Miracle in the Andes : 72 days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home

Miracle in the Andes : 72 days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home by Nando Parrado
Memoir, 2006, pg 284
Rating: 5.0 (5.0 Amazon)
Book Club: FL - Lakes Library - February, 2008
Recommendation: I enjoyed the book. Once started, it pulled you in, even though you knew what was going to happen. For me, the questions about God--- Why did God let this happen?.....Why did some die and others live? How does God answer prayers? Why are some "not" answered? ----are questions I've asked at times in my life, just recently with my nephew Jonathan's death from leukemia. This book, in Nando's discussion of how he dealt with this tradegy, raised many of the same questions....and Nando discussed them from his view and others.
I read the book in 2 days, and then went back and re-read some of the passages that dealt with "Why did this happen?" and as important...."How do you go on after you return to the 'world'"?
Summary:
From Publishers Weekly: In October 1972, a plane carrying an Uruguayan rugby team crashed in the Andes. Not immediately rescued, the survivors turned to cannibalism to survive and after 72 days were saved. Rugby team member Parrado has written a beautiful story of friendship, tragedy and perseverance. High in the Andes, with a fractured skull, eating the flesh of his teammates and friends, Parrado calmly ponders the cruelties of fate, the power of the natural world and the possibility of continued existence. "I would live from moment to moment and from breath to breath, until I had used up all the life I had." Parrado, who for the past 10 years has been giving inspirational talks based on his experiences, lost his mother and sister in the crash. Struggling to stay alive, his guide becomes his beloved father: "each [stride] brought me closer to my father... each step I took was a step stolen back from death." More than a companion to the 1970s bestselling chronicle of the disaster, Alive, this is a fresh, gripping page-turner that will satisfy adventure readers, and a complex reflection on camaraderie, family and love.
From School Library Journal: Adult/High School–In 1972, Parrado and his rugby teammates from Uruguay were flying to Chile to play a match against the national team. Crossing the Andes, the aircraft crashed on a remote, high-altitude, glaciated slope. This remarkable story of the survivors omits none of the raw intensity and brutality of their experience but is burnished by time, casting an analytical perspective on ways in which their subsequent lives were influenced by the ordeal. The many forms of courage exhibited and the sustaining power of love of family are the basis of the narrative as the group supported one another in a collective refusal to surrender to the mountain. Parrado credits their physical conditioning and the rigorous team ethic inherent in the sport as the foundation for the trust and allegiance that enabled the men to battle the odds. Reduced to the most elemental human needs and learning from a radio transmission that rescue efforts had been abandoned, they reluctantly realized that their only food source was the bodies of the victims. Parrado was respectful of the spiritual faith of those who clung to a belief in rescue, but put his energy into engineering a plan and acted as a leader of the expeditionaries who hiked through the perilous mountains to find help. A detailed chronicle of these events was presented in Piers Paul Read's Alive (Avon, 1975), but Parrado's memoir offers a reflective expansion of that work. Dramatic photographs are included
Favorite Passages:
pg 84....Nando talking with Arturo Nogueira, who suffered multiple painful fractures of both legs......"What good is God to us?" I replied.(Nando) "Why would he let my mother and sister die so senselessly? If he loves us so much, why does he leave is here to suffer?"
"You are angry at the God you were taught to believe in as a child," Arturo answered. "The God who is supposed to watch over you and protect you, who answered your prayers and forgives your sins. This God is just a story. Religions try to capture God, but God is beyond religion. The true God lies beyond our comprehensions. We can't understand His will; He can't be explained in a book. He didn't abandon us and He will not save us. He has nothing to so with our being here. God does not change, He simply is. I don't pray to God for forgiveness or favors, I only pray to be closer to Him, and when I pray I fill my heart with love. When I pray this way, I know that God is love. When I feel that love, I remember that we don't need angels or a heaven, because we are a part of God already."......

The Uncommon Reader

The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Fiction, 2007, 120 pages
Rating: 4 (Amazon 4.5)
Recommended by: Dr. Elaine Newton (Phil's Critics Choice leader)
Recommendation: An interesting book, quick read, with insight into the power of literature.
Summary:
From Publishers Weekly: Briskly original and subversively funny, this novella from popular British writer Bennett (Untold Stories; Tony-winning play The History Boys) sends Queen Elizabeth II into a mobile library van in pursuit of her runaway corgis and into the reflective, observant life of an avid reader. Guided by Norman, a former kitchen boy and enthusiast of gay authors, the queen gradually loses interest in her endless succession of official duties and learns the pleasure of such a common activity. With the dawn of her sensibility... mistaken for the onset of senility, plots are hatched by the prime minister and the queen's staff to dispatch Norman and discourage the queen's preoccupation with books. Ultimately, it is her own growing self-awareness that leads her away from reading and toward writing, with astonishing results. Bennett has fun with the proper behavior and protocol at the palace, and the few instances of mild coarseness seem almost scandalous. There are lessons packed in here, but Bennett doesn't wallop readers with them. It's a fun little book.
From Bookmarks Magazine: .....A political and literary satire, it pokes fun at the British monarchy while revealing the lasting power of literature. Reviews suggest that "The Uncommon Reader" should be enjoyed like the sort of reading it espouses: casually, but with a sensitivity to serious things as well.
Favorite Passages:
pg 29:....'I can understand,' he said. 'Your Majesty's need to pass the time.'
'Pass the time?' said the Queen. 'Books are not about passing the time. They're about other lives. Other worlds. Far from wanting time to pass, Sir Kevin, one just wishes one had more of it......'

