New Hampshire Books

I used this guide while mountain biking in the White Mountains. It provides very detailed descriptions of a variety of off road trails and logging roads, as well as many road rides. The ratings help to determine whether you can handle the conditions of each ride, and the very complete directions minimize the loss of time searching for trail heads. A very well written guide that is small enough to be taken along in a shirt pocket.

1.From Marty's descriptions of routes I could visualize the roads he was describing. I've hiked the Whites for years and was familiar with many of the roads but never cycled on them. 2.I planned a week tour in the Whites before getting Marty's guide. Many of the loops covered the same roads I planned on using. The basic route was Marty's triple notch century with lots of loops. Marty's rides were an excellent check on my routes and improved my routes. 3.Marty's descriptions are filled with yellow from my highlighter as I took advantage of his experience with cycling in the Whites. His book was a great resource in planning my routes.

My daughter is a Jodi Picoult fan who felt sad because she believed she had read all of this Author's books. To cheer up my daughter, I embarked upon a search in the hope of finding a book by the Author that my daughter may have overlooked. Not knowing the names of the Picoult titles my daughter had read, I did an Amazon search of all Picoult's books, copied the list (with reviews) and emailed it to my daughter for her perusal. To my delight and my daughter's amazement, an unread title leapt from the email attachment - Salem Falls. This book will be slipped into my daughter's Christmas stocking and she, "can't wait" to read it! I remember being her age and feeling the same disappointment when exhausting a favourite author's offerings. So on behalf of my daughter and myself, "Thank you Amazon"! I know she will relish every word.

When I sat down to read Salem Falls, I wasn't really sure what to expect because I hadn't read many of Ms. Picoult's other works up to that point. But, what I discovered once I started reading was an excellent new twist on Arthur Miller's famous play, The Crucible.

Now, I know this was the intention and that it's no big surprise that I recognized the parallel right away. But, what I also noticed was how unforced the connections seemed to be. There are so many times in modern novels where a classic work is used as a basis and the prose feels strained as a result. That was not the case with Salem Falls - At least it wasn't for me.

I felt myself really entering the world of Salem Falls. The situations that Jack St. Bride was faced with were completely heart-wrenching and I destroyed several fingernails while "waiting" for the final verdict to be read.

I will say that the "shocking plot twist" at the end of the story was really not all that shocking for me. I felt like I could see Ms. Picoult leading up to it throughout most of the story. But, I read a LOT so maybe I'm desensitized to "whodunit" moments at this point? Either way, I can't think of a single thing that really disappointed me about this book.

While I appreciated the careful and thoughtful character portraits, I thought the plot was somewhat unbelievable. Overall I was disappointed in Salem Falls after truly enjoying most of Picoult's novels.

Jodi Picoult is one of my new favorite authors. She certainly knows how to write a page-turner and how to straddle the line between "serious" and popular fiction. So far I have read Plain Truth, Harvesting the Heart, My Sister's Keeper, and this novel, Salem Falls. My favorite is a toss up between this and My Sister's Keeper.

The reviews on this book are mixed, with some readers like me loving it and others accusing it of being predictable and unbelievable. I, personally, didn't find the book to be predictable or unbelievable at all, though I could understand how one might perceive these flaws in the book if he or she were reading from a very cynical point of view. Actually, if it is a fact that such cynicism does indeed pervade our society so often, the argument of the novel's predictability is weakened. If cynicism is the norm, then the logical prediction would have been that Jack would be convicted, he and Addie would have broken up, etc. (In my opinion, if any one of Jodi Picoult's books is predictable, it's Plain Truth, not Salem Falls. Then again, I was trying to figure out Plain Truth's ending from page one, whereas I simply allowed Salem Falls to unfold before me as I immersed myself in its characters and story instead of trying to dissect the plot from the beginning.) I found Jack to be both a believable and sympathetic character. Just because a man is highly educated doesn't mean he can't also be naive - intellectual and emotional intelligence are two unique entities. Though such a heart of gold, a childlike innocence, is rare in an adult in this often cruel world, it does exist, and Jack won me over with this precious quality.

Jodi Picoult has woven a tale about another cast of characters for her readers' enjoyment. She carefully tells a story in parts concentrating on each character then moving to another part. Her technique keeps the reader hanging in suspense until the conclusion.

Rules of Attraction is a first-person narrative that alternates between a few egocentric, hedonistic college students as they become intertwined in a love triangle. There isn't a dull moment in the book in large part due to the story and Ellis' provocative style of writing. The characters are quite shallow and far from morally inclined, to the point where some will readers get sick to their stomaches. This is Ellis' intention though as the underlying message of his writing is a critique of the moral state of modern culture. Unfortunately, his themes tend to split his critics often due to misunderstanding. The book is amazing and important. Read it!

I bought this book almost exactly 20 years ago, back in 1988. The first time I read it, my reaction was: this is a real piece of trash. On the surface, it appeared that Ellis put almost no effort into this book, that it was just a stream of consciousness regurgitation with little or no cohesion or substance. What a difference 20 years makes! TROE is perhaps the most well worn book in my collection--one I've read over and over and over. Despite its relative thinness, TROE is a masterpiece in multiple literary dimensions: setting, characterization, social commentary, and (yes) even plot. One of the most overlooked (underrated) aspects of his book is the different spin each character puts on the same event. This makes it one of the only books that realistically illustrates how we all see the world through our own prism--especially as young adults. As a college professor, I have some insight into how today's students think and act. Aside from a few references to the Internet, this book would describe college life today just as well as it did in 1986. Well done, Mr. Ellis, well done.

