Lou Diamond Phillips Books

Bernardo writes a good novel that makes one aware of the cultural traits that make up one culture and are transmitted to another. Also, he writes about the need to hide our sexual orientation when the climate around is unforgiving. Overall a good read, Bernardo lives in New York and has had a chance to experience the Cuban American reality.

I loved this book. I was engrossed immediately into Maximiliano and Delores's love affair, and I too wanted to dance the danzon. Sure, the book was dripping with machismo, but at no point does it pretend to do otherwise.

The book set me on a beautiful dream, and I didn't want to wake up. If you were able to imagine the world of Like Water for Chocolate, and willing not to judge the characters based on any feminist belief system, then you'll enjoy this thoroughly romantic and enchanting family saga.

What does the 'Kirkus Review' know?

This is a story that encompasses the lives of a Cuban family, and during the reading and subsequent re-reading of the story a couple years later, I was struck repeatedly by the desire to be Cuban. Yeah, so the men are stuck in that machismo muck. And there are some phrases that make one squirm. But they're Cuban- an entirely different culture. And a culture that Jose Raul Bernardo brings to such vivid life that I actually felt Cuban while I read it. And for a sheltered little suburban girl, that's quite a feat. My biggest issue with the book was the abrupt and weak ending, but I forgive the author that shortcoming because the remainder of the story was so very entertaining.

From the beginning of the story, where a young Maximiliano and Dolores are described in photographs, I was pulled into the age and flavor of Cuba. I danced the danzon, ate the palomillas and visited the posada. After Dolores marries the butcher's son and is disowned by her father, the young couple is determined to make it on their own. They suffer one calamity after another, and end up moving to the bright lights of Havana, where the story really takes off. One daughter is desperate for love, one son is desperate to have the best wife in the neighborhood, and one son is desperate to be loved and accepted by his family, while Dolores is looking the away from her husband's wandering eye. The book is really about how little ripples in a pond cause big waves on the far shore. It is also about how we can't possibly know everything that the people closest to us are doing, thinking or feeling, that usually only half the story is revealed, usually the shiny half.

This book drips with the richness of Cuban culture, burns with the fiery passion of the characters, and dazzles with the vividly described beauty of the exotic locales.

You'll find yourself hooked from the prologue, as the author introduces his main characters, Maximiliano the butcher's son, and Delores, daughter of a wealthy landowner, and the love that ignites them from their very first meeting.

Turning her back on her family, Delores elopes with her one true love, standing by him through good times, fires and hurricanes, infidelity and adultery, bending like the royal palm trees and then rebounding tall and proud to hold her family together.

The story skillfully weaves its way between the lives of their children - Mani, heir apparent to the trade, who carries on his brawny shoulders the fears and mistakes of the past; Merced the eldest, headstrong and artistic; Gustavo the shy poet and Marguita the youngest. While Merced's marriage ends disastrously, and Gustavo fights to keep his together, Mani remains in awe of the fearsome animals that race down the Street of the Bulls in their last run before they end up on his slab, tenderly and skillfully converted to prime cuts for the waiting and appreciative customers.

Full of local culture, nosy neighbors, steamy seduction and time honored male rituals of honor, this story is never boring, but subtly brings out the strength of the Cuban woman and the importance of family.

Amanda Richards, July 2, 2005

How can one rate this book? What is higher than five stars? A firmament? Well then, this book deserves a firmament.

I have read The Secret of the Bulls not once, not twice, but three times; and each time I read it I find something new in it. I confess that I have been deeply moved by it every single time I have read it, and yet, I have been moved in different places, which I find it strange. I guess I bring the state of my own personal life into the reading.

I fell instantly in love with all the characters, particularly that of Mani, a young boy who is the son and the grandson of a butcher but who dreams of being an artist, something almost impossible in the macho society in which he lives. Like Mani, I also come from a very poor background and yet I am pursuing a life in the arts, so I thoroughly identified with him. We first meet Mani as a boy, and we last meet him when as a young man he discovers what the Secret of the Bulls is all about: Finding your own identity and living your life at your own speed, following your own way, whether other people like or not. You have to read the book to the very, very end to understand what I mean. So please, I beg you to read it, it may change your life. It has changed mine. It has given me a lot of hope, and I always feel great when I finish reading it. The book has made me laugh (I mean, I actually laughed aloud as I read it); it has made me cry several times; and let's face it, the sex scenesýwhich are indeed essential to the story for a changeýwere called steamy by Publisher's Weekly, and WOW! They were not kidding!

