44. The Private Patient

BY:  P. D. James
Rated 4.5 Stars
From:  Library

I almost gave up on this book after just a few pages because Ms. James is one of those authors who describe everything in minute detail when setting a scene.  I usually find that tiresome.  But in the interest of giving the book a fair try I decided to hang in there until page 50 at least and was very glad that I did.  It turned out to be a gripping page turner and I highly recommend it to fans of good mystery stories.

LIBRARY SUMMARY:  Cheverell Manor is a lovely old house in deepest Dorset, now a private clinic belonging to the famous plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell. When investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn arrived there one late autumn afternoon, scheduled to have a disfiguring and long-standing facial scar removed, she had every expectation of a successful operation and a pleasant week recuperating. Two days later she was dead, the victim of murder. To Commander Adam Dalgliesh, who with his team is called in to investigate the case, the mystery at first seems absolute. Few things about it make sense. Yet as the detectives begin probing the lives and backgrounds of those connected with the dead woman—the surgeon, members of the manor staff, close acquaintances—suspects multiply all too rapidly. New confusions arise, including strange historical overtones of madness and a lynching 350 years in the past. Then there is a second murder, and Dalgliesh finds himself confronted by issues even more challenging than innocence or guilt. P. D. James has gained an enviable reputation for creating detective stories of uncommon depth and intricacy, combined with the sort of humanity and perceptiveness found only in the finest novelists.The Private Patientranks among her very best.

43. Absolute Truths

By Susan Howatch
Rated 5+ Stars
From:  My keeper shelves

I have decided to do a leisurly re-read of Susan Howatch's Starbridge series.  Since this is a re-read I have decided, for no particular reason, to start with the last book and to read my way through the series backwards. 

These books have always had a special place in my heart which is very odd since I generally do not read Christian books.  But unlike most "Christain" literature being regurgitated churned out  today  these books are so well written and the characters are so honest and human that these characters have stayed clearly in my mind ever since I first read them.  I made sure that I visited Salisbury Cathedral when I was in the UK and had a fine time wandering around picturing scenes from them.

FROM AMAZON:  This final novel in a double trilogy about the Church of England in the 1930s and the 1960s is a splendid conclusion to the series (begun with Glittering Images, LJ 6/1/87) and a powerful combination of psychological insight, theological depth, and storytelling ability. Howatch simultaneously provides her reader with both marvelous entertainment and genuine insight into the human condition. The narrator for this volume is Charles Ashworth, now Bishop of Starbridge, who staunchly, even self-righteously, defends traditional values. This continues until crisis-and his wife's journal-reveal to him the "shadow" side of his own life and its effect on his two sons; his dean, Stephen Aysgarth; other clergy; several women; and himself. The end is phoenix-like, as characters rise from their own ashes, yet never unrealistic.

42. Tuck

By Stephen Lawhead
Rated 5 Star
From Library

My library dithered around what seemed like forever before they finally got this book in.  I loved it.  It was a thrilling and satisfying ending to the King Raven Trilogy.  As people say today, Stephen Lawhead rocks.

FROM LIBRARY SUMMARY:  "Pray God our aim is true and each arrow finds its mark."King Raven has brought hope to the oppressed people of Wales--and fear to their Norman overlords. Along the way Friar Tuck has been the stalwart supporter of King Raven--bringing him much-needed guidance, wit, and faithful companionship.Deceived by the self-serving King William and hunted by the treacherous Abbot Hugo and Sheriff de Glanville, Rhi Bran is forced to take matters into his own hands as King Raven. Aided by Tuck and his small but determined band of forest-dwelling outlaws, he ignites a rebellion that spreads through the Welsh valleys, forcing the wily monarch to marshal his army and march against little Elfael.Filled with unforgettable characters, breathtaking suspense, and rousing battle scenes, Stephen R. Lawhead's masterful retelling of the Robin Hood legend reaches its stunning conclusion in Tuck. Steeped in Celtic mythology and the political intrigue of medieval Britain, Lawhead's trilogy conjures up an ancient past while holding a mirror to contemporary realities. Prepare for an epic tale that dares to shatter everything you thought you knew about Robin Hood.

41. Flotsametrics and the Floating World

By:  Curtis Ebbesmeyer
Rated 5 Stars
From Library

This was a very interesting book.  I heard an interview with Curtis Ebbesmeyer on my late night crazy program last Saturday (the guy who does Saturday night is not a whoo-whoo as the weeknight guy) and requested the book from the library.  It's amazing what is floating around in our oceans and what washes up on our beaches. 

