DEVIL'S BROOD

DEVIL'S BROOD by Sharon Kay Penman was read for the Chunkster Challenge 2010.

From Amazon.com:

The long-awaited and highly anticipated final volume in Penman's trilogy of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine - a tumultuous conclusion to this timeless story of love, power, ambition, and betrayal.


Where the second novel in the trilogy, TIME AND CHANCE, dealt with the extraordinary politics of the twelfth century, climaxing with the murder of Thomas Becket and Henry's confrontation with the Church and self-imposed exile to Ireland, DEVIL'S BROOD centers on the implosion of a family.  And because it is a royal family whose domains span the English Channel and whose alliances encompass the Christian world, that collapse will have dire consequences.  This is a story of betrayal as Henry's three eldest sons and his wife enter into a rebellion against him, aligning themselves with his bitterest enemy, King Louis of France.  But it is also the story of a great king whose brilliance forged an empire but whose personal blind spots led him into the most serious mistake of his life.  


Sharon Kay Penman has created a novel of tremendous power, as two strong-willed, passionate people clash, a family divides, and a marriage ends in all but name.  Curiously, it is a novel without villains - only flawed human beings caught up in misperceptions and bad judgment calls.  Most devastating to Henry was not his sons' rebellion but his wife's betrayal in joining them.  How could it happen that two people whose love for each other was all consuming end up as bitter adversaries?  That is the heart of Penman's tale in DEVIL'S BROOD.

For some reason, it took me a month to read this 730 page book.  I'm going to blame it on the small print and my old eyes, as I couldn't read for long stretches of time.  It definitely wasn't the story which held my attention throughout.

I'm not well versed in English history, so when I started reading this trilogy I had no preconceived notions about Henry or Eleanor.  I let the books carry me along and educate me.  Both Henry and Eleanor were strong characters, as rulers and as parents.  I think it was the role of parents that caused the most serious problems.  They wanted the best for their children and for the empire, but they couldn't agree on what that would be, and everyone suffered.

The book ends with the death of Henry II and the coming coronation of Richard as his heir.  In the author's note, Ms. Penman states that she is going to continue the story of Eleanor, Richard and John and the rest of this family in her next book.  I'll be looking forward to that one - I just hope the print will be larger!

I committed to read 4 books for the Chunkster Challenge 2010.  This book was number 4, so I'm calling this challenge finished.  It's been one of my favorites, and I'll be looking forward to a new one for 2011.

WEDNESDAY IS BOWLING DAY

I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn today.

End of story!

CURE

CURE by Robin Cook was read for the Medical Mystery Madness Challenge 2010.

From the book jacket:

With her young son's potentially fatal neuroblastoma in complete remission, New York City medical examiner Laurie Montgomery returns to work at the Office of Chief Medical Examiner, where she's been employed for more than two decades.  Worried about whether she still has what it takes after so much time away, Laurie finds her first case back to be a dangerous puzzler of the highest order, involving organized crime and two start-up biotech companies caught in a zero-sum game.  Against the advice of her colleagues and her husband, fellow medical examiner Jack Stapleton, Laurie is determined to solve the mystery the case comes to represent.


Satoshi Machita, a former Kyoto University researcher, is set to own a valuable patent controlling pluripotent stem cells, which are destined to spark a trillion-dollar industry of regenerative medicine.  When he dies on a crowded New York City subway platform, Laurie must decide whether his death was natural - or something more fiendish.


Behind the scenes, there are people who would like to see Laurie as far away from the investigation of the Satoshi death as possible.  Despite threats against her, Laurie presses on, until threats are carried out against the person she loves most in the world:  her son, JJ.  Suddenly Laurie must face solving the crime - and saving her son's life.

