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Madelene D. (Madelene) - - Reviews

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All Together in One Place
All Together in One Place
Author: Jane Kirkpatrick
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 65
Review Date: 1/1/2010


This is book number one in a series of 3 books. It's a Christian book and has passages of the bible scattered about in it. It is bases upon women and their point of view as things flow along. I would say this would be a good book to give to a teen to read. It show's the struggles of women who set off on the Oregon trail to make a new life with their husbands and children. Tragedy strikes but the women struggle their way through and end up All Together in One place. I really liked it and kept all 3 books to reread myself and pass down to my daughter when the time comes. It has some action in it as the tragedies go down but it also has a lot of love and comradeship. Another thing I liked is right before you start reading the first chapter on the opposite page is a list of characters which goes along in all the other books as people change, leave, and enter this circle of women.


The Big Girls
The Big Girls
Author: Susanna Moore
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.5/5 Stars.
 33
Review Date: 1/1/2010


This was a very good book even thought it is centered on the darker side. It gives a good look into the minds of mentally ill people. A real eye Opener.


Bound (Satucket, Bk 2)
Bound (Satucket, Bk 2)
Author: Sally Gunning
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 31
Review Date: 10/15/2010
Helpful Score: 5


I really liked this book so much that since I did pay full price for it I indulged in keeping it.One of the thing's I rarely do because I believe in the power of sharing knowledge. This is about a young girl "a young WHITE girl" being enslaved to other white people. Being ripped from one household to the next because of a marriage then abuse by her dearest friend the mistress's husband. She fled and made it into a town where a woman was generous enough to take her in for nothing but for her to weave a bit even though she was obviously pregnant when her child is born she is taken to the goal. She escapes to find herself in the predicament again of being in another person's debt. She flees and goes to a mysterious country you wouldn't ever fathom showing up in this book. There is so much in between than what little I have given you is just a tiny fragment of the essence I must say again this is a wonderfully written book worth saving to "yes" read again.


A Break with Charity: A Story about the Salem Witch Trials (Great Episodes)
Review Date: 12/28/2009


A nice quick little read. With a good source of information about the time. Would be a good book for book reports or if your just a history buff and like the era. The book includes at the end a bibliography that includes other books you could check out if your into the Salem trails and a list of original papers and where those may be found.


A Date With Death
A Date With Death
Author: Michele R. McPhee
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.2/5 Stars.
 6
Review Date: 10/15/2010


The book was very text book correct on thing's. It just goes to show you that even the most average Joe can be your worst nightmare. Just looking at a photo one would not have believed it. He was cunning and willing to use that to satisfy his needs which seemed to be gambling for the most part. I am glad that he is finally in jail and even though he did take his own life that maybe perhaps the victims and I am sure many haven not been found will find some small solace in that. This book is def not worth keeping to reread again and again but is worth to give it a chance.


Governess: The Lives and Times of the Real Jane Eyres
Governess: The Lives and Times of the Real Jane Eyres
Author: Ruth Brandon
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
 7
Review Date: 12/29/2009
Helpful Score: 1


A nice glimpse into 19th century and a job most women didn't want Governess. I found the book to be interesting and historically correct. It was a quick read and a nice reference.


A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty
A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty
Author: Joshilyn Jackson
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.5/5 Stars.
 24
Review Date: 1/17/2014
Helpful Score: 3


I came upon this book unknowing of any before it had no clue about the author either. I read a four sentenced piece about the book and it made it sound to be almost thriller-ish. Along the lines of secret graves in a backyard.

That said I didn't put much stock in the book I waited to read it last out of the five I got that day. Turns out this was the BEST one out of the pile. Written in a way much reminiscent of a Charliene Harris book, no supernatural vibe or violence but a character with a body to rival Sookies and outspoken too , found this to be fast moving, honest to the way of the world, a good mystery/tragedy. It was enough to make you tear up a bit or feel warmly as it reminds you of times in your life when your family was close knit and may not be anymore, as is my case.

It is told in three main characters points of views one 15, one 30, and one 45. Some authors muddle this up and you forget the important bits of one when you finally get back to her. Not so here it was seemless. A comimg of age story that shows it never truly ends.

I actually kept it thinking my daughter would like it when the correct age time rolls around.


