Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel

I love historical fiction.  It is one of my passions and expecially history about Henry VIII.  This book starts out with a fierce battle between a son and father.  The innocent fighter turns out to be someone of great significance in history but he was a pitiful creature in his youth that people pitied. 

So far, I love the viewpoint of this book.  It is not a viewpoint I have read or even considered before but I am enjoying it.

Okay, so that was early on.  I really do NOT like this book.  It's just too hard to read.  It's a non-fiction book.  I'm not learning anything so I'm not going to struggle to figure out what is going on.  This book jumps around all over the place.  I don't have to have linear I just would like to have a story to follow.  The reader is supposed to have a real knowledge of all things Henry V III to read this book.  Very little is explained and the conversations are one sided.  We are supposed to assume the other side of the conversation and we are supposed to know who Anne is and all the other characters of that time. 

I do know most of the characters but the way this book was written I am not sure who is talking all of the time and at what point of time we are in.  I was so excited about this book at first because it is written about Thomas Cromwell and I was interested in his viewpoint of that time in history.  It has become a chore to read this book and originally I thought I would just skip ahead several chapters at a time to get to the ending but now I have started a new book and it is unlikely I will go back to finish this book. 

What a waste of good subject matter.  This is why I keep this blog so that I don't read authors like this a second time. 

A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

A man in Wisconsin advertises for a reliable wife.  A woman answers the ad and when she gets in town she is not the plain woman in the picture but a more beautiful woman.  The man feels lied too and is upset.  He intends to send the woman away but on the way a terrible accident occurs and the woman nurses the man back to health.  The man wants company and the woman wants money but what they find is much than they bargain for. 

The premise for this book is very interesting and the way the author explores the inner thoughts of the characters is very interesting but too wordy.  Each character was filled with angst over their past lives but the authors choice to explore it into the ground bored me.  Several times I skipped three chapters at a time to be able to get past the characters exploration of their thoughts.  Their past lives were very interesting but the constant analysis of their current thoughts bored me to distraction. 

I did enjoy the book overall but I don't know if I would look for another book by this author.  At least I won't look for one anytime soon. 

The Rain Gods by James Lee Burke

Skip this book.  I tried and tried and tried to get through this book but it was a chore until I finally realized that I didn't like a single character in this book and Burke spends chapters and chapters developing character histories for characters that no one is going to care about. 

Don't bother.  I've paid the price for many!

The Quiet Game by Greg Iles

An attorney and author that has recently lost his wife comes back to his home town in the deep south to give his small daughter some extra tender loving care from her grandparents that she desperately needs.

He immediately gets quoted in the paper for his disappointment in a old, thought to be, racial murder and the whole town is either congratulating him or trying to kill him.  There are links in the case to the FBI and the local police and a local judge.  There is even a link to Herbert Hoover.  Everyone is afraid to talk but they are not above giving clues.

I enjoyed this book.  There were a lot of twists in the book but it was not hard to keep up and follow the story.  I am not sure how believable a one day trial and the stunts played out down a river with a man in his 70's is but I still enjoyed the story.  Thanks Mr. Iles for the entertainment.

Roadside Crosses by Jeffrey Deaver

I am not enjoying this book as much as I did  other "Deaver" books I have read in the past but I still like it and I'm not finished yet.  In "Bodies Left Behind" the suspense was so intense I could barely leave function without finishing the book, "Roadside Crosses" is not as suspenseful but I am hoping it has a big finish.  The places in this book where he could of had more suspense he cut to the end of a tribulation so to surprise us with the answer instead of making us crazy with the journey and suspense along the way.  Just FYI, I prefer the journey and the suspense to being told the answer without knowing the steps taken along the way. 

A female Detective, Dance, is working on solving a case about a teenage boy.  A blog is set up and things are being said that are flat out untrue about the boy.  People doing the blogging soon start a war between themselves about the boy based on things being said on the blog. 

Bad things start happening to the bloggers that say unkind things about the teenager.  Is the teenager getting revenge? 

You can not read a "Deaver" book and let your guard down because things are never what they seem and he tends to make the reader believe things without ever actually saying what he wants you to believe and you realize you jumped to conclusions right after you learn the truth.  Deaver makes you constantly check yourself to make sure you are not making unfair assumptions and to be sure you are reading between the lines.  He's a master of surprise so I expect anything and I am thrilled for the ride. 

I think he is trying to illustrate in this book how people are gullible to what we see on a blog and believe to be true just because we saw it in print.  We are all guilty of believing what we read from time to time.  I enjoy being corrected for my own gullible behaviour from such a master storyteller.