Book Review: My Thoughts on Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer

I Meet Artemis Fowl

Although I didn't enjoy meeting Artemis Fowl, a diabolical twelve-year old, and wouldn't recommend him as a role model, I can sympathize with his having too much time on his hands and not enough constructive attention from his parents.  I normally don't read fantasy, but I have to admit Artemis Fowl held my attention.

 I was immediately lured into the realm of the fairy world by the intriguing plot of this book. It engaged me and kept me wondering what would happen next. I was also intrigued with the characters -- both human and fairy. Each character has a definite personality that humans can relate to. Each character seems to grapple with moral issues, unless it is an amoral character (dwarf, troll). Even in the world of the fairies we see politics at work and those who are politically motivated are willing to destroy others in their attempt to climb to the top.

Artemis Captures Holly

I was able to identify easily with Holly Short, the elf/fairy/leprechaun and protagonist in this book. She felt a bit discriminated against as the first female officer in LEP's (Lower Elements Police) Recon unit.  She was a bit behind in attending to her Ritual.  That meant her magic was not fully there and that she was unshielded and could be seen by humans. Her commander, Root, discovered this while she was tracking a troll and was seen. Root then sent her to perform the Ritual, and that landed her in Ireland.

Unfortunately, Artemis captured her before she could finish the Ritual which would restore her magic. She neded to pluck an acorn where "full moon, ancient oak and twisted water meet. And bury it far from where it was found."  She had the acorn, but had not had the chance to bury it yet. So she was still unshielded and without her magic when Artemis kidnapped her and held her prisoner in the Fowl estate.

The Plot

The plot is complicated and I won't reveal all of it. It is the moral issues in the book that fascinate me. Fowl is a child prodigy who had managed to steal and copy the Golden Book containing the rules the fairies had to follow.  He had found a way to translate the fairy language in which it was written. He did this so he can get his hands on the gold he believes the fairies hoard.  Holly has to abide by the fairy rules, and Fowl uses his knowledge of them to keep her imprisoned. Meanwhile, a fairy Retrieval team has been sent to rescue her. 

Besides Fowl himself, Holly is guarded by Butler, Fowl's mammoth body guard, and Butler's younger sister, Juliet, who is not too bright. Holly has a certain amount of sympathy for Juliet, and that sympathy almost gets her killed. Fowl has demanded a ransom of a ton of gold for Holly's release. Holly cannot leave a human house without human permission (according to the rules). Holly managed to pound through the floor of her cell to bury her acorn and obtain her magic and shielding and take advantage of Juliet's laziness and addiction to wrestling programs on TV to distract her  and escape the cell.  

 Holly and Fowl know that the house is in a  field where time has been stopped for six hours to buy the fairies a longer night, since they can't handle daylight above ground. At the end of the time field, a "blue rinse" will destroy every living thing in the house --including Holly if she's still there. The idea is to get Holly out, destroy the others, and then go back after the gold, since only living things are destroyed.

 

A Dwarf and a Troll Precipitate a Crisis

Troll Courtesy of Pixabay, Public Domain, Modified on PicMonkey

Meanwhile, Mulch, a reprobate dwarf, has been let out of prison to enter the house. He has approached and found the secret safe where the a copy of the golden fairy rule book is hidden. Butler has been sent to the safe room, and is subdued by Mulch, who then realizes an opportunity to escape from everyone, including the fairies who would like to imprison him again. He manages to make the fairies think he is dead.  With Mulch's disappearance, the fairy command makes the rash decision to send in another lapsed creature -- a troll -- to get rid of the humans.

Holly, unaware of this, decides she will cause a lot of destruction in the house until Fowl begs her to leave. Meanwhile, Butler carries Juliet to what he deems as a safe place and hastens to meet the intruder he hears -- the troll.  He tries to shoot it, but his shots have little effect. Instead the troll almost or completely kills him, and then smells and starts toward Juliet. Holly arrives at the scene and sees Julie's danger and tries to save her, knowing that she'll be in trouble for it. She hits the troll with light, but he still topples her and she is hit by a tapestry falling on her. When she falls, her arm lands on the body of Butler, and he regains consciousness, aware that he is alive and fairy magic is healing him. Holly is also recovering and is able to see Butler defeat the troll before he can kill Juliet.

Artemis is still determined to hold Holy for the ransom, in spite of the fact that she has saved both him and Butler. Butler was a man of honor and did not like this. Holly knows they will all be blasted in a few minutes when the time field can no longer hold off daylight. The gold is on the way, but time is short. Holly confronts Fowl, asking him if he's told Bulter and Juliet about the destruction that's about to come upon them.  Although she's not supposed to have empathy for humans, she does for Juliet. Fowl says he knows and that he also knows how to escape the time field -- a feat that Holly can't believe is possible. Butler affirms his faith in Fowl's abilities, even with Juliet at risk. Then the gold arrived!

