1. Where is the Mango Princess

By Cathy Crimmins
Rated 4 1/2 Stars

This book was recommended by Kathryn, a poster in a group I belong to. It was published in 2001 and the injury that Crimmins described happened several years before that. At the time it was written the struggle's that the author had in order to get decent treatment for her husband was shocking. But since this book was written the war in Iraq has happened in which the causualty totals have exceeded 30,00 and according to the Brain Injury Association of America more than half of them involve a traumatic brain injury.

In this book Crimmins' describes how her husband Alan suffered a traumatic brain injury in a speedboat crash. This book tells the stories of Alan's slow and irregular return to a reasonably normal existence; of the changing relationships involved, especially that of Cathy and the Crimmins' daughter, Kelly; and of how an HMO impeded a patient's treatment and recovery by misguided attempts at cost cutting.

Both Crimmins' and her husband, both of whom were highly educated, successful professional people (both had a Ph.d,) were more mature than most people and were better equiped to navigate the massive red tape and negotiate with an HMO that was determined to provide as little care as they could legally get away with.

Imagine your average young soldier with such an injury, probably in his early twenties who joined up right out of high school to get money for college trying to deal with an underfunded, understaffed and overwhelmed Veterans care system to get the services needed.

Try to imagine also the families of these service men and women who are trying to cope with a family member who has been forever altered both physically and mentally and who suffers from results of their injury that include at best:

http://www.traumaticbraininjury.com/content/symptoms/mildtbisymptoms.html

And in the more serious cases:

http://www.traumaticbraininjury.com/content/symptoms/severetbisymptoms.html

This is one of those books that while I am glad I read it but I probably would have been happier if I hadn't.

116. The Coal Gatherer

By Janet Woods
Rated 3 1/2 Stars


This book is written in the style of Catherine Cookson Novel,.

Set in the North of Victorian England, Calandra Ingram known as Callie meets Patricia Lazarus and her brother James whilst gathering sea coal at the waters edge, they strike up a friendship that will last for ever, despite their different backgrounds. When Callie is offered the post of companion to Patricia, it is the first step in her journey to a better life ... very predictable ending but still kind of fun.

113. A Place Beyond Courage

By Elizabeth Chadwick
Rated 5++++++ Stars!

No one comes as close to putting the reader in the position of being a fly on the wall so to speak of their stories as Elizabeth Chadwick does.

What I think is particularly wonderful about A Place Beyond Courage is that John Marshall is really not a very heroic figure as hero's are defined in novels. Susan has managed to breath life and humanity as well as creating sympathy for a character whom I suspect was pretty much a self serving cold fish of a person.

The real life John Marshall changed sides far to often for me to get any sense of his having the code of honor that was prevalent in his time. Many men died trying to live up to their code of honor while John Marshall seems to have honored only his own self interest. Also the way he dumped Aline really bothered me. A man of honor would not have notified her by letter that she has become an inconvenience.

The only self serving thing he did that I even come close to understanding was a.) surrendering William as a hostage since that was common practice at the time and b.) giving that little hammer and anvil speech (never let them see you sweat) since I agree with the author's conclusion that it was in Williams interest that John not show how much (if it was indeed much) that William meant to him. I am sure that he cared some, because he was human after all.

The tender love story between him and Sybilla is, IMO, all from the author's imagination as I don't think there is any real evidence that they did other than get married and have children together. It's lovely to think of her version as fact but I guess I am just too much of a skeptic. But it sure made for great reading.

The fact that the author managed to spin such a wonderful story while incorporating all these facts is a true testament to her as a writer. I love the John Marshall of her story. But I suspect that very few, if anyone from his time would recognize the man he was as the man she was writing about.

Now his son William, (The Greatest Knight) that is another thing entirely. Every thing she wrote about him was absolutely, positively true. I know this because my heart tells me so.

112. Shakespeare, The world a stage

By Bill Bryson
Rated 5+++++ Stars

Bill Bryson is an author whose books really resonate with me. I am sure that he could write a book on the Influence of Politics and Religion in Common Earth Worm colonys and I would not only rush out to buy it but would then also rate it 5 stars. There is something about his take on things combined with the way he uses languages that really appeals to me as a reader.

In this book he starts off explaining that virtually nothing aside from his published works is really known about Shakespeare's life except that records have been found documenting that he was a) born and b) who his parents were, c) that he married Ann Hathaway and fathered three children, d) lived at some point in London and e) died and is buried in Stratford.

Copied from a review on amazon: And then, because he is the writer he is, takes close to 200 pages to cover it. One would think that 200 pages covering "nothing" would grow tedious. One would be wrong!!! (three exclamatio points, if you please.) So charmigly does Bryson write; so entertainingly does he explicate WHY nothing is known, and how to best understand that nothing, that the book is an unending source of knowledge and delight. ANY writer can write about SOMETHING. It takes the massive talents of the Thunderbolt Kid to write this well about nothing. He makes "Seinfeld" look loquacious.

111. World Without End

by Ken Follett
Rated 5 Stars

Every once in a while, like in a Blue Moon maybe, a book comes along that is clearly way out ahead of most other books.

World Without End takes place in the same town of Kingsbridge, two centuries after the townspeople finished building the exquisite Gothic cathedral that was at the heart of The Pillars of the Earth. The cathedral and the priory are again at the center of a web of love and hate, greed and pride, ambition and revenge, but this sequel stands on its own. This time the men and women of an extraordinary cast of characters find themselves at a crossroad of new ideas--about medicine, commerce, architecture, and justice. In a world where proponents of the old ways fiercely battle those with progressive minds, the intrigue and tension quickly reach a boiling point against the devastating backdrop of the greatest natural disaster ever to strike the human race--the Black Death.

I went over to Amazon and looked closely at the reviews and noted that of 104 reviewers, 53% had given it 5 stars and 18 four stars. Obviously this is a love it or hate it kind of book.

There are a couple of things I think might be the reason for the bad reviews. One thing is that Folett is not primarily a historical fiction writer and a great many of his books have been thrillers. So his writing style tends to be pretty gritty. Also, while there is a strong love story (and a couple of minor ones) running through this book it is not a romance novel. It's the story of a 14th century community in a cathedral market town and at times his vision of 14 century life makes me a little uncomfortable. Plausible, but still a little uncomfortable. Especially what passed for justice and fairness.

I caught myself being sympathetic to be baddies in the book simply because it seemed to me that the only way someone of the "lower classes" might improve their circumstances was with either brawn and hopefully a few brains thrown in.Luck played a huge part in this and I found I couldn't really blame some of the characters who seized any and every opportunity that came their way, fair means or fowl. In fact, there is one female character who has, IMO, a definite Claire Frazer attitude towards survival.

One of the reviewers noted that Charis was a feminist and therefore out of place in the 14th century. Obviously this reviewer had never read anything about Eleanor of Aquitaine to name just one because there are many. She came immediately to mind because she is a particular favorite of mine. I think this reviewer was not much of a reader. Also there was a small incidence of lesbianism and as we all know the slightest whiff of anything homosexual drives the homophobes into an orgasmic frenzy.

