Story Had Potential

Under The Dome

By: Stephen King

Simon & Schuster 2009

On a crisp fall day a mysterious dome descends on a small Maine town, trapping all its residents like prisoners.

This book has quite a simple concept; however the story is anything but simple. Filled with more characters then most or any book I have ever read, Stephen King’s new novel Under The Dome is less about the dome as it is about how people react to catastrophe and the lengths they will go to for survival.

I, admittedly, am not a Stephen King fan. But I read this one due to the interesting premise. My first feeling while read this book was that I could see this as a made for TV mini-series.

As I mentioned before there are so many characters, so many in fact that at times it is difficult to remember who everyone is and to really develop an intimate relationship with them. King even felt he needed to place a cast of characters page at the beginning of the book.  

And even though I think King was making more of a statement on humanity’s instincts in crisis’ situations and how these things can bring out the worst in the worst type of people, instead of actually explaining why the dome came to be, I was very disappointed in the resolution of the book. The story had major potential but I was left with a feeling that it could have been 500 pages shorter than it was. When you read a novel that is 1000 plus pages, you are expecting a satisfying payoff.

If you’re the type of person who doesn’t read a lot of books, I don’t feel like this is worth spending your time on. If you’re looking for an interesting scientific or science fiction thriller with smart and creative storytelling, this is not your book.

Story                           **

Characters                   **

Readability                  ***

Overall rating               ***

www.stephenking.com

A Great First Lady

Spoken from the Heart

By: Laura Bush

Simon and Schuster 2010

Laura Bush grew up as an only child in the oil town of Midland Texas.  So begins the memoirs of the First Lady who many thought brought dignity back to the White House.

In a detailed and almost poetic ode to her home state, Laura Bush writes about her early years in Midland, surviving a devastating accident at 17, being a teacher in the inner city, her early marriage to George Bush and their journey together from the Texas Governor’s mansion to the White House.

I think Laura Bush is one of the most misunderstood First Ladies, due, in part, to her private nature. Spoken from the Heart really shows what it’s like for the President and his family. Whatever you may feel about the Bush administration, she did many good things in her time as First Lady. Including starting programs to aid with literacy, speaking up for breast cancer education in the Middle East, and starting programs to help HIV/AIDS victims in Africa.

Laura Bush is a strong independent woman. A true role model and I was surprised at how much I related to her.

She made me see what it is like to live under a microscope and what it was like for them and their family after 9/11. The peril and danger they felt on a daily basis.

At times I did feel as if I was reading an expose of all the good things her and her husband did in their time in the White House, considering the fact that their administration was so criticized and mocked. But this book makes you see the Bushes a very really humanized way, which is something I think we forget about public figures. A really interesting story by a woman who held her dignity through the criticisms and held her strength through disaster. A woman to be respected and a great role model for younger generations.

Readability          ****

Overall rating     ****

http://www.laurabushfoundation.org

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Mysterious Page Turner

The Bone Garden

By: Tess Garritsen

Ballantine Books 2007

Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery in the garden of her new home in rural Massachusetts, a human female skull.  After calling in the police, it becomes apparent that the female was a murder victim and the bones are much older than first thought. 

Julia receives a call from the previous owner’s cousin Henry Page, who insists he has documents that may explain who is buried in her garden.  Together, Julia and Henry sift through letters and documents that tell the story of a destitute Irish immigrant, Rose Conolly, A medical student Norris Marshall and the legend of the West End Reaper in 1830’s Boston.

Like James McGee’s “Resurrectionist”, The Bone Garden is filled with much detail about the accepted medical practices of the early 1800’s, along with the messy occupation of being a resurrectionist.  But there is so much more here to sink your teeth into. 

It is an intense mystery novel, which really shows what life was like at the time, the class division based on economic means.  How terribly poverty stricken a person could be, and what that meant for their life. 

The legend of the West End Reaper, reminded me very much of the Jack the Ripper legend from 1880’s London. But what I found to be more shocking was the fact that at the time, doctors or anyone in the medical field didn’t place the connection between hand washing and infection or communicable diseases.  Many doctors would go right from the autopsy room, to examining a patient, without washing their hands.  That is until the renowned Physician Oliver Wendell Holmes brought this radical yet obvious idea to the medical world.

The characters were well drawn yet a little cliché, but overall I really enjoyed this mysterious page turner.

Story                           ****

Characters                   ***

Readability                  ****

Overall rating               ****      

http://www.tessgerritsen.com/

New York, New York!

