A Reliable Wife: Robert Goolrick

I picked up this book because I liked the cover, and then luckily really enjoyed the book. An older lonely man, Mr. Truitt, posts an ad looking for a "reliable wife" a woman, Catherine, answers it and sends another woman's picture, which he doesn't find out until he sends for her by train. The story is told by alternating voices with each chapter and as the story progresses we learn there is more to each character's motive than they tell us. Towards the end of the book, after the two get married and Truitt sends Catherine to find his long lost son. We find out Catherine and the son is actually lovers who had answered the ad to murder Truitt and take his fortune. However after Catherine finds her sister, who is near death, she realizes she doesn't have to care for everyone else anymore and she can allow herself some happiness. She falls in love with Truitt and stops poisoning him. The lover/son comes back home and dies after Catherine nurses Truitt back to health and there is finally a glimmer of a happy ending.

The Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors: James D. Hornfischer

My husband suggested I read this book because he had read it and it became his favorite book instantly. It was a very well documented book and told the story of the battle of Leyte Gulf in a way that you didn't want to put the book down, but at the same time you couldn't believe the men couldn't catch a break. After the Ships were destroyed the men fought to find ways to get out of the ships with lifeboats that had been shot to pieces, they then wearily swam away from the ship with various injuries from severe burns to missing limbs to keep from getting sucked under when the ships went down, they were then stranded in the ocean for 2+ days while the Japanese floated by and sharks attacked and men suffered from delirium and sunburns/poisoning. This novel really gave one respect for what the service men and women do for our freedom.

Em and the Big Hoom:Jerry Pinto

This was a heartbreakingly beautiful novel. It was sad, but the humor made it uplifiting at the same time. The book starts gradually where the mother says things that shock you, but you don't think of her being ill, which is probably how it was in real life meeting her. Eventually the author comes out and states that the mother is mentally ill, not just brash. I loved the quote from the father " you must pay your debts, even those that you can never fully repay. Anything less makes you less". The story ends with the death of the mother and the mixed emotions one has, guilt for feeling relieved and guilt because you always wanted to be a hero and one day make up for things you did as a child. I liked how mom was never really cast in a bad light, and how stoic the father was able to stay until he lost her. She was such a presence in their life that her passing would have left a huge hole and the book is able to capture that. Excellently written.

Last Man Standing: David Baldacci

Web, an FBI agent is part of a group assigned to take out a drug operation. Upon entering the ally a little boy is sitting there and says "Damn to hell" which causes Web to freeze as his men are all shot to death by automatic machines. Digging deep into the criminal underworld, Web finds out his psychologist was in on the raid and had his office bugged. He implanted the phrase so Web would freeze, though he was supposed to die too. The little boy at the entrance is kidnapped so the Drug lord the group was trying to frame could be manipulated. Everything ends at a horse farm that Web ends up on protecting a family from the past because a white supremist who was responsible for killing the couple's son was freed and people involved with the trial were getting killed. Turns out the wife was responsible for the deaths of the lawyer and judge, but was unaware of the little boy being kept at her house. By the end all the bad guys/ girls are dead and the little boy make it back to his drug dealing father, who we assume is getting cleaned up.

Playing for Pizza: John Grisham

This book was very different from Grisham's other books. A football player makes a mistake in a game and wakes up in the hospital after his injury. It seems like the entire country hates him and his agent finds him a job in Italy, playing semi-professionally. He chases after women for a while, but then comes to love the game, his teammates, and eventually falls in love with another young American in Italy. The story was heartwarming as Rick, the football player, comes to understand himself and what is important in life.

The Dogs of War: Fredrick Forsyth

A mining company finds platinum in a small, poorly run country in Africa and decides to stage a coup and set up a puppet dictatorship so they can mine the mountain for free. They contact the mercenary Cat Shannon to stage the coup. Most of the book is about gathering the supplies and men for the takeover. At the end the invasion was successful, but three of Shannon's men die. Once the Mining industry brings the new dictator in, Shannon shoots him. Shannon then escorts the mining man to the countries border and bids him farewell explaining that he would not see another bad dictator come to power and found his own man who was educated and who was once an islander. Interesting book, but geared towards boys will all the military planning.

Serpent: Clive Cussler

This was an interesting NUMA story, the first in the series I have read, but it seemed to move so slowly. There were interesting parts followed by scenes that seemed never-ending. The book starts with a ship wreck when two ships collide 50 years before the rest of the story takes place. By the middle of the book the reader forgets about the ships. A terrorism organization "The Brotherhood" which existed from the time of Columbus, tries to cover up scientific evidence that the Mayans had contact with Europeans before Columbus. An Archeologist narrowly escapes a massacre and helps NUMA uncover the plot. The brotherhood was trying to find the riches which would allow them to finance a civil war in the US so Mexico could regain land they lost to the United States.