Author: ekkarn

Day Two – Another Boring Day – not with Zoe!

  By

Day Two – Work and Babysitting in German……

 

Today was just another day. The day’s summary in German follows. I have highlighted words I had to look up. I will list them at the end of the post.

Heute war ein Arbeitstag am Target. Ich gingen zu Arbeit am 7 uhr und ich hatte bis 12 uhr Arbeit. Ich dachte Ich war Kinderbetreung Zoe um 2.30 Uhr aber Es war um 1.30 Uhr! Also Ich ass zu Mittagessen schnell und habe es dort in der Zeit! Wir sassen mit Zoe bis 5 Uhr, wenn ihr Vater, unser Sohn Peter, nach Hause kam. Sie war sehr gut, wie immer!

Nach der Einnahme von Zoe nach Hause. Ich den Rasen gemäht. Es war heiß!! Nach dem Máhen kam ein kurzes Nickerchen und dann Abendessen! Nach Abendessen Ich ging in die Bibliothek. der Bibliothekar gefragt: Wo ist Oliver? Sie können nicht ohne ihn kommen! Wir beide lachten! Ich ausgecheckt zwei Bücher und links.

Oliver mit underer Tochter Elizabeth nd ihre Frendin Alyssa

Oliver mit underer Tochter Elizabeth und ihre Freundin Alyssa

Es war weiter langweiliger Tag von Zoe besser gemacht!

New Vocabulary

Arbeitstag – workday
Kinderbetreung – babysitting
den Rasen – lawn – den Rasen gemâht – mow the lawn
kurzes Nickerchen – short nap
Bibliothekar – librarian
Lachten – laughed (lachen -to laugh)
ausgecheckt -checked out

At the start of the year, I bought a page a day German calendar. While I have not read the phrases everyday, especially when i was sick back in February, I have been looking at it over the last few weeks.I thought I would try to incorporate these phrases, etc into this website.

Yesterday the phrase was…..

Ist sie noch ledig?

Is she still single?

I have been trying to answer the questions. My answer to this question was

Nein, sie ist nicht ledig. sie ist verheiratet mit zwei Kinder! 

No she is  not single. She is married with two children.

The two key words – ledig which means single and verheiratet which is married. I had to look up married!!

Today’s Phrase….

Wie lange sind Sie schon verheiratet?

How long have you (formal) been married?

My answer: Ich habe seit sechsundvierzig Jahre verheiratet!!

Es ist eine lange Zeit seit ich ledig war! – It’s been a long time since I was single!

Sind Sie ledig or verheiratet? Wenn Sie, für wie lange verheiratet sind?

(Are You single or married? If you are married, for how long?) The answer is…..

 

Featured Image – Zoe am Muttertag – Zoe on Mother’s Day

My Day in German 1 – A Backhoe in the Street

  By

Hallo und herzlich willkommen zu meinem Tag in detscher Sprache. ich heiß Edward und ich lerne Deutsch. Ich mache diese website zu helfen mir lernen.

 

A month of so ago, I started learning to speak and read German again. I restarted for two reasons. First to help in my research of my German roots and secondly because dropping my second quarter of German class in college led to my not graduating from the University of Florida on time! So learning the language is to prove to myself that I can do it all be it 46 years later! I have already written about the materials that I have been using in my study of German. For me write now it seems that reading and writing my own sentences and little stories are working best for me. With that in mind  I have started this website. What I want to do in this website is to write little stories of my life with hopes that the writing will help me learn to language.As I move along I will try to expand what I write about as my vocabulary increases. Right now I am using a couple of translation apps and a dictionary to help me put together the stories. I also plan to continue to use the other resources i.e. textbooks and other books with stories in my studies.
So here is my first installment in Mein Tag in detscher Sprache……

Heute Mein Tag begann Ich Mit Yoga. Dann Ich hatte einen Smoothie und einfache Müsli für Frühstück. Nach dem Frühstück begann ich unsere Wäsche. Dann machte ich unserer Bett.Dann sah ich es! Ein bagger! 

German: Die Bagger in unserer Straße English: The backhoe in our street!

