"A sword never killed anybody;
It is a tool in the killer's hand."
                             Lucius Annaeus Seneca (54 BC-39 AD).
                               Roman Rhetorician and Writer


People have been fighting the same battles, with the same words since the beginning of time. I can picture two cave men sitting around the fire discussing how "spears don't kill people, people kill people." On the other hand, people are still dead. I am blessed/cursed with the ability to see both sides of an issue.  In almost all cases I have an opinion as to my idea of the "right" side, but I can generally understand the opposing opinions. For example, I am well aware that it takes a person to shoot the gun (an inanimate object) that injures or kills someone...i.e. Guns don't kill people, people kill people.  Although true, that statement has some holes. It is like saying automobiles don't take us to our destination, people take us to our destination. It may be true, but automobiles get us there a lot quicker and more efficiently.

I am a proud American and truly appreciate living in a country where my rights are protected.  I also realize that if my rights are protected than the rights of those who disagree with me should be protected. For example, my desire to live in a world without guns needs to be weighed against someone else's desire to own a gun.  I also realize that the unstable mass murderers who have decided to make schools, churches and movie theaters places where we can no longer assume we are safe, would have found a way around legality and committed the same heinous acts.  It is more the drive by shootings, the accidental shootings, the drunk shootings and the domestic abuse shootings that bother me.  It is just too easy to fall behind "it is my right as a citizen" and forget our rights and responsibilities as human beings.

I have always been a bit of a Fyodor Dostoevsky fan.  His books are far from easy, and I need to read them a little at a time, but some of his ideas are quite interesting.  In The Brothers Karamazov, one of his characters explained that: "he would 'return his ticket' to free will if the price of admission was human suffering."  I have been a spectator to way too much human suffering due to the misuse of weapons.  Something needs to change, and I don't believe it will be mentally ill people, gang members proving their worth, domestic abusers or inquisitive children who will change their ways.  Maybe it is just time to take away their ability to hurt humanity, even if it means that you and I can't buy an automatic or semi-automatic weapon at will. On the other hand, taking away a man's hunting rifle because I don't like to hunt is also leading us down a dangerous path.  What we need is compromise...an unemotional meeting of the minds...between two sides of a very  volatile topic.

Guns play a role in both of my reviewed books this week. John Ellsworth's thriller, Defending Turquoise has Attorney Thaddeus Murfee back in action in the fifth book in this series.  In it he ends up defending a teenage girl and the D.A.'s wife in two different cases.  The second book, Who Let the Dog Out?, features one of my favorite fictional attorneys, Andy Carpenter, and an arsenal of firearms that scared me to death. Author David Rosenfelt always shows his own wit through the words and actions of Andy, and this book is no exception.

As always, the complete reviews of these books follow my blog.

Happy reading,

- Beverly

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 Genre: Mystery

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David Rosenfelt's series featuring Andy Carpenter is like a bowl of hot soup for me.  Each book is a comfort zone. I know I won't have to work too hard, I will get plenty of chuckles, and I will be spending time with old friends. Rosenfelt spoke at our library several years ago, and I felt like I was listening to Andy Carpenter.  His use of humor to make his points kept the audience enthralled, and his back story on Andy and both Andy's and David's love of dogs was fun to hear.

I was anxiously awaiting this book, the thirteenth in the series, and I was not disappointed. Of course Tara (Andy's golden retriever ) was involved, as well as a dog that was kidnapped from the shelter and ended up standing over a murder victim.  Some of my favorite parts of Andy Carpenter books are the conversations (two sided) that he has with Tara.  I missed them in this book. In fact, although all of his characters make appearances, most of them are not as relevant in this book as they have been in the past.  I understand Rosenfelt's desire to branch out, but I look forward to time with these characters each year.

It begins with Andy tracking the missing dog, and in typical Carpenter style he ends up defending the man accused of killing the body the dog is standing over.  We soon find that the corpse was a bad guy, and he was being paid to kidnap the dog.  We also are privy to a police search of the dead man's house and the two huge diamonds he hid in his drawer.

