Novels Now

My Word is My Bond, The Autobiography by Roger Moore, with Gareth Owen

Pages: 330 +index
First Published: Nov. 2008
Rating: 3.5/5

First sentence:

For years, people have said to me ‘Write your book,’ and for years I said, ‘No, there are too many people I’d have to write about, and eve if they’re dead, what I might say would be an intrusion on their privacy. And apart from that, I’m too lazy.’

Acquired: Borrowed a copy from my local library.

Reason for Reading: Roger Moore is the Bond I grew up with, the one I went to the movies to see as a teenager.

Comments: Right from the introduction Mr. Moore states that he will not be ‘dirt-dishing’ nor telling ‘tittle tattle’; he wants to write a fun book filled with memories the way he saw them and the wonderful people he met in his life but he promises that does not mean it will be a ‘fluffy book’ either. Roger Moore lives up to this statement giving the reader a very enjoyable look inside his life without trashing anyone. He does mention a couple of names that he simply hates with a straightforward reason why, he tells stories leaving the irritating one unnamed and he mentions names and follows the “if you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all rule” frequently. But Roger Moore is a charming fellow, very easy going, loves a prank or two, and can take a joke on himself as well so his book is filled with people he adored and those who adored him back.

Moore spends a good part of the book on his early life in England; his childhood, days in the army, acting on stage, becoming an actor in British movies. This was all very interesting and it’s hard to believe that Roger Moore is really that old to have been in WWII! Even when acting in Britain the famous names start knocking about such as David Niven (a lifetime friend) and Michael Caine. Then he comes to America and makes a name for himself on the small screen starring in Maverick (replacing James Garner as his British cousin), then his famous Simon Templar as The Saint and finally The Persuaders with Tony Curtis. Not until we are closing in on page 200 does Roger Moore get to James Bond and the book has been so interesting up to this point that Bond is not the vital part of the book. Even if you started to read the because of the Bond connection. I won’t go into any more details but from their Moore continues on with Bond, his wives, his other movies and work, ending finally with his long association with UNICEF.

Moore comes across just as I had expected him too. He keeps his debonair, suave, gentlemanly air about him but he also has his tongue firmly planted in cheek at the same time. Even as a child he behaved this way, he calls himself on it frequently saying “ever the poseur”. He tells some wonderful memories and anecdotes as he’s been with all the greats throughout his career: Elizabeth Taylor, Cary Grant, Gregory Peck, Noel Coward, Stewart Granger, Richard Burton and countless others.

The only thing I didn’t enjoy about the book was the last few chapters which mostly focused pretty heavily on his UNICEF activities that it began to feel like an infomercial. I will state I don’t support UNICEF for conscience reasons but I did enjoy hearing of the travel and good work he accomplished. But then it just seriously devolved into three chapters about UNICEF with Roger as the emcee. Otherwise, I had a very enjoyable read and certainly learned a lot more about the man who I previously only knew as The Saint and James Bond.

The Levee by Malcolm Shuman

Pages: 211
First Published: Nov. 2008
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

When I was fifteen we used to drive down to the levee to camp.

Reason for Reading: The publisher’s plot synopsis grabbed me right away and being a mystery fan I just had to read this one.

Summary: Colin, now in his sixties, is haunted by dreams of a past event that happened when he was 15 and he can’t remember which of his dreams/memories are really accurate or just from a vivid imagination. He has become the author of True Crime books and just finished a particularly harrowing one where the murderer invited him to interview him on condition he watch his execution. This sends Colin back to his hometown of Baton Rouge to unravel the truth about the night that the Spanish teacher was killed in the cemetery while they were camping near by and Colin and the other boys each knew a little more than they ever told the police, or each other.

Comments: This rather unimposing book, just over 200 pages with a fairly dull cover is hiding a terrific mystery within its pages. Likened on the back to Stephen King’s The Body (Stand By Me) it does capture the same nostalgia of a man looking back at a pivotal moment from his 1950s childhood, a day that changed the boys’ lives forever and the day the innocence of a child left them all.

