The White Cliffs by Alice Duer Miller

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is a wonderful ballad of life…and death…and the dreams of a better world. Well thought out and drawing on depth that can leave the reader emotionally invested.

It would’ve been neat if Miller had kept the same format throughout the tale.

Well worth the time to read this once or twice a year.

Bottom line: i recommend this book. 9 out of 10 stars.



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Red Clark at the Showdown by Gordon Young

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


It’s good to come across an honestly terrible book to remind the reader how bad a book can be. Thi sis certainly one of the worst I have ever read. Poor plotting, writing, characters, etc.

Part of the problem is Young’s effort to have the character’s dialogue as it might have been in the late 1800s. He does this poorly. In that there is also poor punctuation and Young’s inability to connect the character to the dialogue a good deal of the time makes for an impossible book to read.

Making it all worse is what seems a very good idea for a plot executed in the most confounded way possible. Young tries to keep the mystery going by characters pondering what is happening. This is done in first, second and third person. Auuugh!!

I could go on,but the idea should be evident.

Bottom line: I do not recommend this book. 2 out of 10 points.



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Personality Plus: Some Experiences of Emma McChesney and Her Son, Jock by Edna Ferber

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


From my Algonquin Round Table Collection:
I’m such a fan of Edna Ferber. She is so good at intertwining characters and dialogue within a story that would be hard to imagine being interesting. Ferber was genius and this book is just another example of that.

This is very low key and not a book of epic proportions as her others. She was able to layout a talein any size she wanted.

Bottom line: i recommend this book.10 out of 10 points.



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The Specialist / by Charles (Chic) Sale by Charles Sale

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Saw Chic Sale again in a film, ‘Treasure Island’, last week and thought if I saw another of his books again, I’d nabbed it. So I did a few days ago. This tiny little thing has not much more than a transcript of a monologue. It’s a neat monologue telling of the business of outhouse written in a humourous way.

As fun as this is, I just wish there was much more to it all. though, I understand this is all Sale wanted this to be.

I understand this was a huge best seller and more came after it. I know of other little books like this one that did very well. I wonder why we see so little of this today.

Bottom line: I recommend this. 7 out of 10 points.



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The Angry Wife by Pearl S. Buck

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Buck sure knows how to leap from comfort to great complexity of ideas. Though issues in this book are pondered in her others. With this book she moves it all to post-War Between the States. She’s structured the plot and story to explore her views of race, the South, America and the Civil War. She does this all very well by creating an epic story of a family.

The examination of the family unfolded is accomplished extremely well. Buck vastly complicates the tale by pulling the family apart in a particularly difficult way that leads to Buck having to move characters around in all sorts of directions. She does all of this very clearly and leaves the reader intrigued to move the pages. Excellent writing and plotting.

The characters are well written and distinctly different. Something hard to do in a book that includes so many children. Many, many books have broods of kiddies, but Buck includes the same and makes each interesting and separate from another.

A note about the time I wrote this: Today’s (Not long ago or time to come) American population is extremely ignorant to the time period that is the basis of the book. Points of history presented in the book, once taught in public school,today is almost entirely not taught or mis-taught. Some might read this and react emotionally without the knowledge of what Buck is writing about. Certainly Buck took extreme melodramatic license to create the book and never intended for readers to believe the families in this book were representative of all in the South or the North. Buck’s goal was to complete a book that could be sold and read. Not sculpt factual history.

I think the only draw back to the book is, while trying to string so many characters together, Buck dropped the ball in some consistency and leaving some holes in the story never filled. Tiny stuff when paired with the whole. Also the title is silly.

Bottom line: I recommend this book. 9 out of 10 points.



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SEAL Team Six by Chuck Dixon

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


This was a cumbersome book. The majority of it made up of biographies of all of the characters and some not even otherwise in the book. That would be fine if the book was 600 pages. But at 145, the endless background is just poor plotting and editing.

What’s left is substandard, predictable action and very bad dialogue. Both usually have to do with undefined characters. That’s what makes all of the character background superfluous – All of the characters speak with nearly the same voice. There is one that repeats the last few words of a sentence. That this stands out to separate one from the others, should give an idea of the sameness of speak.

The ending is nothing new and under performs some of the biographies included.

