"New Moon": Chapters 1-9

Everything seemed to be perfect in Bella's life, she was being accepted by the Cullen's and spending almost every moment with Edward. Charlie was accepting Edward and they were even starting to hang out together watching sports, that I am sure that Edward had absolutely no interest in. Then it happened, Bella's birthday party that she didn't want and opening a gift she cut her finger, causing everyone in the room especially Jasper to come after her pushing her into a table filled with glass plates, cups etc. Which in turn caused another cut, luckily Carlisie who had gotten use to the smell of blood was able to stitch up the gash and Esme stepped in to clean up the mess after calming down. This was the beginning of the end, and even though from that moment on Edward knew, Bella didn't catch on for a couple of days of distance and the blank look in Edward's eyes. Until finally, Edward had to tell her it was time to leave Forks and without a doubt Bella's life changed forever.

Now she couldn't function, she didn't want to do anything but sulk in her sorrows of missing Edward not knowing when he would return or if he would. Then she realized she needed something, something to get her going so she got a couple of motorcycles and took them to the only person she knew who could fix them, Jacob Black. And this seemed to really turn her around until what we saw as a Cult got to him, then that relationship was all over too. Well so we thought......

Then there was the Black Bear everyone was afraid of and the voices she swore were Edward, which caused more questions?? Was he really gone? Things are starting to heat up again and it makes me wonder what is going to happen next....and Adriane and I made a promise to stop at certain spots, and I kept my promise but boy was it terribly hard!!!!

Now on to the next part, which I have read almost all of it in one night....so much going on, gotta keep up!!!! Sleep, who needs sleep....LOL!!!

Happy Reading!!!

The second book in the Stephenie Meyer's Series, "NEW MOON". We are very excited about this book as the last one left us hanging and wanting more!!! I am super surprised at much I have enjoyed these books as well as much I have not been able to put them down. It's almost like I would rather read then sleep....I NEVER thought I could say that!!!!

Synopsis:

"Which is tempting you more, my blood or my body?" Things are heating up between Bella Swan and her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen, in this sequel to the immensely popular Twilight (2005). Then Bella is injured at her birthday party, and the Cullens' reaction to her blood sends Edward's family packing. Bella is inconsolable until she discovers that reckless behavior allows her to hear Edward's warning voice in her head. To keep him close, she decides to live as dangerously as possible, acquiring two motorcycles and developing a close friendship with Jacob, who helps her rebuild them. Romantics will miss Edward's presence, but the suspense created by a pack of werewolves bent on protecting Bella from a vindictive vampire will keep them occupied until the lovers can be reunited. The writing is a bit melodramatic, but readers won't care. Bella's dismay at being ordinary (after all, she's only human) will strike a chord even among girls who have no desire to be immortal, and like the vampires who watch Bella bleed with "fevered eyes," teens will relish this new adventure and hunger for more

Happy Reading!!!!

Twilight (Spoiler Alert)

Do not read this until you finish the book...


The last part of this book went so fast that I had to read it straight through, you cannot put it down. Some of my questions were explained and it made some more questions. Why in the hell did he not let her become a vampire once it had already started after getting bit? I think the Indian man is going to keep putting his nose in where it does not belong and will eventually tell her father that she is dating a vampire. I am still wondering if Charlies already knows that they are vampires. I will not go into anymore detail about the ending since I am not sure if you have finished yet or not.

At the end of my book was the first chapter of the second book. I have to admit that I read it and was so upset that I could not read further since I promised. I am so ready to continue on to the next book!

Happy reading,

Twilight: Part 1

This book has really caught my attention, from page to page or chapter to chapter it's almost like I can't put it down but force myself too because of course I have Nico to play with...but my laundry has suffered some!! There is so much to question and it seems like when they answer one of my questions, I have another one. It's a romance, but not really...it's a vampire story, but not really and even though I just wrote that and it makes no sense, it makes sense.....Adriane am I crazy?!?!?!

