Coffee with Thunderbolts

By Marianne G Petrino

 Here we follow part of the journey of Elena and her Aunt and mentor Rosemarian. The cast of characters who each play a role in this journey are interesting and magical. By magical, I mean in the literal sense, not just an adjective for a well thought out character. Elena feels that she has failed to live up to her mothers ambitions for her, and in fact she has. The most important aspect of this is that her mothers ambitions and Elena's are worlds apart, literally.

Elena and Rosemarian and company journey to some mystical areas of our country in pursuit of Mayan truths. The adventures they have along the way are well worth reading, but perhaps even more so the antics of the beings they encounter, both corporal and non.

I would say that this may not be a book for everyone, but really, what book is? And how do you know unless you give it a try? I enjoyed spending time with these characters and think that anyone who has a curiosity about the Mayans, 2012, magic, metaphysics, labyrinths or for that matter family dynamics will enjoy this story.

Broken Tees and Mended Hearts. A Life's Journey Serving Wounded Warriors and Injured Spirits

I found this book to be a truly inspiring collection of stories about a small group of people
who refused to allow a physical handicap to define them. Armed with courage and support of
friends and family, this group of athletes prove to themselves and others that you cannot allow
the opinions or doubts of others to keep you from challenging yourself. Not even if these naysayers are
medical professionals.

Having worked with special needs children and young adults for several years, I have been witness to many everyday miracles. This author has seen quite a few of her own and she shares them with her readers. I think this is a wonderful book for those facing physical challenges and their families. One cannot help but to be filled with admiration and respect for individuals profiled. Hopefully they will find the optimism and inspiration they need to create a miracle of their own.

Beneath the Hallowed Hill by Theresa Crater

What you will feel when you read this book is enraptured. That is a feeling
I haven't had since I read Crater's last offering, Under the Stone Paw. These
books have more than the story in common, There is a basic feeling of rightness
here.

First, if you have not read Under the Stone Paw, I urge you to do so. That is
not only a wonderful book in its own right, but it lays the groundwork for this
story. If you choose not to, and just read this as a stand alone, that will work
for you as well.

Atlantis. Who hasn't wondered about Atlantis? Have you ever wanted to visit Merlin's
Crystal Cave? How about Avebury, England or Stonehenge? Well, pick up this book and
you will be there. You will meet faerie, and the Maidens of Avalon, too. Like Avalon
itself, this book seems to be a sum of magic, as there are far too few pages to hold
what you will experience if you read the story.

Michael and Anne travel to Glastonbury to visit the home left to Anne Le Clair by
her mother's sister. This is where the story begins, or should I say takes off?
Once in Glastonbury, they find that there is a problem with one of the Sacred Springs.
They take time off from their pursuit of the Illuminati to lend a hand. Here is where
the story begins and ends. But, ends is perhaps not the right word? I think the ending
lies somewhere in the future. I think you will enjoy the journey, but each journey has a
beginning. Pick up the book and see where your beginning lies..

Strongly recommended

The Heart Specialist by Claire Holden Rothman

The inspiration for this book was taken from the life
and work of Dr Maude Elizabeth Seymour Abbot. She was one
of Montreal's first female physicians. This is not at all
the story of her life, but a novel that takes us along the
path with a woman of that time who wanted to become a physician.

Those were still the years when women were expected to make a home
for their men, and considered ill equipped or not intelligent enough
to consider more than minimal education. To think of those times now,
it seems impossible. We have women like Dr Abbot to thank for the
fact that women are now understood to be the equals of men.

Agnes White and her younger sister were being raised by their paternal
grandmother. But although her younger sister was quiet and considered
to be ladylike, Agnes was more inquisitive. She wanted to know how things
worked. Specifically, she was interested in the human body and even as a
child revered her father, who was a doctor. She had in face taken some
of his equipment for her own. In particular she took and hid away, a microscope.
She had quietly removed it from among her fathers belongings which her
grandmother had given away, long after the man himself had disappeared.

There was a scandal, but of course Agnes believed that all of the talk was
wrong, and that her father, Doctor Bourret was not guilty of the murder of
his sister. A happy circumstance of a new governess, who was herself well
educated, but that at the knee of her own father, is what helped to set Agnes
on the path to become a physician, herself.

This is a well told and extraordinary story of a women whose struggle
to enter medical school seemed to be blocked at every turn. Finding out if
she would prevail, was a more than worthy read.

I recommend this extraordinary book to men and women alike.
Anyone interested in history, or just a good strong story will
be glad to read The Heart Specialist

Charlie St. Cloud: A Novel by Ben Sherwood

This was a book remarkable in it's beauty.
It is insightful, hopeful and filled with tragedy, but the message
I believe is to remember that things are not always as they seem.
Endings are beginnings too, and whatever we believe, truth is truth.

