The Shirtmaking Workbook by David Page Coffin

My latest book review was one dedicated to making shirts, so I slipped it into my craft blog. If you would like to read my review and additional comments on The Shirtmaking Workbook by David Page Coffin You can pop over to my blog Moonwishes Crafts and read it.

Cole Shoot by Michael Maxwell

Here is a copy of my Amazon review of Michael Maxwell's 5th book in the Cole Sage series.

Yet another terrific book by Michael Maxwell. The worst thing about this book is the fact that now I have to wait until his next book, Cole Fire is finished and published before I get to read another of Michael Maxwell’s books. I hope it won’t be long. Mr. Maxwell’s, main character is Cole Sage. He is in many ways a ‘mild mannered newspaper reporter‘, but when necessary for the sake of friends and family will don his super-hero cape to bring help to them. Each of his books deals with the different evils that permeate our society today. This book deals first with gang violence and the second the care and respect our special needs mentally handicapped citizens should have. We see again some characters from an earlier book as well as they help Cole’s newspaper intern out of a very tough spot.

I love seeing that a writer can have a character function in a book without all the trappings that most seem to feel are so necessary, such as Cole not drinking, or jumping into bed with his girlfriend. Cole has a moral compass so lacking in many these days. While he doesn't follow rules blindly, he does feel deeply the ethics of the choices he makes and his decisions. This book especially shows it so very well.

There are scenes showing genuine love for people, especially Marco and Cole the first time they see each other which was a delightful scene in the book. For those that would be bothered by it, there are some scenes of gang violence in graphic detail. There are however, no scenes of gratuitous sex to skip over.

Mr. Maxwell writes from a Christian perspective yet without constant Biblical references. This book has two verses brought up by Cole’s friend Kelly. And they were appropriate and in context. One of the things that over the years that has turned me off of the regular so called “Christian novels” is the almost constant quoting of the Bible. No one seems to have a voice unless they are quoting Bible passages and that sure isn't the norm for most Christians that I have met. So even if you don’t live your life with the same religious philosophy as the author and Cole, you can still read the book and enjoy it.

Cole Dust by Michael Maxwell

One of the nice things that have happened since I starting reviewing books and things is being asked by independent authors and manufacturers to review their items. One day I got an email from Michael Maxwell asking if I would read and review his book Diamonds and Cole which I thoroughly enjoyed so he sent me more of his books. At this point I think I have read and reviewed 6 of his books, 4 of which are in the Cole Sage series. Cole is a newspaper journalist. Rather than being a hard drinking, chain smoking guy that many journalist are portrayed, he is different. It is hard to put your finger on it, but he is different as he defends and helps the helpless, finds the truth behind lies and is always willing to lend a hand as he keeps his positive viewpoint through out. Even though he gets a 'girlfriend' in the third book, he hates calling her his girlfriend at their age, that is what she is. Even after 8 months of dating, they are still not falling into bed at a moments notice (some novels seem to have a couple having sex before they have even changed name or phone numbers which I hate) as matter of fact, they aren't having sex at all, just appreciating each others company. As I said Cole is a different character and if you would prefer to a read books with minimal swearing, smoking, drinking and sex, yet still have a gripping tale, this books might just be for you. Below is the Amazon review I just did for the latest book I read: Cole Dust.

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I was gifted this Kindle book in exchange for an honest review.

This is the fourth book in the Cole Sage series; it leads us more into Cole’s life and some of the things that made him who he is today. Right before leaving on a planned vacation he receives an envelope that had been forwarded many times due to his having moved from Chicago to San Francisco. In the letter and subsequent phone call to the attorney that sent it, Cole finds out that he has inherited property in Oklahoma and must reside in the house for at least 30 days to avoid horrendous inheritance taxes. So he changes vacation plans and heads to Oklahoma.  He comes to find a house in need of a lot of TLC and a yard piled high with tumbleweeds. H also finds a neighbor that is the neighbor we all want, who immediately jumped in to help him bring back the house to the point he should be able to sell it.

In the house Cole finds a trunk in the attic which turns out to be full of notebooks his grandfather had written over the course of his life. His grandfather had died when Cole was around 5 years old so he never had a chance to meet him nor had his father told him much about him. Cole being an only child, with his parents gone had felt alone in the world but in a prior book had meet his daughter that he had never known he had as well as his granddaughter. Just having those two in his life felt like riches, so finding even one notebook from his grandfather felt like a treasure discovered, but he found many more than more than one. So between fixing up his house, Cole learned about the family that he had never known about.