"A life is a life."

I won't reveal the ending, but it did involve more dialog between Holly and Fowl. We are left with the impression that  Artemis is not quite so sinister at the end as at the beginning. Near the end, Holly tries to prevent her people from detonating the bio-bomb that will kill the humans, intervening for the innocent Juliet, insisting that "A life is a life."

I will leave it there. The ending is surprising. Upper graders who need a lot of action to motivate them to read will probably be willing to finish reading this because of the action and humor. I found the extreme environmental undertones in the book a bit of a distraction. The fairy folk have no good words for the human race, which in their opinion destroys everything it touches.

Image of Fairy Courtesy of Pixabay
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Recommendation and Purchase Information

Artemis Fowl should satisfy thoughtful people over the age of ten who want lots of action and don't mind thinking through moral issues as they follow that action. Less thoughtful young people will enjoy it for the action alone. Artemis Fowl books are also available as  graphic novels or you can get a set containing three to eight of the text versions of the books. You choose.   Any of these would make a great gift for a young science fiction or fantasy reader. 

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 Artemis Fowl Collection 8 books set (Artemis Fowl; Time Paradox; Atlantis Complex; Opal Deception; Arctic Incident; Eternity Code; Lost Colony & [hardcover] The Last Guardian) Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel

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CATCH ME …. CAUGHT. Two Book Reviews

Reading is one of life's greatest pleasures...

There's No Such Thing as Too Many Books! Postcard by friendlyspirit

Recently I came home with four books to read; two by a couple of my favorite writers. Since I was looking forward to reading all of these books, it didn't matter which one I read first. Therefore I simply picked up one and began to read. 

When I finished the first one, I picked up the next book.  About half-way through the story, my eyes happened to catch the title CAUGHT and it suddenly struck me that the book I had just finished was titled CATCH ME.  How interesting ~ Catch Me – Caught!   Quite a coincidence as those titles definitely fit in with the category of my favorite genre – Mystery/Suspense/Thriller!  If you are a mystery book fan, you might also be interested in reading these two books, so let me tell you about them.

CATCH ME by Lisa Gardner

 

CATCH ME was written by Lisa Gardner in 2012 and was a finalist in the 2013 'Thriller Award for Best Novel'.  For fans of Lisa Gardner, you'll be delighted to know that the story features one of Gardner's well-known continuing characters, D.D. Warren, homicide detective with the Boston P.D.

As the story opens, Det. Sgt. Warren has just returned from maternity leave when she and her team are called to a murder scene.  Ordinarily, D.D. would be in peak form, being a workaholic who loves her job, but two hours of sleep after a night up with baby Jack has left her cranky!.

As D.D. is leaving the crime scene, a woman named Charlene Grant (Charlie) shocks her with an incredible story.  In the past two consecutive years, Charlie has lost her two best friends, each murdered at 8 p.m. on January 21 with no known motive.  It is now just 4 days until the next January 21 and Charlie believes she is next in line to be murdered.

D.D. Warren is busy with her latest homicide, which is discovered to be connected to a vigilante gunman who is killing pedophiles in Boston, while trying to cope with exhaustion due to her new baby and complicated home life.  Now it appears she also needs to look into the murders of Charlie's friends to find answers before the January 21 anniversary.

 Is Charlie in danger, or is she hiding behind a terrifying secret?  This Number 6 in the D.D. Warren series will keep you on the edge of your seat!

Lisa Gardner, Author

Lisa Gardner (nee Lisa Baumgartner) is a crime thriller novelist with 17 books to her credit. Four of her novels have been made into movies.  She has written two series with continuing characters and several non-series stand-alone books.  One series includes the cast of Pierce Quincy, an ex-FBI profiler, his partner 'Rainie' Conner, a cop, and his daughter, FBI Special Agent Kimberly Quincy.  Gardner's other series takes place in Boston and features either D.D. Warren, a police detective or Bobby Dodge, a state police sniper. 

Lisa came up with a fun way to involve her readers.  She created a “Kill a Friend, Maim a Buddy” Sweepstakes where you can nominate the person of your choice (even yourself) to die in Lisa’s latest novel.  Check out how the sweepstakes works and some really amusing facts about this author on the Lisa Gardner website.

CAUGHT by Harlan Coben

 

Harlan Coben is another of my favorite mystery authors.  In CAUGHT, written in 2010, Coben tells a complex story about seventeen-year-old Haley, pride of a loving New Jersey family, who suddenly goes missing, and a reporter, Wendy Tynes, who uses her nationally televised news program “Caught in the Act” to expose sexual predators.  Dan Mercer, a social worker who works with troubled teens, becomes the latest person to be exposed by Wendy.  But is he really guilty?

