What's not to like about a Stone Barrington book! Stuart Woods has created an interesting series.

I got this book from the library.

It has the usual cast of characters: Dino, Stone, Joan, Herbie Fisher ... and much of the action takes place, as usual at Elaine's, the restaurant Stone and Dino frequent. Or at Stone's house -- and in the bedroom.

Herbie has won a fortune in the NY lotto and that provides both humor and pathos. Why Herbie! And he pays Stone $1 million to represent him. Delusional or not, he thinks he is being pursued, and he might be, since he is determined to marry a prostitute (who still has a pimp) and carries a brown bag full of money. He has even less money sense than he does sense, if that is possible, though he has paid off his bookie and the gambling debts he has incurred. He also has incurred their wrath because he is no longer gambling -- after all, when it is real money, not paper loans, it feels more real.

Additionally, Dolce makes an appearance again. She is the murderous ex-wife (or kinda wife, since the paper they signed has been returned to Stone) who, after a mental breakdown of the worst sort, has convinced her mafia father and her handler that she is safe on the town. But she knows how to knife a man without killing him. And she seems bent on killing Stone -- or at least scaring him, and she is one to be feared.

The lucid intervals refers to moments of lucidity in Herbie's crazy life, and the moments of lucidity (which have disappeared) in Dolce's.

And who's to say which intervals are lucid when the world has gone crazy.

Into this mix comes Dame Felicity who offers the sex interest in this book -- nearly all of which occurs off page and by innuendo -- and a job for Stone. She wants him to find a missing rogue agent, Stanley Whitestone, who may or may not be alive. She refuses to tell him much of the reasons why (and she may not know herself) and Stone keeps his confidences to himself also.

The fun is in the humor between the characters and in the denouement, and the fact that you know Stone will come out on top. There are a few surprises along the way, one of which I was not happy with, but it shows the world's craziness, and perhaps it shows real life spy scenarios where safety isn't always possible. The reason is given as a surprise, no hints along the way.

Now what will these characters find themselves into in the next book?

Do you read this series or this author? Do you have a favorite?

Buy: Lucid Intervals: A Stone Barrington Novel (Kindle Edition)

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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Stuart Woods has written a lot of books, nearly all of them good. They are peppered with interesting characters, a bit of humor, some cynicism, some romance, some intrigue. And some of them cross characters from one of his series into another.

Reckless Abandon has some of my favorite of his characters: Stone Barrington, ex-NYPD, now lawyer; his friend Dino, still on the force, married to a mafioso's daughter; Holly Barker, ex-military, now police chief in Orchid Beach, FL (crossing over from her own stories -- or bringing her story, because this one is her's and bringing in Stone and Dino, take your pick). Throw in Lance, who is CIA and recruits both Stone and Holly, and Holly's ex-sometime-lover who is FBI, and you have a story with a lot of twists and turns. Factor in Herbie, the audacious photographer, Ham (Holly's dad) and other assorted characters and you get the ridiculous with the sublime.

The setting moves from NYC to Orchid Beach to Santa Fe to NYC, including the dinners at Elaine's and other assorted restaurants, all on a hunt for a killer with mafia roots. Holly, along with her trusty attack dog, Daisy, is determined to bring him to justice, dead or alive. Along the way, she and Stone are nearly killed. But you know they will survive to see another day.

There's not a lot of gore. There's honor among thieves (thankfully for Stone and Holly.) Bad things happen to bad people who did bad things to good people.

Have you read any of his books? I read them as I find them, not always in order, but the books give enough detail to pick up stories that have occurred before. Holly's fiance (in another book) was killed in a bank robbery the day they were to marry. A cult is involved and she has yet to catch the cult leader. There's always another book. That's a good thing!

I like the series, so I give it a 4.

Karin

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Originally posted 2008-06-07 17:59:39.

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I really enjoyed this book and give it 5 ***** out of 5. It is almost a YA book, but not quite.

It is only available for Kindle (but you can read it with a free app):

I purchased it from Amazon, when I heard about it.

The story involves two different time frames, and the book alternates chapters, pretty much, between the two of them. In the earlier story, we learn of several teens who are bullied at school. Ultimately they band together as super heroes against their tormentors. Each one has a particular expertise, and we learn how each one honed theirs.

Some is improbable, but what the hey! It makes a great story.