A great story told with heart and passion.

A great read.

Armstrong Sperry's story of Mafatu, who is afraid of the ocean, does come alive with great and detailed descriptions about life in Polynesian islands which includes life, environment, and religion. The book is somewhat slow at times. The book is decent for young readers including struggling readers. Sperry's writing is clear and the story of Mafatu who tries to prove his courage despite his fear of the water. The book is satisfactory for me.

I just stumbled upon this book and I was absolutely blown away as I had never heard of this book before. I even got my father to read it and he loved it. This is a book for all ages and something for everyone to love and appreciate.

Like the majority of other reviewers, I was struck by the excitement and adventure of this story. While the exotic setting surely plays its part in drawing the reader deeper into the tale, it is also the underdog nature of the story's main character, Mafatu (Stout Heart). The reader will surely identify with the inner nature of all humans to challenge the personal fears that we hold within us. Mafatu actualizes these challenges in his conflicts with the sea, personified in the Tahitian sea god, Moana. With his two animal companions, Uri, the dog, and Kivi, the albatross, Mafatu sets out to overcome his fears, to grow into a new and mature person. Young and older readers will learn much about Polynesian cultures and even learn some Tahitian language. There is also a spiritual part of this story which has often been overlooked by others. Mafatu constantly prays to and gives thanks for his survival, well being, and growth to Maui, the Polynesian god of the fishermen, who like the Greek Prometheus is responsible for giving fire to humankind. In the end, with the help of his animal friends, he is able to courageously and ingeniously overcome all of the internal and external challenges and thereby rightfully claim his meaningful name.

One caveat is that the "eaters-of-men," i.e., cannibals, are made out to be black, irrational and dangerous. While the story is simply a story that was first published in 1940, some youngsters may come away from the story with a distorted view of race.

Call it Courage by Armstrong Sperry is the story of a boy named Mafatu who was afraid of the sea. To prove his courage, he went on a journey to a foreign island (likely Tahiti), battling sharks and octopus to prove his worth. If you like suspense, this is the book for you. I only wish it could have been longer.

This book, which was first copyrighted in 1940, is still a good coming-of-age adventure, except for ONE BIG PROBLEM: racist imagery. The people the young South Seas islander hero must outwit and outrun in order to return to his homeland are terrifying "blacks," "savages," "eaters-of-men." This stereotyped characterization might have been acceptable to some in 1940, but society has since come to realize the harm it can cause to Black children's self-image and other children's attitudes toward Black people. To ethically introduce this book to a child requires either blacking out offending words (!) or prefacing and interspersing the reading with lessons in sociology and history, and even then, there's no assurance that damage won't be done. Why take the chance when there are so many other good books out there?
Newberry-awarded books engender such trust. Isn't it time for the Newberry folks to reconsider their wisdom in granting this racist book a medal?

I enjoyed this book very much. Once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down until the end. The basic story: Wealthy man is told that he is "kidnapped," and then told that he will lead his life normally, but if money isn't put in investments owned by the kidnappers, the protagonist's friends and family will begin to die, one by one.

This is a truly frightening premise, and is well described. I was at first annoyed because the villains all seemed to be hispanic, but then I noted that one of the really good guys is a man named Garcia who lives in Mexico, who is a sort of "fixer" of these kinds of problems. I enjoyed all the characters and recommend this book for anyone that has an afternoon to kill reading a nice mystery/thriller.

After having been disappointed in David Lindsey's last book, Animosity, I approached The Rules of Silence with at least some trepidation. Was Animosity a fluke or an indicator of a downward trend in Lindsey's writing? The answer was hard to say: on the one hand, The Rules of Silence is a far better book, but it also suffers from some of the same flaws as the earlier book.

In this novel, Titus Cain, a wealthy software entrepreneur, is targeted for extortion by a vicious and very well-organized thug. While Cain seeks help from a mysterious anti-terrorism expert named Burden, his friends start dying. As Burden takes over, Cain is caught in the middle, manipulated by both sides: even as the extortionist makes him jump through hoops, Burden - a do-gooder willing to kill innocents if it means elimination a major terrorist - has Cain doing things that grate on the businessman's conscience.

