The Final Winter: an apocalyptic horror novel

The Final Winter: an apocalyptic horror novel by Iain Rob Wright
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This could have been a good book and with a good editor, it still might be, but there are too many mistakes and characters who are not fully developed. At first, I couldn't put it down. There were some individuals in the pub and other stores and interesting story lines, but the promise of those characters kind of fizzled near the end.

The ending was also problematic. I think the trouble is that there are some archetypes in human consciousness and if a person is going to act outside those parameters, there needs to be a very skillful character development. I am thinking of Mephistopheles, Screwtape, Old Scratch and those created by Dante, Milton, and Goethe. I am probably putting it awkwardly, but it is hard to make this point without spoiling the book.
I would like to see other work by the author, because I see a very creative mind.

I also have to note that dropping the foul language and sexual innuendo would help the book a great deal. Many of the situations call for specific adjectives which would help the reader experience the character's thoughts better than the trite expletives which are repetitive and non specific.

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Ramblings

Another bit of my ramblings on The Catcher in the Rye discussion:

Books are deemed classics for a lot of reason one of which is that they speak to the human condition and give us insight into ourselves and/or mankind in general.

Somewhere around puberty, we learn to think abstractly.  Up until that point, we are limited by what we have experienced ourselves and we think that everyone experiences the same reality.  Somewhere around the 7th grade we begin to read literature that is more abstract and opens our minds up to a different reality.  We read books like Silas Marner , Great Expectations , An American Tragedy, Catcher in the Rye , and my favorite Of Human Bondage .

By reading books such as these, we learn more about the psychological and philosophical world we live in.  We learn to understand what human nature contains and why people and countries act the way they do. Criminal profilers do not like the serial killers they interview, but they interview them to learn about why they do what they do.

We might not like the characters, the language, or the settings of these books and find them boring even, but that isn't why they are studied.  We can change because of a book even if we don't like it.  I think that is why they are classics.

I try to read a lot of classics because I think they improve my understanding of myself and others.  When I come across a book that appears on most classics list and I don't like it and can't see the point, I feel sad.  There are a lot of people out there who are learning wonderful things, and I can't get it.  Lots of times I go on my library website to get the ebook copy of Cliff Notes or something similar to see if I can understand it.  I still struggle with Toni Morrison or Salmon Rushdi, so every few years, I try them again.  If all those people who are smarter and more well read than I am say that something is in this book that makes it a classic, I pretty much believe them, especially if the book has been around a long time.  If Catcher in the Rye has been on the classics list for this long, it has value even if I may not enjoy reading it.

This is a really good discussion and I wish I could quote some of the other posts here, but I can't, but here is a link to the discussions:

The Catcher in the Rye
Overrated Books

Paula wrote: "The past isn't even past?  

I don't understand. Can you explain please?"

We carry the past with us.  We act in certain ways because of our personal past or the historical past.  Sometimes we are bound by the past as in Frost's poem:

"He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

Sometimes we are in rebellion against the past, but that is still giving it influence over us.

To me, reading allows us to look into others' minds and in doing so, we sometimes see ourselves.  That is why a book like The Catcher in the Rye is important.  The reader is eventually able to see why Holden Caufield acts the way he does AND perhaps, understand his or her own present or past.  (Btw, I didn't like it either, but I understand how people, especially teens, can see themselves in Holden.  I remember thinking that Holden was just like a classmate of mine and it gave me some insight into why he acted the way he did.)

Anyway, when we see ourselves in literature, we can understand our own lives and change them.  It makes sense that a particular book might not speak to us and we wonder what all the fuss is about, but classics are books that speak to the human condition as well as  the individual reader.

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I'm reading this for a book group on Ravelry. I've read it twice before, but there is always more to get out of it. I've finally finished and I have to admit that I devoured the last 10 chapters. Mother and I had to have TV dinners because I was 85% finished and couldn't put the Kindle down...and I already vaguely remembered the end.

This is one of the most famous example of Gothic Literature. It is a story that seems to rise up from the barren moors. The characters are complex and seem driven by forces as strong as the winds that howl through the story. Old Mr. Earnshaw sets everything in motion when he brings home the street Arab whom he calls Heathcliff. He sees strengths in Heathcliff that he doesn't see in his own son and seems to care more about him arousing jealousy in his son, Hindley. Heathcliff and Earnshaw's wild and ungovernable daughter, Catherine, bond quickly and run wild on the moors. They form a bond that the whole story revolves around.

This is a wonderful story about love, obsession, betrayal, degradation and redemption. The motives of the characters are complex and have a depth that even Freud would find worthy of study.



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From a discussion on Goodreads' Catcher in the Rye site  about books that are "overrated."

 It occurs to me that there is a lot of difference between, "I didn't like this book" and it is "just junk" I am reading Wuthering Heights right now in another group. The complex psychology of the main characters is amazing. I've thought about a time in my past when I took a path which was obviously so wrong for me and wondered what I could have been thinking? As I study Heathcliff and Cathy, I gain some understanding of what was going on and, what is more important to me, I understand that I could not have taken any other path at that time because the outcome of that choice is what made me a different person.

 It is all right that a person doesn't like the The Catcher in the Rye or Jane Austen or the Bronte's, but it doesn't mean that they aren't good books and don't deserve to be classics. On the other hand, there are many books on the New York Times' best seller list that I do believe are overrated because they contain no plot, poor research and poor character development.

The Hypnotist's Love Story

The Hypnotist's Love Story by Liane Moriarty
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I've finally finished this book I am reading for a book group and am wondering how to summarize it. The best I can come up with is that it wasted my time. It's not a bad book. I don't mean that, but the only thing I learned from is was a bit of knowledge about Australia.

The plot is simple, Ellen, the hypnotist met Patrick on an online dating site. They seem to hit it off, but he tells her he is being stalked by an old girlfriend. It is still going on. After his wife died leaving him with a 1 year old, he started a relationship with her that lasted for 3 years. After the break up, she started stalking him. It turns out that his ex-girlfriend is a client of the hypnotist. Neither Patrick nor Ellen know this.

Then there are about 10 chapters where Ellen compares Patrick with every ex-boyfriend she ever had and agonizes about the relationship Patrick had with his stalker and his first wife. It was beyond boring to me. I know people who read this love story and loved it, but it wasn't for me.

I did like the information and descriptions of Australia and the customs there. I think the author did a great job of making me feel like I could see the things she described. I think the problem is that I don't much care for romances.

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The Oath

The Oath by Frank Peretti
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was one of Peretti’s best. The plot centers on the effect of evil on the human soul. Professor Steve Benson, comes to the town of Hyde River because his brother, Cliff, has been killed by some enormous animal that seems to defy description. It is assumed that he was mauled by a bear, but Steve, with a Ph.D in Biological Science and a professorship at Colorado State University teaching environmental science and biology, is not satisfied. He and the conservation officer of Fish and Game manage to kill the rogue bear thought to have been large enough to inflict the damage, but are very unsatisfied with the findings of the post-mortem of either Cliff or the bear.

