57. Brideshead Revisited

by Evelyn Waugh
Rated 4 1/2 Stars

This story has been made into a movie that is just out or soon to be out so I thought I ought to read it before I decided whether or not to stir myself to go see it. I think I will pass on the movie. The theme is too cynical for me to consider it to be entertainment. However the book is beautifully written and I love the way Waugh puts the reader right into the story. That is why I gave it a high rating.

FROM AMAZON: Evelyn Waugh’s most celebrated novel is a memory drama of extraordinary richness and depth. The novel Waugh thought of as his magnum opus, it is the story of the intense entanglement of a young, middle-class Englishman, Charles Ryder, with a wealthy, eccentric Anglo-Catholic family, the Marchmains: in particular, with Sebastian, the flamboyant young man Charles meets at Oxford in the 1920s; and Sebastian’s sister Julia, who will become the great and unrequited love of Charles’s life.

Written during World War II, the novel mourns the passing of the world of Waugh’s own youth, but it is also a story about religious and secular love, about the notions of sin and judgment, guilt and punishment and how, almost unaccountably, they can give shape to one’s life. By turns romantic, sensuous, comic, and somber, Brideshead Revisited transcends Waugh’s familiar satiric exploration of English society and mores, revealing an elegiac, lyrical writer of the most lucid and profound feeling.

56. In The Bleak Midwinter

by Julia Spencer Fleming
Rated 4 Stars

For me the main appeal of this book was that it established the characters and set the scene for the latter books which I enjoyed more.

BOOK COVER: Spencer-Fleming's award winner for Best First Novel is now available in this special value edition. When a newborn is abandoned and a young mother is brutally murdered, Clare Fergusson, the new Episcopal priest in Millers Kill, New York, must pick her way through the town's secrets. Reissue.

55. The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder

By Vincent Bugliosi
Rated 5+ Stars

BOOK JACKET" In The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, Bugliosi presents a tight, meticulously researched legal case that puts George W. Bush on trial in an American courtroom for the murder of nearly 4,000 American soldiers fighting the war in Iraq. Bugliosi sets forth the legal architecture and incontrovertible evidence that President Bush took this nation to war in Iraq under false pretenses - a war that has not only caused the deaths of American soldiers but also over 100,000 innocent Iraqi men, women, and children; cost the United States over one trillion dollars thus far with no end in sight; and alienated many American allies in the Western world."

54. Service included

By Phoebe Damrosch
Rated 4

This was a quick little read that I skimmed through parts of. It was mildly entertaining. It would probably appeal more to someone who had worked in the food service industry.

"While Phoebe Damrosch was figuring out what to do with her life, she supported herself by working as a waiter. Before long she was a captain at the New York City four-star restaurant Per Se, the culinary creation of master chef Thomas Keller." "Service Included is the story of her experiences there: her obsession with food, her love affair with a sommelier, and her observations of the highly competitive and frenetic world of fine dining."--BOOK JACKET.

53. The Blackstone Key

Rated 4 Stars
From: Jani

It is 1795, and Mary Finch sets off to meet her wealthy uncle, hoping to heal a bitter family estrangement and perhaps to avoid a dismal career teaching at Mrs. Bunbury's school for young ladies. Eager for an adventure, she is soon embroiled in one of frightening proportions, for war is raging across Europe, England faces the threat of invasion, and some secrets are more valuable than gold.

As she uncovers a complex and deadly plot involving ruthless smugglers, secret codes, and a dangerous network of spies and traitors, Mary must learn quickly whom she can trust. The apparently stalwart Captain Holland? The dangerous yet attractive Mr. Déprez? Perhaps the mysterious Hicks or even Mrs. Tipton, who knows what is best for everyone, especially Mary? The price of failure may be her life and the safety of all England.

52. A Fountain Filled with Blood

By Julia Spencer Fleming
Rated 4 Stars
From: Library

A series of gay bashings, the discovery of PCBs in a local elementary school playground and a brutal murder heat up the Adirondacks town of Millers Kill, N.Y., hotter than the July weather. Clare, rector of St. Alban's Episcopal Church, and the very much married police chief Russ Van Alstyne, who have spent the last six months avoiding each other in hopes of dispelling their mutual attraction, find themselves working together on a perilous murder investigation. With eloquent exposition and natural dialogue, the precisely constructed plot moves effortlessly to its dramatic conclusion. The poignant reflections of Clare and Russ as they examine their own hearts and struggle with their feelings never detract from the crime solving. Amid a host of memorable characters, Clare stands out, whether daring to drive a sports car instead of a safer four-wheel-drive vehicle or donning her vestments to perform the evening service of Compline in an empty church lit with candles.

51. What happened : inside the Bush White House and Washington's culture of deception

By Scott McClellen
Rated: Disgusting
From Library

Or, how about - When Thieves Fall out, or more accurately - "How I hope to save myself from going to jail like the rest of these crooks."

"The former White House press secretary examines how and why the Bush administration went awry, providing a look at George W. Bush and his top aides in terms of such crises as Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq war, and Washington's political infighting"

50. All Mortal Flesh

By Julia Spencer Fleming
Rated 5 Stars
From Library

"Police Chief Russ Van Alstyne's first encounter with Clare Fergusson was in the hospital emergency room on a freezing December night. A newborn infant had been abandoned on the town's Episcopal church steps. If Russ had known that the church had a new priest, he certainly would never have guessed that it would be a woman. Or at least not a woman like Clare. That night in the hospital was the beginning of an attraction so fierce, so forbidden, that the only thing that could keep them safe from compromising their every belief was distance - but in a small town like Millers Kill, distance is hard to find." "Russ Van Alstyne figures his wife kicking him out of their house is nobody's business but his own. Until a neighbor pays a friendly visit to Linda Van Alstyne and finds the woman's body, gruesomely butchered, on the kitchen floor. To the state police, it's an open-and-shut case of a disaffected husband, silencing first his wife, then the murder investigation he controls. To the townspeople, it's proof that the whispered gossip about the police chief and the priest was true. To the powers-that-be in the church hierarchy, it's a chance to control their wayward cleric once and for all."--BOOK JACKET.

49. Sway - The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior

By Ori and Rom Brafman
Rated 4 1/2 Stars

I heard these two guys interviewed on my crazy late night radio program and they were so interesting I checked the book out from the library. It is a very well written and reader friendly book about why we do what we do, and see the things we expect to see and how expectation bias changes the way we see people. Very interesting.


FROM PUBLISHERS DESCRIPTION:

A journey into the hidden psychological influences that derail our decision-making. Why is it so difficult to end a doomed relationship? Why do we listen to advice just because it came from someone "important"? Why are we more likely to fall in love when there's danger involved? Here, organizational thinker Ori Brafman and his brother, psychologist Rom Brafman, answer these questions and more. Drawing on research from the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior, Sway reveals forces that influence every aspect of our personal and business lives, including loss aversion, the diagnosis bias, and the "chameleon effect." The Brafmans not only uncover rational explanations for a wide variety of irrational behaviors, but also point readers toward ways to avoid succumbing to their pull.--From publisher