th&friends Love Books

The "Inheritance" fantasy series

2011-12-17T18:34:00.007-07:00

Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, and Inheritance – a 4 book series by Christopher Paolini

Well friends, I am sorry that I haven't been reviewing books. It isn't that I haven't been reading; I have. I just haven't been posting any reviews on what I've been reading. My Holiday gift to you is to get more reviews posted. But here's a reminder to everyone - you can share through the “comments” on this blog and register as a “follower.” If you have read a book and would like to share your thoughts (review) of it, please email me . I would love to post it here. Now to my review...

My daughter gave me Eragon in 2006 and I enjoyed reading it. Then I borrowed Eldest and enjoyed it as well. Now, here it is 2011… Inheritance has come out …. so I borrowed the audio versions from my library to get “caught up” on my “reading” while I caught up on cleaning my desk off. (smiles)

Some reviewers have commented that this fantasy series has plagiarized its themes, places, and characters from other writers. In some sense that may be true since the story does have a familiar sense to it. But to deny that is it original, I think, is going a bit too far. One reviewer was trying to point out how similar the names were, but the names that author Paolini came up with were new names. (And I don’t get the Star Wars comparison.)

My major complaint is that the story is too long; it could have been condensed in several places. Yet, I was amazed at some of the descriptions of people and places. And I am also amazed when a writer can keep it all sorted out and remembered properly.

I feel that if you like fantasy you will enjoy this series. Enjoy it for what it is, not as a comparison with other authors and their stories.

Book 1 - Eragon

Eragon
Reading level: Ages 12 and up
544 pages
ISBN-10: 0375826688
ISBN-13: 978-0375826689

Book 2 - Eldest

Reading level: Ages 12 and up
736 pages
ISBN-10: 0385611609
ISBN-13: 978-0385611602

Book 3 - Brisingr

Reading level: Ages 12 and up
763 pages
ISBN-10: 0375826726
ISBN-13: 978-0375826726

Book 4 - Inheritance

Reading level: Ages 12 and up
880 pages
ISBN-10: 0375856110
ISBN-13: 978-0375856112

4 Book Set

Again please, you can share through the “comments” on this blog and register as a “follower.” If you have read a book and would like to share your thoughts (review) of it, please email me . I would love to post it here.

Port of Two Brothers

2010-11-27T10:27:00.007-07:00

Port of Two Brothers, by Paul Schlener

This is the true story of two brothers, Paul and John Schlener and their families,
who gave up the comforts of home here in the United States and spent 40 years as missionaries in Brazil, in the Amazon jungles.

This is a lively account of their lives there and the many challenges they confronted. Well written and entertaining, they tell of their experiences delivering God’s love, more by demonstration than by Word, to a lost people. The book includes black & white photos.

How do you get 40 years of life into just 443 pages?
This author is one of the few still surviving veterans of World War II.

To all of my friends in Moses Lake, Washington, especially – get this book. He lives among us. (Yes, I’m trying to emulate Paul’s humor.)

443 pages, easy reading.
ISBN-10: 1888796219
ISBN-13: 978-1888796216

Age of the Fallen

2009-12-31T11:14:00.007-07:00

author Mark Olmos
novel, fantasy, spiritual allegory

The characters include:
a group of 8 teenage spiritual warriors led by Aiko
Akira, their teacher
demons and angels demons and angels
many others

In Ephesians 6:10-18 we are told to put on the full armor of God. In Age of the Fallen
the armor of God becomes very real and full of power. The battle being fought is not how we have given thought of what the battle is, but changes the spiritual battle into a new reality. The armor God really comes to life in this allegory. It shows to us the battle our prayers are truly supposed to be fighting.

I am a fan of Frank Peretti’s books. If you have read Frank Peretti and enjoyed his books then think of this as Frank Peretti to the next level.

Aiko and her friends have spent some time fighting demons who are attacking individuals with drugs and self-deprecation, taking away the individual's willingness to live life. They have fought several battles like this but this new battle will take them beyond what they feel are their limits. Through prayer, their own and other warriors, God will supply them new strength to complete the battle of their life.

This book opened my eyes to how Satan has used depression and drug addictions to his advantage and for the destruction of mankind. If you are looking for a new awareness to the spiritual battle going on around us I recommend that you read this book. And don't forget to read your Bible while you're at it.

Mark Olmos, I’m looking forward to your next book.

278 pages, riveting reading.
ISBN-13: 978-1-933204-90-1

Obeying the Voice of God: Jack MacDonald’s Journey

2009-05-11T17:37:00.015-07:00

The characters include:
Jack MacDonald and his family, as well as other persons he either had experience with or respected from history.

Just as a novel/a storybook, well written makes the characters come to life, so a book about the love of God, demonstrating His love through a contemporary’s life, when well written, brings God to life for the reader.

