The Burning Chambers

The Burning Chambers takes place in France in the mid to late 1500s.  It is the first book in a trilogy about the Huguenot diaspora.  The plot concerns a disputed inheritance and a stolen religious relic, the Shroud of Antioch. The main characters are Marguerite "Minou" Joubert, the Catholic daughter of a bookseller, and Piet Reydon, a Huguenot soldier, who fall in love with each other.

This 575 page book seemed to drag on and on.  There were endless descriptions of the scenery, homes, inns, shops and clothing.  While I was interested in what was written, the plot was so slow that I did lose interest over time which is why it took me one month to finish this book.   The fact that I could summarize the plot in one sentence in the above paragraph is telling.  Not much happened here.  The premise for this trilogy is fascinating.  The how-to of the writing needs work.  A little less explanation and more action would be better.

If you like reading about atmosphere, this book is for you.  The author gives a fascinating description of the atmosphere of this period in French history.  However, if a book has no action, it's a little boring.

A Fire Story

Brian Fies wrote this graphic  memoir of his family's experience losing their home to the California wildfires in October 2017.  The fires destroyed over 6,200 homes and killed 44 people.  Fellow artists sent him art supplies and he began a comic while the fires were still burning.  He posted the comic on his blog and it went viral.  It was featured on CNN and in The Washington Post.

Fies' wife Karen woke up at 1:30 a.m. on October 9, 2017 smelling smoke and thought that it was a fire in Calistoga, twenty miles away.  When she looked out the window and saw a glowing sky they both jumped into action and packed what they thought were their most treasured possessions and left, thinking though that they would be returning to their home.  They found out later that their home of twenty years was gone an hour after they left. The Fies traveled to Karen's office to stay for a few days as she held a job in emergency management and, as such, had a small apartment.  Later they traveled to their adult twin daughters' home to stay and began a two year process of rebuilding their lives.

The book also tells the story of five other individuals but the Fies' story continues to be told throughout the book.  While the artwork in the book is light due to its color scheme the heart wrenching emotions of going through this type of experience is evident. Fies chose his words carefully in telling his story.  He also used a fluorescent palette in the novel which was reminiscent of the highlighters that he originally used in his comic. Each color is used in various shades which I found to be attractive.

If it is possible to do justice on telling a story about a catastrophic fire in graphic novel format, this is it. The poignancy of the words written were perfect to recreate the emotions that he felt as he relived each part of his story.  I was touched by it, never understanding before how losing everything you own in a fire changes a person.  This is a must read.

The Persian Gamble

I don't usually read Joel Rosenberg but a friend told me that I would like his new book.  It is a political/spy thriller taking place in the current time period with conflict between the governments of the U.S., Israel, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.

The summary from the inside book cover reads: "Shot out of the air in enemy territory in the middle of the greatest international crisis since the end of the Cold War, former U. S. Secret Service agent Marcus Ryker finds himself facing an impossible task. Not only does he have to somehow elude detection and capture by Russian forces, but he must convince his own government to grant safe passage to the one man responsible for the global mayhem - Russian double agent and assassin Oleg Kraskin. While frantically negotiating with his contacts in the U.S. government, Marcus learns that the North Korean regime plans to use the international chaos as a smokescreen to sell nuclear weapons to Iran."

I thought that this was the perfect thriller except for one problem. 300+ pages into the novel his hero starts reading his Bible, Proverbs, and thinking about the grace of God right before he is going into a mission and will kill people. Is the author serious? How many international assassins muse over God's grace an hour before a kill? The hero keeps this Bible reading up for the remaining 200 pages. Is the author trying to convince the reader that an assassin is a Christian? I am pretty sure he is not. This is why I never read Rosenberg. Why take a perfectly plotted and written 500 page thriller and ruin it with 20 pages? This is disappointing!

He loses 1 star.   4 out of 5 stars.

The Kinship of Secrets

The Kinship of Secrets is a historical saga about the Cho family during the Korean War. Part of the family has emigrated to America and the rest of the family has remained in Korea. The chapters alternate between the point of view of two sisters, Inja and Miren, separated by their parents when the parents take Miren with them to America and leave Inja behind.

Calvin and Najin Cho have taken their daughter Miren with them to America while she is still a toddler as she has been sickly. The younger Inja has been left behind with the promise that they will return for her in one or two years. However, the North Koreans invade the South and war commenced, making it impossible for the family to travel. Miren grows up in the wealthy west but not fitting in with her peers because she is Asian. Inja grows up knowing where she belongs but has to scrounge for food and run from fighting soldiers.  She always wonders why her mother didn't want her. For several years Calvin and Najin desperately try to bring Inja to the U. S. but Inja hopes that it never happens. She loves her extended family in Korea, her friends and she is doing well in school.

I loved this poignant story of two sisters. One is raised in wealth but with no emotional security and is dependent on her family. The other is raised in poverty but is much loved and independent. One knows all the family's secrets and the other knows none. Can they form a sisterly bond when they actually meet? Read the book and find out!

