Recommended Reads
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Touching Glimpses into Other People's Lives
Life After Life by Jill McCorkle. Read my recommendation for this touching novel of community and hope at http://myedmondsnews.com/2013/09/recommended-reads-2/
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Back in the USSR
How the Beatles Rocked the Kremlin (by Leslie Woodhead). The Fab Four heated up the Cold War. This is a recommended read at this link - http://myedmondsnews.com/2013/09/recommended-read-beatles-music-helped-soviets-lose-cold-war/ And at the end of the review is a surprise - 2 more recommended books about outside the Iron Curtain, in Camelot.
Monday, September 16, 2013
Je t'aime Paris
Paris by Edward Rutherfurd.
Mon amis, this recommendation is for a book not just epic in content. You'll have earned a kiss on both cheeks and honorary citizenship to the City of Lights when you finish this lengthy novel. It's a very detailed history of Paris, through the ages.
I highly recommend it on audio book cd. This is a very entertaining history to listen to. But prepare yourself for a significant commitment, it's a 30 cd set instead of the over 800 page book.
This is a saga of the city, told through characters and fictionalized families in Paris through many generations. Rather than plodding forward chronologically, it alternates through different eras in what seems to be a somewhat random order. At times the transitions can be a little abrupt, but otherwise the writing works very well. The human interactions, events, and emotions drive plenty of drama, joy, tragedy, and some soap opera type plot twists.
I really cared about these characters, and I learned so much about beautiful Paris.
Bonne chance!
Mon amis, this recommendation is for a book not just epic in content. You'll have earned a kiss on both cheeks and honorary citizenship to the City of Lights when you finish this lengthy novel. It's a very detailed history of Paris, through the ages.
I highly recommend it on audio book cd. This is a very entertaining history to listen to. But prepare yourself for a significant commitment, it's a 30 cd set instead of the over 800 page book.
This is a saga of the city, told through characters and fictionalized families in Paris through many generations. Rather than plodding forward chronologically, it alternates through different eras in what seems to be a somewhat random order. At times the transitions can be a little abrupt, but otherwise the writing works very well. The human interactions, events, and emotions drive plenty of drama, joy, tragedy, and some soap opera type plot twists.
I really cared about these characters, and I learned so much about beautiful Paris.
Bonne chance!
Friday, September 13, 2013
Susan Elia MacNeal Excels Again!
Third novel in the Maggie Hope series and this story will grab you again! His Majesty's Hope by Susan Elia MacNeal. Wow! The only problem is now waiting for the fourth in the series to finish being written. Can't wait!
Here's the link to my review - http://myedmondsnews.com/category/columns/recommended-reads/
Here's the link to my review - http://myedmondsnews.com/category/columns/recommended-reads/
Thursday, September 12, 2013
I Have Known Men Like This. Have You?
The Dangerous Husband by Jane Shapiro.
A novel filled with very, wickedly funny dark humor. An artistic Manhattan photographer and an artistic writer fall in love after a blind date set up.
Part 1 is the longest third of the book as they meet, fall in love, marry, and then get to know what each other is really like. Infatuation meets Reality. It can be brutal, as you can imagine.
The narrator is the wife who's name is never revealed. During infatuation he is so sweet and funny and charming. Later reality reveals his aggravating clumsiness, absent mindedness, clutter, chaotic aura and other grating foibles. First disenchantment, then frustrating embarassment, then fear. As time goes on, his destructiveness becomes outright dangerous with extensive injuries to himself and others. Towards the end of Part I I was in agony as to why she continues to subject herself to the painful life he's immersed in daily. She struggles because she still gleans that he means so well, he's so sincere and loving in his actions. The problem is execution.
Although, at times I wonder a little about the pure sanctity of the narrator from the things she says. No doubt a dangerous husband, but keep in mind we're hearing the story from her. Keep your eye on her as well.
In Part II the unnamed wife finally decides she needs to look at her options and either leave this man in order to save herself, or perhaps she should kill him before he kills her. This is a very entertaining section as she writhes in her decisions and reflections of her different options. Especially interesting is when at one point she wonders why does she feel murdering her husband is even an option when she can just leave him. She decides that she believes fervently in marrying for life . . . until death does us part. And so she has to stay with her commitment until a death, preferably his. Then she wonders if she's supporting a healthy personal mindset when taken to its extreme. I told you - dark humor that is very funny.
In Part III our wifely protagonist, or is she the antagonist, reconciles herself to a solution.
The ending is a delicious twist!
