marathon of reading

I took a couple of days off from work just to relax unwind and rest to get ready for the summer season which is the busiest time in the library (especially when you are running on a skeleton staff due to budget cuts.) I vowed that I would catch up on my reading during my time off and Dan Brown's "Inferno" came in for me just as I was leaving. I devoured this book. It was an excellent blend of suspense Art and science. The characters were likable even though many were secretive and deceitful. I will not spoil the story but this book was so much better and moved so much better than "The Lost Sign" his last book. I almost didn't bother with this book because the last one was so boring. This book is much more like "Angels& Demons" which has always been my favorite of all his books. I did stop as I read to bring up the pictures of the artwork and some of the architecture of the places the book travels through. The science is fascinating too. Mostly though this book is an edge of your seat thriller and I enjoyed every page of it!
Next I read " The Bones of the Old Ones" by Howard Andrew Jones. This is the second book in a series and I hope he will write more because it is pure entertainment! The books are set in Mosul in the same time period as the "Arabian Nights" and are grand buddy adventures with ginnis, magic, sword fighting, mystical enemies and great friends persevering together. These fantasy books are fun escapist reading and I thoroughly enjoy every word!
 Next I tackled "The Fifth Wave" which is a Young Adult book that looks through the eyes of a very courageous and independent 16 year old at the reality of an alien invasion of her world. First the darkness occurs, caused by electromagnetic pulse. All lights go out, all motors stopped, planes fall from the sky and chaos reigns. That is the first wave. The aliens Mother ship hovers above and the population waits to see if they will make contact. Then the second wave hits and only the lucky survive. After the 3rd wave only the unlucky survive, those that will band together with a hope of surviving but after the 5th wave your on your own and there is no one you can trust. The book is a very truthful look into the way societies will collapse and the individual terror of the unknown. It is a novel of courage and perseverance through incredible odds. It is very literal and should really appeal to teens who can identify with the characters. There is a message of hope that runs throughout the book.
Now I have started "The Golem and the Ginni" by Helene Wecker which so far promises to be a delightful fantasy.
Even though I work in a library where I have first access to an amazing collection of book; I must also give a shout out to wonderful sights like Librarything and Goodreads where you can read wonderful reviews and patron comments about books and leave your own comments as well as participating in there wonderful book giveaways. I have received many wonderful books I might not have had access to through these sites. There is also Bookshout and Netgalley who both offer excellent choices of ebooks which you can download and review for free. Bookshout also offers some at reduced prices as does Amazon. Also our public library offers a statewide link for our patrons called Georgia Downloads where you can check out both audio and ebook versions of thousands of titles. So the reading world is exploding with possibilities!!!!
I'm also reading "I,Saul"by Jerry B Jenkins and James S. MacDonald on Kindle on my I-phone. I don't really enjoy reading on my phone but it is a great way to not have to carry a book with you to lunch or to an appointment and still have something good to read. "I, Saul" is a wonderful blending of present day archaeological Thriller and a wonderful dialogue of Luke and Paul as Paul is in prison in Rome before his execution. I am enjoying this fictional look at Paul's life which is well researched and thought out and works nicely with the contemporary plot line.
I have several other books that I am reading on my phone or on my kindle or adobe reading apps on my computer such as "Florian's Gate" by Davis Bunn; "Thieves of Book Row" by Travis McDade; Leadership lessons from the Cherokee Nation" by Chad Corntassel Smith. And on Bookshout I'm reading "Songs in the key of Solomon" by John and Anita Renfroe and "Jesus in the present Tense" by Warren W. Wiersbe. You might wonder how I can keep up with so many books at one time but it really is just like watching multiple TV shows on Television. You can watch NCIS, Once upon a Time, Hawaii 5 0, CSI (my favorites) and still keep up with each ones plot lines why shouldn't you be able to do that with books!
Oh well. like the famous quote "So many books, - so little time!  I must get back to reading!!!