Manic
Manic
Author: Terri Cheney
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
 20
Review Date: 1/1/2010


This book was a real eye opener for me and the sufferers of Bi-polar disorder. I have a friend that was recently diagnoses. So I got this book to learn a little bit more about it. After I got this book I recommend it to her because in it was so much of her childhood she couldn't explain that it was really therapeutic to her to read this and know she wasn't alone or strange. The book is a quick and easy read. It's one of those that once you stop you never want to put it down and if your like me and read before bed you end up all night reading it!


The Memory Keeper's Daughter
The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Author: Kim Edwards
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.6/5 Stars.
 209
Review Date: 10/15/2010


This books has many twist and turns. Some you could never think of having happened. It was wonderful, suspenseful, yet sad. I did keep this copy because I loved it so much for the depth it goes into. Grand Reading.


My Name Is Mary Sutter
My Name Is Mary Sutter
Author: Robin Oliveira
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 94
Review Date: 10/15/2010
Helpful Score: 5


This book was a quick read. For buying it on the cheap on paperbackswaps market I am glad to say it was a great deal and I will be buying at least 3 more books from there next week! The books is an unusual one well for me anyways it is about a young woman who works for the army of the Union during the civil war. I am a southerner and have always been and most books I read are of the southern content when it comes to civil war stories. I was very surprised to find a book just exactly the opposite that what I had began to call the norm. Such a captivating book.

The book begins as Mary Sutter the midwife who was given high praise for her cunning for a woman giving birth her real passion is the love of medicine she want's to become a doctor unheard of in those times. She get's her chance when the war begins. Sometimes as I read my southern war novels I think that the union was not as affected by it that they had it easier and didn't lack for all the thing's the Union did not. I was very very wrong the depravity suffered and the horror's she had to witness are almost unspeakable. The tragic love story involving her, her twin sister Jenny, and Thomas is a heart rendering thing as well. One point sticks out in my mind when the river of the Potomac ran red and they said it turned the color of rust and they had no idea what caused it until they found out that there was a huge battle up river and the land could hold no more blood.

She was a willful and stubborn woman who show's us all that a woman is as capable to do the thing's she want's in life as a man is!


My Sister's Keeper
My Sister's Keeper
Author: Jodi Picoult
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.1/5 Stars.
 4059
Review Date: 1/1/2010


This was one one of the most empowering and sad books I have ever read. Jodi Picoult is a master at bringing forth all the characters emotions in such a way that you are sure to feel them. She also writes in such a way as it seem like everything could have actually happened. I haven't got to see the movie yet but I do hope it wont be a let down after reading this wonderful book. I have ordered a couple more from her in hopes that they will be so good.


The Nature of Monsters
The Nature of Monsters
Author: Clare Clark
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 2.9/5 Stars.
 26
Review Date: 1/1/2010


This book just the way it was made was interesting the pages and the book slip are made in such a way as it appears to be very old even though it was brand new when I got it. It's about this lady who is pretty much a girl that is hired out into a household which isn't unusual in those days. All the money she ears goes to her family to support them her father was the one to loan her out. In this book you will see how doctoring was done in those times and how experiments were dolled out in search of answers to illness. You will be shocked by them. To not give to much of the story away I cannot indulge further but it was a good and fast read with no plodding along. I found it very interesting in parts and grotesque in others.


The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane
Author: Katherine Howe
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 305
Review Date: 10/15/2010


I bought this book but at times it became laggy and I decided to circulate it since so few copies were around at that time. It seemed to haunt me the little I gleaned from skimming chapters. I liked the layout of the book but the conversation or wording at times seemed stilted.I know that it did go into the magical which I did like it shows a side of the times then when healing that way was a true way of healing. I loved the fact of the mother daughter bond and the name keeping the chain of string women intact over the centuries.

I'm looking forward to reading and keeping my second copy I ordered new. What I did read I did love but I am impatient and the thought of "I wonder what's going on with the energy in her hands" made me skip ahead. I loved the exploring of the old house how it came to be. Her little dog and her romance's. Her being used by her professor. I keep wanting to write about significant point's that were so wonderful to me but I truly do not want to ruin the whole experience for you. I do hope that others will be open minded of the book and recognize that magic or as they put it a cunning woman was pretty much their only resort for illness in those days and more likely than not they did help the individual. It was peoples fear's and phobia's back then that lead to the death of many of pure heart who did not want to sully their names for most times it was all they had. So begin your travel with this book with an open mind. Realize that its all herbal healing for the most part. But as in life some are more gifted to others.


