To be the Poet

To Be The Poet by Maxine Hong Kingston

This short, simple memoir-of-sorts is refreshing to read. Kingston is best known as a writer, not a poet and her she attempts poetry. The two of us had a conversation about her book about three years ago when I was having difficulties writing, (I still am). Her advice was to just write, if even a couple of sentences or one word over and over, eventually everything will come into place.

Her poetry and writing have a nice smooth calming effect and left me wanting more.

Kim's Grade: B+

Beach Road

Books with a good mystery in the story line are some of my favorites. I especially love twists at the end. Unfortunately I am uncannily skilled at anticipating the twist and only the most skilled and creative of authors can fool me. However, I was completely fooled by James Patterson in Beach Road. I am a big fan of all his books with central character Alex Cross; Kiss the Girls, Along Came a Spider, etc; but some of his very best work is when he branches out a bit and introduces new faces; Beach Road, Beach House, Jester and Honeymoon were all excellent

Promise Not To Tell

This book was somewhat of a disappointment. I had pretty much figured out the mystery by the middle of the book, but had to read another hundred or so pages to find out for sure. It was definately worth reading, in fact I took it to work with me and read it between seeing patients, but it wasn't the thriller I had anticipated.

The story revolves around two murders, separated in time by 30 years. The central character, Katy, has come home to take care of her mother, who has Alzheimer's dementia. When Katy was 10 years old, her friend Del was killed and the murder was never solved. Now another young girl is killed in a hauntingly similar manner, causing the police to question Katy, the only obvious link between the two girls. The text goes back and forth between Katy's experiences in both the past and present. She finds herself questioning the mental stability of her closest friends and family, as well as herself. I found that the unique past/present style in this book really worked. Although it was predictable, the timeline in which the key pieces to the mystery are revealed keeps you interested.

Shannon's Grade: B

Book Review: Three Little Secrets

I so wanted to like this book. I wanted to like it sooooo much. And for about half of it I did like it. As I mentioned, I'm a total sucker for long-lost love storylines. In this book the hero and heroine, Merrick and Madeline, eloped when she was only seventeen. But on the wedding night at Gretna Greene in Scotland her powerful aristocrat father catches up to them. Merrick is beaten half to death and Madeline is told that Merrick only married her to gain access to her dowry. HUGE misunderstanding. Madeline thinks that Merrick has abandoned her and so she agrees to marry an old scholar to save her reputation.

Thirteen years pass by and the two of them meet again, and of course they both hate each other because they both have the wrong idea of what really happened and have grown bitter as the years have gone by. Merrick was the perfect tormented hero, because he was completely, totally in love with Madeline all those years ago. I wanted nothing more than for him to have his wounded heart healed by Madeline, but I never felt like she did it. She was kind of a bitch even after it became clear that her father orchastrated the entire separation. She continued to treat Merrick rather nastily and even at the end I still didn't feel that she at all deserved to be with him. She'd pretty much destroyed him I never really felt like she came close to making amends. I wanted a huge sappy scene where she cried and apologized and professed her love... I never got it. :(

Lindsey's Grade: B

Book Review: Not Quite a Lady

I liked this book. I did. I liked the heroine and her internal struggles seemed totally believable and sympathetic. I also liked the hero, but I did have one problem.

He was supposed to be a complete rake, someone who woos and beds women then walks away. In fact, he doesn't even like women very much because he is a scientist who believes in reason above anything else (especially love) and women are incapable of logical thinking. But for some reason Charlotte, the heroine, completely changes his lifelong beliefs. He does a complete one-eighty. I guess I could believe all of that, but only if all the women the hero has ever encountered in his life up to that point were beyond stupid, because Charlotte was a normal woman from my point of view. Why am I surprised, though? It's not very often that a romance novel has believable conflict resolution.

Lindsey's Grade: B

Book Review: An Invitation to Sin

I wasn't crazy about this book, either. The plot is beyond simplistic. The hero, Zachary Griffin, is the youngest son in a wealthy, powerful aristocratic family and he suffers from the cliche' of all youngest brother—what does he do with his life? He thinks he wants to join the Army, but his brother the duke disagrees and sends him to Bath with their aunt as a companion. But before they get to Bath the aunt wants to stop by and visit a friend of hers from finishing school, who just so happens to have seven unmarried daughters. And all but two of them throw themselves shamelessly at him.

The oldest daughter, however, is unconcerned with matrimony. She's an artist who's greatest dream is to be accepted into an apprenticeship. Unfortunately for her she's a female and no one wants to take on a female painter (it's the early 1800's). But one school does respond to her application. The only problem is that she must paint a portrait of an aristrocrat and get his/her seal of approval for the application process. So when Zachary comes along she thinks her prayers have been answered. And of course with all the time they spend together, romance blooms.

Or does it? I certainly didn't feel like it did. Caroline was kind of annoying and rude, in my opinion, acting like it was Zachary's duty to help her instead of something he was doing out of the goodness of his heart. But apparently they were supposed to be attracted to each other because they eventually start sleeping together, and again, nothing changes in the story. It felt like the sex scenes served no purpose and I didn't like it. Also, the majority of this book took place at Caroline's family home with her incredibly annoying sisters and mothers falling all over Zachary. It moved at a snails pace and the end didn't really make things any better. The conflict just magically went away! Lame.

Lindsey's Grade: C+

Book Review: If You Desire

I'm kind of bummed about this book because I feel like it had a lot of potential that for some reason, it just didn't live up to. This is the second book in the series that included If You Dare, which I loved. And, I'm a total, total sucker for romance novels that feature long-lost/long-denied loves, so I thought that would be great.

One of the premises in the series is that the three brothers it's based on have been cursed for centuries, or rather, their generation has. They have a book in their family that says that they shall "walk in death or walk alone," blah blah blah. Basically the old book says that their father will have three sons who will never know love and never have children and when the sons read the book the father will meet an early death and stuff like that. There's a bloodstain covering up the last two sentences of the curse that made it unreadable. Turns out that the morning after the boys read the verse their healthy father died in his sleep, and the night before the oldest brother was supposed to get married, his finacee died mysteriously. And, apparently the oldest brother is somewhat of a horny bastard, but so far he's never impregnated a woman. So needless to say they all believe the curse.

And poor Hugh, the middle brother. He's been in love with Jane, his employer's daughter, since he was in his early twenties, but he's always thought that he can't have her because he doesn't want to hurt her and he thinks the curse will lead to her death. And this guy is in love. He's tormented by it. It's kinda sad that he's lived alone for ten years denying himself, because Jane was crazy about him, too.

But what brings them back together is a threat to Jane's life. Hugh's employer (Jane's father) wants Hugh to protect her and he thinks that marrying her is the only way he can do it. So now Hugh is tormented even more because he's married to the woman he's always wanted.

Despite this, the chemisty between Hugh and Jane was not all that it could have been. I thought they kept their secrets from each other way too long and then once they were revealed, nothing really changed. But here's my biggest beef—the sex scenes were pointless. Maybe it's becoming a fine art for romance writers to write sex scenes that actually further the story and aren't just there, because more and more often I'm seeing sex scenes that don't appear to serve any purpose.

