The Fireside Reader

REQUIEM BY FIRE, by Wayne Caldwell

2010-03-02T13:36:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-02T13:27:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-02T13:21:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-02T13:10:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-02T13:02:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-02T12:54:00.000-08:00

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

2010-03-02T12:46:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-03-02T12:38:00.000-08:00

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)

2010-03-02T12:27:00.000-08:00

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 .

So... what are you reading these days?

2010-02-10T05:01:00.000-08:00

Many folks have, in the past, asked me what I like to read. I've hemmed and hawwed, and generally danced neatly around the subject -- until now.You're about to see why. Finally.

When I was a child, I had serious sight deficiencies. (Still do, really. Got to have my 'specs' on.) No one noticed it or understood it for many years, despite a running total of bloody knees and hands, constant awkwardness with things like shooting rifles or throwing darts. I was starting into the third grade when the schools tested all of us for sight and hearing: I could hear things that were both above and below the normal human range, but I couldn't see the eye-test on the wall at all. My math skills still suffer for the lost instruction of second grade, I think. I was so afflicted with nearsightedness and astigmatism that I was already near legal blindness. As a result, I didn't run and play with the other kids (when around them, which was relatively rare). I was bored stiff, almost all the time.

When I was not yet five years old, I conned my teenage siblings to teach me the ABCs: shapes, sounds, alternate ways to write each one. They did it to keep me occupied and out of their hair for the long term, which was fine with me. By the time I was five years old, I was reading the regional newspapers on a regular basis. (That newspaper is now called the Lexington Herald-Leader, and is a Knight-Ridder possession.) Big words were merely little words strung together, for me, and so simple to decipher with minimal help. In the third grade, when I was tested, I finally got eyeglasses -- and 20/20 vision amazed me. I read faster and faster, understood more and applied it to the wild world outside, all by myself.

Eventually, I got past what my Dad could help me with (Mom said I'd 'end up just another educated fool' and refused to worry with me), he, in vague desperation, suggested that I read his large, comprehensive dictionary every night before bed every night. Hmm, says I. After a bit of thought, I decided it was interesting. So I did.

I found it educational on several levels.

There were things in there that I'd never heard of, and I began to follow those leads down, gradually thinning the ranks of the County's library shelves down to a narrow list of unread items. Magazines, comic books -- nothing was safe from me. I even -- still yet -- read the labels on food, signs along the road, and just about everything else I come across. It's a habit, now, one I don't think I could stop if I wanted to, and I don't really want to stop.

My brother, fourteen years older than I, paperback westerns lying around here and there. I started picking them up to read, and I discovered a world I'd never seen: places I'd never been, but in seeing on television, wanted to experience further. First Zane Grey, then writers like Luke Short and Max Brand... and then, the real treasure: Louis L' Amour. He'd really been there and seen (autobiography: "Education of a Wandering Man") -- and many times, done -- what he wrote about. He may never be celebrated as a classic author, but he was real. He was the grit between my bare toes and the dirt on my palms. I lay on piles of deep moss in the woods, listening to these words take me far away while a scraggly pony cropped maple leaves close by. It was my escape and my joy.

In much later years, I'd find the books of Larry McMurtry ("Lonesome Dove" and others) and Tony Hillerman (the Jim Chee series and more) with that same virtual flavor of cactus, dirt, and horse sweat. I'd never seen a barrel cactus or an ocatillo in my life, but I knew what they were, and more, because I'd gone looking to find out.

The local librarians must have been worn to a frazzle by my constant requests for help and research.

I was nearly grown before I ever saw a Dr. Seuss book, and they still delight me with humor and wit. Rudyard Kipling came along late for me, as well, and stayed to smile.

Bram Stoker. Alexandre Dumas. Jonathan Swift. Mark Twain/Samuel Clemmons. Then later, Mary Stewart, Morgan Llewellyn, Sir Anthony Conan Doyle, Fannie Flagg. John Steinbeck. I traveled, swung swords, trained jumping frogs, and deciphered mysteries with them all.

Ernest Hemingway took me into battle, a thing I'd only barely begun to think about after reading a book called "The Red Badge of Courage" -- years before my classmates in school read it as a requirement.

I found, in my digging, the poetry of Robert Frost, Edwin Arlington Robinson, and many, many more. While the other kids my age were avoid reading as a punishment of homework, I found a path to other worlds, worlds created in print on paper and transferred to me almost by osmosis.

"A Stranger in a Strange Land" taught me that our perceptions aren't always recognized, that we have to think to find the real truth in humor, reality, and life in general."The Portrait of Dorian Grey" made me wonder if obtaining immortality was worth the fear of losing it.

"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" showed me that dreamers make the world's innovations, and only then with the hands-on of someone who, glimpsing that dream, can take it into their hands and make it real for the rest of us: telephones, airplanes, automobiles, radios and television, and so much more have come from that. Doc Savage was one charactor who did both, a 'McGuiver' with mystical and athletic super-hero properties. I loved the idea. Still do.

I moved along to Anne McCaffrey, Elizabeth Moon, Jennifer Roberson, Orson Scott Card, C.S. Lewis, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Charles de Lint, J.R.R. Tolkein. Oh, so many more that I can't name them all ... many, many world-builders with something real to say. Don't forget "Buffalo Gals", by Ursula K. LeGuin, when you come across the science fiction and fantasy shelves. It's a keeper.

Anna Sewell ("Black Beauty") and Jim Kjelgaard showed me that not everyone, as those practical, hard-bitten Kentuckians around me, thought of animals as mere livestock, unlucky belongings with no feelings at all. I learned kindness and compassion for animals then and there.

Tarzan showed me that there is a way to cooperate with the world around us, and to be a part of it was possible. The possibility that animals can communicate with humans extended into such charactors as The Black Stallion, Fury, Rin Tin Tin, and Lassie. All in books; I didn't like the television for its limitations and blind spots, even then.

Trips to the local drug store as an adolescent found me coming back with a stack of comic books, not of the predictable girly-kid stuff like Archie, Snoopy, or Charlie Brown, though I know them well. I came back with things that made my mother's eyebrows raise to a worried level. "Rawhide", "Ghost Rider", "Real West". I wanted blood, gore, mystique and hard core story, not piddling peer pressure tales.

I began to ask questions about spiritual things somewhere along the line. And I read the Bible (my parents argued over Christian Church vs. Church of Christ, a thing I never thought made any sense), The Book of the Dead, Edgar Cayce's works (he was a Kentuckian too), and so many more that most have blurred into the past.

I even read Carlos Castenada's books, and they somehow yet left me unable to conceive of jumping off a sheer cliff in the name of spiritual control -- there are so many cliffs here in the land I grew up that I 'saw' it literally, and found it ... comical, to say the least. He was over-dramatic and largely unreal in his symbolic tales. Further, they got him very dead in the mere telling. Not my thing, I assure you.

Later I found Mercea Eliade and many others whose research into the roots of religion finally set me free of the urge to take part in it, yet the need for spiritual gratification -- to keep The Mystery in my heart. Finally, I found a Way and have followed it as best I can since then, decades and counting.

It's interesting that I came to admire Agatha Christie, not just because she wrote bang-up-good mysteries, but because she saved her community with her art. What was a dying fishing village soon became a tourist center, affluent and thriving, because in her books, fans saw the place as she did. And visited it.

Dick Francis's mysteries took me, by comparison, to the UK and into the different from our Kentucky Thoroughbred scene. I have had a giggle or two over things he wrote without doing complete research. (We don't feed 'horse nuts' to the horses in the US, we take those away when we geld a male animal. Here, we feed molasses-rich 'sweet feed' to our horses.) Yet his mysteries tend to ring true as far as horses in general go. So many other authors' horse-based works don't. Nicholas Evan's "The Horse Whisperer", while entertaining, let loose a flood of mostly fake trainers on the world, and I found both real and unreal (to me) aspects in that one. Also in his novel dealing with wolves and human acceptance or rejection, "The Loop".

John Grisham lost me in a world of papers and briefs and cut-throat head games. Politics was never one of my strong interests; people are like wolves, always looking for a way to go alpha in a pack too large to really care.

James Patterson, who writes the "Alex Cross" series, is good at his job. I've read several, and only felt let down on a couple of occasions. That's rare for me.

Books of other ethnic origin are vastly interesting. Amy Tan's "The Joy Luck Club". "Roots"... I could go on for hours along this vein -- all cultures and different views fascinate me. That's a large part of why I devour books on an often uncanny rate.

Annie Proulx -- "Brokeback Mountain". A view into a situation alien to me and to the majority of the world's people. But nonetheless a real one. Research following that verified what I thought was true: same-sex unions were accepted as normal in most historic cultures. Not in any dominated by the Christian or Islamic faiths, however. Since I know that such instinct appear normally in nature, I have to wonder what the issue really is... and thank Ms. Proulx for making me ask questions.

Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" shredded my soul for the lost and mutilated of an unarmed, innocent group of native people attacked by U.S. soldiers. Custer and his men paid for that at the Little Big Horn; they paid dearly, with their lives. History came alive for me, and prehistory as well. Empathy erupted.

Which led me to W. Michael and Kathleen O'Neal Gear. Their Anasazi Mysteries series and the other, much larger series, 'People', have me waiting constantly for a new one to come out. Three of my loves come together with them: anthropology, reading, and the pre-Americans.

For clarifications, I went to Bierhorst, who took me through "Native America and the Environment" and went on to John Ehle's "The Trail of Tears" -- where I learned more about my Cherokee/Tsalagi heritage than my parents knew to tell (the culture was deliberately let disappear to preserve The People in their native lands). From there to many more... it's a continuing quest.

In search of self once again, I found Appalachian literature, something that only began to be really rich when people weren't just content with managing basic living here in the hills and mountains. John Fox, Jr. ... Jesse Stuart... James Still (poet extraordinaire, novelist, and short story writer) ... Frank X. Walker (wow! a fine poet)... Crystal Wilkinson (poet and novelist, plus teacher). Barbara Kingsolver, who has abdicated (apparently) to Arizona. And never forget contemporary novelist Silas House: "A Parchment of Leaves", "Clay's Quilt", and "The Coal Tattoo". Voices from my homeland, rich and dark, shadowed like the hollers between the steep hills, all variances and contrasts, beauty when you least expect it. Those are the writers of the Appalachians and foothills thereof. My people. Poets and thinkers who see it all, light and dark, and revel in it.