In the alternate chapters, the modern time frame, the teens are grown up. Theo Phillips has graduated from Harvard with a journalism degree, which doesn't get him a job. He is back in Houston with heavy college loans. The only job he can get is with a franchised burger place. He is a whiz with numbers and before long, the suggestion box is full of his innovations, which net the company mega bucks, and they begin to court him for bigger things. But he enjoys his co-workers, one of whom is trying to extricate himself from one of the two rival gangs that control the drugs in Houston.

When the gang targets his co-worker (and himself) in a brutal attack, Theo vows to fight back. He gathers his old friends together, and they take on the gangs while protecting themselves and the co-worker (who is hospitalized.)

The book is very well written. Syers self-published it, thinking he could do better than most self-published books. I think he succeeded. He says he has more stories in this series, and I look forward to them. He says he was bullied as a kid until he took up karate and learned to defend himself. He is an accountant in his other life.

He has developed the personalities clearly and well. I liked the relationships between the co-workers and between the Whiz Kids, later known as The Brainiacs.

I think it would make a terrific movie! If he sells it, you heard it here first.

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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I recently read an author interview with Ted Gup about his book A Secret Gift in The Christian Science Monitor (December 20, 2010.) It sparked my interest, so I ordered the book from the library.

This is not a review, but a heads up on this non-fiction book, because I haven't finished reading it yet, but I will say that what I've read is 5* out of 5*.

The story
In December, 1933, B. Virdot (the pseudonym for Gup's grandfather, Sam Stone) placed an ad in the Canton, Ohio, local paper, offering to sent $10 to up to 75 families who wrote to him telling him of their needs. He got a very large response, so he actually sent $5 to 150 families. $5 in those days is roughly the equivalent of $100 in today's money. He never told anyone about what he had done or that he was B. Virdot. However, it was common knowledge to his wife and children, including Gup's mother.

Stone knew the power of a philanthropic gesture. Even if he couldn't alleviate all suffering, he could do his part. We know how much $100 would mean to us today, even if our straits are not so dire, so with a little knowledge of what those times were really like, we can catch a glimpse of how much it meant then.

How did the story come to light?
When Gup's mother was downsizing, she took him up to the attic and gave him a small suitcase which he didn't immediately go through. And when he did look at it more closely, he still didn't immediately catch the significance.

The name B. Virdot rang a bell for him, though, and as he pondered how he knew this name, he remembered that his grandfather had named a boat with it.

Now the book
Gup makes the depression come alive, with real folks' difficulties, whether they were at one time wealthy then lost it all or were from more modest circumstances and then had even less. With a historian's eye, he reads the letters to his grandfather requesting money and the many letters of thanks his grandfather received afterwards. Gup does his best to track down the various writers' families to see how the gesture of receiving $5 at a time of extremity factored into future events with the writers and their family line.

He unearths secrets within the townsfolk, as well as in his family.

I find it utterly fascinating, easy to read, even though the subject is difficult.

In my own family the depression was not kind to one side of the family. From what I remember of what I was told: While they had once had a home, they lost it during those years and the father (my grandfather) who had been a good provider spent his days playing cards and drinking. His wife, my grandmother, I was told, went door to door selling dresses. I don't know where she got them. Maybe they were her own. Or maybe she sewed them. Or maybe she was selling dresses she got from other people. Those are parts of the story lost to me, as my parent who would remember has died. But it could not have been an easy life.

Gup's book certainly puts those times and years into perspective.

Have you read it?
It is also available for Kindle.

Buy the physical book here. A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness--and a Trove of Letters--Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression

Buy the Kindle book here. A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness--and a Trove of Letters--Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression

Sam Stone is a man worth remembering. May his name be for a blessing.

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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Originally posted 2011-01-27 14:34:03.

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The subtitle of the book is: an invitation to a life of spiritual discipline.

I got this book from the library, because I read a review of another of her books, so I found her as an author. I generally enjoy reading other people's faith stories. Winner's is interesting because she went from Judaism to Orthodox Judaism to Christianity, but she still feels an affinity for much of what is Judaism.

This book is a short read and fast, that incorporates some ideas about how an understanding of the spiritual practices and richness of Judaism and its traditions are valuable to the practices, prayers, and beliefs of a Christian.

Some of the things she discusses are attentive eating, supporting a marriage, marking the stages of grieving, how one looks at one's body, aging, and more. She missed some of the rhythms of Jewish life that follow the year, much like Christian liturgy does, and wanted to incorporate it into her faith life -- and share it with us. She is now an ordained in the Episcopalian church.

I especially liked her explanation of Sabbath.

