Blair Books

The Piedmont Triad is a region of North Carolina that encompasses Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Highpoint, Burlington, and a number of smaller towns. Best known for its tobacco and furniture, the area often gets ignored by tourists. However, as this guide illustrates beautifully, the Triad is brimming with fantastic trails and hiking areas.

The book details information on numerous outdoor areas in the Triad. The book claims to include 140 trails, but this total clearly encompasses multiple trails in each area. For example, the Densons Creek Nature Trail map shows a "long loop" and a "short loop." Nevertheless, this guide is the most complete of its type available.

Each hiking area is illustrated in maps featuring the various trails, with numerous pictures throughout the book. De Hart has written brief descriptions of each area, including information regarding the length and difficulty of the hike. The book also contains an Appendix with useful contacts, such as local biking clubs.

This guide will obviously appeal greatly to hikers in the Triad. I purchased this book when I moved to the Triad, and I've used it quite often to find new places to walk and hike. The guide could also be useful for people visiting the area and wanting information. Highly recommended.

As frequent users of the Off the Beaten Path series, this is a good companion book for exploring the Trace.

As always, Emma has researched her novels meticulously. "Twilight time" is no exception. The attention to detail is superb. It builds gradually until the reader is so caught up in the plot, it is impossible to stop reading it.

Emma has a deep understanding of female psychology. Each character is multi-dimensional, and you are drawn in to the lives of all the leading characters. But they still surprise you, nothing is predictable. For the days you read the book , you are drawn into Emma Blair's world. After that the characters continue to linger, and remain in your mind.
A memorable read, more please Emma!

My girls ages 2 & 3 love this book. It's simple but engaging and I love the illustrations.

Maizie Blackare is a woman living in Cornwall, running the family hotel while her husband Sam is in the merchant navy. Christian Le Gall is stilling recovery wounds he recieved at Dunkirk. He decideds to travel to the Hotel Paris where he meets Maizie and dispite her being married these two lonely people fall in love.
"Wild Strawberries" by Emma Blair, is different to the location, but the story line is pretty much the same. As before Ms. Blair gives good the reader a good pace to the book that holds the reader interest. The characers and plot are interesting,wanting the reader find out what happens in the end. Overall "Wild Strawberris is a good book that Ms. Blair fans or newcomers will want to read.

I was cruising along, eagerly awaiting a happy ending when the protagonists could finally be together as was meant to be.....and then SHOCK. It can't be! I felt upset confused and betrayed when I got to the last page. It was all a ruse. If she was going to do that to us then maybe she should have developed that plot twist a little more instead of just cutting everything off. For this reason I don't feel I can recommend the book and will probably not read another by this author.

Another Anita Shreve's hit, sober, heart-wrenching and full of texture. I had no idea it had a connection to one of her previous books, "The Weight Of Water", which I read years ago (and liked very much). It connects us with one smaller character in that book, Linda, but it is not necessary to read its predecessor to get into this one, as it is not a sequel.

Linda and Thomas meet and fall in love as teenagers, but the story unfolds backwards, after a chance meeting in Toronto, when they are both in their fifties. They have not seen each other in twenty-six years. Their past life with all its joys, flaws and pains resurfaces. The anatomy of a very deep, moving true love is described with such emotional substance, its essence never lost to the reader.

And the end. The surprising ending. I found this novel to be a page-turner and possibly the best one I've read by this author (I've read almost everything written by Ms. Shreve). A love story to be remembered.

I've read several of the author's books and all are suspenseful, sometimes draggingly slow. Sometimes you can't undersand the plot due to the long sentences with strange constructions. The love story is such that you feel the ache of the characters. But why the ending? Nowhere does it explain this. It doesn't fit the story at all. And you wait until the last paragraph to get it. Is a sad book and you never really feel happiness. Drags you down.

I'm an Anita Shreve fan and I liked the way the book started out with the present day events and reflected on events from several years past and then events from much earlier in the life of the narrator. I'm not sure what I expected and I found the book to be a good, solid love story of two individuals who were destined to be together. However, after reading the ending, my reflections made me realize that this may be Ms. Shreve's best work. The ending pulls at the heartstrings of the reader with an ironic twist that leaves the reader thinking and reflecting on the book for quite some time.

There was a build up to the suicide in the last paragraph? Where? Was it buried somewhere in the verbose chapters telling of Linda's attitude towards hotels? Was it typed somewhere in those irritating italics?