The first 12 chapters have been foreshadowing and made me wonder, does Bella have powers too? Why can he read everyone else's mind but not her's, is it because he is in love with her and the heart is messing with his powers. Or does she have a power that is stopping him and why did she truly choose to come to Forks, did something draw her or was it her mother truly? And why did her mother and father divorce, does it have something to do with the Cullen's or another vampire? So many questions, and not enough answers yet but as I am told these answers will all come clear...........I just have one last question, why won't you tell me the answers now??? LOL!

Can't wait for the second half and will definitely be spending some of my time off during Nico's nap times and when he goes to bed finishing this book! That way we can move on to the next one "New Moon" and I can wonder a million other things.

Happy Reading and Merry Christmas!!!

I have heard so many things about the Twilight series that I had to choose this for our next pick! Although it's something that I would of never even picked up, with everyone talking about it, it truly got my attention. It's a series that I recommended to Adriane, and she talked to some people who said it was great and this made our minds up to try a series. So without further adu......

Twilight: Book 1

by Stephanie Meyer

Storyline:

Deeply sensuous and extraordinarily suspenseful, TWILIGHT captures the struggle between defying our instincts and satisfying our desires. This is a love story with bite.Isabella Swans move to Forks, a small, perpetually rainy town in Washington, could have been the most boring move she ever made. But once she meets the mysterious and alluring Edward Cullen, Isabella+s life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. Up until now, Edward has managed to keep his vampire identity a secret in the small community he lives in, but now nobody is safe, especially Isabella, the person Edward holds most dear. The lovers find themselves balanced precariously on the point of a knife-between desire and danger.

Author Bio:

Stephenie Meyer graduated from Brigham Young University with a bachelor's degree in English. She lives with her husband and three young sons in Phoenix, Arizona. After the publication of her first novel, Twilight, booksellers chose Stephenie Meyer as one of the "most promising new authors of 2005" (Publishers Weekly).

Happy Reading!!!

THE CHRISTMAS SWEATER

I have just one word for this book, and that is WOW! I have to admit I was a bit skeptical not knowing anything about the author and/or the book, plus being a newly published book with not many reviews that I saw but it caught my attention from the first page to the last. Adriane, you definitely picked the right book for the right time of year, GREAT PICK!!!

So with that said.....

The Christmas Sweater, began about a young boy, Eddie, who's family wasn't rich or poor that just enjoyed life until his father tragically died of Cancer and it seemed to change his world forever. His Mom having to sell the house, the car and business, leaving her with working two jobs around Eddie's schedule just trying to make things "normal" again but also trying to put food on the table. She was too proud of a woman to take any help, and even though her parents were always there she was determined to do it on her own, which in it's own way made Eddie resent her because of that she couldn't always give her what he thought he needed.

To Eddie, this Christmas was one he was never going to forget, because he was determined this year he was going to get the Huffy Bike that he had been hinting about all year, and he was sure his mother had been saving for. So he was being the best he could be, looked everywhere just like Grandpa had taught him to only to find a letter telling him that he shouldn't be looking, Gosh, she knew his every trick! Until Christmas was finally here, and he looked around the tree thinking, Mom is hiding his very special gift and saving it for last. Until, with the brightest eyes, his Mother gives him his last gift and he is thinking it's a picture or a note saying where the bike was, only to be disappointed by the sweater his mother took so much time and effort making. To his Mother, the sweater was beautiful and because it was handmade she knew that Eddie would love it and was hoping that since the bike was out of her budget that he would understand. Unfortunately, that's not what happened and for the first time, he not only was disappointed by his mother's gift but now he was going to act like a spoiled child not getting the perfect gift in his eyes. This sweater represented so many things, and although we understood what it meant he could only see it as the bike that he was cheated. Sadly, in my eyes it seems that is what Christmas has turned into, not spending time with our family and friends, appreciating what we have but wondering what we were going to get under the tree.

As cold as Eddie was, not only to his mother but then his grandparents when the bike didn't appear and the hurt and anger his mother felt as she saw the sweater on the floor in a ball, he still didn't understand the way he was acting or what he had could be taken away so quickly. And by acting like a spoiled child, him and his mother decided to go home that night, a snowy night and his mother who was much to tired to be driving, and because of the bike he thought he was owed and the pain in his mother's heart, they drove their last drive. A drive that could of been avoided if only Eddie would of realized the love and dedication of not only his Mother, but his Grandparents who only wanted them to stay.....

