The Age of the Cloister

The Age of the Cloister
By Christopher Brooke
1587680181

Good. Well-written and interesting. Some passages got a little bogged down, mostly from too many names of towns in too short a space.
8/10

The Story Girl

The Story Girl
By L.M. Montgomery

I love her imagery, her writing is just beautiful. It's not all beauty and light and fluff though, there was a line I loved that was thought-provoking: "Ah, do we ever feel quite the same towards people who destroy our illusions?" But it ends well, and it's a delightful story.
9/10

The Christmas Quilt

The Christmas Quilt
By Jennifer Chiaverini
074328657X

Another delightful story! Found myself crying at one point (well it was also 1am and I should have been sleeping, but still it counts!) I really want to find out if Sylvia found Elizabeth, though. I can't remember from the other books if she does, if she even gets to look. But there are 2 more books in this series, so hopefully I'll find out soon!
9/10

The Republic of Pirates

The Republic of Pirates
By Colin Woodard
9780151013029

As you should know by now, I adore books about pirates. But this one wasn't that good. It ignores the first 20 years, along with all the pirates from that era, dismissing them as privateers. Yes, there was a difference between pirate and privateer but many of the men who had license to be privateers... well, they bent the rules and became pirates along the way, attacking ships they weren't supposed to. The author picks and chooses, deciding himself who was a pirate and who wasn't. Henry Morgan isn't (who knew? Seemed like a pirate is Empire of Blue Water!) because he became a well-respected man at the end, yet so did some of the 'pirates' in this book? Too many names, not enough substance. And what was the story behind that ship that went and saw the Whydah after it sank, it's never explained and it's really bugging me! (Yes I tried google, no luck there)
7/10

Kilmeny of the Orchard

Kilmeny of the Orchard
By L.M. Montgomery
0553213776

Beautiful writing but I expect nothing less of this author. I loved the Anne of Green Gables series when I was younger and read it quite a few times. I keep saying I'm going to read it again one of these days. Until then, I'll read everything else she wrote and I've never read. Kilmeny is a beautiful story even though the ending is a foregone conclusion (I sometimes wished it hadn't ended that way, but seeing when it was written, of course it ended the way it did.) The last 2 pages are perfect, however.
9/10

Body Piercing Saved My Life

Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock
By Andrew Beaujon
0306814579

Good concept and idea, but didn't really go anywhere. Dates seem irrelevant, he jumps around without warning or reason. And I'm very surprised that a book about Christian Rock music talks about the 3,000 kids at Cornerstone and the other small numbers at other festivals but doesn't even mention the 100,000+ at Creationfest. Didn't make sense to me, although I did get the impression he was slightly downplaying the entire genre. Maybe he wasn't doing it consciously, and maybe I'm oversensitive and he wasn't doing it at all, but that was the impression I came away with, the attitude of "isn't that so cute what they're doing".
7/10

Love Walked In

Love Walked In
By Marisa De Los Santos
1419369601 (book on CD)

There were some great, laugh out loud lines in this book (my favorite, when one brother finds out his sister is in love with his other sister's ex-husband, he whines: "Not fair! I called him next!") But there were many others too that I just likes ("Jimmy Stewart is always and indisputably the best man in the world. Unless Cary Grant should happen to show up."). The back cover of this book mentions The Philadelphia Story, definitely in my top 5 of favorite movies, so I knew I had to read it. And I liked it, the storyline was definitely interesting and different. The ending wasn't as good as it could have been, Viviana should have been brought up more often for it to work, but it still seemed true and reasonable.
9/10

The Diana Chronicles

The Diana Chronicles
By Tina Brown
9780385517089

I didn't really like it. It veered back and forth from slightly tabloid-like to friendly gossip. There wasn't much here that hasn't been said before, it was just all jumbled up this time, jumping back and forth in time with no apparent reason. Sometimes, you'd find yourself 100 years in the past, not sure why you were there. To fill room? Because it was important in some way I didn't understand? I have no idea.
7/10

Working IX to V

Working IX to V
By Vicki Leon
0802715567

This is the woman who wrote all the 'Uppity Women' books. She's very funny, although I don't think this collection was quite up to her usual. I think because she had the same size sections, little articles about things, but this time the sections were about a career instead of a specific person (although there were examples of specific people who had those jobs in some sections.) But this meant it didn't seem like she said enough about each job, she couldn't put as many jokes in because there was a certain amount of actual information that needed to go in there.
7/10

Empire of Blue Water

Empire of Blue Water
By Stephan Talty
9780307236609

Breathtaking! If you love pirates, like pirates, or know what a pirate is, you should read this book. I loved the use of "Roderick" (a made-up character who represented a normal pirate and how he would have seen the world, his fellow pirates, and Morgan). This is the story of Henry Morgan, but it's so much more. This is about a way of life, for Morgan and his victims, his followers and his enemies. He's a brilliant man and his story is incredibly interesting, but I think the real story is about a way of life. And that story was wonderfully told as well as Morgan's.
10/10

Three Sisters Island Trilogy

Three Sisters Island Trilogy
By Nora Roberts

Series of 3 books, all about the same group of women. 1-Dance Upon the Air. 2- Heaven and Earth. 3- Face the Fire
And all get the same rating and review! Fluff. Can we say "Fluff"? Really fluffy, Nora Roberts is. And sometimes that's exactly what you need! This series was interesting, being about witchcraft. Oh, she's quick to point out that it's white magic, so it's okay. We'll ignore the fact that I don't believe that and focus on the story. Nora Roberts is a wonderful story-teller. I'll read anything she writes, and actually have read about half of her books at this point. Even if it's about witches, yes. Her characters are always strong women, I think always beautiful too of course! But not perfect, which is good. They all have issues, including the three women in this series. The descriptions of spells cast are intriguing and interesting to imagine, so that's something. I especially love the banter in Nora Roberts' books, the teasing between her characters is wonderful. Two of the main women in this series, especially, are hysterical together.
8/10

The Master Quilter

The Master Quilter
By Jennifer Chiaverini
(book on CD)

Yes, another Elm Creek Manor book, this was the 6th in the series. This was an interesting way to write a story- the same weeks of events told from many people's points of view. Each time the story got to the big event (the crime), there would be a little more information added but then it would go back to a few weeks earlier and move to a different person's perspective. I kept expecting to get annoyed with it but it worked out very well. I liked it. I think the only thing that annoyed me about this book was the women saying "Elm Creek Manor" every time they talk about the place. They've been in business now for quite a few years, you'd think they would have shortened it by now and just call the place "the Manor"!
9/10

Chocolat

Chocolat
By Joanne Harris
014100018X

This was so very different from the movie, which I adore. But this was good too, even though it was a very different story with different characters, stumbling blocks and even ending! I love the characters here, including the chocolate (which is of course a character also!). I can't decide if I like the movie or the book better, which is strange since I'm used to liking one more than the other (i.e. Emma- movie, Breakfast at Tiffanys-book). The daughter and the old woman are still my favorites, even though they've changed a bit!
9/10