Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of Book: The Road to Urbino Author: Roma Tearne ISBN: 9781910709481 Publisher: Gallic Type of book: Sri Lanka, England, Italy, 1990s?-2017? Art, relationships, painting, barrister, dreams, immigration, living in Italy, Pierro della Francesca, unrequited love, Sri Lankan male/ British female, perception  Year it was published:  2012, 2020 Summary: A story of obsession, love and art set in Tuscany, Sri Lanka and London. Ras, a Sri Lankan who fled his country as a child following the violent death of his mother and his father's disappearance, has committed a crime. Dogged by his past and unable to come to terms with the killing of his mother, he struggles to make a new life for himself in the UK. Alex has loved Dee since he was 19 but failed to realise that it was a love he wouldn't find again. After Dee's marriage, he too struggles to build a meaningful life for himself. But when Ras' and Alex's lives connect, each man takes a new path culmin...

Name of Book: the fragility of bodies Author: Sergio OLGUIN (translated by Miranda France) ISBN: 978-1-912242-19-1 Publisher: Bitter Lemon Press Part of a Series: Veronica Rosenthal Trilogy Type of book: Argentina, trains, mystery, journalism, 2000s, poverty, wealth, connections, South America, daily life, Buenos Aires, coca cola, soccer Year it was published: 2019 (original 2012) Summary: When she hears about the suicide of a Buenos Aires train driver who has left a note confessing to four mortal ‘accidents’ on the train tracks, journalist Veronica Rosenthal decides to investigate. For the police the case is closed (suicide is suicide), for Veronica it is the beginning of a journey that takes her into an unfamiliar world of grinding poverty, crime-infested neighborhoods, and train drivers on commuter lines haunted by the memory of bodies hit at speed by their locomotives in the middle of the night. Aided by a train driver with whom she has a tumultuous and reckles...

Name of Book:  Dead on Ice Author: Lauren Carr ISBN: B0091I2IH0 Publisher: Acorn Book Services Part of a Series: Love in Crime Series Type of book: mystery, suspense, murder, dating, family, pets, moving forward, West Virginia, prosecutor, playing by the rules Year it was published: 2012 Summary: Dead on Ice is the first installment of Lauren Carr’s new series (Lovers in Crime) featuring Hancock County Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Thornton and Pennsylvania State Police homicide detective Cameron Gates. Spunky Cameron Gates is tasked with solving the murder of Cherry Pickens, a legendary star of pornographic films, whose body turns up in an abandoned freezer. The case has a personal connection to her lover, Joshua Thornton, because the freezer was located in his cousin’s basement. It doesn’t take long for their investigation to reveal that the risqué star’s roots were buried in their rural Ohio Valley community, something that Cherry had kept off her show busine...

Name of Book: Hero Author: Boyd Taylor ISBN: 978-0-9894707-2-8 Publisher: Katherine Brown Press Part of a Series: Donnie Ray Cuinn series Type of book: Mysteries, "alternative news" politics, history, two sides, modern times, fact checking, learning lessons, Austin Texas, family, friends Year it was published: 2012 Summary: When budding historian Donnie Ray Cuinn stumbles upon an old letter in the musty bowels of the Texas State Archives, he believes he has uncovered the true story of Sam Payne's valiant, or perhaps not so valiant, capture of Mexican leader Santa Anna during the Battle of San Jacinto. Cuinn's findings are published in a local magazine. But the article eventually becomes fodder in the gubernatorial race between Democratic upstart Bob Braeswood and Republican favorite Sam Eben Payne V, the great-great-grandson of the Texas hero. Braeswood is intent on exploiting the past, while Payne will do anything to suppress it. In the ensuing ...

Name of Book: The Secrets of Montressor Author: Michael Stolle ISBN: 9781481102247 Publisher: Self published Part of a Series: The French Orphan Series Type of book: Quest for rings, marriage, loyalty, France, England, wealth, friendship, intrigue, Louis XIII, Cardinal Richelieu, sexuality, manipulation, scandal Year it was published: 2012 Summary: The Secrets of Montrésor is the eagerly awaited sequel to The French Orphan, and continues the story of young Pierre de Beauvoir… Coming into a fortune at any age brings huge responsibility, but when you’re an inexperienced teenager, it seems that surprises are waiting for you around every corner. Pierre, former orphan and now Marquis de Beauvoir, may have claimed his inheritance, but life is never that simple. For a start, he needs to learn pretty quickly exactly who to trust and who to keep at arm’s length. For example, how do you work out (and survive….) the changing motives of the most powerful man in seventeenth...