The President's Daughter
The President's Daughter
Author: Barbara Chase-Riboud
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 4.2/5 Stars.
 3
Review Date: 10/15/2010
Helpful Score: 1


This book is a sequel to the first Sally Hemming's who was Thomas Jefferson's and Sally Hemming's last child. Thomas did love his children as Sally fell pregnant with her first pregnancy when she was in France and not considered a slave it took a good amount of his talking and a promise to bring her home. He kept his promise releasing each of his children at their majority. In his ledger's he said they had ran away or strolled as they called it.

This book has many twist and turn's outside of Monticello which didn't really happen in the Sally Hemming's novel. I liked the fast read and the spunk and sense of humor Elizabeth showed. I bought both novel's to keep.


The Rose Labyrinth
The Rose Labyrinth
Author: Titania Hardie
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 2.9/5 Stars.
 26
Review Date: 9/22/2010


Very Intriguing book that you wouldn't think could turn out so mysterious. Kept me up at night.


Sally Hemings
Sally Hemings
Author: Barbara Chase-Riboud
Book Type: Mass Market Paperback
  • Currently 4.3/5 Stars.
 6
Review Date: 7/27/2010
Helpful Score: 2


First noticed this book while working at the library. Read it and loved it and the sequel The President's Daughter was excellent as well. Told in a way that you can really zone into the book. An easy flowing read with quotes at the beginning of each chapter from said individuals in the book. Since they recently in past years have done tests proving that this relationship did in fact happen I think the author captured what Young sally at 15 pregnant but free on french soil would have had to felt to return back into slavery willingly.


Sally Hemmings: A Novel
Sally Hemmings: A Novel
Author: Barbara Chase-Riboud
Book Type: Paperback
  • Currently 5/5 Stars.
 4
Review Date: 10/15/2010
Helpful Score: 1


Although fictional it is fact based. The findings with genealogy gathered information and finally genetic testing in the end makes this a book I've read several times over. It shows the true love a man had for his first wife Martha and then his secondary wife Sally who was not acknowledged as his wife ever. Yet her and Martha were half sister's his despondence over Maratha's death led him more gently into Sally's arms. He did love the children Sally had and almost all reports say they were very light skinned looked exactly like him and had his red hair and freckles. Martha made him promise to never marry another but he did love. Sally was not released until after his death he couldn't bear to let her go she was a tender age when he took her barely the equivalent of an adult in our standards at the age of 16 she would give him many more. There is another book that accompanies this one by her, The President's Daughter that is very good as well.

I liked that this book was forthright did not hide thing's for the niceties of all thing's proper these days after all those children of his have as much right as to a name as any of us do. Sally and Thomas doted on each other till the end. It's a wonderful story.


The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe
The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe
Author: J. Randy Taraborrelli
Book Type: Hardcover
  • Currently 5/5 Stars.
 1
Review Date: 10/15/2010


This was one of the most wonderfully researched books with new as in never before printed photo's of not only Marilyn or Norma Jean but her Mother and her Father. I had recently purchased the book on her released from her estate and this topped even it! It has extensive reports from her one closets friend besides her sister Bernice Miracle, Pat Kennedy Lawford who was there with her most of the time and saw more of the breakdowns and changes of her mind through the years. I really enjoyed the fact this book shows she cared for her mother deeply and her long lost sister she found. It gives a wonderful list of the movies she was shown in and accounts of them as well which are eye opening. It shows all shades of Marilyn and how she en the end wanted only to become Norma Jeane. It was a quick read so fascinating it kept me up all night. This one is a KEEPER! This was written by a man who cared for her as a woman not just the idol which he of course couldn't help but love as well. It gives new insight into the last few day's that she had and it is so painful to read. This was worth every penny I paid for it.


The Secret Life of Marilyn Monroe (Audio CD) (Abridged)
Review Date: 9/22/2010


Lots of new information that wasn't available before even in the memoirs of Marilyn Monroe. Being a audio book the reading of it isn't droning and is pleasing and flowing to listen too. Quite a nice little surprise to show up on my doorstep.


Six Women's Slave Narratives (Schomburg Library of Nineteenth Century Black Women Writers)
Review Date: 12/30/2009
Helpful Score: 1


A great source of history of slaves and the hardships they endured. Can get tedious in the way it is written in you have to plow through the authors opinions to get to the actual slave narratives. But overall a good book would suggest for a book report.


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