After reading "Less Than Zero" I was excited to give another Bret Easton Ellis novel a try, and this turned out to be one of those books I never wanted to end. Every page was full of something interesting and thought provoking and what at times seemed shocking also seemed like the harsh, honest truth. And this has become one of my favorite novels that I know I'll read over and over again.

The events are intriguing, the use of different narrators is great and very effective, and the writing style is perfect. Ellis really knew his characters well and had me believing these were real people.

And as always in the three Ellis novels I've read (Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, Glamorama), I felt some disgust towards the characters' actions yet admired them at the same time and part of me wanted to live their wild and eccentric lives.

The characters in "The Rules of Attraction" all use alcohol and drugs without a second thought, sleep with the most convenient person available and have no idea what they want to do with their lives. Not only are the main characters of Sean, Lauren and Paul aimless and careless of searching for a purpose in love and life, but the entire school of Camden seems to be exactly the same way. While Ellis may go a bit overboard with his portrayal of existential ennui at American colleges, there is more than a grain of truth in what he shows us about this country's young people. I would recommend this book for any kid about to go off to college so they know how *not* to be like while they are there, and for any adult who has bittersweet memories of their own college experiences.

If you were a WASPy, spoiled, vacuous student of a liberal-arts college in the mid-'80s and you jumped from one empty relationship to another and mulled obsessively over every mundane detail in your aimless life while thinking in run-on sentences, this book was written just for you. But I can't imagine possibly being interested, much less intrigued, by The Rules of Attraction. Ellis' second novel is only notable for being almost entirely unexceptional.

Most of this story is recounted in a first-person narrative by central characters Paul, Lauren and Sean, among a handful of other friends, relatives and acquaintances. They spend most of their time ingesting all manner of drugs, legal and otherwise. They jump into bed with whoever looks good at the moment. They usually avoid anything resembling responsible behavior by habit. And when they aren't whining over every minor misfortune that befalls them, they're trying desperately to fool themselves (and us) into believing that the few positive aspects of their lives are so much more engrossing than they actually are.

In terms of accuracy and structure, there isn't anything particularly objectionable about this story. What exists of the plot was cunningly conceived, and the dialogue is entirely authentic. Ellis possesses a very keen wit, but it's utilized far too infrequently; for every hilarious incident that's depicted here, there are a half-dozen that very nearly put me to sleep. These characters are realistic, decadent, impulsive and thoroughly boring. The story moves along at a lively pace, but these people are so self-absorbed and their respective tellings of each sequence are so pedestrian that slogging through this rather short book is quite a chore. Even contradictions found in comparison of any two self-serving, entirely subjective accounts of a common episode aren't terribly engaging.

The most frustrating aspect of this story is that the only interesting characters here are confined to its periphery: flighty Victor, fastidious Patrick (Bateman, the titular antagonist of the much more entertaining "American Psycho") and Eve, Paul's emotionally estranged mother. If these characters had been afforded a greater share of the narrative, this book might have been a much more engaging read.

Setting aside the minutia of this critique, it must be noted that this entire genre of popular fiction has been rendered obsolete by the Internet. At any time, I can access a wealth of blogs scribed by self-obsessed wretches who are every bit as dysfunctional as the spoiled brats of this banal, miserable volume, most of whom have much more intriguing exploits to relate. I can read about and laugh at their pathetic lives for free and this book doesn't convey anything profound either, so of what use it it?

I've enjoyed reading this version of Thornton Wilder's, "Our Town". It's a short, 3 act play but nevertheless is huge in its message. The introduction in this version is helpful and clues the reader to appreciate and look for the deep message of the play. It was through the study of this publication I felt renewed in my love for life! A quick read and well worth the time.

What can I say, it is the script to Our Town. I have found a couple of places where it differes from the Samuel French script by a sentence or two.

One VERY GOOD difference is that THIS script also has a lot of background on Thornton Wilder and the times that the existed when the play was writen and first produced.

I don't understand why people are saying bad things about Our Town, because it is a very wonderful play with three acts, centering around a small town, Grover's Corners in New Hampshire and the lives of two families, the Gibbs family and the Webb family.

It is a very wonderful play about life in small town before cars and electronics and how they lived. It is a beautiful play that is very excellent and everybody should read it, for it is a quick read, but a very delightful play.

Thorton Wilder's short play, "Our Town," follows the lives of two close knit families, experiencing the different stages of life: birth, childhood, adulthood and death. I recommend anyone to read this play just so they can have the opportunity to read about the phases that others go through. For example, the story mentions the common worries, concerns and yearnings of parent Mrs.Gibbs, who wishes to take a break from the stressful life of being a mother yet she is held back by the contrasting wishes and aspirations of her husband. "Our Town" is filled with amusing yet relatable events of being disciplined by your parents, which remind us of our childhood, such as when George is admonished by his father. Another interesting tale unfolds as we witness a young relationship between George and Emily flourish into a marriage. Their entertaining anxieties while dating, and even getting married, are humorous and thought provoking for young readers. Unexpected turns of events and sudden losses conclude the story, leaving an important message for the reader which is, care and treasure your loved ones while you still can.

