Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

I got to be a part of the circus over the weekend!  Powerful characters in an explosive setting!

The Red Garden by Alice Hoffman

This book is for anyone who loves figuring out where they came from even if it means you might be from the crazy side of the family.  From page one I wanted to traipse up a mountain and lay down by the river waiting for a horse trader with long hair to wander by.  Brave and fearless is how I would describe the characters of this book and the book itself.  Hoffman as a way of describing love as all encompassing and passionate without it being lustful and crass.  

The Year of the Hare by Arto Paasilinna

The tale of a man and a hare roaming the Finland countryside was touching and refreshing and will make you want to pawn your old record player and the rest of the items collecting dust in your garage and set out on your own journey!

I'm somewhere between liked it and really liked it. The last few chapters, I believe, kept me from really liking it. It went from an absurd, but endearing and believable tale, to a little too much farfetchedness (is that a word, haha).

But will sti...moreThe tale of a man and a hare roaming the Finland countryside was touching and refreshing and will make you want to pawn your old record player and the rest of the items collecting dust in your garage and set out on your own journey!

I'm somewhere between liked it and really liked it. The last few chapters, I believe, kept me from really liking it. It went from an absurd, but endearing and believable tale, to a little too much farfetchedness (is that a word, haha).

But will still highly recommend to all my friends/family that need to figure out what it means to re-take control of their lives by simply wandering into the woods and living for yourself.

The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse

Elegant and haunting; Lyrical and sad - Cold yet Hopeful! Thoughts and feelings I went through as I read Kate Mosse's The Winter Ghosts.  Freddie lost his older and much esteemed to brother to the Great War.  It has been a decade and Freddie is still unable, almost refuses, to let go.  As you journey with Freddie to a small, gray village, you listen as he opens his bruised heart to Fabrissa over the course of one shadowy night.  Fabrissa in turn shares her family's despair of persecution and their fight for to save their village and way of life.  Mosse's use of imagery put me in the Pyrenees with Freddie and on the plateau with him and Fabrissa; I ventured through the caves and ran through the tunnel with them.  A simple story raised to higher levels which make you believe!