Changes

Changes by Jim Butcher  448 pages      Vengeance,   Truths coming to Light,  Red Court Vampires

This book has loads of surprises in it.    When Harry is debilitated in a fight with no time to recover and scads of loved ones to rescue in an armageddon like all out every body from paranormal out for blood and the blood in question belongs to a seven year old girl.   Lots of emotion based give it your all for those you love or die trying action.    Several secrets are revealed and several hearts and people get crushed in the onslaught and an ending that will literally floor you.   Well written well played, Jim Butcher.   If you are a Harry Dresden/Dresden Files fan - you have got to read this one.   Do read the books in order though so you will get all the juicy details and not be in the dark about anything.   All ages come git some.   #SohookedonHarry.

- Shirley J.   

You Can't Touch My Hair and Other Things I Still Have to Explain

You Can't Touch My Hair and Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson   320 pages

Being a Black Woman and what she has always and still does have to contend with,  feminist, author, comedian                    

Phoebe Robinson will make you laugh and then she will teach you a lot of things about being a black woman- one is white people - black people do not want you to touch their hair no matter how much you might want to.   Does anyone really believe that pregnant women want total strangers coming up and touching their bellies with a baby in it?  No and that is universally every woman regardless of nationality.    Well, it is the same with black woman.   After spending nearly an entire day at the beauty shop getting their hair done, who wants to come out to a Caucasian reaching for their new do with a hand out like ghoul in a Hammer film?   No, no, no, white people have some couth and some etiquette.   Don't even ask just go to a wig shop and get your jollies.    Phoebe is hilarious.   She tells it like it is, she explains a lot about what life is like being black and en
lightening the world on how not to step over the line thereby being called racist for the lack of tact some people exhibit when asking questions that sound perfectly fine in their head but translated to black people as "this cracker just made a racist observation, whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?    Phoebe is a writer, a blogger, a podcast radio personality, a stand up comedian and an actress.   She is active in the enlightenment sector and not a racist herself.   She loves her family and includes many letters in this book she has written to her 2 year old mixed race niece explaining to her how to grow up appreciating both cultures that she is born of.   A fun read and many teachable moments are included here.   I highly recommend this book to every one of all ages.   Wisdom and laughter such a deal.       

 - Shirley J.

Ghost Story

Ghost Story by Jim Butcher 608 pages

Good second read of this one.   I got much more out of it the second time.     I think I was so stunned by the events that had taken place during the series in the previous book that I was better capable of handling all that occurred this time.    You definitely don't want to miss the previous book and this book in the series with all the changes and ghost stories.   So much to say but I don't want to spoil it  just know Dear Reader that you are in for phenomenal surprises.   The storyline is going to take some vast detours.  I can hardly wait to see where Harry and the gang go from here.   Hells Bells as Harry often says.   Yes!  Yes!  Yes!   I highly recommend this series.

 - Shirley J.

Decline and Fall of Western Art

The Decline and Fall of Western Art by Brendan MP Heard, 319 pages

It is not particularly hard to say that the emperor has no clothes.  It is easy enough to notice when he flaunts his nakedness with the same assertiveness with which the modern art world flaunts its ugliness.  It is more difficult to explain why this deranged naked man is dancing his way through our museums and public spaces.  It is even more difficult to imagine how we can get him to stop.

To his credit, it is the difficult things that Brendan Heard attempts in The Decline and Fall of Western Art.  The extent to which he succeeds is another matter.  His account of the historical breakdown of Western art is tentative and somewhat superficial, with Picasso, Duchamp, and Kandinsky as the expected villains.  However, Heard is canny enough to understand that our cultural ruin has its roots in political and theological disorders, and his analysis of the impact of materialism and feminism on art is better developed, although more vituperative.  Heard's solutions hinge on a metaphysical revival, to which end he proposes a kind of mere neo-Platonism compatible with a wide variety of religious commitments.

