Philip Loraine - 13

78. 13 by Philip Loraine (1964)
Length: 158 pages
Genre: Contemporary Mystery
Started: 14 September 2012
Finished: 17 September 2012
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 10 October 2007
Why do I have it? I like contemporary mysteries and Philip Loraine is a new author for me.

James Lindsay has been living in France for five years when his former lover Francoise comes to him for help. Francoise is now married to the wealthy owner of a chateau in the French wine country and is the mother of a young son. Philippe de Faucon, Marquis de Bellac, Francoise's husband, has turned suddenly cold and emotionally distant towards her and Francoise is desperate to find out the reason why Philippe's attitude has changed so drastically.

There are also strange and sinister things happening. It seems that all the male members of the de Faucon family have a centuries-old curse upon their heads. Apparently, all the sons of the lineage have a history of dying young in mysterious and often violent circumstances.

I liked this book; it was pretty good but, again, not my favorite. If I was to be really picky about the book, in my opinion, the story had some slight continuity issues with it and was a little slow going in terms of reading for me. Overall, though, the book was not a bad way to spend three days and I give it an A!

A! - (90-95%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Thomas Mallon - Henry and Clara

77. Henry and Clara by Thomas Mallon (1994)
Length: 358 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Started: 10 September 2012
Finished: 13 September 2012
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 10 October 2007
Why do I have it? I like historical fiction and Thomas Mallon is a new author for me.

Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris were recently engaged to be married, when they were invited to share the Presidential box with the Lincolns at Ford's Theater on the evening of Good Friday, 1865. Henry Rathbone - the son of the mayor of Albany, Jared L. Rathbone - had joined the Union Army in 1861 and fought in the Civil War, attaining the rank of Major very quickly.

Clara Harris - a wealthy socialite from Albany, New York - was a personal friend of Mary Todd Lincoln and the daughter of Senator Ira Harris of New York. By an unusual familial inter-connection, Clara was actually Henry's stepsister - as her father had married Henry's widowed mother, Pauline.

Henry Rathbone was sitting with Clara, next to the President and Mrs. Lincoln, when John Wilkes Booth entered the box and fatally shot the President. Henry immediately attempted to stop the assassin, but was stabbed in the arm during John Wilkes Booth's escape. Although he eventually recovered from his wound, Henry was mentally never the same.

He and Clara married on July 11, 1867 and had three children together. Their life together started out rather well and when Grover Cleveland became president, Henry was appointed the consul to Germany. His mental state had been precarious ever since he had returned from the Civil War; however, perhaps magnified by being present at the President's assassination, he was prone to fits of profound melancholia, hallucinations and delusions that people were trying to kill him.

Clara was beside herself. As her husband's mental health continued to deteriorate, she attempted to cover for his frequent mental lapses. She totally adored Henry and nourished her dream that with the proper help, he would eventually recover and they could resume their happy lives.

I really did enjoy this book, but I have to say that if I had one problem with the story, it would be that it covered the politics of the times. I found that I couldn't really keep all the characters straight in my mind. I truly felt sorry for Clara, Henry and their children because their lives were so horribly impacted by mental illness. I give this book an A+!

A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

John Farris - Scare Tactics

76. Scare Tactics by John Farris (1988)
Length: 310 pages
Genre: Horror
Started: 6 September 2012
Finished: 10 September 2012
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 10 October 2007
Why do I have it? I like horror and despite having several of his books on my bookshelf, John Farris is a new author for me.

The first short story in this book is called "The Odor of Violets". It is about a struggling author who steals the final manuscript of a best-selling author who has recently died. He publishes the manuscript under his own name, as his 'newest' book and is subsequently haunted by the muse of the author whose work he stole.

The second story, "Horrorshow", is about a small southern town which is being terrorized by a psychotic and sadistic murderer. A psychic is wrongly accused of a teenager's murder and teams up with her ghost to find the real killer and clear his name.

The third story is a novella, originally published in 1964. "The Guardians" is about a governor's son who narrowly escapes death after a series of supposed accidents. The governor's son soon learns that he is the target of his father's many political and personal rivals.

I enjoyed this book, although it was by no means my favorite. I really enjoyed the first two stories, but found that the novella was the weaker story. I found myself compelled to finish the book because I had enjoyed the first two stories and was curious to see how the novella ended. Overall, I give this book an A!

A! - (90-95%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Donald Delano Wright - To Die is Not Enough: A True Account of Murder and Retribution

75. To Die is Not Enough: A True Account of Murder and Retribution by Donald Delano Wright (1974)
Length: 238 pages
Genre: True Crime
Started: 3 September 2012
Finished: 6 September 2012
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 10 October 2007
Why do I have it? I like true crime and had actually never heard of the Don Anthony White case.

On Christmas Eve, 1959, Don White, a 22-year-old mentally disturbed black man, brutally murdered two people - a white great-grandmother and a black longshoreman. At his trial, his lawyers introduced evidence of an intolerable childhood spent with an unbalanced foster mother and in various institutions, attempting to prove diminished responsibility for his acts. Don White was convicted of one count of First Degree Murder and one count of Second Degree Murder on May 27, 1960, and sentenced to death in Walla Walla Washington. By 1968, his conviction was commuted to life in prison.

Donald Delano Wright first learned of Don White's case as a court reporter for the Seattle Times. Through a series of newspaper articles that eventually resulted in To Die is Not Enough: A True Account of Murder and Retribution, the author became friends with Don White and would visit him consistently in the penitentiary. Donald Delano Wright passed away in November of 2007 at the age of 72.

