Last night I finished reading a biography of Queen Isabella, a 14th century English queen. Isabella was a French princess who married King Edward II in 1308. She was 12 and he was 24. It's no surprise that Edward wasn't too interested in his child bride until she turned 16 or 17. They probably had little in common to talk about. Besides, notwithstanding the fact that they had four children, Edward's presumed homosexuality was not an asset to their marriage. As Isabella matured, she became a shrewd diplomat. Unfortunately, Edward did not share her skills. He became an incredibly awful ruler who let his allies run amok. Corruption and greed were the rules of the day during Edward's reign. Edward's international policies were as dismal as his domestic ones. Consequently, as relations between England as France deteriorated, Isabella traveled to France on a diplomatic mission to renew peace between the two nations. She also felt safer in France than she did in England, where she was at odds with Edward's powerful allies, and she extended her stay there as long as possible.
In France, Isabella became politically and sexually involved with Roger Mortimer, a member of the English nobility who was also in exile. Isabella and Mortimer invaded England, overthrew Edward II and had Isabella's teen-aged son, Edward III, proclaimed king. Since Edward III was still a minor, Isabella and Mortimer ruled as regents in his stead. As things turned out, Mortimer grew as greedy and corrupt as Edward II's cohorts. He even seems to have plotted the murder of Edward II, who was being held prisoner in a English castle.
Tradition has held that Edward was gruesomely disemboweled, but there is evidence that he may have escaped his prison, fled to the Continent and spent his remaining few years in various monasteries. Just before Edward III reached the age of majority, he overthrew Mortimer, who was tried and executed for his crimes. Isabella, fortunate to have avoided the gallows herself, spent her remaining years in retirement in England. She was closely guarded for the first couple of years, but the restrictions were gradually lifted. By the end of her life, she enjoyed cordial relations with her children and grandchildren and occasionally served as an advisor to Edward III, who is regarded as one of England's best kings.
Historians (primarily men) generally have judged Isabella very harshly. Well, it's easy to see why: she was smarter than her husband, she refused to let the men in her life abuse her, she possibly was sexually frustrated and did something about it, and she successfully planned and executed an invasion of England and the deposition of a king. She didn't stay barefoot in the kitchen, that's for sure. She was colorful and spunky, to say the least. If I could meet any historical figures, she'd be on my list, as would Eleanor of Aquitaine and Elizabeth I. England certainly has had some interesting queens!
I've read several of Alison Weir's books and she's definitely one of my favorite authors. She's a great historian/biographer and a wonderful writer whose books read like novels. If you don't think a history book or biography can be a page-turner, you have to read Weir's work. Queen Isabella is a good one with which to start.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Book Review: High Performance Health
Author: James M. Rippe, M.D.
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
ISBN: not assigned yet
How do you define "good health?" Being disease free? Performing essential physical functions independently? Being physically fit or athletic? Maintaining a good weight? According to Dr, James Rippe, none of these notions completely captures what it means to be healthy. He suggests that a better way to achieve optimal health is to adopt a "values-based approach" that pays attention to physical factors, quality of life and spiritual well being.
In the book's first section, Diagnosis and Understanding, Rippe uses ten chapters to explain the seven basic strategies behind his values-based approach to high performance health. These are:
Rippe introduces readers to the basic concepts behind all of these strategies and directs them to numerous resources from which they can acquire additional information. Equally important, he explains the pitfalls of particular exercise and diet fads and addresses how to incorporate each strategy into an overall healthy lifestyle. Rippe strongly encourages his readers, particularly those who have been sedentary, to adopt walking programs for their initial exercise regimes. He also encourages his readers to keep journals for developing health plans, setting goals and tracking their progress. Rippe assists readers in starting their journals by providing brief assignments at the end of every chapter. By the time readers finish all of the exercises in the book, they will have discovered ways to make their journals uniquely personal and useful to themselves.
