Books In My Life - Alan's Labor of Love

March 4th 2011 a compilation

2011-04-04T11:48:00.005-05:00

I am reminded that I have been neglecting my blog. I have been reading up a storm: books from the library and books on my kindle but I have been lazy about comenting or listing the items so I will just give you a list of most but not all: Now on to a recap of the more recent books. I have been rereading “War and peace” on my kindle and I reread “Les Miserables “(kindle) been a long time long time for both; I reread all of my books.

“Coroner’s Lunch” by Colin Cotterill

“Affinity Bridge” by George Mann
A neat mystery want more of this author

“Ageing Disgracefully” By Colin Cotterill

“Fifty Years to Midnight” by Tom Lewis
Good one Tom!!

“Hitler’s Judas” by Tom Lewis
Another great job

“The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin”
Interesting but overlong

“Serpent” by Clive Cussler
Usual Cussler fare but fun

“The Osirus Ritual” by George Mann
Great Story; British couple on Her Majesty’s Service

“The Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva
Favorite Author

“Zena’s Law by Tom Lewis
Interesting subject, Tom

“Thirty-Two Teeth” by Colin Cotterill Really enjoy this man's writing

“Port Mortuary” by Patricia Cornwell
Pretty good; I have been very disappointed the last few years; every one yells and argues, it is like a hornets nest - too much family.

“Hell’s Corner” by David Baldacci
Another Favorite

“The Third Secret” by Steve Berry
Another marvelous, well researched, novel about The Catholic Church and it’s dogma. Lots of suspense; a reread, you should try it out

“An Embarrassment of Riches” by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Another tale of the 3,500 year old vampire Count Saint-Germain; I have been following him for years and find him most interesting. He travels the world and has totally resigned to the fact that he will never die unless his spine is broken or he is consumed in fire.

This time the Count is in Bohemia; he is employed to provide jewels for Queen Knnegonda. Under the pretense of her going to his place to select the jewels(which St. Germain makes)she has a love affair with the Count.

The story is a little slow getting started but soon the count gets his stride; he is always under suspicion because of his great wealth and his manner. This was an OK novel but not her best.

“Apollo’s Angels” by Jennifer Homans

This is a fascinating and enlightening novel about the history of the ballet written by a ballerina. We learn the history and learn about the lives of the Choreographers and dancers and how many of the ballets we enjoy today were created.

“Toward the Setting Sun: "John Ross the Cherokees” by Brian Hicks

A very sad story of a people wronged by our government, politicians, land hungry speculators, and every day folk. We should be ashamed.

“Sackett” by Louis LaMour

Eventually, I will read all of his works. The Sacketts were spread all over the country and when one was in trouble there was allways another Sackett or 2 to help with the problem.

“Ratification: the people debate the Constitution” by Pauline Maier

The years of 1787-1788 were difficult for the Union. The thirteen states did not seem to be able to act as a country; some of them wanted to act independently an were beginning to loose the confidence of other countries because they were not paying their bills. They needed to further define just what this “new country” was all about. Very enlightening

“Mansions of Darkness” by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

Count Saint Germain is in The Viceroyalty of Peru New Spain, Europe was at war and the Count fled to the “New World” for his safety and to learn new things. Unfortunately, the church and it’s inquisition was very strong, as usual.The Spaniards have conquered the Incas, and stole their treasure(for the glory of the crown and church, forced the Incas to become “Christians” and reduced them to servants and poor peasants. Any remaining royalty among the Incas were converted and became a minor part of the ruling class. St. Germain is using his healing skills to aid both Spaniard and Inca alike but is viewed with suspicion by the Local bishop and some Civil authorities and a few local citizens. When a woman He was very close to took her own life by setting herself on fire and hurling herself off a cliff. The church picked up on rumors that he was responsible and issues a warrant for his arrest. He and his loyal friend and servant, Rogero flee to the jungle where he came upon a hidden valley that was lead by a fanatic religious woman who insists he is a messenger from the “Sky people”. She believes that he will give her a child who will redeem their sins. There in no way he could do such a thing and tells her that she is mistaken but she refuses to believe him and keeps him captive until he will admit the he is the messenger. In the mean time there are some who will try to take control of his possessions and wealth.

This novel rates very high with me: the research Ms Yarbro did was very informative as to what was happening in the entire Viceroyalty of New Spain. The novel tells of the severe hardships of the Count’s captivity and of his rescue by his loyal friend. Lots of tension and suspense. A really good read.

The Merry Misogynist by Colin Cotterill

2011-02-16T13:12:00.004-06:00

Funny, entertaining and mischievous. Colin Cotterill has created a wonderful old character called Dr. Siri Paiboun an old doctor who was called out of retirement to become ( the only)coroner of the newly established(and very inefficient)Peoples Democratic Republic of Laos. Dr. Siri and his morgue associates make great fun of the bureaucrats and the corruption while adapting to the new regime. He is always in trouble with the public housing authority because he takes odd people in the live at his home.

He fancies himself somewhat of a detective; when the authorities find the body of a young girl tied to a tree and very much mutilated, Dr Siri decides to find the culprit. An thus begins a fascinating mystery and search for a killer. The story follows the killer as he plans and executes his mutilation of the girls as well as Dr, Siris actions.

Mr Cotterill lives in the Gulf of Thailand; he has many books to his credit; I have read “The Coroner’s Lunch” and “Ageing Disgracefully” which is a collection of very humorous short stories. There are others that I will get on my Kindle. Read him when you find him.

The Templar Salvation by Raymond Khoury

2011-02-16T11:03:00.003-06:00

Interesting and very well researched novel; a prologue starts us off in the year1203 in the city of Constantinople. Templar knights are attempting tom break into the imperial library to find documents that, if presented to the world, would shake the faith of the Christian religion. The Templars want the old writings to blackmail the church to release fellow Templars. They are successful but while making their escape they are duped by some old monks who discover the signifigance of what they are carrying and murder the lot and hid the loot.

The scene changes to the present day in the Vatican where an FBI agent, Sean Reilly along with an Iranian posing as Professor are attempting to get into the secret archives to find an old document relating to the extermination of the Templars and the secrets they kept.

A popular plot used by many authors but never have I met such a mean, vicious and nasty antagonist as the Iranian who wants to expose the secret to the world and create havoc among Christians in the United States. This novel moves like lighting; action and history in every chapter. Some brutal stuff.

FBI agent Reilly keeps missing his opportunity to take out the bad guy and the story goes back and forth between now and the 13th century. I recommend it; Khoury also wrote“The Last Templar”

The Emperor"s Tomb by Steve Berry

2011-02-10T11:19:00.002-06:00

“The Emperor’s Tomb” Steve Berry

Once again, Cotton Mather a former U.S. Justice Department investigator and now a rare book seller in Denmark finds himself in the middle of intrigue and danger when a former friend who is being held prisoner and tortured by the Chinese uses his name as some- one the Chinese would be interested in.

The old Premier has two likely successors, both are ambitious and ruthless and intend to change China(for the better or for the even worst). We learn a lot of the history of China, the double dealing of politics and the extreme measures that ambitious people take to obtain power. The plot revolves around the theory of abiotic oil which postulates the oil is not finite, but rather, a natural phenomena that renews itself from the earth’s core and the devious actions of two men trying to take control of the worlds most populated country.

Mr. Berry, as usual, did a splendid job creating his very believable characters and a very exciting adventure.

I am Back!!!

2011-02-06T09:15:00.005-06:00

After six months of serious problems with my blog I seem to be able to post again.The many books from the library and my Kindlerun through my mind but it is difficult to discuss any single one. Instead here is a list of some of them:
The Emperor's Tomb by Steve Berry
Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
Fifty Candles by Earl D. Biggers(in the early 30s)
The Agony Column Earl D. Biggers (He created Charlie Chan after a real Chinese detective)
The Cavalier with The Yellow Doublet by Arturo Perez Reverte
The Confession by John Grisham
Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier(second reading-really great)
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy(I keep re-reading- just love it!)
The Currents of Space by Isaac Asimov
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin by Benjamin Franklin
Cross Fire by James Patterson
The Floating City by Pamela Hall (Early Hawaii)
Old Books.Rare Friends by Leona Rostenberk and Madeline Stern
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Deliver Us From Evil by Baldacci
The Throne of Saturn by Allen Drury (writer from the 70s-very popular-space and politics)
Long Ride Home by Louis L"Amour
Lots more: will get them later, I remember the names but not the authors

A lot of fiction but with our world as messed up as it is, this is my escape. I was pleased to see over 3700 hits on my little blog; happy I can interest some lookers; many thanks to my followers and my family, Claudia in particular who tells me about books she has read and lends me material from her library. Winter has been hard this year: I miss my bicycle and outdoor activity although I must admit(reluctantly)that with birthday 84 coming up soon, I am slowing down a lot.
I believe that one of my posting problems had to do with my changing my e-mail. ageorge@united.net is no longer active but I must use it to post on my blog. MY NEW ADDRESS IS georgealan7@gmail.com

My best to all!!!

July 2010

2010-08-04T21:55:00.002-05:00

“Empire of The Sun” J.G. Ballard

“The Hittite” Ben Bova

“Innocent” Scott Turow

Really excellent!! Wonderful plot and characters.

“Jane’s Fame” Clair Harman

Book review - Buffalo Bill's Defunct - Sheila Simonson This is from Claudia

Just finished this book and I really enjoyed it. Steve Bero had given
Just finished this book and I really enjoyed it. Steve Bero had given it to me the last time we got together. I think his library had received the advanced copy. It is a current date murder mystery that takes place in Washington State. A single mom (Meg) has just left her daughter who is just starting her adventures at Stanford University, to begin a new life for herself as the Head Librarian in a small town. She moves in and suddenly a dead body is discovered in a secret storage compartment in the floor of her garage. She finds a piece of an artifact (petro glyph) in her garage and smells what she thinks is a dead animal decomposing somewhere in the garage, but alas it turns out there is much more going on......welcome to the neighborhood. It is an easy read (not extremely complex - less so than say Tony Hillerman or a Pendergast novel) and the characters are interesting. Meg (Librarian) uses her information retrieval skills and assists the police investigation to solve the murder. The artifact may be a part of a heist from 10 yrs ago and would therefore belong to the local descendants of the Klalo tribe. Chief Madeline Thomas is someone I would like to learn more about.

This apparantly is a part of a series: A Latouche County Mystery.

Other authors mentioned from Perseverance Press: (Mysteries)
Jon Breen
Taffy Cannon - Roxxane Prescott Series
Laura Crum - Gail McCarthy Series
Jeanne M Dams - Hilda Johansson Series
Kathy Lynn Emerson - Lady Appleton Series
Lev Raphael - Nick Hoffman Series
Rebecca Rothenberg - Botanical Series
Eric Wright - Joe Barley Series

Kathy Lynn Emerson: "How to write Killer Historical Mysteries: The Art and Adventure of Sleuthing Through the Past"
Carolyn Wheat: "How to writer killer fiction: The funhouse of Mystery & the Roller Coaster of Suspense"
interesting.......

I also wanted to inform you about a new movie just released. "AGORA" It is about the Library of Alexandria and Hypatia (daughter of the curator of the library). Regretably, my formal undergraduate education curriculum did not see fit to inform me about her..... I think I have found a new "Artemesia" to explore. Dad, I'm mailing you the article. Movie Website: www.agorathemovie.com

Happy reading,
Claudia

July turned out to be a month of reading and rereading old favorites. I wonder how many people remember A. J. Cronin? He was a Scottish physician who served in World War I as a Surgeon, worked in the coal mine towns under the company medical schemes (which were the model for Britain’s National Health Program) where he wrote papers on coal dust inhalation and pulmonary disease . In 1930 he retired from medicine ant started writing. I reread my two favorites: “The Keys of The Kingdom” about a Catholic priest who was sent to China and refused to accept “rice Christians” in his parish but managed over many years to get a following starting out by opening a medical aid station. “The Citadel”; the trials, successes and failures of a young Scottish Doctor as he found his way in medicine by working the coal mine towns. This was, clearly, a novel based on his own experienced. “Adventures in Two Worlds” is an interesting autobiography which starts when Cronin was a medical student. As you read the biography and all the things he experienced, you recall all of the adventures of the characters in his novels.

I read three more Louis L’Amour novels:

“The Man Called Noon”
“Long Ride Home”
“The Daybreakers”

What can I say? Good Western adventure; I keep trying to discover a time when L’Amour’s protagonist uses a contraction in his speech –very rarely. Just pure enjoyment.

Lucy By Laurence Gonzales

2010-08-04T21:50:00.003-05:00

A fascinating and thought provoking story that deals with genetic tampering, morality, ethics and religious thoughts that arise when a woman Primatologist, Jenny, discovers a young girl in the jungle in the devastated research camp of a fellow primatologist. Civil war rebels have murdered the scientist and everyone in the camp but the girl, Lucy, somehow escaped. After grabbing whatever notebooks she could find they fled home.

Lucy is a beautiful, very intelligent part Bonobo chimpanzee and part human; the result of an experiment conducted by the scientist who was slaughtered by the rebels. She speaks perfect English and several other languages, she is well read and classically educated.

Where does Lucy belong in our society? There are those who consider her an abomination and should be destroyed, some want her in a cage, others want to study her; literally dissect her. I was charmed by Lucy and was angered by how mean and shameful people, society, religious groups and the government can act out of fear and lack of understanding. Splendid read!!

A Month of Catch Up

2010-06-24T16:48:00.003-05:00

June 24th

This has been an interesting week or several weeks, actually; a little less than a month ago. I bought an Amazon Kindle. The main reason I bought the Kindle was to alleviate the cost of my Wall Street Journal subscription. I find that I can get the Wall Street Journal for about one third of what the Wall Street wants to charge me for the paper edition. Now, I turn the wireless on each morning and within three minutes I have my Wall Street Journal. I can also, buy books through Amazon at a cost from $1-$12.

Recent looks that I have taken from the library include: “Island Beneath the Sea" by Isabel Allende it did not interest me, a delightful story of Tuscany: “ Every Day in Tuscany” by Francis M. Mayes. This is the woman, who wrote under the Tuscan Sun. It is
a story of everyday life in Tuscany and includes many deliciousng recipes; lots of garlic. I also found a book called “The Dangerous Book of Heroes” which is really a compilation of short biographies of famous people, including George Washington, Sir Richard Burton, Oliver Cromwell, Helen Keller, and many others. This would be an excellent reference.

I labored into Gore Vidal’s “Creation” A rather heavy reading, but a fascinating story of the ancient world in the fifth century A.D. Cyrus Spitama, grandson of the prophet Zoroaster , Persian Ambassador for the great King Darius and friend of the mighty warrior, Xerxes. Cyrus was an old blind philosopher who traveled to India to talk to Buddha, to Cathay (very early China) to meet Confucius and to Athens in Pericles time to discuss creation, and evil and good with Sophocles, Socrates, Thucydides and Herodotus. I am sorry to say, I did not give this excellent work the time it deserved. When Cyrus was in Athens he was clearly in some danger because Persia had conjured Greece of old and he had to take some care in his speech. I kept looking for Cyrus to give the Persian version of the Battle at Thermopylae and King Leonidas of Sparta.

I, also, found a wonderful volume by Thomas Asbridge; “The Crusades”. There is a very comprehensive introduction that will give the reader a broad understanding of how and why the church decided it was important to fight these “Holy Wars” and how their power over the people of Western Europe was able to increase. The introduction also gives an overview of the Muslim World and a fairly comprehensive history of Islam. If nothing else, you must read the introduction and the notes.

For my Kindle, I bought and read:

David Baldacci’s “Deliver Us From Evil” (Special Edition) I have read every one of his novels and he has never disappointed me. My favorite, I think is “Absolute Power”, this one, however was pretty close. The “evil” is about as bad as it comes in the form of a madman, a monster who must be stopped. This was a real thriller; the interesting thing about the “Special Edition” is that Baldacci includes the notes he used as he developed the novel and he included discussion as to alternate endings and titles.

“Utopia” By Lincoln Child

Lincoln coauthors with Douglas Preston the splendid Special Agent Pendergast series, two museum thrillers, “Relic” and “Reliquary” and many other exciting novels.
Lincoln’s “Utopia” is about a fantasy amusement park with different world themes all run by super computers with software that will put you right into the action. The park is run by a mega Corporation that makes Millions of dollars each day. Hardware and software problems mysteriously develop in spite of failsafe programs; people are getting killed in the park!

