REQUIEM BY FIRE, by Wayne Caldwell

 

REQUIEM BY FIRE

(fiction)

by

Wayne Caldwell
(Author of CATALOOCHEE)

 www.waynecaldwell.com


ADVANCE COPY!

Published by
Random House
(www.randomhouse.com, www.atrandom.com)


Note:
Copyright 2010
by
Owlhead, Inc.,
Wayne Caldwell, prop.



Publication date:
March 2, 20010
On sale date:
February 23, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-4000-6344-4

Price:
$25.00 USA
NOTE: Canadian price unknown at review time.

 

Ah, Mr. Caldwell. I was not disappointed, as I have been so many times by the second novels of authors! I am indeed impressed. And I thank you for the dual read.

Mr. Caldwell has, in REQUIEM BY FIRE, produced another fine novel. It is a sequel to CATALOOCHEE. In REQUIEM BY FIRE, we follow once again the fascinating saga of family and home in the Appalachian region taken in as part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We're offered a highly realistic glimpse of what it must have been like for those who lived there, and what it must be like for their descendents to look back on their much-changed heritage.

I began reading about these families in CATALOOCHEE, and when I opened up the advance copy of this novel, I hardly dared hope for the same sure touch of a genuine storyteller. This book is a triumph of the art, but more so a triumph of a son of the land. We Appalachian folk are survivors, highly adaptable and tenacious.

All I can say to Mr. Caldwell is that I would be proud to have you -- or any of your cast of charactors, in fact -- as a neighbor. Folks like you write about are getting all too rare. Keep 'em coming. I'll read 'em, and gladly so.

This book is the genuine article. See for yourself. Read the first one, too!



Special thanks to The Random House Publishing Group, who provided this book for review free of charge to the independent reader.

For more book reviews, please visit The Fireside Reader at http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com .

FERRADIDDLEDUMDAY, by Becky Mushko

FERRADIDDLEDUMDAY 

-- An Appalachian version of
RUMPLESTILTSKIN


(fiction)

written by

Becky Mushko
( www.beckymushko.com ,
http://peevishpen.blogspot.com )

&

illustrated by
Bruce Rae


ADVANCE COPY!

Published by
Cedar Creek Publishing
(www.cedarcreekauthors.com)

Released
February 2010


Copyrights 2009
by author and illustrator,
respectively.

ISBN: 978-0-9842449-1-1

Price:
Unknown at time of review.
Please look for updates later on.

.

While I almost never, even as a child, read children's books, I found myself talking to a very nice lady on Facebook one day, someone who shares my somewhat specialized interest in Appalachian literature (and art), who told me that she had a new book being released soon. Would I please review it? Certainly, I said, though I had my doubts about a children's book. After all, talk is where the market is, and books sell more from word of mouth than anything else. I'd at least give it a whirl.

I was in no way prepared for what I got. A few days after I talked to her, Ms. Mushko's book arrived in my mail box. I opened it, almost grimacing with low expectations... and got a delightful surprise.

Simply said, FERRADIDDLEDUMDAY is a wonderful work of art.

Ms. Mushko doesn't talk down to her audience, she just tells the story. It has to be a gift, because I've seen so  many children's books that came out in a pedantic, boring way, too simple and too unloved by the author to give it life in anyone's  eyes, let alone a child's. (Honestly, you can't fool most children. They'll lay the book down in a dusty corner and go turn on the  television instead.) Ms. Mushko's FERRADIDDLEDUMDAY is in no way such a boring thing ... it bounces! It rolls. It travels around the hills and in the mind of the reader with a magic seldom seen these days.

FERRADIDDLEDUMDAY is a brilliant retelling of the classic RUMPLESTILTSKIN, with a highly flavorful and rich Appalachian twist. The mountain plants and skills visited in the story are real and vivid, fresh from the pen of someone who knows their art well, and who knows genuinely the mind of an inquistive, interested child.

The illustrations, done by master Appalachian artist Bruce Rae, are absolutely not to be missed, either. By no means! They are charming, delightful, and done with absolutely sure hands, the kind of illustrations that are timeless and beloved by all ages.

There is a "Q & A" section in the back, a teaching aid. I was delighted to read that as well, as it offers a great deal of insight into the world of growing young minds. Ms. Mushko's skill with teaching is every bit as great as her skill with storytelling. Aided by Mr. Rae, the result is a highly enjoyable book.