This in many ways was a touching book in that we learned from one family what the depression, the dust bowl the Spanish flu did to the family and the small town they lived in. We see what alcoholism, bigotry and poverty can do to a family. This was an interesting book that brings insight into the life of a family. It made me wish that somehow I could find something along the order of a stack of notebooks or diaries from my grandparents as I never have really heard their background and they are now no longer with us. Sometimes just knowing what past generations went through helps us to understand why we become who we do.

 

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I hope you will take the chance to read one of his books and enjoy them as well as I do.

Resistant - RIP Michael Palmer

For my Amazon review this month, I go the privilege (to me anyhow) to get a copy of Michael Palmer's last book, Resistant.  This is the review I wrote for Amazon.

 

It was gut-wrenching for me to read this book of one of my favorite medical-thriller authors. While I've had other favorites that announced they would be retiring, none have ever died in the midst of a brilliant writing career. I was fortunate enough to read and review one of his other books that he sent me and also had several email exchanges, so in many ways he felt like a personal friend. Michael died in October 2013 when he had apparently finished most of this book, Resistant, and his family took it the rest of the way to complete production. It is hard to think that I will never get another new book of his to read. I tried to read this one slow to make the moment last, but as with all his books I got caught up in the story and the pace of the book and finished it way too soon.

This book was about a strain of bacteria that was resistant (hence the title) to all normal forms of antibiotics and had been released by a domestic terrorist group as a way to motivate the government to cancel out all entitlement programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, welfare, food stamps, etc. Of course many in the group lived in luxury so they felt a different sort of entitlement. Dr. Lou Welcome, a recurring character in Michael's last few books, becomes heavily involved for personal reasons in trying find a cure for this bacteria that in Lou's words “turned the inside of a body into liquid”, and not nice liquid. We are introduced to a new character that Lou became great friends with named Humphrey Miller, a brilliant man with the worst kind of cerebral palsy. I could see him in further recurring roles in other books and the same with Lou's friend Cap whose life was changed forever in this last book. Of course there will be no further books, but I could see that the author would have already been plotting what kind of story he could pull off with his characters next.

Besides introducing Humphrey to us and the difficulty he faced as a man with so little control over his own body that people thought he was an idiot, instead of a man whose IQ was probably completely off the charts. Humphrey showed us that we need compassion and the will to treat people like him as normal people.  He also brought up the necessity for the world to quit taking antibiotics for the common cold and anything else that with time would cure itself. All of our overuse of antibiotics as a people hasn't discouraged the germs but has only made them tougher and harder to combat. If we aren't careful, we won't need a group of terrorists to release them on us, we will be inviting them in through the front door so to speak.

I enjoyed this book. I thought it was well written as usual and moved along at a quick pace. It was the epitome of the type of books that Michael Palmer wrote and wrote so well. It didn't disappoint.
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One of the things I never do when writing reviews is read any review of the book before I write mine. Needless to say, I was stunned at the poor reviews this book received (I gave it 5 stars) most of the reviewers claiming it to be too liberal and political, boring and all sorts of other things but mostly hammering on the political leanings that they felt were in the book.

Writing a review for Amazon is like walking through a mind field, at least it is for me. If you give anything about the story away whether intentionally or not, you are jumped on for spoiling the story for the next one who might read it. One book that I read had it's entire story based on a wife whose husband had been working in a high paying career died suddenly and she was destitute and ended up having to go work on a farm. When I mentioned in my review that she should have filed for Social Security as a widow with dependents, I was jumped on with the oddest logic for why I was wrong to even think such a thing. Wishing I could make that little symbol for rolling eyes here!

 So anyway, seeing all these reviews that kept talking about how political and liberal this book was, with of course, no actual examples in the ones I read, I put my mind thinking about it. Well, the whole concept of this book was based on a group of 100 people (neighbors) that thought they could 'fix' our country but only if they follow what these 100 decided was good and necessary. I saw no talk or implications of a political party, or being right winged or left. What I saw were a bunch of crazies that thought if they could undo many of the programs in our country, then the US would be as it should be thanks to these 100, but in the meantime they had no compunction in killing people if it furthered their agenda.

I thought the book was well written. I enjoyed it. I didn't find it 'political' in the sense the other reviewers did. I wish I had another of his books to read now, but know I will never again get a new one unless somehow I missed reading some of his earlier books. Thank you Michael Palmer for many hours of pure reading pleasure which for me is the only reason for reading a fiction book.
 

