Elizabeth Crook
Found this book at the Highlands branch the day I got my hair cut. Began reading it Thursday after beginning three other books that did not/have not held my attention.
This book read very easily and I found myself absorbed into the story within a few pages and read all afternoon until I finished it.
I guess I like it very much. Normally I would just say, Loved it, but I want to hold off that accolade for books that totally impress me. This one was close.
Nothing wrong with the story. A set of journals from the turn of the century are published by the daughter and resisted by her grand-daughter until it is almost too late. But we devour them along with Meg and solve the mystery right along with her.
I particularly like Bassie, the daughter of the journal writer. I loved the scene where she enters rather storms into the newsroom of a newspaper and demands the photo of her mother from the reporter who is by all practical purposed, clueless. She slams her cane against his desk and he resists handing over the photo she goes through his desk and finds it herself with him trying to fight her off. Good scene.
And when she dies, I wish they had not killed her off but left her to solve the mystery, which was always in her memory anyway she just did not know it. I was moved by the eulogy given at the grave by the Park Ranger that loved her.
I hated the fact that it was so important to get her buried quickly. She was the benefactor of many and if she died on Sunday and put in the ground on Tuesday, her obit would not have even hit the papers giving no one a chance to attend the ceremony. Odd, but I guess the author did not want to add a bunch of sap to the death and dismiss Bassie, as needed at the time.
Because we are introduced to another Bassie, the young daughter of the journal writer.
All in all a good read, that I for one could not put down.
Chick lit (maybe), but good chick lit.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
The Rebel
A Novel of the Civil War by Bernard Cornwell
The Starbuck Chronicles
This series of books written by a renown British author was recommended by my brother last month. I could not find the four books in the Main P.L. but managed to run across Copperhead at the Highland branch. then, lo and behold while waiting for a computer at the Jeff branch I found the first book...The Rebel.
There seems to be a pattern in Civil War books. Start out with something very gruesome and then on to the story. This one was a tar and feather feature that introduced us to a characters that will remain through out the next three.
First of all, I have to give my bro a copy of Howard Bahr's book...Year of Jubilo, which is to date one of my favorite Civil War books. why? It made me cry and the ending surprised me, I did not see it coming through thinking back I should have. And I loved the dialect ....ah, this is about Rebel not Jubilo.
Anyway, ....characters. Nate, ok but everything an officer could be described by "Co. Aytch" (which I have recently found at the library book store in Memphis) as cowering in the back ground as war raged around them. Yet, he did okay.
Will I read the rest of the series? Not certain, but I must finish Co. Aytch as I see many of the Civil War writers have and use him as a guide when describing life as a CSA participant.
Back to Rebel. The character of Faulconer was great as I wanted to slap his face when he managed to steal all the glory for saving the CSA when it was actually his troops who did so, against his orders. He was fighting mad when he learned of their part in the Manassas battle.
many characters are memorable and from peaking at Copperhead, I see they are still around, so I guess not killed in the book between the first and third.
That's all I have to say about that.
Read Jubilo and the three books written by Bahr before this series. And read Jacob's Ladder before this one. And most definitely read GWTW before this one. Read The Killer Angels.
The Starbuck Chronicles
This series of books written by a renown British author was recommended by my brother last month. I could not find the four books in the Main P.L. but managed to run across Copperhead at the Highland branch. then, lo and behold while waiting for a computer at the Jeff branch I found the first book...The Rebel.
There seems to be a pattern in Civil War books. Start out with something very gruesome and then on to the story. This one was a tar and feather feature that introduced us to a characters that will remain through out the next three.
First of all, I have to give my bro a copy of Howard Bahr's book...Year of Jubilo, which is to date one of my favorite Civil War books. why? It made me cry and the ending surprised me, I did not see it coming through thinking back I should have. And I loved the dialect ....ah, this is about Rebel not Jubilo.
Anyway, ....characters. Nate, ok but everything an officer could be described by "Co. Aytch" (which I have recently found at the library book store in Memphis) as cowering in the back ground as war raged around them. Yet, he did okay.
Will I read the rest of the series? Not certain, but I must finish Co. Aytch as I see many of the Civil War writers have and use him as a guide when describing life as a CSA participant.
Back to Rebel. The character of Faulconer was great as I wanted to slap his face when he managed to steal all the glory for saving the CSA when it was actually his troops who did so, against his orders. He was fighting mad when he learned of their part in the Manassas battle.
many characters are memorable and from peaking at Copperhead, I see they are still around, so I guess not killed in the book between the first and third.
That's all I have to say about that.
