The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea

I'd seen the movie in 2001 or 2002 and so I knew how the story would end but I was curious to know how the author, Sebastian Junger, would present the story of the Andrea Gail when there'd been no survivors. One of the things I really liked was that Junger didn't try to make a fictional accounting of what might have happened. He said straight out he didn't know. Instead, he interviewed people who'd survived the storm, rescuers and people in need of rescue. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about the two ways a person can drown. Reading the accounts of survivors and what happened when the boats were rolled by ginormous rogue waves was hair raising! To balance it out, I enjoyed reading about the area's fishing history and how the industry evolved. The background information was informative, not boring. Most of all, I felt for the loved ones left behind

The DaVinci Code

Originally posted May 2, 2005

I'm no professional book critic but I do have opinions about what I read.  Since I joined Book Crossing, I've been making an effort to journal a little about what I read and I've just finished Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code.  I am behind the times when it comes to reading what's on the best seller list and I sort of passed this one by because of time constraints and I wasn't sure I'd like it.  Recently, I saw a special on TV about cracking the DaVinci Code and knew it's to be in a movie starring Tom Hanks so I thought let's give it a try.  If you haven't read the book yet and you want to, STOP HERE.  There are spoilers!

I could have passed.  Mystery thrillers and suspense are just not my cup of tea.  Usually, I find them to be kind of shallow, confusing, contradictory and lots of times the reader gets cheated because the author has action take place that isn't written about or revealed until later.  That's how I felt reading this book.

First of all, the murder itself was quite a stretch of the imagination.  The victim "posed" himself to present clues to finding a secret he was guarding.  Okay, I can buy that ... but then there came a point when the police evacuated the building, all of them, and left their body sprawled out behind.  I don't think so.  Not even in France. 

Some of the characters had extraordinary talents that just seemed a tad unbelievable.  The young woman cryptographer seemed to be a genius at figuring out how to outwit the police by breaking a window and throwing a bar of soap with a transmitter in it onto the back of a truck that just happened to be passing underneath (how convenient) and the whole police force took off after this truck.  They left the body!  Oh, but I said that already ...

The hero seemed half-wimp (he was always getting caught or put on the hot spot) who would have these sudden enlightening moments of clarity and he'd figure out a clue instantaneously.

The bad guy was a mysterious person called "The Teacher" who turned out to be the hero's friend!  And the hero and this girl ran right to his house after eluding the police.  That was a good twist.  I didn't like it, though, that things happened out of sight and then were presented toward the end of the book.  It totally turned me off.

It all gets neatly concluded in the last couple of pages and, yes, once again, the hero has more brilliant insights and solves the biggest puzzle of all.  Ho hum.  Oh...and he kisses the girl, who coincidentally turned out to be the victim's granddaughter.  They make arrangements to meet in Venice (I think) for a week of something *other* than sightseeing.

Um...when did the romance happen?

The book was just 'eh' for me but if you like thrillers, it's a good one.  As for the movie that's coming out, well, I really like Tom Hanks so I'd probably go see it.

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Ghost Riders

I wrote this entry May 12, 2005:

What a frustrating book!  On the one hand, I liked the voices of the characters very much.  I could just about hear them speaking in my mind.  I truly enjoyed some of the characters very much but they didn't appear as often as I liked.

On the downside:  what was this story supposed to be about?  I was drawn to it because of the title and the summary I saw in the book club newsletter:  it's the Civil War and a young woman dresses up like a man and follows her husband off to war.  There were not-so-subtle hints about a ghost story, too.  Well...look at the title, Ghost Riders.  But ... I feel like I was misled!  Yes, young Malinda Blalock dressed up like a soldier and followed her husband to war ... that was about one chapter.  There were small chapters interspersed that told of the spirits of Civil War soldiers stirred up by the re-enactments going on around them.  There wasn't enough of that.

There was an awful lot about Zebulon Vance, an ambitious mountain boy who becomes a lawyer, then a politician, then a soldier, then the governor of North Carolina...so?  I kept waiting for him to have more encounters with the Blalocks but he never did.  Their paths crossed just once, back when Malinda disguised herself as "Sam".

What was the point of the book anyway?  Feuds don't die?  Be careful not to stir up the restless ghosts by dressing up in Civil War uniforms and shooting off weapons of the time?  I couldn't figure it out.