Is there a connection between the missing girl and a predator?  Is Dan guilty as accused, or can the reporter not trust her own instincts?  In Caught, Harlan Coben takes us through an exciting, tension-filled story about guilt, grief and our capacity to forgive. The ending will surprise you.

 

 

Harlan Coben, Author

Harlan Coben, an award-winning mystery fiction author, bases most of his non-series stories in his home state of New Jersey.  Of Harlan Coben's 27 novels to date, he now has 60 million books in print worldwide, and his last eight novels have all debuted as #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.  CAUGHT is one of these.

Ten books feature Myron Bolitar, a former basketball star who turns sports agent after injuries curtail his pro career.  His office is in New York City and he seems to end up investigating a number of complicated problems (including murder) involving the athletes he represents.  The Bolitar series are suspenseful thrillers, yet are often surprisingly funny.

Since 2011, Coben has written 3 Young Adult novels featuring Mickey Bolitar, Myron's nephew, a high school student who comes to live with his uncle after his father is killed and ends up with his own set of adventures.

Harlan Coben lives in New Jersey with his wife and 4 children.  Visit the Harlan Coben website to read about all his books.  I'm currently reading his latest just published in March 2015 ~ The Stranger.

Writers are Readers!

Before one becomes a writer, they are first a reader.  My family and I have a deep Love of Reading.

Check out the many other delightful Book Reviews from the readers and writers on Review This!

Happy Reading!

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Review of Samantha Kincaid Legal Thrillers by Alafair Burke

Why I started Reading Alafair Burke's Books

One day at the library I was looking for enough books to get me through an unpleasant medical procedure.  A man who was browsing the new books next to me recommended I check out the first three Samantha Kincaid Legal Thrillers.  I'm glad I did. I had not read anything by Alafair Burke before, but I'd like to read more of her work.

Samantha (Sam) Kincaid is a Multnomah County deputy district attorney (DDA) in Portland, Oregon. Sam had been an Assisant U. S. Attorney in New York before her then husband Roger had gotten a job as in-house counsel with Nike in Portland, so she had moved with him. After they had moved, she discovered he was playing around and she divorced him. Her first DDA assignment was in the Drug and Vice Division (DVD).

Reviews of the Samantha Kincaid Legal Thrillers

Judgment Calls

In Book 1,  Judgment Calls, Sam's first case involved an almost dead thirteen-year-old prostitute, Kendra Martin, who had been dumped into the Columbia Gorge after being raped, beaten and left for dead. The case had been assigned first to the Major Crimes Team (MCT) when it had appeared Kendra was dead. When she wasn't, Tim O'Donnell, a senior DA in the major crimes unit, didn't want to prosecute the case as an attempted murder. Instead he wanted to kick the case down to the general felony unit, for crimes not considered serious, where everyone knew there wasn't enough motivated manpower to prosecute the case thoroughly. Prosecutors for general felonies tried to get rid of their cases quickly by pleading them out for reduced sentences.

As Judgment Calls opens, Sergeant Tommy Garcia, who was in charge of the department's vice unit, is explaining the circumstances of the case to Sam. Garcia wants Sam to take the case as part of DVD because drugs and prostitution are involved and he knows Sam will put the energy needed into the prosecution. Tommy and the MCT believe the case is serious and they want  to catch the bad guys and prosecute them to the full extent of the law. Garcia arranges for Sam to meet with two MCT detectives in the cafeeria, Jack Walker and Raymond Johnson, about the case. It turns out that Sam's old on-again, off-again boyfriend, Chuck Forbes, is also in the MCT. His partner is Mike Calabrese.

By the time the meeting in the cafeteria was over, the way was paved to keep MCT working on the case with Sam in charge of the prosecution. Her relationship with Chuck is a subplot. So is Sam's relationship with her father and her best friend, Grace. These characters appear in all the books.

The other character that appears in every book is Lisa Lopez, an attorney often called in to defend indigent defendants. She is a naive “true believer” who is sure all her clients are innocent, whether they are or not. Naturally, she is called in to defend Frank Derringer, one of the two men Kendra said kidnapped, raped, and beat her. She had identified him from a picture, but she did not know who the second man was. Lisa is Sam's nemesis in all the books I've read so far.

I won't say any more about the details or outcome of this case. I will say there is lots of action and the reader will see a detailed account of how both the police and the prosecutors do their work and what a political atmosphere they work in. The author does a great job in developing the main characters and showing how difficult it is to convict a suspect when most evidence is circumstantial. The plots are complicated enough to keep one interested without confusing readers.