“The Burning Wire” By Jeffery Deaver

The latest Lincoln Rhyme novel; Someone has found a way to manipulate the New York City power grid with devastating consequences. A madman? Rhyme must also deal with an old enemy who will trick him into some mistakes. This was a good one.

Through the Kindle, I “discovered” an author I enjoy very much; Tom Lewis is an interesting man educated here and in Europe, a Symphony Conductor for 38 years and now a novelist. He is. Certainly well read and articulate. I like the way he tells a story.

My first visit was “My King The President” a splendid and interesting thriller about a young Secret Service agent who gets up one morning, reports for duty at the Whitehouse, goes to the President’s office and shoots him dead and then kills himself. Why? The agent left some cryptic notes with a priest and old college friend who is an investigative reporter. The reporter was hesitant to do anything but the new President, concerned about rumors surrounding the assignation hires him to investigate and report to her only. One of the first persons he is contacted by is the dead president’s wife who hints of grave happenings, a president who is power hungry and has his own ideas of how the country should be run and will use the military and powerful people in government and industry to literally take over the country. Unfortunately, before they can have a more detailed meeting, she is dead. The official word, a grieving widow committing suicide. The man is warned off, other contacts either die or disappear. A hide and seek chase with danger and drama ensues and little by little the plot unfolds.. I read it in one sitting. Thanks, Tom.

I read “Lucifer’s Children” a strange novel; a “Rosemary’s Baby”, “Omen”, “Exorcist” and a rather original concept of Hell with Lucifer in charge of a simple mining town and master of a complex computer driven Empire hidden in a mountain. Bazaar but I enjoyed it.

I will start “Hitler’s Judas” tonight.

Two More Mentions: (Hard Covers from Amazon)

“Fever Dream” By Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Claudia and I have been following Special Agent Aloysius X.L. Pendergast for many years; she has not read this one yet. Pendergast had a wife named Helen who was killed by accident on a lion hunt in Africa. Twelve years later, he finds some documents that indicate that she was murdered. Together with his friend and associate Vincent D’Agosta, Lieutenant NYPD, he will go back to Africa and follow every clue and lead until he discovers and kills the person responsible for his wife’s death. Pendergast learns many things about his wife and the trail is circuitous, extremely dangerous and full of surprises. You will like this one, Claudia; I did. Constance shows up again; in trouble.

“A River In The Sky” Elizabeth Peters

The “editor” has received from the heirs of Mrs. Emerson another volume of her memoirs. This story is not in sequence; it relates to an earlier time (1910) prior to WWI. Germany is increasing her influence in Palestine and British Intelligence thinks that they might be there to stir up trouble between the three religions. Germans used Archaeologists as a front for their activities – -remember the old novel “Seven Graves to Cairo” where a big group of German archaeologists hid gasoline and munitions across the desert in anticipation of the war?--

The Emersons are asked to go to Jerusalem to, ostensively, monitor an amateur treasure hunter to make sure he does not destroy any monuments (He thinks he knows where the Ark of the Covenant is hidden) but to, also, keep an eye on the Jews, the Muslims and the Christians who are on the verge of a holy war that is being instigated by people that would benefit.
Pretty good tale; not Egypt but Amelia and her extended family did good and it is always fun to see them again.

The Alchemy of Murder By Carol McCleary

2010-05-13T13:29:00.002-05:00

Ms McCleary has written a wonderful, entertaining and perfectly delightful novel featuring investigative journalist Nellie Bly. Nellie Bly was a colorful pioneer in woman’s rights who pushed her way into the newspaper business and wrote an expose’ on the treatment of female factory workers. She went on to become a foreign correspondent in Mexico and to get a job with The New York World newspaper, she feigned insanity and had herself committed to a notorious Woman’s Lunatic Asylum and wrote an article about how the women were treated. Inspired by Jules Verne’s novel, she went around the world in 72 days beating Phileas Fogg’s time by 8 days. This was in 1890.

Our author has placed Nellie in Paris in pursuit of a serial killer who has been killing and mutilating young women. She has been tracking this evil person from America to England and now to France. The year is 1889; the World’s Fair and it’s special attraction, the Eiffel Tower has attracted hundreds of thousands of people. The killer of women has struck in Paris and if that were not bad enough, a strange, deadly plague is taking the lives of the people of Paris. The French Ministers are not anxious to expose either the killings of the mysterious deaths for fear of panicking the Fair visitors. They attribute the plague to the gases from the underground rivers. Nellie thinks that the there is a connection with her serial killer. In this exciting adventure, Nellie meets and enlists the aid of some of the most interesting and contemporary figures of the time; Jules Verne , Oscar Wilde, Louis Pasteur and even Toulouse Lautrec. Together they explored streets and alleys of Paris; they meet dangerous characters and visit some very scary places; Nellie even enjoys a little romance. There were some surprises and an exciting climax when Nellie faces the killer alone.

I,really, enjoyed this one and look forward to more Nellie Bly adventures. Thank you Carol!

Heresy By S.J. Parrish

2010-05-13T13:23:00.003-05:00

A splendid, intriguing, historical novel about a fugitive Monk, Giordano Bruno, who is wanted by the inquisition because of his heretical belief in a heliocentric universe. Giordano is also a poet, a scientist and a scholar.

Giordano flees to England where the Protestant Queen Elizabeth is embroiled in the constant battle with Catholics. Her chief spy is Sir Francis Wolsingham a devious and clever master of an army of spies none of whom knows the identity of the other. Wolsingham suspects that Oxford University is a haven for rebellious Catholics who are plotting to assassinate Elizabeth. Giordano is hired to infiltrate and expose the underground network of Papists.

As a ruse to gain entrance, Bruno is to debate the theories of Copernicus with the head of the University. During the debate, which goes very badly for Bruno because the head of the University and the faculty had such closed minds that they refused to even accept the premise, the first of several murders occur. The Rector, fearing a scandal, refuses to bring in the authorities to investigate; Giordano recognizes the deaths as murder and investigates himself which puts him at odds with the Rector and the faculty. Giordano must use all of his skill in the face of deceptions and obstacles the Rector and some of the faculty put before him while at the same time keeping his mission secret and his life safe from the inquisition.

This was a brilliant and compelling story; I am sure that there will be another novel highlighting Giordano Bruno’s adventure.

Hester By Paula Reed

2010-05-13T13:09:00.003-05:00

In the mid 1800’s, Nathaniel Hawthorn gave us “The Scarlet Letter”. Hawthorn’s famous work takes place in 17th century Boston in a rigid Puritan community and tells the story of Hester Pryne a young woman whose husband was presumably lost at sea several years ago being led from prison with her infant daughter in her arms wearing an embroidered letter “A” on the breast of her gown, a badge of her shame and the sin of adultery. Her further punishment in to stand on a raised scaffold for the next three hours to be viewed by the people of the village and to be questioned and shamed by the Governor and other high officials including the pious and respected young minister Roger Dimmesdale who joins the throng in an impassioned plea for Hester to name her lover. She continues to refuse to do so.

It is at this time that a stranger shows up who identifies himself as Roger Chillingworth a practice of medicine. He is actually Hester’s husband who refuses to admit his identity and later, forces Hester not to acknowledge him. He makes up his mind that somehow he will find out who Hester’s lover is and kill him.

Hester clings to the Scarlet Letter, she refuses to remove it; she is shunned by the community but because of her seamstress abilities she is able to make a living and raise her daughter. Hester, after a time of charitable deeds has an easier life but she becomes able to look at persons in the village and know their sins this ability shows her that no one seems to be without sin and many of the most pious share the sin of adultery.

The story goes on to reveal that Arthur Dimmesdale is Hester’s lover and the father of their daughter, Pearl. Hester and Arthur finally decide to confess and leave on a ship to England. As they stand before the village Arthur exposes his chest and presents an “A’ that has been burned over his heart. Arthur dies; Chillingworth does not get his revenge. When Roger dies, he claims Pearl as hi own and leaves her hi fortune.
Hester and Pearl Leave Boston for many years and Hester The returns alone. Hester lives the rest of her days in the village doing charity, she is accepted by the women of the village and when she dies, is buried next to Arthur. On the simple tombstone they share is written “On a Field, Sable, The Letter “A”, Gules”

“HESTER”

Paula Reed, in her “Hester” has written a story she calls the missing years of the “Scarlet Letter”.

Hester and Pearl are still in Boston, Pearl is seven years old, Hester still has what she calls her “touch” but she is, now, accepted by the women in the community and they look to her for advice. Roger Chillingworth dies and leaves his very substantial fortune to Pearl who, in his will, he claims to be his daughter. Hester and Pearl leave for England to start a new life.

Seventeenth Century England was Protestant, Catholics and Jews were hated. Mary, Queen of Scot was maligned as a “Papist whore” Oliver Cromwell was Lord Protector of the Commonwealth and in his zeal to keep England Protestant and to ferret out “secret Catholics” he had spies all over and tortured his suspects into confession.

Hester and Pearl began their life in England by living with and becoming a part of the family of a girlhood friend who was married to a high ranking military man, one of Cromwell’s people, who was away from home most of the time fighting Catholic rebels. Through this connection she met Cromwell who somehow discovers Hester’s ability to see sin and hypocrisy in others and he blackmails her to help him expose disloyal people. One of Cromwell’s fears is that England might be attacked by one of the Catholic kings and be aided by the “secret” Catholics in England. Hester becomes very much involved in the political and social intrigues of the times to the point that she endangers her life and others close to her.

This was a very interesting and well told story. Hester had a love afair in England but after arranging a suitable marriage for Pearl, she returned to Boston to die alone.

The Fifth Servant By Kenneth Wishnia

2010-03-10T16:49:00.005-06:00

The setting is Prague in the late 16th Century; the Catholic Church and the newly formed Protestant groups are fighting for religious control of all of Europe. The inquisition is hard at work torturing folks for heresy and witchcraft and both the Protestants and the Catholics fear and hate the Jews who are segregated, forced to wear yellow badges and confined to the Ghetto. They are blamed for any misfortune that occurs in the city. Clearly, misunderstood, they are accused of sorcery and eating infants during “blood rituals”.

On the eve of Passover, a Christian girl has been found dead in a Jewish shop with her throat slashed. This brutal crime is a grand excuse for the people of the town to place the blame on not just the shopkeeper but on all of the Jews in the Ghetto. This has happened before in other towns and the Jews have paid a terrible price in blood and fortune.

A sexton of the Synagogue, (a “Shammes”) named Benyamin Ben-Akive has been given three days to find the real killer. Benyamin is a scholar well versed in the Talmud and all of the esoteric writings and laws that dominate Jewish lives but he is new to the village and must rely on others to assist him. He aligns himself with the High Rabbi of the Jewish community and together with a council of other Rabbis, Benyamin finds ways to investigate the crime and stay within the rigid rules relating to Jewish laws especially during Passover as outlined in the Talmund. No work is allowed, no words can be written; not even a single letter. The entire Gheto is in danger of rioting and burning by the zealots of the Christian community. Witnesses must be found and evidence must be uncovered all under the scrutiny of the Christian officials who raise objections to practically everything. The body of the young girl must be examined but the Jews are not allowed to touch the body; Benyamin's wits are constantly challenged.

The author, Kenneth Wishnia, has drawn marvelous, complicated and interesting characters and the story is replete with Jewish history, customs and scholarly discussions about the Jewish writings as compared to the bible as the Jews know it and as the Christians interpret the words.; it is so very interesting to see the wry humor expressed by Benyamin as his people resign themselves to their life in the Ghetto. There is even a debate between the High Rabbi and the Catholic Bishop representing the inquisition. The is not only a fascinating history but also a puzzling mystery.

Fortunately, the author provided a glossary to help the reader understand the Jewish words and phrases.

This was a fascinating read and I strongly recommend it.

Living Witness By Jane Haddon

2010-03-10T16:40:00.004-06:00

Exciting and interesting story about a small town, Snow Hill, located in the hills of Pennsylvania. The native residents have been there “forever” have very fundamental religious views and are not very friendly to newcomers. They are very suspicious of the people who have settled in the new subdivision with their fancy cars, their college educations, the “big words” they use, even the clothes they wear. Snow Hill folks drive pick-up trucks, don’t read books except for the bible of course, wear parkas not coats and most of them hardly got through high school. Then, there is religious disagreement among the natives; one of the groups were snake handlers another created their own "Christian " school.

A new school board decided to introduce Intelligent Design into the curriculum and the town is in an uproar. People, immediately, take sides; “Creationists” who take the Bible literally (the earth and everything was formed in seven days), those who do not go that far but still do not believe in evolution and the “Evolutionists”. Very strong language and opinions are expressed openly on the streets and in the stores very insulting; there is no middle ground.
A law suit has been filed against the school board and a very public trial is eminent.

The oldest, wealthiest and most opinionated woman in town(very liberal in all of her views)is discovered close to death, badly beaten in her own home. The local sheriff, a very biased “Creationist” thinks that he might be among the “suspects” and because there is going to be a media circus when the trial starts hires former FBI Agent Gregor Demarkian to investigate. Demarkian is an “out of towner” (and an Athiest) the town people do not warm to him.

This was an interesting subject and Jane Haddon researched it well and presented it with vigor and some bias I think. This was my first meeting with Gregor Demarkian; I like him and I will read more Jane Haddon.

Beau Geste By Perceval Christopher Wren

2010-03-07T20:16:00.004-06:00

The great classic story of the French Foreign Legion and the three Geste brothers, John, Digby, and Michael, the oldest, who was called Beau.
These inseparable boys were adopted by Lady Brandon a wealthy woman who included among her treasures a magnificent sapphire called “The Blue Water”. The story tells of their life in England, how the sapphire went missing and Beau’s sudden departure from the home of Lady Brandon to join the French Foreign Legion. Beau’s brothers joined him later; all of them had confessed to stealing the gem.

The life and hardships endured by Legionnaires, the assignment to North Africa, the great battle at the fort of Zinderneuf and the harsh treatment of the Legionnaires by the brutal and sadistic Sergeant Markoff are all told in this wonderful story. The “Viking funeral” was memorable!

In 1939 I saw the movie which stared Gary Cooper as Beau, Ray Milland as John and Robert Preston as Digby. Brian Donlevy was the mean Sergeant Markoff it was true to the novel that I have just read for the first time. A great boy’s story!!

Impact By Douglas Preston

2010-03-07T20:12:00.003-06:00

Wyman Ford, former CIA, hero of two other Preston novels (Tyrannosaur Canyon and Blasphemy) has been asked to investigate the source of some very radioactive gems that are showing up in large quantities on the black market. The search takes him to Cambodia where he investigates a mine shaft that appears to be the source. His mission was to investigate, take pictures and report but the people running the mine were using child labor and terribly mistreating them, working them to death and dumping the bodies in open graves. Ford took it upon himself to move the workers out of the area and then blow up the whole complex including the overseers and the mine. The people in Washington were very angry; they had lied to Ford and Ford soon learned that they had an entirely different reason for their interest in the mine. Apparently two huge meteors were tracked to have landed in the Atlantic off the coast of Main and in the Cambodia location. Shortly after, the radioactive stones started showing up. The Government was concerned because of the danger of the gems in the “wrong hands”.

In Main, Abby Straw, the rebellious daughter of a Lobster fisherman was taking pictures of constellations when the meteor crashed into the sea and she got a digital picture. Her immediate thought was meteors are worth a lot of money and she had the savvy to use the picture to triangulate a very close location as to where it hit the ground. She found the point of impact but she could not find the meteorite.

At the same time a young analyst, Mark Corso, at the National Propulsion Facility, an organization that plots the orbits of planets has discovered something very special about the meteor. The NPF has traced the origin of the meteor as Mars, but Corso has been secretly studying the phenomenon and using classified tracking information finds that the Meteor originated on one of the moons of Mars. Careful study of satellite pictures show what appears to be an ancient alien machine.

The planet Earth is threatened by more than a natural happening. Wyman Ford’s pictures and GPS statistics taken in Cambodia indicate that the meteorite did not hit the Earth at the mine’s location, the pictures, clearly, showed that it left the Earth at that spot!

This was a good thriller, likeable characters and an improbable but interesting and fun plot; the Government bumbling as usual but Wyman Ford, Abby Straw and Mark Corso work together to an exciting conclusion. I enjoyed this one very much.

Last Stand at Saber River By Elmore Leonard

2010-01-30T07:38:00.002-06:00

Elmore Leonard is known to me for his crisp, snappy dialogue in such tales as “Get Shorty”, Be Cool” and “Tishomingo Blues” but he also wrote great Westerns.

