Al,l Saints / Michael Spurlock and Jeanette Windle / 207 pages

This book is the true story of Michael Spurlock on his journey to becoming a pastor and his first assignment to a church in Smyrna, Tennessee.  A movie was made about this story that I saw before I read the book.  Of course, the book provides more details of the actual story and events.  All Saints was a struggling church that was down to only twenty-five devoted members and a huge mortgage when Michael came to be their pastor.  He was looking at the decision to close the church and sell the property.  However, with the help of God and a group of Karen refugees from Burma the church is saved.  The congregation embraces the Christian Karen refugees who help them turn their church property into farm land.  There are so many God moments in this journey!  The story is amazing.  All Saints is saved and their congregation grows.  The book goes beyond the movie in telling about Michael leaving the All Saints and the two pastors that followed him and continued the revitalization of All Saints Church.

Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian America / David Horowitz / 172 pages

This was a fascinating book that, although it is not very long, took me awhile to read because I took notes so I could refer back to the wealth of information.  The author shows that the rising attacks on Christians by the extreme leftists is a threat to all Americans, not just Christians.  Judeo-Christian values are at the root of our country's democracy and destroying these values endangers our freedoms.  The author documents what is happening with what has happened in the history of our country in the past fifty years.  It is fascinating and scary.

The Prisoners of Breendonk / James M. Deem / 320 pages

This is the story of  Breendonk, a small concentration camp in Antwerp, Belgium.  I had never heard of this camp in the many books I have read about World War II, so it caught my attention.  It is well researched and written.  It is also well documented with many pictures, drawings, and archives that helped to follow the story of the many people who were imprisoned at this camp.  This book helps document the history of World War II that must not be forgotten.

From Doon With Death / Ruth Rendell / 214 pages

This is the author's debut novel written in 1964.  It introduces the character of Chief Inspector Wexford.  Margaret Parsons is a timid, unassuming housewife found murdered in the quiet English town of Kingsmarkham.  Her body is found strangled in the woods.  Chief Inspector Wexford sets out to solve the mystery of her death.  This is a quaint English mystery story.  Not very fast paced, but a relaxing read.

Skeletons at the Feast / Chris Bohjalian / 360 pages

This story takes place in January 1945 in the last few months of World War II.  It tells the story of a Prussian family trying to evacuate from their home near the Russian front to Germany to reach the British and American lines.  With them is Callum, a Scottish prisoner of war who has been assigned to work on their farm.  Anna is the family's eighteen year old daughter.  Callum and Anna have fallen in love.  Soon after the family leaves home the father and son leave to join the German fight against the Russians.  That leaves Anna, her mother, and little brother to make their way on their own.  Soon they are joined by Manfred, a twenty-six year old Wehrmacht corporal.  Unknown by the family Manfred is really Uri Singer, a Jew who escaped from a train bound for Auschwitz.  The story is intense and gives the reader the feeling of how the experience must have felt.

The Stranger Inside / Laura Benedict / 341 pages

The setting for this story is St. Louis!  It was fun seeing places mentioned that I knew and made the story more interesting.  Kimber Hannon is a divorced woman that lives in a house in Richmond Heights.  She returns from a weekend at the Lake of the Ozarks to find the locks changed on the doors of her house and a stranger living inside.  Lance Wilson has a rental agreement with Kimber's signature.  He tells the police that Kimber left to move in with her boyfriend and rented the house to him until she decides what to do with the house. With the help of her ex-boyfriend, Gabriel, who is also a lawyer and her ex-husband, Shaun, Kimber sets out to get her house back.  However, Kimber has a dark secret from her childhood that Lance threatens Kimber that he knows and will reveal.  The story has many twists and turns and keeps the reader in suspense!

The Night Stranger / Chris Bohjalian / 375 pages

Chip Linton is an airline pilot whose plane crashed into the water after flying into a flock of geese which caused the plane's engines to shut down.  Thirty-nine people died in the crash.  Flash forward several months and Chip, his wife, and twin daughters have moved to a small town in New Hampshire.  They have bought an old Victorian house that has a mysterious room in the basement that is sealed shut with thirty-nine bolts.  Added to that is that the people of the town are unusually interested with Chip's twin daughters.  Many of the women of the town are "herbalists" and obsessed with the herbs they grow in their green houses.  Chip starts to see and talk to three of the passengers that died in the crash.  These elements all come together to tell a page turning scary story.

