The Sisters Brothers by Patrick Dewitt

The Sisters Brothers by Patrick Dewitt

Eli and Charlie Sisters are killers.  Hired gun killers.  It's 1851, Oregon City and the brothers are hired by the Commodore to kill a man who concocted a formula to make gold glow in the rivers for an easy strike.  Their mission is to travel to California, San Francisco to be precise, to kill Hermann Kermit Warm and steal the formula.  Their travels are long and dark and sometimes comedic.  Most of the book, narrated by Eli Sisters, is about their adventures during their travels and the characters they meet on the way but they finally do reach San Francisco and they do find Hermann Kermit Warm. But things have changed for the Sisters Brothers along the way and the ending takes a twisted turn that is not to be expected.


I found the book to be a little too dark and maybe a little descriptive however I was hooked early on and it became a quick read.   Mr. Dewitt is a fantastic story teller with a smooth flow of words that I can appreciate.  Plus I just like Westerns.  Always have.  I'm a huge fan of Larry McMurtry but I wouldn't exactly compare the Sisters Brothers to anything by McMurtry but more so like maybe a Charles Frazier novel such as Cold Mountain.  Seducing, riveting, grotesque, and funny all at the same time.  I can't wait for more from Patrick Dewitt!


Published in 2011 by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins Publisher and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize  Also published in paperback in 2012.

Lamberto Lamberto Lamberto by Gianni Rodari

Lamberto Lamberto Lamberto A Modern Fable By Gianni Rodari

Baron Lamberto is ninety three years old and lives on the island of San Giulio in the middle of Lake Orta in the mountains of Northern Italy.  Lamberto is very rich as he owns 24 banks around the world and on each continent and he is also very sick, having 24 ailments, one for each bank that he owns.  Only his butler, Anselmo, remembers them all.

Baron Lamberto is told by an Egyptian mystic that the secret to youthfulness is to have your name repeated over and over so he hires six people to chant his name twenty four hours a day.  "Lamberto, Lamberto, Lamberto,...." Surprisingly, this works and Lamberto's health begins to improve and soon becomes the epitome of youth.

But his life is at risk because not only does his only heir, his nephew Ottavio, want him to die but then a group of terrorists shows up at his castle to demand a ransom from each of his 24 banks.  Soon the 24 bank managers arrive and negotiations begin.

Lamberto Lamberto Lamberto was originally written in 1980 by Rodari and has been translated to English in 2011 by Anthony Shugaar.  The original story is a great Italian Fable and Gianni Rodari (1920-1980) is a great Italian author and journalist most famous for his books for children.  He won the Hans Christian Andersen award in 1970.

I am extremely happy to have found this book in the new book section of my local library and to have read it and I highly recommend it to adults and children alike.  It is filled with shenanigans, amusing characters, and is highly unpredictable.... I think you'll love it!

Books I Want to Read

The Sisters Brothers: A Novel by Patrick deWitt

The Light between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

The Absolutist by John Boyne

Once in a House on Fire by Andrea Ashworth

The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate

Happy reading!

Gator A-Go-Go by Tim Dorsey

Gator A-Go-Go by Tim Dorsey

Serge A. Storms and his drug-addicted sidekick, Coleman, are on a mission to make a documentary of Florida's history and the origins of Spring Break in Panama City Beach and other sunloving cities around the state.  In the midst of their fun and sometimes dangerous shenanigans, they stumble upon a young spring breaker who is being hunted by the hitmen of a Miami Kingpin, Madre, and the FBI.  Turns out the boy is the son of a former drug runner turned state's witness from the 80's.  The Kingpins want revenge and what better way  than to kill the guy's son.  But these guys don't know who they are dealing with when Serge steps in and takes matters into his own psychopath hands but only with help from his two gorgeous ex-coeds turned cons on the lamb, City and Country and the four 90-something old lady escapees from the Bayshore Convalescent center,  the G-Unit.

This is the hilarious type of book that you hate to love!  This is also the second book that I have read starring Serge and Coleman by Tim Dorsey.  Can't wait to get the others!  LOL!