Missing Justice

By the second book in the series, Missing Justice, Sam has been promoted to the Major Crimes Unit after her performance in the previous book. This time she needs to prosecute the killer of a missing administrative judge who later turns up dead. Burke does an even better job with the plot and characters in this book than in the last one. My experience so far with Burke's books is that they are not simple cases of finding one culprit. They are more like complex webs that need to be unraveled, where characters rarely turn out to be as they appear to be, the crimes are committed by more than one person, and the victims may not be innocent themselves . The fun for the reader is in trying to identify those who ought to be suspects, following the threads of the investigations, and  trying to piece together what is found in the investigation before Sam does. There's also enough suspense to keep the reader holding her breath until the end.

Close Case

The last of the three books in the batch I read this week is Close Case, in which a black news reporter, Percy Crenshaw, is murdered in his car. A black woman has also been shot through her windshield by a white police officer who claims it was self-defense, even though the woman was unarmed. Later, there is a drive-by shooting that kills one black woman and badly injures another who is a well-known black activist. A major help in putting the pieces together to solve the crime was a wannabe reporter –a news staffer who had helped the police who were searching Percy's office after his death. This was my personal favorite of the books.

 Samantha Kincaid Mysteries (3 Book Series) Judgment Calls: A Mystery Missing Justice (Samantha Kincaid Mysteries) Close Case (Samantha Kincaid Mysteries)

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My Recommendation

I would recommend these novels to all who enjoy thrillers, and who can live with colorful language and main characters who have affairs or shack up. These books do not assume that all police and prosecutors are good guys. You will see a very seamy side of life, but that comes with the territory in detective novels and legal thrillers.

The author, Alafair Burke, is a former DDA in Portland who now teaches law and appears on television as a legal commentator. We can assume she has first-hand knowledge of her subject. I'm hoping to pick up another of her books soon. I was sorry to see the last one end.

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My Nose Has Always Been in a Book

I Began to Read at an Early Age

This is me. 

My parents say I taught myself to read when I was three years old, and I still remember the exact book that helped me learn – I See a Kitty. It had large print, few words, several full-page photos of a kitten doing interesting things, and a very uncomplicated plot. My mother read it to me until I had it memorized, and I would still be able recite it to you if you could stand it. Memorized or not, though, I was able to recognize those words in other books my mom read, and I'd ask my dad about the letters in the headlines of the paper he was reading. By the time I hit first grade, the teacher didn't know what to do with me. I and another girl in my class who coincidentally had the same first and last name as I, got to sit in a corner of the classroom and read books while the teacher taught the rest of the class to read.

Since those days I've continued to love kitties and books. I currently don't own a cat, but I own way too many books. I've been collecting them all my life. My first job after high school was in a library. My major in college was English. I taught English at the high school level for two years after that. I quit with the hope of starting a family, but that didn't happen, so I started working in a Christian bookstore. At both the library, where I could check out all the books my heart desired, and at the bookstore, where I could borrow all the books I wanted to read, I had access to as many books as I needed. My bookstore discount helped me stock my home library. Is it any wonder they have made me the Book Contributor here on Review This?

Living with Books and Selling Them

My book collecting didn't end there, though. As a teacher and later, a homeschooling mom after we adopted our two children, I continued to buy and read books. After our daughter moved out and our son was killed in a jet ski accident, I made a hasty decision to become a home school book vendor. That meant I exhibited my books at conventions all over the country between 1992 and 1996, as Barb's People Builders. We had to stop the exhibiting and California book fairs at private schools after that because my husband had worn out both hips. So I took the business online.

Part of History Display at Bookfair

I decided it was time to retire from e-commerce at the end of May 2015 because several surgeries in 2014 made me deactivate my site while I recovered and the site itself became obsolete as far as Google was concerned. I was also not physically able any longer to ship large purchase orders. So after twenty years of selling inventory, I just stopped. I still love books, but now I am a real life book contributor. I'm donating as much inventory as I can to worthy nonprofit organizations. I'm concentrating more now on writing and building more web sites.

I now have more time to read and review books. I have started converting my Barb's People Builders website into a review and affiliate selling site, Books to Remember  so that I can promote the books I love whether I own them or not, though I still do own most of them. Most of the books I review there are for children or educators. I review most books for adults here on Review This Reviews!

I Finally Discovered a Way to Share My Writing

 I have been writing since I was a child, but at first I only shared it with family and friends, mostly in long letters. I was still selling books when I discovered Squidoo became a lensmaster in 2009. By the end of that year I had become a Giant Squid, and still wear my Squidoo T-shirts I was given when I became a Giant Squid. In fact, I'm wearing one right now. Unfortunately, Squidoo died in 2014, but I had already begun writing for other sites and starting my own blogs. Much of what I wrote for Squidoo has been transferred to a new HubPages account. 