110. Tomb of Zeus

By Barbara Cleverly
Rated 4 1/2 Stars

This is a new series for Cleverly and I am looking forward to reading the subsequent books. However I hope she doesn't abandon Inspector Joe Sandilands of Scotland Yard as I have become very fond of him. This book reminds me a tiny bit of Elizabeth Peter's heroine Vicky Bliss as I think there is more to her boyfriend than meets the eye.

--BOOK JACKET. "Born into a background of British privilege, Laetitia Talbot has been raised to believe there is no field in which she may not excel. She has chosen a career in the male-dominated world of archaeology, but she approaches her first assignment in Crete the only way she knows how - with dash and enthusiasm. Until she enters the Villa Europa, where something is clearly utterly amiss ..." "Her host, a charismatic archaeologist, is racing to dig up the fabled island's next great treasure - the tomb of the King of the Gods. But then a beautiful young woman is found hanged and a golden youth drives his Bugatti over a cliff. From out of the shadows come whispers of past loves, past jealousies, and ancient myths that sound an eerie discord with present events. Letty will need all her determination and knowledge to unravel the secrets beneath the Villa Europa's roof - and they will lead her into the darkest, most terrifying place of all."

109. License to Kill

By Robert Young Pelton
Rated 5 Chilling Stars

I got interested in this last book (here is where the boring part of this post starts) because as I may have complained about before, I have had a sleep disorder for a long time and have recently developed a sensitivity to my meds for it so I have been spending a lot of sleepless hours in the middle of the night. I have found this marvelous late night radio program called Coast to Coast AM that discusses all sorts of crazy stuff that is fun to listen to. Ghosts, Encounters with and abductions by extraterrestrial creatures, werewolves and anything paranormal in general. Lately they have started to discuss other topics as I think that even the seriously looney tunes folks have finally figured out that things in this country are maybe not going as well as they were led to believe.

The other night they had a serious duscussion with author and adventurer Robert Young Pelton discussed his latest book, Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror. Usually I kind of doze through the programs as they are 3 hours long but that night it was so interesting that I was wide awake the whole time. So I immediately requested the book from the library.

Between the program and the book I now have a much better understanding
on the private security companies like Blackwater. On the program they opened the phone lines and many of these contractors called in and gave their sides of
the story and what had motivated them to go to work for these contractors in the first place and how the contractors fit into the big picture. It was an amazing look into something I knew nothing about before and hearing it from real people has a lot more impact that just reading it. I didn't know that there were many other contracting firms besides Blackwater and not all of them were American firms. Britain, Germany and France also have contractors there and on the
other hand, all of these contractors operate all over the world not just in the middle east. I guess the fact that the US has been handing out money (between May of 2003 and June of 2004 393 tons of $100 bills were shipped to Iraq and have to this day not been accounted for) like it was candy is a major factor for the proliferation these companies.

There is a very disturbing thought that follows the logic of "Licensed To Kill". Back in the early 90's the U.S. government used sections of U.S. Code to prohibit militias from forming 'private armies'. Now Private companies can field a well equipped battalion at very short moment's notice. Since the U.S. Government is prohibited by law to use it's own militaries domestically could it then legally 'hire' a private force to quell a domestic disturbance? The question of what all can private armies be used for can be greatly expanded beyond foreign wars and conflicts. Can our own military be replaced by private contracts? How about our police forces across the country? I am not trying to sound conspiratorial here but I think that what the contractors have seen and what the author has written about is the very beginning of a long trend that will likely grow beyond what anyone thinks now. I am afraid that this particular "genie" that has been let out of the bottle might turn around and eat us.

So if you find you are getting too much sleep at night - Read This Book.

108. Garden Spells

By Sara Addison Allen
Rated 4 Stars

"In a garden surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind a small, quiet house in the smallest of towns, is an apple tree that is rumored to bear a very special sort of fruit. In this debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of that enchanted tree, and the extraordinary people who tend it." "The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders even in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. Even their garden has a reputation, famous for its feisty apple tree that bears prophetic fruit, and its edible flowers, imbued with special powers. Generations of Waverleys tended this garden. Their history was in the soil. But so were their futures." "A successful caterer, Claire Waverley prepares dishes made with her mystical plants - from the nasturtiums that aid in keeping secrets and the pansies that make children thoughtful, to the snapdragons intended to discourage the attentions of her amorous neighbor. Meanwhile, her elderly cousin, Evanelle, is known for distributing unexpected gifts whose uses become uncannily clear. They are the last of the Waverleys - except for Claire's rebellious sister, Sydney, who fled Bascom the moment she could, abandoning Claire, as their own mother had years before." "When Sydney suddenly returns home with a young daughter of her own, Claire's quiet life is turned upside down - along with the protective boundary she has so carefully constructed around her heart. Together again in the house they grew up in, Sydney takes stock of all she left behind, as Claire struggles to heal the wounds of the past. And soon the sisters realize they must deal with their common legacy - if they are ever to feel at home in Bascom - or with each other."--BOOK JACKET.

107. The Glass Castle

By Jeannette Walls
Rated 5 Stars

This was, in the words of my dreadful friend Stacy, a jaw dropping book. For one you assume there are social services that are supposed to catch kids like these but apparently the "safety net" if there is one anymore has large holes in it. Where was the school lunch program, the welfare people, the health department or the churches that are supposed to help kids that scrounge in garbage cans and live in shacks with no heat or plumbing and sleep in cardboard boxes with tarps over them because when it rains the roof leaks like a sieve? You have to wonder how many children live like this while
society frets about embryo's.

Then I also had to wonder what made the difference that allowed these particular children to rise up out of this and make something of their lives when so many others don't. I finally concluded that the only thing their parents did right was to encourage them to read and access the library. Knowing there was another way of life is the only thing I can think of that could have given them the motivation to bail out the first chance they got.

And last it made me realize that some people (the parents in this book certainly) actually choose to live like this because these particular parents certainly had the intelligence, education, and resources to live a decent life had they desired too. I think it was the resources part of this, the
mother's land worth a ton of money, her two carat diamond ring while thier children wore rags, froze and starved is what knocked me for a loop. Had this been fiction I would have considered it over the top.

In fact though, I went over to Amazon and read some of the reviews and there were a couple that people wrote who didn't believe this could possibly be true and then some guy from Welsh, W.V. who knew of the family corroborated it.

106. I am America (and so can you.)

By Stephen Colbert
Rated 5 Stars

Stephen Colbert makes this trying time we live in a tiny bit more bearable. His take on things helps me keep some of the things that are going on in perspective.


"This book contains all of the opinions that Stephen doesn't have time to shoehorn into his nightly broadcast, his most deeply held knee-jerk beliefs on The American Family, Race, Religion, Sex, Sports, and many more topics, conveniently arranged in chapter form. Stephen addresses why Hollywood is destroying America by inches, why evolution is a fraud, and why the elderly should be harnessed to millstones. You may not agree with everything Stephen says, but at the very least, you'll understand that your differing opinion is wrong."--From publisher description.

105. The Black Rose

By Thomas B. Costain
Rated 4 1/2 Stars

While looking for something else in my storage room I ran across a box of books by Thomas B. Costain that I had bought several years ago and then forgot I had. So I dragged them out and this morning I finished The Black Rose. It was published in 1945 and while the writing is a little dated (the herione is stupid in order to make the hero look good) it is still a darn good yarn.