Dixon is a very successful machine in comic book story production and I hoped to find he accomplished what most all in the comic book writing field hasn’t been able to do: Be successful in writing a novel. This is not an example of that.
I figure Dixon was hoping to follow in the foot steps of Brad Thor and Vince Flynn or Alex Berenson. This book is mighty far from any of those. Based upon this book, Dixon might want to reach toward the direction John Gilstrap takes.
I won’t give up just yet. I’ll try another Dixon soon.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 2 out of two points.



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Pride of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This entry was during the Smoke Jensen series where needless and irritating flashbacks were common. A few books before this a number of the books had nearly a fifth of the novel set in flashbacks.At this point the flash backs had lessened, but still makeup 15 pages or so. This was among the problems with the book.

Depending on the ghost writer a version of Smoke is presented. In this one Smoke curses and less sure of himself (Which does lean away from the typical super hero antics of gun play). The entire tenor of the book is much more violent and gory than other tales of Smoke. The writer further veers from consistency with the series characters acting out of character and the plotting being better than others in the series.

The direction of the plotting would make this book better than most, but I recognized the plot from other books of the Johnstone Clan. There are also errors editors should have caught. The real problem is the entire construction of the book with the Johnstones, editors, writer and cover designer not paying attention to the 21 books before this one or the make up of this book.

This is still another book in the series with a silly book title and cover.

Bottom line: i don’t recommend this book. 5 out of ten points.



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Mother West Wind ‘How’ Stories by Thornton W. Burgess

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


After reading the collection in ‘Mother West Wind “Where” Stories’, I figured the next collection read couldn’t continue the same over used template in the last set. i was wrong. This book is much the same. Basically the same story over and over. Apparently Burgess had no ability to flesh out plots from any other angle. This collection is a wee better with a few stories having a bit more to them, but the concept is the same.

Adding to that is the title of the book. Two books in and I still not read one word about a “Mother West Wind”. Also this one has “How” in the title as the last has “Where”. Yet, the first book has nothing to do with “Where” and the “How” is questionable here.

I also don’t care for the fantasy of this “Mother Nature” altering creatures as a plot device.

The writing is OK, beyond the repetitious wording.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 5 out of ten.



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The Canceled Czech by Lawrence Block

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Certainly one of the hallmarks of a Block book is his laying out a story that scampers in many directions. He does this with the deft ability to create intriguing characters beyond the central figures. His stories solid with very good writing. This is one in the series that I, at this point, like best.

Favorite part involved getting tangled in a wedding.

Bottom Line: i recommend this book. 9 out of ten points.



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Mother West Wind “When” Stories by Thornton W. Burgess

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


A friend sent me in search of these books almost 4 years ago. I found three of the set in February. Before delivering the books, i decided to read the books to see why these books are so hard to find.

I’m still wondering why these are so popular. Basically each story is set up as a template with an animal inserted. The tale is the same with only the details of the fantasy of how an animal got thy it is. Seems to me even a child would tire of the same story over and over.

What could save these is excellent writing. The writing is OK, if not ponderous. Not excellent.

Bottom line: i don’t recommend this collection of stories. 5 out of 10 points.



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Venom of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


This ghost writer of the Johnstone Clan I’ve read in other Johnstone books and is the worse. The narrative is driven with endless questions from all of the characters. Throughout the book characters act or react with a question. Worse, many answers are also questions. Sheesh! Of course, the only way to do this is to have little understanding of the characters and write most all of them the same way. In that the greatest strength of the Johnstone Clan series are distinct characters, this under mines the possibility of a good book.

The poor handling of characters are the worse part of the book. The star of the series is entirely botched in the writing. The inconsistencies are too many to note. The death of a character important to Smoke is written in an off-handed way. Other Mountain Man books, especially one with involvement of Johnstone himself, have been written with a fierce reaction from Smoke. Here he nearly breaks into tears. The greatest failing is when Smoke is told where kidnapped individuals are and then does nothing to get them until much later.

There’s a very surreal turn in which characters are quoting Shakespeare, Longfellow and various other classic writers and playwrights. Others suddenly change character and become brilliant at strategy and negotiation in dialogue not matching insecure dialogue earlier and later in the book.

And what on earth was the writer thinking with just about ever character at some point “chuckling”? Do 14 year olds “chuckle”?

Then there is the obvious plot. The bad guy is known from the start but is written as if a giant surprise occurs at the end. And what a Horrible ending. Over 300 pages wrapped in a few sentences.

There’s a decent story here. It’s recycled from other Johnstone books where it has been done far, far better.

Bottom line: I don’t recommend this book. 3 out of 10 points.



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