Interestingly, the big problem with this book is exactly the same as in Animosity: the protagonist is not a man of action but rather reaction. Cain rarely takes any initiative but merely reacts to the situation. As a reader, I want to see Cain actually do something; instead, it is Burden who is called in to save the day, and Cain is just along for the ride. In a suspense novel, we may expect the main character to try and depend on an authority figure, but we also anticipate that in the end, it'll be the hero who will succeed or fail, not his substitutes.

The story itself is pretty exciting although there are very few plot twists. The principal villain is a nasty piece of work, and is probably the most interesting character in the whole novel. The fact that this is a generally fun and fast read goes a long way to offset its critical flaws, and overall, I'd have to rate this as a good, but not great book...a weak four stars. For fans of Lindsey, this is a mixed success, but it is generally an improvement and should encourage readers to try another of his books in the future.

Within the confines of its genre, this book is fantastic. It scared the daylights out of me so patiently, so quietly, that I didn't even realize I was gripping it so tightly until I became worried about library fines. We meet a character, get to know enough of him to find him okay and basically likable, and then we watch him react to his life falling apart. His heroic response wins us over. The rest of the book is not as much fast-paced as it is unrelenting, and while this isn't literature, it is an efficient use of language and scene that is admirable in any genre. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to get completely lost in a book, and find it the best of its genre so far. I hope Mr Lindsey hits the bestseller list alongside guys like Michael Connelly and Lee Childs, as both write similar mysteries that are not quite as intense or psychological as this one.

I won't bore you with a synopsis of the book, let me just say that as someone who has read all of Lindsey's books this is one if his best. It's fast paced and is taunt. I have read very few writers who can describe places like Lindsey, you can almost smell the dank Mexico City air. If you love thrillers and enjoy great writing then you will love Lindsey and this book. Other books from David Lindsey I recommend: A Cold Mind, In the Lake of the Moon, Body of Truth, and Requiem for a Glass Heart.

I've always had the feeling that David Lindsey was the "thinking man's" mystery/thriller writer. The reader was impressed at the writing skill and depth of the writer - the book HAD to be read slowly to appreciate the nuances he brought to the story, however gruesome the topic. Now he goes and writes something completely out of style: a book that grabs you from the first chapter and doesn't let you go until the final page. Great writing, as usual, but much more fast-paced than in the past. Terrific book.

James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) is sometimes called the "American Scott". Like Sir Walter Scott who romanticized the Scottish past, Cooper focused readers attentions to the the American frontier. His most famous works are the Leatherstocking tales featuring Natty Bumpo. The novels in the series include: The Deerslayer; "The Pathfinder"; "The Last of the Mohicans"; "The Pioneers" and "The Prarie." The most famous of these novels is "The Last of the Mohicans" set during the French and Indian War in North America. Natty Bumpo the hero of the tale is said to be 40 years old; he is an experienced woodsman knowledgable in fieldcraft; Indian fighting and how to survive in a brutal frontier setting in upstate New York.
The novel includes exciting fights with Indians; escapes from Indian captivity; word paintings of nature; a love story and a tale lamenting the passing of the last of the Mohicans.
The characters are:
Natty Bumpo-the intrepid scout for the British who rescues damsels in distress while escaping Indian capture. He is the hero of the novel and the Leatherstocking series.
Duncan Heyward-A brave but inexperienced British major who is love with the inspidly portrayed Alice Murno. Alice is a stick figure with no depth or character development.
Cora Munro is the sister of Alice. Both of these siblings are the daughters of British soldier Munro who is the commander at Fort William H enry. The fort is captured by the French and their Indian allies. Alice and Cora are captured and taken to an Indian village.
Chingachgook and his son Uncas. Good friends of Hawk-eye (a nickname for Natty Bumpo). Uncas is the last of the Mohicans. He is love with the dark skinned Cora.
Mauga. The evil Indian who is the major foe of the English and the friends of Hawkeye.
The novel is written in an old fashioned literary style which lends itself to slow reading for moderns. The language does not, however, get in the way of the nonstop action. The book is one of the first novels written by an American author assisting at the birth of our literary heritage. Cooper's views on Indians is not politically correct. It is worth your time and effort to become acquainted with this literary milestone.

