Fervent Reader

Oscar Wilde’s tomb (which I have seen at Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris) had been starting to degrade because of kisses! Apparently, it’s some kind of tradition to leave lipstick marks on the tomb, and that’s precisely what many tourists do when they arrive.

But it turns out that grease from the thousands of lipstick kisses seeped into the stone sculpture and caused a bunch of problems. So cemetery officials decided to clean it and then protect it with a glass barrier.

Personally, I think it would be gross to kiss a tomb that so many other people have planted their lips on, but I guess that’s just me. The article I read said that visitors are now kissing a nearby tree instead of the tomb. Yuck! What happened to leaving flowers???

Summary (from the publisher): One recent December, at age 53, John Kralik found his life at a terrible, frightening low: his small law firm was failing; he was struggling through a painful second divorce; he had grown distant from his two older children and was afraid he might lose contact with his young daughter; he was living in a tiny apartment where he froze in the winter and baked in the summer; he was 40 pounds overweight; his girlfriend had just broken up with him; and overall, his dearest life dreams— including hopes of upholding idealistic legal principles and of becoming a judge— seemed to have slipped beyond his reach.

Then, during a desperate walk in the hills on New Year’ s Day, John was struck by the belief that his life might become at least tolerable if, instead of focusing on what he didn’ t have, he could find some way to be grateful for what he had.

Inspired by a beautiful, simple note his ex-girlfriend had sent to thank him for his Christmas gift, John imagined that he might find a way to feel grateful by writing thank-you notes. To keep himself going, he set himself a goal— come what may— of writing 365 thank-you notes in the coming year.

One by one, day after day, he began to handwrite thank yous— for gifts or kindnesses he’ d received from loved ones and coworkers, from past business associates and current foes, from college friends and doctors and store clerks and handymen and neighbors, and anyone, really, absolutely anyone, who’ d done him a good turn, however large or small. Immediately after he’ d sent his very first notes, significant and surprising benefits began to come John’ s way— from financial gain to true friendship, from weight loss to inner peace. While John wrote his notes, the economy collapsed, the bank across the street from his office failed, but thank-you note by thank-you note, John’ s whole life turned around.

365 Thank Yous is a rare memoir: its touching, immediately accessible message— and benefits— come to readers from the plainspoken storytelling of an ordinary man. Kralik sets a believable, doable example of how to live a miraculously good life. To read 365 Thank Yous is to be changed.

Liked:

• I like the idea of taking stock of your life and handwriting thank you notes to the people who have helped make a difference. Kralik approached the task as more of a “find something to be grateful for every day” exercise, which is absolutely necessary to reach 365 notes, but while reading, but I think my way works pretty well also.
• Kralik seemed to be pretty honest throughout the book. Obviously I have no way of knowing this for sure, but at least he admitted that the notes weren’t some miracle cure that suddenly helped make everything rosy and perfect. He was also honest about his own shortcomings, which was refreshing to hear in a memoir.
• The book refrained from being preachy. Kralik didn’t insist that EVERYONE should try what he did, nor did he proclaim that this was the way to salvage your soul. I can easily imagine other writers going there, which would have made me put the book aside without finishing it.

Disliked:

• I’m sorry, but some of the thank you notes were utterly cheesy. Handwriting a note to a Starbucks barista or the guy who installed a swimming pool safety net for the apartment complex??? Come on, that’s way too much of a stretch for most people’s lives. I try to be pleasant and friendly to cashiers and similar service providers, but I cannot imagine writing any of them a thank you note!
• Kralik’s life sounds pretty mundane and boring, so it took some slogging to get through even this very short book. All the stuff about training for a marathon and the state of his on-again off-again relationship with Grace practically put me to sleep.
• With a project like this, I think there was probably a good chance Kralik wrote at least a few of his thank you notes merely to satisfy his quota instead of because he was inspired by true feelings of gratitude. He never admitted as much, but I could definitely see that happening.
• This book wasn’t nearly as inspirational as I’d hoped. At first, I did feel like making a list of people to write thank yous to, but as the book plodded along, my interest began to wane. I think a big reason for this was the fact that so many of Kralik’s notes were about run-of-the-mill things like Christmas presents and birthday gifts. There’s nothing inspiring about sending a thank you for a gift; that’s just common courtesy.