Suspicion of Deceit

Suspicion of Deceit by Barbara Parker

Fiction, 1998, 417 pages

Ratings: 3.5 (Amazon 3.5)

Book Club: FL - Mystery - October, 2007

Summary:

From Library Journal: Like Parker's first two novels (Suspicion of Innocence, LJ 12/93; Suspicion of Guilt, LJ 2/1/95), this thriller thrusts Miami lawyer Gail Connor into perils from which she emerges owing mostly to luck. Gail, now engaged to Cuban exile Anthony Quintera, also a Miami lawyer, provides legal counsel for the Miami Opera. A promising young singer, Thomas Nolan, is to star in Don Giovanni, but his connections with Castro's Cuba may cause trouble for the opera should they become known. From this rather interesting beginning, the plot wanders further and further afield, until the reader yearns for the inevitable murder. Politics, nostalgia of the Miami exile community, and conflicting memories or reports of Gail's fiance and friends bulk out the story, which hovers uneasily between episodes of Gail and Tony's lovemaking and Gail's getting herself into cliched predicaments (donning a wig to stake out her suspect's movements, breaking into the home of the chief suspect). Sadly, this series demeans both women lawyers and Miami Hispanics. Buy only if you live in Florida and have a lavish book budget.

From Kirkus Reviews: Messy, overplotted third volume in Parker's Suspicion series (Suspicion of Guilt, 1995, etc.) continues the travails of Miami lawyer Gail Connor. Now on her own in a one-woman practice, Connor isn't getting many clients but is enjoying the low-key joys of taking her daughter to soccer games and doing pro bono work for the Miami Opera while spending every night in the arms of her fiance‚, Cuban-born super successful defense lawyer Anthony Quintana. At a swank Opera soiree, Connor learns that tenor Tom Nolan, who's booked to open the season, did a series of recitals two years before in Cuba. Though most of the ever-so-sleazy rich folks on the Opera's board couldn't care less about their star's employment history, the city's large population of anti-Castro Cuban refugees might well take offense. Quintana, hoping to be nothing more than Connor's escort, finds himself questioned by board members who are afraid that Quintana's brother-in-law, rabble-rousing anti-Castro radio talk-show host Octavio Reyes, might rally his listeners against them, possibly with the backing of Quintana's vehemently anti-Communist grandfather. While Quintana mutters about not being his brother-in-law's keeper, Connor discovers that her fiance‚ not only harbored Marxist sympathies 20 years previously, but accompanied some of the very same board members on an ill-fated pilgrimage to Nicaragua to help the Sandinistas, a trip resulting in the murder of Quintana's old American girlfriend by a Somozan thug. But was Quintana in any way responsible for her death? Parker plays on Connor's fears about her fiance's past while an assassin picks off members of the Opera board, all of whom have some connection to the Nicaraguan misadventure. The climax, in which Connor stalls for time by persuading the killer to play an opera recording, is too silly for words. All this, and piles of politically correct palaver about Miami's misunderstood Cuban exiles. Even Parker's fans might put this one down.

Recommendation: Although the reviews do not recommend the book, I enjoyed the story. It gives the reader a view of the Miami Cuban community beyond the radical element. I enjoyed how Parker used "different" versions of Anthony and his friends experiences in Nicaragua to move the plot along, ending with Gail's own version of the story.

I also enjoyed the part the stories from the operas "Don Giovanni" and "Aida" played in the novel.

Not a thought provoking story, but an enjoyable summer read.

Favorite Passages:

The following passage was thought provoking, especially in light of the many versions of the Nicaraguan trip......After the dress rehearsal of Don Giovanni, Gail is talking with the opera star, Thomas Nolan, asking him about his piano teacher, Miss Wells...

page 381......The makeup gave him such odd eyes, pale blue outlined in dark brown. One black eyebrow was painted higher than the other in permanent ironic jest....."All the world's a stage, Gail, and reality is what you think it is."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

He saluted with his champagne. "Whatever you want it to mean...."

