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Review Date: 10/15/2011
While this novel was my least favorite book in the Alex Cross series, due to the violence portrayed in Washington, DC and in Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Darfur, I truly couldn't put it down! This time Mr. Patterson really wrote a thriller! When an old acquaintance of Alex and her entire family are slaughtered, a bloodthirsty mercenary with a gang of boy-killers is suspected. "The Tiger" is a ruthless killer with no emotion as he unleashes his gang of little boy- throwaway boy-pre-teen killers upon any targets he is paid to eliminate. Alex Cross is led to Africa o investigate, where he is immediately pursued/imprisoned/tortured/beaten, etc until the "CIA" contact for the area intervenes. Without knowing whom to trust or turn to for help, the situation quickly becomes dire. I was literally unable to stop reading this book until 2:00 a.m. until I finished it.
Review Date: 1/17/2019
Stuart Woods has been writing about Stone Barrington for a long time. In fact, this is the 30th book in the series, and also one of my least favorite. Kate Lee, wife of President Will Lee, is running for the democratic nomination in the next presidential election. Many familiar characters populate this book, which includes manipulating the delegates to vote for Kate on the first nomination, and others from the previous books, including Ed Eagle and his ex-wife, the murderous Barbara Eagle Grosvenor, and Teddy Fay, former criminal mastermind and now using the name Billy Burnett.Boring and predictable.
Review Date: 6/20/2016
I have been reading Mary Higgins Clark since I was in high school (class of '68!) and she rarely fails to delight. Daddy's Gone A Hunting is a suspenseful story of the Connelly family and their legacy as purveyors of fine reproductions of antique furniture. The business is failing, when a fire is set and destroys the complex. Douglas Connelly wants the 20 million dollar insurance payout, however, his daughter Kate and former employee Gus Schmidt are suspected of deliberately setting the fire. Two murders are unearthed, and they may be tied into the family business. A truly surprise ending nicely wraps up this mystery.
Review Date: 8/15/2012
My neighbor recommended this author and lent me 5 books by Randy Wayne White. I chose to begin with this one, as it was the oldest that she lent me. I have to say I could barely get through this book, which went all over the place. The plot moved excruciatingly slowly, although the Nazi references were interesting. The character Chessie was an enigma...was she Marlissa? Was she a ghost? It made no sense. The Tomlinson hippie pot smoking character reminded me of people from the '70s, so I could relate. Don't know if I dare read another one of these!
Review Date: 8/15/2012
My neighbor recommended this author and lent me 5 books by Randy Wayne White. I chose to begin with this one, as it was the oldest that she lent me. I have to say I could barely get through this book, which went all over the place. The plot moved excruciatingly slowly, although the Nazi references were interesting. The character Chessie was an enigma...was she Marlissa? Was she a ghost? It made no sense. The Tomlinson hippie pot smoking character reminded me of people from the '70s, so I could relate. Don't know if I dare read another one of these!
Review Date: 6/2/2018
Confusing, rambling, fast moving book with many twists and turns along the way, and numerous stories within other stories.The story of a Hollywood agent, representing screen writers, actors and actresses in the cutthroat world of Hollywood.It is a series of anecdotes, told in the form of stories within other stories.
Review Date: 4/19/2015
Stephen Marlowe is one of my favorite authors, so I really wanted to like this book. It is about spies and the different political groups functioning during the beginning of the Cold War from post-war Germany to Palestine to Russia. I really couldn't follow the political machinations of 1953-56 too well, and lost interest after about 200 pages. The main character, Deborah, a Holocaust survivor turned feyhadeen infiltrator, seemed the most interesting, but her backstory is never told. If you like espionage and spy stories, you'll probably like this book.
Review Date: 8/30/2018
Delirious is Daniel Palmer's first thriller, and had I started with it, I would not have read any more of his books. The plot was interesting, about a tech mogul who invented an all-in one computer program for automobiles, similar to On-Star or the technology of today.He gets embroiled in company politics, where he ends up shunned and disgraced. Immediately he plunges into mental illness, which runs in his family. The whole story line is completely preposterous.
Review Date: 11/9/2008
This is not just "another book on the Holocaust." A few years ago I had seen the movie "The Devil's Arithmetic," while I watched in incredulity and horror as the events unfolded. Now, as a high school teacher who studies Holocaust history and remembrance, it was time to read the book by Jane Yolen from which the movie was made.
Modern day Hannah Stern is once again bored to tears at the Passover seder, where her older relatives and grandparents reminisce about the times of the persecutions of the Jews, and the horrors of the camps during WWII. Suddenly Hannah is transported back in time to the shtetl (Jewish enclave)in Poland where these same relatives came from. Somehow she has become Chaya Abramowicz, is speaking yiddish,is the orphaned niece of the family, and is fully involved in that alternate reality. With some vague memories of the future and what is to come, we accompany Chaya as she is transported via cattlecar to a camp (which closely resembles Auschwicz)where life is lived one day at a time, one hour at a time, and finally one minute at a time (if you are alive for that day, that hour, that minute, you are still alive and there is hope for survival).
This moving novel is fast-paced and thought-provoking. For young readers and adults alike, it is a story of hope, survival, and remembrance. We must never forget the past, and it must never be allowed to happen again!
