Sea Change

 

St. Simons Island, Georgia

September 1804

Storms bring the detritus of other people's lives into our own, a reminder that we are not alone, and of how truly insignificant we are. The indiscriminating waves had brutalized the shore, tossing pieces of splintered timber, an intact China teacup, and a gentleman's watch--still with its cover and chain--onto my beloved beach, each coming to rest as if placed gently in the sand as a shopkeeper would display his wares. As I rubbed my thumb over the smooth lip of the China cup, I thought of how someone's loss had become my gain, of how the tide would roll in and out again as if nothing had changed, and how sometimes the separation between endings and beginning is so small that they seem to run together like the ocean's waves.

Sea Change

Karen White

 

Great storytelling; loved the alternating stories--early 1800s and 2011. Interesting characters; well drawn. Makes me excited that we're going to be on St. Simon's Island for a few days in September. We'll be celebrating your SIL's 65th birthday, and I've already ordered a copy of this book for her.

 

Tomorrow River

 

I'm sure you've heard it said that a person can't begin to understand another's troubles until they take a stroll in their shoes. Also maybe you'd . . . would you do me the favor of slipping on my little gal sneakers and taking forty giant steps backwards in time? Go stumbling around the summer of '69 the same way I did? Once you see what I was up against, I'm hoping you'll come to believe that my heart was tender and my intentions pure, and that's got to count for something.

Tomorrow River

Leslie Kagen

 

 

That's Shenandoah Wilson Carmody speaking, twin sister of Jane Woodrow Carmody, daughter of Evelyn, who's been missing for just about a year, and His Honor Judge Walter T. Carmody.

You gotta love Shenandoah. She's a whiz with words, passionate about all that she loves and experiences, protector of Woody, and determined to find out what happened to her mother just one year ago, come the Founders' Festival.

A quick and very satisfying read. Looking forward to more great storytelling and beautiful stories by Leslie Kagen.

 

Identical

 

Many years from now, whenever he thinks back to Dita Kronon’s murder, Paul Gianis’s memories will always return to the start of the day. It is September 5, 1982, the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, a lush afternoon with high clouds lustrous as pearls. Zeus Kronon, Dita’s father, has opened the sloping grounds of his suburban mansion to hundreds of his fellow parishioners from St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in the city for their annual celebration of the ecclesiastical New Year. Down the hill, in the grassy riverside meadow that serves as a parking lot, Paul arrives with his mother and his identical twin brother, Cass. The next few hours with both of them, Paul knows, will be an ordeal.

Identical

Scott Turow

-source-

State Senator Paul Giannis is a candidate for Mayor of Kindle County. His identical twin brother Cass is newly released from prison, 25 years after pleading guilty to the murder of his girlfriend, Dita Kronon. When Evon Miller, an ex-FBI agent who is the head of security for the Kronon family business, and private investigator Tim Brodie begin a re-investigation of Dita's death, a complex web of murder, sex, and betrayal-as only Scott Turow could weave-dramatically unfolds... - See more at: http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/features/scottturow/identical.html#sthash.AjYaORwH.dpuf

I LOVE this book. Twists and turns; anticipation. Great storytelling. I really couldn't put it down. I always like Scott Turow's books, and this one I like the best, so far. Legal thriller; procedural, but different.

Many of the characters are a bit fuzzy, especially Paul and Cass--for very good reasons. These folks all seem to live lives a bit blurred on-the-surface. Evon and Tim we get to see clearly. There are really no legal villans here, just a couple of buffoons.

It's not the criminal justice system that's crooked here, it's mostly everyone else.

I've already recommended this book a few time.