The second section of the book, Action Plan, consists of two chapters. The first of these outlines "ten steps for achieving high performance health:"
The concepts behind these steps are explained in the book's first section, then rearranged and summarized here. The book's final chapter is a brief summary of Rippe's personal story of striving for optimal, or, as he calls it, high performance, health.
High Performance Health is a clearly written book that does not intimidate readers with vast bulk or dense verbiage. It is a good introduction to the issues involved in developing healthy lifestyles. Although it can be scanned quickly, readers who are serious about improving their health will want to take time to do the assignments carefully and slowly incorporate the strategies into their lives. I highly recommend this book to them.
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
ISBN: not assigned yet
How do you define "good health?" Being disease free? Performing essential physical functions independently? Being physically fit or athletic? Maintaining a good weight? According to Dr, James Rippe, none of these notions completely captures what it means to be healthy. He suggests that a better way to achieve optimal health is to adopt a "values-based approach" that pays attention to physical factors, quality of life and spiritual well being.
In the book's first section, Diagnosis and Understanding, Rippe uses ten chapters to explain the seven basic strategies behind his values-based approach to high performance health. These are:
- Physical activity
- Weight control
- Nutrition
- Hydration
- Rest
- Positive Environment for Change
- Appropriate Mind-Set
Rippe introduces readers to the basic concepts behind all of these strategies and directs them to numerous resources from which they can acquire additional information. Equally important, he explains the pitfalls of particular exercise and diet fads and addresses how to incorporate each strategy into an overall healthy lifestyle. Rippe strongly encourages his readers, particularly those who have been sedentary, to adopt walking programs for their initial exercise regimes. He also encourages his readers to keep journals for developing health plans, setting goals and tracking their progress. Rippe assists readers in starting their journals by providing brief assignments at the end of every chapter. By the time readers finish all of the exercises in the book, they will have discovered ways to make their journals uniquely personal and useful to themselves.
The second section of the book, Action Plan, consists of two chapters. The first of these outlines "ten steps for achieving high performance health:"
- Assess health, set goals, track progress
- Connect with your body and mind
- Use active rest principles
- Establish a "third place"
- Fifteen minutes of solitude
- Thirty minutes of physical activity
- Discover spiritual age and live it
- Eat to fuel performanc
- Connect with others
- Connect with your spirit
The concepts behind these steps are explained in the book's first section, then rearranged and summarized here. The book's final chapter is a brief summary of Rippe's personal story of striving for optimal, or, as he calls it, high performance, health.
High Performance Health is a clearly written book that does not intimidate readers with vast bulk or dense verbiage. It is a good introduction to the issues involved in developing healthy lifestyles. Although it can be scanned quickly, readers who are serious about improving their health will want to take time to do the assignments carefully and slowly incorporate the strategies into their lives. I highly recommend this book to them.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Book Review: Ladykiller
Authors: Lawrence Light & Meredith Anthony
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
ISBN: 10-1-933515-05-8
NYPD detective Dave Dillon is a good cop with terrible taste in women. His last doomed love affair nearly cost him his job. As it stands now, if he doesn’t find the serial murderer known as the Ladykiller, his career will be ruined forever. Dave follows the clues to the West Side Crisis Center, where he meets an interesting assortment of social workers. When one of the center’s counselors is murdered, Dave knows that he is closing in on the killer. The story hurtles forward at a breakneck pace until a breathtaking showdown in a city park. Then, just as the reader believes the story is winding down, the authors add one more twist to the plot and the book concludes on a bone-chilling note.
Ladykiller is an engrossing story in which the momentum builds from page one and never stops. One mildly disconcerting quirk is an early, unexpected turn in plot development. The story begins as a whodunit mystery in which the reader expects to follow the detective in deciphering clues and unveiling the killer’s identity. Then, about 20% of the way into the story, the killer is revealed and the story shifts to a cat-and-mouse tale in which the killer and the detective seek to outwit each other. This plot shift briefly throws the reader off-balance but, in general, the authors manage it skillfully and the story moves forward without faltering.