When I finish a book I usually donate it to a thrift shop. I simply can't donate this book. I would hate to think that someone else wasted a few hours of their life by reading it. I tossed it in the recycling bin instead.

Horrible book. Don't waste your time.

I love this book. It was full of romance of course and I don't really like much mushy stuff because mushy stuff can lead to corny lines and doings and all things corny but man, I was caught up in all of Eliza's tale from Joaquin to Tao-Chen... it was great. I didn't really want it to end. Isn't it nice to just read a good nice book where you aren't bored of reading it all? I recommend it to everyone. A story of a girl who as a baby was left in a basket outside the door of a rich English family living in Chile. She grows up to become a civilized young lady, smart and educated but falls in love with a poor boy who flees to California and where she too goes to follow the man she fell in love with only to find another man who becomes the real love of her life. Oh lala. I became a sucker for the romance.

Hija De La Fortuna: NovelaIsabel Allende como siempre nos permite viajar en el tiempo, nos transporta a lugares espectaculares con su narrativa impecable. Un buen libro para pasar un buen tiempo.

Este es el primer libro que leo de Isabel Allende y me encanto. Me gusta mucho su forma de narrar, te lleva del presente al pasado y del pasado al futuro dentro de la historia de manera inperceptible. Impredecible e interesante manera de narrar.

Joaquin Murieta it seems is the inspiration for a novel about a young girl, young love and 19th century culture in England and
in Chile.
The novelist is a master of plot and characterization who blends understanding of three major cultures: Chinese, English and Spanish-Latin American.
I have read novels by major Americans written in English ( not translated from Spanish) that weren't as well documented or as factual as this one.
There is no doubt that Isabel Allende is probably one of the major popular novelists of our time.
It is a western...
This novel deserves a read!

Eliza is just a tiny baby when she is left in an empty box on the doorstep of Rose and Jeremy Sommers, a Victorian brother and sister living in relative luxury in a British colony in Chile. Rose is a young spinster who plans never to marry. Jeremy also seems destined for bachelorhood, and the two of them compliment each other well, although Rose does long for a child, if not a husband. When the baby is left on their doorstep, Rose insists they keep it and raise it as her own daughter.

So Eliza's young life is pleasant. She has the doting attention of both Rose, who teaches her refinement and culture, and the family's Chilean cook and housekeeper Fresia, who teaches her superstition, herbal remedies and cooking. Eliza is sheltered and pampered and she never thinks to question her place or her future, until she is a teenager and catches sight of Joaquin, a poor worker. It is love at first sight for both young people, and they begin a scandalous and secret affair.

Eliza's first love affair may have burned itself out, but at the height of their passions, the California Gold Rush begins. Chile is closer to California than China and is even closer than much of the United States, so every poor dreamer in the country is sure they can get there first to pick up the gold nuggets everyone says are just lying on the ground. Much of the country's youth is taken with gold fever. Joaquin is no exception, and he soon ships out to find his fortune. Eliza simply cannot do without him, so she stows away on a ship also headed to California, determined to find her lover and intertwine their futures. Nobody seems to have calculated the risk involved in such a move, though, and the devastating losses that all will suffer.

I liked the way this book captured the frenzy of the rush to California, followed by the slower organization of the state into cities devoted to making a living and a life, instead of just mining. However, I thought Eliza's particular experience was very simple, with all sorts of lucky breaks and coincidences that allowed her to escape almost all of the hardship of the Gold Rush.

Great book! Well written. Good use of details to pull the story along. I completely enjoyed it.

The book offers some new plot points but they were not fully tied together in way that would be expected in this type of work.

This book is definitely a good book. Reading it will bring great enjoyment. The writing by Schwarz is superb. Other reviews have described her as a "weaver" of this complicated and intriguing plot, and I think that is an apt description. Each story flows, anchors, and yet depends on every other perspective.

The plot was intriguing. Starting on the end of WWI and the influenza outbreak, Schwarz takes us all the way to WWII--a truly fascinating time period done one better by not allowing every historical shift to press the story. The beginning is remarkable at setting up such suspense and wonder as to what is Amanda's predicament. But I thought some of the twists were lame compared to the rest of the book. Not everything was innovative here, as I was able to guess some plot points. It seemed as though some areas dragged on a bit, while areas were not finished in my opinion (Where did Carl go? Was he really able to just move on like that?). But the ending was justified. The very last section rushes by with a fury that is appropriate for the action taking place.

