43. A Singular Hostage

By Thalassa Ali
Rated: ★½ & ★★★★★


First let me start with why I added on the five stars to the above rating. As a straight historical novel about India and Afghanistan chronicalling the events that led up to the First Afghan War (1839-1842) this is a marvelous book. The author's descriptions of Islamic culture with wonderful and skillfully drawn secondary characters is at times breathtaking. Ali hits the perfect notes to bring you all the rich sights, sounds and smells of the Punjab of the 1830's. At a time when the West is struggling for an accurate understanding of Muslims, wondering, "What do they really think, anyway? And how do they really feel?," this novel, set far away and long ago, is absolutely brilliant.

Now, here is what I disliked about this book. Never have I read a novel that cried out for a co-author as much as this one did. The main story, the one about the young English woman, who arrives straight from the English countryside where she was raised as the daughter of a clergyman strains my credibility to the breaking point. She arrives in India and instantly loves it and everyone in it. She is headstrong to the point of idiocy and lurches from one social disaster to another without ever catching on that she is stupid. She attracts the love of a young British artillery officer which taking into account the constraints of Victorian society with a little effort I could have swallowed . But her marriage to an Indian bureaucrat of good family was arranged on the flimsiest of reasons and then afterward he apparently falls in love with her. But what attracts him to her was beyond my ability to imagine.

Had this author teamed up with someone who could write a decent plot and then added her fabulous descriptions of India and the events surrounding Mariana this book could have rivaled M.M. Kaye's The Far Pavilions. Sadly it falls far short.

42. Companions of Paradise

By Thalassa Ali
Rated: ★★★★

This is a book that Jani passed along to me and because I am basically an unorganized person it hasn't bothered me one bit that I read this last book of a trilogy before I read the first two. This final volume of Ali's colonial India trilogy is supposed to follow A Singular Hostage and A Beggar at the Gate but is just fine as a stand-a-lone.

The story takes place in Kabul, Afghanistan, where Mariana Givens and her fellow Brits are living in a military camp. Tensions between the Afghanis and the British are on the rise, but the British feel that their military might and modern weaponry are enough to crush the Afghan rebels. Mariana's marriage to Hassan Ali Khan (see A Singular Hostage) makes her an outcast, since Englishwomen aren't expected to interact with the "natives."

The story is ostensibly about a woman torn between two cultures but what really made this book resonate with me was as a description of the role of the British in Afghanistan along with all their faults and blunders. Also there are some really good descriptions of Indian and Afghan characters and the local Afghanistan city of Kabul with it's colorful marketplaces. Where things sort of came apart for me was that Mariana was on one hand extrairordinarily stupid in her relationships and then some kind of a language whiz in which she can learn languages well enough to understand and translate complex poetry. I guess people can be very smart with books and dumb with people but I found it annoying because had the love story been better written this would be a truly great trilogy. Overall I suspect that Mariana exists simply for the author to tell her story of the Afghan War. In that respect this book is beautifully written. This author does history very well. It's a shame she doesn't do relationships as well.

I have the other two books on the reserve list at the library. But one again I have to say a special thanks to Jani. I doubt that I would have been aware of these books had it not been for her.

41. Slaughterhouse Five

by Kurt Vonnegut
Rated: ★★★★

This book is part of my Great 2007 Reread Adventure and is probably the one in which the passage of time is the most noticable to me in the way the story effects me. I first read this back in the early 1960's and I was really such a silly young girl back then with very little idea of what went on in the world around me. If I had a political opinion back then I sure can't remember it. I hadn't even seen my first MASH rerun yet. Since then the US has been involved in several nasty and disasterous wars and I definately have some opinions now.

Billy Pilgram has come unstuck in time. Vonnegut tells the story of Billy Pilgram, a POW in WWII, based on his own experience as the same. He approches this popular, and sometimes over writen topic with a refreshing, and most human manor. Vonnegut uses emotion rather than plain fact and humor rather than contempt. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the topic of WWII, but not only that, for anyone interested in excellent literature.

This edition also includes an essay by Vonnegut himself discribing his own need to write this book and why he choose to write it in the way he has.

