Not sure I would like reading a Christmas book in July but turns out I did enjoy this one. It was light on the Christmas stuff, except for Santa; Santa plays a pivotal role here, especially letters written to him…even if they are not mailed! While it had the plot right out of a Hallmark movie channel production, it was well done and I liked the development of the characters.

I did this book as an audio book, and I felt like someone was telling me a story nor reading an audio book to me. This is based on a true story and is sad, and wonderful, and hopeful, and amazing. It’s about a small group of people who live isolated, though harsh and beautiful, lives until someone comes and wants to help them. The display of humanity here will evoke feelings here and make you think about how society creates rules and how people are affected.

This was an OK romance book; not too sappy and portrayed the female central character as strong and independent. But there were just too many characters and unnecessary short sub-plots. For example, one of the side characters is losing and then does loose his mother to brain cancer. How can you make this a sub plot? And because the side characters were not well developed it took me a while to remember who everyone was.

Slower than other EH books.

This is the second book I have read this summer by this author and I really enjoyed this one. It is an old time western, with the traditional “tenderfoot” family moving out west, but having no idea what they were up against which, in this case, is lack of law. Enter Con Vallian, a man who seems to live on the range with just his horse and who decides to stay around to help this family. What I liked most was how well developed the characters were, particularly Con. This author has opened up a whole new genre for me.

This was an interesting book about 4 physicians who share a medical practice. Their practice also serves a nearby boarding school. The author does a good job of carefully overlapping the action between the school and the doctor’s personal lives. It’s a good and different read.

This story follows the life of a man from young adulthood to death. It examines his work, which is for much of his life, a logger. We get to watch how he changes and views the world as he falls in love and has a family, only to lose those he loves, and with them a large part of himself. It’s about continuing on and staying put at the same time. A very enjoyable read.

In what I think of as a "Cozy Mystery", an elderly couple is murdered by their nephew for, predictably, money. There is also a major town celebration, which really has very little to do with the plot. Not going to be a great real for real mystery fans.

This was an interesting look at Russian life set in the early 1900’s. Though one sister is unhappily married, another will marry a man she does not love just to be married, one sister is in college and worried about the future, and a brother who is gambling away their home, they all share the belief that life would be better in the city than in the country and there is a circulating feeling that life may be, should be better in the future. A good read.

Yes, this was written by that Steve Martin and I did this as an audio book which was read by the author. Martin’s writing is crisp and to the point and has no difficulty evoking the emotion he wants you to feel. The story starts off a bit like Pretty Woman but then grows and matures and goes in a completely different direction. I did enjoy the book but was sad it was not a happier ending.