Buccaneer Books

My mother gave me her copies of "Amberwell" and "Summerhills", its sequel, and I enjoyed them emensely. While this book was labled on the cover "A Romance", it is a more a family story (and a dysfunctional family at that). Stevenson looks for the positve in everything and inspires the reader to do the same. The children in the Ayrton family are survivors. They are able to rise above it all despite what WW II does to the family and the family home of Amberwell which they all come to love and cherish.

While the books center around the Ayrton family of Lowland Scotland, it is actually more about all the people who live on the Amberwell estate ( and the surrounding district), servant as well as master. The war breaks down the class barrier and brings everyone together as a unit to preserve the home that they all love and to help build the school that they would eventually call Summerhills. It is a joy to read. I would also recommend "Celia's House" and "Listening Valley".

I love the way this book is written--so simple and sweet with vivid, but not flowery or wordy, pictures and descriptions. It gives the reader a look into life on a Scottish estate, not focusing too much on any one character, but letting us have a close glimpse of each of the five children as they grow up. It is a "real" story--life happens naturally, not with too much melodrama. I recommend it for any audience.

I'm surprised the ... community has let this book go out of print and isn't clammoring for more books from M. S. Hunter.

The Buccaneer is a well researched novel. Hunter gives immaculate historical detail of the sanctioning of privateers during the colonization of the Americas in the late 1600's and their evolvement to buccaneers and pirates. This is not some stale story, but swashbuckling adventure at its best.

The tale is narrated by 'Tommy the Cutlass' a youth begging escape from his father's tavern in the Carribean to adventure, fame, and fortune on the high seas. Aboard the 'Red Witch' as a crewman, he and his crewmates are dedicated to harassing the enemies of England, and relieving said enemies (whether ship or land colony) of as many valuables as they can. Tommy rises from shipmate to captain, finding love along the way in the form of an Ashanti warrior.

Little known of the privateers and buccaneers of the latter 17th century is that many were fugitive runaways and escaped slaves who capitalized their freedom on the high seas. Hunter weaves this fact into his nonstop tales of adventure, incorporating them equally into the lust and love that many buccaneers developed for each other, there being few women among the colonies, and fewer still on the isolated high seas.

Some may find offense at Hunter's use of racial slurs, but they are in context with the times and held to a minimum. Even his lead character and narrator 'Tommy the Cutlass' finds distaste for them. Hunter weaves a fascinating but thoroughly credible tale of adventure, interracial love, and at times descriptive ribald lust between Tommy and his Black lover, Ashanti prince Ozei Oyoko, (Ozzie the Spear), and does it beautifully within the context of the era.

Irritating are the interruptions Hunter imposes on his readers to inform, clarify, and educate, but educate, they do. I found myself searching for tickets to St. Vitus (San Vito), so real does he create the place, and enticing does it become. For those interested in books about buccaneers or the caribbean, this book is excellent. For those interested in ... fiction, dynomite ... adventure, and interracial love stories, it's a must have.

It's too bad this book is out of print. The stories and lives of Caribbean privateers (careful, don't call 'em pirates) revealed in this book are indeed intriguing. Some of M.S. Hunter's fabrications such as the existence of an Italian island in the Caribbean are a bit baffling, yet his rendering of a fairly utopian interracial (albeit a bit misogynist) buccanneering society is captivating. Though, granted, I picked this book up because of my interest in gay fiction, the book would be of interest to a general open-minded readership. The book's erotic passages are thankfully short enough not to interfere with the story which is far more interesting. Because of this novel, I am much more interested in reading other literature concerning the adventures of buccaneers.

The title of Charlie Chan Carries On refers to Charlie Chan taking over Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Duff's investigation after the inspector has tracked a group of murder suspects to Honolulu from London. As a result of that structure, this story is really about Duff's investigation rather than a typical Charlie Chan mystery. Other than quoting from the great Chan (who is a friend of Duff from an earlier case), Charlie doesn't have much of a role until the last third of the book.

If you want maximum Chan, skip this one.