As the plot develops, it appears that there is more wrong than just a habituated bear. The town is full of mystery and people are united against any outsiders. There seems to be a conspiracy of silence and actual hostility towards Steve. The only one helping is the attractive deputy, Tracy Ellis. She grew up in Hyde River but seems to have some objectivity about troubles in the town, and she doesn’t believe that it was a bear that killed Cliff Benson.

What has happened to Maggie Bly, wife of Harold Bly? Why does Bly have so much control of the people of the town? Why is there such a concerted effort to mislead and drive out Steve Benson? What is the oath that the people of the town took more than 100 years ago, and what does it have to do with Cliff’s death? What are the ominous, dark, oozing sores that appear over the hearts of many in the town?

What follows it the depiction of evil and what it does to a people. Steve learns about the evil that resides in his own heart as he gets closer and closer to the evil in the town. The pace is fast and keeps the reader involved in the chase while Steve desperately tries to find meaning in the evidence that seems to go against everything modern society seems to consider normal.



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I have been following a discussion on my Goodreads group ostensibly about "Overrated Books," but which led to a discussion of classics. This is my contribution: Another take on "Classics."

 I was a librarian and a teacher and I started a book group on the classics. There are a number of patrons who came up in the 70's and 80's and never read any; no Dickens, no Hawthorne, no Twain, no Shakespeare...nothing! They felt they were lacking, especially because they couldn't understand literary references, and they couldn't read any classics when they did pick them up because the sentences were too long, the vocabulary was too difficult, and they couldn't understand the complex motivations of the characters.

 So, in my book club of about 10 people, we used the Modern Library 100 Best Novels and other similar lists to pick from. We each picked the books we wanted to read. For the two who hadn't read any of the books, we suggested Dracula and The Scarlet Letter. One person wanted to read more of the Lost Generation...Hemingway, Faulkner etc. and I decided to read more Dickens, Conrad, and attempt to read Rushdi and Morrison again.

 We came back each month and discussed what we read. It was amazing! I didn't like the Lost Generation, but I learned enough from the person who did, to try one she read and appreciated it. It was the discussion that made the difference. Many of the classics take study. I got in Cliff's Notes and Monarch Notes on the books people were interested in and we discussed them. We did this for a year. I still don't like Salman Rushdi or Toni Morrison, and I am not certain if they will stand the test of time, but I see much more in them than I did before.

 I don't exactly know how you get around this, but most high school students are too young and too unmotivated to appreciate many of the classics; however, if they don't read and study them, they will never get the skills to read them. It's a catch 22. Classics have long sentences, difficult vocabulary and abstract and philosophical content, but reading and studying them is the only way you can develop the skills to read others.

 So why bother? I don't want to get political, but the mess in Congress is a good example of why. People on both sides cling tenaciously to their own point of view and can't understand the perspective of others or the limitations of their own thinking that is exactly why we study literature!

Behold a Pale Horse

Behold a Pale Horse by Delphine Cull
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have always been interested in the Bubonic Plague. There was more than one occurrence, but this deals with the most severe and far reaching one in 1349. Alyse Elsey lost almost everyone she knew; her husband and children, her sisters and her best friend. The only survivor was her best friend's toddler son, Harold. She feels that she has to take Harold to his uncle, a monk in Norwich. The people she meets and the situations she runs into on the journey give a picture of the lives of the survivors. All over England there was chaos and lawlessness. All the usual structure, government, familial attachments, marketing and day to day existence of their lives were permanently changed. In many villages, less than one tenth of the people were left, and the cities were worse.

Alyse is a gifted healer and as she settles in Norwich, her talents are sorely needed. At first, she is reluctant to become close to anyone because her grief is too great and she did not think she could bear to love people again only to have them snatched away from her. However, she does meet John and his healer mother, who take her and Harold in when she was left dying along the road. How these people put their lives together is a fascinating story.

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Baby X: Britain's Child Abusers Brought To Justice

Baby X: Britain's Child Abusers Brought To Justice by Harry Keeble
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a very interesting report on the response of the United Kingdom to the deaths of two children, Victoria Climbié and Baby P. Both were failures of the Social Services, police and doctors. Victoria Climbié had been tortured for years and Baby P for over half of his short life. After those horrific failures, new laws were made, policies changed and police were assigned to what Harry Keeble called the "cardigan squad."

He details the lengths the police and social services were willing to to document abuse and to track down the abusers. This also included sending teams to some foreign countries to talk to witnesses and build a case. Heartbreakingly, some times the abusers were set free, but some of the older children who testified said that they felt free because they had had a chance to face their abuser, in many cases, their fathers, and tell what was done to them.

While there were many successes, there are still children who fall between the cracks and suffer horrific abuse and more needs to be done. The statistics are appalling and they are increasing. Having been a teacher, I found myself going over children I had taught and wondering about situations that made me uneasy. I remember children who were too quiet and timid and a father I felt was too full of anger.

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The Hobbit, Prequel to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy

The Hobbit, Prequel to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I got a great deal from Audible on this book, so I am listening to it again for about the 4th time. Actually, I think I am going to use it for my homeschool unit on Folklore for my granddaughter.

For me, it is a big comfort read, something like Harry Potter. There is just such a wealth of experiences in the book. Why is it so much easier to see through human behavior when we look through the eyes of other creatures?

Essentially, Bilbo Baggins has found himself on an adventure which is something that Hobbits never do...except for the Took side of the family, and that is way back in the genealogy. Gandalf the wizard has sold him as a master burglar to a group of dwarfs and they are on the way to retrieve their ancient treasures stolen by Smaug the dragon. Along the way we meet all sorts of creatures such as trolls, goblins, elves and the like. Bilbo finds himself in a capital adventure and at times he is not sure he likes it, but in every way, he rises to the occasion and finds that he actually does have some skills as a burglar.

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The Secret Kingdom (Chronicles of the Red King, #1

The Secret Kingdom by Jenny Nimmo
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the first of a prequel series to the Charlie Bone books. Charlie Bone is a descendant of the Red King and this is the story of his illustrious ancestor.

The story starts in the Secret Kingdom which is doomed to fall to the wicked viridees. Before the end, the children Timoken and Zobayda are given gifts which protect them and an Alixir which keeps them from aging. When the viridees have killed their father, Timoken is told by his mother that he can fly and that he is to take his sister and flee.

From there they meet a number of fantastic creatures including the camal, Gabar, who becomes Family. At every turn they are beset by the viridees who are trying to steal the magical moon spider web cloak which is the last one in the world. This series promises to be as good as the first and middle graders will love it.