LIBRARY SUMMARY:  Pioneering oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer unravels the mystery of marine currents, uncovers the astonishing story of flotsam, and changes the world's view of trash, the ocean, and our global environment.Curtis Ebbesmeyer is no ordinary scientist. He's been a consulting oceanographer for multinational firms and a lead scientist on international research expeditions, but he's never held a conventional academic appointment. He seized the world's imagination as no other scientist could when he and his worldwide network of beachcomber volunteers traced the ocean's currents using thousands of sneakers and plastic bath toys spilled from storm-tossed freighters.Now, for the first time, Ebbesmeyer tells the story of his lifelong struggle to solve the sea's mysteries while sharing his most surprising discoveries. He recounts how flotsam has changed the course of history-leading Viking mariners to safe harbors, Columbus to the New World, and Japan to open up to the West-and how it may even have made the origin of life possible. He chases icebergs and floating islands; investigates ocean mysteries from ghost ships to a spate of washed-up severed feet on Canadian beaches; and explores the enormous floating "garbage patches" and waste-heaped "junk beaches" that collect the flotsam and jetsam of industrial society. Finally, Ebbesmeyer reveals the rhythmic and harmonic order in the vast oceanic currents called gyres-"the heartbeat of the world "-and the threats that global warming and disintegrating plastic waste pose to the seas . . . and to us.

40. Palace Circle

 

By Rebecca Dean

Rated:  3.75

From:  Library

 This book was just a tad light on the history part for my taste.  Better she had set this book in another era than to skip so lightly over the events in this book.  Characters in this place and time would have been effected more profoundly than the ones in this novel were.  While it was a pretty good story I found myself becoming irritated by the shallowness of the writing.  Just me probably. *shrug*

LIBRARY SUMMARY:  Palace intrigue, romance, and illicit affairs—Rebecca Dean has written a glorious novel that will sweep Philippa Gregory fans off their feet. Delia Chandler, an eighteen-year-old Southern girl, marries Viscount Ivor Conisborough just before World War II, becoming part of the Windsor court. It’s every girl’s dream come true. But Delia is jolted from her pleasant life when she realizes, after the birth of her two daughters, that Ivor chose her only to bear an heir to his estate. Shortly thereafter, she begins an affair with her husband’s handsome, titled, and frequently scandalous best friend. When Conisborough is appointed as an adviser to King Fuad of Egypt, Delia exchanges one palace circle for another, far different one. While she sees Egypt as a place of exile, her two daughters regard Egypt as their home. Only when war comes to Cairo—and Delia finally reveals the secret she has kept for so long—can she begin to heal the divisions separating her from those she loves.

Prince Valiant, DVD

Rated 5 Stars
Purchased from Amazon.


I noticed that several people I know were participating in an Authurian challange.  But I am a much bigger Prince Valiant fan than I am King Authur so I went looking on amazon to see what was available.

There was a  surprisingly affordable set of DVD (season 1) so I jumped right on it.  I loved it for several different reasons.

1.  It remains true to the original Prince Valliant that I knew and loved.  I never saw this TV series, I only remember him from the comic section of the newspaper and from comic books.  But thank goodness whoever produced this resisted the temptation to "improve" it beyond all recognition.

2)  The writing is dated, and that is exactly what I like about it.  Also the art work is as good, staying very true to what was published originally.  The animation is a little mediocre, due to the cost cutting the studios have done in the animation field but cutting down on the number of frames and producing slightly jerks results.  But still, for 5 DVD's at a total price of $7 I hardly think I have much of a complaint.

3)  The episones all have good plots andt are well written for a story line that has been around since 1937!

I was not a reader in the early days of the comic strip, but by the mid 1940's I certainly was.  This is what started me down the road of Historical/Fantasy/Romance.  And I have been happily traveling that road now for about 60 years.

39. Still Life

By Joy Fielding
Rated 4 Stars
From:  Library

A riveting tale of suspense about a young woman caught in a nightmare somewhere between life and death. Beautiful, happily married, and the owner of a successful interior design business, Casey Marshall couldn't be more content with her life, until a car slams into her at almost fifty miles an hour, breaking nearly every bone in her body and plunging her into a coma. Lying in her hospital bed, Casey realizes that although she is unable to see or communicate, she can hear everything. She quickly discovers that her friends aren't necessarily the people she thought them to be -- and that her accident might not have been an accident at all.