Lindsey's Grade: B-

19 Minutes

I stayed up late last night to finish "Nineteen Minutes". I had conflicting feelings about this book - it didn't have the "blow-your-mind" twist at the end like my all time favorite, "My Sisters Keeper", but it was still a great book. The story revolves around Peter, 17, a nice sensitive boy from a great family who wakes up one day, takes 4 guns to school and shoots dozens of his classmates, killing ten. His justification for the massacre is clear to him; self-defense, "they started it" he claims. In this book, Picoult delves into the often talked about but seldom understood subject of bullying. While it seems like a trite and weak defense to adults, even those that were unpopular when they were younger, to a teen constant bullying can be the focus of their world. At first I was very skeptical about this, thinking that nothing justifies wiping out 10 lives and forever damaging countless others. While this is undoubtedly true, I can remembered what it was like to be a teen that just didn't quite fit in. In high school I was just outside the edges of true popularity, which is sometimes far worse than being a complete reject because you torture yourself over every single action and interaction with your peers. You can be accepted into "the group" one day and then completely left out the next. The bullying comes in as a way to bind yourself to the group by picking on those that aren't in your circle and could never hope to be. Even the "most popular" kids feel forced to maintain their status by isolating themselves from the "losers". It turns into a vicious circle where everyone is a victim. Thankfully I was saved from that spiral by a close group of friends and my athletic and academic focus. In 19 minutes, Peter endures torture from his peers every day of his live for over 10 years until he meets criteria for PTSD (Post traumatic stress disorder), slips into a dissociative state after a humiliating incident and goes on a shooting rampage. You may have thought that PTSD is just for victims of war or rape, but research has shown that a single episode of being bullied can be more damaging to an adolescent than sexual abuse. In a society where beauty, talent and "fitting in" is valued above all else, our youth are developing more and more insecurities that lead to mental illnesses and violent incidents. Unless we find a way to change society, our youth will continue to lose the battle against themselves.

Body Surfing

Complex and engrossing, "Body Surfing" dissects relationships down to their most basic elements. It's starts with Sydney, a likable 29 yo that has recently lost her young physician husband to a brain aneurysm. She takes a summer job preparing the 17 yo daughter of a wealthy family for the SATs at their beach house. While there, she meets their two older sons, Ben and Jeff, who both pursue her, although one is almost engaged. Against her will, Sydney is drawn to one and repulsed by the other, but is it for the right reasons? The complexity of this story stems from the relationships between the family members; father-daugher, mother-sons, brother to sister, and brother to brother...

I loved the characters in this story - Anita Shreve is genius. I read this book in less than a day! This is her best book ever.

Shannon's Grade: A

Book Review: If You Dare

I don't know what it is about finals that makes me want to read a bunch of romance novels instead of studying, but it happens at the end of every semester. I always find myself heading to the bookstore and stocking up.

Good thing I did because I really liked this book! It takes place in the mid-nineteenth century, and much of the plot revolves around the tiny country of Andorra in the moutains between Spain and France (I'm not going to try to spell Pyrenees (okay, so I did try)). The hero is actually a Scottish Highlander who is in Andorra was a mercentary, a soldier-for-hire. He fights for the evil General Pascal who is trying to take over the country. Pascal's plan is to eventually take over the Spanish throne by marrying Lady Annalia, the daughter of an Andorran aristocrat and the last of the female Castillian royal line through her mother. Courtland McCarrick, the hero, decides to stop fighting for the evil Pascal, but Pascal refuses to pay him and has him beaten to a bloody pulp and orders his death. But before he can be executed Court escapes his captors by plunging over a bridge into a river and over a waterfall.

Annalia finds him on the riverbank and nurses him back to heath, even though she despises him because he worked for Pascal. And since this is a romance novel, they're physically attracted to each other, but Court is kind of a jerk at first. Pascal has kidnapped Annalia's brother and says he will kill him unless Anna marries him. When Anna asks Court for help, he asks for her body as payment and she's so infuriated that she turns herself into Pascal, sacrificing herself. Court's not too happy about that, so he kidnaps Anna away from Pascal, sparking the rage of the evil general.

The rest of the book involves Court and Anna moving north to escape Pascal's fury and get to safety, and along the way Anna starts to see the Court might actually be a pretty good guy, and Court sees that she's pretty amazing and brave, etc. I thought that the way they warmed to each other was genuine and believable, probably because it was halfway through the book before it happened, so it didn't feel rushed.

There are other elements in the book that made conflict between the two of them, but Cole thankfully didn't push it beyond the realm of believability (even though there was a curse involved and that's kind of silly in itself). The romance was pretty steamy, and Anna was the perfect romance heroine: not annoying, not stupid, not naive, not overly stubborn. This is the first in a trilogy about the Court and his brothers, and the second book in the serious If You Desire looks pretty good, too.

Lindsey's Grade: A

Book Review: The Wrong Hostage

I have no complaints about The Wrong Hostage specifically. Elizabeth Lowell is one of my favorite romantic suspense authors and she's really good at crafting a phrase (okay, I'm trying to say that I like her writing style). But I do have a beef with a general theme that showed up in this book that often shows up in other and it just makes me so frustrated I'm going to rant about it.

I am so freakin' sick of heroines that are supposed to be smart, confident, strong women who marry complete losers! Unfailingly we're supposed to feel sorry for them or at least think that they're completely in the right. But most of the time I just end up wondering why they were dumb enough to hook up with such a total and complete slimeball to begin with. Sure, I know people do stupid things in the name of love, but romance authors always write about these ex-husbands like they have no redeeming qualities at all, and they've always been that way. It's so frustrating for me to admire a woman that would be so stupid as to (A) marry a guy like that, and (B) stay with him.

In The Wrong Hostage for example, the heroine is a federal district court judge that is so amazing and wonderful that she passed the bar at the age twenty-one. Please. Don't even get me started on that shit in romance novels. If you want to make you almost-forty year old heroine be a hotshot defense attorney when she had her kid sixteen years before, then turn her into a forty-something year old, okay? Don't bend the rules of logic. I'm supposed to believe that she went through college and law school by the age of twenty-one? Not gonna happen. There are not a plethora of Doogie Howsers in the world, yet they all seem to end up in romance novels. ANYWAY, back to the point. Grace, the heroine, was dating her future husband when she had a torrid weekend affair with the hero in the book. They parted ways soon afterwards, and she married her boyfriend and never told him that she wasn't sure that he was the father of the child she carried (don't worry, this is revealed very early on in the book). Turns out he wasn't, and needless to say, he was a little pissed. But she stayed married to him despite his MANY, MANY affairs for years afterwards. Oh, and he was always a shitty father to her son. WHY DIDN'T SHE JUST DIVORCE HIM? Instead she never tells her son the truth and her ex does some terrible things. I'm reading this thinking, She's an idiot. And, she has no right to be full of righteous indignation. What she did was pretty terrible and dishonest herself. The son's biological father, WHOM SHE NEVER TOLD, EITHER, accused her of using him for a stud then marrying a billionaire to be the kid's father. He was spot on! She was a loser! I like flawed heroines, but not immoral, dishonest ones! And I totally didn't feel sorry for her that she married a man she never loved because that was her own dumb choice. Am I too judgmental? Maybe, people do make mistakes, but I don't read romance novels to hear about those kinds of stupid-ass mistakes.

So please, romance writers, if you're going to put an ex-husband in the story, don't completely villianize him. It makes the heroine seem retarded for falling for such a loser in the first place. Linda Howard managed to have a perfectly nice and normal ex-husband for her heroine in Cry No More, so it can be done.

Running with Scissors

This book was very graphic and disturbing, but for some reason I couldn't put it down. It was very entertaining, but not a book that you feel good about reading when you're done. I thought it needed more closure.










Shannon's Grade: B-

Book Reviews

These were all pretty unremarkable. That's all I care to say.