Now he is without a Mother or Father and his Grandparents are trying to do the best they can, but as angry as he is, Eddie doesn't want to be saved and the sweater is the only thing he has left of his Mother and to him it's what is the root of his sadness, where really if he wouldn't acted so bitter he could of seen that the sweater was everything to his Mother and they might have stayed the night, only to wake up fresh and renewed. But as with everything in life, would of, should of, could of we can't take back the past but Eddie needed to get on with his life and not blame everyone else. His Grandfather tried, his Grandmother cried and he made a new friend who he thought had it all because they were rich, but truly Taylor was just as sad with his parents never really being there for him. But of course all Eddie saw was that he had anything and everything he wanted. Then he met Russell, who truly understood him and tried to help him understand that everyone goes through life with hardships and he had no one to blame for what happened, it just happened as that was life was about. Although, of course Eddie didn't want to hear what Russell was saying but thought he was his friend, someone who truly understood him.

Then finally Eddie could take no more, his Grandparents wouldn't let him live with Taylor, and he couldn't be there anymore. So he packed his bag, found the bike he was suppose to get until he acted like a spoiled child not getting what he wanted and started for somewhere else other than where he was. But something happened, he couldn't find Russell at his house and he was so angry that he didn't see the hole that was in the road and he fell, fell so hard that it knocked him out. When he awoke, he found his bike crumpled up and Russell who was guiding him through the storm that was approaching, approaching so fast that he kept looking back even as Russell was trying to talk him through the dark place he had gotten himself in too. This is where he finally realized what he had done, how he had acted and what the sweater really represented. Along with what he had lost, his father and now his mother, but also his grandparents who thought he was almost a lost cause.

Now it was time, time for him to forgive and ask to be forgiven which he was and when he awoke again his mother was standing over him. He looked into his mother's eyes, only to be ask for forgiveness and explain that the sweater was the best gift ever and although he wanted the bike, he finally understood the sweater was truly what he needed. It was all a dream, a dream that only God could have let him see and be so real, and he truly found the meaning of Christmas, what family meant to him and how horrible he acted all for a bike.

So this Christmas, I am going to appreciate my family and realize how special they are to me. Especially as this year has been so hard, with my surgeries and my step-father's Leukemia progressing, along with the everyday hardships we go through. I can honestly say that this has been one of the worst years of my life, but I can also say that as Eddie did, I realized that the bad comes with the good and that is what teaches us to appreciate and only become stronger. So this holiday season, hug your children a little harder and take the moment to make that phone call or trip and realize our lives are in the hands of God and we need to appreciate each day that he gives us to wear the "sweater".

Merry Christmas!!!

Until our next pick........

The Christmas Sweater

I have been in the holiday spirit this weekend so for our next book I have picked The Christmas Sweater by Glenn Beck. Yes, it is the same Glenn Beck that has his own political show on CNN Headline News. I was actually surprised when I saw that he wrote this book. On a side note, I did find a Korean novel, but thought this would be better for this time of year.



If You Could Change Your Life by Reversing Your Biggest Regrets, Sorrows and Mistakes...Would You?

#1 New York Times bestselling author and renowned radio and television host Glenn Beck delivers an instant holiday classic about boyhood memories, wrenching life lessons, and the true meaning of the gifts we give to one another in love.

We weren't wealthy, we weren't poor -- we just were. We never wanted for anything, except maybe more time together....

When Eddie was twelve years old, all he wanted for Christmas was a bike. Although his life had gotten harder -- and money tighter -- since his father died and the family bakery closed...Eddie dreamed that somehow his mother would find a way to have his dream bike gleaming beside their modest Christmas tree that magical morning.

What he got from her instead was a sweater. "A stupid, handmade, ugly sweater" that young Eddie left in a crumpled ball in the corner of his room.

Scarred deeply by the realization that kids don't always get what they want, and too young to understand that he already owned life's most valuable treasures, that Christmas morning was the beginning of Eddie's dark and painful journey on the road to manhood. It will take wrestling with himself, his faith, and his family -- and the guidance of a mysterious neighbor named Russell -- to help Eddie find his path through the storm clouds of life and finally see the real significance of that simple gift his mother had crafted by hand with love in her heart.