Paul Cable is returning to his home in Southern Arizona. He is a wounded Confederate officer leaving a war that has scared him inside and out. He finds the town drastically changed and learns from the new owner of the general store, a hard, secretive and perhaps, dangerous man that his land and home had been taken over by two brothers. Those brothers, both Yankees, own most of the land in the territory and sell livestock to the Union Army Post.

Cable must confront these people; an ex- Confederate veteran in Union country. A story of great danger, great courage, mean spirited and dishonest characters and a man and his family who refuse to walk away. Good Western!

Pirate Latitudes By Michael Crichton

2010-01-28T12:15:00.003-06:00

Christmas present from “Jill Baby”; thank you!

This is a recently discovered manuscript after the author’s death in 2008. I have always enjoyed Michael Crichton’s novels; “Timeline”, Jurassic Park”, “Sphere” and “The Andromeda Strain” were my favorites.

The time is 1665 and we are introduced to Port Royal on the island of Jamaica. Port Royal is an isolated English colony that survives the attempts of conquest by the Spaniards because Port Royal is a haven for pirates and cutthroats who protect the island and prey on the Spanish.

A fun tale about a cultured pirate (they call themselves “privateers”), Charles Hunter, and his hunt for Spanish treasure on his galleon “El Trinidad and how the corrupt Governor and other officials finance the adventure for a percentage of the treasure. Of course, everyone will try to cheat each other out of their share. Captain Hunter is going to attack a Spanish stronghold that is used as a safe holding place for treasure vessels on their way to Spain. His crew is a mixed bunch; mostly hard, ruthless men of the sea but his officers are clever and resourceful men who assist Hunter in a daring and dangerous plan to land on the protected Spanish island.

The adventures on land in the town of Port Royal are filled with stories of the taverns and grogshops, the ladies of the bawdy houses and deeds and misdeeds of the men and women of the “upper class”. I read the novel straight through and was sorry that it ended because it was great fun.

The War That Killed Achilles Carolyn Alexander

2010-01-28T12:03:00.007-06:00

This is a truly wonderful book; replete with fascinating information, well researched and fun to read. The Iliad, the beautiful poem of Homer has been dissected and re-presented to us as a novel of the brutality and futility of war. Simply stated, the war between the Greeks and Trojans was directly caused when Paris, the son of King Priam of Troy, visited the Greek king Menelaos of Sparta and abducted his beautiful wife, Helen. Menelaos went to see his brother, Agamemnon, who put together an alliance of Greeks who sailed with an Armada to the walled city of Troy to bring back Helen. The city of Troy was very much protected and the war went on for 10 years. It came to a point where all of the warriors were ready to call it quits. Achilles quickly tired of Agamemmon’s hate and greed because it became very clear to all that this war was not about Helen but rather about power.

Ms Alexander, a Rhodes Scholar, tries to draw a parallel to the “wars” that the United States is currently fighting; the futility, and the blunders. She shows how the common people and the soldiers were affected by this senseless war which, seemingly, could not be ended. Achilles’ mother, Thetis, prophesized his death but he sacrificed himself in this stupid war in his quest for everlasting fame. Homer, certainly gave him fame if you read Homer's "Odyssey" when Odysseus met Achilles in Hades, Achilles regreted his sacrifice for fame and said "better to be the hireling of a stranger and serve a man of mean estate whose living is small than to be a ruler over all these dead and gone".

Senseless wars continue to this day and they will finally end in the down fall of all of the participants; will we ever learn from history or from good sense??

This was a great read; I picked up a copy of Homer’s Illiad to read along with this novel and because the Illiad contains very little reference to the “Trojan Horse” or Odysseus and the role he played in the war, I bought a copy of Homer’s “The Odyssey”. I am reading this now and thoroughly enjoying it. I recommend going on line to get a pronunciation guide for the Greek names; it will help a lot.
You might, also, want to read “Ransom” by David Malouf which is wholly devoted to Achilles’ relationship to Patroclus, his rage and revenge against Hector and the great sorrow of Priam who went to Achilles to plead for his son’s body. Another reference which is very well done is Alessandro Baricco’s “An Illiad”; this marvelous Spanish writer (“Silk”, “Without Blood”, “City”, “Ocean Sea”) has taken Homer’s poem and adapted it to a public reading. A really great read!

2010-01-04T18:13:00.002-06:00

The Group keeps getting smaller and smaller; too bad, we miss the old folks.

Sara and Alan far right,top.

This was at Julia's home; I am waiting for a copy of the first family thing held at Tims Ford Lake over 15 years ago. I will post it to show how we have shrunk over the years.

The Lost Symbol By Dan Brown

2010-01-04T14:12:00.003-06:00

Long awaited but rather disappointing to me.

I like history and enjoy historical fiction but Dan Brown bored the heck out of me with his extensive background on the Masons and their confusing and dumb symbolism.
There was a little too much preaching and some characters, including Langdon, who were not equal to or as strong as those in his previous novels. The puzzles were forced and esoteric and not very interesting. He did have a very evil and malevolent antagonist and there were a few interesting and tense situations and a couple of surprises towards the end but overall, I found myself waiting for the novel to end.
I thought that “Deception Point” and “Digital Fortress” were excellent. I liked “Angels and Demons” a bit better than “Da Vinci Code”.

and their memory was a bitter tree By Robert E. Howard

2009-12-01T11:12:00.003-06:00

A great collection of stories of “Conan the Cimmerian”, better known as “Conan the Barbarian”.
Back in the early ‘30s, movies like “Tarzan the Ape Man, “The Mummy” and the Marx brother's “Horsefeathers” were popular and the pulp magazines were beginning to multiply with titles like “Thrilling Wonder Stories”, “True Detective”, and “The Shadow”. It was during this time that Robert E. Howard started writing his short stories with some success. It was when he created a mythical world called the “Hyborian age and placed Conan into one of the countries called Cimmera that he began to see real success. A former writer and Illustrator, Frank Frazetta , teamed up with Howard to do the covers and illustrations. This book contains not only swell stories but great illustrations and all one has to do is look at Frazetta’s Conan and you will see why Arnold was the only choice when the movie was made. This was an interesting and entertaining book; a little heavy on violence and gore but that what they had in those days. Pick it up and look at the pictures, if nothing else.

Short Stories By Louis L'Amour

2009-11-10T12:51:00.000-06:00

“Four Card Draw
“Desert Death Song”
“Trap of Gold”
“Keep Travlin’ Rider Louis L’Amour

Louis L’Amour has entertained me for many years and I keep finding little gems that I missed. These four short stories involve a murder that the people of the town want to keep secret, a hunted man who tries to survive in the desert, a prospector who finds a rich gold vein, and a stranger riding into a town controlled by bad guys. Always great characters and great fun!

The Magicians By Lev Grossman

2009-11-10T12:47:00.001-06:00

This is the story of, still another, magical world. A bit like C. S. Lewis but more liken to J.K. Rowland. The novel details the adventures of precocious young people selected to attend “Brakebills College of Magical Pedagogy” an invisible (to the uninitiated) place where students spend some five years learning to be magicians. As compared to Harry Potters Hogwarts, Brakebills was a lot rougher; the training was very rigorous and the professors were very strict. For the final exams, the students were led to the roof of one of the buildings, removed their clothes and were transformed into geese whereupon they flew to the frigid South Pole area where they were told that now they would begin to really learn to do magic. Difficult and harsh times were ahead. I enjoyed the interplay between the students which was very adult and interesting. Overall, a good read.

Follow Me Down By Shelby Foote

2009-11-10T11:50:00.000-06:00

Southern writer, Shelby Foote writes of a “crime of passion”. Farmer Eustis, leaves his family and runs off with a young girl to a deserted Mississippi island where, after a week, he drowns her. Foote uses the convention that Wilkie Collins first used in the mid 1800’s where, as the novel unfolds, each of the characters involved narrates their own history and the role they played until everything all comes together.

Hothouse Orchid By Stuart Woods

2009-11-10T11:30:00.000-06:00

With the exception of “Chiefs” a very early Woods novel, I have steered away from this author because of the way he handles his female characters. Woods always portrays them as slutty, overly aggressive women who jump in and out of bed throughout the story. This is his latest novel; found it at the library; he is still at it.

The Woman Who Would Be Pharaoh By William Kline

2009-08-27T08:46:00.004-05:00

A well researched and very interesting piece of historical fiction about Ankhesenamun (the name means – “she lives through Amun”), the beautiful wife of Tutankhamun. She was one of the daughters of Pharaoh Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV) and his queen Nefertiti who eliminated all of the old Egyptian gods and replaced them with a single god Aten .

The Egyptians were not happy with this change and after Akenenaton’s death, they went back to worshiping their old gods. Tutankhamun and his wife supported this change.

The novel deals with the younger life of Ankhesenamun and Tutankhamun as they grew up together and the political power struggles that brought Tutankhamun to the throne for seven years until he was killed by power hungry relatives. His widow queen Ankhesenamun fearful of her life, enlisted the aid of a powerful Hittite king in an attempt to protect the throne against her scheming grandfather who would force her into marriage in order to become Pharaoh.

As a companion, one might want to read “Nefertiti” by Nick Drake and “Nerartari, The Heretic Queen” by Michelle Moran.

Frankenstein Book Three dead and alive Dean Knooze

2009-08-27T08:41:00.002-05:00

Claudia, Rick and I have been waiting and looking for this final installment in Koontz’s fascinating series.

Victor Helios’ (Victor Frankenstein; over 200 years old) “New Race” creations are beginning to think for themselves and acting contrary to the way they were programmed when they were made. They are still cold blooded killers but they are killing out of control and some are beginning to mutate. At the same time, some of Victor’s “monsters” are questioning their programming. Victor’s wife, “Erica 5” is secretly reading books (forbidden by the creator) and becoming curious about her husband’s activities; she has discovered hidden rooms and has talked to mutants who have given her ideas that may cause Erica 5 to betray Helios.

The “New Race” was organized into specific classes; workers to do the menial tasks (maids, cleaners, those who ran the dump where they buried town people and Victor’s mistakes), replicates, those who were made to replace important people in the community; police chiefs, Mayors, priests, etc., and enforcers and guards who did the killing and dirty work for Victor. All were very strong and possessed great speed and agility. Victor Helios was building new “factories” to mass produce his creations that would eventually kill all humans.

This final book of the series deals more with several of Helio’s creations , particularly, the mutants and follows them as they go on killing sprees and react with others of their kind. Detectives, Carson and Michael continue to work with Victor Frankenstein’s original creation, Deucalion, to find a way to finally stop Helios and destroy the “new race”. There is some dark humor and some very exciting and tense action and one can feel a certain sympathy for the creatures, evil and misguided as they are.

There is an interesting twist and a prologue which may or may not make this the last we hear of the immortal Deucalion and his nemesis Victor Helios.

Frankenstein Book 2 City of Night Dean Koontz

2009-08-17T08:54:00.004-05:00

Claudia and Rick have read both books of this reworking of the classic tale by Mary Shelly and “Jill Baby” is deep into the first book. There will be a third volume, there has to be because this one had no ending, it just fades away at what should be a very important stage of the story.

The time is 240 years since Victor Frankenstein who now calls himself Victor Helios created his first “monster”. The creature still lives and calls himself Deucalion (the son of Prometheus). Apparently, Deucalion has learned to control his rage through years of study at a monastery and he has learned that his creator has managed to keep himself alive for over 200 years and has created a special race of non humans to serve him. Deucalion has vowed to kill his maker. Victor Helios is one bad guy!! He has managed to make duplicates of major figures in the city of New Orleans this includes the Mayor, the Police Chief and many others in authority. These non humans are programmed for special duties; they are stronger and faster and eventually, Victor Helios will turn them loose to kill all humans. Frankenstein continues to perform bizarre experiments some of which turn out very badly; he destroys them and buries them in a special dump that is used for both human and non human bodies and is run by disgusting low class non human people who hate humans and savor the opportunity to perform evil deeds and mutilation on the human bodies that are sent to them.
There is a man and woman detective team who know about Frankenstein and are intent on destroying him with the help of Deucalion. The team is followed by an assassination couple who bring very dark humor and brutal conversation to their characters. Frequently, the dialogue in this novel is repugnant especially when it gets into descriptions of killing and burial rituals by the non humans.
Victor is mad; he is looking for perfection but he can not find it in the culture or makeup of the human race. He has made five wives, none of which are good enough for him. It is, not yet, clear how he expects things to be when he has killed off all humans because one of the prime motivations of his non humans is to kill humans and when humans are gone how will the monsters fare?

The Italian By Ann Radcliff

2009-08-06T18:32:00.003-05:00

Ann Radcliff was listed as one of the most talented writers of the “Gothic Romance” genre of the late 18th century
Her prose and magnificent descriptions of the cities, country sides, people and the customs of the times, particularly the harsh dominance of the church and the inquisition easily carries the reader to the places and actions of the story. “The Italian” was published in 1797; Radcliff was contemporary with Sir Walter Scott and Jane Austen

The plot is simple; a titled young man falls in love with a young lady of unknown family. His parents, wealthy and powerful, strongly object to the liaison but the boy is steadfast in his infatuation. The young lovers, Vivaldi and Ellena continue to meet in secret but they are spied upon by the Black Monk, Schedoni, Vivaldi’s mother’s confessor. The Marchesa is concerned that the family name and status will be ruined if Vivaldi marries Ellena and convinces herself and the compliant Schedoni that the laws of Naples could be interpreted that ruination of a family should be punishable by death. The Marchesa becomes obsessed with the idea and asks the Monk to do the deed.

Ellena is kidnapped and taken to a far off convent where she is threatened and given the choice of immediate marriage to some one of her class or “taking the veil” and becoming a nun. Her trials and adventures at this strange place are exciting and frightening.

Meanwhile, Vivaldi and a servant companion set out to rescue Ellena; more trial and tribulations occur and when Ellena is, finally, found and a plan to remove her from the convent is formulated, Schedoni and officers of the inquisition show up and transport the star crossed lovers to Rome where they await the Inquisitors and the torture chambers.

In spite of the almost impossible situations, and the non ending descriptions of the mountains, the streams and the roads and the towns, the characters’ histories have been so well defined that the suspense will carry a reader to the final page. It is up to the reader to decide who the story was really about.
Ann Radcliff wrote many novels; her best was supposed to be “The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794) I want to read this.

The Angel's Game By Carlos Ruiz Zafon

2009-07-19T20:31:00.003-05:00

Not too long ago, I was enthralled by an earlier novel by this superb Spanish author “The Shadow of The Wind”. Zafon takes us, again to Barcelona where a deep, mysterious and frightening story about books, writers, unrequited love and great danger unfolds.

A poor but talented young writer, David Martin, struggles to make a name for himself but he achieves notoriety by writing steamy murder mysteries under an assumed name. He has taken up residence and writes in a dark and gloomy abandoned mansion that has a history of death and murder.

He is encouraged and helped by his editor, an old friend who owns a book store, the scion of one of Barcelona’s wealthiest families and the daughter of his friend’s chauffeur, Christina, a girl David has known and loved secretly since childhood, all of whom figure largely in the story.

David is approached by a strange and sinister person who promises wealth and, perhaps, much more to write a book that would seize the minds of the masses and cause it to embrace a new kind of religion . After a lot of internal struggle, David agrees to the proposal even though he is certain that this person is evil and will eventually possess him. David’s health totally improves; as he starts his project, he finds that there is some connection between the story he is writing and the old house. He discovers a manuscript and notes that were written by the man who murdered many years ago. David is compelled to learn more about the man. His research takes him all over the city; one meeting leads to another and as he talks to more people, his intrigue grows. Things become even more troubling when individuals he has talked to begin to die strange deaths and the police suspect David.

“The Cemetery of Forgotten Books” that Zafon introduced in “The Shadow of The Wind” is further explored in this novel. Imagine a vast collection of the sum of centuries of books that have been lost or forgotten. Every book has a soul and every time someone handles it and looks at it’s pages, it’s spirit grows and strengthens. A person who visits for the first time may take away one book; it is said that the book chooses the person.

This was a most compelling story; marvelous characters and the danger and suspense keeps building to a smashing climax.

Cemetery Dance By Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston

2009-07-19T20:26:00.002-05:00

Another fascinating “Special Agent Pendergast” story. Zombiis,Voodoo, Obea and animal cults create a bazaar tale. Claudia has just finished it and sent the following:

Cemetery Dance Review for Dad's Blog

The first Preston/Child novel I read, which of course was recommended by Dad, was "The Cabinet of Curiosities". I've been a fan of these authors as individual writers and as co-writers ever since. "Cabinet" and "Thunderhead" remain my favorites to this day. However, I get to read each new latest novel, as soon as Dad finishes them and we both get excited when we find out another story about the characters we have grown so fond of has been released.

