Sunday, January 16, 2011

The Stormchasers

The Stormchasers  By Jenna Blum  Karena is a writer in Minnesota. She is a bright smart 30 ish independent woman recently divorced. Karena has not seen or heard from her twin brother Charles in 20 years. They were very close as children in spite of the fact that Charles exhibited bipolar disease at a young age and Karena continually took care of him and deeply loved him despite his erratic and sometimes violent behavior. Karena is set on finding Charles and helping him manage his mental issues. Charles's obsession is stormchasing and chasing tornado's in this part of the country is an interesting hobby if not lifestyle. This story is unique regarding the  twin relationship and that of stormchasing (think movie Twister). The writing starts out very strong but unfortunately falters with a cliched romance and a rush to the end finale. It was an okay and easy read but nothing like the authors first novel Those Who Save Us.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Some Girls

Some Girls  By Jillian Lauren  This is the memoir of a young girl who drops out of college and falls into the underworld of NYC. After leaving NYU theater school, Jillian waitresses, strips, works for an escort service and ultimately receives an opportunity to be a party girl in Brunei for a prince, in a palace. The brother of the Sultan of Brunei has an extraordinary amount of money and although he has three wives (news reports there may be many more) he has about 40 girlfriends whom attend a party that never ends and get paid well to make it seem like a lot of fun. The sex is less than you would expect because there are so many girls but their freedom is nil and the lifestyle is unimaginable. Jillian is a smart pretty girl who is trying to find out who she is and what she wants out of life. The story is interesting, shocking at times and her writing is good. It's hard to feel sorry for her (not that she wants you to) because she is incredibly aware of her decisions as she makes them. Her story draws a fine line between love, money, freedom and relationships. It becomes hard to tell one from the other. Interesting read.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Extraordinary Ordinary People By Condoleezza Rice

Extraordinary Ordinary People  By Condoleezza Rice    Easily should be called, extraordinary woman who was raised by incredible loving intelligent parents. This memoir is a moving and interesting story of Condoleeza's life from early years in Birmingham Alabama to the classes at University of Denver and later tenure at Stanford. Condoleeza grew up to the "you need to be twice as good" anthem and later followed in her fathers footsteps of educational advocacy. She is a smart, kind, well spoken, well written and genuinely caring person that has used her gifts to help others throughout her life. Condoleeza has worked with and for some of the most interesting leaders of our time. In this book she takes the reader on a pleasurable and easy to follow journey that one would not want to miss. We are not talking republican or democrat here, we are talking about an extraordinary role model and person.