Light and Anthony give their story a strong setting with their lucid portraits of city streets and neighborhoods. Their character development skills are not quite as strong, or, perhaps, not as evenly applied. Dave Dillon, the main character is fairly interesting and the authors skillfully pace their revelations of his past and personality throughout the book. The book’s other characters don’t fare as well. For example, I wish Dave’s mother had played a larger role in the book, as her story could have added an intriguing dimension to the plot. Furthermore, Nita is relentlessly domineering and Megan is nauseatingly submissive and indecisive. Most of the other characters are similarly one-dimensional and the reader gains little sense of what motivates them to act and speak as they do. In general, the characters seem to be sketched rather than filled with flesh and blood. Clearly, this story’s appeal rests on fast-paced plotting and vivid setting rather than intense or moving characters.
Ladykiller is ideal for reading on a plane or at the beach. Readers who like mysteries and suspense thrillers will find it good for a couple of hours of entertainment.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Book Review: Fish of Souls
It’s September 1999. Curt Lockes has recently purchased a tantalizing 400-year-old manuscript on e-bay. On the morning after Curt is shaken by a horrifying nightmare, Scott Seymour spies a bizarre cloud on the horizon. Following the clues divulged in the manuscript, Curt and Scott set out to uncover its secrets, as well as the meanings of the nightmare and the cloud. They will soon learn that the ultimate secret connecting all of these things is rooted in the Old Testament book of Genesis.
Their adventure strains Scott’s family life but strengthens his friendship with Curt. It includes deadly encounters with sword-yielding Huguenots, a ferocious fish, and a vindictive Timucua Indian. It includes the loss of friends and the initiation of new relationships (including a love interest for Curt). And, no surprise here, it results in the dramatic triumph of good over evil.
Gary Williams, a native of Florida, has skillfully woven together disparate threads from St. Augustine’s history, biblical archaeology and contemporary hurricane tracking and evacuation procedures into a compelling suspense novel. The book’s primary weakness is that it should have been more carefully edited. There are a few (but not many) errors in grammar and word selection that should have been corrected before the book went to press. On the other hand, the book has several strong points. Williams writes graphically yet avoids gore. He provides historical and scholarly information yet avoids slipping into the styles of either a textbook or tourist brochure. His characters are flawed but likeable; in other words, they’re like real people. He discusses religious ideas yet avoids being either preachy or disdainful; in other words, he displays respect for religion without descending into fanaticism. Overall, these strengths far outweigh the editorial weakness and I found it hard to put the book down until I reached the final page. This book is the first in a series and I’m looking forward to reading the sequel. Readers who enjoy suspense stories laced with history will enjoy this book.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Book Review: The Ghosts of Guantanamo Bay
Author: K.R. Jones
Publisher: Seacay Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9790973
It is December 1958. In just a few weeks, Fidel Castro’s takeover of Cuba will be complete. Three casino owners who grew rich by cooperating with American businessmen have devised a plan to keep their wealth out of the Communists’ hands: they will hide their treasure on the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
Skip ahead to July 1997. Marine Captain Adam Claiborne and his wife, Audrey, are moving to “Gitmo,” a naval base that, having once played an enormous strategic role in the Cold War, now operates at just a fraction of its former capacity. Adam and Audrey are charmed by the island’s long white beaches and clear blue skies, but it takes them awhile to adapt to the humidity and the clouds of flies that follow them everywhere. Moreover, while they quickly make friends at Gitmo, they also acquire some vicious enemies. Their professional and social situations become precarious as the base commander and his domineering wife grow to be their chief adversaries.
As Adam and Audrey become acquainted with Gitmo’s characters and culture, they also become engrossed in its history and mysteries. They uncover and decipher clues that enable them to resolve the truth behind several suspicious deaths. The deaths, in turn, are connected to the treasure that was hidden on the base nearly forty years earlier. And the treasure is connected to the personnel problems that have hounded Adam and Audrey since their arrival.