Heard sets his ambitions high, but his scanty one-page bibliography is one sign that his reach exceeds his grasp.  He writes with passion and wit, but certain errors suggest that he is parroting second-hand (and possibly second-rate) sources rather than speaking from personal experience - although St Thomas Aquinas was doubtless more of a Platonist than is commonly supposed, he was certainly not a believer in a "universe-as-God Neoplatonic philosophy".  As this is Heard's first book, it can be hoped that there will be sequels, and that he and his writing will grow deeper and broader with time.

Small Favor

Small Favor by Jim Butcher   Book 10 in the Dresden Files series    560 pages

It is never good to owe favors especially when the favor owed is to Mab.   She calls Harry on it and astonishingly it is going to be to the benefit of local gangster,  Gentleman Johnny Marcone.   So much more to this story, thank goodness for McAnally's Pub for a little safe downtime and coversations that couldn't take place anywhere else.    As Molly sharpens her skills she becomes more and more valuable to Harry though he doesn't let her know just how much.  It is going to tax everyone's skill set and damage Michael in the process.   Good series - I highly recommend it to middle schoolers on up.                   

 - Shirley J.

Turn Coat

Turn Coat  Book 11 in the Dresden File Series  by Jim Butcher   576 pages

What is up when Wizard Morgan seeks out Harry Dresden for help and a hideout from the Wizard's Council when circumstantial evidence points a murder rap in Morgan's face.  Morgan who has given Harry hell and called for Dresden's death at the age of 16 when Harry made a major magical boo boo in his ignorance of magical laws.  Ebeneazar McCoy stood good for Harry before the Merlin and other council members to become Harry's mentor and teach him the right ways of wizarding.   Morgan tried every way he knew how to thwart Harry and catch him messing up so he could still put him to death and now here he is on Harry's doorstep asking for Harry's help.   What the ...Good story here, very well developed.   I continue to highly recommend this series.   It is a great one.  Middleschoolers on up I think will enjoy it.

 - Shirley J.

Internship & Volunteer Opportunities for TV and Movie Buffs

Internship & Volunteer Opportunities for TV and Movie Buffs by Adam Furgang    80 pages

Excellent book offering potential ways for teens and adults to land volunteer/internship jobs in the field of film, theater, radio, tv,  to find out which of the fields appeal most and gives tips on how to pursue acting, crew work, scenery or costuming in all the genres of media and how to put one's best self forward with local and national  tv stations, news, theaters, newspapers, you name it in the media field.    Offers tips on how to present oneself, who to talk to and highlights of what each could offer career-wise.   Excellent coverage here and lots of contacts to help you on your way,  I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to pursue a love of the arts. 

 - Shirley J     
            

The Family:Fifteenth-century Rome & the Story of the Greatest Crime Family in Italian History

The Family: Fifteenth-century Rome & the Story of the Greatest  Crime Family in Italian History - The Borgias,  1492-1559  by Mario Puzo, completed By Carol GIno   464 pages

Corruption, greed and sin are usually described as the things the Church is supposed to be against however during the Italian Renaissance, with a Borgia firmly planted in the position of Pope add a couple more words to that list,poison and murder and you have the reign of the Borgia family.    While it was known the clergy kept their mistresses and illegitimate children near but out of the limelight, the Borgias saw no need to keep their dirty laundry under wraps and the Pope kept his family and successive courtesans in the Vatican with him so that he could better control the family and the family finances.    Very good story well told.   Truth really is stranger than fiction.   I recommend this book to all who are students of church history and who can handle some harsh truths.   Well written.  It will keep you interested cover to cover.

 - Shirley J.