But if you want a challenging set of mysteries to solve, Charlie Chan Carries on is a most rewarding book. This title is also carried over into one of the early Chan movies which most people rate as one of Warner Oland's best.

One of the things I like best about the book is that if you pay attention, you'll be given a clear clue as to who the killer must be.

As the book opens, it's 1930 and Chief Inspector Duff is out of sorts as one investigation has ended but no new one has started. Duff is married to his work and needs engagement. As a favor, he's given a new murder to solve, one that involves the strangling of a wealthy American in tony Broome's Hotel (probably intended to refer to Brown's Hotel). Upon arrival, Duff can tell that something is wrong. There's no sign of a struggle in the victim's room.

The deceased is Hugh Morris Drake, a retired philanthropist whom everyone likes. What can the motive be?

Drake, his daughter, and his granddaughter are traveling as part of a small group with Dr. Lofton, who is conducting them on an around-the-world trip to see the sights in a way that caters to the ultra wealthy. As a result, the group has the pull to leave London when Duff cannot point to a suspect. Duff is left with a lot of suspicions but few clues that can lead anywhere.

From a distance, the Yard keeps track of Lofton's group. From this experience, it soon becomes clear that there's a most dangerous and resourceful killer in the group. Who can it be?

An American tourist named Hugh Morris Drake is murdered in his room at Broome's Hotel in London during the night. Chief Inspector Duff of Scotland Yard investigates the crime.

Duff learns that the victim was a member of the Lofton Round The World Tour. The only clues are a hearing aid, a safe deposit box key and a bag full of small stones. All of the members of the tour are suspects including Dr. Lofton, Max Minchin, Captain Ronald Keane and John Ross. Lofton is the director of the tour. Minchin is a racketeer from Chicago. Keane is an unemployed engineer and Ross is a lumber man from Tacoma.

As the tour continues, Walter Honeywood and his wife Sybil are killed in Nice. Sergeant Welby of Scotland Yard is accompanying the tour and continuing the investigation. He is murdered on the docks of Yokohama. Chief Inspector Duff travels to Honolulu to join the tour. While visiting Charlie Chan, Duff is shot in the back and hospitalized. Charlie gets permission to fill in for his friend on the final leg of the trip to San Francisco. Charlie is on a mission to save face since Duff was shot in Charlie's office.

The reader knows that the killer may as well surrender now as Charlie begins to demonstrate the Chan trademarks of patience, hard work and perseverance.

The book was made into a movie by Fox in 1931. It was the fourth Charlie Chan film and the first in which Warner Oland appeared as Chan.

Marianne Moore's poetry is perceptive and unassuming. She often writes with a dry sense of humor. Her interest in sports, especially baseball, is also expressed in her poetry. She enjoys odd behavior in animals and writes about them just as they are. "An Octopus" is one of her longer poems and needs several readings to be appreciated. Moore creates poems that are filled with intuitive insight and beauty.

I believe that it was Robert Frost who commented with regards to modern poetry, that it was like playing tennis without a net. Marianne Moore created her own net - her poetry is built upon strict syllabic counts she imposed upon herself. The result is finely crafted poetry that is never self-indulgent.

I have found her syllabic count to be a good way to introduce structure into student's poetry. I have found it to be a good writing exercise. And in using the structure in these ways, I have become ever more impressed with the quality of work she achieved. But more than the technical quality, I enjoy the humor and just plain fun of her animal poems.

Unlike any book I've ever read, this entire novel takes place within the space of a few hours as family members and wedding guests examine their own thoughts about marriage, love, relationships, families, children, and life itself while they witness the wedding of Sally and Mark. Beginning with Deborah, the mother of the bride, and ending with her father Theodore, all of the musings give the reader much to ponder as they consider their own life choices.

While I'd like to say this was a happy, uplifting book, I cannot; the subject matter was too deep and serious for that. At the same time, Lindbergh manages to cast a feeling of optimism throughout the chapters, especially when the grandfather talks about "the stream" and his love for Suzannah. Beatrice and Pierre give us hope that love can and does happen, Don fills the reader with disillusionment, and Frances makes us feel sad. For a serious book about marriage and all that it entails, this is a must.