The story continues with missing scientists, foreign assassins and terrorist plots.  The mystery is a good one.  It is a bit more complicated than most of this series tends to be, with a few more bad guys than I would have preferred, but it kept me coming back and left me looking forward to number fourteen.

- Beverly


Publisher - Minotaur Books
Date of Publication - July 21, 2015

 Genre: Legal Thriller

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I am spending the summer finding new authors to entertain me, and John Ellsworth is one of my successful finds.  His protagonist, Thaddeus Murfee, is an attorney with a bit more heart than sense.  Although Defending Turquoise is the fifth book in this series, it is the first one that I have read.  

While there are references to past experiences, this book can definitely stand on its own.The book begins with Thaddeus making bail for a client that he knows will skip out and return to Mexico to save his daughter.  He knows that it is illegal for an attorney to post his client's bail, but his heart wins out again after he realizes the danger his client's daughter faces without her father's protection.  The judge, who dislikes Thaddeus, sees to it that his law license is suspended for a year.

When the year is up, and Thaddeus begins to practice law in Flagstaff Arizona, he takes on the case of sixteen year old Native American Turqoise Begay. He also represents the district attorney's wife. Both cases involve rape and murder.   Both cases are overseen by judges with their own agenda. We are introduced to family members and acquaintances who are interesting additions to a complicated pair of stories.

I liked the book.  I easily became a fan of Thad and wanted him to be the victor.  I enjoyed reading about his wife and daughter and their own trials and tribulations.  Ellsworth does a good job introducing characters we love to hate, but he also helps us to see the good in people as the plot builds.

There were a few parts that I wished weren't there, but I have trouble reading about the graphic parts of murder and sexual assault cases. I am not sure how I feel about the ending, but I definitely think the book is worth reading.  In fact, I am looking forward to catching up on 1-4 and then going on from there.

- Beverly


Publisher - Subjudica House
Date of Publication - September 27, 2014

"I don't trust anyone who doesn't laugh." - Maya Angelou

I have come to the realization that we all have to find more reasons to laugh. In the scheme of things, our lives are really blips on a time line, and we tend to take ourselves way too seriously. Americans are known for working way too many hours a week with little time for family and fun.  Most people end up losing unused vacation days each year because they feel that their place of business just couldn't go on without them.  Newsflash...when this irreplaceable employee finally collapses from stress and exhaustion, someone does pick up the slack, and it is business as usual. The lack of humor in politics is painful.  If both sides would lighten up, a great deal more could be accomplished.

Even sitcoms have become sitdrams.  The other day we watched one with a recovering alcoholic woman who lives with her recovering alcoholic mother and her teen daughter who is an unwed mother.  This particular episode dealt with the death of grandma's boyfriend...in her bed...at an inopportune moment.  Yes there were laughs, but mostly there were tears.  Then there is the series about marriage, featuring two couples and a divorced man. Most of them do drugs and/or drink and they are all fighting and obviously unhappy with their "significant" other.  Where is Lucille Ball when we need her. Even Seinfeld, which makes me laugh in reruns as much as in the original shows, features four relative "losers" who can't maintain a relationship with anyone but each other.

There are a few sitcoms today that do make me laugh in a non-drug, non-fighting and acceptably sexual way.  My favorite has to be Big Bang Theory.  The chemistry between the ensemble is amazing, and the science is actually factual.  Four guys who are scientists at Caltech try to fit into a world that doesn't always appreciate nerds.  The girls they matched them up with are equally hilarious, and I can watch an entire show without overwhelming depression taking over.

One of the books I reviewed today is The Science of TV's The Big Bang Theory by Dave Zobel. If you do watch the show, you are familiar with the huge poster boards filled with scientific theories that decorate Leonard's and Sheldon's apartment each week.  What you might not know is that every theory that is shown is legit and has been approved by working scientists.  Since most of us understand only slightly more then Penny does about the science behind their discussions, a book like this is invaluable to real fans.  It explains the scientific realities of each episode in a very understandable way.  Definitely a worthwhile and educational read!

