Airs Above the Ground. Finished 7-22-19, 3.25/5 stars, suspense, 373 pages, pub. 1965

Lovely Vanessa March, two years married and very much in love, did not think it was a strange for her husband to take a business trip to Stockholm. What was strange was the silence that followed. She never thought to look for her missing husband in Vienna — until she saw him in a newsreel shot there at the scene of a deadly fire. Then she caught a glimpse of him in a newsreel shot of a crowd near a mysterious circus fire and knew it was more than strange. It was downright sinister.

Vanessa is propelled to Vienna by the shocking discovery. In her charge is young Timothy Lacy, who also has urgent problems to solve. But her hunt for answers only leads to more sinister questions in a mysterious world of white stallions of Vienna. But what promises to be no more than a delicate personal mission turns out to involve the security forces of three countries, two dead men, a circus and its colourful personnel. And what waits for Vanessa in the shadows is more terrifying than anything she has ever encountered.   from Goodreads

I’ve been wanting to try a Mary Stewart book for years since I knew she was one of the first writers of romantic mystery.  Although over 50 years old, the characters and dialogue hold up remarkable well.  I enjoyed Vanessa and Tim and their adventures across parts of Europe.  There was a twist not quite in the middle that I loved, but I don’t want to spoil it by telling you any more about it.  There was some brief romance, but I’d have a hard time characterizing this as romantic suspense by today’s standards.

As much as those things worked for me, just when the story hit its peak, there was a long, drawn out chase scene that bored me to tears.  And there is a lot of horse in this story.  If you like horses I’d guess that you would get way more out of the story than I did.  I learned a lot about the Spanish Riding School and it’s not something that drew me into the story, but might someone else.

Overall, I thought it felt fresh even though it was written in a time when people watched their news at the movie theater 🙂

 The Dinner List.  Finished 7-9-19, fiction. 3/5 stars, 273 pages, pub. 2018

When Sabrina Nielsen arrives at her thirtieth birthday dinner she finds at the table not just her best friend, but also her favorite professor from college, her father, her ex-fiance, Tobias, and Audrey Hepburn.

At one point or another, we’ve all been asked to name five people, living or dead, with whom we’d like to have dinner. Why do we choose the people we do? And what if that dinner was to actually happen? These are the questions Sabrina contends with in Rebecca Serle’s utterly captivating novel, The Dinner List, a story imbued with the same delightful magical realism as Sliding Doors, and The Rosie Project.

As the appetizers are served, wine poured, and dinner table conversation begins, it becomes clear that there’s a reason these six people have been gathered together, and as Rebecca Serle masterfully traces Sabrina’s love affair with Tobias and her coming of age in New York City, The Dinner List grapples with the definition of romance, the expectations of love, and how we navigate our way through it to happiness. Oh, and of course, wisdom from Audrey Hepburn.    from Goodreads

The book starts and ends at a 30th birthday party that takes place at a restaurant.  Sabrina finds all of the people she put on a proposed list her BFF Jessica made her come up with in college.  Jessica, Tobias (her one true love), Conrad (college professor), her dad who abandoned her, and the one and only Audrey Hepburn.  What?  Audrey Hepburn is dead you say?  Yes, well she’s not the only one and this is just one of the things that doesn’t make sense during this 4+ hour dinner that we Seinfeld fans could call ‘the airing of grievances’.

I wanted to love this.  I kept waiting for something to happen that would make me love it, but all I felt at the end was sadness.  Maybe you could consider this a cautionary tale since there are life lessons served with the meal.  It was an easy read, but not one I rushed through because I just wasn’t that invested.

The best part of the book was the premise, the question we’ve all heard, what five people, living or dead, would you want at your dinner party?  I put this question to Jason when I started the book and now that I’ve finished we’re both due to share our lists with each other.  Come back tomorrow and I’ll share both of our lists with you and be prepared to share YOUR list.  If you post about it you can leave a link I’ll add to my post.

 The Path Made Clear. Finished 6-21-19, 4/5 stars, inspirational, pub. 2019

Unabridged audio read by Oprah Winfrey and so many others, including Thich Nhat Hanh, Eckhart Tolle, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Elizabeth Gilbert, Mitch Albom, Joe Biden, Goldie Hahn, John Bon Jovi, Stephen Colbert…  3 hours.

In her latest audiobook, The Path Made Clear, Oprah shares what she sees as a guide for activating your deepest vision of yourself, offering the framework for creating not just a life of success, but one of significance. The audiobook’s ten chapters are organized to help you recognize the important milestones along the road to self-discovery, laying out what you really need in order to achieve personal contentment, and what life’s detours are there to teach us.

Oprah opens each chapter by sharing her own key lessons and the personal stories that helped set the course for her best life. She then brings together wisdom and insights from luminaries in a wide array of fields, inspiring listeners to consider what they’re meant to do in the world and how to pursue it with passion and focus. These renowned figures share the greatest lessons from their own journeys toward a life filled with purpose.   from Goodreads

I loved this audio.  It was inspiring and thought-provoking and just a positive way to spend time in the car.  Oprah is the author, but she calls upon so many people to share their insight, sometimes as quip from a speech, other times in interview form.

Will it change your life?  Probably not.  But any one of the featured players may get you started on a new way of thinking and that can be a very powerful thing.  I loved hearing all the different voices.

If you like Oprah you’ll probably like this audio sampler (it’s only 3 hours after all).