Angels Walking

Angels Walking by Karen Kingsbury           Audio Book: 11 hours, 11 mins         Hardback Book:  384 pages                  Genre: Adult Fiction    Christian Romance   Angels

This book is the first in Karen Kingsbury’s Angel Series.   The story itself was o.k.   I liked the premise – an injured ball player loses his chance at the big leagues and ends up down on his luck, his finances, his girlfriend, becomes addicted briefly to the pain pills he is given to combat the intense pain he still suffers.   His parents have high expectations for him and push nothing but becoming a professional ball player to him throughout his life to this point.   Feeling he has let them down and disappointed with himself he leaves town to get away from anyone who might recognize him and ends up as a maintenance man at a home for the elderly.   There he, Tyler Ames meets an elderly resident, Virginia Hutcheson who has Alzheimers and is doing so poorly the residence wants to send her to another facility 165 miles away that treats the residents with severe dementia and is able to deal with their angry outbursts more so than the quiet home her daughter has put her in.    Her daughter goes into a tailspin when the Director of the Nursing Home her mother is currently in wants her to transfer out as the staff do not have the training to properly care for residents with such acute symptoms.    When Tyler enters Virginia’s room to mop the floor it is as though her mind has been freed and she is restored to her former self.   The miraculous turn around in her condition is due to Tyler’s presence – he looks just like her son, Ben, and Virginia is sure that Ben has come back and while Virginia sees Ben in a mental time frame from when he was young, Tyler feels sorry for her and goes along with it.   His intentions are pure, he sees no harm in “being” her son because it makes her so happy,   The Director of the facility is wary wondering if Tyler is trying to get something from Virginia nut learns that the two are fast friends and Tyler spends time visiting with Virginia and talking and listening to her talk.   When her daughter comes to visit expecting another horrible visit where her mother doesn’t recognize her and wants her to leave, but, she is gob-smacked to find her mother up and dressed, her hair combed and looking wonderful.   Her mother even recognized her, had several loving comments to make and told her all about her brother Ben coming to visit.   Her daughter thought she was experiencing Alzheimer symptoms again, but, no, she was totally lucid carrying on conversations, behaving lovingly none of what they had been going through the last few years.   What brought about the change?    The Director brings her into his office for a chat and gets the wanting to send her to another facility talk out of the way.   Virginia has recovered so tremendously there is no reason for her to leave.   The Director tells about the miracle that Tyler’s presence has brought about.      There are angels afoot, too, putting everyone in the right place so they connect.     More happens and the angels come in and out of the story and there is a cliffhanger at the end.    The story was pleasant enough but many times throughout the author seemed to go off spelling out so many details about uninteresting things.    The story would flow for a while then get bogged down in all this extra unnecessary in my opinion verbage that went on and on about minute things or uninteresting things or things that barely needed to be discussed in the story.    If the author was paid by the word she was making a lot of extra pay for narrative that did not feel like it needed to be included.   That took away from the story for me.   It was like discussing each separate hair on someone’s head when you could just say hair and be done with it.    I found that really annoying to wade through when you just want to get to the meat of the story.   Perhaps the author is just wordy and obviously felt it was needed whereas I could not wait to rush through what felt like 7 extra hours on the audio book that did not contribute a farthing but made me not want to read the next in the series because it was so aggravating to wade through the muck that bogged the story down.    My recommendation, Karen Kingsbury, don’t overthink yourself when writing.    Don’t go back and feel like you to flesh the story out or that maybe you need to concentrate more on the details of everything you are describing.    The slogan, less is more, is true.    The story was just o.k. for me, plus, I love Clarence in Frank Cappra’s, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” but I was not a fan of the commando angels brought in from time to time throughout the book.    I wanted to like this story more and true enough, I liked the story just those couple of grating things like ants at a picnic or mosquitoes on your camping trip that put me off.    I want to say I would recommend this book, but, if you are like me and want to get to the gist of things not 40 miles around it then over the hill criss-crossing a field running a marathon and oh yes, this is what happened next.    I just didn’t have a lot of patience for this story.

Lord Of Shadows

LordOf Shadows by Cassandra Clare, 699 pages

“Emma Carstairs has just learned that the love she shares with her warrior partner and parabatai , Julian Blackthorn, isn't just forbidden--it could destroy them both. She knows she should run from Julian. But how can she when the Blackthorn family is threatened by enemies on all sides? Their only hope is the Black Volume of the Dead, a spell book of terrible power. Everyone wants it. Only the Blackthorns can find it. Spurred on by a dark bargain with the Seelie Queen, Emma; her best friend, Cristina; and Mark and Julian Blackthorn embark on a journey into the Courts of Faerie, where glittering revels hide bloody danger and no promise can be trusted. As dangers close in, Julian devises a risky new scheme that depends on the cooperation of an unpredictable enemy. But success may come with a price he and Emma cannot even imagine, one that will have repercussions for everyone and everything they hold dear. This series has started to lose my attention.  I suspect that it’s me, because the stories and characters are great, the writing is good, and it’s the type of thing I would normally love. For some reason, I never loved this as much as some people did anyway, and as time goes by I find myself caring less than I did before.  However, I still think that teens who like the series or science fiction and fantasy will enjoy it.