I liked the book, Last of the Mohicans. I notice that many reviewers who gave it one or two stars are kids who had to read the book for an advanced English class or who saw the movie and decided to read the book. It is NOT an easy read (which is probably why many kids did not like the book), but I thought it was worth the effort. It was a little difficult keeping the characters straight at first because Cooper has several names for the key characters and switches between them freely.

My favorite character was actually one that I would guess is an outlier - David Gamut. His manhood is often insulted by Hawkeye, (Hawkeye calls David's pitch pipe his "tooting weapon" and he pokes fun of his useless profession of psalmody) yet David's bravery is no less than the heroes of the tale. Sure he can't shoot a gun (it would be against his principles anyway), but he sticks with the sisters when they are kidnapped by Magua and is able to come and go freely among the Indians as he is viewed by them as not having all of his mental faculties. He saves Uncas' life by secretly switching places with him and tells Hawkeye not to avenge his death should he die for the ruse. His moral character is higher, I believe, than the vengeful Indians and Hawkeye. While Hawkeye tolerates or even disdains David at the beginning of the book, I think he grows to like and even admire David by the end.

The plot was interesting to me and sure some of the language is convoluted and Cooper's vocabulary is admittedly far superior to mine. However, if you keep a dictionary nearby, you'll learn several new words and enjoy an exciting tale.

"The Last of the Mohicans" is a novel for the ages and its hero Hawkeye is a man who teaches life lessons with each page you turn. Many people believe that this novel has outlived its worthiness but once turn of the pages will reveal to the reader a world that is both savage and young, characters that are both civilized and savage, and a story that harkens back to the beginnings of the new world. Cooper's language is hard to swallow sometimes, and the movie is easier to watch, but the reader who settles into the pages of Hawkeye's life and world is rewarded with lessons about friendship, love, survival and the rite of passage that all people go through. It is a definite must read for both English and History classes as it explores the beginnings of this great country in which we live.

Since there are already over 100 reviews of this book and probably thousands have been written over the years, I'll do this one without benefit of book in hand, from memory and without a lot of details. It took me many years to get over the antiquated language barrier and to finally read the book. The classics are always harder to read than contemporary fiction, but sometimes it's worth the effort.

What tipped the scales for me and piqued my curiosity was watching the recent movie with Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means, and Eric Schweig, and realizing that this was a good story. Also, I'm very familiar with the setting in upstate NY: Lake George, Balston Spa, Glenns Falls, Scroon Lake, and surrounding area--at least as it is now, and it was fun imagining what it would have been like in those days, when the land was virgin, settlers could lose their scalps if they weren't careful, and the France contested with Britain for supremacy of the land.

The book wasn't a romance--at least not in the modern sense of the word--with love scenes and the like. But it was a romance in the old sense in that the three main characters; Hawk-eye, and the two Mohicans, were larger than life heroes; in the moral, physical, and spiritual meanings of the term. The elder sister Cora was also a well developed, strong willed and heroic character, which surprised me a little considering the age in which the book was written.

For me the most interesting character of the novel was Chingachgook's son, Uncas, who was the "last of the Mohicans," a noble race of American Indians, which formerly occupied the lands by the "salt lake," (i.e., the Atlantic Ocean), and were dispossessed and robbed of their lands and heritage by the original Dutch settlers and others. Uncas was a tracker extraordinaire, even better than the indomitable Hawk-eye in this respect. But he was young, inexperienced, and impetuous, which was eventually his undoing when he came up against the evil, and formidable Magua. But before he died, he was recognized as a king or great chief of his people, an heir apparent. So decreed the venerable Tamenund, a 100 year old patriarch and judge of the Delaware peoples, a related tribe to the Mohicans. This episode would have been difficult to write into an action movie, but it would have been great if it had been.

Another interesting character completely eliminated from both the 1934 and 1992 movies was David Gamut, a preacher psalmist, whose moral presence and as a comic relief, was an integral part of the novel.

All in all, this is still a book worth reading, if only to get a glimse of the way things were then and might be again.

it is a very good book but the english that it is written in is different from the way we speak today. I enjoy the book and will recommend it to everyone looking for something that is good to read and to all children for their classes that require reading books.

Very slow on shipping, but very happy with book. It looked like a new one. Thanks.

This was the first book that I have read by this author and I liked it very much. I would have rated it five stars except that I felt that the characters needed a tad bit more depth. I loved the twists and turns that the story line gave me. It kept me guessing right until the very end.