Perhaps Dad and I especially enjoy these adventures because of all the mazes, sublevels, basements, etc. - as we both have a tendancy to have dreams involving sublevels. These books detail those sublevels at a level of detail far beyond our wildest imagination. What fun!

Smithback will be missed, but thankgoodness Nora will carry on. I wish I were Nora! I think I may be beginning to "grok" Pendgast. His observations about the medical instruments and the lamb trash intriged me. How nicely everything fits together and for such bizarre happenings makes sense. Never underestimate Pendergast.

When I left work early last Friday at 12pm, I had a list of take advantage of the time "to do's". But I thought I'd read a few chapters first as I had already started the book a few days prior. I spent the rest of the afternoon with Cemetary Dance - right there with each character till the end. A satisfying way to spend time is with this book.

Only now - we have to ponder just what news the solicitor is bringing Pendergast?

Think I'll read Thunderhead again!!

The Golden Isle By Frank G Slaughter

2009-07-09T08:54:00.002-05:00

Back in the 40's, Slaughter, a medical doctor and surgeon who graduated from Duke University Magna Cum Laude at 18 and Johns Hopkins at 22, took up his pen and wrote at least 30 novels. They dealt with hospitals and doctors and nurses, socialized medicine and medical schools; interesting yarns about people and places real and imaginary.. He also wrote about the South and the Civil War, He wrote historical\biblical novels and adventure novels. The first book I read was "In a Dark Garden" about the Civil War, I found it in a "rec" room at Chanute Air Force Base where I was going to "Weather Man School". Over the years I read every one of his stories.
Golden Isle was published in 1947 by Doubleday; cost $3.00. I found it in an attic. A ships surgeon in shanghaied and blackmailed to serve at an African slave collection station and then aboard the slave ship that carries it's cargo to the Americas in the early 1700's.

Slaughter's novels always gave detailed descriptions of medical procedures and he was true to the "Bodice Ripper" genre of his times as his heroes found their lady loves.

Some other favorites:
"That None Should Die"
"Lorena"
"The Mapmaker"
"Devils Harvest"
Pilgrims in Paradise"
"The Curse of Jezebel"
I, very recently found one of his novels in a used book box; cost me a dollar but I am rereading "A Savage Place" and I will keep it on my bookshelf in case anyone wants to try him out.

The Moonstone By Wilkie Collins

2009-06-24T16:50:00.002-05:00

First published 149 years ago this compelling novel has the all of the ingredients of a serious and fascinating mystery. I did not know anything about Wilkie Collins until Dan Simmons wrote a novel based on the Charles Dicken’s novel about Edward Drood. Simmons used Wilkie Collins, a friend and companion of Dickens as the narrator of his story (“Drood”). Apparently Dickens and Collins collaborated on a few novels but Wilkie Collins, in spite of a heavy opium habit (due to poor health) was an able and strong writer himself. He is said to have created the first literary mystery detective as a major character in a novel when the detective appeared in “The Moonstone” as Sergeant Cuff of Scotland Yard. He also was among the first to use the device of having each of the major characters in the story start and narrate each chapter by telling the story, only, from what they actually saw and did and know.
It worked very well for this mystery about a diamond that was stolen from a temple in India by one of Her Majesties Officers and brought back to Britain along with the curse that was supposed to be attached to it.

Collins created wonderful characters and the dialogue and descriptions are very interesting and exciting. Like Dickens, Wilkie Collins toured America and gave readings; his writing was influenced by Dickens, I am sure and I would guess that Dickens may have profited from his association with Collins. This was an amazing read and a first rate mystery from an important writer of the time.

The Increment By David Ignatious

2009-06-21T10:32:00.002-05:00

Once you begin reading this novel, you will not put it down until it ends!

A young Iranian, nuclear, scientist working a secret project to build a nuclear weapon, sends an encrypted message to the CIA. The team leader and his staff must determine, first, if the message is real and then what does the message mean. Analysis of the message indicates that the message has to do with measurements of uranium enrichment which could mean that Iran is building a bomb and perhaps working on a heavy water reactor to make a plutonium bomb. This causes considerable excitement in the agency but the team leader, Harry Pappas remembering only too well how misleading and poorly interpreted “intelligence’ got us into the Iraq fiasco insists on learning much more about the sender and the message before the information is carried “up the ladder”. The sender has given the CIA a way to respond; a response is crafted and after a time a second message is received along with a technical document, a lab report about the malfunction of a neutron generator which reinforces the idea of a bomb and the creation of a trigger device. Still vague information; they need to meet the sender, learn about him (or her) and set up a way to find out what the sender is trying to say.

One of Harry’s senior staff members is very ambitious and has connections in the White House. He is convinced that Iran has a bomb and the means to trigger it and that this is a serious threat to the U.S. and the Middle East. He has already told the CIA Director and the national security advisor and now wants to go to the President. Pappas, reluctantly, agrees and the war hawk mentality quickly sets in among the politicians. Pappas is criticized for his conservative thinking while the President, the head of the CIA and the NCA have taken over and are thinking about bombing the Iranian facility within the next few days. A very tense and action filled scenario develops as Pappas , secretly, gets agents into Iran to learn the identity of the message sender, find out his intent and learn just what the Iranian’s actually have.

David Ignatious is very knowledgeable about the Middle East and he writes about something that could very possibly happen if hot headed politicians are allowed to push us into another war. This is a very contemporary novel about a very real threat.

Pemberly Shades By D.A. Bonavia-Hunt

2009-06-21T10:20:00.001-05:00

The old Rector of Pemberley has died and a suitable person must be found to take over the benefice. Although Mr. Collins is presently out of favor with Darcy’s Aunt Catherine and his living might be in jeopardy, he will, certainly, not be a candidate.
An old school chum of Darcy has a brother who has taken orders. Fitz has never met him but the brother has asked that the man be considered. After a meeting with his friend it is agreed that the brother, Stephen Acworth will spend a few days at Pemberley to see how things workout.

As Steven Acworth settles in, everyone is surprised and disappointed in the strange behavior of the man. A mild mystery develops as Acworth interacts with all of the families as Darcys celebrate a birthday by inviting the Bennets, the Bingleys, Elizabeth’s sisters and Fitz’s relatives and neighbors . Lady Catharine and her daughter and Mr. Collins were included in the company. It was fun to read about all of the characters from “Pride and Prejudice” as Ms Bonavia-Hunt visualizes how they developed in the three and one half years since Elizabeth and Fitz were married. We meet every one of them and , also, some new characters all of whom have differing feelings towards Stephen Acworth. Some light humor, a few tense moments and a surprise but an interesting and easy read about some familiar characters.

The Jane Austin Miscellany By Lesley Bolton

2009-06-21T10:16:00.002-05:00

This is a small 128 page volume of quotes from Jane Austen’s novels and the many movie adaptations of her stories. Nice illustrations by Charles Edmond Brock and his brother, Henry Matthew Brock who illustrated some of the original Austen novels in 1895 through 1907.
An example from Charlotte Lucas in “Pride and Prejudice:

“Happiness in marriage is entirely a matter of chance. If the dispositions of the parties are ever so well known to each other or ever so similar before-hand, it does not advance their felicity in the least. They always continue to grow sufficiently unlike afterwards to have their share of vexation; and it is better to know as little as possible of the defects of the person with whom you are to pass your life.”

The Sunbird By Wilbur Smith

2009-05-19T21:14:00.001-05:00

When I visit my library, I always wander through the stacks and after examining favorite authors I always seem to be drawn to the works of Wilbur Smith. The Sun Bird was written in 1973; the price on the cover was $7.50. I read it years ago but the story tugged at my memory so I reread it.

This was a wonderful tale! A marvelous factual history of South Africa combined with an imaginative and detailed story; the idea of a Phoenician city and culture established 2000 years ago.

A series of aerial photographs shown to a prominent Archaeologist and a wealthy industrialist, Louren Sturvesant, seem to indicate that an unknown city may have been photographed. The Archaeologist, Benjamin Kazin, has been writing about the legendary, city of ‘Ophir, the prehistoric gold-working civilization of Central Africa with special reference to the city of Zimbabwe and the legend of the ancients and the lost city of the Kalahari.
The photos are enough for the industrialist to finance an exploratory expedition.

Louran and Ben are lifelong and very close friends. Loren has always been a leader, excelling in sports, hunting and business. Ben, with a physical disability is a hunch back; strong and intelligent and willing to follow Louran anywhere.

A small group of dedicated men and women travel to an isolated desert
location only to meet with disappointment after disappointment until only Ben Kazin and his assistant are left alone for an additional month to look for some indication of a city or a culture. As water supplies begin to run out the discover, by following birds and monkeys, the entrance to a huge area that contains a deep pool and on the walls, there are ancient drawings and paintings and a marvelous, giant sized, painting of an ancient warrior. The expedition returns and excavation begins. The dig reveals only a paucity of information until careful examination of the warrior painting enables the party to discover an area that produces written records engraved on gold sheets that tell the history of the civilization. The history, also, describes the fall of the city. The author of these scrolls was a hunchback named Huy.

Wilbur Smith has the imagination and the ability to create danger, suspense and grand adventure where his characters are faced with unique and mysterious puzzles that must be unraveled as the story reaches it’s climax. Just when you think the story has ended, a long and detailed imaginative story is told about the last king of the city, Lannon, and his loyal counselor. the hunchback, ax wielding warrior named Huy from the time that Lannon took kingship through the battle for the city that cost Lannon and Huy their lives. It seemed to me to be a parallel life to that of Louran and Ben. I, really liked this story (again).

Finding Nouf By Zoe Ferraris

2009-05-15T16:42:00.004-05:00

This is a fascinating first novel by an American woman who lived with her Saudi-Palestinian Bedouin husband and family. Saudi Arabia has, probably, the most rigid attitude towards women in society among the Middle East cultures. The “system” is supposed to “protect” women but it seems to totally restrict their freedom and it is hard for me to determine just what they are being protected against. The laws are strict; women, if allowed to go out must have an escort and must wear their figure concealing robes, and the burqa and even gloves. There are religious police who accost couples to show proof of their marriage and there are “vigilantes”, zealous individuals who will accost people in the street if they feel that the woman is not modest and some will report things they may see to the police. Households have their own rules of segregation.

Nouf is a sixteen year old girl, one of several daughters and sons in a large, very wealthy, Saudi family. Nauf is engaged to be married and is allowed to go out but never without the “protection” of a family member or her escort, a trusted young man she has known for years.

Nouf is missing; the family suspects kidnapping but when no ransom note appears, the family calls in Nayir ash-Sharqui a desert guide and friend of the family to lead a search. Nayir is a dedicated Muslim; he prays five times a day and adheres to the social system to the point of fanaticism. He is offended if a women shows the least bit of immodesty; he is not quite a “vigilante” but close to being one. He is very uncomfortable being with women and he is very troubled if his thoughts stray as men’s sometimes do.

The body of Nouf is discovered in the desert; the coroner determined that she did not die of dehydration but rather, of drowning. The circumstances seem mysterious but the family seems ready to accept “accidental death”. Nayir was present at the coroner’s office when the body was being examined; he met Katya Hijazi a Saudi woman technician working at the morgue who immediately offended and startled him because she did not wear her burqa and further because not only was she working, she was very outspoken and competent .She made her own examination.

After the funeral, Nayir meets with one of the brothers, Othman, who encourages him to investigate further. Nayir goes back to where the body was found where he finds some things and goes back to the morgue where he learns that Katya is the fiancé of Othman. Othman has asked Katya to look into the matter, also.

And so begins an unlikely partnership between this outspoken and “modern” woman and this very “trustworthy” religious man. The evolvement of the mystery is excellent and the rapport between the couple and the difficulty that Nayir has as they travel around together investigating is humorous although sometimes you want to give Nayir a swift kick.
Good story!!

Blood and Ice By Robert Masello

2009-05-13T11:58:00.002-05:00

This was a fun and interesting read! The story moves back and forth from Great Britain in the mid 1800’s to the present time in frigid Antarctica. At the earlier time, “the great bear Russia” had designs on Turkey; The Crimean war was heating up and Florence Nightingale was running her hospital for woman in England and would, soon, gain fame as “the lady with the lamp”. Young British officers were bold, fun loving, chauvinistic and confident that they could conquer anything. We meet Nurse, Eleanor Ames and Lieutenant Sinclair of the 17th Lancers of the Light Brigade both of whom experience the horrors and defeats of war (remember the poem of “The Charge Of The light Brigade”) and another, worse, horror that will change their lives forever.
At the frozen South pole, Journalist Michael Wilde has taken an assignment to take photos and write an article on a research station that does climate change studies. Except for the severe weather and cold it would be pretty routine but while making a dive under the ice to take pictures of underwater glaciers, he finds a strange, old bottle, a wooden chest and very near, encased in ice, the chained bodies of a man and a woman perfectly preserved. An amazing archeological find, a prize winning story? Who are they? How did they end up chained in a block of ice? The ice is allowed to melt very slowly at a controlled temperature but when it finally melts, the research station is faced with a new, terrifying situation. Mr. Masello put plenty of action and suspense in this thrilling novel.

Dark Shadows the Salem Branch Laura Parker

2009-05-11T18:43:00.001-05:00

It has been about thirty five years since we last viewed the adventures of the Collins family. Back in the late 60s the kids would hurry home from school in order to watch the popular, to become cult, TV series about the vampire Barnabas Collins. The author actually played the character, Angelique; her real name is Lamar Rickey Hawkins.
We are back in 1971 and Barnabas Collins is still taking medication from Doctor Julia Hoffman in an attempt to cure him of his curse. Julia loves Barnabas and expects to marry him once he is cured of being a vampire; she looks haggard and tired. Barnabas is sickly, he has lost his prodigious strength and he can not get used to eating "human "food; it makes him sick but every day he must under go nauseating shots.
Roger and Elizabeth Collins, their son David, and Quintin Collins (still a werewolf; like Dorian Grey, his portrait ages in some hidden closet while Quintin stays the dapper, carefree, man about town) are living at Collinwood. The Old House, (Barnabas’ house) which was burnt to the ground was sold along with the grounds to Antoinette Harpignies, a 60s hippy type who bears a remarkable resemblance to Barnabas’ former lover, a witch and his nemesis, Angelique. Barnabas wonders if the woman is really Angelique even though he actually killed her. She is restoring the old house exactly the way it was down to the flaws in the wooden floors. Barnabas has the opportunity to explore the old house and he discovers a coffin in the basement where he used to spend his days. He, also finds the body of a workman who was clearly the victim of a vampire. The story brings all the characters into action and poses questions; is Antoinette really Angelique? Who is the vampire that kills several people? Is Barnabas having second thoughts about the cure?
There is a parallel story that takes place in Old Salem in the year 1692. The community is controlled by the strict bible quoting elders who seem to blame almost everything bad that happens on the Devil and his spawn of witches. The women live in terror; the elders are mean lustful men who threaten women and hold disgusting "witch hunts" and trials. Women are put in the Stocks, the elders use the water test to prove witchcraft; they tie the woman and throw her in the water; if she floats she is a witch if she sinks she is innocent. One of the women Miranda du Val is actually a witch but she is very careful not to be found out. She owns land that the deacons desire and eventually, false witnesses tell of her association with the devil and when the to the "dunking" test, she manages to free her hand enough to swim into a beaver hole and survive. She hides and sneaks around until she finds evidence that the sanctimonious elders are evil and lecherous. She goes to the village to confront them, one is a "Collins", but she is not believed and she is condemned to hang. Before she hangs, she places a curse on the elders:"if you take my life, God will give you blood to drink". ( Barnabas’ curse?)
Very interesting tale with a sensational ending.