It's not a bad book because I think Sharyn McCrumb has a way with words and characterizations.  I wouldn't recommend it to anyone though. I wouldn't know what to tell them it's about!

Down Came The Rain & A Child Called It

I have an old blog on Bravenet and recently stumbled across it. When I read books, I'd write about them in blogs all over the internet instead of keeping them in one place. Well, so now I'll collect them as I find them and keep them here!

Down Came The Rain
by Brooke Shields

I saw Brooke Shields' appearance on the Oprah Winfrey show a few months ago and was intrigued with the episode.  The book had just been published and Winfrey was asking questions about Shields' terrifying experience with post partum depression (PPD).  Here was an actress I'd seen over the years and she was being very open about what happened to her.  I would say that is what I enjoyed about the book most of all -- it's very honest.  On the down side, it does get a little repetitive -- I don't need to be told more than once or twice this was the last thing she expected after trying so hard to have a baby. 

The book was easy to read -- Shields seems to write down what she thinks.  I could almost hear her voice recounting what happened.  I think that the title was very apt and very creative.  It's from Shields' favorite nursery rhyme:

The itsy bitsy spider
climbed up the waterspout
Down came the rain
and washed the spider out
Out came the sun
and dried up all the rain
And the itsy bitsy spider
climbed up the spout again

It was almost literal.  When Shields suffered from PPD, she cried almost all the time.  Once she realized what was happening, got help and began to get better, her life began to improve -- all her rain dried up in the warmth of the emerging sun.  I liked the image--it's very very clear.

I'm glad that she wrote the book because I think it will benefit anyone who has a new baby in his or her life:  the moms, the dads, grandparents, and all the friends and relatives.  A mom hopefully won't feel stigmatized or afraid to get help after reading this book.  The people around her will have a better understanding of how serious a problem PPD is.

 

A Child Called "It"
by Dave Pelzer

This was one of the most disturbing books I've read about child abuse.  I can think of only two books that upset me more, Sybil and When Rabbit Howls.  After all the awful things this poor boy went through, it's a miracle that he is not seriously disturbed.  Well...maybe he is and we just don't know it!  This book is the first in a series of three.  As I was reading it I kept wondering, what kind of mother does this to her own child?  Obviously the mother had to be seriously disturbed herself.  Pelzer describes a loving mom early in his life.  She seemed to be affected by alcoholism and possibly some kind of mood disorder.  She had two more babies while she was doing all this drinking and I wondered if they were damaged in any way from fetal alcohol syndrome.  What shocked me as much as the mother's abuse was the father's inability or unwillingness to help his son.  I practically cheered when the boy was finally "rescued" and placed into the foster care system...how ironic is that?  I had so many questions that possibly will be answered if and when I can bring myself to read the next in the series.  It's a very difficult book to read but a very valuable one.

Best Moustache Twirling

Booking Through Thursday

Who’s the worst fictional villain you can think of? As in, the one you hate the most, find the most evil, are happiest to see defeated? Not the cardboard, two-dimensional variety, but the most deliciously-written, most entertaining, best villain? Not necessarily the most “evil,” so much as the best-conceived on the part of the author…oh, you know what I mean!

For me, it is without a doubt "Black Jack" Randall from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. Although he has to be one of the most brutal and sadistic characteristics I've ever seen written, he did have a human side to him -- a younger brother he cherished. He tortured and sexually assaulted my favorite character. He was cold blooded, cunning and ruthless. And yet ... when his younger brother was on his deathbed, he was totally humbled, crushed. I haven't hated a character more than him.

I missed last week's frenzy and decided to answer the questions anyway!

1. Okay, love him or loathe him, you’d have to live under a rock not to know that J.K. Rowling’s final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, comes out on Saturday… Are you going to read it? Yes of course

2. If so, right away? Or just, you know, eventually, when you get around to it? Are you attending any of the midnight parties? No midnight parties, not reading it until it comes out in paper back probably because the arthritis in my hands makes holding heavy books nearly impossible

3. If you’re not going to read it, why not? Not applicable

4. And, for the record… what do you think? Will Harry survive the series? What are you most looking forward to? I think Harry will survive because otherwise Evil triumphs over Good and we just can't have that. I guess I am most looking forward to the climax. I think Harry will defeat Voldemort. And they all lived happily ever after. The End.

