#38

Finished Steve Berry's "The Jefferson Key." Good book but was a little hard to follow with every couple of paragraphs changing to a different person, location and event. Started with the attempted assassination of the President and our hero, Cotton Malone, shows up in time to stop it. From there he ends up in the Oval Office along with his female companion to stop modern day pirates from continuing what has been allowed since the revolutionary times. Freedom to privateer for America and give back a portion to the country but pocket the rest, known as Letters of Marque. All presidents that have tried to interfere with them have ended up assassinated. Good read! Anxious to get into some of my new box load of books that arrived this week.

Totally tired of work and the nasty customers who can't crack a smile if their lives depended on it. If I have to be nice then it would be great if it was returned. Don't even get one day off over the holiday weekend. Good thing we weren't invited anywhere anyway.

Thank God for the postman

More books have come. I preordered a bunch of my favorite authors who just happened to have their books coming out this fall and the books have been arriving in a timely manner. The latest was Steve Berry's "The Emperor's Tomb." This time his character Cotton Malone (former agent turned book seller) is called in to help a friend rescue a child that has been stolen in China. For once Cotton's used book store did not get blown up or shot up in one of his adventures. He first heads to Belguim from his home in Denmark and then to China with death and destruction all the way. Great read! This is my 84th book so far this year. Beat out my 70 from last year in a big way. Don't think I'm going to make it to 100. That would be impossible with things like Christmas shopping and decorating taking priority this coming month.

Managed to get two days off in a row at work and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. One down and one to go. Even managed to get back to my new job one day this week and got a little extra reading time done. Already part way through "King Solomon's Mines" which is another of the 1001 books to read before I die!! It's another Kindle book so it's on my iPhone and easy to carry with me.

Happy New Year

Brought the new year in with a sudden burst of tears. Remembering the sadness that overwhelmed this year. Hoping that the new year will be better.



Finished Steve Berry's "The Paris Vendetta." Another sequel but very enjoyable. Berry brought back his Cotton Malone character and this time he was in Paris fighting the bad guys. His poor bookstore was once again destroyed and we had to say goodbye to a beloved character. A new one was introduced so the next book will have a different format for sure.

Not looking forward to returning to work tomorrow. Sure would like to take some time off but that's not to be.

"The Charlemagne Pursuit"

A novel by Steve Berry. I'm almost finished with this book and am really enjoying it. Full of adventure and intrigue. Like reading a Robert Ludlum novel about Jason Bourne. Berry's character is Cotton Malone and I've read some of his other novels about him and enjoyed them. Of course, there is murder and mayhem. Lots of suspense. This one is a search for a lost civilization that was far superior to anything we can imagine having lived thousands of years ago. Cotton's father was a naval officer that died in a submarine disaster in 1971. The real story was never released and Cotton has just now learned of the cover up. He's a former intelligence agent and with his contacts he's in search of the truth. He lives in Europe and this adventure will take him to Antarctica. Not only the place of the missing civilization but the site of the lost submarine. He will determine the connection between his dead father and the lost civilization. I need to read the few novels of Berry's that I'm missing.

Horrible inclement weather! We were promised snow and as usual the weathermen were wrong. Just freezing rain! Wish I could be wrong all the time and still get paid for my job.

"The Third Secret"

This is a book by Steve Berry who has a style similar to "DaVinci Code." I usually like his books but this one was more than I could fathom. It's based in the Vatican in current times. A lot of references were made to the Fatima sightings which were, according to the book, missing a true 3rd secret. The Pope, Clement XV has discovered the missing information on the 3rd secret which should have been locked in the Vatican vaults. He's old and a replacement is sitting in the wings waiting to take over. That replacement plans to take the Catholic church backward instead of forward in it's thinking. He knows the secret and he doesn't want the world to know or it would destroy the church as we know it. The book seemed to take a long time to reveal the secret and when it was it was so unbelievable that I was rather disappointed. I believe that the revealed secret should be what is taking place in the Catholic church today, but it was too far fetched to believe it could ever happen. All, in all, a rather big let down.

A visit from the great grandchildren today was tiring. The 3 year old kept us on our toes. The 4 month old giggled and slept the afternoon away. Now we're all tired and ready for a nap.

My final post op checkup took place yesterday and all is well. No more discomfort and movement is good. The bone graft looks good and seems to be grafting nicely. Now it's time to get the tremor taken care of since it's getting worse. No appointments with a neurologist until July. Glad it's not an emergency. I'd just like to eat a bowl of soup without wearing it.

Nicholas and Alexandra

I read Steve Berry's "The Romanov Prophecy" and it took a little while to get into it but it caught hold and became a page turner. He put a new twist on the deaths of Nicholas II and his family. There's always been speculation that one of his daughters survived and this book took it to another level. Modern day Russia has decided to return to having a Monarch and there's a push to find a blood line connection to the Romanov's. Of course there's the few evil men that are going to control the "selected member." An American lawyer has been working on finding out about survivors in the hope of getting the "selected member" through without consequence not knowing he's about to uncover information that leads to the survival of two of the original Tsar Nicholas II's children. All were thought to have been killed and buried together in 1918. Finding out that Alexei and Anastasia might have survived leads the lawyer on a world wide search to find the missing heirs.

Apparently the struggle with the Christmas tree several weeks ago did more damage to my body than I originally knew about. I've been suffering with shoulder and neck pain for several weeks and have been to see the doctor twice. It's gotten worse and has now spread down my back and into my legs. I had an x-ray but all it showed was that there is degenerative disk disease which I've known about and now it's necessary to have an MRI to see if something else is causing the pain. The pain pills and muscle relaxers aren't doing a thing and now the doctor wants to add an anti-inflammatory medication. I'm already drugged to grogginess with the first two and can't imagine the addition of another pill. I'll be sleeping round the clock. My thanks go out to our oldest son who was nice enough to show up and help with the removal of the tree. It may never get planted in the ground but at least it's out of the house. With the mild weather we're having it's probably going to get new growth soon.

Out of the fog

I'm recovered from the flu but it gave me time to finish "The Alexandria Link" by Steve Berry. He's a cross between Robert Ludlum and Dan Brown in his writing style. There's treason by a couple of high ranking US officials and a mysterious society in Europe. Also, the spin on delving into history to determine what we know is really not true. Berry uses the same characters throughout his novels so it's probably best to start with his first book and work your way through but it isn't necessary to the story. A few comments are made about previous events the characters have been through together. The main character is Cotton Malone who retired as a member of an elite US government agency to become a bookseller in Denmark. He finds himself continually pulled back into his former line of work. This time by his son's kidnapping. He searches for the missing Library of Alexandria which is supposed to hold ancient books and scrolls of the earliest civilizations and the "truth." Neither Israel or Palestine want him to find the library and are on his tail to end his mission. I might take a break from him but I have a couple more of his early books to read.

A boring night on television has helped the reading time, also. Nothing but football or reruns. The Penn State game would have been nice but that's only on cable and we don't have that. Supposedly a big historical game between the Patriots and the Giants. 16 wins hasn't happened since 1972, so go Patriots!

The tree is still up. No one showed up to help take it out of here and with the flu running through the household there was no one able to do it. The oldest son offered but he was struck down by the sickly three year old along with the rest of us.