Based on a deeply personal true story, The Christmas Sweater is a warm and poignant tale of family, faith and forgiveness that offers us a glimpse of our own lives -- while also making us question if we really know what's most important in them.

Hope you enjoy...

Ending...

I, like Kelli, was amazed with this book and especially the ending. I did not see it coming. Well, I was wishing through the whole book tha Vix and Gus would get together, and my wish came true. But I never expected that Caitlin and Bru would marry and that Caitlin would run off and leave bru and their daughter. I am still confused as why Bru is not raising their daughter. They never explained it.

I also never thought that Caitlin would more or less commit suicide. I wonder if she will ever turn up in another book. Maybe she is hiding out somewhere.

All I can say is that Judy Blume has done it again...

Part 4 & 5

Well, I don't know about you Adriane but the last two parts of this book, all I can say is WOW!!!! It's funny how a book starts one way and you think man I have definitely figured out this book, but was I nothing but wrong!!!!

I guess I expected Caitlin to finally change her life and I expected Vix to become a successful career woman and get married, have a family and find someone who had the same expectations as her but not as it happened. Who would of thought for one, Caitlin would married Vix's "soul mate" in a sense or that Vix would of married Gus, or how about her mother actually moving out and never coming back. Or how bitter her sister had become? So many things twisted and turned that I reread some of the chapters wondering if my mind had played games on me.

Sad, but true Caitlin was mentally unstable and left her daughter, but I didn't understand why Bru didn't take over custody and then had two more children, why not take care of his other daughter too?? When Caitlin asked Vix to come visit her out of the country, I kind of got the feeling it was to say goodbye but never expected her to kill herself. She just never was happy no matter the lifestyle she had and it only caught up to her, and she felt so guilty about so many things and especially about her daughter, who she needed to leave for the betterment of her, but she never forgave herself and truly I believe that's what got her in the end.

This book was definitely one of my favorites, and would definitely recommend it for all those readers who want a good book that is hard to put down once you start!

Now it's time to start looking for our next read, looking for something different.

Until our next great find...Happy Reading!

PART 2 & 3

It's interesting how this book has really taken an interesting turn and how things changed so fast in a couple of years, but yet I guess that's what life is all about...change. Vix continued to come back to the Vineyard over the summers with Caitlin, and her family has really excepted them as one of there own as her own family had fallen apart after Nathan died. I can't imagine as a Mother, how Tawny could deal with it and how Vix handled it as she felt like she had abandoned him when he needed her most.

Then it was off to college, Harvard which Abby and Lamb had influenced her to get into a good High School and then to have the opportunity to make something of herself, while Caitlin who had the world blew her chance of being anything but a lost soul who drifted to where ever her next place took her or next man.....to me it seems she is turning into her Mother, Phoebe.

Finally, after 4 long years, her Mother is gone never to return, her sister has two children who she supports while her deadbeat husband smokes pot all day and Bru finally proposes and she thought that's what she wanted, she had an awesome job opportunity with an apartment but by the end when proposed to live a life in the Vineyard, it was just to much for both of them. It was time to say goodbye, as neither one was willing to give up their dreams....Bru being a normal guy in the Vineyard and Vix, a powerful lady in a big city.

Which makes me wonder as the beginning wonder, how in the heck did Caitlin get back to the Vineyard to marry Bru and why in the heck would Vix say yes to her true love???? Can't wait for the big finish!!!

Happy Reading!!!

DANCING QUEEN: 1977-1980

What truly got me on this book and why I ended up choosing it was because of the Author, Judy Blume. I read her as a kid and really enjoyed her books, but never knew she wrote anything other than children's book, we'll not really children's but young adult books. So with that said.....