Inja is the heroine as she has much more to deal with than Miren. At a very young age she has to deal with abandonment, hunger, running from war, and taking care of sick relatives. I loved her character and hope there is a sequel based on her life. Miren was not that interesting but from her side of the story the reader gets to read about the family's early life in America.

5 our of 5 stars!

The Christmas Boutique

The Christmas Boutique is an Elm Creek Quilts novel. This 21 book cozy series returns after a seven year hiatus and the inside cover blurb summarizes the book as follows:

"Just weeks before Christmas, severe wintry weather damages the church hall hosting the Christmas Boutique-an annual sale of handcrafted gifts and baked goods that support the county food pantry. Determined to save the fundraiser Sylvia Bergstrom Compson offers to hold the event at Elm Creek Manor, her ancestral family estate and summertime home to Elm Creek Quilt Camp.

In the spirit of the season Sylvia and the Elm Creek Quilters begin setting up market booths in the ballroom and decking the halls with beautiful handmade holiday quilts. Each of the quilters chooses a favorite work to display, a special creation evoking memories of holidays past and dreams of Christmases yet to come. But while the Elm Creek Quilters work tirelessly to make sure the Christmas Boutique happens, it may take a holiday miracle or two to make it the smashing success they want it to be."

More than half of the writing was backstory, which means of course that there wasn't much to this plot.  The prior 3 or 4 books in the series were also predominantly backstory so I have to wonder if the author  has run out of new ideas for this series. In the interim since the last book was published the author wrote several historical fiction novels. They were OK. She excels, however, in writing cozies so I think she should consider writing another cozy series.

The characters in the series are fascinating but I think the most interesting ones were from the beginning of the series who have now passed away. The series is supposed to be about the Bergstrom family but only one member is still alive and she is not the main character.  In fact, there really isn't a main character. There is a group of women who make up the core of characters in the series.

Quilting was not as prominent in this installment of the series. I am a quilter and would have loved to have read more of the usual so-and-so selected such-and-such pattern to sew and the sentimental reasons why the selection was made.

While I have written some negative comments that does not mean that I didn't enjoy the book. I did. It was nice to get reacquainted with characters who seem like friends to me. Having a significant amount of background is not bad given that there has been 7 years since the last book in the series was published. I had forgotten much of each character's past and needed to be reminded.

4 out of 5 stars.

The President is Missing

Former President Bill Clinton co-authored this political mystery with James Patterson. It is eerily similar to Clinton's presidency.

The synopsis from the publisher:

"As an unprecedented cyberterrorist attack cripples the United States, the president must face an unthinkable truth:

There is a traitor in the White House.
His life is in danger.

And the only way to stay ahead of the shadowy forces tearing at the heart of America is to go off grid, leaving behind his presidential protection. The president must go missing and he may never resurface... Set over the course of three days that shake a nation to its core, The President is Missing
sheds a stunning light on the inner workings and vulnerabilities of the American government."

I expected alot from this book. I heard many friends say they couldn't wait to read it. If I was using my brain I would have realized that no one said anything else about the book.  At the midway point in reading this novel I read a few reviews of it because I was disappointed with it. Most of the reviews were negative. It finally clicked in my brain that the problem was the plot.

In The President is Missing there is something that never happens...the president never goes missing. Why this title was chosen is a conundrum.  The main character, the president, was basically Bill Clinton. This president faced an impeachment, was the former governor of a small southern state, met his wife in the law library at Yale law school, hired his best friend whom he met in kindergarten to work for him in the White House and failed to capture a foreign terrorist. As these details about the character unfolded, I was disappointed. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it just wasn't creative to use the author's background for a character.

The plot wasn't believable. First of all, I kept waiting for the president to disappear. Second, there were several groups of commandos shooting characters and I couldn't tell who the good guys were and who the bad guys were. The story was confusing. Third, there is no way in hell the Secret Service would allow a president to go off grid and meet someone who is probably a terrorist without protection. In the book the president orders the Secret Service to not follow him and also orders his physician to not treat him for an illness which is about to kill him because the drugs he needs will cloud his judgment.

The story was written with suspense to keep you reading. While I was bored and disappointed at the halfway point, I kept thinking that there was more to this story than I could see. Also, with the synopsis telling me that there is a traitor in the White House, I expected to read about this traitor early in the book. The reader doesn't read about it until the conclusion of the story. Why the build up in the media about a traitor when there's no build up in the story? Finally, it would have been nice for the authors to have written a Note to the Reader describing their writing collaboration.  Who contributed what? I wonder how much writing Clinton contributed to the novel, if any. 

Book of the Month: September

My best book for the month of September is Saving Meghan. This medical thriller was so captivating that it kept me up all night until I finished reading it.  Meghan Gerard has an undiagnosed illness and her mother loves, really loves, taking her to doctors and screaming at them if they don't order tests or additional physician consultations. Meghan's father Carl thinks his wife is nuts. His wife's mother had munchausen's and he thinks she has it too.  So does White Hospital where Meghan is a frequent patient. When the hospital tries to do an intervention, the story intensifies.