A Storm Of Swords by George R R Martin

 

A Storm Of Swords

by

George R. R. Martin

George R. R. Martin's A Storm Of Swords is the third book in his series A Song Of Fire and Ice.  This book series was turned into a popular television series on HBO several years ago.  Each book so far has been in excess of one thousand pages.  I have really been enjoying escaping into the land of Westeros this election season.  The books are not difficult to read and I am enjoying them more than I did the television series.  During this novel the character's stories continue.  Jon escapes from the wildlings and returns to the wall to fight a large battle against them.  Samwell kills one of the others and rescues a wildling girl.  Ayra manages to find her way to a ship that is going to take her to the free cities.  Catelyn and Rob are lost at the famous wedding feast.  Sansa and Tyrion both escape from Kings Landing but in different directions.  Daenerys is gathering slaves for an army to retake Westeros as her dragons grow and learn commands.  The book left me wanting more.  But since I have been plowing through the thousand pages each time I checked out one of these three books in less than three weeks I am waiting a bit to check out the fourth one.  I need to catch up on some other things.  Nevertheless I will look forward to book four.  I highly recommend this series whether you have watched the television series or not.  Please click on the book title and author's name above for more information and enjoy the video that can be found by clicking HERE. 

 

A Clash Of Kings by George R R Martin

 

A Clash Of Kings

by

George R R Martin 

The second book of George R R Martin's A Song Of Fire and Ice series is A Clash of Kings.  It is the book that season two of the renown Game Of Thrones television series is based on.   During this election season in the United States reading this series is my escape.  I do keep one eye on the headlines.  But after the 2016 election sent me spiraling into a very sad place I intend to keep the state of the union in perspective.  So spending time in the land of the Westeros is doing that for me.  During this book the character's stories that were started in  book one continue.  We follow Ayra's journey to not be discovered by the Lannisters as she tries to get back to her mom and brother. Jon Snow adjusts to the wearing the black and ventures out with the rangers into the woods and mountains beyond the wall.  Sansa is stuck at the Red Keep and does her best to stay alive.  Catelyn struggles to go on with out Ned as she agonizes over her children's fates.  Bran learns what gifts he has now that he is paraplegic. Daenerys struggles to find support to return to Westeros and reclaim her family throne.  Tyrion and Theon's stories also continue.   This book is bloodier than the first because there are five kings warring for the iron throne so more than a few battles are fought.  The book is, like the first one,  over a thousand pages.  I checked it out from the library on my Kindle and  I was surprised that I did not have to renew it.  I finished it three days before it was due.  And I am looking forward to book three.  I was sucked into  the television series but I am enjoying the books even more.  The television series didn't leave much for the imagination.  I highly recommend reading the books.  Although having watched the television series makes following the books easier,  the books are making relationships, connections and details clearer to me than they were after watching the show.   They are not children's books and are adult reading, but they are excellent books.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to learn more information and follow the link below to enjoy the video.  

Click HERE.  

A Game Of Thrones by George R. R. Martin

 

Game Of Thrones

by

George R. R. Martin 

I avoided watching the Game Of Thrones Series on HBO until just before the final season came out.  Hubs and I were visiting my son and daughter in law during the Christmas holiday and they were watching it so we watched a couple episodes and we got hooked.   We returned home and binged all the episodes, of all the seasons, in time to watch the final season with the rest of the world in real time.  I was shocked that I watched it.  Not only very violent, it was pretty much pornography in some parts.   I was intrigued with the story line though and found myself wanting to read the books.  I put off starting reading them because they are long and I feared they would be difficult.  But with the current political climate in the U.S. I decided this election year I could use an escape.  So I checked out book one on my Libby app and was delightfully surprised.  The book is written in much better taste than the television series depicted.  Of course the violence and sex are there but not in the constant descriptive detail that the television series had.  It is an adult fiction story and not for children but it is not an offensive book.  I sailed through the one thousand some pages rather quickly.  I did have to renew it once but only was a few days into the renewal till I completed it.  I am looking forward to enjoying the rest of the books in the series.  It is going to be a great escape in the coming months.   Click on the book title and author's name above to follow links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

https://youtu.be/OG2-6Tj51FM?si=08D8GwN_QcZ33qnW

The Monsters Of Templeton by Lauren Groff

 

The Monsters 

of

Templeton

by

Lauren Groff

I don't know how this book hopped on my to read list but if I could remember who suggested it I would sure thank them.  I checked it out on my kindle app from the State Library of Ohio and had no problems getting it read before it was due.  It really sucked me into the story.  Lauren Groff has created a very different novel and I am not sure how to describe it.  It isn't a historical novel.  It isn't a science fiction or fantasy book.   It isn't a romance.  It has drama.  It has humor.  The author's character development is pure art.  The monster in the lake is a loch nest type monster but to me the true monsters of Templeton are the small minded, small town people and their terrible behavior for the past two hundred years.  Since one of my hobbies is  family history, the protagonists search for the identity of her father by digging through genealogical records was a very interesting part of the book for  me.  There was a high percentage of undocumented paternity in the fictional little town of Templeton, New York.  The author uses Cooperstown as the model for Templeton so baseball fans are wandering about throughout the story.  This book will stay with me and is a favorite.  I will read more of Lauren Groff.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