I bought these three books on-line today and I am really excited to read them..."Body Surfing" by Anita Shreve, who is alternatingly disturbing and brilliant; "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Piccoult, which should be very salient due to present events; and finally "Promise Not to Tell" by relative newcomer Jennifer McMahon, which looks to be a deeply twisted mystery. Stay tuned!

Book Review: A Mighty Heart

A Mighty Heart by Mariane Pearl

This is a heart-wretching memoir. It follows Mariane Pearl before and after her husband, Wall Street Journal writer Daniel Pearl, is kidnapped and beheaded in Pakistan.

Its a page turning, frustrating tale. Frustrating because the circles and run-arounds that she gracefully puts up with.

What a strong woman. To have gone through what she did WHILE PREGNANT! And to never have complete closure would surely drive me crazy.

Read it!


Kim's Grade: A

Book Review: Fear No Evil

I believe that when I reviewed See No Evil my chief complaint was the plot and not Ms. Brennan's writing. Well, I've read the sequel, and I've changed my mind. Fear No Evil had a much better plot, but I still had some major problems with it.

The general plot is that Lucy Kincaid, the eigthteen year old sister to the other siblings in this trilogy, is kidnapped by a sadistic psychopath who airs 48 hours of live video on the Internet for $25,000 of him and his cronies repeatedly raping and eventually murdering their abductees, all under the guise of "consensual porn." He has done this before, but he is some kind of computer genius and the FBI can't seem to nail him. But five years ago an FBI agent named Kate Donovan came very close to taking him down. After her partner and boyfriend were murdered by this guy, known only as "Trask," she comes under fire from the Bureau and goes into hiding, making it her life mission to find Trask and bring him down. So she writes a software program or something that alerts her each time her puts a new video on the web. When she sees Lucy's video come up, she notifies the one person she trusts in the FBI, who notifies the Kincaid family. Dillion Kincaid, a forensic psychologist, eventually tracks Kate down and convinces her to help him find Trask before Lucy is killed.

Okay, so that's an okay plot and all that, but a love story in the middle of all this horror?! Lucy is raped repeatedly by her captors, all on video for her brothers to see, and yet Dillion is still thinking, "Wow, Kate's pretty hot, I'd like to bang her." All right, all right, to be fair to Brennan, there is not acknowledgment of these romantic feelings until after the ordeal is over, but still. Come on. There was just nothing at all to base the attraction on until, suddenly, they were in bed together. But I suppose it could have been there, but they both just kept it under wraps. Yeah, that's definitely a fair assessment, but I just didn't feel it. Dillion's a psychologist and he falls for a woman that has some major issues? That's a little too "let me fix you" for me, even though he doesn't seem to try to do that. I'm a shallow person, what can I say, but I'd run from someone with that much baggage. Run far.

Also, Brennan introduced a Kincaid we've never seen before, Jack, who supposedly left the family twenty years before. But she never resolves anything with Jack or why he left and stayed away, and as far as I know, this was the last Kincaid book. Also, isn't it pretty much a rule of trilogies that the characters in the previous books get some mention? Connor from See No Evil gets a semi-promiment role, but where the hell is Julia? The woman he supposedly loves and wants to marry? She's a no-show when the sister of the man she loves is kidnapped? Seriously, her name was not mentioned once and I started to wonder if I was reading these books out of order (I wasn't).

Lindsey's Grade: C+

Book Review: Simply Magic

Normally I can't say enough about a Mary Balogh book, and I was really looking forward to reading this book because it featured a hero and heroine that appeared in other Balogh books, both of who showed some promise. But for some reason this book, while there was nothing that made me dislike it, didn't seem to grasp my interest like Balogh books usually do.

Susanna Osbourne is a twenty-three year old teacher at a girls school in Bath. She herself was taken in as a charity student when she was twelve and then later was hired on when she was eighteen. Viscount Whitleaf (Peter), is a young and handsome aristocrat who is good natured and polite. But when the two of them meet for the first time, Susanna is instantly put off because she recognizes his title as a name from her past with unpleasant memories. Peter thinks Susanna is beautiful and intelligent, so he keep persuing her.

First of all, Susanna made me more than a little annoyed. In Simply Unforgettable and Simply Love she seemed to be vivacious and fun-loving, but in this book I felt like she was a completely different person. Maybe Balogh was trying to show in this book that there was unhappiness and sadness behind Susanna that she hid to the rest of the world, but I couldn't help but feel let down by her characterizations here. Also, WHAT THE HELL WAS HER PROBLEM WITH IT CAME TO PETER?! Her lifelong dream is to be married with children and a home of her own, yet when a young and handsome man who obviously enjoys her company, respects her mind, and is sexually attracted to her proposes she turns him down again and again? Even though she's supposedly in love with him? Now, I didn't live in early nineteenth century England, so I guess I can't speak for Susanna, but I couldn't help but feel that she was a complete idiot for not jumping at the chance to marry Peter! Balogh's excuse that she was holding about because he didn't love her was just too lame for me to believe. Okay, so he doesn't say that he loves her, but he never acted like he didn't. Jane Austen's books have led me to believe that a poor young woman in those times would jump at the chance to make such an amazing marriage, the husband's verbal proclamations of love be damned (except for Lizzie in Pride and Prejudice, but at least she had a reason for turning Darcy down that made sense). And this, essentially, was the entire hook of the book. The other so called reason for Susanna's hesitance doesn't count because it was never resolved so it couldn't have been that big of an issue.

I liked both characters and all that, but the genuine romance that I like so much about Balogh's book was missing here. It just felt a little empty.

Lindsey's Grade: B-

P.S. Also, enough with the "let's have sex the first time we meet and then go our separate ways" storyline, Ms. Balogh! It's getting old.

Lindsey's Top Ten

Since I will do just about anything to avoid doing homework or studying for my fast-approaching final exams, I decided that I would do my own personal top ten lists. I don't think anyone will argue that the Equal Protection Clause, Hearsay rules of evidence, or a pesky little thing called legal ethics are more exciting than romance novels (okay, and other books, too). Am I right or am I right?

Top Ten Favorite Historical Romances
1. Ransom by Julie Garwood
2. Shanna by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
3. Only Mine by Elizabeth Lowell
4. The Wedding by Julie Garwood
5. Winter Fire by Elizabeth Lowell
6. For The Roses by Julie Garwood
7. Slightly Dangerous by Mary Balogh
8. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orszy
9. Again the Magic by Lisa Kleypas
10. Secrets of a Summer Night by Lisa Kleypas

Top Ten Favorite Contemporary Romances
1. Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard
2. To Die For by Linda Howard
3. Mirror Image by Sandra Brown
4. Over the Edge by Suzanne Brockmann
5. Message From Nam by Danielle Steel (I'm counting this as a contemporary)
6. The Reef by Nora Roberts
7. Matchmakers, a novella from The Invitation by Jude Deveraux
8. French Silk by Sandra Brown
9. Simply Irresistable by Rachel Gibson
10. Love's Encore/Love Beyond Reason by Sandra Brown (I'm a total sucker for '80's romances!)

Top Ten Favorite Non-Romance Novels
1. Possession by A.S. Byatt
2. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
3. Fortune's Rocks by Anita Shreve
4. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
5. The Power of One by Bryce Courtney
6. Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
7. Resistance by Anita Shreve
8. Skinny Dip by Carl Hiaasen
9. Fluke: I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by Christopher Moore
10. The Virginian by Owen Wister

And there you have it. Now, I complied these lists just now from memory, so I'm sure there will be other books that come to me later on.