Jack MacDonald, with the help of his wife, Donnie MacDonald, walks us through his experience in the Vietnam War and the many miracles he experienced that saved his life. Jack’s walk with God is so close that it is in every conversation he has with every person. He wants you to know his Friend. The miracles don’t stop in Vietnam; they didn’t start there either. They have been a part of his life since he began his relationship with God.

Life was not easy for Jack, but his rest and his peace were in God. Jack demonstrates his relationship with God showing us how we are to get a close relationship with God ourselves

I do recommend this book. It is a book that I shared with my whole family. Shop for it at http://obeyingthevoice.com/.

After receiving it and reading it one person wrote, "Your book was an inspiration to me as God has been putting me through some serious testing. … I failed but God is faithful. He brought me through the valley of the shadow of death. He is good to me. Reading your book affirmed a few lessons the Lord has been teaching me lately and all my Christian life - that He is my provider. And through the words in your book, God reaffirmed His love for me and that He still has a plan for me and that is not to abandon me. I am thankful for the opportunity to read it."

Another person told me over the phone, "The day the book arrived our Bible Study group had just finished a study on Listening to God's voice. They were there when I opened the package and we saw the book Obeying the Voice of God. They were awe-struck. This is truly God making a point."

350 pages, easy reading.
ISBN-13: 978-0-9778545-1-6

I read the book first. Eventually, I sent it out as gifts to my family. My brother, Dean, actually beat me to writing a review of this book. He did such a fine job that I asked him if I could quote his review here. I didn’t. You can see his review at cominus.com and www.amazon.com

A reminder to everyone that you can share through the “comments” on this blog and register as a “follower.” If you have read a book and would like to share your thoughts (review) of it, please email me . I would love to post it here.

The Truth of the American Form of Government

2009-02-01T17:00:00.005-07:00

If you want to know what our Founding Fathers had in mind for our government, a Republic, and what it really should feel like and be like, then I encourage you to check out this blog The Truth of the American Form of Government

No, it's not a book, but I feel it is important to pass it on. For many it will be a refresher course and for many others it will be new information. The video will only take 11 minutes to view for those who have high-speed connections. If you don't, then you will probably want to let it download completely (abt 1-2 hours) before watching.

There is a screen-quarter-screen button that will enlarge it to full screen size. I hope everyone visiting my site will also visit the video.

The Teeth of the Tiger (Jack Ryan)

2009-02-01T09:53:00.006-07:00

The characters include:
Jack Ryan, Jr., adult son of the former President Jack Ryan
Fraternal twins Dominic Caruso and Brian Caruso, who are also Jack Ryan, Jr.’s cousins

Dominic Caruso after studying to be an attorney works for the FBI as an agent. After a crisis happens he is contacted about taking a brand new position with an investment corporation. His twin brother is a Marine officer. He also is contacted by the investment corporation for a position after he proves himself in Afghanistan. The investment company is a cover for a new secret services organization, very secret because it is a private corporation instead of a government agency and the investments are how its secret ops are funded.

The agency was set up by the former President, Jack Ryan, who had been a former CIA agent. He assigns his best friend to run the agency, especially since his gift is making large sums of money from investments. The agency’s purpose is to disable enemies, terrorists, of the United States.

Jack Ryan, Jr. is hired as an ops analyst. The Caruso brothers are hired to be assassins. I felt that the hiring of Jack Ryan, Jr. was realistic considering the explanation for his exposure to secret agents while growing up, but how did he discover the existence of this secret agency? The answer to that was not plausible.

And I did not feel realism when the other 2 new recruits just happen to be 1) brothers, and 2) Jack Ryan Jr.’s cousins.

More unbelievable events:
The dialogue and nicknames the brothers used for each other (it was also annoying). Although the other characters might use additional references usually, an author will choose one pseudonym to refer to each character during his narrative and stick with that throughout, but Clancy bounced around with three pseudonyms for each character, which made following the characters (who is doing what) annoying.

Jack Jr. is talking to his cousins before their first mission and discusses the case and the target. It’s secret ops. Jack Jr. shouldn’t even know his cousins are involved, yet. Plus, none of them have been given permission to talk to the other (analyst vs. assassins) about the mission. Reported by A. Stephen Collins at Amazon.com, “I immediately assume that Jack will soon be in big trouble for his "loose lips." Nope. Clancy never deals with it at all, even though the twins tell their superior that Jack filled them in. (Oh, you told them about this super-classified info without authorization? No problem, kid.) What nonsense.”

I felt the brothers should “vacation” in each location before moving on to the next. It seems to me that as quickly as they were moving and the assassinations were taking place that the “bad guys” might soon notice a correlation. After all, the spy guys in the U.S. do (according to the story).