The book wanders back and forth, often within the same chapter, from the adult Colin’s quest and seeking into his past as he finds only one friend left still living in the hometown to young Collin’s re-telling of the days surrounding the murder. The whole book is told in the first person, there are little breaks between time shifts and I found it flowed nicely. The majority of the book is spent in the past with little forays into Colin’s present until the story nears the end and the final reveal is given.

The quality of the mystery is superb. I didn’t find myself trying to guess the culprit as everyone in the book was doing that, seemingly leaving no person beyond suspicion. When the reveal comes, it is totally out of the blue and unexpected but I wasn’t shocked. It fit so naturally. It was an “Ahaaa” moment. Shuman pulls this off very cleverly and there is nothing I love more than a clever mystery writer. The back of my book tells my Mr. Shuman has written 14 mysteries to date, but a quick look at amazon shows that they mostly seem to be out-of-print. I must track down another of his books through the library system to see if his other work is as clever as this one.

Any Given Doomsday by Lori Handerland
The Phoenix Chronicles, Book 1

Pages: 343 pgs.
First Published: Nov. 4, 2008
Rating: 3/5

First sentence:

On the day my old life died, the air smelled of springtime — budding trees and just-born flowers, fresh grass and hope.

Reason for Reading: I was intrigued by the ex-cop, psychic demon hunter aspect of the plot.

Summary: Ex-cop Elizabeth Phoenix has always been psychic but she’s tried to keep it under control and under wraps most of the time. But when her beloved foster mother is killed by monsters she visits Lizzy in her mind to tell her that she is now the seer over all the demon killers and she remains with Lizzy to teach her to recognize non-humans. It is in this way that she learns her boyfriend Jimmie is half vampire and one of the demon killers. She is sent out into the desert with a mysterious Navajo shape-shifter to awaken her psychic powers to their fullest and learns that learns that the prophetic Apocalypse is well underway unless she and her demon killers can save humanity.

Comments: The plot is based upon the Book of Enoch, a Jewish writing which is non-canonical (not part of) either the Bible or the Torah. This book has many scholarly interpretations and Handeland has gloried in the literal interpretation, allowing her to tie her paranormal world to a Biblical mythology. I’ll admit right up front that I quite enjoyed the book; it’s what I would call a guilty little pleasure. It was a fast read, exciting, lots of action and very Buffy-like that it kept me reading. The dialogue was cheesy at times but so what. The book is supposed to be paranormal romance though I wouldn’t call it as much romance as I would plain s*x. The first half of the book is all action, but the second half introduces some quite explicit s*x scenes. While this isn’t what I normally read, I found myself going with the flow and basically having a fun read. I’m a grown-up, married woman and while I am deeply religious, I’m not a prude and don’t mind a bit of a romp when it’s aimed at adult women. So, no literary winner here. Definitely not to everyone’s tastes. Just a fun little read that would make a good plane or beach read. I’ll be continuing the series.

The Private Patient by P.D. James
Adam Dalgliesh Mystery, Book 14

Pages: 395 pgs.
First Published: Nov. 18, 2008,
Genre: mystery, British police procedural
Rating: 4/5

First sentence:

On November the 21st, the day of her forty-seventh birthday, and three weeks and two days before she was murdered, Rhoda Gradwyn went to Harley Street to keep a first appointment with her plastic surgeon, and there in a consulting room designed, so it appeared, to inspire confidence and allay apprehension, made the decision which would lead inexorably to her death.

Reason for Reading: I’m a fan of P.D. James.

Summary: Rhoda Gradwyn goes to an exclusive manor, which houses a plastic surgery and recuperation facility, out in the English countryside to have a large scar on her face removed, one she has had since childhood. The morning after the operation she is found strangled to death in her bed. Being only one of two patients, a nurse, an assistant doctor, a small household staff, and a couple of on property live-ins the suspect list is limited. Adam Dalgliesh is called along with his partner Kate to solve the death of this famous investigative journalist.

