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Every Tuesday Diane from Bibliophile By the Sea hosts First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros, where participants share the first paragraph (or a few) of a book they are reading or thinking about reading soon.
Book Beginnings on Fridays hosted by Rose City Reader, where bloggers share the first sentence or more of a current read, as well as initial thoughts about the sentence(s), impressions of the book, or anything else that the opening inspires.
The prison was quiet and Tom Bishop couldn’t sleep. He did one thousand
push-ups and stopped when he heard footsteps echo down the hall.
It was 12:37 AM.
‘Open, two, four, nine,’ a voice called out.
The metal locks disengaged and the door pulled open to reveal the round silhouette of a guard. Bishop recognised his shape – it was Gale. Not too bright but he didn’t pretend to be otherwise. ‘Get dressed. You’re being transferred.’
Bishop glanced around at his small four-by-eight cell. ‘I was just beginning to like it here.’
Title: Out Of Exile
Author: Luke Preston
ISBN: 9781760080495
Publisher: Momentum Books/2013
Pages: 248
When ex-cop Tom Bishop is taken out of prison in dead of night, he does not know what to expect. Then he finds out that the cops who wanted him out of prison are bad cops. They expect him to be one of them.
He finds himself in the midst of a conspiracy which is connected to his past. He also knows that that he can never be one of the corrupt cops. He is now a part of the kidnappers of the family of one of his ex colleagues and he has to save them. He puts his life in stake to do that.
What follows is an adrenaline pumping thriller which makes us sit on the edge. The fine line between good and bad cops is difficult to understand. But Luke Preston has done that very well. Action packed, violent to boot, yet there is economy of words. More of a mind play. It stays long after one finishes it.
Cut off. Alexander had finally done it. She’d wondered, with her pittance of an allowance coming later and later every quarter, whether this was where it was headed. She scanned the letter again, searching for any sign of filial affection. There was none. Rather, she detected anger behind his words. Her present situation could only refer to her being divorced. If he truly felt no obligation to support his divorced sister, why had it taken him nearly three years to say so?
Posted for The Friday 56, which is hosted by Freda's Voice
Once a Duchess by Elizabeth Boyce
Duchess Isabelle Fairfax is wrongfully accused of infidelity by her particularly awful mother-in-law and ceremoniously divorced then cut off without a penny by both her former husband, Duke of Monthwaite and by her own brother. But she is not one to give up and works as a cook in inn in a remote village. Marshal Lockwood, the Duke stops at that inn and finds her working there. Marshal is surprised to know that his ex-wife is a wonderful cook. He starts having serious doubts about her infidelity as he had expected her to be living comfortably with that other person. He writes to Isabelle’s brother and encourages him to take his sister back. Her brother decides that the solution to everyone’s problems is to get Isabelle married off as soon as possible. Isabelle has no other option and agrees.
Isabelle and Marshal have been manipulated by his mother. Marshal realizes it and makes it all right. He publicly apologises for divorcing her wrongfully. They discover they have still something going between them and try to right the wrongs done to them.
Elizabeth Boyce has covered a difficult subject of divorce in the 19th century. The story may have some misgivings but the topic covered was very relevant of that period.
My face burns with the heat of a hundred stares. No one is looking at Amos King's handmade casket as they are all too busy looking at me. Even Tobias cannot hide his disgust when he reaches out a hand, and then realizes he has not extended it towards his angelic wife, who was too weak to come, but to her fallen twin. Drawing the proffered hand back, Tobias buffs the knuckles against his jacket as if to clean them and slips his hand beneath the Bible. All the while his black eyes remain fixed on me until Eli emits a whimper that awakens the new bishop to consciousness.
Title: The Outcast
Author: Jolina Petersheim
ISBN: 9781414379340
Publisher: Tyndale House/2013
Pages: 400
Old Order Mennonite community
The novel is narrated in two voices, one by the protagonist, Rachel Stoltzfus, and the other is Amos King, who is being buried right in the first chapter. The four main characters in the novel are Rachel and her identical twin, Leah, Tobias and his brother, Jacob. Leah is married to Tobias. Jacob has always been in love with Rachel.
Now that would have been so ideal, two brothers marrying two sisters. However, we find Rachel is an unwed mother of a few months old son, Eli. She has refused to divulge the name of the father of her child. For that she is shunned by her own family except for her twin sister, Leah. Rachel does not care much about what everyone thinks but cares deeply for her child and her sister. She is thrown out of the house by Tobias and a large hearted woman, Ida Mae takes her in. And then Rachel finds out that her son has Leukemia. She thinks her son is being punished for her sins.