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New Kind of Monster: The Secret Life and Shocking True Crimes of an Officer . . . and a Murderer

A New Kind of Monster: The Secret Life and Shocking True Crimes of an Officer . . . and a Murderer by Timothy Appleby
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a hard book to review. The story was told well and thoroughly, especially the attempts to explain the reason for Col. Russell Williams to exchange a super successful life for the life of a serial rapist and murderer. The example of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde fits best, but even in Stevenson’s book there was a cause. Col. Williams was at the top of an extremely successful career. He was a brilliant pilot who had risen to the most prestigious position in the Canadian Air Force. He had flown dignitaries, including the Queen of England. He commanded an Air Force base. He had a successful and happy marriage. He was a mentor to those below him and respected by everyone who worked with him. Suddenly, he began breaking into neighbors’ houses to steal lingerie after taking scores of pictures of himself wearing these articles while he was there. From there he escalated to serial rapist and murder in less than a year. Why would someone who was at the top of his game turn into a sexual sadist with no history of criminal or deviant behavior before the age of 44?

The author has done a good job of explaining the facts and reporting the speculations of psychologists, law officials and the military as to the cause of his abrupt change, but no explanation could be found. For some reason, Williams was able to compartmentalize his life in such a way as to be two completely opposite people. In doing so, he betrayed the trust of his neighbors, his family, the military who had honored him and his country. Because of the circumstances, this is one of the most interesting true crime books I have read since The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule.


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Teaching Folk Tales

I am so excited! This year's homeschool literature unit is Folk Tales, Fairy Tales, Folk Songs, Myths and Legends. That means that Addie and I will be delving into all those delicious remnants of our past, our literary heritage. We won't be reading the easy book format either. I am trying to get books, or translations that were done as early as possible in order to enjoy the rich heritage of language also.

Here is what is exciting me. I'm a genealogist as well as a teacher and I gave Addie a list of her direct ancestors that I have found and as much information as we know about them. Out of the 640 people I know about I had her select all the people who had German ancestry, including Germanic people from the Alsace region, Switzerland and Belgium. Although most of our ancestors were from England, she found 29 people who had German ancestry.

Next, she is to do some research on the Grimm brothers and write a report about them and their quest to record as much of the folk lore of their people as they could find. As we read these stories, we are going on Google Maps and finding the villages her ancestors lived in and in many cases, taking that little "street level boy" and looking at the place where they lived. We don't know much about these ancestors from the 1700's and 1800's, but we will know the stories that surrounded them.

What made me think of this? Well, along with being a teacher, I was also a librarian. I was dismayed to see book companies putting out modern day "translations" of so many Fairy & Folk Tales. By the time the hard words and scary contents taken out and the stories scrubbed with the Political Correctness brushes, there is little left of our rich literary heritage. I am not blaming the book companies. At least our children will be familiar with the stories, but so much is lost. The schools can't teach a lot of these stories because someone might take exception to something in them or because they don't have time after reading all of the politically correct stories they have to include.

I am fortunate. I create the units I teach out of the things I know Addie loves. Last year I focused on Opera and we both learned so much. Some of the librettos were difficult and some of the parts were deliciously scary...like Diana Damrau's Queen of the Night from The Magic Flute. I love passing down our culture as well as our literary heritage. I don't have the constraints that public schools have and I know they do the best they can to work within those bounds. I can also afford to challenge a bright student because I don't have 30 other children to teach. It is up to the parents to try to fill in the gaps, but for us, this works.

arn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter

Yarn Harlot: The Secret Life of a Knitter by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I loved this book. It is only meaningful to knitters or perhaps someone who wants to learn. Stephanie recounts knitting disasters and successes. She talks about things like "stash" "organizing stash and patterns" Ravelry, blogging and all things knitterly. Some things made me laugh and others made me glad I wasn't the only one to make such a stupid mistake. It always feels better to know that a master knitter has made the same mistakes I have. There are some tips in the book, but mainly, it is just fun.

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Spilled Milk

Spilled Milk by KL Randis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a very compelling story and I could hardly put it down, but it made me so angry. I know this kind of abuse goes on and that children are victimized by their parents, but this child was also victimized by Social Services and her school. How could such agencies promise confidentiality and then do things which put her into further jeopardy? How could a school be so insensitive?

But this is a story of a young girl with enormous courage. At times I was hearing the music from "Rocky" while I was reading. Brooke felt responsible for her siblings and her mother so she tolerated a situation that no child should have to face with the tacit understanding that her father would not sexually abuse her sister. She couldn't protect her family from her father's incredible rage and selfishness, but she could keep it from being any worse.

Brooke's mother, while not abusive, also contributed to her problems. As in so many cases, she was passive and absorbed with her own survival and so she chose to ignore some vital signals. Despite this, Brooke had people in her life who cared about her and recognized that something wasn't right. In the end, they did what they could, and did it well.

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Call Me Cockroach

Call Me Cockroach by Leigh Byrne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book is the sequel to Leigh Byrne's Call Me Tuesady. It is her own account of the abuse she suffered from her mother between the ages of 8 to 14 when she finally went to live with her aunt. Only Tuesday was singled out for abuse, and her father, while aware of the about did little to prevent it. He did send her to her grandmother and aunt's for summers, but when contacted by Social Services, he maintained that Tuesday was not being abused. Her brothers, two older and one younger, maintained a distance from Tuesday and were complicit by their silence.

While Tuesday did get away from her mother and had a very loving and supportive relationship with her aunt, the scars of her early life effected her in every way. The book gets its title from the concept that the cockroach, despised and hated, will still be in the world even if civilization is destroyed because they are survivors. It is hard for people who have never been abused to understand the depth of damage done to a child like Tuesday. This book pulls away the curtains and allows us to get inside the damaged psyche of someone who has been told she is a worthless. It wasn't enough that Tuesday was forced to stand with her nose to the wall for hours, locked in her bedroom with only a bucket for her waste and starved; she was sent to school dressed in rags and filthy so that her classmates would continue the abuse at school. When Tuesday attended school at her aunt's, she was clean and dressed in fashionable clothes, but she expected to be rejected and by her classmates. Her early decisions were made from a terrible sense of self worth. The ordinary person would look at someone like Tuesday when she was finally surrounded by love and expect her to suddenly change. This book was an eye-opener.

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The Hobbit, Prequel to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy

The Hobbit, Prequel to the Lord of the Rings Trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I got a great deal from Audible on this book, so I am listening to it again for about the 4th time. Actually, I think I am going to use it for my homeschool unit on Folklore for my granddaughter.

For me, it is a big comfort read, something like Harry Potter. There is just such a wealth of experiences in the book. Why is it so much easier to see through human behavior when we look through the eyes of other creatures?