Anne Perry Part Two

Last night I finished reading Anne Perry's Half Moon Street. This book helped me to understand why I like to read books in a series. You get to know the author and their style of writing and what they feel is important. In the first two books that I read of hers, I could see that she brings much in the way of social commentary and problems into her books and proves the point that everything old is new again, or never went away in the first place and just gets worse. In one book she discusses the Irish question which helped me understand in an historical context why there is still so much problems between the Catholics and Protestants there.

Half Moon Street, takes place approximately 150 years ago. In this era, some women were starting to question their roles in society and why they were dependent on their husbands for everything and had to do what the husbands told them to. In the last few years in England the laws concerning husbands and wives had changed and women were no longer consider to be their husbands property and they were able own things, like their underwear and hairpins, in their own right. Theater performances, etc were still highly censored by the chief Chamberlain. Any play that delved too deeply into women's inner most thoughts and gave them voice was closed down. All this laid the groundwork for the societal problem that was considered in this book: pornography. Cameras were new and photography clubs seemed to abound looking for the best way to show light, water, shadows etc. to make for the best and and most beautiful photographs. With the good of photography came the evil of scandalous pictures sold only to certain customers in the back rooms of picture shops. Women that were so inclined at times posed for these photos that no real lady would ever do or even acknowledge that such pictures could possibly exist. It was a huge change from only a few years previously when women were hemmed in on every side.

The murder that Superintendent Pitt is investigating was that of a man that had been found murdered, chained in a rowboat wearing a torn velvet dress in a suggestive pose. After finding out who the deceased was, to find his murdered, they had to go down the rabbit hole of pornographic photos to find out the why and who. At one point Pitt saw a picture and realized that once seen he would never be able to erase it from his memory. Then he thought of his children and what they would think of human nature and most especially the relationships between men and women if they saw something like this. That was the main point that was brought out, even though the person may not mind themselves being in such pictures but what of their children and how would they respond to see their mother or father in these nasty pictures?

A very interesting book to read. I look forward to reading more of Anne Perry's books, but at this point I have four new books to read and review for Amazon and my Christmas present book stack to read before I can get back to her.

The Joy of WiFi & Anne Perry

For many years, we only had dial up internet which meant everything took forever to upload or download anything. About five years ago we got Hughes-net satellite but it only connected to our main desktop computer which meant the only way to do blog posts when I wanted to was if it was my 'turn' to use the big computer. Since I used it so much for our sewing pattern business, Moonwishes Sewing and Crafts, some postings fell by the wayside as hubby also had to use the computer for his piano business to update customers.

Fast forward to last month. Finally a chance to not only get cheaper satellite cover but for whole house WiFi for a $100 cost connection. Now I can use my TV time to also use the computer with my legs propped up and comfy in my little nest. I'm looking forward to being able to make a lot more blog posts about the books I have read. This past year, I've had a lot of author's publish their own books and asked me to read and review. Frankly a lot of the books were terrible, so I saw no reason to post about them here.

After reading a lot of frightfully awful books this past year, I was really pleased to find a new author for me that made for an interesting read. The author is Anne Perry. I had been collecting her books from Friend of Library books sales as the synopsis on the jackets looked interesting. As she wrote in two different series, I didn't want to start reading the books until I had a goodly amount to be able to read several in a row if the books were good.

I have now read three of her books from the Thomas and Charlotte Pitts series. They take place at the end of the Queen Victoria's reign. They are investigative novels with Mr. Pitts a policeman (he raises in rank throughout the books). His wife, maid and great aunt are all happy to lend their ear and knowledge to help him solve the crimes. If you are a Downton Abby fan these books, while earlier in time, are very helpful to understanding the different classes in England of that time of the British Empire that was world wide, that men considered their honor their biggest asset and for most of them women's place was most definitely in the home.  If you like mysteries that depend highly on brains and common sense instead of forensic testing, you might really enjoy these series. To see more about Anne, check out her Amazon page here: Anne Perry  Book Page Here are the three books I've read so far and I am excited to have plenty more at home to read and plenty more that have been published so if needed I can find more at the library. What do you think of Anne Perry and which is your favorite book of hers?


 

Michael Palmer

With the greatest of sadness, I have to tell my readers that Michael Palmer passed away on October 30 from complications of a heart attack and stroke. His son Daniel wrote a large post in Facebook announcing this loss to his followers. Michael's latest book Resistant is to be published May 20, 2014.  It is his 20th and last book. the family has requested that "in lieu of flowers donations can be made to Asperger's Association of New England (AANE) http://www.aane.org/ an organization near and dear to his heart". Michael and I had some correspondence about our boys that are on the autism spectrum.  I was so pleased to see a book written by someone that truly understood the problem from the front lines and was able to show just how able this kids can be.