By most accounts Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) considered himself a teacher rather than a writer--a curious situation given than he won numerous literary awards, including three Pulitzers. Among these prize-winners was OUR TOWN, first staged in 1938. It is generally considered to be the single most famous play written by an American author, and Samuel French Inc., which holds the amateur performance rights, states that it is performed at least once a day somewhere in the world, as popular abroad as at home.

The play is perhaps most widely known for the way in which it is staged. The stage is bare. A few chairs, stools, tables, and ladders are used to indicate a kitchen, a bed room window, a soda fountain, a cemetery and other locations; the actors mime use of imaginary glasses, plates, bowls, satchels, and boxes.

The story is equally simple. The first act introduces us to the town, Grover's Corners in New Hampshire, seen in the early years of the 20th Century--and most particularly to the Gibbs and Webb families, who live next door to each other. The second act finds boy-next-door George and girl-next-door Emily marrying, and a flash-black shows the audience how their romance began. It is a simple tale, full of details of small town life, church choir on Wednesday night, milk delivered fresh each morning, breakfast to be made, chickens to be fed--and slowly, as the action moves forward, we are drawn into this simple way of life and its seemingly endless and trivial repetitions.

Wilder swirls a number of themes throughout the work, themes that are simple yet profound, details of the particular and the universal--and these gather suddenly, unexpectedly in the third and final act, which comes as a shock after the charming ease of the play. Emily has died in childbirth and she takes her place in the cemetery among the dead, all of whom patiently wait and watch for something which is not yet clear, the minutes passing one by one into eternity, their memories of life fading into nothingness, a portrait of darkness that is yet somehow still seeded with light. It is here that Wilder makes his ultimate statement: who are you when you have been shorn of all earthly details and devices? Where do you exist within the mind of God?

Many non-theatre people find playscripts difficult to read, and in truth playscripts are a blueprint for directors and actors and not intended as reading material for the general public. This is preface to the very basic statement that some plays "read" well and some do not--and that this is not necessarily an indication of how the play actually performs. On the page, OUR TOWN reads a bit flat; it seems a shade obvious, a shade ordinary. On the stage, however, it easily one of the most delicately beautiful constructs imaginable, a play which demonstrates the beauty and value of each life--no matter how ordinary it may be. Remarkable stuff and strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

As I mention many times over I'm a fan of John Irving and being a fan of John Irving you get to know his writing style and themes. So of course there's always the free thinking guy with strong women and there are the usual themes of circus animals, love, prostitutes, incest, families, and weird sexual desires. Hotel New Hampshire isn't the best Irving book but he sure knows how to tell a story to make you laugh and interested and totally be into the story. The movie with Jodie Foster and Rob Lowe couldn't compare for some reason even though it was oddly accurate and true to the book. I think it's because the book was just vivid and I loved the story of John and Suzie the bear. I mean there are bears, the opera, and blind men with bears and a brother and sister falling in love and midgets and writers and homosexuality and love and death and a dog named Sorrow which eventually became a stuffed dog which eventually would always follow them. The theme overall is one line... "Keep passing the open windows"... A perfect line to always say whenever there's sorrow following you.

Like many Irving novels, The Hotel New Hampshire interweaves growing up in Austria, the inevitable loss of a parent, dancing bears, american lit, and the need to "keep passing the open windows."

How can you put down a book about rape and forbidden love, about long-lost brothers - and a long lost sister too, - about a boy so vividly american that it makes you wonder if you, like he, are a realist in a family of dreamers, doomed to never be adult-enough for the world? Bildungsroman and Irving in its highest yet in 20th century lit, each and every reread brings something different to the table. The Hotel New Hampshire easily sits in the top ten of the best american books of the 20th century.

John Irving is a master of his craft. The Hotel New Hampshire is easily one of his greatest works. Your feelings will be going through a roller coaster. One moment the story is hilarious and at the next it's sad. Then we're treated to heartfelt moments. The book has everything. From a dysfunctional family to all the strange and bizarre happenings that occurs throughout their lives.

The Hotel New Hampshire is told from the perspective of John Barry. The son of a hapless dreamer and laid back mother. John is the middle child in a series of five children. There's his brother, Frank, a homosexual. His attractive sister Franny who he becomes attracted to, and then there's Lilly, his younger talented sister and then there's Egg. To compliment the cast of characters are also a handful of supporting characters. From Freud (not THAT Freud) to a series of prostitutes. The story is told from the view point of John Barry. Who chronicles the lives of his family as they live in three hotels throughout their lives.

There's nothing quite so complicated about The Hotel New Hampshire. Despite the bizarre happenings in the novel, Irving manages to make all his characters entirely believable and lovable in their own way. Each character is distinct. The novel is filled to the brim with humor, both light and dark. When characters meet their end or when something terrible happens to them, you care.

In the midst of his excellent character development, the narrative flow of the story is just right. Because of how bizarre some of the events in the novel are, you won't be able to put it down. It is not a book, however, for those easily shocked or offended by sexual themes. The book has it all.

Never the less, John Irving's "The Hotel New Hampshire" is a fantastic story filled with just about every emotion possible. But most of all, it's full of heart. When you're finished with the book, you'll find it hard not to flip to the very first page and begin reading it again.