Book Rant: Paranormals

WTF is up with all the paranormals taking over the romance genre? It seems like everytime I turn around some author I read is either writing or raving about a paranormal romance. Right now all I keep hearing about is Warlord and Lover Revealed, about fantasy lands and vampires, respectfully. There is already a genre for that crap, LEAVE ROMANCE ALONE! Vampires are not sexy! Am I the only one out there who feels this way? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!

It doesn't stop at vampires, either! Now Christina Dodd is writing a series about werewolves! Oh dear God, when will the madness end?!

I've never been crazy about non-realistic stuff in my romance novels. As I've often mentioned, I hate time travel with passion that will never die. Now, time travel has been around a while. I remember when I first picked up Jude Deveraux's A Knight in Shining Armor, about a modern day woman who meets a hunky warrior who come from the past. I was like, "okay, I guess I can deal with this," until the characters spent lots of time together, fell in love, AND THEN SHE WENT BACK TO THE PAST AND HE DIDN'T KNOW HER! WTF?! NOT OKAY! I promptly skipped to the end at that point. Other time travel books such as Linda Howard's Son of the Morning and Diana Gabaldon's Outlander didn't tickle my fancy either.

And magic is not my cup of tea, either, which has led to an estrangement between Nora Roberts and myself, because if there's one thing that lady loves, it's magic and ghosts and shit. When was the last time she wrote a trilogy that didn't involve the supernatural? Wait, has she EVER? Her hardbacks usually stay away from that crap, except Carolina Moon and Midnight Bayou, but I didn't like either of those.

Since time travel and ghosts are too much for me, it should be no surprise that I despise vampires even more. Nothing makes me put a book down faster than reading the word "vampire" on the back. Gross! THEY DRINK BLOOD FOR THE LOVE OF PETE! THAT. IS. NOT. SEXY. But the damn books are everywhere. EVERYWHERE!

I read romance novels for fantasy, but not sci-fi fantasy! Real-life fantasy! It's hard enough to believe that men like romance heroes actually exist, and when you throw in magic and paranormal crap, it's even worse. So I wait and pray for the day when this fad runs dry, because I really, really hate it.

Book Review: Shanna

Good lord, I love this book. It is surely in the top three of my favorite historical romances of all time, and it maybe, maybe is #1. Julie Garwood's Ransom is still holding on tight, though.

I first read this book years ago, after reading quite a few of Ms. Woodiwiss's other works. Everytime I would read reviews on Amazon or a place like that, everyone mentioned Shanna as one of their favorites, so I decided to give it a whirl. I can't remember how I felt about it back then, but after rereading it this weekend, me likes it.

Here's a plot synopsis: The book is set in the 1720's or '30's (I can't remember exactly when). Shanna is the daughter of a vastly wealthy merchant who lives on and serves as governor of a small Caribbean island where he grows sugar cane. Her father is a widower who dotes on his only child, but it is his mission in life to see her married and a mother. He wants grandchildren and he wants them now! Shanna was educated in Europe, but when she returns home after turning away dozens of would-be suitors, her father gets angry and gives her an ultimatum: She's to return to England for a year, and if in that year she doesn't find a man from a respectable family (with a good, aristocratic name), then he will find a husband for her.

Now, Shanna's not the kind of woman to be bossed around, especially when it comes to marriage. She's not only a renowned beauty, but is also the daughter of an obscenely wealthy man, so it's important to her that the man she ends up with loves her for her, and not because she's rich. And as a romantic, she has this ideal man in mind, a white knight who will ride up and save her from all her woes. Unfortunately for her, she's about a month from her deadline when she still hasn't found a man who fits the bill. Determined not to be bested by her father, she hatches a plan. She and her guardian/servant bride the gaoler at Newgate prison to show them the list of names from men condemned to die. When she sees the name Ruark Beauchamp, a condemned murderer, she decides that he will be the perfect husband. After all, the Marquess de Beauchamp is a well-known aristocrat in London, so her father will be well-pleased with the name. However, the prisoner is an American colonist who cannot be related to the powerful family, and he's destined to die in a matter of weeks! Shanna decides she will make a bargain with the man - his name in marriage for her money to make his last days more comfortable. The prisoner agrees, but he adds one condition - he gets a wedding night with his bride.

Shanna agrees because she's desperate, even though her new finance looks awful after three months in a dank cell. But more bribing of the gaoler and Shanna gets Ruark out of gaol for a day so that they can marry respectfully in a small country parish. Much to her surprise, her hubby cleans up quite nicely. Much to his surprise, Shanna has him thrown back in gaol before her part of the bargain is fulfilled, and then tells everyone that she was married and widowed within a week.

Not that the above is ridiculous enough on its own, but it gets even better!!! Shanna's father's stewart (who knows nothing of her scheme) is in London with her, and on the day Ruark is to be executed, he goes to Newgate and purchases Ruark from the gaoler. He plans to take him back to Shanna's island and tell her father that he is a bondsman. Apparently it was common practice for Shanna's father to take in bondslaves and let them work off their debts on his island, but the stewart is going behind his back by getting felons and murderers from Newgate. So low and behold, when Shanna gets home to her father's island and tells everyone she's a widow, she's much surprised to see her supposedly dead husband there as a bondsman! Ruark is determined to get her to fulfill their bargain, but he keeps his identity underwraps while he establishes himself as the smartest, hardest working bondslave on the island.

There are many more unbelievable coincidences, but who really cares? It's a romance novel, and this novel is perfection. I have deep, deep affection for romance novels written over twenty years ago, and since this one was written in 1977, it fits the bill. Plus, Woodiwiss's writing is so grandiose that it's just insanely entertaining. I loved Ruark, mainly because he took endless delight in baiting and teasing Shanna until she screamed at him in frustration and annoyance. And even though Shanna often acted like a spoiled brat, Ruark always called her on it, and Woodiwiss acknowledged it by making her eventually grow out of it. Some reviewers have little tolerance for Shanna's wishy-washiness with it came to Ruark, but I thought it was believable. She was a rich, spoiled woman, and she thought he was a poor, murdering colonial! (Although, it didn't take long to become clear from his character that Ruark was no murderer.) It doesn't surprise me that she didn't yield to him mind, body, and soul right away at the beginning. Instead, she gradually learned to let go of her ideals of the perfect man and accept Ruark despite his humble social status. I think it would have been unbelievable if Woodiwiss had her change everyone overnight.

Also, I disagree with one reviewer who said that there was nothing about Shanna for Ruark to be attracted to except her beauty. She was fiesty and yes, it often came across as bitchy, but I can see why it would interest Ruark. He'd tease and push at her, and she'd push right back! She was not boring or uninteresting in the least, and underneath it all she had a good heart. Of course a man would be facinating by a gorgeous, well-dressed woman who walks into his gaol cell and says she wants to marry him! That takes balls!

This book is painfully long, but it works because Shanna's character needs that much time to completely surrender to the fact that she is indeed married to Ruark. Even after she starts sleeping with him (initially because she feels guilty over cheating him of their bargain), she's still hesitant to admit she married a convincted murderer. I think that is utterly reasonable.

Anyhoo, there's more good stuff that happens at the end (and if you couldn't guess, Ruark really didn't kill anyone, and he's not a poor nobody, either). But my weakness for secret marriage plots, the epic saga-ness of it all, and the enjoyable characters makes this book so very, very fun for me to read. And wow, this was a long review for me.

Lindsey's Grade: A+

P.S. There are pirates, too!

Book Review: See No Evil

Eh. That's how I feel about this book. Eh.