Essentially, Bilbo Baggins has found himself on an adventure which is something that Hobbits never do...except for the Took side of the family, and that is way back in the genealogy. Gandalf the wizard has sold him as a master burglar to a group of dwarfs and they are on the way to retrieve their ancient treasures stolen by Smaug the dragon. Along the way we meet all sorts of creatures such as trolls, goblins, elves and the like. Bilbo finds himself in a capital adventure and at times he is not sure he likes it, but in every way, he rises to the occasion and finds that he actually does have some skills as a burglar.

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The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective

The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective by Kate Summerscale
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book and it increased my sense of the Victorian culture with regards to crime, the rise of a detective force and the role of the novel and novelist.

Ostensibly the book is about the murder of three year old Saville Kent who was found in an outhouse with his throat slit and the detective who first identified the guilty person. A number of readers, who have previously read about this crime were disappointed because there wasn’t a lot of new information in the book. I think this always happens when a new book is written about famous unsolved crimes like those of Jack the Ripper and Lizzie Borden. We ache to get that one piece of information that will be incontrovertible, and there is such disappointment when it isn’t there.

I found the real value in this book was the description of the detective, Jack Whicher, and the new role of the police detective. I have been reading books about this period lately including books by Dickens, Wilkie Collins and Poe. I also am a fan of Anne Perry’s Victorian mysteries. This book described how people felt about the new crime novels and as well as the emergence of a middle class with time to read them. Especially interesting was the role of the detective. People felt that prying into stranger’s business was a vile practice, but they also lived in a complex society where people no longer knew the people surrounding them well. In order for justice to be done, someone needed to find the criminal.

The book does drag in a few places and I thought the character development could have been a bit better, but I also realize that is a problem with books about real people. It is hard to make them seem real when there is little evidence available. I thought the author used the personal writings of some of the characters to let them speak for themselves and not put words into their mouths.


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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier

This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the terrible wars in Africa. It is a story of a 12 year old boy living at the time of a civil war in Sierra Leone. At first Ishmael tells of village life and the kind of thing that normal boys do. He is aware of the war in Sierra Leone, but his village has not been involved at the beginning of the book. However, one day, when he and 4-5 other boys his age are out of the village it is taken over by rebels and most of the people are killed. None of the boys know what happened to his family. The boys hide out in the woods traveling from place to place trying to avoid both the rebels and the government soldiers. Eventually, they are caught by the army and given guns and drugs and turned into soldiers. The book does not go into great detail about all the atrocities the children commit, but the ones that are alluded to are horrifying. The use of drugs and the tactics that engender hatred of the enemy are terrible. One of the strongest things about this book is the ease with which children can be turned into terrorist. Ishmael Beah is able to give us enough of a glimpse into his pre-war life to realize that he is an intelligent and kind boy who was turned into a monster despite his intention to not become a soldier. Eventually, maelIsh makes his way out of Sierra Leone and into the hands of care workers who have set up camps to treat these boy soldiers and convince them that the things they did were not their fault. They have unbelievable patience and commitment to rehabilitate these children. The last part of the book is his reclamation and I was just in awe of the people who do this incredible work. One scene stays with me. The boys are in the reclamation center with other boys who fought on the opposite side, but finally out of danger. Despite the work of the staff, they end up in a fight and boys are killed. The terrible brain-washing that inflames their hatred is so difficult to eradicate that even when they are safe, it is hard to let go of. To all the things that happen, the staff continues to convey to the boys that it is not their fault. That is probably one of the strongest messages...the boys are not at fault. They have been turned into killing machines by adults and used for their own ends. Eventually, Ishmael is chosen to speak before the UN and tell the story of the child soldiers. He stays in New York and goes back to high school which is absolutely incredible when you realize what he has been through. This book is about Sierra Leone, but it is found all around the world. Children raised on hatred to this extent are unable to use the same kind of reasoning as adults and they kill blindly. Their childhood is being stolen from them and turned into something terrible.

Alas, Babylon

Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this book in the 8th grade when the threat of a hydrogen bomb was possible. There were a lot of similar books around, the best known was Hiroshima, but I also remember We Who Survived (the 5th Ice Age).

This book takes place in central Florida around Mt. Dora. It concerns a group of people who band together after a nuclear bomb. The protagonist, Randy, lives in a very large old southern home. His brother who is high up in the SAC warns Randy that war is coming and that he is sending his wife and children back to the family home for their safety. He also warns Randy that the Civil Defensive is woefully inadequate and that they need to prepare for a disaster no one wants to talk about.

Shortly after his brother's family arrives they see a large bright white light in the direction of Miami and then closer ones near all the big cities and military bases in Florida. As soon as they see the first bomb, Randy begins to prepare in earnest. I think one of the things that makes this book so real is the mistakes they make in the beginning. They treat the bomb as they would a hurricane and go to the grocery store to stock up on food. Unfortunately, they buy groceries as if the power was to be off only for several days...not permanently! Every day they find ways in which their future will be drastically different.

One of the most fascinating thing about this genre is that books of this type actually helped to change the political climate. As people began to explore these disaster scenarios it became apparent that no one could win in this kind of war. The authors' skill in creating a post war reality convinced most countries that war of this type would be a disaster for the whole world.

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A Brother's Journey

A Brother's Journey by Richard B. Pelzer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the book that David Pelzer's brother, Richard, wrote about his ordeal after David left home. When David was there, Richard functioned as Mother's Nazi." He tattled about every little thing Richard did and often lied to get him in trouble. Several years younger, his mother groomed him from the time he could talk.

After David left, Richard became the outcast and as he became more and more abused, he felt terrible about the part he played in his brother's life. Eventually, he became "The boy," and finally, "It."

What I can't understand is why the Social Services didn't keep tabs on this mother after the terrible abuse David suffered. When he was taken from the home, it seemed ludicrous to not check on the other children. When the same teachers saw Richard begin to come to school in the same filthy old clothes, starving and with bruises all over just like David, why didn't anyone do anything? I realize it was a different climate in the 70's, but it seems bizarre to ignore what was going on.

As adults, these brothers have only met one or two times and there is some antagonism between them. It seems clear that Richard did suffer abuse, but there is some question as to how much. However, it seems to me that the mother spent the biggest portion of her days torturing David and I can't see that stopping after he was removed. She was filled with so much anger and it had to have a target.

Different people have tried to link her with a specific mental illness and seem to lean towards Borderline Personality Disorder. This book tells more about her relationship with her own mother and there seems to have been some abuse there. Whatever the pathology, she was never prosecuted and lived out the rest of her natural life.


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The Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family

The Lost Boy: A Foster Child's Search for the Love of a Family by Dave Pelzer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was a little easier to read than the first one, but just barely. David went through a number of foster homes, some meant to be temporary and others temporary because of his behavior. It is easy to forget that an abused child comes to a foster home with many behaviors, which, while they enabled him to survive in his original home, were inappropriate in a foster home. David learned to be very wary and to squelch his emotional needs. At home he learned to steal to get enough food to live and to desire to be loved and accepted by his abusing mother and his peers. When prodded by classmates, he shoplifted to show off. He went by his mother’s house which was strictly forbidden. He made contact with his brother and did other things which were inappropriate. Unbelievably, most of these children continue to believe that their abusive parents will somehow change and shower them with love. The picture of David waiting for his father to visit weekend after weekend was heartbreaking.

