Heirs and Graces by Rhys Bowen (Her Royal Spyness #6)

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Summary: Georgie is tasked by the Queen to help with the transition of lost distant relative to his new role as heir to a Duke. (Of course someone ends up dead.)

Over the last six months I have read all six of the Her Royal Spyness books that have been written.  The series is a fun, cozy mystery series that frequently pays homage to great British mystery writers.  The first book was a clear homage to Dorothy Sayers.  Sherlock Holmes has been mentioned throughout the books.  And the last two book have had hints of Agitha Cristie.

That is not to say the plots are stolen, they are not.  But that slight feeling exists that Rhys Bowen is trying to honor those that have gone before her by dropping in little scene hints or clues.  If I were more versed on classic British mysteries, I am sure there are more that I would get.

In Heirs and Graces, the book opens with Georgie’s latest venture, secretary to her mother as her mother attempts to write a memoir.  But as should be predicted, her mother either can’t talk about many of the interesting events of her life or wants to go shopping and not do the hard work on writing.  So Georgie is left yet again without a means of supporting herself, or a place to live.

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A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’Engle (Austin Family #4)

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Summary: Death, Life, Meaning and other light topics.

Nothing reminds me more of the importance of not wasting time on bad books like reading a really good book. I cannot tell you why I have not read everything that Madeleine L’Engle has written by now. I have had the time, but I haven’t done it. I need to rectify the situation.

A couple years ago I blogged through the Time Quintet and then a couple of stand alone early novels. I picked up the first of the Austin Family books and was not excited about it. So it took me a while to read another.

I skipped to A Ring of Endless Light because I picked it up on kindle a while ago while it was on sale. But I actually ended up listening to it on audiobook from the library.

The Austin family series is focused on a family of 4 kids and their parents. There is nothing apparently special about the family except that they seem to be a pretty healthy, well-loved family.

All of A Ring of Endless Light is set on Seven Bay Island. This is the home of their Grandfather. Every summer they usually spend time with their wise retired pastor/missionary/scholar grandfather. This summer they are spending the whole summer because their grandfather is dying.

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Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (Read Again)

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I am reposting my review of Neverwhere because it is the Kindle Daily Deal and on sale for $2.99.
Neverwhere by Neil GaimanTakeaway: Is comfortable better?

After I reviewed Neil Gaiman’s latest novel (The Ocean at the End of the Lane), I started having friends ask for recommendations of other Gaiman books.  So I decided I should go back and re-read some of those books that I keep recommending.

My traditional advice with Gaiman is that is you like the adult fairy tales, then you start with Stardust, then read Neverwhere or The Ocean at the End of the Lane.  Then read his creepy kids book Coraline.

But if you like Gaiman’s alternative takes of mythology, then read American Gods, Good Omens and Anansi Boys.

Neverwhere is the story of a man (Richard) that has a comfortable, but plain life in London. When he stumbles on Door (a young woman that is bleeding on the sidewalk in front of him). He is introduced to the world of London Below.  And suddenly his life in London Above is not quite the same.

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Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming

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Live and Let Die by Ian Fleming is the second novel in the James Bond series (Casino Royale is the first). James Bond is an English officer in the secret intelligence service, commonly known as MI6. In this novel, Bond is sent to New York City to investigate Mr. Big, an underworld Voodoo leader, who is suspected of selling 17th century gold coins in order to finance Soviet spy operation in the United States. His beautiful and mysterious fortune telling girlfriend runs away with Bond only to find herself in serious danger. Bond’s CIA contact, Felix Leiter, teams up with Bond only to be put into a very precarious situation involving marine wildlife. In the end, Bond is victorious over the evil Mr. Big so that he might die another day.