Have you read any of her books? She is quite a prolific writer.
Do you have a favorite?

I rate this book 3.5 star out of 5.

Parts of it were meaty for me; others parts were not. Theologically we are not necessarily at the same place all of the time. I get a bit tired of her writing style. That hasn't stopped me from looking at one article of hers referenced and available online or from reading two other of her books these past couple of weeks, reviews to follow.

It is also available for Kindle:

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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girl meets GOD is the third book I've read by Lauren F. Winner, though it is the first that she wrote. I got it from the library.

She organizes the book mostly around the Christian calendar -- Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Eastertide, Pentecost, Advent -- and ties it to the Jewish calendar when it applies. The first chapter is Sukkot.

Winner is a seeker after God. She collects an impressive library of Jewish works by the time she is in her teens, then gives them away when she becomes a Christian, then re-buys many of them to re-build her library. She is earnest. It is obvious that she wants to be her best at what she believes, from her converting to Orthodox Judaism (her father was a Reform Jew)(her mother a lapsed Baptist) to her driving a couple of hours away for an Episcopal priest to hear her confessions, even though she has confessed them to God and made an effort to leave them behind.

She is not a virgin, and she writes frankly of trying to reconcile that to church teachings (and her confessions.) Additionally, she has written an online article about sexuality (which I read) and a book (which I have no interest in reading.) Her online article was not well received by some Christians. She feels it is unlikely that people will remain celibate into their 30's, if they postpone marrying until that time.

Because I read all three books over a relatively short time, with a lot of interruptions by life, the books have run on together in my thoughts. The one easiest to read was Mudhouse Sabbath (see my review here.) That one ties together the two elements of her religious life, Judaism and Christianity. It shows how having a deep understanding of Judaism permeates and enriches her Christian faith. (It did many of the early converts to Christianity also, though she doesn't mention this.)

What drew her to Christianity?
The long and short of it: she read extensively, to the point that her Jewish friends commented on it, that it didn't make sense to them. She had a dream. She fell in love with Jesus. I think she was drawn to the ideas of atonement, forgiveness and heaven.

Also, the farther she drifted from Judaism, none of her Jewish friends pulled her back or encouraged her in her faith walk of Judaism.

What happens when she converts to Christianity?
She loses friendships in the Orthodox Jewish community. It deeply disturbs her father. Later, both her father and her mother (who are divorced) are drawn more into their own faith traditions. Her father becomes active in the synagogue, and her mother becomes active in the Episcopalian church.

In some ways she wrote this book as an apology to her Jewish friends, and with the hope that Christians might learn something about Judaism.

My take:
I give it 2 stars out of 4.

I got tired of this book, perhaps because I know what follows in her later books. It got tedious. She has been called self-indulgent. In some ways, following along with her is an emotional roller-coaster. She deals with her jealousy of a friend's marriage and pregnancy -- and more.

As I said, she is earnest, but it's as if, to me, she is trying so hard, because she isn't exactly sure what would happen if she didn't. There comes a point at which one rests in one's faith, while not being complacent. It is who one is, not so much the outward symbols of what one does, though how one acts is definitely important.

Have you read it?
What did you think?

You can find my reviews of Still: notes on a mid-faith crisis here.

It is available for Kindle:

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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This is the book that started me reading books by Lauren F. Winner, when I read a review of the book. It sounded interesting.

It was, and it wasn't, at least for me. Dark nights of the soul are not uncommon to those in or out of religion. It's likely proverbial that each person's dark night is dark to them, and it's not a contest to see whose is darker or what problems or grief precipitate the crisis. And there really is no satisfactory answer, in the throes of a crisis, why one is in it.

In Mudhouse Sabbath (see my review here) Winner is looking forward to her marriage and complimentary of her husband-to-be. This book chronicles her crisis of faith when she is miserably unhappy in her marriage and decides after much prayer and unhappiness to divorce him after six years.

She says very little about their marriage, but you can read between the lines. I had a couple of pretty good ideas.

She does not write anything negative about her husband, but she wends her way through her own crisis. It doesn't help her, some of the things that are said to her (for example, that it is a sin for her to divorce.) Her ex-husband is well thought of and seems not to show any signs of the crisis, at least in this book.

Her mother dies shortly before her marriage, after a long struggle with illness, and that doesn't help the beginning of her marriage.

Her faith path
In her short life, she has gone through moderate interest in Judaism (her father was Jewish, her mother was not), to Orthodox Judaism, to Christianity, falling in love with Jesus. Even her friends wonder if she will move past Christianity. So far, she has not. She is ordained in the Episcopal church, since this book came out. She also teaches at Duke Divinity School in North Carolina.