I worked for a number of years in juvenile corrections and I have seen that behavior on many occasions. Over and over we would tell the boys that they were very lucky to get into a school, foster home or treatment center, and that they had to behave in order to not go to a training school. Even though they were petrified of going to a state school, they so often could not take advantage of the placement found for them. They lacked the ability to follow a few necessary rules and ended up in a state school with far more rules. This is exactly what happened to David. The problem isn’t with correcting their behavior as much as filling up the holes in their hearts so that they become able to behave. The big question is can they fill up the need before the behavior is totally out of hand. In David’s case, he was able to accept the love his foster parents had for him and began to modify his behavior, but not until he had been moved from a number of homes.


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A Child Called "It"

A Child Called "It" by Dave Pelzer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I've read this before, but I wanted to read it again before reading a later book. It was still hard to read it even knowing what Dave Pelzer has made of his life. It is almost unbelievable that an adult could treat a child like this and that others in the family, especially Dave's father, could allow it.

Dave's says that his mother was kind and loving during the first 5 years of his life, but suddenly she changed and targeted him for horrific abuse. She treated her other children well but starved Dave and made him work like a slave. Once she stabbed him and frequently locked him in a bathroom with a deadly combination of bleach and ammonia, or made him lay in a tub full of cold water for hours completely submerged except for his nose. David felt that she really wanted him to die, but he managed to survive by sheer will. Along with the daily torture, she starved him. In school he desperately stole from other student’s lunches, but at one point during the summer, he went 10 days without food.

I recently read Call Me Tuesday by Leigh Byrne and she also was the only one her mother abused. It is hard to understand how a mother could target only one of her children for her anger. To me, that indicates that there is a degree of control that makes the abuse seem even more heinous. I can understand how a parent who suffered abuse in childhood would have anger management problems and not have any parenting skills, but Dave’s mother's treatment of her other children demonstrates that she knew what was right.

While this is a hard book to read, it is also very inspiring. Somehow, through fierce determination, young Dave manages to survive. Eventually, his teachers and principal had enough evidence to go to the police and David was removed but the story of how he survived is a tribute to the human spirit.


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A Giant Problem (Beyond the Spiderwick Chronicles, #2)

A Giant Problem by Holly Black
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

In this second book of the series and you have to read the first book first for this one to make sense. That book left with a cliff hanger of the giants waking up. What do the kids do with about 30 giants all waking up at the same time? First, they have to get more help which they do from unexpected sources. Then they have to get rid of the giants. Through a convoluted effort and leaving behind a day of reckoning of major proportions, they attempt to do the impossible.

Middle graders will love this series.

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Rapacia

Rapacia by Dale E. Basye
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is the second book in the series and I can understand why kids like it so much. I was testing it as a Homeschool free reading book and I'm putting it on my list.

Milton has been returned to earth, but now he wants to go back to get his sister. In the meantime, his sister is doing just fine, in a manner of speaking. She uses skills as a con-artist, thief to work for her in Heck. The theme of this level of Heck is "greed." She is paired with the kind of girl she hated in school: rich, in-crowd, super consumer, haughty, and obnoxious spoiled brat. However, they are no match for her and neither is her nemesis principal, Bea "Elsa" Bubb.

The torment in this level of Heck is the enormous Mallvana, a shopper's paradise where everything is tantalizingly close, but always out of touch.

In the meantime, her brother, Milton, is having his share of problems. It seems like returning from Heck by chicken power has left his soul sort of fractured and subject to some alarming chicken-like moments.

Add to the mix an enormous metal rabbit called the Grabbit and a few new members of the Heck hierarchy, some wonderful puns and literary references and you can please most middle graders.

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A Thread Unbroken

A Thread Unbroken by Kay Bratt
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an extremely interesting book. I knew there were problems in China with the tender imbalance in China, but I had no idea that people kidnap girls for marriage.

Chai and Josi, both 14, were kidnapped from their home and taken to a rural fishing village. Chai was intended as a bride for the bullying older son of the family and Josi, crippled from birth, was taken to insure that her best friend, Chai, would come with her.

Chai was a courageous and resilient young girl who was beloved, especially, by her father who never ceased to search for her. Unfortunately the police were not very diligent in searching for kidnapped girls and often were a part of the kidnapping rings. Chai's father, however, would not give up and he pestered to police constantly.

Life on the houseboat was dreadful and Chai and Josi were treated as little more than slaves. They were overworked and underfed, but Chai still remained spunky and was always looking for a way to escape. When their foster mother had a baby girl with a cleft palette, the father demands that the midwife come and take the baby and drown it. Chai learns that other baby girls have been born to the family and they also were disposed of. Chai finds away to get care for the baby in a local mission orphanage.

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A Body in the Backyard

A Body in the Backyard by Elizabeth Spann Craig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a cute, very light read. The sleuth is an ex-teacher who is pushing 90. She lives in a tiny town which has a lot of murders. Her son is the Chief of Police and lives across the road. This time murder lands right in her yard and ironically, the weapon is one of the many plaster gnomes she has there.

The victim turns out to be a disreputable cousin of the next door neighbor who is also her auxillary sleuth. She is not dismayed. How can her son expect her to not get involved when the murderer broke one her her gnomes in the commission of his or her crime? When another body is found a the very same spot, she has even more reason to get involved.

I didn't connect with the main character as well as in similar series,
but this is not the first book in the series and possibly there was more character development in the previous books.

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am listening to this book for about the 6th time. I need a story which will carry me along without much effort and yet capture my interest and challenge me to see more than I saw the last time. There are confusing times in my life when this comfort read is exactly what I need and Rowling and Jim Dale, the narrator, always deliver.

In this book, Harry finds a potions book from a former student and when he follows the instruction, he produces extraordinary results. Hermione is deeply troubled by the book and insists that he turn it in. Who is the Half-Blood Prince?

It is hard to review this book without giving the plot away, so I will stick to the generalities. We learn a lot more about Tom Riddle and how he came to be Lord Voldemort. The reader begins to have a little sympathy for him...until he reveals his cold bloodedness at such a young age. It goes way beyond the mind of a schoolboy.

We get to see a lot more of the pensive and it begins to reveal the prequel to the stage that is set for Harry when he comes to Hogwarts. I think the pensive is an absolutely brilliant device. I would love to have one myself! Suddenly, Harry is there, seeing the people in the past as they were without being interpreted by flawed memories. I think the memories also reveal the depth of Rowling's talent. She has constructed these books as if she knew from the very beginning just where she was going every step of the way. Tiny bits of information in book 1, come back in book 6 and their importance is revealed. In fact, I think that is why I keep coming back to these books. I make connections that completely eluded me up to that point. I am in awe of the depth of her organization for what is ostensibly juvenile fiction.

