Gina's Corner

I loved this book! I'd have to say it's my second favorite Barbara Wood book so far.

When Erica Tyler, a controversial archaeologist, takes a stand regarding the discovery of the 2000 year old bones of an aboriginal woman found after an earthquake disturbs a cave in the Los Angeles region of Southern California, she embarks on an incredible journey of love and self-discovery while uncovering the story of an unknown Indian tribe whose history parallels that of the state of California.

As Erica battles both the Native American tribes who disagree with archaelogists interfering with the graves of their own, and her boss who is intent on turning the cave into a museum financed by a wealthy and influential benefactor, she relates the troubled story of her own past, an ordeal of abandonment, foster homes and trouble with the law. Concurrently, in an every other chapter format, Wood retells the bittersweet history of the Topaa tribe, founded by medicine woman Marimi, an outcast from an Arizona tribe forced to traverse the desert and settle her family near the Pacific ocean. Unbeknownst to Erica, the strength of Marimi and her descendants, warrior women who suffer from the dehabilitating headaches of prescience, infuse her with willpower and steadfastness of her own and with the help of lawyer and love interest Jared Black, she finds her way as did Marimi and her kin.

As always, Wood weaves a powerful tale of healer women whose compassion and sense of obligation acts as a strong repellant for all things negative. Her pages on the Topaa tribe fascinate; the reader cannot help but finish this novel in one or two days. Reminiscent of Michener's 'Centennial', without the cumbersome geological first chapters, her personal stories regarding the different generations of women remind me of an adult version of the American Girls series, where individual stories are intertwined with great moments of American history to allow the reader to empathize with the times and the time's emotions. Here, Wood delivers a page-turning tale of a strong yet subjugated people who make up the backbone of today's California. Nicely done.

I ordered this book from the library and once I started reading it realized that I had read it before. I love Barbara Wood and plan to read all her books. I'm being lazy. Here's the review from Publisher's Weekly:

Charlotte Lee's yin and yang are in precarious balance. Nearing 40, the heroine of this New Age thriller is torn between East and West. While proud of Harmony House, the Palm Springs herbal company she inherited from her grandmother, Perfect Harmony, she pines for the Britisher who was the love of her youth. Lee's yearnings come to a head when three deaths are attributed to herbal remedies made by Harmony House?and specifically to her. Who is trying to destroy her? The finger of suspicion points variously to her cousin, her family lawyer, an FDA agent and a psychic. Then old love Jonathan Sutherland, a hacker-turned-fed, shows up to save the day, and Charlotte's emotional balance is further imperiled. The flashback sections of the novel featuring the strong first-person voice of Perfect Harmony alternate with a perfunctory third-person narrative, and Wood's (The Dreaming) novel seems to mirror the split in Charlotte's own psyche: turn-of-the-century scenes of Singapore and San Francisco's Chinatown are sharply realized. Zoom in on the individuals in the mosaic, however, and the picture blurs. Although herbology and Chinese customers are beautifully detailed, descriptions of gee-whiz computer technology should have been cut to the bone. Ultimately, the Gordian knot of Charlotte's self is far more compelling to untangle than the mystery plot.

Jessie is awakened by a shrilling phone late one night to horrifying news: her mother, who has never recovered from her husband Joe's death 33 years earlier, has chopped off her own finger with a cleaver. Frantic with worry, and apprehensive at the thought of returning to the small island where she grew up in the shadow of her beloved father's death and her mother's fanatical Catholicism, 42-year-old Jessie gets on the next plane, leaving behind her psychiatrist husband, Hugh, and college-age daughter, Dee. On tiny Egret Island, off the coast of South Carolina, Jessie tries to care for her mother, Nelle, who is not particularly eager to be taken care of. Jessie gets help from Nelle's best friends, feisty shopkeeper Kat and Hepzibah, a dignified chronicler of slave history. To complicate matters, Jessie finds herself strangely relieved to be free of a husband she loves—and wildly attracted to Brother Thomas, né Whit O'Conner, a junior monk at the island's secluded Benedictine monastery. Confusing as the present may be, the past is rearing its head, and Jessie, who has never understood why her mother is still distraught by Joe's death, begins to suspect that she's keeping a terrible secret. Writing from the perspective of conflicted, discontented Jessie, Kidd achieves a bold intensity and complexity that wasn't possible in The Secret Life of Bees, narrated by teenage Lily. Jessie's efforts to cope with marital stagnation; Whit's crisis of faith; and Nelle's tormented reckoning with the past will resonate with many readers.

This was an excellent story. I loved the message.

On her 13th birthday, Stella Avery receives a remarkable gift. Like her mother, grandmother, and other women in her family reaching back to the 1600s, she awakens to discover that she now has a special paranormal ability. Her mother, Jenny, dreams other people's dreams; and her grandmother, Elinor, can ferret out deceit and lies by looking into someone's eyes. When Stella foresees a woman's death and has her father warn the victim, a series of cataclysmic events ensue. Her father is charged with the woman's murder, Jenny and Stella are forced to move in with Elinor, and eventually the eerie tale of their matriarch, Rebecca Sparrow, is brought full circle. With a home environment that includes a haunted pond, roads full of toads, and snapping turtles at every bush, the setting emphasizes the women's otherworldliness. The strength of the Sparrow females allows them to face prejudice, love, accusations, threats, and death, all the while keeping their personal integrity, finding the capacity to go on, and experiencing life as good. Complexly constructed, with intertwined plots, memorable settings, and intriguing characters, this is a magnificent novel.

I'm glad I discovered this author. She's wonderful

I found another author who is wonderful! Alice Hoffman. I finished this book in a couple days. It flowed well, and I liked it so much, I'm reading another by her right now.

The story:

For more than a century, the small town of Haddan, Massachusetts, has been divided, as if by a line drawn down the center of Main Street, separating those born and bred in the village from those who attend the prestigious Haddan School. But one October night the two worlds are thrust together due to an inexplicable death, and the town's divided history is revealed in all its complexity. The lives of everyone involved are unraveled: from Carlin Leander, the fifteen-year-old girl who is as loyal as she is proud, to Betsy Chase, a woman running from her own destiny; from August Pierce, a boy who unexpectedly finds courage in his darkest hour, to Abel Grey, the police officer who refuses to let unspeakable actions—both past and present—slide by without notice.

300 pages