After reading Where the Heart Is, I knew that Billie Letts was a special author. Happily, I enjoyed Shoot the Moon nearly as much. So much so that I devoured it in only a couple of days!

Billie Letts has a way of writing that really makes you care about the characters. That is what keeps the reader wanting more, I think. This book was the perfect balance of mystery, a little romance set in a small town that provided a great background with stories of it's own. The main plot of the book though is about a man who is visiting a small town to find his birth mother, only to discover that she was murdered when he was 10 months old. Now, 30 years later he's trying to find a killer and get to know the family he never knew he had.

If you haven't read Letts, I really recommend her. I am already planning on reading her other novel, The Honk & Holler Opening Soon.

This book was ok. Definately readable to the end, but it was a little on the 'weak' side as far as believability and character depth. The mystery of Nicky Jack's mother's murder unfolded so quickly that it was anti-climatic for me. I wanted more meat!!! I still can't figure out Ivy and her lack of interest in her pregnancy. That kinda went no-where quick!!! It was worth reading, but I found it lacking after reading "Where the heart is", which was deeper and much more developed than this novel.

"Shoot the Moon," by Billie Letts, is a fun, humorous, and serviceable work of popular fiction. Don't expect too much from this book and you might actually enjoy the short few hours it takes to read it. The prose is better than average; the plot moves along quickly with both surprising and predictable twists; the characters are unique, eccentric, and vividly drawn--but don't expect the plot or the characters to be very realistic. If anything, the singular beauty of this work is the endearing sense of place that Letts creates for the fictional town of DeClare, Oklahoma. If you remember anything about this book, a few weeks or months after finishing it, most likely, you will remember the town of DeClare. It's a loving satirical portrait of a small contemporary Okie town. Read it for that and you won't be disappointed.

So tell me now, if we were all clairvoyants, could it be possible that we all could actually see one another's auras?

Are you certain Redfield hadn't smoked a joint first before he wrote this book, because it sounded like he most likely trippin'.

...One of the most controversial part of the book had to do with a white calf, but honestly I just couldn't finish the book nor get a really good grasp of its concept.

A very interesting title. If only things were as clear in life as in this book.

I'd like to call this thing "tripe" but tripe is something actually useful--you can make menudo with it. Garbage can be compacted and used to make...something. Using those standards, "The Celestine Prophecy" is of some use, too. It gives True Believers a mythos to base their impossible faith in.

Ron Braithwaite

The Celestine Prophesy either tried to be a philosophical explanation of life's events presented by the use of fiction, or a fictional story about a man's search for meaning. No matter the intent, Redfield succeeds at neither as the philosophy lacks depth and the storyline is without any gusto.

If this book has any merit it is a result of establishing at least enough curiosity in what was to come next to finish the book. On this basis alone, I gave it two stars instead of one. However, if you are looking for entertaining fiction or thought provoking insight, there are far better books that are much more worthy of your time.

This book was not for me. If it's for you, that's fine, but I felt like it was a Dan Brown novel crossed with that What the Bleep movie, only written by a high school kid and totally boring.

This is actually two books in one. A collection (if 2 is a collection?) of mystery stories by a husband and wife.

The first story by Faye Kellerman, dealing with the slaying of a college basketball star in Boston, is the stronger of the two. Detective Dorothy Parker and her family are a compelling portrait of a working class Black family in Boston. Of the two, this is a 3&1/2 star story.

The second story, by husband Jonathan, is set in Santa Fe, dealing with the murder of a local gallery owner. The portrait of ex NYPD detective Katz and his Native American partner isn't as interesting, but the story is at least adequate.

Overall the book(s) won't be disappointing.

I, too am a fan of Faye Kellerman's. I like that she can form and tell a story without the excessive use of profanity. Her writing is such that I often will read, and then at a later time, re-read/re-listen to her books. I liked the story revolving around the basketball college star. However, I was caught off guard by the second story. I listened to the unabridged audiobook. The second Santa Fe location story is not as captivating. I was immediately captivated by just an excerpt of the basketball themed story. However, disappointed with the Santa Fe location story. I hope the Kellermans do not continue with this type of twin novel approach.

