Although it is never fun to have to come home from vacation, I had a nice surprise. Two books were waiting for me!

The first book was an Advance Reader Copy (ARC) of Heresy by S.J. Parris that I received from Doubleday. I have started to read this book and it looks like it will be an interesting read.

Summary from the Publisher:

Masterfully blending true events with fiction, this blockbuster historical thriller delivers a page-turning murder mystery set on the sixteenth-century Oxford University campus.

Giordano Bruno (wikipedia) was a monk, poet, scientist, and magician on the run from the Roman Inquisition on charges of heresy for his belief that the Earth orbits the sun and that the universe is infinite. This alone could have got him burned at the stake, but he was also a student of occult philosophies and magic.

In S. J. Parris’s gripping novel, Bruno’s pursuit of this rare knowledge brings him to London, where he is unexpectedly recruited by Queen Elizabeth I and is sent undercover to Oxford University on the pretext of a royal visitation. Officially Bruno is to take part in a debate on the Copernican theory of the universe; unofficially, he is to find out whatever he can about a Catholic plot to overthrow the queen.

His mission is dramatically thrown off course by a series of grisly murders and a spirited and beautiful young woman. As Bruno begins to discover a pattern in these killings, he realizes that no one at Oxford is who he seems to be. Bruno must attempt to outwit a killer who appears obsessed with the boundary between truth and heresy.

Like The Dante Club and The Alienist, this clever, sophisticated, exceptionally enjoyable novel is written with the unstoppable narrative propulsion and stylistic flair of the very best historical thrillers.

The second book I received was a signed copy of St. Patrick and the Three Brave Mice by Joyce Stengel. What better way to promote a book than to have a drawing to give away a few signed copies. My email was one of the lucky ones!

I have read the story, it is well written and the illustrations are great. I cannot wait till the grandkids come over and I can read it to them (or have Johannes read it to me).

From the Inside Flap:

One sleepless night, with the moon high, the little mouse Tulla scurries from her nest. As she quietly enjoys the evening, the peace is interrupted by Snake slithering from the forest. He is the only snake left in Ireland, the lone creature who has been clever enough to escape St. Patrick and his miraculous bell–and he has a taste for mouse meals. Her whiskers quivering with fright, Tulla watches Snake as he stealthily steals the bell from a sleeping St. Patrick. Despite her fear, Tulla devises a plan just as crafty as Snake’s. With the help of two brave mice, she will restore the bell and help St. Patrick rid the Emerald Isle of its last snake.

Thanks so much!

I just received notice from the Barnes & Noble Sneak Peak program that I will be receiving an Advance Reader’s Copy (ARC) of the book Seized: A Sea Captain’s Adventures Battling Scoundrels and Pirates While Recovering Stolen Ships in the World’s Most Troubled Waters by Max Hardberger.

Barnes & Noble’s ‘Sneak Peek’ is a two week club that gives a lucky few the opportunity to receive a free Advance Reader’s Copy and discuss the book with others as well as the author. Copies of the book, which are extremely limited, will be given on a first come, first served basis.

Synopsis from Barnes & Noble

Seized throws open the hatch on the shadowy world of maritime shipping, where third-world governments place exorbitant liens against ships, pirates seize commercial vessels with impunity, crooks and con artists reign supreme on the docks and in the shipyards-and hapless owners have to rely on sea captain Max Hardberger to recapture their ships and win justice on the high seas.

A ship captain, airplane pilot, lawyer, teacher, writer, adventurer, and raconteur, Max Hardberger recovers stolen freighters for a living. In Seized, he takes us on a real-life journey into the mysterious world of freighters and shipping, where fortunes are made and lost by the whims of the waves. Desperate owners hire Max Hardberger to “extract” or steal back ships that have been illegitimately seized by putting together a mission-impossible team to sail them into international waters under cover of darkness. It’s a high stakes assignment-if Max or his crew are caught, they risk imprisonment or death.

Seized takes readers behind the scenes of the multibillion dollar maritime industry, as he recounts his efforts to retrieve freighters and other vessels from New Orleans to the Caribbean, from East Germany to Vladivostak, Russia, and from Greece to Guatemala. He resorts to everything from disco dancing to women of the night to distract the shipyard guards, from bribes to voodoo doctors to divert attention and buy the time he needs to sail a ship out of a foreign port without clearance. Seized is adventure nonfiction at its best.

I am looking forward to reading the book and participating in the discussion!

Review

Modern sensibilities are challenged and unable to protect our young protagonist, Dana, when she finds herself transported to the Antebellum South. She will travel back to plantation life 6 times to ‘save’ a young boy as he grows up. She soon realizes that he is (or is going to be) her great-great-grandfather. Her great-great-grandmother will be one of his slaves. Dana finds herself stuck between two worlds, how things ought to be (1976) and reality (1800s).

Using the ‘trick’ of time travel, the author does not let us distance ourselves from the ugliness of slavery. Dana is not allowed to be just an observer but finds herself dealing with the realities of slavery and that she must compromise her principles to survive. We are not able to stay detached, as you could in some documentary or fictional story that is appreciated and then forgotten but instead we, with our modern sensibilities, are forced to travel with her.

Dana does not return unscathed by her experience with slavery. Each time she goes back to the past she brings back more scars with her, both physical and psychological. Why does she loose her arm on her last trip? Possibly to show us that Dana will be permanently scarred by her experience, much the same way that America has been scarred by our expericence with slavery.

Reading To End All Wars, I was shocked and horrified by the callousness of the Japanese. Yet America’s treatment of black slaves was no less inhumane. The Japanese and the plantation owners both abused and terrorized their captives in much the same way. Looked at this way, it is much harder to condemn the Japanese for something that is not so far removed from our own history.

I truly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone wanting to read a great story. I guess the fact that I read the 260 pages in 3 days attests to how much the story intrigued me.

First Sentence

• I lost an arm on my last trip home.

Rating

poor | mediocre | okay | good | EXCELLENT

Source: Mid-Columbia Library

Started: 02/02/2010 – Finished: 02/04/2010