Uncharted by Angela Hunt: A review

As promised I am writing this review after my book club. THe first part of this review is before I went to book club.

Uncharted by Angela Hunt

There are some books that you have to get passed the introduction of all the characters to get into the meat of the book.  This is one of those books. The prologue draws you in, where did the bottle with Sarah’s name on it come from.  Who is the lady on the beach? At first I thought it was her mother and that she was just being snippy when she called her the woman under the umbrella. From there we get into the characters.

This is a group of people who worked with John in selling his book, Happily Ever After, when they were in college. 3 guys and 3 girls, but we are introduced to them in their current life. They all seem to have issues, one being they do not have time for each other, all are very self-centered. One is a psychopath and only one is a humanitarian, and he dies immediately bringing all the other’s together to his funeral.

Previous to his death he has asked all of them to help build a school on a remote island and all of them have refused. Now after his death they decide to help John Watson. They all go and get caught in a storm, where John, the boat captain and his son die. “Miraculously,” they all survive on a deserted island. Theories are past around and escape attempts are made but they cannot get off the island. They find treasures of their past but chalk it up to coincidence. Then they find a mysterious cave which shows them their past.

It is a little bit of a stretch to think that all of them went on this trip. That they all happened to clear their schedules and that the two parents left their child behind to go on this trip, when previously they were fighting about whose job was more important so that they could pass her from one person to another.

This book is about spirituality, how you live your life now affects where you will end up. The island is a land of limbo, purgatory, will they ever get off this island? Is there a purgatory? What is the book Happily Ever After about? Is it a representation of the New Testament? Why is vanity lumped in with murder? Does Karyn who wishes to save her daughter have any redeeming qualities? Are we all destined to a remote island with no chance of escape, since none of us are perfect?

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The questions I ask above were discussed at book club. We all felt that if you were to redeem yourself that you would not be sent to this hopeless place. The author defines the difference between Hades and Hell. HAdes being a place where you wait until you are judged. There is some hope if only a little that you will somehow with repentence be judged and sent to heaven. Hell is a place that once you get there you have no redemption. If that is the case from reading this book, you are in hell, but there is a small indication at the end of the book that they might be in Hades.

No matter what this book makes you think about your past, did you do something that you have not reconciled. Have you thought evil thoughts or took action that brought about someones ruin? What if you thought you were doing a good deed but it turns out you were wrong?

I will contrast this to a book I read over the Christmas. In this story there is a place just outside the pearly gates of Heaven. SOme people pass through without stopping. THe people on the outside of the gate are wiating for their chance to go in. This is where we meet our main character, he has been sitting here for some time and has watched people go through the gate that he knows were not very good people. Then he sees his girlfriend that he wronged because of his self-centered attitude, by not marrying her. SHe never married and he starts to feel remorse especially as she passes by him to go into heaven. He starts evaluating himself and that is when he gets called before the coubcil. HE asks why has he been kept outside the gates, when thsi other person got in that he knew was not a good person. The answer was he did something that was selfless to save others. So our character is sent back to earth as an angel, whois only seen by the litle girl he is trying to help. WHen he finishes this mission and is allowed into heaven, he meets his girlfirend and all the others who came before him. But he feels so good about how he has helped that he wants to go back and help others. THAT is the kind of inspirational book I want to read. This book was found in a mystery book I just happened to pick up around Christmas. And I remembered this book about 4 AM this morning and will have to find the name but it stuck in my head so I had to get up and write down this inspiration.

 

 

 

Reading dilemma

Have you ever had one of those weeks when electricty, electronics and life makes you crazy. Well that has been the whole month of January, actually December jumps in the fray as well. Between power outages, garage building and computer glitches, I have been stymied in my attempts to read or write. All the King's Men still resides on my table, to be finished. If my writing course is cancelled tonight my goal is to curl up with a cup of tea and read. Then, hopefully, I can write a review of this book. What I can tell you about the book which I mentioned before is that this author is very descriptive. When he talks about heading to where he grew up with the Boss, you can almost smell the sea water. As a person who heads further south once a year, the description really jumps out.

