Describe your new book. Oddfellow's Orphanage is a series of stories/vignettes that tell the tale of the newest arrival to a curious orphanage, a...
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There are two stories in this book: The first 'Defender' has a slow start, but ends up being a compelling story; a flawed Chippewa hero, and the Anglo widow of his brother, and her adopted Chippewa son are entangled in two conflicts of law, treaty rights to fishing, and the laws governing off-reservation adoption. The second story is 'BroomStick Cowboy'; a rodeo cowboy, all too familiar with the bar scene, and the pregnant widow and son of his best friend build a family on a horse and sheep ranch during the course of a blizzard ridden winter. These are 'classic' stories, as they call reprints these days, both from the early 1990's, by a writer with a good handle on psychological truths.
Sometimes Harlequin turns up with an excellent author again: I was gripped by this book, its authentic drama and its subject matter, and read it straight through. I have only read it one time so far, so I was not looking for flaws, and I can't tell you if there were holes in the story or plot until I do. If there were, I missed them the first time around. I have liked all the previous books I read by this author a great deal, but the subjects in this book are completely different from the others. I was startled to find myself recognizing the story of someone working her own 12-Steps, and an authentic story about alcoholism, addiction, and enablers amid a drama first of whale saving and then about art therapy, all beyond a hopeful story of how love can work out. After some years in Al-Anon, which is for family members of alcoholics, what I read in this story came together in a tale of hope tethered to human reality.
The story is amusing; the plot is not unreasonable for a book meant to be funny, turning as it does on good girl birthday rebellion and bad guy murderous intentions; the characters are mostly stereotype exaggerations, including the old boyfriend hero who is a cop slightly frayed around the edges, and several of the characters are obviously going to show up in the book's sequels.
I didn't stumble upon this book by a favorite author of mine until in about 2002; a big fat illustrated paperback, with the subtitle The Calamitous 14th Century, which serves as a warning of the scope of the book. This is a tale of crowned heads and expendable sisters to trade, of adventure, and skullduggery, of ambition, greed, and the happenstances that change history, from murder to feminine stubbonness, as much as it is a history book, and I found myself so enthralled I ended up in the following years reading ever more books about Europe's Middle Ages, then about those same years in the rest of the world. I tracked down genealogies and signed up for a course in calligraphy! I found myself adding entries to the index of the book, and marking passages in colored codes with a pack of multicolored highlighters. It sat on my bedside table until I had to buy a second copy when the first disintegrated into loose pages eventually, full of comments on the margins and colored paperclips to help me match people, ideas, events. I read fiction set in those years with pen in hand so that I could mark anachronisms as I recognized them!
I had never had a book end up as a time-eating research project before, nor have I had one set me on the path of obsession before or since, and I have so enjoyed it I do not think of it as a book, but as a key to the library.
Before you wonder, I really Like everything that Linda Howard writes, and I eagerly buy whatever I can find, and I have certainly enjoyed 'ICE: A Novel'. In fact I will NEVER forget 'Can I lick you, Lollipop?' But having said that, at 198 pages, this thin volume is NOT a novel, in my opinion, and again, it is my own opinion, 'ICE' is at best a novella. (Ms Howard has published several excellent novellas previously, too.) At a list price of $24, I feel the publishers are taking unfair advantage of Ms Howard's readers. I absolve Ms Howard of any purse raiding, since I am sure she had nothing to do with setting the price, but I am going to check out page counts and book sizes more carefully here on out, before I buy.
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Harriett has commented on (8) products.
A Certain Kind of Hero by Kathleen Eagle
Harriett, September 5, 2011
There are two stories in this book: The first 'Defender' has a slow start, but ends up being a compelling story; a flawed Chippewa hero, and the Anglo widow of his brother, and her adopted Chippewa son are entangled in two conflicts of law, treaty rights to fishing, and the laws governing off-reservation adoption. The second story is 'BroomStick Cowboy'; a rodeo cowboy, all too familiar with the bar scene, and the pregnant widow and son of his best friend build a family on a horse and sheep ranch during the course of a blizzard ridden winter. These are 'classic' stories, as they call reprints these days, both from the early 1990's, by a writer with a good handle on psychological truths.Friends to Forever by Nikki Logan
Harriett, September 4, 2011
Sometimes Harlequin turns up with an excellent author again: I was gripped by this book, its authentic drama and its subject matter, and read it straight through. I have only read it one time so far, so I was not looking for flaws, and I can't tell you if there were holes in the story or plot until I do. If there were, I missed them the first time around. I have liked all the previous books I read by this author a great deal, but the subjects in this book are completely different from the others. I was startled to find myself recognizing the story of someone working her own 12-Steps, and an authentic story about alcoholism, addiction, and enablers amid a drama first of whale saving and then about art therapy, all beyond a hopeful story of how love can work out. After some years in Al-Anon, which is for family members of alcoholics, what I read in this story came together in a tale of hope tethered to human reality.Out of Eden by Beth Ciotta
Harriett, March 14, 2010
The story is amusing; the plot is not unreasonable for a book meant to be funny, turning as it does on good girl birthday rebellion and bad guy murderous intentions; the characters are mostly stereotype exaggerations, including the old boyfriend hero who is a cop slightly frayed around the edges, and several of the characters are obviously going to show up in the book's sequels.A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century by Barbara W Tuchman
Harriett, January 31, 2010
I didn't stumble upon this book by a favorite author of mine until in about 2002; a big fat illustrated paperback, with the subtitle The Calamitous 14th Century, which serves as a warning of the scope of the book. This is a tale of crowned heads and expendable sisters to trade, of adventure, and skullduggery, of ambition, greed, and the happenstances that change history, from murder to feminine stubbonness, as much as it is a history book, and I found myself so enthralled I ended up in the following years reading ever more books about Europe's Middle Ages, then about those same years in the rest of the world. I tracked down genealogies and signed up for a course in calligraphy! I found myself adding entries to the index of the book, and marking passages in colored codes with a pack of multicolored highlighters. It sat on my bedside table until I had to buy a second copy when the first disintegrated into loose pages eventually, full of comments on the margins and colored paperclips to help me match people, ideas, events. I read fiction set in those years with pen in hand so that I could mark anachronisms as I recognized them!I had never had a book end up as a time-eating research project before, nor have I had one set me on the path of obsession before or since, and I have so enjoyed it I do not think of it as a book, but as a key to the library.
Ice by Linda Howard
Harriett, December 9, 2009
Before you wonder, I really Like everything that Linda Howard writes, and I eagerly buy whatever I can find, and I have certainly enjoyed 'ICE: A Novel'. In fact I will NEVER forget 'Can I lick you, Lollipop?' But having said that, at 198 pages, this thin volume is NOT a novel, in my opinion, and again, it is my own opinion, 'ICE' is at best a novella. (Ms Howard has published several excellent novellas previously, too.) At a list price of $24, I feel the publishers are taking unfair advantage of Ms Howard's readers. I absolve Ms Howard of any purse raiding, since I am sure she had nothing to do with setting the price, but I am going to check out page counts and book sizes more carefully here on out, before I buy.(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
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