Morbid Romantic

Book Review & Personal Blog

The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff
It is 1875, and Ann Eliza Young has recently separated from her powerful husband, Brigham Young, prophet and leader of the Mormon Church. Expelled and an outcast, Ann Eliza embarks on a crusade to end polygamy in the United States. A rich account of a family’s polygamous history is revealed, including how a young woman became a plural wife. Soon after Ann Eliza’s story begins, a second narrative unfolds–a tale of murder involving a polygamist family in present-day Utah. Jordan Scott, a young man who was thrown out of his fundamentalist sect years earlier, must reenter the world that cast him aside in order to discover the truth behind his father’s death. And as Ann Eliza’s narrative intertwines with that of Jordan’s search, readers are pulled deeper into the mysteries of love and faith.

A Summer Affair: A Novel by Elin Hilderbrand
After the extreme heat of her Nantucket studio causes her to go into early labor with her youngest son, renowned glass artist Claire Danner Crispin now devotes her life to her four children. Part of her charm and part of her problem are her perpetual feelings of guilt. When asked to cochair the Nantucket Children Summer Gala, she agrees, adding an impossible burden to an already busy life. She also agrees to create a museum quality piece of artwork when the head of the charity, Lock Dixon, asks her to because Lock’s wife suffered a serious accident after going out drinking with Claire and her friends. Truly, Claire hasn’t a free moment, what with caring for her children, working with the elitist cochair from Manhattan, asking her teenage rock-star boyfriend to play the event for free, and creating a masterpiece, all while conducting a clandestine affair with Lock. A gem of a summer read with a glamorous location, elite lifestyle, and Hilderbrand’s appealing take on the constant stress that fills the lives of women everywhere.

BoneMan’s Daughters by Ted Dekker
A Texas serial killer called BoneMan is on the loose, choosing young girls as his prey, His signature: myriad broken bones that torture and kill – but never puncture. Military intelligence officer Ryan Evans is married to his work; so much so that his wife and daughter have written him out of their lives. Sent to Fallujah and captured by insurgents, he is asked to kill children not unlike his own. The method: a meticulous, excruciating death by broken bones that his captor has forced him to learn. Returning home after the ordeal, a new crisis awaits. A serial killer is on the loose, and his method of killing is the same. Ryan becomes a prime suspect, which isn’t even the worst of his problems: Ryan’s daughter is BoneMan’s latest desire.

An Honorable German by Charles McCain
Outstanding maritime action sequences are the high points of McCain’s otherwise naïve-feeling debut. Max Brekendorf, a young German naval officer during WWII, serves on a battleship in the Atlantic, a merchant raider in the Indian Ocean and, after being adrift in a lifeboat and a convalescence in Paris, he volunteers for the U-boat force. As the war wears on, the navy, an institution that once forbade officers from joining political parties, becomes overrun with Nazi loyalists, creating tensions on Max’s submarine that will eventually force him to choose between his moral sense and party directives. Unfortunately, the numerous good German/bad German scenes sustaining this uncomfortable premise are clownish at best. However, the action sequences are undeniably stunning, and McCain is no slouch with details, such as a ship’s teakwood deck planks (which don’t splinter when hit by shells) or the smell of petroleum in a submarine that permeated even the canned food. Fans of naval fiction couldn’t ask for more authentic action, even if the novel falls short of its ambitions to salvage the reputation of the German navy.

Lincoln on Leadership: Executive Strategies for Tough Times by Donald T. Phillips
Only ten days before Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office in 1861,the Confederate States of America seceded from the Union taking all Federal agencies, forts, and arsenals within their territory. To make matters worse, Lincoln, who was elected by a minority of the popular vote, was viewed by his own advisors as nothing more than a gawky, second-rate country lawyer with no leadership experience. What Lincoln did to become our most honored and revered president is history, how he can help you to run your organization is not. Lincoln on Leadership is the first book to examine Abraham Lincoln’s diverse leadership abilities and how they can be applied to today’s complex world.

Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
Now that he’s gotten us talking about the viral life of ideas and the power of gut reactions, Malcolm Gladwell poses a more provocative question in Outliers: why do some people succeed, living remarkably productive and impactful lives, while so many more never reach their potential? Challenging our cherished belief of the “self-made man,” he makes the democratic assertion that superstars don’t arise out of nowhere, propelled by genius and talent: “they are invariably the beneficiaries of hidden advantages and extraordinary opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.” Examining the lives of outliers from Mozart to Bill Gates, he builds a convincing case for how successful people rise on a tide of advantages, “some deserved, some not, some earned, some just plain lucky.”