From the Dust Jacket: This exciting historical novel moves from England after the Crusades to the Orient of Kublai Khan. It's the story of a young English nobleman who fights his way to the heart of the fabulous Mongol empire and returns to find that he must choose between an English heiress and an enchanting girl of the East.

After Walter of Gurnie, batard son of the Earl of Lessford, became embroiled in the Oxford riots of 1273 he left college and sailed east to seek further knowledge and riches along the spice trails leading into the land of Cathay. He left behind the lovely Lady Engaine who had decided to marry another, but with him went his best friend, the blond archer, Tristram Griffen.

In Antioch they had to deal with the fat, all-powerful merchant, Anthemus, who arranged to send them with one of his opulent caravans into China to meet Kublai Khan's great general, Bayan of the Hundred Eyes. With them as presents for the Khan went a harem of Antioch beauties, including Maryam, daughter of an English crusader and a Grecian woman. Both Walter and Tristram fell in love with her and under Bayan's very nose helped her to escape. For this, Walter was tortured by means of the ingenious Rope Walk, but he survived it, was restored to Bayan's favor, and was made an emissary to the city of Kinsai.

In Kinsai Walter met Maryam again and married her, but in trying to get away they were separated and Walter and Tristram made the long journey back to England where they were welcomed as rich and famous heroes. Walter waited for Maryam to make her way across half the globe, but as the months slid into years he began to give up hope and to turn to his first love, Engaine. How Walter overcame the stigma of his birth and resolved the conflict of his double love make a stirring and dramatic climax.

Although the course of the narrative is marked by breathless action, this is essentially a love story, and one of great warmth and tenderness. The characters are so completely alive and believable, and the tapestry of the period is so vividly woven in the fascinating background, that the reader emerges with the sense of having actually lived for many engaging hours in the Middle Ages.

104. Crawfish Mountain

By Ken Wells
Rated 5 Stars

Loved this book!

"Justin Pitre's marsh island, a legacy of his trapper grandfather, is a scenic rival to anything in the Everglades, and he has promised to protect it from all harm. But he hasn't counted on oil bigwig Tom Huff's plans to wreck this bayou paradise by ramming a pipeline through it. When cajolery doesn't sway Justin to sign the land over, Huff turns to darker methods. But Justin and his spirited wife, Grace, prove to be formidable adversaries - and the game is on." "Into the fray comes the charismatic Cajun governor, Joe T. Evangeline, who seems more interested in chasing skirts than saving Louisiana's eroding coast. The Guv, though, is a man on the edge, upended by a midlife crisis and torn between a secret political obligation to Big Oil and the persuasive powers of Julie Galjour, a feisty environmentalist. Julie is clearly out to reform more than the Guv's ecopolitics, but will his tragicomic Big Oil deals wreck both his career and his chances with the brash and beautiful activist?" "As Justin and Grace battle to stop this Big Oil assault, the plot thickens - and the Guv becomes snared in the web. Featuring a gumbo of eccentrics and lowlifes, a kidnapping, a sexy snitch, a toxic-waste-dumping scheme, a boat chase, and a fishing trip gone horribly awry, Crawfish Mountain, spiced with Ken Wells's keen eye for locale, showcases his adventurous storytelling."--BOOK JACKET.

103. Coming Home

By Rosamund Pilcher
Rated 4 1/2 Stars

This is another one of Golden Oldie rereads.

From the BOOK JACKET: "Against the backdrop of an elegant Cornwall mansion before World War II and a vast continent-spanning canvas during the turbulent war years, this involving story tells of an extraordinary young woman's coming of age, coming to grips with love and sadness, and in every sense of the term, coming home... In 1935, Judith Dunbar is left behind at a British boarding school when her mother and baby sister go off to join her father in Singapore. At Saint Ursula's, her friendship with Loveday Carey-Lewis sweeps her into the privileged, madcap world of the British aristocracy, teaching her about values, friendship, and wealth. But it will be the drama of war, as it wrenches Judith from those she cares about most, that will teach her about courage...and about love. Teeming with marvelous, memorable characters in a novel that is a true masterpiece, Coming Home is a book to be savored, reread, and cherished forever."

102. September

Rosamond Pilcher
Rated 4 1/2 Stars

Another re-read this is a sequel of sorts of The Shell Seekers combines old and new characters from all over the world to the little town of Strathcroy, Scotland, for an extraordinary birthday party. A heartwarming story of family joys and sorrows.

101. The Shell Seekers

By Rosamond Pilcher
Rated 4 1/2 Stars

This month I am doing Rosamond Pilcher as my Great 2007 Rereading Adventure continues. She writes my kind of books. Below is the summary from the library web site:

Set in London and Cornwall from World War II to present, The Shell Seekers tells the story of the Keeling family, and of the passions and heartbreak that have held them together for three generations. The family centers around Penelope, and it is her love, courage, and sense of values that determine the course of all their lives, Deftly shifting back and forth in time, each chapter centers on one of the principal players in the family's history. the unifying thread is an oil painting entitled "The Shell Seekers," done by Penelope's father. It is this painting that symbolizes to Penelope the ties between the generations. But it is the fate of this painting that just may tear the family apart.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

Maggie O'Farrell
Rated DNF

In spite of rave reviews all over the internet this book was just way too depressing for me at this time. Perhaps later. Below is a summary from my library website.

Iris Lockhart leads a solitary if spicy life, managing her clothing shop in Edinburgh and dallying with her married lover. But when Iris learns that she has a great-aunt Esme waiting to be released from Cauldstone Hospital, where she has been locked away for 60 years, it is as if a bomb has dropped. The hospital is closing, and someone must collect Esme, who upon inspection seems frail, quiet, and a little quirky but hardly mentally ill. As far as Iris knew, her grandmother Kitty had no siblings; Kitty is still alive but suffering from Alzheimer's. The secret of Esme's existence is only the first of many family secrets revealed in a tale told through shifting viewpoints, among them Kitty's fragmented recollections.

100. Just Jane

By Nancy Moser
Rated 4 Stars

A fictional account of the life of Jane Austen that's woven around what events in her life are known. It's pretty good but its not skillfully enough written to make me forget that it IS fiction.

Still, a pretty good read for what it is.Definately worth carrying home from the library but I wouldn't recommend spending any money on it.

99. Run

By Ann Patchett
Rated 3 1/2 Stars

Ann Patchett is a hit and miss author for me but even when she hits I don't really understand her books. She writes way over my head I guess.

Run is a story about aproximately 24 hours in the life of an X-politician (white). One of his two adopted children (both black) is hit by a car and the story is about how the accident affects all the different characters in the book. While I am enjoying it I have wondered a couple of times why Ann Patchett found it necessary to write this book. I really had to reach once or twice to suspend my disbelief.

98. The House of Lanyon

By Valerie Anand

In Exmoor, England Richard Lanyon always resented the fact that his father was a tenant farmer working for aristocratic affluent Sweetwater clan. Richard wants to be free by owning his land not slaving for someone else to gain the profits of his toil; as the case with his recently deceased dad. Ambitious, he will shape the future through his son.

