True statement for me! Barnes and Noble loves seeing me walk through the door. Happy Reading!
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“The Race” by Richard North Patterson (2007)
The latest book I grabbed off from my bookshelf is one I picked up about a year ago from a clearance table at Barnes and Noble. The synopsis on the jacket sounded interesting, and the price was right, so I figured “Why not?”
And there it sat. As I pulled out other books and read them, and pulled this one out, looked at it, and put it back on the bookshelf. Time and again. Until it was just about the last book on my shelf I had not even read once. So I started reading it this week. And boy am I ever glad I did. It is a really great story that actually holds my interest, and I am not looking at how many pages I have left to read as I have been with the last couple of books I have read.
It is a political book, which I don’t generally tend to read very many of, about the presidential election and 3 Republican candidates. One is a religious leader, one is a divorced man dating a Hollywood actress, and one is basically a puppet for another man who wants control over the internet, since he already has control over the news stations and journalists. There tends to be a lot of mud-slinging (who would of thought) along with giving the back story on the divorced man who is the central character of the story. Parents who weren’t supportive, a bright military career, current Senator, and living with the guilt of his brothers suicide as well as the loss of his navigator in the Iraq war.
I have to say the story is really less about war and politics and more about the lives of these people, and how they interact and effect each other, both good and bad.
I haven’t finished the story yet, and am forcing myself to not sneak a look at the back of the book to see if Corey Grace, the main character, wins the nomination and future election. So needless to say, I will have what is left of this book finished in short-order, because the suspense is almost too much!
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The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, L. Frank Baum
How I have never heard of or come across this book is beyond me. I absolutely love L. Frank Baum and was sure I had read all of his books, even those that had nothing to do with the Wizard of Oz. This book was published in 1902, and tells a very interesting story of how Santa Claus came to be. There are several places in it that explain the concept of stockings hanging by the fireplace, the Christmas Tree, and I found the most interesting part of the story being as to how the parents got involved in helping Santa get the presents ready for the kids.
From the end of the story: “So, to lighten his task, which was fast becoming very difficult indeed, old Santa decided to ask the parents to assist him. In the story: “Get your Christmas trees all ready for my coming,” he said to them; “and then I shall be able to leave the presents without loss of time, and you can put them on the trees when I am gone.” And to others he said: “See that the children’s stockings are hung up in readiness for my coming, and then I can fill them as quick as a wink.
And often, when parents were kind and good-natured, Santa Claus would simply fling down his package of gifts and leave the fathers and mothers to fill the stockings after he had darted away in his sledge. “I will make all loving parents my deputies!” cried the jolly old fellow, “and they shall help me do my work. For in this way I shall save many precious minutes and few children need be neglected for lack of time to visit them.”
Besides carrying around the big packs in his swift-flying sledge old Santa began to send great heaps of toys to the toy-shops, so that if parents wanted larger supplies for their children they could easily get them; and if any children were, by chance, missed by Santa Claus on his yearly rounds, they could go to the toy-shops and get enough to make them happy and contented. For the loving friend of the little ones decided that no child, if he could help it, should long for toys in vain.
And the toy-shops also proved convenient whenever a child fell ill, and needed a new toy to amuse it; and sometimes, on birthdays, the fathers and mothers go to the toy-shops and get pretty gifts for their children in honor of the happy event. “In all this world there is nothing so beautiful as a happy child,” says good old Santa Claus; and if he had his way the children would all be beautiful, for all would be happy” (L. Frank Baum, 1902)
What a clever way to explain to children the story of Santa and how he came to be. I am going to look for this book so I can get it for my girls, I think they would really enjoy it. But it will have to be an updated printing, because the majority of the ones I am finding online are a fortune! There is one on Ebay right now for $1200.+, with 20 colored plates and it is a 1st edition I believe. Wow! I would love to have it, but a bit out of my buying range 🙂
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Tuesday’s Thought For The Day!
This is definitely fitting for me today! I have always wanted to be a writer, and have numerous stories started. Who knows, maybe one day? 🙂
Happy Reading!
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I Need To Find That Book
I have read 4 books in the past month, and I am still searching for that book. You know the one; you stay up late reading it, fall asleep reading it, put off chores reading it, skip cooking dinner reading it, forget-the-world-around-you exists reading it. You hate to set it down and cannot wait to pick it back up. The book you think about when you are supposed to be thinking about something else. The book that makes you not hear what is being said to you because you are replaying in your head the last thing you read, and imagining what is going to happen next.