Dreaming of You

Dreaming of You by Francis Ray   (Book 3 in the Grayson Series)   352 pages

Faith has had a mad crush on Brandon Grayson pretty much all of her life.   Being best friends with both of her older brothers, Brandon has pretty much always been in her life.   Being a plus-sized girl she lacked the confidence it took to go out on dates so when prom came around Faith was sad knowing she had no hope of going until Brandon offered to take her.   She knew it was out of pity but that act of kindness just stoked the fires of romance in her mind.   Years later, Faith is running her family's 5 star luxury hotel in Sante Fe, New Mexico.   Brandon is now chef of his own restaurant a stone's throw away,   Brandon's mother has always seen herself as the matchmaker for her 4 children and now that Brandon's 2 older brothers are happily married to successful women, she is turning her sights on Brandon.    Faith has never given up on her dream of snagging the only man she has ever loved - Brandon, though their getting together seems impossible until a freak coincidence throws them together when a plumbing emergency causes Brandon to have to move out of his place temporarily and stay at Faith's hotel until it is repaired.  Here is Faith's one and only chance to make her dreams come true and she pulls out all the stops even though Brandon's mother is trying to hook him up with an interior designer in town.   A good story of love, loss, jealousy, family and life on the fast track.   I really enjoyed this story and I highly recommend it to all romance readers, to all urban literature readers and anyone just looking for a good story to get caught up in for a while.    Well done Francis Ray.   Great characters, great situations and I would like to read more of your works.

 - Shirley J.

Addicted

Addicted by Zane   336 pages

Zoe Reynard has it all,  a successful business, a faithful loving husband and 3 adoring children.   She loved it all but there was one very important thing missing.   The lack of excitement in her bedroom was taking a toll on her.   Zoe's husband Jason was not at all sexually adventurous.  Every time it was the same old missionary position with little or no foreplay and absolutely no afterplay.  Zoe longed for sexual excitement like a flower opening to the sun but every time she tried to steer things to a higher plane Jason shut her down acting as though she was a wanton hedonist.   What?   She was willing to do anything for Jason but he wasn't having it and she couldn't understand why.  To her way of thinking wouldn't most men be happy as a mug if their wives wanted to get a little freaky between the sheets?   But nope not Jason.   She should have realized there might be an issue when during their highschool sweetheart phase Jason wouldn't have sex with her telling her he wanted them to wait until marriage to experiece that.  All their friends were steady knocking boots but not them.   However, they were the first of their group to get married.   Zoe could hardly wait  and was finally able to get Jason to have a little premarital 2 minute session with her prior to taking their vows not realizing it only takes 1 time to get pregnant which Zoe did.   Two minutes of sex proved to be the normal for the couple and Zoe was beside herself with desire and started pleasuring herself while watching porn on the sly and experimenting with vibrators and other sexual toys but eventually it was not enough and Zoe teetered on wanting to feel fulfilled.   She was an affair waiting to happen and eventually circumstances present themselves to which she ends up having affairs with 2 other men and a woman.   Zoe lives the lie being a good little Stepford Wife at home and acting out her every sexual fantasy whenever she could.   She hated liing to the love of her life, Jason.   She wanted to have amazing sex with her Jason whose body was incredible if only he would use it to please her the way she wanted him to.   A double-llife can get out of hand and lies can catch up with a person and does in major ways when Zoe finds her life getting out of control.    A good book with definite mature themes and situations.    I think this one would be best kept in the adult sector.   I do recommend it.   I am a fan of Zane's writing and think this title would make an awesome book club selection.   The conversations this tale could inspire are endless!  

Force of Nature

Force of Nature by Jane Harper     448 pages     

When 5 female coworkers go on a team building corporate retreat in the Austrailian Outback they were not expecting all hell to break loose and not just because one of them is a whistle blower working undercover to provide paperwork that can take the company down.  Personal secrets loom large and all the once prim and professional women are ready to rumble and it seems no one likes Alice.     I found this book a little tedious to stay interested in.   Too much of the same over and over.   At the end things pick up and come together and the reader will find themselves saying,  "Daaaammmmnnnnn! " now and then at the surprise twists.   The book is worthy at the end but kind of a snoozer till then.  I can't recommend this book as I kept losing interest in it and just wanted them to get on with something meaty in the story.   

 - Shirley J

Ring of Truth

The Ring of Truth: The Wisdom of Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung by Roger Scruton, 308 pages

In this book, written near the end of his life, philosopher and aesthete (and occasional composer) Roger Scruton celebrates Richard Wagner's masterpiece, the four-opera stage festival The Ring of the Nibelung.  In the process, he describes how out of the bones of ancient (yet timeless) myths Wagner constructed his own modern (yet timeless) myth, itself set in a primordial time-before-time yet reenacted again and again within history. 