All that said, I recommend this book. The slow spots are few and far between. But Schwarz's writing is delightfully intriguing. I will read more of her work.

Drowning Ruth
by Christina Schwarz

Christina Schwarz's wonderfully written first novel "Drowning Ruth" was set in the time frame of WWI to WWII. The main character of the story was inspired by an unfriendly, isolated lady that lived near Christina Schwarz when she was a child. She always wondered how she became the person that she was and what were the circumstances of her life. The following novel is a creation inspired by the mystery of that woman.
It is a mystery of family secrets which is so well written that you feel that you are living in their story. It is impossible to put the book down from beginning to end. The lay of the land and the elements of the weather help to set the tone of the story.
It can be a bit difficult to feel empathy for all of the difficulties that the main character Amanda Starkey endures. She is a bit distant and stiff in her narration, and tends to manipulate the other members of her family. I found this novel to be a great example of the pain that can be caused by keeping secrets in a family. Amanda was unable to relieve Carl's and Ruth's pain because she was to ashamed to explain the circumstances of her sister Mathilda's death. As a result, Mathilda's husband Carl believed that she had been unfaithful to him, and Ruth was haunted by the secrets and hazy memories surrounding her mother's death. The first line of the book was "Ruth remembered drowning. "That's impossible," Aunt Amanda said. "It must have been a dream." But Ruth maintained that she had drowned, insisted on it for years, even after she should have known better."
This is the second time that I have read this book. It is one of my favorite stories, and I highly recommend it.

I really loved this book. So much that I searched out others by this author, which is a rarity for me. BUT, upon reading other reviews of this book, I did agree with some of them - it was slow in the beginning. But OMG the plot twists!!! You cannot ignore how great that was. Overall, Im reading more by this author!

If you have a lot in common with the narrator (professional class woman/vaguely dissatisfied with everything), AND you don't like to think while you read, you may enjoy this book.

Normally, I would give a book 2 stars just for being able to reach people (which this does), but I can't because it was full of pretentious language and meandering descriptions/anecdotes which didn't really contribute to the plot or the characters. Also, it was poorly researched.

If you like reading about somewhat depressing family life and relationships, I recommend reading something by Ann Tyler instead (I actually don't like her either, but she's good at what she does.)The Amateur Marriage (Tyler, Anne (Large Print))

Occasionally I pick up the books my wife's book club has been reading, and I've enjoyed some of their selections. Not this time.

It was impossible to feel anything but dislike for Jo, the main character. She's just your typical self-absorbed Boomer baggage from her wild past. For 20-plus years, she's had a nauseatingly perfect life, with her little Monday adventures with her husband and her steady veterinarian practice. Even her ne'er do well daughter who is a roadie with a skanky rock band just happens to have the talent and soul to be a great singer herself. And the daughter is going to make it big in NYC as a singer and model. Spare me.

Then, just as Jo is having her midlife crisis, a man from her past (who she once saw naked!) appears. Predictably, she thrills at the touch of his arm. It's an arm with much more strength and power than the arm of her thin, pale, angular husband. Jo and Eli meet a few times, go over the murder of their former housemate, and .... [not gonna spoil it].

Here's the really weird part. Jo's descriptions of scenes of everyday life are wonderfully accurate. The author has a flair for noting how someone leans against a fireplace mantle, or what it's like to walk a dog late at night. But these moments of clarity are merely jarring in a book that is so full of baby boomer cliches.

I was really disappointed in this book and reminded not to assume a book is good because it has a lot of blurbs. This seemed more like a first novel to me. While it contained some scenes and snippets that were well-written, they seemed forced together. I never believed what the narrator was feeling towards her old housemate and it didn't help that he sounded like a jerk the whole time anyway. Instead of the story flowing, I felt that the author just wrote her way out of each situation. Really not good, and I was disappointed that I used up a couple hours of my life reading it.

This book grips you page after page. A book for all who have memories that harry or haunt, who have secrets they don't know how to tell or integrate into their lives, who wonder who people think they are and wonder who they are themselves. Simply one of the best books I've read on working through and integrating life's trials. Not an answer, but a hopeful pointer in the right direction. Past and present histories beautifully woven. Characters you care about, feel you know. Scenes that are real, sometimes frighteningly so. A book you won't forget.

Try Sue Miller's other books, or read Rabid: A Novel by T.K. Kenyon or Bee Season: A Novel by Myla Goldberg.