His goal seems achieved when he arranges for his offspring Peter to marry wealthy Liza Weaver. However, Peter loves Marion Locke and his fiancée loves someone else. Neither are pleased with the arrangement, but both accept the inevitably of their marriage as they understand their duty to family. Meanwhile the widow Richard is attracted to Marion. While his brokenhearted son and equally despondent daughter-in-law struggle together, Richard has a dark secret that fosters a deep guilt that haunts his gut and a fear that if revealed THE HOUSE OF LANYON will topple like a deck of cards.

97. Lord John and the Hand of Devils

By Diana Gabaldon
Rated: 4 Stars


This book contains a short story titled Hellfire and two novellas. Hellfire has finds Lord John swearing vengeance in London for a murdered government official, leading him to a deconsecrated abbey where members of the political elite indulge their basest desires.

The first Novella pits Lord John against a succubus that plagues his Prussian encampment, and combines humor with military strategy and supernatural myth. And the second Novela finds Lord John investigating the cause of a cannon explosion in the English countryside that results in a fellow officer's death.

96. Scarlet

By Stephen Lawhead
Rated 4 1/2 Stars

This is the second book in the King Raven series, told in the first person it's a completely re-imagined tale of the man known as Robin Hood, but told in a totally different way from the story that many of us know. I am enjoying this series very much and I think I probably liked this book even better than I did Hood.

As the story of King raven continues, the stakes are getting higher and the lives of Bran's band become more precarious with every passing day. Will Scarlet is about to be hung after being caught in a failed attempt to kidnap sheriff Richard de Glanville Meanwhile Bran discovers a secret that leads them on a sea voyage to France in a daring attempt to reveal a plot against King William by his brother, Robert. Will his efforts increase the sheriff's determination to destroy King Raven.

95. Beatrix Potter:

1866-1943 : the artist and her world
Rated: 4 1/2 Stars

A companion to the Tate Gallery Exhibition, this is a definitive work on the art of Beatrix Potter. Her life, work, the influences of contemporary artists, and later work as a conservationist are demonstrated with over 450 reproductions of her work.

An excellent biography. I had no idea that BP was also an avid naturalist, conservationist and farmer as well as a writer and illustrator of children's books. I ordered the movie from the library and while it was good naturally the book was much better.

94. A Sailor of Austria:

In which, without really intending to, Otto Prohaska becomes Official War Hero No. 27 of the Habsburg Empire

By John Biggins
Rated 4 1/2 stars

A Sailor of Austria is a great historical novel of WWI, accurately recalling the final days of a little-known European empire. Before I read "Until the Last Salute" last month I had no idea that Austro-Hungary even had a navy, let alone a submarine fleet.

The story is told in a gently sardonic style in which the author conveys the crumbling pretensions of the Austro-Hungarian empire and the utter meaninglessness of its military efforts in this tepid backwater of the War to end all Wars. Part of the allure of the story for me was the very obscurity of the campaign Biggins is describing and his hero and narrator, Otto Prohaska, is a likeable sea-dog, with a healthy cynicism regarding the doddering Empire he serves, but whose loyalty to that same crumbling edifice remains steadfast until it literally falls to pieces around him.

The final scenes aboard his submarine as the Austro-Hungarian flag is taken down for the last time and his crew prepares to break up are among the the most moving in the book. The book has plenty more to recommend it - humour, romance, intrigue, in short a must-read for anyone interested in war and the sea.

93. Ahab's Wife

By Sena Jeter Naslund
Rated: 4 Stars on First Half of book
2 1/2 Stars on Second Half


I really loved the first half of this book. At age 12, Una escapes her religiously obsessed father in rural Kentucky to live with relatives in a lighthouse off New Bedford, Mass. When she is 16 disguised as a boy she runs off to sea aboard a whaler, which sinks after being rammed by its quarry. Una and two young men who love her are the only survivors of a group set adrift in an open boat. This is all high drama, beautifully written and kept me happily turning pages in anticipation of what might come next.

Then comes the second half and it's my opinion the author decided that she wanted to write Great Literature after all and with less skill than confidence started stuffing everything she could think of into poor Una's head. Una's bigamous marriage to Ahab, the loss of her mother and her newborn son in one night, and her life as a rich woman in Nantucket are further developments in a plot that often lacked credibility. Una's skepticism about traditional religion, her ability to slip into and out of marriages with little or no thought, and her advocacy against slavery and women's rights gives her a larger than life personality with a solid 20th Century POV that is entirely out of place in this novel.

Additionally the author clutters up the book by including such real life figures as writer Margaret Fuller and astronomer Maria Mitchell, Frederick Douglas, and the poet Emerson to name a few. By the end of the book I was yawning and forcing myself to finish.

92. The Accidental Mother

By Rowan Coleman
Rated 4 Stars

I liked this book a lot more than I thought I was going to. I have to give this author credit for taking a story line that is cliched in the Romance genre and turning it into an charming piece of chic lit. After my last book I needed something to make me smile.


FROM BACK OF BOOK: Sophie Mills adores her shoe collection and her job as a corporate party planner in London. Her career is all-consuming, which is fine because she can never make a decision when it comes to men. Just when she is finally about to accept a lunch date, a social worker informs her that her best friend since grade school, Carrie, has died, naming Sophie guardian of her two daughters, six-year-old Bella and three-year-old Izzy. Reluctantly, Sophie agrees to take care of the children until their father, who left three years ago, can be located. How hard can it be to temporarily take care of two girls? And she did promise Carrie, even though she was drunk at the time. Sophie has a lot to learn about children, and by caring for Bella and Izzy, she discovers what it means to be connected to people rather than focused on her next promotion. British author Coleman creates witty and endearing characters and delivers an exceptional and touching read about loss and love.

91. Whose Voice the Waters Heard

by Robert Vaughan

Rated: 1 Star and 3 Stars depending on what I looked at to rate this book.

The biggest problem that I had with this book is that it doesn't know what kind of book it wants to be. It was part WWII action novel for 13 year old boys, part romantic fantasy for 13 year girls, part ghost story and Evangelical proselytising for members of the Christian right of all ages..

There are however, a couple of good things about this book so in the interest of fairness I would like to point them out. The author did a pretty good job of describing the interior of a WWII submarine and I didn't notice any misspelled words. Now since I have never been aboard a WWII submarine that wasn't encased in concrete I can't be sure that he did a good job of describing it but it all sounded plausible to me and I wanted to give the author a break here. I will also admit that I finished it instead of giving into the urge to wall bang it as I was sorely tempted to do in a couple of parts. That's got to say something, although I am not exactly sure what.


While I have no objections to books that include people of the Christian faith practicing their religion. I do object when an author clearly has a Christian agenda and clumsily tries to beat the reader over the head with it. There were several times when I had to suspend disbelief to the point where it completely obscured any credibility the story might have had otherwise.

And last but not least was the constant name dropping. It was as if the author was trying to establish legitimacy for his characters by throwing dozens of well know and respected personalities from that era into his character's paths and giving them some luster via personal connection. Actually the author did a pretty good job of drawing his characters. He really didn't need to create all that clutter that had nothing to do with the story.