Nine Perfect Strangers / Liane Moriarty / 450 pages

Nine Perfect Strangers is about nine people who are all together for ten days at a health resort in a remote part of Australia.  They come from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences and have their own reasons for seeking time at a health resort.  The resort is run by Masha, a woman with her own mysterious bachground.  Masha has a unique regime of running the health resort and the nine paying guests are in for a challenging ten days.  The story was exciting and had humorous parts to it as the reader learns about the background of each character and what brings them to the resort.

The Institute / Stephen King / 557 pages

This is Stephen King's latest novel.  His story telling has evolved over the years.  I have read all his novels except for the Dark Tower series.  Although King's books are still suspenseful, they are no longer "scary".  This book centers around an organization that kidnaps children with telepathy or telekinesis abilities and uses the children to kill people around the world that threaten the beliefs and values of those in power.  This is definitely a good versus evil story.  It did get more exciting in the last half.

Wunderland / Jennifer Cody Epstein / 367 pages

This is a story of three women, Renate Baur, Ilse von Fisher, and Ilse's daughter Ava.  The story is told from Germany in the 1930s and 1940s to the United States in the 1970s to 1989.  Ilse and Renate are close childhood friends growing up in Germany in the 1930s when thew Nazis were coming into power.  Their friendship is split when it is revealed that Renate's father is Jewish.  The girls grow apart as their lives take different paths.  The reader follows Ilse as she becomes part of the Nazi youth movement and Renate as she and her family are forced to change how they live with the continuous rules for the Jews from the Nazi party.  Ilse and Renate continue to cross paths and there are consequences to each of their lives.  Renate is the only member of her family able to get out of Germany when her uncle in the United States sponsors her to immigrate.  Fast forward to the end of the war and Ilse is picking up her daughter, Ava, from a German orphanage.  The story is told from the perspective of each of the women jumping around in the different time periods.  The lives of these three women are intertwined to the very end of the story.  For me it was a fascinating book that told a World War II story from different perspectives.

The Bookshop of Yesterdays / Amy Meyerson / 364 pages

Miranda Brooks is a middle school history teacher in Philadelphia.  She grew up in Los Angeles where her parents are still living.  As a child she was close to her mother's brother, Billy, who owned a bookstore and would challenge her with clues on scavenger hunts.  Then on her twelfth birthday her mother and Uncle Billy had an argument and she did not see her uncle again.  Now sixteen years later she receives news that her uncle has died.  She returns home to attend his funeral, which her mother refuses to also attend.  Through Billy's lawyer Miranda learns that she has inherited the bookstore which is almost in bankruptcy.  While Miranda works to save the bookstore she is also working through the clues to Uncle Billy's final scavenger hunt for her.  This one will explain what really happened to lead up to that argument on her twelfth birthday that resulted in the disappearance of her Uncle Billy from her life.

The Spies of Shilling Lane / Jennifer Ryan / 351 pages

This is a World War II story that takes place in England.  It is written with a lighter tone and humorous characters.  Mrs. Braithwaite is a recently divorced woman in a small English village.  Her husband has divorced her and moved away to marry a younger woman.  This has caused the village to shun her and she is forced out as the leader of their local Women's Voluntary Service.  Mrs. Braithwaite is also afraid that a family secret will be revealed.  She travels to London to track down her only child, Betty, to tell her the secret before it is revealed.  Upon her arrival in London she learns that her daughter is missing.  With the reluctant help of Betty's landlord, Mr. Norris, Mrs. Braithwaite sets out to find her daughter.  Their escapades in the process of tracking down Betty changes both Mrs. Braithwaite and Mr. Norris.

Farewell,Titanic: Her Final Legacy / Charles Pellegrino / 281 pages

I have always been interested in the story of the Titanic.  This is the author's account of his 2001 dive to document the Titanic.  Along with this journey the author tells the first hand accounts of several survivors in their own words.  This was the most fascinating part of the book for me.  The author does a good job telling the story of the Titanic's voyage and disaster as well as what it is today.  I just would have liked to have more pictures included.