His character descriptions paint a lovely picture, so that you are not relying on a movie director to give you the image of the character. For example, the description of Willie Spark, AKA the Boss, when our narrato first meets him.( Found on page 19 of the Book Club edition, 1974.) "His lips were a little bit meaty, but they weren't loose. Not exactly. Maybe at first glance you might think so. You might think he had the mouth like a boy,.....but if you stick around long enough you would see something a little different. You would see that they were hung together, all right, even if they were meaty."

So that is it for now as I have to deal with construction issues. Hopefully, more will be revealed by next week on this book. And I will also be reviewing Uncharted, by Angela Hunt.

Continuation of All the KIng's Men

I have read further in the book, but lost the book for a few days. We have the South, the coast, the Boss and our narrator who was a reporter at one point but is now the right hand man on the Boss.
The Boss a former farmer has worked his way up the political ladder and promotes those he wants to win and does not back down from a fight. Our narrator is looking back, 1920's, 1930's, 1940's, so that we are getting his background as well, from the first time he meets the Boss, his mother and his many stepfathers. I will finish the rest of this critique when I finish the book.

NExt week I will critique Uncharted, after my book club meeting so that I can get there input. This is not on the Reading the 100 list but it is on my book club list.

As I am new to blogging, eventually I will get pictures of these books to post.

Also in my book collection that will be read sometime this year:

The Fall of Giants by Ken Follet
Crossroads by Wm. Paul YOung
The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling
The Giving Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini
Marmee and Louisa  and My Heart is Boundless by Eve La Plante

Okay so there is a bunch of books that I plan to read. I will be critiquing all that I read and hope that if anyone feels the need to critique me, I understand the need. I am a very ananlytical person though I have to admit my earlier writings may not seem that way. I will improve with my writing and make this a more enjoyable Blog. May have to change the name if I keep reading my own list and not that of the 100 book challenge.

Let's cozy up and read a book.

All The King's Men

All The King's Men, by Robert Warren Penn, copyright 1946, renewed 1974, published as a Book of the Month Club book through arrangements with Harcourt Publishing.
(My next few blogs will be about this book.)

I had not gotten far when I realized this man had very descriptive verse. In fact the first page had me reminiscing about a highway I used to travel, that fit the description of Highway 58 so well that it may have been that highway. "You look up at the highway and it is straight for miles, with the black line down the center coming at and at you, black and slick and tarry-shining against the slab, and heat dazzles up from the white slab, so that only the black line is clear..."(chapter 1 page 1)
I have been hypnotized on a road like that and you have to break your concentration on the road or hope another car comes your way.

But it was from that description that I wondered what else has Robert Warren Penn written, and was correct to discover that he was a poet. His work is very lyrical and though I have only read the first few pages, I think I will enjoy the book. The setting is in the South in the 1930's, because he talks about cotton fields and reminisces about the 1920's. The author also uses words that we would not use today, unless we were writing a book set in the past and we wanted to be authentic in the derogatory terms used at the time. I will not write them for you, it is better left to the author.

Hopefully, I will read this faster then I attempted to read The Ambassadors.
Other books on my reading agenda are:
Uncharted, by Angela Hunt: I actually finished this but will be discussing it at bookclub near the end of the month so I may critique it at that time. After a lively discussion about Heaven and Hell.
An Irish Country Christmas, by Patrick Taylor: I fell in love this author after visiting Ireland. I found one of his books while I was waiting for a train. But I do not read a series out of turn, unless by mistake. So I copied his name down and went in search for the first book. A very fun read.

Have fun reading.

"All The Pretty Horses" complete

I have finally finished All The Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy. In my last blog I talked about leaving John Grady Cole in the middle of being rousted out of bed by men with guns. My assumption it was because he was sleeping with the bosses daughter or because of a young man named Jimmy Blevins. It ws actually a combination of the two. The men had come to talk with the owner of the farm previously about horse rustler's and he told them to wait until he had further information about John Grady. The daughter spilled the beans about them sleeping together, that was all that was needed to let the "deputies" come for John Grady and his friend Rawlins.