New York

By: Edward Rutherfurd

Doubleday 2009

Spanning the course of nearly 350 years, New York tells the story of the city of New York from its beginnings as a Dutch settlement, through to the domination of the British, ending with the tragedy of the World Trade Centre attacks.

An ambitious novel, we see the inception and evolution of one of the largest and most populated cities in the world through the eyes of the families who lived through it all seamlessly intertwined.

What an undertaking it must have been for Rutherfurd in the writing of this book. The immense detail that he paid in the researching of the city allowing us to see, through combining fact and fictional people, some of the most famous events in American history and how it touched New York.

The maps in the book are fascinating too and had me mesmerized, comparing how it looks today to how it looked almost 400 years ago and through the years.

New York is a testament to a great and turbulent city. A love letter of sorts just when she needs it most, a truly fascinating read. I definitely plan to read Rutherfurd's other epics.
The paperback will be released on September 21.

Story                            ****

Characters                    ***

Readability                    ****    

Overall rating                 ****

http://www.edwardrutherfurd.com

King Tut Unearthed

The Murder of King Tut

By: James Patterson

Little Brown 2009

In 1922 after many years in The Valley of the Kings, archaeologist Howard Carter stumbled upon one of the greatest discoveries of the twentieth century, the tomb of King Tutankhamen. King Tut’s tomb was by far the best preserved royal tomb ever discovered and further fascination comes from the fact that Tutankhamen was very young when he died and his death was and still remains shrouded in mystery.

Here begins Patterson’s take on the story and possible murder of the boy King Tutankhamen.

Told in three parts, alternating between the stories of Howard Carter’s discovery, the life of King Tut and in modern day following James himself as he sets out to write this story.

 King Tut is one of, if not the most well known of the Egyptian Pharaoh’s. Partially because his tomb was the most intact and best preserved of any found. When Howard Carter broke down the doors he discovered a tomb that had remained hidden for over 3000 years.

Little is actually known about the life of Tutankhamen, and there are many theories about how he died, from an infected leg, to malaria to murder. I figure Patterson felt there was sufficient evidence to explore the murder theory and he does a pretty good job in filling in the early life of Tut and exploring the circumstances surrounding his death.

I’ve always felt there needs to be more movies or books about Ancient Egypt as it is a time period that I am very interested in.

It was a little strange for Patterson to include himself in the story, but the parts are very brief it never interrupts the story.

I really enjoyed this book and often times I didn’t really feel as if I was reading a James Patterson novel, as in I did with his other  historical book The Jester, because it has a slightly different feel than his other novels

            Story                                 ***

            Characters                         ***

            Readability                         *****

            Overall Rating                    ****

For further reading about King Tut I recommend the following links:

http://www.kingtutone.com

http://www.ago.net/kingtut

An Okay Cross Thriller

Double Cross

By: James Patterson

Little Brown 2007

Psychiatrist and former FBI Alex Cross has settled into a quiet and comfortable private practice. That is until his girlfriend, Detective Brianna Stone, is assigned to a case that brings Cross back into the game. The killer using the general populace as an audience for his heinous murders and wanting to get the famous Alex Cross’ attention.

After 13 Alex Cross thrillers it does become difficult to keep coming up with new and interesting psychopathic killers. What keeps me coming back for more is Alex Cross himself. I am interested to see what will threaten him next. However; while I do still enjoy the Alex Cross series of books above all other Patterson novels, when I look back on the earlier Alex Cross novels, I know that there is no comparison in the quality of the stories. For fans of James Patterson and the Alex Cross series, you will probably read this book regardless, but otherwise I don’t think there is anything really amazing or different to keep the average reader enthralled.

             Story                    **

             Characters           ***

             Readability           ***

             Overall Rating      ***

http://www.jamespatterson.com

Not Rice's Best

Blood Canticle

By: Anne Rice

Knopf 2003

Anne Rice continues her Vampire Chronicles once again narrated by her long suffering vampire Lestat.  Along with Quinn Blackwood, Mona and Rowan Mayfair, and Rowan’s husband Michael Curry, Lestat sets out to uncover the mystery of the Taltos. I thought this book was somewhat a departure of what I love about Anne Rice’s novels.  The story is a little scattered and, in my opinion, not nearly as interesting or engaging as her previous books in the Vampire Chronicles. One thing in particular struck me as I was reading. In recent books Lestat has been searching for redemption and purification from being a vampire. Now Rice’s books have always had a religious undertone, her characters have always sought justification and understanding for what they are.  In earlier novels they have almost scoffed at religion, firmly believing that there is no God and that’s it. This definitely mirrors Rice’s own search for religious belief.  Lestat is one of Rice’s alter egos. And like Rice in recent years, Lestat in Blood Canticle has come around, had a reawakening to religion. I found that this made Lestat soft, no longer is he as evil and menacing as we like him.