The heroine is a deputy district attorney named Julia Chandler. The hero is a private investigator named Connor Kincade. The two go back about five years, when Julia threatened to prosecute Connor if he refused to testify against his partner and other police officers. As a result, Connor testified and was essentially forced to resign from the police department because of his "betrayal." So there is little love lost between the two of them.

But when Julia's sixteen year-old neice is the prime suspect in the disturbing murder of her stepfather, Julia hires Connor to get to the bottom of the case.

I generally like romantic suspense because at least the female protagonists do something. They're usually always portrayed as smart and assertive, mainly because they're activity involved in getting to the bottom of the mystery. Don't get me wrong, Julia was no different. But even though I liked both Julia and Connor, and their relationship was enjoyable if not a little rushed, the mystery in this book was totally lame. For one, it was completely unbelievable for me. It was just too far-fetched and bizarre. And second, Brennan showed her cards way too early! There was almost nothing left to reveal at the end except the names of the people behind the crimes, and considering that they were characters that didn't show up at all throughout the course of the book until the big reveal, I didn't really care.

I think I will probably give Brennan another try, though, because I do like her voice and her characterizations. It was just the plot of this particular book that I didn't like.

Lindsey's Grade: B-/C+

Book Review: Lady Sophia's Lover

Well, I finally read Lady Sophia's Lover, probably close to a year after I read it's sequel Worth Any Price, and some time after its prequel Someone To Watch Over Me. It was nice to get back to Lisa Kleypas's historicals, because I really enjoy them.

The basic premise of Lady Sophia's Lover is that Lady Sophia, who was orphaned as a young girl and subsequently separated from her younger brother, is seeking revenge from the magistrate that sentenced her brother to work on a ship as punishment (where he later died). Luckily for her, the magistrate is Sir Ross Cannon, the man who is in charge of the Bow Street runners, and he needs a new clerk/secretary. So she goes and applies for the position and gets it, but her intentions all the while are to seduce Sir Ross and break his heart, and also to steal confidential files and go public with them to humiliate him. The seduction part isn't too hard, because he's drooling over her from the minute he sees her, but after weeks together they both start to have genuine feelings of loooooove. Now what is she to do?

Since I had already Worth Any Price, I knew what the big surprise/conflict at the end would be, but that was okay because I still liked it. It's pretty rare for me that Kleypas doesn't write a hero that I don't like, and this book was no different. I really liked Sir Ross because he was the perfect mix of real man and nice guy. Sophia was enjoyable as well, and I'm glad that Kleypas didn't make a huge affair about how Sophia would deal with the fact that her feelings for Ross began to change. She gave it little attention, but at the same time it was completely believable for me, especially because she began to change her opinion on him based upon things other than the fact that she was sexually attracted to him.

Lindsey's Grade: B+

Book Review: Sugar Daddy

I liked Lisa Kleypas's debut in contemporary novels more than the reviews over at Dear Author did, but at the same time I didn't enjoy it near as much as I enjoy her historicals.

Now, Kleypas's is a gifted writer, regardless of whether she's writing contemporaries or historicals. In fact, this book (which was set in Texas and heavily influenced by Texan culture) reminded me a bit of Sandra Brown's earlier work. And I also enjoyed the way the book eventually set itself up - with the heroine, Liberty, torn between two men, one from her past and one from her present. But I wasn't particularly fond of Liberty, which not surprisingly held me back from really enjoying the book. I have a few theories on why this was:

As they point out at Dear Author, Liberty was kind of like a Young Adult book heroine. I personally think this is because Kleypas spent a lot of time with her character as a child and teenager. Basically, we grew up with Liberty, and I've never been fond of books that do that (Susan Elizabeth Phillips's Hot Shot and Honey Moon come to mind as examples of books with that plot device that didn't sit well with me). I don't know what that is. Maybe it just makes it hard to separate the child from the women, especially when there is little time given to showing us how Liberty matured and grew up.

Also, this book was written in first person, and that's a little difficult for me to enjoy in a romance novel. It worked for Jude Deveraux in the contemporary novella from The Invitation, but that's pretty rare. Oddly enough, I felt like the first person ploy actually made me know Liberty less than I would have had it been in third person.

Long story short, I was unsatisfied with this book.

Lindsey's Grade: B-

Book Review: Ashes to Ashes

After finishing Tami Hoag's Prior Bad Acts, I decided to re-read Ashes to Ashes since I'm at home on Spring Break and the book was just sitting there on a shelf waiting for me. After all, the main characters from Prior Bad Acts first showed up in Ashes to Ashes and, luckily for me, I remembered ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT THE BOOK. Seriously. Nothing. I only knew the Prior Bad Acts characters were in Ashes to Ashes because Prior Bad Acts told me so. It's a little disturbing, but then again, I own Ashes to Ashes in hardback and it came out in 1999. So that was about eight years ago, and I think it's understandable if I've forgotten.

Ashes to Ashes is set in Minneapolis, and the plot revolves around a serial killer that is killing women and then setting their bodies on fire to be found in public places. The press has labeled the killer "The Cremator." Lovely.

Kate Conlin is a former FBI agent that left the Bureau five years before to move back to her hometown of Minneapolis to become a victim/witness advocate. The first two bodies that are found burned were prostitutes, but when a third body believed to be the daughter of a local billionaire is found, everyone stands up and pays attention. Kate is called in to work with a young woman who supposedly saw The Cremator dump and light up the third body.

John Quinn is the most famous FBI criminal profiler around, and because of the billionaire's influence, he's called in to participate on this case. And as fate would have it, he and Kate have a history together from her time with the FBI. A sexy history. Do do dooooo.

I liked this book, just like I like all Tami Hoag books. She's a great mystery writer, keeping me interested while still holding back a lot. Seriously, I have read this book before and I STILL didn't know who the killer was. That's a good mystery. Either that or I have early onset Alzheimers.

I would like to read the "sequel" (not really a sequel, just her next book with the same characters) Dust to Dust, but even though I'm sure I've read it before (I remember a little more about this one) and I'm also rather sure that I own it, I can't find it anywhere. It's disappeared, much like a lot of my books do. I suspect that a certain sister of mine "borrows" books and loses them/throws them away/loans them without permission/steals them. But hey, innocent until proved guilty, right?

One Sentence Book Reviews

I've read a lot of quick, paperback books since the last time I posted a real review. So this one is just going to serve the purpose of getting me caught up.

Prior Bad Acts - A good book with a sexy cop, but a telegraphed ending.


Merger of Fortunes - This book was as bad as the cover model's outfit.


No Safe Place - I liked the romance aspect, but could not have cared less about the mystery.


Dead Shot - It was nice to see a heroine that had some major flaws because it made her more believable, but the whole premise of the book was just too out-there.


Tongue in Chic - Well, this was not nearly as horrific as Trouble in High Heels, but still (as always with Dodd books), something just felt "off" about it.


And Then He Kissed Her - This historical romance actually lived up to the hype I had read about it.


Wrong Place, Wrong Time - As usual, Kane's hero and heroine are absolute paragons in every aspect of their lives, but the romance in this book was as boring as the mystery.


How to Abduct a Highland Lord - This book was incredibly simplistic, but for some reason, I still liked it.

