Fire & Ice

Fire & Ice by Dana Stabenow

Dana Stabenow is another Alaska Mystery writer and since I have been enjoying Sue Henry’s Alaska Mysteries I thought I’d give her books a try.   I wasn’t as impressed by Liam Campbell as I am with Jessie Arnold.  The book was ok, but not great.  Not sure if I’ll read other Dana Stabenow novels.

Even though I’m posting this on September 24, this book was read in Aug – I have just updated my “August Recap” post to include it!  Glad I have GoodReads to help me keep track of how many I have read so I can cross check!

  

Knitting Away!

The Knitting Circle – Ann Hood

I LOVED this book!  I read Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine a few months ago and loved it so I knew I needed to read more of Ann Hood’s novels and when I checked at the library this was the only one on the shelf so I grabbed it! 

I was afraid that it would be another Friday Night Knitting Club and while that was a great book, I didn’t want to read something that was so similar.  I was in luck!  While the story did revolve around a knitting club, it was very different.  

   

A Day in the Life

Park Ranger by Nancy Eileen Muleady-Mecham

Similar to “Hey Ranger”, this book and it’s sequel (which I haven’t read) contain real life stories of what it’s like to be a Ranger in a National Park. 

Where “Hey Ranger” tended to have more funny stories, this one had more medical stories.  The author is a paramedic and over the course of her career has responded to an amazing array of emergencies!  The book contained harrowing tales of search and rescue as well as some stories of law enforcement. 

The Sugar Queen

The Sugar Queen – Sarah Addison Allen

A few months ago I was checking out Alice Hoffman’s latest, a YA Novel, and the librarian told me that Sara Addison Allen reminded her a lot of Alice Hoffman.  I finally remembered when I was at the library and checked out the Sugar Queen. 

I’m not sure it was like Alice Hoffman – it had some elements of Alice Hoffman, it was a bit mystical and pushed the reader to believe in some supernatural-ish forces, however it seemed childish.  It almost reminded me of a YA novel in many ways.  It was a good read and I’ll definitely check out Allen’s other novels. 

August Re-Cap

My poor neglected book blog.  :-(  It’s September 23 and I’m finally posting my August re-cap.  The end of August/Beginning of September marks the beginning of the school year so that’s mostly what impeded me from posting!

I did much better in August than I did in July, which wouldn’t have been hard considering I only read 1 book in July!

1. The Painter from Shangai – Jennifer Cody Epstein  
2.  Dead Men Don’t Crochet – Betty Hechtman 
3.  Tall Pine Polka – Lorna Landvik 
4.  A Stitch in Crime – Betty Hechtman
5.  Patty Jane’s House of Curl – Lorna Landvik
6. Parents & Teachers Working Together – Carol David & Alice Yang
7.  Moloka’i – Alan Brennert

Just this evening (9/24) I was cross checking my GoodReads “Read in 2010” list with my “100 Books in 2010” list and discovered that there was one missing!  I figured out which one it was and fixed the problem…here is the missing book…#8 for August:

8. Fire & Ice – Dana Stabenow

So 8 for August – grand total for the year at the end of August was 58 – an impressive number of books, but I have to read 14.5 books each month for the rest of year in order to break 100 for the year.  Yeah.  Not going to happen. 

Moloka’i

Moloka’i – Alan Brennert

I wasn’t expecting to get a chance to select a book for book club this year (all the books are selected at the beginning of the “book club year” in October and I joined in May), but because people had dropped out, I was able to select the book we read for September’s meeting!   After a lot of debate I selected Moloka’i after Lesley read it and reviewed it a while back.   (See Lesley’s review here)

This book was a lot sadder than I expected, but it was a good read!  I enjoyed getting to know Rachel and learning of her struggles and seeing how it all came together in the end!