4th of July: James Patterson

Super suspenseful and impossible to predict, he never fails to deliver. Excellent mystery.

Even Silence Has an End: Ingrid Betancourt

Even though I know stuff like this still happens today, the entire story surprised me. What a horrible waste of six years. The suffering she had to endure was also terrible, not only was she a hostage and treated brutally, but living in the wilderness with crocodiles, ants, bees, and piranhas among other things. This book was something everyone should read though difficult to put into words.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society:Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

A light hearted read written through correspondence by an author and her followers about what happened during World War Two. Through the letters the people become friends and learn who were the true heroes of the war, cute ending.

Andersonville: MacKinlay Kantor

This book was daunting and hard to get into. I would read ten pages and it didn't seem to make a dent in how much was left to read. It was an interesting read, especially if you are into history and the civil war era, but not exciting. I stopped and read several other books while getting through this one. It did force me to look up other things that happened during this time, like the sinking of Sultana, so it was a good educational read.

Elizabeth Street: Laurie Fabiano

Fantastic book, definitely not one you should judge from the cover. Reading this you can tell it was written as a labor of love for her ancestors that endured so much, so bravely. This story was one about the ties of family and how closely they functioned and took care of each other, which has changed in today's world. The story was terribly sad, but the perseverance of the family left you feeling hopeful. I would read this again and have recommended it to several people. So much happened between the covers that it would be difficult to summarize, one you need to read for yourself.

All the Kings Men: Robert Penn Warren

This book seemed to start very slowly with a lot of focus on Cass Mastern's story. I thought it interesting that the book started in the present where Jack tells the readers everyone who dies and Then starts from the beginning and plays catch up. I was thinking the line "Man was conceived in sin and born in corruption was a bit redundant and kept thinking "oh come on already" but once you are finished with the book you look back on it and see how well it was crafted and how every occurrence built to the end. Warren used that line to describe all of the characters. There is a lot one can read into this story, like Jack's last name being "Burden" and him being responsible for the death of two men whom he respected. A very good heart breaking book even though you sort of know how it ends.

Same Kind of different As Me: Ron Hall and Denver Moore

Very interesting book, it was hard to believe that the book was true let alone that it happened in our life time. An incredible story about how two broken people come together to make each other whole. I enjoyed how the authors compared their take on everyday things that most of us don't even think about, like Denver's thoughts on catch and release.