Name of Book: The French Orphan Author: Michael Stolle ISBN: 9781478232278 Publisher: self published Part of a Series: The French Orphan Type of book: France, prestige, Louis XIII, Anne of Spain, homosexuality, inheritance, patricide, murder, orphan, monk, romance, friendship, travel, United Kingdom, King Charles, 1640-1641? Year it was published: 2012 Summary: The year is 1640, and Louis XIII is on the French throne. However, as far as you’re concerned, this is all pretty meaningless. After all, as a teenage orphan living in a monastery school in Reims, all you have to worry about is dodging the unpleasant advances of a few unsavoury monks and looking forward to a life of penniless and celibate servitude in a religious order. After a childhood and adolescence plagued by a constant longing to know who he really is, orphan Pierre has not the slightest idea that his questions are about to be answered. But you know what they say – be careful what you wish for… Sudde...

Name of Book: Where'd You Go, Bernadette? Author: Maria Semple ISBN: 978-0-316-33360-3 Publisher: Little Brown and Company Type of book: Antarctica, mother/daughter relatiionship, disappear, missing, epistolary, agoraphobia, heart problems, living life, growing up, coming of age, creativity, snarky view of today and lifestyles Year it was published: 2012 Summary: Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she's a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she's a disgrace; to design mavens, she's a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom. Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette's intensifying allergy to Seattle—and people in general—has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of ...

Name of Book:  Clotho's Loom: A Novel of Literary Romance and Realism Author:  Shawn StJean ISBN:  9781479271528 Publisher:  Glas Daggre Publishing Year it was published: 2012 Summary: CL has gone to the second round of the 2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, and has been awarded the IndiePENdents Seal of Good Writing. William Wyrd, an introverted history professor at long remove from his youthful days as a marine sniper, is drafted to serve overseas in the U.S. military at age thirty-nine. Already in a relationship made tenuous by the demands of dual professional careers and their own dearth of interpersonal experience, he and his wife are completely estranged by the blunder on the part of the government. But is this merely human error at work, a bad mix of circumstances—or tangling of the skein of Fate? In the tradition of Robert Ludlum's Bourne Identity and follow-up novels, this literary action-adventure tale tests whether one's present choices...

Name of Book:  13 Years in America;  One woman's pursuit of an American Dream Author:  Melanie Steele ISBN: Createspace Publisher:  9781475215663 Year it was published: 2012 Summary: 13 Years in America is a story of hope, sacrifice, and the modern search for happiness that is at once a moving personal journey and a sharp, hard look at the American Dream. After moving to the United States from Canada, a free-spirited young woman rejects the status quo and embarks on a journey to discover what it means to be truly happy and fulfilled in the Land of Opportunity. Her 13-year search spans half a dozen states, a bunch of fearless adventures, and ever-increasing crises, divisions, turmoil, and discontent. Through it all, she holds on to her fearless pursuit of happiness and fulfillment against ever-decreasing odds. Read free ebook by clicking "read book" or purchase a paperback copy to support the author. Opinion: From the pages I have read ...

Name of Book: Song of the Mountain Author: Michelle Isenhoff ISBN/ASIN:  B00A8V6DL6 Publisher:  Candle Star Press Year it was published: 2012 Summary: Mud and mire shall birth a tree, A sprout shall grow of ancient seed. The five unite to break the one, The curse of man shall be undone. But brothers rise ere dragon’s bane. The last shall smite the first again. Orphaned at a young age, thirteen-year-old Song Wei has grown up listening to his grandfather recite legends of the distant past. But it is his own history Song seeks to uncover to guide him toward the future, particularly the events surrounding his parents’ deaths. But that is a secret closely guarded by his grandfather. Then Song discovers an heirloom that links him to an ancient prophecy. His destiny lies within the old tales he has scorned. Song must follow the path that killed his father. Opinion: I do have to say that the story has a bit of a potential of turning out interesting, but I fe...

Name of Book: The Wicked Game Author: Olivia Fuller ISBN/ASIN:  B0072JRWW6 Publisher: Self published Year it was published: 2012 Summary: Book 1 of The Wicked Game Series: She is a Baron's only daughter, desperately trying to find love and freedom in a world where she has no control... He is a former bond servant struggling to come to terms with his new found independence... Neither expected to make a connection, especially not such an unlikely and wicked one... As the only daughter of a Baron and the only female born to her family in generations, the birth of Angela Bennett is seen as nothing short of a miracle. She becomes an instant sensation in society and has her choice of any man as a husband. Except that Angela doesn't want a husband, especially if he can't see past her social image to the woman she really is. All she truly wants is for someone to understand her feelings of captivity among the social masses... After lifelong servitude, And...