It is both interesting and profound, as well as sad, that in one of her books, she chronicles one of the reasons why she left Judaism -- for one thing, no one went after her to shepherd her back, to ask her why she had stopped going to shul, or where she was physically or mentally. In this book she feels that when she couldn't pray for herself or even go to church, she felt she had friends who were praying for her.

Additionally she says that while she converted to Orthodox Judaism (because one is considered a Jew if one's mother is, regardless of whether one's father is) in many ways it did not count -- and her then-boyfriend's mother did not accept her -- and neither fully did he, because he hoped to have large family (both sides) gatherings at the various important days of Judaism when he married. Ironically, he later seriously dates a girl who is not Jewish at all, so much for all that. We all wonder what his mother would think then.

These are salient points to think about for the expression of our own faith traditions -- do we pay attention if someone disappears? do we fully accept them if they weren't born into it? do we continue to show love? what if our children are dating or marry someone not of our faith?

What do we say to someone deep in a crisis -- and do we even care what they are going through? (Perhaps our own life is in tatters.) Caring will cover over many a mis-statement, but saying the wrong thing without love is a sure turn-off.

In an interview with Kim Shippey, after he read the book, she told him

that the spiritual life can be summarized as a process of meeting God again and again. “I will say that there was a season of alienation between God and me—a standoff, perhaps. Still chronicles the tail end of the standoff and the beginning of a reacquaintance. . . . I encounter God in sermon-writing. In my fear. Sometimes in silence. I know God to be present in my conversations with friends, in my classroom. In my failures. In my merrymaking and in my sorrow.” Christian Science Sentinel p 20 4-9-2012

As she says in this book:

“I am not a saint. I am, however, beginning to learn that I am a small character in a story that is always fundamentally about God.”

Have you read it? What did you think?
Do you have a favorite of her books or articles?

My take
I give this book 2 stars out of 5, only because faith stories and faith crisis are an interest of mine, and having gone through some deep waters myself, I read other people's stories to see how they come out the other side. But this book seems to me to wallow more than a bit and also to whine. It doesn't help that those she goes to for spiritual comfort and advice do not give it. (Similar to many stories, actually.)

My advice is to read the chapter at the end of the book with questions and answers, then skim through the rest of the book. That chapter gives an overview of what she learned -- the book is almost a moment by moment diary.

It is also available for Kindle:

You can read my review of Girl Meets God here.

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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I wanted to read this book after I read Man Seeks God, even though Weiner wrote it first. Again, I got it from the library.

Books about happiness have interested me, it seems like forever. This one is better than most and definitely more fun. It is not a self-help book. It is more like a travelogue.

I laughed my way through it. And some of it is laugh out loud, that just begs to be read to the person in the room with you. In fact, I did. Weiner's sense of humor, his sense of irony, must be very much like mine.

Weiner has, like his name as he points out (whiner) a low-grade depression most of the time. So he is definitely interested in seeking happiness. He learns that certain places have a higher happiness rating, so he goes to those places in search of the elusive happiness, to see if what he has heard is correct. Toss in assorted odd characters, plus ones who show him the ropes. Toss in his penchant for including interesting details, tidbits, sound bites of miscellaneous fitting quotes or just plain trivia that applies to where he is. I can't begin to remember all of it.

His humor is never malicious. Sometimes it is dark, but not always, and he finds he holds love for some of the people he meets along the way that he would not have thought. There is a touching incident in Moldova.

He begins in the Netherlands, then goes to Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova (the lowest happiness rating on earth), Thailand, Great Britain, India and America. In many ways, he finds that like Dorothy, home holds the heart.

The short of it is that he finds that happiness is relational. It depends on friends, family -- and more. You could read the epilogue first and get a feeling for all he learns. (I didn't and wasn't even tempted -- unlike my usual method of reading.) Then you might not read the book, but you would miss a very good read, indeed.

Have you read it?
I rate it 5 star out of 5 star.

The only thing I disliked was how much alcohol was imbibed along the way.

It is available for Kindle:

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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Deadly Detention by Eric Weiner 0821746081

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I've been on a roll lately, reading, and finding books to read at the library that lead me to other books, and I've not been good about keeping up with mentioning them on my blog, so I will make a beginning.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book -- a sort of male version of Eat, Pray, Love, minus the love affair. I liked it so well, I asked the library to get me his first book, The Geography of Bliss (review to follow.) And I took quite a few notes so I would remember what were to me some of the more salient points.