German: Die Bagger in unserer Straße
English: The backhoe in our street!

ja,in unserer strasse gibt es heute ein bagger!. Mein Enkel Oliver werde sehr glücklich wenn es ist noch hierher diese nachmittag. Ich habe ein paar Bilder nd ein Video um Oliver später ziegen schießen. Die Arbeiter wurde ein wenig nach dem Mittagessen und der Bagger ein wenig später verließ. Pech fur Oliver!

Wir holten Oliver in seinem Siiter Haus auf 3 Uhr.. Er aufhoren nicht, bis wir ihn bei der Arbeit seines Vaters bei 5:00 geloscht!

Ok so I know it is no literary masterpiece but I am still in the crawling stage!! For me i am learning more just writing simple sentences like the above. than I do just doing exercises in a book! I do know that some exercises are important and will keep doing them!

Now a summarized translation of the above My day started with Yoga – my”New Beginnings Routine” Then I had a smoothie and raisin granila for breakfast. I made the bed and started the wash! Then I saw the backhoe out in the street!  Yes, there was a backhoe on or street Oliver would have loved it. In case they weren’t there when I picked him up at 2 this afternoon, I took some pictures and a video. The men finished up just after lunch. We picked oliver up at three and he didn’t stop until we dropped him off at his father’s work at 5 o’clock!

Some Vocabulary…...

Bilder schießen – take photographs
später – later
Pech fur Oliver – Too bad for Olive
Er aufhoren nicht – He doesn’t stop!
das Bagger – backhoe

RGranddad learns German by Reading!!

  By ,

The Texts in Learn German! Get Me  Writing – Ich heiss Edward!

Was Magst du? Wie heisst du?……

The other day I wrote about the materials that I am using to help me learn German, They include regular textbooks, one on verbs and one on grammar, As well as, a more traditional foundation text book. In addition I have also been using a book of story stories, titled German Short Stories for Beginners. I find that reading these short stories is a great way to see vocabulary and grammar put into use! And more fn than doing exercises in a textbook. (actually exercises do have their place, and I will continue to do them) With that thought in mind, I started to look for books with stories. I found Learn German! More than 100 didactic texts to learn and improve your German. Learn vocabulary and grammar while you are reading. by Dominik Waxenberger. I read the introduction yesterday and I when I read the following I agreed with what he was saying and he supported my thoughts about using children’s books as a place to start my study of German. Dominick writes……

….The problem of many students I met was that they didn’t know what to read or better which texts suited their level and wouldn’t make them feel frustrated. I always told them that I would try to find first children’s books, fairytales and suchlike in order to get used to the language and broaden my vocabulary and understanding of grammar. Then I would go for books for 10 to 12 years olds. After a while I would go for books for adolescents. At this point you have actually already won the match. But for many students it seemed harder to find and select literature than I thought. That is why I decided to write this book for them and everyone who would like to learn German

I read the first three texts that were Prasentation in the texts many questions are asked like How are you? Where are you from? Where do you work and What do you like? After reading the texts I immediately set out to write answers to his questions  and I found myself writing even more….. so here are my responses and an introduction to me in German……

Mir geht is gut. Ich heisse Edward Karn. Ich bin 64 jahren alt. Meine Frau ist Kathleen and wir haben vier kinder. Ihre Namen sind Nicholas, Andrew, Peter and Elizabeth. Wir haben zwei Enkelkinder, Zoe und Oliver. Wir wohnen in Riverside, N.J

Oliver and Zoe Driving

Unsere Enkelkinder Oliver und Zoe

Mein Vaters Mutter and ihr Elter kam von Dresden. Sachsen. Sein Grosseltern kam von Hesse and Sweiz.

Meine Hobbys sind: Lesen, Sports, und anhoren von Musik.Ich mag lernen auch Ich mag sehr hot wetter nicht. Ich mag Rap Musik oder Tomaten nicht

Ich spreche Englisch and Ich lerne Duetsch!

Ich bin im Ruhestand. Drei Tage in der woche arbeite ich bei Target. Ich Babysitten oft meine Enkelkinder an meinen freien Tagen aus!

So the above may not seem like much but I did learn several things putting it together. I learned that the verb kommen is irregular and that kam is the past tense. Also that I am Ruhestand (retired). Plus I am still working on where to put words in sentences. So I admit to using Translators for the above!! But overall I think I’m moving along nicely!!