"Cold Mountain", now a movie based on the (better) novel by a writer out of the Carolinas, made the aftermath of the Civil War come home to many of us. That same writer has since taken us to the time when the Cherokee managed to salvage a small portion of their eastern lands through hook and crook politics even as many of The People were forcefully removed (that was the Trail of Tears, which passed through Hopkinsville, Kentucky, along the way) to Oklahoma, an exodus of strange nations cast together in a land none knew. Death and misery, lost families, and ordinary day to day struggles came alive in those words. All of this is brought together in "thirteen moons". I look forward to the next story by the same author, Charles Frazier.

Another book, an anthology of action put together by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth made my flesh and soul alike ache. It's called "Missing Mountains" and it tells the real tale of King Coal. How the companies that own the big coal rights are tearing down the Appalachian Mountains at the incredible but real rate of about one per month. For profit, of course. Little of which the state --especially the coal regions -- sees. They're not using local labor as they claim -- just one man at a time on a gigantic machine made to destroy. Worse, they're upsetting the balance of the ecosystems one after another, in a land where it cannot be replaced. Reclamation is a joke (I've seen it personally, so I can say this is absolutely real). People in Pikeville and other communities have had their water supplies compromised by chemicals, both naturally and unnaturally occurring. Some are afraid to leave a child in the bath, for fear it will drink the poisoned water -- a very real danger. I could go on for hours about this. People have died, their homes and even gardens destroyed, in the name of mineral rights sold off for a pittance generations back. Just read the book, if you would please. Act on it as you see fit. I only want you to know that the writers who contributed to it did so as volunteers: they're all Kentuckians.

An online friend I've since lost contact with recommended a book that I have come to love: A Sand County Almanac. It spoke so clearly to me of things I had not the words to say for myself.

In future, I will miss new peeks into the humor and knowledge of Stephen Jay Gould (he died a few years ago), whose series of natural science books showed me parts of the natural world that I'd have never understood fully without his sharing of view and fact. Darwin's "The Origin of Species" led up to the Gould books. Necessary reading, if only for the point of exploration for information.

Novels like "Willow" and "Wolf and Iron" are packed away with all the rest. I have thousands of books in every description. Content matters -- not the cover -- to me. Also there are collections of Stephen King (including a well-worn paperback copy of "On Writing"... I can only laugh at his fiction work now excepting sales figures, and so rarely read it anymore --for some odd reason it strikes me as comical.), Anne Rice, Peter Straub,. J.A. Jance -- all of whom showed me the dark side of the human soul, the depths to which we can sink, and the heights we can aspire to -- and how art and writing, not merely something as ceremonial as religion, can lift us higher than we'd ever dare dream. And that we should dream; nightmares make daydreams all the sweeter.

William Zinsser and many others have been recently teaching me what it means to write for a life. Yes, I've been dabbling in how-tos... and how-whys and how-whens. And writing some myself, with an eye toward getting "it" (my 'voice'?) beyond this simple blog page.

Favorite magazines (no particular order of preference):

* Smithsonian
* National Geographic
* Western Horseman
* Equus
* Mother Earth News
* Outdoor Photography
* American Photographer
* Wildlife Art
* Southwest Art
* Arts Kentucky
* American Scientific ... including MIND
*Mother Jones
*Archeology
*Poets & Writers
*Writer's Digest
* (... and countless more)

I am an avid reader and an eclectic one, sure as you were born. Deciphering my reading habits would take an experienced psychologist years! At 43 years old, that's some 38 years of reading, by the way. And counting.

Yes, I still read the newspaper, though I don't often get any except the Sunday issue each week. Now, I mostly read daily news online. One can go to Kentucky.com for the Lexington Herald Leader's digital version, updated around the clock.

No, before you ask. Most of you know that I don't have much formal higher education, and probably won't have. No degrees for me. I've dropped full time classes twice due to chronic health problems and lack of health care. It is seriously unlikely that I'll ever go back to add to my nine hours of college (pre-veterinary studies, low items on the list) from the University of Kentucky, Lexington. I can't afford piecemeal education and can't get financial aid for it.

That all said... does anyone have a favorite author or book they'd like to share with me? I seem to be out of reading material at the moment. Now how did that happen, I wonder ...?

Robert Frost (1874-1963): Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

2009-12-19T02:23:00.000-08:00

This is one of my favorite poems; I'm posting it in honor of our first real snow of the season, and I hope you'll enjoy reading it as much as I do.

Frost's grace of rhythm is sweet and smooth and cool. A jingle of sleigh bells, the soft glow of moonlight on snow, the steaming horse almost conversational, the absentee owner of the land missing out on the whole scene -- it speaks to me in a language dear. ~ R.

_________________________________________

Stopping by Woods
on a Snowy Evening

By Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep

GENETIC ROUNDS, by Dr. Robert Marion, MD

2009-11-10T17:12:00.000-08:00

GENETIC ROUNDS

Nonfiction: memoir/medical
by Dr. Robert Marion, MD

Released: 2009

Published by:
Kaplan Publishing

Kaplan, Inc.
www.kaplan.com

ISBN: 978-1-60714-460-1

Price:

$24.95 U.S.
$30.95 Canada

As I (an "ordinary" reader, non-scientist) understand it, genetics is the study of a blueprint too immense and detailed for a single, however bright mind, to completely understand. Yet a single strand of DNA is too small to be seen with the naked eye. It carries in its double helix design complex secrets beyond the average person's wildest dreams. It is not, sadly, perfect. Errors in that tiny strand can cause horrible malformations of the body, as it holds all the keys of creation and therefore constant recreation of that body within itself. The human genome is being studied and mapped slowly; lives are being altered in the meantime, young, innocent lives.

Dr. Marion offers up considerable insight in this, his medical memoirs, a collection of essays dealing with his personal experiences caring for the victims of genetic error and their families. The experiences range from grim to glorious. From sorrow to transcendence, we go along with him. Seeing through his compassionate eyes as he makes his GENETIC ROUNDS, we're given a clear view of the children to often hidden beneath -- or because of -- the facade of the problems they bear. It seems the ultimate inheritance roulette.

It becomes clear that such a doctor must be more than a just a physician taking care of some mechanical, routine condition. Such a doctor must be a real, caring doctor with the soul of a philospher and the attention span of a legendary detective! Not only the patient, but also the family needs the kind of friend in the attending doctor who is capable, a confidant with solid, practical morals.

This and much more can be found in GENETIC ROUNDS. For the love of a child, for the lives of humanity, it's a round well worth taking.

Reader's thanks to Dr. Robert Marion, and to Kaplan Publishing -- and also to Brett Sandusky, Marketing Manager at Kaplan Publishing -- for the opportunity to read, and review this book and pass it along to the world of readers. The Fireside Reader sincerely thanks you!

Share the link: This page is located at http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com .

HOLLYWOOD MOON, by Joseph Wambaugh

2009-11-10T17:09:00.000-08:00

HOLLYWOOD MOON

Fiction:Novel
by Joseph Wambaugh

ADVANCE COPY!

Releasing as:
First Edition Hardback
December, 3, 2009

Published by:
Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group
www.hachettebookgroup.com

ISBN: 978-0-316-04518-6

Price:

$26.99 U.S.
$32.99 Canada

Mr. Wambaugh's last release, HOLLYWOOD CROWS, fell far short of this newest release! HOLLYWOOD MOON comes off as a smoother creation even in this uncorrected (advance copy) proof when taken in its entirety. This time we have a genuine story -- with anecdotes woven into it, as they should be, instead of being scattered around like chocolate chunks on a cardboard cookie.

In this newest novel, he's given us humor, no small amount of incredulity, pathos, love, grief. All of the necessary palette that makes the work plausable. The plot is complex but orderly, the characters his trademark mix of real and surreal, the whole tale a multifaceted reader's magnet.

I want to personally thank Mr. Wambaugh for going the extra way to bring his readers a genuinely good read that is anything but boring. He's done it up right, this time. (By the way, Mr. Wambaugh, I'd love to read your plain old memoirs!)

Reader's thanks to Hachette Publishing Group -- and Miriam Parker, Associate Director of Online Marketing -- for the opportunity to review this book and pass it along to the world of readers. The Fireside Reader sincerely thanks you!

Share the link: This page is located at http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com .

TRUE BLUE, by David Baldacci

2009-11-10T17:07:00.000-08:00

TRUE BLUE

Fiction:Novel
by
David Baldacci

www.davidbaldacci.com

Become a fan at FaceBook!

www.tinyurl.com/baldaccifb

First Edition Hardback
released October, 2009

Published by:
Grand Central Publishing

Hachette Book Group
www.hachettebookgroup.com

ISBN: 978-0-446-19551-5

Price:

$27.99 U.S.
$34.99 Canada

High profile crime -- MURDER! -- "in the nation's capital". National security. A true-blue cop wrongly accused and imprisoned. David Baldacci delivers on high-stakes thriller action. This book is no exception.

However ... (sorry) this one brings to mind another of his books, the only one among the many I've read that I couldn't finish: THE WINNER. Also highly pro-feminist in layout, THE WINNER is unfortunately unrealistic. Its protagonist is an unbelievably strong woman (hiding the fact), go figure, in a seemingly unsalvageable situation. Worse, this newest novel has not one, not two, but THREE wickedly-dangerous women in the cast, none of them hiding it (this time). Swinging delicately on the arms of one of the women and leaning firmly on her sister at times, is an athletic but decidedly non-dangerous man.

This is as close as David Baldacci has yet come to writing humor, as far as I can see. He's a terrific writer, and I love his work in general. Therefore I will say only that TRUE BLUE is not my favorite among Mr. Baldacci's works, or at least the ones I've read (most of them, I think) so far. That doesn't mean I won't be waiting eagerly for his next release; it means only that he's set himself a high standard, and this book doesn't come close to his best work. I suspect he knows that by now.

Reader's thanks to Hachette Publishing Group -- and Miriam Parker, Associate Director of Online Marketing -- for the opportunity to review this book and pass it along to the world of readers. The Fireside Reader sincerely thanks you!

Share the link: This page is located at http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com .

I, ALEX CROSS, by James Patterson

2009-11-10T17:03:00.000-08:00

I, ALEX CROSS

Fiction:Novel
by
James Patterson

www.jamespatterson.com

First Edition Hardback
released November, 2009

Published by:
Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group
(www.hachettebookgroup.com)

ISBN: 978-0-316-01878-4

Price:

$27.99 U.S.
$34.99 Canada

The Guiness Book of World Records lists James Patterson as having had more New York Times Bestsellers than ANY other writer. Add another one to that long, long list of sucessful novels! This "Alex Cross" series item is the best yet created by this very consistent author.

