Being a Green Mother by Piers Anthony

Rating: 4.0

What it's about:
Orb had a rare gift--the magic which manifested whenever she sang or played her harp. No one could resist her music. But she knew that greater magic lay in the Llano, the mystic music that controlled all things. The quest for the Llano occupied Orb's life. Until she met Natasha, handsome and charming, and an even finer musician. But her mother Niobe came as an Aspect of Fire, with the news that Orb had been chosen for the role of Incarnation of Nature--The Green Mother. But she also warned of a prophecy that Orb was to marry Evil. Could she be sure that Natasha was not really Satan, the Master of Illusion, laying a trap for her...?
-taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
Incarnations of Immortality book number 5 was a good read. Being a Green Mother has Orb, the Incarnation of Nature, set against Satan. The twist is that Orb doesn't know if the man she's come to love, Natasha, is actually Satan or not. This book is filled with magical music, magic fish, magical stones....it's a pretty magical book! I found it more enjoyable than much of the series. It was an entertaining read. Now....on to book number 6.

Vegan Virgin Valentine by Carolyn Mackler

Rating: 4.5

What it's about:

Mara Valentine is in control. She's a straight-A senior, a vegan, and her parents' pride and joy. She's neck-and-neck with her womanizing ex-boyfriend for number-one class ranking and plans to kick his salutatorian butt on her way out the door to Yale. Mara has her remaining months in Brockport all planned out.

The plan does not involve having V, her slutty, pot-smoking, sixteen-year-old niece -- yes, niece -- come to live with her family. Nor does it involve lusting after her boss at the local café or dreaming about grilled cheese sandwiches every night. Before Mara knows it, things are spinning wildly out of control....

Vegan Virgin Valentine is the gripping story of an overachiever who learns to get over it and get a life. -taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:

Myself being a vegan....I ran across this book, Vegan Virgin Valentine, every time I did a vegan book search. So one day I said what the heck and bought the book. I am not disappointed! It's about Mara Valentine who is an overachieving straight A high school senior who is a vegan. She dreams about cheese every night. She has already been accepted to Yale and is taking college courses on top of her high school work. Her main goal is to be valedictorian at her graduation. Then things start to fall apart. Enter V Valentine, Mara's 16 year old niece. V moves in with the Valentines while her own mother is out wandering the globe looking for.....something. V is the polar opposite of Mara. She's a slut, a stoner and she gets bad grades. And to top it all off...she doesn't do any extracurricular activities. So it pretty much goes without saying that Mara and V are at each others throats from the get go. Partway through the book they start to rub off on each other. Mara falls in love with her 22 year old boss who owns the coffee shop she works at, drops some of her college courses she was planning on taking in the summer and she realizes that there is more to life than being valedictorian. V gets the starring role in the school musical, quits smoking cigarettes and gives some serious thought to college. Vegan Virgin Valentine is about being comfortable in your own skin and doing what feels right for you and only you. Mara learns to let go and loosen up, realizing on the way that being successful is relative. This is teen lit and it did get a little sappy in parts, a little too sweet but I really enjoyed reading this novel from Carolyn Mackler. Now I'll have to go pick up the sequel.

Flappers, Bootleggers, Typhoid Mary & the Bomb by Barrington Boardman

Rating: 3.5

What it's about:
Introduction by Isaac Asimov. Banner headlines, little-known facts, plus the lives of the people who made history from 1923-1945. -taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
Flappers, Bootleggers, "Typhoid Mary" & the Bomb is 'an anecdotal history of the United States from 1923-1945'. It has headlines from those years as well as little know facts. The book has some good information. It's put together nicely with headings such as National News, Entertainment, Sports, Medicine and more. For those interested in history, this is a fun book that will hopefully leave you a little more knowledgeable than you were before.

Duma Key by Stephen King

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:
NO MORE THAN A DARK PENCIL LINE ON A BLANK PAGE. A HORIZON LINE, MAYBE.

BUT ALSO A SLOT FOR BLACKNESS TO POUR THROUGH...

A terrible accident takes Edgar Freemantle's right arm and scrambles his memory and his mind, leaving him with little but rage as he begins the ordeal of rehabilitation. When his marriage suddenly ends, Edgar begins to wish he hadn't survived his injuries. He wants out. His psychologist suggests a new life distant from the Twin Cities, along with something else:

"Edgar, does anything make you happy?"

"I used to sketch."

"Take it up again. You need hedges...hedges against the night."

Edgar leaves for Duma Key, an eerily undeveloped splinter of the Florida coast. The sun setting into the Gulf of Mexico calls out to him, and Edgar draws. Once he meets Elizabeth Eastlake, a sick old woman with roots tangled deep in Duma Key, Edgar begins to paint, sometimes feverishly; many of his paintings have a power that cannot be controlled. When Elizabeth's past unfolds and the ghosts of her childhood begin to appear, the damage of which they are capable is truly devastating.

The tenacity of love, the perils of creativity, the mysteries of memory and the nature of the supernatural -- Stephen King gives us a novel as fascinating as it is gripping and terrifying.
-taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
Edgar Freemantle loses an arm and almost his life in an accident at his construction site. He's left with a 'phantom' limb and an ability to paint. Edgar's wife leaves him and his two daughters are grown so he decides that the change of scenery his doctor recommends sounds pretty good. He's got nothing left to lose....except maybe his sanity. He moves down to the Florida Keys...namely Duma Key. He rents a big pink house literally right on the Gulf Coast and meets a couple of very interesting characters who live down the beach. This is where Edgar discovers his new found artistic talent. This is where he starts effecting reality with his paints. This is where he learns about the Eastlake family from down the beach and how a little girl named Elizabeth once made birds fly upside down and lawn jockeys come to life with her own paintings. Duma Key is magical and horrifying all at once.