           Story                 *
          Characters         **
          Readability         ***
          Overall Rating    **


www.annerice.com

Not the Best of Buffy

Blood and Fog

By: Nancy Holder

Simon Pulse 2003

When Sunnydale is blanketed in a mysterious fog, Buffy enlists the help of Spike to help her unravel the mystery of a demon, who Spike later discovers to be Jack the Ripper.  Spike encountered him before with Drusilla, Angelus and Darla in Victorian London, and knows the magiks he evokes from the Celtic Faery to attain his power.

In Blood and Fog we are once again transported back to the 1880’s when Spike and Angelus were causing havoc on the streets of London.  Since this book takes place during the sixth season of Buffy when Spike has an alliance with Buffy and the Scoobies, it is nice to be able to go back and remember what he is really like.  I always enjoy when we can see that. 

The story of Jack the Ripper initially sounded very interesting to me, but I didn’t like what Holder did with it.  Historically not that much is known about JTR, other than who his victims were.  There are a lot of theories as to who he was, but it is essentially unknown who he really was.  This leaves a lot of room for interpretation.  Holder makes JTR a mangled monster, a devotee of an ancient dark Celtic following called the Faery.  Of course Buffy can’t kill a human, so it was necessary to make his a demon of sorts.  But I still didn’t like this route.  I think it would have been better if Jack had of been, not the killer or demon himself but the one pulling the strings, conjuring a demon to do his bidding.  Not my favourite Buffy based story.

                Story              *

                Characters      ***

                Readability      **

                Overall rating   **

http://www.nancyholder.com

Not as Good as I Was Expecting

Before Green Gables

By: Budge Wilson

Penguin Canada 2008

A prequel to Anne of Green Gables, Before Green Gables tells the story of Anne Shirley before she arrived at Green Gables.  Born in Nova Scotia, Anne is orphaned as a baby, and then spends her young life moving from one foster home to another, escaping the reality of her life through her vivid imagination and her untameable spirit.

Trying to create a prequel to a classic Canadian novel like Anne of Green Gables and trying to re-imagine one of the best loved Characters in Canadian literature is no easy feat.  Budge Wilson gives a nice try, but I just think it’s too hard to re-create that character, due to the fondness we have for her.  Even though Anne is a very imaginative upbeat and intelligent little girl in the original story, I found in this novel that Wilson made her a little too eager and a little too intelligent for her age.  The story wasn’t that creatively written. The way Wilson makes a lot of everyday events a large portion of the book kind of drags the story out and makes it too padded down, like when Anne is walking to school or going to get eggs from the local “Egg Man”. 

I guess I’m just a purest; I like to think of Anne as I have known her my whole life.  However I did like the way the end of the book ties nicely with the beginning of the original story.  I suggest to read the original saga of Anne and imagine for yourself what Anne’s life was like before.

Story               *

Characters       **

Readability       **

Overall rating   **

http://www.100yearsofanne.com/gables-wilson.htm

Discovering Charlotte Bronte

Becoming Jane Eyre

By: Sheila Kohler

Penguin 2009

Artfully written and beautifully imagined, Becoming Jane Eyre is a mastering novel and a look inside the life of author Charlotte Bronte.

While she is at her father’s bedside, Bronte shares the story of her life and the writing of her masterpiece Jane Eyre and interweaves both narratives. Charlotte recounts her years as a student in Belgium, then a teacher and her affair with the married school master, then her years as a lonely governess for a wealthy family.

 This novel really exhibits what it was like for female authors in the 19^th century as Charlotte and her sisters, Emily and Anne, struggle to get their novels published in a male dominated society.  

If you have read Jane Eyre or any of the Bronte sister’s novels, you will see how much the sisters drew from their own life and experiences that informed much of their writing. In fact, you can really see how similar Jane Eyre is to Charlotte. Throughout  we see the many inspirations for the construction of some of literatures finest and most profound novels by the Bronte sisters including; Wuthering Heights by Emily, The Tennant of Wildfell Hall by Anne and Shirley one of Charlotte’s other masterpieces, the two latter titles being some of my favorite novels.

