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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.
I arrived in this port with very few belongings: four shirts, my calligraphy implements, and a heart in a glass jar. The shirts were threadbare and ink-stained, my quills ruined by the sea air. The heart, however, was intact, indifferent to the voyage, the storms, the humidity. Hearts only wear out in life; after that, nothing can heart them.
Title: Voltaire's Calligrapher
Author: Pablo De SantisISBN: 9780061479885
Publisher: Harper Perennial/2010 (2001)
Pages: 149
Dalessius is a calligrapher, (Calligraphy is a dying art now). He painstakingly inscribes the legal orders of the dying aristocracy. Meanwhile the printing press is spreading fast. He gets to work for the renowned philosopher Voltaire, who sends Dalessius to Toulouse to investigate a murder trial where a father is accused of killing his son before he could convert to Catholicism. While searching their home, Dalessius finds evidences which prove that the son had suicidal tendencies. However, the bloodthirsty people demand his father’s execution. Feeling helpless to stop the execution, Dalessius turns to another intriguing mystery. The hearse that carried him to Toulouse also carried the body of beautiful young woman. She is alive and lives in a hidden house. Dalessius discovers that she is an automaton. He returns to Paris to searching for the maker of such a marvel.
He was not going to kill her immediately. No—if there was one thing he had learned, it was to savor the moment, to be deliberate and purposeful. Like a predator in the wild, he would waste no energy. He needed to be careful, efficient, and resourceful. And above all, he needed to be patient.
He put the pen on the desktop, picked up the coffee mug and took a sip.
"A foreign diplomat kills an American citizen and there's nothing you can do about it. Is that what you're telling me?"
~~~Page 21
Title: Voices of the Dead
Author: Peter Leonard
ISBN: 9781611880328
Publisher: The Story Plant/2012
Pages: 296
Set in 1971, Voices of the Dead takes us back to the horrors of the Holocaust. Harry is scrap dealer. His daughter is killed in an accident caused by a drunken German Diplomat. The diplomat has immunity and can't be prosecuted. Harry wants justice at any cost and follows the diplomat to Munich. Harry is Jew who has survived a Dachau, a concentration camp. When he revisits Munich, he relives the horror and finds links of it with the German Diplomat. There are random murders of Jews and somehow all these are linked. Harry slowly unravels all that but he cannot prove anything. How justice is meted out is the highlight of the novel. The writing is good, and Leonard can do dialogue excellently.
It might appear to be a thriller but has so much pathos about Holocaust. It cuts deep into the reader's mind and heart. The pace is such that, one does not wish to put it down at any point. It is a dark book, which might not gel with everyone. But I think all of us should read everything ever written on/about the holocaust. We owe it to those who died because of it, and survived despite it.
Voices of the Dead made sure that I read more novels by Peter Leonard. And that of his father, Elmore Leonard.
Posted for Partners In Crime Tours
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.......
Title: Virgin Widow
Autor: Anne O'Brien
ISBN: 978-0778303756
Publisher: Mira/2010
Pages: 624
Book Description: Anne Neville is the heiress and daughter of the greatest powerbroker in the land, Warwick the Kingmaker. Trapped in a deadly tangle of political intrigue, she is a pawn in an uncertain game, used by the houses of Neville, York and Lancaster alike.
In England’s glittering, treacherous court, not all wish to see the Neville’s raised high. The Earl of Warwick’s ambition and pride lead him into an attempt to depose the Yorkist King; his treason forces his family into exile.
Humiliated and powerless in a foreign land, Anne must find the courage and the wit to survive in a man’s world.
