The Outlaw Noble Salt: A Novel

Are you familiar with author Amy Harmon? Out of the twenty four books she has written, I’ve read eleven of them mostly rated four and five stars. The very first book I read of her was From Sand And Ash back in February 2019.  I’ve rated it five stars and even wrote a review here on WordPress.

Now, here’s another book that caught me again though it took me almost a week to finish it. It is all of 364 pages. Back in the early years, I’ve heard of Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid but it was about the movie, a real-life character brought to the movie screen. I never had the chance to watch it though.  The Outlaw Noble Salt: A Novel, is Amy Harmon’s version giving it a twist. She brings Cassidy to life, with vivid imagination along with The Sundance Kid. In Amy Harmon’s version, she gave Butch a romance, a captivating one.

Butch Cassidy was a real-life gang leader. He was like Robin Hood stealing from the rich and being kind to the poor.  Although Harmon created a novel veering away from the real story by  introducing romance, it was still a lovely read. There are uploaded versions of the movie on YouTube starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

When a book makes me cry, I give it five ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.

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Lazy Wednesday

Five days of being absent from my blog. Though I miss blogging and reading other blog posts, reading has become a priority….again.

The consultation with the nephrologist went well two days ago. He gave me two medications to lower my creatinine. It elevated  a little because of my diabetes. I cancelled my appointment with a new endocrinologist since the nephrologist requested for the same lab tests as my former endocrinologist. Will be back any time next month for follow-up check-up.

Just this September, I rated four books with five stars.

The Memory Keeper – Erin Litteken

The Lost Daughters of  Ukraine – Erin Litteken

Crow Mary – Kathleen Grissom

The House of the Spirits – Isabel Allende 

Erin Litteken is quite new in the list of authors that I like. Except for the book I recently read by Allende, I wrote short reviews of the other books in my previous posts. The House of the Spirits is a story of three generations of a family quite comparable with  GGM ‘s opus…One Hundred Years of Solitude. It was a book which was hard to put down. I’ve long been an admirer of Isabel Allende and read some of her other books before. Multi-tasking now with three books, Jubilee Trail by Gwen Bristow, Women of Silk by Gail Tsukiyama and The Sunne In Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman. I have always been a fan of Gwen Bristow since my college days. Women of Silk is a story of rural China in 1926. Another historical find is Sunne In Splendour, a 14th century England, all of 936 pages. Hooray for finding such interesting books.

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Once We Were Brothers

This is the first book which I am giving ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ stars in my reading challenge this year. I understand this is the first book of Ronald H. Balson which was originally published in 2010. Although there are some negative reviews about it, I love how other readers find it a good and excellent read. I am one of the latter. I could hardly put it down. I have read so many books about the Holocaust including the lovely book,  Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.  Once We Were Brothers was narrated in a way that was simple enough to understand. I won’t attempt writing a summary here, I may not catch the essence of the story. I am borrowing a few words from Goodreads instead.

“A compelling tale of two boys and a family who struggle to survive in war-torn Poland and a young love that struggles to endure the unspeakable cruelty of the Holocaust.

Two lives, two worlds  and sixty years converge in an explosive race to redemption that makes for a moving and powerful tale of love, survival and ultimately the triumph of the human spirit.”

Since I started reading, I have always been pulled by historical fiction. It is one of those reading genres that I love aside from memoirs and poetry.

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My Five ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️Read….this year!

So far since the start of the year I encountered some books that I rated five stars. I only promised myself to read twenty books at Goodreads but so far I ended up reading more than fifty books since January.

Here is a list of my five ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️read this year in the order that I read them.

1. A Christmas Memory – Richard Paul Evans

2. Celebrations at the Chateau – Jo Thomas

3. Only the Beautiful – Susan Meissner

4. To Dwell Among Cedars – Connilyn Cossette

5. Between the Wild Branches – Connilyn Cossette

Richard Paul Evans – I need not tell you much about one of my favorite authors since I’ve been blogging about his books for so many years now. I accidentally encountered one of his books at National Bookstore years ago and even if it was so costly, I bought it. I love all the book covers of his hardbound books. I subscribed to his website and he became an online friend at Facebook.

Jo Thomas – A romance writer about food, love and family. Read five of her books before, I all rated them four stars.

Susan Meissner – a bestselling novelist with more than half a million books in print in fifteen languages. Read two of her books before but this one, Only The Beautiful is simply that – beautiful.

Connilyn Cossette – she loves digging into the rich ancient world of the Bible. The very first book that I read of her was A Light On The Hill last June 2022 and I also gave it five stars.

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