Duma Key seems somehow more mature and mellow than his other novels. Maybe it's the change of scenery but this book just seems different. The horror in the novel is more subtle I think and more emphasis is placed on the mystery surrounding the storyline. The storyline by the way is very intriguing....I will file this book under page-turner for sure! I won't go into details about the characters but I will say that the relationship between Edgar and the neighbor man down the beach, Wireman, is beautiful and affecting. Wireman is going down as one of my favorite characters in a King novel. Longtime fans of King as well as people just looking for an eerie and wonderful story should be impressed with Duma Key.

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak

Rating: 1.0

What it's about:

This famous novel of the Russian revolution and Civil War became a cause celebre when its publication was cancelled by Soviet authorities and Pasternak had the manuscript smuggled out of the country for publication. Doctor Zhivago was cited by the Swedish Academy when it awarded Pasternak the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958 (an award that Pasternak refused, under pressure from the Soviet government).

The controversy surrounding the novel's publication and the notoriety of the David Lean's popular film adaptation of the novel have obscured the quality of the work itself. Simply stated, Doctor Zhivago is one of the most powerful books published in the 20th century and will be read long after the memory of its publication history has faded; it not only brings the Russian Revolution and the early Soviet era to life, it tells the stories of some of the most memorable characters to be found in all of literature. -taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:

This is one of the most boring books I've ever read. It's a sort of love story set during the Russian revolution. The story was dull, the characters bland and the writing wooden. I really struggled just to finish this book. I really can't think of anything good to say about it.....except maybe that my version has some well done illustrations. Doctor Zhivago is one novel that I won't be re-reading.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Rating: 4.0

What it's about:

Taking us from Afghanistan in the final days of the monarchy to the present, The Kite Runner is the unforgettable and beautifully told story of the friendship between two boys growing up in Kabul. Raised in the same household and sharing the same wet nurse, Amir and Hassan grow up in different worlds: Amir is the son of a prominent and wealthy man, while Hassan, the son of Amir's father's servant, is a Hazara -- a shunned ethnic minority. Their intertwined lives, and their fates, reflect the eventual tragedy of the world around them. When Amir and his father flee the country for a new life in California, Amir thinks that he has escaped his past. And yet he cannot leave the memory of Hassan behind him.

The Kite Runner is a novel about friendship and betrayal, and about the price of loyalty. It is about the bonds between fathers and sons, and the power of fathers over sons -- their love, their sacrifices, and their lies. Written against a backdrop of history that has not been told in fiction before, The Kite Runner describes the rich culture and beauty of a land in the process of being destroyed. But through the devastation, Khaled Hosseini offers hope: through the novel's faith in the power of reading and storytelling, and in the possibilities he shows us for redemption.

My thoughts:
The Kite Runner takes place in both Afghanistan and California. It's told from the perspective of Amir, first as a little boy and later on as a man. Amir grows up a privileged boy in Afghanistan. His best friend is Hassan, the son of the family servant. Amir is Pashtun, Hassan is Hazara. Amir is Sunni, Hassan is Shi'a. Their differences don't change the fact that these boys were breastfed together, learned to crawl together and are basically inseparable. Then everything changes. Amir witnesses a horror done to Hassan and cannot forgive himself for not stepping in to help him and to do what is right. In 1975 Afghanistan is in turmoil and Amir, then 12 years old, and his father move to San Francisco. Amir grows up feeling guilt and self-hatred over the issue with Hassan and the subsequent results. Then one day, twenty five years after Amir has left Afghanistan, he receives a phone call summoning him back to the place he had hoped to forget. The caller tells Amir "there is a way to be good again."

The Kite Runner has for it's hero a very flawed human being.....but that's what makes him so believable. Amir the boy does a very cowardly, dastardly deed but Amir the man stands up to the Taliban and even more importantly, he stands up for what is right. This book has forgiveness, redemption and courage for it's main themes. We see how strong the ties of friendship and loyalty can become through the eyes of Amir and a broken little Afghan boy. The setting in Kabul and the culture of the Afghan people make for an interesting backdrop to an unforgettable novel.

Being Vegan by Joanne Stepaniak, M.S.Ed.

Rating: 4.0

What it's about:
In this definitive guide to veganism, an often misunderstood lifestyle choice, renowned activist and award-winning on-line columnist Joanne Stepaniak fields questions from both friends and foes, describing how compassion, kindness, and respect for all animals-including human beings-can be thoughtfully and practically incorporated into day-to-day living. Tackling a wide range of difficult, useful, and engaging topics-from maintaining vegan convictions under social pressure to finding the hidden animal by-products in ingredients a lists Joanne provides insight, reassurance, and answers for the many difficult questions that vegans face in a non-vegan world.
-taken from Barnes&Noble.com

My thoughts:
Being Vegan answers a lot of questions about the vegan lifestyle. The book is put together in a question and answer format. Joanne Stepaniak is an award-winning columnist and there are many different questions brought up in this book that she answers with feeling and conviction. The book examines what it means to be vegan: morals and philosophy, what to do with your old non-vegan products (leather, wool, etc.), relationships with non-vegans, what to do about insect infestations, societal pressures for vegans in a non-vegan world and many other issues. This is a good read for vegans or anyone else who is interested in a compassionate way of living. "Vegan tenets are relatively simple: Do the least harm and the most good."