The Well of Lost Plots By Jasper Fforde

2009-05-11T18:40:00.000-05:00

A delightful romp through the world of books, words, letters and characters from fiction and non fiction. The heroine is Literary Detective of Special Ops, Jurisfiction, Thursday Next who is going to try to get a well deserved rest by entering the Book World as part of the Character Exchange Program. She has chosen a character from an unpublished book of dubious quality where she thinks that she will have little to do. This is her first entry into the Book World where she will be viewed as an "outlander" a real person, by the book characters. Thursday’s mentor is Miss Havisham from "Great Expectations".
To understand the concept of the Well of Lost Plots, the reader must learn about the "Great Library"; all published fiction is stored on 26 floors, one floor for each letter of the alphabet. Millions of books are stored on endless shelves and each book is alive. Beneath the Great Library are another 26 floors of dingy sub basements where books are constructed, edited and polished for a place in the library above if they make it that far. There is a "Text Sea" which is full of letters, verbs, nouns, phrases and everything that makes up a book. Grammasites run rampant and plot devices are bought and sold on a black market and bad (lousy) books are scrapped for salvage. There is a murderer threatening to throw Thursday’s novel, her temporary home, into the Text Sea and real or not, she could be destroyed. Very fast paced and original humor.
This book is one of a series of Thursday Next novels by this very creative author; so much fun to read! I have ordered his latest effort from Amazon

The Devine Comedy By Dante Alighieri

2009-05-11T18:35:00.000-05:00

"The Devine Comedy" Dante Alighieri
Translated by Allen Mandelbaum written in the 1300s.
"Inferno", " Purgatorio", "Paradiso".
A recent article in the "Wall Street Journal" prompted me to study this classic poem. This will take a while, I am sure, but the copy I have has some splendid notes for each "Canto" that will help a lot. The church and the religious dogmas of the period certainly influenced and dominated the paintings and poems and thoughts of those living in Dante,s time.
Imagine a "Limbo", the first circle of Hell where even those "considered worthy" must spend eternity because they died before Christianity was invented and the sacraments were not available to them.

Prior Bad Acts By Tami Hoag

2009-05-11T18:32:00.000-05:00

A family has been brutalized and murdered. A seasoned homicide detective, first to arrive on the scene, is so emotionally affected by what he sees he has to be hospitalized and is subsequently put on "medical leave". The prime suspect is in jail waiting trial. The suspect, has a long record of crime but his lawyer, a public defender. has gone before the Judge to get a ruling to make the prior criminal acts inadmissable. The judge, after hearing argument, so rules. Everyone, the prosecuting attorney, the entire police department, the relatives of the murdered family and the press are angry. That same night, the judge is assaulted in the parking lot; she is pretty well beat up. The detective assigned the case is not very sympathetic because of her ruling but he begins his investigation. The suspect escapes! He is a real bad character; he kills several people while he is evading the police. Ms Hoag brings in several other characters and soon there several suspects for the assault on the judge. The defense attorney’s house is invaded by the detective who was so traumatized by the killing that he wants the lawyer to "stand trial" for his actions; he thinks that without the inclusion of the suspects prior acts, the jury might let him go (the DA does not, really have a solid case backed by evidence).The judge is then kidnaped by the crazed murder suspect who views her as "the only friend he ever had" because of her legal decision. It is a twisted and suspenseful tale that will keep you guessing. Tami uses a lot of violence and gore in her novels

God is Not great Christopher Hitchens & Letter to a Christian Nation Sam Harris

2009-05-11T18:26:00.001-05:00

god is not Great" Christopher Hitchens
"How Religion Poisons Everything"
Hitchens, an Atheist, discusses the malignant force of religion in the world and attempts to make a case against religion using a critique of major religious texts and logic. Some of the chapter headings in the table of contents are:
"Religion Kills’
"A Short Digression on the Pig" or "Why Heaven Hates Ham"
‘The Nightmare of the "Old" Testament "
"The "New" Testament exceeds the Evil of the "Old" one"
"The Koran is Borrowed from both Jewish and Christian Myths"
He raises some interesting questions about Joseph Smith and founding of the Mormon religion and he does the same with the enlightenment of Mohamad.
Agree with him or not, a lot of time and study and research went into this provocative essay.
The July 16th issue of the Wall Street Journal has a rather long column by Peter Berkowitz (Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution) which calls Hitchens, Harris, Dawson and others creators of "The New New Atheism" and spends a lot of words trying to say that there is not much substance behind these "latest atheist tracts". Unfortunately, his summary is very weak as are his sources..

"Letter to a Christian Nation" Sam Harris
Harris is another advocate of doing away with religion; his supporters are those who hold no religious doctrine and are probable some what depressed by our country’s increasing unification of church and state. Like Hitchkins and Dawson, he raises big questions about the sources and the authorship of the religious texts that are used to support the various dogmas. He should be read carefully and not totally disregarded.

The Savage Garden By Mark Mills

2009-05-11T18:23:00.000-05:00

A beautifully crafted novel that completely enchanted me. The story is entertaining and challenging to the reader.
A young undergraduate at Cambridge is asked by his professor to consider a study of a famous Italian garden that was built in Tuscany as a monument to a fifteenth century nobleman’s wife. The garden is full of statues, grottos, woods, a nine tiered, stone trimmed amphitheater and monuments with classical inscriptions. The student, Adam, becomes involved with the surviving relatives of the nobleman,( Lord Docci) the matriarch Signora Docci, her son and the servants at the estate; he meets the old woman’s grand daughter and there is a love interest. Adam is given free reign to the extensive library of the estate and as he wanders through and studies the garden and the precise placement of the statuary he suspects that something sinister happened in the garden. His study of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (a volume given to him by his professor)gives him insight as to the meaning of the different statues and which real person the statue was supposed to represent but as he tries to reconstruct the overall meaning of the garden, his scenario just won’t work. The puzzle of the garden was intriguing to me particularly because of the nature of the Greek gods and goddesses that have been placed in the garden; there was even a unicorn with a broken horn symbolically placed. (I had to stop and read Ovid where he talks about these particular Greek heros; interesting experience I even learned more about Deucalion, son of Prometheus, whose name the creature in Dean Koonz’s story about Frankenstein took) It was also helpful that I have a copy and I am studying Dante’s "Devine Comedy". It was not until Adam discovered an anagram relating to the nobleman’s wife’s name "Fiore"who was represented by Daphne as pursued by Phoebus and located near the top of the amphitheater did he take a different approach to the puzzle. The anagram referred to Dante’s Inferno which, in turn, led Adam to the second circle of hell where adulterators are found. Splendid and plausible logic leads Adam to the conclusion that the Nobleman actually murdered his wife.
As a secondary plot, the Docci family that Adam was staying with had it’s own, more recent, secret and mystery that was dark and evil and related, in it’s way to the old garden mystery. How the story of both of these mysteries is finally concluded and revealed to the Doccis proves to be difficult and dangerous to Adam. There are some very interesting and lively characters in the story including Adam’s brother who shows up. A book like this makes reading fun because there are so many different areas for further study and reading.

The Unquiet By John Connelly

2009-05-11T18:19:00.001-05:00

A disturbing and haunting horror story about the abuse of children and the kind of people that do such things and some dark shadowy people who track them down seeking "justice" or revenge for the victims. John Connolly has a private detective named Charlie Parker who has been in the business too long , has seen too much and tells this twisted story as a first person narrative. Parker takes on a case when a woman with a small child comes to him in fear because she is being stalked. The stalker, it turns out, is a very dangerous man, an ex convict looking for information about the woman’s father who has been missing for the last six years and declared legally dead. The daughter has told the man that her father, a once prominent child psychologist, left home after a scandal of allegations that he betrayed confidences to men that use and abuse children and probably committed suicide. The stalker will not accept that he is dead and insists that the woman knows more. Very scary man. As Parker gets into the investigation and learns more and more about the horrifying world of child abuse, he tries to reconstruct the happenings that caused the Doctor to disappear. Other child abuse cases are studied and a pattern emerges that takes Charlie Parker on a twisting path where he meets some very strange characters. His investigation takes him to the prison that the stalker was in where he talks to an inmate that was protected and befriended by the stalker. This man was terribly abused as a youngster by a group of men who, very likely, are the same people that Parker is on the trail of. It turns out that the stalker had a daughter who was abused and disappeared. The stalker befriended the man so he could find out as much as he could about the evil people that did the deed so he could take revenge. The plot gets complicated and the author throws in a very bizarre, shadowy character that lurks in the background to keep you guessing.
This novel will keep your interest and attention.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

2009-05-11T18:16:00.001-05:00

The seventh and final in the series. Poor Harry; this is not a fun adventure. Voldemort and his "Death Eaters"are openly taking over the Ministry of Magic and will eventually take over Hogwarts. Harry and his friends, Ron and Hermione, are on a quest to find the magical items that will, hopefully, defeat Voldemort. This takes them to very dangerous places and almost every chapter has a "cliff hanger" where one of the team is almost killed; lots of danger, intrigue, magic and action and some new characters who give Harry background information on the important people in his life and help him move forward on his quest. There are bitter arguments between best friends and Harry’s mind is very dark. He does not understand why Dumbledorf did not completely confide in him, he begins to doubt and loose faith in his old mentor. He also feels tremendous guilt because he has endangered the lives of his friends; some have even died. All the while his mind is closely attached to that of the dark lord to the extent that Harry can actually see and experience Voldemort’s actions.
There is a final great battle at Hogwarts and many things are, finally, explained and questions are answered. The author did a splendid job with this final story; the evolution of all of the characters was very well done, our Hogwarts friends have grown up and matured. The survival and the death of various characters was both sad and sometimes surprising and for me, the series had a logical and satisfactory ending. Seven hundred and fifty-nine pages of enjoyment!

Harry Potter

2009-05-11T18:12:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, July 21st that remarkable woman, J.K. Rowling will release her seventh and final (?) book in the "Harry Potter" series. She released the first on July 1st 1997 in England; "Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone". It came out in the U.S in September, 1998 under the name of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone"; do not know why the title was changed in the U.S. A lot of the words were changed because we say things differently over here - bathroom instead of Loo.
Six books later and she is still a wonderful story teller using history, mythology, fairy tales and folklore in magical prose and construction. I rank her with C.S. Lewis , Tolkein and even Austin T. Wright as a creator of lands, people and cultures.
As I read her stories, I can not help but think of that most talented writer of computer games, Roberta Williams who was not a bit bashful to borrow from literature, fairy tales and mythology to create her characters and adventures.
In preparation for the coming novel, I reread the last three, "Goblet of Fire", "Order of The Phoenix", and "The Half Blood Prince" all of which, I thoroughly enjoyed. Us kids of all ages are fortunate, indeed, to have such an extraordinary continuing story to savor over these last ten years. Can’t wait for the next one - in just a few more days!

Emma By Jane Austen

2009-05-11T18:08:00.000-05:00

A rich, spoiled young girl with not enough to otherwise occupy herself believes that she is the consummate matchmaker and gets involved in other peoples lives with tragic consequences. Emma’s life is perfect as far as she is concerned but her ideas about people and relationships are badly flawed. She makes a mess of things when she tries to match a good friend with, clearly, the wrong person even though her friend is enamored with a somewhat dull but kind and caring person, a farmer. Emma, ever class conscious, does her best to convince her friend that the man is entirely wrong for her. It all gets sorted out in time and Emma is put in her place by a good friend who turns out to be more than a friend.
Jane Austen consistently draws great characters and places the reader right in the times that she lived in; a fun, lively and interesting read.

The Silmarillin By J.R.R. Tolkien

2009-05-11T18:05:00.000-05:00

This classic tale begins with the genesis of middle earth. This is an enchanting fantasy that tells of the coming of the Elves the first to inhabit the earth who could live for thousands of years unless killed in battle, then, the coming of the Dwarfs and then of Men. There were long peaceful, harmonious times but the evil Melkor (later called Morgoth the "Black enemy) and those he duped, most easily,m en but also some of the Elves, eventually caused discontent and war among the peoples. There are tales of wonderful and horrible battles and heroism and included in the work is a summary of "the rings of power and the coming of the Third Age" which, really, whets one’s appetite for the three volume novel of "The Lord of The Rings.
This is an extraordinary piece of work that must be savored; the names of the places and the names of the characters are long and difficult to say but the story stays together.

The Children Of Hurin By J.R.R. Tolkien

2009-05-11T18:02:00.001-05:00

Fascinating story about Tolkien’s middle earth in a time long before the Hobbits and the people of "The Lord of the Rings". The first dark lord was Morgoth who, with his tormentor, Glaurung, a huge wingless dragon made war on Hurin a man who defied and scorned Morgoth. Hurin’s children, Turin and his sister Nienor are cursed by Morgoth and are forced to flee their kingdom. They become separated for years, become wanderers and meet up with each other again under bizarre circumstances. The Elves and the Dwarfs play supporting roles and for those of us who are primarily familiar with the Ring Novels we learn a lot more about the Elves and their early kingdom. There are references to Elrond of Rivendale and of Treebeard in the notes which tell how long ago all this happened. Lots of travels and battles and a sad recounting of the death of Turin. This novel is one of many published after Tolkien’s death and was edited by his son, Christopher.
I did not know that the story of "Sir Gwain and the Green Knight" was by Tolkien it was a favorite . Vivid in my mind since early college years.
C.S. Lewis was a friend of Tolkien; I wonder if they shared stories about their imagined people and kingdoms.

The Hadassah Covenent Tommy Tenney

2009-05-11T17:40:00.001-05:00

Hadassah is the Jewish name for Queen Esther. Story is set in modern day Iraq and Israel and it moves back to Persia some 1500 years earlier. Esther is no longer Queen, there is a new king and she is corresponding with a young girl named Leah who is in the royal harem and after being with the king only one time, she and the king are in love and Leah expects to be queen. But because king finds out that she is a Jew she is rejected. There is some tender and enlightening correspondence between Leah and Esther. Mordecai is active as an Exilarch who is representing Jewish people in exile trying to maintain peace and harmony. In modern days, there is a wave of anti-Semitic murders in Iraq and in Israel, the wife of the Prime Minister (her name is Hadassah) is the target of an assassination. Seems that some of the correspondence between Esther and Leah has been found and it includes bloodlines and names of Jews living in Iraq. It is a mystery and an adventure; the idea is to find an acceptable modern day Exilarch who cam bring peace to the Middle East.

The Club Dumas Arturo Perez Reverte

2009-05-11T14:27:00.001-05:00

An amazing, intelligently written, mystery and occult puzzle novel written by a favorite Spanish author. Books, writers, collectors and dealers in old and rare books are introduced into this story about a certain book dealer who makes his living researching and finding and buying and selling books for a selected clientele. Lucas Corso is hired to authenticate part of an original manuscript, part of "The Three Musketeers", written by Alexander Dumas ;Dumas was known to collaborate with others when he wrote his novels, hence the need for verification. As he goes about this task, he is engaged by a very wealthy collector, Varo Borja, to research a demonic book called "The Book of The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows" supposedly authored by Lucifer himself. The book is supposed to enable the owner, if he can figure out the puzzles, to meet the Devil and become all powerful. There are only three such volumes in existence and Corso is charged to examine each one in order to assure Borja that the one he has is genuine; he suspects it might be a forgery. (Perhaps, Borja tried to meet the Devil and the ritual did not work) Corso finds himself involved in a complicated plot where he meets people that seem, to him, to resemble the main characters of the "Three Musketeers", a sensuous woman the wife of the previous owner of the manuscript that he identifies as Milady De Winter and a man who is closely identified with the woman he thinks of as Rocheforte.
At the same time ,as he begins to compare the second of the Book of the Nine Gates, he discovers that while the binding, the paper and the print are identical, there are slight differences in the nine prints. He also discovers that some of the prints were originated by the publisher and others were originated by another person "LCF" (Lucifer?). Corso is followed and threatened by the person he thinks of as Rocheforte but each time he is in danger, he is rescued by a strange young girl who follows him. As the story progresses, death and destruction of their libraries come to the two other owners of the Book of Nine Gates; the books are destroyed but the prints were removed prior to burning the books. Corso finds himself in the middle of a twisting plot that involves devil worship, occult practices and a secret organization relating to Alexander Dumas.
This was a fascinating novel; the plot was complex and the climax was interesting and throughout the book there were lively discussions between Corso and book dealers and book collectors where literally hundreds of novels and author’s works were discussed or quoted from and great care was taken in the story to show the sources that Corso and others used as they researched both the manuscript and the occult book.
This novel was adapted into a film by Roman Polanski. Johnny Depp played Corso in this dark and exciting movie called "The Ninth Gate". Get the DVD.

