I love to read and always have books piled up waiting for me from the library. But there are times when I just don't get around to reading them. Or I start them but they don't hold my interest. But I've read two books in the last four days which I haven't done in a long time.
James Patterson is always a good quick read and although he frequently collaborates with other authors I prefer the ones he writes by himself. This one was good.
The second one took longer reading but was a great story of children who were taken from their home and taken to an orphanage and endured terrible conditions before being adopted. Here is a summary.
Wingate’s tightly written latest (after 2015’s The Sea Keeper’s Daughters) follows the interwoven story lines of Avery Stafford, a lawyer from a prominent South Carolina family, and Rill Foss, the eldest of five children who were taken from their parents’ boat by an unscrupulous children’s home in the 1930s. With her father’s health ailing, duty-driven Avery is back in present-day Aiken, S.C., to look after him. She’s being groomed to step into his senate seat and is engaged to her childhood friend, Elliot, though not particularly excited about either. Though her dad is a virtuous man, his political enemies hope to spin the fact that the family just checked his mother, Judy, into an upscale nursing home while other elder facilities in the state suffer. At an event, Avery encounters elderly May Crandall and becomes fascinated by a photo in her room and a possible connection to Judy. While following a trail that Judy left behind, Avery joins forces with single dad Trent Turner, with whom she feels a spark. This story line is seamlessly interwoven with that of the abuse and separation that the Foss siblings suffer at the hands of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, a real-life orphanage that profited from essentially kidnapping children from poor families and placing them with prominent people. Twelve-year-old Rill bears the guilt of not having been able to protect her siblings while also trying her best to get them home. Wingate is a compelling storyteller, steeping her narrative with a forward momentum that keeps the reader as engaged and curious as Avery in her quest. The feel-good ending can be seen from miles away, but does nothing to detract from this fantastic novel. (June)
For the past few months I have been taking a Tai Chi class from the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. We are so lucky to have this University right down the road from me as it offers a lot to the community including personal growth classes. Last year I took the Tai Chi class in the fall semester and did so also this year. The girls in the picture above were our instructors. These darling Chinese girls were Confucius scholars who are at the university teaching for one year. They were very patient with the class considering our advanced age and lack of physical abilities Tai Chi looks very beautiful and simple but it requires a lot of controlled motion and balancing. I thoroughly enjoyed going to class every Monday. We learned the twenty four movements and were able at the end to do the whole exercise to music. We took the girls out to our local Chinese restaurant last night as a treat. 