Since I was reading Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner at the same time, it made me wonder if this title shares some similarities. If I hadn't been reading them at the same time, I doubt I would have seen it.

Weiner's voice is funny, ironic, self-depreciating -- and I laughed my way through a lot of it. He is a whole lot easier to read than Winner.

He investigates: Sufism, Buddhism, the Franciscans, Raelism (in Las Vegas), Taoism, Wicca, Shamanism, and Kabahlah.

The book starts out with a personal experience that begins when he thinks he is dying, but it is only a severe attack of gas. The nurse asks him: what is God to you? In the course of the book, he tells us that he suffers from hypochondria; he loves books, he loves to underline in his books; he suffers always from low-grade depression; and he likes to watch life and religion from a safe distance, not really as a participant. His back story is that he was raised in Judaism, but he isn't involved in it. He is more of a secular Jew. He is married with a wife and daughter, adopted from Kazakhstan. He credits his wife a lot.

If you ever wanted an interesting overview of the particular religions he investigates, easy to read, with lot of interesting sidelines and people, this book is for you. As I said, I liked it a lot.

I give it 4 stars out of 5.

Have you read it, or anything else by Weiner?

It is also available for Kindle:

Karin
www.savvythinker.com

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Jim Butcher has another hit on his hands with his latest in the Dresden Files series, Turn Coat. Once again, Harry Dresden, the last wizard in Chicago is pitting his wits against the dark forces marshaled against him and the White Council. This is book 11 in the series, so if you like a good series, this is one to really consider.

The White Council of Wizards [is] the governing body for the practice of magic in the world, and made up of its most powerful practitioners...God help the poor practitioner who broke one of the Laws. p 8

I admire the way Butcher has constructed an entire universe around more or less believable lines. We have Harry, the wizard detective, with his loyal cohorts: the fairies (with courageous Toot toot again); the pack of werewolves; even a sort of alignment with Lara, the scary vampire queen of the White Court, the 'better' vamps. We can be pretty sure Harry survives in each book, even if it is by the skin of his teeth, but that is at least one thing we do not need to worry about.

And since I'm not expecting the Never Never land to open up, I'm not worried about the rest of the dark forces showing up some day or night either. So it is pure (that's an oxymoron) escapism, with lots of clever dialogue and clever thoughts in the narration voice of Harry, who has been compared to Phillip Marlowe, and twists and turns, and always a hanging end at the end because, after all, the fight with evil never ends...and there is a next book.

I understand there was a TV series, which I never saw as I didn't learn about it until after I started reading the series. I wish they had made a movie out of each book instead, as they are doing with Twilight and with Harry Potter. Perhaps they will do this in the future. I'd be first in line to buy tickets.

Harry is thrown into the deep end when Morgan, the Warden who has been sure Harry should be curtailed (dead) shows up on his threshold covered with blood, asking Harry to hide him from the Council. He has been charged with murder, having been caught with the bloody knife in his hand. Of course, in getting away he has killed several other Wardens, and the Council of Wardens are understandably after him. Harry knows a bit about being unjustly targeted, so he takes him in, against the better judgment of anyone who knows him.

There is a mole in the Council. Can he or she be found?

And then there's his brother (half-brother) Thomas, the vamp who runs a salon instead of running the night, who is taken by an especially powerful and evil shapeshifter. Not everyone knows that Thomas is Harry's brother, so there is some consternation at how much Harry undertakes to get him back.

There is just such an interesting mix of characters. It doesn't take long to figure out who the cast is and how they fit, and even to care about them and to wonder what's next. I don't think it is necessary to read the books in order. Frankly, book 1 is probably my least fave and I read it about 3rd.

Butcher has an ability to write really interesting fight/war scenes with a lot of paranormal thrown in. This is Harry Potter grown up and to the nth.

Have you read any of these books?
This is a series I'd like to own (and reread) for the pithy dialogue and interesting insights into human nature. I can't say that about many books.

Have you ever listened to any of the series?
I would love to hear an audio book, assuming there are some. Yes! there is:

I wonder who the reader is. James Marsters -- hmmm, who is he. I'm going to have to check one out.

Get thee down to your nearest library and check the book out. (It's in modern dialogue, even if that last sentence is not.)

My take: I rate it a 4 out of 4.
Karin

Originally posted 2009-08-06 09:09:56.

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