I’ve read a lot of those books. Just not recently. The books I’ve read have been good; just not the stand-in-line-before-midnight type of books. I crave a story that makes me laugh out loud, cry, cringe with fear, feel sick with disgust, believe in miracles, or feel like I will never read a book that good again.
For me, those books were written by C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Stephanie Meyer (yes, those books!), Andrew Greeley, Gregory McGuire, Stephen King, Judy Blume, William Johnstone, V.C. Andrews, James Patterson, and so many others I could fill two pages.
When I was a young girl and teenager I could not read enough Encyclopedia Brown and The Three Investigators books, or The Boxcar Children. I will still randomly go to the library and check out about 10 of these books on that rare occasion when I know it is going to be a quiet, childless weekend.
Sometimes I worry that writing has gone commercial. Do you know what I mean? Someone has a contract, and has to churn out these books, and it turns into cookie-cutter reading that sounds a little like that story you read last year, but a couple things are different so it’s OK.
Where is the creativity? The magic? The unbelievable that is written so you believe it? I need that book.
Have you seen this book I’m looking for?
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“The Quest” by Nelson DeMille Review
I’m happy to say I finished “The Quest”, by Nelson DeMille, on schedule as I planned. It was a good story, but there were a couple things that I did not care for (more on that later).
This story centers around 2 journalists (Frank Purcell and Henry Mercado) and a photographer (Vivian Smith) who are in Ethiopia to cover the war that is going on (per the book’s setting). This group runs into a dying priest who has been locked up in a tiny prison cell with no windows for 40 years. He was locked up because he was protecting the location of the Holy Grail.
Much of the story is centered on the war that is going on, and some extensive information about the leaders of these few groups that are at war with each other. The description of the war and the treatment, and disposal, of war prisoners is as graphic and terrible to read as you would expect it to be. The narrative gives you a real sense of being there, and seeing and experiencing what the main characters are seeing and experiencing. You can picture what the jungles and desolate lands look like while reading this story.
Where is the Holy Grail? In Ethiopia. In a monastery made out of black obsidian rock that is next to impossible to locate, and heavily guarded by monks. The majority of the story is centered around our 3 characters trying to find this place. They go to Ethiopia, are captured, abused, escape with their lives, only to eventually go back again, into the same war zone, determined to find the Holy Grail.
They barely make it out again, but do manage to find the black monastery and the legendary Holy Grail. But, out of the 3 of them, only two of them can see it, because the 3rd person, Frank Purcell, does not have the faith in his heart to allow him to see it, at first. Vivian Smith and Henry Mercado believed all along that this religious artifact was not only real but being safeguarded from thieves.
So what is Frank’s problem? He doesn’t believe in God, or Heaven, or have any sort of faith. This could be due to his time he spent in another war. Henry is older that Frank and Vivian, and spent even more time in war zones, but has a strong faith that does not waver throughout the story. In the end, Vivian basically tells Frank he has got to believe in order to see it. And it appears to him. The Holy Grail, a brass cup filled with the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus was dripping from the lance that was suspended in thin air above the cup. Yes, the lance that pierced Jesus’ side as he hung on the crucifix.
What didn’t I like about the story? The forced romantic storyline that did not fit. It felt forced, like an afterthought, filler for the story but not that important. So Vivian is with Henry. Henry gets tied to a pole as a war criminal while Vivian and Frank escape this fate. But they are right there with him. So what do Vivian and Frank do? They are all convinced they are going to be executed by morning, so Frank and Vivian have sex. Up above where Henry is chained. In full view of him. Really? It seemed more impossible to me that this was going to take place than them finding the Holy Grail.
So Henry is angry, and Vivian and Frank are a little sorry, but likely not enough. Fast forward a few months, and Frank is convincing Henry that all 3 of them need to return to Ethiopia to find the grail. What happens during the next leg of the journey? You guessed it. Frank is test flying a plane, and Vivian wants to make Henry feel better about what she did to him, so she has sex with him. Really? Now Henry has one up on Frank, even if he doesn’t know it. But he finds out, of course. Then Frank is mad, and Henry is mad, and Vivian is just I-don’t-know what, but she is a piece of work.
