The Book Worm's Library

About the Book: For seven-year-old Raami, the shattering end of childhood begins with the footsteps of her father returning home in the early dawn hours bringing details of the civil war that has overwhelmed the streets of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital. Soon the family’s world of carefully guarded royal privilege is swept up in the chaos of revolution and forced exodus.     Over the next four years, as she endures the deaths of family members, starvation, and brutal forced labor, Raami clings to the only remaining vestige of childhood—the mythical legends and poems told to her by her father. In a climate of systematic violence where memory is sickness and justification for execution, Raami fights for her improbable survival. Displaying the author’s extraordinary gift for language, In the Shadow of the Banyan is testament to the transcendent power of narrative and a brilliantly wrought tale of human resilience. Book Review:  ★★★★★★ Some stories are fun to read, simply because they are escapist in nature.  Some are fun to read because the characters become friends and enemies, without the reader ever realizing it.  And sometimes we find a book fun to read because it deals with a topic we are interested in.  But in…

About the Book: Norman Maclean’s memories about growing up in Montana revolve around mighty trout rivers and the four-count rhythm of fly fishing. It is the one activity where his family can bridge troubled relationships, where brother can connect with brother and father with son. And in the end, it is the river that makes them realize that life continues and all things are related. The strong reading of Ivan Doig, Montana native and author of This House of Sky, adds much flavor to this tender, often very funny, and beautiful story about love and loss. A tale not to be missed and to be revisited frequently. Book Review:  ★★★★★★ This is not normally my first choice of reading material.  Yes, I grew up in the Rocky Mountains — However, I have never been to Montana, I know nothing about fishing, and I am really not much of an outdoor person.  But, since school is not about reading what one would choose to read, so much as learning to read what is assigned to read, and discovering the significance of all types of books — this one made it to my reading list this year.  And surprisingly I found this…

About the Book: Born in rural Ohio in 1860, Annie Moses rose from poverty to become Annie Oakley, the diminutive star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show who could outshoot any man. She comes fully to life in this rousing biography by Walter Havighurst, the respected historian of the Old Northwest. In her probing introduction to this Bison Book edition, Christine Bold considers the striking incongruities, the symbolic meanings, of Annie Oakley’s life and career. Book Review:  ★★★★★★ This is one of those books that I came across through one of the book clubs that I belong to.  It was selected by a very precocious 9 year old that is very advanced for her age!  When it was first suggested that she wanted to read a book about Annie Oakley I hesitated.  Not for any particular reason, other than this is a person that I had never really had any interest in studying.But that is the point of book clubs, to explore different types of books, and topics that you would normally not explore yourself. That said, I am really glad that her mother came across this book.  When you belong to a book club that has a 9 year…

Book Review: Scheduled for Publication January 2012 “Hayat Shah was captivated by Mina long before he met her: his mother’s beautiful, brilliant, and soulfully devout friend is a family legend. When he learns that Mina is leaving Pakistan to live with the Shahs in America, Hayat is thrilled. Hayat’s father is less enthusiastic. He left the fundamentalist world behind with reason. What no one expects is that when Mina shows Hayat the beauty and power of the Quran, it will utterly transform the boy. Mina’s real magic may be that the Shah household, always contentious and sad, becomes a happy one. But when Mina finds her own path to happiness, the ember of jealousy in Hayat’s heart is enflamed by the community’s anti-Semitism-and he acts with catastrophic consequences for those he loves most.” Book Review:  ★★★★★★ This is a powerful story that gives insight to the unique make up of the American society — while at the same time looking at that the myriad cultures that make up that society and present not only a strong cultural base, but also the source of much of the volatility that originates through these same origins.  This story has the same powerful impact…

About the Book: In his black-walled fortress at Inuyama, the murderous warlord, Iida Sadamu, surveys his famous nightingale floor. Constructed with exquisite skill, it sings at the tread of each human foot. No assassin can cross it unheard. Brought up in a remote mountain village among the Hidden, a reclusive and spiritual people, Takeo has learned only the ways of peace. Why, then, does he possess the deadly skills that make him so valuable to the sinister Tribe? These supernatural powers will lead him to his violent destiny within the walls of Inuyama – and to an impossible longing for a girl who can never be his. His journey is one of revenge and treachery, honor and loyalty, beauty and magic, and the passion of first love. About the Book:  ★★★★★★ This book proved to be a real unexpected read, that is well worth the time.  Looking for something that was a break for all the textbooks I am currently having to read, as well as the reading requirements for my English Literature classes — I was looking for something that was more story, and less analysis and study.  So I picked this one up because it appeared to be…

