The Hammer of Eden

 

By Ken Follett

For the first time in his life, Ricky Priest has found peace and contentment at the commune of they call Eden. The commune is thriving and his ex-girlfriend and his current girlfriend are happy to be with him and everyone at the commune looks up to him as their leader.

Priest started out as a street thug but had great success in his young life, even becoming a millionaire at one point before he ran afoul of the law. Now he lives in peaceful obscurity with his fellow commune members. 

But the devil is coming to destroy their happy community. The electric utility company is building a new power plant and part of the plan is a dam that will result in Ricky's little piece of heaven being drowned. Ricky will risk everything to try to stop it, even if it means people have to die to get his point across.

This was an interesting story. I question whether it really is possible to cause a bad earthquake using the method described in the story. But other than that, it was pretty good.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

 

When the Changewinds Blow

 

By Jack L. Chalker

Sam and Charley are two normal teenage girls, living their lives, not outstanding in any way. Except Sam has lately been experiencing terrifying nightmares that only occur when a thunderstorm strikes.
Turns out Sam is the target of two competing wizards, one of whom is trying to take over everything, including our time and place. Although Sam is the target of their plans, both she and Charley end up in an alien place where all things are possible and where, when the changewinds blow, anything can happen, but usually bad.
Initially met by a fellow human, Zenchur, sent by the wizard Boolean (you may recognize the term boolean as having to do with computers and math) to lead the two girls to safety and away from Boolean's rival, Klittichorn. But Sam overhears Zenchur plotting against the girls, and when they arrive at a city, the girls manage to thwart his plot.
But Sam ends up the pampered pet of a local Madame and Charley ends up as one of her drugged whores. It's a comfy trap but eventually Klittichorn will track them down and kill them. Their only recourse is to set out on their own on a dangerous journey, braving bandits, rogues, Klittichorn's thugs and the cruel changewinds in an iffy attempt to reach Boolean and possible safety.

Book was kind of boring. Not a lot happens until the very end when the caravan the girls are traveling on runs into Klittichorn's thugs and a flash flood that wipes out most of the travelers. 
There were some things that I really disliked about the story: the drugged, brainwashed girls forced into prostitution and Charley's willing acceptance of being a prostitute. The author tries to dress it up by labeling her a call girl, but he glosses over the fact that she and Sam are only 17 years old. Also later on in the story two little girls, 9 and 13 are gang raped. Makes me wonder about his proclivities.

Gordon

 

By Edith Templeton

A young woman falls into a dangerous relationship with an older, disturbed man. A psychiatrist, he manipulates her neediness to maintain control over her while he physically and sexually abuses her, much to her outer resistance and her inner delight. They are two troubled people hanging on to each other to satisfy their weaknesses, his to dominate her to the point of torture and hers to be dominated. 

Supposedly based on the author's life as a young woman in post-WWII Britain, it's a tough read only because of her willingness to be abused. It is also quite graphic but not in a romance novel way. This is not the sex act glamorized, this is a brutal man raping & controlling a willing victim. It's pretty messed up.

Review by The Guardian. And by Publishers Weekly.

The Marriage Plot

By Jeffrey Eugenides

A tale of three college students who are just graduating from college and starting their new lives as independent adults. 

There's pretty Madeleine who loves literature and Leonard. There's Leonard who loves biology and Madeleine. And there's Mitchell who loves religion and Madeleine. 

It's graduation day and Madeleine is sad. A few days before, she declared her love to Leonard and he responded poorly and they broke up. Meanwhile Leonard is having a mental breakdown and is regretting his poor response to Madeleine's declaration of love. And Mitchell, always Madeleine's friend but not her boy friend, is a condition he wants to change. 

Leonard is committed to a mental hospital and Madeleine runs to his side when she finds out, skipping her graduation ceremony. Mitchell leaves with a friend on a trip to India where he wants to explore his feelings about religion.

Madeleine and Leonard get married and Leonard gets back on his medication to control his mental problems. But he once again begins to fool with the dosage and is hospitalized. Their marriage falls apart when he disappears. Mitchell returns from India and with Leonard out of the picture he makes his move.

This was an okay read. Leonard and Madeleine are tedious. Leonard is a loon and Madeleine is naive. The only character I really found interesting was Mitchell.