The Tale Of Angelino Brown

The Tale Of Angelino Brown by Alex T. Smith, 258 pages

“When Bert discovers a tiny boy angel in his pocket, he takes the angel home to his wife and they happily raise him as their own son.” This was a sweet book that would probably only appeal to kids who really enjoy reading.  There is some adventure and fantasy about it, but not enough to truly satisfy kids who really like those genres.  This book has an old-fashioned feel, which some kids may like, but as I say, this book is more for kids who just truly love to read.

Jovah’s Angel

Jovah’sAngel by Sharon Shinn, 358 pages

“More than a hundred years after the time of Rachel and Gabriel, Samaria is in deep turmoil. Charismatic Archangel Delilah has been injured and forced to give up her position, and she has been replaced by shy, uncertain Alleluia. What's worse, ungovernable storms are sweeping across the country, and the god never seems to hear the angels' pleas to abate the bad weather. Unless those prayers are offered by the new Archangel...” I didn’t remember reading the first book in this series when I got this book, but as I started it I found I remembered the world, even though I still didn’t remember the other story.  It didn’t really matter.  This book worked on its own and I would highly recommend it to people who like fantasy.

Call Me Mrs. Miracle

Call Me Mrs. Miracle by Debbie Macomber            Audio Book: 4 hours, 56 minutes      Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages                   

Angel, Emily Merkle is sent to help Holly Larson, who is dealing with low esteem when her long-time boyfriend breaks up with her because she has no mothering skills (he has an 8 year old son with his ex-wife), 3 months after their breakup, Holly’s brother is called up to service in the Army and sent to Afghanistan.   Her brother is in a pickle because he is a widower with an 8 year old son, himself, with no one to look after his son while he is away serving Uncle Sam.     Step up Holly, who really never was much for kids, just in short doses.   Emily Merkle goes to work at Finley’s, a family owned department store.   The H.R. department at Finley’s make a typo on Emily’s name tag which reads, Emily Miracle.    Rather than change it, Emily tells staff and customers to call her Mrs. Miracle.    It works as she is like Mrs. Claus all grandmotherly and dear so they put her to work in the toy section.   Jake Finley, son of the owner studies trends trying to keep their business afloat and buys a shipment of 500 robuts that retail for $250 each because he believes against the store’s Buyer’s wishes.   Jake’s dad gives him the blues believing the buyer that they will be stuck with them because with the downturn in the economy, people won’t want to shell out that kind of money for a toy.    It is 2 weeks before Christmas and they aren’t selling this causes a huge rift with Jake and his Dad as the business has not been performing well financially for some time.    It is wonderful and magical or heavenly I should say, how people and things come together throughout the story.   A really good story that has been made into a film.    Debbie Macomber even includes recipes for some of the food mentioned as well as quotes from Mrs. Miracle here and there.    A very good read.   This book, a mug of hot chocolate and a plate of cookies would go so well together.    It is a great feel good holiday book with descriptions of carriage rides through Central Park,  the lighting of the tree at Rockefeller Center, and of course sitting on Santa’s lap, bringing lots of good holiday scenes to mind.    I especially liked Mrs. Miracle, she is like a banana pepper – sweet and spicy!   Good job, Debbie Macomber.

Mr. Miracle

Mr. Miracle by Debbie Macomber              Audio Book:5 hours       Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages          

Harry Mills is an angel sent to earth as a college professor on a mission to help the people that attend his classes.   Addie Folsom has dyslexia but is determined to try to make it at college if at all possible, everyone in class has an issue they are dealing with,  the Latino kitchen worker who while on her breaks tries to stand as close to the classroom doorways as she can to glean as much from the lectures as she can before she gets caught by campus security officer (who has a bit of a Gestapo complex) or the veteran in the class who attends with his service dog by his side to help calm him when his PTDS kicks in.   There is a young man who has just been released from prison who wants so much to do better with his life and get a college education but puts people off by his brash way of speaking and his many jail house tattoos.   Can’t read a book by its cover.    All of these people have lots going on in their lives and backstories that come out during their time together in Harry Mills class.   Lots of side stories, Harry’s mentor (angel) is a barista at the on campus coffee shop – sounds a lot like Starbucks but they don’t say it is.    Like Clarence before him, Harry is trying to earn his wings so to speak.   He is trying to prove he has got what it takes to help humans with their circumstances.    Harry has lots of rules to abide by and the head of the college seems to be a demon or heavily influenced by the darkside and laying in wait to thwart Harry in every attempt at goodness he tries to accomplish.    Being that this is Harry’s first time actually on earth instead of observing from heaven (while playing his harp), he has a few things to learn such as how to avoid the divorced French Teacher who is like a hound in romantic pursuit of him and almost gets him sacked from his job over a private champagne picnic in the classroom, or how he hadn’t noticed the DO NOT WALK ON THE GRASS sign as he cut across the grass on his way to class his first day getting him in bad from the start with his boss at the college.   There is another thing going on with Addie besides dyslexia, one of her brother’s friend has always been a jerk to her since they were little.   To say they hate each other seems to be putting it mildly, but, when he, Erich, is in a car accident breaking both wrists and their mothers who happen to be best friends have non-refundable tickets for a cruise at the same time that Erich is requiring someone to be his caretaker till he heals enemies end up having to confront each other because they love their moms.     It was a fun story.    Debbie Macomber is a good writer, but there were a couple of things I thought she didn’t address that could have been done although it would have sent the story line in a completely different direction if she had.  Nonetheless, I still liked the story very much and would recommend it to folks who love holiday stories, angels and romance novels.    I think it would make a great Hallmark movie.