About the Book: Luis de Santángel, chancellor to the court and longtime friend of the lusty King Ferdinand, has had enough of the Spanish Inquisition. As the power of Inquisitor GeneralTomás deTorquemada grows, so does the brutality of the Spanish church and the suspicion and paranoia it inspires. When a dear friend’s demise brings the violence close to home, Santángel is enraged and takes retribution into his own hands. But he is from a family of conversos, and his Jewish heritage makes him an easy target. As Santángel witnesses the horrific persecution of his loved ones, he begins slowly to reconnect with the Jewish faith his family left behind. Feeding his curiosity about his past is his growing love for Judith Migdal, a clever and beautiful Jewish woman navigating the mounting tensions in Granada. While he struggles to decide what his reputation is worth and what he can sacrifice, one man offers him a chance he thought he’d lost…the chance to hope for a better world. Christopher Columbus has plans to discover a route to paradise, and only Luis de Santángel can help him. Within the dramatic story lies a subtle, insightful examination of the crisis of faith at the…

About the Book: A true classic of American history, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown’s eloquent, meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of the American Indian during the second half of the nineteenth century. Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows the great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell in their won words of the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them demoralized and defeated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, this book changed forever our vision of how the West was really won. Book Review:  ★★★★★★ This is a book that I first came across in the movie format.  I happened to be watching television one insomnia filled night — and I tuned in at about half way through.  Even the movie was a gripping story.  As I was watching the credits, I found out that it was based on the book.  Needless to say, I went out the next day to try and locate it.  I am sure glad that I did. This is a heartbreaking story in so many ways.  I was most captivated, however, at the…

About the Book: “On May 11, 1970, Henry Marrow, a 23-year-old black veteran, walked into a crossroads store owned by Robert Teel, a rough man with a criminal record and ties to the Ku Klux Klan, and came out running. Teel and two of his sons chased Marrow, beat him unmercifully, and killed him in public as he pleaded for his life. In the words of a local prosecutor: “They shot him like you or I would kill a snake.”” “Like many small Southern towns, Oxford had barely been touched by the civil rights movement. But in the wake of the killing, young African Americans took to the streets, led by 22-year-old Ben Chavis, a future president of the NAACP. As mass protests crowded the town square, a cluster of returning Vietnam veterans organized what one termed a “military operation.” While lawyers battled in the courthouse that summer in a drama that one termed “a Perry Mason kind of thing,” the Ku Klux Klan raged in the shadows and black veterans torched the town’s tobacco warehouses.” “With large sections of the town in flames, Tim Tyson’s father, the pastor of Oxford’s all-white Methodist church, pressed his congregation to widen their…

About the Book: “There were no surprises in Gatlin County. We were pretty much the epicenter of the middle of nowhere. At least, that’s what I thought. Turns out, I couldn’t have been more wrong. There was a curse. There was a girl. And in the end, there was a grave. Lena Duchannes is unlike anyone the small Southern town of Gatlin has ever seen, and she’s struggling to conceal her power and a curse that has haunted her family for generations. But even within the overgrown gardens, murky swamps and crumbling graveyards of the forgotten South, a secret cannot stay hidden forever. Ethan Wate, who has been counting the months until he can escape from Gatlin, is haunted by dreams of a beautiful girl he has never met. When Lena moves into the town’s oldest and most infamous plantation, Ethan is inexplicably drawn to her and determined to uncover the connection between them. In a town with no surprises, one secret could change everything.” Book Review:  ★★★★★★ This was a surprise book, that really caught me off guard.  I have been shying away from many of the newest teenage angst, coming of age in the supernatural world following in…

About the Book: Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe is the much-awaited sequel to Sandra Gulland’s highly acclaimed first novel, The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B. Beginning in Paris in 1796, the saga continues as Josephine awakens to her new life as Mrs. Napoleon Bonaparte. Through her intimate diary entries and Napoleon’s impassioned love letters, an astonishing portrait of an incredible woman emerges. Gulland transports us into the ballrooms and bedrooms of exquisite palaces and onto the blood-soaked fields of Napoleon’s campaigns. As Napoleon marches to power, we witness, through Josephine, the political intrigues and personal betrayals — both sexual and psychological — that result in death, ruin, and victory for those closest to her. Book Review:  ★★★★★★ This installment of this series didn’t carry quite the impact I was expecting, following the first in the trilogy.  That is not to say it was a bad read — it just seemed to be missing something in intensity in comparison.  This installment covers from Josephine’s first meeting with the upcoming, and awkward young Napoleon through their marriage and his first campaigns in Egypt.  It culminates in his return to France on the eve of Revolution. I think one…