A novel filled with very, wickedly funny dark humor. An artistic Manhattan photographer and an artistic writer fall in love after a blind date set up.
Part 1 is the longest third of the book as they meet, fall in love, marry, and then get to know what each other is really like. Infatuation meets Reality. It can be brutal, as you can imagine.
The narrator is the wife who's name is never revealed. During infatuation he is so sweet and funny and charming. Later reality reveals his aggravating clumsiness, absent mindedness, clutter, chaotic aura and other grating foibles. First disenchantment, then frustrating embarassment, then fear. As time goes on, his destructiveness becomes outright dangerous with extensive injuries to himself and others. Towards the end of Part I I was in agony as to why she continues to subject herself to the painful life he's immersed in daily. She struggles because she still gleans that he means so well, he's so sincere and loving in his actions. The problem is execution.
Although, at times I wonder a little about the pure sanctity of the narrator from the things she says. No doubt a dangerous husband, but keep in mind we're hearing the story from her. Keep your eye on her as well.
In Part II the unnamed wife finally decides she needs to look at her options and either leave this man in order to save herself, or perhaps she should kill him before he kills her. This is a very entertaining section as she writhes in her decisions and reflections of her different options. Especially interesting is when at one point she wonders why does she feel murdering her husband is even an option when she can just leave him. She decides that she believes fervently in marrying for life . . . until death does us part. And so she has to stay with her commitment until a death, preferably his. Then she wonders if she's supporting a healthy personal mindset when taken to its extreme. I told you - dark humor that is very funny.
In Part III our wifely protagonist, or is she the antagonist, reconciles herself to a solution.
The ending is a delicious twist!
Friday, September 6, 2013
A Wag and a Bark Out to 9/11 Heroes
A wonderful tribute book recommended at this link - http://myedmondsnews.com/category/columns/recommended-reads/
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Hollywood Beauty and Pain - Christine Schwab
Take Me Home From The Oscars
Arthritis, Television, Fashion and Me
by Christine Schwab
I'm not a daytime tv watcher, so I don't know Christine Schwab's work on shows like "Live With Regis and Kathie Lee", "The Today Show", and "Oprah" and "Entertainment Tonite" years ago. She is a fashion expert and provided people with makeovers.
Christine was married to Shelly Schwab, then President of television distribution at Universal Studios. Her own career and his put her at the center of Hollywood glitz and glamour. She loved it!
But as she was enjoying the life she had always hoped for, she was struck with crippling rheumatoid arthritis. I didn't realize what I was getting into when I started this book, but I found it very revealing about a hideous disease that estimated 1.5 million adults suffered from in 2007. The pain she describes is agonizing to hear about, and I was incredulous at how she tried to continue her hectic schedule. She was terrified that people in the industry would find out, and she was sure that if that happened it would be the end of her fashion career. The image of beauty and rheumatoid arthritis don't go together in Hollywood.
Mixed into the recounting of her seven year struggle with this disease, is her dealing with the difficult childhood she had, "boarded out" by her mother and abandoned by her father.
Christine Schwab is a very strong woman emotionally and physically. Finally she participated in a health study, which finally led to relief through a new drug that put her RA in remission. Now she is a public crusader for helping people with RA, and for finding a cure.
Arthritis, Television, Fashion and Me
by Christine Schwab
I'm not a daytime tv watcher, so I don't know Christine Schwab's work on shows like "Live With Regis and Kathie Lee", "The Today Show", and "Oprah" and "Entertainment Tonite" years ago. She is a fashion expert and provided people with makeovers.
Christine was married to Shelly Schwab, then President of television distribution at Universal Studios. Her own career and his put her at the center of Hollywood glitz and glamour. She loved it!
But as she was enjoying the life she had always hoped for, she was struck with crippling rheumatoid arthritis. I didn't realize what I was getting into when I started this book, but I found it very revealing about a hideous disease that estimated 1.5 million adults suffered from in 2007. The pain she describes is agonizing to hear about, and I was incredulous at how she tried to continue her hectic schedule. She was terrified that people in the industry would find out, and she was sure that if that happened it would be the end of her fashion career. The image of beauty and rheumatoid arthritis don't go together in Hollywood.
Mixed into the recounting of her seven year struggle with this disease, is her dealing with the difficult childhood she had, "boarded out" by her mother and abandoned by her father.
Christine Schwab is a very strong woman emotionally and physically. Finally she participated in a health study, which finally led to relief through a new drug that put her RA in remission. Now she is a public crusader for helping people with RA, and for finding a cure.
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