The first part truly sets the mood for the book, or at least that's my thoughts but it sets up Vix's life and how pretty much she feels oblivious to everyone and just kind of moving along in life until she meets her friend Caitlin and her adventures begin. Vix having 3 siblings and one that is handicapped makes her to have to grow up fast because her parents both work full time, and she has to make sure everything is in order when her parents aren't there. Which I can truly relate to because my parents had a child late in life and both worked full time which meant when they weren't there I was the parent, so at 12 years old it all began for me. Which in a way allows me to be able to relate to Vix. And then her parents let her go to the ocean for the entire summer with someone she hardly knew....and in these summers it allowed her to become her and not worry about her siblings or dinner, but just about being a kid and having fun. It allowed her to as all girls do, learn from their friends because their parents are way to old to know anything....

Amazingly, her parents continue to allow her to spend the summer at "psycho house", which was something that she looked forward too every year. As they became older everything started to change and not just their bodies but Lamb got married and cleaned up the house, Vix started to meet the families and learn something knew from each new person she met. Which got me thinking, you never realize it but truly from every person you meet and get to know it changes your life or yourself in some way. Something about you changes or they teach you something, even the littlest thing and to me it's amazing that even someone so small as a newborn baby or a 2 year old can change your life in some way.

Then Abby, Caitlin's new step-mom got Vix a scholarship to a private school that Caitlin attended and again more changes as Caitlin made it quite clear that her life at school was totally different from their friendship during the summer. Which I think surprised Vix at first until school started and she understood, they were "Summer Sisters", and not that they didn't talk and be friends but it was different and to me things were going to continue to change as the book goes on.....just like in life people change and loose touch, my prediction is that is going to happen but when they need each other they'll be there for each other.....

On to Part 2......

Happy Reading!!!

Part One - Dancing Queen 1977-1980

Where do I start, my thoughts are never as provoking as Kelli's...she is just better at putting her thoughts to words. Maybe she should write a book herself.

Back to the story. Caitlin and Vix went to the same school and Caitlin chose Vix to spend the summer with her at her dad's (Lamb) house. They were not really close friends, but Vix jumped at the chance to get away for a few months from her disfunctional life. Her family was poor and she had 3 siblings, one of which had muscualar dystrophy and is confined to a wheelchair. Vix called Lamb's house the psycho house. It was vermy mismatched and not very clean.

Caitlin was more open and surprising then Vix had originally thought. They had met some older guys, Von and Bru, whom they crushed over. The first part of the book really deals with Caitlin and Vix becoming best friends and sharing all sorts for firsts with. Along with Caitlin dealing with her father remarrying and a new stepbrother and his friend. Caitlin and Vix were also dealing with growing up and being interested in sex and becoming women.

Part One ends Abby, Catilins step-mother, convincing Vix's mom to allow her to got the private high school with Caitlin on scholorship and with Lamb and Abby fighting causing all the kids to fight.

The book is getting more interesting and I am looking forward to Part Two - Rapture.

Happy Reading...

Adriane

OUR SECOND BOOK!!!

SUMMER SISTERS

BY JUDY BLUME

ABOUT THIS BOOK
In the summer of 1977, Victoria Leonard's world changed forever—when Caitlin Somers chose her as a friend. Dazzling, reckless Caitlin welcomed Vix into the heart of her sprawling, eccentric family, opening doors to a world of unimaginable privilege, sweeping her away to vacations on Martha's Vineyard, a magical, wind-blown island where two friends became summer sisters. . . .Now, years later, Vix is working in New York City. Caitlin is getting married on the Vineyard. And the early magic of their long, complicated friendship has faded. But Caitlin has begged Vix to come to her wedding, to be her maid of honor. And Vix knows that she will go—for the friend whose casual betrayals she remembers all too well. Because Vix wants to understand what happened during that last shattering summer. And, after all these years, she needs to know why her best friend—her summer sister—still has the power to break her heart....

About the Author
Judy Blume's twenty-two books, including the New York Times bestsellers Wifey and Smart Women, have sold over sixty-five million copies worldwide and have been translated into twenty languages. She spends summers on Martha's Vineyard with her family.

Adriane, I hope you like it...it'll be on it's way to you by Monday!!!!

Happy Reading!!