Entry Island – Peter May

  By

Peter May’s – Entry Island  A Read for Mystery Lovers and Lovers of Genealogy

 

I always say that I love to read because books take me to places that i will never visit. One such place is the Outer Hebrides islands off of the western coast of Scotland. I have visited these islands four times thanks to the books of Peter May. The first three visits came via May’s Lewis Trilogy. That trilogy is composed of Blackhouse, The Lewis Man and The Chessmen. Each of these books is a terrific read. The last visit was through another of May’s books Entry Island. The setting for the trilogy is modern-day Scotland and features Edinburgh, police detective Fin Macleod. The dual settings for Entry Island are contemporary Entry Island in the St Gulf of St.Lawrence in Canada and the Outer Hebrides of the mid-19th century. The one thing that one gets from all the books is the life is rough in the Outer Hebrides!!

A Brief Synopsis

Entry Island begins when police detective Sime MacKenzie is sent to the island as part of a team investigating a murder. The main suspect of the murder is the victim’s wife and when Sime first meets her he swears he knows her! As he mulls over why he may know her, Sime begins to have vivid dreams based on the stories that his grandmother used to read to him and his sister when they were little. The stories came from Sime’s great-grandfather’s dairies. They focus on the his life in Scotland and eventually Canada in the mid-1800s.

Entry Island works as both a fine mystery novel with many twists and turns before the final murderer is revealed and a historic tale about the adversities faced by residents of the Outer Hebrides.The novel also paints a grim picture of the conditions that many of our ancestors faced as they made their way to a new land. Reading the novel  made me stop and think about what it must have been like for my ancestors who came to America in the 1800s. from both Scotland and Ireland.

Here’s what some others say……

“Told with exceptional clarity and a fine eyefor the clausrophobia of island life, it weaves a hypnotic spell as it jumps between generations and proves that May is a writer to be cherished” – Geoffrey Wansell, Daily Mail

“May is the master of painting a vivid picture of his chosen landscapes and weaving a fascinating plot. The research he has packed into this well-paced dual tale is impressive…. An absorbing tale from a writer at the top of his game.” Daily Express

Bottom Line:

Entry Island is another fantastic read from Peter May. It works for both mystery lovers and those who love genealogy! Entry Island was named the Deanston Scottish Crime Book of the Year 2014, and it also won the ITV Specsavers Book Club Dagger for the Best Read of the Year 2014, So Check it Out!!   Rating **** Book 19 of 2016

Links for Further Exploration of the Books of Peter May

Website
Goodreads
Amazon

The 6th Extinction – James Rollins

  By
The 6th Extinction - James Rollins

Originally posted April 2016 Revised and updated April 2026

I don’t think there are many authors who blend science, history and action together better than James Rollins. I read several of his early stand-alone novels before I read my first Sigma Force novel Map of Bones and since then I don’t think I’ve missed an installment in the series.

One thing I love about James Rollins is that at the end of his books he always discusses the truth or fiction of  the science or history contained in the book,

In the6th Extinction that discussion  covers ten pages! The science discussed ranges from XNA, Jumping genes, De-Extinction, Extremophiles to Antarctic life and geology. While the history discussed includes Darwin’s Voyage on the Beagle and the Germans in Antarctica!….

From Goodreads – The Story

A remote military research station broadcasts a frantic distress call that ends with a chilling message: Kill us all. When soldiers arrive to investigate, they discover everyone in the lab is dead—not just the scientists, but every living thing for fifty square miles is annihilated: every animal, plant, and insect, even bacteria. The land is completely sterile—and the blight is spreading.

To prevent the inevitable, Commander Gray Pierce and Sigma must decipher a threat that rises out of the distant past.  A time, when Antarctica was green and Earth’s life balanced on a knife edge. Following clues from an ancient map rescued from the lost Library of Alexandria, Sigma will make a shocking discovery involving a prehistoric continent, and a new form of death buried under miles of ice. Read More

The Bottom Line:

The 6th Extinction is scary good, because most of the technological stuff is real and it’s scary!! The book gets 4.5 stars out of 5. Next up on the Rollins front is The Bone Labyrinth the latest Sigma Force adventure!