This book is very highly recommended -- read it with your children. You'll love it too. I did, and I am one picky-eyed, tough cookie, especially when it comes to children's books.



Special thanks to the author, Becky Mushko, who provided this book for review free of charge to the independent reader.

For more book reviews, please visit The Fireside Reader at http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com .

CATALOOCHEE, by Wayne Caldwell

CATALOOCHEE

(fiction)

by

Wayne Caldwell
( www.waynecaldwell.com )

Published by
Random House
(www.atrandom.com)


Note:
Copyright 2007
by
Owlhead, Inc.,
Wayne Caldwell, prop.

Released as
Trade Paperback Edition
2008

ISBN: 978-0-8129-7373-0

Price:
$15.00 USA
$17.00 Canada

.

When Mr. Caldwell sent me this book, I had no idea what the story itself was about, nor had I encountered Mr. Caldwell's writing before, so the style itself was a mystery. I had no idea what to expect. Then I started the book, just peeking into it a bit going down the road (having just extracted the bubble-enveloped package from our post office box with care) while my spouse drove. I read bits of it aloud to him from time to time... and it became addicting to both of us.By the time I'd gotten to the ending, I realized that I had rarely put it down -- I read it in only a couple of days. In short, I devoured it. (And I had to read more of it aloud, too. The problem would be if I wanted the spouse to drive me around again while I read books; he liked the story as much as I did.)

This is among the best Appalachian writing I've yet to read, and in fact is one of the best saga-type novels of any area that I've yet encountered. Not to say there isn't room for improvement, but then, none of us is perfect. I'm impressed with what I found as a problem much more than it is a real issue: there are a large number of characters in the book; I sometimes had trouble remembering who was who, at first. By the ending, that all changed. I was, in short, addicted.

Someday I'll have to travel through the area of the National Park that Mr. Caldwell set his novel in. I have a feeling I'd love the people there, since the people behind the characters ring true in his novel. I have a deep love of mountains and wild places, yet I too come from a region steeped in farming and closely attached to the land.

This book carries forth the music of souls, of people who set out to make a home, and did so without fear of sweat or blood shed in the doing. The concise telling of it is the kind that only comes from someone who could and did understand what the lives of the people of Cataloochee must have been like.

Generations of mountain people reside in this story. Get to know them a little through Mr Caldwell's fine novel. You may be very surprised at what you find between those pages.


Special thanks to the author, Wayne Caldwell, who provided this book for review free of charge to the independent reader.

For more book reviews, please visit The Fireside Reader at http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com .

AMONG THIEVES, by David Hosp

AMONG THIEVES

(fiction)

by

David Hosp


Released as hardback
January, 2010


by

Grand Central Publishing
(www.hachettebookgroup.com)

ISBN: 978-0-446-58015-1

Price:
$24.99 USA
$29.99 Canada

.

This book is one fine thriller! Add Mr. Hosp to the list of those writers you look for on the bestseller's rack in your favorite (and hopefully independent) bookstore. I'll happily tell you that it's recommended reading, if you love the genre.

While fine-art-related thrillers seem to have become a dime a dozen these days (for which we must obviously thank Dan Brown, I suppose), this one stands out for its smoothly-handled details and the realistic humanity of his characters.

Well-done, and thanks.



Special thanks to Hachette Book Group, which provided this book for review free of charge to the independent reader.

For more book reviews, please visit The Fireside Reader at http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com .

THE LINE UP, edited by Otto Penzler

THE LINE UP

(fiction)

edited by

Otto Penzler


Released as hardback
November, 2009


by

Little, Brown and Company
(www.hachettebookgroup.com)

ISBN: 978-0-316-03193-6

Price:
$25.99 USA
$31.99 Canada

.

Do any of these authors' names ring a bell?

• Ken Bruen
• Lee Child
• Lincoln Child
• Michael Connelly
• John Connelly
• Robert Crais
• Jeffery Deaver
• Colin Dexter
• John Harvey
• Stephen Hunter
• Faye Kellerman
• Jonathan Kellerman
• John Lescroat
• Laura Lippman
• David Morrell
• Carol O'Connell
• Robert Parker
• Ridley Pearson
• Anne Perry
• Douglas Preston
• Ian Rankin
• Alexander McCall Smith

Otto Penzler has, in this one book, brought together a heroic list of fine, top-of-the-industry mystery writers. Owner of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, where he lives, he has edited many mystery anthologies as well as co-authoring THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MYSTERY AND DETECTION.

