Book Reviews - Colors for Your Every Mood, Journey to the Well, Hound of the Baskervilles

Sharing reviews of a few books I've read recently - as always, an eclectic mix.

I first heard about Leatrice Eiseman's book Colors For Your Every Mood: Discover Your True Decorating Colors when Stacy Julian read some excerpts from it in one of the presentations in the BPC Twelve workshop as she discussed colors and personality. This book contains quite a bit of information on colors - history, uses, cultural differences, language/origin of word, best places to use in decorating, personality, color moods, personal associations with color. The book also contains great color photos of rooms using different colors schemes and moods. While it was interesting reading, I wouldn't recommend this unless you are truly interested in learning more about color and/or currently re-decorating your home. It amused me that for a book about color and how it affects our moods, the bright white glossy pages of the book caused lots of glare on the page!

Journey to the Well by Diana Wallis Taylor is a fictionalized account of the back story of the woman at the well from the book of John (4:1-45) in the Bible, where the only thing we learn about her is that she had five husbands & was then with someone who was not her husband. We discussed this book at a recent book club meeting and discovered that many of us have judged this woman based on our modern customs, assuming multiple divorces and an immoral lifestyle. However, five men would not have married her in that day and age if she had not been a woman of some character. The story begins with 13-year-old Marah, who has lost both parents and is now living with her aunt. She learns that her aunt has arranged for her marriage to an "old" man who "was almost twenty-five." Through the various misfortunes and tragedies of Marah's life, we see this young girl turn into a woman struggling to understand the right thing to do in a variety of circumstances. I truly enjoyed the story, and it has given me a more sympathetic look at the woman at the well and reminded me that I should not be so quick to judge others when I don't know the whole story (or even when I do!). I highly recommend this book.

The Hound of the Baskervilles is one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's novels about Sherlock Holmes.This book was chosen as this year's book for our city-wide reading promotion, a program designed to encourage everyone here to read and discuss a book each year. I really couldn't remember if I had read this book before, however I seemed to have a feeling for what was going to happen next as I read. I like the way Doyle uses lots of foreshadowing, yet leaves out just enough information to keep you wondering what's going to happen next! Great read for the mystery-lovers and puzzle-solvers among us.