Rating:

I have mixed feelings about 365 Thank Yous by John Kralik. On the one hand, the project clearly helped pull Kralik out of his funk and made him appreciate all the good things in his life. On the other hand, I probably won’t end up applying any of his advice to my own life. Yes, I try to be grateful for the little things — but not to the point that I would write a thank you note to the person who cuts my hair or serves my breakfast at McDonald’s. I give this one 3 stars out of 5.

Plot summary (from the publisher): He’s copying famous serial killers and the game has just begun.
A woman is found murdered in the woods. It seems like a simple case but it soon escalates into a terrible nightmare. Someone is replicating the killing styles of the most infamous murderers of all time. No one knows this criminal’s motives…or who will die next.

Two ex-Secret Service agents, Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, have been hired to defend a man’s innocence in a burglary involving an aristocratic, dysfunctional family. Then a series of secrets leads the partners right into the frantic hunt that is confounding even the FBI. Now King and Maxwell are playing the Hour Game, uncovering one horrifying revelation after another and putting their lives in danger. For the closer they get to the truth, the closer they get to the most shocking surprise of all.

Warning: Spoilers below!

Liked:

• The copycat serial killer angle was interesting. I found myself looking up a few of the killers that were emulated, and wondered why Baldacci didn’t just do that for readers to begin with. He had to have known we’d be curious!
• I was kept guessing as to the killer’s identity for almost the entire length of the book. Was it the character Baldacci clearly set up to be the bad guy? Was it the briefly mentioned raleigh accountant with a hidden agenda against the Battle family? The clues were there and an attentive reader probably could have figured out that Eddie Battle was the one causing all the mayhem, but I failed to pick up on it until the answer was fairly obvious.
• Having a couple other murders thrown in as red herrings was a good twist as well. That subplot also kept me guessing for a while. I eventually did peg the medical examiner Sylvia as Bobby Battle’s killer, but I was nowhere near the right track as far as the motive went.

Disliked:

• The beginning of the book started off with a good hook, but the middle just dragged on and on and on. Seriously, this thing was at least 100 pages longer than it needed to be, and I had to slog through several dull interludes to make it all the way to the end.
• The part where Eddie had a fake vein in his arm with lock picking tools concealed therein was just way, way, WAY beyond belief. That was so ridiculous I actually yelled, “Yeah, right!!” pretty loudly, earning a concerned look from my husband in the process.
• All the crap about the Battle family’s history got boring after a while. Yeah, we get it… they’re just another fucked up, privileged bunch of rich white folks. No need to drill that point home over and over again.
• Some of the minor characters were just dropped like a hot potato once they outlived their usefulness. Lulu Oxley? What happened to her? Mason? I hate when that happens.
• So who killed Kyle (the medical examiner’s office assistant who was stealing and selling drugs)? Was it established that it was Sylvia? I thought she denied that when questioned by Sean. Was that just a run-of-the-mill denial, or was the person telling the truth? I guess I just wanted the book to end because at that point I wasn’t even paying much attention.

Rating:

Hour Game by David Baldacci was good in places, but dragged far too much and was too long to be considered anything other than average by me. The Sean King/Michelle Maxwell series still has potential, so I’ll continue reading the books when I have a chance, but they’ll never be a priority. I give this one 3 stars out of 5.

Plot summary (from the publisher): Along Came a Spider begins with the double kidnapping of the daughter of a famous Hollywood actress and the young son of the secretary of the Treasury. And that’s only the beginning! Gary Soneji is a murderous serial kidnapper who wants to commit the crime of the century. Alex Cross is the brilliant homicide detective pitted against him. Jezzie Flanagan is the female supervisor of the Secret Service who completes one of the most unusual suspense triangles in any thriller you have ever read.