Author’s Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

James Rollins

About James Rollins

James Rollins is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of international thrillers. His writing has been translated into more than forty languages and has sold more than 20 million books. The New York Times says, “Rollins is what you might wind up with if you tossed Michael Crichton and Dan Brown into a particle accelerator together.” NPR calls his work, “Adventurous and enormously engrossing.”

Far From True – Linwood Barclay

  By

Far From True – Linwood Barclay (Promise Fall #2)

(Book 16 of 2016)

Far From True is the second book in the Promise Falls trilogy from Linwood Barclay and once again Barclay has hit it out of the park! The book picks up where its predecessor Broken Promise leaves off, only  now there’s more upheaval in the quiet town of Promise Falls, leaving Detective Barry Duckworth with his hands full! The new trouble starts when a bomb goes off  on the closing night of the Constellation Drive-In and its big screen comes tumbling down and wreaks havoc on the town. Two of the people killed are Adam and Mariam Chalmers.The couple were crushed in Adam’s prized Jaguar when said screen came tumbling down.

The next morning, Private Investigator Cal Weaver receives a call from Adam’s daughter. Someone had broken into her parents house, She hires Weaver to investigate the break-in. When he discovers a secret room in the basement used for sex parties, complete with cameras to record the action, he figures someone may have taken some incriminating DVDs from the home. But who and why is the question??

Meanwhile Barry Duckworth is still trying to figure out who killed two Promise Falls women three years apart. First Olivia Fisher three years prior, and most recently Rosemary Grayson who along with her husband were central figures in Broken Promise. Both women were killed in a similarly brutal manner.

As if all of the above is not enough, another Promise Falls resident Samantha Worthington has her own problems. Her in-laws have been attempting to take her nine-year old son Carl away from her, any way they can, legal or illegal! In Broken Promise she was photographed in a compromising position, which her in-laws have tried to us to have her give up Carl. Now they are in Promise Falls to apologize??

I could probably add  more telling you about the disgraced ex-mayor who wants to run for reelection and his campaign manager, who by the way was the other person photographed in that compromising picture, or that several incidents in the town including the drive-in explosion have revolved around the number 23, but let’s just say that there’s a lot going on in this sleepy little town. Which is probably the reason that Barclay has needed three books to tell the tale!

But wait the tales of many of the residents of Promise Falls didn’t start with Broken Promise, they started back in Too Close to Home when readers met Derek Cutter and his family. Then readers met David  Harwood and his son Ethan in Never Look Away and although he wasn’t living in Promise Falls at the time, they met former Promise Falls police officer now private investigator Cal Weaver in A Tap on the Window. Each of these Promise Falls residents have played pivotal roles in these last two books.

I can’t think of any other authors who have taken characters from several stand-alone books and blended them into a series like this Promise Falls series. I for one can’t wait until November when the final book of the trilogy will be released!

Bottom Line – Linwood Barclay is a master of telling stories about common people facing extraordinary problems whether it’s a missing child (Never Look Away) or trying to discover why your son committed suicide (A Tap on the Window)  Now Barclay has now returned to his roots and made a series from his Promise Falls characters. I say return to his roots, because his first four books were a series, featuring the original common man facing extraordinary circumstances – Zack Walker! For me Far From True is one of Linwood Barclay’s best books, like C.J. Box he just keeps getting better and better!!

The New York Times Book Review writes…..

“Some days, all you really want is for someone to tell you a wicked good story. Linwood Barclay answers the reader’s perpetual prayer”

I for one say thank you Linwood Barclay!!

Links for the Further Exploration of the Novels of Linwood Barclay

Author’s Website
Twitter
Facebook
Goodreads
Amazon

Off the Grid – C; J  Box  – (Joe Pickett #16) The Stories Get Better and Better.

  By ,
Off the Grid - C,J,Box

Soon after finishing The Hunting Wind by Steve Hamilton, I received notice that C J Box’s new novel Off the Grid was available for pick-up at the library. So I hurried over to the library and then I came home and quickly devoured the book!

Yes, Off the Grid, book 16 in the Joe Pickett series is a good one! I finished Endangered book 15 in the series last April and it took me a little while to remember what happened in that one but Box as always kept revealing little bits of that storyline, which jogged my memory and brought that story back to me.