I love this book. I've read about 1/2 of Irving's novels and this is my favorite, though I haven't been disappointed by any. This book is entertaining, compelling, devastating... I could go on and on. He mercilessly kills off characters the reader has developed a fondness for, but somehow keeps us reading. Irving writes with an often dry sense of humor and treads some odd line between realism and absurdity, and it simply works.

Common Irving obsessions pop up -- rape, prositutes, bears, motorcycles, Vienna. A lot of the same stuff from Setting Free the Bears, but he is a more experienced writer here and not afraid to be American and doesn't have the same young man's individualistic bravado that characterized that novel (my least favorite). He writes about the glory and the tragedy of the (inevitably thoroughly dysfunctional) family, which is really what he excels at, I think.

In short, read it. But don't see the movie if you loved the book; despite some perfect casting (e.g. Jodi Foster as Franny), it is horrid.

"Hotel New Hampshire" a great read. It looks at the life of an anything but normal family. An impulsive often harebrained yet passionate father, an incestuous brother and sister, etc. The story also contains several family friends like Susie who runs around in a bear suit, the old man Freud who is blind and uses a Louisville Slugger as a cane, and whores and bomb-chucking revolutionaries. Since it is a lengthy story that covers practically the entire histroy of a family, to describe the plot would be too much for here. However, it is a beautiful story of a family and their honorary members.
At times is seems to drag a bit due to it being a lengthy tale, later you'll probably find that it is necessary to set up the next part of the story. Some of the symbolism is heavy-handed and some of the changes that happen come across as abrupt and jarring. For some reason though, this works. It was frustrating, but when it comes down to it, it brought a uniqueness and charm to the writing. It almost seems like Irving reigned in his editors, instead of the other way around.
It is absurd, surreal, hilarious and most of all full of love and has passion for life. It looks at all the things that make us human, love friendship, loss, failure and joy.

This is a book you pick up and don't want to put down. The town is described as such a beautiful place and the people are charasmatic and thoughtful. Not you suspected ignorant bunch of recluses. This is a damn fine book!

What a great book... It had it all... The cute picture perfect town, the sweet town people, the villian, the twisted love story, and the revenge! Yes.... How exciting this book was for me. If you need a good book with it all read this!!!

I slipped easily into the peaceful scene in the opening pages of LAKE NEWS. Descriptions of the lake lulled me into the story, especially the Loons calling through a foggy cocoon of morning dew, savoring the sanctuary of solitude.

Characters immediately began rooting themselves into my mind. I identified with John Kipling's wallowing in the Lake's ambiance, and was properly disgusted with Terry Sullivan. Terry's ugly character was exposed early in the story, through John's memories of him prior to accepting, and during a phone call from Terry. The telephone ambiance was an ingenious preface for cringing through Lily's buying into Terry's nice guy routine, exposing how con artists worm in, not just to the young.

At first, Lily came across to me as painfully naive, probably because I've been there and don't want to recall that vulnerability. Her situation leading up to and through the Boston Post article was dramatized so well my stomach was in nauseous knots. Unfortunately, I was out to breakfast with my husband at the time, anticipating a steaming Denver Omelet with melted American Cheese slithering over caramelized onions and green peppers!

Drooling over the first heated bite, "Yum" released tension as curiosity surged, "How would Lily handle this traumatic situation." I was hoping she wouldn't leap from raw gullibility to a bitter mistrust of journalists. When she met John, she might collect the sum of her sour grapes and dump them onto John's puzzled head, "WHAT'D I do???"

I was hoping John wouldn't mistrust Lily as well, smelling some of the contrived miasma around her aura.

A too frequent situation for budding relationships, learning to determine who and how to trust is a worthy subject for a novel. Trust is a sensitive, potent issue. Even people of the highest integrity can let us down, sometimes having no choice. Maturity seems to solidify after a candidate realizes this; the richness of the human character has capacity for even the best intentions to err and be redeemed.

In a comment posted on her web site, Delinsky notes that only one of her characters was so dark as to be irredeemably evil, which had me wondering which bad guys would be Phoenix-ed from skillfully developed character trash.

In spite of the angst-ridden ride, I wanted to continue; the characters had me hooked; how would they handle the bad raps and smudged reps and grow through them.

Lily had been tossed into a stagnant pond without a pad! The polluted fringes in the political and religious establishments leaped out to protect themselves, abandoning Lily thoughtlessly, heartlessly, and unequivocally. Hoping Lily would eventually submerge smelling like a "rose," I trudged through the dramatically decorated swamp of character assassination by the media.

If LAKE NEWS had been tagged a work of "Good Literature," Pulitzer Prize stuff (which like many people, I can't force myself to pick up), I would have dropped the book into the coal stove, because I'd guess that everyone would come out smelling like the swamp they'd be stuck in, having grown "wise" and deciding to accept the stench as "That's all there is," or "That's REALITY."

Give me a break! (And a chimney sweep.)

Thankfully, Delinsky provided refreshing breaks throughout LAKE NEWS. (Though, I doubt she gives out bonus brooms instead of T-shirts.)

Some novels are solid "live ins." Others are just good entertainment. LAKE NEWS is intense "live in" entertainment. That's part of the reason I craved returning to the town and residents. Of course any plot like LAKE NEWS, relating to issues of writers will call to me, as long as the characters have any life in them at all.

What is LAKE HENRY? The idealized small town atmosphere captured me (and obviously a lot of others), even though I also enjoy big city and exotic settings.