Without offering up any spoilers, let me say that any time a family member turns up as the victim of a particularly gruesome murder, the stakes are ratcheted up to white hot pitch. Add in a sack full of fear, beloved children and elderly family, then the recipe for a terror-ific read is complete.

Note: Mr. Patterson has launched a website to aid adults in finding excellent books for children. You may visit it at: www.readkiddoread.com .

Reader's thanks to Hachette Publishing Group -- and Miriam Parker, Associate Director of Online Marketing -- for the opportunity to review this book and pass it along to the world of readers. The Fireside Reader sincerely thanks you!

Share the link: This page is located at http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com .

"TELL ME SOMETHING TRUE", by Leila Cobo

2009-10-06T18:39:00.000-07:00

TELL ME SOMETHING TRUE

A Novel

Written by

Leila Cobo

www.leilacobo.com

First Edition Trade Paperback
Released Oct., 2009

ISBN: 978-0-316-16631-7

Published by:

Grand Central Publishing

Via

Hachette Book Group

www.hachettebookgroup.com

Price:

$13.99 U.S.
$16.99 Canada

This finely wrought debut novel is a product of the renowned Leila Cobo, a former concert pianist and celebrated journalist native to Cali, Columbia and now residing in Florida, USA.

Ms. Cobo has every right to be proud of this book. The depth and sincerity of it strike home with the reader in a unique way. She clearly loves her native land and its peoples, and she understands that while nothing and no one is perfect, it is the way we deal with the search for perfection that defines us. She gives us a clear, unstinting portrait of Cali, Colombia as only such as she could.

TELL ME SOMETHING TRUE is a tale of interwoven lives and loves, of secrets and unavoidable truths. Tucked into the everyday is a hard look at how the drug industry, an intrinsic part of how the world outside perceives Columbia in general, destroys all it touches, beginning with those who deal in it. We're given a loving look at the arts and music, the extraordinary ordinary of the people there, their day to day struggles and joys. Ms. Cobo has a gift for bringing caring to the reader, to widen our perceptions of a diverse world.

Recommended reading! This novel will not only entertain, it will enlighten.

Special thanks to Hachette Publishing Group -- and Miriam Parker, Associate Director of Online Marketing -- for the opportunity to review this book and pass it along to the world of readers. The Fireside Reader sincerely thanks you!

NINE DRAGONS, by Michael Connelly

2009-09-29T16:26:00.001-07:00

NINE DRAGONS

Written by

Michael Connelly

www.michaelconnelly.com

Become a fan!

http://www.facebook.com/michaelconnellybooks

First Edition Hardback
released Oct., 2009

Published by:
Little, Brown and Company

ISBN: 978-0-316-16631-7

Price:

$27.99 U.S.
$34.99 Canada

Available also through Hachette Audio.
www.hachettebookgroup.com

Harry Bosch is back and on the job in Mr. Connelly's most recently released work, "NINE DRAGONS". From the black and gold of the cover, the exotic contrasts begin with a bang and keep on going.

In this round, Harry Bosch is sunk deep into a world almost unknown by non-Asian peoples, a world rich and replete with careful ceremony, deep spiritualism, and an insular protectiveness that both contrasts and blends seamlessly with definite materialistic leanings. His world has developed within himself out of need, and the utterly alien ways of Asians as compared to his concept of Americans (by way of having been a "tunnel rat" while in Viet Nam) strains his narrow tolerances -- yet, a strong survivor, he begins to adapt and learn.

It begins with a murder at Fortune Liquors. The storekeeper is killed, and by chance was slightly known by Harry Bosch. He carries an old matchbook with a fortune inside: "Happy is the man who finds refuge in himself." One match is missing, the story behind it a shadow that stays with the LAPD detective.

The stakes rise high, and Harry Bosch rises to meet them one by one with his trademark determination raised like a battle flag. But when the most important part of his life is endangered, that determination turns to something far more desperate.

Laid out between the ultra-American world of Las Angeles, California, and the ultra-Chinese world of Hong Kong -- both with international connections -- this story is to be recommended. Mr. Connelly is a master of his genre.

Also available: THE SCARECROW

Special thanks to Hachette Publishing Group -- and Miriam Parker, Associate Director of Online Marketing -- for the opportunity to review this book and pass it along to the world of readers. The Fireside Reader sincerely thanks you!

NINE DRAGONS, by Michael Connelly

2009-09-29T16:18:00.000-07:00

NINE DRAGONS . . . Written by . Michael Connelly . www.michaelconnelly.com . Become a fan! . http://www.facebook.com/michaelconnellybooks . First Edition Hardback released Oct., 2009 . Published by: Little, Brown and Company . ISBN: 978-0-316-16631-7 . Price: $27.99 U.S. $34.99 Canada . Available also through Hachette Audio. . www.hachettebookgroup.com . . . .

Harry Bosch is back and on the job in Mr. Connelly's most recently released work, "NINE DRAGONS". From the black and gold of the cover, the exotic contrasts begin with a bang and keep on going. In this round, Harry Bosch is sunk deep into a world almost unknown by non-Asian peoples, a world rich and replete with careful ceremony, deep spiritualism, and an insular protectiveness that both contrasts and blends seamlessly with definite materialistic leanings. His world has developed within himself out of need, and the utterly alien ways of Asians as compared to his concept of Americans (by way of having been a "tunnel rat" while in Viet Nam) strains his narrow tolerances -- yet, a strong survivor, he begins to adapt and learn. It begins with a murder at Fortune Liquors. The storekeeper is killed, and by chance was slightly known by Harry Bosch. He carries an old matchbook with a fortune inside: "Happy is the man who finds refuge in himself." One match is missing, the story behind it a shadow that stays with the LAPD detective. The stakes rise high, and Harry Bosch rises to meet them one by one with his trademark determination raised like a battle flag. But when the most important part of his life is endangered, that determination turns to something far more desperate. Laid out between the ultra-American world of Las Angeles, California, and the ultra-Chinese world of Hong Kong -- both with international connections -- this story is to be recommended. Mr. Connelly is a master of his genre.

Also available: THE SCARECROW

The Whole Truth, by David Baldacci

2008-03-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

Title:

The Whole Truth

Author:

David Baldacci

(Bestselling author of numerous novels, including The Camel Club, Last Man Standing, The Collectors, and Stone Cold.)

* ADVANCE READER COPY *

Novel to be released in May, 2008 as hardcover.

Also to be available as large-print and audio editions.

ISBN-10: 0-446-19579-9

ISBN-13: 978-0-446-19579-3

Published by:

Grand Central Publishing

Hachette Book Group USA

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169

http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/

Price (as hardcover):

$26.99 US / $29.99 Can.

He's done it again: upped the ante. Mr. Baldacci just keeps getting better! Rich characters and deep, skillful weaving of research and expert storytelling make this international thriller a book you won't want to miss.

Delving far into the details of both war and global economy, the potential power role of big business (as in arms-dealers, in this case) brings us to the art of something called “perception management”, or “PM”. “PMing”, as Mr. Baldacci terms it, is the manufacturing of “the truth”. This was a thing made popular during the Viet Nam War, as I understand it. The question is, is what we see actually the whole truth... or not?

Bring on the internet, world politics, and, just for kicks, two or three larger-than-life, highly sympathetic heroes. Throw in a self-made money-god and his well-paid, merciless minions. Toss in some serious mayhem, a little dash of murder. Stir well. The results? One delicious, page-turning novel written by a contemporary master of his genre.

Do yourself – or all of us, maybe – a favor, though. If the publisher sees fit to leave the author's note (my copy was an ARC, or advance reader's copy, which can be altered considerably before the book is released to the general public) in the back, do as Mr. Baldacci asks. “DO NOT READ BEFORE YOU FINISH THE NOVEL.” And never stop asking questions of everything you encounter. A good one to start with is “Why?”

Thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review Mr. Baldacci's newest novel. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

...

Comments? Questions? Speak your piece and welcome!

-- The Fireside Reader

The Host, by Stephenie Meyer

2008-03-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

Title:

The Host

Author:

Stephenie Meyer

(Bestselling author of the Twilight series.)

* ADVANCE READER COPY *

Novel to be released in May, 2008 as hardcover.

Also to be available as large-print and audio editions.

ISBN-10: 0-316-06804-7

ISBN-13: 978-0-316-06804-8

Published by:

Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group USA

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169

http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/

Price (as hardcover):

$25.99 US / $29.99 Can.

Ms. Meyer, who resides in Arizona with her three young sons and husband, is a graduate of Brigham Young University, with a degree in English literature. In The Host, she brings to us her first adult-angled novel, a futuristic science fiction thriller with the survival of earth's humans at stake.

Meyer makes us ask questions, and to consider answers as well, which we might not be comfortable with encountering. Love of family, romance, loneliness, desperation. The genetics of body versus the strength of soul. Pull a string, get a reaction. It might not be what you expected. It might not be what could, at first glimpse, be called “humane”.

What is “humane”, anyway? Hmm? You'll probably get exactly as many answers as the number of people you ask that question.

This book, though in a different context, reminds me strongly of such books as The Handmaiden's Tale, Wolf and Iron, Neena Gathering (all by different authors)... and a few others of similar genre as well. These titles might be considered as classics of their kind. They're all books that make you think on realistic terms of what might happen if our society as we know it broke down for some reason.

Take a look for yourself. I was surprised and pleased at the depth of the story, the quality of the writing. Ms. Meyer offers us an interesting – and rather horrific – fictional tale about “preconceived notions”, so to speak, and the possibilities of (literally) universe-al love. It's a big universe out there, and who can know what, or more to interest, who, we might eventually find or be found by, here in our lonely ignorance? Plant, animal, mineral? Gas, even? Or any combination? Does the shape or construction matter, when the soul is in control?

How would a mercurial, widely-varying, and highly emotional species such as we are appear to ... others? The wost ancient words I've ever been able to find for “stranger” also mean “enemy”. Would we then meet enemies or friends, and more than that, how does one define the one from the other? A parasite, by our medical definitions, is (roughly) a symbiotic creature that does minimal damage to its host, for example. Could you find such a thing beautiful? Do our preconceived notions set us to positive or negative paths?

This is a novel that will make you think. Do you want to? What's out there? Don't you wonder...?

Thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review Ms. Meyer's new adult novel. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website. . ... . Comments? Questions? Speak your piece and welcome! . -- The Fireside Reader

The Geography of Bliss, by Eric Weiner

2008-03-17T17:22:00.000-07:00

Title:

The Geography of Bliss:

One Grump's Search for the Happiest Place on Earth

Author:

Eric Weiner

(Correspondent, NPR)

Nonfiction, travel.

Hardcover released January 2008.

ISBN-10: 0-446-58026-0

ISBN-13: 978-0-446-58026-0

Published by:

Twelve Books

Hachette Book Group USA

237 Park Avenue,

New York, NY 10169

http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/

Price:

$25.99 US / $29.99 Can.

Any poor soul who has been on a family vacation of a week or more knows what an utter relief it is to get back home – how happy one is to simply be there, of all possible places. Mr. Weiner utilizes, in this book, “the emerging field of positive psychology”, and still comes up with the same answer. That's despite all of his “work-related” (and therefore tax-deductible) travels all over the world, visiting with various peoples. Um, I'm sure it's truly hard work, such an ambitious project. (Let's leave it at that, shall we?) . Need I say more? . .

Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review Mr. Weiner's travel book. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

. -- The Fireside Reader . Please refer others to this link: http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com/

Girls in Trucks, by Katie Crouch

2008-03-17T17:07:00.000-07:00

Title:

Girls in Trucks

Author: Katie Crouch

(Debut novel.)

*ADVANCE READER COPY *

Novel to be released in April, 2008 as hardcover. Also available in large print and audio editions.

ISBN-10: 0-316-00211-9

ISBN-13: 978-0-316-00211-0

Published by:

Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group USA

237 Park Avenue,

New York, NY 10169

http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/

Price (as hardcover):

$21.99 US / $25.50 Can.

This is interesting. The debutant author is a Cotillion attendee! She's from Charleston, South Carolina. She was also a writing student at Brown and Columbia, and now lives in San Francisco, California. What a history – and it shows in the story.

Raw, funny, earthy, impractically practical, South to North and back again, this comic-tragic tale is woven with an eye to looking back, if y'all (ahem) will pardon the visual pun. Anyone with a family whose portrait should be the illustration – and in the more southern states, there are many of us – for the word “dysfunctional” in various reference books will get a laugh as well as a frustrated groan or two at various personal memories along the way. The antics Ms. Crouch's cast goes through are, in general, useless. Yet they are entertaining and interesting, to say the least. Ah, the search for love and self-confidence, despite some rather warped and formative childhoods.

If you have any idea what entails in the intricate dance (another pun, Cotillion-aimed) step of society in the southern states versus the northern ones, you'll appreciate this story even more. Coming from a “neutral” state, a fence-sitter, not quite Northern yet not fully Southern, I can honestly say that the War Between the States is still raging in its own way, and racial slavery is now not the issue: love and existential angst in a weird social ladder is alive and well, and well-armed for battle.

Pull out the hand-tatted white lace doilies, a cold-dewed glass pitcher of cold sweet tea, the lemonade and cookies, and find a shady spot with a squeaky old rocking chair. You'll need 'em for this one.

Thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review Katie Crouch's debut novel. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

...

Comments? Questions? Speak your piece and welcome!

-- The Fireside Reader

H2O, by Howard Schatz

2008-03-06T16:17:00.000-08:00

Title:

H2O

. By

Howard Schatz

Nonfiction, Photography. Hardback released November 2007.

ISBN-10: 0-316-1176-7

ISBN-13: 978-0-316-11775-3

Published by:

Bulfinch Press

Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169 www.hachettebookgroupusa.com

Price:

$60.00 US / $69.50 Can.

Mr. Schatz has done it again! His skill with the photographic tools and the additional medium of water in all of its properties is absolutely magical. The man is a visionary who has, with hard work and complete dedication to his art, brought the human body back to its fluid origins in a saline suspension of pure beauty.

As one might guess, this book does include some nudity and freedom of artistic interpretation -- sometimes referring back to other great, easily-recognised works of Renaissance art. It is a coffee-table type book, intended for an adult market.

However, I must say that isn't pornographic to my eyes: this is real art. Rare art. If you buy this book, don't miss the sections throughout which explain the artist's motivations, methods, and explorations that lie at the heart of his art. There is also (common in photographic art books) a thumbnail-and-comment section in the back. These items are most interesting.

Mr. Schatz is fast becoming a classic, an icon in his business. Have a look for yourself: www.howardschatz.com .

Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review this beautiful collection of photographic art by Mr. Schatz. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

Questions? Comments? Speak up and be welcome.

-- The Fireside Reader

. Please refer others to this link: http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com

Test Drive Your Dream Job, by Brian Kurth with Robin Simons

2008-03-06T16:11:00.000-08:00

Title:

Test Drive Your Dream Job: A Step by Step Guide

to Finding and Creating the Work You Love

Author(s):

Brian Kurth (Founder and President of VocationVacations), with Robin Simons

Nonfiction, self-help.

Trade paperback released January 2008.

ISBN-10: 0-446-69888-1

ISBN-13: 978-0-446-69888-7

. Published by:

Business Plus Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169 www.hachettebookgroupusa.com

Price:

$16.99 US / $19.75 Can.

This one brings back a lot of memories for me, and not all of them good. Oh, boy. To illustrate, in the (well, very nearly) 30 years since I finished high school, I've worked at a lot of things: concession stand in a local drive-in movie place; manual factory labor; fast-food, veterinary assistance, farm work on dairy, hay, tobacco, and as a professional groom with Thoroughbred horses in Kentucky's bluegrass region and with other horses in other places, in the foothills (the last of which always allows me the joke that I've also been a happy bride too). Since having to stop doing heavy labor, I've hobbied around in the arts world some (painting, writing, photography, digital image manipulation of various kinds, and more), and even won a prize or two as well as having long-term one-person shows here and there.

Of all of that, earning a wage and grinning over the winnings and trophy ribbons, the details don't matter a whit anymore. There is only tomorrow, and tomorrow, for as long as tomorrows continue. What does matter is the amount of resource one can maintain, and one's relative location.

Mr. Kurth has a lot of lovely ideas here, and it seems that he has helped a number of people. One needs only to remember that there are limits, as in any other undertaking with both ambition and frustration as components. Mr. Kurth himself has illustrated the awareness of this in his author's statement at the beginning of the book, where he tells of changing locations to start over.

The best I can say is, to you wishful job seekers out there, the best of you is in you, and if you want it bad enough, you'll find a way. Just like a girl from the foothills found a way into the elite work of the race-horse industry once upon a time. You'll be poor, most likely, without hope of becoming rich, yet if you love the work, you'll be free. That kind of freedom is the best. Good luck to you – I've been in your shoes, and it was no easy road to travel. I, for one, have no regrets.

Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review this interesting self-help book. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

. -- The Fireside Reader . Please refer others to this link: http://thefiresidereader.blogspot.com

Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs

2008-03-06T16:01:00.001-08:00

Title:

Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs

Edited by:

Andrea G. Stillman

Nonfiction photography book, released as hardcover 2007.

ISBN-10: 0-316-11772-2

ISBN-13: 978-0-316-11772-2

Published by:

Little, Brown and Company Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169 www.hachettebookgroupusa.com

Price:

$40.oo USD / $50.oo CAN

...

You don't take a photograph, you make it. -- Ansel Adams

This is one fine retrospective. It's organized chronologically: (including some taken in 1916, with a Kodak Brownie, on a family vacation) 1920s to through the 1960s. It includes many of his most popular works, but also some of his lesser-known efforts. It is a peek into the development of a fine artist.

As an amateur photographer and "child of the woods", I have always admired the works of Ansel Adams, who was at once fine artist and devotee of the wilderness. Here in this new book a nice collection of his works of some six decades is showcased admirably. From his well-known landscapes to still life and portrait work, one brilliant black and white photo succeeds the next with the elegance and careful work of a master plain to see.

For the true devotee of photography, I recommend proceeding to the back of the book, where details of the works are documented. It's a fascinating look into the mind of a great photographer.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the works of Ansel Adams (1902-1984), he was the most celebrated and honored American photographer of his era, the 20th century. He was also a devotee of nature, using his skills and artistry, through both publication and exhibits, to defend and protect the wilderness. To this he added his writings, leadership in the Sierra Club, and a world of followers. His how-to books are classics in regards to black and white photography still today. With the efforts of the Ansel Adams Trust, his good works continue today to make our world a better place -- and to keep up priceless preservation of our wild spaces.

In 1980, this man, this photographer, was gifted by then-President Jimmy Carter with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The dustcover on the book gives us the wording of the citation:

At one with the power of the American landscape, and renowned for the patient skill and timeless beauty of his work, photographer Ansel Adams has been visionary in his efforts to preserve the country's wild and scenic areas, both on film and on earth. Drawn to the beauty of nature's monuments, he is regarded by environmentalists as a monument himself, and by photographers as a national institution. It is through his foresight and fortitude that so much of America has been saved for future Americans.

Having edited seven books for the Ansel Adams Trust (of Mr. Adams' work), Ms. Stillman is a former staff member of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (NY, USA), and personally worked for Ansel Adams during the 1970s.

...

Thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review this remarkable view into the works of Ansel Adams, photographer. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

...

Comments? Questions? Speak your piece and welcome*!

-- The Fireside Reader

* As per the very basic rules of this site. See archives. ~ TFR

Sway, by Zachary Lazar

2008-03-06T15:43:00.000-08:00

Title:

Sway

Author:

Zachary Lazar

Novel released as hardcover first edition January, 2008.

ISBN-10: 0-316-11309-3

ISBN-13: 978-0-316-11309-0

Published by:

Little, Brown and Company Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169 www.hachettebookgroupusa.com

Price:

$23.99 US/$27.99 Can.

...

Through a glass darkly? Yes, this is a dark yet realistic time capsule back to the turbulent 1060s, up to the turmoil of 1969 in specific. We visit the crossroads created by the juxtaposition of two phenomenons cast upon society during that time: The Rolling Stones and Charles Manson. It is, if you'll pardon the cliché, a crossing of mad stars.

The names of the characters dance to their own tunes: Brian Jones, a soul spinning out of control in a machine he instigated the creation of; Bobby Beausoleil, who lost grip on his own soul during association with Charles Manson and his group of followers; gay filmmaker Kenneth Anger (Invocation of My Demon Brother – featuring Bobby Beausoleil, among others). Music, sex, the entire range of rawest human emotion, fame's cherished demons, murder, as well as the alleged accidental death by drowning of the first leader of the Rolling Stones.