Part 2 & 3

Today I couldn't put down the book and had to finish it before breakfast!! The next part reflects on what Luke found when he finally got settled into his new life in New Orleans and the process of trying to find someone without communications or resources, and all the death and destruction that was unimaginable for anyone to ever forget. As Luke continued to look for his father a unique twist occurred when he started looking over the pictures of his mission. He realized the funeral procession that he had seen when he arrived was his father's and that he finally had to come to terms that his father was dead. Which in it's own means is horrible, but the fact that everyone had been lying to him from Day 1, in my opinion put him over the edge. So he had to get out a place and away from people he thought were in a sense "family" only to find out that he was completely and totally betrayed.

Unfortunately in real life situations things like this happen everyday, people try to make things better and only cause pain and more suffering in most cases. They thought they were doing the right thing by allowing Luke to think his Father was still alive, but in the end they realized they should of told him the truth and allowed him to make the decision to find out about the last years of his life after Luke had cut him off. Being in their situation and I am sure that I have been in a sense, we all try to make things better than it really is because knowing the truth in some cases can be impossible to deal with, and as human beings we cope with what we think is the best.

I definitely recommend this book for many reasons, first because it was a really good read that was easy to follow and brought you into many people's lives in a way I never expected. I felt like I was on the streets in New Orleans after the storm, and I wanted to cry with the people and it broke my heart the way these people were treated and in a sense forgotten. It also brought out a lot of personal issues that I could relate with Luke and other characters. All of these things are what I look for in a book and get me to start thinking about my life too. If you are looking for a book that is almost impossible to put down and one with a unique twist, this is the book for you!

Until our next book find!!!

Happy Reading!!

Part 1

Adriane, sad but true I have to agree that I live the same life with the same feelings and like Luke in the story you try and try, try to make things better, try to see past his faults and realize he is who he is but never will he be more than what he is, your father by blood and you love him but he'll never be what you want him to be. And I guess that's ok, once you know that and realize you aren't going to change him...like Luke he tried to help him as much as he could but only realized that he loved his father, and accepted for who he was and decided when to help him and when to let him go. I think if we were in Luke's situation and the hurricane hit, like Luke we would really have to consider it but in the end we'd have to know if he was dead or alive.

And at these times, you start to go back as Luke did and remember the good with the bad because that's all we have is our memories, and how we have affected everyone in our lives. The good memories get you through the hard times and the bad memories make you a stronger and better person wanting to change history, not repeat it. I can't imagine what Luke was thinking and maybe almost hoping his Dad was gone, not suffering anymore blaming himself for his wife's death but I did get the impression that when he walked through the door of the bar and saw the woman he assumed was his Dad's girlfriend, this was going to be the downfall of his emotions wandering with all the death and destruction...could he still be alive and that he had to search for him.

I do like the quote you put in there, as you are right there is always another verse to everything. I know in my current situation, I feel like Luke did when he was going through the emotions of losing his mother for years and his father to alcohol, that my life keeps spinning out of control and what keeps me going is my son of course, but also the fact that as that quote stated there has to be another verse and that everything works out maybe not the way we picture it, but it works out in a way that will only make us stronger in the end.

Continuing on to Part 2!!!

Happy Reading!!!

Part I

I agree with you Kelli on how Luke described Katrina and his so intrigued by it. I was myself when it was all over the tv. I could not help but watch and be mesmerized. It is a shame that we do not hear about all the good that is going on there now and how much they are rebuilding.

Back to the story...

The relationship between Luke and Charles actually reminds me of my own relationship with my father. He was more or less there for me when I was a child and then we grew kind of distant when I was a teenager and after. He then came back into my life for a little while when the girls were really young, and then disappeared again when I moved to North Carolina. He is still distant. He is and will always be my father, but does not play the part.

My favorite quotes of sort from Part one is "Every song, no matter how short, has a second verse. You just have to find it." I think that is so true about all of our lives. There is a reason behind everything that happens and you just have to wait for the next verse!

I also truly believe in how Charles described true love to Luke...There is a spark when you're together that you can almost see and there is a pain you can hardly bear when you are not! I am sort of going through this right now with my husband being in OCS. We are a part all week and then I get to see him for a few hours on the weekend. Through the week I sort of have this pain or emptiness in the pit of my stomach knowing that he will not be home.

My other favorite thing I actually adapted into a family ritual around here and that is O.G.T. (One good thing). Everyone in my family has to tell about O.G.T. that has happened in their lives each week.