I've read a lot of Dr. Cook's books, but this one wasn't one of his better ones.  It took me quite a while to get into the story and even then, it took effort to keep reading.  The plot seemed far-fetched and the ending was too abrupt.  It seemed like Dr. Cook had written himself into a corner and had to devise some quick way to get out.  I wasn't impressed.  If it weren't for the fact that this book was for a challenge, I doubt that I would have finished it.

BORING LIFE

I just looked at the date of my last post - August 9.  And that was a book post.

I just haven't had anything to blog about.  My life is pretty boring, which is OK right now.  We've had enough drama in the past few months to last us for years.  I'll take boring.

My fall bowling league has started.  Our team, now called Lipstick & Cigars, was in first place for the first week.  Now we're tied for second.  A good start for us.  I'm the league secretary again and there's a lot of paperwork to do to get the league organized.

We're still playing cards most Fridays, although not everyone is playing each week.  If we can't have at least 4, we call if off for that week.  I tried to teach the girls a new game called Pitch, but some were having trouble catching on to it.  We usually stick to Pinochle or Euchre, with an occasional game of Oh Hell! thrown in for fun.

Poor Maggie is having problems.  We found out that she has high blood  pressure and is spilling protein in her urine.  She's on a blood pressure medication now, along with all her other meds.  This is another complication of her Cushing's syndrome.  The vet explained that we're seeing all these problems because we're handling her Cushing's so well.  Most dogs only live about a year after they are diagnosed - we're about year 3 or 4 with Maggie.  As she lives longer, there will be more and more problems.  Her latest thing - she's forgetting that she's been housebroken.  She forgets to ring the bell or tell us when she wants to go out and she's had a few accidents in the house.  Se we have to be more diligent in taking her out every couple of hours.

My oldest granddaughter Shelby turned 20 yesterday.  I can't believe she's so grown up.  We went to her house for lunch and birthday cake.  She and her boyfriend Mike have rented a really cute 3 bedroom townhouse.  The only drawback is that it's about 20 miles from here and from their jobs.  But the price was right and that's what's important to them.

I'm still working my way through a 700+ page book.  It's a good book, but I can't read that long at a time as the print is really small.  I just finished a medical mystery that I got from the library.  And I've been spending WAY too much time over on Facebook playing FrontierVille and FarmVille.

So that's a wrap-up of my boring life for the past couple of weeks.  Hopefully something exciting - good exciting - will happen soon!

31 BOND STREET

31 BOND STREET by Ellen Horan was read for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2010.

From the book jacket:

Who killed Dr. Harvey Burdell?


Though there are no witnesses and no clues, fingers point to Emma Cunningham, the refined, pale-skinned widow who managed Burdell's house and his servants.  Rumored to be a black-hearted gold digger with designs on the doctor's name and fortune, Emma is immediately put under house arrest during a murder investigation.  A swift conviction is sure to catapult flamboyant district attorney Abraham Oakey Hall into the mayor's seat.  But one formidable obstacle stands in his way:  the defense attorney Henry Clinton.  Committed to justice and the law, Clinton will aid the vulnerable widow in her desperate fight to save herself from the gallows.


Set in 1857 New York, this gripping mystery is also a richly detailed excavation of a lost age.  Horan vividly re-creates a tumultuous era characterized by a sensationalist press, aggressive new wealth, a booming real-estate market, corruption, racial conflict, economic inequality between men and women, and the erosion of the old codes of behavior.  A tale of murder, sex, greed, and politics, this spellbinding narrative transports readers to a time that eerily echoes our own.

A good book.  I didn't realize until reading the Author's Note that this was based on an actual story, with the author adding some characters and story lines of her own.

The book began with the murder, then moved between the months before the murder to the months after the murder and the trial of Mrs. Cunningham.  Reading the events leading up to the night of the murder, I had an idea of who the murderer was, but I was wrong.  This one kept me guessing to the end.

Finishing this book puts me over my required number of books for the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge 2010, so I'm calling this challenge completed.

JULY BOOKS

Wow!  Time has gotten away from me - it's already the 9th of August and I had forgotten to list the books I read in July.