Warning: MAJOR spoilers below!

Liked:

• As with most Patterson books, the pace was pretty good. Things moved right along for the most part — except for the ridiculous “romance” angle.
• I can’t believe Alex Cross sticks with this kind of work for, what, 17 more books? That’s insane. If I were him, I’d start looking for Speech-Language Pathologist Jobs or try to get into family practice. As a widow with two young children, why would he put himself at constant risk like that?
• I was kind of surprised about the death penalties getting carried out so quickly. They weren’t in Texas, were they? Didn’t Jezzie and the other guy want to appeal anything? From trial to lethal injection in just a few months? Wow.

Disliked:

• What a wholly UNINSPIRED “twist” to have Jezzie actually be a dirty agent and only sleeping with Alex to get information from him. I don’t know… maybe that kind of thing was original back in 1993 when this book was published, but nearly 20 years later it just doesn’t go over well at all.
• I was really looking forward to my first Alex Cross book since he’s been around for, what, 20 installments? What a disappointment to learn that he’s one of the most boring protagonists I’ve ever encountered. Honestly, I don’t know if I’m going to continue with this series because he just doesn’t do anything for me.
• When a killer gets captured before the halfway point of the book, you can damn near bet the farm that he’s going to escape.
• I hated seeing “Soneji/Murphy” throughout the whole freaking book. It was as though Patterson wanted to make absolutely certain that we all understood the Jekyll/Hyde implications of the antagonist. Save some ink and just pick one damn name or the other!
• What was all that crap about interracial dating?? I know the book was written two decades ago, but weren’t interracial couples pretty common in the 1990′s???
• There were a bunch of other little details that nagged and bothered me while reading this; unfortunately, I can’t remember any of them now. I just remember feeling that the book was a bit sloppily written — which I guess shouldn’t have surprised me, given Patterson’s other work.

Rating:

I read James Patterson because it’s airport/escapist stuff, not because I’m expecting tightly plotted, character-driven literature. As such, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when the final product turns out to be something like Along Came a Spider. I give this one 2 stars out of 5.

Here are the current New York Times bestsellers in a handful of the more popular categories.

Combined Print & E-Book Fiction:
11/22/63, by Stephen King
THE LITIGATORS, by John Grisham
THE NEXT ALWAYS, by Nora Roberts
ZERO DAY, by David Baldacci
THE BEST OF ME, by Nicholas Sparks

Combined Print & E-Book Nonfiction:
STEVE JOBS, by Walter Isaacson
KILLING LINCOLN, by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent
BACK TO WORK, by Bill Clinton
SEAL TARGET GERONIMO, by Chuck Pfarrer

Hardcover Fiction:
11/22/63, by Stephen King
THE LITIGATORS, by John Grisham
ZERO DAY, by David Baldacci
THE BEST OF ME, by Nicholas Sparks
THE CHRISTMAS WEDDING, by James Patterson and Richard DiLallo

Hardcover Nonfiction:
STEVE JOBS, by Walter Isaacson
KILLING LINCOLN, by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard
BACK TO WORK, by Bill Clinton
JACK KENNEDY, by Chris Matthews
NO HIGHER HONOR, by Condoleezza Rice

Paperback Trade Fiction:
THE NEXT ALWAYS, by Nora Roberts
THE HELP, by Kathryn Stockett
SING YOU HOME, by Jodi Picoult
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, by Stieg Larsson
SARAH’S KEY, by Tatiana de Rosnay

Paperback Mass-Market Fiction:
THE PERFECT CHRISTMAS, by Debbie Macomber
CRESCENT DAWN, by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler
WHAT THE NIGHT KNOWS, by Dean Koontz
SECRETS TO THE GRAVE, by Tami Hoag
CROSS FIRE, by James Patterson

