Book Reviews

Recommended Holiday Reading

Recommended Holiday Reading

Anyone who knows me or has followed some of my reviews on Agendamag.com or on Amazon.com knows how eclectic my reading interests are. I love a good book, whether it is romance, historical fiction, time travel, horror . . . or any other subject or genre. Sometimes, depending on my mood or the need for a lift from heavier reading, the more escapist the better! Such was the case recently.

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A Brief Review of Authors Becky Masterman and Lloyd Shepherd by Lee Peoples

A Brief Review of Authors Becky Masterman and Lloyd Shepherd by Lee Peoples

From the moment of meeting fifty-nine-year-old retired FBI agent Brigid Quinn, I found myself holding my breath and sitting on the edge of my seat, fearing for her reputation as well as for her life as she covers up an accidental killing of HER POTENTIAL MOLESTER.

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Bestselling Author Douglas Kennedy Reviewed by Lee Peoples

Bestselling Author Douglas Kennedy Reviewed by Lee Peoples

The MOMENT, published 2011, is a story of love and betrayal. One moment all is well; the next everything hangs in the balance. Protagonist Thomas Nesbitt is a writer of travel books.

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ANARCHY by James Treadwell

ANARCHY by James Treadwell

The second in his trilogy—the first, Advent, was reviewed in Agenda’s last issue—Anarchy opens in British Columbia Canada, where strange things are happening.

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THE LACUNA by Barbara Kingsolver

THE LACUNA by Barbara Kingsolver

As suggested by its dust cover, Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna, historical fiction, is about a “hole.” However, throughout the novel, the meaning of that “hole” changes. The novel is alternately set in Mexico and the United States. In 1929 at the age of twelve, Harrison William Shepherd’s parents separated, and he was taken from Virginia to Mexico by his Mexican mother.

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BOOK REVIEW: MARTYRS AND HOLYMEN, Larry Fondation

BOOK REVIEW: MARTYRS AND HOLYMEN, Larry Fondation

Larry Fondation’s compact sentences pack a punch, and his portrayals mix poetry with the staccato rhythm of gunfire. Not without a reflective note, his narratives are often tinged with dark humor: “We had left the man alone among the rubble, with the rubble, in the rubble. As rubble. Like rubble. Blameless, struck no more, but there by himself (a man unfamiliar with Beckett, but waiting for Godot nonetheless).”

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ADVENT by James Treadwell

ADVENT by James Treadwell

A new author, James Treadwell has penned a delightful fantasy of magic and sorcery. Advent, published earlier this year, is literally as well as symbolically the first novel of a trilogy. Having so enjoyed J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and still wishing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows had not been the last, this grandmother found Treadwell’s novel a very enjoyable and suspense-filled substitute; and I am looking forward to the second book.

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INFERNO by Dan Brown

INFERNO by Dan Brown

Quite frightening, but the solution was even more frightening. Bertrand Zobris, rich and world-famous doctor, invents a solution, based on the theory that the plagues of yesteryears were a way of balancing the population, for example, the Black Death in Europe in the 14th Century, which killed an estimated 75 to 200 million people.

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A Review of The Emma Harte Saga by Barbara Taylor Bradford

A Review of The Emma Harte Saga by Barbara Taylor Bradford

Begun in 1979, A Woman of Substance is the first in The Emma Harte Saga by Barbara Taylor Bradford and is the story of an impoverished English maiden’s rise from rags to riches.

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WINTER OF THE WORLD by Ken Follett

WINTER OF THE WORLD by Ken Follett

Ken Follett has done it again—made the bestsellers list, that is. Winter of the World, the second in his Century trilogy, following Fall of Giants, has continued the story of the international heroes of America, England, Russia, and Great Britain during the troubling years of 1933-1949.

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