taken advantage of or sold for prostitution, but she had trouble being a male cook. It seems like this was the age where women started to try to be their own person.

The Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve

Rating: 3/5

First Line: She heard a knocking, and then a dog barking. Her dream left her, skittering behind a closing door. It had been a good dream, warm and close, and she minded. She fought waking. It was dark in the small bedroom, with no lights yet, behind the shades. She reached for a lamp, fumbled her way up the brass, and she was thinking, What? What?

The Pilot's wife was another quick read. It only took me a few hours. It was a good story that kept you reading, but is no literary masterpiece. The story begins with a woman who gets a knock on her door in the middle of the night telling her that her pilot husband has been killed in a plan crash. Although she knows in her heart that this day is inevitable, it still comes as a shock to her. Throughout the investigation of the plane crash, Kathryn discovers that her husband has another wife and family in London England. She also discovers that through his other wife he is a courier for the IRA and it is the bomb he is carrying that causes the plane crash.

The book kept you on edge, knowing that Kathryn was going to discover something horrible about her husband, but it was over halfway through the book that it is finally revealed to the reader. I felt hat she spent too much time describing Kathryn's dealings with her husband's death, that the details of his second life was rushed and could have been elaborated on more, particularly since it was what the book was about. It also didn't describe Kathryn's reaction to it as much as I would have liked. She seemed to rely only on what she learned from his second wife.

The Pilot's Wife is a short entertaining read, but I gave it a 3/5 based on it;s lack of depth in the story and character development.

Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella

Rating 3/5

First line: Ok, don't panic. Everything's going to be fine. Of course it is.

This was my first read on 2008. It was nice and relaxing read; also very funny. I think I finished it in about 2 hrs. It kept me laughing and wondering what kind of trouble Becky Bloomwood was going to get herself into next. It starts in the middle of Becky's pregnancy and follows her through her entire pregnancy to the birth of her baby. She of course needs to buy EVERYTHING and everything must be top notch. She even needs to most fashionable doctor, which backfires when she finds out that the doctor is her husband Luke's ex-girlfriend.

Shopaholic and Baby was much better than the previous book, Shopaholic and sister and more like the other books in the Becky Bloomwood series. If you are looking for something light and funny, I recommend this book.