Review by James Lasdun in The Guardian.

The Longest Trip Home

By John Grogan

John Grogan grew up in a suburb of Detroit. His dad had a good job and his children wanted for nothing. At one point, the dad bought his son a sail boat, which tells you something about their situation.
It was a pretty sweet childhood, far from the struggles and poverty of urban Detroit. About the only fly in John's ointment was his parents  religiosity. They were extremely devout Catholics but John never felt an affinity to the religion.
Boys grow up and John heads off to live his life, eventually sharing a house with the woman he later marries. His devout parents find this arrangement very upsetting when John finally works up the nerve to tell them, which takes him a long time. Even after they get married, his parents continue to bombard him with prayers for his safe return to the religion they cherish that they have finally figured out means nothing to their son.
And so it goes. Mom and Dad get old and the inevitable arrives and  though John never returns to their religion, he and his father come to a sort of understanding about it.

I enjoyed the book. It was nice reading about his family. John was a lucky boy, that's for sure: loving parents with a stable marriage, financial security, a safe environment to grow up in. He never even got fondled by a priest even though he was an altar boy! (Or if he did, he doesn't mention it in the story.) He had the kind of childhood many can only dream about.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Canada

By Richard Ford

The story is told from the point of view of Dell Parsons, a fifteen year old boy living in Montana with his parents and his twin sister, Berner.
The father, Bev Parsons, is ex-military and not adverse to a little larceny on the side. But his schemes lead to money troubles and he gets the bright idea to rob a bank.
The mother, Neeva, a school teacher, goes along with his idea and volunteers to be the driver of the get away car.
They get $2500 from the robbery, which they think is successful. $2000 of the money goes to take care of Bev's money problems. But it isn't long until the cops are knocking on their door and the two are hauled off to jail leaving their two teens home alone. Berner runs away and a friend of the mom takes Dell to live with her brother in a small town in Canada.
In this Canadian hole-in-the-wall, Dell lives in a run-down shack and helps the brother's hired man with various chores. The brother, Arthur Remlinger, has a past, the hired man warns Dell. He tells Dell that when Arthur was younger he got involved with a radical group and had planted a bomb that killed a man. He fled to Canada to escape the consequences. Dell believes the warning and isn't surprised when two Americans show up at Arthur's hotel looking for him. It doesn't end well for the two men. Arthur brings Dell into the whole messy business, using him as a kind of prop to disarm the two Americans.

I found this book boring. I think I read about 50 pages then set it aside for several days. And it's a long book, over 400 pages.  You'd think, what with bank robbery, murders, teenagers running wild it would be more gripping, more exciting but it just wasn't. Also, even though it is titled Canada, the Canada part doesn't start until 200 pages in. Finally I found it simply unbelievable that the mother would go along with her stupid husband's scheme to rob a bank. A silly premise, in my opinion.

The critics loved this book. They think it is wonderful. As in the review by Sean O'Hagan in The Guardian.

Still Life

By Louise Penny

The first Chief Inspector Gamache novel.

A small town murder! An well-loved elderly woman has been shot dead with an arrow through the heart! Chief Inspector Gamache is sent to investigate.
Everything he discovers about Jane Neal indicates she had no enemies, no fortune, and no reason for anyone to take her life. A former school teacher, never married, Jane was living quietly in retirement in the town where she  dwelt her whole life. The oddest things about her were her paintings which she never showed anyone. And that she never let anyone into her house beyond the kitchen area.
She was hiding something. But what? Did her secrets have anything to do with her murder?  Did the fact that she had recently decided to share her paintings with the world factor in to her death? These are the questions the Inspector will ask among others. And all the secrets will be revealed, come what may.

This was a pretty good read, for a murder mystery, which is not my favorite genre. I don't remember why I wanted this particular book but I don't regret getting it. I did enjoy it.

Review from Kirkus.

The Memory of Earth

By Orson Scott Card

Millions of years ago, humanity fled Earth after ruining it with their weapons of mass destruction. Scarred by this, on their new home on the planet of Harmony, they built a super-computer to control their thoughts and keep mankind from developing any technology that would lead to such a disaster again.
So forty million years have passed and the super computer, the Oversoul, is starting to fail. People are once again on the path of conquest, empire-building and developing forbidden technology.
To save itself and humanity, the Oversoul reaches out to powerful local family, sending them visions and dreams and influencing their actions to thwart a growing and dangerous faction of violent men trying to take over the local government.

