Turn the Page...Tuesday

'On the morning my husband left me, hours before I knew he would, I looked at the bruised March sky and recognized tornado green.'

When Cami Anderson was eight, a tornado touched down on her families farm.  Cami knew by the wind and the sky that something was about to happen and she did not want to miss it.  Ignoring the calls from her mom, she ran outside and tried to touch that tornado.  The rush she felt was what compelled her to do all the reckless things she could find from there on out, trying to recreate that feeling.  That is until she met her future husband, Bobby, who was a reckless tornado himself. 

For the next 18 years, Cami hangs onto that tornado, loving Bobby and forgiving all his volatile moods until the day he tells her he just doesn't want to be married anymore.  Bobby walks out the door, leaving Cami devestated and with the very hard task of explaining this all to their heartbroken 17 year old daughter.  Cami's world seems to be falling apart, while all around her, her family and closest friends are dealing with milestones in their own relationships.

Cami is a veterinarian who participates on animal rescue missions.  Some of those animals have found a full-time home with Cami and still others have come for a short stay as shelter animals.    Always loving her furry companions, Cami  finds the most comfort and understanding when she's in the barn spending time with the angry shelter horse who has come to stay.  Together, the two create a special bond and once again learn to trust. 

A friend gave me this book and I enjoyed it completely, finding it hard to put down.  I will certainly look for more of Katrina Kittle's works. 

Cherry Ames - Senior Nurse by Helen Wells

Last month, I told you about some wonderful books that I recieved from a neighbor as she was moving - The Dana Girl Mysteries by Carolyn Keene.  This same delightful neighbor also gave me the first six books in the Cherry Ames Nurse series.  The first one was published in 1943 and about one a year after that.  I think there is close to twenty books in this series.  This month I read the second one in the series, Senior Nurse.

This book opens with Cherry's first day of her senior year as a nursing student in a teaching hospital.  Her first assignment for the year is on the Children's Ward where she meets a maid who has smuggled a rabbit into the ward to help put a smile on the young patients faces.  The rabbit gets away, dashing around the ward, but with the help of Cherry and a handsome young doctor, catastophe is avoided, but something special has possibly started to brew between Cherry and the young intern.  We follow Cherry through the different wards of her senior year until the most difficult - the Surgery Ward.  Will Cherry make it through this final task and earn her graduate's cap?  During this hard time of war, so many nurses were needed both on the home front and the war front.  Where will Cherry decide is the best place for her?

These books, written in the 1940's are so full of fun and innocence.  So refreshing - I need to carry on and finish the six that I have.

I love old books and the classics and have quite a few on my shelves that I have yet to read, so I've decided that for the coming year I'm going to try to read one a month, at least.  I will also try to tell you all about it.  On my nightstand right now, for December, is Charles Dickens Christmas Stories - A Christmas Carol, The Cricket on the Hearth, and The Chimes.  What is on your nightstand?

Pop over to Adrienne's blog, Some of a Kind, for more Turn the Page Tuesday reads.