Yep it's that time again...

Time to push that sewing machine aside and gather in a circle so I can tell you about my newest book obsessions. Ok right off the bat, I'm not even going to go grab a picture of it, but I had heard recommenadations about the Giant's House. It's about a librarian and a giant -- or a guy who has some pituitary gland disorder or something and ends up being 8 ft tall or something. Anyway, I hated it, I quit reading it midway which is very rare for my bookworm self. The narrator of the book is the librarian and she is so nasty and mean and it just drove me crazy. I did not like it all. Now onto the good books.

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian. This is told through the eyes of the daughter of a midwife who ends up being put on trial for murder/manslaughter for killing a patient. She thought the woman had died in a homebirth and performed a C-section to save the baby. This is the story of the time when the narrator was a teen and her family was going through the trial. It's very good. I did put it down midway through because it takes awhile to get to the good part, but then it gets really good, and the ending is the best. The very end just gives you chills. Homebirth and midwifery are very close to my heart so I was excited to read this. This is the first book I read by this author and after I read it, I had to read more from him. He's very good.

The Double Bind - This is the second book I've read by Chris Bohjalian. And I think this one is even better than Midwives. This is about a young woman who works at a homeless shelter. In her college years, she was attacked by 2 men when she out biking some trails, and her life is changed by it. One of the clients of the homeless shelter dies and they find tons of photographs. This girl is a photographer by hobby and they give them to her to sort out to have an art type of show for his photos, and she finds pictures of herself on that day of her attack that he apparently took. So she's is off on a mission to find out more about him and his pictures. The homeless guy was mentally ill, so in part the book is about mental illness. The ending is great - you do not expect it. I admit, I suddenly realized some of what was going to happen at the end when I was about 80% through the book, but I tend to notice odd things and piece things together in my head without even realizing it, lol. Really good. At the end you are thinking "Oh. My. God!"

The Stolen Child by Keith Donahue. So this book intrigued me, I had been looking for it at all the used book stores, but didn't find it until I went to the big Half Price Books. It is a story about the changeling myth that has been in Europe for centuries. The myth of fairies who kidnap a child and then replace the child with a fairy to look just like the child, but parents know there is something "off" or wrong with their child. In real life, parents have been known to suspect this and kill their children. So because of this myth I was very intrigued. It's very good, I read it in 2 days, I could not put it down, and it gave me the creepies, lol. I love it when a book scares me. One night I stayed up all night reading half the book. I was a little disappointed with the ending, but it was still very good. This is the story about the boy who is stolen and how his life among the hobgoblins is, and the hobgoblin/fairy who becomes him and grows up. Eventually their paths cross.

My next books I'm starting are Promise Not to Tell and Island of Lost Girls - both are by Jennifer McMahon. I can't wait to start them. Gotta go back to work!