Here are the other places you can find me on the internet.

Facebook Page: Focus on San Luis Obispo County

Zazzle: Barb's California Card and Gift Gallery

Zazzle: California Wine Country Memories and Gifts

The Writing Life of Barbara Radisavljevic

Paso Robles Daily Photos Blog
Barb's Garden Observations

Books to Remember

HubPages (original account)

Medium

Wizzley

Of course, there's more to life than reading and writing. I have a garden or two, and I concentrate on herbs and drought-resistant plants. I enjoy keeping up with my local art scene, and I love to take pictures of all our local scenery and activities. When I have time I like to cook and bake. I just don't have time very much anymore. 

 Cicero - If you have a garden and library.. Postcard Jane Austen Book Well Written Quote Pillow Not too many books, Not enough shelves! Buttons Book and Chocolate Lover's Mug

 

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Review of Paper Roses by Amanda Cabot

Imagine having to leave the city where you had happiness,  loving parents, wealth, and social standing, to become a mail order bride on a Texas ranch in 1856. It was a long way for Sarah Dobbs to go with her little sister Thea from Philadelphia to San Antonio. Why would she do such a thing?

Her wealthy father’s investments had disintegrated into nothing and he had shot his wife and then himself. All the old friends abandoned Sarah after this disgraceful thing had happened.  The house was gone, the money was gone, and she had no family left except her very young sister Thea, whom she felt responsible to protect and care for.

Sarah herself was considered not worthy of a good husband because she had fallen off a horse and the fall had mangled her leg. She walked with a limp. Her leg was deformed. When Austin Canfield of the Bar C Ranch in Ladreville, Texas began courting Sarah through his letters, she fell in love with him. Even though she realized the marriage was more of a business arrangement, she knew she loved him. But here she was now, waiting at the station in San Antonio for him to arrive, and he was nowhere to be found. Had he deserted her, too?

When she had about given up hope, she was finally met not by Austin, but by someone else, who turned out to be his brother, Clay. It was Clay’s horrible task to tell Sarah her husband-to-be had just been murdered. His intent was to take Sarah back to the ranch so that she and Thea could recover from their trip, and be ready to make the return trip back home in a week.  As you can probably guess, it didn’t turn out that way.

Paper Roses by Amanda Cabot would be classified as inspirational fiction with a bit of romance. Both Sarah and Clay are dealing with anger over what has happened to their families and a feeling that God didn’t care or he would have prevented it. Austin’s one purpose was to find his brother’s killer, see that he paid, and then go back to his medical practice in Boston.

Sarah’s purpose was to protect Thea from the kind of ostracism she herself had suffered because of her father’s actions. She felt that could best be accomplished in a new setting where no one knew her. She wanted to stay in Texas. She was determined to find a way to make a living to support her and Thea.

Clay allows her to continue living on  the ranch until she can support herself. He is kind to both her and Thea. He had lost his own wife who was pregnant with their first child, and he has not recovered from that. She had died of food poisoning from eating tainted fish chowder, or so everyone had thought.

Thea insists on calling Clay “Papa,” much to his dismay, even though both Sarah and Clay have repeatedly set her straight. But he is very kind to Thea and even teaches her to ride a horse – over the protests of her mother, who was still terrified of horses.

Besides the theme of revenge, there is also the theme of the rivalry between the French and German immigrants in the town who hate each other. There is a thief who has been cutting fences and because no one knows who he is, the thefts and fence cuttings cause the people to blame anyone they don’t like so that the French and Germans hate each other even more.

Sarah is finally hired to work in the mercantile owned by  a French family, Isabelle and her brother, Leon. Neither could speak German, but half the town spoke only German. Sarah could speak German and had demonstrated her usefulness by translating for German customers on her first visit to the store the day Clay brought her to town to get some things she needed. After hiring Sarah, the store’s sales increased, and Isabelle, who was a devout Christian,  became Sarah’s close friend.

That’s all I will tell you. You may be able to guess the end from here, but not all the twists and turns that take you there as both Sarah and Clay try to find Austin’s killer, Sarah tries to unite the town and start a school, Sarah tries to help Clay’s father walk again, and God begins to heal old wounds to the spirits of all involved.

If you enjoy Christian fiction, I recommend Paper Roses. It’s worth the read. I turned out to be right about the murderer. The book’s title comes from the letters Sarah received from Austin during their courtship. She called them paper roses.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Murder in Wine Country: A Review of Deadly Vintage by William Relling Jr.

I live in wine country and I love to read mysteries. This mystery takes place in the Santa Ynez wine country that I often drive through on the way to Santa Barbara. So, of course, I had to read it.

