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	<title>Pidsl.com - Books, Music, Movies, Reviews &#187; BOOK REVIEWS</title>
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		<title>History&#8217;s Unforeseen Consequences &#8211; Fools Of Fortune by William Trevor</title>
		<link>http://pidsl.com/2012/03/historys-unforeseen-consequences-fools-of-fortune-by-william-trevor/</link>
		<comments>http://pidsl.com/2012/03/historys-unforeseen-consequences-fools-of-fortune-by-william-trevor/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:25:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Editor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BOOK REVIEWS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://pidsl.com/?p=1016</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Review by Philip Spires  -  Generally, genre thrillers are books without thrills. Someone gets killed. Turn the page and it happens again to someone else. There&#8217;s a chase, a near miss; da capo al fine; repeat. There are never consequences. Characters seem to exist &#8211; they never come to life &#8211; in an eternal present devoid of either thought or reflection. Plot is a series of events, while characters are mere fashionably dressed acts. William Trevor&#8217;s beautiful novel, Fools Of Fortune is, in many ways, a whodunit &#8211; or better who done what &#8211; thriller. But it transcends genre because it is the consequences of the actions and their motives that feature large, that provide plot and ultimately a credible, if tragic humanity. Fools Of Fortune is a novel that presents tragedy not merely as a vehicle for portraying raw emotion, but rather as a means of illustrating the depth of ensuing consequence, both historical and personal. In conflict it is easy to list events, quote numbers, suggest outcome, but it is rare to have a feel of how momentous events can have life-long consequences for those involved, consequences that even protagonists cannot envisage, consequences that can affect the lives of [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>The Year We Were Famous</title>
		<link>http://pidsl.com/2012/03/the-year-we-were-famous/</link>
		<comments>http://pidsl.com/2012/03/the-year-we-were-famous/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 11 Mar 2012 16:33:31 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Editor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BOOK REVIEWS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[book review]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kendra Redman]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Lady of the Rivers]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[The Year We Were Famous]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://pidsl.com/?p=723</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A book review by Kendra Redman  -   People often use the expression, “they don’t make ‘em like they used to” when referring to products, but I think the expression applies just as well to people.  In The Year We Were Famous by Carole Estby Dagg, Dagg writes the story of her great aunt Clara who journeyed with her mother 4,000 miles from the west coast to the east coast.    The journey took place at the close of the 19th century when women simply didn’t do such things, but Clara’s mother came up with the ideas as a way to save the family home and farm from foreclosure, and Clara as the dutiful and eldest daughter promises her father she will accompany her mother and keep her safe.  Helga, the mother, has found a publisher who has agreed to pay them $10,000 if they can complete the trip in seven months.   This may sound like a lot of time until you read that they made the journey by walking!  Not only did they walk, but they walked through desert, Indian Territory, blizzards and more. Along the way they were dependent on the kindness of strangers for a place to sleep and [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
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		<title>Anthony J. Lomas pens new James Bond Parody</title>
		<link>http://pidsl.com/2012/03/anthony-j-lomas-pens-new-james-bond-parody/</link>
		<comments>http://pidsl.com/2012/03/anthony-j-lomas-pens-new-james-bond-parody/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 06 Mar 2012 18:15:14 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Editor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BOOK REVIEWS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://pidsl.com/?p=835</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Several phantoms haunt the “decommissioned” agents of the grand 0007 pantheon, not the least of which is a dream of the Red Phone ringing with ‘N’, the organizational honcho at the end of the line, ordering them to report in for another mission. But, a mission where? Melville, Louisiana??? With enthusiasm worthy of Joseph Heller and the expertise of a Cajun cook combining the choicest fictional ingredients with reality and getting the combination just right, Anthony J. Lomas serves up delightfully witty (and sometimes magnificently deranged) fiction with Operation Aspic. Imagine all the previous James Bonds reunited as an elite force. Their first mission: Go to the U. S. and steal a secret recipe from a very famous Louisiana chef in the heart of Cajun country so the British culinary team can win an upcoming World Culinary Olympics. Piece of cake, right? Not so fast. Murphy&#8217;s law intervenes with one disaster after another as the aging agents; Sean, George, Roger, Timmy and Pierce manage to create havoc and change history in this riotous new adventure. This story will dispel most of what everyone thought they knew about the Cajun people and leave them contemplating what&#8217;s real and what&#8217;s not in [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://pidsl.com/2012/03/anthony-j-lomas-pens-new-james-bond-parody/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Second book in trilogy puts &#8216;Crossed&#8217; in a tough position</title>
		<link>http://pidsl.com/2012/03/second-book-in-trilogy-puts-crossed-in-a-tough-position/</link>