My introduction to Anne Morrow Lindbergh was through "Gift from the Sea," a life-changing classic that I treasure and give as gifts to friends every year.

"Dearly Beloved" is a meditation on marriage as well as a novel told by various characters attending a wedding. It takes place in one day, as the bride and groom and their families gather in the bride's home for the ceremony and reception. It is not sugar-coated. Here is a realistic view of the pains and pleasures of this complicated sacrament we call marriage. I couldn't put the book down and read it start to finish in one night. I sensed Lindbergh's own conflicts about her difficult marriage to her famous husband, plus her feminist philosophies glimmer throughout the stories and are remarkably ahead of their time. (This novel was written in the 1960s.) It was moving, sad, wise, inspiring, uplifting, infuriating and more -- like marriage itself -- and should be read by anyone who's newly engaged or even thinking about getting married.

The used prices for this book on Amazon are absurd - however, I purchased it from Amazon months ago and for a price under $10. So keep checking back. Also you may be able to find it in local used bookstores, as I have seen it for $15 or so. An excellent book and a great read.

Miklos Rozsa, Hungarian-born composer (1907-1995), confesses in these pages that he never much liked the cinema, though somehow, he almost effortlessly managed to enrich it with an endless flow of melodies, at turns romantic, spine-chilling, or thrilling. All his music derived from the Magyar folk songs he sought and catalogued in his youth, and this grounding enabled him to do something which few of his contemporaries understood -- and which almost none of the current crop of "film composers" understand: how to tell a dramatic story in music, a third level beyond the images and words we typically think of as being the sum of the "talking motion picture." Rozsa's first love was his so-called "absolute music," that written for the concert hall (which includes his Violin Concerto in D, Op. 24, one of the 20th Century's most ravishingly beautiful compositions); his work for Hollywood's major film studios merely paid the bills, so he claimed, allowing him the luxury of writing personal music without having to starve for the privilege, as have many talented composers and artists before and since. Though Rozsa remained resolutely Old World, with Hungarian his first language, his is an engaging memoir of the long-gone feudal kingdoms, princes and foot-soldiers of Hollywood's Golden Age, whose walls he entered and paths he crossed, inluding producers Alexander Korda and David O. Selznick, actors Burt Lancaster and Elizabeth Taylor, and directors Fritz Lang, Billy Wilder and William Wyler...as well as memorable names -- some infamous -- outside the worlds of music and film, such as Aldous Huxley, Pope Pius XII, and even Adolf Hitler. "A Double Life" is, in all, a valuable document of a thoughtful man's life and the fascinating world he inhabited.

The Embezzler comes from a time when Americans still remembered the great depression and the old-money blue-bloods hadn't entirely released their hold on New York. Auchincloss captures their views of themselves more realistically than a lot of writers probably have done. That, if no other reason, probably makes this book a worthy expenditure of time.
However, Embezzler is also a study in the tension between honor of the old-time variety, loyalty, and gratitude (or the lack of those).

Prime, member of a poor-relations line of wealth meets Rex Geer, a minister's son with a promising future, struggling through Harvard early in the century. Geer is on the brink of needing to drop out of school. Prime, before they become friends, sympathizes enough to visit a key authority and arrange for Geer to continue his education. He brings Geer to his home many times for summer stays, to the dismay of his family and societal equals, introducing him to the people who eventually give Geer the openings necessary to his future.

Late in his life and many years after his Wall Street disgrace and prison, Prime observes, "today I'd be snubbed by Rex Geer who'd probably be a haberdasher in Jersey City if it weren't for me".

Thanks to interventions in his life by Prime and thanks also to Geer's own talent and initiative, Geer becomes one of the most financially powerful men of the time.

Midway through the depression and at the peak of his career Prime secures loans against his sinking fortunes, using a foundation's resources he's responsible for illegally to stay afloat. As the stocks creep further downward he finds himself on the brink of discovery. He goes to Geer (who's meanwhile having a long-term affair with Prime's wife)in hopes of a loan. Geer refuses in the name of honor and justice, leaving his former friend ruined, imprisoned, shunned by his class. Geer's testimony becomes a factor in Prime's conviction and imprisonment.