LAKE HENRY's an esthetically appealing, small town to nestle into, with warm, vulnerable characters to live with. Detailed dynamics of personal relationships evolve there with an engrossing ease.

Especially the conversations and unspoken exchanges between John and his father are realistic, telling, rich, and intriguing. Those passages expose Delinsky's instinctive awareness of psychological machinations which she weaves warmly beyond cold conclusions of textbooks. She seems to have lived viscerally, at a level where the phony fear to tread.

LAKE HENRY has it all, including short sensual statements which make the novel's world breathe. As an example among hundreds:

"The sun fell steadily toward the western hills, silhouetting the evergreens that undulated along their crests, spilling shadow down the hillside, and still she sat."

The word choices of "steadily, silhouetting, undulated, spilling shadow" are luscious paint brush slides of oiled color over perfectly cracked canvas. Delinsky's an artist in so many ways.

I loved the way Delinsky began painting the town around Lily's drama. Willy Jake's warning to a reporter from Rhode Island was an inducement to leap into cheerleader mode:

"Signs say no huntin', no fishin', I add no badgerin."

Of similar cheering effect was Charlie's announcement to a cluster of people that DATELINE NBC was in town. No one would have an easy time slithering around behind the scenes in LAKE HENRY, what with the enormous spotlights everyone was slinging around, shining synthetic sunlight on any hint of potential slime getting a foothold on the slippery shores surrounding the lake.

LAKE NEWS characters spew jewels of sentences packed with meaning, or highlighting right ways to balance ambitious goals with the command to "Stop and smell the roses.":

"... fall was definitely in the air. It was worth lingering over, and he would do that, but not just now."

Most readers past 30 know what it took for John to grow to easily make that choice (at the opening of the novel) with just that awareness, a honed instinct sensing what to do now and what to do later. The reader knows he'll deal with that particular "later" at just the right moment.

LAKE NEWS is an emotionally rich, satisfying story, hospitably providing calm spaces of healing within every enthralling storm. The good guys are engaging, absolutely lovable, and real; the bad guys are almost too real, yet their edges soften somewhat as the reader learns their history, seeing how the dark can etch away and overwhelm natural needs to love.

This novel delivers a full-bodied complexity of families, friends, and communities as they labyrinth toward the simplicity of easy intimacy, rooting itself as wounding secrets are released.

In LAKE NEWS journalism was perfectly and simply portrayed at its worst and best. I applauded that accomplishment, as I enjoyed the escape of the reading ride. The medium of newspapers and magazines holds a key to something magical; it's idealized it as a special venue for viewing the world; sometimes it accomplishes the promise of elevation of the art of life.

This book was as refreshing a read as an unexpected brush of coolness into the white heat of an apex summer day, as solstice crests and edges slowly toward fall.

Linda G. Shelnutt

The heart of this story is about the power of media influence in our society. Journalism is heavily influenced by many factors. LAKE NEWS brilliantly presents a story of the misuse and positive influence of journalism. The believability of the story, the characters, and the setting all add to how enjoyable this book is. Being a NH native I can attest to the truth of attitudes and language presented in the story. I love Ms. Delinsky's smooth writing style; it's effortless to read. A super summer reading choice.

It struck me as mature, very mature. The protagonists weren't falling in love on the first encounter and into bed by the third, the scandals weren't half-hearted, and the promises of hope and reconciliation weren't fulfilled in a hurried way.

The nature scenes in no way compared to those of my favourite book, "Swamp Angel," by Ethel Wilson, which truly made me feel like I was fly fishing in Vancouver, British Columbia, and I didn't really get into the loons, but... that aside, what really makes the novel are the relationships that develop. Being a city girl myself, I was provided with a strong look into what a sense of community was, as well what family meant.

No big love scenes, no passionate dramas to finish the novel off with a flourish, but all throughout, there is the mature satisfaction of a story well-told.

Into the Storm by Suzanne Brockmann is a lot of little stories woven together and there's is a lot to keep track of. It reads like three condensed books made into one and there is the feel that parts are missing. Jenk instead of being just one of the guys in the Seal team sixteen, is the lead in this story as he encounters Lindsey, a pint sized dynamo working for the Troubleshooters and Tracy the girl of his childhood dreams. Seal buddy Izzy is a very interesting character and his colorful dialogue and strict adherence to the `guy rules' adds flavor to the tale. Everybody's trying to figure out who and what they REALLY want and it all gets a lot clearer when the Seals and Paoletti's Troubleshooters get together for cross training. Bad weather and a serial killer force everybody to really focus. Even if you like spooky, you're still likely to find the grisly serial killer in this story over the top. Though the characters all feel a little too vulnerable and the serial killer is just too horrible for it to all fit together smoothly, it still makes for a good read.

Suzanne Brockmann has once again woven a beautiful story of determination and committment to the "cause". I love how the Seal Team 16 and the Troubleshooters Incorporated work so well together. Once you begin reading the carefully laid out story, Ms. Brockmann never fails to keep you in suspence from beginning to end. Guess who falls in love this time? Purchase this book. You will not be disappointed!