This book is the first in the Homecoming saga which consists of five novels. The series is based on the Book of Mormon according to Wikipedia.
This was a fairly interesting story but not interesting enough to entice me to read any others in the series. I did find it rather disappointing that after forty million years, people are still the same stupid, selfish pigs they have always been. I mean, forty million years is a long time to stay virtually the same!

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

Normal Girl

By Molly Jong-Fast

Miranda Woke is nineteen years old and she is a child of wealth and privilege and she has used her advantages to become a drug addict.
Apparently her issues stem from her gad-about mother and her indifferent father and her guilt over the untimely death of her lover. These fuel her downward slide into degradation.
Ending up in rehab at a clinic in Minnesota, she comes to an understanding of her problems and is released to return to New York City where nothing has changed except Miranda. Same old indifferent and absent parents, same old group of promiscuous and drug abusing "friends." But a hopeful new Miranda who doesn't want to end up like her parents and her dead lover.

I found this book a bit boring. I don't really sympathize with the poor little rich girl. The world is handed to her on a platter but she throws it all away for a booze, sex and drugs. Her idea of a good time, I guess. Her story is nothing new and she is pathetic.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Goodbye Kate

By Billy C. Clark

Isaac is out exploring the countryside, as boys tend to do, when he encounters an old mule.  Skinny and rough, Kate the mule has been scrounging a living in the Kentucky hills ever since her owner moved and left her behind. But Isaac and Kate immediately become pals and Kate follows him around like a pet dog.
Isaac is a country boy although his father has a shoe repair business in town. But Isaac's parents are not farmers and don't have a barn or stable where Kate can live. His parents sympathize with Isaac's love for his huge new friend but they can't afford to provide a home for the mule and they tell Isaac to find Kate a home somewhere else by wintertime.
But before that needs to happen, Isaac and Kate will have fun, exciting summer together including getting into a bit of trouble. They get caught stealing field corn, Kate takes on a skunk, and she also falls and hurts her leg.
But these minor troubles pale in comparison to the heap of trouble they land in when Isaac heads off to school in the fall and Kate refuses to be left behind.

This was a fun and touching story, kind of a combination of Mulberry RFD and No Time for Sergeants. Set in the 1940s or early 1950s, and copyrighted 1964, it is a trip to a time and place many would like to experience.

The Sister

By Poppy Adams

Ginny has lived alone for years in the falling- down mansion that used to be the biggest, best house in the area. But those days and the money that enabled them are gone for good. An old woman and crippled with arthritis, Ginny has shut most of the house up and sold off its contents. She lives alone.
It wasn't always like that, of course. She had a mother, a father and a younger sister.  The parents are deceased and the sister, Vivi, left decades ago. But now Vivi has sent Ginny a letter informing her that she is moving back home. Why, after decades of estrangement, Vivi is returning home, she doesn't say.
At first Ginny is thrilled her beloved little sister is coming home. But once Vivi is actually home, Ginny finds her presence too disruptive, too unsettling. And when Vivi starts to rehash old history, laying down a few home truths that Ginny refused to or was unable to see, it is intolerable for Ginny.
Ginny obviously has some kind of mental limitation, though precisely what it is isn't explained. Once the sisters are reunited it quickly becomes clear that they view their history together from completely different perspectives. It also becomes clear that no one in Ginny's life, not her parents, not her sister, not her doctor, not her teachers ever told her about her mental limitations. Ginny isn't stupid and she long ago figured out she was different. But she was never given a explanation as to why or any real help coping with it. So when Vivi pushes her way into Ginny's cocoon of solitude, it really upsets Ginny's precarious mental balance.

This was a rather slow story. I skipped over several paragraphs, especially the mothier parts (moths are an interest Ginny shared with her father).  Although it is usually interesting reading about dysfunctional families,  I didn't enjoy the mystery of what exactly Ginny's problem was, which is never made clear to the reader or even to Ginny. At one point, Vivi explains exactly what it is, but Ginny refuses to hear her and, since the story is told from only Ginny's perspective, the reader doesn't get to hear it either. Any way, the ending was pretty predictable. No real surprises there.