A 1,000 ~ Mile Great Lakes Walk by Loreen Niewenhuis

A 1,000 Mile Great Lakes Walk: One woman’s Trek Along the Shorelines of All Five Great Lakes. Crickhollow Books, 2013 ISBN 1933987219

 

I have to say, that this was the most personally interesting book for me to read in a long while. I grew up in southern California and then moved here to Pennsylvania within a few miles of Lake Erie. I learned little snippets of information about Lake Erie and even less about the other lakes as the years went by. Except for my college years, I’ve lived most of the last 41 years within 10 or less miles of Lake Erie. My husband and sons (his stepsons) though were learning about the lakes while in school while I had learned about the various California missions as I grew up. So this book was my catch up. And boy did I learn a lot. Up to this point, the most important thing I knew about Lake Erie was what an unfrozen Lake Erie in winter does to us during a snow storm – ever heard of lake effect snow?

The author didn’t just skim over and give cursory bits and pieces about this walk of hers. It had been well researched before her trip and she shared that research with us in her hike. She also shared what she learned along the way as people open their lives, hearts and museums to her. She had already completed a 1000 miles walk around Lake Michigan and this walk encompassed parts of all the Lakes. She carried a huge backpack with all her needs trimmed down to the barest essentials. And lest anyone think she was a young thing that had lots of energy, for this last walk she was 48 years old. She camped out at many times including during drenching thunderstorms (obviously not by choice). . She drank the lake waters by way of filter bottles. She ate freeze dried food and chocolate and was always happy to restock or eat chocolate when she found it. She also talks about the difference between Canadian chocolate bars and those found in the States. After going to college in Canada for 4 years, I sure miss some of their chocolate creations as well!

This book I had to read with an open atlas of the areas on my lap to learn where she was, as most of her hikes took place in spots where I have never been. Her final triumphant walk took place in the Niagara Falls area and since I have been there, I could picture her very steps and where she was. This was a delightful book. I only wish it had been loaded with photos. You can see some photos and videos at her blog www.laketrek.blogspot.com including a video on how to scare off bears. Our Great Lakes are precious both for the water and the minerals found near or under the lakes. This book will help you to understand the need to protect these important resources far into the future.

 

This book is available through independent book stores or check at the authors website www.laketrek.com for details on how to order it.

The Perfect Ghost by Linda Barnes

The Perfect Ghost by Linda Barnes Minotaur Books 2013 ISBN 9781250023636

This is another book from the Amazon Vine program that I just read. I gave it 3 stars on my Amazon review as I think it could have used some editing help.

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This book is a huge departure for Linda Barnes and her Carlotta Carlyle book series. She has an interesting main character Em, which is part of a two person team of biography writers. Teddy does the interviews and she does the writing. That is until the fateful day when Teddy is killed in a car accident and she has to take on the rest of the interviews and writing on her own and still make the books deadline. Em is a very quiet, low self esteem girl who had apparently been raised in foster homes and with step fathers that were abusive. She also has a case of agoraphobia, although if needed, she can leave her house. I would have liked to have had more background into her early life to understand what was making her tick now.

The current book that they had been working on was about a movie star turned director. As Em interviews and investigates him, more and more things bother her that she feels that she has to figure out. It is during this part of the book that I felt like it bogged down a bit. I set the book down after reading almost 2/3 of it and a week later I hadn't picked it up again. It took yet another week to try to finish it. This is usually a signal to me that the book had gotten boring or redundant and the story just didn't interest me anymore. I did persevere however and made it to the end. It did perk up a bit and had a rushed yet surprise ending. Perhaps with some tighter editing, the book might have earned 5 stars. 

 

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My Kindle and Me

Been a long time since I posted, but not a long time since I read a book. I've actually read a lot of books, but get side tracked from writing up reviews on them. anyhow, for my birthday I received a Kindle Keyboard 3G .  When Kindle's first hit the market, I thought that there was no way in the world that I would ever want one. I love books, I love reading books, holding books,and having selves full of books all over my house. Then I started noticing just how sore my hands were getting when I read, especially books like thick paperbacks that are constantly fighting you. With severe arthritis, the last thing I wanted was more pain in my hands. I was also having authors asking me to review their work that was, surprise, only available on a Kindle or e-reader.