I usually don't start out my reviews saying what I don't like, but I will this time just to get it out of the way. I felt at times that there was a little too much going on to follow the main plot of the story. And secondly, I wish that the love triangle (possible quad-rangle LOL) between Deck (the brutish hunk), Sofia (the abused concubine turned agent), Dan (the newly enchanted hunk) and Dave (the best friend who wants to be more, but is too afraid to ask) would have come to some sort of head, so that I could look forward to it's resolution in future books. With that said, I will say what I did like about the book.

I have recently started reading Suzanne Brockmann and never find myself bored with either her plots or her characters. Her novels are filled with intrigue, romance and characters that overlap in all of her stories. "Into the Storm" was a wonderful addition in the Troubleshooters series. Lindsey (sexy Asian American) finds herself attracted to vertically challenged/Ryan Seacrest look-alike, Mark Jenkins, who of course thinks he is in love with his high school crush, Tracy. Tracy, of course is running from a bad relationship and hoping that her leaving will cause her wayward ex (Lyle) to come looking for her with a big engagement ring. Failing at her new job, and wanting what she thinks is best, she is picked as a hostage for the a special assignment with her new co-workers. Well of course the story isn't that simple. Following a night of intense romance, Mark realizes that perhaps Tracy isn't who he wants, but Lindsey is....the problem is, he can't convince her (she has a little baggage) that a relationship with him would be best. Izzy, Mark's bestfriend, decides that although he shouldn't be attracted to Tracy, he is and maybe one harmless night of fun, will be ok. Tracy, feeling once again betrayed by her ex, looks for revenge sex as a means of paying him back. But soon discovers that she likes Izzy probably more than she should.

Needless to say, a series of events leads to Tracy's disappearance and a serial killer's unmasking. So between the serial killer, the romances, the action and potential future stories, I enjoyed this book and suggest that you read it as well. While multiple storylines can make the story slightly overwhelming, there is enough future potential to keep me reading future installments in this series.

This is my first Brockman book. I understood she wrote romantic suspense. I've read well over 200 pages and so far haven't caught a whiff of either. The only suspense so far is which of the incredibly attractive characters will hook up together, rather like a junior high for supermodels obsessed with who "likes" who. Those who are attracted to someone pretend they aren't or can't bear to be in the same room with them, what with all the sexiness flying around. As for having sex, that's great as long as it can be labeled "meaningless." Without suspense or romance, it's just pages and pages of people gossiping about each other. I can get that at the office.

Have read previous books by SB, and must say this was one of the better ones I've read.
Remember thinking when will the girl go missing, and when she did, was happy with the tempo on how they got to find her.
Am not sure there's a story for Izzy and Tracy but am sure they'll link up some how, as will Tracy and Decker.
Would recommend this book to anyone who has never read SB before.

Although this book started with quite a jump and kept me interested, by the middle I was getting too much redundancy. I'm glad this author told her story and shared it as a tool for relationships and to learn from.

This is the harrowing tale of a child who was betrayed by her mother and father, and a child who became a mother and then betrayed her own child. The story begins with the sudden loss of everything that Meredith Hall held dear--her parents' love, her home, her place in the community, her school friends--when she was deserted for the sin of becoming pregnant at 16. The memoir is a sustained reflection on how this betrayal played itself out through the rest of her life.

Throughout the book, Hall tries to understand the terrible betrayal of her parents' love, a love bordered by conditions, the most important one being "Thou shalt not bring shame upon us." With startling honesty, she consistently refuses to gloss over, deny, or ignore the consequences of her actions or those of her parents, most notably in her account of the abuses her abandoned son, Paul, suffered at the hands of his adoptive father. Hall never hides from the scars she inflicted on her beloved son, and insists on forcing herself to note the terrible differences between the upbringings her 3 sons experienced--the first child a life of deprivation and fear, the others, lives of love and comfort. There is no possibility of reconciling these facts, nor does she attempt to.

Hall holds all the violent and conflicting emotions together, never allowing the one to cancel out the other--love and rage, trust and betrayal, need and abandonment, loss and guilt. Her writing carries no contradictions, just the paradoxes of a life lived and declared in lines of lyrical beauty, with passages of exquisite beauty, so finely detailed that it hurts to read. It is a testament to Hall's many years of deep reflection and personal honesty that she could sustain this juxtaposing and balancing of opposites without allowing her work to collapse under the weight of the awful emotional overload she has lived through.

Although this memoir makes for compelling reading, it is not always an easy read. To read it is to become immersed in the terrible suffering of an untethered soul seeking love lost. Hall partially finds what she has spent a lifetime looking for when she is reunited with her 21-year-old son, and when she opens her home and gradually her heart to an old man who is afraid to continue living alone after the death of his wife. But in the end this is a book about life and living. Hall succeeds in gleaning wisdom from a grief begun in a betrayal and carried in a wounded heart through her life. She discovers a joy that "lies like a shimmering pond within our grief, the landscape of our lives."

In the end, Hall asks herself if she would choose a different life, if she would forget all the pain. And the answer she gives is surely the only answer possible. "No. Memory remains. The uneasy remembering transforms pain into sorrow, and sorrow into love. There can be no oblivion."

by Edith O'Nuallain
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

While Meredith Hall in "Without a Map" tells a sad, interesting story, I found myself struggling to get through the book. Undoubtedly, she was treated abysmally by her parents and friends when she became pregnant at 16 years old. This family and community "shunning," along with giving up her baby for adoption, stays with her through the course of her life. Very sad, poignant stuff. But, she reminds us, practically every paragraph, over and over, that she is in pain, sad, alone, detached, etc.