Paperback Nonfiction:
HEAVEN IS FOR REAL, by Todd Burpo with Lynn Vincent
THE IMMORTAL LIFE OF HENRIETTA LACKS, by Rebecca Skloot
OUTLIERS, by Malcolm Gladwell
MONEYBALL, by Michael Lewis
_____ FINISH FIRST, by Tucker Max

Plot summary (from the publisher): The partners at Finley & Figg—all two of them—often refer to themselves as “a boutique law firm.” Boutique, as in chic, selective, and prosperous. They are, of course, none of these things. What they are is a two-bit operation always in search of their big break, ambulance chasers who’ve been in the trenches much too long making way too little. Their specialties, so to speak, are quickie divorces and DUIs, with the occasional jackpot of an actual car wreck thrown in. After twenty plus years together, Oscar Finley and Wally Figg bicker like an old married couple but somehow continue to scratch out a half-decent living from their seedy bungalow offices in southwest Chicago.

And then change comes their way. More accurately, it stumbles in. David Zinc, a young but already burned-out attorney, walks away from his fast-track career at a fancy downtown firm, goes on a serious bender, and finds himself literally at the doorstep of our boutique firm. Once David sobers up and comes to grips with the fact that he’s suddenly unemployed, any job—even one with Finley & Figg—looks okay to him.

With their new associate on board, F&F is ready to tackle a really big case, a case that could make the partners rich without requiring them to actually practice much law. An extremely popular drug, Krayoxx, the number one cholesterol reducer for the dangerously overweight, produced by Varrick Labs, a giant pharmaceutical company with annual sales of $25 billion, has recently come under fire after several patients taking it have suffered heart attacks. Wally smells money.

A little online research confirms Wally’s suspicions—a huge plaintiffs’ firm in Florida is putting together a class action suit against Varrick. All Finley & Figg has to do is find a handful of people who have had heart attacks while taking Krayoxx, convince them to become clients, join the class action, and ride along to fame and fortune. With any luck, they won’t even have to enter a courtroom!

It almost seems too good to be true.

And it is.

Warning: Spoilers below!

Liked:

• Score one for the big guys. Varrick came out on top, which is surprising for a Grisham novel. Usually he despises multi-billion dollar corporations and makes them seem like evil incarnate while his underdog lawyers move in for the big score. Not this time.
• This novel provided an interesting look at how class-action suits (mass tort) play out. Obviously I have no way of knowing how close to the truth Grisham’s picture is, but it was still cool to see how quickly the vultures circle overhead whenever there’s even a hint of wrongdoing.
• I’m glad there was no fairy tale ending for Finley & Figg. I was fully expecting Oscar, Wally, and David to practice happily ever after in their little boutique firm and to become a respectable outfit after all was said and done. I thought it was very much in character for Finley and Figg to essentially take the money and run, and for David to turn out to be the only one with a real love of the law and desire to make a future for himself.
• I knew the lead toy lawsuit would end up being the big winner; even so, I still appreciated the ending and am glad the firm (or David, really) got money through a more ethical and legitimate suit.

Disliked:

• This book had one of the slowest, most boring openings I have ever plowed through! I couldn’t believe how long it took for the action to get going! I think it was close to 1/4 or 1/3 of the book before Zinc hooked up with Finley & Figg, and by that time I was predisposed to hate all three lawyers. What was the point of having David be drunk out of his mind before joining the firm? Couldn’t he have just had an epiphany and gone to a small firm? Couldn’t he have gone somewhere less than Harvard and accepted the job out of desperation? That setup was painfully bad.
• The dialogue in this book was awful from beginning to end. It sounded completely amateurish and had me flipping to the cover every once in a while to make sure this was indeed a Grisham book. (Not that he’s known for particularly stellar dialogue, but still….)
• David’s cross-examination in the Varrick trial came across as unnecessary and out of place. Was that just a sign that Grisham was unable to keep his hatred of pharmaceutical companies entirely under control for one novel? I mean, come on. After not having a single, solitary question for any of the defense witnesses, David suddenly sees the light and goes off about Varrick’s unethical testing in third wold countries? That’s a classic Grisham lecture for sure!

