16. Agincourt

By Bernard Cornwell
Rated 4.5 Stars
From Library

I probably should have given this 5 stars but because this is my journal and not a review I am marking how it came across to me.  I thought there was too much course language in it.  But then again, I think soldiers are probably pretty course both then and now.

But it was an excellent book and the story was high adventure.  I really liked Will Hook, the common archer through whose eyes Cornwell chose to tell his story.

Library Summary:  "The greatest writer of historical adventures today" (Washington Post) tackles his richest, most thrilling subject yet-the heroic tale of Agincourt.Young Nicholas Hook is dogged by a cursed past-haunted by what he has failed to do and banished for what he has done. A wanted man in England, he is driven to fight as a mercenary archer in France, where he finds two things he can love: his instincts as a fighting man, and a girl in trouble. Together they survive the notorious massacre at Soissons, an event that shocks all Christendom. With no options left, Hook heads home to England, where his capture means certain death. Instead he is discovered by the young King of England-Henry V himself-and by royal command he takes up the longbow again and dons the cross of Saint George. Hook returns to France as part of the superb army Henry leads in his quest to claim the French crown. But after the English campaign suffers devastating early losses, it becomes clear that Hook and his fellow archers are their king's last resort in a desperate fight against an enemy more daunting than they could ever have imagined.One of the most dramatic victories in British history, the battle of Agincourt-immortalized by Shakespeare in Henry V-pitted undermanned and overwhelmed English forces against a French army determined to keep their crown out of Henry's hands. Here Bernard Cornwell resurrects the legend of the battle and the "band of brothers" who fought it on October 25, 1415. An epic of redemption, Agincourt follows a commoner, a king, and a nation's entire army on an improbable mission to test the will of God and reclaim what is rightfully theirs. From the disasters at the siege of Harfleur to the horrors of the field of Agincourt, this exhilarating story of survival and slaughter is at once a brilliant work of history and a triumph of imagination-Bernard Cornwell at his best.

15. Brethren

By Robyn Young
Rated 4
From: Library

I downgraded this rating because I found myself skimming over the really bloody bits. Usually blood doesn't bother me a lot but enough is enough.This sure was a difficult time and place to be in history.

There is apparently a lot more to this Knight Templar business than I knew. It seems the warrior knights are the only one who actually took those chastity and poverty vows and there were many in the order who functioned as laborers, cooks, blacksmiths, etc. If I had ever given any thought to the Templars I might have figured this out but I confess my knowledge before picking up this book was pretty much limited to the dastardly Gabriel in Disorderly Knights and the equally as dastardly Brian de Bois-Guilbert from Ivanhoe. So I am learning a lot more about the Templars than I even realized I wanted to know. Of course the author is setting down the story but she is doing a pretty skillful job of feeding me information without getting in the way of the story she is trying to tell.

Publishers description: A detailed, epic historical adventure set in Paris, London, Egypt, and Palestine on the eve of the last Crusade, Brethren tells the story of a young knight's search for a mysterious (and potentially deadly) book belonging to a secret organization within the Knights Templar. When young Will Campbell joins the most powerful organization in Europe, he is given the task of recovering a heretical book stolen from the order's vaults--but the book hides the covert plans of a secret group within the Temple, and it seems that everyone around Will is ready to kill to possess it. Brethren also traces the rise of an ambitious commander in the Egyptian army, who, after assassinating the sultan, takes control of Egypt and Syria. The two stories come together during his campaign for a new Holy War that will cripple an empire and bring the Crusaders to their knees.--From publisher description.

14. The Ginger Tree

By: Oswald Wynd
Rated: 4.5 Stars
From: My Shelves

This is the best example of the East-meets-West genre to come my way in ages. Written mainly as the diary extracts of an innocent Scottish girl who sails out just after the turn of the century for her proper marriage to a British military attache in China, the novel tells of her subsequent scandalous love affair with a Japanese aristocrat.

MY COMMENTS FROM MY AMAZON REVIEW OF DECEMBER 30, 2002: From the very first page of the book my interest was firmly engaged. I loved the descriptions of Mary's travels and how she slowly started changing her ideas and started emerging as a person in her own right and changing in ways that she couldn't write home to Mama about. That's one advantage of first person, I think and in particular of a diary/letters format. You hear the person's voice directly and vividly, and if the diary/letters format is used, you get a little bonus of feeling like you are eavesdropping and even spying.

