Teaser Tuesday: Remedies by Kate Ledger

"The piercing was too sexual. It was too declarative. It made her look like a child who'd already rejected parenting."

~page 76, Remedies by Kate Ledger

Mondays: Mailbox/Where Am I

Mailbox Monday has moved over to Knitting and Sundries, for the month of November and In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted at The Story Siren.

I received three books, in the past week, thanks to authors/publicists:

at the Crossroads of terror by Lenny Emanuelli: Charlie Johnson, a man suspected of killing a local merchant, reluctantly teams up with a television street reporter, Sherry Mann, trying to prove, he is innocent which takes them both deep into the world of an organized Asian street gang, who is on the verge of making their biggest stride, in their drug business. At the Crossroads of Terror is a very contemporary action filled thriller that crosses over to many genres. The story captures action, crime, suspense, and romance with a touch of comedy. 

Remedies by Kate Ledger: Baltimore physician Simon Bear is a confident, magnanimous man with an inflated view of himself and his abilities. His wife, Emily, a star public relations executive, handles corporate crises with an ease, but can't find a way to connect with their moody adolescent daughter, Jamie. While the Bears outwardly appear an enviably successful couple, neither Simon nor Emily has ever resolved the tragic and early death of their firstborn. Simon buries himself in work and with all-consuming hobbies (his latest is winemaking). Emily, too, is consumed by work, though she's privately devastated about her shortcomings as a mother and tempted by another man. Jamie, meanwhile, presses her mother's buttons, knowing she can never make up for the loss of the dead brother she never knew.

We Can Pull It off by Suresh Taneja: It was the most unusual vacation for Vikram, Yuvika, Manisha and Akshay the G4, as they called themselves. In the first few days of the vacations, they experienced some shocking incidents of declining moral values and corruption. These completely shook them up when they understood the implications. They dreaded the thought of being labelled as citizens of a corrupt country. G4 found this deplorable and decided to plunge into action. They had two weeks of vacation, which they productively used to start an initiative to address this issue. They used their creativity and a number of unique strategies which left an indelible mark on the public, making their initiative a mass movement. 
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I finished two albums of Tintin. 

Also started Remedies by Kate Ledger.

Slowly, slowly...baby steps towards that reading again. Wish me luck, Folks! I need it...

How well read are you?

The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

Instructions:
• Copy this list.
• Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety.
• Italicise the ones you started but didn’t finish or read only an excerpt.
• Tag other book nerds.


Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
The King James Bible
Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
Nineteen Eighty Four (1984) – George Orwell
His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens 
Little Women – Louisa M Alcott 
Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
Complete Works of Shakespeare
Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger 
The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
Middlemarch – George Eliot
Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
David Copperfield – Charles Dickens 
Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
Emma -Jane Austen
Persuasion – Jane Austen
The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis 
The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne
Animal Farm – George Orwell
The DaVinci Code – Dan Brown
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez 
A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving 
The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Lord of the Flies – William Golding
Atonement – Ian McEwan
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
Dune – Frank Herbert
Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
The Secret History – Donna Tartt
The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
On The Road – Jack Kerouac
Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
Dracula – Bram Stoker
The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
Ulysses – James Joyce
The Inferno – Dante
Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
Germinal – Emile Zola
Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
Possession – AS Byatt
Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
The Color Purple – Alice Walker
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 
The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
Watership Down – Richard Adams
A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
Hamlet – William Shakespeare
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

I have read 44 out of this list. Not bad at all...How about you? Consider yourself tagged!

Book Blogger Hop/Follow me

Follow Friday, is hosted by ParaJunkee,  Book Blogger Hop, is hosted by Jennifer (Crazy-For-Books), and
Follow Friday 40 and over is hosted by Java

Jennifer asks, "What is your favorite book cover?"

I like covers which touch me somehow. How can I answer which is my favourite cover? There are too many and for very different reasons. Somehow I don't really understand this question.

Do feel free to explore my blog. You will definitely find something that interests you as I read wide range of genres, except maybe for a few. I also write poetry. You can read that on my other blog, rooted. Now go, explore both of my blogs! And follow them, if you like!! I follow blogs I like via Google Reader...

Enjoy!

Literary Blog Hop: Modern Classics/Booking through thanks

Literary Blog Hop is hosted by The Blue Bookcase. If you features book reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion, you too can join in!

