London by Edward Rutherford

I have wanted to read this book for about 10 years but the copy I had had print so small that I couldn't comfortably read it. Now that I have a Kindle I decided to download it. It was Edward Rutherford's first novel and I found that it bounced around quite a bit and I would get lost from generation to generation but I stuck with it and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's Historical Fiction but the historical part was quite accurate. I was particularly interested in the beginnings of London. I had no idea that Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London, among other buildings, are so old. I didn't realize that London wasn't really the centre of the United Kingdom. Many of the Kings were French and didn't even live in London. 

I had no idea that, aside from the Romans, there were so many different cultures that made up England. That explains why, although they all speak English there were many different dialects and it would appear, to me anyway, why there are so many different accents. There were Danes and Celts and French and Latin,  so many other languages spoken up until relatively recently, or more recently than I had thought. 

For some reason (probably because I have a lot of British in my ancestry) I've been very interested in the Monarchy and this was a perfect book to learn this from.

Half Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls

This book was written after Jeanette Walls book The Glass Castle. I'm so glad that she decided to write it. As a true story I was having difficulty when I read the Glass Castle really understanding the life that they had lived and why Jeanette's parents lived as they did.

Half Broke Horses was an eye opener. Jeanette's grandparents lived a good life. They did have a roof over their heads and were hard working. Life was hard and yet there was something about their life, a way that the children were raised perhaps, that fit in with the free spirit that her mother became. I'm so glad that Jeanette was able to break the cycle that was her parents and make a better life for herself. I was sad that her mother ended up homeless and on the street and yet that fit with her personality. It was nice to see that Jeanette was able to continue to have her own life and have a relationship with her mother that she was able to detach from and just let her mom be her mom.

Beautiful Lie The Dead by Barbara Fradkin

I absolutely LOVE Barbara Fradkin's novels. She is one amazing writer. Her Inspector Green mysteries all take place in Ottawa, or the general vicinity and since I know the city so well the ability to be able to visualize where he's driving adds an extra special element. She sure didn't disappoint with this novel. You'd think after reading so many that the plots would begin to get stale. I don't want to give any of this book away cause it has more twists and turns than, well, a back country cottage road in a winter snowstorm. But it's not the average murder mystery.

I can't wait for her to finish her next one.