November Book Reviews

Since I started this blog on 11-11-11 with reviews from the books I'd read thus far in November, I've decided to post my book reviews for the previous month on the first day of each new month. So here are the rest of the books I read in November:


OPENING THE INVITATION - Oriah Mountain Dreamer
©2004 This little gift book contains the poem “The Invitation” which apparently became an internet sensation when the author sent out copies to people on her mailing list that had attended her spiritual retreats. The poem spread like wildfire. I was surprised to see such a tiny book at the library, and then I was further intrigued by the author’s name.
 
The book explains how the author came to be known as Oriah Mountain Dreamer. It also goes into detail about the very ordinary event that gave birth to the now famous poem that begins, ”It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing…”

I found the book to be a common-sense appeal for the reader not to take for granted that he or she will live to see another tomorrow. To live life to the fullest and deepest.

My favorite stanza of the poem is, ”It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live or how much
money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.”


MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA - James McBride
©2002 War is sad…and this book is sad. It’s a novel about four Buffalo Soldiers of the U.S Army’s 92nd Division (made up of black soldiers) who get lost behind enemy lines near the end of WW2, as one of them tries to save a little Italian boy who has survived the massacre of Tuscan villagers in the Church of St. Anna. The Germans are advancing in large numbers, and the four U.S. soldiers are holding a German POW as they await rescue by the Army. Be ready with the hankies.


A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY - Libba Bray
©2002 In this YA fantasy novel, a Victorian teen discovers she has supernatural powers while attending a girl’s boarding school in Britain. She and her friends open the door to a parallel universe while exploring the mystery of a fire at their school years ago.


END OF THE BEGINNING (bk 2) - Harry Turtledove
©2005 I’m really disappointed with this conclusion of the alternate history WW2 epic, Days of Infamy. Not disappointed with the story plot or characters, but really sort of mad about the repetitious writing style. I mean how many times does the reader need to be reminded that zebra doves are so tame and slow that they’re easy for the starving folks in paradise to catch and eat. Or why, whenever a pilot lands his fighter on an aircraft carrier, we have to read his thoughts of how important it is to obey the on-deck flagman instead of trusting his own instincts on how to land?

I liked Part 1 of the epic. See my review (last month) on Days of Infamy. My last sentence was, This is a meaty book that roars on to its finish and leaves you hanging, eager to continue with the sequel. The trouble is, the sequel wasn’t needed. Both books had 440 pages each. But the story could have been more skillfully written in a single volume of about 600 pages. The author spent the first 100 or so pages of the second book reintroducing the many key characters. It was just wrong to try to get two books out of this with wordy redundancy.

As for the story, Part 2 was almost shockingly vulgar compared to the first book. The editor must have urged the author to sex-up the conclusion. If filthy language, graphic depictions of torture and rape, and brutally graphic battle scenes don’t bother you, this is an exciting, well-thought-out “what-if” novel. The ending is basically predictable though.


ANGELS IN THE WILDERNESS - Amy Racina
©2009 I never get tired of reading true-life outdoor survival tales. In this one, the author is a physically-fit, middle-aged female hiker who enjoys backpacking solo in the wilderness. But on one fateful trip into a remote valley in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, she has an accident: a 60 foot fall into a ravine that breaks both her legs and leaves her praying for a miracle. The miracle comes, after 4 days, in the form of three backpackers, the “angels” in the title, who find her and are able to keep her alive until help can be summoned.

The first half of the book features her love of nature and the great outdoors, her hike, and her accident and rescue. The rest of the book is about her long, painful road to recovery and the friends who helped her through it. Her healing is both soul-searching and spiritually uplifting. I'm glad she lived to tell her story.