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Annette's Book Club Ratings for 2013

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Annette's 2013 Book Club Winners and Losers If you’ve read a few of my blog posts, you may know that I belong to a small book club . We don’t always plow through a regimented list of a book a month. People get busy. The short summer months are usually calling us to do other things like make dates with the sunshine, while December is busy with Christmas activities.  This year between the sun and snow, work and family, and our own selection of books, we managed to squeeze in eight book club selections.  I have reviewed all but one of them in the blog.  Click on the titles to see the full reviews. Here are our book club members’ average ratings of those books on a scale of 1-5 with five being the best rating. The Diary of Mattie Spenser   by Sandra Dallas   | | | |   (4.5) A woman marries a man she barely knows and moves to the Colorado Territory where she faces adversity on the new frontier and in her home. Mattie is an optimistic breath of fresh air even thr

Top Ten Fiction Books of 2013

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Top Ten Fiction Books of 2013 Today, I thought it would be fun to see what I’ve been missing this year.  Below are the top ten lists for fiction this year from various sources.  It seems I have a lot of catching up to do. Which ones did you read? Good Reads Best Books of 2013 Choice Awards https://www.goodreads.com/choiceawards/best-fiction-books-2013 And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini A look into the lives of a brother and sister and their families in Afghanistan, 1952. The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult An unlikely friendship between a young woman who lost her mother and an elderly man who later confesses a long-buried and shameful secret. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes A love story of an ordinary girl who tries to help a wheelchair bound ex-Master of the Universe. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt After surviving a crash, a young boy is taken in by a friend’s family. He clings to a small painting from his mother an

Crashing Through by Robert Kurson

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Seeing Through Mike May’s World Crashing Through by Robert Kurson is a true account of Mike May’s journey from being blind to gaining his sight as an adult in his forties. Blinded at age three when a jar of chemicals exploded in Mike’s face, he remembered little of the sighted world. But that didn’t stop him from living in it.  With encouragement from his mother Mike experienced life more than some sighted people. He grew into a daredevil and tried everything from soccer, to bike riding, and driving his sister’s car. He was even a downhill speed skier!   Then one day his world was turned upside down when a doctor told Mike that he may be a candidate for stem cell surgery that could restore his vision.  The risks associated with it were enormous, both physical and emotional, both equally as dangerous.  Many things could go wrong. One of the greatest dangers of the operation was the potent immunosuppressive drugs he would have to take afterwards, drugs whose side effects includ