Roswell Conspiracy by Boyd Morrison

A rollicking great chase of a thriller is found in the Roswell Conspiracy, Boyd Morrison's latest installment of Gordian Fiction.  Tyler Locke and Grant Westfield work for Gordian Engineering spending their time testing race cars, assisting on archeological digs, chasing bad guys and making the world a safer place. In Australia they are meeting with a potential client when they must rescue her from being assaulted by men trying to break into her home. The men set fire to her house and flee, but Tyler and Grant go after them they chase them to the jet boat dock where the men try to escape but are killed in the chase. The client, Fay, a 75 year old woman, has an artifact given to her at the crash in Roswell in 1947 that she wants them to investigate. Tyler is skeptical but willing to listen to her story particularly when he finds she is the grandmother of an old flame from his college days.  Fay was at Roswell in 1947, witnessed the crash  and was given an artifact by the alien that crawled out of the spaceship before it died. While still disbelieving her story the boys agree to look into the mystery. They begin by trying to find out who the men were that attacked her at her house and who they worked for. This leads them to a robotic truck, a warehouse , some Russian spies who are ambushed by some other rogue spies and a trailer train full of explosives being remotely driven into a secret American base. They must free themselves and diffuse the bomb or blow it before it reaches the base and stay alive. Thus begins a nonstop thrill ride of spies, counterspies, government agents with Tyler and Grant trying to stay ahead and solving the mystery of the artifact and saving the United States from destruction.
This is truly a non-stop page-turner in true Boyd Morrison style. I first got hooked on his work when reading Rogue Wave, a thriller set with a tsunami hitting the Hawaiian Island that was nail-biting to the very last drop of ocean wave. The two previous Gordian books, The Ark and The Vault are also rip-roaring adventures with Tyler and Grant. I highly recommend all of Mr. Morrison's work and will be anxiously awaiting his next book!

New year,new posts

I am endeavoring to post a review of any books I read this year. this will be for all kinds of books since I read and review for School library Journal, and Library Journal on a regular basis. I have also began to get free books from contests on Librarything, Goodreads, and most recently Netgalley. Thre should be a wealth of diverse topics included and I hope that any who find their way here enjoy the reviews.
So far I have already read Clive Cussler's new book Poseidon's Arrow, a Farm Dogs and  Goat children's non fiction book for SLJ and am daily reading through a chronological bible. As you know I also work as a librarian.
Happy Reading!!!

Review of Rare Earth by Davis Bunn

Working undercover for the state department, Marc Royce is flying into Africa as an audit accountant for a firm that ships medical supplies to refugee camps. His true mission is to find a young relief worker who has been kidnapped and the reasons he has disappeared. He arrives into the utter chaos of a refugee camp that is straining to provide medical care and food for an ever increasing stream of refugees fleeing the eruption of a volcano. Marc works with the tribal chiefs and the medical administrators to restore order and get the needed supplies distributed. He tries to make contact with the sister of the young man who has been kidnapped but she believes he is one of the same company of men responsible for kidnapping her brother. The dangers increase as Marc searches for the answers he needs to uncover who is behind the takeover of entire villages, displacing the people into the camps and what their ulterior motives are. He finds that these lands are rich in valuable minerals Known as “rare earth” used in current technologies and coveted by the world. Marc races against time and traditions to gather a group of warriors to expose the wrongdoers and reclaim the land for the African tribes.

Davis Bunn has created a novel rich in the sights, sounds and smells of Africa. The reader feels as if he is fighting alongside the characters experiencing all that they are experiencing.  You feel and see the poverty the hunger, the hopelessness of the people and the strength and the faith of the believers who can work together to overcome the strife and corruption that he has made Africa come alive with his words. There are true to life people in authentic situations that react with strength and faith and perseverance. There is a glorious reference to the battle of Jericho in the Bible that will thrill your heart!

I heartily recommend “Rare Earth”; it is truly a valuable story. The book is a sequel using the same character, Marc Royce, as the author’s book “Lion of Babylon”, however both books are great stand-alone reads.

Davis Bunn

I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from Bethany House Publishers. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

About: Rare Earth by Davis Bunn, Book Trailer and more

About Rare Earth  

Marc Royce stares out of the helicopter, a sense of foreboding rising with the volcanic cloud. Below, the Rift Valley slashes across Africa like a scar. Decades of conflicts, droughts, and natural disasters have left their mark.

