Vanishing Acts, by Joki Picoult

The hocus-pocus stuff just doesn’t interest me.  As I review the plot, I don’t see why it was included as it didn’t pertain to the events enough to bother with it.  As an adult, Delia discovers that her loving father had taken her away from her mother in Arizona and obtained new identities for the two of them.  They lived in New England as these “new” people for over 20 years. Her father gave up his career and all contacts with their former life. She was raised thinking her mother had died.  Her father did a great job raising her, carving a new life in a new community. Growing up with two boys who were neighbors added richly to her life, but therein lies the tangled romantic angle, too. But one day, out of the blue, the police arrived and arrested her father for kidnapping and the plot charged on.  His experiences in jail were horrifying.  That part of the story was another side trip, like the hocus-pocus stuff, away from the plot.  The story seemed to incorporate three novel ideas into one plot.  Then there was the end.  Only it wasn’t.  6.5 out of 10.

These is my Words, The diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 by Nancy E. Turner

Loved it!  10 out of 10.  Hard to imagine how primitive and dangerous it was in that time period in Arizona and New Mexico.  Diaries of my Great Great Grandmother from the same time period, in Eastern Iowa, speak of such a different kind of life.  An historically representative story of the times and conditions as well as a love story.  So much loss of life and such hardships,  and yet the family just kept on going through separations, death, sickness, financial troubles.  We are so spoiled now!  Again, a 10 out of 10.