This week's question is:

What makes a contemporary novel a classic?
Discuss a book which you think fits the category of ‘modern classics’ and explain why. 

A novel which has the timelessness feel to it can be taken as a classic. Any novel, contemporary or otherwise, that fits this spirit can be termed as a classic. Now what is a modern classic? For some it might be a contradiction of sorts. A modern novel which is classic. But why not? If it expresses life with beauty and truth artistically, and has a lasting effect, then it is definitely a modern classic. It also has to have an universal appeal. When each one of us connect to that in some way or identify with that somewhat, that novel is termed as a classic. Therefore themed books which depict, love, hate, death, that struggle for life, faith, belief along with emotions touch all of us in one or the other. 

I name certain authors which are taken as modern classic authors..Few of those are John Steinbeck, John Kerouac, Orhan Pamuk. J.M. Coetzee, and Gunter Grass. They depict society of different places yet we can identify with their writings. Because the human spirit can never die and unifies all of us.

I can mention so many books but I will only mention one. Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. Why? It maybe an tongue in cheek account of travesty of war but it is precisely that which makes it a timeless classic as it tells us about the ramifications of war.
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What authors and books are you most thankful for?

I am thankful to any author who writes timeless books. Modern, or otherwise. Add any book that gives me pleasure....be it poetry, crime fiction or science books..

Teaser Tuesday: Tintin and The Seven Crystal Balls by Herge

Mondays: Mailbox/Whereabouts/Musings

Mailbox Monday has moved over to Knitting and Sundries, for the month of November.

I received two books, in the past week, thanks to authors/publicists:

1) Trapped in Mystery Island by John Howard Reid

Police sergeant Merryll Manning is on vacation on an island in the Florida Keys for a Murder Mystery weekend. The plan is to solve the mystery and win a cash prize of $5,000.00. Easier said than done. Merry has his teenage-looking girlfriend Susan Ford along for the trip. Susan isn't above using her sexuality to keep Merryll flustered and under her thumb.

2) Blood of My Brother by Jame LeporeWhen Jay Cassio's best friend is murdered in a job clearly done by professionals, the walls that he has built to protect himself from the world of others begin to shatter. Dan Del Colliano had been his confidante and protector since the men were children on the savage streets of Newark, New Jersey. When Dan supports and revives Jay after Jay's parents die in a plane crash, their bond deepens to something beyond brotherhood, beyond blood. 
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Well, trying to read  Trapped in Mystery Island by John Howard Reid without much success!!

Synopsis:

Police sergeant Merryll Manning is on vacation on an island in the Florida Keys for a Murder Mystery weekend. The plan is to solve the mystery and win a cash prize of $5,000.00. Easier said than done. Merry has his teenage-looking girlfriend Susan Ford along for the trip. Susan isn't above using her sexuality to keep Merryll flustered and under her thumb.

Finished reading a tintin album, Red Rackahm's Treasure by Herge!
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What truths do you remember learning in fiction?

I am mentioning the following: Honesty, Integrity, Friendship, Positive Attitude, Perseverance, Love, Affection, Caring, Sharing, Respect for fellow human beings....and so much more.

TSS: Tintin and Red Rackam's Treasure by Hergé

Title: Tintin and Red Rackam's Treasure
Author: Hergé
ISBN: 0316358142
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company/1991
Pages: 64

Continued from The Secret of the Unicorn, this album introduces Professor Cuthbert Calculus, who is very deaf but so ingenious. Thomson and Thompson too join them in the treasure hunt. 

With rollicking adventure they do find the Unicorn but no treasure! However, in the later part they do find the treasure in an unexpected place. 

With the usual humour, Tintin and Captain make a great team. Professor Calculus endears himself to us and we can never tire of Thomson and Thompson's stupidity. With beautiful art work, this album to, is a keeper like all others.

And at least, my reading slump disappeared for a while!

Book Blogger Hop/Follow me

Follow Friday, is hosted by ParaJunkee,  Book Blogger Hop, is hosted by Jennifer (Crazy-For-Books), and
Follow Friday 40 and over is hosted by Java


ParaJunkee asks: How long have you been book blogging?? 

I have been book blogging since 2006. It has been more than four years now. 

Jennifer says: "Since Thanksgiving is coming up next week, let's use this week's Hop to share what we are most thankful for and what our holiday traditions are!"

I am simply thankful to be surrounded by my family and friends. I cannot ask for more...