Comments: It has been a while since I’ve settled down with Adam Dalgliesh and what a delight it was! James continues to write the quintessential British mystery, taking place in a house full of people where one them must be the murderer, and she both keeps the old-fashioned air to it while at the same time keeping it modern. There are many times when one really has no awareness of the time period, old stone cottages, an old manor way out in the country, bicycling instead of using the car, with nothing intrinsically modern standing out and yet we know the time is the present as people simply answer their cell phones, go to print something off the computer, speak of DNA, etc.

James takes time to build her story, the first 100 pages or so are about the murder victim’s life leading up to her murder. Adam Dalgliesh is a thinking man. He and his officer’s ask questions, take statements and at the end of the day get together and piece together what they’ve got so far over coffee or wine. You won’t find the hero running through the woods trying to capture the killer in this book. No, you’ll find yourself baffled with the explanations, trying to figure out ‘whodunit’. Then a second murder happens and suddenly all your theories are thrown out the window but AD doesn’t seem fazed. He picks up the pieces and starts putting them back together.

A very enjoyable mystery. I was shocked in the middle but by the time the reveal came at the end I’d figured it out too, but that didn’t lessen my enjoyment. I really enjoy reading gruesome serial killer mysteries but sometimes there is nothing like sitting down with a master mystery writer such as P.D. James and experiencing not just a brilliantly crafted mystery but an intelligent one as well, written with James’ wonderful command of the English language. I found myself reading sentences twice just because I like the way they are written. A very good book, but not for those who expect a quick, wild plot. The Private Patient is more for those who like to figure out an intriguing puzzle while getting to know an assortment of eccentric characters.

a mercy by Toni Morrison

Pages: 167
First Published: Nov. 11, 2008 (Paperback - Aug. 11 2009)
Genre: historical fiction, literary fiction
Rating: 2.5/5

First sentence:

Don’t be afraid.

Reason for Reading: I am in the process of reading all the author’s books. This is her latest as of July 2009.

Comments: The time is 1680, the place is colonial America. This is the story of four women: Rebekka, an English girl sent to America as a wife whose family paid a monetary dowry; Florens, a black slave child (later woman) who is traded in exchange for partial payment of a debt; Sorrow, a European (Irish I find myself thinking for some reason) foundling coming to womanhood who is given as a gift to protect her from the growing boys in her current household; finally Lina, another child (later) woman who remembers vividly some small parts of her Native American life before she is sold and paid for. All these women belong to a man who doesn’t believe in slavery, who despises those who does. He is a fairly decent, kind man but ultimately wants to have the riches of those he despises. But most of all, as the jacket flap states: “A Mercy reveals what lies beneath the surface of slavery. But at its heart it is the ambivalent, disturbing story of a mother who casts off her daughter in order to save her …”

The story is told in many voices: all the woman have their turn (some many times), the man behind the women and the farm hands. The story is told in a progressive forward movement but also slips into flashback scenes to give backgrounds to the characters. In such a short book, this becomes quite confusing at times. I spent a large majority of the time not knowing who was speaking until halfway through their narrative. Generally, I enjoy switching points of view and flashbacks but the book was just too short for me to get a grasp on anything really substantial. I must say for half the book I was under the impression Lina was a Native American and then I came to think she was African and I’m pretty sure she’s Native, but I could be wrong… Needless to say, the book confounded me more than enlightened me in any way.