From the outset, Scruton acknowledges that the Ring cycle is greater than any attempt to explain it, and therefore a rebuke to any system which would make an attempt.  Instead, he presents the philosophical themes of the cycle as a synthesis of the most powerful thinkers of nineteenth century Germany - bringing together Hegel's political theory, Schopenhauer's tragic account of the will, and Feuerbach's attempt to explain the rise and decline of religions into a unity which is more than the sum of its parts.  Scruton does this without losing sight of Wagner's intention that the music not serve as a mere accompaniment of the drama, nor the drama as an excuse for musical virtuosity, but that the music carry the weight of the drama.  The result is both an excellent introduction to the nineteenth century's greatest tragedy - and it is significant that Wagner's epic story of a conquering self-made hero who smashes through every restraint is ultimately, inevitably, a tragedy - and a fitting capstone to Scruton's own life's work, reminding us once again that "everything we hold as precious, including both love and law, rests upon a thin crust above a seething magma of resentment."

The Soprano Sorceress

The Soprano Sorceress by L. E. Modesitt Jr., 509p

Anna Marshall is a middle-aged music instructor at a university. She is somewhat down on her luck and wishes to be elsewhere. At the same time, a young musician named Daffyd in the magical land of Erde enlists a travel sorceress to summon a powerful sorceress to help him get revenge on the sorcerer who killed his father.

In Erde, magic is created through song. Things do not got quite as Daffyd hoped. Anna discovers her musical talents, including singing, make her powerful but she doesn't know the ways of Erde and how the magic works. She teams up with the sorcerer who killed Daffyd's dad  to defend the country of Defalk against the Darksingers of Ebra.

She is successful but the sorcerer dies and she is left to make her way in the political world of Defalk. Her magic gives her power but makes her a target for the Ebrans and threatens the power of those in Defalk. In the end, she has to try to save Defalk and come to terms with her own power.

It has things that could be appealing such as the song magic and it has been referred to as feminist fantasy. However, it lacks too many things for me to recommend it. I wanted more explanation of how the magic worked but didn't get it. Except for the main character, most of the characters aren't well developed. It drags in places and then goes too quickly in others.

British in India

The British in India: A Social History of the Raj by David Gilmour, 525 pages

For better than three hundred years, the British were in, and increasingly over, India, first in the form of the East India Company, later as direct representatives of the Empire.  Who they were, why they came, and how they lived are the subjects of David Gilmour's sweeping social history, a pointillist study which sketches the human face of the British presence on the subcontinent.

As a social history, this is not to be confused with a more conventional political or military history, and a basic knowledge of British and Indian history is required to make much sense out of it.  Gilmour admirably resists the natural temptation to put the more interesting oddities in the foreground while leaving the boring commonplaces in the background.  Even more remarkably, he largely abstains from value judgments, allowing the lives of his subjects to speak for themselves without authorial editorializing.  Unfortunately, this does nothing to moderate the at-times overwhelming amount of information Gilmour presents, but so many of the anecdotes he has uncovered are entertaining or enlightening that the reader is likely to find being lost amongst them a delight rather than a chore.

The Royal Rabbits of London (Books 2 and 3 in the series)

 The Royal Rabbits of London (Book 2 and 3 in the Series) by Santa Montefiore and Simon Sebag Montefiore  

Book 2: Escape From the Tower    224 pages

Book 3: The Great Diamond Chase    212 pages

Escape From the Tower

When last we saw Shylo Tawny-Tail, a shy country bunny, he had just helped the Royal Rabbits of London save the Queen from a most humiliating experience, devised by the evil Ratzis.  The RRL’s were so grateful and impressed that he was made a member of the secret society, complete with their badge imprinted on his paw.

The Ratzis (the grossest rats that ever lived) have a new scheme in mind. This time they want to embarrass the Royal Family and the President and First Lady of the United States in front of the entire world and ruin the relationship the two countries share!  Ohhhh those nasty creatures! They have uncovered the President’s biggest secret and plan to expose it during a televised State Dinner.

