Hill Towns, by Anne Rivers Siddons

Read and reviewed in November, 2012, released later

This novel is a complicated story about a group of people traveling in Italy with a newly-wed couple, combining travelogue with romantic tension.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail, by Bill Bryson

Read and reviewed in February, 2009. Released in June.

I finished reading this book this morning. Bill Bryson is a very humorous writer. He can make anything seem funny, even slogging through snow, rain, cold, and heat through the woods on the Appalachian Trail. Along the way, he gives a lot of information about the history of the trail, some important events that happened in the vicinity, particularly events surrounding the American Civil War, and facts concerning the biological diversity and geology of the area.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and will look for more of his work.

Round Ireland with a Fridge, by Tony Hawks

Read and reviewed in June, 2008. Later released as a bookray to other Bookcrossers.

I just finished this book yesterday, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it! It was a true, and humourous account of the author's adventures as he hitchhiked around the perimeter of Ireland with a small refrigerator. I laughed out loud as I read almost every page!

more Bookcrossers' reviews here

A Little Twist of Texas, by Linda Raven Moore

This book, written by a fellow Bookcrosser(Linda Gentile, aka whiteraven13), was sent on a bookring (beginning and ending with me).

All the reviews of the participants can be found here .

Notes from a Small Island, by Bill Bryson

Read and reviewed in February, 2006

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, despite the (imo) unnecessary four-letter words sprinkled around. That part was rather school-boyish, but I was able to overlook it.
It was so funny, that although I tried not to disturb MrHorse's sleep by laughing out loud, I often shook the bed with stifled mirth!

After he reads it, we will give it to our son.

A Love Divine, by Alexandra Ripley

I read this book in April, 2013. It is no longer in my possession.

A historical fiction based on Joseph of Arimethea, the one in whose tomb Jesus was buried. He was described in the Bible as a "secret follower" of Christ. This novel describes what the author imagines could have been his life before and after his encounter with the crucified Christ.

I should refrain from reading novels based on events in the Bible. I get so annoyed when they get details wrong. Although Scripture clearly states that Joseph was a secret follower of Jesus at the time of the crucifixion, the book puts his conversion some time after. There is no mention of Nicodemas, who accompanied Joseph and carried the 75 pounds of myrrh and other spices. A major theme carrying the plot was the requirement in Jewish law that a man and wife must divorce if they have no children in ten years of marriage. What nonsense! What about Zechariah and Elizabeth, parents of John the Baptist in their old age? Not to mention Abraham and Sarah. Not relying on my own knowledge, I searched Judaism 101 and Jewish Marriage and Family in the Ancient World at My Jewish Learning and there was nothing to indicate that this was true.

Other than these major errors (in my opinion), I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and was very interested in Joseph's travels and adventures. It is an epic, carrying us from Joseph's youth in a farming village to his becoming a seaman, then a captain, then an important trader with a fleet of ships. His rich life included friends, relatives, and lovers, Jews, Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Gauls, Germans, Celts, and Druids, from the Emperor to the lowliest slave.

Legend has it that he traveled as far as Cornwall, then known as Albion. He stuck his staff into the ground when he arrived in the dead of winter, and it miraculously grew and blossomed! Today it is known as the Thorn of Glastonbury.