Finished WINTER OF THE WORLD

As I loved Fall of Giants, I also loved seeing WWII through the eyes of the children of the main characters of that first book.  It allowed us to see the war through the eyes of people involved in most countries in the European theatre and Americans involved in the Pacific, but no Japanese.  What I found especially poignant was the order things happened in Nazi Germany in light of what is going on in the world today.  The first people attacked were reporters (other dissenters were also attacked, but publications were attacked and shut down in a much more universal way.)  Second, we see it okay to kill and legislate against homosexuals.  Third, "burdens to the people"-- the mentally and physically handicapped as well as the elderly were put to death--first those who were Jewish, then everyone.  Next Jews were universally attacked.  Although the Nazis were originally brought to power by an agreement of freedom of religion and non-intervention with the Catholics, they were also attacked.  Of course prisoners of war, especially Russians, were brutalized as well.  Most average Germans never knew of the mass killings until the end of the war because the only news there were getting was what the Nazis wanted them to hear.



The trilogy will continue in Edge of Eternity which will, I am sure, chronicle the continuing lives of the families in the first two books as they cope with the Cold War.  I was surprised--though I know much more about the second world war than I had about the first, I still found the book very informative and "edge of my seat" reading.

I have now started Cerulean Sins by Laurell K. Hamilton, another Anita Blake book.  Jean Claude has a very scary visitor and Anita is up to her elbows in work, it being Hallowe'en.  And, of course, her relationships remain complicated.  These books are very quick to get into....

Finished THE CAPTIVE

Although I don't find this the best or most exciting of L. J. Smith's books, I do find it engrossing and inventive.  Though, I find teenage angst causing good people to make mistakes and do stupid things annoying, I also find that it rings true.  As in the commercial,  "people in horror stories make bad choices."



I have now just barely started Winter of the World by Ken Follett.  This is the sequel to The Fall of Giants and is about World War II.  It is the second book of a trilogy.  I don't know if the third book is even out yet, but, if so, it is not yet in paperback.  I enjoyed the characters in the first book and learned a huge amount about the war.  And I enjoyed the book even more than I did Pillars of the Earth and World Without End because the author did not have to create a never-ending heinous villain for this--the villain existed in reality--it was the war.  I hope to enjoy this as much or even more.

Finished three books, but the one I recommend is THE TRUE AMERICAN

I finished these mostly while cruising in the Caribbean.  I thought Chaos and Order by Stephen Donaldson was exciting and nerve-racking, I should have known that Inferno would not be relaxing.  However, I have faith that Dan Brown's books will end on an up note.  I really have no such faith in Stephen Donaldson.  He will kill off great characters willy-nilly with no regard for the reader's sensibility.  That said, Inferno was a great ride and asked an important question.  And it may have come up with the only tenable solution, though I may already be too late, even for that.

Then I returned to Lost Scriptures by Bart D. Ehrman to read The Acts of Peter.  This is mostly about a struggle for supremacy by a magician named Simon and Peter which brings Peter to Rome to confront the imposter and prove that Peter is the one acting with the power of God, not with deception.  This final confrontation will, of course, be what leads to Peter's death.  Ultimately, I could not understand why this was not included in our new testament.  It does not contradict anything there or the spirit of the Bible.  Peter acts in Jesus' name and does great things while keeping his personal humility.



Next was Foreign Body by Robin Cook.  This was pretty calm, believe it or not, after Chaos and Order, and Inferno.  Once again, I trust Robin not to kill off the main character, so I could lean back and enjoy the story.  After losing her Grandmother during elective surgery in India, a young woman discovers two other deaths in very similar circumstance and calls her friend Laurie Montgomery, now Mrs. Jack Stapleton, to help her.  They both travel to India to find something much amiss.  I always enjoy Robin Cook, though this was not a scary as some.



Now for the book I most highly recommend.



Most of us in Texas remember an attempted murder and two murders of gas station attendants who looked foreign shortly after 9/11.  The perpetrator said he was trying to kill Arabs in revenge for 9/11.  However one of the murders and the attempt was of Pakistanis and the other murder was of a Hindi from India.  This is the story of the murderer and his attempted victim.  The original incident at the beginning of the book happened three blocks from where I was living at the time, indeed where I had lived for 24 years.  I recognize many of the places and names in the book.   It is, surprisingly, a story of redemption and forgiveness and work on the part of the victim to try to break the cycle of hatred and violence caused by ignorance in America.  It embodies much of my philosophy about life and the basic goodness of human beings.



Last night I started a young adult novel by L. J. Smith.  It is the second book in her Secret Circle series,  The Captive.  This is about a group of young witches in a small town called Salem  who are attempting to control the wildest of their group while also attempting to rein a mysterious evil and solve, so far, two murders.  I like the characters and this author very much though the problems are complicated by much teenage angst, which most adults would like to just shake them out of!

Finished CHAOS AND ORDER

Stephen R. Donaldson's Gap series is a five book set which just gets more exciting and more tense with each passing book.  This is the fourth book of the series and the tension mounted until I've been on the edge of my seat for the last week and a half.  Whew!  The master of character, environment, and language, is also very much a master of science and therefore science fiction and tension.

I need a break.  I think I'll read a nice quiet relaxing book by Dan Brown...Inferno.  Oh, my faithful followers are not at all sure it will be relaxing???  Hmmmm.  This will be my sixth Dan Brown book.

Finished People of the Silence

One possible explanation for the abandonment of what we now call Chaco Canyon is presented in a very exciting a beautiful manner.  I completely enjoyed the book.

I have now started The Gap Into Madness: Chaos and Order by Stephen R. Donaldson.  Starting exactly where The Gap Into Power: A Dark and Hungry God Arises left off, I find myself already into it.  Not because anything earthshattering has happened already or because it started with a huge bang into action, but rather because the characters are so wonderfully quirky and interesting...this is Donaldson's strength.  His vocabulary also is seeming to become more challenging in this book, but, of course, it doesn't compare to the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant for that.

Finished I'LL WALK ALONE

Of course I did.  It is impossible to put down!  It is by Mary Higgins Clark.



I loved it especially because it was an Alvirah and Willy Meehan book.  The main character was often a wimp and Alvirah and Willy weren't as together as I wanted to give them credit for, but if these weren't the case, the book would not have been so DARN riveting!



I have now started on People of the Silence, another Gear "early Americans" book.  This is set in what is now called Chaco Canyon in about 950-1100 AD.  We are exploring the Anasazi and the increasing problems which will eventually cause them to leave.

Finished THE NEON GRAVEYARD and EARTH, a Daily Show with Jon Stewart book

Each of the six books of Vicki Pettersson's Signs of the Zodiac series, starting in the first with a really creative supernatural world, became more far out.  This series ender was really far strange--even more so than the others--and did tax my willingness to suspend belief.  But, I stuck it out and am happy with the way it ended.





I also finished Earth, A Visitor's Guide to the Human Race.  I had started reading this through like a normal book, but had to stop, finding it depressing.  I'd expected it to be funny, but found it cynical.  There were a couple chuckles in the book, but there were also some appalling things that, well, "Who would think of that?"  Like "The Diarrhea of Anne Frank."  No, not only is it too soon for that, it will always be too soon for that!   The book actually has a great premise, but breaks through the fourth wall and plays it for laughs.  If they played it seriously (like it really is a guide to the Human Race for those who come after we have gone), it could, I think actually have been funny.  But it was trying way too hard.  Anyway, about half-way through the book, I relegated it to the bathroom where I read a couple pages on good days (digestively speaking), and found it much less annoying that way.



I am now about to start I'll Walk Alone, by Mary Higgins Clark.