"Trouble In Paradise"

"Trouble In Paradise" is Robert B. Parker's second novel in his Jesse Stone series.  Since I saw the made-for-TV movies before I read any of this series, I always see Tom Selleck as Jessie Stone since he plays him in the movies.  What fun it was to get to the sixteenth chapter of this book and have Jesse say, "Well, it's not like they all married Tom Selleck."  Since I'm pretty sure this book was written long before Tom Selleck ever started portraying Jesse Stone on TV, I had to laugh out loud.

Stone has his hands full with his ex-wife moving to Boston and taking a job as a weatherwoman on a local TV station.  Jenn isn't ready to reconcile but she's also not ready to let him go and he doesn't want anyone else.  However, he is an adult male with urges and Jenn is seeing someone else so he does have a couple of women he's seeing for casual sex.

The only excitement in Paradise is when some youth burn down a house belonging to a gay couple.  Stone finds out who did it and wants to prosecute and the affluent parents want to oust him from his job.

There's a new couple visiting the area who have indicated an interest in purchasing a home on Stiles Island -- a wealthy enclave of homes and businesses connected to the mainland only by a bridge.  As Stone gets to know them a little, he becomes suspicious of their motives and starts to check into their background but not before the male half of the couple and his friends take over Stiles Island, isolate it from the mainland, and separate the owners from their wealth.  It's done in such a way that it appears the police can't stop them but Jesse has other ideas and he also wants to rescue any hostages.

Once again Parker has written a story that hangs together well and keeps the reader on the edge of her or his seat until the very end.  pazt

"She Left Me The Gun - My Mother's Life Before Me"

"She Left Me The Gun - My Mother's Life Before Me" was written by Emma Brockes about her mother's life.  Emma writes for The Guardian's Weekend Magazine and has contributed to The New York Times, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and Elle.   She has also won two British Press Awards -- Young Journalist of the Year and Feature Writer of the year.  While she was at Oxford, she won the Philip Geddes Memorial Prize for Journalism.  She has also written another book, What Would Barbra Do?  How Musicals Saved My Life" which was serialized on the BBC.  She currently lives in New York.

Emma's mother, Paula, moved from her childhood home in South Africa to London when she was a young adult, made friends, and started a new life for herself leaving her old life as a mystery for her daughter and husband to discover after her death.  She met and married her attorney husband in London then they moved out of the city after Emma was born.

Paula showed Emma the gun she'd smuggled into England upon her arrival and promised it to Emma as her inheritance but ultimately turned it in when the police offered a grace period for giving up illegal guns.  Paula also hinted that someday she'd tell her daughter the story of her life and that her daughter would be surprised.  Although there were a few hints along the way and some contact with Emma's aunts and uncles, that day didn't arrive because Paula died of cancer when Emma was a young adult.

Emma decided to go to South Africa, find what she could of Paula's family, and try to discover what Paula's life had been before England.  She discovers Paula's father was an abusive drunk, a murderer, and had incestuous relationships with some of his daughters.  Paula had accused him of molesting a younger sister but, when her stepmother changed her testimony, her father (acting as his own attorney) was acquitted.  It was at that point that Paula wavered between taking her own life or leaving the country but not before she shot her father five times.  He survived and she left.

Emma begins to understand that her mother compartmentalized her "before" and "after" lives to protect Emma from the horrors of her mother's childhood and try to give Emma as normal a childhood as possible.  Emma proves to be a gutsy woman when she goes to South Africa alone and begins to meet her mother's siblings and learn more of what her mother's life before was like.

Although the book could easily have been a "dark" read, it is not.  It shows how the human spirit can triumph against tough odds!  pazt

"Engine 2 Diet"

The New York Times bestseller, "Engine 2 Diet" by Rip Esselstyn is a book I have checked and rechecked from my local library but a few weeks ago I decided to really sit down and read, study, and make notes from it.

My desire to acquaint myself with this book is for a number of reasons:

a)  I have an adult daughter who has vascillated between vegan and vegetarianism since she went to college but for several years now she has been "plant-strong" feeding herself and her family a plant-based diet.  When we visit, we eat what she prepares and I was surprised when my husband didn't complain and actually liked the food.

b)  We've been on a successful weight loss/lifestyle change plan over the past 4-5 years.  While the plan itself has been successful, our attempts to change our lifestyle has not and we gain some or all of the weight back.

c)  We've watched videos like "Forks Over Knives" and read articles about the plant-strong diet and I am at a point where I want to pursue it seriously for both my and my spouse's long term health.  As we age, I want us to be healthy and strong - not infirm and suffering from disease.

