Literature
In 1924 in West Virginia, Alma decides to join her husband in a trip to Florida to buy a trunk full of potential treasures. She has to leave her children behind. When the trunk turns out to be full of old clothing, her husband abandons her.
Alma returns home, retrieves her two oldest children and starts a brothel. What ensues is a story of a strong woman. Alma loves her children and will do anything to protect them. This story is about how women help women and how a woman can overcome circumstances and rise above them.
I found the story just wandered along at times
Rating: 
(3.0/5)
Practically everyone knows about the controversy that this book caused after Oprah placed it on her book list then found out that parts of it were fictionalized. Frey has apparently only been a minor player to the FBI, and that dentist scene probably isn't real. But Frey is an addict, an alcoholic, and a criminal - which he often repeats throughout the book. When his parents bring him to this clinic, he has a hole in his cheek and just doesn't care about anything. He soon learns that if he does anymore drugs or drinks anymore he will most likely wind up dead. 
Ceremony in Death is another Eve Dallas mystery. This one involves satanism and the Wiccan religions. The information about these two beliefs was interesting. 
Day of Confession is a mystery that is slightly different; about 1/3 of the way through the book you know the details of the crime and the criminal. The remainder of the book is about how 'they' get caught. And what happens is still a surprise.
This book is set in Sunderland, England in 1831 at the time of a cholera epidemic. Gustine is a young mother who works in a pottery factory by day and rents a gown to prostitize herself at night. Henry Chiver is a doctor who craves to learn more about anatomy. Gustine works at finding bodies for Henry to autopsy. 
What a powerful small book. Wiesel was born in Transylvania. In 1944 at the age of fifteen he and his family were rounded up and transported to Auschwitz and then Buchenwald. 
The year is 1906, and Mattie lives with her family on a farm. But this isn't an ordinary family. Mattie's mother has recently passed away from cancer and her brother left for unknown reasons after an argument with their father. With a family full of girls, life on the farm is tough. Mattie tries to keep up with her school work and eventually gets a scholarship to college. But she has to struggle with the decision of whether or not to leave her family for school. 
Ruby Capote moves from Boston to New York to escape her boyfriend and start a new job as a columnist. She starts to fall for her boss, the editor of The New York News, but she has commitment issues and pushes him away. Ruby also discusses her shrink, her co-workers, and her weekly poker sessions with her friends. 
Bosch's life is in shambles. His girlfriend has left him. His house is condemned and he is under suspension for assualting his boss. 
Ellen Van Bemmel is a normal 13 year old when she experiences a devastating personal tragedy. Twenty five years later she tells her story as she gets ready to birth her own child.
Jane Hudson returns to teach Latin at her old high school, Heart Lake. Heart Lake is an all girls school set on a lake that has tales of drowning and suicide going back fifty years. When one of Jane's student tries to commit suicide, Jane starts seeing striking similarities between the students she is teaching and her own set of friends when she was in school. Twenty years ago, Jane's two roommates and one of her roommate's brother committed suicide. Jane starts to re-live this as the school tries to figure out why Jane's student tried to commit suicide.