Brendan by Morgan Llywelyn

Brendan: The remarkable life and voyage of Brendan of Clonfert by Morgan Llywelyn

Being a student of Irish history, I naturally was drawn to this new book by Morgan Llywelyn. I have read several books by Llywelyn, and I will add that I have loved each of them. She is a tremendous historical story teller. She really brings legends, history and Celtic mythology to life.

This is the story of Saint Brendán the Navigator, whose legendary quest to find the Isle of the Blessed is one of the most remarkable and enduring of early Christian tales. Among Irish saints, Brendán the Navigator is second only to St. Patrick. Llywelyn bases her story on the medieval text “Life of St. Brendan,” and retells it in the form of a personal journal written by an elderly Brendan, as he reflects on his life and his constant wanderlust to travel and explore new worlds. (Just a footnote on Brendan, there is speculation that it was Brendan who actually first discovered North America.)

We follow a restless, headstrong, and curious Brendan, who embarks on dangerous pilgrimages first by land and then several different voyages by sea. He travels with his pet raven, Préachán, who becomes a character in himself through Llyweln's beautiful prose. In fact you mourn with Brendan when he finally has to bury his fine feathered friend.

Llywelyn's narrative is laced with fifth-century Irish history and lore, and climaxes with a fantastic voyage of mythical proportions, when Brendan sets out with 14 other monks in handmade Irish vessel, called a currach, to cross the Western sea in search of the earthy paradise, the "Isle of Blest".

Llywelyn has been referred to as a modern day Bard of Ireland. A few of her other books, well worth picking up and reading include: The Lion of Ireland, The Last Prince of Ireland, her Irish troubles series: 1916, 1921, 1949, 1972 and 1999.

Murder on the Eiffel Tower

Murder on the Eiffel Tower by Claude by Claude Izner

To be honest with you, I was disappointed in this mystery. For a couple of reasons. First you never really know why the protaganist, Victor Legris, a bookseller, decides to "investigate" a series of murders that take place on or around the Eiffel Tower. Second, in spite of a muddied plot, I guessed who the murderer was without any real clues being left.

The review from Barnes and Noble had this to say about this first in a series of novels with the bookseller, Victor Legris, as the amateur sleuth. "the mystery has its share of problems -- among them: thinly drawn characters and wooden dialogue...." Perhaps the best part is the historical setting, the 1889 Paris World Exposition.

I would avoid this mystery series and focus on the various other mystery series mentioned on this blog, like: Death at La Fenice or any of the Mistress of the Art of Death novels, or Blind Justice. And of course you can never go wrong picking up any of Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories.

The Shadow Elite by Janine R. Wedel

The Shadow Elite: How the World's New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market by Janine R. Wedel

This title may sound like some conspiracy theory. But contrary to what the title may sound like, this expose was not written by some right or left wing pundit or some "over the edge" conspiracy theorist, who sees a conspiracy behind every major event. This is a scholarly work written by an anthropologist.

Janine R. Wedel is a Professor in the School of Public Policy at George Mason University and a fellow at the New America Foundation. Using her expertise in Eastern European communist governments, Wedel has pulled together a shocking expose of those individuals dismantling U.S. democracy from the inside.

I will warn you, it is a slow read and the first chapter might discourage you from reading on. But once you get through the first chapter, where Wedel labels the new breed of U.S. political operators as "flexians," and their personal networks as "flex nets", the rest of the book flows a little easier. She defines "flexians" as lobbyists, government insiders or elected officials that converge into a single network "snaking through official and private organizations, creating a loop that is closed to democratic processes."

Wedel shows how a flexian can gain extraordinary insider knowledge and influence in order to custom-tailor a version of the "truth" benefitting the highest bidder. In this way, they not only "co-opt public policy agendas" but "craft policy with their benefactors' purposes in mind."

Wedel does more than just create descriptive labels, she names names and provides concrete examples of the connections between these flexians and their various organizations. These same influential people seem to reappear time after time in different professional guises, pressing their own agendas in one venue after another.

Wedel charts how this shadow elite, loyal only to their own, challenge both governments’ rules of accountability and business codes of competition to accomplish their own goals. From the Harvard economists who helped privatize post-Soviet Russia and the neoconservatives who have helped privatize American foreign policy (culminating with the debacle that is Iraq) to the many private players who daily make public decisions without public input, these manipulators both grace the front pages and operate behind the scenes. While you will recognize many of the names, it is their actions and how they manipulate events to their advantage that remain in the shadows.

Death in La Fenice by Donna Leon

Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon

This mystery practically reads like a screenplay. You can visualize each scene as you are reading. This is the first in a mystery series with Guido Brunetti as the vice-commissario of police and detective genius. And to be honest it won't be my last. I enjoyed this book. It is a quick and engrossing read. Plus the setting of story is Venice. Having recently visited Venice, it was easy for me to visualize the descriptions provided by Leon, who currently resides in Venice. Just as the author is enamored by the location, so am I. You quickly become fascinated with anything that has to do with Venice. Leon's description of the city at night, jives with my memory. Unlike other major European cities that come alive at night, Venice settles down at night, making you wonder, where did all those people go that were crowding the calli (alleyways of Venice) during the day.