90. By George

By Wesley Stace
Rated: 4 1/2 Stars


"In the illustrious history of the theatrical Fishers, there are two boys named George: one is an eleven-year-old schoolboy, the other a ventriloquist's dummy. With no voice of his own but plenty to say, the dummy tells his life story: his humble beginnings in 1930 as a block of wood and some papier-mache, his fateful rise to vaudeville fame, and the horrible secret he's been made to keep. But the dummy has long since been laid to rest, forgotten and abandoned in the Fishers' dusty attic." "In 1973, his self-possessed bur vulnerable namesake finds himself packed off to boarding school for the first time, far from the bosom of his family - his mother, Frankie, a dynamic actress; his grandma Queenie, children's party entertainer extraordinaire; and his bedridden great-grandmother, still in charge, though an echo of her glorious past. When fate brings the two Georges together, the dummy has been silent too long." "From the author of the international bestseller Misfortune comes an utterly original novel of a flawed but formidable family - its dominant women, its disgruntled men, its decades-old secrets - and of two boys who find that truth is not always best out in the open. Wesley Stace writes of lies and mistakes, of heroism and failure, of knowing when to keep quiet and knowing when to speak, and of our innate and wholly human struggle to find a voice of our very own."--BOOK JACKET.

90. To The Last Salute

The Memoirs of an Austrian U-Boat Captain
Rated 4 Stars

Regardless of whether or not von Trapp tried to make himself look good, I found this book very interesting. I have always been fascinated by submarines this look at early U-Boats was certainly enlightening. I also proves to me that men are just a little bit crazy. I cannot imagine a sane person setting out to sea to conduct warfare in the boats that are described in this book.

I also never imagined that railway cars could have bed bugs in the upholstery. The things you learn when you read!


"Captain von Trapp's narrative of his wartime U-boat exploits has lurked in German and French for generations and now finds an adequate translator into English in one of his granddaughters. He almost certainly always tried to put his best foot forward, and he emerges from his account as a man of great skill, considerable compassion (even for his victims), and sufficient tact and tolerance to handle the kind of polyglot crews that sailed for the Dual Monarchy. In two submarines, the antique U-5 and the French prize, U-14, he became the highest scoring Austro-Hungarian submariner, despite equipment that was sometimes more dangerous to him and his men than to the enemy. He fought on to the end, knowing that the Dual Monarchy he served so well was crumbling. In the end, he gave the last salute of the title when the imperial flag was hauled down for the last time." BOOK JACKET

89. The Choice

By Nicholas Sparks
Rated 2 Stars

This is probably the worse book Sparks has written. The dialogue comes across as forced in spots and the whole concept of the book is a variation of a story he has done to death. How many ways can he kill off his heroines? Below is the blurb from amazon.

Travis Parker has everything a man could want: a good job, loyal friends, even a waterfront home in small-town North Carolina. In full pursuit of the good life--boating, swimming, and regular barbecues with his good-natured buddies--he holds the vague conviction that a serious relationship with a woman would only cramp his style. That is, until Gabby Holland moves in next door. Despite his attempts to be neighborly, the appealing redhead seems to have a chip on her shoulder about him ... and the presence of her longtime boyfriend doesn't help. Despite himself, Travis can't stop trying to ingratiate himself with his new neighbor, and his persistent efforts lead them both to the doorstep of a journey that neither could have foreseen. Spanning the eventful years of young love, marriage and family, The Choice ultimately confronts us with the most heart wrenching question of all: how far would you go to keep the hope of love alive?

88. Harold The King

By Helen Hollick
Rated: 4 1/2 Stars


"In her epic story, retelling the tide of events that led to the Norman Conquest, Helen Hollick shows us the truth. England 1044. The Godwine family is one of the most powerful families in England. As Earl Godwine's six sons start to reach maturity, so they are rewarded with power and influence. Harold Godwine, skilled at both the machinations of court and at fighting, has inherited all his father's diplomatic skills - but none of his lust for battle. In France, William, bastard son of a duke, is brought up at the court, but trained to be a soldier. Attractive and arrogant, he is an exciting leader, inspiring his men to ever greater victories.

Though still precociously young, his fame begins to spread. When events in England take a dramatic and bloody turn, the Godwines are forced into exile. They must fight their way back into favour, and a power struggle ensues, which will eventually make Harold king. But William has already seen the weakness which exists in England ... the Battle of Hastings is the terrible and bloody result.

Following the battle, William's spindoctors justify the atrocities that have taken place and his claim to the throne. They advise him to build Battle Abbey as a penance, and ensure that all information comes from Norman sources. In this masterly and colourful recreation, Helen Hollick weaves together the history of a powerful family of noblemen, with that of the aggressive bastard of Normandy - culminating in the fierce and tragic battle which changed the course of England's history."
Bolton Evening News, 21 Oct 2000.

"This re-telling of the events leading up to the Battle of Hastings in 1066 through the eyes of the men and women involved mixes together historical fact with plenty of personality. Hollick, whose previous novels were about Arthurian Britain, juxtaposes the stories of Harold and William as events conspire to produce the Norman Conquest.

87. King Hereafter

By Dorothy Dunnett
Rated: 5 stars plus

This is another book in my Great 2007 Reread Adventure and probably my favorite book ever. Before I read it English History started for me when William invaded England. I suppose I must have imagined the entire island of Britain lying dormant between the time when the Romans left until William of Normandy arrived. I had no idea it was such a busy place during the so called Dark Ages.


The story of the historical MacBeth this is, in my opinion, the best historical novel ever written.

86. The Canterbury Tales

By Geoffrey Chaucer
Rated 4 Stars

I only read three of the stories included in this book. The Reeve's Tale, The Knight's Tale, and The Wife of Bath.

This is another on of those books I am gong to plug along with. I was really surprised at how bawdy the stories were. I can see why some places banned them.

85. Shadows & Lies

By Marjorie Eccles
Rated: Four Stars

This was a better than average mystery. I have not run across that many books that are based on The Boar War and I learned what the siege of Mafking was all about. For the part of the book that was set there made it a worthwile read alone.

Below is the blurb from the book jacket:


"It is the year 1910 and the bloodstained body of an unknown woman is found on the grounds of Sir Henry Chetwynd's Shropshire estate. A reluctant heir to the estate, Sebastian Chetwynd is already battling with divided loyalties: his ambition for a career of his own and his father's expectation that he follow in his footsteps, and his duty to marry for money when he is in love with Louisa, a student doctor and supporter of women's rights." "Unknown to the Chetwynds, there is Hannah, living in London, who has lost her memory of everything that happened in the dozen years previous to a serious accident. In an attempt to unravel her past, Hannah writes down the story of her life as far as she can remember it. As she reaches out to grasp and piece together the fragments of those missing years, it seems that the ongoing murder investigation in Shropshire could hold the key." "Switching between troubled South Africa in the last years of the nineteenth century and the murder in England ten years later, Marjorie Eccles's delicate narrative reveals the lies and deceptions that have lain beneath the veneer of polite Edwardian society."--BOOK JACKET.

