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Quality of Care — Elizabeth Letts

“Quality of Care” is a new release from first-time author Elizabeth Letts. From the very first page of the book, I was taken with the realistic depiction of a maternity ward setting, and was not surprised to find that the author is a nurse-midwife by profession. I don’t think she could have portrayed the book so realistically without that level of knowledge; it was that real. Our character is Clara, a doctor who is on call at the hospital. It’s late at night and she has a few patients laboring, but all is going well. She looks up to see … Continue reading →

Lost Highways – Curtiss Ann Matlock

I love finding new authors (well, new to me) and Curtiss Ann Matlock captured my imagination from the first page. Her narrative voice is so friendly and quirky—I was pulled in to the character even before I picked up on the plot. Rainey Valentine is a complicated woman. Complicated in a good way, though. She’s been divorced twice but still believes in true love. She’s taken a little time off from her ‘real’ life to follow a dream—her mother, champion barrel-racer, left her the prize horse and trailer in her will, and Rainey is driving around the country to compete … Continue reading →

The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver

I’ve seen this book reviewed in scads of places and heard people talking about it, so I wanted to read it for myself and see if it measured up (in my estimation) to all the press it’s been getting. The book takes place in the 1960s. Nathan Price is a preacher who feels called to go to the Belgian Congo to teach Christianity to the natives. He takes along his wife, Orleanna, and their four daughters: Rachel, Leah, Adah, and Ruth May. They can only take the barest of necessities, but they hardly know what those necessities might be, having … Continue reading →

Room for Two – Abel Keogh

Abel’s wife Krista was seven months pregnant and the couple had just moved into a new apartment. For some reason, she was reluctant to stay in the apartment by herself and spent a lot of time at her grandmother’s house, insisting that Abel stay there as well. Abel sensed that something was wrong, but chalked it up to the fact that his wife was pregnant, and weren’t all women a little bit different when expecting? One day, however, changed everything. Krista had gone to the apartment to unpack and didn’t return when she said she would. Abel went to the … Continue reading →

The Probable Future – Alice Hoffman

“The Probable Future” by Alice Hoffman is a little more earthy than the other books I’ve chosen to review here on Families.com, but the story is so intriguing, I thought it was worth presenting, with that caveat. I was fascinated by these women and their amazing gifts, and wanted to share their story with you. Three hundred years ago, a young woman wandered out of nowhere, unable to speak English, her hands and feet blistered and raw, and she was taken in by a local family. They had no idea what her name was or why she was there, but … Continue reading →

Accepting Joy – Todd F. Cope

“Accepting Joy” by author Todd F. Cope is the story of Andrew and Rachel, a young couple who are moving into their new home and also expecting their first child. The house they bought is in a quiet area, and their nearest neighbor is a little ways down the road. The house was built some years before and does need some modernizing, but Rachel is sure she can make it wonderful. Andrew heads down the road to meet his new neighbor, Hank, only to be treated brusquely. He comes to find out that Hank is rumored to be a murderer, … Continue reading →

Sam’s Letters to Jennifer – James Patterson

Jennifer has recently lost Danny, the love of her life, and she’s trying to put the pieces back together, without much success. When news reaches her that her grandmother has had a fall and is in the hospital, she leaves right away, heading out to Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to be by her grandmother’s side. Sam, short for Samantha, is the only person in the world Jennifer has left, and if anything were to happen to her, Jennifer’s not sure she could make it. She returns to the house on the lake she knows so well, surprised and yet not surprised … Continue reading →

Summer Reading

Here we are, just a few short hours away from the official start of summer, even though we’ve have temperatures in the 90’s for quite a while where I live. School’s out, kids are home, moms are busy – and that doesn’t leave a whole lot of time for reading. Many children do their reading in conjunction with school, and this is why libraries set up summer reading programs, to give kids the incentive to keep reading when they’re not at school. You can check with your library to see what they’re offering by way of reward – we got … Continue reading →

Counting Stars – Michele Paige Holmes

Literally less than one week off the press, “Counting Stars” by Michele Paige Holmes is possibly the newest LDS fiction book on the market. I had the privilege of picking up one of the first copies at a signing this last Saturday. The book was different from other LDS romances I’ve read. Our main character is Jane Warner, a woman who will shortly be thirty and is unmarried. That’s bad enough by itself, but her family teases her, prays for her, and wonders if she’ll ever get married. Turns out, it’s pretty hard to get married when you’re not even … Continue reading →

Light on Snow – Anita Shreve

“Light on Snow” is the first Anita Shreve novel I’ve read, and I really enjoyed it. Nicky Dillon is a twelve-year-old girl whose mother and baby sister were killed in a car accident two years before. Her father was completely bereft and sold their house, packing up all their things and taking them to New England, where he hoped they would make a brand new start. Nicky doesn’t like the fact that they’ve left every aspect of their old life behind, but she knows he needs this, so she tries to go along with it. One afternoon she and her … Continue reading →