If you like a bit of education in your books, The Eight by Katherine Neville will be right up your alley.  Her historical thriller jumps back and forth from the 1790's to the 1970's, and features two strong female protagonists.  Many historical figures are mentioned in this search for a hidden chess set with magical powers that must be kept out of the hands of evil doers.  The Eight, the second of my reviews this week, will involve you in an adventure you will remember for a while.

Both of these reviews follow my blog as they do every week.  Please enjoy yourself this week and find plenty of things to laugh about each day.

Happy Reading,

- Beverly

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Genre: Historical Thriller

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Neville's book alternates between the 1790's and 1972, and there is no doubt that she spent much of her time on historical research.  At times I felt it was a bit too heavy in historical figures, but on the whole it is an interesting story about two intriguing women and a lost chess set. The chess set, once owned by Charlemagne, has magical powers and was hidden to be kept away from those who would use it for evil and self-serving purposes. The plot centers around the search for it.

The author is very descriptive in her writing, and her use of metaphors/similes help paint a vivid picture of the 1790's, a Pyrenees abbey and the French Revolution. Much like Dan Brown, Katherine Neville uses history and European locations to build a plot of intrigue. I found myself more drawn to the characters in the earlier times and am not sure if that is due to the author's writing or my interests. This book was originally published in 1988, a decade before Brown started finding success, and it didn't flow as smoothly as Angels and Demons or The Da Vinci Code for me, but it will certainly capture those readers whose interests lie in that genre. Those who are chess buffs will enjoy that aspect of the novel as well.

I find it interesting that Catherine Velis, her twentieth century protagonist, is a computer expert...definitely a twentieth century career. Her assignment in Algeria brings her face to face with a world so different than the one she leaves behind, and she gets involved in a quest more dangerous than she could have imagined. Since the author herself has worked as an international computer expert, a painter and photographer, she probably had an easier time fleshing out Catherine than her other characters.

The book is a bit long and gets too involved in parts, but on the whole I think it was an interesting story that married history and intrigue well.  Sometimes I find books written years ago are worth bringing back to a new audience and am glad Kindle published The Eight again this year.

- Beverly


Publisher - Open Road Media
Date of Publication - July 21, 2015

 Genre: Humor

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I love The Big Bang Theory!  It never fails to make me laugh while humbling me with my painfully weak knowledge of science. Don't misunderstand, I do know the basic facts, but when the boys of TBBT start talking I feel more like Penny than Amy Farrah Fowler.  This book seemed perfect for me from the start.

The foreword is written by a guy who went to Radio Shack for advise from a genius nineteen year old name Bill Prady.  Together they began a small and successful computer company until Bill's love of comedy led him on another path.  Ultimately, Bill moved to Hollywood, met Chuck Lorre and pitched a show about four nerds. We all know the rest, except for the phone call Bill made to his original business partner asking if he could use his name for one of the four main characters. Now this man's moniker is as well known as any on television...Howard Joel Wolowitz.

The book that author Zobel  wrote is both informative and humorous.  Each episode of Big Bang introduces theories and terms that seem completely made up, yet each theory and term is checked for validity before being presented.  This book explains the process to us, and then it goes on to explain what it all means.  It tells us that while these four scientists are often less than serious, the Institute that they work for, CalTech, is ALWAYS serious and ahead of the game.

I enjoyed reading the quotes from the various episodes as the author tried to explain some of the titles and some of the theories.  Don't get me wrong, this is not a particularly easy book to read.  I am reading it very slowly as I try to fully understand these explanations.   I love the puns interspersed throughout the science and the peek into the minds of the "nerds" who are such an important part of our lives.

Although I am still a couple chapters from finishing this book, I can highly recommend it to anyone who wants to have enough knowledge to share a meal with Sheldon and the gang. I am hoping the show stays around long enough for Dave Zobel to write a sequel to The Science of TV's The Big Bang Theory.