Dispatched to audit a relief organization, Royce is thrust into the squalor and chaos of Kenyan refugee camps. But his true mission focuses on the area's reserves of once-obscure minerals now indispensable to high-tech industries. These strategic elements—called rare earth—have inflamed tensions on the world's stage and stoked tribal rivalries. As Royce prepares to report back to Washington, he seizes on a bold and risky venture for restoring justice to this troubled land. 

But this time, Royce may have gone too far.

Read Chapters 1-3 for free: 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/92010687/Rare-Earth-by-Davis-Bunn-Sample-Chapters-1-3

About Davis Bunn  

Davis Bunn is an award-winning novelist whose audience spans reading genres from high drama and action thrillers to heartwarming relationship stories, in both contemporary and historical settings. He and his wife, Isabella, make their home in Florida for some of each year, and spend the rest near Oxford, England, where they each teach and write. Visit Davis at www.davisbunn.com.

Q & A with Davis Bunn                   

When you finished writing Lion of Babylon (book 1 in the Marc Royce series), did you just keep going with the storyline and wrote Rare Earth at the same time? Or was there a time gap in between?

Normally by the time I complete a story, I have been living with the characters and the tale for about a year. What I need more than anything just then is a break. I don’t need to stop writing; I just need to write about something else. The emotions for a new book have to be fresh. The characters are not just continuing on. They are starting over. The emotions and the concepts and the tension and the theme are all brand new. The names stay the same. The rest of the universe shifts on its axis.

Marc Royce is not your typical hero. Where did you find your inspiration for his character?

As I started researching the first book in this series, Lion of Babylon, I took a flight where I was seated next to this very remarkable woman, an amazing combination of hard intelligence and great gentleness. She was reading a pocket New Testament. We started talking, and it turned out that she was a special operative, formerly with the State Department intelligence division, and now working with the Department of Defense Intel. I found myself drawn by this incredible paradox of ruthless focus and very intense calm.

Soon after this flight, I had an opportunity to meet a senior figure in the CIA. I had never had any contact with the intelligence community, and all of a sudden I was finding one door after another being opened, because both of these people—the DOD Intel officer and the CIA agent—took it upon themselves to help introduce me to their worlds. I have found this happen on a number of occasions, and these ongoing miracles humble and astound me. I drew on these people as the basis for structuring my hero.

What can readers expect to find in Rare Earth?

All my books hold to one key aim—to create a story that carries a moral, and together result in an impact or challenge or inspiration or comforting assurance that remains long after the book is set down. That, to me, defines a worthy effort.

What kind of character is Marc Royce?

He carries his faith into a world that likes to think Jesus no longer plays a role. He sees himself as the ultimate outsider, wounded by the loss of his wife, searching for a place he can call home, and an ideal worth living for—or giving his life for.

Tell us about one or two other key characters.

Like the book that launched this series, Rare Earth is a story about the missionary church. Many of the other characters are Kenyan, and reveal the amazing role that believers play in this nation.

What type of research did you do for this series?

I worked in Africa for four years early in my adult life. I was not a believer at that time. I came to faith four years later. I taught in Kenya last year, the first time I had been back to sub-Sahara Africa in almost twenty years. Going back to Africa now, as a believer, has opened my eyes to many things. Seeing with the compassion of sharing faith and seeking to serve means that I do not merely observe, I share with them. I hope this comes across in my story.

Research is a huge component of all of my stories. But with Lion of Babylon and Rare Earth, the situation was quite different. In both these Royce novels, I was combining knowledge gained in my previous business life with the perspective gained from my walk in faith. It has been quite a fulfilling experience, personally, to revisit these lands and see them through the eyes of our compassionate God.

Which character in Rare Earth do you connect to the most?

This is the second book starring Marc Royce. He is a complex individual with a lot of amazing traits. I feel like I am finally coming to terms with the depths of this man.

Which character was the most difficult to write?

