A more melancholy entry than other books in this marvelous series but also one that humanizes its bold, thoughtful and...
The heart wants what the heart wants, even when the terrors of the high seas threaten to tear love asunder in this latest seafaring yarn by Russell (Take, Burn or Destroy, 2013, etc.).
Master and Commander Charles Hayden of the Royal British Navy is simply not a character meant for repose, but the challenges he faces in this fourth outing are as emotionally nerve-wracking as they are physically dangerous. Once again, Hayden commands the frigate HMS Themis on the eve of the Napoleonic Wars, but by now, his men have full faith and confidence in his ability to lead. Hayden, however, is still mourning the loss of his bride-to-be, Henrietta Carthew, to another man, making him a dismal soul as the book begins. The Themis is patrolling the Caribbean to counter French forces in the West Indies when the fates throw not one but two conundrums in Hayden’s path. First, the crew rescues two stranded Spanish sailors, Don Miguel and Don Angel Campillo, a suspicious pair of brothers whose origins and agenda are suspect. Shortly after, the ship stumbles across a crippled slave ship, forcing Hayden to choose between the prize money owed for towing the cargo back to Barbados versus his strong feelings about the inhumanity of the trade. There’s a significant twist that silences Hayden’s longing for his lady love, but we won’t reveal it here. Suffice to say that the back half of the book returns Hayden to form as he loses his ship yet again, works feverishly to rescue a group of royalist fugitives from the hands of their Jacobite pursuers, and finally captains the Themis into not-so-glorious battle once more. “It was, he realized then, the truth of war—men endeavored to bring destruction to the enemy, but, once achieved, they then looked in horror upon their own accomplishments,” Russell writes. “One looked in horror upon one’s self.”
A more melancholy entry than other books in this marvelous series but also one that humanizes its bold, thoughtful and intrepid captain.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-15897-1
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: Aug. 27, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2014
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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