But definitely not the best either. I have been a fan of the Faye Kellerman mysteries since the beginning, and recently learned that I enjoy her husbands stories as well. I thought this would be a good audio book to listen to driving to and from work this week. I have to say that I was disappointed. The characters are likeable, in both stories. The characters are a bit one-dimensional, but if the stories were longer, I would say that I would like to see more of the Santa Fe detectives than the Boston ones. The mysteries were not as difficult to unravel, and the stories just tended to leave me with a feeling that there was something missing. Whoever directed the performances on the audio book needs to be told that you either use music ambiently through the entire book or not, but you don't just go along in silence and all of a sudden have music rip out of the speakers...it is disconcerting and annoying.

I will definitely be reading more by these authors, but I think in the future I will get any collaborations they do from the library.

I really don't know, but I'd say that Jonathan wrote the Boston side and that Faye wrote the Sante Fe half. The Boston story is interesting. I didn't make it past the first few pages of the Sante Fe story. Here's why:
In the first two pages - "Darrell Two Moons", "Cafe Karma", "Eden-Yield Oraganic Lamb Plus Eclectic Veggie Burrito", "Quilted black ski jacket", "X-harnessed cowhide shoulder holster", "Custom stitched elephant-hide Tony Lama", "Fuzzy brown and white plaid Pendleton shirt", "Green Tead Chai Latte"...honestly, that is really in the first two pages.
Is this product placement or just really, really bad prose?

This is a two for one book..you turn it upside down and begin book 2 from the other end. Both stories are quick reads and both are murder mysteries, one set in Santa Fe and the other in Boston. In the Santa Fe book, Detectives Darrel Two Moons and Steve Katz investigate the murder of man about town and gallery owner Larry Olafson, who was found, in his gallery, with his head bashed in. In the second story, Detectives Dorothy Breton and Michael McCain are presented with the case of the basketball star who is shot dead after a match where a flagrant foul leads to massive ill feeling between the teams. Neither story is a masterpiece, both ending abruptly, leaving the reader to sort out the clues for themselves. These short stories are not my preferred reading.

Shall we try to find the good things with this book. Let me see..... That is a very good question. The characters are lame and 2D. the plot is not thought out in the least and everything in general is just bad. The only possibly good thing is that you never know who to trust or ho not to trust, which was what the character's were feeling. I could give numerous examples of how the story was bad but I would prefer not to bore you will details (and it would give quite a few spoilers). The ending left way too many holes that were never filled and questions unanswered. Let's just say this is possibly my new worst book ever read.

Besides just generally bad writing, this book bordered on the edge of sacrilege. Creating a new virgin Mary and savior of the people (especially when the author only addresses one of the prophesies) was just disgusting. (And the Catholic church is the only one that responses to this possibility and sends people to investigate. Christian, Baptist, Lutheran and all other religions are not even mentioned.) Also, there are two sex scenes.

With perhaps a year of editing, this book could be publishable (with the sacrilegious part) but even as a book without religion, it was still lousy.

I am a huge Patterson fan and have read over 20 of his books. I have to say this one was the toughest one to get into. It is confusing in the beginning and not one of his normal "page turners". Stick with it for the first 50+ pages and it gets better. All in all, not one of his better stories.

This is probably the only Patterson book that really freaked me out. Quite a bit of gory material, but still a book you had a hard time putting down.

this was the most disappointing book i've read by Patterson - can't blame Amazon, book was delivered in the time they said it would be

If zero stars were available, that is what this novel would have received from me. I took along 3 books to read on vacation this year (my only time to read just for pleasure) and wasted 2 days reading this book. Being a fan of Patterson's current books, I thought I would read some of his older works. This book left me with the question "Why did I waste my precious vacation hours reading this?" I concur with another reviewer who stated that the dating of events is really strange. The epilogue has the exact same scenario as the prologue (with the same characters) but is dated 2 years later and these characters have all been horribly killed in the book, so it leaves you trying to figure out what happened since these characters clearly died earlier but are here again committing the same murders. What's up with that? I think I am pretty astute when reading the detective genre and only am occasionly surprised at a conclusion, but this one just left me wondering was some part missing? Was there some kind of clue that those murders didn't happen? I finally decided that it was just a poorly written book. I hadn't bother to read the reviews until I returned from vacation and then found that others had the same problem with this book that I had. If I had read the reviews before my trip, I would have taken a different book and not wasted my time on this read.