One Family... One Jail Cell... One Lesson

     Have you ever read that one book... THAT ONE BOOK, where you want to fall asleep during it? If so, you can relate... if not, you can read this book to say that you have. Touch & Go, written by Lisa Gardner, is one of those books. It draws you in with the synopsis, then gives you a good opportunity to fall asleep. I am just a little bit over half way through. The only reason I want to keep trekking through is because I want to see how the book ends. It has a good plot, but it is not carried out the best way.

    Yawn... Okay, enough about sleep. There is one thing that I have carried away from this book, and that is the theme. Although there can be many themes seen, I like the one about family. One must value their family above all else. This book started off with a thought. How can a perfect family just dissapear? That's the thing, the Denbe family is far from perfect. All of their priorities are not family based. When the Denbe's are abducted, and placed in a jail cell, this is the first time that they have had to work together in a little bit over a year. Mrs. Denbe thought to herself, "No, what silenced me was that he hadn't said anything before now. Sixteen months. A year and a third. I guess that's how long we'd really been drifting apart" (page 208). This quote shows just how disconnected the Denbe family was. Mr. Denbe hadn't been bringing home a pay check for 16 months, and this is the first time that Mrs. Denbe found out.

She goes on to think that, "Not just moments in a marriage, I realized now, but moments in an entire family, when you stopped seeing one another. When you shared a space, but no longer yourselves with one another" (page 231). This is another quote that supports this theme. I strongly agree with the theme that one must value your family above all else. Personally speaking, my family shares everything- daily routines and funny jokes and memories and vacations and our feelings- with one another, which makes our bond stronger. In Touch & Go, the Denbe family's bond is weak, and they don't have much faith in one another. I think of the Denbe family as a broken chain. They have no links connecting them anymore. When they were abducted and put in prison, they started forming a stronger bond and they started sharing their thoughts and feelings with one another. Sometimes it takes extreme measures to find out what is truly important to you. One must value their family above all else.

 

Summary, Reviews, and About the Author

 

 

 

Author of Touch & Go

While I have been reading this book for a little bit over a week, I have not made enough progress to see how the characters have developed or what the theme of the book is. Touch & Go has been an okay book so far. It isn't that book where you can't set it down. I have had a little bit of a hard time following it. However, I wanted to see how it ends, so that is the only reason I have kept reading. I decided to look up some information about the author, and as to why she wanted to write this book. I will share with you guys what I have found out.

Lisa Gardner

"Lisa Gardner, a #1 New York Times crime thriller novelist, began her career in food service, but after catching her hair on fire numerous times, she took the hint and focused on writing instead." (http://lisagardner.com/about). Lisa Gardner loves researching topics about what to write her books on. Her main interest is crime and police procedure. She has had a lot of success as a writer. She has over 22 million books in print, and is published in 30 countries. Lisa lives in New Hampshire with her husband and daughter. Not only has Lisa written the book Touch & Go, but she has written over 20 other books. Some of these books are Alone, Hide, The Neighbor, Live to Tell, and The Survivors Club. An interesting fact that I found out in the video below is that Lisa wrote her first book when she was 17 years old.

List of all the books written by Lisa Gardner


                                                       An Interview with Lisa Gardner

 

Book Review for A Secret Kept

I just finished reading the book, A Secret Kept, written by Tatiana de Rosnay. After reading the synopsis on the cover, the book sounded intriguing. I am so glad that I read it. This is a historical fiction novel about a long kept family secret. Melanie and Antoine are the main characters. They are very developed characters, and it made the book that much better.

 

Growing up, every year for vacaction, Melanie and Antoine would go on a trip with their dad's side of the family to Noirmoutier Island. However, after their mom died, they never went on that vacation again. Now, Melanie is turning 40 years old. Antoine couldn't think of a better way to celebrate that to return to  Noirmoutier Island. They haven't been back to the island since Melanie was 6 years old. On their little weekend get away, memories of their mother came flooding in... both good and bad. They recalled how she looked very elegant in her black dress for dinner, and how she always played with them in the ocean water. Unfortunatley, one memory came back to Melanie that made them realize that they may not have truly known their mom afterall. Before Melanie told Antoine of this memory, she wrecked their car driving home from  Noirmoutier Island. As a reader, you follow them on this journey of trying to figure out the secret, who their mom really was, while balancing their everyday lives.

 

I really enjoyed this book! I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys historical fiction mixed with a little bit of romance. Overall, I would have to rate this book with 4 out of 5 stars. While it was very well written, there could have been more clarification during certain parts. I found this writing style very unique. In between the beginning chapters of the book, there are letters. It never says who they are to or who they are from until the later half of the book. These letters really tied together the book, and it was a nice touch to the overall writing technique of the book.