I enjoyed this book although I thought it was rather dry in parts. It was also very sad and depressing to think about how Don White was so badly mistreated in his childhood. I give this book an A!

A! - (90-95%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Margaret Trudeau - Beyond Reason

74. Beyond Reason by Margaret Trudeau (1979)
Length: 241 pages
Genre: Non-Fiction
Started: 31 August 2012
Finished: 3 September 2012
Where did it come from? From a Library Book Sale
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 10 October 2007
Why do I have it? I like autobiographies and Margaret Trudeau's life has always interested me.

Margaret Trudeau is not known for living a cautious life. She blazed onto the national stage in 1971 as the ravishing 22-year-old bride of the 51-year-old Canadian Prime Minister. Their unlikely union, which produced three sons, ended in 1977 amid lurid headlines that Pierre Trudeau's erratic wife had gone off to photograph The Rolling Stones. In her 1979 autobiography, she fills in the details of her encounters with The Rolling Stones and other celebrities, her "long tunnel of darkness" experienced during her marriage and her affair with an unnamed man, later identified as senator Edward Kennedy.

I really enjoyed this book; this was the third time that I have read it and I will be keeping it on my bookshelf to read again some time. I give Beyond Reason an A+! and have put Margaret Trudeau's two other books, Consequences and Changing my Mind on my Wish List.

A+! - (96-100%)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Reading Wrap-up for August at Moonshine and Rosefire

 

Hello everyone out there and I hope that you all had a terrific reading month for yourselves. I am known as Rosefire around the Internet and this is my new personal reading blog. I originally posted my reviews over at my daughter's blog, Emeraldfire's Bookmark but am now in the process of transferring them all over to my own blog. My daughter makes blogging look like so much fun that I thought that I would try it out for myself! :)

Anyway, I started out August with 681 unread books lying around the house and ended the month with 670 books unread. All the books that I acquired this month came from friends, Paperback Swap and Bookmooch.

Let me try to break down the influx for you:

Rereads
- Horror House by J. N. Williamson

Changes to the TBR pile

Read from my TBR pile (Yes! I am a reading machine :))
- Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy
- Unsolved Mysteries...Stranger Than Fiction by Clifford L. Linedecker
- Sea Glass by Anita Shreve  
- The Uncanny by Andrew Klavan
- Dancehall by Bernard F. Conners
- While I Was Gone by Sue Miller
- One Day at a Time by Danielle Steel  
- A Village Affair by Joanna Trollope
- All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve
- An American Love Story by Rona Jaffe

Added to my TBR pile (oh well, you win some and you lose some! Not too bad though, I suppose:))
- The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi
- The Animal Hour by Andrew Klavan

Taken off my TBR pile and sent to a new home (Yay! Happy Dance! :))
- The Last Battle by Cornelius Ryan
- The Devil's Hunt by P. C. Doherty
- True Crime by Andrew Klavan
- The Shadow Guest by Hillary Waugh
- Still Waters by Tami Hoag
- Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner

Well, there it is...the breakdown! All in all, a very good reading month for me. Here's a further breakdown:

Books Read: 11
Pages Read: 3,710
Grade Range: A+! to B+!

So, there you go! The reading month that was August. I hope that you all had an equally good reading month; if not a little better. :) See you all next month! :)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight

Reading Wrap-up for August at Moonshine and Rosefire

 

Hello everyone out there and I hope that you all had a terrific reading month for yourselves. I am known as Rosefire around the Internet and this is my new personal reading blog. I originally posted my reviews over at my daughter's blog, Emeraldfire's Bookmark but am now in the process of transferring them all over to my own blog. My daughter makes blogging look like so much fun that I thought that I would try it out for myself! :)

Anyway, I started out August with 678 unread books lying around the house and ended the month with 667 books unread. All the books that I acquired this month came from friends, Paperback Swap and Bookmooch.

Let me try to break down the influx for you:

Rereads
- Horror House by J. N. Williamson

Changes to the TBR pile

Read from my TBR pile (Yes! I am a reading machine :))
- Minding Frankie by Maeve Binchy
- Unsolved Mysteries...Stranger Than Fiction by Clifford L. Linedecker
- Sea Glass by Anita Shreve  
- The Uncanny by Andrew Klavan
- Dancehall by Bernard F. Conners
- While I Was Gone by Sue Miller
- One Day at a Time by Danielle Steel  
- A Village Affair by Joanna Trollope
- All He Ever Wanted by Anita Shreve
- An American Love Story by Rona Jaffe

Added to my TBR pile (oh well, you win some and you lose some! Not too bad though, I suppose:))
- The King's Speech: How One Man Saved the British Monarchy by Mark Logue and Peter Conradi
- The Animal Hour by Andrew Klavan

Taken off my TBR pile and sent to a new home (Yay! Happy Dance! :))
- The Last Battle by Cornelius Ryan
- The Devil's Hunt by P. C. Doherty
- True Crime by Andrew Klavan
- The Shadow Guest by Hillary Waugh
- Still Waters by Tami Hoag
- Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner

Well, there it is...the breakdown! All in all, a very good reading month for me. Here's a further breakdown:

Books Read: 11
Pages Read: 3,710
Grade Range: A+! to B+!

So, there you go! The reading month that was August. I hope that you all had an equally good reading month; if not a little better. :) See you all next month! :)

Till we Meet Again, Glow Brightly as Moonlight