The Old West

Rating: 4/5

Review: This was my first western book that wasn't considered a romance. I liked it a lot, and I am already starting it's sequel, Resolution. I saw the movie version first, and I enjoyed it. I liked having a visual of the characters already in my mind. Of course, I love Viggo Mortenson, and he was an excellent Everett Hitch. If you like John Wayne movies, then you should like this book. It's a classic western theme, and though a bit harsh at times, it was a great story. It seemed quite true to it's genre, and history. It was also a very easy and fast read.

Book Description: In one of Parker's finest, two gunmen arrive in the lawless town of Appaloosa where the actions of a renegade rancher have already taken their toll.

Not Just a Cat

Rating: 4.5/5

Review: This was a wonderful, heartwarming story about a cat and the woman who saved his life. I had never heard of this famous cat, but I am so glad that I have learned about him now. Had I known of him before, though, I would have found a way to go and see him in person. I love that he was such a people person and that he really lifted the spirits of those who needed it the most. It is funny, bittersweet, interesting, and just plain good.

Book Description: How much of an impact can an animal have? How many lives can one cat touch? How is it possible for an abandoned kitten to transform a small library, save a classic American town, and eventually become famous around the world? You can't even begin to answer those questions until you hear the charming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa.Dewey's story starts in the worst possible way. Only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, he was stuffed into the returned book slot at the Spencer Public Library. He was found the next morning by library director, Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Dewey won her heart, and the hearts of the staff, by pulling himself up and hobbling on frostbitten feet to nudge each of them in a gesture of thanks and love. For the next nineteen years, he never stopped charming the people of Spencer with his enthusiasm, warmth, humility, (for a cat) and, above all, his sixth sense about who needed him most.As his fame grew from town to town, then state to state, and finally, amazingly, worldwide, Dewey became more than just a friend; he became a source of pride for an extraordinary Heartland farming town pulling its way slowly back from the greatest crisis in its long history.

Time travel to the Black Plague

Rating: 4/5

Review: This was an amazing book that takes the reader into the time of the Black Plague. The characters were well developed and one truly cares what happens to them, especially the young historian, Kivrin. There is sadness, humor, intrigue, and even a bit of adventure to the story, and it's no wonder the author has won awards. I like the concept of time travel being an everyday thing, and used by historians to get facts straight.

Book Description: For Kivrin, preparing an on-site study of one of the deadliest eras in humanity's history was as simple as receiving inoculations against the diseases of the fourteenth century and inventing an alibi for a woman traveling alone. For her instructors in the twenty-first century, it meant painstaking calculations and careful monitoring of the rendezvous location where Kivrin would be received.But a crisis strangely linking past and future strands Kivrin in a bygone age as her fellows try desperately to rescue her. In a time of superstition and fear, Kivrin -- barely of age herself -- finds she has become an unlikely angel of hope during one of history's darkest hours.Five years in the writing by one of science fiction's most honored authors, Doomsday Book is a storytelling triumph. Connie Willis draws upon her understanding of the universalities of human nature to explore the ageless issues of evil, suffering and the indomitable will of the human spirit.