I was momentarily distracted from the story during the typhoon when I caught myself drafting a Complaint for a lawsuit to file on Mary's behalf against the steam ship line for gross negligence in failing to provide any safety precautions for their passengers and leaving Mary alone in her cabin clinging to her bunk to keep from being hurled out onto the floor where her trunk was being catapulted from one side of the cabin to the other with the rolling of the ship. Had this story been set in more litigious times Mary would have owned that steam ship line by the time she got to Singapore.

While not my favorite style, generally first person POV's don't bother me all that much, although I regard them pretty much as a cop out on the part of most authors. But with this book once the story arrived in Singapore it's first person POV started to get in the way of the story. Or at least it got in the way of the story I wanted to read. This was a very rich tale, set in times that were fascinating to me. 1900-1945 is my very favorite period in history and IMO if Wynd had used all the same exact scenarios and expanded on them by introducing other point of views this could have been a great novel instead of merely a good one.

For example: While I loved hearing Mary's POV in her journals and letters, a little peek into Richards POV would have been very interesting. I kept wondering what's was with this guy?
Then after the story moved to Tokyo and so much conflict developed between Kentaro and Mary I was wishing for a station break and Paul Harvey's voice to come into my head saying "And now....for the rest of the story" I longed to hear Kentaro's POV.
And the last scene in the book, well.....to my mind that scene begged to be in Tomo's voice. That would have been so poignant and would have given me some real closure.

But in spite of all of the above, I really liked this book. My favorite parts involve descriptions that somehow convey the Chinese and Japanese cultures and show how a person who is open to different experiences and emotions can discover a whole alternate reality, if they're willing.

13. What I did for Love

By Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Rated 5 Star
From: Purchased

It's not easy being famous when your life is falling apart... Georgie York has been dumped by her movie star husband, her own film career is tanking, and her public image as a spunky romantic heroine is taking a serious beating.

What should a down-on-her-luck actress do? NOT go to Vegas...NOT run into her detestable former co-star—dreamboat-from-hell Bramwell Shepard...and NOT get caught up in a ridiculous incident that leads to a calamitous elopement. Before she knows it, Georgie has a fake marriage, fake husband, and maybe (or not) a fake sex life.

It's a paparazzi free-for-all, and Georgie's non-supporting cast doesn't help. There's Bram's punk-nightmare housekeeper; Georgie's pushy parent; a suck-up agent; an icy studio head; and her ex-husband's new wife, an international do-gooder who just might win the stupid Nobel Peace Prize!

As for Georgie's leading man... Bram, with his angel blue eyes and twisted black heart, has never cared about anyone but himself. Still, he's giving the performance of his life as man in love—thanks to the half a million dollars she's paying him. It was official. She'd married the devil. Or had she?

Two enemies find themselves working without a script in a town where the spotlight shines bright...and where the strongest emotions can wear startling disguises.

12. Danger's Hour; The Story of the U.S.S. Bunker HIll

By Maxwell Kennedy
Rated 4.5 Stars
From:  Library

The only reason I rated this 4.5 stars instead of 5 stars was that a lot of the photographs in the book were troubling to me.  In fact, the only reason I have not purchased this book and sent it to my ten year old Great Grandson are those pictures.  He has an interest and knowledge of WWII that is exceptional for his age.



BOOK REVIEW FROM PUBLISHERS WEEKLY:  The U.S. aircraft carrier Bunker Hill and the Japanese kamikazes that struck her on May 11, 1945, embodied two fundamentally different approaches not only to war but to life, according to Kennedy. The Bunker Hill manifested American material power, and its civilian sailors reflected the determination of a nation to punish Japan's aggression with total victory. The pilots of the Divine Wind (or kamikaze) , on the other hand, represented a philosophical and spiritual response, an epic of pride, honor and virility. And when the kamikazes struck the Bunker Hill, it seemed for a time that a few determined men could frustrate American power, killing almost 400 Americans and wounding another 250. In what he views as a relevant lesson for the age of terror, Kennedy (Make Gentle the Life of This World) explores "how an individual's desire to live can be so successfully suppressed" that he will train for certain death. The author combines extensive archival research with interviews of American and Japanese participants in a spellbinding account showing that much more than geopolitics was at stake in the Pacific war. Photos. (Nov. 4) Copyright 2008 Reed Business Information.