- Beverly


Publisher - ECW Press
Date of Publication - June 1, 2015

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” – Neil Gaiman

As rough as many aspects of the 1950's and the 1960's were, some things were much simpler than they are today.  We had some heroes who everyone could agree were the good guys.  Who didn't love watching Jackie Robinson, Mickey Mantle and Cassius Clay?  How could America not root for Wilma Rudolph, who was told she would never walk and went on to become the fastest woman in the world?  Was there a young girl (or boy) in those decades whose heart didn't beat just a bit faster when Ed Sullivan announced Elvis Presley or The Beatles as his guest performers?  No matter your political leanings at that time, you always felt a little awed when hearing about the adventures of Alan Shepard (first American in space), John Glenn (first American to orbit earth), and Neil Armstrong (first man on the moon). Even their wives became heroes in their own right as witnessed on this summer's T.V. Drama, The Astronauts' Wives.

My heroes of that era had to have been Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Thurgood Marshall and The Little Rock Nine, who were the first black teenagers to attend Central High School, an all white high school in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957.  These nine brave teens challenged segregation in the Deep South...and won.  Even the heroes that lost left our world a better place for having been in it.  In 1964, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were murdered as they worked to register black voters in Mississippi during Freedom Summer. They were arrested on trumped up charges, released into the hands of the KKK, beaten and murdered.  Their fellow heroes continued on until their battle saw some success.

Brad Meltzer, one of the top authors of the twenty-first century is trying to keep some of these heroes alive for his children's generation. We all know him as an exceptional novelist in the thriller genre, but I am proud to say that this South Florida boy is doing an equal job in children's literature with his series on ordinary people changing the world. Each book is written in graphic novel form and introduces the people we admired through the years. People like Einstein, Lincoln, Earhart and even Lucille Ball are introduced as young people who grew to change the world.  Today I reviewed I Am Rosa Parks, a book that shows children the importance of standing up for what they believe is right. Once again Meltzer shows his ability to reach all ages in his writing.

Mary Higgins Clark has been reaching people for decades now as she shares her talents as a mystery writer.  Ms. Clark has written 51 books in her career, and they have all been best sellers. In 1974 her first novel, Where Are the Children was published and became a best seller.  She will turn 88 in December, and today I am reviewing her 51st book, The Melody Lingers On. Perhaps after forty some years on the best seller's list she belongs in one of Meltzer's series as an ordinary person doing extraordinary things.

If we think about all of these people doing all of these exceptional things against amazing odds, we have to agree with Neil Gaiman's quote and believe that we all have a bit of the dragon slayer in us.  I watch daughter Beth slay the dragons that my sister and I did while trying to educate young people in a world of distractions, and I watch son Michael slay the dragons of mental illness that torment so many of his patients.  In fact, my family, like all of your families, is populated with dragon slayers in all sizes and shapes.  Together we will conquer all evil some day, one small victory at a time.

Happy reading,

- Beverly

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Genre: Children/Non-Fiction

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I am a Brad Meltzer fan.  I know that I enjoy him as an author, but his obvious love of his children and all children makes me admire him as a person.  His ability to mix his love of writing with his love of children really seals the deal for me. Several years ago he decided that he wanted to share his love (and knowledge) of history with young people, and he started writing about different important people in history at a level that very young children could appreciated. The books, though true stories, are written in graphic novel style.  Illustrator Eliopoulos does a great job showing thoughts and emotions through his pictures.

His latest book, I am Lucille Ball, was just published, and I have yet to read it. Last year's book, I am Rosa Parks, was one of my favorites.  I love that in the Kindle edition (and I assume in the print edition) the pages before the beginning show a young Rosa playing with a toy bus surrounded by a pattern of buses...a subtle and clever way to introduce this strong woman.  As the story progresses, both author and illustrator take the young readers into a world that is much less accepting than the one they now live. We see the beginnings of Rosa's fortitude in her relationship with her family and neighbors.  This book, like all of the books in his excellent series, shows Brad at his best...giving children real heroes to identify with during their formative years.

There is obvious research in these books, and I recommend this one, and all of the series, as a wonderful way to slip history into children's play time.