The novel explores well the complexities of life. That is, lust, sin, betrayal, single parenting, family loyalties, conflict between religion and medicine, repentance and forgiveness.
The Outcast is modern version of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Her lip curled. I could see
that she hated me.
It was odd
how the hatred went on
for days and days and years and years.
I began to feel I could
count on it. It was a steady
reliable hatred. Not like
baled hay
which can rot.
Our Held Animal Breath, Poems by Kathryn Kirkpatrick
Title: Our Held Animal Breath: Poems
Author: Kathryn Kirkpatrick
ISBN: 9781936370917
Publisher: WordTech Communications/2012)
Pages: 95
All the forty-four poems in the volume are extremely readable. The poems are about everyday stuff like hiking, meditating and gardening. The emotions range from hurt, loss and confusion, understanding and rational optimism. Hope and determination intermingle with loss and fear.
Her poems reflect politics as well as gives us a glimpse of Blue Ridge Mountains and other such places. Current events are narrated well. With deep understanding and feelings.
I could relate to the way she has portrayed women. I felt as if I know them, which I do...my mother, my neighbours, work colleagues and lot more. It was as if I was reading about the lives of the women I know.
Let me share another poem.
Driving Home
Musing Mondays asks you to muse about something related to reading/books each week…...
I am going post mini reviews of two historical romances:
Winter Heart by Jane Bonander
This novel speaks about horrors of mental institutions in 19th century America. Dinah Odell has been put in one such institution by her greedy uncle. Daisy, a dying nurse at Trenway, helps Dinah escape and take her place caring for a mentally unstable girl at a ranch in California. Tristan Fletcher is a rancher. Dinah has to care for his sister Emily. Dinah is in hiding from her uncle and Tristan has been too scarred in his past to contemplate a serious relationship with anyone. But they are both drawn to each other. Will their past lives drive them apart?
Olivia Greyson could feel his eyes watching her. She knew what was going on, and she refused to be duped. Olivia concentrated on the cardboard box next to her on the sofa. The contents glowed in the soft light from the lamp on the side table. Olivia lifted one of the objects, a shiny aluminium butterfly shape, possibly the last cookie cutter her friend Clarisse Chamberlaine had purchased. A few weeks later she'd been murdered.
Title: One Dead Cookie
Author: Virginia Lowell
ISBN: 9780425260692
Publisher: Berkeley Prime Crime/2013
Pages: 293
Olivia and Maddie own a cookie shop, The Gingerbread House. Their baking is so good that all their cookies are eaten up in no time! They bake for any kind of theme parties. It is Maddie's engagement party and both are busy baking for that.
Trevor Lane, a soap opera star is found dead on the porch of The Gingerbread House. It seems he is not so popular with the people over there. He has too many enemies. When Olivia and Maddie's childhood friend Stacey's ex-husband is implicated, they know they have to find out the murderer. In the the midst of mad baking they surf the net and talk to people.
Both Oilivia and Maddie are very endearing. And so is Olivia's puppy, Spunky. OLivia tiny mother Ellie to is a memorable character. They solve the case on Maddie's engagement day.
With mad going ons and weird stuff happening, this is one good cozy mystery. It is 4th in the series of the cookie cutter mystery but is a stand alone novel. Reading it one simply wishes to keep on munching decorated cookies. I learnt a lot about cookie cutters!
It didn’t take you long to
Work me out
You seem to know me
All the way, well
I guess you knew my inside parts
You knew the beating of my heart
Like no-one else knew
We must remember
Somewhere
Where we knitted together in
Our mother’s warmth.
~Once a mother always a mother by Sue Oaks
Short Stories on Motherhood by Sue Oaks
All the five short stories touch us in some way or the other. Those are not the traditional stories of motherhood but very different, modern, magical, surreal and hard hitting. It is not easy to review the stories but I would say, the book ought to be read by all. Mothers, daughter, fathers and sons.
I have read too many romances in the form of e-books. And none of those need a full review. So I thought I would do Mini Reviews! All these novels can be found free! From Amazon. I read those with the help of a Kindle For PC, which can be downloaded for free from there. Try it! Works GREAT!!
Once a Cowboy by Linda Warren
Alex is a private investigator who works with her dad, and she is hired by a woman who has seen a photo in a newspaper of Brodie Hayes,a former rodeo star. And thinks that he is her long lost son stolen from the hospital forty years ago. Alex tracks him down and unknown to him takes something from for a DNA sample. Initially Alex is skeptical about the whole thing but somehow it is not really closed case at all. She starts to empathize with Brodie. It is not really a superficial romance although the does does suggest that. It has depth and the characterization is good even of those who have grey shades. The love story is only secondary to the story of stolen child..that is Brodie...