Readers learn more about the Ratzis, especially Papa Ratzi who controls this revolting gang of very large, very stinky two hundred rats. No one has ever seen him and he communicates via hologram texts.  

Can Shylo and the rest of the RRL’s save the two countries, especially the United States, from becoming the world’s laughingstock?  Surely Shylo can…thanks to the RRL’s motto: “Anything in the world is possible---by will and by luck, with a moist carrot, a wet nose, and a slice of mad courage!”

A fun little book that chapter book readers will surely enjoy.

The Royal Rabbits of London: Escape From the Tower gets 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Great Diamond Chase

Oh! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!

Little Shylo Tawny-Tail has fallen asleep while on guard duty. He was supposed to be guarding the palace, but he alarms wake him, and he knows he’s in big trouble. Lots of things could have gone wrong, but the worst case scenario has happened: Someone has stolen the Siberian Diamond, the most valuable diamond in the world! The Queen is beside herself, crying almost hysterically!

The Royal Rabbits of London are already on the case, having herd the alarms deep in The Grand Burrow beneath the Buckingham Palace.

Shylo learns that the diamond was found in Russia 132 years ago by a peasant. It was sent to Catherine the Great.  One hundred years later, legend has it that the diamond was lost in a bet the Tsar had with his cousin, the King of England.

And worse, the RRL’s learn that the minks are town, more than likely to steal the magnificent jewel. And it gets even more complicated: the Ratzis want in on the action---they want to steal it for themselves and then there is Amura, the white Siberian tiger. What the heck is she up too?

How will the RRL’s find the diamond and return it to its rightful place in the palace’s Diamond Room.  Readers are offered the opportunity to learn about the rabbits that make up the Royal Rabbit’s. Sometimes I got a little confused on who was who, but the authors did a great job in detailing the idiosyncrasies of each rabbit.

Kids ages 8-12 or grades 3-7 will love this tale!

The Royal Rabbits of London: The Great Diamond Chase gets 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Deluge

The Deluge by Henryk Sienkiewicz, translated by WS Kuniczak, 1761 pages (2 vols.)

In the 17th century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, already staggered by attacks from the Russians and the Cossacks in the east, was buried under the weight of the disciplined armies of Sweden which invaded from the north.  This dark time in Polish history is known as the Deluge.  It was a time when many who might have been expected to lead the nation instead betrayed her, but also a time when heroes arose from unlikely places and circumstances.  Sienkiewicz's epic novel centers on one of the latter, the passionate, impetuous, spirited young officer Andrei Kmita, who finds himself unexpectedly betrothed to the beautiful, virtuous Olenka and becomes locked in a battle with himself to become worthy of her.  Their world is populated by memorable characters: the valiant, diminutive Volodyovski, the silver-tongued braggart Zagloba, the fractious Kemlitches, the devious Radzivill, and the diabolical Prince Boguslav.

The Deluge is an unqualified masterpiece.  It is natural to compare it to Tolstoy and Undset, but it can just as accurately be placed alongside Homer, Virgil, and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  The "modern translation" by WS Kuniczak was released in 1991, after the end of another, even longer and darker chapter in the history of Poland.  In that context, it should be even clearer that what was fought for was something much greater than the "rights and privileges" of the nobility, greater too than what Thomas Napierkowski, in his introduction to this edition, celebrates as "political pluralism... democratic institutions and... a free economy", something glimpsed at the turning point when Andrei, expiating his sins by risking his life in defence of the great Marian shrine of Jasna Gora, declares himself "a soldier of the Holy Mother, fighting Her battles."

The Confession Club

The Confession Club (Book #3 in the Mason Series) by Elizabeth Berg   304 pages

One thing I don’t like about reading a series is that I forget a lot of what happened in the previous titles.  This series started “The Story of Arthur Truluv,” and continued with “Night of Miracles.” I enjoyed both book a lot, especially since I read them back-to-back.

In this third outing, reader will encounter characters who featured prominently. First is the small town of Mason, Missouri, outside Columbia. While there isn’t a lot of details about this quaint community, I get the feeling it that picturesque American town that is often seen in Hallmark movies. Baker Iris Winters and Maddy Harris, the girl who rescued Arthur Truluv, along with Maddy’s daughter, Nola, are the featured characters.