I cannot believe that I am relating this story to my own life, but it actually resembles it in some ways.

Time for Part II!

Happy Reading,
Adriane

Part I

My Thoughts

It is interesting to me having no expectations because this book was a referral from Adriane, so I hadn't read the book jacket at the store and thought this might be interesting, but was going on a hunch I would like it. And Adriane, thanks this book has been one that I can't put down but do because I have too! Books like this are one's I truly enjoy and take something from every time.

Hurricane Katrina was something that we can all relate to in different ways because like 9/11 we were glued to our TVs watching hoping for the best but realizing the worst had happened. I can relate to Luke in different ways, ways of at the beginning not thinking he knew anyone there but wanting to know more and his creative sense of seeing the people knowing there as a story to be heard. Until he got the call that his father was missing and then it was too real, but with the relationship he had with his father, shaky but loved him because he was his father, he took time to reflect on the past and wonder what the best thing to do was. And in the end he did go to Louisiana to have his eyes opened to something he could of never fathomed to be so true and terrible for those who survived and living with the destruction and death of those who didn't.

By seeing these people who had lost so much, he could relate by losing his mother in a horrific way of depression until her untimely death of what I feel the author is trying to say by suicide but never really presses the issue. Then his father so heart broken and in despair that he gets to the point of self destruction to make Luke wonder why should I go find him, he is probably dead anyway. It's sad to me to think that parents would lose touch with their children and that children wouldn't know how or where to contact their parents, but it happens everyday and in some way (not exactly the same way) it has happened in my life.

This book to me puts a name, face and emotions to what really happened after Hurricane Katrina came through and even though it's one man's prospective, it's one that I never considered from just watching the news and it makes me feel like we did just leave these people high and dry, and that they had no where to go, no where to turn and in a sense maybe death was their only option. That to me is so sad to have people in the U.S.A. think that no one cares and honestly after reading this book, and getting to this point I think they really thought no one cared or was going to come help them or their families. And it definitely opened the eyes and camera of Luke who could have never imagined what he found, and made him feel like he had to continue telling the story by talking to people, taking pictures and continue on his journey of finding the father he still thinks is dead. I am hoping it will be a happy reunion but at this point really have no opinion which way it's going to go.

On to Part II!!

Happy Reading!

My Thoughts and Introduction

I was referred to this book by a friend. I read it in two days last week and now I am rereading it a little slower. I thought that this book was addictive as I could relate to a lot of what was going through his mind. Charles reminded me a little of my own father. I will discuss it more in depth, but I do not want to spoil anything until I know how far along you are.

As an introduction...My name is Adriane and I have been reading for as long as I can remember. My oldest daughter, Haley, is a huge bookworm! My other daughter, Lauren, likes to read but would rather play outside. Both of my girls have to read for at least 15 minutes every night. I usually do not have trouble with them on this as they enjoy reading and it is more or less a habit now. Like Kelli, I have been reading to them since I was pregnant with them. Haley has even joined the American Girl Bookclub at our library.

Happy reading,
Adriane

"Recovering Charles"

Synopsis
Luke Millward is a man who does not know he is lost. His girlfriend loves him, his career is going well, and every night he falls asleep knowing that his life is good and meaningful. Only when the past reveals its twisted smile in a phone call and a disconnected voice asks him to come find his father in post-Katrina New Orleans is Luke compelled to find out what kind of man he truly is.

Biography
Jason F. Wright is the New York Times bestselling author of Christmas Jars and The Wednesday Letters. He lives in Woodstock, Virginia with his wife, Kodi, and their four children. A sign on their door reads, "Friends welcome. Family by appointment only."

This novel was given to me by Adriane who if I recall was referred by a friend. This is our first novel to our "official" Book Club 101 and our hopes are to instill insight from each other and anyone else who wants to join. I personally have been reading my entire life and am beginning to instill those values onto my son, Nico who is turning 2 next week. We try to read almost every night and he even takes books, sits on the couch and flips through them! So with our first book introduced....Welcome and hopefully we'll keep this going for many, many books to come!!!

Happy Reading!!!