Rating:

While The Litigators was better than most of Grisham’s recent efforts, it still doesn’t come close to early works like The Firm, The Client, and A Time to Kill. The slow start, unlikable characters, and bad dialogue made it hard to get into the book with any real enjoyment, but the main plot and the ending were worthwhile. Overall I guess the good and bad points offset, so I give this book 3 stars out of 5.

There has long been some mystery and uncertainty surrounding Jane Austen’s 1817 death at age 41. Most historians have attributed her demise to various diseases, but now a crime novelist named Lindsay Ashford claims that Austen may have been the victim of murder. Specifcially, Ashford says that Austen may have been poisoned with arsenic.

This theory comes about because of some lines from letters Austen wrote, in which she complains about her skin being “black and white and every wrong colour.” Ashford extrapolates that to mean Austen could have been suffering the effects of arsenic, which apparently discolors the skin in much the same way.

What possible motive could there have been to murder Jane Austen? Ashford says, “Having delved into her family background, there was a lot going on that has never been revealed and there could have been a motive for murder.” To find out more, you’re just going to have to read Ashford’s new book “The Mysterious Death of Miss Austen.”

I’m not a huge Austen fan or anything, but this book sounds like it could be interesting. I’ll check it out if my library gets it!

Plot summary (from the publisher): It’s Stephanie Plum, New Jersey’s “fugitive apprehension” agent (aka bounty hunter), introduced to the world by Janet Evanovich in the award-winning novel One for the Money.

Now Stephanie’s back, armed with attitude — not to mention stun guns, defense sprays, killer flashlights, and her trusty .38, Stephanie is after a new bail jumper, Kenny Mancuso, a boy from Trenton’s burg. He’s fresh out of the army, suspiciously wealthy, and he’s just shot his best friend.

With her bounty hunter pal Ranger stepping in occasionally to advise her, Stephanie staggers kneedeep in corpses and caskets as she traipses through back streets, dark alleys, and funeral parlors.

And nobody knows funeral parlors better than Stephanie’s irrepressible Grandma Mazur, a lady whose favorite pastime is grabbing a front-row seat at a neighborhood wake. So Stephanie uses Grandma as a cover to follow leads, but loses control when Grandma warms to the action, packing a cool pistol. Much to the family’s chagrin, Stephanie and Granny may soon have the elusive Kenny in their sights.

Fast-talking, slow-handed vice cop Joe Morelli joins in the case, since the prey happens to be his young cousin. And if the assignment calls for an automobile stakeout for two with the woman who puts his libido in overdrive, Morelli’s not one to object.

Low on expertise but learning fast, high on resilience, and despite the help she gets from friends and relatives, Stephanie eventually must face the danger alone when embalmed body parts begin to arrive on her doorstep and she’s targeted for a nasty death by the most loathsome adversary she’s ever encountered. Another case like this and she’ll be a real pro.

Warning: Spoilers below!

Liked:

• I still think Stephanie Plum is a terrific heroine. I liked her in this book because she made realistic mistakes. She was neither too dumb, nor too perfect, which is the kind of character that I like. Now, if she’s still bumbling around by the 5th or 6th installment, I might start to have a problem with the author’s choices. But as for now, the characterization is good.
• I liked that Stephanie was a bit more kitted out in this book. In addition to her trusty .38, she had pepper spray, a stun gun, and a flashlight, so she was far more prepared for stakeouts and confrontations with suspects. Next, she’ll need some dark clothing, one of those Luminox blackout watches, and an inconspicuous car (ESPECIALLY an inconspicuous car!) and she’ll be all set.
• The stuff about the grandmother wanting to go to wakes and funerals was pretty funny. I usually don’t like those little subplots or secondary characters, but I could actually see old women acting like Grandma Mazur, so her comments cracked me up.
• The Morelli-Stephanie relationship is fun for now; but I’m afraid it will get tiresome if there’s no payoff soon one way or the other.