The book is a great illustration of human perspective and frailty, the story told from the three key viewpoints of Prime, Geer, and Prime's wife. The spoiled playboy old-family Prime, flawed in many ways, understands compassion and honor at a personal level and lives by it. Geer, of poor-class antecedents understands honor societally and legally and shows little grasp of those other qualities in his behavior.

This book has been out of print for a long while, but I recommend it.

This novel, one of Auchincloss's best and from his prime period, is the life story of ill-fated Guy Prime, who was born into a minor blueblooded branch of New York society, enjoyed a gilded youth, eventually earned lasting ignominy when his embezzlements were revealed, resulting in his indictment, trial, Congressional hearing (it's 1936 and he is made a poster boy for Wall Street corruption by the New Deal), and imprisonment, and spent the nondescript remainder of his life in Panama isolated from all his family, friends, and associates, waiting to die. He is an intriguing, complex character, by no means all bad, and his story is told by three narrators: himself, his best friend (and eventual nemesis), and his wife. This multiple-narrator technique, "surrounding" the central character from a Rasohomon-like multiplicity of differing perspectives, had been successfully employed by Auchincloss in his most famous novel, The Rector of Justin (1964), the novel immediately preceding this one, and it works effectively here too. The book is well written, the right length, and compulsively readable. I first read it when it came out in 1966, have just re-read it, and find that it holds up quite well.

Georgette Heyer is known mainly for her Regency romances rather than her mysteries, probably because she wrote more of them. Although all of her mysteries are good--and witty--Footsteps In The Dark seems to be the only one where Heyer went for outright comedy. There are chills enough in this tale of five people (husband-and-wife, two siblings, and an aunt) who have moved to what seems to be a haunted house, but there are some extremely funny moments as well. (There is one line in the book--which I will not quote--which sent me rolling on the floor for fully five minutes. You'll know when you reach it.)

Enjoy.

Their inheritance had all the aspects of an ancient country home including the resident ghost. Learning to live the peaceful country life brings anything, but repose. Georgette Heyer's, "Footsteps in the Dark" with its conventional, but welldrawn characters will have you laughing outloud when following her crisp dialogue.
Clues and red herrings bounce down hidden staircases and mouldering crypts as Heyer, at her very best, leads the reader through a labyrinth of mystery and suspense interspersed with a light romance. First written in 1932, it still has the power to enthrall. If you've ever dreamed of an old house in the country, this one has all the aspects of reality without electricity or a phone. A great read at any time, but we don't recommend by lamplight.
Nash Black, author of "Qualifying Laps" and "Sins of the Fathers."

Daphne du Maurier has written a very moving, fictionalised account of her family during the time of the French Revolution. The historical detail is fascinating, and the family relationships are marvelously done. You can "hear" the voices of the characters, smell the smoke from the glass house and from the guns in war, feel the pain of loss, and the bittersweet quality of victory and reunion. This book should be required reading for studies of both the French Revolution and human nature

ONE OF THE FEW POSITIVE ACCOUNTS OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION I HAVE READ

This is one of my personal favorites. I read it in high school just for personal pleasure. Kipling's knowledge of art is expressed nicely; he knows his stuff from his father. He expresses his time period honestly and touchingly. As a female of the twentieth century, I cannot understand everything that made Kipling write this novel. It is more than just the simple story of an artist going blind, of wars and art. It is, at heart, the story of two men living in their world of violence and social mores and beliefs, two men brothers in all but blood. I found moments in this novel very touching, all the more so because of the tenderness between Torp and Dickie. This is a novel about friendship mostly, and a very beautiful one at that.

Kipling proves his expertise as an author in this vivid description of a young, cocky sketch artist moving up the social ladder and the introspection he is forced to face when he can't have his childhood love. His professionalism in retelling the themes of independence vs dependence, decadence and self-doubt makes up for his sometimes annoying racist undertones and romantic depicting of the colonialistic era, which is just about the only reason for the missing fifth star.