It was wonderful to hear where the seeds for some of the most memorable characters came from. I was interested to find, for example, that David Morrell wrote RAMBO* as a direct result of the aftermath of the Vietnam War. A Canadian teaching and living in the U.S. (Pennsylvania, to be exact), he saw the cause and effect of war on the returning veterans of active conflict and he also saw from a unique perspective the often perverse and illogical ways people -- especially non-veterans with no personal connection to those engaged in the conflict -- reacted to it all. From the emotional gardens of stone grown from human conflict, the character Rambo was born.

Simply said, I found this book to be fascinating. The variety and angle taken by the assorted authors/voices makes it both unique and valuable to the avid reader of the genre. To aspiring mystery or thriller authors, even more so.

Recommended reading!



Special thanks to Hachette Book Group, which provided this book for review free of charge to the independent reader.

For more book reviews, please visit The Fireside Reader at http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com .


*Reviewer's personal note:

The movie called RAMBO was very different from the book. In the book, Morrell based the story, not in the Pacific Northwest, but in "Madison", Kentucky. (There is a Madison County in Kentucky, but to the best of my knowledge, there is no town called that.) That's right: Rambo was originally a Kentuckian.

Mr. Morrell said in THE LINE UP, the book above reviewed, that his intent was to give the story "a slight Southern flavor and because that state has a wilderness area that some people call the 'Grand Canyon of the East', a dramatic setting for my novel".  The gods reside in the details: I live about 20 minutes' drive from the Red River Gorge, the aforementioned wilderness area. I know that area well, since some of my ancestors once lived there (for some generations), and it's a popular place to go walk, to shoot photos, to take a canoe trip down the usually shallow Red River (once known as The Warrior's Fork). Some of my own relatives still own land there. The actual place is very different from Mr. Morrell's description.

THE SWAN THIEVES, by Elizabeth Kostova

THE SWAN THIEVES

(fiction)

by

Elizabeth Kostova

(#1 bestselling author of
THE HISTORIAN)


Released as hardback
January, 2010


by

Little, Brown and Company
(www.hachettebookgroup.com)

ISBN: 978-0-316-06578-9

Price:
$26.99 USA
$32.99 Canada

Art-related mysteries have become standard fare these days, thanks to Dan Brown books that have hit the market wide open, creating a new specific niche for readers to look for on the shelves. However, Ms. Kostova has a unique style -- and does concrete, believable research -- that carries her work far above the average mystery/thriller novel. She has a way of solidly grounding her stories in the here and now, which I adore.

THE SWAN THIEVES is an excellent piece of literature. If you like books full of honesty and intrigue in equal parts, Ms. Kostova has created a second work of art, this one about works of art itself, that will draw you in and keep you looking for more.

This is a book to curl up with, a book to keep you turning pages and looking for the what, the why, the reason and the solution to the mystery of the things of the soul that can never be too closely examined. The story has numerous twists, turns, and all of it smoothly twined into a solid, believable tale executed by characters whom one cannot help but sympathize with all along the way.

Make time for this one. And ... I'll be looking forward to the next Kostova novel, myself!




Special thanks to Hachette Book Group, which provided this book for review free of charge to the independent reader.

For more book reviews, please visit The Fireside Reader at http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com .

ROSES, by Leila Meacham

ROSES

(fiction)

by

Leila Meacham


Released as hardback
January, 2010


by

Grand Central Publishing
(www.hachettebookgroup.com)

ISBN: 978-0-446-55000-0

Price:
$24.99 USA
$29.99 Canada

Saga. That's a word to sit curled up before the fire with and enjoy ... usually. This one is a serious contender for the old television series, "Dynasty". Curling up before the fire with it put me to sleep, which is far, far from the usual case where I am concerned.

ROSES is a who-did-what-to-whom-behind-the-scenes-in-the-name-of-money-and-social-standing saga. Pardon me while I snore. I cannot bear such time-consuming stories which, in the end, really go nowhere. They're simply dramatized fictional rumor-mongering, the sort of thing one would hear in twisted dribs and drabs in some half-empty beauty parlor. Real life and real life stories, compared to a good, juicy rumor? Tell it. I'll take a nap.

My apologies to the author; this book is simply not among the sort of books I admire. Best of luck next time, Ms. Meacham. You do have a way with words, and a skill with carrying a complicated tale. It was the content where you lost me.


Special thanks to Hachette Book Group, which provided this book for review free of charge to the independent reader.