But while it is definitely better if you know the back story and the relationship between Nate Romanowski and Joe and his family it is not essential to the enjoyment of this book.

The Story

In this installment two Federal Agents approach Nate, who has been living off the grid since escaping from the hospital at the end of Endangered (Book 15 Joe Pickett), and present a proposal to him.

The agents want Nate’s help in destroying a suspected terrorist cell in Wyoming’s Red Desert. If the operation is a success the agents will make Nate’s criminal record disappear!!

So Nate soon finds himself alone in the Red Desert facing the biggest challenge of his life a group of “patriots” led by a charismatic falconer who have created a weapon that could wreak havoc, if it falls in the wrong hands, and those wrong hands may be within the group!

Meanwhile, Joe has his hands full with a grizzly bear before Wyoming’s governor sends him on a special assignment to find out what they Feds and Nate are up to in his state! So now Joe and Nate are facing down the terror cell and to make matters worse Joe’s oldest daughter and her roommate end up on old sheep ranch that serves as the base for the group.

My Thoughts

The Joe Pickett series has been a favorite of mine for a long time now and the great thing about the series is that the books are just getting better and better and Off the Grid is one of the best!

 I think what sets the Joe Pickett books apart from other books in the genre is the Pickett Family, Over the course of the series, the reader has watched the two Pickett girls Sheridan and Lucy grow up. In addition their adopted daughter April has become a central character in the series. Even Joe’s mother-in-law Missy has been key in several books!! Here’s what Booklist says……

“Is there a crime-fiction family as fully fleshed out as Joe Pickett’s? In singing the praises of Box’s series, we often praise the plotting, pacing, and the down-to-earth hero’s friendship with force-of-nature Nate Romanowski But Pickett’s supporting cast – wife Marybeth and daughters Sheridan. Lucy and April – lends a continuity to this series that sets it apart.”

My answer to that first question is maybe.The O’Connor family from William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series may be tied with them! But Joe’s family still makes this series special!

Bottom Line

Off the Grid for me is one of C.J.Box’s best books. it had a believable, scary plot with lots of page-turning action. I do believe that the final paragraph set the stage for the next book in the series and I for one can’t wait.

So join Joe and his family for this adventure, and while you wait for the next installment, go back and catch-up with the past lives of Joe and Nate and the rest of the clan!

iAuthor’s Website
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Goodreads:Joe Pickett Series

C J Box author of Storm Watch

About C J Box

Charles James Box Jr. is an American author of more than thirty novels. Box is the author of the Joe Pickett series, as well as several standalone novels, and a collection of short stories.

Visit the Author Page

If you like the family and character connections in this series…

You might also enjoy:

William Kent Kreuger
Michael Robotham
Michael Robotham
Peter May
  • William Kent Krueger — the Cork O’Connor series blends crime with family, history, and a strong sense of place
  • Michael Robotham — especially the Joe O’Loughlin books, where personal lives are always part of the story
  • Peter May — the Lewis Trilogy, where past, family, and landscape are tightly woven together

 

The Hunting Wind (Alex McKnight #3)- Steve Hamilton

  By

The Hunting Wind by Steve Hamilton was just as good the second time around!

One of the things that I have been doing on a fairly consistently this winter and into the spring is reading, I have set a goal that requires me to read books at a faster pace than last year and while i on a pace that is slightly slower than I need it to be, I am still reading at the same pace as last year finishing book 15 of the year just about on the same day as I finished book 15 last year!

Now one of the things that I did do recently that is out of the ordinary is that I reread a book! When ever my wife wants me to get rid of books she always says that I should get rid of them because I never reread a book! Well, while she will have to change that to you almost never reread a book, because I reread Steve Hamilton‘s The Hunting Wind a last week!

One of the reasons that I reread the book was that when I checked my Goodreads shelf for the book it was not there! The status was “want to read”!

When I started rereading the book which is book #3 in Steve Hamilton’s Alex McKnight series, I didn’t remember the storyline. The adventure begins when Alex’s former minor league teammate, from his days thirty years prior as a catcher with the Toledo Mud Hens, visits Alex’s home in Paradise, in Michigan’s upper peninsula and wants him to help find a girl he dated for ten days way back in 1971!

