Books in Series

Novel Series—Speculative Fiction

Nora Roberts is one of my favorite writers simply for her versatility. She writes romances, thrillers, murder mysteries set in the future, paranormal books set in the present and fantasy novels not of this world. Her work ethic is impressive, too. Though I’ve no doubt she has ghost writers to help, she nevertheless publishes three or four times the number of books per year than the average bestselling author.

I like her speculative fiction better than her mainstream books. The O’Dwyer Cousins Trilogy, written a number of years ago, is for sale again. I’ve read the first one, Dark Witch, about three cousins, a brother and sister in Ireland and their American cousin who comes to Ireland for a new start and to explore her roots. They are all witches with varying gifts who must combine them to defeat an enemy, more an evil force than a person, who killed their ancestor several generations ago and seeks their power to supplement his.

Sounds a little out there but the story is set in the present, which grounds it to a more realistic bent, and includes three more friends (one also a witch) who own or work at a stable and provide work, friendship, and love interests for the cousins. The female Irish cousin has a darker, brooding nature. Her American cousin has few filters and blurts out her feelings but is filled with bright good will—very engaging. This story ends with a battle with their enemy where he is hurt but not destroyed. I’m looking forward to the rest of the series.

Vampires

For the most part, I think vampires and werewolves have been overdone. I was given a couple of Christine Feehan’s books from her Carpathian Series and liked them much better than her other books. In her more recent novels, I’ve found her characters and plots to be pretty much one story with different names and not even much difference in physical characteristics between characters. This series, however, is very inventive.

The Carpathians are an inhuman species with great strength and various powers—immortality, telepathy, the ability to fly, etc.—and the need to sustain themselves on human blood. They don’t physically harm or mentally traumatize their victims (where the telepathy comes in handy), but they have a darkness inside that if not relieved by finding their life mate can lead to them becoming full-fledged, evil vampires and killing machines.

I’ve read only two in the series so far, Dark Slayer and Dark Promises, and all the evil vampires have been male. I don’t know yet if the females can turn or what happens to them if they don’t find their life mate. I have to see if I can find the earlier novels, which should give the details. Even though an ongoing series, each story plot was complete by itself. Dark Slayer was about a couple who had been horrendously abused by Carpathian enemies and had to learn to trust each other to survive.

Dark Promises is more recent in the series and states that the species is going extinct but has found that human females with paranormal abilities can be turned Carpathian. This story centers on one human woman’s struggle to accept the change and her mate. Stole a few elements from Fifty Shades of Grey and listed toward the repetitive characteristics of her other novels, but I still want to read the earlier novels.

Short Story

The Teacup

Harold cut the blueberry bread he had taken out of the freezer before bed last night and set the not quite even slices on the fading violets covering Irene’s serving plate. He added mugs, Irene’s fancier teacup, and a bowl of lemon wedges to a tray and carried everything out to the screened-in porch.  

“I used the last of the frozen berries for these,” Irene had said as she double-wrapped one of the loaves to prevent freezer burn.

Harold, never Harry to her, had patted her hand. “Fresh’ll be ready in a couple weeks.”

He harvested the first picking of their forty-year-old berry bush in the backyard by himself and wondered at his impatience. The chore never seemed like drudgery when Irene worked beside him. He remembered to place the berries single-layer on a pan in the freezer before jumbling them into bags. That would please her.

He knew Irene didn’t mind the kids picking her up from the hospital instead of him. His gnarled length folded less easily behind the wheel these days, though he had at first balked when Irene suggested that she do most of the daytime driving.

“We’re a team,” she said. “You have better night vision.”

Teamwork, Harold accepted, was the saving grace of their senior years. He set the mugs around the table he’d handmade to fit the porch corner. A light drizzle fell, but after four days of staring at hospital walls, Irene would appreciate being outside. Still, he knew her hands would be achy, something she would try to remedy by stretching her fingers down beside her porch rocker, back and forth, curl and straighten. Harold would wordlessly hold his hand out and know exactly how hers would fit in the curve of his palm as he kneaded the pain away.

Too soon to steep the tea, he sat a moment in his rocker and cradled Irene’s china teacup, etched on the outside with silver pagodas and pine trees, part of a set he’d bought for her while on shore leave in Japan during his five-year world tour in the Navy. Those years apart—visits home had rarely been granted—almost lost him Irene. At first he received a letter every week.

“The town council added two benches to the park,” she wrote. “My sister Nancy got engaged and asked me to be her maid of honor.” 

Harold wrote about the countries where the ship anchored and sketchy details of his life as a mechanic. Only so many interesting things could be said about running machinery that turned salt water into fresh, though he took pride in his efficiency record.

  Irene’s treasured letters started to dwindle and Harold told himself that she was planning her sister’s bridal shower and helping with wedding details. When one letter said, “I am going to the wedding with my brother,” Harold read Irene’s loneliness between the lines.

It took a large chunk of his saved pay to send Irene the china set. The accompanying letter told her he kept one of the cups that had a lady’s face molded into the bottom of the interior. “It comforts me every night to look into this cup and picture your eyes, your smile.”

Harold never regretted the expense. The letters again arrived every week and he and Irene married two months after his return. The only nights they had spent apart had been when they had their three kids and during this hospital stay necessary for Irene to recover from pneumonia.