11. Just Breathe

By Susan Wiggs
Rated 2.5
From:  Library

The only thing that kept me reading and not throwing this book at the wall was the fact that the story was pretty good.  It was the Will Bonner character who ruined what would have been a pleasant read.  He was just way too good to be true.  Made me want to gag.

FROM LIBRARY BOOK SUMMARY:  With Chicago and her marriage in the rearview mirror, cartoonist Sarah Moon flees to the small northern California coastal town where she grew up. As she comes to terms with her lost marriage, Sarah encounters a man she never expected to meet again: Will Bonner, the high school heartthrob she'd skewered mercilessly in her old comics. Now a local firefighter, he's been through some changes himself. But just as her heart is about to reawaken, Sarah discovers she is pregnant. With her ex's twins.

10. The Kitchen Boy

By:  Robert Alexander
Rated 4 1/2 Stars
From:  Library

FROM AMAZON:  The final days of the last Russian tsar, Nicholas II, and his family are still a fascinating mystery. There is no one left to bear witness to what happened at the execution. Or is there? Alexander takes a very real, but forgotten and overlooked, potential witness, a young kitchen boy, and creates an amazing fictional account of what may have transpired. Leonka was working as a kitchen boy to the Romanov family when the Bolsheviks captured them, exiled them to Siberia, and imprisoned them in their house. Because of his lowly position in the household, Leonka was able to see and hear secret things. And he does keep them secret until decades later, knowing he is ready to die, he reveals all he knows about the imperial family and their horrific death. Alexander includes as much historically accurate information into his fiction as possible, and he includes actual letters and notes attributed to the Romanovs, which add a touch of authenticity. He also renders the plot beautifully with one final jaw-dropping and satisfying twist.

9. The Fought in the Fields

By:  Nicola Tyrer
Rated 4 Stars
From:  Library

I was impressed by this book and its content - not only does it give personal accounts of the girls that were on the farms it povides unknown information ( to me ) about how the Womans Land Army was set up.

The stories that were given portray unfathomable fortitude of such young girls in the face of adversity, adherence to such hardships on minimal rations and general get-up-and-go attitude the girls held right to the very end makes our lives of waiting an extra 5 mins for a bus shameful when they used to have to dodge bombs.

However the friendships that were formed and the love for their work adds an extra glow to this extraordinary story of their calling.

8. The Language of Threads

By:  Gail Tsukiyama
Rated 4 Stars
From:  Library

The sequel to "Women of the Silk, " Pei leaves for Hong Kong in the 1930s, arriving with a young orphan, Ji Shen, in her care. Finding a new life with Mrs. Finch, a British expatriate who welcomes them as the daughters she never had, Pei finds herself once more struggling during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong.

7. Women of the Silk

By Gail Tsukiyama
Rated 4.5 Stars
Library

This book was a very fast read.  It's listed as YA and I think that must translate into fewer pages (268) slightly larger font (although I don't know why young adults should need larger fonts ) and 1.5 line spacing.   I  enjoyed it and recommend it highly.  I have it's sequel, The Language of Threads and will be starting it this afternoon.  Between them they make one average size book.  Well, average for me that. is.


Why do reviewers say every book about China is reminiscent of Pearl S. Buck?  Is she the worlds standard for books about China?  She was certainly good but there have been other good authors who have written about China.  Why can't they say it's reminiscent of Lisa See (Snowflower and the Secret Fan) or can't they be bothered to try to remember anyone else's name who writes about China.  Hrrrumpf


LIBRARY REVIEW:When Pei Chung is eight years old, her father leaves her at the house of Auntie Yee so that she can work in the silk factory. Her grief at the unexplained abandonment is softened by the kindness of Yee and the other girls, and slowly she begins to thrive in her new independence. The friendship between Pei and Lin, who is the support of her once wealthy and powerful family, is forged with the lives of the silk workers who begin to demand better conditions. The China of 1919-1938, when the Japanese threat became a reality, is woven into the threads of factory life and that of families faced with ruin. The characters are drawn with fine detail. Small village life contrasts vividly with an exciting visit to Canton, and ceremonies are exquisitely described. This fascinating story is beautifully written and slightly reminiscent of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth .

6. The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet

Rated 4.5
From Library

When I saw this book my first thought was "why in the world is Colleen McCullough writing fan fiction?" I didn't get very far into the book before I figured it out. Having a good time is what she was doing. There is no law that says a writer, even one of Colleen McCullough's caliber can't stick her tongue firmly in her cheek and take a group of characters, loved by legions of Jane Austen fans, of which I am one, give them a good shaking up and come up with a completely new take on the story.

Interview with Colleen McCullough

I would have given this book a 5 star rating instead of a 4.5 if she had stuck to her guns and not tidied everything up so neatly at the end and tacked on a sticky sweet ending. Since she had already made most of the characters wonderfully dysfunctional I would have preferred that she left them still shooting (metaphorically of course) at each other at the end of the book. Except for Miss Mary Bennet. It was about time someone gave Mary a life, a grand adventure and a HEA.

From the Library Website:


Everyone knows the story of Elizabeth and Jane Bennet inPride and Prejudice. But what about their sister Mary? At the conclusion of Jane Austen's classic novel, Mary, bookish, awkward, and by all accounts, unmarriageable, is sentenced to a dull, provincial existence in the backwaters of Britain. Now, master storyteller Colleen McCullough rescues Mary from her dreary fate withThe Independence of Miss Mary Bennet, a page-turning sequel set twenty years after Austen's novel closes. The story begins as the neglected Bennet sister is released from the stultifying duty of caring for her insufferable mother. Though many would call a woman of Mary's age a spinster, she has blossomed into a beauty to rival that of her famed sisters. Her violet eyes and perfect figure bewitch the eligible men in the neighborhood, but though her family urges her to marry, romance and frippery hold no attraction. Instead, she is determined to set off on an adventure of her own. Fired with zeal by the newspaper letters of the mysterious Argus, she resolves to publish a book about the plight of England's poor. Plunging from one predicament into another, Mary finds herself stumbling closer to long-buried secrets, unanticipated dangers, and unlooked-for romance.Meanwhile, the other dearly loved characters ofPride and Prejudicefret about the missing Mary while they contend with difficulties of their own. Darcy's political ambitions consume his ardor, and he bothers with Elizabeth only when the impropriety of her family seems to threaten his career. Lydia, wild and charming as ever, drinks and philanders her way into dire straits; Kitty, a young widow of means, occupies herself with gossip and shopping; and Jane, naïve and trusting as ever, spends her days ministering to her crop of boys and her adoring, if not entirely faithful, husband. Yet, with the shadowy and mysterious figure of DarcyÕs right-hand man, Ned Skinner, lurking at every corner, it is clear that all is not what it seems at idyllic Pemberley. As the many threads of McCulloughÕs masterful plot come together, shocking truths are revealed, love, both old and new, is tested, and all learn the value of true independence in a novel for every woman who has wanted to leave her mark on the world.

5. Honey Moon

Rated 4 Stars
From:  My Shelves

While I liked it a lot, this is the darkest book that Phillips has written.  Honey Jane Moon is only 16 but has been her family's commanding force for years when she decides to drive her pretty cousin Chantal Booker from South Carolina to California to audition for TV's Dash Coogan Show. Dash, "the last of America's movie cowboy heroes" is indeed impressed--but by Honey, whom he picks to play his daughter. Although suddenly tossed into life's fast lane, Honey still wants just what she always wanted: a close-knit family and some affection. Her South Carolina kin live with her, but their closeness resembles the adhesion of leeches. Dash, who learned about relationships from his ex-wives, turns a cold shoulder to Honey, who desperately needs him to be a real-life father figure, while Eric Dillon, Honey's "dark, sullen, and gorgeous" co-star, stomps on the puppy love she has to offer. Yet it is only through their complicated relationships that Honey, Dash and Eric can finally exorcise their personal demons.