Rookie Ryan is assigned to be the Caruso brothers’ handler. No agency would have assigned a rookie to be anyone’s handler.

There were only two scenes that I would call action scenes, the rest of the book involved activity but not action, a lot of motion but no real tension.

Unless you’re following the life of Jack Ryan and his family I don’t recommend this book.

496 pages, heavy reading.
ISBN-10: 0-425-19740-9
ISBN-13: 978-0425197400

Again tell me, did you like the way I created this review? Was it helpful in any manner? Do you want to see more reviews like this or should I change the style?

A reminder to everyone that you can share through the “comments” on this blog and register as a “follower.” If you have read a book and would like to share your thoughts (review) of it, please email me . I would love to post it here.

The Three Mrs Parkers

2009-01-19T11:06:00.004-07:00

by Joan Medlicott

The characters include:
the elderly Mrs. Parker, Winifred, the mother-in-law
the middle Mrs. Parker, Zoe, the daughter-in-law, and
the youngest Mrs. Parker, Kathryn, Zoe’s daughter who was married but reverted to her maiden name
in name only, Stephen Parker, son of Winifred, husband of Zoe.

The “why” of the story is two women who don’t know each other but are bonded together by a son/husband must now learn to get along. Each one blames the other for the son’s/husband’s death yet now they find they need each other.

This is a “… story about three generations of women who find their way past old hurts and losses to understanding, forgiveness and love … about family, friendship, and where the two meet” (Amazon editorial review). Getting past the old hurts and losses was way too easy for these three women. Maybe there are some that can get past them easily, but three within one circle of friendship or within one family just doesn’t happen in real life. Finding new friendships easily does happen.

For women, and possibly older teens, this is light reading. Forgiveness is its theme and as such, the hardcover copy I have has discussion questions about how the story handled the theme at the end of the book. I thought it interesting that the author had a couple in the story who seemed like true Christians, but the Parkers and the other people in the story were not, and the wedding takes place with a Unitarian pastor.

The crisis comes when all their lives are threatened. But after the crisis was over I felt it took too much time to wrap up and close the story. The author needed to get the three women re-coupled.

The author wrote this book according to the “rules”: have a crisis and have a reason for everything that happens. This caused the story to not always be flowing forward, but often stopping to answer the question, “why,” and doing a referral backward in time.

Unless you’re looking for a light read I don’t recommend this book.

290 pages, easy reading.
ISBN-10: 0739451103
ISBN-13: 978-0739451106

So tell me, did you like the way I created this review? Was it helpful in any manner? Do you want to see more reviews like this or should I change the style?

Don't Shoot, It's Only Me

2008-12-18T19:48:00.006-07:00

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays,

Because I am mostly away from my blog for last week, this week, and the next I wanted to post my Christmas letter, as short as it is. Right now I am in Edmonds, Washington. I arrived yesterday to a very snowy Seattle. It never snows in Seattle before Christmas, yet it is now on its second day of almost continuous snowing and more snow promised for tomorrow. Last night it dumped 2 feet of snow on Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. My lunch with aunts, uncle, and cousins was cancelled yesterday and my plans to spend some time with my brother and his family tomorrow night and Saturday are also cancelled. Meanwhile, my father thinks he can still make it to Spokane to pick up my husband to have our Christmas celebration in Moses Lake. I was taking the train from Everett to Spokane, but now I will only take it to Ephrata where someone in the family will still have to travel through the snow to pick me up. This has been a very interesting adventure.

I have just finished reading a book, Don’t Shoot, It’s Only Me, by Bob Hope with Melville Shavelson (one of his long-time writers and producers). Written in 1990 and subtitled Bob Hope’s Comedy History of the United States, it tells of his adventures and jokes as he traveled to war zones to entertain the troupes, our war heroes, from 1938-1990. Through the comedy he still manages to reflect the horrors our soldiers are facing as they fight. I feel he was also able to give us a revelation of history in a way some of the history books miss. His tale is very non-political. As he says, he tells jokes on them all. I have enjoyed reading this book.

Vinegar & Health

2008-12-03T12:37:00.002-07:00

Today’s blog is not about books but is experiential instead. I am lightly chemically intolerant and Sunday I had to put my sick cat to sleep. We don’t know what was wrong with her so I decided that I needed to disinfect the house and all her supplies. But using the store bought chemicals make me ill. I was cleaning her supplies: soap & water, then bleach. The bleach was burning my throat. I use Oxyclean occasionally for my laundry but I was out of that and I didn’t know if it had any disinfecting qualities. I thought about vinegar, so I went to the Web to find out if I could use it. There at this wonderful site, http://www.vinegartips.com/, I found my answer.

