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Well...I was deleted!

It appears that if one changes one's comcast account name, then your blog gets deleted as well.  How depressing for me.  All of those book reviews I'd done and now I can't  access them anymore.  Okay, well, it had been a while since the last one.  Here are some new ones I've finished so far this summer.


The White Bicycle by Beverley Brenna:  This was a runner up for the Prinz Award last January and I just got around to reading it in June.  Soooo wonderful!  Just one of those books that flies under the radar and only gets noticed when an award lands in its direction.  This novel is about Taylor Jane who is on the autism spectrum (formerly known as Asperger's syndrome).  She is spending the summer in the south of France with her mother, her mother's boyfriend an
d his two sons- one of whom is severely affected by cerebral palsy.  Taylor is excited to go because she will be the personal caregiver to physically challenged young man.

This is a heart wrenching story of a young woman trying to gain independence from her mother, who is afraid to let go of her daughter based on her disabilities, rather than focusing on her abilities.  The reader finds early on that Taylor has saved an older woman from drowning and as the layers of this sub plot open up,  this becomes an avenue for Taylor to show her mother how much of an adult she really is.  All she wants is responsibility and freedom from dependency.

The setting is idyllic as well.  The French countryside complements the difficulties Taylor is having in her life and helps to balance out the surrounding beauty with the complexities of the plot.  A final twist truly throws Taylor into adulthood by revealing how those who love her are trying to protect her best interests.  A fantastic read!