Why I Chose to Read This Book

I love reading mysteries, and I love living in wine country, surrounded by vineyards. I even had the opportunity to observe my neighbor's wine making process after harvest. So when I was searching the mystery section at the library for a new book to read, Deadly Vintage by William Relling Jr. immediately caught my eye. As I scanned the dust jacket, I became even more interested. When I actually read the book, all I had learned about the wine industry brought the book to life for me. I'd seen the machines that process the grapes in action (as you will if you follow the link above.) I am personally acquainted with the owners of many local vineyards.

Before reading Deadly Vintage, I had just returned from a trip through the Santa Ynez valley, so I was able to visualize all the places mentioned, including those in Southern California, where I was raised and spent a good part of my life. I have driven the same Los Angeles and Orange County freeways and experienced the traffic exactly as Relling, who lived in Los Angeles when writing the book, described it.

A Review of Deadly Vintage

This book is set in the Santa Ynez Valley in the fictional town of San Tomas. If you click that link, it will bring up a map that will show you  the scenery Jack saw during his investigation. The protagonist, Jack Donne, a former Treasury agent, is now a vintner. He works with his father, Raymond Donne, referred to as Dad in this first person narrative, who had been an architect in nearby Santa Barbara, before retiring to make wine. They have one full-time employee, Jesus Fonseca, who was born in Mexico. The other important family member is Uncle Gerry Donne, Dad's brother, a financial lawyer in Santa Barbara who handles the Donne Vineyards account, besides being a partner in the business.

The action begins when Ozzie Cole the son of another wealthy winery owner, Perry Cole, now retired, barges in on Jack unexpectedly and implores him to investigate the possibility that someone is counterfeiting his expensive wine and selling it in Southern California. Jack does not want to get involved. He has never liked Ozzie, though he respects him as a wine maker. Ozzie's two brothers, June (short for Junior) and Grant, are working together and competing with Ozzie, who has his own operation and produces expensive boutique wines. June and Grant make cheaper wines.

Uncle Gerry finally convinces Jack to work for Ozzie by sharing with Jack a possible connection between the person selling the counterfeit wine and a mobster who is well-known to all of them. A couple of days later, Perry Cole, who is living in a nursing home and is assisted by his long-time servant, Zeke Carlin, an ex-boxer, is murdered on Carlin's day off.

Ozzie is arrested for the murder, since Brad Fitch, the Lieutenant investigating the case, thought Ozzie had the knowledge, opportunity, and motive to kill his father, the motive being money. The Perry family lawyer, Daniel Wikert had let it slip to police that Ozzie stood to inherit almost all of Perry's sizable estate. Ozzie had also been trained as a medic in the National Guard, giving him the knowledge it took to kill Perry in the way he had died. Jack had also witnessed Perry leaving his father, still arguing loudly, the night before Perry was murdered.

Jack doesn't like Ozzie much, but he doesn't believe he killed his father. Jack smells a rat in Wikert, and also learns that the sleazy lawyer has connections with the underworld. Jack continues his investigation to not only uncover the counterfeiting operation, but also to find the real murderer.

The characters in this book are developed just enough to make me care about them. The plot moves in such a way that I'm not really surprised by the outcome, since the author dropped just enough clues to enable me to think with him. In fact, I was pretty sure who had killed Perry before Jack seemed to catch on. I don't like it when I've been trying to think with a detective or investigator and then at the end all kinds of new elements appear that change everything that seemed to follow logically before. I'm looking forward to reading the next and only other book in this series. There won't be any more, because the author committed suicide in 2004 when he was only 49.

I have linked to both formats of the book below, should you want to read it.

 Deadly Vintage (A Jack Donne Mystery) Deadly Vintage: A Jack Donne Mystery (Walker Mystery)

Understanding How Wine Is Processed

Croad Vineyard owner Martin Croad invited me to tour his winery during harvest day in 2011. He showed me all the machines used to process the wine, and I have included them, along with his explanation of what they do and a demonstration of each. Watching this video will help you to understand the plot of Deadly Vintage better, since the process of wine making, and the machines used, are important in the plot.

Recommendation 

I recommend this book to mystery loving wine aficionados or anyone who enjoys thinking along with investigators to solve murder mysteries. The book is even more fun if you are familiar with the Southern California area and can visualize where the action is happening.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Reviewing the Risks and Rewards of Living on the Web

The Web is a two edge sword with benefits and risks. As you travel the Internet, review how you act and react on the sites you visit. Here are some things to think about.

We're living in a new world. Tread lightly.

That was how a friend started her Facebook post. An article she read on Time.com put a warning in her head about the dangers of texting while parenting. She wanted her friends and family to know that the relationships we have with our children and grandchildren are at stake!

