The Princess Diarist:Carrie Fisher

I really enjoyed this book. It was mostly about the romance? between Carrie and Harrison and her life while filming Star Wars. I loved her poetry it was both dark and hauntingly personal. The ending was nicely done, it ended the book in an uplifting way talking about doing autograph signings and the crazy things people say. This was a nice tribute to her life in Star Wars, though sadly she wouldn't have known it at the time.

The Dressmaker's War: Mary Chamberlain

This was a very good book that pointed out the gender gap during WWII. A young woman hoping to move up from her family's working class, got a job as a dressmaker right before WWII. Shortly afterward she meets a suspicious man, Stan, who seemed to be courting her. He invites her to Paris, where she has always wanted to go because they are so advanced in their fashion. She believes he is taking her there to propose. She makes her family believe she was going for work. What actually happen is War breaks out and they are stuck in France. She is forced to find a job and support them both. France is invaded and since the man didn't have a passport, she was able to get them out into Belgium, where he leaves her. In desperation she seeks asylum in a convent. When the convent is invaded the nuns were sent to Germany to take care of their elderly. A few months into the assignment she realizes she is pregnant and gives birth to a stillborn baby, but she believes the baby is alive and taken to an orphanage. She is sexually abused by one of the old men, who gets her reassigned to a home in dacha right by the camp. She is locked in a room and given sewing assignments, one for Eva Braun. Years later the Americans free her and she makes it back to England believing she will save up some money and come back for her son. Her mother calls her a whore and wants nothing to do with her. She gets a job as a waitress and then becomes a prostitute because she can make more money. Her naivety keeps her from realizing her boyfriend is actually her primp and she is forced to have sex with one of his friends, who ends up being Stan. She kills him and stands trial where it is exposed she suffered a mental break after the birth of her son and her different view of reality causes the jury to think she is crazy, at the end of the book she is walking to be hanged in prison.

The Apocalypse Directive: Douglas MacKinnon

This book was good and really pulled the reader in, but it seemed to end abruptly. There is a conspiracy in the White House. The President and a group of followers of a Christian extremist group work to hasten the end of the world. They have built a bunker at the bottom of the ocean to wait out the nuclear fallout they have plotted to start. The Vice President and a few officials in the CIA have uncovered the plot which was narrowly avoided. The President commits suicide by exploding the bunker killing all those closest to him who were also in it.

Floatsametrics and the Floating World:Curtis Ebbesmeyer

This was super interesting. I learned the military had bases on ice bergs during the cold war, I learned about water slabs, Guinness sent bottles to sea as advertisement with instructions inside on how to make a lamp out of the bottle. It also talked about ocean gyres and how the one on the pacific coast has about a three year rotation, I also learned about pool cues and the Nike as well as the rubber ducky spill. It seemed like I learned something on every page and I really enjoyed the variety of topics I was educated on-I highly recommend this book!

Finding Me: Michelle Knight

WOW, this book is heartbreaking the whole time. The woman had a horrible childhood of rape by a family member, she runs away from home and lives under a bridge, then works for a drug dealer before he is busted and she is back on her own when her father finds her and brings her back home. As soon as she grows up and is free she loses her son because of someone else in her house hurting him. Then when she tries to get him back, is kidnapped by a sick deranged man who further beats and rapes her for 12 years. She has 5 miscarriages in the house induced by the man hitting her in the stomach with barbells and pushing her down the stairs. She describes the abuse the girls went through in the house and how the man loved to torment her that no one was looking for her and he hated her and punched her constantly. When she is freed she realizes her son is nearly grown and through pictures he looks happy. It is bittersweet for her as she misses him terribly, but also knows he is happy with his new life and new family so she doesn't want to disrupt him. She also doesn't want him to think she abandoned him. She is optimistic about the future and though she can no longer have kids, wants to do something to help children

The Crane Wife: Patrick Ness

This was an interesting mythical type writing. A man, who is a likeable but boring fella, is everyone's friend, but no ones love. His daughter doesn't even call him dad, but distances herself from him by calling him "George". One day George hears keening in his yard and finds a Japanese Crane...in England. The crane is hurt, an arrow has been shot through her wing(which is part of the myth) George removes and arrow and the bird takes off. The next day in his shop, a woman, Kukumo comes in and George falls in love with her and finds meaning in his life through her. She takes his paper cuttings and makes tiles for him, which makes him rich and famous. He goes to her home uninvited and sees she is a crane and makes the master pieces using feathers, which she plucks from herself. That nice the house mysteriously burns down and even though George knows the crane caught him when he jumped out of the house, the woman's body is found in the remains of the fire. The story that is interwoven with the novel is the story of the creation of the earth, the crane, which was the daughter of the sky, falls in love with the volcano, which creates and destroys the world at it's whim. The two both love and hate each other equally. As the crane flies off to leave the volcano, he shoots her- which becomes the beginning of the novel where the crane enters George's life with an arrow in her wing. The story then ends as the volcano and crane meet up again showing that stories start way before we see them begin and never end.

Freedom: Jaycee Dugard

This was an odd book, it was in the format of random rambling thoughts about life after horrible events, but it really lifted my spirits and was absolutely a feel good type of book. The author is so excited in her writing about her life after rescue and it comes across really cheerful and uplifting.