Published in the United Kingdom as The Behaviour of Moths.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Audrey Hepburn's Neck

By Alan Brown

Toshi was just a kid when his parents split up. The separation was amicable and Toshi got to spend time with both his parents. But he was never told why they separated.
Now a young man on his own, Toshi has moved away from the small Japanese fishing village where he grew up. He has a promising career, friends and lovers. But he still wonders about the silence between his parents that dominated his childhood. Why did his mother leave? Why is his father so sad? It isn't until his father has passed away that Toshi's mom reveals the shocking truth of their past.

I really enjoyed this story. As a boy, Toshi saw an Audrey Hepburn movie and was smitten by the beautiful actress. It inspired him to learn more about Westerners and to learn English. After he moves to Tokyo, he makes friends with several Americans, one of whom becomes his best friend after failing to seduce Toshi. But underneath it all, is the puzzle of his parents' failed marriage.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

The Dewey Decimal System of Love

By Josephine Carr

Alison Sheffield is a forty year old librarian and a near virgin. The last time she had an intimate relationship was in her twenties. But she likes her life, her job, her apartment, her friends. She is content. That is until she saw Aleksi Kullio. Handsome, talented Aleksi is the new symphony conductor and Alison is smitten. Problem is, Aleksi is married and his wife is beautiful, blonde, sexy: the very image of a trophy wife. How can a mousy, quiet, near-sighted, modest near-virgin librarian possibly compete with that?

This was fun read. For a mousy librarian, Alison has a lot going on in her life. Problems at work, volunteering at the concert hall (to get closer to Aleksi), strained relationships with both her father and mother. And a valuable document that has disappeared with the suspicion falling on Alison.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

Reap the Wild Wind

By Julie E. Czerneda

The world of Cersi is inhabited by three intelligent populations of beings. The Tikitik specialize in managing the swamp that nurtures their plantations of giant fruit trees. With their long, spindly limbs, they effortlessly climb through the trees. The Oud are pretty much the opposite of the Tikitik. They prefer life underground, humping along their tunnels like massive slugs, mining the ores they use for their various machines. And then there are the Om'ray, who are telepathic humans.
The Om'ray depend on the other two. They harvest the Tikitik plantations, they gather the scraps of metal discarded by the Oud to work into tools for their own use.
These three populations live in peace, abiding by the Agreement. They have all agreed to never change, never innovate. To do otherwise will endanger the peace.
But something has changed. Strangers have appeared on Cersi. And their arrival has upset the balance of the Agreement.

This was an interesting story. The main character is a girl, Aryl, who lives in a small village built high in the trees of the Tikitik plantation. She is one of the first to encounter an offworld artifact. And this turns her life upside down.
I do wish, though, the book wasn't quite so long. The paperback version was over 400 pages long.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Ties of Blood and Silver

By Joel Rosenberg

David is a young human thief. He works with a little girl, Marie, and they work for a cruel master, Carlos One-Hand. On the world where he lives, another alien species is also making a living, the schrift. The schrift are all connected telepathically. As David is admiring a handmade schrift pitcher, the schrift who made it, Eschteef, feels a telepathic connection with David. So, due a series of bad decisions on One-Hand's part that resulted in One-Hand's and Marie's deaths, David tries to rob Eschteef and gets caught in the act. Eschteef captures him and decides to keep him and try to make David part of the schrift community.

This was a good story. Interesting world, interesting aliens, but more violence than I care to read about.

Round Robin

By Jennifer Chiaverini

Sylvia runs a kind of quilting camp or quilting academy. People who are interested in quilting come and spend a week at her country home and attend classes about quilting taught by a group of her friends.
But this story isn't centered on the students who barely mentioned. Instead it is about this group of women brought together by their interest in quilting and about the ordinary trials and triumphs of life.
Sylvia is the leader of the group and the owner of country home where the classes are held and where the students stay. She is helped in this endeavour by her many close friends: Sarah whose husband Matt is having doubts about his career choice. Gwen and her daughter Summer who is going to disappoint her mother, Gwen. Bonnie and her husband Craig who is contemplating cheating with a younger woman. Agnes, whose brief marriage to Richard ended with his death in WW II along with Sylvia's husband. Diane and Tim who have two teenage sons and an irate neighbor who turns the
whole neighborhood against them. Judy, whose father abandoned her and her mother before Judy was born and who has received a letter from a sister she never knew she had. And finally there's Carol, Sarah's mom, who isn't part of the group of friends, but who shows up hoping to improve her relationship with the reluctant Sarah.