84. Stardust

By Neil Gaiman
Rated 4 Stars

In the 18-century village of Wall dwells young Tristran Thorn, whose parentage is both human and faerie. This is the tale of Tristran's quest for a fallen star, his crossing into a world beyond the wall, and the discovery of his faerie bloodline.

In other words it's a 238 page fairy tale. This is not a YA book but it certainly could be. It has a couple of dark moments but so do all fairy tales. Overall it's a very swet story, wel written with a little sly humor woven in.

83. A Famine of Horses

By P. F. Chislom
Rated 4 Stars

This book is part of my Great 2007 Reread Adventure. I meant to follow up with the next one but got distracted. I will get there eventually. I may have to start calling it the Great 2007/2008 Reread Adventure.

Our hero is Robert Carey, the son of Lord Hundson, Queen Elizabeth's Lord Chamberlain and her first cousin through their mothers', Mary and Ann Boleyn. Hundson is also, however, in this novel, historically he may not have been, the bastard son of Henry VIII. So Robert Carey, new deputy warden, more like sheriff really, of one the two main border keeps, is the grandson of the late great Tudor king himself. Unfortunately, Carey's noble bloodlines and his courtier experience is not going to matter a jot to the rough hewn Scottish and English clans around the border. Their main interests are feuding, cattle and horse "reiving," an old word for rustling, and occasionally killing each other. Carey's brother-in-law, Lord Scrope has just become Warden of the March after the death of his father. Unfortunately for everyone Lord Scrope is not exactly brilliant, even if his wife, Carey's sister, Lady Philadelphia, is plenty smart. Meanwhile, the dead body of Sweetmilk Graham, favorite son of one of the leading clan chiefs, Jock of Peartree, has just been discovered on an old battlefield. Jock thinks he knows who did it and wants to pursue a vendetta against Carey's new local man, Seargent Dodd, while Carey isn't so sure, and would like to introduce the concept of Justice to the lawless frontier. Not that anyone on the lawless frontier cares. Carey is willing to go to great lengths and place himself in the middle of a mysterious anti-royal plot to prove his mettle, solve the mystery of Sweetmilk's murder, bring the murderer to Justice, and incidentally find out why all the horses south of the border have suddenly disappeared. But his love, Lady Elizabeth Widdrington, is the real reason he's turned up in these parts. And she's very concerned about his predilection for adventure, a little bit less concerned about her husband. It's an entertaining story, with fun yet believable characters, and even the hero makes human sometimes stupid and serious mistakes.

82. Eclipse

By Stephanie Meyers
Rated: 4 Stars

I liked this book slightly less than I did the two before but overall this really is the better book.

The author has done a marvelous job of getting into the head of her characters and in the two previous books Bella was the typical self absorbed teenager that it is no wonder she connected not only with her peers but also was believable to those of us who have been through this stage with teenage girls.

In this book Bella starts to grow up a little and starts to consider how her decisions and actions will effect her parents and friends. Edward, who is much older than Bella has a much more mature attitude and tries to make Bella aware of what she is getting herself into. I wish that it hadn't taken a whole book for Bella to begin to notice that her actions will have, to say the very least, extremely long lasting consequences. The baby vampire rampage was a little obvious as a plot device but I guess it was necessary.

The one honest complaint I have is that I really got tired of Jacob and his whining by the end. He knew up front how things stood between Bella and Edward and I thought he should have been a better loser.

77. Tug of War

Rated 4 1/2 Stars


Set in 1926 France, this is Cleverly's sixth Joe Sandilands novel. The Scotland Yard Detective Sandilands is given the assignment to work with the French authorities to try to learn the identity of an amnesiac war veteran who's surfaced in a French hospital speaking English. As the French government would provide a lucrative pension to the soldier's family,
there's no shortage of people who claim him as their relation.

I am a huge fan of Cleverly's books. She really knows how to set the stage and give the reader a sense of physical, emotional and political place. Along with Charles Todd and Anne Perry, she writes about the horror of WWI and its impact on those who fought and lived it. She creates strong, smart, interesting characters, particularly Sandilands and Dorcas, but all her characters have dimension with dialogue that has a natural flow. But the core of it all is a good, solid traditional mystery that kept me turning the pages in the non-stop read. I highly recommend this book and the entire series.

76. Defying Hitler

By Sebastian Haffner
Rated 5 Stars

I cannot possibly improve on this blurb from the book jacket so I won't even try.

THE BLURB: This book was written in 1939, shortly after the author's escape to England. Although Haffner became a distinguished journalist and historian, he never published this book during his lifetime; it was discovered by his son and published after the author's death at the age of 91. Perhaps, like many war veterans, the experiences tangled up with the manuscript were so painful and so personal that the author couldn't bear to revisit them (a chapter was published on the 50th anniversary of an event that it describes).

What Haffner--and his son, who is the assured and elegant translator--have given us is one of the most compelling and insightful descriptions of the period that has been written. It can only be compared to the diary of Otto Klemperer as a revelatory description of how a nation of people, not so different from other nations at the time or indeed of any nation today, could descend into barbarism and criminality on the vast scale of the Third Reich.

From the opening sentence the 1920s and 30s in Germany is evoked: "This is the story of a duel." Specialists will be aware of the importance of actual duelling in middle and upper class German society as late at WWI, and its endurance as a symbol thereafter, and with this characterisation of his personal struggle against the Nazi State, Haffner seductively invites his reader into the authentic atmosphere of the period.

Scholars who have thought deeply about the Nazi period recognise it as the final culminating phase of a second Thirty Year's War that began in 1914; indeed, Haffner's explanation for the Nazi catastrophe is based upon his view that the generation who grew up during WWI, NOT the soldiers but the children who experienced the excitement but not the misery and death, were the key constituency for the Nazis.

Haffner's use of generational analysis is a powerful conceptual tool that is much more understood and accepted these days--Brokaw's "The Greatest Generation", however correct or incorrect it may be, has been a huge best seller--and Haffner in 1939 stumbled upon this type of analysis as he sought to describe how Hitler had come to power.

"Defying Hitler" is also the intense, personal description of the crisis that Haffner and his family and friends underwent during the rise of Hitler, conveyed with the power of a novelist. Haffner succeeds in humanising the Germans he knew and lived among without ever downplaying the horror of the decisions that they made, as he shows that it was all too clear what the consequences of those decisions were likely to be.

This is a unique book and it is highly recommended for both readers who have read almost nothing about the period, as well as readers who are thoroughly familiar with the subject, and yet are still trying to come to terms with how such a terrible catastrophe could occur in a civilised nation.

75. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

By J.K. Rowling
Rated 5 stars+

I drug my feet on reading this because I knew that when I had finished it the series would be over. Throughout this whole series was all about right vs wrong, love and loyalty. How all the religious right people can fail to miss this is a mystery to me. The only excuse I can think of them is that they never bothered to read it.

Of all the many theories I had about going in I was so glad to discover that most of them were right. I am glad that Snape was not a total baddie but I never believed that Dumbledore was really dead until I was forced to accept it.

The deaths that occured were very sad and some of them I never saw comming. Hedwig and Dooby probably hit me the hardest because they were such innocents. The death of Voldemart was kind of anti-climatic I thought. In the end he turned out easier to kill than I expected.