A Flight of Angels

AFlight of Angels by Rebecca Guay, 128 pages

“The diverse mythology of angels is explored in this lushly painted graphic novel from high-profile fantasy authors including Holly Black (The Spiderwick Chronicles) and Bill Willingham (FABLES). Deep in the woods outside of a magical kingdom, a strange group of faeries and forest creatures discover a nearly dead angel, bleeding and unconscious with a sword by his side. They call a tribunal to decide his fate, each telling stories that delve into different interpretations of these winged, celestial beings: tales of dangerous angels, all-powerful angels, guardian angels, and death angels, that range from the mystical to the mysterious to the macabre. This original graphic novel spotlights the painted work of award-winning artist Rebecca Guay, whose other works include the Vertigo titles Veils and Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold, as well as World of Warcraft, Magic: The Gathering, and Dungeons & Dragons.” As graphic novels go this wasn’t bad but everything was just too surreal and dark for me to really enjoy it.  I probably wouldn’t recommend it to anyone but for the right audience this would probably be a really good choice.

Dream of Gerontius

The Dream of Gerontius by Bl John Henry Newman, 94 pages

Bl John Henry Newman wrote the long narrative poem The Dream of Gerontius in 1865.  Combining influences from the Roman liturgy to Cicero's Somnium Scipionis, the story follows Gerontius (an "old man") from his deathbed into the afterlife, where he is greeted by his guardian angel and conducted through the celestial spheres to be presented before the throne of God.  Newman, living in a time when churchmen were expected to be literary men, still unites in a unique way psychological perspicuity, theological wisdom, aesthetic judgement, and a command of the English language.  It is not difficult to agree with Dr Alexander Whyte, "It is a poem that every man should have by heart who has it before him to die."

The Dream of Gerontius was magnificently set to music by Edward Elgar in 1900.  The 1916 edition includes darkly dramatic full page illustrations by Stella Langdale and an extended introduction by Gordon Tidy.

Bloody Cross Manga

Bloody Cross Volumes 1-4, by Shiwo Komeyama (835 pages/4 books)

In a world that has angels and demons feuding  with each other, the half breeds get the short end of the stick. Which is exactly where Tsukimiya finds herself. As a half demon/half angel she is imbrued with a curse, one that will kill her is she doesn't drink the blood of a pure demon. But with every other half breed killing off demons, they are in short supply. Luckily she meets an angel named Hinata knows where to find a demon. But what happens next was neither of them could have predicted.

I am not entirely sure what to make of this series. One of the main characters is so trusting that they fall into near deadly traps every book. Luckily they are backed up by some seriously powerful allies, otherwise they would be history. But I cannot help but think that if the bad guys were serious about defeating anyone, they really should have killed this klutz a long time ago. Honestly if this keeps up I will only be able to read another ten to fifteen books in this series before I write it off.

On the other hand Bloody Cross is quite interesting with its blend of demons, angels, vampires and a couple demi-gods. It consistently gives you action, and besides from the aforementioned klutz has some well written characters. I would recommend this series to anyone that likes a good action manga.

Note: I know I have harped on it before but I really must say it again, it is very difficult to review a series without giving anything away, especially with manga. Sooooo much happens in each book.

Angels and Demons

The Mammoth book of Angels and Demons, 544 pages

This is another one of those collection of short stories novels based around a certain theme. As you might have been able to guess by the title every story is based on either angels, demons, or in some cases both. I am not sure what initially drew me to this book, maybe it was the cover art or the fact that it was edited by Puala Guran instead of the usual George R. R. Martin. Either way it was worth reading.

Like nearly every collective work I have posted on here, some stories were enjoyable, some were dull/boring, and others were just weird or interesting. While it did have stories by some of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, etc. none of the stories really stood out as exceptionally noteworthy. Though the TSA using the full body scanners to check for demon possession instead of weapons was close.

What was noticeable though was how often St Louis featured into this book. Of the twenty seven short stories I noticed that four and maybe a fifth(it was a little vaguer) either mentioned part of St Louis, took place here, or passed though the town. One of the stories even specifically mentions the bus half hanging off the roof of the City Museum! Getting even closer to the library one of the demons who was originally passing though St Louis ends up staying and residing in the Park Pacific Building, which is right across the street. When I was reading that story I just happened to be sitting out front of Central and could not help but glance at the building and give it a suspecting glare.

Having a book both talk about, or even mention areas that are familiar really help to immerse the reader and in this case make me like the book that much more. But I tend to find this only works when I don't know that St Louis is going to be mentioned, otherwise it loses the thrill.