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Watership Down

Watership Down by Richard Adams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this ages ago and loved it, so when it came up on Audible, I selected it. Like any good comfort read, it made me smile just to start it. I am at a different stage in my life, so I'm sure I'll see things that I didn't see before.

This book is great on many levels. By using animals, as in Animal Farm, human behavior becomes more clear. When Fiver senses that something terrible is going to happen in his old warren and tries to convince others that they need to leave, very few listen. I look at today's headlines about our national debt and I wonder how people can't see the danger...but no one wants to listen.

Hazel and some other rabbits heed his warning because he has been right so many times in the past and leave the old warren. Along the way they find a warren where everything is provided for the rabbits, but there is a terrible flaw in their system. There are subtle parallels today.

As the book goes on, the rabbits become more and more real and that is also part of the skill of Adams. Years ago, I taught this book in a medium level prison. At first the men weren't very happy reading about rabbits, but they had some faith in me and they went on with the book. At the end of it, many said it was the best book they ever read. Along the way, they were able to see parallels with the prison and society.



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Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go

Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go by Dale E. Basye
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I was reading this to see if I could use it for Homeschool free reading and I still am not sure if it will work. It is the story of a brother and sister who are killed in an accident at a mall. The sister is a particularly "bad" child who loves to do rotten things. She drags along her brother who is exactly the opposite. While shopping she puts some makeup in his bag and so he is technically guilty of stealing. After they die they slide into "Heck" where the bad kids go. In the case of Milton, there has obviously been a mistake. but Bea "Elza" Bubb does not want to admit it. What follows is a kid type adventure that relies on puns and other somewhat clever things.

"Heck" is "Limbo" where bad kids go until they are 18 years old. By that time, they will have improved because of the experience and be ready to enter into the Upper Place, or will have revealed their nature. think I will have to read another books in the series to see if it gets better. Some people have commented in the inconsistencies and I'd like to see if kids pick them up. There are some obvious flaws in the book, but that is a good teaching tool also. So, we shall see....

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To the Grave (A Genealogical Crime Mystery #2)

To the Grave by Steve Robinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

At first I thought this book was not going to be as good as the first. After all, it deals with a young girl in WWII England who finds herself pregnant by a soldier and disappears after giving up her baby for adoption. But then the bodies start to appear...not WWII bodies, but real, present day bodies who turn up dead right before Jefferson Tayte can interview them. Why is someone interested in such a commonplace occurrence?

It is probably a good thing that Steve Robinson put the scene in the Prologue. If there is any doubt that this book is not going to live up to the high adventure of his first book, that little scene dispels that nonsense.

The client, 66 year old Eliza Gray, has been sent a little red suitcase anonymously with a note saying that it was from her real mother. It came as a big surprise as Eliza did not know that she was adopted. She hires JT to go to England to find our who her real mother is and why, after all this time, someone has revealed this fact to her. JT, being at loose ends and missing his mentor, Marcus Brown, steels himself to fly again to England to engage in research which doesn't seem to be very interesting. However, he understands what Eliza is feeling because he has suffered from the same lack of knowledge about his own parents and he looks forward to supplying her with information that he has not been able to find for himself.

In short order, he is able to find the name of her mother, but there is no name listed for her father. Thus begins the quest. As with the first book, the action passes between present and past and the reader is able to fill in some of the gaps and the truth of some of JT's conclusions. We know that Mena did have a soldier sweetheart, but there are a number of things that just don't add up. Just about everyone JT needs to contact has recently died or has no information, making the picture even more murky and that is when the bodies start to pile up.




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In the Blood (A Genealogical Crime Mystery #1)

In the Blood by Steve Robinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book immensely. It was an interesting historical puzzle which seemed to have a bit of James Bond in the genealogy parts. Genealogist usually deal with people who are dead, but not at finding them at their feet! The assignment seems simple enough. A client would like to give a present to his wife and he hired Jefferson Tayte to find the English ancestors of his wife's family. Unfortunately, someone desperately wants to hide that information and is willing to kill to protect it. From the time Tayte sets foot on English soil, someone is following in his footsteps determined that he will not succeed.

I also love genealogy and I've picked up a few hints from JT as I have followed his research. Some aids are my old friends, but a few are new to me. At times I wish I had the money to hire JT myself! This book is a treat and I know I'll be reading the rest of Steve Robinson's books.

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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've read this several times and I seem to come back to the HP books because they fill a niche in my life. I have almost all the books in audio version with Jim Dale as the reader, so I put them on when I am doing a big sorting project, or a knit sweater that has a deadline or even when I am having trouble sleeping. Jim Dale's voice is soothing and I almost always find something new.

This is the fourth book in the series and in a way it is the end of Harry's childhood. At the ball, he and Ron act with an early teen's mentality...they don't dance, can't carry on a conversation, and don't know what to think of their friend, Hermoine, who has just blossomed into a young woman.

Even in the trials of the Tri-Wizard Tournament, Harry is a boy who competes against young men and women who are no longer children. Harry has to compete in a tournament where the contestants are all at least 17, but he holds his own bravely. In the end, with one blow, he is no longer a child. Everything changes with this book.

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The Bone Chamber (Sydney Fitzpatrick, #2)

The Bone Chamber by Robin Burcell
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book. It had everything! There were corrupt politicians, FBI agents, CIA, Black Ops, archaeologist, bio weapons, tunnels and catacombs under the Roman streets, ancient hidden maps, Knights Templar, Freemasons, car chases, a little romance and bombs. What more could you ask for? Well, I guess you could insist that it was well put together and this book was put together as well. You might have to suspend disbelief a time or two, but, it's a book, not a biography! It was a great book to take you away from a not too exciting life and into a world you could leave behind if it got too bad.

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Bitter Memories: A Memoir of Heartache & Survival

Bitter Memories: A Memoir of Heartache & Survival by Sue Julsen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a sad, sad book. It is hard to believe that a father could take a child and submit her to such torture and think that he loved her. Once she goes with him it seems that every male, whatever their age, wants to sexually abuse her. It is just hard to believe that this kind of thing exists.

When I heard on the news about a non-custodial kidnapping rather than a stranger kidnapping it was with some relief. I mistakenly thought that the parent wouldn't hurt the child and I felt the pain of the custodial parent more than the child. After reading this book, I won't feel that way again.

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The Boy In The Suitcase

The Boy In The Suitcase by Lene Kaaberbøl
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book although it wasn't what I expected. The ending was especially good. Basically, it is a story of a well-meaning woman who does a favor for a friend and picks up a suitcase from a locker. Unfortunately, there is a 3 year old, comatose boy in the suitcase. Very
quickly it becomes apparent that she was not meant to pick up the suitcase and that someone wants it desperately. The rest of the book is a thriller whose characters weave in and out of each other's lives in a high stakes game.