It really seems as if the three sisters had a lonely solitary life and I can somewhat identify with that. That is one of the things that drew me to Jane Eyre, which remains to this day to be my favorite novel. The sisters were really familiar with the plight of being a woman and even after almost two centuries, for those stories to still resonate is very special.

If you have read Jane Eyre, you will like this book. If you haven’t maybe this book with inspire you to pick it up.

Story                   ****

Characters           ***

Readability          ****

Overall Rating     ****

http://www.sheilakohler.com

Religious Dogma

Will the World End in 2012?

By: Raymond C. Hundley, PH.D.

Thomas Nelson 2010

Is the world coming to an end in the year 2012? For centuries, many people have made predictions and held beliefs that the world will end in 2012. In this book, Hundley gives an overview of the top 2012 doomsday predictions. These include, the Ancient Mayan predictions, Solar Storms, the Large Hadron Collider, the predictions of Nostradamus, the reversal of the magnetic poles, collision with planet X, Earth’s alignment with the magnetic plane, eruption of the super volcano, the Web Bot project and then finally ending with religious predictions of the end of the world. Each chapter talks about a different theory, and ends with a final assessment of the likely hood of the given prediction.

It is interesting that Hundley, a self confirmed Christian, also gives consideration to scientific apocalyptic theories. However, it is obvious that his personal opinion lies with belief of religious predictions about the end of the world.

As someone who is not religious, I felt the book got a little preachy at the end where Hundley devotes two chapters at the end to preparing Christians for the end of the world. He believes that one can be saved by “beginning a personal relationship with Jesus Christ”, and outlines the steps to saving yourself from the apocalypse. Is this another tactic to scare people into religion? I felt that the entire book was just a vehicle to preach religion.

Hundley gives much misleading information in this book like such as when he states, “NASA has issued a public warning that a massive solar storm may strike the Earth soon.” This is not true. I looked at NASA’s website and they say, “Solar activity has a regular cycle, with peaks approximately every 11 years. Near these activity peaks, solar flares can cause some interruption of satellite communications, although engineers are learning how to build electronics that are protected against most solar storms. But there is no special risk associated with 2012. The next solar maximum will occur in the 2012-2014 time frame and is predicted to be an average solar cycle, no different than previous cycles throughout history.”  As you can see, they say nothing about it solar storms ending the world. After being given false information about one thing, I think this author loses all credibility.

If you are interested in fanciful ideas that committing yourself to Jesus will save you from an Apocalypse, than you will probably enjoy this book. Otherwise, I suggest if you want to know really good information about many of the topics covered in this book, visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/2012.html.

The world may end one day, but I do not believe that anyone can predict it.

Overall Rating *

Ancient History

Antony and Cleopatra

By: Colleen McCullough

McArthur and Company 2007

Antony and Cleopatra is about so much more than just the relationship between the infamous doomed lovers.  McCullough weaves a story that follows the decline of the Roman Republic, in fact I think that would have been a better title for this novel, Marc Antony’s military failures against Octavian, Cleopatra’s role in that and Octavian’s rise to become the first Emperor of Rome following the assassination of Julius Ceasar.

All set to the back drop of the bustling city streets of Rome and the exotic beauty of the struggling remnants of Egypt, Antony and Cleopatra is a well researched novel that allows us to see such a powerful and infamous historical figure as Cleopatra in a very human realistic way.  The way she was able to use her sexuality to influence Marc Antony to her own end.

It’s also a study in the way of life at the time.  The hardships that many had to endure, whether you were a pleb or a patrician.   Going to war meant many month sometimes years traveling by foot, away from family.

I really liked the portrayal of Octavian.  So many things have been written about him and so many actors have portrayed him over the years, many times not showing a flattering portrait of him.  But something has to be said about a young man who can overcome ill health and the shadow of a very successful uncle and rise to defeat one of the most successful military leaders in Roman history.

For those who love history and love to read this novel is the best of both worlds.