Drood By Dan Simmons

2009-04-17T17:20:00.004-05:00

In 1865, Charles Dickens was on a train going to London; the train was involved in a tragic wreck known as “the Stapleton Railroad Disaster”.
Dickens escaped injury and helped in the rescue of other passengers. He was aided by another; a huge, strange looking man with missing fingers, no eyelids and talked with a hissing lisp. He wore rather formal clothes and a top hat. After things settled down, the man, Edwin Drood disappeared but for some reason, Dickens was never the same after meeting him. His last novel, never completed was titled “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”.
Dan Simmons has used the idea of Drood to create a dark mystery novel narrated by Wilkie Collins a lesser author and friend of Dickens. Collins was an opium addict, a man who was jealous of and extremely critical of Dickens and who speaks very disparaging of him but still, he followed Dickens as he searches for Drood. As he narrates the search he takes the reader through the underbelly of Whitehall, Shadwell and Wapping; the docks, the rats, river stench the awful places where they search for Drood. They went through cemeteries and down through catacombs and a labyrinth of filth and sewage to a strange dock where Dickens went alone with two weird boatmen who took him to an underground city where he met with Drood who is a kind of lord of this, Egyptian like, undertown of thieves, murders, drug addicts and miscreants.
The story is, certainly entertaining and it gives vivid descriptions of how miserable some parts of London were and it is a reminder of Britain’s heinous role in the International Opium Trade but except for references to opium addiction, cemeteries, a couple of names from Dicken”s unfinished novel and that Edwin Drood once lived in Egypt the story portrays Drood as very bad person; a monster,whereas in Dicken’s book he seemed to me a rather mild fellow who had an unhappy romantic encounter and went missing and the “Mystery” is what happened to Edwin; was he killed by his stepfather? Dan Simmon’s novel was much more interesting.

There is a lot of interest in this unfinished novel of Dickens; there have been radio dramas, plays, several movies and a musical.

Right after I read the Simmons book, I found and read “The Last Dickens” by Matthew Pearl which tells a well researched but fictionalized story in considerable detail of Charles Dicken’s last trip to America, his reading tours, his entourage, how the tours were arranged and how the United States publishers vied to get hold of his works and how one publisher, in particular, searched Boston, New York and London for the “lost” final chapters while dangerous evil men and competitors stalked him and tried to kill him. This was a real thriller; I liked it better than “Drood”.

Comics Review

2009-04-11T11:45:00.004-05:00

There is a splendid fellow named Rick Norwood who publishes "Manuscript Press", a monthly collection of comic strips. Gasoline Alley, Flash Gordon, Steve Canyon, Alley Oop, Little Orphan Annie and even Krazy Kat from the early '30s. For several years I have been getting them and I send them on to Mr. Parker, my Grandson. Lots of fun to read and remember these old classics which include Mandrake the Magician and the classy Modesty Blaise by O'Donnell and Colvin. Interested? contact Rick at
f.norwood@att.net
www.io.com/~norwoodr

The Charlemagne Pursuit By Steve Berry

2009-03-12T15:46:00.003-05:00

Steve Berry’s hero, Cotton Malone, has seen the Treasure of the Templar Knights, the library of Alexandria, the tomb of Alexander the Great and the Amber Room of Russia; now he is in pursuit of an ancient culture that predates recorded history and supposedly was much more advanced in science, mathematics, architecture and civics than any other civilization and had some influence on early man as he developed. Berry has used actual history and myths to tell the story of the hunt for the these people, called the “Ahnenerbe”, which began in Antarctica. The Americans, the Germans, The French and the Russians have followed clues and writings from artifacts discovered in Antarctica and much earlier when Otto III opened Charlemagne’s tomb 1200 years ago and supposedly discovered a book of containing writing unknown to any people.
The Germans, under Hitler, decided that the old "superior" race must be German and they wanted to prove their “Arian Race” theory. The Americans were heavily involved in the Cold War and if this old race had technology that would give them an advantage they wanted the secrets. Everything the United States did was cloaked in secrecy and there was rivalry between the politicians and branches of the Pentagon.
Even for Berry, the story surrounding the history is a bit far fetched; lots of thrilling action a bit of gratuitous sex,clearly defined good guys and bad guys and lots of geography. Berry really does his research. Best part for me was learning more about Otto III and Charlemagne by going on the internet. Reading about the accomplishments of the old race “the first civilization” and how references to such a people is found in Egypt, and other early cultures is certainly food for thought.
Good Berry novel!

Signora da Vinci By Robin Maxwell

2009-03-12T15:39:00.005-05:00

Absorbing and colorful, fictionalized, biography of Leonardo da Vinci’s mother. Very little is known about Caterina, the unwed mother of Leonardo. His father, Piero, took him away as was his right in those days and raised him as a servant in the Vinci home.
Robin Maxwell took it for granted that Leonardo got his genius from his mother so she built this story about a remarkable and talented women, trained by her father, an apothecary, who had great love for her son. She convinced the father that Leonardo, who was very early, precocious, curious and very intelligent, should be sent to Florence to study with the master artisan, Verrochio. As a bastard son, Leonardo was precluded from any civic jobs. Piero’s main business was in Florence but he totally ignored Leonardo and plays a minor role in the story.
Leonardo goes to Florence to become an apprentice; his mother misses him so she goes to Florence in the guise of a young man; Leonardo’s “Uncle Cato”. Cato sets up an apothecary which is very successful and because she is, also known as a healer, she attracts the attention of Lorenzo de Medici who becomes very impressed by this “young man’s” talents and intelligence. Lorenzo, Sandro Botticelli, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Christoforo Landino, Verrichio and other progressive thinkers are brought into the story as these men, Cato and others meet secretly to discuss ideas that were considered heresy by the church.
An interesting view of the times and happenings in Florence and Milan and how the church tried to tame two of the most progressive cities in Italy. And most important, the sacrifices a mother will make to insure the success of her son. I liked this one.

The Independance of Miss Mary Bennet By Colleen McCullough

2009-03-02T20:01:00.003-06:00

Writers continue to be fascinated by the characters created by Jane Austen. Australian born and acclaimed author of “The Thorn Birds” and other great novels has chosen Mary Bennet from “Pride and Prejudice”, one of the middle and rather plain sisters as the center piece of a story that is set some 20 years after Jane Austin’s novel closes. Mary had been shuttled off to a manor purchased by Fitz Darcy to care for her mother far enough away from Pemberly to make visits there rare. Mother Bennet dies and Mary decides that she will, no longer, be a drudge and will make something of her life; she will travel and write a book. Her actions cause problems and embarrassment to Darcy and her sisters. To further complicate things, she is kidnapped on one of her journeys . Colleen McCullough brings us up to date as to what has happened to the four other sisters as well as Charle Binkley’s sister Caroline(haughty as ever).
Elizabeth has four daughters and a son who is a disappointment to Fitz and the former ardor seems to have cooled. Fitz’s political ambitions are driving him. Jane is producing babies every two years and Charlie has a mistress. Lydia is drinking and whoring; her husband, George, has died as a soldier and Kitty has settled down with an aged wealthy land owner. McCullough, skillfully, moves all these people, the servants and some important new characters through danger and adventure to a very satisfactory climax.

Terminal Freeze By Lincoln Child

2009-03-02T19:55:00.001-06:00

This was, somewhat, a disappointment. The characters were not very strong and the plot seemed very much like “Relic” except the “monster” came out of a chunk of ice instead of the jungle and the chase was through the corridors of an ice station rather that a great museum. It just left me cold, sorry Lincoln. I am still a fan of you and Douglas Preston so I will wait for and read your next.

Writ In Blood By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

2009-02-22T21:35:00.005-06:00

It is the year 1910 the major powers in Europe are Russia, Great Britain and Germany. Czar Nicholas Alexandreivich Romanov has commissioned Ragoczy, Count Saint-Germain to, secretly, meet with King Edward VII of Britain and Kaiser Wilhelm of Prussia and Germany (all three are related through the Queen Victoria line) to attempt an agreement which would limit the manufacture and sale of arms and munitions which would be a first step towards peace in Europe. The Czar was particularly concerned because he did not want his children particularly his son to experience the horrors of war.
Saint-Germain’s efforts are thwarted by the arms manufacturers and the arms brokers; particularly at this time because they see big profits in the growing trouble in the Balkans. Saint-Germain is followed wherever he goes and several devious plots where they try to discredit Saint-Germain are developed. There are, also, ugly rumors and attempts on his life as it is perceived that the Count may be making progress. In one desperate attempt, his enemies kidnap Saint-Germain’s current lover; the circumstances and rescue are spell binding.
It is interesting to find our 4000 year old vampire in the 20th Century; he adapts so well, his wealth is staggering and he has his long time (2000 years) servant and friend Roger to help and watch over him. He is still viewed with suspicion and as a foreigner but he is unperturbed. For all of his years, he takes a keen and kindly interest in the people of the age and he gives large amounts of money to the Arts and hospitals. He is attractive to women and while this attraction is ultimately necessary to his survival he cares for his “lovers” very much. Some interesting comparisons of Count Saint-Germain and Count Dracula are made by Saint-Germain who, in this time, has met Braham Stoker and has read his novel.
This is another very well researched story with fascinating characters. The title, “Writ In Blood” refers to how history is written. I am happy that there are still more that that I can read and enjoy.

Divine Justice By David Baldacci

2009-02-18T18:34:00.002-06:00

I have been reading David Baldacci for many years; this is one of his finest novels. Vietnam veteran hero, Oliver Stone, special operations assassin and a man cheated and lied to by his government and members of “The Camel Club” a group dedicated to searching out the truth are back together in a gripping story of danger, betrayal and conspiracy.

Oliver has killed a corrupt U.S Senator and the head of U.S Intelligence, two powerful men who were responsible for ruining Oliver’s life. He becomes a fugitive; all U.S and local agencies are looking for him. The searchers instructions are to locate him but only one agency will take him. Oliver has information and secrets and will be killed if he is captured. His friends from the Camel Club risk their careers to aid him in his flight.
On the run, he befriends a troubled young man from a tiny town and accompanies the man to his home town and finds himself involved in murder, drugs and a horrifying Federal prison.
This was a great read.

The New Annotated Dracula By Bram Stoker

2009-02-18T18:30:00.002-06:00

This book with pictures and illustrations is 611 pages. The entire novel is dissected; each chapter has 20 to 40 notations explaining contemporary times and beliefs, habits, powers and manners of vampires, comments and history of the major characters and research notes relating to locations and geography of the setting in the story. The book also has appendixes about later vampire stories and a chronological dating of the history of Dracula as well as a section about Dracula after Stoker. The book was edited by Leslie Klinger
This volume augers well with “The Vampire Book The encyclopedia of the Dead” that Claudia sent me back in 1998.

The Joy of Reading By Charles Van Dorn

2009-02-18T18:27:00.002-06:00

Professor Van Doren has put together a guide to and a brief summary of the works of 169 authors beginning with Homer and ending interestingly enough with J K Rowling. This volume is a treasure; the summaries and stories are so well written and Van Doren reflects the history of the time of his selections. Nothing tedious here do not be intimidated by Aeschylus or Euripides, plunge right in to Dostoevsky, is it easy and so very interesting. A great reference book.

Better In The Dark By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

2009-02-18T18:23:00.002-06:00

The Count Saint-Germain finds himself shipwrecked and washed ashore on a remote beach in Saxony. His rescuer is Ranegonda the “Gerefa” of a Saxon fortress.
The year is 937 AD a King is in charge of Germania and lesser wealthy men oversee large areas and the “Gerefas” manage castles and surrounding villages. The church, the Bishop and the monks of the various areas have absolute power as far as interpreting the will of “The White Christ”; strict rules and omens and punishment including death are the way of life throughout the country. Women have few, if any rights except for the “high born”. The former Gerefa of Leosan Fortress, Giselberht, became a religious fanatic, joined a nearby monastery to “get out of the world” and appointed his sister, Ranegonda, Gerefa of the fortress. Unprecedented but Giselberht had no son and his sister turned out to be a strong and efficient leader. These are dangerous times, bands of robbers, pirates and aggressive Danes wander the woods and attack the villages. The King is involved with war and can spare nothing for those in the territories and caused further problems by making demands for lumber and materials.

Saint-Germain and Ranegonda become allies even though he is being held for ransom. Germain’s knowledge and counsel is sought but taken cautiously because he is a foreigner. As time goes on Saint Germain and Ranegonda become lovers and become embroiled in devious plots contrived by Giselberht’s wife who has lost status and looks for another husband and by the powerful monk assigned to the fortress who has the narrowest of religious views and hates Saint Germain and Ranegonda. Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, as usual , has done a wonderful job researching this time in history folded it into this compelling novel. This is an earlier Saint Germain story but whatever century he shows up in he is always fascinating.

The Night Stalker By James Swain

2009-02-06T21:17:00.002-06:00

Abb Grimes a convicted serial killer of eighteen women is in prison waiting execution. He has requested that ex cop Jack Carpenter find out what has happened to his grandson who is missing and may have been kidnapped. Carpenter is a “missing child” specialist with many years of success. Abb’s son, Jed is the prime suspect for the disappearance but Carpenter does not think that Jed did the deed.
And so we have the beginning of a riveting thriller. Jack’s former police associates need his help but will not tolerate his methods. The FBI comes in and tries to get Jack off the case they are convinced of Jeb’s guilt, One of the Cops keeps putting more obstacles in Jack’s way and there are more killings which implicate Jed.
This was a splendid mystery with action, suspense and several unexpected twists.

The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

2009-02-06T21:12:00.003-06:00

“The Reader is a fascinating and compelling novel about the meeting of a young boy and an older woman that takes place in Germany after World War II.
Michael Berg is recalling his life when he was fifteen years old and how he became physically and emotionally involved with Hanna, a thirty something year old street car conductor. Theirs was a passionate and difficult relationship but they seemed to care for each other very much. At first, the relationship was love making but Hanna became interested in Michael’s school work and learned that Michael had missed a lot of school because of illness but did not seem to care. Hanna told Michael that he could not come to see her unless he studied hard and caught up and further, he was to read his school reading assignments to her. Michael’s school work improved and his self confidence grew. He was able to hide his relationship with Hanna from his family and things went well; reading, loving, talking and some minor arguments but one day Hanna went away.

A number of years later, Michael was a law student attending a seminar on Nazi war crimes; he was assigned to observe a war criminal trial and discovered that Hanna was among those on trial but she refuses to defend herself. Michael followed the whole trial. As the trial unfolded and horrible deeds are discussed and a verdict for all of the defendants is rendered, the reader will remember details and actions of earlier years and will understand Hanna’s dilemma but, perhaps, will not understand Michael’s. This was a great and moving story.

The Broken Window by Jeffery Deaver

2009-02-06T21:06:00.002-06:00

Astounding and believable story about identity theft on a grand and world wide scale. Lincoln Rhyme’s involvement starts when his cousin is arrested on murder charges and the evidence against him is overwhelming - too perfect for Rhyme .
As the story develops more and more people police and even members of Rhyme’s team find their lives drastically changed; mortgages are suddenly in default, automobiles are suddenly repossessed, bank account balances are either reduced or increased substantially if the person is being set up as a suspect for a financial crime.

A giant information service company, a data mining outfit that maintains personal, financial, legal and intimate records of millions of persons and companies world wide is supposed to be helping Rhyme and his team but they are also being obstructive because the US Government does not wish their role in the company to be known.

The Lincoln Rhyme series has always been first rate;I look forward to Deaver’s next one.
I suppose there is not much we can do about the growing data bases that contain such detailed information about our lives. I believe that the things that happen in the story happen all the time and that our Government enjoys the power that such knowledge gives it.

Immunity By Lori Andrews

2009-01-17T17:19:00.002-06:00

A genetic Doctor and scientist investigates the alarming and terrible death of a DEA agent who, suddenly went into spasms while on a stake out in New Mexico. His face and body suddenly started to swell to the extent that he breathing was stopped; the swelling was so severe that the bones in his feet were crushed by his shoes. The Doctor discovers similar deaths throughout the South West and concludes that the deaths are either a natural epidemic that is beginning or a lethal biological weapon being used by terrorists.
Homeland Security is headed by a self serving, dictatorial , political hack who refuses to pay attention to the Doctor’s concern. Later, the source of the disease is found to be in the water supply; someone is contaminating a certain water fountain. As the contamination grows, people begin to become hysterical and the blame shifts to the Native Americans who have been quite vocal lately in demanding more rights.

This is a taught and fast moving thriller; the search for the culprit is hindered by Government bureaucracy but once they discover the person responsible, it is a race to stop him from contaminating a major water supply that could kill millions.
This was a “can’t put it down” story.

The Shadow in The Wind By Carlos Ruiz Zafon

2009-01-17T17:14:00.003-06:00

This is a wonderful mystery adventure that will capture your imagination and keep your interest throughout the story.
A young man, son of an antique book seller, finds a book in “The Cemetery of Forgotten Books” a little known cache of thousands of books watched over by a friend of his father. The book is “The Shadow of The Wind” by one Julian Carax. Intrigued by the novel, the boy, Daniel, sets out to find other novels written by Julian Carax. He finds that someone has, systematically, been burning every copy of every novel that Carax has written. Daniel’s search begins a quest that leads him to his first love, introduces him to fabulous characters who, at one time, knew Julian Carax, some of them are very dangerous and cruel and others are enchanting. The search involves Daniel in the politics of the day and it unravels questions that Daniel had about his own life.
This was a great novel; the idea of a cemetery of forgotten books was something to savor, the vivid description of Barcelona after the Spanish civil war, the people and the places were so well drawn that you could feel the dampness and darkness of the prisons. I strongly recommend it.

