Grace by T. Greenwood

Where to begin?  Thirteen year old Trevor Kennedy has been bullied at school for as long as he can remember but now his fear has turned to rage.  But he isn't the only troubled Kennedy as his father, Kurt, is consumed with a failing business, a wife who wants more than he can give, and an aging father with a hoarding problem.  His mother, Elsbeth, has a lustful need for things and is stealing from the local stores and dotes all her attention on Gracy, Trevor's six year old sister.  The only one who sees the trouble this family is going through is eighteen year old Crystal who works at the local Walgreens where Elsbeth has been stealing.

I normally wouldn't read a book with the flair of young adult fiction but I persevered and I'm glad I did.  Miss Greenwood has complete control over this book as it twists and turns at every chapter.  She leads you to expect the complete opposite of what actually happens.  That got my attention early on and kept me reading.

This book was published by Kensington in 2012 and was selected as BookSense76/IndieBound pick for 2012.

The Maid: A Novel of Joan of Arc by Kimberly Cutter

It's the fifteenth century during the Hundred Years War and Jehanne d'Arc is a dirty abused daughter of a farmer in Domremy France who is spoken to by God and the archangel Micheal and the saints Catherine and Margeret.  She is instructed to drive the English from French soil and restore the rightful heir to the French crown to King Charles VII.  We all know that Jehanne or "Joan", as we know of her, succeeds in her mission from God but how she gets there had me spellbound in this delightful graphic novel from Ms. Cutter.

Joan is a fierce warrior who leads ten thousand of France's best men into war and slaughters the mighty English army.  But as the voices have warned her she would die in less than two years and she is taken prisoner by the English and thrown into prison to await her sentence of death by burning at the stake.  She tries to kill herself by throwing herself over a tower 70 ft tower but is uninjured.  The restored King has turned on her and refuses to pay her ransom and she is ultimately burned.

When I first saw this new book at the library, I walked right past it because I normally wouldn't read a war novel but the picture on the front cover got me.  I went back to the shelf the book was propped up on and picked up, went home and started reading and didn't put it back down til I was done.  I highly recommend this book even to those who wouldn't normally read historical fiction.  It is fascinating, divine, and gruesome all at the same time.

Published in 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Nightwoods by Charles Frazier

From the author of Cold Mountain and Thirteen Moons comes a new and thrilling suspenseful novel called Nightwoods.  A young woman named Luce, the caretaker of an old lodge in small-town North Carolina, becomes the guardian of the twin children of her murdered sister. In turn, she must defend them from Bud, their former stepfather, who killed their mother while they watched, and who believes the traumatized children know the location of some stolen money.

Meanwhile, the owner of the Lodge has died and his young grandson, Stubblefield, has shown up to claim his inheritance which includes the lodge and other various businesses and lands around town.  Stubblefield is soon smitten by the young Luce and becomes her ally in protecting the children and Luce.

I loved Cold Mountain and I think this book is a lot like it in it's settings, plots, and flow of writing.  And although the book, to me, is a cliffhanger, I did enjoy it very much and was disappointed that it ended so quickly.  Hopefully, there will be a sequel in the near future.

Published September 27th 2011 by Random House Publishing Group.

In the Sea There Are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda

In the Sea There are Crocodiles by Fabio Geda is based on the true story of a young Afghan boy named Enaiatollah Akbari who, with the help of his mother, escapes Taliban rule in 2000.

It tells the story, in first person, of how his father, in Nava, is enslaved by the Taliban and sent on a mission to retrieve supplies in another city and told that if anything goes wrong, his family would be killed.  Things did go wrong.  His father was killed.  The Taliban threatened to take the two young boys in payment for his father's wrong doing so his mother takes him across the border to Pakistan and leaves him there to fend for himself.

The young Enaiatollah suffers through some very harrowing circumstances as he, alone, finds his way from Pakistan all the way to Italy where he later seeks and attains political assylum.  The situations that he finds himself in are extreme and life threatening such as dangerous border crossings, traveling across bitter cold mountains on foot, crammed into the false bottom of a truck with hundreds of other immigrants, traveling across violant waters in an inflatable raft.

Fabio Geda is an Italian novelist who works with children under duress and helped Enaiatollah put his story in words.

This book was originally published in Italy as Nel mare ci sono i coccodrilli by B.C. Dalai editore, Milan, 2010 and translated to English by award wining translator Howard Curtis and published by Double Day books in 2011.

This book really puts into perspective, for me, what it must have been like for Afghans during the last decade.  I had a different view on how people lived and had been treated in the middle east during the war and even now it's not safe for Enaiatollah to return to his family.  For the record, he has contacted his family,  paid for them to travel and live in Pakistan and plans to visit them soon.

