A-Z Wednesday from Reading at the Beach

Good Morning! Welcome to my portion of A-Z Wednesday brought to you by Reading at the Beach.

This week's letter is "P."

To play, simply scan your shelves and piles of books to find a title starting with the letter "P." Post a picture, the title, synopsis, a link to the book (from amazon, etc), and post your link on Vicki's Blog in her A-Z Wednsday Post. Have fun finding an old friend or maybe something you've been meaning to read, but had forgotten for a time...

People of the Lakes by Kathleen O'Neal Gear and W. Michael Gear.

I love this series of books. The Gears are a husband/wife team; she - a former archaeologist for the U.S. Department of the Interior, and he - the principle investigator for his own archaeological firm. Their books start with a short introduction (10-20 pages) to the "present day" site of the book (this one is a ranger trying to save old "mounds" from destruction by a new federal highway grant). Then the real story begins... the gears take real facts known from archaeology and create a story around the prehistoric peoples and their daily lives that created whatever is still left in present day. This historical fiction involves a people of Mound Builders fighting over a totem mask in the Great Lakes Region of the U.S. as the heroine attempts to destroy the cursed mask and vengeful clan members attempt to kill her.

Technically, this is the 6th book in the "People Books" series, but each can be read as a stand alone. I read People of the Sea first and this one second. Until today, I thought I had read all of the "People Books" but now know I need to find Thunder, Weeping Eye, and Nightland.

Now although, I thought these books were great, I bought a couple of other books written by Kathleen O'Neal Gear in the past couple of years and after starting the first had to get rid of the whole stack - so my caution would be, make sure you read the back of the book before you buy it! (I'm guilty of skipping that part regularly.)

A-Z Wednesday from Reading at the Beach

Good Evening! Welcome to my portion of A-Z Wednesday brought to you by Reading at the Beach.

This week's letter is "O."

To play, simply scan your shelves and piles of books to find a title starting with the letter "O." Post a picture, the title, synopsis, a link to the book (from amazon, etc), and post your link on Vicki's Blog in her A-Z Wednsday Post. Have fun finding an old friend or maybe something you've been meaning to read, but had forgotten for a time...

I did not have any fiction "O's" so I found Odysseus in America Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming by Jonathan Shay, M.D., Ph.D. on my nonfiction shelves.

I read this book in the fall of 2003 while I was working at the Center for the Study of Professional Military Ethics. The Colonel there had given me a selection of books to read from the ethics library and this was just one of many (but only one of two that I bought after leaving that office).

In the book, Dr. Shay compares Homer's Odysseus to the Vietnam veteran and his attempt and sometimes failure to assimilate back into normal society. For me, part 1 describes the "Why there is a problem," part 2 describes "How to fix the problem," and part 3 describes "How to prevent the problem." I never particularly thought anything Homer wrote could be translated into modern terms (me the overly avid reader was an English literature teacher's nightmare...), but Dr. Shay uses allegorical interpretations to compare Odysseus's delays in getting to Penelope as the problems Vietnam veterans faced when coming back one at a time to the U.S. Thankfully, the U.S. military has gone back to full unit deployments and has implemented measures to ensure individual augments have a safety net that was not in place during Vietnam.

This book spoke volumes to me when I read it and I would fully recommend the reading to anyone who has had a father, grandfather, uncle or other relative who is a Vietnam veteran - especially if you were not able to connect with that person when he returned and now have forever lost that chance.

A-Z Wednesday from Reading at the Beach

Good Morning! Welcome to my portion of A-Z Wednesday brought to you by Reading at the Beach.

This week's letter is "N."

To play, simply scan your shelves and piles of books to find a title starting with the letter "N." Post a picture, the title, synopsis, a link to the book (from amazon, etc), and post your link on Vicki's Blog in her A-Z Wednsday Post. Have fun finding an old friend or maybe something you've been meaning to read, but had forgotten for a time...

Image from Amazon.

I had a hard time finding an "N" and ended up in my husband's collection of books - he reads lots of military nonfiction, so here is a little bit about Not a Good Day to Die by Sean Naylor.

The author, info from the back flap of the book, is a senior writer for the Army Times and has developed a reputation as one of the most knowledgeable military writers in the U.S. His coverage of Operation Anaconda earned him the White House Correspondent's Association's Edgar A. Poe Award.

The book is about Operation Anaconda, the mistakes made by senior military officials that cost Americans their lives and how a small ad hoc unit of various special operations men prevented a total U.S. military catastrophe in the mountains of Afghanistan during the Spring of 2002.

Now I have not read this book, but per my husband: As for the book: pretty good book overall. He's served with several people who fought in that battle including his old platoon sergeant, who thought the book was fairly accurate although the author mixed up a few units and details. It's a good look at a turning point in the war when conventional forces were first used in combat.

A-Z Wednesday from Reading at the Beach

Good Morning! Welcome to my portion of A-Z Wednesday brought to you by Reading at the Beach.

This week's letter is "L."

To play, simply scan your shelves and piles of books to find a title starting with the letter "L." Post a picture, the title, synopsis, a link to the book (from amazon, etc), and post your link back here at Reading on the Beach. Have fun finding an old friend or maybe something you've been meaning to read, but had forgotten for a time...