Do feel to explore my blog. You will definitely find something that interests you as I read wide range of genres, except maybe for a few. I also write poetry. You can read that on my other blog, rooted. Now go, free to explore both of my blogs! And follow them, if you like!! I follow blogs I like via Google Reader...

Enjoy!

Booking through Borrowing

Who would you rather borrow from? Your library? Or a Friend? (Or don’t your friends trust you to return their books? And, DO you return books you borrow?

I can borrow from anywhere..friends or/and library. And I do make it a point to return borrowed books. My friends do trust me in that regard!!


But nowadays, I end up buying books. And hoarding them for a while before I give those away!

Literary Blog Hop: Literary Non-Fiction

Literary Blog Hop is hosted by The Blue Bookcase. If you features book reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion, you too can join in!

This week's question is:
Is there such a thing as literary non-fiction? If so, how do you define it? Examples?

I would say yes, for the existence of literary non-fiction. It can broadly defined as creative nonfiction, literary journalism, and of course, the literature of fact. It is that branch of writing which makes use of writing style and creative vision that are connected with with fiction or poetry. That technique is employed to describe or report about actual people, places, or events. I think travelogues, autobiographies, biographies, memoirs, essays fall into the category. I also think scientific books too can be taken as literary non-fiction. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a true account which reads like a novel. The Feynman Lectures on Physics Vol 1-3 along George Bernard Shaw's essay collection, Naom Chomsky's writings are few examples...

A-Z Wednesday: The Suicide Collectors by David Oppegaard

The path home was overrun with weeds and hanging vines. Norman hiked through the mess as best as he could, slapping the mosquito against his neck as he tried to keep his fishing pole from tangling in the park's tall grass.

Title: The Suicide Collectors

Author: David Oppegaard

ISBN: 9780312381103

Publisher: St. Martin's Press/2008

Pages: 294

Rating: 5/5

The Suicide Collectors is another of my best reads of 2009. It is a book which is difficult to review. Or to put a genre to it. After a while, I simply gave in and went with the flow.

There is something like Despair which has plagued the Earth for some years now. This has resulted in mass suicides. And as soon as there is a suicide, a shadowy group arrives from nowhere to collect the bodies.

There are only a handful of people who wish to remain alive, not to give in no matter what. It is a lone fight for them. They are out numberded by the shadowy group of suicide collectors. Norman is one such person, who stands up against the Suicide Collectors. He does not allow them to take his wife's body. He even ends up marking one of the Collectors. Norman, along with his elderly neighbour Pops, leaves on journey across North America. They get to know that a scientist is trying to find out a cure against the Despair.

On their way, they meet a young girl, Zero, both whose parents committed suicide. As she has no one, they take her along. Norman tries to make the best of the situation. He knows that the girl has to go one living no matter what.

This novel somehow reminded me of The Road by Cormac McCarthy although there is not much common in here. It is terrifying, very stark, bleak and scary at places. In the sense that it can become a reality. Despair can hit us at any time and giving into it is going to be easy. To fight against it, is hard. This novel has surprises, twists, turns and is powerful. I would call it gloriously creepy. The prose is wonderfully flowing and very gripping. A book to read, to think about and revisit, if possible.

Teaser Tuesday: Trapped on Mystery Island by John Howard Reid

"Connor is dead--- really dead! God help me, I saw his body! And his room was smashed up."
~~Page 106


Synopsis:

Police sergeant Merryll Manning is on vacation on an island in the Florida Keys for a Murder Mystery weekend. The plan is to solve the mystery and win a cash prize of $5,000.00. Easier said than done. Merry has his teenage-looking girlfriend Susan Ford along for the trip. Susan isn't above using her sexuality to keep Merryll flustered and under her thumb.

Sunday Salon: Issues with embedded comment box

Lately I find that I am unable to leave comments on those blogger blogs with embedded comment boxes. Either it takes too long to load or it doesn't open at all. And even if I comment, typing those word verification takes a lot of my time. To leave a comment, I have to click three or more times. 

I don't see any point wasting so much of a comment-ers time. If you want others to visit you and leave comments, make it user friendly. If not then, I suppose that is your loss. Because I am not going to waste my time clicking again and again....to leave a comment.

I have the same issue with intensedebate and such likes. I dislike typing my email each time I comment and then that captcha verification....


