SIXTY MINUTES FOR ST GEORGE

Name: SIXTY MINUTES FOR ST GEORGE
Author: Alexander Fullerton
ISBN: 1-56947-293-9

by Alexander Fullerton ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2001

First published in England in 1977, this is the second in a series now nine novels long, featuring a thoroughly likable hero...

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In the prescribed Hornblower tradition, the British Navy again performs heroically, this time during The Great War.

“Marvelous chaps,” says a battle-weary warrior glancing about himself appreciatively. “Thank God, I’m an Englishman!” It’s mid-April 1918, St. George’s Day, to be precise, and the sea-land assault on Zeebrugge, Belgium—so appropriately prominent in British naval annals—has just been successfully concluded. In the thick of it all was Lieutenant Nick Everard, who, though severely wounded, behaved valorously, it need hardly be said, since Nick, the author informs us at every juncture, is demonstrably the Right Stuff, the stuff of which the real British navy is made. Only 22, this series hero (The Blooding of the Guns, 2000, etc.) has risen spectacularly to the command of a destroyer, though he’s not always been an Admiralty favorite. While obviously a brilliant sailor, he’s had an unfortunate way of “blotting his copybook” between engagements. Nothing really serious, yet the demerits are there, enough to cause occasional official irritation. In fact, at the outset of his current adventure, Nick’s on a short leash and has been told as much by the man who at that moment is his immediate superior and in absolute control of his naval destiny. Lieutenant-Commander Edward Wyatt, a cross between Captains Bly and Queeg, has taken an instinctive dislike to Nick, the feeling enthusiastically mutual. Through some luck and dollops of pluck, however, Nick’s sterling qualities shine through, and, as things turn out, Wyatt finds it in his own best interest to give them their due—at least partially. But these are piddling matters compared to the sea battles, the descriptions of which are as vivid as they are relentless.

First published in England in 1977, this is the second in a series now nine novels long, featuring a thoroughly likable hero submerged under a torrent of nautical detail.

Pub Date: June 1, 2001

ISBN: 1-56947-293-9

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Soho

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2002

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.