reviews

I go to the library almost every week.  I usually get several books and 4 movies.  4 is the limit.  I would probably get more if I were allowed.  Any way I thought I would write about these.

Ten Inch Hero

Four friends deal with their love lives and learn about themselves while working in a funky sandwich shop in Santa Cruz, California. Sex, love, ten-inch heroes, and laughs are part of the everyday life in this hip little shop.     
A little unusual.  The roles played were so different.  First this movie takes place in a sandwich shopped owned by an older hippie who is in love with the across the street self proclaimed witch.  He does every thing he can for his employees.  The rest of the characters are in their twenties.  There is a young man who acts like the naughty punkster who is misunderstood.  Then a promiscuous beautiful girl  who is looking for a good fling.  And a Nerdy, computer geek who just wants a loving relationship but is concerned with her looks. Finally a mother who was forced to give her baby girl up for adoption over 8 yrs ago.  She is stalking the family that she thinks her little girl is with. 

The Boys Next Door

Four mentally challenged men share a house and with the help of a social worker learn to cope with the ups and downs of daily life through laughter, love, & joy.
Good example of the life of a special group of men.   Each man has his own troubles.  The social worker has a hard time with his normal life at home when he leaves his work. Their is a man who has a hard time dealing with his family and goes into a scisopranic episode because of a visit from his father. Then the older man is taken advantage of at the grocery store and is pressured to buy a large number of cereal and lettuce.  He tries to take it back but is misunderstood.  A donut maker who has an attraction to the female persuasion.  He collects keys and has a terrible attachment to them.  Then there is a large  man who would have done great things in the agricultural world had he not had a mental handicap.  He is asked to appear in court so they can decide how the home is working. 

The Mighty Macs

In the early '70s, Cathy Rush became the head basketball coach at a tiny, all-girls Catholic college. Though her team had no gym or uniforms, and the school was in danger of being sold, Coach Rush steered her girls to their first national championship. 
This is a story about a new couch teach a struggling female college basketball team to the nationals.  She struggles with her home life because she is always away.  The nun who becomes the assistant couch is a surprise.  Who would know that a nun could drink and play basketball like that.  The girls each have their own issues from being part of a poor family to being expected to become a nurse, from breaking up with a boyfriend to getting good grades.  

In From the Night

 Vicki Miller (Marcia Gay Harden) is a writer who has cut herself off from her dysfunctional family. Her life drastically changes when one night, her 16-year-old nephew Bobby (Taylor Handley) shows up unannounced on her doorstep. He looks tired and depressed, and when Vicki realizes that he's run away, she takes him in. From that point on, Vicki is bound to Bobby. This story tells the tale of two people trying to find themselves and make their way in the world. It's a story of two people's paths to acceptance and healing, and they both benefit from this one child's need for love and a family.    
This story is about an abuse teenager who is trying to change to overcome what he feels about the past and all the disorders that it created.  The female adult puts her life on hold to help change him.

This is a great series by Debbie Macomber

The Shop On Blossom Street
Meet Lydia a twice cancer survivor who buys this little shop and apartment combo.  Her sister Margaret who does not think a yarn store is practical Her three very different students.  Alix a punk rocker who had a very hard life.  Jacqueline a wealth older new grandmother.  Carol a young women hoping for a child. 
A Good Yarn
Lydia meets Brad and his ex wife enters the picture.  Margaret's husband is out of work and they are about to loose their home.  Meet Elise who's ex husband is re entering her life.  Bethanne who is recently divorced and can't find a footing.  And Courtney who must live with her grandmother for her senior year after her mother dies.
Susannah's Garden 
Meet Susan wife and teacher she must go to put her older mother in a home and pack up her childhood home.  While she goes through painful memories she re meets old friends.  Her mother Vivian who lost her husband and is struggling with dementia.  Her daughter who is suffering from a broken heart and looking for new love.  And a twist on the story her dead brother who was never dead.  In the Susan changes her life.  Opening a floral shop.
Back On Blossom Street
Lydia has married Brad the ups man.  The apartment is rented by Colette a young business woman who we find out is pregnant and running from the father of the child.  She works at Susannnah's Garden.  Alix is going to be married and going thru that turmoil.  And Julia, Margaret's daughter, was car jacked and injured.  Both physically and mentally.
Twenty Wishes
Meet Anne Marie she owns the book store on Blossom Street.  She is a recent widow and holds a widows meeting on Valentines day where they make up the idea to list twenty wishes they would like.  Elise's Maverick passed away and she gives Anne Marie the idea to become a reading buddy at the local elementary school.  This is where we Meet Ellen.  She is from a broken home and her grandmother passes away and leaves Ellen to Anne Marie.  Ellen also makes her own list.  We meet Lillie and Barbie who are new widows their wealth husbands died in the same plane crash.  They start over with a new lives and their new male friendships. 
Summer On Blossom Street
Lydia wants to adopt a child. Meet Casey a foster teen who has a hard time fitting in.  Alix and her husband want to have a child but first she must stop smoking.  Phoebe who just left a bad relationship.  Bryan a CEO of a candy company who must lower his blood pressure.  Phoebe and Bryan start a relationship. 
The Twenty-First Wish
This book was different in the publisher added two other stories at the end.  These were not related and did not belong.  Anyway Anne Marie and Ellen bought a new house.  Ellen adds find my dad to her list making twenty one.  Ellen's dad comes along.  After a while Anne Marie and Tim, Ellen's dad, Get together.
A Turn in The Road
Bethanne, her ex mother in law, and her daughter take a trip across the country to Florida.  Her mother in law has a class reunion where she hopes to re unite with her high school boyfriend.  Her daughter Annie is going to forget a sweetheart who took a trip to Europe without her.  She tries to find romance on the trip meeting a couple two different men.  Bethanne  meets a biker who is really a CEO in disguise trying to forget about the death of his wife and daughter.  Mean while the ex husband is trying to get Bethanne back.

These books go thru the lives of the customers, families, and owners of the shops.  I would love to walk down this street and meet all the characters.  I really enjoy Debbie Macombers way of writing.  everything is connected from one character to another.  Add a little bit of romance.