For more book reviews, please visit The Fireside Reader at http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com .

KITTY'S HOUSE OF HORRORS, by Carrie Vaughn

KITTY'S HOUSE OF HORRORS

(fiction)

by

Carrie Vaughn

 

ADVANCE READER'S COPY!

 

Paperback issue

Released
January, 2010


by

Grand Central Publishing
(www.hachettebookgroup.com)

ISBN: 978-0-446-19955-1

Price:
$7.99 USA
$9.99 Canada

Ms. Vaughn is the correct author to check into for those readers who love playful, if gory at times, stories buried deep in the supernatural. There is plenty of action, plenty of gore, and a fairly good story behind it all to be found in KITTY'S HOUSE OF HORRORS.

I loved the sense of humor that came shining through, and the author's obvious delight with her subject matter. She has a good grasp of lingual finesse, and clearly loves to write. However, I do think that if she had a bit more ambition, she could "break out" into hard cover, perhaps into a best seller.

The story is fine, yet I believe she could have made the reader care more about the charactors. The spark of vivid attention is simply not there.

Good luck, Ms. Vaughn. You have the key -- go see what's behind the mysterious golden door marked "Best Seller"!


Special thanks to Hachette Book Group, which provided this book for review free of charge to the independent reader.

For more book reviews, please visit The Fireside Reader at http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com .

Death of a Valentine -- A Hamish Macbeth Mystery (#25 in the series)

DEATH OF A VALENTINE
-- A Hamish Macbeth Mystery


(fiction)

by

M. C. Beaton

* 25th in the Hamish Macbeth series *

ADVANCE READER'S COPY!

Released
January 12, 2010


by

Grand Central Publishing
(www.hachettebookgroup.com)

ISBN: 978-0-446-54738-3

Price:
$23.99 USA

$28.99 Canada

.

For those who love a romantic romp disguised as a mystery, this book is perfect. It's a confection too sweet to be real. For me, in short, it was torturous. If this is the typical Beaton novel, then she and I, as writer and reader in that time-honored relationship, shall best part ways now. I found the story to be shallow, laden heavily with often goofy and unbelievable characters of the cardboard cut-out variety.

As I cannot truly offer a reader's blessing on this book, I offer my sincere apologies to the author -- and the grace of an honest reader, which is all that's left.



Special thanks to Hachette Book Group, which provided this book for review free of charge to the independent reader.

For more book reviews, please visit The Fireside Reader at http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com .

EATING ANIMALS, by Safran Foer (nonfiction)

EATING ANIMALS

(nonfiction)

by

Safran Foer

(Author of the novel,
EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED)

Released
November, 2009

by

Little, Brown and Company
(www.hachettebookgroup.com)

ISBN: 978-0-316-06990-8

Price:
$25.99 USA
$31.99 Canada

.

I'm disappointed. This man has a strong command of the language and has yet produced, not as I had expected, a violent rant against the food industry.

It is common knowledge that the "factory" farms often do not have compassion for the animals they produce, nor do they seem (in too many cases) to enjoy a pride in doing the job right. The essence of their business -- and business it is, just as the health industry is a business -- is profit. That's the bottom line, and the bottom line is all that is considered by most business people (regardless of business source).

In the food industry, like any other business, one attempts to buy cheap and sell high. Consumers demand this approach when they bargain shop, by default, forcing the same of the seller, who then must also bargain hunt in turn. Supply and demand raise the price as high as you and I (the consumers) will allow. As economic woes continue to deepen, so will the attempts to operate at lower costs continue on all of the farms. This means bad management in all too many cases. Compromise is, after all, a fast path to hell -- as the old saying goes.

Mr. Foer has not told the whole story, as you may now guess. An expose', compared to a rant, is like comparing a scalpel to a wood-splitter's maul. The result is not only unlovely, it's smashing in its misuse.

Small farmers are not mentioned either, their altogether different focus on survival is not offered as a comparison. (The more complete truth is a good reason to buy local -- which any research into the market will prove.) The best plan is for you to visit your local farmer's market on a regular basis. Ask your local university extension agent (or equivalent) how to choose and buy healthful, good food from someone who cares how it was produced.

My simple advice to you is free. Mr. Safran's book is not. That's the "bottom line" in this whole deal. You choose which one is a bargain.








Special thanks to Hachette Book Group, which provided this book for review free of charge to the independent reader.

For more book reviews, please visit The Fireside Reader at http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com .