Boone Hall Plantation - Michelle Adams

Last week, we were in Charleston, South Carolina, for a conference. The amazing thing was my aunts and a couple of my cousins made the trek to hang out with us. It was so much fun, and one of the highlights was when we went to Boone Hall Plantation. Once our tours were over and we were all tuckered out, I still wanted to learn more. They didn't have the usual souvenirs I collect (lapel pins), so I decided to pick up this book.

The book has tons of pictures with little summaries underneath. Do the summaries always match the picture? Not always, but I learned a ton. The pictures are all in black and white, which is understandable considering the time period the book was covering. I wish there were at least a couple of pictures in color, especially of the Avenue of the Oaks. I got some pictures of it while we were there, but it really was pretty. If you ever get a chance to get down that way, check out Boone Hall. The gardens were amazing as well.

I personally enjoyed the book, but I think a lot of that was because of my interest. I wouldn't randomly pick this book up and read it, especially since there aren't color pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't see the price of the book when I picked it up ($24.99), but I chalk it up to supporting the author's efforts and the plantation itself. I'm giving it a Good Book! review, but I'm not recommending it as something that everyone would be interested in.

Code Name November (The November Man #1) - Bill Granger

I can’t remember how exactly this one ended up on my list, but I knew it was a spy thriller. I think there’s even a movie.

Devereaux is sent on a mission to figure out what a specific agent knows. The guy is hoping to get his windfall and disappear, but it’s not meant to be. A relative of the Queen is in danger, and Devereaux’s R Section wants to leverage that to stick it to the CIA and get in good with British Intelligence.

Okay, I think I’m getting old. There was a woman in the book, and of course, they had sex. I really didn’t care for it, and I ended up hating her. She was supposed to be able to handle things going on around her, but she was just whiny and scared the whole time. I kept wanting her to die. There was a character I ended up really liking, but they killed him. I think that made me hate the woman even more, because she really didn’t contribute anything except some smut.

The writing itself was decent. It would just get confusing at times. These moments would always end up being cleared up, but in the moment, it could get frustrating. The other issue was the number of characters and whose side they were on. I felt like I needed a list after a while, but it was too late by that point.

There are more books with Mr. November, but I’m out. I couldn’t really get a good read on Devereaux, and I really ceased to care after a while. And when they killed off my favorite character, that’s never good if I’m considering sticking with a series. It wasn’t a terrible book, I just didn’t enjoy it.

Beyond the Call of Duty - Stephen L. Moore

This is the story of Robert Hayward, the most highly decorated Green Beret. After reading everything he went through, I have to say that he earned every medal he received. He was a Medal of Honor recipient, but it took three tries for the paperwork to get through. The other two times, the award was downgraded. It’s something I don’t understand.

There isn’t much to say about the book itself. It goes through his life and provides pictures to go along with the story. I really appreciated the author getting the story from not only Bob, but friends and family as well. If you want to know what a true hero’s life looks like, you’ll find it in these pages.

The only downside was Bob’s love life. As with a lot of the military men I read about, he had trouble adjusting to being at home, and his marriages suffered because of it. From what I read, this man was in his element when he was on the ground in Vietnam, protecting his fellow troops and making sure everyone made it out alive.

The writing of this book was excellent, and the story was structured in a methodical way. Sometimes these books are all over the place when it comes to organization, and it drives me crazy. This biography was well done, and if you want to read about a Vietnam Medal of Honor recipient, I highly recommend this book. Good Book! 

The Handsome Road (Plantation Trilogy #2) - Gwen Bristow

I worked really hard to acquire this paperback. On a trip to San Diego, I saw it while shopping, but I'd already bought four books. The cover really drew me in, so I specifically walked back to the bookstore the next day and bought it. I didn't really realize it was part of a series, but there's generations between the books, so it didn't matter. Also, this book originally came out in 1938, so the language in it is horribly dated.