There is a Luo chief in Nairobi, a strong leader who has had everything stripped from him except his faith. He is the uncle of another great man, another leader. To have two people from the same tribe, and create individuals that stood out as unique portraits, was very challenging. I feel that I have done a solid job with them. I look forward to hearing what my readers think.

What was your favorite scene to write in Rare Earth?

It is very rare that a first scene holds such a powerful connection for me. Generally it is one where there is a revelation between characters, or a defining moment when a person’s eyes are truly opened to the eternal for the first time.

But in Rare Earth, when I shut my eyes and envision the story, it is that first scene that blazes into light. Travelling on the UN chopper from Nairobi, watching the volcano take shape upon the horizon. Marc Royce has been sent out there to fail. And to die. I really am pleased with that opening sequence.

What’s next in your writing pipeline?

The film project Unlimited, for which I wrote the screenplay, has now ‘wrapped’, that is, filming has been completed. The producer and director are now deep into the editing process. Meanwhile, I must get busy and write the novel.

I had the whole thing backwards here, doing the script first, but it has been a lot of fun, and the concept remains very fresh. So hopefully it will come alive on the page as well as the screen. Both the film and the story are titled Unlimited, and are slated for release in September 2013.

How can readers find you on the Internet?

My website and blog are at www.davisbunn.com

Subscribe to my blog’s feed (to get my latest posts via e-mail or through your feed reader) at http://feeds.feedburner.com/DavisBunn

Sign up for my e-newsletter (for subscriber-only giveaways and advance notice of my upcoming novels): http://www.davisbunn.com/news.htm

Facebook Author Page: facebook.com/davisbunnauthor

Twitter: @davisbunn - http://twitter.com/davisbunn

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/davisbunn/

I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from Bethany House Publishers. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

Review: Hidden in Dreams by Davis Bunn

Continuing a character he introduced in his novel "Book Of Dreams", Davis Bunn has created a new thriller dealing with the aspects of the financial crisis around the globe.

In "Book of Dreams" we met Elena Burroughs a psychiatrist who specialized in dream interpretation. She is a confident, professional, a prayerful believer.  She is approached by the wife of a government official about a recurring dream. It comes to light that several other people are having the same dream. The group works and prays together to solve the callings of God through these dreams. Through no real fault of her own, Elena’s interpretation and actions cause her house to be burned down, her office ransacked and the loss of her job. This is the point where we meet Elena in the sequel “Hidden in Dreams”. Elena has moved from Oxford, England to Florida and accepted a teaching position at a small Christian University. Because of her published book on dream interpretation, an executive of a pharmaceutical company contacts her to ask  about a recurring dream that one of their test trial patients is having. The executive is hoping that the dream has nothing to do with a new drug for ADD they are developing and testing with the  hope of  bringing it to the market soon. Elena agrees to help, but begins to experience the same dream and finds that several people around the world are experiencing the dream as well. In this fast paced thriller we see Elena resort to prayer with trusted friends and other methods of investigation to find the clues behind these dreams.  But these dreams are somehow different and she feels her prayers are unanswered.

Even though “Hidden in Dreams” is a sequel the two books can be read alone, the main character is the only carry over. I thoroughly enjoyed “Book of Dreams” finding it interesting, spiritual and exciting. I believed in the characters and while the dreams and the Christian interpretation of dreams was a new subject to me, I thoroughly believed that the group was able to work through the problems they faced through prayer and working together.  In “Hidden in Dreams” the story seems rushed, with lots of loose ends that are never tied up such as the hurricane that seems a threat but never seems to get there or the budding love story between Elena and the college president that seems too quick. The book becomes more of a rushed thriller, with the characters rushing on planes from here to there and never really accomplishing anything.  It rushes to a thriller typ ending that leaves the reader wanting more. The whole story feels more like a good outline for a good book.

