*THE TENDERNESS OF WOLVES* by Stef Penney

The year is 1867. Winter has just tightened its grip on Dove River, a tiny isolated settlement in the Northern Territory, when a man is brutally murdered. Laurent Jammett had been a voyageur for the Hudson Bay Company before an accident lamed him four years earlier. The same accident afforded him the little parcel of land in Dove River, land that the locals called unlucky due to the untimely death of the previous owner.
A local woman, Mrs. Ross, stumbles upon the crime scene and sees the tracks leading from the dead man's cabin north toward the forest and the tundra beyond. It is Mrs. Ross's knock on the door of the largest house in Caulfield that launches the investigation. Within hours she will regret that knock with a mother's love -- for soon she makes another discovery: her seventeen-year-old son Francis has disappeared and is now considered a prime suspect.
In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the crime and to the township -- Andrew Knox, Dove River's elder statesman; Thomas Sturrock, a wily American itinerant trader; Donald Moody, the clumsy young Company representative; William Parker, a half-breed Native American and trapper who was briefly detained for Jammett's murder before becoming Mrs. Ross's guide. But the question remains: do these men want to solve the crime or exploit it?
One by one, the searchers set out from Dove River following the tracks across a desolatelandscape -- home to only wild animals, madmen, and fugitives -- variously seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for seventeen years, and a forgotten Native American culture before the snows settle and cover the tracks of the past for good.
In an astonishingly assured debut, Stef Penney deftly weaves adventure, suspense, revelation, and humor into an exhilarating thriller; a panoramic historical romance; a gripping murder mystery; and, ultimately, with the sheer scope and quality of her storytelling, an epic for the ages.

I would rate this book 3.5/5. I especially enjoyed the visual description of the cold, icy terrain and landscape. I especially found these descriptions great because the author had never been to the cold northwest. It was due to her research that she was so able to describe it.

*OUT STEALING HORSES* by Per Petterson

We were going out stealing horses. That was what he said, standing at the door to the cabin where I was spending the summer with my father. I was fifteen. It was 1948 and oneof the first days of July.Trond’s friend Jon often appeared at his doorstep with an adventure in mind for the two of them. But this morning was different. What began as a joy ride on “borrowed” horses ends with Jon falling into a strange trance of grief. Trond soon learns what befell Jon earlier that day—an incident that marks the beginning of a series of vital losses for both boys.Set in the easternmost region of Norway, Out Stealing Horses begins with an ending. Sixty-seven-year-old Trond has settled into a rustic cabin in an isolated area to live the rest of his life with a quiet deliberation. A meeting with his only neighbor, however, forces him to reflect on that fateful summer.

*Rate 3/5. I had such high hopes for this book reading it to the very last page hoping that it would get better, but it didn't. I know that it has won many awards, but I just did not find it that interesting, too mundane.

*THE NAMESAKE* by Jhumpa Lahiri

Jhumpa Lahiri's quietly dazzling new novel, The Namesake, is that rare thing: an intimate, closely observed family portrait that effortlessly and discreetly unfolds to disclose a capacious social vision. … In chronicling more than three decades in the Gangulis' lives, Ms. Lahiri has not only given us a wonderfully intimate and knowing family portrait, she has also taken the haunting chamber music of her first collection of stories and reorchestrated its themes of exile and identity to create a symphonic work, a debut novel that is as assured and eloquent as the work of a longtime master of the craft.

*I would give this book a 6/5 for it's excellence in telling a story. I saw the movie as well as read the book because the story was so rich with eloquent writing and distinctive prose. You are hooked at page one and unable to put it down once you begin.

* THE SURGEON * by Tess Gerritsen

Filled with the authentic detail that is the trademark of this doctor turned author ... and peopled with rich and complex characters--from the ER to the squad room to the city morgue--here is a thriller of unprecedented depth and suspense. Exposing the shocking link between those who kill and cure, punish and protect, The Surgeon is Tess Gerritsen's most exciting accomplishment yet
Annotation
In her most masterful novel of medical suspense, New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen creates a villain of unforgettable evil--and the one woman who can catch him before he kills again.

*3/5 Although I did like this book very much, I think I liked The Bone Garden more. I love historical novels and The Bone Garden occurred most of the book in the early 1800's.

* THE BONE GARDEN * by Tess Gerritsen

Present day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil–human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. Boston, 1830: In order to pay for his education, medical student Norris Marshall has joined the ranks of local “resurrectionists”–those who plunder graveyards and harvest the dead for sale on the black market. But when a distinguished doctor is found murdered and mutilated on university grounds, Norris finds that trafficking in the illicit cadaver trade has made him a prime suspect. With unflagging suspense and pitch-perfect period detail, The Bone Garden deftly traces the dark mystery at its heart across time and place to a finale as ingeniously conceived as it is shocking

*I had never read Tess Gerritsen before but decided to after hearing that this book was good. I was hooked from the first page and it was a marathon read for me. Could not put it down!! A great mystery and I love the historical time period of the early to mid 1800's. I decided to go to the library and get several of this author's other books because now I am a fan! Rate: 5/5

*THE ALMOST MOON* by Alice Sebold

When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily."
So begins The Almost Moon, Alice Sebold's astonishing, brilliant, and daring new novel. A woman steps over the line into the unthinkable in this unforgettable work by the author of The Lovely Bones and Lucky.
For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and now grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined.
Unfolding over the next twenty-four hours, this searing, fast-paced novel explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers; the meaning of devotion; and the line between love and hate. It is a challenging, moving, gripping story, written with the fluidity and strength of voice that only Alice Sebold can bring to the page.

There was so much criticism of this book because of the dark subject, a daughter killing her mother that I could not wait to read it. I like to form my own opinions about a book. I have read many books that others praised and I could not finish 100 pages! I rate this book a 4.5/5 because the author aptly described a woman's decline into madness and she did it very well. Helen, the main character, was doomed from birth by both of her highly dysfunctional parents. She attempted to form a more intact, healthy family, but in the end, she became what her dysfuntional parents created. A great book.

*EAT, LOVE & PRAY* by Elizabeth Gilbert

Oddly but aptly titled, Eat, Pray, Love is an experience to be savored: This spiritual memoir brims with humor, grace, and scorching honesty. After a messy divorce and other personal missteps, Elizabeth Gilbert confronts the "twin goons" of depression and loneliness by traveling to three countries that she intuited had something she was seeking. First, in Italy, she seeks to master the art of pleasure by indulging her senses. Then, in an Indian ashram, she learns the rigors and liberation of mind-exalting hours of meditation. Her final destination is Bali, where she achieves a precarious, yet precious equilibrium. Gilbert's original voice and unforced wit lend an unpretentious air to her expansive spiritual journey.

When I began this book, and probably after I read 80% or more, I could not put it down and loved it. Ms. Gilbert emphasized over and over in the beginning how she was much too dependent on a man's opinion of her, she was nothing without a man's approval. She then goes on to describe how she frees her soul, her mind and her body in Italy (eating) India (praying) and finally Bali (love). She wound up in Bali seeking the truth and had promised to adhere to the lessons of an ancient guru. This began well, but then she reverted to a man she met and spent most of her last part of the journey having a raging, hot affair! She lost all of her authenticity with me at that point. She talked the talk very well, but in the end, she could not walk the walk. I would rate this book 2/5.