When The Bough Breaks by Jonathan Kellerman

When I realized I had a copy of the very first Dr. Delaware (I have lots of books I don't remember acquiring) I decided I had to read it next. I've read a couple of books by Kellerman and the Alex Delaware character and stories are okay but not what I would call spell binding. They were fast on plot advancement and thin on character development. I thought possibly all that back history was explained in the first few books. Well ... no. All I really learned is that Alex Delaware is a gung-ho child psychologist who doesn't mind putting himself in danger or breaking the law (or bending it) to break a case...and it's not even hiscase! He is a consultant to the Los Angeles Police Department, most especially Milo Sturgis. Alex has a partner, Robin, that he occasionally becomes passionate with although the scenes sort of leave me cold. They seem forced. Milo is gay. I mention that because it gets mentioned in every single book so far. I thought maybe a slow reveal as Milo and Alex become friends but ... no. What motivates Alex? Why is he such a cowboy? I don't know and will it ever be revealed? Maybe that will come out in a later book? Many times with the mystery thrillers you have to suspend some sense of reality and it's okay with me as long as its somewhat believable. A lot of this story wasn't somewhat believable to me and so I was glad when I got to the end. Eh.

Black Creek Crossing

I've finally found an author I know I would read again--John Saul. Admittedly, Black Creek Crossing probably isn't his best book but I did get a sense of his style. He writes in complete sentences 95% of the time! His plot line makes sense, his characters are developed enough so that I cared about them and wanted to keep reading.

Angel Sullivan is 15, overweight, lonely and an outcast at school. Her father, Marty,is a lazy alcoholic who can't hold a job and her mother, Myra, is a fervent believer in prayer and visions of the Holy Mother. For years Myra's sister Joni Fletcher has been trying to get her sister's family to move close by. She convinces the Sullivans to purchase the house at Black Creek Crossing at a real bargain price.

Why is it such a bargain? It's got a horrific story behind it and, by law, Joni has to tell them that it was previously owned by a family whose father went berserk and murdered his wife and daughter. In spite of the story, the Sullivans decide to buy the house and Angel is drawn to the smallest of the bedrooms. She finds a black cat hiding in the closet--how did he get there? In my head, I hear the Jaws theme begin to come up.

And so the Sullivans move to Roundtree. Angel, who'd been hoping for a new start, finds herself being rejected again thanks to the influence of her hoity-toity cousin Zack. She does make one friend--another boy who is mercilessly teased and tormented by the others. The boy, Seth Baker, is also physically abused by his father.

Angel and Seth become friends and allies. They are fascinated by the house, by the things they see and hear happening. As they become further involved in investigating the house, they learn that there is more evil present there than they ever suspected.

The story is also about the evil of kids being cruel to each other for no good reason. The story is sort of a Carrie Lite. Angel and Seth are able to give pay backs but at a terrible price. I call it Carrie Lite because it wasn't graphically gory.

I liked the book enough that I am looking forward to reading others of John Saul's books.

Celluloid

Booking Through Thursday

1. In your opinion, what is the best translation of a book to a movie? There are a couple but I'll say To Kill A Mockingbird

2. The worst? The Relic

3. Had you read the book before seeing the movie, and did that make a difference? (Personally, all other things being equal, I usually prefer whichever I was introduced to first.) In both cases, I read the book first. I usually like the book better because there's more character development and details. I find movies have to leave out much--for instance, in Gone With The Wind Scarlett only had 1 child in the movie. I know this isn't a significant detail but it did leave me with a feeling of "wrongness". As for The Relic, it was so awful because it was changed around and the most important character was totally left out!

Beach Road

This summer, I wanted to try authors I haven't read before. I'm always looking for a good book to read. I picked up Beach Road by James Patterson & Peter De Jonge and took it with me on vacation. I've read good things about Patterson and his books. Beach Road is set on the east end of Long Island which appealed to me. I recognized many of the places Patterson mentioned in the story.

The trouble is ... I didn't like the book very much and felt disappointed.

It started out all right. Tom Dunleavy, the main character, is a sort of lack luster lawyer. He used to play pro basketball but washed out after an injury. Apparently he didn't have such a great family life because his older brother is more like a father to him. Naturally he used to have a wonderful girlfriend years ago but dumped her for reasons unknown and now she is a high power city lawyer. And also naturally, Tom has a dog.