		<comments>http://pidsl.com/2012/03/second-book-in-trilogy-puts-crossed-in-a-tough-position/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 03 Mar 2012 18:36:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Editor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BOOK REVIEWS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://pidsl.com/?p=799</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Review by Kendra Redman &#8211;  Crossed by Ally Condie is the sequel to Matched.  Unlike the first book, this one is set in the Outer Provinces on the farthest frontiers away from the Society.  Maybe it’s the setting, but this book had a completely different feel than the first one.   In Matched there were some chilling glimpses of what happened behind the curtains of the Society, but this book directly shows the cruelty and violence of which the Society is capable.  Maybe that is part of the reason I didn’t like this sequel as well as the original, I prefer the subtler threats of the first book and trying to figure out how far the Society was willing to go to achieve its goals.    Also, this book seemed to be focused more on escape, I liked in the first book that the main characters were rebelling from the Society from within the Society, that to me was more exciting and risky even than the physical dangers of the wilderness in this book.  The menace just seems a bit too far removed. This new story follows Cassia as she does whatever she must to try to find Ky.  Along the way [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Matched: our dystopian dating future</title>
		<link>http://pidsl.com/2012/02/matched-our-dystopian-dating-future/</link>
		<comments>http://pidsl.com/2012/02/matched-our-dystopian-dating-future/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 27 Feb 2012 18:22:10 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Editor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BOOK REVIEWS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://pidsl.com/?p=767</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A book review by Kendra Redman  -  In the Internet age we have grown accustomed to the idea of finding our match online, screening for ‘the One’ based on the data provided.  The novel Matched by Ally Condie takes this idea a step further.  Matched takes place in a world where the Society has complete control over people’s lives, which include deciding who someone will love.  Who people will marry is decided by the Society’s Officials who have carefully made selections based on optimal results.  The administrators of the Society don’t just use analysis and probability to make love matches, they also determine what career someone will have and they have even whittled down art and poetry to what they have selected as the Hundred Best. The marriage matches are revealed during a formal ceremony with overtones of prom, the prospective matches dress in formalwear and enjoy a luxurious meal.  When their name is called, they stand and their match is revealed via a screen because the matches may come from different provinces.  Each person matched is given a data card with their match’s photo and information to learn more about the person they will be expected to marry.  It [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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		<title>Ancient magic brings &#8216;The Dovekeepers&#8217; to life</title>
		<link>http://pidsl.com/2012/02/ancient-magic-brings-the-dovekeepers-to-life/</link>
		<comments>http://pidsl.com/2012/02/ancient-magic-brings-the-dovekeepers-to-life/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 21 Feb 2012 20:55:29 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Editor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BOOK REVIEWS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://pidsl.com/?p=735</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A book review by Kendra Redman  -  It’s funny how a name thousands of years old can still ring with power.   I had heard the name Masada and knew it signified a terrible event a long time ago, but until I read The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman, I didn&#8217;t really know why the very word had survived over centuries as a symbol. Set in ancient Judea, known now as Israel, this is a novel of four extraordinary women who rose above the laws, society’s rules and  women’s place in the world of men.  Yael, Revka, Aziza and Shirah are very diverse personalities who come from different backgrounds, yet each arrived through force or choice at the stronghold known as Masada at a time when the Roman Empire was bent on exterminating the Jews.  Their lives intertwine as they work together in the dovecotes of the fortress, caring for the birds whose lives mean survival for the inhabits of the fortress. Yael has learned the power of silence and invisibility through a cruel childhood.  When she and her father are forced to flee Jerusulem and make their way through the searing desert, her inner courage matches the fire of her hair.  Revka, once the [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<title>The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory</title>
		<link>http://pidsl.com/2012/02/the-lady-of-the-rivers-by-philippa-gregory/</link>
		<comments>http://pidsl.com/2012/02/the-lady-of-the-rivers-by-philippa-gregory/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:31:48 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Editor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BOOK REVIEWS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://pidsl.com/?p=658</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A book review by Kendra Redman  -   The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory may be classified as historical fiction, but it’s closely based on real historical figures.  In the front of the book are the family trees of the main characters in The Lady of the Rivers, but I deliberately skipped over those as I wanted to just read it as a story, without being influenced by what I know of the history of the time. The central character, Jacquetta, is descended from an influential family living in France during the 12th century.  Not only is the family influential, but the family bloodline descends from a union between a man and a water spirit, a mythology that maintains a thread that weaves throughout the life of Jacquetta and her family.  As a girl, Jacquetta meets Joan of Arc and befriends her during the time she is taken in and protected by her family.   Just as Joan claims that the voices that speak to her set her on the path to take back French territory from the English, Jacquetta has her own special gifts which she is encouraged to grow by her great aunt, though her great aunt does [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
