The Last Secret by Mary McGarry Morris

This is a favorite author of mine, so I was really excited to read another of her books. "Songs in Ordinary Time," "A Dangerous Woman," "The Lost Woman," and "Vanished" - I read them all. She's a great writer, a favorite of mine.

It took me way too long to read this book. Not sure why - just too busy I guess. I think it would have been much better if I had read it in a week, instead of three weeks. It was a good and compelling story but the drama was lost because I took too long to read it. I did read the conclusion in one setting and it was unsettling.

The book deals with secrets and deception and the consequences therein. The ending was very unsettling. At times I did not know if I liked or hated the main character, Nora. Did she do the right thing? Should she have "fessed up" earlier?

Home Safe by Elizabeth Berg

OK book. Not great. I thought it started out strong, got weak in the middle and ended strong.

I was expecting something else from this book. It is really a book about writers and writer's block and that is interesting, but the main character did not really grab my attention or even respect. At one point, I thought it was going to turn into a book about Alzheimer's.

Anyway, I read some of Elizabeth Berg's early novels and then got uninterested. Thought I'd give her a try again.....

Tall Grass by Sandra Dallas

I was really looking forward to this book and I can't say that I didn't like it, but it was a bit predictable.

Tells the story of a Japanese Internment Camp in Colorado during WWII. Interesting to learn about how the Japanese were transported to these camps and how they were regarded there. Still, I felt that a lot of the story was a bit cliche and predictable.

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

This was an interesting book that switched back and forth between the early 1990's and the 1690's during the Salem Witch Trials. The author is actually a descendent of Elizabeth Proctor and Elizabeth Howe, both accused of witchcraft. One survived and one didn't!

The main character, Connie, is asked to put her grandmother's old house in order to sell it. She is a doctoral student at Harvard. She gets drawn into the mystery surrounding the house, and her family, when she finds a key in a bible and a yellow piece of paper with the name Deliverance Dane on it. She needs to find out the meaning.

Along the way she meets an interesting steeplejack, also a scholar who enjoys restoration work, and together they try to unlock the secrets of the house and the key.

The passages that take place during the Salem Witch Trials are interesting and historically correct. The author is a scholar herself and did much research to write the book.

It's quite interesting and captivating and was a fast read. I recommend!

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

A quiet and poignant coming of age novel set in the 1950's.

This is the story of a young Irish girl and her journey to America (Brooklyn). She does not go by choice, but once there, finds herself with new choices and new experiences and after a heart breaking homesickness, enjoys her life and looks forward to the opportunities it presents.

An unfortunate experience calls her home and she then settles back into that life in Ireland, and she could easily stay back there again, except for a tie that has "wed" her to America. I won't give anything away but will say that I really loved this story and the writing.

The Servants' Quarters by Lynn Freed

Touching and delicate story....very different kind of story that has the Holocaust as a focus. That theme is there, but not front and center like so many other books dealing with the aftermath and after effects of the war. It's behind the scenes, under the surface, but very much there all the same.

The fact that the protagonist is Jewish is rarely mentioned and there is no religion being practiced in the house at all. Only once, in reference to her friend, Ruth, do holidays and traditions get mentioned at all.

But Cressida's nightmares and the scars on the face and body of Mr. Harding are the vestiges of the war and the death and destruction even if the war is not described at all. Even those who did not fight or experience the war are affected.

The story takes place in South Africa, but the setting plays little role in the story. Only the servant Phineas reminds the reader that the setting is in Africa.

I highly recommend this book. It is quite short, but the author packs a lot into those 220 pages.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

This book was captivating! A bit long, in the end, I felt, but I read it really fast. It was a compelling and intriguing story with intelligence and real storytelling. There were lots of characters to keep track of, but the author provided diagrams to make it easy.

The characters were great, especially Lisbeth Salander. I wanted to get to know her better. Apparently, she was based on the story Pippi Longstocking, but she is quite modernized, as a punkster who is also an amazing hacker and investigator.

Unfortunately, the author died in 2004 right before delivering the manuscripts for his novels. So there will be no more after the next novel, that was just released.

A great summer read!