As Alex and Randy start their search for Maria who was the daughter of a fortune-teller Madame Valeska, they discover that Maria is in hiding. Maria is hiding from her dead husbands former business partner, who Maria believes murdered her husband and now is out to get her! But soon it appears that all is not as it seems to be and maybe it never was??? I think that it took until somewhere in the middle of the book that things started to become familiar and even when they did things still weren’t all that familiar, i.e. I didn’t remember the ending, which by the way is very good!!

Steve Hamilton’s first book to feature Alex McKnight a former Detroit police officer for eight years,now living in Paradise, MI, A Cold Day in Paradise won both an Edgar and Shamus award which was an unprecedented feat! The series is now up to book number 10 Let It Burn, which I think I once checked out of the library but did not read!  Alex is a great character and the surrounding cast in the series is also very good.  While Alex’s friend Vinnie is not featured in this book Jackie and the Glasgow Inn are present.

Bottom line: The Hunting Wind is a real page-turner even when I kinda knew what was going to happen. Like I said Alex is a great character and the story line twists and turns enough to keep the pages flying by. So check it out!

As for rereading a book it was a pleasant experience. It appears that I most likely read The Hunting Wind in 2004, as that’s, when I read books 1,2 and 4. So maybe the key to rereading books is that it works real well for books I’ve read 10 or more years ago!! Let’s see that would put most of the Robert Ludlum in play and many, many more!!

The Forgotten Room – Lincoln Child

  By

The Forgotten Room – Lincoln Child (Jeremy Logan #4)

The Forgotten Room is the fourth book in  Lincoln Child’s series featuring enigmalogist Jeremy Logan. While I have read many of the books in the Pendergrast series, which Child writes with Douglas Preston, this is the first of his solo books, that I have read.

The setting of the book is a Gothic Mansion in Rhode Island that is the home of the elite think-tank The Lux.  Jeremy returns to the Lux, where he was a resident for many years, before he was asked to leave, to help determine what happened to one of the Lux’s top scientists. The scientist began to exhibit strange behavior several weeks prior, and ended up committing suicide in a horrific manner. The erratic behavior started soon after the scientist was asked to direct the remodeling of the forgotten West Wing of the mansion. Soon after Logan begins his investigation he discovers a room hidden within the wing. The room has no windows or doors leaving no means to enter or leave the room. In the middle of the room was a piece of equipment unlike anything Jeremy has seen! What does it do? What is the purpose of the room and does it have anything to do with the death of the scientist or the sights and sounds that others, including Jeremy are experiencing? So Jeremy and the scientist’s assistant set out to find out what’s happening before someone else dies.

While I don’t think that The Forgotten Room is one the same level as the popular Pendergrast series, I do think it’s a damn good read. Many of the things that have happened at the Lux including voices that lead people to contemplate suicide, remind me of Patrick Lee’s book Runner. Overall,I enjoyed the twists and turns of the plot more than the character of Jeremy Logan. That may be because I haven’t read any of the previous novels in which he appears.So to really enjoy the series I think I’ll need to go back and read the first book! Here’s what are some others have to say about The Forgotten Room

“Reflects the best of the ‘mad scientist and locked room’ mysteries of the early twentieth century . . . Fun and intriguing.” —Associated Press

“Chilling. . . . Child makes the most of the creepy setting, his unusual lead character, and an intricate plot.” —Publishers Weekly
 
“[A] very imaginative story for those who prefer a soft blending of mystery and paranormal.” —Booklist

An interesting sidelight of the book was that at one point in the book the  neurological phenomenon of synesthesia became a part of the story line. In one form of this phenomenon people see numbers and letters as being different colors, others see time as a 3 dimensional time-line. In others at time inanimate objects seem to exhibit emotions. The condition was studied extensively in the 18th and 19th century but interest dropped off in the 20th century. What’s interesting or odd is that one of the other books that I was reading at the same time was The Toaster Oven Mocks Me by Steve Margolis. That book was a mini-memoir from Margolis who has the disorder and throughout most of his life he never told anyone about what he saw or heard because he thought they would just think he was crazy.  I just thought I’d throw that in because I thought that it was amazing that I was reading two books at the same time that mentioned synesthesia!