The Bride's Baby by Liz Fielding
Tom and Sylvie have an one-night stand and as a consequence Sylvie gets pregnant. When Tom sees Sylvie after a few months, he thinks she is having a baby by some other man and also thinks Sylvie is going to marry that man. Both are in love with each other but they don't say it. This novel is all about misunderstanding. And it kind of finishes fast. The characters are too proud to talk about their feeling. Made a fast and easy read.
A Very Special Delivery by Linda Goodnight
In a stormy night, the reclusive Ethan Hunter leaves his infant daughter in Molly's care. She is terrified but does care for the little girl. And when he returns to get his daughter back, Molly and Ethan are stuck in the farmhouse during the snowstorm, but when they're back in the real world that their relationship starts. Molly, who has withdrawn from society after being part of a horrific tragedy, is forced to get and it seems she can't Ethan. Both Molly and Ethan have histories and troubled pasts but they do deal with that to find happiness with each other.
Click on the titles to get all those downloaded for free!!
To be continued, next Sunday.......
"They've been using the money to fund eco-terrorism. Paying for safe houses. Guns. Bombs."
~Page 210
Title: Out At Night
Author: Susan Arnout Smith
ISBN: 978-0007275519
Publisher: Minotaur Books/2009
Pages: 283
When Professor Thaddeus Bartholomew is being chased by a killer, he has no time other other than type a text message with the name of Grace Descanso, before he is killed. He is found in a soy field, with a crossbow shot in his chest.
Grace, is a crime-scene tech and is on a vacation with her daughter. FBI has no compunctions about getting in touch with her. Grace has only a vague recollection of the Prof and does not understand his last text before his death. Her Uncle Pete, who is in the FBI does not want her to walk away.
When she starts the investigations in her own way, she finds her family involved in it. And the genetically modified soy is only a scratch in the surface. And the Prof. murder is not a random act! there are politicians, and agriculturists involved. It is always question of money.
Out At Night is very real. In the sense that by modifying our plant life, we are playing God, creating havoc for the nature, for humanity. The initial want of better yields, has given way to destruction, power and money. We need to tackle those questions.
‘For generations, Europeans have treated Africa like a playground. We’ve carved it up amongst ourselves, stolen its riches and not given a damn about the poor people who live here.’
~Page 4
Title: Out Of Shadows
Author: Jason Wallace
ISBN: 978-1849390484
Publisher: Andersen Press/2010
Pages: 320
Back Cover
Zimbabwe: 1980s -
The war is over, independence has been won and Robert Mugabe has come to power offering hope, land and freedom to black Africans. It is the end of the Old Way and the start of a promising new era.
For Robert Jacklin, it's all new: new continent, new country, new school. And very quickly he is forced to understand a new way of thinking, because for some of his classmates the sound of guns is still loud, and their battles rage on... white boys who want their old country back, not this new black African government.
Boys like Ivan.
Clever, cunning, wicked Ivan. For him, there is still one last battle to fight, and he's taking it right to the very top...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My views:
Out of Shadows is told from the point of view of Robert Jacklin. When he arrives in Zimbawbe, he is not too happy. Everything is new for him, the country, the school, friends. He feels so lost.
But he too gets adjusted slowly, pulled into a set of friends, who don't like the new way of thinking in the country. For them, racism still persists, guns are always out, torture is the way of life. Anarchy can't be wished away.
Robert knows right from wrong but he can't get away from Ivan and his friends. In the way of growing up. Robert is forced to choose. Most of the time, being in the wrong. He lets down the very person he was friends with. When he learns the darkest secrets of his so called friends, he knows he has to get away from his friends and do the right thing. But is it already too late?
We see Robert growing up in the five years that follows, both in body and his thinking. He can differentiate between right and wrong and go with what he knows is the righ path. Boys like Ivan can never understand that and, can never grow up.
Jason Wallace has shown us the ugliest side of the newly founded Zimbawe, where corruption persits. Killing is the norm. There is no difference between right and wrong.
On a personal note, one of my closest friends had lived in Zimbawe in that period. Sheused to tell us about the rampant anarchy going on and no one seemed to care. When one her relatives was bruttaly raped by three people, they left the country. She has very bad memories of those times.
I passed on the book to her and she told me she was crying halfway through the book. Maybe someday, I will post her thoughts about the book here.
It is not an easy read or a comfort readbut I will say it is a must read. It is the only way we can prevent something like this from happening in our parts of the world. By awareness and determination.
I posted the following few weeks ago. I do so now too. Just think about what it says:
If I stood you in front of a man, pressed a gun into your palm and told you to squeeze the trigger, would you do it?
