Gina G writes

 November Musings November is my grateful month. I love everything fall. I start celebrating the season in August. All of the summer decorations are replaced with autumn colors, and my all-time favorite Holiday, Halloween, arrives in October. I will admit that my Halloween decorations stay up far longer than my Christmas decorations, but then again, I'm not a fan of Christmas. It's too garish, too pushy, and too commercial.  Many people move straight to Christmas after Halloween, but I like to keep the holly jolly crap as far away as possible, which is a challenge given that I work in retail. I want to give November its due. This is a time of reflection, of relaxing over a mug of warm coffee while listening to music and reading a good book. This is a time for walking under the changing colors of the leaves and feeling the crisp chill in the air. It is finally (here)flannel shirt weather, and I will confess, there is nothing sexier (in my opinion) than a person wearing flannel....

 The "Q" Books Book 1: The Night Child by Anna Quinn I went with this one because the setting was in Seattle. :) Brown teaches high school. One afternoon, after she has dismissed her last class of the day for the Thanksgiving Holiday, she sees a disembodied face. She sees it again when she is out with her family celebrating the holiday. It's the sad face of a little girl. But who is she? And why does she make Nora feel trapped? She meets with a neurologist and a psychiatrist. Why is she getting these flashes of a Valentine's dress? What happened in her past? As Nora digs deeper, she confronts the lost child she once was, embraces her, and learns the sordid, horrible truth she tried to bury.  As the story progresses, a terrible secret is discovered--a secret that pushes Nora toward an even deeper psychological breakthrough. It is a story of resilience, hope, and the mind, body, and spirit's ability to save itself. It examines the impact of traumatic childhood exper...

 The "P" Books Book one: The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch When I finish this challenge, I will read more books written by this author. When I started the book, I was confused about voice. Who was the main character? Was it the hangman? Was it the daughter? Was it the young doctor? It took a few pages to get into. The setting was after the witch trials. The son of the former hangman is now the hangman. He didn't want the job, but he inherited it, like father, like son. Only he knows natural herbs. In a sense, the hangman knows what the villagers consider witchcraft. His daughter is a beautiful, dark-haired, free spirit who is expected to marry another hangman, but she has her eye on the young doctor who has studied abroad. The young doctor has a lot of respect for the hangman. The village is stuck in the old ways. Its streets are muddy, the townspeople still think old-fashioned thoughts, and they are trying to compete with the wealthy neighboring city.  Amid th...

 The "O" Books Book one: Poor Deer by Claire Two little girls who live next door to each other go out to a muddy lake to play. They are seen by a teacher who tells them they should go home. They go back to their houses and decide to play a version of hide and seek. The neighbor girl climbs into an old freezer. It locks. The other girl can't figure out how to open it. She tries and tries, finally gives up, and runs home, pretending to have been there all along. Hours later, the neighbor's girl is discovered. Dead. Poor Deer is created at that moment. Poor Deer is part human, part little girl, and she tries her best to coax the girl into confessing, but it doesn't work. Poor Deer trails the girl as she grows up, becomes a teenager, deals with her crazy mom and her doting aunt. The girl figures the only way she can make everything right is to run away to Niagara Falls.  Okay why? I was interested up until this point because it made no sense. By the time I got to the ...

                                                                   The "N" Books Book one: The Cat Who Saved The Library by Sosuke Natusukawa A good friend of mine got me this book for my birthday. It did not disappoint. This is a story about Nanami, a young girl with asthma who spends as much free time as possible in the library. She loves to read and knows where every book is located. She is particularly fond of the classics, and when she notices several of them disappearing, she grows suspicious. When she alerts the staff, they dismiss her. Discovering a strange man perusing the shelves, she follows him. He disappears down an aisle that doesn't exist, but leaves behind a mysterious light and a talking tabby cat named Tiger.  Tiger, the cat, saves books. He takes Nanami with him to another realm, where they encou...

 The "M" Books Book one: "Lamb" by Christopher Moore. I love Christopher Lamb's writing. It is very tongue-in-cheek, sarcastic, and funny. This book was no exception.  Lamb is about Jesus's best friend, Biff, who is raised from the dead by the angel Raziel to fill in the missing gap in the bible when Jesus disappeared at the age of twelve and was not seen again until he reappeared in Galilee. The name Jesus was translated incorrectly. Jesus's known name was Joshua.   Biff and Joshua have been best friends since childhood. No one loves Joshua as much as Biff does, except for maybe Maggie (Mary of Magdalene) and Mary, Joshua's mother. They left Israel because Joshua wanted to track down the three Wise Men (a magician, a Buddhist, and a Hindu yogi) and learn how to become the messiah. Joshua learns how to multiply food, walk on water, and raise the dead. Biff went along to get laid since Joshua could not know the pleasures of the flesh.  Throughout his ...