Book Review: Prior Bad Acts

I'm reading Prior Bad Acts by Tami Hoag right now. Generally she's an author I enjoy, even though she's a little dark so I have to take her in small does. The plot of this book is best summarized as this: a mother and two children are killed in a really horrifying, disturbing (so disturbing I wonder about Hoag's imagination) manner; the police arrest a suspect; suspect is charged with murder; the prosecution tries to enter into evidence the suspects "prior bad acts" such a larcency, indescent exposure, being a Peeping Tom, etc; the judge refuses to admit the evidence; the police and the community go apeshit over the judge's ruling; the judge gets beaten up in the parking garage on the way to her car.

Okay, so maybe this would seem like a thrilling and exciting read to you, but I'm taking Evidence right now, so it's causing me some problems. The first problem I have with the plot of the book revolves around Federal Rule of Evidence 404(b), in which character evidence, as a general rule, is excluded. And "prior bad acts" is character evidence.
Evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts is not admissible to prove the character of a person in order to show action in conformity therewith.
So I'm kind of wondering how Hoag really expects us to believe that this judge's ruling would be SO controversial that it would cause prosecutors and seasoned cops to lose their minds. THE RULES OF EVIDENCE PRETTY MUCH DEMAND THAT SHE EXCLUDE THE EVIDENCE. It's just beyond my imagination that a prosecutor is that upset over the ruling when it was his job to argue that it should fall under an exception to the general rule.

This is really bothering me. In case you can't tell.

Book Review: the curious incident of the dog in the night-time

the curious incident of the dog in the night-time by Mark Haddon 2003 , 226 pgs.

"Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. Although gifted with a superbly logical brain, Christopher is autistic."

Having the narrator be autistic and tell this particular story is what makes this book OUTSTANDING.

It was very emotional, humorous and thrilling, a combination that is difficult to accomplish for many writers. Not only do you feel for Christopher there is also a lot of empathy surrounding his parents and those trying to help him.

Kim's Grade: A Simple, kind and fun to read.

Anyone interested in reading this let me know, I'll mail it to you!

Book Review: Bangkok 8

Bangkok 8 by John Burdett 318 pages, 2003.

Murder, Buddhism, karma,
meth,
meth,
meth,
methed up snakes,
jade,
FBI, CIA,
drug trafficking,
meth,
meth,
ganja,
brothels,
more Buddhism,
transsexuals,
meth,
murder
transsexuals wanting revenge,
rebirth.


Kim's Grade: C+ Actually...it wasn't too bad for a mystery.

Book Review: Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy

Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy 2005, 199pgs

Raunch culture is like a reflex these days and its everywhere. Breast implants, thongs, and the Playboy bunny are now seen as keen symbols of sexual liberation. But should they be?

Levy delves into not only the commercial side of raunch culture but also the feminist-side where she coins and defines Female Chauvinist Pigs as "women who make sex objects of other women" and of themselves. A good example of a FCP is Robin Quivers co-host of the Howard Stern show. Robin not only objectifies other women, she encourages it and has never spoken out against Stern's racy tactics. She has only benefited from it continuing to occur.

Levy also discusses how raunch culture is vastly becoming a litmus test of female uptightness. It is now a normal reflex for young women to flash their breasts when asked to. In an age of sexual liberation whats the big deal right? "It exudes confidence when people wear little clothes." It seems like for women to be noteworthy these days they must somehow be sexy or be linked to something sexual, i.e. Anna Nicole Smith's death, Paris Hilton, the lack of underwear on young actresses, etc. Britney Spear's can't exude confidence without long hair! Or can she?

If I choose not to bare my midriff will it really make me less sexy and confident? No!

My favorite part is Levy's conversation on the anti porn feminists versus the sex-positive feminists--or the pornography wars. I appreciated this topic because it seems like you can't agree with both sides of this feminist war and still be able to call yourself a feminist. If I am against porn then I must be a sexually repressed woman and therefore not a feminist. If I am in support of sex-positive porn, or stripping, or the increasingly visible stripper culture within the U.S. then I must be supporting sexual violence, the diminishing rights of women, and the control over our bodies--therefore not a feminist.

Also brought up is how many women struggle to escape womanhood and be more masculine, but the fact remains that they ARE genetically female! Condi Rice is an example. She has worked hard to "be just one of the guys" to the point where she is considered more masculine than feminine. She does not support women's issues, she doesn't have to since they don't pertain to her.

Great conversations arise from this book. It "is not a book about the sex industry; it is a book about what we have decided the sex industry means...how we have held it up, cleaned it off, and distorted it. How we depend on it to mark us as an erotic and uninhibited culture at a moment when fear and repression are rampant."

Kim's Grade: A Makes you think about your stances regarding raunch culture!

Book News: Tracy Chevalier

Whoo hoo, Tracy Chevalier has a new book coming out next month!

I love her books, so I will definitely have to get this one.

Book Notes: Laurie R King

Yesterday I came across a piece of paper I haven't seen since 2000. I still am confused as to why it was in this stack of papers, why it wasn't filed away in my 2000 bin and why it was attached to an ATM receipt from London....oh well!

My dear friend Amy Davies suggested Laurie R King's books. That's her over there (--->). I remember Amy devouring these books and thinking whats the big deal?!

Well, they sound great! One of her first books, The Beekeeper's Apprentice (DO NOT CONFUSE WITH "The Secret Life of Bees") was named a 100 Favorite Mysteries of the Century.

"Her fiction falls into three areas. First in the hearts of most readers comes Mary Russell, who met the retired Mr Sherlock Holmes in the winter of 1915 and became his apprentice, later his partner, and eventually his wife. Starting with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice and continuing through The Game (June 2005), Russell and Holmes move through the ’teens and ’twenties in amiable discord, challenging each other to ever greater feats of detection.

King’s other series concerns San Francisco homicide inspector Kate Martinelli, her SFPD partner Al Hawkin, and her life partner Lee Cooper. In the course of her four books, Kate has encountered a female Rembrandt, a modern-day Holy Fool, two difficult teenagers, and a manifestation of the goddess Kali.

King has also written three stand-alone suspense novels." (Taken from www.laurierking.com)


Expect to see some reviews of King's work soon!

Book News: "The Higer Power of Lucky" gets Yucky

“This book included what I call a Howard Stern-type shock treatment just to see how far they could push the envelope.” --Dana Nilsson

The S-word? AND NO, IT AIN'T SHIT! Give me a break! This is ridiculous! If it was truly offensive Susan Patron's book wouldn't have won the Newbery Medal! Times are changing, six year olds are dressing like skanks and every library should have this delightfully sounding book.

An award-winning children’s book about a ten-year-old girl seeking answers about life has provoked an uproar in America because it uses the s- word on the first page.

Curious as to what the s-word is? Read the rest of the article here...

Book Review: The Pirates! In An Adventure with Communists

The Pirates! In An Adventure with Communists by Gideon Defoe

This is a great book to read out loud! It is full of smart, quirky philosophical references and a ton of laughs! Its a short read, I read it in about three hours and I can't wait to read more Pirate adventures.

While this is a work of fiction Defoe's knowledge of Marx, Engels, and the ultimate philosopher-villain are somewhat accurate making the story all the more enjoyable.


Kim's Grade: A+

The illustrations are worth it too!

Book Review: Natural Born Charmer

I really like Susan Elizabeth Phillips's books. She's probably the best romantic comedy writer, and I appreciate that her books are always sprinkled with a healthy dose of comedy. Funny is fun, and it keeps things from getting too heavy and serious. But for the love of God, is it so much to ask that she write a book where at least one of the people in the romantic couple have a normal family life?

I understand that she likes to write about families, and things are more interesting when there is conflict and drama, but honestly it's getting a little old! (Although, now that I think about it, I can't remember anything too dysfunctional about the characters' families in Nobody's Baby But Mine. But still, there were some issues.)

