Sister: A Novel By: Rosamund Lupton

Beatrice has moved to America from England. She has become
used to the distance both geographically, and emotionally,
from her sister Tess and their mother. She uses it as an excuse,
in fact. After all, she is busy with her career and her own life.
A phone call from her mother calls her back across the Atlantic
when she learns that Tess is missing. Tess, who was pregnant, and
struggling, has not been seen for far too long.

It would be unfair to suggest that it was only guilt that sent
Beatrice to the airport, because she did love her family, when
it wasn't too inconvenient. So, leaving life, career and fiance
behind, she arrived in England as soon as was humanly possible
after she received the call.

Before long, Bea realizes what she has been missing, while letting
her family get on without her all of this time. All of the love and
closeness to Tess comes flooding back. With it there is fear. She truly
did love Tess, and when she found her sister's body, could not believe the
verdict of suicide due to psychosis after after the death of her baby. Tess
would never kill herself, Bea was sure. Even after finding the body, and learning
that the baby Xavier had died, Bea felt something was being missed, and so she
set out to find the truth on her own.

What follows is a griping story, one that has you sure that you have
come to the end of the mystery, only to find that there is yet another twist.
By the time this breathtaking story concludes, you will be breathless with the
build up and the climax.

Don't miss this one.

Arms Wide Open: A Midwife's Journey by Patricia Harman

A time or two, I almost gave up on this book.
The author and I are of an age, I think..
and I remember the days where the book began, remember them clearly.
I remember the idealism and the search for freedom and love. Her
journey was far more productive and inspirational than my own, however.

I am sure that the the author did not intend that the most commonly felt
link between author and reader be fear. I think that it is a very personal
thing. I fear. I fear the things that cannot be stopped. I fear the demise
of this planet due to the greediness and blindness of those who walk on
her skin.

I fear not being able to protect my children. I fear that the most. I
too, can be accused of being a hyper worrier, and in fact have been. I
almost gave  up on the story. I think that the very pure and optimistic
energy in the beginning of the book nearly drove me away. It became easier
to read however, the deeper into the story I went. Sadly, it was because
of the current reality that began to creep in, and the admission of fear.
I felt as if I have a comrade out there somewhere. Someone else who knows
the feeling of loneliness, missing her children, and the inability to change
what is into what a mother wants it to be.

This is not as much the story of a midwife, as it is of a woman who
happens to serve other women by helping them have their children. She
is real, and she is vulnerable. Maiden, Mother and Crone, she is woman.
And she tries.. she tries hard to hold on,onto the optimism of the early days.
She reached me on a visceral level with this, her story of being woman.