Maddy (and Nola) have come home from New York. Maddy’s marriage is on the rocks; she needs time to think and gain some perspective. 

A group of the town’s women decide to start a weekly supper club. Comradery and food are the appeal of the group. However, the supper club turns into a confession club, where each week, one of the women confesses something from her past. It felt like an AA meeting to me. But the odd part was that the group discusses and dissects the event. What was the point?  I guess it was a way for the women to get it off their chests, but why discuss it?  The past is past.

I usually devour Elizabeth Berg’s novels, but this one felt a little flat. There were scenes that were sheer pages turners and others that I had to push my way through.  Therefore, “The Confession Club” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Scholia to an Implicit Text

Scholia to an Implicit Text by Nicolas Gomez-Davila, translated by Roberto Pinzon, 195 pages

Nicolas Gomez-Davila was born in Colombia, but spent much of his childhood in Paris, including two years in which he was bedridden with pneumonia.  Recovering and returning to his homeland, he set about assembling one of the largest private libraries in the country, which served him as a kind of secluded smithy in which he refined and shaped his volumes of aphorisms.  Scholia to an Implicit Text is thus far the only work of his to be published in an English translation.

A "defeated unbeliever" who turns modern skepticism back on itself, fishing "with a net of doubts", a careful crafter of sentences who insists on the importance of the sensuous and the liturgical, a romantic reactionary who knows that the past is irrecoverable but not unrepeatable, Gomez-Davila is profound and provocative and never, ever boring.  He is also not an ideologue - central to his worldview is the rejection of the distinctly modern belief that problems require solutions rather than understanding.  The values that Gomez-Davila treasures do not require defence because they are eternal and indestructible, whereas every sin is its own worst punishment, and therefore the twentieth century "will bequeath nothing but the traces of its hustle and bustle at the service of our filthiest desires."

It could be worse, of course, and will be, if Gomez-Davila is correct in his assessment that totalitarianism is the natural end of modernity, "the technification of politics."  "A totalitarian state is the structure into which societies crystallize under demographic pressures," when solitude and the inner life have been made impossible.  "The 'rational', the 'natural', the 'legitimate' are only that which is customary.  To live in compliance with an enduring political constitution, behaving according to enduring customs, surrounded by enduring objects, is the only way to believe in the legitimacy of the ruler, in the rationality of habitudes, and in the naturalness of things."  All that being rejected, the world is waiting, not for Pericles, but for another, doubtlessly very different, Pol Pot.

Final Flight

Final Flight by Eric C. Anderson   284 pages

In March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 took off from Kuala Lumpar International Airport.  Nothing unusual happened during takeoff. The pilots were experience. The flight was crowded with 227 passengers and 12 crew members taking a red-eye to Ho Chi Min City. A little less than one hour later, the plane disappeared from both Kuala Lumpar and Ho Chi Min City’s radars. As far as I know, neither the plane’s fuselage nor bodies has ever been located. There were no distress signals.  It just disappeared as if it never existed.

Great start for a thriller novel. Fast forward to 2023. And that’s where I got lost.  There were too many details, too many characters, too much going on that I couldn’t follow the plot.  But here’s the synopsis from the book jacket:

“Former Air Force maintenance officer Jason Montgomery and his erstwhile wrench-twister, Rob "Ski" Kalawski, have just landed the gig of their lives. China Air's aging fleet of Boeing 777s now desperately needs navigation hardware and software upgrades. It's a multimillion-dollar contract, and they're just the guys to do it. Too easy, right?

“Wrong. The Japanese firm supplying the gear knows the Chinese will reverse-engineer and steal it, so they've planted a deadly navigation bug to trigger at the first sign of theft. Jason's just the middleman, but he finds himself trapped between yakuza gangsters, a tattooed dragon-lady sales exec, and murderous Russian mobsters looking to make a profit on the missing airplanes and passengers. If these crazies don't start behaving like moral adults, people are going to die by the hundreds . . . and they do.”