Charlie and his brother steal a neighbors car and sneak out to a baseball game.
their beagle was smuggled into the game too, in a backpack. They had a wonderful
time and were headed home when it happened. The thing that would change life
as they knew it forever.

Charlie lives the life of a lonely man, but it is also filled with
love and beauty. He is a good person who did a foolish thing,
This thing has been the center stone of his life until one day, another
tragedy happens. But remember, things are not always as they seem.
One seeming tragedy took away what he knew, could another tragedy
change his life yet again? Or will it be the end of Charlie?

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.

The Tiger's Wife: A Novel by Tea Obreht

I should simply have gone to the last page, and not wasted the
last several hours of my life. This is a story of .. well I wish I knew.
There is a young girl, who is close with her grandfather. The grandfather
is a doctor and the girl would be someday as well. He told her stories of his life.

The mishmash of stories revolves around a time when her grandfather was a
boy in a town in the Balkans. And ther eare stories of when he was an adult,
a doctor and well respected. It swings back and forth through time so often that
it takes concentration to sort out where or when you are.

It is a story of murder, of evil and of children who are not loved.
There is a fantasy or maybe a legend that is the thread that runs through the
book. The thread is more the Tiger, than the young woman who came to be referred
to as the Tiger's Wife.

I admit it. I got sucked into the hype, the marketing and I suffered for it.
This is a book I requested from the vine program because it sounded like
it would be a faery tale or lovely story. There was nothing lovely about it.
The story is was like a salad, One made of iceberg lettuce. A salad with little bits
and pieces of this and that. But the bits and pieces are so small, and so widely spread
throughout that they have no hope of adding interest or flavor.

The man who couldn't die, turned up now and then for a bit of spice. Other
than that, the very best part of this book is the final paragraph. That earned
the book a star to add than the single star rating I had planned to give it.
The final paragraph was beautiful.

I'm Over All That: And Other Confessions by Shirley MacLaine

When Shirley Maclaine writes, it feels more like a conversation with her. So, this won't be a review so much as a comment or two. I feel the need to mention that I love her madly, and feel that she has never written a book that was not at least interesting, if not fascinating. I also feel that she has never given a performance on screen that was anything but stellar. I guess you could say that I am a fan. I have been a fan since I saw her on tv, way back in the distant past. It was either the movie My Geisha, or a clip. I am not sure of anything except I saw her and was immediately drawn to her and have never lost that feeling of connection. Past life connection perhaps? Maybeso. Like Shirley, that is part of my belief system. 

I have read all of her books except Saging While Aging , because somehow that one fell off my radar. 

I have enjoyed them all, and always feel that the most recent is my favorite. This hasn't changed. As in her other books, I'm Over All That is full of her thoughts and opinions. She share freely and she explains why she feels the way she does. I love the  idea of her "wall of life". I saw it on Oprah when she was there to be interviewed recently. She has a lovely home. It looks right for her. And the idea of having a place to go in your home to simply remember times and people who have shared your life is 

brilliant. I might just try a variation of it myself. I am not a celebrity, but my life is mine, and the people and times are my own. I like it.  Stay tuned. 

We hear about her relationships with some of the leading men in her life, as well as men she has met and men she simply fell in love with at the time. There were a lot of them, but I truly believe that she loved them all. She is so open and honest, and interested. Yes interested as well as interesting. I share her trait of being an individual who questions. I want to know why, how and when. I want to learn . There are many things like religion, politics and spirituality where we share similar questions, Shirley and I . 

There are some references to journeys she has taken in other books, in fact there are references to journeys he has taken in other lifetimes. So often she is validated in strong and simple, yet meaningful ways.  For instance, a cross she had owned in a previous lifetime came back to her this time. How much more validation can you get? To find out how this happened you need to read the book. I encourage you to read the book, because it is filled with answers. And questions, and love. She is a loving person, and a down to earth one. She is still beautiful, by the way, she isn't over that.. 

I am over many of the same things she is, by the way.. Thanks Shirley!

Black Swan by Chris Knopf

This is the first book in the Sam Acquillo series that I have read. I enjoyed it from the first page.
The reader is drawn into some fast action and witty dialogue immediately. The book opens with
Sam , girl friend Amanda, and Sam's lively mutt Eddie, delivering a sleek, new, sailboat to a friend.
A storm came up with no warning and Sam and Amanda have their hands full keeping the  boat on the
water, instead of under it.

Obviously, they do manage to survive or it would have been a very short book, and that would have
been a shame. This was a good Sunday afternoon read. It was fast paced, very fast paced. No time
to be bogged down, as every page was filled with either charming and witty dialog or pertinent events.
It was filled with improbable situations that only made the story more fun. Who needs a fun read to be
realistic?

If you are looking for deep drama, or a literary challenge, avoid this book. You won't be impressed.
If you want a good fast paced mystery on an island being rocked by sudden storms and an even more
sudden spurt of serious crime, give it a try. The solution to the mystery is interesting and has a unique
twist.