This one is a wild ride with the growling voice of Mick Jagger. Buckle yourself in for blast off. Yesterday is cast in stone – who knows what tomorrow brings?

...

Thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review Zachary Lazar's new novel. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

...

Comments? Questions? Speak your piece and welcome!

-- The Fireside Reader

The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild, by Craig Childs

2008-01-05T17:03:00.000-08:00

Title:

The Animal Dialogues:

Uncommon Encounters in the Wild

Author:

Craig Childs

(Author of House of Rain and The Secret Knowledge of Water.)

Nonfiction book released as hardcover edition December, 2007.

ISBN number:

ISBN-10: 0-316-06632-x

ISBN-13: 978-0-316-06632-7

Published by:

Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group USA

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169

http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/

Price:

$24.99 US / $28.99 CAN

...

"I have heard people tell me that at times they wish to get in touch with the animal spirit. I will tell you this about the animal spirit: it will tear you in two as quickly as it will bring you wholeness. It is not a thing of value or judgement. It is a thing of purity, and it will not take ussue with either death or ecstacy." -- Craig Childs

In nature is truth -- and it pulls no punches for the unwary, the weak, or the outright stupid. Mr. Childs is clearly an experienced outdoorsman; this is becomes more obvious as one absorbs his spiritual yet practical essays of the wild.

In this collection of essays (not in chronological order, but rather organized in nature's own forms), we are given songs of the wilderness, an earthy view of the animal spirit itself -- and that of a man who claims "all [my] relations" in his own way, in his own words. From the fiery sands of the desert to high mountain blizzard encounters, Mr. Childs takes us on a naturalist's tour of a world otherwise invisible to the majority of humanity. His feeling of kinship and joy in all of the aspects of nature, light and dark, are clear. Clear as a spring sunrise, just before a rain. His 'skies' are colorful and full of surprises.

I opened this book thinking it would be yet another pitiful collection of backyard adventures dabbled in by some poor soul who thinks such a thing is the ultimate in contact with nature. Nothing could have been farther from the truth. This book was written by someone who is deep into the wild even when sitting on his own residence's front porch, yet has seen firsthand the haunts of mountain goats, grizzly, cougar, deer, who has seen the dance of life and death done in the sky itself by experts of flight in many colors and wing-styles. Mr. Childs gets his hands into nature long before he gets ink on them!

If you like first-hand accounts of the wild and its denizens, dig deep into this book. It's a nice collection of tales. (In fact, it makes me wonder who Mr. Childs' agent is...ahem.)

...

Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review this collection of nature essays by Craig Childs. For information on other books offered or soon to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

... Comments? Questions?

-- The Fireside Reader

Devil's Peak, by Deon Meyers

2008-01-05T16:39:00.000-08:00

Title:

Devil's Peak

Author:

Deon Meyer

(Author of Heart of the Hunter,

Dead at Daybreak,

and

Dead Before Dying. )

Translated by K.L. Seegers.

ADVANCE COPY.

Novel to be released as hardcover March, 2008, in its first U.S. edition.

Note:

This novel was published in English in 2007 by Hodder & Stoughton, a division of Hodder Headline, and in Afrikaans by LAPA in 2004 under the title Infanta.

Mr. Meyer is an internationally acclaimed crime writer who resides in Cape Town, South Africa.

ISBN number:

ISBN-10: 0-316-01785-x

ISBN-13: 978-0-316-01785-5

Published by:

Little, Brown & Company

Hachette Book Group USA

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169

http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/

Price (as hardcover):

$24.99 USD

...

This is a well-written, well-thought-out novel, replete with rich symbolism and a deep knowledge of not merely the material, but also the country in which it is set. Mr. Meyer takes us into the heart of South Africa: its people. Their problems, post-Aparteid, their joys.

We are, in Devil's Peak, offered insight in regards to the South African police system. We are also offered insight into things the rest of the world holds in common with a land that, to such as I, feels exotic and utterly alien in context. I'm talking about alcoholism, illegal drugs, "sex workers" (the oldest profession, and an occasionally highly lucrative one to all accounts), corruption in law, poverty, and the deeper mysteries of the human nature. . Degrees of darkness... set in a land where degrees of color can mean an entire world of difference in how things -- and people -- get treated. White, colored, black. Culture clash -- the roil of Apartheid still not faded completely away, as it may never be. The dazzle and wild swings of the damaged psyche. Love of children. Love, itself, and its counterpart of blasting hate. Joy, too, and hope. The things that make it all worthwhile to struggle against the evils of our species.

The reader is drawn in tighter and tighter as the story comes together. This novel is a highly skilled interweaving of several strong threads of story, all tied off in a carefully intricate, artistic knot. It is a master work.

Since Mr. Meyer is South African and I am an American, I had never seen his work before. I must say that I am not only delighted to find another good writer with something real to say, but that I am also impressed with the level of skill shown by this author. I certainly hope we see more of his work here in the U. S. in future. It's serious stuff.

...

Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review Deon Meyer's fascinating, engrossing novel. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

...

Comments? Questions?

-- The Fireside Reader

Beginner's Greek, by James Collins

2008-01-05T16:23:00.000-08:00

Title:

Beginner's Greek

Author:

James Collins

(This is his debut novel!)

Novel released as hardcover during January, 2008.

ISBN numbers:

ISBN-10: 0-316-02155-5

ISBN-13: 978-0-316-02155-9

Published by:

Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group USA

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169

http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/

Price:

$23.99 USD / $27.99 CAN

...

Mr. Collins has written in this novel a romance that, wonder of all literary wonders, keeps the reader on edge. Being no great personal fan of romances, I can honestly say that this is an exceptional story. I'd call it, ahem, a novel novel of love lost, won, mistaken, and ... traded!

Subtle humor is the key. This is no mess of he-said she-said for endless, silly chapters in seemingly endless repitition. No flogging of shallow sexual/ romantic/symbolic (or real...) dead horses. This is simply a well-written, well-told story of the mating game. Er, with humor intact and in delicate literary lines.

At first I was strongly reminded of the movie, "Serendipity". As time went on, I realized that it was very different in certain respects. The story starts off slow, then gathers speed and style as it proceeds toward an ending that draws a replete smile where 'The End' sits waiting.

Go on. Have fun. Laugh at weddings, cry at funerals, or vice versa as the case may be. Just read it! You'll see what I mean.

...

Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review James Collins' debut novel. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

...

Comments? Questions?

-- The Fireside Reader

Theft, by N.S. Koenings

2008-01-05T15:42:00.000-08:00

Title:

Theft

Author:

N. S. Koenings

ADVANCE REVIEW

Fiction short story collection to be released as original paperback in March, 2008.

Note: READER'S PICK Guide Inside.

ISBN numbers:

ISBN-10: 0-316-00186-4

ISBN-13: 978-0-316-00186-1

Published by:

Back Bay Books/ Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169 http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/

Price:

$13.99 USD / $16.25 CAN

...

Ms. Koenings is a toymaker and collage artist who grew up on three continents; she currently resides in Massachusetts. Her works are influenced by this and other labors, "many languages and music", and it shows. I noted that the blurb saysh she "spends most of her time thinking about love, accidents, evil, money, and the concept of 'the nation'", and she hopes that her novels are "joyfully defiant".

I found her short stories to show a quirky depth of understanding about various natures, ills, and relationships within a given society. Her artistic angle leans this collection strongly to the "art read" side of the spectrum. It takes us to other worlds, shows us things only a visual artist would see and think of as significant enough to write about -- a way of seeing that the general populace of the world doesn't know exists.

The best I can say on a personal basis is that this book is a window to worlds I'll probably never see in person. What it lacks in hard-hitting story, it makes up for in delicate, subtle barbs that latch on and creep through one like a secret storm. I found it to be 'interesting'.

That said, I wouldn't buy another like it. It's simply not strong enough in style to appeal to the devoted reader. Very nice... but room for improvement. And a bit less wind, to my taste.

... Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review this short-story collection by N. S. Koenings. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website. ... Comments? Questions? -- The Fireside Reader

Chat, by Archer Mayor

2007-12-14T12:06:00.000-08:00

Title:

Chat A novel

A Joe Gunther Mystery

Author:

Archer Mayor (National bestselling author. Website: http://www.archermayor.com/.)

Novel released as hardcover in October, 2007.

ISBN number:

ISBN-10: 0-446-58258-1 ISBN-13: 978-0-446-58258-2

Published by:

Grand Central Publishing

Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169 http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/

Price (as hardcover):

$24.99 USD / $28.99 CAN

... . Ho-hum. Another mystery novel masquerading at first as a popular novel. Mr. Mayor is capable of far, far better, I am sure. I almost slept my way through this novel. It's a slow starter with only sporadic action near the end. The charactors are so ordinary and preditable that I have trouble remembering them, and I only just finished the novel recently. Sad, so sad. The book is well-written as far as style and technique go, yet the whole thing comes off as a sleeper. I'm yawning, something I almost never do when reading or thinking of a recently read book. Some people read so they can get to sleep; I read and am wide awake, normally, in the absorption of the material.

Sleepy flags to Mr. Mayor. Try again?

"Yawnnnnnn." (Wake me up when it's over, will you please? I think I'm going to take a nice nap while I wait.)

... .

Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review Archer Mayor's latest Joe Gunther novel. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

...

Comments? Questions?

-- The Fireside Reader

7th Heaven, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

2007-12-14T11:46:00.000-08:00

Title:

7th Heaven

Author(s):

James Patterson and

Maxine Paetro

ADVANCE COPY review -- uncorrected proof. Novel to be released in February, 2008.

ISBN number:

ISBN-10: 0-316-01770-1 ISBN-13: 978-0-316-01770-1

Published by:

Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169 http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/

Price (as hardcover):

$27.99 USD / $32.50 CAN

. ...

Oh, my. I am impressed! This book absolutely sparks. It's a can't-put-down item with a surprise ending. It's alive with mystery's best features, with the added punch of a sharp sense of humor meshed neatly with murder, mayhem, arson, and a stalker to boot!

Mr. Patterson has found a great partner in Maxine Paetro, I am solidly convinced. Together, they've created the kind of mystery novel that readers search frantically for on bookstore shelves. This is the fifth Patterson-Paetro Women's Murder Club (of the seven in the series) collaboration, and definately is a winner. All I can say, still reeling from the whirlwind read is "WELL DONE!"

