#'s 27 & 28: From Mrs. Lyons, 8th Grade Language Arts

# 27: The Gate House by Nelson DeMille

This is a continuation of the Gold Coast story. A family on Long Island is hounded by Mob neighbors and this picks up the lives of the husband (who got dragged into being a Mob lawyer) and his wife (who got “involved” with said mobster and ended up shooting and killing him). The mobster’s son wants to re-involve the lawyer in Mob business and get revenge for the murder of his father. Nelson DeMille has a knack for creating wise-guy characters that I really enjoy (does this have something to do with the kids we teach?). Purely for entertainment value – not a brain-stretcher.


#28: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

This is the story of a Baptist missionary family that heads to the Congo in 1960 to “save” the locals. It is a tale of how Americans charge in and botch things up without a clue as to the way of life that currently exists in a foreign country. The US government was very involved in the assassination of the elected leader, Lumumba. The American choice for his replacement was Mobuto, who was a cruel thief who built palaces for himself while the African people starved. The missionary children all were deeply affected, in entirely different ways, by their early experience in the Congo. In a way, this is also an environmental tale as well as a good story and commentary on US foreign policy. Thanks to Jen Powell for recommending it during our CAR-PD class!

#21 and #22: From Mrs. Pelosi, Reading

Best selling author, Catherine Coulter, takes you back to her FBI Thriller Series in Double Take. Meet up with FBI Special Agents Sherlock and Savich as the story of Special Agent Ruth Warnecki and Sheriff Dix Noble continues with a twist. Dix, a country sheriff from Virginia, is still looking for a reason his loving wife disappeared three years ago abandoning him and their two sons. Just as things are starting to look normal, a call from California of a sighting of his missing wife, Christie, sends his world spinning. The reader is dragged into the world of mediums and psychics as Dix tries to find out why Charlotte in San Francisco is the spitting image of the missing Christie, and why people are being murdered. The series can be read in islolation, but if you are one of those readers who attaches to the characters, this series is the one for you.


2. The Lavender Field, by Jeanette Baker is a love story for the ages. Brought together by the Austrian government, lawyer Whitney Bendict has to convince Gabriel Mendoza to give up the Lipizzan stallions his father rescued during WWII by smuggling them from Austria to the United States. With his father's death, Gabriel had to give up his dreams of being a English Lit professor and came home to help on the family horse farm. With a disease ravaging the horses back in Austria, the Austrian government is pressuring him to sell them all the pure bred Lipizzans he has in his stable. Throw in some twists with an exwife who abandoned her family, a surly teenager, an out-of-control aging mother, a child with Asberger's Syndrome: a form of mild autism, and a huge field of lavender, and someone is sure to fall in love. It was a quick and easy read which brought me into the field of horse breeding and racing. A story that shows that your "dream" life may not be the end all and be all as Whitney learns what she is missing by isolating herself in the corporate world. I recommend this book for anyone with interests in love and and easy read!

#17: From Ms. Drackett, Multi-age Math

While visiting my aunt in June, I noticed that every time I left the room she pulled out her book and began reading. She said the book was so good she couldn’t put it down. So, I purchased a copy of Guilt by John Lescroart and began my summer reading adventure that has included Lescroart’s Dead Irish, The Mercy Rule and The First Law. Now well into Hard Evidence, I have come to feel like the characters are part of my family.

Set in San Francisco, these books involve police detective Abe Glitsky and attorney Dismas Hardy. In each one, I have been kept guessing until the last pages about the guilt or innocence of the accused. The characters are interesting and grow and change over time. The plots are complex and satisfying for those who love this genre. I recommend that anyone interested start with Dead Irish, the first Dismas Hardy book, and go from there, although Guilt was great. Enjoy!