August column

It seems that by the end of each month when I start writing this column, I seem to look back and wonder where the past month has gone. July has been not only hot but very busy. My new sign on my shop door now says: Open: Tue. Maybe, Wed. Maybe, Friday Probably That is just the way it is. I am always glad to have someone walk in and find me open.

I am ready to spend a weekend at Fiber Folks of SW Mo. Weaving retreat in mid Aug. Going to learn some fancy pattern weaving and use of colors, and spend some time with come great people. I actually have read a lot of books lately, but feel that I have reported enough on the Harlan Coban novels. I think I have read about 13 of them in all. This month I will report on a couple of my favorite authors, that I can always count on for great reads.

Over a year ago I promised myself that I would re-read the Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series before I read the 8^th book. I finally did get them all read and have now finished the 8^th book. I understand that she plans to write at least two more in this series but it takes her about three years to complete one book. So now I look forward to the next one. Since the first book was made into a mini series on TV this last year there are many fans of her books. When I finished this last one I felt like I was saying “so long” to old friends and cant wait to meet them again soon.

Written in My Own Heart's Blood

by

Diana Gabaldon

This book picks up from the previous book An Echo in the Bone. The general story is about a combat nurse, Claire, in 1946, steps thru these stone in Scotland and finds herself in 1743. The first 7 books account her adventures, loves, and losses. This book finds her and Jamie in America in 1776 and being drawn into the battles that establish our independence from Great Britain. Many of the key players in the prev books seem drawn together at last and manage to work out some major issues. The story goes back to 1980 as Brianna (their daughter) is having her struggles as she and her families deal with problems in their home in Scotland and they are forced to go back thru the stones again, as they believe another time traveler has kidnapped their small son and taken him back thru the stones.

Ashley Bell

by

Dean Koontz

This is a new book by Koontz written in 2015. As with many books by Koontz the bizarre becomes the expected. A young woman named Bibi Blair is an aspiring author, engaged to a military guy serving over seas. She is very fierce and funny at the same time. When she suddenly developed stroke like symptoms she knew something was seriously wrong. It was the worse news possible, a brain cancer that is incurable and she is given less than a year to live. She smiled at the Dr. and said “we will see”

That night in the hospital she is visited by a mysterious man and a golden retriever who licked her hand. She woke up and felt totally well. Her parents are so thrilled they set her up with a massage treatment that also has some mystical tricks that leave her feeling like she is in another world and she know she must save Ashley Bell or her “cure” would be taken back. So the reader is taken on a wild ride with many twists and turns to find Ashley Bell before it is to late. I won't spoil it by revealing to much, but you know you have fallen in Koontz land for sure.