If anything "Hidden in Dreams" debuncts all the good spiritual build up from the first book. It is almost as if Mr. Bunn is refuting everything he got you to believe in in the first book of the series. As thrillers go, “Hidden in Dreams” is a good, if short  thriller as a read alone. I ,however, was really disappointed with the outcomes of this book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

Promo and Book Trailer for "Hidden in Dreams" by Davis Bunn

ISBN (Trade Paperback): 978-1-4165-5672-5

$14.99; 256 pp

ISBN (ebook): 978-1-4516-6381-5

Release: July 3, 2012 from Howard Books, a Division of Simon & Schuster

About Hidden in Dreams 

Just when the world’s foremost expert on dream analysis, Dr. Elena Burroughs, thinks she is getting her life back under control after losing her position at Oxford University and the man she hoped to fall in love with, she is approached by Rachel Lamprey, the product manager of an innovative new ADHD treatment about to hit the market.

Rachel asks for Elena’s help with a clinical trial participant who has had a disturbing dream foretelling a cataclysmic global financial collapse. But even more alarming is the fact that fifteen people scattered across the globe—including Elena herself—begin to experience the same repetitive, devastating dreams of economic ruin just as one bank crisis follows another, suggesting that these aren’t merely dreams.

As Elena searches for answers in her professional networks, she is forced to form an unlikely alliance with her most vehement critic and is drawn back into the spotlight as the public face of the so-called dreamers. As Elena and her collaborators attempt to discover the dreams’ source, the clock ticks down to devastation. Suddenly, it’s no longer just about the dreams. It’s about survival.

Read Chapter 1 of Hidden in Dreams for free

http://books.simonandschuster.com/Hidden-in-Dreams/Davis-Bunn/9781451663815/excerpt

Reading Group Guide for Hidden in Dreams

http://books.simonandschuster.com/Hidden-in-Dreams/Davis-Bunn/9781451663815/reading_group_guide

About Davis Bunn  

Davis Bunn is an award-winning novelist whose audience spans reading genres from high drama and action thrillers to heartwarming relationship stories, in both contemporary and historical settings. He and his wife, Isabella, make their home in Florida for some of each year, and spend the rest near Oxford, England, where they each teach and write. Visit Davis at www.davisbunn.com.

A Conversation with Davis Bunn                         

 Q: How much research did you have to conduct to write this intriguing story?

 A: In a way, I suppose you could say I’ve been researching this story all my adult life. I did my studies in international economics and finance. Observing the difficulties our nation and economy has faced over the past three years, as well as what we personally have endured, has been tough. It really was great to have this chance to give voice to what we increasingly hear, that the people at fault need to be brought to justice, and the risk of another economic collapse needs to be halted.

Q: Why is it important for you to write about such timely themes?

A: Economic uncertainty defines the world we live in. I feel it is important to show how the timeless and eternal messages are applicable to every aspect of our world and our lives. And how the gift of peace and wisdom can be used in every circumstance we face.

Q: When you wrote Book of Dreams, did you have plans for this sequel, Hidden in Dreams?

A: Two months after Book of Dreams was released, I had the call every author dreams about and yearns for—a vice president of NBC/Universal suggested we discuss the possibility of turning it into a television series. I was put in touch with one of their producers and over the next six months began working up the basic structure of what this program might look like. One of the ideas I found most appealing became the basis for Hidden in Dreams. There is as yet no firm decision about the television project. But it has been a blast to even be considered.

Q: In writing a sequel it’s always a challenge to include enough back story to satisfy those who haven’t read the first book while still making sure the book stands alone. How do you approach this dilemma?

A: You’re right, it can indeed be troublesome, but this time it all fell together very easily. The structure just flowed. That sometimes happens, where the story seems to create itself. I wish it was true all the time. I can’t even say why it was such a smooth process with Hidden in Dreams. But there was a sense of impatience about the back story, as though I needed to fit in just a few paragraphs, but I couldn’t allow myself or the reader to be drawn too far from this new story’s flow.

Q: Why did you choose to end Elena's relationship with Antonio? They seemed like a good couple.

A: For this story to work, Elena needed to enter into the dilemma as vulnerable as all the other people who shared the recurring dreams. She was isolated in a new place and forced to be dependent upon her faith and newfound friends.

Antonio (from Book of Dreams) belonged to a different universe, far from what was happening here. I had to make a choice at the outset. Would she remain with Antonio, and the two of them experience this together? Or would she be isolated?