Cold Fire

Cold Fire by Dean Koontz

Fiction, 1991, 421 pages

Ratings : 4.0 (Amazon 4.0)

Recommended by : Carol Conti

Summary:

From Library Journal Teacher: Jim Ironheart, aptly named, is sent by forces unknown to save chosen people in life-threatening situations. By chance, a young but jaded reporter stumbles onto his missions, and joins him to investigate who is controlling him and why. Shared nightmares begin to point to an extraterrestrial influence, and the pair are forced to confront Ironheart's forgotten past for answers. Koontz ( The Bad Place , LJ 12/89), a master at maintaining mystery and suspense, weaves themes from earlier novels into this latest thriller. Even if the ending calls to mind DuMaurier and Hitchcock, Cold Fire contains all the ingredients--likable characters, nail-biting suspense, and above all, unlimited imagination--that will please Koontz's fans.

Recommendation : Typical Koontz novel.....a unusual premise is part of the plot. An enjoyable story with characters I liked.....Jim Ironheart & Holly.

Darkfall

Darkfall by Dean Koontz

Fiction, 1987, 371 pages

Ratings : 4.0 (Amazon 4.0)

Recommended by : John Polzer

Summary :

From B&N Review: In this great suspense by Dean Koontz we follow two detectives, Jack Dawson and Rebecca Chandler, as they try to uncover the horrifying murders that are going on to the Carramazzaas. The Carramazzaas are a family of drug dealers, whose killer is supposedly rats. But how could rats get away with murder or even commit such an act of violence and not even leave a trace? Soon Jack believes that these killings could just very well be the act of voodoo. Carter Hampton, a man who practices good voodoo, helps Jack uncover their culprit, Baba Levelle. Soon those “creatures” of Baba’s are after Detective Dawson’s children, Penny and Davey. As soon as Jack finds out that Lavelle is after his kids, he tries to hide them, but that didn’t work. As they encounter these creatures we find out that they can’t touch Jack, that they’re afraid to be near him. As Jack gets help from Carver, Rebecca, Penny, and Davey decided that they might be safe if they get in a cathedral, but they were wrong. This book keeps you on your toes the whole way through. If you’re into suspense mixed with the supernatural you’ll love this read!

Once I got past skepticism about voodoo, I enjoyed the book.

Recommendation: If you enjoy Dean Koontz's style of fiction, you will enjoy this book. I liked the characters in the book.

Pardonable Lies : A Maisie Dobbs Novel

Pardonable Lies : A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear
Fiction, 2005, 340 pages

Ratings : 4.0 (Amazon 4.0)

Book Club : NY - B&N Mystery (June, 2007)

Summary :

From Publishers Weekly: Agatha-winner Winspear's engrossing third Maisie Dobbs novel maintains the high quality of its predecessors, Maisie Dobbs (2003) and Birds of a Feather (2004). In late 1930, the London "psychologist and investigator" gets involved in three cases: proving the innocence of a 13-year-old farm girl, Avril Jarvis, accused of murder; undertaking a search for Sir Cecil Lawton's only son, a pilot shot down behind enemy lines in WWI, whose body was never recovered; and looking into the circumstances of the death of her university friend Priscilla Evernden Partridge's brother in France during the war. Maisie must go back to the region where, 13 years earlier, she served as a nurse, and confront her memories of mud, blood and loss. Filled with convincing characters, this is a complex tale of healing, of truth and half-truth, of long-held secrets, some, perhaps, to be held forever. Winspear writes seamlessly, enriching the whole with vivid details of English life on a variety of social levels.

The second Maisie Dobbs novel I've read. I enjoy the character and the setting. Set in the 1930's, there aren't the forensic technologies of today, so Maisie solves the mysteries by observation and the understanding of human nature. She reminds me of a Sherlock Holmes or "Monk".

Recommendation : I enjoy this series and will probably read more of Jacqueline Winspear's novels. I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a mystery.

A Deadly Vineyard Holiday

A Deadly Vineyard Holiday by Philip R. Craig

Fiction, 1997, 225 pages

Ratings: 3.5 (Amazon 4.0)

Book Club : NY - B&N Mystery (July, 2007)

Summary:

From Booklist : President Callahan (read Clinton) and his family are vacationing on Martha's Vineyard when J. W. Jackson encounters the First Teen during a predawn excursion for bluefish. Cricket Callahan (read Chelsea) and her entourage of Secret Service agents come to spend a few days with J. W. and his wife, Zee, allowing her a normal teenager's summer, however briefly. Cricket needs protection even more than usual, forcing J. W. to thwart a plan to attack her. Jackson's relations with women--Zee, Cricket, Cricket's female Secret Service guard Karen--are warm, easygoing, and just a bit tangled by the Mars/Venus thing. Beyond the appealing characters and the Clinton parallels, the real fun here comes in meandering across the island and its culture. Craig knows the Vineyard intimately and uses that knowledge in intriguing ways. A nice addition to this series, but it could have used a better--and more Clintonesque--title.

Although the plot was rather predictable, there were no bizzare or violent twists and turns. The main characters, J. W., his wife Zee and Cricket....were all likeable, and I enjoyed the setting which was Martha's Vineyard.

Recommendation : I didn't realize it was a series, and I might pick up another book about J.W. & Zee. A good light summer read.