They struggle through the end of their journey and lose a couple comrades on the way, but eventually find the Holy Grail, and maybe Vivian will stay with Frank, or maybe stay with them both because neither of them seems to be bothered by her lack or morals.
Good story? Yes. Great? Not for me. If you are a fan of wars, history, Rome, Ethiopia, or anything to do with the Catholic and/or Christian religions, you will likely enjoy this book. I didn’t ever feel like “I just can’t bear to finish this story”, but it is one book on my bookshelf that I will not likely read again. I’m glad I read it, it had me searching the internet for current, up-to-date information on the Holy Grail, as I know many religious factions are still searching for it today.
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Tuesday’s Thought For The Day!
I have fallen in love with many different books! Some were dependent on what was happening in my life, some helped me to avoid life and enjoy a fantasy world, even if only for a little bit. But all of them have taught me something. Maybe only one thing; but still, something. Every book I open captures a piece of me in its pages, no matter who opens it next.
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On The Schedule For This Weeks Reading…
Is “The Quest” by Nelson DeMille. I picked this up at a store that was going out of business, and didn’t really plan on reading another religious themed book so soon after reading “Killing Jesus“.
This story is part thriller, part love story, according to the book jacket. The first thing I read that had me buying this book: She let them both know, “We are not leaving Ethiopia. We came here to find the Holy Grail, and we will not run away now.”
Mercado pointed out, “We are now hunted fugitives. We have just committed murder.”
Purcell corrected him. “I engaged a hostile aircraft.”
“Call it what you will, old boy, if it makes you feel better as they put the noose around your neck.”
He said to Vivian, “We need to get out of here.”
“We will. When we finish what we came here to do.” (DeMille, N. The Quest. Sept 2013).
So I’m all about the thriller side of the story, and hope the romance side of it adds to the story instead of being a distraction. I have read other books concerning the Holy Grail, and I find it an interesting subject as so many people from so many nations have been looking for this religious artifact for centuries.
So hopefully I can start on this book tonight, and I will have it read by Saturday 🙂
What are you reading this week that is keeping you from getting sleep and accomplishing your chores?
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Hot Off The Presses!
It arrived today, and now I am debating if I want to read it. For two reasons. 1) it is several books in of a series of books, none of which I have ever read, and 2) it is signed by the author.
Accused, by Lisa Scottoline (read more about her here). Stories about an all-female law firm called Rosato and Associates. Reading the jacket has me really wanting to read this story, but I try to not pick up books in the middle of a series of books. I prefer to go back and buy lots more books to read to get myself caught up 🙂 Like I need another reason to visit Barnes and Noble.
From the jacket; Mary DiNunzio has just been promoted to partner and is about to take on her most unusual case yet, brought to the firm by a thirteen-year-old genius with a penchant for beekeeping. Allegra Gardner’s sister, Fiona, was murdered six years ago, and it seemed like an open-and-shut case: The accused, Lonnie Stall, was seen fleeing the scene; his blood was on Fiona and her blood was on him; most damning, Lonnie Stall pleaded guilty. But Allegra believes Lonnie is innocent and has been wrongly imprisoned. The Gardner family is one of the most powerful in the country, and Allegra’s parents don’t believe in reopening the case, so taking it on is risky. (Scottoline, L. 2013, Accused)
This storyline is right up my alley of types of books I like to read, and I don’t know how long I can leave it sit on the bookshelf without cracking it open. And since I need to go to the library tomorrow, I have to hope no one else is looking for this gem of a book and I can snatch it up and have it read within the week.
Have you read her stories, and what did you think of them? It seems along the lines of James Patterson’s Women’s Murder Club series, which I enjoy as well. And why would I buy a book by an author I was not familiar with? Yes, because it was signed. I have a couple of other books that are signed and very important to me.
To read or not to read? That is the question that will likely keep me awake tonight until I can go tomorrow and borrow or buy another book 🙂
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Happy Halloween!
Nothing like a few short stories to freak your kids out with on Halloween 🙂 “Bloody Irish” by Bob Curran is just such a book. It has several Celtic Vampire Legends. Halloween did start in Ireland, and the book is even extra-interesting if you’re Irish!
Happy Trick-or-Treating, and here’s hoping where ever you are, you can stay dry. I certainly won’t…..rain all day long and 40 MPH winds.
I guess I am going as a drowned rat!
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