Disliked:

• The plot was a bit nebulous here. It was hard for me to care about either the army theft or the stolen caskets because not enough info was given about either. Yeah, I know this was a “mystery” novel, so not everything was going to be spelled out every step of the way. But it seemed that Evanovich was particularly stingy in releasing clues and details, making me lose interest quickly.
• The undertaker guy (I already forgot his name) talked in the most annoyingly clipped way. I couldn’t tell what Evanovich was trying to do with him. Yes, he was supposed to be creepy, and I guess he was to a certain extent. But the dialogue was so awful as to be distracting, which is definitely not something the author wanted.

Rating:

While Two for the Dough certainly didn’t pack the same punch as One for the Money, I will continue to read the Stephanie Plum series. I was still sufficiently entertained to want more, and considering the fact that the author has cranked out 17 such novels, there must be at least some merit to them. I give this book 3 stars out of 5.

Summary (from the publisher): The demon is a mob, and the mob is demonic. The Democratic Party activates mobs, depends on mobs, coddles mobs, publicizes and celebrates mobs—it is the mob. Sweeping in its scope and relentless in its argument, Demonic explains the peculiarities of liberals as standard groupthink behavior. To understand mobs is to understand liberals.

In her most provocative book to date, Ann Coulter argues that liberals exhibit all the psychological characteristics of a mob, for instance:

Liberal Groupthink: “The same mob mentality that leads otherwise law-abiding people to hurl rocks at cops also leads otherwise intelligent people to refuse to believe anything they haven’t heard on NPR.”

Liberal Schemes: “No matter how mad the plan is—Fraternité, the ‘New Soviet Man,’ the Master Race, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, Building a New Society, ObamaCare—a mob will believe it.”

Liberal Enemies: “Instead of ‘counterrevolutionaries,’ liberals’ opponents are called ‘haters,’ ‘those who seek to divide us,’ ‘tea baggers,’ and ‘right-wing hate groups.’ Meanwhile, conservatives call liberals ‘liberals’—and that makes them testy.”

Liberal Justice: “In the world of the liberal, as in the world of Robespierre, there are no crimes, only criminals.”

Liberal Violence: “If Charles Manson’s followers hadn’t killed Roman Polanski’s wife, Sharon Tate, Clinton would have pardoned him, too, and he’d probably be teaching at Northwestern University.”

Citing the father of mob psychology, Gustave Le Bon, Coulter catalogs the Left’s mob behaviors: the creation of messiahs, the fear of scientific innovation, the mythmaking, the preference for images over words, the lack of morals, and the casual embrace of contradictory ideas.

Coulter traces the history of the liberal mob to the French Revolution and Robespierre’s revolutionaries (delineating a clear distinction from America’s founding fathers), who simply proclaimed that they were exercising the “general will” before slaughtering their fellow citizens “for the good of mankind.”

Similarly, as Coulter demonstrates, liberal mobs, from student radicals to white-trash racists to anti-war and pro-ObamaCare fanatics today, have consistently used violence to implement their idea of the “general will.”

This is not the American tradition; it is the tradition of Stalin, of Hitler, of the guillotine—and the tradition of the American Left.

As the heirs of the French Revolution, Democrats have a history that consists of pandering to mobs, time and again, while Republicans, heirs to the American Revolution, have regularly stood for peaceable order.

Hoping to muddy this horrifying truth, liberals slanderously accuse conservatives of their own crimes—assassination plots, conspiracy theorizing, political violence, embrace of the Ku Klux Klan. Coulter shows that the truth is the opposite: Political violence—mob violence—is always a Democratic affair.

Surveying two centuries of mob movements, Coulter demonstrates that the mob is always destructive. And yet, she argues, beginning with the civil rights movement in the sixties, Americans have lost their natural, inherited aversion to mobs. Indeed, most Americans have no idea what they are even dealing with.

