The Book Worm's Library

About the Book: Mary’s given up everything, including an unsatisfying marriage, to become a chef. But the career comes with a side dish: Kegan, her sexy but controlling new boss. They’re soon in a relationship, and in all-too-frequent arguments, and when it becomes clear they can’t work together and be together Mary faces a dilemma: keep her dream job or her dream man? Book Review: ★★★★★★ Sometimes, when I go looking for a good book, or a specific author — I know exactly what I am looking for.  At other times, this process is more of a whim.  Where some women walk into clothing and shoe stores and they are drawn to the perfect shirt, or the must have pair of shoes — for me it was always the cover of a book that would captivate my attention.  Frequently my favorite authors, for both my challenging reads, as well as the escapist adventures, are the ones that I have found by accident — because I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for when I found them. Heather Wardell is one such author.  I came across her first book — Life, Love, and a Polar Bear Tattoo when I was…

About the Book: Includes a section of b&w photos and one section of color plates. In the fall of 1991, two deep wreck divers discovered a World War II German U-boat sixty miles off the coast of New Jersey. No identifying marks were visible on the submarine or the few artifacts that John Chatterton and Richie Kohler brought to the surface. No historian, expert, or government had a clue as to which U-boat the men had found. In fact, the official records all agreed that there simply could be a sunken U-boat and crew at that location. Over the next six years, an elite team of divers embarked a quest to solve the mystery. Book Review:  ★★★★★★ This was an absolute, could not put down story that was fun to read!  I picked it up because the premise of the book sounded so unreal that it qualified as absurd.  A German U-boat located 60 miles off the New Jersey coastline.  And I am still asking the question what an enemy, German U-boat was doing there, particularly during a time of war. This story covers many topics of interest. Originally it was the story about World War II that drew me…

About the Book: Few family secrets have the power both to transform lives and to fill in crucial gaps in world history. But then, few families have a mother and a daughter quite like Sala and Ann Kirschner. For nearly fifty years, Sala kept a secret: She had survived five years as a slave in seven different Nazi work camps. Living in America after the war, she kept from her children any hint of her epic, inhuman odyssey. She held on to more than 350 letters, photographs, and a diary without ever mentioning them. Only in 1991, on the eve of heart surgery, did she suddenly present them to Ann and offer to answer any questions her daughter wished to ask. It was a life-changing moment for her scholar, writer, and entrepreneur daughter. We know surprisingly little about the vast network of Nazi labor camps, where imprisoned Jews built railroads and highways, churned out munitions and materiel, and otherwise supported the limitless needs of the Nazi war machine. This book gives us an insider’s account: Conditions were brutal. Death rates were high. As the war dragged on and the Nazis retreated, inmates were force-marched across hundreds of miles, or packed…

About the Book: To most people, Folly Beach, South Carolina, is simply the last barrier island before the Atlantic. To some, it’s a sanctuary, which is why Janie Hamilton’s mother encourages her to buy the local book store, Folly’s Finds, hoping it will distract Janie from the loss of her husband in Afghanistan. Janie is at first resistant, but intrigued after finding love letters and an image of a beautiful bottle tree in a box of used books from Folly’s Finds, and decides to take the plunge. The store’s seller insists on one condition: Janie must allow Lulu, the late owner’s elderly sister, to continue selling her bottle trees from its back yard. Historically, bottle trees were brought by African slaves to the American South, and Janie had grown up with one in her backyard, and it has always been a symbol of refuge to her. Janie generally ignores Lulu as she sifts through the love letters, wanting to learn more. But the more she discovers of the letters’ authors, the closer she feels to Lulu. As details of a possible murder and a mysterious disappearance during World War II are revealed, the two women discover that circumstances beyond their…

About the Book: For the first time a historian has given us a national, as well as a local matrix into which one can place the life of Joseph Smith and his Nauvoo community, and in that context make better sense of it all. This book in the works for 30 years over 800 pages is the first to present such a comprehensive and detailed look at the short period preceding the Prophets martyrdom. It is ground-breaking for these reasons: It examines the Anti-Mormon network that planned the murders of Joseph and Hyrum, and the expulsion of the Saints from Illinois. It identifies key players and the involvement of eachshowing clear evidence of Governor Fords early involvement in the plans for the murders. An extensive legal analysis of the charges of treason against Joseph Smith, and concludes that the charges were completely without foundation. An extensive analysis of the freedom of the press issueoften mis-represented by historiansthat arose over the destruction of the Nauvoo Expositor. It turns out that contrary to what has been written regarding the subjectthe question of freedom of the press was not an issue of the time. It examines about 250 newspapers throughout the United States…

