The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen

I REALLY enjoyed this novel by Tess Gerritsen. It is not connected to the series I just completed, but Maura Isles makes a quick appearance when bones are found in the garden of character Julia Hamill's land. It appears as though the cause of death was murder and the ring found with the body is dated back to the 1830's. With this information, Julia begins to investigate the murder of the woman who was buried near the house she just bought following her recent divorce. The novel also has historical flashback that provides the reader with background information regarding the characters that were directly tied to the murder of the unidentified woman many years previous. In 1830, medical student Norris meets Rose in the maternity ward where her sister is slowly but surely dying from complications during childbirth. Following their meeting bodies are showing up with huge lacerations, much like a dissection. Norris and Rose are the only people that actually see the killer, who is dubbed the West End Reaper. Because Norris has reportedly seen the killer, been found at a couple murder scenes, and has the skills to butcher from being raised on the farm which are mixed with his surgical abilities, many people in the community start to point fingers at him for being the murderer. With the help of their friend Oliver they search for the truth, with involves so many twists and turns one's head starts to spin... in a good way. Finally, back in present time, Julia traces their tale of finding the killer through all the boxes of memoir and letters found in the house.Oliver Wendell Holmes is actually a real person, who was responsible for bringing the idea of the importance of washing your hands in the medical field in the United States. Common knowledge to us, but apparently blasphemy in the 1830's. Although this book received some bad reviews, I loved it! So there. 

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney

This is the second installment of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Yes, this book is extremely juvenile... but every single one of my kids LOVE these books. Although it is mostly in cartoon/comic style, it still is at the fifth grade level, which most graphic novels are not. In the book Greg humorously tells about his problems at home and school, most of which involve his older brother, Rodrick. Other scenes in the book include Greg suffering on the swim team, his obligation to help out with the talent show as an assistant to a first grader, accidently going into the woman's bathroom, his failure at trying to cheat in school, and trying to pull on over on his mother's Mom's Bucks program. There are 3 more books in this series and eventually I will get around to reading those too. Apparently the movie for this book came out last week, and now my students are asking if we can all go together to see it.... Well, that's just doubtful, haha.

Briar Rose by Jane Yolen

This is one of the best novels I have read that involves the incorporation of the events of the Holocaust. Perhaps what makes it the most endearing is the fact that it is intertwined with the tale of Sleeping Beauty a.k.a. Briar Rose. Rebecca is a young woman who has grown up hearing her grandmother tell an unusual and frightening version of the Sleeping Beauty legend, and when Gemma passes away she makes Becca promise to find the truth of her story. Becca quickly finds out that they never really knew the true history of their grandmother, including the simple knowledge of her actual name. To discover the facts behind Gemma's story, Rebecca travels to Poland meeting other characters that shed light on the connection between the Holocaust and Gemma. Although some of the scenes are extremely troubling and sometimes morbid, it is still written with taste and eloquence. I would definitely recommend this juvenile novel to any adult reader!

Miss Spitfire by Sarah Miller

Although we were reading the City of Ember series in my classroom during read aloud, we came to the general consensus to stop reading the third novel, the Prophet of Yonwood. This book was much more biblically involved than I imagined it would be. So instead of finishing that novel, we moved onto Miss Spitfire, a historical fiction story of Helen Keller and her teacher Annie Sullivan. It was very insightful and interesting to hear the tale from the teacher's point of view, who struggles throughout the novel to teach the blind, deaf, and dumb girl the relationship between letters, words, and objects. Annie herself is actually visually challenged, and the reader gets the background story of the hard upbringing of the teacher in addition to Helen's battles. At times there is much humor caused by tantrums of Helen, and other times you feel the frustration along with Annie. Although the level was at the upper fifth grade level, some of the vocabulary I found challenging.

"Words bridge the gaps between two minds. Words are a miracle,"

Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen

In the most recently published book in the Rizzoli and Isles series, there is a haunting look at a polygamy community called Kingdom Come. When Maura decides to leave her conference early with a fellow doctor and his friends for a sky trip, they disappear when the weather creates dangerous roads. The group takes refuge in the abandoned sect housing that was originated by the prophet Jeremiah Goode. Something has obviously gone wrong in Kingdom Come as cooked food and animals were left behind as if they were simply forgotten. After Maura's body is believed to be found Rizzoli, Agent Dean, and Father Brophy travel to Wyoming to figure out the truth of the investigation of her death. Is she really dead? This book was decent, but focused less on the murder/forensic aspects than the other novels. Now that I'm completely caught up on the series, I will have to wait to see what happens next when Gerritsen publishes the newest one this coming summer!

The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen

I really enjoyed the next book in the Rizzoli and Isles series called the Keepsake. When a mummy is discovered in the back stockroom of a museum, Isles attends the X-ray scan of her, Madame X. However, the mummy isn't an artifact, but a murder victim of a twisted new serial killer that's obsessed with preservation. In addition to the mummy, there are victims found including a tsantsa, which is a shrunken head, and a "bog body." Intertwined in the story is the investigation of Dr. Josephine Pulcillo, a young archaeologist hired by the museum, who seems to have something to hide including her real name. Pulcillo then disappears and Rizzoli must find her before she becomes another victim of the preservation killer. This story has great twists and turns and is one of my favorites in the series as well.... it's just so hard to pick!

A Secret Kept by Tatiana De Rosnay

A Secret Kept, was a slow read at first but about halfway through the struggles of the characters pick up the plot. This is one of those novels that doesn't have a definitive answer, which can drive some people crazy (Like me!). I believe De Rosnay's book was first novel Sarah's Key was much better, and this one does not begin to light a candle against it. Parisian architect Antoine Rey takes his sister, Mélanie, to celebrate her 40th birthday on the island where they vacationed as children with their mother, until she died there in 1974. On the way back Mélanie is gripped by a shocking repressed memory and loses control of the car when she attempts to tell her brother about it. After a brief spell of amnesia, she tells her brother what it was she remembered: their mother had been in love with a woman. As if that's not enough surprise drama for one novel there is depression caused by the affair of Antoine's ex-wife, the sudden death of his daughter's best friend, his out of control son's run with the courts and expulsion, his father dying of cancer, and a new love interest that's a mortician. Kind of like a soap opera... but a very good journey of the honest struggles of a man.

The Mephisto Club by Tess Gerritsen

In the next Rizzoli/Isles novel, 28-year-old Lori-Ann Tucker, whose body is found Christmas morning in her apartment dismembered, with black candles and satanic symbols rendered in blood nearby. "Peccavi," reads one word scrawled across Tucker's wall—Latin for "I have sinned." They discover the Mephisto Club, who are either cult members or crusaders against evil straight from the pages of Revelation. Murders continue that are obviously tied together. It also tells the story of Lily, a girl on the run, from her cousin who she is convinced is a descendant from the race of fallen angels, half man-half angel.This book was alright, but at some parts not very believable. I am looking forward to the next book in the series, which involves the incorporation of mummies and Egyptian artifacts!