There are very interesting, meaty parts of the story. She buys a fishing boat with a boyfriend and fishes through a storm, she walks through Europe to the Middle East with no money, she cares for her mother through a terrible terminal disease. But these moments are dragged down by the over emphasis of her feelings. Meredith also chooses to ignore chronology again and again, and also leaves huge holes in her story - just when we are rivited by her story, she jumps to a whole new part of her life. For instance, one chapter ends with her in the Middle East, broke, practically naked...then, she decides to go home. The next chapter starts and she has two children. How did she get home? How did she meet and fall in love with the father? What changes in this empty person's life to open up to another human and decide to create a new life? It is a mystery.

While there is some good stuff here, and Hall is a talented writer, I found this to be a tedious attempt. I needed more meat, less gravy.

I really enjoyed reading this book but have wondered if the author has exaggerated a bit for effect. I lived in a small New Hampshire town close to Hampton at the time the book begins. A girl or two in the town became pregnant and there was definite disapproval, but at the same time kindness. No one was shunned by her friends or anyone else, much less her parents. I find it hard to believe that her parents were so stonily unloving at this critical time of need for support and understanding, not to mention help. Maybe, but I doubt it. Her travels sound suspiciously overdone also. Still, it's an absorbing story and a gripping read.

Having read some of the reviews, I get the sense that those born of later generations or those who led sheltered lives have difficulty conceptualizing what it was like for a young girl who found herself in Meredith Hall's circumstances. One review even stated that abortion was not an option. Actually, it was -- a dangerous, often fatal, backstreet option performed mostly by unethical practioners under unsanitary conditions.

Hall's parents were like many of those times but fortunately not all. Some, rather than shun their child and cast her out, tried to help her, but all so secretly, making arrangements for her to go away for "a long visit," or "to care for a sick relative," in a far away town.

Faced with shame and censure by the community, many would react as Hall's did with devastating affects on the girl. Some of the reviewers could not understand why Hall could not just, as we say now, suck it up and move on. I tended to feel that way myself at times while reading the book, but I do understand that not everyone is able to do that. She had lost the love of her parents, and lost the child as well. Those are two heavy losses right there. She also lost the only way of life she had known.

Some reviewers felt that Hall lacked feeling in her telling of her story, not expressing warm emotion in other relationships in her life. I believe rather that the trauma of loss caused feeling to be bottled deeply within, beyond her reach for many years. Perhaps that was what the killing of the chickens was about. I found that to be a highly difficult chapter to read, but perhaps it was an important one. Killing of living creatures with names, seemed to represent the killing of her spirit, all her girlhood hopes and dreams that she had experienced. Laying out their bodies was like laying out all the losses. It was after that that Hall seemed able to finally move on.

People react differently to different experiences. Another book that readers of Without a Map might enjoy is Stolen Fields: A Story of Eminent Domain and the Death of the American Dream a memoir that traces the effects of a catastrophic event through several generations of a family.

The first half of "Death Benefits" is much better than the second. Unfortunately, a great character, special security consultant Max Stillman, unaccountably becomes stupid in the final third of the book. He's way ahead of the main protagonist, John Walker, and the readers in the first part of the book, then way behind both Walker and the readers in the last part. I knew what was going on in the town Walker and Stillman were investigating 100 pages before they figured it out. Case in point, when Stillman and Walker saw that the local police department -- serving a tiny hamlet of around 400 people -- had something like 18 police cruisers and a professionally staffed police department, they only thought it mildly interesting. (In reality, a town of this size would likely have one cruiser, maybe two cops tops, and they'd likely be of the minimum-wage lifer variety.) The other problem is that somehow Stillman, a professional security consultant, Walker, an insurance analyst helping Stillman, and a gonzo computer hacker accompanying them, somehow went out on an investigation without anyone carrying a cell phone.

No, I'm sorry, I love Thomas Perry's work usually, but this one badly fell apart about halfway in.

I had to take an unexpected trip recently and someone handed me this book to fill the time. I'd never read anything by Perry before, but now I'm going to be seeking out his earlier work and watching for new ones. It's a thriller that's big on character as well as action, and I'm amazed it hasn't already come out as a movie. John Walker is an analyst in the headquarters of a San Francisco insurance company, a small-ish, old fashioned sort of outfit that competes successfully with the conglomerates by concentrating on service. A young woman, a rising sales person in the Pasadena office with whom he had had a brief relationship eighteen months before, seems to have skipped out in the middle of a $12-million-dollar fraud, and Max Stillman, the company's "security expert," takes Walker along on his investigation. The case, which now includes a murder, is brought to a not very satisfactory conclusion less than halfway through the book -- obviously, there's more to come. Walker is sent off to the company's Miami office to help out in the immediate aftermath of a hurricane, where he stumbles upon a very similar scam and hollers for help. Stillman quickly arrives in Miami and the chase is on again -- and Perry brings new meaning to the phrase "criminal conspiracy." Along the way, Walker gets involved with a young female hacker whose boss supplies Stillman with illegally obtained information for his work, and she gets caught up in the massive fraud case as well. All three principal characters are nicely developed, with Walker becoming less innocent and more active as he learns from Stillman, and the details of the insurance business and how ingenious insurance fraud can be are interesting as well. The puzzle takes awhile to solve, . . . and I think I'll just stay the heck away from little New Hampshire towns.