But don't pay too much attention to my ranting. Like I said, conflict is more interesting. The characters in this book are Dean Robilliard (sp?), who is a professional football playing quarterback from SEP's earlier book, Match Me If You Can, and Blue Bailey, who's new. Both of them have screwed-up family lives which play prominently in the plot of the book. But I can overlook the predictable SEP family drama here because I really enjoyed Dean's eleven year-old half-sister. SEP does a great job of writing kids, I think. I wasn't crazy about Dean when he was in Match Me If You Can, mainly because I pictured him with bleached blonde hair and diamond earrings which is just tacky on a man, but SEP toned him down here so it was good. She also managed to make Blue appealing to me, despite the fact that my least favorite physical descriptions of romance novel heroines pretty much encapsulated Blue completely. (In case you're wondering it's short, shapeless women with short black hair.)

One of my absolute favorite things about SEP is that she writes romance novels. Not romantic suspense. Not romantic thrillers. Not romantic mystery. No sub-genres, which I like. And she does it without being boring. This book is about people going about their (questionably) normal lives and falling in love. It was a fun read.

Lindsey's Grade: B+

The Scarlet Pimpernel

Not only was this the name of a long-dead beta fish given to me by a long-dumped boyfriend, but it is also a thrilling classic. I reread this book last weekend and was again enthralled by the romance, intrigue and mystery. Fot those of you in the dark ages, this book is set in the 18th century during the French Revolution and "those demmed Frenchies" are chopping off the heads of the snotty French aristocrats. Lord Percy Blakesney, the biggest fop in England marries Marguerite St. Just, the cleverest woman in Europe. Scandels and secrets between the two keep them apart, but this paragraph shows their true feelings. The best paragraph ever is as follows:

"Had she but turned back then, and looked out once more on to the rose-lit garden, she would have seen that which would have made her own sufferings seem but light and easy to bear, a strong man, overwhelmed with his own passion and his own despair. Pride had given way at last, obstinacy was gone: the will was powerless. he was but a man madly, blindly, passionately in love, and as soon as her light footsteps had died away within the house, he knelt down upon the terrace steps, and in the very madness of his love he kissed one by one the places where her small foot had trodden, and the stone balustrade there, where her tiny had rested last."

Shannon's Grade: A

Book Update: Black Lamb and Grey Falcon

The book I'm currently reading, Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon: A Journey Through Yugoslavia is 1150 pages long, so forgive me if it takes me a while to finish it. Written in the late 1930's when the Nazis were starting to become pretty scary and before they invaded Yugoslavia, this book follows the author's trip through Croatia, Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzogovnia, Serbia, Macedonia, and Montenegro. So far I've only read the the Croatian and Dalmatian sections, but I've taken note of some excepts that I really like so I thought I'd share them.

It's clear from her writing that West is (was) an extremely intelligent woman, and she is very gifted in her ability to see more than just the superficial in society and politics. When visiting Dalmatia, she is struck by the sight of a woman sitting on a wall as they passed by. I read somewhere that the odd shape of Croatia has a historical background in the Turkish invasion, and basically the borders lie where they do because the Turks were not successful in penetrating further into Europe. Specially West mentions how Venice, while it controlled regions of Dalmatia, would essentially collect monies from the natives to pay off the Turks in order to momentarily halt the western progress of the Ottoman Empire. When West came upon the woman in that poor region she wrote:

The west has done much that is ill, it is vulgar and superficial and economically sadist; but it has not known that death in life which was suffered by the Christian provinces under the Ottoman Empire. From this the people of Rab had saved me: I should say, are saving me. The woman who sat on the stone wall was in want because the gold which should have been handed down to her had bought my safety from the Turks. Impotent and embarrassed, I stood on the high mountain and looked down on the terraced island where my saviors, small and black as ants, ran here and there, attempting to repair their destiny.

I'm a bit of a history buff, so her combination of travel and history (that I imagine is very prevalent in modern travel writing) is really fascinating to read. But she can also be witty and sharp, as this excerpt from her visit to a girl's school shows. She writes to the girls:

Remember, when the nuns tell you to beware of the deceptions of men who make love to you, that the mind of man is on the whole less torturous when he is love-making than at any other time. It is when he speaks of governments and armies that he utters strange and dangerous nonsense to pleas the bats at the back of his soul. This is all to your disadvantage, for in love-making you might meet him with lies of equal force, but there are few repartees that the female governed can make to the male governors.

This book is full of insights such as that, and I am thoroughly enjoying the read!

Book Review: Clueless George

Clueless George: The Complete Presidential Library by Pat Bagley

Includes: Cluess George Goes to War!
Clueless George Takes on Liberals!
Cluesless George is Watching You!

“Follow the adventures of your favorite War-Monkey-President as he bungles his way through the War on Terror.”

These books made me smile! This little “Decider-in-Chimp” takes on a lot and learns some very important lessons from “Dickie.” Great for every age unless fiercely conservative or without a sense of humor.

Take a ten minute break and read ‘em while they’re fresh!

Grade: A

Book Review: The Rule of Four

The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason

I listened to this book over Christmas break while driving home. I remember being excited when this book came out since it is in "Dan Brown style" and takes place on a college campus. After listening to it I have to say that I'm not impressed.

The plot surrounds a mysterious 15th-century manuscript, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a rare text (a real book) which contains embedded codes revealing the location of a buried Roman treasure. Four students, in an Indiana Jones fashion, attempt to solve the mystery before an evil professor takes all the credit! Sound familiar?

The writing is disjointed and there were several times where Mike and I had to stop and collect the pieces of the plot to see the picture. We both struggled to finish this one.

Grade: B

Book Review: With Their Backs to the World: Potraits from Serbia

Let me preface this review by saying that if you are anything like me (and therefore know next to nothing about the Balkans) do not read this book without first consulting some encyclopedia source (Wikipedia was my choice) on Yugoslavia, Balkans, Serbia, Montenegro, and Bosnia. Throw in Macedonia, Croatia, and Slovenia if you're really industrious. Trust me, it's extremely helpful. For instance, did you know that after Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and Macedonia left what was once Yugoslavia, "Yugoslavia" was used to refer to Serbia and Montenegro? I didn't know that, and it caused a great deal of confusion as to why this book said Yugoslavia was dissolved as late as 2003.

But on to the substance of the book. I picked this book up at Borders mainly because I wanted to take advantage of their "3 for the price of 2" deal and picking three books was proving harder than I anticipated. But this one looked interesting, and as I previously mentioned, I knew almost nothing about the Balkans. What I did know is that there was a lot of fighting there during the 1990's and that "Bosnia," "Serbs," "Kosovo," and "ethnic Albanians" were terms I remembered hearing a lot on the news when I was younger. But Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian sparked my interest in Eastern Europe when before I didn't really give that area of the world much thought at all.

I didn't expect to become so engrossed.

Seierstad, a Norwegian journalist who also authored the bestseller The Bookseller of Kabul, spent time in Serbia as she covered the conflict in Kosovo for Norwegian television. While there she decided to write a book about some of the Serbs she met and got to know during her time there. There are many characteristics of Serbs that prompted her to title her book "With Their Backs To The World." It is certainly an apt description for some, but after reading this book I am not convinced that the converse would not apply equally as well.

