Sunday, June 30, 2013

Book For The Week 6/30/2013: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver



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My nomination for my library book group's selection for 2013 was selected for the month of July.  I had chosen the title that I had listed as number two for my top ten books out of all the books that I had read in 2012.  You can read my last years review of this book HERE.   This past week,  I finished listening to The Poisonwood Bible on audio for the second time.  Much more of the detail was clear to me and this is a book I highly recommend reading more than once.  So much information is contained with in the story and there are layers of meaning to glean from the novel.  I hesitated to nominate it for reading group because of the area of the country I live in.    It is a very controversial book and I am sure that some members of the local library book group will not like it.  But most of the members are a pretty open to thinking things through and while they might not agree with some of the concepts I trust they will read and digest the book.  It promises to be a lively discussion at the July meeting due to the content of this book.   One question I asked them to be ready to answer is "Who is your favorite character in the novel?".   I adored Adah.  She was the sister in the missionary family who was a twin and had suffered brain damage at birth but was very smart in spite of her physical handicaps.  In the end she came back to America and became a research doctor who studied disease causing micro-organisms of the Congo.  One of the reasons this book is such a favorite of mine is that it clarifies things that were happening in the news when I was a teen and only listening with one ear.  The novels covers the historical time of 1950 to the mid 1990s.   Do follow the links above to learn more and listen to the videos below for back ground history of the area.







Thursday, June 13, 2013

Book of the week 6/13/13: 30 Pieces of Sliver



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Every month or so I go to the free list at Amazon for kindle and pick a few books to add to my kindle.  Then when I don't want to spend money on a book I select from one of the free ones I have stored.  Last summer 30 Pieces Of Sliver was on the free list and I selected it to read a week or two ago and finished it up last night.   It is an action adventure story with a historical and religious emphasis.  One of the main characters is a female archaeologist who,  along with her previous college professor and four special op agents are doing research and finding the bones of the disciples.   To name a few of the discoveries they find John the Baptist underneath the Eiffel Tower,  Jesus' brother James in Hungary.-, and  Mary Magdalene's bones are found in Turkey.     So the story line takes the reader to many locations.  Hot on their heels is a violent cult group by the name of The Knot.   The Knot's mission is to keep the research team from finding Jesus Christ's bones.  The research team wants to find his bones to prove the existence of a historical Jesus and to disprove the resurrection.  In addition they want to collect DNA from Jesus' bones to look for the God Gene.   Each of the skeletons they find has a piece of silver money with it.  The novel switches back and forth between the present day story line outlined above and a biblical story line that tells the story of the crucifixion from Judas' point of view.  Things get steamy between the female doctor archaeologist and the commander of the special op group toward the end.   It ends with a real shocker but I don't want to spoil it for anyone who might want to read it.   I enjoyed the book.  It was exciting and had a lot of action and I am open to various ideas.  I would caution people who take conservative view points seriously as they might be offended by the book.   Although it is a work of fiction it does deal with some controversial ideas.    Please click on the author's name and title of the novel to follow links to more information.  And enjoy the video below.



Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Book Of The Week 6-5-2013: The Lady of The Rivers by Philippa Gregory


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This is the third book in Philippa Gregory's series The Cousins War which is about the War of The Roses in 15th Century England.  But actually if one was to read the books in chronological order  The Lady of the Rivers would need to be read before the first two in the series because it is about the life of The White Queen's mother.  The Lady of the Rivers  is another really good novel.  I especially found the way Philippa Gregory presents Kind Henry VI as a catatonic schizophrenic to the reader very well done.   And I enjoyed the parts of the book that explained about herbal use in that particular historical context.  I highly recommend this series to people who enjoy historical novels.  Please click on the title and the authors name above to learn more and enjoy the following videos of the author describing this book.