Hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

8 Sandpiper Way by Debbie MacComber -  This author frustrates me. I’ll read a book of hers that I really like such as her Blossom Street series and then the next book I read of hers will be awful. An old book of hers about horses had me in hysterics in the Hard Rock Cafe in Atlanta because I don’t think she’d every actually met a horse before writing that book.  I couldn’t get through it because the factual inaccuracies were making me nuts.
This book is disjointed and awkward. The first six chapters each introduce a different storyline. These are all characters from some of her other books. The stories never interact. It is like there wasn’t enough story in each group of characters to warrant a whole novel so they are all thrown together here. The writing is clunky. Because the reader has to be reminded of all the backstory, there is dialogue that would never happen in real life. It is like, “Remember Fred Jones who was kidnapped in a case of mistaken identity last week?  I saw him at the store today.”  Feel free to skip this one unless you have read all the books that these characters appear in. 

The White House Doctor by Dr. Connie Mariano – Connie Mariano was appointed to be the Navy’s representative to the White House medical office in the last year of the first President Bush’s term. Her two year assignment turned into a nine year tour. She stayed until Bill Clinton left office. A White House doctor travels with the president at all times. She talks about the travels, the scandals, and the patients that she encountered.

I also did some rereads and studying of Rick Steves’ Snapshop Lisbon and The Rough Guide to Portugal since we leave this week!