The Magic(The Secret) by Rhonda Byrne

In the book's predecessor,  The Secret, Rhonda Byrne teaches us about the Law of Attraction.  Like attracts like.  So if you think positively, you attract positive things to you.  If you think negatively, you attract negative things to you.  It's the law of the Universe.

In The Magic, Rhonda advises the reader to practice saying "thank you" and meaning it.
Say thank you deliberately and with meaning.
The more you say thank you, the more you feel gratitude.
The more gratitude you give out, the more abundance you will receive.  

With practice, the book could teach you how to improve your life in the areas of love, health, wealth, and happiness. 

If you think, "I don't like my job," "I haven't got enough money", "I can't find my perfect partner," "I can't pay my bills," "I think I'm coming down with something," "My child is a problem," "My life is a mess," or "My marriage is in trouble," then you must attract more of those experiences.

But if you think about what you're grateful for, like, "I love my job," "My family is very supportive," "I had the best vacation," "I feel amazing today," "I got the biggest tax refund ever," or "I had a great weekend camping with my son," and you sincerely feel the gratitude, the law of attraction says you must attract more of those things into your life.  It works the same way as metal being drawn to a magnet; your gratitude is magnetic, and the more gratitude you have, the more abundance you magnetize.  It is Universal Law!

I believe and I think you should read this book.  What could it hurt?  

Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin

Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin

I have to admit when I first started reading this novel, I almost lost interest.  The first few pages seemed like young adult and as I've stated in previous book reviews, I am not into young adult fiction but I kept at it and within the first chapter, I was hooked.

Alice Grace Ripley is a dreamy librarian who always has her nose in a book and is always wishing for a happily ever after story of her own. She finds it when she loses her librarian job in Illinois due to the Great Depression and goes to Kentucky to deliver donated books to a library in a poor mining town. Her life becomes the story when she stumbles onto the scene of murder, betrayal, family feud, and true love.

The characters are endearing and you feel yourself becoming involved with them early on in the story.   Mack, the librarian and his 100 year old roommate and former slave, Lillie, four packhorse librarians, Ike the fiddle player, Belle (Lillie's horse),  as well as various troubled and colorful townspeople of Acorn Kentucky.  Also, I'd like to note that there are similarities to Alice in Wonderland in the story.

This is one of those books that you wish would never end.  There are laugh out loud moments, tearful moments, and sitting on the edge of your seat moments in this book that I won't forget for a long time.   I can't wait to read more by Lynn Austin.  I give this book 5 stars!

Published in 2011 by Bethany House Publishers.

*Note:  President Franklin Roosevelt founded the relief program, the New Deal in 1933 to help alleviate the effects of the Great Depression.  One of the most innovative programs of Roosevelt's Work Projects Administration was the Packhorse Library Project.  The program employed mostly women to deliver books on horseback to neighbors and school houses in rural and remote areas of Kentucky.  The packhorse librarians provided not only entertainment in the form of books and magazines, but they also offered practical help on home health care, cooking, agriculture, parenting, canning hygiene, and machinery.  They also opened the world to these isolated people allowing them to learn not only about their own government and country, but of lands and people across the globe.

When Elves Attack by Tim Dorsey

When Elves Attack:  A Joyous Christmas Greeting from the Criminal Nutbars of the Sunshine State by Tim Dorsey

It's Christmas time in Tampa, Florida.  Criminal mastermind and modern day Peter Pan, Serge Storm and his pot smoking sidekick Coleman are doing Christmas BIG this year.   Dressed in elf costumes and with help from their warranted lady friends City and Country and the G-Unit, a foursome of elderly escapees from a Bayshore convalescent center, they set out to end the war on Christmas.

Some of their escapades include flattening the mansion of a disgraced hedge fund manager so that the insurance could be used to pay back all the people he ripped off, poisoning a criminal who stole and scrapped memorial plaques from a VFW, beating up a mall cop for yelling at little kids, and decorating their rented South Tampa house with the biggest Christmas display ever!

This fast read is absolutely hilarious and was written by a former reporter for the Tampa Tribune.  I can't wait to read more of his shenanigans!  Just don't read it in public or your giggles will illicit oogles.

Published by Harper Collins in 2011.