It's OK to Tell by Lauren Book

This is a true story about Lauren Book, a 11 year old girl who was sexually, physically, and mentally abused by her nanny, Waldina Flores, for five years.  She endured extreme abuse at the hands of this awful woman including rape, beatings, and torment.  Finally at the age of 17, with the support of her boyfriend, Lauren gets the courage to speak out against her abuser.  Her father then fired Flores who fled to Oklahoma.  Later Flores was arrested and tried and sentenced a life in prison.

 Lauren and her father have fought and succeeded in passing laws to protect innocent victims of child abuse.  She helped pass a law eliminating the statute of limitations for victims of child abuse under the age of 16.  She has also founded Lauren's Kids to educate and prevent child abuse and let others know that it's OK to tell.

There are more than 39 million survivors of sexual abuse in America.  OMG!

1 in 3 girls are sexually abused before the age of 18.

1 in 5 boys are sexually abused before the age of 18.

1 in 5 children are sexually solicited while on the internet before the age of 18.

30% of sexual abuse is never reported.

I read this whole book in less than 3 hours as I was completely enthralled by it.  Through most of it, I had tears streaming down my face at the sheer shock and horror of what happened to this girl.  I hope you read it! 

95% of sexual abuse is preventable through education!

Suffer the Children by John Saul

On the front cover:  Innocence dies so easily. Evil lives again...and again...and again.
This supernatural thriller is about a little girl, Beth, who was murdered by her father, John Conger, a hundred years ago in Port Arbello, New Hampshire.  After the tragic incident, he threw himself over the embankment to the thrashing sea below. 
The Conger family had been prominent in the small town for centuries.  The present day Jack Conger, his wife Rose, and his two girls, Elizabeth and Sarah had fallen victim the Conger curse.  One day while playing in the field, Jack unconciously followed Sarah into the woods and severely beat her.  She survived physically, but mentally she was gone.  She was unable to talk or show emotion at all.  Neither Jack or Sarah knew what had taken control of them that day. 
The spirit of the little girl, Beth, who had died so many years ago by her fathers hand, has taken control of Elizabeth's mind.  Leading her to lure children from the town to a cave at the embankment, where she kept them locked up and eventually killed them.  Elizabeth doesn't remember any of it.  But Sarah, in her mute world, knows.  And she, believed to be insane, is blamed for the dissappearances.  She is taken to an asylum to live out her days. 
Meanwhile, ten years after the murders, Jack Conger takes his wife for a boat ride, and neither of them ever return.  Elizabeth is left alone.  Soon, Sarah, who is still in the asylum, regains her voice and is allowed to visit home.  That is the day that the bodies are discovered in the cave.  Sarah is told that she would have to stand trial and is taken back to the asylum.  Sarah starts to remember.  She suddenly remembers following Elizabeth to the cave, she remembers the flash of the knife, she remembers her sister's face as Elizabeth slashes the  children over and over.  Then her mute face returns.  And Elizabeth, back home, remembers too....
I read this book in two days.  On the edge of my seat.  Chewing my nails.  I often find myself wondering, while reading a book, if it could be made into a movie.  This book could never bemade into a movie because it would be too much for the human mind to accept.  Reading about something horrendous, and actually seeing it are two different things.  Like the movie, Pet Cemetary, where the little boy gets hit by the Semi-truck.  I was okay with reading it, but seeing it on the screen was just too much.  I couldn't watch the rest of the movie. 
This is the third book I have read by John Saul.  I find his style, how should I put it... shocking.  But luring.  I can't resist it. This book was a national best seller and sold more than a million copies.  It was published in 1977 by Dell Publishing. 

Together is All We Need by Michael Phillips

The setting is 1860s Shenandoah, North Carolina at the Rosewood Cotton Plantation.  Sixteen year old Katie Burchard and her half black cousin Mayme, have been keeping a very serious secret.  Both of their families had been killed by marauders after the Civil War.  Katie and Mayme, along with former slave children, have been running Rosewood all by themselves.  Fooling everyone in town to think their families were still alive and well.  Soon, their charade is over when Katie's uncle showed up to find out for himself what was going on and eventually finds out the truth.  But when he tried to make a claim on the plantation and send Katie and her friends away, another uncle showed up with the original deed that had been signed over to him years before.  Apparantly, Katie's parents knew that other uncle would come and try to make a claim. 

This is a story of great human kindness, hatred, and racism.  A time when blacks were very recently freed from slavery, but not by any means free.  A story of determination and dedication to accomplish a sisterhood of love.  This book is part of a series titled:  The Shenandoah Sisters.  I have not read the previous books in the series but plan to soon. 

Michael Phillips is a Christian novelist who has written more than four dozen novels with sales over five million copies.  This book was published in 2004 by Bethany House Publishers.  I believe it was written for young adults but I enjoyed it very much.