The Darcy's Give a Ball By Elizabeth Newark

2009-01-17T17:11:00.002-06:00

A delightful, “gentle joke” in the style of Jane Austen.
I have to admit that I am a pushover for anything relating to the novels of Jane Austen and if the novel has to do with the people of “Pride and Prejudice ” all the more so. This little story takes place many years after Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy married. The Collins have moved to Longbourn (after the death of Mr Bennett),they have five children, The Binkleys have grown children, Carolyn Binkley is still around being obnoxious and the author of this story decided that it is time for all of these characters, nieces and nephews, friends and acquaintances from earlier years get together for fun, conversation and some match making. It was kind of fun to think about what happened to all those people; how they prospered and is they were still alive.
Good effort by Ms Newark!

The Appeal By John Grisham

2009-01-12T17:12:00.002-06:00

In a courtroom in a small town in Mississippi a jury has awarded $41,000,000 to a plaintive who is dying of cancer because a large chemical company dumped toxic waste into the town’s water supply. The chemical company is owned by a ruthless Wall Street player who will appeal the verdict because he knows that hundreds more from the town will file suit because the town is being called the worst “cancer cluster” in history. The player, Paul Trudeau, will stop at nothing to assure himself of a reversal of the verdict. This is a fast moving and frighteningly realistic story of how rich and powerful men can get their way by ruining reputations, killing people who do not fall in line and even controlling the politics in connection with the election of the State Supreme Court. “The Appeal” is a good and suspenseful novel.

Scarpetta By Patrica Cornwell

2009-01-12T17:07:00.003-06:00

This is the sixteenth novel in the “Kay Scarpetta” series. Ms Cornwell started the series some 20 years ago and her characters and her plots have not aged very well. They are still around; Lucy has her own business and is making a fortune, Benton still does profiling for the FBI and is married to Kay and Marino is still a cop but the original magic does not come through. Kay is out of her element when she is asked to talk to a a suspected murder who is mentally disturbed and locked up in a psychiatric hospital and she gets pretty well involved with the patient who claims he did not do the deed. The scandal press is raking up the thing that happened between Scarpetta and Marino when he went kind of crazy and attacked her so that has to be resolved again but the old linear mystery and the great forensic work that went on in the earlier novels is not there. She disappointed me again.

Tales of The Beedle Bard By J.K. Rowling

2008-12-20T11:50:00.003-06:00

This latest effort by the author of the Harry Potter series is a tiny book of children’s stories written by and for Wizards and their children.

A collection of five delightful fairy tales of magic and magicians translated by Hermione Granger with comments by Albus Percival Wolfric Brian Dumbledorf . There are also foot notes by J. K. Rowling that serve to explain some of the Wizarding terms and actions to Muggle readers.

Dumbledorf’s comments serve to shed light on the long time relationship between Muggles and Wizards, their tentative truce and how the Wizard world will sometimes help the Muggles in spite of how badly they have been treated over the years. He has comments for each story.

A Lion Among Men By Gregory Maguire

2008-12-20T11:46:00.003-06:00

This is the third book of Gregory Maguire’s “Wicked Series”. A delightful adventure in Maguire’s land of Oz where we, originally, met Elphaba Thorp the Wicked Witch of the West. This is the story of the cowardly lion who was protected by Elphaba when he was just a cub “hardly more than a kitten….I had thought to call it Prrr but it shivers mor often than it Purrs so I call it Brrr instead”. Brrr went into the world of Gillikin in the great forest where he wisely decided that it is better to run away than fight forest the creatures. He made his way to Oz where The Emperor (who succeeded the Sacrecrow) was making a mess of things. It is time for a change and there are rumors that the “Ozma” of OZ who was kidnapped as a child and presumed dead may still be alive and may claim the throne. Brrr has some knowledge relating to this.
I found the story fun and interesting; I have read all of the “Oz” stories including Frank Baum’s book about the return of “The Ozma” so I found it intriguing how well Gregory Maguire manages to fit all these characters into kind of dark and very imaginative but familiar world he has created.

Harry, A History By Melissa Anelli

2008-12-12T19:20:00.002-06:00

Ms Anelli is the webmaster of the Leaky Cauldren, a popular Harry Potter internet site. Starting with a forward J.K. Rowling, we follow the Harry Potter phenomenon as fans, book sellers, Potter clubs, the author and publishers react to the intriguing series. Quite interesting.

The Secret of The Great Pyramid Rier & Houden

2008-12-12T19:17:00.002-06:00

Houdin, aFrench architect , became obsessed with the question of how the great pyramid of Giza was built. He created, over a period of five years, hundreds of computer models which proved to him, at least, that the pyramid was built by using a mile long ramp that was constructed around the inside of the monument. He took the idea to Bob Brier who is a world famous Egyptologist and, together, traveled to Egypt to prove the theory. There is a lot of history about old kings, Egyptian culture and diagrams and pictures of Khufu’s pyramid as well as the several other pyramids located in Saqqara. Great footnotes and an interesting a possible solution to the question.

The Laughter of Kings By Elizabeth Peters

2008-12-12T19:13:00.003-06:00

A “Vicky Bliss” mystery. Some one has stolen one of Egypt’s most prized artifacts. Vicky and her some time super thief boyfriend have been asked by one of the curators of the museum to help locate and return the treasure before the loss is made public. Vicky’s lover is suspect due to his reputation, the curator stands to loose his job and others that Vicky brings into the investigation have something to gain or loose. It is kind of a fun adventure with humorous characters and a lively chase. I found it entertaining and humorous when the grand lady herself, Amelia P. Emerson ,made a short appearance . Fortunately Ms Peters, in the forward of the novel discussed the problem of “the current now” and how authors do not attempt to explain anachronisms – Amelia Peabody would be about 146 years old.

As a post script, I sent a note to Elizabeth Peters and she corrected me; "it was not Amanda it was me or as Peabody would say it was I" Anyways, it was a good read.

The Legend of Bagger Vance Steven Pressfield

2008-12-12T18:58:00.005-06:00

A mesmerizing story about a golf match between two legendary golfers, Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen and a local hero of Savannah. An exciting, stroke by stroke, drama of 72 holes on a championship golf course; The tale is told by a local Doctor who was just a young boy when the match occurred but he assisted the mysterious Bagger Vance, friend and teacher of the local hero, Rannulph Junah who chose to caddy for Junah. The story tells of inner conflict, deep self examination, fear and hope. Hope for success in the golf match and hope for mankind and how he should live with his fellow man and always the question “who and what is Bagger Vance?”

Jubal Sackett By Louis L'Amour

2008-12-12T18:52:00.002-06:00

This is one of the early tales in the “Sackett’ series. Jubal is one of Barnaby’s sons who was born in America. Jubal is a hunter and a wanderer, a lover of nature and the great country to the West of Tennessee where the story starts. We are in the early 1700’s, Jubal, alone as usual, is on his way to the ‘Great River” (Mississippi) and beyond. He will meet Indians he knows about, Choctaw, Pawnee, Creek, and Kikapoo and new tribes, Komantsi and Apache and a strange group called Natchee who call themselves “People of the Sun” and are presently lead by a mysterious, and beautiful, woman who is searching for new lands for her people. Jubal will find himself torn between his desire to move on and explore further West and his commitment to help his new Indian friends survive the hardships of settling a new land and fighting Spanish enemies and hostile Indians. For the first time in his life he has a close friend and he is interested in a woman.
This is a great story and L’Amour packs it with daring deeds, tense battles the history of the times and his own love and admiration of the people that settled our land.

Sepulchre By Kate Mosse

2008-10-31T23:40:00.002-05:00

I bought this book on a whim about a year ago and it was on my “read” pile but I kept piling on top of it. This week I brought seven from the library and made five bad choices and “Sepulchre” was there for me to read.

What a great story!
A special deck of Tarot cards, the biography of a musician, an ancient Visigoth sepulcher, rumors of devils and haunting in the old forests surrounding an old country estate, a murder and people involved in the occult are all intertwined in a haunting and suspenseful tale of two young women from different times who find themselves in a village in Southwest France.
In the year 1891 Leonie Vernier, a lively seventeen year old leaves her stepmother and her familiar Paris surroundings rather suddenly with her older brother who seems to be some rather serious trouble, to stay in the town of Rennes-les-Bains with a widowed Aunt she has never met. Leonie will become caught up in the local legends which involve her own family. She will face dangers not only from the power of the occult and a deck of very old Tarot cards with images that look similar to family members, but from a powerful person seeking revenge against her brother.
In 2007, Meredith Martin, an American, is a graduate student, accomplished musician and author who is writing a biography of Debussy. From Paris, she heads for Rennes-les-Bains for two reasons; she has a weak lead on one of Debussy’s wives but more important, Meredith had always felt that she has family roots in this area. Strangely enough,
Just before she left Paris, she was lead to a Tarot reading and was given a special deck that will tie Meredith to her past. (“it is said that nothing happens without a reason”)
This is a well done mystery; it has history and intrigue and some tense moments when the Tarot cards and the sepulcher reveal the frightening past while the dangers of the present are brought to an exciting climax.

Uncertain Endings Edited By Otto Penzler

2008-10-31T23:36:00.002-05:00

This is an anthology of short stories written by various authors. Each story leaves you with a question as to how it ends; it is up to the reader to guess or surmise what happens. The tales include such classics as “The Lady or the Tiger” (and did you know that there was a continuation?), the intriguing “The Mysterious Card and it’s sequel, and a Mark Twain mystery “A Medieval Romance”, this book was a lot of fun.

The Book of Merlyn By T.H. White

2008-10-31T23:30:00.002-05:00

In 1958, the series entitled “The Once and Future King” was published; the first story was “The Sword in the Stone” which chronicled the history of Arthur and his training under Merlyn. “The” Book of Merlyn”, the final chapter, was not published until 1977.
This book begins where the last ended; Arthur is in his tent on the eve of his final battle with his bastard son, Mordred ; Arthur is weary of war and contemplates defeat when Meryln appears and takes Arthur to the council of animals that aided in his training when he was a boy called Wart.Since animals do not war on one another, we read long dissertations about how superior animals are to human the human race. This is T.H. White at his cynical and ironic best. A favorite quotation from “Once and Future King” By Merlyn: "The best thing for being sad," replied Merlyn, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn."

The Heretic Queen By Michelle Moran

2008-10-31T23:23:00.002-05:00

This is a story of ancient Egypt and the Princess Nefertari. Nefertari’s aunt was Queen Nefertiti, the wife of Akhenaten who, together attempted to do away with the polytheistic views of the time and institute belief in a single god, Aten (the sun god). They removed the other deities from the temples and caused a lot of political upheavals to the end that a mysterious fire killed the Royal family. Egypt reverted to the old gods and Akehenaten and Nefertiti were branded as heretics; no one would even speak their names.
Nefertari had some powerful protectors that kept her alive as she grew up in the palace. She grew up with Ramesses II; they were good friends and Ramesses admired her intellect, her facility of languages and beauty in spite of her family background. When Ramesses ascended to the throne he took Nefertari as one of his wives and used her as an advisor.
The story detail the political intrigues of the court, some of the Hittite war, the many monuments including the giant statues at Abu Simbal where Nefertiti was depicted as being the same size as Ramesses II (a first in that time), and it hints at the great exodus telling about a group called the Habiru led by a man named Ahmoses. I enjoyed this one a lot.

The Voice of Bugle Ann By MacKinlay Kantor

2008-10-10T19:07:00.002-05:00

Bugle Ann was a Missouri fox hound bred and raised by Spring Davis. Her voice was one that sent chills up the spine of the men who would sit by the fire in the night and listen to the hounds chase a fox through Chilly Branch Hollow, high and round and with a brassy resonance, a sound like a bugle. This was not English style fox hunting with horses and bright jackets and a dead fox at the end of the chase; here, the fox went to his refuge and lived to be chased the next day.

Spring Davis loved his dogs and the other men at the fire would tease him for his special affection for Bugle Ann. Spring carried an old bugle and called his dog in from the hunt with two long notes.

One night, the men learned that an old farm had been sold and the new owner, known to be a mean man, was going to fence the property and raise sheep. The concerned hunters located and moved some of the foxes so they would not run near the fences but one night as the hunters listened to their dogs, they sensed and heard trouble. A fox had run through the new owner’s fence.
Some of the dogs ran through but a couple got hurt in the wire. Bugle Ann did not come in to her call.

The author wrote this beautiful and touching story in 1935. They made a movie based on the novel and I was just a small boy when I saw it. I remember that I thought it was very sad. I found this short novel, only 128 pages, at my library this week and read it for the first time; read it if you can find it.

Plague Ship By Clive Cussler with Jack DuBrul

2008-10-10T18:58:00.002-05:00

Cussler’s Juan Cabrillo and his team of former soldiers and spies are back with another incredible adventure. An overzealous, well organized and well financed organization calling themselves “Responsivists” believe that the world is on the brink of disaster because of overpopulation. All responsivists are sterilized surgically but the leaders have a plan to use an extremely contagious virus that they developed to contaminate the world population. The virus is expected to cause the death of billions and of those that survive, one half will be sterile. The founder of the organization believes that “the greatest transfer of wealth in human history occurred when the Plague swept Europe and wiped out a third of the population. Lands were consolidated , allowing for a greater standard of living and paved the way for the Renaissance”

Juan has a challenge of epic proportions. For those that do not know Juan Cabrillo, he is one of three major heroes created by Clive Cussler (Dirk Pitt, of NUMA and Kurt Austen are the others) Juan calls himself “the chairman” of his organization that has high political connections that give him and his band of mercenaries secret work that pays big fees. He operates from a state of the art vessel, The Oregon, that is camouflaged to look like a beat up freighter. Like most of Cussler’s characters, he and his crew are practically indestructible in a fight, irresistible to women and experts in their chosen field of work .They work hard and play hard.

This is high adventure and you know that Juan will save the world but it is an exciting and fun read and the way they solve the problems is always unique. Very interesting technical inovations that, for the most part are probably true.

2008-10-09T14:48:00.000-05:00

Leaves of Lincoln Century October 4th

2008-10-09T10:49:00.003-05:00

A beautiful day for the 4th annual bike ride. Riders from all over the State(and Alabama) lined up for either the 100 mile, 62 mile(100 kilometers), 30 or 15 mile route. Back in the 70's I did the Century rides but now I am happy to to finish the 30 mile ride. Colorfully clad and very friendly folks all along the route made the effort well worth while. I met some nice people. A couple of the hills were especially hard for me but the reciprocal was worth it- 38 miles/hour going down hill was breath taking. The organizers had great snacks and fun people at the rest stops and at the end they served a delicious pulled pork lunch.

The Tenth Case By Joseph Teller

2008-10-01T11:24:00.002-05:00

This is the first novel by Joseph Teller, a former undercover agent for the Bureau of Narcotics, and a trial lawyer for many years, who uses his experience and skills to create which may be an alter ego protagonist, Harrison J. Walker, “Jaywalker”. I was fortunate to read an advance copy; look for it in early October.

Readers have many choices when it comes to Police detectives, private investigators, and lawyers solving, investigating and either prosecuting or defending and most are carrying some kind of baggage or have an attitude. If the author is good, we want to read more; best examples are Patterson’s Alex Cross or Deaver’s Lincoln Rhyme. I liked Teller’s Jaywalker, he‘s a likeable “good guy”.

Jaywalker is a maverick New York lawyer who honed his skills as a public defender and is the kind of lawyer you would want if you run afoul of the law – some one who, really, cares and is not afraid to “bend a few rules” if it will get his client free. His success ratio is in the high 90’s.

Jaywalker is in trouble; his reputation and a perceived unseemly action with a female client have caused the court to suspend his license for a period of three years. The suspension does not, particularly, bother Jaywalker but he is concerned about the clients that are depending on him so he strikes a bargain with the court who allows him to select ten cases to bring to conclusion. It takes a while to work them out but his last one, "The Tenth Case", a murder, will become the most challenging and difficult case he has tackled. His client, a beautiful young woman, is accused of stabbing her husband. The woman, Samara Moss, former Las Vegas showgirl and some time prostitute, married billionaire Barry Tannenbaum, three times divorced and 44 years older than her. The marriage lasted eight years although after the first few months, they set up separate households and Samara spent his money and slept around as she was wont to do. Husband and wife met social obligations together but lived apart. Jaywalker had defended Samara on a drunk driving charge when she totaled Barry’s $400,000 Lamborghini and was very well compensated but this time, Jaywalker will have to settle for the same wages that a public defender would get.

