The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott

Rating Good

The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott is historical fiction based on the life of Lady Duff Gordon, a fashion icon of the 1900's.  Much more interesting then her dressmaking is the fact that she was one of the 706 survivors of the Titanic. She was known to be ruthless and over-bearing, but shows a softer side when she hires a girl she meets on the docks as her maid.  A young dressmaker named Tess that knows little about being a Ladies maid, but wants to learn dressmaking from Lady Gordon. The story is told from Tess's perspective. There is a little romance between Tess and two men that she meets on the Titanic, but it seems to be a sideline to the real story.  The historical events of the night the Titanic sank, the US investigation, and the demise of Lady Gordon's carrier are interesting to read. At the end of the book Ms. Alcott relays what is fictional and truth in her book.  The mix of history and fiction is entertaining and educational.

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
Rating: Good
I first heard of this book a couple of years ago after I read another Gillian Flynn book Gone Girl.  I put off reading Dark Places, but not for the lack of interest, but for a lack of time.  I am glad that I came back to it and glad that I waited to read it.  Gillian Flynn's novels leave you feeling kind of spooked. The book begins with  Libby, a depressed young women who has lost all of her money, that she received from donations, after her family was killed in what was thought to be a satanic mass murder committed by her brother. The murders happen in 1985 and the book flashes back between 1985 and present day.  Libby was only 7 when the murders were committed, and she testified against her brother.  Her brother is found guilty, and is serving time for the crime.  Libby out of money, is asked to speak with a group called the Kill Club.  The Kill Club theorizes over different murders and come up with conspiracy theories of who actually killed the victims.  Only going for the money she starts to realize that things may not have been as they appeared to a seven year old, and she may have put her only living family member in jail for a crime he didn't commit. Scary, suspenseful and sometime gory.  Dark Places will keep you up all night "reading".    

Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani
Rating: Great!
Aunt Lou is a 70 something lady that lives in a Greenwich Village apartment and at the first sign of cold weather puts on her full length fur coat to run her errands.  Kit is a young play write that is getting frustrated by rejection letters, and is invited to Aunt Lou's fifth floor apartment for a "sale".  Kit is intrigued by the prospects of finding "good stuff" goes to Lou's apartment and finds something much more interesting then things, but the story of Lucia. This is one of those books that makes the reader feel good and enriched for taking the time to read it.  Triumphs and tragedy, parties and work, family, and friends, love and sadness.  Life!  And everything is just as it should be.

Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille
Rating: Good
I am a HUGE DeMille fan, so this may be one sided.  Wild Fire is another adventure for John Corey and Kate Mayfield.  The setting is a couple of years post 9/11 and the country is at code orange. Tom Walsh Special Agent in charge of the Anti-Terrorist Task Force sends Harry Muller, John's cubical mate to the Adirondacks to spy on a hunting lodge. Harry is missing and John and Kate go to find him.  They interview Maddox the owner of the Custer Hill Hunting Lodge and Corey knows there is more to the story. Kate and John find themselves not only investigating Harry's disappearance, but chasing down nuclear suitcase bombs that could destroy the US. Intense, sometimes scary, and in spot sarcastically funny, as only John Cory can be.  If you have a chance try listening to this book.  Scott Brick is a fabulous reader and is a phenomenal John Cory.

Summer House by Nancy Thayer
Rating: Good
Summer House is the perfect beach read. A wealthy family with a summer house on Nantucket Island with as many secrets, affairs, and family jealousies to keep you turning the page. The Wheelwright family meet at the house every summer for the family meeting hosted by the 90 year old patriarch, Nona.  The women stay on the island and the "bank men" jet back and forth from Boston on the weekends.  Helen and Worth are a 60 something couple with three children, a daughter Charlotte that lives on the island full time and runs an organic garden and vegetable stand, a son who lives in San Francisco and comes to the island for the family meeting and his wedding to his partner, and Teddy who is a recovering alcoholic that brings his pregnant girlfriend to the house to stay for the summer.  Helen finds out that Worth is having an affair, Nona reveals a secrete that she has been hiding for 60 years in hopes to save Helen and Worth's marriage.  Charlotte who seems to be the most sane out of the bunch is laden with guilt over something she did to Me, a cousin that is also at the house.  Yes a soap opera, but isn't that what a "beach read" is suppose to be?

Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella
Rating: Really Good ****
Lottie is sure that her boyfriend Richard is going to propose to her at dinner, and when he doesn't she breaks up with him terribly embarrassed and hurt. She reunites with Ben, a boyfriend from 15 years ago, and agrees to marry him not knowing how he has changed over the years.  Lottie is determined to make her honeymoon a night to remember.   She and Ben decide to refrain from sex until their wedding night. The two elope and anxiously head for Echinos, the island where they first met and had a summer love affair. Enter Lottie's divorced sister Fliss. Fliss is a travel magazine editor, and pulls strings at the 5 star resort to prevent Lottie from consummating her marriage to Ben in hopes they can get an annulment.  Funny, enriching story that examines the relationship between sisters, lovers and friends.

The All-Girl Fling Station's Last Reunion
by Fannie Flagg **
Rating: Not so Wonderful
It is hard for me to say that any book is bad.  I feel there  must be some redeeming qualities in the story that will enrich the reader in someway.  In Fannie Flagg's, The All Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion, there is a bit of history that I did not know.  I was unfamiliar with the WASP (Women Air Force Service Pilots).  It was interesting to read about the women that were truly the first feminist.  Although Ms. Flagg's pilots are fictional, I did Google the group and admired their courage and willingness to be important players in World War II.  The characters in the book almost drove me crazy.  Sookie Pool the protagonist is whiny, annoying, and unrealistic. Her mother, Lenore Simmons is obnoxious, prideful and deceitful. The dialogue between the two is hard to get through.  There are redeeming flashbacks to the history of the WASP when Sarah Jane finds out that she is adopted, and her biological mother was one of the Women Air Force Service Pilot