Writing a new story is all about two things: facing the empty page, and choices. It is kind of fun to go back and revisit decisions I made eighteen months ago, when first outlining this concept.

Q: You’re writing about two women in this novel. Is it ever a challenge to write from the female point of view?

A: Learning to write from a woman’s point of view is very difficult for a male writer, as it usually is for a woman author writing a man’s story. Before I was published, I became friends with a husband and wife team who were both opera stars. The woman often sang a male role in a Mozart opera that was originally designed for a young boy, but which nowadays is usually sung by a woman with a slightly lower range, called a coloratura.

I discussed my difficulty with her, of trying to make my women sound real. She told me that my trouble stemmed from working on a woman character from the outside. It wasn’t about making women ’sound’ anything. It was all about making the character live from the inside-out.

 As I worked on the point of view issue, trying to put my friend’s challenge into practice, I also began going into any meeting with a woman carrying a secret tape recorder, and taping everything that was said. I then went back and wrote out every word. It was perhaps the most boring month of my entire writing career.

But gradually I found that I could ‘hear’ the speech patterns of these women, and reshape them into structures that fitted around what was happening in my stories. And through this exercise, the emotional content that lay behind the dialogue, the person who was expressing herself, became more real, more solid.

And then I met my wife, Isabella. And the process of instruction at the intimate level of a God-centered marriage began to unfold.

Q: In Hidden, Elena and her colleagues are attacked in Miami. After the attack, why did Elena not take more precautions? 

A: Elena had a choice to make, and so did I. Either she could play the delicate flower – fearing everything and going nowhere – or she could go on the hunt. I liked the balance between her internal fears and uncertainties, and her quest as a professional psychologist. She is, in effect, trained to look for clues – to go on the quest of drawing out the hidden. I felt the actions she took, despite the dangers, to be her natural response.

Q: Is there another Elena Burroughs book planned?

A: I have another idea. The question is, what do the readers want, and how positive is the reaction to this story?

Q: Why do you write fiction?

 A: I became a believer at age 28. Up to that time, ever since graduating, I had been working in international business. I came to faith while working as a consultant in Germany. I started writing two weeks later. Up to that point, I had never picked up a pen in my life to write anything longer than a business report. But I had always been an avid reader. And the moment I started, that very first instant, I had the sense of invitation. It was the first time I had ever experienced that incredible sense of being drawn in a new, divinely inspired direction.

I wrote for nine years and finished seven novels before my first was accepted for publication. Simply because I had received a sense of calling did not mean I was ready to serve. First the diamond had to be polished. Hard and painful as that was.

Q: While you are a prolific writer, you also get out there and live too! What’s been your most exciting real life adventure?

A: It would probably be better to ask, what has been the most exciting real-life event so far this year. Undoubtedly that would be working on the set of a film being shot from a screenplay I wrote last year.

Unlimited has now ‘wrapped’, that is, filming has been completed. The producer and director are now deep into the editing process. The film is due for release in September, 2013. I am currently working on the novel, which comes out a couple of months before then.

I had the whole thing backwards here, doing the script first, but it has been a lot of fun, and the concept remains very fresh. So hopefully Unlimited will come alive on the page as well as the screen.

Q: What is your goal as a novelist?

A: I want to combine a truly entertaining read with a powerful after-effect. My dream is that long after the book is set down with a satisfied sigh, there are still images that surface, lessons that can be drawn, genuine hope and healing and challenges and inspirations. I want my writing to be worthy of the gift.

Q: How can readers find you on the Internet?

My website and blog are at www.davisbunn.com

Subscribe to my blog’s feed (to get my latest posts via e-mail or through your feed reader) at http://feeds.feedburner.com/DavisBunn

Sign up for my e-newsletter (for subscriber-only giveaways and advance notice of my upcoming novels): http://www.davisbunn.com/news.htm

Facebook Author Page: facebook.com/davisbunnauthor

Twitter: @davisbunn - http://twitter.com/davisbunn

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/davisbunn/

I received a complimentary copy of this book for review from Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

Coming up next post: My review of "Hidden in Dreams" by Davis Bunn