38. The Zimmermann Telegram

By Barbara Tuchmann
Rated 4 Stars
From:  Library

Well I think I now know all I ever need or want to know about how WWI started and how the U.S. came to be involved after dragging it's feet for 4 years.

The average person thinks that it was the sinking of the Lusitania that brought the United States into World War I. Not so! In this slim volume that reads like a whodunnit, Barbara Tuchman reveals the little known secret of The Zimmerman Telegram. Basically, Germany wanted to keep the U.S. and its industrial might out of the European conflict by convincing Mexico and Japan to attack the U.S. Germany even promised Mexico it would get back Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona! What the Germans didn't know is that as soon as war was declared, the first thing the British did was cut Germany's transatlantic cable. All telegrams or telephone calls to North America had to travel over Britain's cable. And the British intercepted every telegram out of Germany. Even though the Zimmerman telegram was sent in code, it was broken. But the shrewd British held onto it, not revealing its contents until it was absolutely necessary, and in such a way that they didn't have to reveal that they were intercepting German messages! Brilliant! When the New York Times published the telegram in 1917, it was but a short time until pacifist Woodrow Wilson got a declaration of war from Congress, and the U.S. began sending troops "over there." A great read!

36. The Guns of August

By  Barbara W. Tuchman
Rated 4.5 Stars
From:  Library

If you were a book, what book would you be? A friend passed along this link to a short quiz that answers that question.  http://bluepyramid.org/ia/bquiz.htm

It says that I would be The Guns of August.  How it came up with that answer from the questions it asked was a real mystery to me but since I had never read the book I decided to give it a try.  Kind of going in search of self so to speak. It turned out to be a very interesting book and I learned a lot about the events that led up to WWI that I had never known before.

 FROM FLYLEAF:  This book recounts the political events leading up to the first World War and the first horrible 30 days of that War. Beginning with the pompous, colorful funeral of England's Edward VII in May of 1910 - -which was to prove the end of the old European order - -the account reaches back into the growing competitive situation between England and Germany. It examines briefly but quite carefully the changes since Victoria's time - -the power intrigues, Germany's thirst for power, England's constant incircling of her. Thus, with the immortal assassination of Ferdinand at Sarajevo in 1914, the martial stage is set. What followed (and again it is reported with succinct, vivid accuracy) was the horrible carnage which is modern war. The author shows how Germany planned its Belgian campaign, how General Foch developed a whole new military "mystique" to meet it, how Turkey, Russia, and Japan became involved, and how men began to die on the Western Front between Germany and France by the tens of thousands. Through the pages too move the great figures - -Generals Molke, Joffre, Foch, and Hindenburg; Winston Churchill, Lord Kitchener, Admirals Jellico and von Tirpitz, and dozens more. Concluding with the great Battle of the Marne which saved Paris and turned the Germans back, the volume shows how European and then world history was forever changed by the terrible struggle.

37. Swiss Family Robinson

By Johann Wyse
Rated 5 Stars
From:  Downloaded from internet - free classic book site
Re-read from many, many years ago

I gave this book a 5 star rating for being a great example of a fantasy book, written 200 years ago that has hung in there all these years.  Yes I had some problems with it since the story and writing style was written for a different time and place than today.  But I think it would still be a great story to read to your kids as a fantasy bed time story. 

This book was originally written in 1812 and tells of the adventures of a European family set off for the new world of New Guinea. Shipwrecked by a raging storm and abandoned by the crew they struggle to make it through alive. Tossed into a reef near a deserted tropical island,  the family soon turns their island prison into a veritable paradise. Their multilevel tree house was built in record time and is complete with running water As a tale of hardship and pioneer spirit, the tale is pure fantasy, The island is impossibly populated by ostriches, zebras, lions, kangaroos.  The moral lessons that the Father in constantly preaching and the inventions he and the family created had me really struggling to keep my disbelief suspended. For example, the father knew every species they came across. I don't believe that anyone in 1800, no matter how well-read he was, would react to every species (both plant and animal) with a spurt of perfect knowledge of that species.  While I managed to deal with that by only slightly rolling my eyes the thing that really set my teeth on edge was that when the boys encountered a strange an interesting species of bird or animal they shot it so they could get a better look at it.  But hey, didn't Audubon do the same thing?