Three of Tom's friends are murdered some time after a game of basketball at the home of one of those absent ritzy rich folks who happened to have a very nice court built on the property. Tom, his brother, and the three murdered friends challenged Dante Halleyville, a giant of a high school athlete, and four of his friends. There was a scuffle that turned a little ugly during the game and so when the three guys turn up dead, naturally suspicion falls first on Dante and his pals. Up to this point, I thought it was interesting.

The story is told from several view points. Among them: Tom, Kate Costello, Dante, a knowledgeable cop from Brooklyn named Connie Raiborne, a psycho drug dealer named Loco, Dante's grandma, and a very minor character named Nikki Robinson (cleaning person and cousin of Dante's).

Some of the obvious: Dante is arrested and accused of the murders. Although Tom doesn't step in at first to act as his attorney, he does become lawyer for the defense. He also persuades Kate to join him. Grandma is staunchly supporting her grandson. Raiborne does his job, carefully seeking out clues and figuring out what happened. All of these things aren't terrible, just predictable.

The reason I didn't like the book? There was a twist in it that just didn't ring true. If you read the book you'll see what I mean. When I read it, I thought there is no way that these people would act like that, I just don't believe it. I think it's because the authors didn't lay enough of a foundation to suggest the possibility. It just seemed to come out of thin air and that is very annoying.

I felt like one of the characters from the movie Murder By Death, who gathered all the great literary and movie detectives together to solve a murder. The character, Lionel Twain, totally bamboozles these detectives and then says: "You've tricked and fooled your readers for years. You've tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You've introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You've withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it." Like I said, that stuff is very annoying.

One more thing annoyed me: in the book, the press dug up a tidbit about Tom Dunleavy that I suppose was supposed to be a clue. Whether it was or not, we never found out whether it was true or not. That's one thing I would have liked to have known. There's several other questions but I don't care enough about the book to even post them.

I'm going to try another of James Patterson's books before I cross him off the list. Maybe it wasn't such a great book because he wrote it with someone else. I thought I would give one of the Alex Cross books a try. We'll see what happens.

Lost

I truly felt lost while reading Lost by Gregory Maguire. This is the second book I've read by this author so I can say that I really don't care for his style of writing. Unfortunately, I have all his other books to read. Critics call his prose "rich" and maybe it is that but I find it confusing to point of sheer frustration sometimes.

There is a thoroughly unlikeable (to me anyway) "heroine" named Winifred Rudge. She writes children's books but would like to write one for adults with a heroine named Wendy Pritzke. She's become blocked and unable to write. She thinks if she goes to the old family homestead in Hampstead, Great Britain she'll be able to get a jump start. The family originally owned the whole house but it's since been turned into "flats" and sold off to other people. Only Winnie's cousin John still owns the top floor flat and she plans to stay with him.

This is good so far, I can understand it. The first mystery comes right in the beginning of the book when she attends a meeting for parents who want to adopt internationally. She says she is writing a book about that topic but later we learn she is lying. So why was she there? I like little mysteries like that. What I didn't like was the conversations between Winnie and the other characters. I felt like I was trying to follow a maze and that feeling continued throughout the book with her interactions with all the other characters.

When she arrives in England, she finds another mystery: her cousin has disappeared. Where did he go? Was he kidnapped, murdered? Is he in hiding? And what is that knocking noise behind the wall? There are repairmen there to do renovations in the flat but they are afraid of the knocking. Winnie takes it upon herself to go visiting all the neighbors to see if she can figure out if it's a ghost, a trapped cat or just what.

At first Winnie's behavior seems okay if a little odd. As she is running around offending the neighbors and trying to find her cousin or the ghost or the cat or whatever, she is imagining scenes in her mind from her adult book. Some of the questions begin to be answered about what is really going on. As they're answered, she's becoming weirder and weirder.

I was so ready for the book to end. I'm not even sure what really happened to Winnie during those last couple of chapters.

Reviewers say that the book is about loss and being lost. Yes, it is definitely that. If you like Gregory Maguire and you haven't read the book, go for it. Otherwise, it's not on my recommend-to-friends list.