Only by recognizing the mobs and their demonic nature can America begin to defend itself.

Liked:

• I absolutely loved the chapters about the French Revolution. That is one of my favorite periods in history (though I’m not an expert by any means), and I have always been baffled as to why the event is often held up as something to be admired and applauded. It was bloody and brutal, with tens of thousands of innocent people murdered by the mobs. I enjoyed reading Coulter’s interpretation and analysis of the events, and found myself agreeing with her often.
• The stuff about the Central Park jogger was fairly frightening. That event happened when I wasn’t yet old enough to care much about what was happening in the outside world, so a lot of what I read from Coulter was new to me. What a travesty that the perpetrators — all part of a mob that descended on the park that night — had their convictions overturned based on the completely unreliable confession of an inmate who had nothing to lose and a lot to gain by coming forward.
• The chapters in this book weren’t merely rehashes of Coulter’s past columns. Even if you’re a regular reader of her weekly work, this book will be entirely new to you (as it was to me).
• I LOVED how Coulter stuck up for Sarah Palin throughout the entire book. Admittedly, I was surprised by this since Coulter has blasted Palin on various talk shows recently, but I definitely enjoyed how she took the time to dismantle many of the unfair attacks against Palin in this one.
• I liked the amount of wit and sarcasm in Demonic. I’ve complained that sometimes Coulter goes a bit too far with her insults, making her sound more juvenile than anything else. But think she showed a little more restraint here. Her cutting remarks were well-placed and made me laugh out loud more often than not.

Disliked:

• Just about the only thing I disliked about Demonic was that it was too short!! I was left wanting way more, because goodness knows there are plenty of additional examples of liberal mob mentality out there.
• Sometimes Coulter focused too much on specific individuals (particularly Obama’s pals and advisers) instead of sticking to the mob theme. Although I certainly agree with her in principle, I don’t know that small extremist groups qualify as perpetrating mob action. Ditto for Janet Reno and all her massive blunders as Attorney General. Yes, Coulter was talking more about how liberals in general (i.e. the mob) supported Reno; but still, it felt like a departure from the theme of the book.

Rating:

I’m not a knee-jerk conservative, so I don’t automatically like books just because they’re written by right-wing authors. In fact, Ann Coulter’s books have always been hit-or-miss for me. But I found Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America to be an excellently argued, well-written “position paper” on how group think has harmed and continues to threaten society. I give the book 4 stars out of 5.

Plot summary (from the publisher): An absorbing romance set in the early days of World War I. Against great odds and opposition, 20-year-old Sara Lee Kennedy leaves her small town and stolid fiance to run a soup kitchen for soldiers on the Belgian front. Her experience — and a gallant Belgian captain — change her worldview.

Warning: Spoilers below!

Liked:

• Sara Lee was a wonderful protagonist. I was on her side from beginning to end, and I admired her courage and determination in the face of all those hardships. I also liked how she stood up to her fiance Harvey and insisted on going abroad before getting married, regardless of what his feelings were.
• I liked the Sara Lee/Henri love story. It developed organically, it was believable, and of course it was rather subdued by today’s standards. I was totally rooting for them to get together, and was glad that Rinehart made it fairly clear the Harvey relationship would never pan out.
• I thought there was just enough of the war in the book to keep things interesting without completely overwhelming the plot. Sara Lee’s house of healing was terrific, and Henri’s exploits added a dash of mystery to everything.

Disliked:

• The only thing I disliked about this book was that there wasn’t anything too terribly memorable about it. It was a decent story, with interesting characters and good pacing. But that’s about it. There were no twists and turns, no big surprises, nothing that will make it stand out to me a month from now.

Rating:

I liked The Amazing Interlude by Mary Roberts Rinehart well enough. It’s a quick, engrossing little read that provided some decent entertainment for a few days. But there’s really nothing in it that would compel me to give it more than 3 stars out of 5, so that’s the final rating.