This is no cardboard tale. It's solid gold, and one of Mr. Patterson's best offerings yet. Kudos to Ms. Paetro for her expert assist -- the difference triggered thus is remarkable. Sharp, sharper, and the sharpest is surely yet to come, if this partnership continues.

Flags on wicked fire for 7th Heaven, folks. This one is brightly burning, a read to bounce through laughing wildly ... and shivering by turns. How could anyone ask for more from any mystery novel?

...

Comments? Questions?

-- The Fireside Reader

Coming soon, one novel in hardback and two advance-copy novels.

2007-12-07T15:39:00.000-08:00

First:

Chat, by Archer Mayor. (released in hardcover...)

Later:

7th Heaven, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (ADVANCE copy, to be released in February, 2008)

the girl who stopped swimming, by Joshilyn Jackson (ADVANCE copy, to be released in March, 2008)

ENDGAME, 1945, by David Stafford -- nonfiction

2007-12-07T14:39:00.000-08:00

Title:

ENDGAME, 1945

Author:

David Stafford (Acclaimed historian, author of Ten Days to D-Day.)

Nonfiction book released as hardcover in

Great Britain by Little, Brown Book Group Ltd., during August, 2007. First American edition released November, 2007.

ISBN number:

ISBN-10: 0-316-10980-0 ISBN-13: 978-0-316-10980-2

Published by:

Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169 www.hachettebookgroupusa.com

Price:

$26.99 US / $31.25 CAN

...

. Wars don't end when it is declared so -- the real combatatants, the locals, continue to fight long after governmental issues have been beaten to a bloody pulp. The people fight for, mostly, basic rights and necessities. Food, shelter, clothing, water, a place to sleep without fear of bodily harm. Regardless, as it is so often said here in the United States, of race, religion, gender, or national origin. Funny, those are the kinds of things that usually start a revolution ... but I digress.

Let me tell you now about a history book written by a gifted author whose skilled eye for a story amid tons of careful research draws in the most casual reader.

First of all, David Stafford is an acclaimed historian. He has been, as the book's slip cover points out, the former executive director of the Canadian Institute of International affairs, and is now project director at the Centre for the Study of the Two World Wars at the highly respected University of Edinburgh. He has written several books in the area of intelligence and the second world war: Camp X, Roosevelt and Churchill: Men of Secrets, Spies Beneath Berlin, Secret Agent: The True Story of the Special Operations Executive, and also Ten Days to D-Day. Mr. Stafford clearly has compassion and passion for his subject, a fact clear from the beginning, and his research is impeccable; the book's bibliography is highly detailed, as are his notes. This man is both scholar and writer, a rare combination.

In ENDGAME, 1945, our writer-scholar takes us deep into World War II, giving us an intense vision of what horrors were perpetrated under the rule of Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime. We are given insight through the stories of real people -- albeit people whose ordinary positions in the war have brought out the larger-than-life aspects of their charactor. Soldiers, spies, relief workers, political prisoners, those who lost their families to the gas chambers or starvation of the camps... and more... all have their stories to tell.

What stories they are, I cannot begin to describe. Let it only be said that no movie's special effects has yet come close to the reality of World War II. I know this because I was raised on such stories -- granted, this book has personal connotations for me. My father is, as I write, a hale and hearty eighty-six year old U. S. Army infantry veteran, "Sarge", whose stories back up everything written by Mr. Stafford, and yet go beyond.

The stories passed along by those known as The Greatest Generation will soon be lost, as the survivors of that time period die away, leaving us all without their wisdom and experience. As with many other veterans' experiences, my father's intense tales of Hill 49, of being sent to 'graves detail', of being acting "mayor" of a town while only a Kentucky country boy in his early twenties, the breathless angst of living almost unscratched in a slit trench next to someone else who didn't survive a blast that hit slightly off center between the two trenches and was the first body he picked up later ... someone he knew well and liked... all of it will be gone soon. Unless someone, somewhere, preserves them.

Perhaps I don't have that skill, yet there are those who do, such as Mr. Stafford. While I don't generally read history books, I was taken deep into this one and have come out a -- sober but admiring -- fan of this man's writing style. He's good, folks, and he's clearly devoted to his subject for life.

Peacetime flags for Mr. Stafford, in a world dallying with the same exact problems of World War II's aftermath, a land devoid of its former cruel leader, whose people, as those from every other ancient land, merely want to go back to a decent -- by their standards, not anyone else's -- existance. It is indeed a fact that those who do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it.

...

Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review David Stafford's thought-provoking book. For information on other books offered or soon to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

...

Comments? Questions?

-- The Fireside Reader

...

Personal comment:

Where might the world be now, without dictators, racists, fascists, and plain old fanatical snobs? I'd hazard a guess that we'd have less weapons of mass destruction -- and more 'victims' alive and well to devote their time to the far greater of problems such as world hunger. Let the politicians duke it out on their own. Some man's brother, father, uncle, cousin, friend... some woman's daughter, friend, mother, aunt, cousin... when governments let run the dogs of war, those least deserving pay the butcher's bill first.

Myself, well... I lean to the seemingly contradictory words of Ulyssess S. Grant: "I have never advocated war except as a means of peace." This sentiment was written long before his time, however, by Cicero, in De Officiis: "The only excuse for war is that we may live in peace unharmed." Either way it's said, that's good enough for me. ~TFR

WILD FIRE, by Nelson DeMille

2007-11-24T15:50:00.001-08:00

Title:

Wild Fire

Author:

Nelson DeMille

(Bestselling author of By The Rivers of Babylon, The Gold Coast, The General's Daughter, and Up Country.)

Novel released as hardcover November 2006, soon to be released as paperback.

ISBN number: ISBN-10: 0-446-57967-x ISBN-13: 978-0-446-57967-4

Published by:

Warner Books

. Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169 http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/

Price (as hardcover):

. $26.99 USD / $31.25 CAN

Almost the first thing one encounters in this novel is a quote: "The FBI investigates terrorism-related matters without regard to race, religion, national origin, or gender." -- Terrorism in the United States, FBI publications, 1997. That, alone, is enough to send a nervous laugh thrill through anyone with half a brain. Mr. DeMille has one hellish premise going in Wild Fire, one I hope we never see come to reality. After all, we only have one world to share amongst us all.

What is a crying pity is that an author who is capable of so very much more has paired this strong, well-researched story line with thin, almost transparent charactors. The protagonist is so stereotypical in his male, smart-mouthed ways that a reader has a hard time keeping face forward and teeth unclenched. As if that weren't enough, the protagonist's wife/sidekick is worse. The charactors are into the premise deeply, yet they come across as cut-out dolls instead of rich personalities. Playing with paper dolls is something I outgrew years ago, so the whole thing wound up grating on my nerves.

What did make me itch -- and helped me stay with it to the bitter end -- was that the premise was so believably unbelievable. There exist those whose greed, whose thirst for power, is insatiable. To those people, the rest of us are merely ... collateral damage. Without regard to race, religion, national origin, or gender. They're not (well, not all) government officials, yet they weild power and money on a battleground that's neither official nor truly morally aware in even an abstract manner. Where does this leave the common world citizen standing? On mighty shaky ground, let me tell you. Mr. DeMille has a good handle on that angle.

What came across most was a sense of hurriedness, anxious time-scrabbling. The research was intense, well sorted out, and well-presented. I wonder if this was at the price of cardboard charactors? Mr. DeMille, I wish you better luck on the next one. I can only hope that you won't let deadlines ruin a good thing. Until then, I'll save some flags for a serious work; this one isn't polished well, as so many of your works are. Let's call it unfinished, shall we?

...

Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review Nelson DeMille's novel. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

...

Comments? Questions?

-- The Fireside Reader

CAT and MOUSE, by James Patterson

2007-11-24T15:33:00.000-08:00

Title:

Cat & Mouse

Author:

James Patterson

The novel was originally released as international hardcover April, 1998; it was also released in the United States as paperback November, 1998. By arrangement with Little, Brown & Company, it was published as a trade paperback in August, 2003.

ISBN number:

0-446-69264-6

Published by:

Warner Books Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169 http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/

Price (trade paperback):

$13.95 USD / $19.95 CAN

Once again, James Patterson's deep and careful study of the criminal mind brings us a story with 'panache', if not perhaps quite 'elegance'. While James Patterson has often been accused of having cardboard cutout charactors, this tale involving a serial killer, Gary Murphy/"Soneji" we've met before is solid good reading. In this fourth Alex Cross novel (and bestseller), we're led on a merry mystery chase through several murders and given a surprise at the end as well. Mr. Patterson's intense explorations into the world of criminal psychology pay off in the kind of book that makes the reader pick up each new novel with confidence that entertainment is a given. It's not the charactor that carries his story as much as it's the fast-paced and steadily produced tension.

Action, tension. This author is a past master of such things, which is why he's in solid on the market. His name is widely known, and he's reliable as a producer of such tales. Mr. Patterson, we should all be so skilled. Green for go on Cat & Mouse... with a few mysterious spatters of blood red, of course. You've earned it the hard way.

...

Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review a classic James Patterson novel. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

...

Comments? Questions?

-- The Fireside Reader

THE TERROR, by Dan Simmons

2007-11-24T14:58:00.000-08:00

Title:

The Terror

Author:

Dan Simmons (Bestselling author of Olympos.)

Novel released as hardcover January, 2007, soon to be released as paperback.

ISBN number:

ISBN-10: 0-316-01744-2 ISBN-13: 978-0-316-01744-2

Published by:

Little, Brown & Company Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169 http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/

Price (as hardcover):

$26.99 USD / $31.25 CAN

What an intense piece of work this one is! Mr. Simmons has done a monstrous (ahem) amount of work on this novel of an arctic exploration gone wrong. Vivid details, strong charactors, suspense and mystery done to a turn in a bloody-bones sauce of horror, this story will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. The research is well done indeed, the delicacy of the thread holding us is titanium strong yet cobweb light, as weirdly illuminating as the northern lights.

My only complaint is that, while there is no doubt this is a tightly woven story, it's almost wordy in its massive glory. While on the edge of my seat quite literally, at times I wondered when we were ever going to get to the punchline.

We did get to the punchline, however, and it is a doozy! There is no way I'd have seen the end coming, and it involves one of my greatest interests (which, in the name of keeping a spoiler down, I won't pass along just yet). An unpredictable ending is priceless in a world filled with more and more books.