Story                   ****

Characters          ****

Readability          ***

Overall rating      ****


http://www.colleenmccullough.com

Truly Unique Story

The Little Book

By: Selden Edwards

Dutton 2008

"The Little Book" is a love story that spans generations, ranging from 1897 Vienna through the pivotal moments of the twentieth century.
"The Little Book" is the extraordinary tale of Wheeler Burden, California-exiled heir of the famous Boston banking Burdens, philosopher, student of history, legends son, rock idol, writer, lover of women, recluse, half-Jew, and Harvard baseball hero. In 1988 he is forty-seven, living in San Francisco. Suddenly he is his modern self wandering in a city and time he knows mysteriously well: fin de siA]cle Vienna. It is 1897, precisely ninety-one years before his last memory and a half-century before his birth.
Its not long before Wheeler has acquired appropriate clothes, money, lodging, a group of young Viennese intellectuals as friends, a mentor in Sigmund Freud, a bitter rival, a powerful crush on a luminous young American woman, a passing acquaintance with local celebrity Mark Twain, and an incredible and surprising insight into the dashing young war-hero father he never knew.
But the truth at the center of Wheelers dislocation in time remains a stubborn mystery that will take months of exploration and a lifetime of memories to unravel and that will, in the end, reveal nothing short of the eccentric Burden family’s unrivaled impact on the very course of the coming century.

A truly unique story, Edwards’ The Little Book is a labour of love 30 years in the making. It is amazing how Edwards constructs his story around a most pivotal and burgeoning time period in history while including a few notoriously famous historical figures such as Sigmund Freud and the child Adolph Hitler. Edwards whisks us away to turn of the century Vienna.This book is not about time travel, but about the relationships in one’s family, the people in one’s family and getting to know who you are through getting to know them. It’s about revelations and the time travel aspect is just a vehicle to get us there.

At times I didn’t know quite what to make of the hero, Wheeler Burden. But his presence in the book is just as mysterious as his journey is.

The plot is filled with a lot of twists and turns and I truly didn’t know how this story was going to end.

Story               ****

Characters       ***

Readability       ***

Overall Rating  ***

http://www.seldenedwards.com

Page Turning

The Andromeda Strain

By: Michael Crichton

Ballantine 1969

A satellite lands in the desert near the small southern Utah town of Piedmont.  Within hours, everyone in the town is dead.  Piedmont is a virtual ghost town.

As the US government assembles a team of doctors and scientists to investigate, the race is on to find out what killed everyone in the town.

Although The Andromeda Strain was written in 1969, I think it was far ahead of its time.  So much so, that while reading it, it is not hard to imagine the events taking place today.

Like most of his books, Crichton writes about things that could possibly happen, and in recent years we have seen how mysterious viruses can spread.

Like all of his books that I have read, I couldn’t put this book down.  In fact I read it in 33 hours.  I think that helped to keep the tension of what the characters were going though in the book.  However I did find the characters to be mostly forgettable.

And Even though Crichton uses a lot of technical jargon, as he usually does, it doesn’t hamper the understanding or slow the narrative down, until, however; the end which I thought was anticlimactic.

This is an exciting fast paced novel that will have you turning the pages to find out what will happen next.

Story                 ****

Characters         ***

Readability         ****

Overall rating      ****

http://www.michaelcrichton.net

Dracula The Un-Dead

By: Dacre Stoker & Ian Holt

Penguin

After one hundred and twelve years Bram Stoker’s great-grand nephew, Dacre Stoker (aided by Ian Holt) and using Bram’s own unused notes, decided to write a sequel to the original classic.

In Dracula The Un-Dead we catch up with the characters introduced in the original twenty-five years later.  Mina and Jonathan now have a twenty-five year old son, Quincey Harker.  Dr. Jack Seward is addicted to morphine and consumed with guilt and mania.  Arthur Holmwood, grappling with his own guilt, is angry and a shadow of his former self.  And Abraham Van Helsing is a weak decrepit old man close to death himself. 

Trying to shield her son from the truth of the past, Mina is eternally youthful and somewhat estranged from her alcoholic husband.   

Much to the disappointment of his parents, Quincey leaves law school to pursue his dream of performing on the stage.  Therein he meets the infamous and mysterious actor Basarab.

As mysterious events start to take place, it seems as if Dracula has returned to hunt down the band that defeated him twenty-five years earlier.

It is interesting and albeit a little shocking to see what has happened to the heros we met in the original Dracula.  And in this one we see Dracula as a more sympathetic character. 

Dracula is not the main villain in this story.  Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt include the real life legend of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, a Hungarian Countess who was known as the Blood countess in the sixteenth century.  There were legendary accounts of the Countess bathing in the blood of virgins in order to retain her youth.  They draw her as being more sinister and evil than Dracula himself.