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		<title>Blackout is a departure for Connie Willis</title>
		<link>http://pidsl.com/2012/02/kendra-redmans-review-of-blackout-by-connie-willis/</link>
		<comments>http://pidsl.com/2012/02/kendra-redmans-review-of-blackout-by-connie-willis/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 13 Feb 2012 04:29:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Editor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BOOK REVIEWS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://pidsl.com/?p=651</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[By Kendra Redman &#8211; Despite the horrors of WWII, I have always thought there was something wonderful about this time period. This was an era where integrity, honor and bravery abounded among everyday heroes, so different than our modern age. After all, the people who lived through these times were considered “The Greatest Generation.” It was a time when everyone pulled together, made sacrifices to help others in trying times and showed their patriotism by continuing to live as normally as possible under often horrific circumstances. Blackout, by Connie Willis, is a departure from most books and films about this period. Much other work about this era focuses on the battlefront and soldiers. In Willis’s book, students and historians in a future decades from now have discovered how to time travel to various periods in history. Far from a sci fi book, the time travel here just serves as a plot element to shed light on England during WWII. Instead of the scholars bent over dusty records and books in the university library, they use time travel to go into history in order to complete their academic research papers and projects. In Blackout, initially the scholars appear somewhat detached from the [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>4</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Divergent – A Book Review</title>
		<link>http://pidsl.com/2012/02/divergent-%e2%80%93-a-book-review/</link>
		<comments>http://pidsl.com/2012/02/divergent-%e2%80%93-a-book-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 08 Feb 2012 19:03:44 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Editor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BOOK REVIEWS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://pidsl.com/?p=607</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[by Kendra Redman  -  The novel Divergent by Veronica Roth raises some interesting food for thought….has our society allowed people too much freedom?  It’s a question worth asking in a world where people divorce when they change their mind about the person they married, where students take six years to graduate and incur massive student loans because they can’t decide on a major and where people celebrities are required to constantly reinvent themselves.   In a world where there are hundreds of kinds of jam, college major, careers, etc. do we simply have too much choice?  Would our lives be better if we lived in a simpler world with fewer choices to complicate our lives? Enter a world that is ordered into factions, completely different than the society we live in.  Veronica Roth creates a world where society decided the price of so much freedom and choice was more than they wanted to pay and more than what was good for society. Divergence is a novel that works on many levels for different age groups.  Mature readers will ponder the deep questions, while young readers may view the novel from the viewpoint of teenage rebellion against parental or society’s control.  Either [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
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		<item>
		<title>Sharp Teeth – A Book Review</title>
		<link>http://pidsl.com/2012/02/sharp-teeth-%e2%80%93-a-book-review/</link>
		<comments>http://pidsl.com/2012/02/sharp-teeth-%e2%80%93-a-book-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:47:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Editor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[BOOK REVIEWS]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://pidsl.com/?p=603</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[by Kendra Redman  -  I almost stopped reading Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow after the first few pages.    It’s really rare for me not to finish a book I have started; normally it would have to be some pretty bad writing for me to stop reading.  However, in this case it wasn&#8217;t that the writing was poor; it was the style of writing that was putting me off.  Like many of us have experienced in school I had to read James Joyce’s Ulysses.  For someone who normally loves to read, I remember hating that book.  The words felt disjointed and awkward on the page.  I remember my teacher referring to it as the ‘stream of consciousness’ style of writing.   Well the style of prose in Burn could be referred to that as well.  However, in Ulysses the blame wasn&#8217;t solely on the style of writing, but just the way the author’s thoughts meandered, it was hard to discern any type of plot or a timeline of events.  In Sharp Teeth once you start to adjust to the style, the other normal elements of narrative are there.  In fact, after I forced myself to read past the point where I had almost given up, I [...]]]></description>
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		<slash:comments>3</slash:comments>
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