The Richest Man in Town: The Twelve Commandments of Wealth by W. Randall Jones
In this smug paean to extreme wealth, Jones, founder of Worth magazine, identifies the Richest Man in Town in 100 American cities and towns, and gathers their secrets of success. The profiled RMITs range from household names like Bill Gates to the lesser-known Fred DeLuca, founder of Subway; Bob Stiller, founder of Green Mountain Coffee; and Jorge Perez, real estate mogul and most successful Latino man in the country. The collected advice is organized as 12 hackneyed commandments: find your passion, be your own boss, say yes to sales and work through obstacles, with small examples throughout. Given the paucity of usable advice, it’s hard to imagine who the audience would be for a book compiling the mantras of a group of people whose average net worth is $3.5 billion. This book might inspire some readers to go forth and live the American dream—as Jones points out, fully 90% of all wealth in America today is first-generation wealth, and all the subjects in the book are self-made—if they can endure the self-congratulatory tone.

The Nine Lessons: A Novel of Love, Fatherhood, and Second Chances by Kevin Alan Milne
Sappy melodrama reigns in Milne’s second novel (after The Paper Bag Christmas). Haunted by childhood memories of his golf-obsessed father, August Witte balks when he learns that he is going to be a father himself. August goes to his widower father, London, to confront him about his failures as a parent and reach some measure of inner peace. London instead offers him a deal: meet every month for a golf lesson and in exchange, London will give August his journal of memories of August’s mother, written on golf scorecards. August agrees and as the lessons pass, he realizes that his father knows about more than golf after all. It’s aggressively soft-focused, and though the conflicts between London and August are believable enough, the overarching theme is heavy-handed, while the preachiness can reach gag-worthy levels. This hits just in time for Father’s Day, and the low hardcover price may incite more than a few impulse buys for the golfing man already stocked with single malt.

A Darkness Forged in Fire: Book One of the Iron Elves by Chris Evans
Konowa Swiftdragon, once commander of the Calahrian Empire’s renowned Iron Elves, is now a disgraced ex-soldier. Though elvish, Konowa is more comfortable with metal and fire than with nature and, like all the Iron Elves, was marked at birth for an ill-omened destiny by the malevolent Shadow Monarch. When a prophetic Red Star falls, awakening lost magic, Konowa is recalled to find it with a new regiment of Iron Elves—except this bunch is the dregs of the military and not even elves. Their journey is plagued by monsters and an unforeseen rebellion, but the worst is to come. The Shadow Monarch’s play for the Star is a ruse masking another intent that Konowa doesn’t see until too late. An earthy, sardonic antihero, Konowa stands uneasily at the crux of a complicated network of loyalties while flanked by a large, colorful cast. Though knotty political machinations confuse the beginning, they eventually add richness to Evans’ militaristic fantasy world, in which magic users mix with musket-wielding soldiers. A truly worrying conclusion hooks readers for book two.

The Light of Burning Shadows: Book Two of the Iron Elves by Chris Evans
Musket and cannon, bow and arrow, and magic and diplomacy vie for supremacy once again in this second epic fantasy adventure from acclaimed author Chris Evans. As the human-dominated Calahrian Empire struggles to maintain its hold on power in the face of armed rebellion from within, the Iron Elves’ perilous quest to defeat the power-hungry elf witch, the Shadow Monarch, takes on greater urgency. The Iron Elves, shunned by their own people for bearing the mark of the Shadow Monarch, and desperately wanting to forever erase this shame, became legendary for their prowess on the battlefield as the Calahrian Imperial Army’s elite shock troops. But when their commanding officer, Konowa Swift Dragon, murdered the Viceroy of Elfkyna, he was exiled, and these brave elves were banished to a remote desert outpost, doomed and leaderless, their honor in tatters. Recalled to duty to reform his regiment from the dregs of the Imperial Army, Konowa thwarted the plans of the Shadow Monarch at the Battle of Luuguth Jor — ensuring that the fabled Red Star, a source of great natural energy, did not fall into Her hands. Now Konowa must cross storm-tossed seas to seek out the lost elves and the prophesied return of another Star somewhere in a desert wasteland roiling with mysterious power, infernos of swirling magic, and legends brought back to life in new and terrible ways. And the fate of every living creature will come to depend on a small band of ragged and desperate soldiers, whose very loyalty to the Empire they have sworn to serve is no longer certain. When death is but a temporary condition, a terrifying question arises: who is the true ally — and fearsome enemy — in a growing conflict that threatens all?

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