I'm too young and too foreign to bring much to this book, but you shouldn't have to bring a similar history to enjoy and understand a book. I don't think I ever will understand why Americans in the 60's and 70's were so obsessed with very misrepresented Indian culture. The details seemed disjointed, and the culture of "free love" and bohemian living is so different from the type of world that I grew up in.

Beyond the setting and premise, the main character Jo Becker seems like a whiner who is always longing for something better than she's got. The ending was unsatisfying and unsettling, but not in a good way. My book club fantasized about more satisfying endings instead of discussing the book itself.

Sorry.

Minna

I LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!!
If you have any regrets in life, if you don't feel as young as you once did, if you are torn in too many directions, doing things for others and nothing for yourself (in other words, a woman) you will enjoy this book.

Rebecca Davitch enables others to have parties. At times they respond grumpily. Not surprisingly she met her husband, Joe Davitich, at a party at the Davitch house. Joe died before he was forty. When Rebecca met Joe he already had three children, but his wife had absconded. Thus, Rebecca had three stepdaughters. Joe was the person who started the party business, calling it the Open Arms. Instead of having a guest house it was decided to have parties. Rebecca loved children, but sometimes found it tiring to speak in her 'grandmother' voice.

Zeb was Rebecca's kid brother-in-law although he was no longer a kid and didn't live in the same house anymore. He and Rebecca had come to behave like a couple. Rebecca had dropped out of college to marry Joe. (A history professor had wanted her to expand a paper into an honors project.)

It seems that Open Arms is always beset by disaster. The family had its own celebrations on Thursdays so that there would be no interference with paying guests. Unfortunately NoNo, a Davitch daughter, wanted to have an outdoor wedding during a heatwave and drought. Through careful planning something resembling a garden and a green lawn is devised.

When his first wife visited them, (she appears for the wedding in current time because she is the mother of the bride), Rebecca was driven to feel that beneath Joe's exuberance there had been desperation. On the occasion of Rebecca's going to the ER with Poppy, Joe's great uncle nearly one hundred years old, Rebecca has the thought that she would be able to rate Baltimore's emergency rooms. In the end Poppy's difficulty is just a case of indigestion. Rebecca is led to realize then that Joe would have become a fine old man.

The author deals with life's stages and ties in elevating and humorous fashion.

I bought it because it was on Stephen King's list of 10 best audio books. I'm glad I did!

"Grownups" is the second Anne Tyler novel I've read, and I enjoyed it greatly. I could relate to the protagonist, Rebecca, in a way that I rarely can with fictional characters--and Tyler's skill in developing Rebecca as a character is evident by the fact that my life situation is almost completely opposite hers, yet I felt that she was nearly my alter ego.

Some people love Anne Tyler because she writes about the normalcy of everyday life, and other excoriate her for the same reason. None of the characters have a history of violence, or abuse, or addictions--they struggle with same mundane things I struggle with day in and day out. In a less capable writer's hands this could be boring, but Tyler has the unrivaled ability to bring out the beauty and richness of the mundane.

"Grownups" is not a perfect novel, of course. My biggest peeve was the nicknames of the daughters. Min Foo? Biddy? NoNo? That was almost enough to make me stop reading after the first chapter. Too saccharine and precious. And Tyler doesn't even do readers the favor of explaining why they have these ridiculous nicknames! It also took me a little while to get into the book; I didn't start to love it or feel a kinship with Rebecca until she started searching for the life she'd left behind years ago. But I'm so glad I gave it time to grow on me. I will definitely be reading more of Tyler's novels.

Rebecca Davitch, 53 year old widow, married John, 13-years older, when she was just 20 and acquired the responsibility of raising his 3 daughters plus one of their own while running their home-based professional party giving business. Now she questions whether she has lost her own identity in the life she has lived all these years with the Davitches.

Her daughters all have their own "issues" and have taken "Beck" for granted for years. After years of widowhood, she realizes that she is lonely even though she is surrounded by a large boisterous family and a constant flow of other acquaintances as a result of her professional party-giver business. She decides to look up her old high school boyfriend who she jilted to marry John and find out how his life turned out. Read some of the other reviews if you want to find how that turned out, but I won't be a spoiler!

This novel is a fine example of Anne Tyler's ability to create an absorbing world peopled with ordinary characters with all their flaws and gifts. By the time the story is complete, I was reluctant to leave the quirky, flawed by nevertheless appealing Davitch family behind.