The Ghostly Grounds: Murder and Breakfast by Sophie Love

 

Genre: Adult, Mystery
Source: Purchased

Marie Fortune is nothing like her name.  In just a few short hours, she quit her job, got rid of her two-timing boyfriend and received a call from police that they had found your great-aunt June dead in her house. Fortune had nothing to do with her day.  June packs a bag and head up to Point Bliss. Her one hope at that time is that whoever ends up with her aunt’s house will let her have one last walk through. At her great-aunt’s funeral a lawyer approaches her. He hands her three envelopes. The first one informs her that she is the new oner of her aunt’s house. The second one informs her that her aunt left her a surprise. The surprise ends up being a dog named Boo. The third envelop contains the keys to the house. 

After spending a night in the house Marie decided to make her childhood dream a reality. She will turn her grandmother’s house into a bed and breakfast. The first customer she has booked arrives only to realize they booked the wrong place. The second call she gets is someone looking for a place in the area because of a job he has.  Brendan Peck is a paranormal investigator. He is investigating a nearby  lighthouse.  On a tour of the bed and breakfast he is videotaping a couple of areas and finds what seems to be a ghostly appearance. Overly eager, he posts the video to Twitter and it goes viral.  The calls start pouring in. This includes a call from Alfred Ryker. He is known around the world for debunking paranormal activities. After filming all night he comes down and informs Marie he has proof to debunk the ghost in her place.  Later that day he is murdered. Who would kill him and why?

This book was absolutely awesome. So much so I bought the rest of the series to read. It was a great murder mystery. There were some ghostly elements along the way. I loved her dog Boo. He has an important role in this book.  It kept me guessing all the way through. I literally sat and read in in three hours.  So good. I love when I find a new to me author and can recommend them to others.

Student Saturday: Captured: An American Prisoner of War in North Vietnam by Alvin Townley

 

Genre: Young Adult, Biography
Student Reviewer: Anna H.

“Captured” by Alvin Townley is a taste of reality that most people do not ever experience. The book is an account of an American prisoner of war, Jeremiah (Jerry) Denton, in North Vietnam during the Vietnamese war. Jerry Denton was a commander and a husband to a women named Jane as well as a father to seven children. Denton and his bombardier-navigator, Bill Tschudy, had boarded the aircraft called Independence in June,1965.Soon after takeoff, the ship had crashed in a river in North Vietnam where the Vietnamese Soldiers took them away to a prison which the American soldiers called Hanoi Hilton. Jerry and many other soldiers at the prison began finding ways to communicate using a secret code for letters. They would use a communication method of tapping through the walls and sending messages through the latrine. This went on for some time and then the Vietnamese soldiers wanted the POWs (prisoners of war) to give them as much information as possible. The Americans refused and were only allowed to give their name, rank, service number, and date of birth, as the code of conduct had permitted them to say. The Vietnamese soldiers did not respect their answers and went against the Geneva Convention, an agreement between Vietnam and America that does not allow for cruel, inhumane punishment. They tortured the American soldiers until they couldn't take anymore and forced them to write biographies or give information about America’s army to them. This went on for about six years. During that time the most uncooperative American men, including Jerry and 10 others, were sent to an isolation camp with extremely small cells yet they still found ways to communicate. Back home their wives founded a National league of POW-MIA families which got them out of solitary confinement and closer to returning home. They were no longer tortured and were given a proper amount of food. In February 1973 the war ended, and the American soldiers finally went home to their families after eight long years of misery. Most men made it out alive and with honor because of Jerry Denton's leadership and commanding order. He was a legend to America. 

“Captured” explains the eight hard years that Jeremiah Denton and other Americans experienced while being cut off from the world because of the love for their country and the fight in them. The Biography is a piece of what it is really like to fight for your country even when you must sacrifice time. Some American Soldiers missed the chance to watch their kids grow up and miss important events during the eight years they spent in prison. When I read “Captured” I made a connection with the many families there are in today's world who have loved ones in the army that they may not see often or at all. I am not one for biographies but this one was very good and made me see that we should never take our loved ones for granted. I recommend this book to anyone from ages 13-100. 

Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor coerr

Genre: Middle Grade, Biography

Source: Purchased

It has been over thirty years since I read this book. I decided to purchase and reread it again today.  This is the story of a young girl who was an infant when the United States dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima. So many people died. Worse yet were those who developed leukemia years later. Sadako was one of them. She loved to run. She had a dream of making the running team when she got to Junior High. Instead of running, she found herself in the hospital battling leukemia. Her best friend brought her a golden origami crane. She had made it based on the story they had been told about a person making a thousand paper cranes, then they will get well.  

I am sixty-six at this reading. I was so touched at the message in this book. It is a message of hope and never giving up. It is a message of reaching for your dreams.  The author was inspired to write this story for the kids in America. She based it on the biography  of Sadako's life written by her classmates and published. I enjoyed rereading this book so much that I will make sure that I have a copy on my shelves at school. I want to reintroduce one of the most inspirational books I have ever read to a new generation of students.