As I studied "Engine 2 Diet," I found plenty of solid health reasons to follow a plant-based diet.  I have started down the path but I am not successful every day.  One thing that has made it easier has been getting an organic weekly delivery of fruits and vegetables.  Since I don't want them to go to waste, I found myself looking for new plant-based food recipes to try in addition to adding a couple of serving of fruits daily to my snacking.  The more I have eaten plants and a lot less meat, dairy, and cheese, the more energy I've had and the healthier I've felt.

My goal is to have my cholesterol and blood pressure down by the time I see my doctor for my annual checkup in about one month.  I still struggle and order meat when we dine out so dining in would be a healthier option!  My spouse and I are about to spend a week away in a condo in Oregon and I look forward to having time to prepare more of the recipes from the "Engine 2 Diet" book.

The health information and facts that Esselstyn presents in this book should be enough to keep me on the path away from eating anything that has a face or comes from a product that has a face -- no meat, no dairy, no cheese, etc.  However, the mind is willing but the flesh is weak at times and Esselstyn acknowledges that it is a journey and I may not be perfect in the beginning so I'm cutting myself some slack while continuing to reinforce the reasons I want to eat plant-based.

Rip was a firefighter and this plan is "The Texas Firefighter's 28-Day Save-Your-Life Plan that Lowers Cholesterol and Burns Away the Pounds."  Rip is also the son of Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. who shared a report at a medical conference in 1991 on his "dramatic results on reversing and curing heart disease."  The forward to Rip's book is written by T. Colin Campbell, PhD who is the co-author (with Thomas M. Campbell II) of "The China Study."

In his own acknowledgement at the end of the book, Rip thanks "the brave and courageous giants in this field"...his father as well as T. Colin Campbell, Dean Ornish, Neal Barnard, John McDougall, Joel Fuhrman, and Jeff Novick.

Rip's book is well researched and well written and based on actual results of a group of people who were his "guinea pig" group following the E2 diet.  After Rip explains the "why" behind the E2 diet, he goes on to give us a plan to follow and a number of recipes.  If you want to turn your health around and are looking for motivation, I strongly recommend this book as well as his other work and work or books by any of the doctors he acknowledges in the book.  Here's to better health for us all!  pazt

"Lay Down My Sword and Shield"

"Lay Down My Sword and Shield" is James Lee Burke's first book in his Hackberry Holland series and also the first of Burke's books that I can remember reading.  This novel was published in 1971.

Burke's descriptive prose really makes the story come alive with the sights, sounds, and smells sketched out throughout the book making me (as the reader) feel that I'm right there in the story.

Hackberry or Hack Holland was a corpsman in the Korean War and survived a brutal Chinese prisoner of war camp that has left him with nightmares.  He comes from generations of Texans and is the son of a former Congressman and the grandson of a sheriff and justice of the peace.

Hack and his wife, Verisa, live on the family "farm" (where his ancestors are buried).  Hack has  thoroughbred horses and his wife has her social life.  Although their marriage was a very happy one in its early days, the years and Hack's demons have taken their toll and the couple live their separate lives now.

Hack is a successful criminal attorney in practice with his brother, Bailey.  Bailey and Verisa have ambitions for Hack to follow in his father's footsteps and become a Congressman but Hack has a way of sabotaging their dreams with his heavy drinking and partying.

When he goes to the aid of a buddy from the war, he meets a fascinating young woman, Rie, who, along with his friend, is involved in battling for rights for migrant workers.  The encounter changes his life and his future.

Not only is Burke a good storyteller but he gives us a history lesson with his insights into the racism that was going on at the time this story was set -- and the battle for not only civil rights for blacks but fair wages and living conditions for migrant workers.  He paints a picture that has me totally sympathetic with both.  I look forward to reading more of his work.  pazt

"Mayhem"

"Mayhem" is a novel by Sarah Pinborough set in the mid to late 1880's during the time of Jack the Ripper and another lesser known killer whose crimes were dubbed the "Torso Murders."

Pinborough weaves fact and fiction into a tale of detective work done by three men working together -  Dr.Thomas Bond, a unique priest he meets, and a supposedly demented man who sees visions.  The unlikely pair seek to find the truth of the torso murders and it leads them to hunt a "Upir" which is a vampire that can operate in daylight.  Since the Upir has to find a host in order to feed and stay "alive," they are really seeking that host that they must stop to stop the killings.

Sometimes the shift in chapters between characters and times caused me some confusion but, when I got into the swing of it, the book provided a pleasant tale and an insight into a history of murders I had not heard of before.  pazt

"Agenda 21: Into The Shadows"

 "Agenda 21:  Into The Shadows" is a thriller that I picked up when I was browsing the best picks books at my library.  It is written by Glenn Beck with Harriet Parke.

When I picked up the book, the name Glenn Beck rang a bell with me but it wasn't until I started reading the book that I remembered he is a conservative political commentator and his bias showed through in his writing.  Not being a conservative myself I couldn't finish the book as it did not hold my interest that well.