Harold’s phone pinged and the text read that the kids and Irene were five minutes away. He hauled himself up from the rocker and returned to the kitchen to pour steaming water into the readied teapot. He breathed in the familiar Earl Grey and carried the teapot out to the porch. He once again picked up Irene’s teacup. A fine crackling in the delicate veneer lined the lady’s still beautiful face.

“Yeah, the old girl’s held up just fine.” A car pulled into the drive. Harold opened an umbrella and went out to welcome Irene home.

Syria's Background

Syria’s Background—the Short Version

Syria gained independence from France in the mid-Forties and struggled through many coups in the coming decades. The Ba’ath Party, formed in the Fifties, believed in socialism, nationalism, populism, which is like socialism but not necessarily advocating that the producers of goods should have the political power to enforce their distribution. A revolutionary group, the interior disagreements on how to wield power caused instability.

The ascendance of Hafez al-Assad to power in the Seventies brought some stability to the government. His son, Bashar al-Assad, who ran unopposed, was elected in 2,000 after his father’s death. The privileged ruling sect is mostly Shiite Muslims while Sunni Muslims make up most of the civilian population and feel disenfranchised.

The country has been under Emergency Law for most of the last half century, which suspended many of the constitutional protections of its citizens. Syria has also supported wars against Israel and terrorist organizations such as the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Relations with their bordering neighbors have been up and down as a result.

Civil War

The Arab Spring affected Syria and its divided populace deeply and the country has been in a civil war since 2011. Organizations such as the Human Rights Watch have declared Syria’s human rights to be among the worst in the world—censoring websites, detaining bloggers, imposing travel bans, and arresting democracy and human-rights activists, sometimes torturing and/or killing them.

Because of the war, human-rights abuses, and the killing of civilians, especially by chemical warfare, many countries have severed diplomatic relations with Syria, including: Britain, Canada, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, and the United States. The country continues to share good relations with Iran and Russia.

The Refugee Crisis

The Syrian Opposition is formed from many factions in opposition to the government. Civilians of course are caught in the middle of the war. Disease brought on by poor sanitation in war-torn areas and deteriorating living conditions kill many, the majority, children. Crime has become rampant, police forces in many smaller towns, disbanded. Atrocities—murders, rapes—also perpetrated on children have become commonplace, many inflicted by authorities.

Refugees fled by the thousands to Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Turkey where they often live in tent communities with worse or no better conditions than those left behind. After seeing the tiny victims of the last chemical assault, I can understand people supporting President Trump bombing Syria. It is a concise, definitive action, which feels good but is unlikely to solve or change anything for the children still in harm’s way.

Our current political climate has changed, now advocating the removal of al-Assad. The question still remains—who would fill the void and how would we ensure the new government isn’t as or more corrupt and violent than the one being replaced? Trump said we should have taken control of Iraq’s oil fields when we went in there. I wonder if that would be the goal for involvement in Syria.

To Eat or Not to Eat

Eat This, Don’t Eat That—Ugh!

Weight Watchers, Atkins, Paleo, Mediterranean—the list of diets would probably fill this page. Eat mostly protein, don’t eat any animal products, eat only raw foods. A person could get whiplash trying to follow dietary advice. Butter has become better than margarine again; eggs are no longer cholesterol villains. Lately I have seen whole-milk yogurts being advertised and now the talk is that whole dairy fat contributes benefits to a healthy diet.

Which is it, people? What I come away with is that either our science on human nutrition is sadly lacking or the food and diet industries profiting from the obsession with our bodies knows no bounds—moral or common sense. As in most things, it’s probably a combination. One thing I know, when some study says this or that food or supplement is the new wonder food or drug, ask who funded the study (did the egg industry fund the research that says eggs are good now, for instance) and whether other researchers can duplicate the results.

So, What Should We Eat?

Of all the diets that have come and gone, the Mediterranean diet seems to hold merit with most doctors and dieticians. Just in case you don’t know it, it recommends plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables—seven or more servings a day—olive oil and/or nuts and seeds, lean protein, especially fish, and whole grains.

Quinoa seems fashionable at the moment. Others include brown rice, oatmeal, and multigrain breads. No one ever mentions corn or grits, which I find interesting. All grains are carbohydrates, and corn has good fiber and nutrients, though perhaps not as many as the others. I haven’t researched this.

 What Not to Eat

It is clear that too much saturated fat and sugar will cause obesity and possible diabetes, heart disease, many say, cancer. What constitutes too much continues to be debated. I read that a woman should not have more than twenty-five grams of sugar or six teaspoons a day.

To put that in perspective, one non-diet, not plain, six-ounce cup of yogurt has nineteen grams, though some of that amount comes from the milk and not added sugar. How much of each is not delineated on the package I checked. One twelve-ounce can of regular Mountain Dew soda has forty-six grams of sugar.

Six teaspoons seems a little restrictive to me. Even if you only consumed one soda a week, it would go over the limit. Basically, common sense has to rule the day. Eat mostly healthy foods that your body needs and keep non-nutritious foods that make you happy to a small percent of your diet—most recommend no more than twenty percent. And, hey, keep watching all the new findings. Maybe they’ll come up with calorie-free ice cream that tastes like Ben and Jerrys. I can dream.