40. Shoulder the Sky

By Anne Perry
Rated:★★★★

This is the second book in Perry's WWI series. Like the first it is a gripping story, beautiful written but it's also Grim. Very Grim. Several times I had to put the book down and back away from it for a while because it was so intense. For those who are avid readers of this period in history I cannot recommend this series highly enough. But it's not easy reading.

In the trenches of Flanders, the Reverend Joseph Reavley goes about the task of trying to keep up the morale of the British soldiers, extending his duties to assisting in bringing men back from the barbed-wired and mud-mired "no man's land." When he retrieves the body of an egotistical correspondent, Eldon Prentice, every person who knew him confesses to being glad he was killed. However, it wasn't the Germans who murdered him, but one of their own, and Reavley decides to investigate. Perry's eye for historical detail masterfully places the main characters in settings exactingly correct for the era, whether London, the trenches, or the English countryside.

39. No Graves As Yet

by Anne Perry
Rated ★★★★½


This book is one of the best mysteries I have ever read. I never saw the conclusion to the book coming. Excellent writing. My only complaint is that It's very somber and sometimes borders on melodramatic. All the characters take themselves so seriously that in spite of a really good story and skillful writing it's a little hard going. I have been around a lot of Brits and I have never met one who was as totally devoid of a sense of humor or wit as these characters seem to be. Admittedly the subject is serious but it's been my experience with the British people that I know is that when the going gets tough they can always come up with some kind of crack that relieves the tension somewhat. So far, these characters don't seem to be able to do that. So for that reason I am taking away 1/2 star from otherwise would be a five star rating.

There are three more books in this series and I intend to read them all in the very near future. I think that all four put together would be no more than some of the hefty blockbusters I have been reading lately.

Here is the blurb from inside the book jacket: "On a sunny afternoon in late June, Cambridge professor Joseph Reavley is summoned from a student cricket match to learn that his parents have died in an automobile crash. Joseph's brother, Matthew, as officer in the Intelligence Service, reveals that their father had been en route to London to turn over to him a mysterious secret document - allegedly with the power to disgrace England forever and destroy the civilized world. A paper so damning that Joseph and Matthew dared mention it only to their restless younger sister. Now it has vanished." "What has happened to this explosive document, if indeed it ever existed? How had it fallen into the hands of their father, a quiet countryman? Not even Matthew, with his Intelligence connections, can answer these questions. And Joseph is soon burdened with a second tragedy: the shocking murder of his most gifted student, handsome Sebastian Allard, loved and admired by everyone. Or so it appeared." "Meanwhile, England's seamless peace is cracking - as the distance between the murder of an Austrian archduke by a Serbian anarchist and the death of a brilliant university student by a bullet to the head becomes shorter with each day."--BOOK JACKET.

38. The Bee's Kiss

By Barbara Cleverly
Rated:★★★★

I really like this author. This is the fifth book in her Joe Sandilands mysteries. In 1926, Scotland Yard Commander Joe Sandilands has come home to England after working cases in India over the last few years (see first book in this series "The Last Kashmiri Rose)

Although the locale changes, the scene does not as Joe is assigned to a homicide investigation. Someone brutally battered renowned Dame Beatrice Joliffe in her hotel suite at the London Ritz.The victim was acclaimed for her efforts in WWI to establish the Women's Royal Naval Service as a Wren. Joe is assisted by an old Army buddy Sergeant Armitage and Constable Tilly Westhorpe.

This is an excellent whodunit enhanced by a terrific look at the London dudring the Roaring Twenties Joe's change of milieu provides freshness to this great series as he and his team investigate a case that twists with every clue.

Catching Genius

By Kristy Kiernan
Rated DNF

Below is the blurb from the book jacket. I did not finish this book because I didn't like the characters well enough to spend time with them. Estella was OK, Connie was a major whiner and describing her with the "B" word worked for me.