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Dark Deeds: Serial killers, stakers and domestic homicides

Dark Deeds: Serial killers, stakers and domestic homicides by Susan Fleet
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is actually stories from a blog and they aren't very long, but they are interesting and well written. The author goes back in history to get some of the stories and they are very interesting.

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Call Me Tuesday

Call Me Tuesday by Leigh Byrne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Tuesday Storm's life is a triple tragedy. First, her older sister, crippled with polio, dies and Tuesday feels at fault because her sister made her give her half of the gum she was chewing and shortly afterwards, Tuesday came down with the flu her brothers have had. A few days later her sister comes down with the flu and dies.

When Tuesday is 9, her loving and caring mother suffers a brain injury in a terrible accident. She recovers, but her personality doesn't. Gone forever is the mother who loved celebrations and made every occasion joyful. Gone are the magical birthday parties. Her physical mother returns, but she is mentally ill and hates Tuesday with a passion.

It was hard to read this book at times. Tuesday was made to suffer incredible abuse and just about everyone she loves let her down. It is hard to imagine that people could live in that household and allow her to be treated that way. Her father tries to get her away from her mother’s abuse by sending her to his mother’s for the summer, but even he betrays her. The fact that Tuesday endures and is able to rise above this horror is absolutely incredible.


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A Fever in the Heart and Other True Cases (Crime Files, #3)

A Fever in the Heart and Other True Cases by Ann Rule
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Ann Rule's books are always good and this was no exception. This is a series of stories loosely grouped around themes. The first story about Morris Blankenbaker is the saddest. A fine young man was killed and so many lives torn apart because of the basest kind of betrayal. All the people involved seem to have led charmed lives and yet that wasn't enough for two of them. When I read about something like this, I remember some of my earlier training in a small Catholic school. The nuns tried to instill in us the knowledge that big evil deeds and evil people hardly ever start out that way. In the beginning, people are usually just bending the rules. They know what they do is wrong, but they do it anyway. Little by little, they lose the ability to see how far they have gone. We were told to not give into temptation over the little things and our characters would be strong enough to withstand the large things that we really wanted to do. This story is such a sad example of this. None of this needed to happen if two people had been satisfied with what they had and not thrown it away for something fleeting and inferior.

The last story, "Mirror Images", especially interested me because I worked in Juvenile Corrections. I was on a team which decided where to place the boys who were "sent away." I read the files of so many boys like the ones mentioned. One of the files I read was on Charles Manson and it was eerily like the file of James Ruzika. In so many cases, the boys were raised in single parent homes with mothers who have a series of relationships and children with multiple fathers. The start with a predictable pattern of theft, school problems, truancy and violence. In many cases, the boys are abused by their mother's partners and they are set up for deviant sexual behavior. Over time, we saw that many of the boys who came to us were becoming more and more emotionally disturbed. This was in the 70's and 80's. I can only guess at what it is like now. I'm afraid that cases like Ruzika and Harp are the tip of the iceberg.

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The Poisoned Pilgrim (The Hangman's Daughter, #4)

The Poisoned Pilgrim by Oliver Pötzsch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the last book in the series as of this writing and in it Magdalena has married Simon Fronswieser, the town medicus, and they have two sons. They have gone to the monastery of Andechs with a group of people from their home village of Schongau to give thanks for the health of their sons, Peter and Paul.

When they get there, they are confronted with a hideous series of murders and Magdalena sends for her father, who arrives with her two young sons whom I hope we will see more of.

As with the rest of the series, the descriptions of places of Bavaria and the lifestyle of the people in this era are fascinating and I always feel like I have added to my store of knowledge as well as been entertained.

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The Beggar King (The Hangman's Daughter, #3)

The Beggar King by Oliver Pötzsch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the third book in this series and one of the more exciting. Jakob Kuisl received a letter from his sister in Regensburg asking him to come because she was terribly ill. He arrived only to find her gruesomely murdered. He was then arrested and framed for her murder. While he languished in jail awaiting his own torture by the Regensburg hangman, his daughter, Magdalena, and her friend, Simon come to help him. Fortunately for Jakob, the hangman had pity on him and believed him innocent.

In this book, Magdalena, with the help of Simon, is the active partner in the mystery. She becomes involved with an underground bunch of beggars with their own organization in the city. There are a whole lot of other colorful characters who both help and hinder her in finding the truth.

I found that this book had the most interesting characters and the most action. It was a clever plot and I enjoyed it very much.

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Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy by Emily Bazelon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I found this book very balanced and informative. The author chose 3 very good examples of bullying to study in depth. The children's stories were compelling and Brazlon did not follow the general practice of demonizing the bullies and sanctifying the bullied. She also did not fall into the trap of making the schools the culprit either. In some cases, the school was insensitive, but in general, they were doing the best they could to tackle the problem.

This is a very complex problem and there are not any easy answers. Brazelon did address one part of the problem that I have never seen in print. There is a left over problem from the fuzzy-headed thinking of the past 30 years which sanctifies children..."Let the children teach us." "Listen to the wisdom of the children." "My children are my heroes." Children are essentially selfish when they come into the world and they have to be taught how to care about others. Scores of instructions from my childhood come back to me: "How would you feel if someone did that to you?" "What if everyone did that?" "Just because so and so does that, do you have to?" "Either the girl is your friend and you are loyal to her, or you have to stop hanging out with her until someone better comes around." All those examples are what our parents and teachers tried to teach us, knowing that it does not come naturally to put others needs before our own. Children need to be taught to be empathetic and altruistic. They don't always come by it naturally. It is the job of the parents, but if they don't do it then the schools have to step in. It makes me cringe to add another burden to the schools, but it has to be done.

In the final chapters, Bazelon gives information on several programs which have worked and pages of resources. The book is an excellent resource for anyone who has to deal with children as well as anyone who just wants to understand the problem and be a part of the solution.

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The Dark Monk (The Hangman's Daughter, #2)

The Dark Monk by Oliver Pötzsch
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I enjoyed this book, but not quite as well as The Hangman's Daughter. The plot was a little convoluted. A priest is murdered and it appears that he has unearthed clues to a fantastic Templar fortune.  Jakob Kuisel explores the crypt in which the priest was killed and someone drugs him.  That begins the tale of 4 separate groups who are trying to follow the clues and find the treasure.

Simon teams up with the sister of the priest which evokes Magdelena's ire.  She goes to Ausburg to get some herbs and is drawn into the mystery when she is kidnapped by a crazed monk.  Simon and his beautiful partner follow clues which take them to monasteries, libraries and even a tree.  As they travel, it is clear that two groups of people are following them.  In the meantime, Clerk Johan Lechner has sent Jakob, with a group of men, to find the hideout of a group of robbers who have been plundering merchant's wagons and bringing trade to a stand still.  From there the plot weaves in and out until Jakob, Simon and Magdelena all arrive at the same point.