One of the members of my e-mail group pointed out the interesting fact that each Horocrux was destroyed by a different character. That flew right past me when I was reading.

It bothered me that the Malfoy's managed to weasel themselves out of trouble and I thought that Percy seeing the light at the 11th hour + 50 minutes was too little too late for me to forgive him.

I loved Molly Weasley's fight with Bellatrix. It was such fun to see her use her magic wand for something besides clearing the dinner table and my favorite visual was of Professor McGonagall running down a corrider waving her wand in the air shouting charge followed by a clattering herd of desks.

I am so sad that this series has ended. For my part it could have gone on forever.

Foyle's War - Video, Set of Four

Rated ★★★★★

This is the fourth set of this wonderful series. I am completely hooked. I hear by way of the Grapevine that there is going to be a 5th set. That makes me very happy. I am copying the blurb for this program because I just don't think I can do justice to it.

Michael Kitchen triumphs again as detective chief "superintendent Christopher Foyle. He often identifies himself, however, rather more charmingly: "My name is Foyle. I'm a police officer." No badge is shown or papers presented while so introducing himself. Such would be superfluous though as Kitchen's Foyle, in mannerisms, demeanor, as well as the way his carries himself, makes it rather apparent that he is in law enforcement. And to boot, all this takes place in the early days of the 4th decade of the 20th century, "in the beautiful southern English countryside amid the disorder and danger of World War II"(to quote the packaging).

As in all Foyle episodes a murder takes place and Kitchen methodically goes about solving it. He has a sergeant for assistance as well as an actress side-kick (whose most unusual name in real life is Honeysuckle Sweet) who plays an army soldier seconded to drive for Foyle, who is without a license to do so. Like in many detective dramas the who did it is rather less important than the drama getting to that point. Actually, these hour and forty minute long Foyle episodes often go by for me without my giving much serious contemplation toward the solution Foyle seeks. Watching is also very much a period drama, as I've said, giving one a feel for wartime England, the country lanes, the occasional military vehicle and soldier(s), authentic clothes, hats, people on missions greater than themselves passing through the lens. My advice thus is not to overly focus on actively trying to solve these tough-to-crack mysteries to better revel in the actual performances herein.

The episodes:
"Invasion"
March 1942: The US Army Corps of Engineers arrives in Hastings to build an aerodrome and Foyle needs to calm a local farmer whose land has been requisitioned by the government. In this episode we also are treated to a guest appearance by Philip Jackson; aka Chief Inspector Jap from Agatha Cristie's Poirot series, although he's but a pub owner herein. And we also get a major development in the Sam Stewart/Andrew Foyle relationship.


"Bad Blood"
A lone aircraft drops a bomb over farmland. Nearby sheep start dying, then a farmers wife, and Sam falls ill.

"Bleak Midwinter"
December 1942: DCS Foyle investigates the death of Grace Phillips who died in what appears to be an accident in a munitions factory.



"Casualties of War"
March 1943: Foyle receives a visit from his goddaughter, who he has not seen for 10 years, and her young son who is shell shocked from when his school was bombed.

The Great Influenza

by John M. Barry
Rated 5 stars

"In the winter of 1918, the coldest the American Midwest had ever endured, history's most lethal influenza virus was born. Over the next year it flourished, killing as many as 100 million people. It killed more people in twenty-four weeks than AIDS has killed in twenty-four years, more people in a year than the Black Death of the Middle Ages killed in a century. There were many echoes of the Middle Ages in 1918: victims turned blue-black and priests in some of the world's most modern cities drove horse-drawn carts down the streets, calling upon people to bring out their dead." "But 1918 was not the Middle Ages, and the story of this epidemic is not simply one of death, suffering, and terror; it is the story of one war imposed upon the background of another. For the first time in history, science collided with epidemic disease, and great scientists - pioneers who defined modern American medicine - pitted themselves against a pestilence. The politicians and military commanders of World War I, focusing upon a different type of enemy, ignored warnings from these scientists and so fostered conditions that helped the virus kill. The strain of these two wars put society itself under almost unimaginable pressure. Even as scientists began to make progress, the larger society around them began to crack." "Yet ultimately this is a story of triumph amidst tragedy, illuminating human courage as well as science. In particular, this courage led a tenacious investigator directly to one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the twentieth century - a discovery that has spawned many Nobel prizes and even now is shaping our future."--BOOK JACKET.

74. Hood

By Stephen Lawhead
Rated 4 Stars

I just finished Hood by Stephen Lawhead a few minutes ago. I stayed up late last night and then picked it back up this morning and read to the end. (hooray for being retired and able to indulge in this kind of behavior )

I highly recommend this book (THANKS Beth) but I need to put in a couple of caveats. First one is that I found it hard to get into. That this is the traditional Robin Hood tale, reset in an earlier time, in wales with all of the characters much the same but different was distracting to me. Also, as I get older my mind doesn't seem to be as elastic as it used to be and some characters from books I have previously read remain fondly in my mind. Faulke Fitzwilliam from Lords of the White Castle is one of them. That one of the villains in this book was named Count Falkes de Braose. Also since LOTWC was set in roughly in the same place as this book only in a later time it took a while for me to adjust.


But these are all my own personal problems and have little to do with the story. It's a very good book. In fact, and here I go again, between pages 404 and 418 such brilliantly written mayhem occurred that the thought briefly crossed my mind that Francis Crawford must have wandered into the story for a short visit to stir things up.

The next book in this series is not over here but is coming out next month in the UK. Rats! This means I have a long wait before the next book or I will have to bite the bullet and order it with my devalued dollar from amazon/uk.

Jeanette

80. Starburst

by Robin Pilcher
Rated 3 stars

I keep hoping that Robin Pilcher will finally write a book that is just HALF as good as his Mother's. Sadly that doesn't seem to be happening. I had sworn off him but then he wrote this one about the Edinburgh Festival and I couldn't resist.


From the Book Jacket: It's Edinburgh in August. A group of people, drawn to the city for the forthcoming Festival, meet for the first time, little knowing that the events of this long hot summer , and the arrival of Angelique Pascal, a talented and beautiful violinist, will throw their lives into turmoil. Angelique Pascal is in Edinburgh to headline at the Festival's finale and her fiery spirit is already making waves. Tired of being controlled by her overbearing tutor, Albert, Angelique finds herself yearning for a moment's respite from both the constant touring and the restrictions of her celebrity status. But when events take a sinister turn and Angelique must flee in terror from all that she has known, she finds safety in the most unexpected place.

This all sounds good in the blurb but to me he had way to many characters and each one had their own story so he was bouncing around between POV's so much that it all got confusing and he didn't do justice to any of them. Had he had only used half of them it would have been helpful. Also some of the things they did were just plain stupid. Real peope wouldn't have done or said those things. All in all it was a typical Robin Pilcher book. Not very good.

