From Jim...

Author - Joseph Finder

Read Buried Secrets and GOOD, not the run of the mill mystery. Real characters not some unbelievable cast of characters. Also wrote Killer Instinct, Power Play and Vanished.  He is good enough that I bought all his books I could find. Not as good as Ken Folliett, but does a great job of developing his characters.

From Les...

Finished and enjoyed...

• This Life Is in Your Hands: One Dream, Sixty Acres, and a Family Undone by Melissa Coleman
• Remarkable Creatures: A Novel by Tracy Chevalier

Reading now... 

• The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood 
• Lincoln: A Novel (The American Chronicle Series) by Gore Vidal (Greg reading this one and raving about it)

From Pat...

• The Paris Wife by Paula McLain  - I just finished and enjoyed it thoroughly. Although it is fiction, the author has used well documented sources to write a true history of Hemingway's marriage to his first (of many) wife, Hadley Richardson.

From Kathy...

• Impossible - either Les or Mom gave me this one.  I can pass this on to whomever would like it
• My Other Life - a book club selection that I could not put down. - This was a download on my i-pod, so unfortunately, I can not pass it on.  It is totally worth the read

From Les...

• Winter's Bone (film) - Sean and I watch this and although not a light movie, definitely well done. 
• The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey - Walter Mosley - from Mary's book club list. 

Film from Mary...

• Snow Falling On Cedars - Watched last night; it was almost as good as the book.  I really liked it; lends insight to prejudice.  Powerful!!

From Mary...

Films to check out...

• Solas
• I am David
• Everlasting Moments
• Ondine - a bit of a fantasy.
• The Good Heart with Brian Cox and Paul Dano. Interesting movie, a bit off the wall, but a great character study. I particularly liked the fact that these were real people, not the Hollywood lovelies. 
   

Foreign film from Mary...

Just watched “Everlasting Moments” a two plus hours Swedish movie that I may have recommended before, but if it’s not on your list, you may want to include it.  I had seen the second half on TV a while ago and wanted to watch the entire story and wow, wasn’t disappointed.

 

Leslie, you especially would love it, if only for the photography scenes captured both through camera and throughout the movie.  Not an easy story, since it did involve a degree of spousal abuse, but it was an intrinsic component of the plot.

 

One of the movies I highly recommend.  I could watch it again.

Great series for kids...

Been reading Magyk by Angie Sage to Megan (not for the faint of heart as it is 564 pages in length).  Very enjoyable to read aloud and nice character development to expose kids to.  Vocabulary in some instances is beyond Meg, but author does a nice job giving "sentence clues" for definition discernment.  I read most of the books in this series a while back when Liz turned me on to them, but am thoroughly delighted revisiting their plots and humor with an 8 year old.  Recommended for kids in grades 4 through 8.

Septimus Heap, Book One:  Magyk
Septimus Heap, Book Two: Flyte
Septimus Heap, Book Three: Physik 
Septimus Heap, Book Four: Queste
Septimus Heap, Book Five: Syren
Septimus Heap, Book Six: Darke

New titles - all quick reads

• Firefly Lane - Kristin Hannah
• Winter Garden - Kristin Hannah
• True Colors - Kristin Hannah
• In the Company of Others - Jan Karon
• A Rather Lovely Inheritance - C.A. Belmond
• A Walk in the Woods - Bill Bryson

All quick reads - good beach books - click on title to see Amazon ratings and summaries.

New Titles

From Jim...

• The Confession by John Grisham 
  
  
  Aside from being well written, full of suspense, and a nail biter - this book addresses several issues -  racial, the death penalty, politics in the justice system, and one of the most interesting, the choice of doing something illegal in the interest of the greater good. 

Mom's New Book Club List...

• Room - Emma Donoghue
• The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
• Threads:... Anne Boleyn - Nell Gavin
• Ayn Rand and the World She Made - Anne C. Heller
• The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey - Walter Mosley
• Jayber Crow - Wendell Berry
• Winter's Bone - Daniel Woodrell
• We Are Our Mothers' Daughters -  Cokie Roberts
• A Dangerous Friend - Ward Just
• Blood Strangers: A Memoir - Katherine Briccetti 
• Wind Sisters - E. Brown