Quentins

5/5
My last beach read. I love Maeve Binchy's books. I don't know what it is about her writing, but the story always draws me in by the first page. I loved to see the characters from her other books (Scarlet Feather, Evening Class, and Tara Road) in this book and to see what was now going on with their lives. I love how she makes Dublin seem like a small town instead of a city. Usual love stories, affairs and dramas in Dubliners life. Another great book.

The Nanny Diaires

4/5

Another fun beach read. This book has been sitting on my shelves for a while so I picked it out to take on vacation.

I read this book quickly too. My first thought was, are there really people like this who treat their children like this? I got so mad at Mrs. X and could not understand until later in the book about why Nanny didn't just quit. The 4 year old Grayer was well written and sounded like a typical 4 year old to me, the age my daughter is just about to turn in a few weeks. I wish Nanny would have done what her first impulse was at the end but it all turned out well.

The vignettes into Nanny's non nannying life didn't seem to quite fit somehow but I guess it was to see her life outside her job. I liked her grandmother but her grandmother reminded be of Mrs. X but nicer.

Forever in Blue

I just love the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants books. I got this book a little while ago from paperbackswap and decided to save it until I went on vacation at the end of June.

As usual, I devoured the Sisterhood book and was done in two days. Not my favorite of the series, but still great. Predictable, as usual, in parts but I still loved it. I love the stories of Carmen, Bridget, Tibby, Lena and their friendship. The ending was a little far fetched but fun. I will miss reading these books.

A Secret History of Time to Come

2/5

A science fiction book that tells of a post-apocalyptic world where almost everything is forgotten. People live in small groups and have forgotten all technology. The remains of American cities are called forefather remains and nobody knows much about them. The book alternates in the beginning from a first person account of when the United States started to break down to a man, Kinkead, in the future. Somehow, the man in the 1980s United States, sees visions of Kinkead and vice versa.

I found myself skipping through parts of this book and didn't understand some of it. I still don't get how Kinkead and the other man were connected and did not like the ending.

The Mysterious Shrinking House

4/5

I have a ton of these Scholastic books, thin (150 pages or less) written in the 1960s and 70s mainly.

The topic of dolls' houses drew me to this book. Mindy finds a dollhouse at an estate sale and soon finds herself shrunk to fit into the dollhouse along with her neighbor. I love stories like this and this is a fun, cute story.

Moon Shot

4/5

I got this book after not being able to get enough info about the space race in the 1960s. Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton are both fascinating people so I was happy to find this book written by them.

This book, obviously, talks more about Alan and Deke's individual contributions to the space program. I had just known the name Alan Shepard as the first man in space but I learned more about him as a person in Chakin's book and now this one. And more about Deke Slayton, one of the original Mercury 7, grounded before he could fly but eventually got to fly a mission, Apollo-Soyuz, coicidentally he was in outer space the day I was born.

This book also talks more about the Soviet space program and space race than Chakin's book, which focused on Apollo.

Again, fascinating stuff.

Man on the Moon

5/5

I spent half of May and the first few days of June reading this fascinating book. I think I could go on and on about it. Or maybe just the Apollo program. My husband is an aerospace engineer and has always been interested in the space program. We saw the author of this book speak in 2000 and had the book autographed by him. I am also interested in the space program but just put this book on my shelf and didn't get to read it until now.

Chaikin's writing and details make the book very readable and interesting. I am now fascinated by the Apollo moon landings. The book details each landing, the training that went into them and the astronauts stories. I hadn't heard of most of these men before this book but now I have a favorite astronaut (Pete Conrad) and favorite Apollo mission (Apollo 15) . Looking back, it's hard to believe that the U.S. has been the mooon. The last moon landing was over 30 years ago and most of the men who landed on the moon are in their 70s.

This book has made me more interested in the space program, specifically Apollo but also Mercury and Gemini before that. I have got some more book on the space program along with watching documentaries on the program.

Betsy and Joe

The 8th book in the Betsy-Tacy series; Betsy is finally a senior in high school. Betsy finally gets together with Joe, who she has been trying to be friend with since the beginning of high school. However, her friend Tony now also likes Betsy and Betsy doesn't want to hurt anyone's feelings.

I am really loving the Betsy-Tacy books. I don't know what it is about them, the time period, Betsy or what but I wish I had discovered these books sooner. I am taking a break from them for a while though since I don't have the next in the series yet.

Betsy Was a Junior

4/5
The seventh book in the Betsy-Tacy series; this time Betsy is a junior in high school. More fun antics with her friends. Tib returns to Deep Valley and Betsy and her sorority she forms with her friends is the major theme of this book.

Betsy in Spite of Herself

This is the 6th book in the Betsy-Tacy series. Betsy is now a sophomore in high school. She is tired of being plain old Betsy and tries to reinvent herself after a visit to her old friend Tib who now lives in Milwaukee.

More great fun with Betsy and her friends. The book makes it seem like a lot of fun to be a high school girl in the early 1900s. Betsy is a very interesting character too.