The problem with the case was “why?”; Samara had it made she has money, clothes and total freedom to do what she wishes. The evidence against her was overwhelming and most of it was found in her own home. There was also an application signed by Samara dated shortly before his murder for a six month life insurance policy in the amount of $25,000,000 on Barry. Samara denies her guilt.

The characters are carefully developed and the plot and the action moves fast and smoothly. This became a very suspenseful novel.

The court drama was interesting, we follow the preparation, dialogue and interaction between the prosecutor and Jaywalker and the Judge and I was never certain about the outcome. I found it hard to put the book down until I finished it. MIRA Books is ready to publish another “Jaywalker” novel, I look forward to reading it

River God and The Seventh Scroll By Wilbur Smith

2008-09-25T14:47:00.006-05:00

Wilbur Smith is a favorite author.
Smith created characters from and about South Africa (where he was born). He wrote about the people of South Africa, he wrote about the gold fields, the diamond fields, greed, lust, and love and sex. He created many family dynasties and would write a series about them. Some were sea faring folks others were bound to the land. Very prolific writer; I have read everything he has written.
I have two special novels that I reread frequently. "River God and a sequel "The Seventh Scroll". Picture the opulent Egyptian empire with it’s Pharaoh, his Queen, the people and the treasures. Political intrigues and an astounding eunuch slave called "Taita who is an artist extraordinary, an engineer, architect and all round genius. The main characters (aside from Taita) are Pharaoh Mamose, Queen Lostris and Tanus commander of the guards. The Hittites with their horses and chariots are expanding their lands and the Egyptians are no match for them so Mamose takes his whole empire and they move up the Nile into what is now Ethiopia. Pharaoh dies of war wounds and is embalmed before the voyage begins; the Queen makes the decisionto take the body and the treasure and find a suitable resting place for Pharaoh. Tanus kind of takes over (he long before took over the beautiful queen Lostris) and the people kind of do a "Moses" thing in the wilderness while they train the army to use horses and chariots. Lostris has a son (actually Tanus' son that the people recognize as the Royal Prince)but during the several years of the trip up the Nile Lostris has two more children that came about when the ghost of Mamose visited her in the night (of course Tanus is the father) When the son gets older, he and Taita hunt for a suitable tomb for pharaoh and his treasures. After they entomb the body they go back to Egypt and deal with the enemy.
The follow up story "The Seventh Scroll" is a fascinating account of different people trying to find the secret of the location of the tomb through the scrolls that Taita hid in Queen Lostris tomb in Egypt. What a yarn! An evil sex crazed German industrialist, an angry and evil Hunting guide, a beautiful Egyptian archaeologist and several wealthy collectors. Marvelous puzzles and great adventure. The discovery of the tomb and the way they manage to enter it and the many traps and puzzles they encounter on their way inside the maze of the tomb is very fascinating, exciting and original. I Read these again and again!

The Inspector Lynley Mysteries By Elizabeth George

2008-09-22T17:29:00.005-05:00

Ms George created an interesting Scotland Yard team; "a refined,well healed, and sophisticated" Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and his "gritty, rumpled, working class Sgt. Barbara Havers. Although they first came out in novels, WGBH Boston television picked them up and they have run for at least five series and a sixth is coming. Good interplay and I think that fans might disagree as to who is the better detective.

"A Great Deliverance" is the first book and DVD where Lynley and Havers are made a team

I watched the earlier TV series and now I have almost every one in my collection. While I was searching for a picture of the couple I found a splendid website and forum that fans will enjoy. Try it

States of Grace by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

2008-09-08T18:48:00.003-05:00

Count Saint-Germain is in Venice during the time of religious and political upheaval. Martin Luther is proselytizing, Calvinists are on the move, Henry VIII is breaking away from Rome and the Catholic Church, particularly, in Spain, is hunting and hanging and burning heretics on the flimsiest of evidence of information. The printed page, pamphlets and books are beginning to make their way throughout Europe and the Church is looking carefully at every publication to make sure what is written conforms to Church dogma and teaching. They are none too happy about people learning to read in the first place – folks begin to think and ask questions.
The Count has several printing presses and publishing businesses that augment his extensive and profitable shipping business but as a “foreigner” he must take care as to who he publishes; there are those that are jealous of his wealth and position and he is followed at all times by those who would report to the clergy.
This is an interesting , exciting and action filled adventure. Saint-Germain travels from the canals of Venice where he leaves money and instructions for the running and support of his Venezian business and a musical protégé who is also his mistress, in trust, in the hands of a factor. He travels to another town surrounded by water; Amsterdam ,because another person an intelligent woman he has published is in trouble and is a suspect of the inquisition. This is a long and arduous journey and requires the protection of professional soldiers.

Vampires fear running water and water weakens them. Saint-Germain has special compartments in his boots filled with his native earth which enable him to walk in daylight and in the rain. He also, has his own gondola in Venice which has a dirt filled keel
While in Amsterdam, the factor, a prominent Venezian, cooks Saint-Germain’s books, diverts the money and gambles it away and at the same time creates an ugly situation that will recall the Count back to Venice where as a foreigner, he has very few legal rights. Good story; “no good deed goes unpunished”

White Smoke By Andrew Greeley

2008-09-02T22:24:00.005-05:00

Our splendid library has many used paper backs and used books for sale and I find a lot of books that I either missed or want to reread. I have always thoroughly enjoyed the novels of Father Andrew Greely he is a very thoughtful and prolific writer. I admire the man and agree with his politics and his strong position on the rights of women and even some of his more liberal philosophy on religion: lest I offend, I will say nothing further. Greeley’s novels are frequently mysteries that include romances and sexual encounters between lay people (and sometimes priests – once even a Cardinal); the author has a thing for beautiful breasts and nipples but then, why not, he is a man. He seems to use human love as a metaphor for love of God and humanity and I think that he worries that the Church stresses love and deification of the Pope and the institution of the Church rather than the love of God (who Greely calls “She”).

White Smoke was published in 1996; it tells the story of the death of a Pope who made a good start trying to “reform” and change some of the rules of the church but was hindered by the Curia and m any staid Cardinals who fear that change will reduce their power and the control that the Church has on the laity. Powerful right wing business men
The conclave is assembled to elect a new Pope. Cardinal Sean Cronin (of Chicago) and his henchman Bishop “Blackie” are in Rome to support a liberal Spaniard who just might be able to remove some of the rules and regulations that hinder priests and bishops and the laity from “common sense” actions on many matters. The conservative press, various conservative Catholic organizations who depend on wealthy business men for funding are opposing the Spaniard for a conservative Cardinal who will keep the status quo.
There is a romance, a rekindling of a marriage between estranged reporters, there is an assassin who will attempt to kill the new Pope, a kidnapping and a daring rescue attempt of one of the reporters who has discovered serious financial problems in the Vatican’s major banking relationship and lots of detail and information about the election of a Pope and the politics that go along with it.

Devil May Care By Sabastian Faulks

2008-09-02T22:24:00.004-05:00

Here is Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming. James Bond 007 is on a new assignment; we are back in the late 60’s, the time of the cold war with Russia, The US is involved in Vietnam and not a little upset that Great Britain will not send troops or support the war.
Beautiful women, a powerful enemy with the standard physical anomaly who has a keen hatred for all things British and is determined to destroy the UK with drugs and force them into a war with Russia. Neat gadgets from Q and plenty of action in Iran which is called Persia, an underground factory uses drug dependent natives to process opium.
A pretty good thriller but I think 007 and his antics are kind of out of date now. When he was fresh and original it was great but we all get a little long in the tooth after many years.

Aztec Fire By Robert Gleason and Junis Podrug

2008-09-02T22:24:00.003-05:00

Gary Jennings the creator of so many fine novels about the Aztec and Mayan nations died in 1999 but he left a fertile field of research and ideas for other authors to use. This was a fun but implausible thriller; a story about a young peasant, slave to the conquering Spaniards, who was brought up in the knowledge that he is descended from the oldest Aztec civilization. Brought up by two “uncles” who trained him, educated him and taught him about the old civilization, Jaun Rios, secretly, learned to become a gun smith and munitions expert and joined the ranks of those Aztecs who were trying to overthrow the Spaniards. He is found out and has to kill two soldiers and runs for the hills to join the revolutionists.

The novel turns into a odyssey; Jaun is captured and sold into slavery on a galleon that takes him to South East Asia, Hong Kong, where he runs into pirates, opium dens, a South Sea jungle of cannibals and is enslaved, again, to a Muslim Sultan. The history and the detail of the various places and cultures were enjoyable but we strayed away from the conquered Aztec nation until the last few chapters. Just Ok

Saint-Germain: Memoirs Chelsea Quinn Yarbo

2008-09-02T22:24:00.002-05:00

A collection of short stories and a novella are very interesting and entertaining but also helps a reader to better understand this melancholy, philosophical, sometimes world weary 3500 year old vampire. Saint-Germain is portrayed as a gracious benefactor of a downtrodden person in Greece, as a respected teacher (but still a foreigner) at a university in Padua where he teaches students “alchemy” which in those times was the study of healing by potions and salves. There we learn more about his travels in Egypt and his fondness for women. Strangely, when he was “resurrected” from death, he found that he was totally unable to achieve an erection, although penetration is impossible he loves and satisfies many women and they adore him. There is always conflict and suspicion; the church hierarchy and jealous public officials keep him on the move.

While there is certainly a connection to the well known “Dracula” (Saint-Germain “does not drink- wine”) the author tries to move Brahm Stoker’s character to a more positive image emphasizing how the vampire deals with such longevity, with so many people passing through their lives and seeing history repeating itself and at the same time, living like a vampire.

I will read a few more about Saint -Germain.

Atonement By Ian McEwan

2008-09-02T22:24:00.001-05:00

This is a marvelous story of Love, conflict, misunderstanding, class distinction and the horror of war.
Briony Tallis is a precocious thirteen year old who sees life as a continuing novel or play where she relates every happening or action that takes place to the novels she has read and her limited and immature understanding of the things that go on in the world. She aspires to write; she has tried a novel and has just finished a short play.
Briony observes her older sister, Cecilia and a young man , Robbie, having a confrontation at a fountain; Robbie is the son of one of the house servants and has been on the grounds many years . Briony’s father has seen to Robbie’s university education; he went to the same University as Cecilia. In Briony’s mind, Robbie is forcing Cecilia into a compromising, sexual situation, he is even forcing her to remove her clothes. It is, really, something else that is explained very clearly by the author; Briony, now, sees Robbie in an entirely different light. She feels that her sister must be protected against Robbie.
Robbie sends a letter to Cecilia that Briony reads; not the kind of letter a thirteen year old should see and later in the library, she spies Cecilia and Robbie in a passionate embrace which totally sets Briony against Robbie.
That evening, a serious happening occurs and Briony accuses Robbie of the deed. This lie, this angry outpouring from a confused and jealous child sends Robbie to prison and changes the lives of all involved.

We follow the lives of Cecelia who will always love Robbie, of Robbie who was given the choice of prison or going to war and of Briony who, finally realizes how badly she acted but can not find the means to atone.

Ian McEwan fills his characters with intense emotion and takes great care to help the reader understand them. He writes a graphic description of the final days of Dunkirk. The ending is sad and belongs to Briony.

Roman Dusk By Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

2008-08-24T15:00:00.001-05:00

This is, perhaps, the latest in a series of stories and adventures of The Count Saint-Germain a character created by the author. Saint James is a vampire who has been roaming the earth for some 3500 years. He has become very sophisticated, cultured and rich. He has learned to feed without killing his prey and can manage, with some care, to walk about and live during the daylight hours although he still must return to his native earth at night. He has learned to transmute base metal into gold and can create precious gems at will. In Egypt, he learned to resurrect an individual but not as a vampire but , rather, as a servant ghoul who becomes a trusted ally.

In this novel, Saint Germain is living as a foreigner in Rome during the decline of the Empire around 160 AD. He is a well regarded merchant with a fleet of ships that trade goods around the known world. As a foreigner, he pays extra fees to the officials who tax practically everything; sometimes twice. He, cheerfully, pays the fees to avoid bringing official attention to himself. Saint Germain has learned healing and has become rather a “humanitarian” and feels almost compelled to look out for and take care of the ill and oppressed which of course there are plenty.
He makes an enemy of one of the taxing authorities who is determined to find out as much as he can about Saint Germain.
The present Caesar is merely a boy controlled by his mother and wasting the treasury of Rome by lavish and decadent expenditures.
The Christians are a growing sect, fiery and intolerant and a group of particularly militant boys are starting fires at places they feel are immoral and ungodly.
Saint-Germain becomes involved in the happenings of Rome at this time and finds himself becoming more and more in danger. The author uses a lot of fabricated letters from characters in the story and from characters that Saint-Germain has known from other places that help advance the plot or give information about Saint-Germain or other people in the novel. This is quite effective.
This was a fascinating story; I enjoyed the characters ; mean, petty and dangerous and found the historical fiction and the eroticism between Saint-Germain and his female companions interesting. I have scanned some of the other Saint-Germain novels but this is the first that I really devoured. I will go back and look at some more.

Buckingham Palace Gardens By Anne Perry

2008-08-20T21:09:00.003-05:00

The Prince of Wales has invited four business men to Buckingham Palace to discuss the possibility of a trans African railroad starting from Cape Town to Cairo. After dinner, entertainment is provided by four ladies from a local brothel. The next morning, one of the men rises early and while walking down the hall sees a closet door ajar, looks inside and discovers the body of one of the prostitutes. Her throat and belly had been slashed, a very bloody scene, indeed. The Prince is notified; the Queen is away and expected later in the week and because of where this happened, he decides to bring in “Special Services” (homeland security) to investigate rather than the police. A senior officer from Special Services and a homicide expert are dispatched to the palace. Their instructions are to solve the crime discreetly; there is to be no publicity and the culprit will not stand for a public trial he will disappear.

There are some great characters. Each of the four guests are suspect; we learn all of the baggage that they carry and how each has had dealings with one another at one time or another, some rather frightening. The two investigators follow a twisted trail with bizarre clues such as wine bottles filled with blood, broken porcelain, missing clothes. Good suspense and you might find yourself changing your mind a couple of times as to “who done it” Very entertaining story.

The Bourne Betrayal By Eric Van Lustbader

2008-08-20T21:09:00.002-05:00

I have read, nearly, all of Robert Ludlum’s novels, exciting and well crafted all; the Bourne series was my favorite. The Estate of Robert Ludlum made a smart choice when they gave Eric Lustbader the right to continue the series; he really did a great job!
The earlier Bourne stories have a wealth of characters, exotic places, and tense adventures as well as the compelling hero, Jason Bourne for the author to draw on and he put together winner.
Jason is drawn back to work for the Central Intelligence because a Deputy Director and Jason’s best (and only) friend, Lindros is missing on assignment. The agency hates Jason because of his unorthodox ways but they know that Jason will find his friend.
Radical Muslim terrorists have got their hands on atomic bomb material they have a refining plant and a plan to bomb a major US city. They are also plotting to destroy the Central Intelligence agency. There is plenty of action, double cross, evil and dangerous people and settings in Africa, the Middle East, Russia and Eastern Europe and Jason Bourne is at his best using disguises, sophisticated weapons and gadgets and fighting with knives and his hands and feet. This was a great thriller.

The Burning Time By Robin Morgan

2008-08-20T21:09:00.001-05:00

The setting is Ireland in the year 1324. The Catholic church has instituted the Inquisition (also called “the burning time”) and has chosen Ireland, in particular to seek out heretics. The Irish have traditions that go back many hundreds of years where nature is worshiped and they feel that it should be ok for them to practice the "Old Religion” as well as what the Church believes. This, of course, is out of the question and a Bishop is sent to a particular region where “pagan practices” are outwardly practiced to enforce, by any means, the doctrines of the Church.

The Bishop, mean and ridged, goes up against a strong willed, courageous and outspoken woman, Lady Alyce who is a leader in the Old Religion practice and who has some connections to influential men.

The battle lines are drawn and the reader will enjoy the conflict. The character and bombast of the Bishop is well drawn and very frightening and the Lady Alyce is a treasure This was a well researched story ; many actual people are portrayed in the novel. It maybe a little long on the ancient practices but a very interesting read.