Visit Mr. Simmon's delectible imagination and see for yourself. This novel will have you asking questions and shivering fit to shatter bones even if you're in a beachside summer cottage with heavy clothing on and the heat cranked up high. Those flags are nothing more and nothing less than the northern lights -- high, wide, and handsome, a mystery from without and within.

...

Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review Dan Simmon's interesting novel. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

...

Comments? Questions?

-- The Fireside Reader

The Dream Thief, by Shana Abe'

2007-10-28T18:27:00.000-07:00

The Dream Thief

Author:

Shana Abe'

Hardcover released

October 2006

Mass market edition released

September 2007

Published by:

Bantam Dell

A Division of Random House, Inc.

New York, New York, USA

ISBN: 978-0-553-58805-7

Mass market paperback price:

$6.99 USD

Though this book is niched as plain 'fiction' by Random House and Bantam Dell, it is a fantasty book with strong romantic leanings. In short, it's one of the new genre blends that are sweeping the markets.

. Out of curiosity, I bought and read (since Random House apparently declines to take part in my book reviews by simply ignoring my emails and letters) The Smoke Thief. This book, The Dream Thief is a sequel to it. I bought and read this one with the intention of bringing it to the attention of those who enjoy the romance genre as well as the fantasy genre -- Shana Abe' brings to us a wonderful voice as well as an intense imagination. It's a pity she limits herself to the narrow world of romances (yep, at times her stories lean darn near porn!) by this blend, yet I believe she's making a solid place for herself in a niche, with specific, steady fans.

The Smoke Thief and The Dream Thief are tales of humans and dragons, magical and basic interaction gone dramatic. We're taken into a world of the rich and poor, jewels and high flight with the inevitable velvet darkness to set it off. It's a heady blend of style and power.

If you love both romance and magical fantasy, this author is for you. Dragon flags with dark jewels for this one... the voice alone warrants this, if the genre blend does not.

. -- The Fireside Reader

Demon's Kiss, by Eve Silver

2007-10-28T17:48:00.000-07:00

Demon's Kiss

Author: Eve Silver

Released in mass market paperback October 2007

Published by:

Forever

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue

New York, New York 10017

www.hachettebookgroupusa.com

ISBN-10: 0-446-61892

ISBN-13: 978-0-446-61892-2

Paperback price:

$6.99 USD

The genre marked on this book is "paranormal romance". I shudder as I write this, as I would describe it as more like 'fantasy alternated with consenting adult porn'.

Having dipped into the mixed-genre books that seem to be sweeping the market recently, I have to say that in comparison to the truly skilled authors, Eve Silver has fallen flat on her face on this one. I'm saddened by this, as she has the ability, I think, to do much better. What she needs is an honest editor!

. Ms. Silver alternates pornographic (mostly graphic) scenes with her magical scenes. There is no blending, no integration of anything. It's up (pardon my expression), down (again, pardon me), and gone in a puff of smoke all too soon -- all too personally. Delicate filaments of light magic cannot heal this alleged story from the chopping and patching that had to have been done to bring it to this state.

. Another problem is that while Ms. Silver definately skipped on research, she also skipped on polishing her style. Everything is in italics, which bugged me, and words are used incorrectly in various places, mostly 'hybrid'. A visit to Dictionary.com would have let her see that making up a word would have made a lot more sense. She seems to talk down to the reader with such careless inattention to detail, which I abhor.

. As an honest reader, I can't offer any flags for this book. I would have to call it unedited, and therefore unfinished.

. Best of luck in the future, Ms. Silver. You have the right idea. Now apply a little honest sweat -- and change the sheets while you're at it.

Our thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review this book. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

... Comments? Questions? -- The Fireside Reader

Stone Cold, by David Baldacci

2007-10-04T14:56:00.000-07:00

Title:

Stone Cold

Author:

David Baldacci

(New York Times bestselling author

of The Collectors and Simple Genius.)

. ADVANCE REVIEW

Novel to be released as hardcover November 6, 2007

ISBN number:

ISBN-10: 0-446-57739-1

ISBN-13: 978-0-446-57739-7

Published by: Grand Central Publishing

Hachette Book Group USA

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169

www.hachettebookgroupusa.com

Price:

$26.99 USD / $31.25 CAN

The blurb on the back of this advance copy says that the author "returns with STONE COLD -- an unforgetable novel of revenge, conspiracy, and murder" ... which I find to be a gross understatement. This novel is a highly developed work, its plot woven and rewoven into a tight tale of political and personal power struggles.

The charactors are larger than life, the stressors intense -- you'll be on the edge of your seat from beginning to end. If this book makes it to movie, it'll be a wild ride for any enthusiast of tight packed action and intrigue (providing that the movie makers don't massacre the whole thing as they have done so many others in the past, that is). As it is, with the reader providing all the props, cast, and details, it's a fireball of a trip I'm glad to have taken. .

This is absolutely one of the best-researched and carefully written books I've ever picked up. Mr. Baldacci is gifted -- and has a strong voice that he uses to take us to ever-increasing levels of tension. Speaking of a book with meat on the bones ... this is it! Even I, who avoid reading political thrillers in general due to the dusty-dry source material, found it to be a top of the line item.

. If you like tales of spies, international intrigue, human nature and heroes found in the edges of society, check out this admirable work of David Baldacci's. It'll take you to places you never thought could exist and have you doing things you'd never dreamed of doing in ways you wouldn't have believed possible.

Red, white, and blue -- a classic American flag for Stone Cold. No white flags or white feathers for this one. The action is too hot, the story and charactors far too vivid, the battleground all too close, to be flagged with anything else.

... .

Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review David Baldacci's newest novel. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

... .

Comments? Questions? . -- The Fireside Reader

When Ghosts Speak: Understanding the World of Earthbound Spirits, by Mary Ann Winkowski

2007-10-04T14:44:00.000-07:00

Title:

. When Ghosts Speak: Understanding the World of Earthbound Spirits

Author:

. Mary Ann Winkowski (The consultant to CBS's Ghost Whisperer.)

Foreword by James Van Praagh, spiritual medium and author of Talking to Heaven.

ADVANCE REVIEW

Novel to be released as hardcover October 22, 2007

ISBN numbers: ISBN-10: 0-446-58118-6 ISBN-13: 978-0-44658118-9

. Published by:

Grand Central Publishing Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169 http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/

. Price:

. $24.99 USD / $31.99 CAN

Just in time for that time of year when ghosts and goblins lurk in every shadow, and the crash landing of a falling leaf can send chills down your spine, comes this interesting book by the consultant to CBS's Ghost Whisperer. Mary Ann Winkowski, a devout Catholic, happily married mom, and seer of the spirits of the dead offers us a tantalizing view "beyond the veil".

Using a gift apparently passed down through her Italian ancestors, she talks to those who have crossed over the line between life and death, and yet have not left the earthly plane. Some of the stories she tells will have you laughing for hours afterwards -- and others of her tales will make your skin crawl and have you peeking around at flitting shadows, screaming when the cat brushes up against your unsuspecting shins! Mary Ann offers the earthbound spirits a pathway (the legendary white light, which she claims to be able to make on demand) to eternity.

She even claims to have 'seen', in a round about way, evidence of guardian spirits who have gone beyond the light yet have offered support and care to those recently dead. Angels? Departed beloveds who carried the love into eternity? Perhaps.

From the time we're concieved, we travel toward death. Death, however, often seems to sneak up on us like a theif in the night, taking away all of the things we'd planned in our disbelief that time is limited for all of us. For some, death is a release, a balm. Either way, it is the last, ultimate mystery, one we cannot answer until we, as individuals in most cases, experience it.

Where do we go, when life departs us? What do we do? Do we lurk at the funeral home to see what the still-living have to say to us? Do we look into that bright white light and go on without a backward glance into whatever dreams may lie waiting for us in the last great unknown?

Mary Ann Winkowski attempts to answer some of these questions -- and others -- while opening up windows and doors of the imagination with total abandon. Her stories of coming across truly evil spirits, things that scared even a woman accustomed to routinely speaking with the dead, will definately make you wonder about the truths of the struggle between good and evil. Humanity is still humanity, according to her, even when the frail shell of flesh is fallen by the wayside.

Having seen a few inexplicable things in my lifetime, I'll hold judgment on whether this is a fiction or nonfiction book. Judge for yourself; my opinion is only one, one which has no proof either way of what comes after the moment death arrives with its cold fingers to separate us from all we've been aware of for a lifetime, be it short or long.

Any book that makes a person think is a positive. Ghostly soft flags to Mrs. Winkowski, flying on a shivery breeze ... to keep us on our fleshy toes!

...

Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review this interesting book by Mary Ann Winkowski. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

... Comments? Questions?

-- The Fireside Reader

ADVANCE REVIEW. The Poet's Corner: The One and Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family, Compiled by John Lithgow

2007-09-21T11:37:00.000-07:00

Title:

The Poet's Corner: The One and Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family

Compiled by

John Lithgow

ADVANCE REVIEW

Poetry collection/book to be released as

hardcover November 15th, 2007

ISBN-13: 978-0-446-58002-1 ISBN-10: 0-446-58002-3

Published by:

WARNER BOOKS

Hachette Book Group USA 237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169

www.hachettebookgroupusa.com . NOTE:

Includes a bonus CD featuring readings by John Lithgow and friends.

Price:

$24.99 USD / $31.99 CAN

. _________________________

Anyone who loves the classics will love this collection, as will those who enjoy readings of poetry in a family context. It is a fine collection, and it includes old favorites along with a few lesser-known pieces by poets of great talent.

The only problem with it that I could see (aside from common editorial issues -- everyday/every day, E.E. Cummings/e. e. cummings -- since the copy I reviewed is, one should note, an advance copy and as yet is uncorrected), is that of language. Middle English isn't something every family member will be able to decipher, unfortunately. This fact was brought home to me in a very literal way when I read a scattering of poems to my own family. I was, in some cases, reduced to translation. As much as I love Robert Burns, not too many people in today's world will be able to understand what a "cranreuch cauld" is, for example: "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men/Gang aft agley..." (or 'the best-laid plans of mice and men go oft astray').

One should note, as I have said before, that the copy I've seen is not the final version. There can -- and probably will -- be changes to the book before its release.

This book is coming out in hardback 'with a bonus CD featuring readings by John Lithgow and friends' that I would dearly love to hear someday. Poetry, read aloud, has a power beyond belief, which does explain why kings of legend had a powerful fear of bards. Poetry can heal, or it can destroy. Poetry is memorable music sung in one's ear that does not fade much with time.

