"The Lost Whale" by Michael Parfit

The Lost Whale--The True Story of Orca Named Luna by Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm is an interesting story about saving a whale named Luna. So many people had contact with Luna it became a crime to interact with her. Lots of people tried to help Luna get back to her whale friends. That is the main story in this book. I liked it.
(Gerard, 4 stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

"Run, Brother, Run--A Memoir of a Murder in My Family" by David Berg

Run, Brother, Run--A Memoir of a Murder in My Family by David Berg talks about the killing of his brother, Alan, and then the trial of the person held responsible for the killing.  For the most part, this book was very interesting.  I enjoyed learning about what led up to the killing and the life Alan and David led together along with their dad.  The trial was interesting too.  I give it 4 stars.
(Gerard, 4 stars)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

4 Tuesday Teasers Today

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should  Be Reading. Anyone can play along, so I thought  I  would play for fun! Just do the following

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page (well, we cheat and choose specific ones)
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on  that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away!   You don’t  want  to  ruin the  book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can  add the book to their TBR  Lists  if they  like your teaser.   

Karen's:

And now Allison had been in an accident, and a child was dead.  It didn't seem possible.

From page 57 of Bird in Hand by Christina Baker Kline.

As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced;The wheels did not turn about as the the creatures went. Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.

From Ezekiel 1:17 (the NIV Study Bible)

Gerard's:

Evidence was destroyed, perjury suborned, and justice defiled. But in this case I wasn't the defense attorney, trying to get his client "off." Nor was I the prosecutor, pursuing justice for the victim.

From page XV of the Prologue of Run, Brother, Run--A Memoir of a Murder in My Family by David Berg.  (My review will be posted tomorrow.)

There wasn't much Sandy could do except go to work every morning and wait for the interminable days and weeks to pass.  Eventually, she would find out how much of her life would be ruined because she had been friendly to a whale.

From page 104 of The Lost Whale by Michael Parfit and Suzanne Chisholm.


Happy Reading!

"Instructions for a Heatwave" by Maggie O'Farrell

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell tells the story of a man who one morning went out to get the paper, told his wife he would be right back, but didn't come back.  The wife called her three children home to search for dad.  

What makes this book so good is the interaction between the three kids, who have their own problems to be sure, and their mom.  There are plenty of "wow" moments in this, especially at the end.  Great writing!  I loved it!! 
(Gerard's review, 5++ stars)

Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell is one Gerard and I have completely opposite feelings about.  I thought this book was very slow moving with no action and was annoyed by how it jumped from one character to another with no transition, most of the book was the characters thinking about the past and very little had to do with finding the missing father which was the big mystery of the book.  I didn't really care about any of the characters who each had their secrets.  

Another thing that was annoying to me was the lack of chapters--it just kept going on and on so there was never a good place to stop.  It just broke sections between a change in the character narration with a row of stars.  I didn't care for the writing at all--it had too much description for my taste with long rambling paragraphs.  The bickering among Gretta's grown children did not hold my interest at all which is what Gerard thought was the best part.  I thought the title was dumb and didn't even like the cover.  The only reason I read this was because Gerard thought it was so good.  Sometimes we agree on books, but not this time.

If I HAD to choose a favorite character, it would be the older sister, Monica, just because I enjoyed her storyline about trying to win over her two stepdaughters, a very small part of the book.  I would not recommend this book to anyone.  Sorry, Maggie.
(Karen's review)
 
Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

Loved "A Bride For All Seasons--The Mail-Order Bride Collection" by Four Different Authors

Great Beach Read--Very Enjoyable!

Do you like reading clean historical romance books?  Do you enjoy mail-order bride stories?  I do, so when I saw A Bride For All Seasons—The Mail-order Bride Collection, I just had to read it and was not at all disappointed.  In fact, it is a collection of four novellas by four different authors:  And Then Came Spring by Margaret Brownley, An Ever After Summer by Debra Clopton, Autumn’s Angel by Robin Lee Hatcher, and Winter Wedding Bells by Mary Connealy.  I loved them all!

This book is so cool because all four mail-order bride stories are tied together by the common matchmaker, Melvin Hitchcock of The Hitching Post, a mail-order bride catalogue with the highest rate of successful marriages.  None of the couples that were matched up in this book got what they expected because Melvin edited their letters, at times l just omitting something that he felt would prevent the client’s chances of finding a match!  Consequently, all the couples have trust issues to begin with and it was fun to see how the couples get past that and become happily married in time.  (See My two teasers.)

Out of the four authors, I was only familiar with Mary Connealy, but now I have a whole list of books to read by the other three authors as well!  This book is a fun, entertaining read.  There are also three discussion questions for each novella in the back.  This would be a great Book Club read!
(Karen's review)

Check out my progress on learning to Juggle (part 2) using The Great Juggling Kit book.

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

Linked up with Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop today for the prompt:  Book review!  What are you reading this summer?