Bottom Line: While I didn’t find The Forgotten Room all that chilling or creepy, I did find the intricate plot enjoyable and the pages flew by fairly quickly. The book can be enjoyed without having read the other books. The question is though would I have enjoyed it even more if I knew more of Logan;s back story? As such,  I will probably read another book in the Jeremy Logan series. Maybe first though, I’ll read a Douglas Preston’s solo books. I have read one of Preston’s solo efforts The Codex, which I enjoyed! (Book 14 of 2016)

Links for the Further Exploration of the Novels of Lincoln Child

Author’s Website
Facebook
Goodreads
Amazon
Preston and Child

 

Ordinary Grace – William Kent Krueger – Not an Ordinary book – an extraordinary book!

  By
Ordinary Grace - William Kent Krueger

So while I have not posted much over the last few days, I have finished three books. Finished first was William Kent Krueger’s Ordinary Grace, which was closely followed up by The Forgotten Room from Lincoln Child. Then today, I finished The Toaster Oven Mocks Me by Steve Margolis.

Two novels and a personal memoir, all very good. In this post I will write about the first book Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger. William Kent Krueger is the author of the Cork O’Connor series set in northern Minnesota. I am a big fan of those novels.

About Ordinary Grace

Ordinary Grace though is a stand-alone novel and much like Pretty Girls from Karin Slaughter, I put off reading it. If there’s one thing I’ve learned after reading these two great books it’s don’t avoid stand-alone novels from an author whose works you enjoy!

The mysteries that I read typically have somebody chasing a serial killer, or a criminal of some sort. That is not the case with Ordinary Grace. Ordinary Grace is a story about bad things happening to good people, and how they survive unbearable sorrow.

About Ordinary Grace

Set in New Bremen, Minnesota, it’s the story about the year 1961 when “death came to New Bremen in many forms. Accident. Nature. Suicide.Murder” and the effect of those deaths on the Drum family and the other residents of New Bremen.

The narrator of the story is thirteen year old Frankie Drum, the son of a Methodist minister. Frankie is the middle child, His older sister Ariel is an aspiring musician whose is planning to attention Julliard and his younger brother Jake, whose speech impediment stuttering makes his life a challenge. The two brothers face a myriad of challenges as they roam the streets and byways of New Bremen in the tumultuous year.

To say that this is a wonderful book is an understatement, I love the whole atmosphere of the book, Krueger’s descriptions of 1961 took me back to Beverly, New Jersey in those early 60s A small town  with a barber who I sold comic books to, a wonderful bakery and newspaper store – a town, well where most people knew you! I could go on and on about the wonderful characters but I’ll let some others tell you about the book..

“One cannot read Ordinary Grace without feeling as if it is destined to be hailed as a classic work of literature… one of those very rare books in which one regrets reaching its end, knowing that the experience of having read it for the first time will never be repeated. Krueger, who is incapable of writing badly, arguably has given us his masterpiece.”
—Joe Hartlaub, Bookreporter.com [read full review]

“Ordinary Grace is anything but ordinary; an absolutely beautiful book! The plot is suspenseful, yet so touching, and the setting and characters are so vivid that I will feel their impact for some time. It’s beautiful, thought-provoking and engrossing.”
—Kim from Frisco, TX, a Bookreporter.com Sneak Peek reader. Read more reviews by other Sneak Peek readers

“The novel explores faith, mysticism, and rationality in thoughtful, even-handed and open ways that lend itself to recollection and continuing reflection, regardless of readers’ experiences in those areas of life. The characters, and there are many, are carefully and consistently well-drawn. This is a novel of discovery and exploration, for the author and for readers. A well-done reading experience for anyone.”
—Carl Brookins, Agora2 [read full review]

and in the words of Dennis Lehane…

Pitch-perfect… I loved this book.”
—Dennis Lehane, author of Mystic River, Shutter Island, The Given Day

 

Here’s William Kent Krueger to tell you about Ordinary Grace in his own words….check it out – you won’t be disappointed!!

Links

William Kent Krueger Website

MPR News:Twin Cities author William Kent Krueger wins Edgar Award