Another great book by my favorite writer, Jeffrey Archer and Book 6 of the Clifton Chronicles. This one is the best of the 6 books and one I could not put down. I am going to hate seeing the series end with Book 7 in November. Jeffrey Archer is a brilliant writer and I have loved them all. Kane and Abel was my first and after reading it, I started searching all of his books and have read them all up to this latest one. You will not be disappointed with Cometh the Hour.

This is the story of a family told by following the fate of its' collection of small, homey Japanese carvings called netsuke. The collection is acquired in Paris in the nineteenth century by one member of this Russian Jewish family and later resides in Vienna, where it and the family are caught in the Nazi annexation of Austria. The author, a potter living in England and the inheritor of the collection from a great-uncle in Japan, eloquently describes the history behind this art form and the historical background of this tragic time and how it affected his family. The reader [XBR] will come away feeling close to the main characters and thinking about the importance of certain objects passed down in families. More for a bookish reader rather than a casual one. With illustrations, but curiously with none of the netsuke. Perhaps these objects that were saved, when so many people were not, are too precious.

After reading the first two "Orphan X" novels, I was seriously anticipating this one. It wasn't a terribly long wait, as I have lots of equally anticipated favorite authors, and this one was well worth the wait. Despite similar attributes to characters like Jason Bourne, and Jack Reacher, Orphan X is different. He's singularly focused, and slightly OCD, yet trying to comprehend the more human (and unfamiliar to him) concepts of family, and love. He doesn't want to lose his focus, however, as the Nowhere Man who helps desperate people, with nowhere else to turn, by less-than-legal methods. So yeah, he's a walking dichotomy. This book continues his story at a break-neck pace, as usual. Hurwitz easily keeps you right on the edge of your seat, turning pages just as fast as you can. I haven't read anything else he's written, but I'm going to have to remedy that.

Christopher Moore's writing is weird, and wonderful, and not for everyone. I'm sure there are people, who take life too seriously, who won't appreciate, or even get, his off-beat sense of humor. It's too bad, but that is their loss. This book is a sequel to "A Dirty Job", where Charlie Asher becomes a "Death Merchant", and his six year old daughter, Sophie, becomes the "Big D", herself. Charlie is killed in the first book, but brought back to life, in another body, by a Buddhist nun, who had received the soul of Charlie's late wife. Weird enough for you yet? This book deals with the aftermath, and the return of the Dark forces that took Charlie's life in the first book, determined to conquer the Earth. All that sounds extremely serious, but this book has many laugh-out-loud moments. If you have read any of Moore's work, you will run [XBR] right out and get this book. If not, you don't know what you're missing.

If you like to learn a little about several subjects, you will like this book. In telling the sotyr of a shipment of bath toys that go overboard, it covers containers and container ships, ocean currents and driftology, ocean pollution, research vessels and ice breakers, the chemistry of plastics, and Chinese toy factories. I could have used a little less information about some topics, but overall it held my interest. Maps and photos would have been useful.

This is one of those books on cd that I rationed because I didn't want it to end! The story got even better near the end, and that never happens. Good to the last drop. Exquisite sentences. Characters who will stay with you for awhile. Fascinating geography. Brilliant plot.

I wouldn't recognize this book as a work of Lauraine Snelling's, if it were not for her name on the cover-it's the worst I have ever read ! The book is uncharacteristicly (for author) is void of positive humane spirit and God's guidence we're so accustomed to see in all of Ms. Snelling's books. It's as if someone else wrote this: the main characters-Mona and Ken are about to retire and are planning a trip to celebrate it, when all of a sudden their son is again deployed by the Army as a special Forces officer to serve abroad...He is a sole provider for his two small children and need his parents to care for them while he is away... And a whole drama starts now: Mona (mostly) and Ken complain on how life is not fair to them, that they should be left alone and free of any responsibilities to do what they wish now when Ken is finally retired and Mona has her little business of her own. The book doesn't indicate that either Ken or Mona are too old and/or ill. In that case I would have understood their concern about their own well-being and the constant complaining about the situation that's to come...They even complain about taking care of Theig's children in Theig's face, who is giving them the full guardianship in case he...perishes in the line of duty. I didn't feel any warm feelings nor compassion or worry towards their own son, only the sadness of missed opportunity of deserved enjoyment in the newly retired stage of their lives. The book is poorly written stylistically and is full of grammatical errors. Too many dialogs (to me) do not make common sense. While parents-Mona and Ken have regular American names, their children are given too strange a names, that are hard to pronounce and remember, for no obvious reason. The theme is interesting and could become a treasure in someone's capable hands.

The subtitle of this book is Democracy's forgotten crisis. During the Great War, the government passed the Sedition Act, the Espionage Act, tortured conscientious objectors and harassed and arrested pacifists. Something to think about: Could this happen again?

I wish every period piece were this good (England,1913). The quality of the acting does justice to a superb script. Some of the dialogue rings so true (both as written and as delivered) that it is still echoing in my mind a week later. I dare you not to fall in love with this film.

A light, easy to read novel. As always, heroine's history is slightly unimaginable, but suits the plot. Her grandparents loved her, with abundance, but her parents didn't want any children at first, at all, then changed their mind and wanted a boy without any consideration for having a girl, and when the latter came into the world, they named Her Spencer...It's a good novel, and I liked it. It reminded me very much of Danielle Steel's best (to my view) novel "The House". Only here, Spencer tries to save her Heritage-a small, but vintage department store of great success and appreciative clientele.... Some grammatical and editorial errors present, unfortunately.