No, sir.
Are you sure?
Of course, sir. No ways!
What if I then told you we'd gone back in time and his name was Adolf Hitler? Would you do it then?' Would you? Would you?
I'd want to ask him: Why?
~Page 277
This book arrived unsolicited, from the author. I am very glad he sent it to me.
"You heard he was rich, is that it?" he accused, still pacing. "And now that he's hurt, you're just bidding your time until he dies so you can get your hands on his money. Jesus, what kind of woman are you?"
Title: One Scream Away
Author: Kate Brady
ISBN: 9780446541527
Publisher: Forever/2009
Pages: 423
One Scream Away is all over the book blogging world, either reviewed or in giveaways. It is what is supposed to be psycho thriller, or should I call it romantic thriller? The latter sounds more like it.
Chevy Bankes is free from prison and is hunting for Beth Denison. On his way to her, he kills a lot of women and leaves behind lots of clues including antique dolls. After he kills those women, he calls Beth from their cellphones and lets her know he is getting nearer and nearer. He likes to listen to the sreams of those women he kills and keeps a record of those.
Neil, a ex-FBI agent is brought in see how is Beth involved in all this. At first it is taken that she is somehow involved with the murderer or is an accomplish in those murders. Neil discovers she is a woman with a past and can go to any length to protect her six year old daughter. Although Beth lets him protect her and her daughter, yet she conceals her secret. Chevy is always one step ahead. He knows exactly the whereabouts of Beth and her daughter and is getting closer and closer.
Neil falls for Beth in a very short period of time. Ok, she has a sweet daughter but that isn't any reason for falling in love with her so fast?
One Scream away is kind of a fast read. And utterly forgettable after reading it. Chevy has some problems. He has a mother fixation and loves his sister Jenny dearly. And kills woman for no apparant reason. A true psychopath one might call him. However, killing so many innocent women just to get to Beth did not gel with me. I found there are too many people trying to protect Beth but what about those other women, who were killed? And what took the police so long to learn about Jenny, especially when she had gone missing since she was a small child? And how does Chevy find her after all these years. Beth kept her past hidden for seven years. If she had told it all seven years back, Chevy would still be in jail, all those women still alive and no novel written by Kate Brady! Is that a good thing or bad, I am not sure!
I like psycho thrillers. And getting into the killers mind. And not being able to predict till the end about the motivation. Here I could predict it much before and somehow knew about Chevy's mother and his sister right in the middle. And I am not really all for drop-dead georgeous ex-FBI agents whose brains seem to be in the wrong place.
This book is for those, who don't wish to think much after reading it. For all its fault, it is definitely a very fast read and I did like the epilogue. That redeems this novel to a large extent. Of course it works well for increasing your book count too.
Title: The Outcast
Author: Sadie Jones
ISBN: 978099513421
Publisher: Vintage Books/2008
Rating: 4.5/5
There was nobody there to meet him. He stood in line behind three other men and watched them get their things and sign the papers, and walk out, and the all did it the same way, as if you couldn't choose how to do a thing like that after all the time you'd been waiting for it. It made the same man out of all of them.
This is about Lewis Aldridge, who is nineteen and just has been released from prison after two years of sentence. He knows he is not welcome home but he has nowhere else to go. No one accepts him into their fold. He is ignored totally. Only Kit, a fifteen year old girl, awaits eagerly for his return. He barely even notices her.
When Lewis was six years old, he had waited with his mother for his father's homecoming from the war. Lewis is a happy child who loves his mother and is also well liked by the other children of Waterford. He is in awe of his father. However, tragedy strikes. His mother dies by drowning while they had both gone for a swim. Ten-year old Lewis is unable to cope with it. And father and son instead of getting closer, drift further apart. Gilbert Aldridge marries Alice within a year of Elizabeth's death. To give her credit, twenty-six year old Alice tries to bond with the boy who is too bruised to respond. But she is too young, naive and inexperienced.
Lewis becomes prone to brooding. He harms himself with razor cuts, starts drinking and one day runs away to a London club, staying there overnight. When he returns home, punishment is waiting for him. There is no love between father and son.
Gilbert is an over-bearing father who shuts himself from his own son. He does nothing to help the boy. Instead he remarries to overcome his own loneliness. Even with Alice, he is impatient. He does not seem to appreciate that she is trying to help Lewis. He further isolates Lewis. All this deep resentment accumulates inside the mind of Lewis and one day, he burns down the church. He is jailed for two years. No one visits him while he is there.