Name of Book: The Disappearance Author: T.V. LoCicero ISBN:  9780615681450 Publisher: TLC Media Year it was published: 2012 Summary: On leave from the University of Bologna, lovely Italian scholar Lina Lentini is staying with a friend in Geneva and soon finds herself caught up in the shadowy world of Swiss banking, sorting through mysteries that will link to cold-blooded betrayal, corruption and murder. At the villa of her octogenarian pal Cecile Eaton, an American philanthropist, Lina befriends Clara Marche, who works on Cecile’s account at the Banque Privee Morneau. Both Cecile and Lina are fascinated by Clara’s unlikely transatlantic romance with Marc White, her African-American lover—neither speaks the other’s language. The revelation of devious schemes begins one night when Clara discovers her manager at the bank has been looting Cecile’s charitable contributions. When Clara is further shaken by what she learns from the bank’s security chief, she flees to...

Name of Book: The Obsession Author: T.V. LoCicero ISBN:  9780615681351) Publisher: TLC Media Year it was published: 2012 Summary: At a conference in Italy’s lake district, American graduate student Stanford Lyle is enchanted with Lina Lentini, a lovely Italian professor of comparative lit. And when she lectures for a term at his mid-Michigan university, she considers a fling with Stan—until she meets John Martens, a professor, author and Stan’s mentor. In her passionate affair with John, Lina becomes Stan’s obsession, a hated nemesis for John’s troubled wife, and the object of a vicious series of attacks aimed at destroying her reputation. Lina loves the line from Keats, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty,” even as her life fills with duplicity. John is pledged to do the right thing with his wife but often does not. And Stan surprises himself with the depth of his own perversity. Forced back to her home in Bologna, Lina begins to reset her life. Then Stan appears ...

Name of Book: The Treasure at Devil's Hole Author: Jody M Mabry ISBN: 9781453776735 Publisher: Self Published Type of book: Arkansas, 1946, adventures, hidden gold, mysteries, small town, school, friendships, brotherhood Year it was published: 2012 Summary: How would you feel if you knew you had a legendary treasure right in your own back yard? Francis “Bug” Mosser knows, and will do nearly anything to find it, even if it means defying the most villainous person he knows—Mom! Standing in Bug's way is his nemesis Tad Pricket, the red headed, pock-holed bully who’s suddenly been seen walking Bug’s girl, Melanie, home from school—worse, the walk ends with a kiss. Then there is the mysterious bald stranger and Miss Julia Brandon’s boyfriend who seems a little “too-classy” for the town of Possum Trot. With the help of his brothers, and best friend Billy—along with his not-so-secret desire to impress Melanie Grainger—Bug goes off in search of fortune and glor...

Name of Book:  The Boxer Rebellion and the Great Game in China Author:  David J. Silbey ISBN: 978-0-8090-3075-0 Publisher: Hill and Wang Year it was published: 2012 Summary: A concise history of an uprising that took down a three-hundred-year-old dynasty and united the great powers The year is 1900, and Western empires are locked in entanglements across the globe. The British are losing a bitter war against the Boers while the German kaiser is busy building a vast new navy. The United States is struggling to put down an insurgency in the South Pacific while the upstart imperialist Japan begins to make clear to neighboring Russia its territorial ambition. In China, a perennial pawn in the Great Game, a mysterious group of superstitious peasants is launching attacks on the Western powers they fear are corrupting their country. These ordinary Chinese--called Boxers by the West because of their martial arts showmanship--rise up seemingly out of nowhere. Foresha...

Name of Book: Refuge Author: N.G. Osborne ISBN: 9780615695402 Publisher: Cranham and Keith Books Year it was published: 2012 Summary: On a dusty, sweltering night, Noor Khan, a beautiful, headstrong Afghan refugee, comes face-to-face with Charlie Matthews, a brash, young American aid worker. To Noor's fury, Charlie breaks every cultural norm and pursues her. She wants nothing to do with him: her sole aim in life is to earn an overseas scholarship so she can escape the miseries of the refugee camps. However when Noor's brother threatens to marry her off, she is forced to seek refuge in Charlie's home, of all places, and suddenly everything Noor believes in is put into question. Set in the mystical and seething city of Peshawar, where no one is without an agenda and few can be trusted, Refuge is a timeless and unforgettable love story about the struggle for love and purpose in a cruel and cynical world. Opinion: From the first few pages, I can tell tha...