Beautiful and serene Venice is a city almost devoid of crime. But that is little comfort to Maestro Helmut Wellauer, a world-renowned conductor who is poisoned one night during intermission. As Guido Brunetti, vice-commissario of police and a genius of detection, pieces together the clues, a shocking picture of depravity and revenge emerges.

As Library Journal states, "you certainly won't want to go to Italy, especially Venice, without bringing a few Donna Leon mysteries featuring Commissario Brunetti, whose love of good food and despair about corruption in Italian politics play prominent roles in every book."

So pick up Donna Leon and start following the exploits of Commissario Brunetti.

A Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin

A Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin

This is the second novel in Franklin's Mistress in the Art of Death series. The first novel, with that as its title, introduces Franklin's strong female protaganist, a Medieval forensic specialist by the name of Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar.

The first in the series, Mistress of the Art of Death, is set in the era of Henry II of England, who calls on his cousin the King of Sicily-whose subjects include the best medical experts in Europe-and asks for his finest "master of the art of death," an early version of the medical examiner, to help uncover a killer of small children in Cambridge, England. The King of Sicily sends his best "forensic pathologist", who just happens to be a young woman, Adelia Aguilar. In Medieval England, a woman doctor would never be accepted, and most likely viewed as a witch. Adelia has to travel with a male companion, Mansur, a Moor, who speaks Arabic. Adelia is able to pose as the intrepreter.

This series needs to be read in sequence, because all the main characters are introduced in Mistress of the Art of Death, and subsequently appear in The Serpent's Tale. In this sequel, King Henry II's mistress is found poisoned, and suspicion falls on his estranged queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine. The king orders Adelia, expert in the science of death, to investigate-and hopefully stave off a civil war.

The third in the series, of which I am currently engrossed is entitled, Grave Goods. While I have enjoyed all of this series, Grave Goods, really delivers the goods in terms of suspense (a page turner) and historical fiction. Franklin's Mistress of the Art of Death series is a beautiful blend of history, forensics, mystery and suspense. You could call this series, Bones in King Henry's court.
This is a relaxing, enjoyable and an engrossing series, with a great female protagonist. I would recommend investing your time in this series.

Blackwater by Jeremy Scahill

Blackwater : the rise of the world's most powerful mercenary army

This is a scary book. Even if you thought you knew something about the rise of this private firm, that provides "military troops for hire", and its close ties to the Department of Defense, you will be taken aback by how insidious this whole trend toward privatizing our military really is. President Eisenhower, who warned us of the possibility of allowing the military industrial complex to learn what has transpired in regards to our military and the Department of Defense.

In this brilliant expose by investigative journalist, Jeremy Scahill, you will meet BLACKWATER USA, the world's most secretive and powerful mercenary firm. Based in the wilderness of North Carolina, it is the fastest-growing private army on the planet, with forces capable of carrying out regime change throughout the world.

Blackwater was founded by an extreme right-wing fundamentalist Christian mega-millionaire ex-Navy Seal named Erik Prince, the scion of a wealthy conservative family that bankrolls far-right-wing causes. This book is the dark story of the rise of a powerful mercenary army, ranging from the blood-soaked streets of Fallujah to rooftop firefights in Najaf to the hurricane-ravaged US Gulf to Washington DC, where Blackwater executives are hailed as new heroes in the war on terror.

It took me awhile to pick this book up, because I knew it would disturb me. But it is a story that needs to be told and read, not just by U.S. citizens, but by the people in power, who might be motivated to pass legislation that would transfer control of the military back to the people and elected officials in the executive branch, as well as the Department of Defense and the State Department.

MN Author Will Weaver to visit RHS

Award winning Minnesota Author, Will Weaver

will be visiting Rosemount High School on Friday afternoon, April 16 during periods 6 and 7. His program will be held in the Performing Arts Center, so there should be plenty of room for several classes.

Will Weaver writes fiction for adults and young adults. He was born in northern Minnesota in 1950 and grew up on a dairy farm. His novels and short stories have earned the praises of reviewers from coast-to-coast for their unflinching realism. Each novel in his Billy Baggs series (Striking Out, Farm Team, and Hard Ball) was honored as a Best Book for Young Adults by the American Library Association.

His novel Memory Boy (2001) is used widely in schools across the United States. Following the novel, Claws (2001), his novel Full Service (coming of age in the Vietnam era) won starred reviews and was also listed as an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Defect (about being different) was a winner of the 2008 Minnesota Book Award, is the story of a young man with a miraculous birth abnormality.

A Prolific Writer

Saturday Night Dirt, a novel focused on stock car racing, was released in April, 2008. A sequel, Super Stock Rookie, was released in April 2009. And a third in the trilogy, Checkered Flag Cheater, is due ouit this month. A sequel to Memory Boy should be out in late 2010.

Weaver describes his presentation as an integrated program on reading and the process of writing. He states, “My presentation comes at reading, literacy and the value of books from a “stealth” direction: through the attention-getter of a race car, and then to my novels for young adults, and then Q & A about how a writer writes, and so on."

Be sure to visit his website for more information....

http://www.willweaverbooks.com/pages/youngadult.php