The thesis of the book is that " 'Agenda 21' depicts not what is, but rather what could be if the words and statements from Agenda 21's actual documents and UN promoters were to be carried out to their fullest meaning..." according to The New American.

To me that smacks of conspiracy theory - unfortunately, some conspiracy theorists may have it right but I chose not to read this version.  As I see our political process being corrupted, I do have to be concerned that we, as Americans, may be being led down a path that could lead us to become like those who failed to take a stand in Nazi Germany.   For the sake of my children and grandchildren I hope I'm wrong....pazt

"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory"

"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory" is based on the experience of author Caitlin Doughty.  Caitlin was a 20-something with a degree in medieval history when she took a job at a crematory.  Caitlin talks about her experience cremating bodies and her experiences with those bodies -- some are funny stories, some sad, and some just plain weird.

As a result of watching a young girl fall to her death when Caitlin herself was not much older, she has had a fascination with death and how people deal with death.  After her experiences at the crematory, Caitlin became a licensed morticial and is the host and creator of the "Ask A Mortician" web series.  She has also founded the death acceptance collective - The Order of the Good Death -- as well as cofounded Death Salon.  She lives in Los Angeles.

I loved her candid stories, her sense of humor, and her compassion in telling about her journey from performing cremations to becoming a licensed mortician.  Caitlin also talks throughout the book about our society's attempts to avoid facing death by always trying to appear younger and by shutting those who are dying away in nursing homes or hospice centers rather than keeping them home with us as used to be the custom.  We no longer wash and prepare our loved one's body with care prior to burial.  We no longer see and face death in our daily lives.  Do we think we're immortal?

Did you know two humans die daily throughout the world?  Unless it's a celebrity or public figure we tend to ignore death.  Caitlin talks about the rituals surrounding death in other countries -- often quite different than our own and we might think their practices barbaric just as they would probably view ours.  After all, embalming seems to be a fairly new practice -- something we sell to "customers" when their loved one dies.

Have you heard of "Forest Lawn" - a cemetary in Glendale, CA, where a lot of celebrities are buried? She describes it as not just a cemetary but a "memorial park."  An article in a 1959 issue of "Time" called Forest Lawn the "Disneyland of Death."

Jessica Mitford, one of the infamous Mitford sisters as well as a writer and journalist, wrote a book in 1963 called "The American Way of Death" and she was not kind to funeral directors.  It was a huge bestseller staying at the top of the New York Times bestseller list for weeks.  She received thousands of letters from citizens and clergy alike in response to her book.  Mitford declared she would forgo an expensive funeral service herself and be cremated simply.  It was also in 1963 when Pope Paul VI overturned the Catholic Church's ban on cremation.  When this book was written, most Americans were opting for embalming but rates of cremation have been rising steadily since its publication.  It is predicted 50% or more Americans will choose cremation now and in the future.

Caitlin also asks the question as to why we want to view our loved ones after death and want them to look "natural" then goes on to give us examples of how challenging it can be for a mortician to make someone appear "natural" after death.

She also has a section on what happens if you donate your body to science and it is an eye opener!  Another section covers what happens to your body when you commit suicide by jumping off the Golden Gate bridge.  Caitlin also discusses what happens to unclaimed bodies and the laws that govern cremation and funeral home practices in California.

One of the things that surprised me from the book was the practice that allows the "convenience" of ordering a cremation on-line.  You never have to talk to a person -- all you do is provide a credit card and information about where you want the ashes delivered!  Another surprise is being able to have a "witness" cremation where family and friends can gather to watch the body being cremated and even have one of those present push the button that starts the cremation process.  Some individuals appear to distrust funeral homes and think they're up to no good so they want to be sure their loved one is taken care of properly.

Caitlin also dispels some myths about death and rules about death -- setting straight some of the lies family members have been told by supposedly well meaning others or uninformed law officials.  She also talks about her own brushes with death when she is almost wiped out in a car accident or when she thought seriously about committing suicide.

As I mentioned earlier, Caitlin has an internet side called "The Order of the Good Death" where she started publishing essays and manifestos looking for others who shared her desire for change.  Caitlin's book has given me a lot to think about and strengthened my decision to be cremated when I die.  I highly recommend this book -- It's thought provoking and funny and informative and much more.

My husband is a fan of Edward Abbey books and she shares that his friends stole his body and wrapped it in a sleeping bag and buried it somewhere in the Cabeza Prieta Desert in Arizona rather than have it end up in a traditional cemetary.  Abbey "spent his career warning humanity of the harm in separating ourselves from nature. 'If my decomposing carcass helps nourish the roots of a juniper tree or the wings of a vulture--that is immortality enough for me. And as much as anyone deserves,' he once said."  That practice of returning a body to nature is actually the practice of a number of cultures throughout the world -- They just have different ways of doing it.  pazt