Here's what I read last month:

SWEET THURSDAY by John Steinbeck

ICE COLD by Tess Gerritsen

VILLA MIRABELLA by Peter Pezzelli

THE IRRESISTIBLE HENRY HOUSE by Lisa Grunwald

THE BEST OF TIMES by Penny Vincenzi


Only 5 books this month - not good at all.  But while reading these, I've been working my way, slowly, through DEVIL'S BROOD by Sharon Kay Penman, a 700+ historical fiction.

Did you have a better reading July than I did?

SIZZLING SIXTEEN

SIZZLING SIXTEEN by Janet Evanovich

From the book jacket:

Trenton, New Jersey, bounty hunter Stephanie Plum has inherited a "lucky" bottle from her Uncle Pip.  Problem is, Uncle Pip didn't specify if the bottle brought good luck or bad luck...


BAD LUCK:  Vinnie, of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds, has run up a gambling debt of $786,000 with mobster Bobby Sunflower and is being held until the cash can be produced.  Nobody else will pay to get Vinnie back, leaving it up to Stephanie, office manager Connie, and file clerk Lula to raise the money if they want to save their jobs.


GOOD LUCK:  Being in the business of tracking down people, Stephanie, Connie, and Lula have an advantage in finding Vinnie.  If they can rescue him, it will buy them some time to raise the cash.


BAD LUCK:  Finding a safe place to hide Vinnie turns out to be harder than raising $786,000.  Vinnie's messing up local stoner Walter "Moon Man" Dunphy's vibe, running up pay-per-view porn charges in security expert Ranger's apartment, and making Stephanie question genetics.


GOOD LUCK:  Between a bonds office yard sale that has the entire Burg turning out, Mooner's Hobbit-Con charity event, and Uncle Pip's lucky bottle, they just might raise enough money to save Vinnie and the business from ruin.


BAD LUCK:  Saving Vincent Plum Bail Bonds means Stephanie can keep bing a bounty hunter.  In Trenton, this involves hunting down a man wanted for polygamy, a Turnpike toilet paper bandit, and a drug dealer with a pet alligator named Mr. Jingles.


GOOD LUCK:  The job of bounty hunter comes with perks in the guise of Trenton's hottest cop, Joe Morelli, and the dark and dangerous security expert, Ranger.  With any luck at all, Uncle Pip's lucky bottle will have Stephanie getting lucky - the only question is...with whom?

Finally, the Stephanie Plum books have gotten back on track.  After a few books that were downright silly, Ms. Evanovich has gotten back to her old form.  This one had some funny parts but nothing that was too ridiculous.  A main story line about saving Vinnie and the bail bond business, and a few FTA's (failure to appear) to capture.  Lots of Lula, a bit of Grandma Mazur (but not enough), some Ranger and some Joe, and Stephanie finally doing some thinking about the Joe/Ranger situation.

Now I can look forward to #17.

MUSIC MAN REVISITED

If you remember, Dom and I went to see The Music Man at out local Cumming Playhouse a week or so ago.  We enjoyed the show so much, we went back again last night.

Dom had written a letter to the cast, telling them how terrific we thought they all were.  He mentioned that we would be coming back on July 31 and would be sitting in the same front row seats.

During the show, there was a scene where Professor Harold Hill was sitting and talking to Mrs. Paroo, telling her that so many of the great musicians were Irish.  He started naming them - O'Reilly, O'Rourke, O'Pistilli, O'Bama.  Wait - did he really say O'Pistilli? While the audience was laughing at the O'Bama joke, we sat looking at each other, wondering if we were hearing things.  Then, at the very end of the show, as the performers left the stage and walked up the center aisle, Marion looked right at Dom and blew him a little kiss.

Obviously the cast read our letter and maybe using our name was their way of saying thank you.

This was such a great group of talented people.  We're looking forward to seeing them again in future musicals.