I would like to blame my lack of “getting it” due to the major distraction of the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020, but I haven’t had any trouble focusing on the other 20 or so books I’ve finished since March. There were too many characters who were too hard to keep straight and too many details that caused my brain to glaze over.  By the end, I was just reading words.

“Final Flight” was nothing like I expected or hoped it would be.  Therefore “Final Flight” receives 1 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

June totals

This month:

5 people

Read 21 books

and a total of 9317 pages!

Interestingly, 3 different people read a total of 7 books, so 7 was the magic number this month!

June's Super Reader was Shirley J., who logged a total of 2855 pages.  Regina C. was very close behind, logging 2785 pages!!

Onwards to July!

Mariner

Mariner: A Voyage with Samuel Taylor Coleridge by Malcolm Guite, 430 pages

     It is an ancient Mariner

     And he stoppeth one of three

     'By thy long grey beard and glittering eye,

     Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?'

The initial idea behind The Rime of the Ancient Mariner was a Gothic trifle, a simple spooky ghost story that could be easily sold for quick cash, but Coleridge's genius rapidly shaped it into something more.  Since it first appeared as the opening poem of the first edition of Lyrical Ballads, the Rime, like the Mariner himself, has surprised and captivated readers with its poetic and prophetic power.  As Malcolm Guite explains in his study of the poem and its poet, the themes of sin and death, conversion and rebirth, played out as compellingly in the life of Samuel Taylor Coleridge as they did in his creation.

This is more than coincidence.  Rejecting approaches which separate Coleridge's early poetry from his later philosophical explorations, Guite describes his life's work as a concerted effort "to build a bridge between the dead but objective world of meaningless fact, on the one hand, and the world of rich subjective fancy with no claims to truth, on the other."  Coleridge found this bridge in Imagination, understood as that part of man which is closest to his Creator, and the faculty by which he begins to understand God's symbolic language of nature.  Human creativity is therefore an extension of the Divine, and it follows "that deep Thinking is attainable only by a man of deep Feeling, and that all Truth is a species of Revelation."

     He went like one that hath been stunned,

     And is of sense forlorn:

     A sadder and a wiser man,

     He rose the morrow morn.

Blood Alley

Blood Alley by Tom Coffey   280 pages

New York – Middle of November 1946…Cub reporter and rewrite man Patrick Grimes works the graveyard shift at “The New York Examiner,” one of those sleazy tabloids that sensationalism. Tonight Grimes is sent to help cover the finding of a dead woman’s body down by the East River.  That area is a hell-hole of breweries and tenements. 

He arrives as Finkel the photographer does what he does best: manipulate the body to get the most sensational photograph. Nearby stands the man who called in the tip, William Anderson.  Just as Finkel is wrapping up, the police arrive with lights and sirens blasting. 

Anderson is arrested because he is in possession of a twenty dollar bill and he’s African-American. When police learn the woman is socialite Amanda Price, Anderson is charged and beaten until he signs a confession.

Grimes doesn’t believe that Anderson is guilty and launches his own investigation that takes him from the beautiful homes and  society to the underbelly of the city. Along the way, he learns that there is more to Amanda Price and the Price family than meets the eye.

This book has been sitting on my bookshelf for more than a decade, and I could just kick myself that hadn’t read it before now. What a shame Humphrey Bogart is no longer with us to play Grimes in the movie that should be made; it’s noir at its finest.

The language is real, with the “N” word being used as much as I suspect it was back then. The stereotypes of the newsroom and the boozy city editor are dead on and give the story an authentic feel…or at least as authentic as I have been conditioned to believe.

“Bloody Alley” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

I Dreamt I Was in Heaven: The Rampage of the Rufus Buck Gang

I Dreamt I Was in Heaven: The Rampage of the Rufus Buck Gang by Leonce Gaiter   288 pages

 One of the things I love about historical fiction is that it uncovers forgotten stories, and this is one of them.  I have never heard of  the “Hanging Judge,” Isaac Parker nor the notorious Rufus Buck Gang. I thought the “Hanging Judge” was Roy Bean. That could have been the movies’ fault, especially the one with Paul Newman.  I’m not saying that that movie had it all wrong, I haven’t seen it in decades, I’m saying I probably got confused.