K.R. Jones accompanied her husband when he finished his service in the United States Marine Corps with a two-year tour of duty in Guantanamo Bay. Her intimate, first-hand knowledge of the locale is obvious in her meticulous descriptions of the terrain, the architecture, the climate – even the insects. Her knowledge of the United States Marine Corps is evident in her vivid descriptions of naval life and procedures – including how it feels to wear woolen dress uniforms in a tropical climate. Details like these are difficult for even the best fiction writers to fabricate. They are second nature, however, for an author who has lived the life about which she writes. Even though The Ghosts of Guantanamo Bay is a work of fiction, it is saturated with dozens of small realistic details that render it believable.
The Ghosts of Guantanamo Bay is a well-conceived, well-written story. Some of Jones’s characters are enchanting and others are infuriating, just like real people. Additionally, the social situations she describes are all too credible to anyone who has ever lived in a small community. A carefully constructed plot complements Jones’s deftly drawn characters. She does not leave any dangling clues or inexplicable characters stranded on the last page. When the story ends, the reader knows how all of the pieces scattered throughout the book fit into a coherent whole. My only quibble with the book is that it contains a handful of editorial errors. These can be quickly corrected, however, and I assume they will be.
Readers who enjoy whodunits will enjoy The Ghosts of Guantanamo Bay, a mystery tale that is uniquely suited to its exotic locale. Readers who enjoy this book also may want to be on the lookout for Jones’s next book, which is due to be published in the summer of 2007.
Publisher: Seacay Publishing
ISBN: 978-0-9790973
It is December 1958. In just a few weeks, Fidel Castro’s takeover of Cuba will be complete. Three casino owners who grew rich by cooperating with American businessmen have devised a plan to keep their wealth out of the Communists’ hands: they will hide their treasure on the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
Skip ahead to July 1997. Marine Captain Adam Claiborne and his wife, Audrey, are moving to “Gitmo,” a naval base that, having once played an enormous strategic role in the Cold War, now operates at just a fraction of its former capacity. Adam and Audrey are charmed by the island’s long white beaches and clear blue skies, but it takes them awhile to adapt to the humidity and the clouds of flies that follow them everywhere. Moreover, while they quickly make friends at Gitmo, they also acquire some vicious enemies. Their professional and social situations become precarious as the base commander and his domineering wife grow to be their chief adversaries.
As Adam and Audrey become acquainted with Gitmo’s characters and culture, they also become engrossed in its history and mysteries. They uncover and decipher clues that enable them to resolve the truth behind several suspicious deaths. The deaths, in turn, are connected to the treasure that was hidden on the base nearly forty years earlier. And the treasure is connected to the personnel problems that have hounded Adam and Audrey since their arrival.
K.R. Jones accompanied her husband when he finished his service in the United States Marine Corps with a two-year tour of duty in Guantanamo Bay. Her intimate, first-hand knowledge of the locale is obvious in her meticulous descriptions of the terrain, the architecture, the climate – even the insects. Her knowledge of the United States Marine Corps is evident in her vivid descriptions of naval life and procedures – including how it feels to wear woolen dress uniforms in a tropical climate. Details like these are difficult for even the best fiction writers to fabricate. They are second nature, however, for an author who has lived the life about which she writes. Even though The Ghosts of Guantanamo Bay is a work of fiction, it is saturated with dozens of small realistic details that render it believable.
The Ghosts of Guantanamo Bay is a well-conceived, well-written story. Some of Jones’s characters are enchanting and others are infuriating, just like real people. Additionally, the social situations she describes are all too credible to anyone who has ever lived in a small community. A carefully constructed plot complements Jones’s deftly drawn characters. She does not leave any dangling clues or inexplicable characters stranded on the last page. When the story ends, the reader knows how all of the pieces scattered throughout the book fit into a coherent whole. My only quibble with the book is that it contains a handful of editorial errors. These can be quickly corrected, however, and I assume they will be.
Readers who enjoy whodunits will enjoy The Ghosts of Guantanamo Bay, a mystery tale that is uniquely suited to its exotic locale. Readers who enjoy this book also may want to be on the lookout for Jones’s next book, which is due to be published in the summer of 2007.
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