About the Book: “Smart and ambitious, Marie Tussaud has learned the secrets of wax sculpting by working alongside her uncle in their celebrated wax museum, the Salon de Cire. From her popular model of the American ambassador, Thomas Jefferson, to her tableau of the royal family at dinner, Marie’s museum provides Parisians with the very latest news on fashion, gossip, and even politics. Her customers hail from every walk of life, yet her greatest dream is to attract the attention of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI; their stamp of approval on her work could catapult her and her museum to the fame and riches she desires. After months of anticipation, Marie learns that the royal family is willing to come and see their likenesses. When they finally arrive, the king’s sister is so impressed that she requests Marie’s presence at Versailles as a royal tutor in wax sculpting. It is a request Marie knows she cannot refuse—even if it means time away from her beloved Salon and her increasingly dear friend, Henri Charles. As Marie gets to know her pupil, Princesse Élisabeth, she also becomes acquainted with the king and queen, who introduce her to the glamorous life at court….

About the Book: From the Nobel Prize-winning author of One Hundred Years of Solitude comes a masterly evocation of an unrequited passion so strong that it binds three people’s lives together for more than fifty years. In the story of Florentino Ariza, who waits more than half a century to declare his undying love to the beautiful Fermina Daza, whom he lost to Dr. Juvenal Urbino so many years before, García Márquez has created a vividly absorbing fictional world, as lush and dazzling as a dream and as real and immediate as our own deepest longings. Now available for the first time in the Contemporary Classics series! Book Review:  ★★★★★★ This is one of those books that the reviews seem to be all over the place.  You either loved it or you hated it — but there isn’t a lot of gray area.  I’m afraid I came down in the later category, mainly because I am such a story person.  I love to find and follow the story line, and then see how different elements support that story, and the message that the author is trying to convey.  Unfortunately, I felt like the story in this one kept getting lost…

About the Book: When Candice’s in-laws died in a car accident eight months ago, she lost her husband Ian too. After only two years of marriage their guilt and pain have left them living together but apart. During Ian’s month-long trip overseas, Candice plans to decide if her marriage can be saved, but when the first man she ever loved is the new client at work, she wonders what she truly wants from life and love. Book Review:  ★★★★★★ This is a book, and a review that is unique because it holds the distinction of my beginning transition over to the new electronic age of books.  After a couple of years of consideration, and a lot of thought, research, and debate (all personal), I finally jumped into the 21st century and bought a NOOK.  And the poor sales man at Barnes and Noble must have thought he had a nut job on his hands.  Not only did I have to have him explain the entire system from the ground floor up, but I also made him give me all the pros and cons (and yes this was after all of my own debate and research) on having an e-reader, vs….

About the Book: Lady Gruadh, called Rue, is the last female descendant of Scotland’s most royal line. Married to a powerful northern lord, she is widowed while still carrying his child and forced to marry her husband’s murderer: a rising war-lord named Macbeth. Encountering danger from Vikings, Saxons, and treacherous Scottish lords, Rue begins to respect the man she once despised–and then realizes that Macbeth’s complex ambitions extend beyond the borders of the vast northern region. Among the powerful warlords and their steel-games, only Macbeth can unite Scotland–and his wife’s royal blood is the key to his ultimate success. Determined to protect her small son and a proud legacy of warrior kings and strong women, Rue invokes the ancient wisdom and secret practices of her female ancestors as she strives to hold her own in a warrior society. Finally, side by side as the last Celtic king and queen of Scotland, she and Macbeth must face the gathering storm brought on by their combined destiny. From towering crags to misted moors and formidable fortresses, Lady Macbeth transports readers to the heart of eleventh-century Scotland, painting a bold, vivid portrait of a woman much maligned by history. Book Review:  ★★★★★★ This is a book…

About the Book: Twenty-five-year-old Julie Jacobs is heartbroken over the death of her beloved aunt Rose. But the shock goes even deeper when she learns that the woman who has been like a mother to her has left her entire estate to Julie’s twin sister. The only thing Julie receives is a key—one carried by her mother on the day she herself died—to a safety-deposit box in Siena, Italy. This key sends Julie on a journey that will change her life forever—a journey into the troubled past of her ancestor Giulietta Tolomei. In 1340, still reeling from the slaughter of her parents, Giulietta was smuggled into Siena, where she met a young man named Romeo. Their ill-fated love turned medieval Siena upside-down and went on to inspire generations of poets and artists, the story reaching its pinnacle in Shakespeare’s famous tragedy. But six centuries have a way of catching up to the present, and Julie gradually begins to discover that here, in this ancient city, the past and present are hard to tell apart. The deeper she delves into the history of Romeo and Giulietta, and the closer she gets to the treasure they allegedly left behind, the greater the…