Change of Heart

Was a fantastic novel. I am so out of my reading "rut" that I haven't even changed the 'what I'm reading now from "I am Charlotte Simmons." If you went to college, got high and had random sex, then you've not only read Charlotte Simmons, you've lived it. I moved on after abour 100 pages. . .

This book is about a woman who has a child and a husband. Her husband was holding her child when they were in a car wreck and her husband was killed. The officer (Kurt) who told her that her husband was dead and extracted her and her daughter from the car, eventually fell in love with her. And vice versa. June found out that she was pregnant with Kurt's baby and they were married and moved in together. They were building a nursery for the baby and Kurt became very involved with his work as an officer/detective.

One day, a man comes to the door and sees that they need work done and offers to help. The next thing you know, June comes home from an OB appointment and finds her daughter and her new husband murdered. It only can be assumed that the Shay (the alleged perpetrator) had murdered the husband and daughter.

A jury convicted him. And he went to jail. Then a sort of 'Green Mile' thing happened where he resurrected a bird of one of the inmates. Then he cured his cell neighbor of AIDS.

Then. June's new daughter, eleven years later needs a heart transplant. Who's a perfect match? Shay. He volunteers his heart and bangs his head against a food tray until he starts seizing. When that doesn't work, he petitions to be sentenced to death by hanging where his vital organs can be salvaged. Eventually, his petitions won.

In the meantime, we find out that Shay had come back to the house to find that June's husband was sexually molesting her daughter. Shay and Kurt engage in a physical altercation and Kurt fires his gun and it his the daughter. Then, Shay steals the gun and kills Kurt.

Ultimately, he is sentanced to death by hanging and June's daughter is given his heart which happens to be a perfect match.

Her daughter is getting ready for some dance at school and notices that her dog is sleeping when he shouldn't be. Weird. Searching for some resemblance between her and her doner, she reaches for the dog and it jumps to life, even though it is listless and cold.

Justice served, I guess. That's the lesson of Change of Heart.

Sea Glass

This was actually a pretty good book. I should pick through the last books of the year before the book sale before I start re-reading what I already know is going to be bad. I generally don't like those books that start with "in 1929. . . ." This is an exception. It was about the recession, but it was more about friendship, love, betrayal and loyalty.

Honora has married Sexton after only dating for a few weeks but that's how it goes in those days. They move into a beach house that is very very very run down but she sees the potential and begins to work on making this house their home. She scrubs the walls, the windows, decorates on their extremely thin budget. And, in her spare time, she scours the beach for sea glass.

Down the beach, Vivian has occupied the residence of her boyfriend because in the crash of the stock market, he has lost it and she buys it so they can have a home. However, her boyfriend cannot live in a house that a woman owns. Obviously. That would make you inferior. Dumbass. Anyhoo. Vivian and Honora become friends.

Sexton was a traveling salesman. He sold typewriters. Because of the depression, he was let go from his job and he worked in the local mill for money to support he and Honora. He was overheard by a radical one day talking about a copiograph that he had, and because mill workers were organizing for fair wages, living conditions, etc. McDermott asked Sexton to join their cause.

He agreed and their home became the new local meeting point for the organizers of this cause. The workers would go to the mill during the week then return to the beach house on the weekends to print paraphenilia and such. The weekends are filled with drinks, food, laughter and good company, all provided by the rich neighbor, Vivian. As the weeks go by, Honora finds that she is not so much in love with her loser husband as she is with the cause organizer, McDermott.

They exchange glances. They talk. Blah Blah Blah.

One day, their operation was intercepted by the union police and everyone was killed except Honora, Vivian and a boy(Alphonse) who had been running back and forth between his own life as a teenager and trying to be part of something radical. It was at Alfonse's house that the "take down" occurred. At which point, his mother was killed.

Sexton was injured. Seriously, he was taken to the hospital and saved. On day 10 of his recovery, he up and left town. He's a traveler, you know. Men and their callings. Ech. After Sexton leaves, Honora finds out that she is pregnant. Alfons is sent to live with his uncle but the doesn't want that so he begs to live with Honora and Vivian. Honora can't afford to keep the beach house so she moves in with Vivian. Honora has her baby and they all live happily ever after.

Daughter's Keeper

I picked up this book last year at the VNSA book sale. At the time I read this book, I was getting ready for the book sale again and my supply was running low. I haven't had much luck with books lately and I aimed for something on the bookshelf that I had never heard of, hoping for satisfaction with the unknown.

I found it! This was a really good book. It was about a girl, Olivia, who traveled to Mexico after taking a couple semesters off of college. She wanted to find herself and instead found herself in love. She thought her summertime affair with Jorge would end with her returning to her home and writing love letters back and forth. . . well, Jorge had a different idea. While Olivia viewed their "affair" as something fun and entertaining, something she could look back on and *sigh*, Jorge spent all of his family's money and payed the coyotes to bring him to Olivia. She couldn't turn him down! Especially after he had traveled all that way just to be with her.

As time goes on, Jorge has a hard time finding work. Olivia pretends to be in love, if for no other reason, than to spite her controlling mother. Because Jorge can't find legitimate work, he enters into a drug deal with one of Olivia's friends. Olivia was furious to find this out and forbid him to do it again or he would leave her (which is what she hoped would happen). Instead, while she was at home, she answers a phone call with instructions for Jorge to carry out the drug deal. She left the message for Jorge and left to go stay with her mom.

Jorge got busted and Olivia was woken up in her sleep as and convicted as an accessory to something-to-do- with-a-drug-deal. While she's living with her mom, she undergoes the trials and tribulations of facing a 10 year sentance. Oh, and did I mention she just found out she's pregnant? Shiiiiit.

The trial goes on and on and on and on and on. Olivia falls in love with her layer, or better, her layer falls in love with her.

Eventually, Olivia is sentenced to 4 years in prison. Jorge, gets 18 months. Awesome. She has her baby and her mom comes through and agrees to take care of it while Olivia is in prison.

This was a great mother/daughter story. Very entertaining and well worth the read.

The Good Guy

Timothy likes to have a beer after work at his friend's tavern. He blends in and is noticed by no one and he likes it that way. One evening a stranger approaches him and gives him an envelope full of cash and a picture of a girl. The other man mistakes him for a hit man who was hired to kill this woman. This ordinary man gets swooped up into a world of murder, chaos and adventure trying to save this woman who was marked for death.

He takes her and races around whatever city they're in and time and time again, saves her from being killed. Eventually, the bad guy is caught and the girl lives. Oh, did I mention they fall in love and live happily ever after?

Blah.