79. Your Not You

By Michelle Wildgen
Rated 1 1/2 Star

From the book jacket:

"College student Bec is dangerously adrift. Self-conscious and increasingly uncertain about her long-term plans, she's studying a major that no longer interests her and is caught up in a bewildering affair with a married professor. In an impulsive attempt to redeem herself, she answers a want ad seeking a caregiver." "What she finds is a wealthy, cultivated woman in her midthirties. Once an advertising executive, accomplished chef, and skilled decorator, Kate is now in the advanced stages of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). She and her husband, Evan, handle their situation with mordant humor, careful planning, and a lot of determination. Yet while Bec perceives the couple as charmingly frank and good-humored, strains exist beneath the surface." "Bec is soon a vital part of her employer's household, and their increasing closeness transforms both women's lives and their relationships. The more she acts on Kate's behalf, the further Bec strays from her stringent comfort zone. She performs every task, from the most administrative to the most intimate, and she translates Kate's speech for strangers, friends, and even family. Sometimes enthusiastically, sometimes reluctantly, Bec advances further and further into Kate's world, surprised by her own increasing dedication and ease. But how closely can Bec intertwine her own life with Kate's?" "The two confront their obstacles unsentimentally, with dark humor and unflinching candor, as their relationship is slowly stripped of pretense. Honesty becomes their touchstone: They may find humor in the most devastating moments, but they won't pretend to believe in silver linings that don't exist. With crystal clarity, debut author Michelle Wildgen has crafted a deeply affecting novel about the singular relationship between two women, balancing humor and regret, sensuality and necessity, and testing the outer limits of friendship

81. Privilege and Scandal

By Janet Gleeson
Rated 4 Stars

It is an account of the life of Harriet Spencer, Sister of the more well known Georgiana, Dutchess of Devonshire. I have been reading on this book for a while as I had to take a break in the middle of it because her life is such a train wreck and I was getting very annoyed by her consistent self destructive behavior. But it is very well written and contains a wealth of details about the Regency era that Georgette Heyer never mentions

Below is a better description of the book that I copied from Amazon. I think what blew me totally away and was the reason I had to put the book down and take a little rest was when Gleeson wrote that at one point Georgiana had run up 100,000 pounds in gambling debts and that in today's money it would be 6 MILLION pounds or converted to US dollars roughly 12 MILLION dollars! I found that beyond shocking. And guess what, it didn't stop her, or Harriet who was almost as bad. Me, I get in a snit if I lose $10 on the nickel slots.

"The first biography of Lady Harriet Spencer, ancestor of Diana, Princess of Wales, and devoted sister of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. Harriet Spencer was one of the most glamorous, influential, and notorious aristocrats of the Regency period. Intelligent, attractive, and eager to please, at nineteen she married an aloof, distant relative; the only trait they shared was an unhealthy love of gambling. Harriet began a series of illicit dalliances, including one with the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan. Then she met Lord Granville Leveson Gower, handsome and twelve years her junior. Their years-long affair resulted in the birth of two children, and concealing both pregnancies from her husband required great skill. Harriet was an eyewitness to the French Revolution; traveled through war-torn Europe during the time of Napoleon; quarreled with Byron when he pursued her daughter; and became one of the leading female political activists of her day.--From publisher description."

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Movie

★★★★★

This was the best film since the first one. The story basically involves Harry being persecuted by the government for telling the truth. There are some chilling comparisons between what happens in the movie and what is happening today with the current regime that is in power in this country. I was puzzled that I didn't pick up any of this when I read the book but when I got home I checked the copyright date and it was 2003. This means that either Rowlings is a prophet or that repressive tin pot dictators are pretty much all the same. No originality there at all.

But getting back to the movie, it is impossible to squeeze a 900 page book into a 2 1/2 hour movie without loosing a lot of the story. However the essential parts were there. I thought that the acting was the best ever and I loved/hated Imelda Staunton as Delores Umbridge and Helena Bonham Carter the demented Bellatrix LaStrange was excellent. I was surprised to see that Neville had grown so much. He must have shot up at least 4 or 5 inches since the last movie. Loved the battle scenes.

73. Zombies of the Gene Pool

By Sharon McCrumb
Rated ★★★

Engineering professor and famed science fiction author Jay Omega and his significant other, Marion Farley, a professor of SF, investigate the murder of another science fiction writer.

In the 1950's, a group of science fiction fans decided to drive to WorldCon to meet their writer idols (and basically to have a big blast). They didn't make it to WorldCon, but they did make it to Wall Hollow, Tennessee, where all the members each wrote a story and buried it in a time capsule.

30 years later, several of the members of the group have hit it big as SF writers. Their reunion at Wall Hollow becomes a huge media event, with publishers bidding on the rights to the stories buried in the time capsule. But just before the reunion starts, someone is murdered.

72. The Ride of our Lives

By Mike Leonard
4 stars

Copied from Review:

"Today" correspondent Mike Leonard decided to take a month off to accompany his aging parents on a journey to the places of their youth, along with a number of American landmarks. He tells the story of their RV trek with good humor, recalling their fascination with the roadside landscape, as he reveals how his parents, always blunt and unique, deal with the indignities of age and memories of the past. Although there are tense moments as the family awaits news of a new addition to the family, his tone is usually comic. Leonard's ride won't necessarily teach you anything about family relationships, but it's an entertaining yarn you'll enjoy on your own road trips.

My Comments: I personally thought the DVD was much more intresting than the book. But then filming stories is what Mike Leonard DOES so it is no wonder that it's better. But I am glad I really enjoyed going along on their trip with them.

71. Touching Stars

By Emile Richards
Rated ★★★★½

From Publishers Weekly:

The setup of Richards's 50-somethingth book is wince-inducing: Gayle Fortman's ex-husband, hot-shot TV journalist Eric, has had a nasty run-in with the Taliban; at Gayle's invitation, he returns to the Shenandoah Valley, Va., B&B they bought together to convalesce. Eric, who is in a relationship with L.A.-based fellow journo Ariel Kensington, knows little about the three sons he left behind 12 years ago: 13-year-old Dillon, 16-year-old Noah and 18-year-old Jared. Over 500-plus pages, each boy confronts his father in his own way, while Gayle harbors hopes that Eric will stay. Sidelines include Jared's relationship with hot-to-trot Brandy Wilburn (which may jeopardize his chances at an MIT scholarship), and a neighbor, Travis Allen, waiting in the wings for Gayle. Romance Writers of America award–winner Richards gets the emotions right and writes credible dialogue when the adults speak to children. The result is a fine, light family melodrama. (July)

Don Juan DeMarco - Movie

Rated: ★★★★★+

Shaun who is a major Johnny Depp Fan ordered this movie from amazon. I had never seen it before. It's soo cute.

It's a quirky romantic comedy about a mental patient played by Johnny Depp who claims to be Don Juan, the world's greatest lover, and he gets quite a few women to believe it's true. Marlon Brando plays the psychiatrist who tries to analyze his patient's apparent delusion, and Faye Dunaway plays Brando's wife, who wants to inject some Don Juan-ish romance into their marital routine. Walking a fine line between precious comedy, wistful drama, and delicate fantasy, the movie gets a big dose of charm from its esteemed cast, with Depp delivering dialogue that would have sounded ludicrous from a lesser actor.

If you haven't seen this movie and you need a periodic Johnny Depp fix then you certainly need to see this movie.