Thought I would say it here again although I did a post about this a few months back.

Weekly Geeks: Extra Hour for reading

How you find that "extra hour" to read on a normal day?

Right now, it is difficult for me to answer this. I am not able to read anything at all. This reading slump is not leaving me. Half of November is almost there and I have not read a single book. Hope I snap out of it but it is not happening.

But there was a time, when I could read at any time. If I found even a few minutes, I spent that reading. It did not matter where I was. I could even read in the midst of crowds simply by shutting out the noise by immersing myself in reading.

Literary Blog Hop: Difficult read

Literary Blog Hop is hosted by The Blue Bookcase. If you features book reviews of literary fiction, classic literature, and general literary discussion, you too can join in!

What is the most difficult literary work you've ever read? What made it so difficult?

First that comes into mind is Ulysses by James Joyce. I couldn't read beyond a few pages. The writing was so uninteresting that I don't think I will ever pick it up.

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf is another one. It was really very difficult to keep up with the stream of consciousness thing. I gave it up after 50+ pages...

Next is, War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Pages and pages of historical stuff is enough to put off any reader! However, I did finish it and found my slogging well worth it!

Book Blogger Hop/Follow me

Follow Friday, is hosted by ParaJunkee,  Book Blogger Hop, is hosted by Jennifer (Crazy-For-Books), and

Follow Friday 40 and over is hosted by Java

Parajunkee asks: What is your usual monthly book budget?

No monthly budget. I spend as and when I want to, for buying books....

Jennifer asks: "If you find a book that looks interesting but is part of a series, do you always start with the first title?"

Preferably yes, if I can't all in series but ot necessarily so....

Do explore my blog. You will definitely find something that interests you. I read wide range of genres, except maybe for a few. I also write poetry. You can read that on my other blog, rooted. Feel free to explore both of my blogs!

Enjoy!

Booking through War Stories

Do you read war stories? Fictional ones? Histories?

I do read War stories. I have read a lot of books which have dealt with WWII. Those include novels, Memoirs and of course, Histories. 

Following are few of the War books I have read

All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarqu

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

A Farewell To Arms by Joan Hohl

Cold Mountain: A Novel by Charles Frazier

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 

The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

A-Z Wednesday: numbers go nutty while I watch

all those numbers run around

I catch them

put them in different slots

but they escape again

curious to know each other

I like the picture

logical numbers

going nuts over each other

squares and cubes

climb exponentially

trigonometry breaks

into geometry

they giggle like a kid

and suddenly embrace,

break away guiltily

precalculus is the silent one

it has too much in its pocket

number system spouts euclid's lemma

roots of quadratic are always paired

but you know, it is all statistics

each portion of math says this

If I should die, think only this of me-

how to resurrect those numbers again

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Sharing a N poem of mine!

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

"I haven't said a word to the bastard since the night I turned thirteen. I was strapped to the bed. It was my birthday present to myself." 

~Page 646, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

Title: The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest
Author: Stieg Larsson
ISBN: 9781849162753
Publisher: Quercus/2009
Pages: 743

The last of the millennium trilogy seemed very long to me. Maybe because I am going through a reading slump. I really wanted to know so much more about Lisbeth Salander yet my reading was pretty slow. This has more narration than action. And tries to tie all the loose ends about Salander.

Starting from where The Girl Who Played With Fire left off, it makes the reader yearn to save her life and protect Salander. She is seriously injured and is in the hospital with no visitors allowed. And she is also accused of couple of murders. In this novel, we learn how much wrong has been done to her since she was 12 years old, a mere girl. All this to save her father from being exposed and along with him, the nexus of certain government officials of Sweden. 

Blomkvist along with well wishers of Salander is determined to save her from this nexus. We get to meet Dr. Teleborian, the evil doctor who is instrumental in locking up Salander.

Despite her isolation, and along with the help of her friends, we find Salander again in her elements. This novel has political undertones and of course the courtroom scene is such that one can't waver from it till the end.

I will say this again that Larsson has created memorable character in Lisbeth Salander and not only her, his depiction of the evil characters is also very good. I say Lisbeth Salander is not going to die in the mind of the readers for a very long time to come. 

Mondays: Mailbox/Whereabouts/Musings

Mailbox Monday has moved over to Knitting and Sundries, for the month of November.