The Tattooist of Auschwitz / Heather Morris / 254 pages

Lale Sokolov is a young Jewish man who has been sent to Auschwitz in 1942.  Because of his fluency in several languages he is given the job of tattooing numbers on incoming prisoners.  This job gives him more freedoms that he uses to help people.  It is here that he meets the woman he falls in love with, Gita.  This book is based on the true story of Lale Sokolov and the love of his life, Gita.  It gives the reader insight to how some prisoners of concentration camps managed to survive their grueling treatment and conditions.

Less / Andrew Sean Greer / 261 pages

Arthur Less is a forty-nine year old struggling author.  He receives a wedding invitation from his former boyfriend of the past nine years.  To avoid facing this occasion and his upcoming milestone birthday Arthur arranges an eighty day trip that will take him to Mexico, Italy, Germany, Morocco, India, and Japan.  Each chapter is about his adventures in each country.  At the end of the book Arthur returns home to find his happy ending with his life.

The Art Of Racing in the Rain / Garth Stein / 321 pages

I have seen this book for several years and with the movie coming out based on the book I finally read it.  It is about the relationship between a dog, Enzo, and his owner, Denny.  Denny is a race car driver, hence the title.  You will learn a lot about what makes a good race car driver.  The reader knows from the first chapter that this is a story that will make you cry.  But it is well worth reading.  There is a lot of joy in the book also.  The ending is a good one.  This was a particularly difficult read for me as I had to have my dog put down while reading this book.

The Lost Wife / Alyson Richman / 358 pages

Josef, a young man studying medicine, and Lenka, a young art student, meet and fall in love and marry in Prague shortly before World War II.  Both are Jewish.  Josef comes from a wealthy family that is able to secure passage to the United States shortly after the Nazis invade.  Lenka makes the decision to stay behind with her family and hopefully reunite safely with her husband.  The chapters alternate from Josef's and Lenka's perspectives.  Lenka's story takes us through her family's experience of being in the concentration camps.

The Red Address Book / Sofia Lundberg / 290 pages

Doris is a 96 year old woman living on her own in Stockholm, Sweden.  Her only living relative is a grandniece, Jenny, who lives in San Francisco.  When Doris was a young girl her father gave her a red address book for her birthday.  She has kept it all these years and it has the names and addresses of the many people that have been in her life.  The story of Doris's life  is told by going through the different people in the address book.  Doris skypes every week with Jenny.  When Doris has a heart attack and is hospitalized Jenny flies to Stockholm to be with her.  She discovers Doris's red address book and the story of Doris's life that Doris had been writing down for her.  I found this a very enjoyable book to read and the author's address book set up for the story was great format.

Good, Girl, Bad Girl / Michael Robotham / 353 pages

This is a story about two young girls, one good and one bad.  The "good" girl is a high school student, Jodie Sheehan.  Jodie is a competitive figure- ice skating champion who is found murdered in the woods near her home.  The "bad" girl is young teen who was found six years ago in a secret room in a house where a terrible crime and murder took place.  She was half starved and filthy and would not tell anyone her name, age, or where she came from.  She is now living in a secure children's home and the courts have given her the name Evie Cormac.  Cyrus Haven is a forensic psychologist that has been called in to determine if Evie is ready to leave the home and be independent.  Cyrus is also working with the police investigating the murder of Jodie Sheehan.  Through Cyrus's involvement with both cases we learn more about the real story of both girls.  Another story to prove that you "can't judge a book by its cover"!

The Wonder / Emma Donoghue / 291 pages

The author of this novel also wrote the novel "Room".  This story takes place in Ireland in the mid 1800s.  Anna O'Donnel is an eleven year old girl that is said not to have eaten anything for four months with no affect to her health.  The village forms a committee to prove that this miracle is true.  They hire two nurses from outside the community as "watchers" to monitor Anna 24 hours a day for two weeks to prove that Anna is not eating anything.  Lib Wright is a young English nurse that is hired as one of the "watchers".  She has been trained by Florence Nightingale.  The story is slow paced and was hard to stick with at first, but picked up and I enjoyed finishing it.  The author did a good job making the reader feel what life was like in Ireland in this time period.