"Creating a Charmed Life" by Victoria Moran

"Creating a Charmed Life" by Victoria Moran
1999, Harper San Francisco
ISBN: 0-06-251580-2

I appreciate short. I also appreciate advice from someone who can actually help me to create noticeable and good changes in my life all without a whole lot of effort or expense on my part.

In “Creating a Charmed Life” by Victoria Moran in the second chapter I got help. This chapter is titled, “Follow Your Heart”. Victoria talks about how we can get wrapped up in the stuff we do and be held in thrall by our activities and schedules so that we don’t have room to take care of others in a graceful and loving way.

A few days after I had read that chapter a co-worker called me on a Saturday to ask for help with something I felt he should be able to handle himself. I was crabby but I did say I would go help him out. This really messed up my Saturday. I had so many things planned. I was in the middle of doing them and because of him I had to drop everything and leave. I had about a minute of being furious but then this curtain seemed to drop over all that drama and I was suddenly calm and full of love. It’s the only thing I can describe it as, just this very real expansiveness of heart. It was a calmness that settled over me as I went out to help him. A couple of hours later I was home and I picked up where I’d left off with all the important things I was doing.

But, what was also very interesting to me was that if I had reacted to this scene as I have in the past with similar things I would have been angry about it days later. That same burst of anger I felt in the beginning would have been kindled over and over again and it would have been a really long time before I let it all go.

And all of that happened from reading the second chapter, all of 2½ pages, in “Creating a Charmed Life”. All the chapters are that short. Victoria has written the book with women in mind, but I would think men would get a few good jolts from it too. The subtitle of the book is, “Sensible, Spiritual Secrets Every Busy Woman Should Know”. I agree. I like sensible and in my line of work (secretary during the day, psychic at night) these insights are especially welcome.

I’d recommend buying this book. These chapters are like movies. Read one. Let a few days go by and see how you can easily accomplish something of wonder in your own life.

“Dangerous” by Amanda Quick

“Dangerous” by Amanda Quick
1993, A Bantam Book
ISBN: 0-553-29317-6

I have read “Dangerous” by Amanda Quick many times. I can’t tell you exactly how many, but it’s been a lot over the years. Amanda Quick is Jayne Ann Krentz’ pen name for when she’s writing historical novels. All the copies I have are thumb worn from so much reading.

Amanda Quick always, always has quirky, courageous heroines and Prudence Merryweather is no exception. She’s very interested in investigating spectral phenomena and is available to investigate all sorts of problems people have with ghosts that come her way.

The ton, the upper crust of British society, is taken with this novel young lady and she becomes known as an Original. Lots of folk want to talk to her and one whose attentions are not welcomed by Prudence’s brother is from Sebastian, the Earl of Angelstone. He is known as a foreboding and forbidding man and when Prudence is asked to dance by Sebastian and is engaged in lively conversation with him her brother Trevor takes offense and challenges Sebastian to a duel.

Prudence knows that Trevor who is five years younger than herself is only trying to protect her. Their parents died 3 years before and it is the two of them against the world. Unfortunately, Trevor is sort of hot headed and Prudence figures that Sebastian, an experienced and mature man would injure or kill her brother if a duel should take place. So, she figures that the only way out is to get Sebastian to apologize and she takes it upon herself to convince him of this foolproof plan.

It’s falling in love at first sight.

Anyway, Sebastian has a secret hobby of solving mysteries and with Prudence’s interest in spectral phenomena they team up.

This is a really, really great love story. It’s historical for those who love them and it’s a mystery too.

And, the best part? Amanda Quick wrote it. I guarantee you’re going to love this book. I know I’ll be reading it again sometime.

“L is for Lawless” by Sue Grafton

“L Is for Lawless” by Sue Grafton
1995, Fawcett Books
ISBN: 0-449-22149-0

I pretty much ripped through “L Is for Lawless” by Sue Grafton with amazing speed. It’s a good page turner with the intrepid heroine Kinsey Millhone who gets snookered into helping some neighbors. This is a case she takes on with no hope of getting paid and the chances of being reimbursed for her expenses looks dismal.

But, she’s dogged when it comes to mysteries. Henry, her landlord and long time friend asks her to help out with settling the affairs of a friend of his who has just passed on. The son, the grandson and his wife are all there in the house trying to sort through things. But, the mystery is that they all think the dearly departed grandfather was a spy and all anybody has to work with is an old key.

Not so as the story unfolds with gripping urgency. If you’re a fan of private detectives and of mysteries this one is for you.

I enjoyed it and I’m sure I’ll enjoy more of them. Sue Grafton has certainly written a lot of books.

“The Lucky One” by Nicholas Sparks

"The Lucky One" by Nicholas Sparks
2008, Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-446-57993-3

"The Lucky One" by Nicholas Sparks is a really, really good book. I really couldn’t put it down once I’d started. Nicholas Sparks is a terrific writer and you can figure whatever you read by him is going to be a good read.

In The Lucky One" Logan is a Marine in Iraq. He finds a picture in the sand one day. It is a picture of a young woman. For some reason he is beguiled, but he figures that whoever has lost this photo will want it back. He pins it up on the bulletin board and it sits there day after day with nobody claiming it. One day he walks by and takes it off the board to put it into his pocket. And, that’s when his luck changed.

After that he couldn’t lose at poker games, games he’d managed to lose a significant amount of money in when he’d first started playing them. That was the first thing that happened. Then, there were all the near misses where he survived attacks and bomb blasts. He didn’t think anything of it, but his friend Victor was convinced that it was because of the picture he’d kept in his pocket.

When he got out of the Marines he and Victor decided to visit and catch up on a fishing trip. As they talked Victor told Logan that he’d been seeing ghosts of all their fellow Marines who had died in Iraq. Then, tragedy struck and Victor died in a senseless accident that, by rights, should have killed Logan too.

That’s when Logan decided to find the young woman in the photograph.

I’m not telling you any more. It would spoil the story. This is a riveting book, a mystery, a romance and an all around terrific novel.