The synopsis from the publisher's website: New secrets, old flames, and hidden agendas are about to send bounty hunter Stephanie Plum on her most outrageous adventure yet!

MISTAKE #1: Dickie Orr. Stephanie was married to him for about fifteen minutes before she caught him cheating on her with her arch-nemesis Joyce Barnhardt. Another fifteen minutes after that Stephanie filed for divorce, hoping to never see either one of them again.

MISTAKE #2: Doing favors for super bounty hunter Carlos Manoso (a.k.a. Ranger). Ranger needs her to meet with Dickie and find out if he's doing something shady. Turns out, he is. Turns out, he's also back to doing Joyce Barnhardt. And it turns out Ranger's favors always come with a price...

MISTAKE #3: Going completely nutso while doing the favor for Ranger, and trying to apply bodily injury to Dickie in front of the entire office. Now Dickie has disappeared and Stephanie is the natural suspect in his disappearance. Is Dickie dead? Can he be found? And can Stephanie Plum stay one step ahead in this new, dangerous game? Joe Morelli, the hottest cop in Trenton, NJ is also keeping Stephanie on her toes-and he may know more than he's saying about many things in Stephanie's life. It's a cat-and-mouse game for Stephanie Plum, where the ultimate prize might be her life.

With Janet Evanovich's flair for hilarious situations, breathtaking action, and unforgettable characters, LEAN MEAN THIRTEEN shows why no one can beat Evanovich for blockbuster entertainment.

This is book #15 in a series of books about bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum (two were "between the numbers" books). This past summer, I was eating these books up - read through book 11, so I have not yet gotten to this yet. I found these books very funny and easy reads when sitting in a doctor's waiting area.

A-Z Wednesday from Reading at the Beach

Good Morning! Welcome to my portion of A-Z Wednesday brought to you by Reading at the Beach.

This week's letter is "K."

To play, simply scan your shelves and piles of books to find a title starting with the letter "K." Post a picture, the title, synopsis, a link to the book (from amazon, etc), and post your link back here at Reading on the Beach. Have fun finding an old friend or maybe something you've been meaning to read, but had forgotten for a time...

My book:

Synopsis:
The Kite Runner tells the story of Amir, a young boy from the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, who betrayed his best friend Hassan (by allowing him to be raped), the son of his father's Hazara servant, and lives in regret. The story is set against a backdrop of tumultuous events, from the fall of the monarchy in Afghanistan through the Soviet invasion, the mass exodus of refugees to Pakistan and the United States, and the rise of the Taliban regime.

I bought this book a couple of years ago after I listened to - and liked - A Thousand Splendid Suns (also by Khaled Hosseini) on Audiobook. The Kite Runner was in my pile of to-read-real-soon books, but somehow got put away on my shelves. Digging it out last night in preparation for today's entry, I have begun reading it and by next week, it will be in the already-read pile :)

A-Z Wednesday from Reading at the Beach :)

Good Morning! Welcome to my portion of A-Z Wednesday brought to you by Reading at the Beach.

This week's letter is "J."

To play, simply scan your shelves and piles of books to find a title starting with the letter "J." Post a picture, the title, synopsis, a link to the book (from amazon, etc), and post you link back here at Reading on the Beach. Have fun finding an old friend or maybe something you've been meaning to read, but had forgotten for a time...

My book:

The Jewel of the Nile by Joan Wilder

Synopsis: It should have been a romantic dream come true - cruising along the Mediterranean aboard Jack Colton's magnificent yacht, samplig the pleasures of Monte Carlo and Europe's most glamorous night spots. Yet lovely romance writer Joan Wilder felt something was missing - some spark of excitement, some sense of adventure. So when a handsome Arab ruler begs her to help him write his book, Joan leaps at the chance. Little does Joan dream that her Arab holiday will be much more than anything she and Jack had bargained for. A breathtaking whirlwind of mishaps and mayhem sweeps them across the desert lands and into the heart of a dazzling mystery - centered on the fabled jewel of the Nile - a jewel that many kill for... but only love can win.

Ooh, how lucky am I? My all time favorite movie is Romancing the Stone and this book is the follow-on. I remember finding it at a yard sale when I was in high school and I bought it for 5 cents (yes, this is still the same book - been carried all over the U.S. since then).

Well, this definitely isn't a book from which teachers would want their students to learn any lasting knowledge or life lessons, but as someone once told me, "Everyone needs chewing gum for the brain once in a while." (I think I just need it more often than most!)

A-Z Wednesday - Reading at the Beach :)

This week's letter: "I"

Check here for the rules and to see other players :)

So scanning my bookshelves, I find, out of more than 1,000 books, only two that begin with the letter "I" (for titles)... of course I found this exercise a lengthy one because my shelves are organized alphabetically by author - but it did make me run over all of the titles again :)

The choice for reading today - if only I could be sitting on the beach, too - is humor.

Tim Allen's I'm Not Really Here.

Synopsis: In I'm Not Really Here, Tim Allen takes a look at men and their relationships to wives, children, friends, the universe, God, and why it's tough to get a good night's sleep. In the Toolman's inimitable way, he deals with some of the urgent questions a man faces: What is real? What should I eat for breakfast? Why do parents always tell you not to stir your ice cream into soup? Why are the canned beans next to the tampons in the supermarket?