It doesn't really sound like much of a premise for a novel, but it was surprisingly interesting.  Starting out, I was expecting the story would center on the quilting students but they are not part of the story. Instead it is about this group of women. And I quite enjoyed it.
The author has a whole series of stories based on the Elm Creek quilters. Round Robin was the second one she wrote in the series. The Quilter's Apprentice was the first. You don't need to have read the first book to enjoy the second, although I think reading the first would have made understanding all the relationships easier.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

The Patient

By Michael Palmer

Dr. Jessie Copeland is a neurosurgeon who is working on a robotic tool to assist in removing difficult tumors. Claude Malloche is a  terrorist with a brain tumor. He has hatched a plan to force Dr. Jessie to perform surgery on him by blackmail. Unless she does what he orders, his cohorts will release poison gas throughout the city.
Claude may be a smart, ruthless terrorist. But when it comes to brains, he has met his match in Dr. Jessie.

This was a pretty good story. One of the best things about it was Dr. Jessie. She is a true heroine and not only saves herself, she also saves the city, with a little help from a government agent, Alex Bishop, who has been trying to capture Claude for five years. Too bad he didn't have Dr. Jessie to help him back then.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Handyman

By Linda Nichols

Jake Cooper is a contractor hired by Dr. Golding, a psychologist, to install a hot tub in the doctor's office. Dr. Golding is not available to oversee the work because he is in the hospital undergoing bypass surgery.
So Jake is alone at Golding's office when a distraught woman, Maggie Ivey, appears for her first appointment with the doctor whom she as never met before. She mistakes Jake for Golding and he fails to correct her error because she obviously needs a sympathetic ear and she is also very cute.
Jake allows the deception to continue, even going so far as to enlist the help of his family and friends. So "Doctor Golding" continues to use the
actual doctor's identity & office to see Maggie. Of course, eventually the chickens will come home to roost, and Jake will be in serious trouble.
Which is the last thing he wants because he has fallen for sweet, needy Maggie. How will he get himself out of the hole has dug himself into?

This was a pretty good story despite its ridiculous premise. I enjoyed this
simple romance story even if it didn't make much sense. And even though the Maggie character only needs a good man in her life to make all her problems go away, LOL. Shades of the 1950s!

Review by Publishers Weekly.

The Lion's Game

By Nelson DeMille

John Corey works on a New York team that fights against terrorism. The team has an important new case when a passenger jet arrives at the airport on autopilot with everyone on board dead. But one passenger is not among the dead, Asad Khalil, a terrorist who was being brought in to the USA by government agents. But the agents are among the dead and Khalil is missing.

Corey figures out that the plane load of dead passengers and crew are just the opening act in Khalil's revenge play. He's gunning for the bomber crews that wiped out his family in Libya. And he is also aiming for the man that authorized the bombing, the now-retired Ronald Reagan.

This was a pretty good story. However, the ending was disappointing. Spoiler alert: the terrorist gets away. For some reason, the author lets the man responsible for over three hundred deaths escape. Maybe it's a cliffhanger to lure the reader on to the next book in the series.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

City of Ghosts

By Victoria Schwab

Cassidy Blake, Book One.

Cassidy Blake nearly died drowning. But she was rescued by a boy who became her best friend, Jacob. And ever since that near-death experience, Cassidy can sense and see ghosts. The first ghost she ever saw was Jacob. Jacob was already a ghost when he saved her from drowning.
Now Cassidy's parents are traveling to Edinburgh, Scotland to film a TV show and Cassidy will be with them along with Jacob the ghost who has attached himself to her. How and why he has done this, he can't or won't
say. But Cassidy doesn't mind since Jacob is the only friend she has.
Together the two teens, one living and one dead, will take on one of the most haunted cities in the world, Edinburgh, with the help of local teen,
Lara, the ghost hunter.

This was an okay story. Intended for teens and older children, it was a fast and easy read. This book is the first in a series. Although this first book was okay, I didn't find it interesting enough to continue on with the series. It ought to appeal to its intended audience, though.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.