My views:
Anne O'Brien is not very well known, although she was married to Richard III. Here here story is told in such a manner that we are drawn into the political intrigue and treachery. Earl of Warwick uses his own daughter to further his own selfish interest. Edward Lancaster, a volatile person, even though married to Anne, doesn't treat her well. He is totally influenced by Margaret of Anjou. She does not allow them to get close to each other. Anne, at a young age 14 year, faces too much tribulations. Yet she does not give up. She knows she has to carve a niche for herself. Medieval England comes alive for us. It is a tome of a book. But that did not deter me from reading it at two sittings. It is a must read for history lovers. Anne's thoughts might have been fictionlised by she has been given a great voice here. It seems as real as the history of that time. Maybe it is, if she had been given a voice at that time.
"How long have you been sitting here in my solarium, reading my newspaper and drinking my coffee?" he said to David.
Title: Venom
Author: Joan Brady
ISBN: 9780743267908
Publisher: Simon and Schuster/2010
Pages: 470
Physicist Helen Freyl owns a colony of bees, whose venom can save people from radiation poisoning. Everyone worth is salt is after the same venom. Helen is not aware of the facts but she is not keen to sell her colony of bees to anyone. Sir Charles Hay, a friend of her late father wants it badly and even woos Helen to get hold of it. He succeeds in getting engaged to her but somehow Helen is not very keen to marry him. When a few people in her vicinity are found dead, who have been involved in finding out facts about Soviet villages deliberately contaminated with radiation poisoning, Helen knows her life is in danger.
She calls for help from David Marion, whom she had known from her childhood, but who is now presumed dead by everyone. Both join forces to get into the bottom of the industrial espionage. What they find is greed, massive human tragedy, all in the name to gain control of a venom, which can save millions of lives. Everyone is out there to make moneyout of the venom.
With an ex-convict as the hero, a phycist as our heroine, both having a strong attraction between them right from their childhood, it makes an interesting book. Helen's grandmother is so spunky that she makes the book come alive. Other secondary characters too are well depicted and their presence is essential for the book to move forward. The book stings us alright, but at the right places. Fast paced, and very well written, this Venom is addictive!
Thanks to publishers for my copy of ARC.
TItle: The Valentine Legacy
Author: Catherine Coulter
ISBN: 0515118362
Publisher: Jove Books/1996
Pages: 406
Book Blurb
In the early 1820s, horse racing was a down and dirty sport. James Wyndham, who owns racing stables in both England and America, finds his racing nemesis in red-haired Jessie Warfield, renowned hoyden and champion jockey, who knows as many dirty racing tricks as James does. When either wins a race, the other's nose gets rubbed in the dirt.
Jessie has known James for six years, since she was fourteen years old. She often wants to kick him for the way he treats her, but more importantly, she adores him. She just doesn't know how to show it.
When chance throws Jessie out of a tree, landing her on top of James, she is pronounced Ruined. When she decided to run, she really goes for it, all the way to England, to James's cousins Marcus and Duchess Wyndham...James arrives, laden with guilt, to find a Jessie who sounds like the old Jessie but isn't. Jessie has undergone a transformation worthy of Pygmallion.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A female jockey in historical settings does make an interesting read, what with weird set of characters and a pirate's wisdom thrown in at good measure. The hero and the heroine are well suited. I liked the sparring conversation and als those other characters who are bent on getting them married. The book did drag in the middle a bit and that can be set right by skipping those pages. A good one time satisfying romance.
Title: Visions
Author: Jean Koning
Genre: Non-fiction
Pages: 152
Review from Amazon:
A European's Americanization
Visions Celebrates Absurdities Between NYC & Amsterdam
The American Way of Life is something you usually don t stop and think about. Dutch artist Jean Koning, however, noticed that his personal behaviour resembled those of popular American trends. His European standards were basically replaced by American ones. With that in his conscious mind, he started to contemplate and record his experiences in writing. His interpretations of life are now collected in the book Visions . It s a humorous book where absurdity is the main key to a colorful life. Traveling between his two houses in both Amsterdam and New York, Jean Koning wrote this speedy piece of work in between fashion week, the release party of his own album and lounging on the couch in his apartment. Wondering about the latest trends and hypes, abusing TV-shows and Hollywood-stars, he came up with a new philosophy on America.