While I read a James Bond novel entitled Carte Blanche by Jeffrey Deaver, this is the first James Bond story that I have read by Ian Fleming. Because of this, I can’t speak too much on the themes of the novels. I will say that I was expecting quite a bit more and was disappointed. Perhaps it can be said that since this novel was only the second in the series, the character of James Bond was still forming and the themes were only slowly beginning to solidify when it was written. The reason I was disappointed was because the character found in this novel was different from the film version. The smart and racy quips that James Bond is known for are very few and far between in the novel and the smoothness with the ladies is not very apparent either. Supposedly the first novel in the series was a great success so perhaps Fleming felt the pressure to repeat that success to the point where he tried too hard and missed the mark.

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Evangelical Catholicism: Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church by George Weigel

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1403749750_0.pngSummary: A helpful look at a reforming movement within Catholicism, but a lot of inside baseball.

I have read a number of positive reviews of Evangelical Catholicism from people I trust.  But more than anything, this book reminded me how little I actually know about Catholicism.

This is a book that is very inside baseball.  For those of us outside the Catholic Church, a book that was about 1/3 the length would have been appropriate.

As a non-Catholic, and one that was made very aware of my lack of knowledge it is hard to review this book.  But there are things that really stood out to me.

One, I think the main reoccuring theme of the book, that the church has done a very poor job catechizing (teaching) its members is true.  John Paul II started a program of “˜new evangelicalization’, which is a dual, active focus on evangelizing those outside the church, and catechizing those inside the church. I think almost no one really disputes this.  How it is done I am sure has lots of controversy.  But the fact that it is needed, I think is probably less controversial.

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The Man With Two Left Feet and Other Stories by PG Wodehouse

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Summary: Collection of humourous short stories, but the dog one is not to be missed.

I was complaining that I needed something different to read a few weeks ago and Seth Simmons, one of Bookwi.se’s regular contributors suggested PG Wodehouse.  Like so many authors, I was aware of him as a great humorist, but I had not actually read anything.

The Man With Two Left Feet is one of about 30 of his books that are in the public domain and available for free as kindle books.  And several of those have Audible discounts if you buy the kindle version first.

I wasn’t paying attention when I picked this up, because it is a collection of 13 short stories.  I am not a particular fan of short stories.  I prefer a full length book that really develops characters.

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I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter

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Summary: A student at a exclusive girls school for spies falls in love with a normal boy.

If I had to guess, the recent article about why adults should be embraassed to be reading Young Adult books is setting its sights exactly on books like I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You.

I am not at all going to pretend this is great literature.  But it was fun, I did pick it up free, I liked the concept and because a young adult friend already has all of them, I will probably read at least one or two more of the series to see how things go.

Cammie Morgan is a student at the Gallagher Academy for Exceptional Young Women.   Her mother is the school’s headmaster and like most of the rest of the staff, a former spy.  In fact, most of the girl in the school are daughters of spies and/or are preparing to become spies.  They practice foreign languages and martial arts and have classes on covert ops and world cultures.  This is intented to be Hogwarts if it were a girls school and focused on training spies instead of wizards.

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Becoming Who You Are: Insights on the True Self from Thomas Merton and Other Saints by James Martin

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Becoming Who You Are cover imageSummary: God has created you to be who you are, not to be like someone else.

I picked Becoming Who You Are up on a whim.  I had some promotional credits from Audible and needed to use them on something cheap.  It caught my eye because it was about Thomas Merton.  I read Merton’s Seven Storey Mountain in college or soon after and enjoyed it but I have not picked up anything else by him, although I keep meaning to.

James Martin, the author has been on my radar as well, but again, just not enough time to read everything that pricks my interest.

Becoming Who You Are is short (98 pages, just over 2 hours in audio). It is a meditation on Thomas Merton, Henri Nouwen, Jesus, and a few others. But really, it is Martin’s recounting of how these people helped Martin discover what it means to be himself.

Merton is known for his discussion of the True Self and the False Self.  The basic idea of the book is that to become the person that you want to be, you need to become the person that God made you to be.  Striving to become like Merton, Nouwen, or Mother Teresa will not make us a better Christian or more like what God wants for us, because God made us with a unique personality and purpose.

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