- Beverly


Publisher - Dial Books
Date of Publication - June 17, 2014

 Genre: Mystery

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When I was in my twenties, I couldn't wait to get my hands on any new Mary Higgins Clark novel. They were filled with suspense and just enough romance to make them the "perfect" read.  Since she is a prolific writer, I always had a book to anticipate.  After about a dozen years, my tastes  (certainly not her talent) changed, and I stopped reading her books.  I went from the easy going Ms. Clark to the edge of your seat Robert Ludlum and Tom Clancy.

Through the years my reading choices changed many times, and I recently decided to try the next Mary Higgins Clark book that I found.  The Melody Lingers On was recently released, and I was back visiting with the "Queen of Suspense."  I like it.  I don't love it.  The story is a current one.  Parker Bennett disappeared two years ago while sailing in the Caribbean.  What complicated matters was the missing $5 billion dollars from a fund he had been managing.  Unfortunately, he left his wife and son to handle the fallout, and much of their wealth is seized by the government.

Enter Elaine "Lane" Harmon, an assistant to a famous interior designer. She takes on the job of redecorating a small townhouse for Bennett's wife and finds herself falling for his son, Eric. While authorities suspect wife and son are involved in the money scam, Eric is determined to prove everyone's innocence.  Lane finds herself, and her young daughter, in a dangerous position when the FBI try to prove Eric's involvement, and one of Parker's victims decides to handle things on his own.

I don't remember if Ms. Clark was always as descriptive or I am just less tolerant of minute detail, but that seems to take away from the suspense for me.  I do enjoy that she stays current and still love the way she weaves romance into her stories.  We get to know the characters and want them to be "good guys" in a world where those kind of endings are rare. Am I happy I read this...definitely. Will I get the next of her novels...probably not.  I think that in the years since she began writing, her competition in suspense has gotten a great deal more sophisticated, and I somehow expect a bit more edge of the seat action. Her fan base is enormous though, and I am happy to recommend this book to you as a quick and comfortable suspense novel.

- Beverly


Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Date of Publication - June 23, 2015

"A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it." – Samuel Johnson

While an occasional night out at the movies is entertaining, there is nothing like a book to completely capture my attention. A movie lays the story out in front of us and leaves little to the imagination.  Each character is introduced, in the flesh, and takes away the chance to fantasize our own perfect hero.  I mean come on, who can ever really accept Tom Cruise as
Lee Child's larger than life Jack Reacher?   Then there is Angie Harmon playing James Patterson's Lindsay Boxer on the T.V. Series, The Murder Club.  Not that she didn't make a great raven haired detective, but in those novels, Lindsay is a blond.

I love to imagine my characters as I go along, and I agree with Samuel Johnson's theory of the reader finishing the book.  Of course the author gives us his ideas as to how the story ends, but a good author leaves us room to add our own endings. Allison Leotta always leaves us hanging just a wee bit in her books.  I am not going to discuss the ending of this week's reviewed book by her, A Good Killing, but I will say that the ending of her last book, Speak of the Devil, left me pacing the floors while imagining where her personal life was going to end up.

On the other hand, I believe that an author owes his/her reader some sort of conclusion when the last page is turned. One of the reasons that I stopped reading James Patterson is his non-conclusion, conclusions.  The last chapter of each book is literally written as the first chapter of his next book.  I realize that this is a ploy of sorts, to have the reader anxiously await the next book, but I began to feel cheated when I read his many series.  I needed just a thin piece of ribbon tying the story into a little bit of a bow.

In her book, Among The Ten Thousand Things, Julia Pierpont uses a plot devise that plays around a bit with the conclusion. Part one (of four parts) introduces us to all of the characters and lays out the story's conflict quite clearly.  Part two is short and sweet...and wraps it all up in a conclusion/resolution. Parts three and four go back to the story itself and build on the conflict.

I found it confusing and might recommend that a reader reads parts one, three and four before returning to part two, but at least there was a conclusion of sorts that still gave me room to imagine.

I really enjoyed both books that I am reviewing today, even though Among The Ten Thousand Things was different then most books I read. I am not sure what drew me to it, but I could not put it down.  I hope you will give it a try and then write your opinion in our comments section.

Happy reading,

Beverly

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