The common feeling I kept getting while reading this story though, and confirmed after I read the Author’s note on how this novel came to fruition, was that Dacre Stokers name was just put on the cover to sell more books.

As well, there are a few plot lines that I felt were just thrown in and they seemed a little odd, like the one that closes the book.  I wouldn’t call this a true sequel.  However this novel is an interesting expansion of the classic story and I really did enjoy it.  Definitely for those who love Dracula or vampire novels.

Story                ***

Characters        ***

Readability        ****

Overall rating    ***1/2



www.draculatheun-dead.com/

Back in Time

The Accidental Time Machine

By: Joe Haldeman

Ace Books 2007

The Accidental Time Machine is a story unlike most time travel stories.  It’s not about going back in time to see your parents meet, or going into the future to see what your life will be like in 35 years, it’s not even about seeing the earth as a futuristic society.  Matt Fuller is a research assistant at MIT.  When one day, while working with a proton calibrator that measures subtle quantum forces that relate to time changes in gravity and electromagnetic force, the calibrator disappears then reappears a second later.  Every time he pushes its button, it disappears twelve times longer than the previous time.  After examining it Matt is convinced that what he has discovered is a time machine.  After testing it with a pet store turtle that he affectionately calls Herman, Matt realizes that he has to try it for himself. 

I like that the time machine itself wasn’t a thing to actually stand in or ride in.  The time machine is just a small box that, when connected to something metal, can carry with it anything that is touching it.  That gave such a fresh perspective on the traditional model for a time machine.  Haldeman doesn’t let the story get too bogged down in technical jargon, and the story starts right from the first page.  However I did have a feeling that I wanted to know more about how the time machine works, and what makes time travel possible, but I don’t think that is really the point of the story.  This novel is more about a man trying to figure out what he has discovered and its possibilities.  Matt takes the journey of his life, and the different societies that he visits are completely different than anything I have see in other time travel stories, and he offers some interesting insights into how it is possible for societies to evolve over time.  However there was a bit of reoccurring stuff about Jesus that I didn’t quite understand.  Nothing in this story is what you expect it to be and I found it to be thought provoking and, despite its subject, a nice light read.

Story               ***

Characters       ***

Readability       ****

Overall rating   ***

    

www.home.earthlink.net/~haldeman

Historical Fiction in Ancient Times

Cleopatra’s Daughter

By: Michelle Moran

Crown 2009

Cleopatra and Marc Antony are dead. Crushed by Octavian’s army, three little children is all that remains of the Ptolemaic Dynasty. Here begins the story of the daughter of Cleopatra and Marc Antony. Set against the back drop of the Ancient world, little Cleopatra Selene and her twin brother Alexander, now orphaned, are taken by Octavian back to Rome. There, they are sent to live with Octavian’s sister Octavia, worrying about their future and dreaming of one day making it back to Egypt.

An interesting extrapolation of real events, Cleopatra’s Daughter is a pretty easy, light read. Writing historical fiction can go one of two ways. One; it could be hard to weave an interesting novel only based on what is known and having to fill in what is not and create character traits for historical figures or, two; it could be easy to create your story because you have so much room to be creative. For me it was pretty easy to get into because I know quite a bit about that specific time in history, along with the people who were there. And even though we may know a bit about what these figures were like through writings from the time, we still don’t know what they were really like. Selene and Alexander seem to be, at ten, very intelligent beyond their years, however maybe they were. Maybe that was the product of their access to the highest level of education, as children of an Egyptian queen. Children defiantly had to grow up much more quickly at that time in history.

Also some of the dialogue in the relationships seemed a bit mediocre or silly and I don’t feel as if Moran really spent a lot of time describing the time so as to really pull the reader in, but overall I enjoyed it for what it was, an easy read.

For anyone who likes this time period in history and know a lot about it, you will find that there is nothing new here but you might enjoy this one.

Story                          **

Characters                  **

Readability                  ***

Overall Rating             ***

www.michellemoran.com

Pirates of the Caribbean

Pirate Latitudes

Michael Crichton

Harper Collins 2009

Found as a complete manuscript in Michael Crichton’s files and published posthumously in 2009, Pirate Latitudes is a swashbuckling pirate adventure on the high seas.