Post-editor application, I would, even as a non-habitual reader of classic poems, highly recommend this book for family collections. A green-for-go flag for this one!

The offerings vary from the fun of Edward Lear (The Owl and the Pussy Cat) to Dylan Thomas (Do not go gentle into that good night), and far, far more. It is a collection of the best of the best, and is put to the reader by a person who loves poetry and has since his childhood. Someone who speaks the language, one might say. I could think of no one better suited to introduce quality works of poetic art to a family context.

Mr. Lithgow has commented, throughout the book, about the poets and their lives. He speaks in a comfortable, natural way, his literary voice as soothing as his stage projection can be. He brings us the masters of poetry in a context that any family would feel instantly familiar with, and even comforted, in readings either personal or aloud.

Special thanks to Hachette Book Group for the chance to review this collection compiled by John Lithgow. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website.

-- The Fireside Reader

Back soon! New reviews upcoming.

2007-09-18T11:17:00.001-07:00

More new books (advance copies) have arrived! I'm expecting several more, but these are in the mind-mill already. Upcoming reviews:

Stone Cold, by David Baldacci
The Poet's Corner: The One and Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family, compiled by John Lithgow.

Please bear with me. I will be back soon ...with new items.

-- The Fireside Reader

The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold (ADVANCE REVIEW)

2007-09-13T11:52:00.000-07:00

Title:

. The Almost Moon

Author:

. Alice Sebold (bestselling author of The Lovely Bones)

ADVANCE REVIEW

. Novel to be released as hardcover in October, 2007

ISBN number:

. 0-316-67746-9 / 978-0-316-67746-2

Published by:

. Little, Brown and Company

. Hachette Book Group USA

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10169

http://www.hachettebookgroupusa.com/

Price:

. $24.99 USD / $31.99 CAN

In this novel, Sebold departs from The Lovely Bones and offers some gruesome skeletons in the closet of her protagonist. From the first line, this is a story which pulls one in close and yet shoves one away in repulsion, to love and hate her main charactor for her actions, Helen Knightly, as she herself loves and hates. Written in an undeniably powerful voice, something to be expected from this bestselling author, the story is still yet of content many readers may sheer away from immediately. It is a dark novel, a story which takes the reader to realms within where the skin crawls as if skittery spiders had been released en masse.

Sebold has chosen mental illness as the basis for this novel. I will not give away the whole story, nor even yet the ending, but I will say that the ending was not quite a resolution. The old Biblical quote about the sins of the fathers being visited upon the children "unto the 12th generation" comes to mind after reading this book, as do various psycho-babble items about it always being Mom's fault that we are who and what we are.

Deeper and deeper the story goes, where it stops... well.

As a voracious reader of widely varied genres, I am always expecting (except in experimental items) to see at least some attempt made to resolve the conflicts thus presented in the printed medium. In this novel, I have seen no such thing. However, I don't see where Ms. Sebold could have taken the story otherwise: the ending is, while incomplete in my eyes, predictable. I am saddened by this. I had expected something very different of this author.

When I approached the ending and read it through, I automatically turned the page looking for the rest ... and there was nothing else. Just an ending of sorts, the reader left dangling madly on the end of a steely hook held by the hands of an angler who has great skill and style.

The only other problems I came across were identifications of outside charactors that turned out to be children of the protagonist and, in turn, grandchildren. The relationships were vague at best during the whole story, leading me to turn back and forth in the pages, looking for answers. It interrupted the flow of the tale. That can be altered easily.

NOTE: The copy I read was an advance copy, and an UNCORRECTED PROOF, not yet for sale. Changes to the novel are possible before its release in October.

I believe I'd hand Ms. Sebold a red pen and a couple of flags: red for resale hopes (every business person, of which writers are by default in selling rights to their creations, knows that resale is where the real money is), black for the dark dabblings in mental illness without resolution.

Yes, I would read more of Ms. Sebold's work. I know she is capable of terrific work. This one item simply isn't complete, as I have seen it.

Special hanks to the Hachette Book Group for a chance to review Alice Sebold's newest work in advance of its official release. For information on other books offered or about to be offered by HBGUSA, please visit their website. .

Comments? Questions?

-- The Fireside Reader

Born Fighting:How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, by James Webb

2007-09-11T11:13:00.000-07:00

Title:
Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America
Author: James Webb
ISBN number: 0-7679-1689-1
Classification: History - United States - General
Website: www.broadwaybooks.com
Price: US $14.95/$21.00 CAN

In this book, Mr. Webb explains that more than 27 million Americans today can trace their lineage to Scots-Irish ancestors. He talks in depth about all of the experiences the migrating peoples encountered, what it made of them, and where it has brought the country to today. This is a little-known ethnic group (almost unaddressed in specific history, comparatively to others). It has taken part in making the U.S. what it is today on social, cultural, and political grounds from the beginning and through to the present. Some of my ancestors were Cherokee, yes. Others, German and English. But also were they Scots-Irish, of the McIntosh clan heritage. I can hear it in the words common to the locale. I can see it in the determination to succeed instead of merely moving on. It's on almost every face -- of the old bloodlines still remaining -- as clear to see as mistletoe in winter. Tenacious. My father's father died on St. Patrick's day, many years ago. Dad was a young man, and this happened some twenty years before I was born. In the old pictures of Papaw John, the rippling black hair that's so much like my own father's shows the link. The solid features, the sturdy bones that bear more muscled weight than it appears, the square hands so like my own. I don't look like them a lot in other ways, but the bones and the hands are there. The determination that can carry a warrior across incredible battlefields in strange lands, and back home again with only a few scars ... I don't know if I have that, but I hope I do. I do know that many facets of my heritage bring forth the warrior's way, and that when the battle anger swells, something must give. It's something one must be responsibl for the consequences of, every single time. The warrior's way is as Gaelic as it is Cherokee. I was fascinated that Mr. Webb points out in his book the traits of "acute individualism, dislike of aristocracy, and military tradition", and this I can swear to this as being quite real. It's almost instinctive, and highly developed. St. Patrick may have (allegedly) run all the serpents out of Ireland, but when the Scots-Irish came to the United States, the gnurling twists and knot-work of Gaelic history intertwined with a dozen other heritages, only to become stronger. Neither life nor death can change that, nor can they take the occasional lilt of Gael tongue from the hills-drawl. Go on! Wear green if you feel the urge. It's the color of growth and misty mornings, the smell of a healthy, clean horse, and of a decent wind always at your back. It's a strong color, one to be proud of knowing "up close and personal". And in the meantime, pick up a copy of James Webb's Born Fighting. Whatever your heritage, this book is worth the read.

-- The Fireside Reader

Welcome, Reader!

2007-09-11T10:26:00.000-07:00

This blog page will be solely reserved for reviewing books. Those of you who are linked to my * closed to friends-only * (other) blog page are asked to keep its location and any information related to that to yourselves, please. I love my small privacy with genuine friends there.

I will post a couple of older reviews here, just to start things off. However, the next posting will be a review of Alice Sebold's The Almost Moon. Let us hope that she finds such success in this next work as in her first big hit, The Lovely Bones.

Later, there will be more, if the fates hold true.

* Cat & Mouse,

by James Patterson

* Stone Cold,

by David Baldacci

* Wild Fire,

by Nelson DeMille

* The Terror,

by Dan Simmons

* The Poets' Corner:

The One-and-Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family,

Compiled by John Lithgow

I hope you enjoy your reading, and I hope I can offer an honest opinion that you will generally agree with in regards to the material reviewed here. It is my intent to raise awareness of the world of books, a medium that is largely neglected in the United States. It's a sad fact that a large number of our best writers find greater success in other countries than they do in their own.

However, I call 'em as I see 'em. If it's a BOO, it's a BOO. If it's a decent, entertaining read, etc., that's what I'll say about 'em. Books vary, and every good writer can have a bad go-'round. We live and learn, and so we grow. Within as well as without. It's a part of life, and it's a part of being a writer. Honesty is the only way. Not merely a policy.

NOTE: Comments are welcome -- within reason and decency. I will not remove anything tolerable, yet I will maintian that all comments must be viewable by the average family audience. Mild is fine, but extremely foul items will be removed without remorse. Be ye warned!

-- The Fireside Reader

The Fireside Reader

REQUIEM BY FIRE, by Wayne Caldwell

FERRADIDDLEDUMDAY, by Becky Mushko

CATALOOCHEE, by Wayne Caldwell

AMONG THIEVES, by David Hosp

THE LINE UP, edited by Otto Penzler

THE SWAN THIEVES, by Elizabeth Kostova

ROSES, by Leila Meacham

KITTY'S HOUSE OF HORRORS, by Carrie Vaughn

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

EATING ANIMALS, by Safran Foer (nonfiction)

So... what are *you* reading these days?

Robert Frost (1874-1963): Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

GENETIC ROUNDS, by Dr. Robert Marion, MD

HOLLYWOOD MOON, by Joseph Wambaugh

TRUE BLUE, by David Baldacci

I, ALEX CROSS, by James Patterson

"TELL ME SOMETHING TRUE", by Leila Cobo

NINE DRAGONS, by Michael Connelly

NINE DRAGONS, by Michael Connelly

The Whole Truth, by David Baldacci

The Host, by Stephenie Meyer

The Geography of Bliss, by Eric Weiner

Girls in Trucks, by Katie Crouch

H2O, by Howard Schatz

Test Drive Your Dream Job, by Brian Kurth with Robin Simons

Ansel Adams: 400 Photographs

Sway, by Zachary Lazar

The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild, by Craig Childs

Devil's Peak, by Deon Meyers

Beginner's Greek, by James Collins

Theft, by N.S. Koenings

Chat, by Archer Mayor

7th Heaven, by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Coming soon, one novel in hardback and two advance-copy novels.

ENDGAME, 1945, by David Stafford -- nonfiction

WILD FIRE, by Nelson DeMille

CAT and MOUSE, by James Patterson

THE TERROR, by Dan Simmons

The Dream Thief, by Shana Abe'

Demon's Kiss, by Eve Silver

Stone Cold, by David Baldacci

When Ghosts Speak: Understanding the World of Earthbound Spirits, by Mary Ann Winkowski

ADVANCE REVIEW. The Poet's Corner: The One and Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family, Compiled by John Lithgow

Back soon! New reviews upcoming.

The Almost Moon, by Alice Sebold (ADVANCE REVIEW)

Born Fighting:How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, by James Webb

Welcome, Reader!

So... what are you reading these days?