Read Jubilo and the three books written by Bahr before this series. And read Jacob's Ladder before this one. And most definitely read GWTW before this one. Read The Killer Angels.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
The Woodsman's Daughter
I sneaked a peek at the reviews on Amazon before adding this book to my list of 2008 reads. First of all, I found this book on the shelves of "R's" at the downtown Main branch held up as a favorite of the staff...staff pick. Happily I grabbed it because I loved "Icy Sparks" and I know that GHR lives in my hometown (which is also made a minor role in the book as a small town that the wife of the son hails from).
In my defense, I have been reading The Book Club in between the two listed books. I did not finish TBC but returned it day before yesterday half read. Could not relate to the characters blah blah blah.
This book...is not Icy Sparks. Somewhere in the middle of it I thought of Scarlet O'Hara and sure enough, it was mentioned in the other reviews.
I found little sympathy for the main character as a young girl and could not identify her bitterness for her father, since his "sin" was revealed only after 50 or 60 (maybe 100) pages of the first part of the book. I even felt sorry for the old geezer and felt his reluctance to return to his home. Why even go home? Why not make yourself a more comfortable home elsewhere? Say, in Millerown? Anyway, I did not understand the hostility between the daughters and father, and the father punishing himself to return to them. Despite the "I love you's" and the love making she heard through the walls.
I just did not like them. All but the Mammy character. I hated that the girl who was so flip and disrespectful to her father could not own up to setting the barn on fire but allowing Mammy to take the rap and to be banished from the home.
BTW, all this takes place after the Civil War around the turn of the century.
A study in the lives of women, Delia as a turn of the century woman, her daughter as a flapper, her mother as a Civil War survivor and drug addict and Mammy as a free born black woman, slave none the less.
I read it at break neck speed unable to put it down because the story flowed easily. No big words to look up or flabbergast me (as love in the time of cholera). Good story none the less, unsympathetic characters who' motivation was sketchy at worst, left to the imagination at best. Some characters were but mere ghosts coming into the story as a minor character in a play enters from stage right and exits stage left. I did enjoy the brief introduction of the old Aunt (where the hell did she come from? The Miller side or her mothers side? Where did she get the money to live high on the hog, unencumbered by having to marry to survive. Her mothers people became poor after the war, her fathers people were dirt poor and he was a self made man. Made little sense to me) who had an affair or fling with a scoundrel from Charleston...Rhett Butler of course!
Predicable what was going to happen.
I read Icy Sparks hears ago and loved it. Knew the author had been inspired by the Berea Writing Program and Icy Sparks was a prodigy of that program. Icy Sparks was her masterpiece, and this book is just a writing exercise to keep her chops greased until she finds another character like Icy.
In my defense, I have been reading The Book Club in between the two listed books. I did not finish TBC but returned it day before yesterday half read. Could not relate to the characters blah blah blah.
This book...is not Icy Sparks. Somewhere in the middle of it I thought of Scarlet O'Hara and sure enough, it was mentioned in the other reviews.
I found little sympathy for the main character as a young girl and could not identify her bitterness for her father, since his "sin" was revealed only after 50 or 60 (maybe 100) pages of the first part of the book. I even felt sorry for the old geezer and felt his reluctance to return to his home. Why even go home? Why not make yourself a more comfortable home elsewhere? Say, in Millerown? Anyway, I did not understand the hostility between the daughters and father, and the father punishing himself to return to them. Despite the "I love you's" and the love making she heard through the walls.
I just did not like them. All but the Mammy character. I hated that the girl who was so flip and disrespectful to her father could not own up to setting the barn on fire but allowing Mammy to take the rap and to be banished from the home.
BTW, all this takes place after the Civil War around the turn of the century.
A study in the lives of women, Delia as a turn of the century woman, her daughter as a flapper, her mother as a Civil War survivor and drug addict and Mammy as a free born black woman, slave none the less.
I read it at break neck speed unable to put it down because the story flowed easily. No big words to look up or flabbergast me (as love in the time of cholera). Good story none the less, unsympathetic characters who' motivation was sketchy at worst, left to the imagination at best. Some characters were but mere ghosts coming into the story as a minor character in a play enters from stage right and exits stage left. I did enjoy the brief introduction of the old Aunt (where the hell did she come from? The Miller side or her mothers side? Where did she get the money to live high on the hog, unencumbered by having to marry to survive. Her mothers people became poor after the war, her fathers people were dirt poor and he was a self made man. Made little sense to me) who had an affair or fling with a scoundrel from Charleston...Rhett Butler of course!
Predicable what was going to happen.
I read Icy Sparks hears ago and loved it. Knew the author had been inspired by the Berea Writing Program and Icy Sparks was a prodigy of that program. Icy Sparks was her masterpiece, and this book is just a writing exercise to keep her chops greased until she finds another character like Icy.
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