The Rufus Buck Gang was “an outlaw multi-racial gang whose members were part African American and part Creek Indian. They operated in the Indian Territory of the Arkansas-Oklahoma area from 1895 to 1896. Formed by Rufus Buck, the gang consisted also of Lewis Davis, Sam Sampson, Maoma July, and Lucky Davis.” (Wikipedia) It’s refreshing not have the usual band of white dudes trying to evict the American Indians from their land or the Indians killing white dudes, trying to send them back to where they came from. What fascinated me most about this story was that Rufus and his “gang” were all teenagers. These kids brought with them years of oppression and abuse they have suffered.

That and Rufus thought he was on a mission from God, who talked to him through a white girl, 13-year-old Theodosia Swain. That’s where the novel’s title originates.

Set in the Indian Territory story focuses on a shocking 13-day, violent rampage where Rufus and the gang embark on a mission to reclaim the Indian territories from the United States. Rufus believes that their actions will cause the Indians to rise up and reclaim their land. Rufus even purposely gets sent to the same prison that houses Cherokee Bill. He makes plans to bust out Cherokee Bill, who will then aid him on his mission. 

I wish I could say it better, but this blurb from the back cover is the best way to describe this hard-to-read (due to the violence) and eye-opening novel: “…famous, historical figures dance with fictional characters to create a turn-of-the-century tapestry of violence and innocence, love and betrayal, butchery and grace--mirroring and chafing against the backdrop of a burgeoning United States, and a disappearing American West.

One important item to note is Gaiter's prose.  I would never have thought that a western could be literary, and that's the classification I would give this: Literary Western

Warning:  Contains scenes of graphic sexual violence.

“I Dreamt I Was in Heaven: The Rampage of the Rufus Buck Gang” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity by James Fitzjames Stephen, 271 pages

In Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, James Stephen evaluates the revolutionary catchphrases and finds that they admit of both a broad interpretation, in which they lack any real content and are little more than empty slogans, and a narrower meaning, in which they are erroneous in their premises and pernicious in their consequences.  Acting as both the spur to and the primary target of Stephen's criticism is John Stuart Mill, whose landmark work On Liberty Stephen read and reread on the long voyage back to Britain from India, where he had held a post in the colonial administration.  This is not an incidental fact - Stephen's observations begin with his rejection of Mill's smug assumption that while lesser peoples might require strong paternalistic government, Western Europeans are amply prepared for a regime of pure freedom.  Central to Stephen's worldview is his conclusion that all law is ultimately an expression of morality, and that morality depends on metaphysical and theological claims, even if those claims are purely negative.  It is in this light that he denounces the religiously and morally neutral state Mill proposes as an illusion.  Stephen reveals that, despite his pretence of neutrality, Mill is making moral claims, they are only hidden, undeveloped, and inadequate.

Nearly two hundred years later, it would be easy to conclude that, given Mill's continuing reputation and Stephen's obscurity, history has judged in Mill's favor, but this would require foolishly assuming that history only moves in one direction and never revisits her judgments.

Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity

Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity by Ven Fulton J Sheen, 170 pages

Written in 1938, as fascists and communists in Europe and America gathered their forces for their pending assault against the liberal order, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity diagnoses the troubles of the time in terms of the internal contradictions of the slogans of the bloody revolution which established that order.  The liberals exalt freedom above all, the totalitarians demand equality, and as the values each proposes are seemingly incommensurable, their differences cannot be peacefully resolved absent a higher unifying principle.  Sheen finds this principle in fraternity, the principle which animates Catholic social teaching, which he advances as a cure for the world's ills.

Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity was written early in Sheen's public career, and suffers from a lack of focus.  After ably establishing his argument, Sheen proceeds to ramble on at length about the threat of communist subversion in the US - a timely warning, but one not directly connected to the main theme of the book or of much interest to a reader eighty years later.  Sheen's analysis of both liberalism and totalitarianism as sharing the same dehumanizing character despite their irreconcilable differences, however, remains powerful.