Color Capital Of The World by John Kropf

 

Color Capital Of The World

by

John Kropf

Part memoir and part family history this delightful story of the crayon combines local Sandusky history with Ohio history and broadens to include United States History along with  world history.  Written by John Kropf who is a descendant of the founders of the American Crayon Company. His legacy crayon company competed with other crayon companies in the first half of the 20th century.  It absorbed most of the competition but Crayola out survived them. This short book was right up my alley and if you don't read it you are missing out.  The author is close to my age so grew up in the same era as I.  While I did not grow up in Sandusky I did grow up in the midwest.  Therefore the book had some nostalgia for me. The author recommends the following link for more information on crayon history.  Click HERE.   Also click on the authors name and book title above to follow the links to more information.  And enjoy the video that follows.  

Barkskins by Annie Proulx

 

Barkskins 

by

Annie Proulx

This evening I finished Annie Proulx's novel Barkskins.  I had checked it out from the digital library onto my kindle app.  The story begins in the late 1600s when two French indentured servants arrive in New France and follows their descendants until 2013. They are lumberjacks and it is also the story of the forests of North America and other parts of the world such as the tropical rain forests in South America and the ancient trees of New Zealand.  It graphically describes the destruction of the forests and ends with the impacts of deforestation seen today.  The book is divided into units and each unit switches back and forth between the two families.  I found the characters a little hard to remember as it switched back and forth.  There were two family trees in the back of the book.  One for the downline of each indentured servant.  These diagrams helped me keep the people in the book straight.  This is a historical fiction book that touches on environmental issues.  It would be a great choice in the classroom or in a book group.  It also depicts the mistreatment of the eastern Canadian Native Americans.  It is long but worth sticking with it. The National Geographic channel made a tv series out of the book but has only released one season.   Please click on the book title and author's name above for more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

The Thread Collectors by Shaunna J Edwards and Alyson Richman

 

The Thread Collectors 

by

Shaunna J Edwards

and

Alyson Richman

The Thread Collectors is an historical novel set during the Civil War.   It is co authored by Shaunna J Edwards and Alyson Richman.  Each of them were inspired by their individual family histories to weave together a fiction story about their heritage.  Edwards is a black woman and Richman is a Jewish woman.  In the novel Stella is a black woman in New Orleans and Lily is a Jewish woman in New York.  The men they each love are both musicians and meet just before the Battle of Port Hudson.    The story line intertwines the four young people's lives and vividly brings home the horrors of the Civil War.  Both Stella and Lily support the union through their work with textiles.  While the women are quilting, rolling bandages, and embroidering maps on bits of cloth the men are waking the troops, entertaining officers in the evenings  and leading the troops into battle with their instruments.   This book is an easy quick read and has a lot of material for discussion therefore would be a good book group selection.  Please click on the four links above to sites with further information and enjoy the short video that follows.  

The Second Life Of Mirielle West by Amanda Skenandore

 

The Second Life Of Mirielle West

by

Amanda Skenandore

I really enjoyed this historical novel about life in an American leper colony in the 1920s.  Historical fiction is my genre but add the sub category of medical history and and I am sucked in every time.  The main character of The Second Life Of Mirielle West is a fictional wife of a silent film movie star who is used to a glamorous life in Los Angeles when she goes to the doctor because she accidentally burns herself on her curling iron getting ready for a glamorous Hollywood party.  Soon she finds her self riding in a box car to a leper colony in Louisiana that is filled with disfigured individuals.  When they arrived their box car was burned to ashes.  The next couple years of her life is detailed in the book as she adjusts to life in a leper colony.  She begins as a spoiled person who thinks only of herself and matures into a much more well adjusted person emotionally.   She makes real friends instead of the surface relationships she had back in LA.  Although the story is not a true story the descriptions of life in Carville are well researched.  The author, Amanda Skenandore, is an RN who has written several books with medical history as the theme and I will be reading more of her work.  Carville Leper Colony is now a National Historical Site with a museum  that can be visited.  They have a website HERE.  Please click on the book title and authors name above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the video about Carville below.  

Alaska by James Michener

 

Alaska

by

James Michener

     The end of March I checked out this book from the library on my kindle app.  I wanted to read it in preparation for our trip to Alaska next month.  It is a very long historical novel and spans approximately  1600 pages.  The book begins with the geological formation of the area and proceeds to the arrival of native peoples.  Then the explorers are introduced followed by the fur traders.  The purchase of the Alaskan Territory from Russia by the United States after the civil war is covered and then the late 1800s brought the gold rush which was a very colorful part of the book.  In the early 1900s salmon canneries arrived and there was explanation of political battles and the development of infrastructure in the state of Alaska.  The areas of the state are well described throughout the book and I am confident that I am much more prepared for our vacation than I was before I read the novel.  I will read more by this author.  In fact I wish I would have read his book titled Hawaii before we traveled to the Big Island last summer.  If we ever return I will read it first.  Michener wrote Alaska in 1988 but it is still great background information for anyone traveling to the state.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the short video that follows.  It has some interesting stories about the story teller. Anyone who hasn't read anything by James Michener is missing out.  