According to the article, kids don't want to compete with smartphones for attention. Can you blame them?

In the 1960s and 1970s, parents were warned that watching too much TV meant spending less quality time with family. In 2015, it's the smartphone that monopolizes our attention and causes us to get grumpy when the kids interrupt a game of Candy Crush.

The moral to this story... Think before using your smartphone and watch your travels carefully when you step out on the web. It's not just our relationships with our families that are at risk.

Review Your Online Activities

Available on Amazon.com

It was ironic that my friend posted this article just as I finished reading The Reputation Economy: How to Optimize Your Digital Footprint in a World Where Your Reputation is Your Most Valuable Asset by Michael Fertik and David C. Thompson.

It's not just our children and grandchildren that react to our online activities. Our banks, employers, travel agents and others watch us as we surf the 'Net. Yes, the Big Brother from George Orwell's classic book, 1984, is alive, well and watching us. And, Big Brother's cousin, Big Data, is keeping score.

In the new and evolving Reputation Economy that is forming on the web, the authors predict that reputation, not money, will be the new power. And, how we act online will affect our online reputation score. It will be this score that will define how people see us and what they will do for us. Or, not do for us.

What is this online reputation score? It's created by a computer algorithm and it takes all of our online activities into account. How can it do this? Big Data is busy collecting everything it can about us as we travel from site to site on the web. Cookies are just one way to collect all kinds of data about us. And, data storage is so cheap that companies can afford to store petabytes of data. A petabyte is 1 million gigabytes!

With so much available cheap storage, Big Data's sibling, Big Analysis, has lots of data to work with and manipulate. Big Data can store everything from our Google searches to online purchases, websites visited and social media posts. And Big Analysis has the computing power to make a quick decision about our characters and habits.

Create an Online Reputation Plan

Think about this for a minute. The combination of data collection, cheap data storage and blazing-fast analytic abilities means that everything we do online can be under scrutiny and recorded. Algorithms have the ability to assign us a reputation score based on the people we meet, the places we go and the things we do.

How much do you know about your fellow Farmville players? You may not think your time spent with gaming friends doesn't matter, but it might. Big Data and Big Analysis may use this information to create a reputation score that affects your ability to rent a car, buy a home or receive valuable coupons.

Now, if you're thinking that you can surf the web anonymously and avoid detection, you may be wrong. According to Fertik and Thompson, "powerful software can often identify you by nothing more than the quirks of your writing style."

What do the author's of The Reputation Economy suggest we do to protect ourselves from Big Data and Big Analysis? Here are their basic tips:

• Assume everything you do online is being collected, stored and analyzed.
• Be careful what you say and how you react to false allegations.
• Create a digital smokescreen to hide any negative information in your search results.

Learn How to Manage Your Online Activities

Why should you care about this online reputation score? Fertik and Thompson believe one of the outcomes of this reputation score is that business will use this score to pinpoint good customers and offer these people special offers. If you aren't lucky enough to have this prized reputation score, you may be passed over for these offers and never know it.

The moral to this story... Keep a clean social media profile, always be on your best behavior online and think before you post.

Find more insights and tips on living on the web while preserving your reputation by reading The Reputation Economy. I found this book fascinating, informative and somewhat scary. The Reputation Economy is a well researched book that looks at the effects online data collection can have on our lives and our abilities to get along in the world. It provides some serious food for thought that every netizen should be thinking about.



Coletta Teske received The Reputation Economy from Blogging for Books in exchange for this honest review.

Posted by Coletta Teske

About This Contributor

Coletta Teske writes reviews on books, business management, writing, crafting, cooking, and gardening. She is also an avid recycler and shares her tips on recycling. She delights in upcycling an old object, recycling or transforming discarded items into a new treasure.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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A Wonderful Way to Grandparent Across the Miles

Developing a relationship with a toddler across the miles can be a tricky thing.  As my son's child is approaching his second year of life, I realize that I am arriving late to the grandparenting-via-the-internet scene. Suddenly, here we are.  Reading to my grandbaby online has been a wonderful experience. But it requires the right book.  I have found that Dr. Seuss' Hop On Pop is the perfect book right now.

Video Calling versus Telephone Calls

My son and I talk on the phone. I treasure those phone calls. But when we try putting the baby on the phone it's no good. At least, not with my grandbaby.  He got to the stage that he would listen for a second, but wouldn't respond.  I think he only wanted to push the pretty buttons. So we have begun using video calling.

I consider myself technologically challenged. I can move around the internet adequately but I have to use fairly simple programs.  As I realized that my grandbaby was getting to the age that he could begin to understand that "Gramma" is a real person, I began to want more time with him.  Of all the video calling programs, I chose Skype to help create some time to visit.  I just muddled through on my own but if you would like more help, there are articles such as Using Skype to Connect with Grandchildren of All Ages to provide both instruction and ideas.