A quote from a Yugoslavian rock star that Seierstad profiles sums up, to me at least, the central issue concerning Serbia. His story and personal insights are remarkably cunning and more than once I was awed at his ability to cut right to the heart of the issue. His quote is as follows:

"If someone had asked me, before 1990, what my nationality was, I'd have been at a loss for words. My mother and father never talked about it. I was baptised as a Catholic, my brother as Orthodox. Today I know full well that my mum is Serbian and my dad half Croat and half Montenegrin."

America is often called a "melting pot" and maybe that's why Rambo's statement seems startling to me. Americans grow up surrounded by not just different ethnicities, but different races. And while we certainly have our problems with race relations, generally Caucasians are lumped together as "whites." The extreme and inherit nationalism in the former Yugoslavia is difficult for me to grasp as an American, especially considering that these are people who have lived within close geographical proximity to each other and were for decades part of the same country, Yugoslavia.

Another issue that is brought up again and again, particularly by members of Slobodan Milosevic's Socialist Party, is the widespread disdain for the West, particularly America, who is primarily blamed for the 1999 NATO bombing of Serbia following reports of ethic cleansing against Albanians in the southern Serbia region of Kosovo. Seierstad makes a point to highlight that a common weakness among Serbs is to recount over and over again the wrongs that have been committed against them while ignoring the wrongs they've committed against others, despite the fact that (from a Western view, anyway) Serbia initiated and lost wars against Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo Albanians, and many Serbian politicians and military personnel were charged with war crimes by the Hague.

After reading this book I've come to the conclusion that the Serbs are a bafflingly complex and in someways pitiful people, but I am also convinced that this proud nation does not deserve the vilification that they received from the West during the Balkan conflicts. They are not so different that the rest of us, really, and were victimized by their own government until the October 5, 2000 revolution that removed Milosevic from power. But the saddest part of these stories comes from the depression that has beset many following Milosevic's fall when the new democratic government failed to raise the quality of life in the country. That is part of the reason why the popularity of nationalism is again on the rise in Serbia. America and the West certainly didn't help matters. We sanctioned and bombed their country, destroying bridges and factories that provided economic support to Serbia, then denied them a $100 million aid package for their unsatisfactory cooperation with Milosevic's prosecution. And of course, once 9/11 occured our attention went from defending the Albanian muslims to fighting muslim extremists in Afghanistan and Iraq. Reading these stories, no matter what the political view of the speaker, I couldn't help but feel that, even if the proud and unyielding Serbs have turned their back on the world, the world has turned its back on them as well.

Romance Novels Are Books, Too

I was at a little law school get-together last year when I was explaining to some fellow guests how I review books on a blog. They asked what kind of books and without hesitation I answered, "Romance novels." Another guest, who reads this blog (or at least used to) chimed in and said to me with not a little bewilderment, "Yeah, and you review them really seriously!"

As if it was an impossible, or at least unworthwhile, task.

Look, the romance novels of the world may not make anyone's list of best literature, but they're still books. Books that someone put a lot of effort into writing. Books that someone took their time to edit. Not only are they capable of thoughtful and sincere reviews, they deserve them.

Which is why I was so delighted to stumble across this website, Dear Author. The contributers provide well-thought, articulate, and intelligent reviews of romance novels. I try to do that myself here.

So there.

Book Review: The Innocent Man

When I tell people that I'm interested in becoming a public defender, I usually receive a variety of responses. Often there will be jokes about not making much money. A conservative family member of one of my best friends was obviously trying to hide his amusement at what he surely considered to be my youthful naivete. Another man that I had never met before in my life unloaded on me, basically calling me foolish and stupid without actually coming out and saying it, and he had the nerve to ask me "how much is this costing your parents?" as if I was an ungrateful child for repaying my parents by choosing an unlucrative area of law. I fought back my temper and informed him that I was financing my own law school education through loans and scholarships. But to all of those people who find public defender work unworthwhile and disgraceful and can't understand why I would want to do it, I say to them, read this book.

This book centers around the rape and murder of Debbie Carter on December 8, 1982 in Ada, Oklahoma, and the shockingly negligent police investigation and prosecution of two innocent men. Both men were unable to afford private attorneys and were assigned public defenders. In Ron Williamson's case, he was facing the death penalty and was assigned an unwilling blind attorney who couldn't personally examine the "physical evidence," which consisted solely of a few hairs that were not inconsistent with Williamson's. In Dennis Fritz's case, his only crime was being friends with Williamson. Unfortunately, the police and district attorney were convinced that Williamson was the killer despite huge arrows pointing to someone else who was the last person seen with the victim before her death and who, inexplicably, was never asked to submit blood, fingerprint, or hair samples. The law enforcement officers were also convinced that two men committed the crime. Thus, if the killer was Ron Williamson, the second man must be Dennis Fritz. After all, they knew each other. There was even a witness who could testify seeing them in a bar together in a different town months before the murder.

Against all logic, two juries in Ada, Oklahoma convicted Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz of murder. Fritz received a life sentence and Williamson, who had a well-documented history of mental illness, was sent to death row.

This book is a true story. A shocking, infuriating, true story. They didn't have money of their own with which to challenge the state's bogus forensic results, and the judge refused to grant it to them. The police in Ada railroaded these two men and there was no one to stand up for them other than the local public defenders, the state appellate public defenders, and the Innocence Project. So the next time I get asked why I would want to be a public defender I will point the questioner to this book. It is hardly an isolated incident. There are countless dedicated, ethical police officers and prosecutors in this country, but there are also those like Dennis Smith and Bill Peterson from Ada, Oklahoma, who, in my opinion, should be held criminally negligent for what they did to these two men. Anyone who can read stories like this and not be outraged, anyone who can hear of egregious Fourth and Fifth Amendment violations by police and not be stirred to action, anyone who cannot understand my desire to do what I can do to stand up for those in our society who have no one else to stand up for them, anyone who thinks civil law would be better for me solely because I could make a lot of money needs to take a long look at themselves, their ethics, and their morality. Especially those that call themselves Christians.

Lindsey's Grade: A+

Book Review: Irresistable

Oh Mary Balogh, I hope you never die. You are the brightest spot in the world of Regency era romance novels. Your writing is simple enough that you need not invoke silly plot twists yet somehow is still complex enough that I genuinely care for the characters.

Irresistable is not a remarkable novel. It actually has a rather simplistic plot, revolving around two friends who knew enough during the Napoleonic war when the hero (Nathanial) was an officer in the army and the heroine (Sophie) was married to another officer that she traveled with when he was with the army. Sophie's husband is killed at Waterloo during an act of bravery that coincidentally saves the life of many fellow officers, including the Duke of Wellington. Back in England he is posthumously celebrated as a national hero and the government awards Sophie, his widow, a home of her own and a modest pension that allows her to live independantly of her male relatives. Nathanial and three of his friends were always fond of Sophie during the war, but it has been three years since they have seen each other. But Nathanial inherits his father's baronage and the responsibility of making sure his sister and cousin find suitable husbands. So he takes them to London for the Season, where he is reunited with Sophie.

There is more to this story, but I don't want to give too much away. Let's just say that Sophie has a problem that she doesn't tell anyone about and wants no help in solving. Needless to say since this is a romance novel, Nathanial wants to help her because he knows something is wrong, but she keeps pushing him away. Now, this is a fairly common plot device in romance novels, but in this case Balogh wrote about it so well and structured the problem in such a way that I, as the reader, dispaired for Sophie myself because she was in such a difficult situation and couldn't see a way out. Of course, the problem wasn't a big as she thought it was, but that was because of cirumstances that she couldn't have known at the time, so her distress was utterly believable.

Balogh is just so good. There's nothing else to say.

Lindsey's Grade: A