I once accidently got a subscription to "GQ". I found it very interesting, since apparently what men want most is to be like James Bond. Drop a man off in a strange city and he wants to go to the right restaurant, order the right drink, have woman throw themselves at him, and most of all, win the admiration of other good men. Oh, and fight evil, too.

Thomas Perry want to help you with this. He not only wants to tell you the right drink, he wants you to win the respect of the bartender ("The Pursuit"), to successfully hide from the Mafia ("Butcher's Boy"), and to become the perfect mass-murderer ("Sleeping Dogs"). His books are practically how-to manuals for coolness, as long as you don't let sissy things like morality get in your way. In this book, "Death Benefits", he wants to show you how wrong you are to want a secure job at an insurance company when you could be chasing criminals across the continent with your dashing boss, limitless expense account, and adoring female colleague.

The book has an interesting 3-part structure, starting when young innocent John Walker is lured away from his cubicle when a former girlfriend disappears and is accused of fraud; he agrees to help the free-lance investigator Max Stillman because he wants to clear the woman of involvement in the crime. While doing that, he has to help out at the company's Florida branch when a hurricane comes roaring in, and while there, stumbles upon clues that lead him to a small New England town where the solution to all his questions may lie..... Walker is an engaging character, and you can't help but root for him to "find himself" as he solves these mysteries. The problem is that Perry finally over-reaches with the small New England town, stealing his plot, improbably, from H.P. Lovecraft, with regrettable results.

If you aren't a "GQ" kind of man, you might even get tired of Max Stillman, who fights crime with methods the police aren't allowed to use, and triumphs over evil while making loads of money. He's not even slightly believable, so it may seem a waste of time following his exploits and writing down tips in case *you're* ever a free-lance crime-fighter. I personally prefer the old-fashioned police procedural, where I may learn something real about crime and punishment.

This was a good read. It wasn't a story in which you could predict what was going to happen. I enjoyed it. I also liked the Jane Whitefield novels by this author.

I have been gobbling up Thomas Perry novels ever since discovering his Jane Whitfield series, so I only glanced at the cover when I picked this one up from the bin. I have to confess I was let down when I saw that it was about the insurance industry--what could be more boring? But "boring" is exactly the wrong word to use to describe this wonderfully exciting novel. I was hooked from the first few pages and just could not put it down. This is one of those suspense thrillers where you love the characters and are so swept up in the story you forget to make dinner for yourself. The disappearance of a woman who looks as if she is involved in a scheme to peculate millions leads a former lover on a quest to uncover her fate, and he soon finds himself embroiled in a deep conspiracy. This is believable, a book about greed and love, that will fascinate you.

Jeremy Robinson's Antaktos Rising grabs the reader right from the start. Each character adds another layer to the story and there is no fluff. There are characters that you will love and some that you will love to hate. As the author of The Second Virgin Birth, I am jealous of his skill as a writer. I did not want to put this book down until I finished it. The Antaktos Rising is a must read

This is a very good action oriented book that has a little of everything. Characters are well written and their are a variety of characters from a father/daughter with a rocky relationship to characters of international importance that oppose and ultimately come together in a time of termoil.The novel starts at a nice pace and keeps up the suspense.I would describe it as a cross between "Jurassic Park", "The Land before Time" and "Day After Tomorrow".
This book is timely in a biblical sense with some biblical references from Genesis and Revelation. They are fairly accurate but the fictional aspect of the book distorts the references; although, in an entertaining fashion.
Id love to see a sequel to this book and will probably read other novels that this author publishes.
I recommend it as an fun, entertaining read for a cold fall or winter night.

Very well written and quite enjoyable. The combination of fact and fantasy, science and science fiction, make for a delightful page-turner. I look forward to reading more from Jeremy and am already planning my next purchases!

I actually am willing to let quite a bit by in terms of reality when reading a book. But this was beyond willing suspension of disbelief. First the entire ocean flash freezes while leaving a man in the "protection" of a boat intact? The amount of energy required for that to occur is phenomenal.

Taking some breaths and reading further I was treated to characters so mono-dimensional that they should be able to hide from the rampaging dinosaurs by turning sideways.

The villains at the end have a weak spot that is so ridiculous given the current human level of technology that it made me wonder if the protagonist's were welding potatoes guns.

Jeremy Robinson has done it again with his new, explosive action/adventure novel that will keep you turning pages well into the night. Antarktos Rising plunges the modern world into the savage, ancient earth of eons past. Through a series of cataclysmic events, the continent of Antarctica is transformed into an apparent paradise while most of the inhabited earth is destroyed through a massive freeze. In order to survive, the nations of the earth race to claim the formerly frozen Antarctica as their new home. However, as teams from the various countries race to the center of the now tropical Antarctica, they find that the land is not the only thing thawed from the eons of deep freeze--so were some of the indigenous species that once roamed and ruled the continent. The journey to the center of Antarctica--now known by its ancient name of Antarktos--is the least of mankind's goals. Once they start, they must survive some of the most deadly obstacles ever faced. Jeremy Robinson takes you on their journey step-by-step through the spine tingling adventure with each turn of the page, making you wonder how the team can get out of their current danger. He scarcely gives you time to catch your breath before the team encounters a new, more deadly danger. If you have a list of books to read this summer, put Antarktos Rising at the top today.