I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, nor did I really find the story emotionally charged which is something I’ve come to expect with Toni Morrison, from her books I’ve read so far. There is also a heavy theme of religious (namely Protestant) intolerance running through the book. First from a Dutch settler (Calvinist) towards Catholics in general, then Anabaptists causing grief in those other settlers who don’t understand their ways and finally the term used becomes “the Protestants” (though I still think we are talking Anabaptists) as the slave people talk of how the Protestant’s religion says that certain people such as savages (ie. blacks/natives, etc.) are not equal in God’s eyes to them. This theme is pretty heavy handed throughout and I didn’t know what to make of it. Does Morrison try to say slavery began with Anabaptist intolerance? Protestant intolerance? Christian? Religion, in general? I don’t know anything about Anabaptists but when you get to broad terms such as Protestant or religious intolerance for each one intolerant person there are many good-hearted embracing people and I just don’t buy into the “religion is the root of all evil” camp.

A readable story but with each chapter change the figuring out of where you are and what’s going on distracted me from enjoying the book as much as I could have otherwise. Fans, go ahead and read it, you may like it a lot more than I did. Never read Toni Morrison before? Don’t start with this one.

A Mercy
Toni Morrison
167 pages

One afternoon a few months ago, I was sentenced to that purgatory that is a 2-hour drive on the New Jersey Turnpike. But then my spirits were lifted heavenwards by a National Public Radio interview with Toni Morrison. Ms. Morrison discussed her new book, A Mercy, and rewarded her audience with a reading. Sheer bliss. I knew I had to read this book! 

My, oh my, oh my. Morrison packed so much richness into this short novel. The richness is centered around a tiny bit of storyline, in which Florens, a slave girl, is sent on an errand to get help for her seriously ill mistress. But there’s so much more in the stories of each character, told in their own voices: Jacob and Rebekka, the sadly childless European landowners; Florens, who was sold away from her mother to repay a debt; Lina and Sorrow, women who came to the farm via slave ship; Willard and Scully, the white indentured servants; and the blacksmith, a nameless free African who captured Florens’ heart. I found myself enveloped in Morrison’s prose, savoring every word, as with this description of an Atlantic crossing: Women of and for men, in those few moments they were neither. And when finally the lamp died, swaddling them in black, for a long time, oblivious to the footsteps above them, or the lowing behind them, they did not stir. For them, unable to see the sky, time became simply the running sea, unmarked, eternal, and of no matter. (p. 85) 

This is a wonderful, moving, haunting book. Highly recommended. (  )

The youngest of the McCourt brothers.

First there was Angela’s Ashes and other books by Frank McCourt. Then his brother Malachy with the book A Monk Swimming. Now the youngest of the McCourt brothers, Alphie has written a book.

Not many years after his brothers move to New York City from Ireland, Alphie and his mother followed. We hear about his family, this time from Alphie’s perspective but much the same as what his brothers describe. Then we hear about his life.

Alphie didn’t have the same luck in life as his brothers had. He went from dead-end job to the other throughout his life. He also battled alcoholism. Things looked up for awhile when he owned a restaurant, but that eventually went bankrupt.

He does share one talent with his brother’s and that is writing. He shared songs, stories and poems throughout his story, which were enhanced by the audio version of the is book as he sang the songs. Not that he’s a great singer, but you get to hear them they way they were meant to be heard. A bit of the books got repetative so it could have used a bit more editing.

Alphie McCourt’s story is honest, funny, and sad. I hope his writing is the start in a new and better chapter in his life!

Recommended.

3.5/5

Your Heart Belongs to Me by Dean Koontz

I’m sort of at a loss when it comes to writing about Toni Morrison’s books.  There’s always that element of genius in her work — I would say she’s a very worthy Nobel laureate.  Somehow, though, her books always make me very uncomfortable.  I guess they’re meant to do that.  I always seem to absorb the emotions of the characters — which normally is a good thing — but oh, the depths of the emotions the characters experience!  I probably did like A Mercy better than others I’ve read so far, though perhaps Beloved will still be considered her masterpiece.

This story takes place in the 1680’s, in the wilds of a new America.  Jacob is a man who disapproves of the slave trade yet makes concessions toward it.  His wife Rebekka is a mail order bride from England, yet the two have a happy marriage.  On their land they do have ‘help’ in the form of Lina, a Native-American, Sorrow, an orphan from the sea, and Florens, a slave girl given up by her mother whom Jacob takes as payment for a debt.  Together they try to build a home for themselves, fighting against a harsh climate, disease, and inside and outside forces that seem bent on destruction.