Choosing the Video Calling Program

My son reading to my grandbaby and I

Skype is easy to use, even for me. There are many video calling programs out there and you can choose the one that works for you. But I've chosen Skype.  On Skype, I like the ease of use.  I like the feeling of privacy, I have to answer the call and I don't have random video screens popping up of things I don't want to see  (and that some people should have the sense not to show). The split view shows the small view of me as well as the large window that shows my son and grandbaby.  This split window screen helps me see what I am showing to my grandbaby - especially while i'm reading a book.

The challenge with Skyping with a toddler has less to do with the program and more to do with being interesting.  Let's face it, looking at Gramma on a screen isn't as interesting as pounding on the keyboard or running around the house.  So, trying to keep a toddler's attention isn't easy but it can be done.

Being the Attention-Grabbing Gramma

There are many ways to get and keep the attention of a toddler while online; albeit sometimes not for very long. I mimic my grandbaby. If he is showing me his Snoopy slippers, I show him my socks.  If he shows me a toy, I try to show him something interesting.  In those small ways, he keeps interested.  I like to read to my grandbaby and have realized that some books just don't translate well across the miles. Too many words or too busy of artwork just doesn't keep his attention. Slick pages reflect the light and he can't see the pages as I read.

I have found that Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss is a very good attention-keeper.  The few words on each page keeps the pages turning quickly.  The pictures are very easy for my grandbaby to see when I hold the book up to the camera.  He is intrigued by the pictures and he always points at the mouse and the bee.

I can keep his attention with Hop on Pop.  After I read to him, he runs to get a book and has his dad read to him and Gramma.  Right now, his favorite books to read back to Gramma have to do with Lighting McQueen.  You may know Lightning McQueen from the Pixar Cars movies. That little boy loves the Cars characters and Lightning McQueen. I share a bit more about his treasured collection in a separate article.

Now that I know about Skype, I wish I would have started a bit earlier than at a year and a half with him.  Yes, it is frustrating at times but keep at it and you'll find a way to interact and entertain that grandbaby - becoming closer even if you are too many physical miles apart.

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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Reviewing Chicken Soup for the Soul

By now, it is likely that everyone has heard of the book series "Chicken Soup for the Soul". According to their official website, the idea of touching lives through telling positive stories began during Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen's motivational speeches.  After some time, they compiled these stories into a book. A small publisher gave them a chance after they had been turned down by the big publishers. And so, the Chicken Soup for the Soul series began.

Over the years, I have read several of the books.  Then I had basically forgotten about them. Until recently.  

For several reasons, work related and writing related, I picked up newer copy of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series. And I was again reminded of how down-to-earth and wonderful these books are.  

Living with Alzheimer's photo by Amazon

I am currently reading Chicken Soup for the Soul: Living with Alzheimer's & Other Dementias.  As I read, I am struck by how educational and supportive the book is. It is quite a bit like being at a good support group but never having to get out of my pajamas or leave the couch.  I do not currently have any family members or close friends who are suffering from dementia. But I have learned a great deal from this book and believe it would be very helpful to the family members and friends of folks who are living with dementia.

Teenage Soul photo by Amazon

Because I work with special education students and am always on the lookout for positive messages for them, I purchased Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul and took it to work. I understand that the kids will always listen to other kids before they listen to a boring, old social worker.  While many of my kids at the school are too young, I did have some teenaged students who read portions of this book. Some of the the students seemed to benefit from these stories.  In fact, my book disappeared. Which means, one of them related well enough that they borrowed it permanently. 



As I mentioned, there are 250 books in the series.  Some of the topics or themes you will find include:holiday:

• pets
• age-specific (teen, pre-teen, seniors)
• motivational
• dealing with illness
• religion (angels, miracles)
• self-help (empowering yourself, finding happiness)
• and much, much more

It's Christmas photo by Amazon

If you've never heard of the series, I strongly recommend that you find a copy on a topic that interests you. Because there is such a large variety of topics, I'm sure you will find a one that suits you perfectly.   If you've heard of the series, but like me, hadn't read any of them for awhile, I urge you to pick up a copy. 

Slow down during this hectic season and take time to feel good.  Soothe your soul with a little chicken soup.



Disclaimer: In affiliation with Amazon.com, Dawn Rae is a blogger and content writer who may earn compensation from the sale of Amazon products

Note: The author may receive a commission from purchases made using links found in this article. “As an Amazon Associate, Ebay (EPN) and/or Esty (Awin) Affiliate, I (we) earn from qualifying purchases.”

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