Modern day Hannah Stern is once again bored to tears at the Passover seder, where her older relatives and grandparents reminisce about the times of the persecutions of the Jews, and the horrors of the camps during WWII. Suddenly Hannah is transported back in time to the shtetl (Jewish enclave)in Poland where these same relatives came from. Somehow she has become Chaya Abramowicz, is speaking yiddish,is the orphaned niece of the family, and is fully involved in that alternate reality. With some vague memories of the future and what is to come, we accompany Chaya as she is transported via cattlecar to a camp (which closely resembles Auschwicz)where life is lived one day at a time, one hour at a time, and finally one minute at a time (if you are alive for that day, that hour, that minute, you are still alive and there is hope for survival).
This moving novel is fast-paced and thought-provoking. For young readers and adults alike, it is a story of hope, survival, and remembrance. We must never forget the past, and it must never be allowed to happen again!
Review Date: 10/7/2012
I won't summarize the plot since other reviewers have done so admirably. I am 3/4 through the book right now and must say I am disappointed at the implausible story once Marta is sent back to Prague to locate her old comrade in the resistance, Marek. The feeling of fear and desperation during the Communist takeover in E. Europe is authentic- that sense of paranoia that so many had in the espionage world of agents and double agents seems authentic. However, much of the story is implausible and unbelievable. Who would allow an untrained secretary back into Prague,or Czechoslovakia and E.Berlin for a ridiculous spy mission? And then our heroine meets up with her long lost true love from the past? The plot is turning into a far-fetched, implausible, made for cable movie. I can predict who the mole in the British diplomatic corps is going to be, and I'm sure our feisty heroine will end up with her first love at the end. This book started off so promising, but quickly degenerated into soap opera.
Review Date: 7/2/2017
I couldn't wait to finish this book! Not because it was interesting, but with a gruesome murder or crazy chase by big bad Mafia types in every short chapter, I just wanted to get to the end. Patterson's co-author, who I assume penned this novel, used the short chapter technique to keep people reading, with a cliffhanger every 3-4 pages. The story was a convoluted chase by a magazine writer to interview a has-been baseball player. Definitely not one of Patterson's best or more coherent plotlines.
Review Date: 7/14/2012
This is the first book about the French Holocaust I had read. It traces the search for a young French girl, Dora Bruder, a French Jewess, who ran away from the Convent where she was being hidden, in 1942. Patrick Modiano, the author, was himself a young boy in France during the end of WWII. His musings on the haunting, tragic times, comprise this slim volume. An excellent, unusual tome.
Review Date: 4/13/2013
Now that everyone's favorite Mouseketeer has passed away, I thought readers might want to read her heartwarming autobiography which traces her years at the Mickey Mouse Club, to becoming a beach bunny starring in bikini beach movies, to becoming a singer in her 40s, and her life on and off the stage. After her diagnosis with multiple sclerosis, she decided to make this public knowledge so that her adoring fans could learn of her story.
Review Date: 10/7/2016
The wild and rugged continent of Australia from the 1870s to the 1880s is the setting for this long, captivating novel about settling Western Australia. Aboriginal culture, religion and customs plays an important role in this tale.
Review Date: 8/28/2016
Definitely not Jane Green's best effort. Several concurrent plot lines are interwoven in Dune Road.Newly divorced Kit Hargrove is putting her life back together post divorce, and working as an assistant for the reclusive author, Robert McClore. A long lost sister enters into the mix, and several of Kit's friends are impacted by the Wall Street collapse of 2008. Add to the mix a grandmotherly type neighbor, domestic abuse, and secrets, lots of secrets. The ending seemed a bit of a stretch, tying all these disparate elements together.
Review Date: 11/29/2007
This book is an enjoyable "chick lit" type book, but it is surprisingly racy (i.e. dirty!) My 91 year old mom borrowed it and she was a bit shocked!
Elizabeth I: Red Rose of the House of Tudor, England, 1544 (The Royal Diaries)
Author:
Book Type: Hardcover
88
Author:
Book Type: Hardcover
88
Review Date: 4/7/2009
Helpful Score: 4
This is the first volume in the series for young readers entitled "The Royal Diaries." It tells the story of Elizabeth I as a young girl, who was banished from the court of her father, Henry VIII, after her mother, Anne Boleyn was beheaded after being falsely accused of adultery. The diary covers the years 1544 (when Elizabeth was just 11), through the death of her father in 1547. It has charming details of the life of the lonely princess and her companions.
Review Date: 6/12/2015
A fictional account of a doctor's training in emergency medicine at a hospital in the Southwest and the various cast of co-workers who make the ER run. The book is gritty and realistic. While I expected it to be hopelessly out of date (published in 1983) it wasn't, as the systems in place back then were remarkably similar to those being used today. One of the main characters is a drug-using, drug-seeking, addict, which I did not care for. Some of the more gruesome descriptions of events seemed included for their shock value, rather than their probative value.
Review Date: 7/9/2011
I really thought I would love this book, having been a grad student myself at both Yale and Brown. However, the main character, while somewhat engaging in her quest to find herself, shows little interest in life in England other than chain-smoking and getting falling down drunk in the pub at a daily basis. The drunken behavior is an excuse for lots of bad behavior, including stalking her tutor/advisor, "snogging" and "shagging" (which may be synonymous- I'm not exactly sure). The cast of international students she meets at university are somewhat interesting, although not fully developed. A bit disappointing- it was hard to finish this book.
Review Date: 1/2/2013
In spite of some negative reviews, I enjoyed this book immensely. It had a lot of funny, new characters, and hinted at some men drama between Stephanie, Ranger and Morelli that occurred while on vacation in Hawaii. Lula is her usual hilarious self, with lots of wisdom and phobias about love potions, rats, and bad juju. There are lots of laugh out loud moments, as Evanovich never fails to deliver.
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