"As children, the Sykes sisters - Connie and Estella - were unassuming, precocious, and very close, until one sister was discovered to be a math prodigy. Estella, pushed to focus on her gift, fell into their father's favor, leaving Connie to grow up in her shadow. Connie, the "normal" little sister, became defined by her beauty rather than her intellect. Now, years later, at the request of their mother, the sisters are forced to reunite on the Gulf Coast of Florida as they pack up their childhood home and ready it for sale. The reunion comes at a time of crisis, in which both Connie and Estella must come to terms with painful revelations and devastating consequences. And once again, her sister's genius may alter Connie's life in ways she cannot control."--BOOK JACKET.

37. The Thorn Birds

By Colleen McCullough
Rated ★★★★★

This book is part of my Great 2007 Reading Adventure. The first time I read this book I was so engrossed in the story that all the rich details about the Australian Outback just sort of whizzed right by me. This time since I already know where the story is heading I have been sitting back, having a leisurely read and watching the scenery as it goes by.

The book is about the Cleary family, who are struggling to make a living in New Zealand until a rich sister sends for the family to livie on Drogeda, a large sheep ranch in Australia and tells the story of the struggles of the Cleary family, as they battle with, and come to love, the outback country of Australia.

I have been thinking as I am merrily reading along that the Australian Outback during this period of time is sort of like our Wild West at the same period only on steroids. While they didn't have a hostile native population to deal with it seems to me that what these people were doing was comparable to trying make a living raising sheep in the middle of the Mojave desert. I really know very little about Australia, or about the Australians. That's a shame because I suspect there is much to admire about them and their history.

36. Good Things

by Mia King
Rated: ★★½


I put off making this journal entry for about a week and then when I went back even after reading the following blurb I couldn't remember what it was about. I guess I can only say that the book is pretty forgettable. I do recall thinking it was kind of OK though so I will give it a couple of stars.

"In one fell swoop, Seattle's answer to Martha Stewart, Deidre McIntosh, is sent into a tailspin. Her popular show is cancelled and she loses her gay roommate and confidante, William. To top off her bad luck, she has to move because her name isn't on the lease. Amid this chaos appears the hunk of her dreams, Kevin Johnson. After a one-night stand, he offers Deidre the use of his country retreat, which she reluctantly decides to use. As she stays in Kevin's rustic cabin far from her life in the city, Deidre tries to figure out what really matters to her, and how to recapture the experience of helping people that she'd achieved on her show. She would also like to capture Kevin. The bucolic setting and King's interesting characters create a fresh and thoroughly enjoyable story as enticing as the delectable recipes at the end of the book."

35. My Antonia

By; Willa Sibert Cather
Rated ★★★★★

I may be the only person my age on the planet who has not read this book before. For someone who loves coming of age stories and who read all of Laura Ingalls Wilder's book so many times that at some point I probably had them memorized I am amazed that some how I managed to miss this one. Oh well, better late than never I always say.

This is a story of two children of very different backgrounds and situations who arrived in Nebraska at the same time just as the prairie there was just being opened up to farming. The narrator is Jim Burden, an orphan who travels from Virginia to live with his kindly Grandfather and Grandmother. The other child is his friend and neighbor Antonia Shimerda, a four-years-older young woman who is the daughter of Bohemian immigrants who know next to nothing about farming.

Between them, they experience most of the range of farming frontier experiences in the early 19th century. Jim enjoys the happier, more successful side while Antonia finds herself faced with tragedies and setbacks. Yet there friendship becomes firm and is a central foundation of both lives.

During the story, you start on the farm, go into the town and finally end with both of them on the farm again . . . completing the natural cycle of planting and harvesting. The entire book rang very true to me and it is probably an accurate description of what it was like to live in a small town or the prairie in Nebraska at that time.

34. The Breaking Wave

Neville Shute
Rated ★★★★

I'm not exactly sure how I ended up reading this book but it's been a real treat. The book kind of sneaks up on you and you slowly find yourself caught up in the emotions of the characters, all of whose lives have been forever shaped and scarred by their experiences in WWII.

It begins with a mystery- the suicide of a parlourmaid at an Australian sheep station that turns out to have profound implications for everyone involved in her life. A deeply moving and haunting novel, Mr. Shute deftly shows us how "Like some infernal monster, still venemous in death, a war can go on killing people for a long time after it's all over."