I received only  children's book, in the past week, thanks to the publicist:

1) Adventures of Rusty & Ginger Fox by Tim Ostermeyer

"The Adventures of Rusty & Ginger Fox" is a children's book about 2 baby foxes named Rusty and Ginger growing up in the wild and experiencing wonderful adventures. Rusty and Ginger make friends with some friendly deer, dangerous animals (including cougar, bobcats, a wolf, and some bears), find safety on Treasure Island, and befriend 2 little girls who help them open the treasure chest they find there. Inside the chest, the foxes and the children both find exciting treasures. This enjoyable story line is accompanied by beautiful wildlife photography, a "fact box" with 10 facts about each of the 7 animals in the book, and a set of each animal's footprints so that children will not only have a fun story to enjoy, but also educational facts, and realistic animal footprints to help them recognize different types of tracks in the wild.

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I finished reading The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson. Will post my review soon.

I am yet to start any other novel. Simply can't pick any....

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What are  your responses to this report, “Trendspotting: Readers’ Spending On Books“? Does it match with what you –as a reader– have observed? With your own buying habits? When was the last time you bought a book? What did you buy and why?

I don't go by trends. I buy whatever takes my fancy or whatever I have been coveting for long. The last book I was bought was The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest by Stieg Larsson. Why? because I had to know all about Lisbeth Salander!! 

TSS/Weekly Geeks: Readers Advisory

Your assignment this week, if you choose to play along, is to ask your readers for recommendations. Choose a genre–any genre–and ask for recommendations. You can be as general or as specific as you like. Consider it as an “I’m looking for….”

The second part of the assignment is to write a list of recommendations and share them with your readers. Choose a genre–any genre–and share your list of favorites. I think of this as “If you’re looking for….”

“I’m looking for….”

I read varied genres, but somehow I can't read YA much or fantasy. Can anyone recommend some good books on the above genres? I would really appreciate that.

“If you’re looking for….”

I read a lot of Crime Fiction. So one can check my archives for that. But there are some authors I have read before I started blogging. I would like the lovers of crime fiction to check out Erly Stanley Gardner. His Perry Mason books are very very good. The courtroom scenes are superb and the lanky detective Paul Drake is very memorable. Just find hid books and start reading NOW.

TSS: Literary Blog Hop

Hosted by The Blue Bookcase

Please highlight one of your favorite books and why you would consider it "literary."

I have been reading a lot of Crime fiction for the past two years. However, I used to read varied genres and still do. Literary fiction and classic literature have always been on my reading list. (Despite my current reading slump, I have many of those books lined up on my tbr pile).

How does one highlight only one literary fiction when there are too many to recommend? Out of some of the literary fiction I read in 2010, I recommend the following. Do check out the review to know why I recommend it. 
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She said she wanted to be like the trees, that she had read they were most trusting of creatures because they put their roots down in one place, knowing they'd be there for their entire lives."~Page 41

Title: the Language of Trees
Author: Ilie Ruby
ISBN: 978-0061898648
Publisher: Avon HarperCollins/2010
Pages:339

One only has to look at the trees to learn all about roots, being totally grounded or be down to earth. Every part of a tree speaks to us. Reaches out to us. This novel too does that for the reader. Yet we find the novel in the realms of what is nowadays called magical realism. Roots (of ones own self) and flying (that of the mind) go hand in hand. 

Grant Shongo is back to his roots in Canandaiga, to deal with his broken heart. His wife has left him and he knows that only solace he will get is by coming back to his childhood home. He also knows that his Seneca blood will not let him rest until he deals with a past tragedy. The spirit of a young boy, haunts him.

Melanie and her sister are unable to get over the death of their younger brother, Luke, which happened more than a decade ago. Almost eveyone who had been connected with Luke, has not been able to get over it. Then Melanie disappears all of a sudden leaving her boyfriend, Lion and their newly born son, Lucas...

Echo O'Connell, too comes back to the place she calls home after 15 years. When she meets with Grant again, she knows that, she can't go back, leaving her first love. But before both can find love love again, they have to face the past, the spirits of the place, the whisperings of the trees. Echo has to let Grant know, what he really is. Only then the healing can overcome the past tragedy, the spirit may leave to rest eternally.

How the lives of Grant, Echo, Melanie are connected by a spirit? Why is Luke not ready t leave yet? The secondary charracters are all essential for the story and have been well etched out by the author. I really loved the language in the Language of Trees, both literally and figuratively.