I just finished this book today and I have to say it is one of the best that I have read in a long time. Right now I am wishing I hadn't finished the book. I want more of the characters and I want to know about where they went!

Dancing in the Lowcountry centers around Ella a mature, widowed woman who is entering the time of her life when her children start to doubt she can take care of herself. She has a companion who is a full blooded Cherokee Indian and the two of them take off for Myrtle Beach for a respite and some self introspection. Ella plans to give her oldest son some long hidden news and gets sidetracked when she learns that he is seriously ill. She meets and older gentle man at the genteel Priscilla and a touch of romance ensues. Ella slides back into her past looking at the choices she has made and how they have defined her life and she uses that to determine how she can stop losing control over her life now.

I loved everything about this book from the characters, to the locations (I believe I am truly a sucker for the lowcountry), oh my the food!!! (Bless this writer for his superior grasp of that part of the subject, I was drooling)This book itself was a slow dance, a romance of life if you will and how the decisions you make, even as a young adult have ripples even into the evening of your life. Heartily recommended! A wonderful read, it is hard to believe that A) it was written by a male and B) it is his first published book of fiction!

I am reading Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. I am so engrossed in this book I am getting up early just to read. I am fighting to read at work and when I am home, all I want to do is get back into it.

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. De Rosnay's U.S. debut fictionalizes the 1942 Paris roundups and deportations, in which thousands of Jewish families were arrested, held at the Vélodrome d'Hiver outside the city, then transported to Auschwitz. Forty-five-year-old Julia Jarmond, American by birth, moved to Paris when she was 20 and is married to the arrogant, unfaithful Bertrand Tézac, with whom she has an 11-year-old daughter. Julia writes for an American magazine and her editor assigns her to cover the 60th anniversary of the Vél' d'Hiv' roundups. Julia soon learns that the apartment she and Bertrand plan to move into was acquired by Bertrand's family when its Jewish occupants were dispossessed and deported 60 years before. She resolves to find out what happened to the former occupants: Wladyslaw and Rywka Starzynski, parents of 10-year-old Sarah and four-year-old Michel. The more Julia discovers—especially about Sarah, the only member of the Starzynski family to survive—the more she uncovers about Bertrand's family, about France and, finally, herself. Already translated into 15 languages, the novel is De Rosnay's 10th (but her first written in English, her first language). It beautifully conveys Julia's conflicting loyalties, and makes Sarah's trials so riveting, her innocence so absorbing, that the book is hard to put down. (July)
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I knew absolutely nothing about this terrible happening and have as a family historian, I am so engrossed in the lives of these people and their interconnection that I find myslef thinking about them even when I am not reading!

The Vél’ d’hiv’ Round-up involved 13 000 victims from Paris and its suburbs. Over slightly more than two days, the Round-up involved nearly a third of the 42,000 Jews deported to Polish death camps in 1942. The statistics for this terrible year account for over half of the total 76,000 Jewish deportations from France. The roundup accounted for more than a quarter of the Jews sent from France to Auschwitz in 1942, of whom only 811 came home at the end of the war.

I am no stranger to history. I have studied the Holocaust. I thought that man's inhumanity could no longer shock me. Reading this book, fictional or not, I stand corrected. Definately a must read, Definately a book to own.

French Children of the Holocaust

Excuse me now I have to go find out what is happening in my book!

I have just been gobbling up books this past week. I made a run to the library to return some (just two) over due books and hit what i consider the mother load of new reads. I tried to not grab but several found their way into my bag and I have now finished them. The first was Rosina Lippi's The Pajama Girls for Lambert Square. This is the first of Rosina's books that I have read other than her Wilderness Series. (I intend to remedy that situation ASAP!) This was a lovely story with well formed, interesting characters that I loved. Especially the idea of living in pajamas... I could do that. It doesn't hurt that it takes place in South Carolina where I am determined to retire to someday. You cannot beat this as a lovely warm romance. I highly recommend it and will be out to look for more of Rosina's books.

The second book I gobbled up was Dorothea Benton Frank's Bulls Island Another South Carolina story this one on my beloved coast. Frank once again delivers a wonderful, cultured strong woman centered novel. I have yet to read a book of hers I didn't love. This one was as intriguing and captivating as all the rest and again, I highly recommend it. I cannot wait for Return to Sullivan's Island at the end of this month!

Last but certainly not least was Kate Jacob's Comfort Food. Even though it was not set in South Carolina, it was wonderful all the same. Comfort Food was the first of her books that I have read and I will be looking for The Friday Night Knitting Club. As a "cook" myself (Italian mother's love to feed folks!) I can relate to so many of the characters in this book. The relationships are so well formed and so interesting I was sorry to see the book end.

It is rare, for me at least, to find and read three wonderful books in a row, I am giving this lot all 4 stars and wish Pam was here to share them with.

I have three books that I have finished this week. The first is by Jennifer Chiaverrini. The Lost Quilter is another edition in the Elm Creek Quilter's series and it did not disappoint. Once again we visit the evils of slavery and how quilts help lead the way on the Underground Railroad but this time we got a look primarily from the view of one slave. These books are like candy once you start you cannot put it down. Definitely a keeper and I think this is a series that I do need to purchase for my collection.

The next was another book in the China Bayles series by Susan Wittig Albert. Wormwood lacked the input of China's usual cast of characters but found a place close to my heart anyway. This book takes place in a fictional Shaker community in Northern Kentucky (!). The Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill is one of my absolute favorite places to visit in Kentucky and I have been there many times. The fictional village of Mt. Zion is very much like that and took care to depict the Shaker community very much as it was in the 1800's. I read it straight through and loved every minute. I just wish Ms. Albert could write as quickly as I can read! I cannot wait for the next one.

The last book was an audio book. The 37th Hour by Jodi Compton. Out of the three books, this is the only one I would not recommend. While I chose this because because it is a mystery/thiller with a woman as the main character I was very disappointed in the way the story was handled. There were so many sub-themes and flash backs that I found myself going back to re-listen several times to see just what I had missed that kept me from understanding what I was listening to. The ending was awful. I suspected that there would be a sequel (which I have since found out is true, there is) but I won't be reading it. I won't go into the themes since I don't want to give away any spoilers but I would only read this if there is nothing else at hand.