In the English colony of Port Royal in Jamaica, a group of misfits lead by Capt Charles Hunter is commissioned to travel to the heavily fortified Spanish port, Matanceros, where the Spanish galleon, El Trinidad thought to contain riches, is docked. Along the way they get captured by the Spanish Commander Cazalla, get caught in a storm at sea and encounter the mythical Cracken. 

This book is very different than Chrichton’s other novels. Most of his other novels deal with advances in science or technology but Pirate Latitudes reminded me more of Pirates of the Caribbean. The story even takes place in the same town.

There are a few too many characters that at times it was difficult to keep them all straight. And I didn’t find myself really engaged in the story, but it is a short read. I can see why Chrichton never published it while he was alive and I’m thinking maybe it was never intended to be published. Chalk this one up to publishers trying to make as much money from their talent as possible, even ones that are no longer with us.

Story              **

Characters       *

Readability       ***

Overall rating   ** 





www.michaelcrichton.net

Drugs Addiction and Incest

High On ArrivalHigh on Arrival

By: Mackenzie Phillips

Simon & Shuster 2009

Mackenzie Phillips, the star of One Day at a Time, recounts the details of her life, highlighting her drug addiction and the shocking and dysfunctional relationship she had with her father, John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas, in this stunning sometimes disturbing memoir.

Most of the book deals with her drug addiction, because it was a part of her life and who she was for so long.

Phillips and her brother grew up as many children from divorced families do, living with their mother during the week, while spending weekends with their father. However; John Phillips was not your typical father. Drug use ran rampant in her father’s life and for Mackenzie; it became a normal way of life. She had her first experience with drugs when she was ten years old. Even being taught by her father how to do cocaine and shoot up as her life became a routine of drugs and partying, as her life spirals out of control, shooting up every twenty minutes.

The most shocking revelation in the book is her waking up, after a drug filled night, in the middle of having sex with her father and admitting that over time the incest became consensual.

There are some bright spots to her story, entering rehab to become sober for ten years, long enough to raise her son. But her story is one of deep despair and drug addiction, loss and longing. About trying to find acceptance and love from a parent, even if it means doing the unthinkable. She takes us inside the mind of a junkie, and shows us that life, for a junkie is all about getting the next fix. And the bridges burned along the way.

Reading a story like hers really made me realize how good my life is and glad that I have never suffered the affliction of addiction. The way she grew up, her father honestly didn’t think there was anything wrong with doing drugs or exposing his children to it. They felt it was what “cool” or “enlightened” people did. And she had experienced so much by the time she was even 14.

In many ways I think she was a victim of circumstance, of her upbringing. But one can’t ignore that she also had many opportunities that many others don’t. Her money financed her habit and when she wanted to go to rehab, she had the money for that too. Most in our society don’t have that luxury.

I feel a little bad that I couldn’t put this book down; but I was just rooting for things to turn out.

And I really enjoyed the telling of her life.

 

Story                     ***

Readability            ****

Overall Rating       ***1/2 

Historically Epic and Profound

Book of Negroes

By: Lawrence Hill

Harpercollins Canada, Limited 2007

Abducted from her West African village at the age of 11, Aminata Diallo is taken to North Carolina and sold into slavery. Not understanding where she is or what is expected of her, Aminata works on a plantation for the evil indigo producer Robinson Appleby, and later a Jewish duty inspector Solomon Lindo. She works for the British during the war for independence, entering names into the infamous Book of Negroes. And when the British offer freedom to loyalist slaves, her journey takes her to Nova Scotia and then to Sierra Leone where nothing is what she expected. Along the way she learns English, teaches herself and others to read and write, makes friends, and falls in love.

Lawrence Hill is one of Canada’s hottest authors. Book of Negroes is the most vivid account I have read of slavery since Roots. Hill writes in a way where we can actually feel the pain and confusion of being stolen from your home by people you have never saw before, taken to a place, where you don’t even know where it is in relation to where you are from, and not being able to speak the language.

The main character Aminata is somewhat a prototype of what it must have been like to endure the horror of slavery, from a female perspective. However we also meet many other characters who, being born in America, know no other life than being owned and have just accepted their circumstances.

This novel is a real journey. It made me look into myself and realize how hard some people’s lives can be and have been in the past, the adversities that have to be overcome and can be overcome, But most of all the triumph of the human soul and spirit.

The Book of Negroes was a real document that recorded the names of all the freed loyalist slaves.

Story *****

Character *****

Readability *****

Overall Rating *****

www.lawrencehill.com