So I checked into Kindles, studied the descriptions and realized that since we are too far out of town to get WiFi and we didn't have it at our house, I would need a 3G Kindle so I could actually connect to Amazon's Kindle store. So with hubby's blessing I bought one and expected to only read some books on it. When it showed up in just a couple of days, I had fun figuring it out. I was happy to see that I had a dictionary on board and that turned out to be one of the first things that really got me happy. Now instead of having to pick up our 5# dictionary, I can look up words on my Kindle. I also found that I was able to download for free many of my favorite authors like Jane Austin, Charlotte Bronte, Jean Stratton Porter. I found that my Kindle would alert me to my newer favorite author's latest releases and I was able to use it get a sample of their books to be sure whether or not I had read it yet or if there was another book in the series that I needed to read first.

This past week really showed me though, just how nifty a Kindle can be. I had checked a book out of the library, Jane Austen's Guide to Dating , when I started reading it, I kept finding references to Northanger Abbey one of Jane's books that I had read but only once so the references were obscure to me. So I pulled out my Kindle and looked up Northanger Abbey and started reading it. The book itself kept making reference to yet another book that the young ladies in the novel were reading. So I wondered to myself, could that be a real book? I looked up Udolpho on my Kindle and sure enough it was there!  Now I know I can find a copy of all Jane Austen's works at my local library, but the chance of finding this book that a book written in 1818 was commenting impossible and yet here I now have it on my Kindle! If my Kindle only had a good US and world atlas and a dictionary of old fashioned word usage it would make reading really fun. I think using my Kindle for more than reading, had made me realize what a valuable addition to my reading it can be even when I have  my  nose buried in an old fashioned book. Is this 6 degrees of separation when it comes to books?

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I'm looking forward to receiving Michael Palmer's newest book, Oath of Office,  to read and review as one of my next book projects. I can hardly wait as he is one of my favorite authors! You can pre-order the book now at Amazon. It is being released on February 14th.

Mary Russel - Author

I just found a children's book author on Facebook. I haven't had an opportunity to read any of her books yet but they certainly sound interesting. If you have a young child that like animals and mysteries, you may want to check out her blog . One of the best things you can do for your child is get them reading!

The Attenbury Emeralds by Jill Paton Walsh

This is another Amazon vine Review that I did. Nothing like a good British mystery to read in this kind of weather. It took winter a while to get here for which I was happy, but it has arrived with a vengence!

The New Lord Peter Wimsey/Harriet Vane Mystery: The Attenbury Emeralds by Jill Paton Walsh based on the characters of Dorothy L. Sayers.

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This book is based on the characters of Dorothy Sayers; Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. I don't recall every having read a Dorothy Sayers book although I know I have one in my stack of 'books to read during a blizzard pile'. I think it is time to move it to closer to the top of the pile (and not just because we are currently buried in snow). If the author of this book stayed true to the original books, then this would be a very good series to read. I love reading cozy British mysteries and especially those that take place following WWII which has been an area of special interest to me this year. The more I learn of this era, the more good, well researched books come alive.


This book handles the powerful changes of the social structure in Britain due to the war, the inheritance laws, the loss of servants to factories, and the deaths of many of the titled members of British society in the war. This book helps to explain some of these changes while at the same time giving us a mystery that is thoughtful as we follow an emerald throughout many years. Lord Peter Wimsey is trying to find out how a different emerald was substituted into a locked safety box at the bank. The interesting thing is, his first mystery that he solved right after WWI involved the very same emerald. All in all a very nice book to read on a cold winter night.

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For more information about Dorothy Sayers and her books you can visit this link.

20 Under 40 Writers

The New York Times June 2, 2010 Has chosen it’s ‘20 under 40’ writers for the first time since 1999. These are the writers to be watching for possible star quality writing in the future. This time the list is equally divided among men and women. Clicking on each of their names will take you to Amazon.com and one of their books. Links on Amazon should take you to others as you get to know some of the names that will be the brightest names in literature over the next few decades.
The list includes Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 32; Chris Adrian, 39; Daniel Alarcón, 33; David Bezmozgis, 37; Sarah Shun-lien Bynum, 38; Joshua Ferris, 35; Jonathan Safran Foer, 33; Nell Freudenberger, 35; Rivka Galchen, 34; Nicole Krauss, 35; Yiyun Li, 37; Dinaw Mengestu, 31; Philipp Meyer, 36; C. E. Morgan, 33; Téa Obreht, 24; Z Z Packer, 37; Karen Russell, 28; Salvatore Scibona, 35; Gary Shteyngart, 37; and Wells Tower, 37.

I will be looking for these names on my Amazon Vine pick lists to see if I have a chance at seeing some of their work. I just hope it isn’t the kind of writing that I seriously hate! Let's hear what you think of these writers!