With themes of racism, slavery, adventure, religion, and witchcraft, A Mercy is another brilliant work by a very brilliant author.

2008, 167 pages
Rating: 4.5/5

The English translation was first available in 2008.

I pressed my hands to my heart. I felt dizzy again, as I always do when I step out of the shadow world of pointless watching and waiting and come face-to-face with reality. How much simpler reality is!

I can’t quite figure out if I like Sandor Marai’s novels or not. Earlier this year, I read Embers, and I also rated it 3.5/5. I thought parts of it were beautifully written, while other parts dragged. The monologues in that book went on and on and on… Also, the translation was from Hungarian to German to English, and I think something was definitely ‘lost in translation.’ Anyway, although I rated Esther’s Inheritance the same, I do believe I prefer it slightly. The translation of Esther is directly from the original Hungarian.

Just as in Embers, the crux of the novel is a confrontation. Esther is in her mid 40’s and lives only with a female relative. It seems that she (and much of her family) have been ripped off (in the nicest way possible) by Lajos the Liar. Now, several years later, he’s come back to visit, and we get the expected confrontation between them.

We hear the details of their past, learn about misunderstandings and miscommunications, and wonder if Esther is being suckered again by his charms or if Lajos really has some legitimate excuses. Just as in Embers, the ending didn’t quite satisfy, but I’ve begun to realize that maybe that was the point of both stories after all.

1939 [2008 for the English translation], 148 pp.
(3.5/5)

David Baldacci
329 pages

As Divine Justice begins we find Oliver Stone planning a covert getaway after assassinating two high-ranking government officials. While he is in the process of making his escape he encounters Danny Riker. Because of Danny, Oliver ends up altering his plans and finds himself in the middle of Divine, Virginia where suspicious things are happening.

I enjoy military-type suspense occasionally if the language isn’t too foul and there isn’t too much gore. I was very pleased with this book in that regard. I wasn’t sure what to expect since this is my first Baldacci novel but I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Oliver Stone and the rest of the Camel Club. Since this is the fourth novel in the series there is a lot of back story that I am missing. I don’t feel that the missing information ruined anything for me since enough information was given to keep up with the current storyline but I want to know more about the characters because I liked them. I plan on reading more by David Baldacci. (4/5)

333 pages

Elizabeth Phoenix used to be a police officer for the Milwaukee Police Department. She is a psychic and she used her skills in her job but she quit the force when her partner was killed. She now works as a bartender for her dead partner’s wife. One day, while on the job at the bar, she gets the overwhelming urge to visit her foster mother, Ruthie. When she arrives, she finds that Ruthie has been attacked. Just before she dies, Ruthie passes “something” to Elizabeth who falls unconscious into a coma for a few days. When she wakes up, her life is changed forever and the Doomsday countdown has begun.

Part of the draw of urban fantasy for me is all of the monsters, fairies and such in a modern-day setting. I enjoyed that there were so many different types of characters that I had never heard of and that at least a little bit of info about each type was presented such as how Liz could kill them, how they got their power, how they came to be, which parts of the myth are true etc. I also enjoyed the story of Liz and Jimmy’s relationship and their relationship with Ruthie.

As a fan of urban fantasy, I understand that most, if not all, books in this genre contain at least some sexual content. I know this, and generally speaking, I know what I am getting myself into. However, this book went way beyond what I would normally expect to find. The entire second half of the book is one gratuitous sex scene after another while we get snippets here and there about the Doomsday countdown. I was annoyed to see a storyline I was enjoying deteriorate into this and in the end, I decided it just wasn’t worth it. I skipped a large chunk and read the last two pages. I am giving this 2 out of 5 stars when I didn’t technically finish because I did enjoy the first part of the story. (2/5)