As Appearing in The Herald Journal Cache Magazine
December 2007
Angela and the Baby Jesus by Frank McCourt - FICTION MCCOURT
Antony and Cleopatra by Colleen McCullough - FICTION MCCULLOUGH
Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz - FICTION KOONTZ
Dragonharper by Anne McCaffrey - SCI-FIC FANTASY MCCAFFREY
Hand of Evil by J. A. Jance - MYSTERY JANCE
Hocus Pocus by Fern Michaels - FICTION MICHAELS
Lord John and the Hand of Devils by Diana Gabaldon - FICTION GABALDON
T is for Trespass by Sue Grafton - MYSTERY GRAFTON
Third Degree by Greg Iles - FICTION ILES
Venetian Betrayal by Steve Berry - FICTION BERRY
The ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh : a woman in world history by Linda Colley; published by Pantheon Books, 2007.
Conceived in Jamaica and possibly of mixed race, Elizabeth Marsh (1735-1785) traveled farther and was more intimately affected by developments across the globe than the vast majority of men. She was the first woman to publish in English on Morocco, and the first to carry out extensive explorations in eastern and southern India. A creature of multiple frontiers, she spent time in London, Menorca, Rio de Janeiro, and the Cape of Africa. She speculated in Florida land, was caught up in the French and Indian War, was linked to voyages to the Pacific, and was enmeshed as victim or owner in three different systems of slavery. She was also a crucial part of far larger histories. Marsh's experiences would have been impossible without her links to the Royal Navy, the East India Company, imperial warfare, and widening international trade. To this extent, her career illumines shifting patterns of Western power and overseas aggression. Yet the unprecedented expansion of connections across continents occurring during her lifetime also ensured that her ideas and personal relationships were shaped repeatedly by events and people beyond Europe: by runaway African slaves; Indian weavers and astronomers; Sephardic Jewish traders; and the great Moroccan sultan, Sidi Muhammad, who schemed to entrap her.
Through My Eyes : a Life With Asperger's by Quinn Koeneman; published by Gardners Books, 2007.
A 12-year-old's introspective monologue on his life with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism. "Through My Eyes" will enlighten readers to the challenges faced by Aspie kids, and on an individual level, the writer's perspective on his world.
Henry James : the mature master by Sheldon M. Novick; published by Random House, 2007.
In "Henry James: The Mature Master," Sheldon Novick completes his two-volume account of one of the world's most gifted and least understood authors, and of a vanished world of aristocrats and commoners. Using hundreds of letters only recently made available and taking a fresh look at primary materials, Novick reveals a man utterly unlike the passive, repressed, and privileged observer painted by other biographers. Henry James is seen anew; as a passionate and engaged man of his times, driven to achieve greatness and fame, drawn to the company of other men, able to write with sensitivity about women as he shared their experiences of love and family responsibility. James, age thirty-eight as the volume begins, basking in the success of his first major novel, The Portrait of a Lady, is a literary lion in danger of being submerged by celebrity. As his finances ebb and flow he turns to the more lucrative world of the stage - with far more success than he has generally been credited with. Ironically, while struggling to excel in the theatre, James writes such prose masterpieces as The Wings of the Dove and The Golden Bowl. Through an astonishingly prolific life, James still finds time for profound friendships and intense rivalries. "The Mature Master" features vivid new portraits of James's famous peers, including Edith Wharton, Oscar Wilde, and Robert Louis Stevenson; his close and loving siblings Alice and William; and the many compelling young men, among them Hugh Walpole and Howard Sturgis, with whom James exchanges professions of love and among whom he thrives. We see a master converting the materials of an active life into great art. Here, too, as one century ends and another begins, is James's participation in the public events of his native America and adopted England. As the still-feudal European world is shaken by democracy and as America sees itself endangered by a wave of Jewish and Italian immigrants, a troubled James wrestles with his own racial prejudices and his desire for justice. With the coming of world war all other considerations are set aside, and James enlists in the cause of civilization, leaving his greatest final works unwritten.
Dark victory : the life of Bette Davis by Ed Sikov; published by Henry Holt, 2007.
She was magnificent and exasperating in equal measure. Jack Warner called her "an explosive little broad with a sharp left." Humphrey Bogart once remarked, "Unless you're very big she can knock you down." Bette Davis was a force of nature - an idiosyncratic talent who nevertheless defined the words "movie star" for more than half a century and who created an extraordinary body of work filled with unforgettable performances. In "Dark Victory," film critic and biographer Ed Sikov paints the most detailed picture ever delivered of this intelligent, opinionated, and unusual woman who was - in the words of a close friend - "one of the major events of the twentieth century." Drawing on new interviews with friends, directors, and admirers, as well as archival research and a fresh look at the films, this stylish, intimate biography reveals Davis's personal as well as professional life in a way that is both illuminating and sympathetic. With his perspective on the production and accomplishments of such movie milestones as Jezebel, All About Eve, and Now, Voyager, and on the turbulent life and complicated personality of the actress who made them, Sikov brings to life the two-time Academy Award-winning actress's unmistakable screen style and shows us how Davis's art was her own dark victory.
Fair game by Valerie Wilson; published by Simon & Schuster, 2007.
On July 6, 2003, four months after the United States invaded Iraq, former ambassador Joseph Wilson's now historic op-ed, "What I Didn't Find in Africa," appeared in The New York Times. A week later, conservative pundit Robert Novak revealed in his newspaper column that Ambassador Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, was a CIA operative. The public disclosure of that secret information spurred a federal investigation and led to the trial and conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Scooter Libby, and the Wilsons' civil suit against top officials of the Bush administration. Much has been written about the "Valerie Plame" story, but Valerie herself has been silent, until now. Some of what has been reported about her has been frighteningly accurate, serving as a pungent reminder to the Wilsons that their lives are no longer private. And some has been completely false - distorted characterizations of Valerie and her husband and their shared integrity. Valerie Wilson retired from the CIA in January 2006, and now, not only as a citizen but as a wife and mother, the daughter of an Air Force colonel, and the sister of a U.S. marine, she sets the record straight, providing an extraordinary account of her training and experiences, and answers many questions that have been asked about her covert status, her responsibilities, and her life. As readers will see, the CIA still deems much of the detail of Valerie's story to be classified. As a service to readers, an afterword by national security reporter Laura Rozen provides a context for Valerie's own story. "Fair Game" is the historic and unvarnished account of the personal and international consequences of speaking truth to power.
A skating life by Dorothy Hamill; published by Hyperion, 2007.
The dazzling smile, the signature haircut, the staple spin. Dorothy Hamill grew up on the ice, working toward the dream she was to accomplish by age nineteen: Olympic gold in figure skating. But life was not the picture of perfection it appeared to be. Dorothy faced a painful inner struggle--though she did not know about the depression that ran in her family until much later in life. Weeks and months away from home to train and compete took a difficult toll, yet little reprieve could be found in her tumultuous and fragile relationship with her parents. She went on to skate with the Ice Capades and to marry the man of her dreams, Dean Paul Martin, only to have the partnership end in heartache. A second failed marriage tested Dorothy's trust yet again, but she found strength in what she did have--her daughter Alexandra, and her skating.