1,001 Tips for using Vinegar: Vinegar will whiten & brighten your clothes, no more need for Oxyclean. It will keep ants from entering your home and fruit flies away from your fruit.
The surprise came when I was mopping the floors. I used equal portions of water and vinegar. I have a lot of mopable floor space. My house is 1459 sq. ft and has a relatively large foyer, so half or more of the house is stone tiled. Halfway through my mopping I was thinking that the water was awfully dirty and I needed to get a fresh bucket. But I was out of vinegar and would have to go to the store for more. Yet, as I lifted the mop out of the bucket the solution looked clear. How odd. So I took the mop over to the toilet and squeezed it and the color of the water in the toilet hadn’t changed; it too was clear. So I continued mopping. It seems that the solution just grabs the dirt and makes it go to the bottom of the bucket leaving clear solution for mopping. Then another thought occurred to me, since vinegar is great at removing hard water stains I wasn’t leaving hard water mineral deposits behind on my floor.

I’m off to the store now to buy more vinegar. I hope you found this blog useful. Please leave your comments here and log in to be one of my followers.

If you want a great site for free ebooks check out Project Gutenberg . They have converted a lot of books that are out-of-date and now public domain into digital files that you can download.

The Life of Emma Giesy

2008-12-02T10:20:00.005-07:00

My husband’s cousin, Carol, emailed me in response to my blog and so I asked her if I could share her comments with you:

We love to read also. I'm interested in history and especially like Jane Kirkpatrick's historical novels re early settlers in Oregon/Washington as it reminds me of what our own ancestors must have gone through - clearing the land, etc. After reading her series regarding Emma Kiesy I would like to go to the old cemetery and museum in Aurora, OR, but haven't managed to schedule the time. Of course this time of year it isn't much fun to be tourists out in the rain.

Re your blog, glad to share! As I hadn't read the books recently I looked them up so your blog can have more accurate information. Jane Kirkpatrick's "Change and Cherish Series" are the three books regarding the life of Emma Giesy. She and her husband came out from Missouri (don't remember the year) in the scouting party for William Kiel's colony. "A Clearing in the Wild" is about the place they settled in Willapa Bay, Washington State. Their efforts at Willapa Bay were a disappointment to the colony leader Wm. Kiel when he arrived the next spring and decided the site of Aurora, Oregon, was more suitable for the colony and settled his family and others from Willapa Bay there. In time more families from his colony in Missouri came to Aurora - named for Wm. Kiel's daughter. The other two books "A Tendering in the Storm" and "A Mending at the Edge" are the life changes Emma had to make and they were very difficult. The museum in Aurora has articles from the colony and many of the people mentioned in the books are buried in Aurora.

I haven't read all her books as our library didn't have them last time I checked, but they also had the "Tender Ties Series". It is about the life of Marie Dorion, the Iowan Indian woman married to Pierre Dorion, a scout for the Wilson Price Hunt party. They were with the Astor Expedition and came overland in 1810. Many of the stories take place in Oregon - Astoria, Willamette Valley, etc. Wonderful historical novels about real people. I've found many of them on the census records.

* * * * *

Thank you, Carol for sharing.

A reminder to everyone that you can share through the “comments” on this blog and register as a “follower,” which I’ve titled “My loyal friends – I love you.”

There Is Value In Reading

2008-11-29T16:54:00.001-07:00

Books contain a wealth of knowledge, statistics, facts, history, fantasy, and much more; ideas that are abstract and ideas that are concrete. There is value in reading for personal growth, business knowledge and growth, and for relaxation. If we are striving to get ahead in our business or our jobs we can find what we need to know in books. If we want to build or repair a thing – cabinets, plumbing, a toy for a grandchild, stitchery for the walls – can find the instructions in a book. There are books on how to improve our personalities, our lives, our social position.

Within books of biography, history, or fiction we can find a kindred spirit and learn and grow from it. A properly researched and written novel can bring history to life in a way the history books cannot; unless you had my college history teacher who could really bring history to life. Sitting in her class was not dull.

Reading encourages our minds to think and reflect on what we’ve read, to sort through it and see if it’s true. It teaches us to think logically and connect the pieces. It increases our attention span, it slows us down in this hectic paced world, and it calms our spirits. We reflect on what we’ve read.

A couple of quotes:
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” – Sir Richard Steele
“If you want to prepare yourself for great achievement and have more to contribute, try reading more books. Pick up some of the great classics and search for well-researched material that can help you grow.” – Larry Greider
“Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” – Isaac Asimov

Reading books continues our education long after we’ve finished school yet 58% of the US adult population never reads another book after high school. Even more shocking is that 42% of college graduates never read another book (Dan Poynter, 2008, http://parapublishing.com/sites/para/resources/statistics.cfm). We should never let our education stop. We must never stop reading.

To avail of a selection of books, see http://www.bestgrowth-businessebooks.com/