Sea Otters

 

Something is scheduled to happen in my life during the latter part of May.  My husband and I are headed to Alaska for a short vacation.  We will be there a week, which is a normal length for a vacation, but when considering an area the size of Alaska a week is short in relation to what all there is to see.  We will be enjoying two national parks.  In preparation for the trip I checked out James Michener's Alaska on Libby Overdrive.  It is an extremely long historical novel.  I will likely NOT get it finished before I have to return it and will end up buying it on my kindle app.  If I get it read before we leave I will be surprised.  Each chapter is the length of a short novel.  For example, chapter four is roughly 260 pages.  I have about 50 pages left in chapter four.  This chapter covers Russia's interest in Alaska beginning with exploration and going on into the fur trade's beginnings in the 1700s.   The early commercial fur traders were brutal to not only the sea otters but also the native populations. The Aleutian Islands were the area that Michener focused on in this area of his novel.  I have been looking up some additional information online this afternoon.  The library of congress has some information that can be found HERE and an Alaskan Theater/Education  Group has posted some information HERE.  Finally the Alaskan Department of Fish and Game has some sea otter information on their site HERE.  The pelt of the sea otter was especially coveted by many countries. The video that follows has information on the sea otter pelt.  I am looking forward to continuing to read this novel. 

The Enemy In Our Hands by Robert C Doyle

 

The Enemy In Our Hands

by

Robert C Doyle

I am not sure where to begin reviewing this book.  I started it only because I wanted to read background information for how pacifists were treated during the American Revolution.. In my family history searching last summer I ran across the fact that there were pacifists during the revolution that were treated like loyalists and thrown into POW camps.  With many of my ancestors being anabaptist and pacifists I wanted to pursue what might have been included in their life experience.  While searching online I came across a magazine article that interviewed this author.  So I emailed him.  He was very gracious and encouraged me to read his book. So I downloaded a free sample and then purchased the book.  Imagine my shock when preparing this blog when I found the author's obituary.  He passed away early this very year.  But as I was reading the book I was unaware of it.  Originally I had intended to read only the chapter about the American Revolution as suggested by Dr Doyle.  But by the time I finished those first couple chapters I was hooked.  I read the entire book and highly recommend it to anyone interested in military history.  In fact I have been bugging those around me with all the information that I was running across in the book that I found interesting.  The Enemy In Our Hands is about how the United States treated POWs in the various wars we have been involved in.  This is one of four books this author wrote.  I may well eventually read some other titles by him.  They are:  1) Voices From Captivity which is about POWs that were American and captured by others.  2)yA Prisoners Duty Great Escapes in US Military History and 3) Men of God Men of War Military Chaplains.  Click on the authors name above to follow the link and read his obituary.  Click on the book title above at the beginning of this blog to read more about the book.  And if you have the time and inclination watch the following very long video on CSPAN at this LINK.   Or watch as much of it as you would like to see the author lecturing about the book to his students. 

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

 

The Invisible Library 

by

Genevieve Cogman 

This book was a birthday gift to me from a family member.  I finished reading it on my kindle last night.  The genre of the book is fantasy or possibly sci-fi which is a different type of book than I normally read.  I did take me a bit into the story to begin to be able to follow it but by midpoint I was hooked and the last quarter of the book I finished in one setting.  It is a good story and the first novel of a series so I will have to read the others in the series eventually.  The library that is invisible is between alternate realities and saves books for all time from these various worlds.  It sends librarians out into the various realities to obtain particular books and bring them back to the invisible library.  While trying to obtain the particular copy of the book required the librarian, Irene, has to deal with faes, dragons, monsters, werewolves, vampires and lots of other gruesome enemies that try to stop her.  It was a fun read and a good escape.  I recommend it to anyone who is wanting a light read.  Please click on the author's name and book title above to follow the links to more information and enjoy the video that follows.  

Extraordinary Relationships by Roberta Gilbert MD

 

Extraordinary Relationships

by

Roberta M. Gilbert, MD

Roberta M Gilbert, MD has written this personal development genre book which is explains a way of looking at relationships.  If a person has ever wondered what influences the manner they interact with the people they come in contact with this book will give them one frame work of understanding.  It explains the impact of sibling oder and the sibling order of parents on how a person interacts with their spouse and children. Based on the life work of Dr Murray Bowman, it is an interesting book that a family member of mine read and recommended.  I have recommended it to several other of my family members since reading it.  It is not light reading but it is worth the effort to take the time to understand the material and will provide insight to those that choose to read it.  After all,  we can always improve our interactions with others and our understanding of ourselves.  Please click on the book title and author's name above to follow links to more information and watch the video that follows.