This book is full of adventure and if you want to practice your Spanish, this is a good book to read. There are many times that the John Grady who is fluent in Spanish talks to the Mexican people without explaining what he is saying. Sometimes you can get a gist of what is being said, but other times I wished I had my Spanish dictionary by my side.

The book I read is the first book in The Border Trilogy. Mr. McCarthy first published All the Pretty Horses in 1992. The other books in the series are The Crossing, published in 1994 and Cities of the Plain, published in 1998. They were published as one book in 1999 by  Everyman's Library by Alfred A. Knopf.

I have not read the others in the trilogy as I am bound and determined to read my 100 books initailly placed in the challenge. But I may get my Spanish dictionary out again this summer and read the other two books. Also, It needs to get back to the library.

My next book is All the King's Men, by Robert Penn Warren

Resolutions

I have not stopped reading but unfortunately time has slipped away from me in the writing of this blog.  My daughter Katy Cain told me in order to have a succesful blog, one must actually write at least 2 times per week. My New Year resolution includes at least one hour of writing, everyday. That means that I can get some writing in while blogging, between my books. Since my last blog, I have finished many books but have not completed the ones on the 100 challenge list.

So what have I read:
1. Yes, Chef by Marcus Sammuelson- An interesting book that looks at this Chef's life from the beginning to current times. I loved that he got a break by being adopted by the Swedish family. His world would have beeen so different had he stayed in his village. I also liked that he paid it back by helping his half sibling.
      This book allowed me to explore the workings of a restaurant hierachy that I knew little about but suspected existed from shows like Top Chef, Hell's Kitchen, and other shows on television. I can safely say that my brief encounter as a luncheonette cook was not as crazy. I certainly would not have put my hand near anything that could rip the flesh off it. My husband says I have enough trouble in my own kitchen. He has taken me to the ER already with stupid mandolin wounds.

2. The Sweetness at The Bottom of The Pie and I Am Half-Sick of Shadows by Alan Bradley.
    I absolutely loved these books. I think that I was enamored by Falvia de Luce because she reminded me of myself. I was not quite as enamored with poisons, but loved chemistry. I would sepend hours mixing concotions in my bathroom, no lab in the East wing for me. I also had no qualms about seeking outside entertainment and being a pest to my older sister. I contrived many a fake problem just to get my sister in trouble. I had a mother, but my father was absent not dead. I loved that she is always knee deep in a mystery. I also connected to the reader and had my nose in many a book, especially Nancy Drew.
Both books were fun to read especially the last one right around Christmas, where Falvia is trying to prove to her sisters that there is a Father Christmas, by capturing him in a glue substance that she has put together. A very charming book.

AND yes I have been reading the 100 books on the challenge. I have two checked out from my local library:
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy and All The King's Men by Robert Penn Warren.

All the Pretty Horses took some getting used to, I had to start over several times because Mr. McCarthy uses a interesting technique of not putting quotation marks around his conversations. I had to figure out who was speaking. Once I got over that, because I did have a slight hissy about focusing on my characters, it started to become a little more interesting. I still was not fond of the meandering in the desert to get to a farm in Mexico. I am enjoying the book more, but have left our main character in the middle of being roused by men carrying guns. I suspect this is because of one or two reasons: he was temporarily traveling with a young man who was causing alot of problems including stealing his "own" horse back, or because he is messing around with his bosses daughter. I suspect it is more of the latter then the former. He was warned by her grandmother about not making her grandaughter's reputation be tarnished. A little more action currently then just riding with a pest thru the desert.
More on this before the end of nest week.
I have not started the other book yet but that will be the next 100 list book I will read.

Also for CHristmas I received 6 new books so I will review those as well.
SO my resolution not only includes writing about the 100 books but my own list of books.