Ann and Corrie May live very different lives in Louisiana during the Civil War era. Ann has her every issue taken care of and lives on a plantation, while Corrie May struggles to get by. Both of their lives are going to change once the war hits.

Corrie May drove me nuts. Her use of the n-word was excessive, and while I suppose her view made sense in the moment, she really did not like slaves. In her view, they did jobs for free, and there wasn't any work left for people like her. Corrie May was a selfish, manipulative woman who never learned true compassion. She was focused on how to elevate her position in the world. Everyone else was uppity and didn't deserve her attention. She even made Budge (her poor fiancé who was killed) feel guilty enough to leave his property and join the army. Then she wanted him to quit. There's so many instances where she would do whatever she wanted and basically ignored how it would affect anyone else. She just wanted to stick it to people who didn't live like her.

Ann's portion of the story was much better, and while she started out the Southern Belle, she had a true arc where she was better by the end of it. Corrie May, on the other hand, grovels up to Ann but leaves by chastising her. Corrie May needed a good slap. This is really bad to say, but I was a bit bummed she didn't die at the end. I say that because so many characters die in this book, and some of the deaths were sad. 

Anyway, I just wanted this book to end. I was tempted to quit reading it, but I wanted to find out what happened to Ann. The next book in the series is about descendants of Ann and Corrie May's families, but I'm not going anywhere near it!

The Roman Hat Mystery - Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee)

Ellery Queen is the son of an Inspector and our narrator for this novel.

A man is murdered during the performance of a play. His hat is missing, and the Queens have to work hard to find out who did it, and why did the murderer take the hat?

This book was just not interesting for me. The mystery takes place, and then the Inspector takes close to 10% of the book explaining the whole thing to someone. At that point, I could've just read the last part and heard the whole thing in detail.

I wasn't a fan of the characters, the plot was drawn out, and the repetition at the end just sealed my opinion. Not for me. 

Magpie Murders - Anthony Horowitz

I've read one other book by this author, and it was way back in 2018. I wasn't a huge fan of Raven's Gate, but this book was more a murder mystery, and those are my jam. This is a fairly popular book, and there's even a TV series now. My daughter let me borrow her copy, and I was curious to see what all the hype was about.

Susan is an editor whose star author has died. It's labeled a suicide, but Susan isn't so sure. The author had just dropped off the final manuscript of his mystery series. But when Susan goes to read it, the final chapters are missing. It's another anomaly, and she isn't going to leave it alone.

I feel like the setup for the book was interesting. You read the entire manuscript in this book, and then you also read Susan's journey to find out what happened to the author. The thing is, I'm not sure I needed to read the entire manuscript. You're basically trying to solve two mysteries in this book. It was so long, I was just wanting it to end. Details were repeated numerous times, and Susan's mind went in circles. For instance, I read parts of the "suicide note" three times.

This book just wasn't for me. Everything seemed so drawn out, and it was just too long for what it was. My daughter has the second one in the series, Moonflower Murders, but I'm going to pass. It really wasn't my jam...

Fearless - Eric Blehm

Adam Brown is a hero.

That's the short version. This book was made on his request after his death in 2010. So many voices came together to make this book about his life. Some of them passed shortly after Adam. But this book isn't one of those biographies that sugar coats a life and makes it sound like the person was an angel.

Adam struggled with drugs early in life, but he didn't try to hide it. He chose when to tell people, but it was a part of who he was and what he overcame. He also fought against injuries. So many of the things he went through would break most people. But when this man went on his final mission, he had fought through injuries to the point where he had to learn to use one eye and shoot with his nondominant hand.

The man's life sounds like fiction, but he was a real hero. It's the ultimate redemption arc, which is evidenced by the number of people who remember him and the impact he made on their lives. I was in tears for much of the final part of the book. I don't tear up much while reading, so this was rough. The pictures were well chosen, and I commend the author for the work he did. This was definitely a story worth telling, and I think he did justice to the life of Adam Brown. Good Book!