I have ancestors who came from Bavaria and I read this book with great interest.  The naming patterns in the family were the same as many of my ancestors as well as the trades.  In this book I ran into an ancestor with the unusual surname of my grandmother, but, unfortunately, Jakob only mentions that he has been hung as a highway.  I only hope that he was the black sheep of the family!


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The Hangman's Daughter (The Hangman's Daughter #1)

The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book!  The history of Bavaria and the role of the hangman was fascinating.  I have ancestors who came from this region and the names in the book were right out of my genealogy.

The story is about the hangman, Jakob Kuisl, his daughter, Magdalene, the young doctor and the people of Schongau.  The job of hangman was hereditary and the daughter of a hangman would have to marry either another hangman or a butcher.  Both occupations were outcasts and the families of these workers lived outside the gates of the city with the tanners.

This first book is about the deaths of some children which are immediately presumed to have been caused by witchcraft and the Court Court, Johann Lechner, determines that the midwife is guilty.  Neither Jakob or the doctor believe she is guilty and the book is about finding the real criminal before the executioner will have to do his job and kill her.

One of the things that interested me was the brutality of the age and the panic which the threat of witchcraft posed.  There was such a rush to judgement and pressure to hang the witch so that the city could get back to normal.  Even when murders kept occurring after the midwife was in jail most town leaders just attributed the deaths to the power of the witch to command the devil.

The hangman was also a healer and the poorer people of the day came to him for herbal remedies.  The young doctor realizes that doctors away from major cities had as little power as the midwives or healers.  In the case of Jakob Kuisl, who had a number of books on the subject, he might have had more.



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Time of Death

Time of Death by Ellis Vidler
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book made me so angry at times I was a hair's breath away from quitting it.  How can such seemingly intelligent people do such stupid things?  Someone has run Alex and Isabel off the bridge to their tiny little island, of which they are the only winter residents.  Then when Alex comes home from the hospital with all sorts of bruises and contusions and awakens from her medication induced sleep to find someone getting ready to rape and kill her while his partner down stairs is lighting a fire to burn down the house, does she, when rescued, grab her jammies and a toothbrush and get out of there?  No, she takes a long, long shower and then takes more pain medication and is just about to lay down for a nap when someone with more sense snatches her up and drives her to safety.

Still, I liked the book and the characters and I will read more of this author.  I just wish she could have come up with some more plausible reasons for being in such danger.  Perhaps Alex could be frantically gathering her things up to leave and she could break a glass.  Then tension could build as she plucks the glass out of a deep gash and then bandages her hand as time is slipping away instead of doing such reckless things and being her own worst enemy.


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Frozen Solid

Frozen Solid by James M. Tabor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

l didn't think I was going to like this book st first, but it was very enjoyable.  The female main character was very believable without being incredibly beautiful with long long legs...you get the idea.  She was very intelligent and courageous without being like a character from James Bond.

The situation posed, an organism which can be used as a form of population control, is within reason and probably in the minds of some scientists right now, unfortunately.  I enjoyed learning about life at the South Pole, the underground lakes and the organisms that can live in such an environment.  All together a good read.


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Death of a Cozy Writer (A St. Just Mystery #1)

Death of a Cozy Writer by G.M. Malliet
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was very enjoyable for a cozy mystery.  It has a plethora of twists and turns, improbable relationships and long forgotten injustices.  At first I couldn't find one character I could champion, they were all thoroughly disgusting, but over time some became were revealed.


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The Relatives Came

The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When I was a child we used to pack up our old Studebaker with a luggage box on the top and drive all day from Virginia to Saltillo, Mississippi. I could almost believe that Cynthia Rylant was writing about us. She has every aspect of our visit in this book...even the "breathing." The visit doesn't include things like visiting Disney World, it is about hugging and fixing things and eating and all the other things that people who love each other and haven't seen each other for a year do. People are sleeping end to end on the floor, eating in shifts, pinching cheeks and just being with each other. The illustrations are superb and the story are perfect. I've bought this book for my cousins and my library. Everyone should have childhood memories like this.

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Colour Scheme (Roderick Alleyn, #12)

Colour Scheme by Ngaio Marsh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another Agatha Christie! If you like her, you will like this.  Another bonus is learning more about New Zealand and hot springs and boiling mud

The story takes place in the hot springs area of New Zealand and surrounds a thoroughly unpleasant man getting murdered by being pushed off the path into boiling mud.  There are a number of suspects and a lot of twists and turns.  The person who seems to be the logical murderer is, of course, the most likable one.

Ngaio Marsh is a master of mystery and this one does not disappoint.



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Eruption (Storm Runners, #3)

Eruption by Roland Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This last book was a little more far fetched than the first two, but a good read for middle graders. The pace is fast and the characters are pretty well drawn. There are a few far fetched incidents, but not enough to spoil the book.

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People of the Wolf (The First North Americans, #1)

People of the Wolf by W. Michael Gear
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am not sure I am going to read this again. I am remembering a lot of it and the only reason I started it again was because I want to read the whole series and I thought I would be missing something if I didn't reread it.

The book is very good, but a little hard to follow. The various tribes have similar naming patterns and the book constantly changes from one tribe to another so it takes a bit of attention to detail to separate them. It is worth the effort though. The authors give a great picture of theses early people and how they lived.

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The Surge (Storm Runners, #2)

The Surge by Roland Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was also filled with tremendous action and suspense. Chase and his friends have survived Hurricane Emily but now they have to deal with the flood surge. They are on Emily's farm where an elephant from the Rossi Brother's Circus is getting ready to give birth. Of course, they loose power and Chase has to try to brave the residue of the storm and the floodwaters to get fuel for the generator. On top of this, some of the big cats, the most dangerous one, are missing.

This is a great series for young adults and interesting enough for adults.

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Storm Runners

Storm Runners by Roland Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a great book for Middle School students...and even adults! Chase and his dad are storm chasers, but not the weather people. Chase's father is a builder and he goes to places in the path of natural disasters. Chase's mother and little sister were killed in a car accident. After his dad was electrocuted in a storm and recovered after a 2 day coma, he sold his house and bought a trailer and equipment which he moved from one site to another, helping people rebuild.

As a category 5 hurricane bears down on central Florida, his dad leaves him at the Rossi Brothers' Circus winter quarters while he goes to help people prepare for the storm. Chase is fascinated by the circus animals which include a pregnant elephant due any day and an extremely hostile leopard, and especially young Nicole who is in his grade at school. As the storm approaches, the principle inadvisedly sends the students home on school busses. When the hurricane changes it's forecasted direction Chase, Nicole and Rashawn find themselves struggling through the hurricane on foot after the bus is overturned.

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