Book Recommendations: Louis L'Amour Fair Blows the Wind

     Sword fighting, golden treasures, battles on the high seas, “Fair Blows the Wind”, by Louis L’Amour contains all this and more in an action filled historical adventure. The book’s main character, Tatton Chantry seeks to regain his family’s lost home and land as he ventures across the world trying to make his fortune. L’Amour is a great writer with the ability to sink the reader into this historic world and carry them along on an exciting adventure. “Fair Blows the Wind” is a good modern novel for those that enjoy classics as this book maintains that type of flare.

Is Suzanne Collins’ THE HUNGER GAMES series an accurate prediction of the future of human society?

    I can’t remember the last time that I read a book based in the far future where society was better off. There always seems to be the wealthy singular governance which preys upon the have-nots. In Suzanne Collins’ THE HUNGER-GAMES series, the world’s working class is dominated by the wealthy ruling class. Granted this is simply a well thought out plot in a novel and not a declaration of the possible future that the world is heading to, I think that it is interesting that many authors see the future with little optimism. Although the ruler is titled as a president, the futuristic setting of THE HUNGER GAMES is similar to that of a time of kings and queens, which ruled their kingdoms with absolute control. Could our future generations see a great limiting of their rights which have been fought over for more than 2000 years?
Is there an alternative or is human nature so destructive that it is inevitable that governments will fall and society will crumble?

Comments on Modern Novels - Neil Stephenson's QUICKSILVER

     In Neil Stephenson’s novel, Quicksilver, the author explains the nature of religious leaders.

“People who are especially bad and know that they are may be drawn to religion because they harbor a desperate hope that it has some power to make them virtuous– to name their demons and cast them out. But if they are clever then can find ways to pervert their own faith and make it serve whatever bad intentions they had to begin with. The true benefit of religion is not to make people virtuous, which is impossible, but to put a sort of bridle on the worst excesses of their viciousness.”

    Does religion stand as a sort of sanctuary for those that are not virtuous, as a defense against their uncontrollable behaviors? I hope to believe that Stephenson is mistaken, that the highlighting of religious leaders’ wrong doings is just that, a highlighting of only the bad. But there is a failure to show the everyday good of the majority of religion and religious leaders. I believe that religious leaders can be looked at as having to uphold a higher standard than those not in a leadership role. However is this not true of government and organizational leaders as well? I believe that there exists a factor in a person’s makeup that lead them to extremes, this same factor is what compels leaders to rise to the top. Those that are followers lack this gift and/or drive. Religious leaders are no different.

Danielle Trussoni's Novel, Angelology

I highly recommend Danielle Trussoni’s novel, Angelology. Trussoni’s writing is gripping, able to capture the reader early on in the plot that was very well researched. She combines the depth of historic adventure and religious spirituality into a well-balanced thriller.

This New York Times Best-Seller is Trussoni’s first published novel. It follows in the shadow of her highly acclaimed non-fiction work, Falling Through the Earth: A Memoir, which was inspired by her father’s experiences as a tunnel rat during the Vietnam War and was elected by New York Times as one of the Ten Best Books of 2006. To add to Trussoni’s continued success, Columbia Pictures has purchased the rights to begin working on the movie adaption of Angelology.

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. -Genesis 6:5

Sister Evangeline was just a girl when her father entrusted her to the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration in upstate New York. Now, at twenty-three, her discovery of a 1943 letter from the famous philanthropist Abigail Rockefeller to the late mother superior of Saint Rose Convent plunges Evangeline into a secret history that stretches back a thousand years: an ancient conflict between the Society of Angelologists and the monstrously beautiful descendants of angels and humans, the Nephilim.

For the secrets these letters guard are desperately coveted by the once-powerful Nephilim, who aim to perpetuate war, subvert the good in humanity, and dominate mankind. Generations of angelologists have devoted their lives to stopping them, and their shared mission, which Evangeline has long been destined to join, reaches from her bucolic abbey on the Hudson to the apex of insular wealth in New York, to the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris and the mountains of Bulgaria.

Review of Independently Published Works

The landscape of getting published has changed greatly for new writers. The quantity of books being published these days is astronomical compared to the period of classic authors. Although the quality may not have withstood the pace of the record new books that are being published, the competition makes being recognized almost impossible. At Descriptive Phrases.com I have desired for some time to begin a review and short interview style page that explores some new, independent authors and try to help their works gain a greater audience.

 

 With so much of my time going into my own writing and the creation of this site, I’ve placed this idea of a review of only independently published works on the back burner. Additionally, I didn’t know where I should begin if I were to pursue such a project. Recently I was contacted by a fairly new author who asked for my help in reviewing her new book, and I thought this is the perfect time to help a fellow writer and begin a new page on Descriptive Phrases.com .

 

 I am looking forward to this new project and truly hope that I can help at least one author gain a few readers and some recognition for their work. As always, thanks for reading.

A look a Brad Thor

    Brad Thor is a New York Times best seller's list author of many thrillers. I was unacquainted with this novelist so decided to pick up one of his older novels, “The State of the Union" (2004). This was his third published novel. For a quick summer type read I really enjoyed this authors writing. His plot seemed very well researched but the characters left a little to be desired. Overall I felt that Thor writes a well thought-out, quick paced thrilling novel. Particularly, his description of a torture scene toward the beginning of this novel was excruciating to even read. It involved a dental operation conducted by someone the reader can be assured lacked any proper dental degree from any accredited college. This year we can expect the release of his latest novel, "Hidden Order" which I am looking forward too.

Markus Zusak The Book Thief

    I was recently looking back at some of the books that I’ve read this past year for titles that I’d either recommend or have recommended. Topping the list was “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak. Zusak was a very young author when he began receiving awards and recognition for his first several YA novels. “The Book Thief” is a story of a young girl living in Germany in the 1940s. The plot involves life, death and the main character’s discovery of the power and meaning of literary works. This was actually recommended to me and after reading it I passed it on to someone else. I would definitely place this on a must read list of modern literature.