We observe a hypocritical society in Waterford. Here people are obssessed with proper behaviour and outer appearances. What dark thing goes on is ignored. They behave as if war did not happen. They follow a routine. There has to be church on Sunday, lunch parties at the Carmichaels', which is attended by every family. Dicky Carmichael calls the shot. He is socially much respected. But only his wife Clair, daughter Tamsin and Kit are is aware of his violent ways and they keep quiet about it. Kit bears the brunt of his beatings.
Lewis has been bruised mentally by his own father and Kit has faced beatings from a violent father. Only Kit can understand Lewis. When he realises that she loves him for what he really is, he knows he has to rescue her from her violent father.
This book is powerful. Very gripping and it asks us, who is the outcast? The boy, whom no one understands or the people who made him so? Lewis too comes to understand that none of it is his fault. Only then he finds the peace he seeks. Within himself. He comes to term with the fact that he is not flawed. The people who are around him are flawed.
As a first novel, it is a wonderful work by Sadie Jones. It kind of pulls us in from page one and keeps us riveted. Even after finishing it, I was haunted by it. Dark, brooding, yet so beautifully written.
Read another review of this book here:
Mindy Withrow
Title: One Foot in the Black
Author: Kurt L. Kamm
ISBN: 9781435706262/2007
Pages: 241
This book is a story of a wildland firefighter. Greg has some major issues with his father, a Saginaw city firefighter. He craves for love and acceptance from him. But his father is unconcerned about his own family. Greg's mother loves him but she too is abused by Greg's father. After a while she too leaves her children to their own devices. Greg is no longer close to his younger sister, Vicky.
Greg decides to join the fire department to prove something to his father. However, his father is only too pleased to see him leave home and does not want anything to do with him. Greg goes o California to become a seasonal firefighter with CDF. From there he goes on to LACoFD Helitak-Attack training academy. When his crew is trapped on a mountainside in an explosive wildfire in which his captain TB dies, he suffers from major trauma. Meantime, his father too dies in a fire in Saginaw, the night before this. Greg accepts his mentor's death but he has problem coping with his father's death, whom he had hated all his life. He feels that his father deliberately deserted him by dying before he could prove himself to him. Greg finally finds peace within his family of firefighters.
I had not read about anything on firefighting before this. It opened my eyes to the dangers of fire. And to the fact that firefighters endanger their own lives to control it. This has been well researched. And makes a real good read. One does not wish for it to end. Wildland fire is one of most dangerous of fires. Kamm has written a good book which is both enjoyable as well as informative. It has a good pace and finishes very fast. I liked the ending too. I say, go for it!
Title: On Human Bondage/1915
Author: W. Somerset Maugham
ISBN: 055321392X
Publisher: Bantam Classics
Pages: 712
I have had it in my TBR pile for very long. I read it for the 24 hour read-a-thon. It is a big tome of a book and needs concentration to go through it. Philip Carey who is born club footed, is orphaned at the age of nine. His Uncle, a vicar brings him up. The couple are middle aged and do not have children. So they do not know how to deal with him. We see that Philip gets adjusted to his surroundings fast enough. Once he discovers reading, there is no stopping him.
He is sent to a school, where he does not finish the final year and leaves for Heidelberg and then Paris where he wishes to be an artist. He comes back to London and gets enrolled into medicines to be a doctor like his late father. Here he meets Mildred, a shop girl and is enslaved to her. His love for her is obssessive, without any rhyme or reason. She is not worth any of the anguish he goes through for her. She is exploitive and manipulative. He despite knowing the facts cannot escape his deep desire and passion for her.
This novel is about sexual obssession, a journey into self awareness and self discovery. Philip does realise his own self worth and finds true love. He is club footed. In no way it deters us from loving him. We are exasperated by his obssession for Mildred. We wish for him to get over it.
On Human Bondage is truly one of the greatest novel written in th 20th century, and is a work of genius. Any one who is in a self-discovery path can relate to this book instantly.
Title: Once Upon a Time When We Were Coloured
Author: Clifton L. Taulbert
ISBN: 0140244778
Publisher: Peguin Books/1989
Pages: 153
Genre: Non-fiction
The author writes about his life in Glan Alla, Mississippi. In a coloured set up. He fondly recalls his family, his cousins, friends. He tals about the feeliing of community along with segregation from whites. That did not affect the deep love he shared with his community, family, cousins and friends.
The picking up of otton, a job in the field of ice delivery, the arrival of minstrel show and festivities. All these sustain him. Despite hardships, he never lets go of his hopes and dreams and he does make something of his lie.
Those people he grew up with, might have been uneducated by our standards. But the most important thing they taught him was, family values and love. Being coloured in a white set up does not deter them. It fact it made them strong and self reliant. With underlying humour, this book tackles the irony of life rather very beautifully.
