Because the stuff that’s most inappropriate is oftentimes the most necessary and the most beautiful.Ī couple of weeks ago, I finished The Nazi and the Barber, a hilarious Edgar Hilsenrath novel people have been telling me for years to read. It’s about embracing the profoundly profane, the absurd. It’s not a search for the forbidden, or embracing paeans to violence and salaciousness - I’ve nothing against either, but that shit’s everywhere. But I was, and still am, definitely attracted to good books deemed controversial, that someone felt the need to keep out of someone else’s hands for whatever reason: Catch-22, Lolita, Animal Farm, All Quiet on the Western Front. When I was younger, it wasn’t out of the ordinary to stumble across a book that had been banned in some school district or library system - “banned in Boston,” they used to say, often tongue-in-cheek. Can you elaborate on the “shit I’ve been thinking about?”
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She is soon cheated out of the money Bruce left her by a crooked investor and, although pregnant, is sent to prison on a false charge. When Amber learns that Bruce has gone to sea, she vows to use her wiles to achieve a social level above that of Bruce so that he will want her. Because Charles believes that Bruce is pursuing his mistress, Barbara Palmer, Countess Castelmaine, with whom Bruce earlier had a romance, Charles provides Bruce two ships with which to establish a privateering enterprise and share the profits he makes robbing foreign treasure ships. Although he refuses to take her with him to London, she follows him and his best friend, Lord Harry Almsbury, and in London, she and Bruce become lovers. She rebels against the match, as she does not want to remain in a small village her whole life, and becomes enamored of Lord Bruce Carlton, a soldier for hire who stops at the village. By 1660, after the death of Cromwell and the restoration of the House of Stuart, in the person of Charles II, Amber, now an attractive young woman, is betrothed by her ward, Matt Goodgroome, to a farmer. In 1644, during the revolt of the English Parliament and Oliver Cromwell's army against the tyrannical rule of King Charles I, a baby wrapped in a blanket on which the name "Amber" is sewn, is left at the front door of a Puritan farmer by a fleeing nobleman, who is then killed by his pursuers. From the very beginning of the story when Faith is being chased and literally lands in Nicholas’s arms, to the ending that makes you believe in the power of true love, THE PERFECT STRANGER is a must read! THE PERFECT STRANGER is one of those books that needs to be read from beginning to end in one sitting. After all, there is no such thing as too much perfection. Be sure to add A PERFECT STRANGER to your reading list and, if you haven’t already read them, add the first two books as well. (snip) I’d give a 10 to the whole series if that were possible. It’s rare to find a novel that’s so moving and entertaining at the same time. I don’t know how I refrained from giving 10s to the first two of Anne Gracie’s Perfect series, but THE PERFECT STRANGER certainly merits one. (snip) For RRT’s Perfect 10s to have the strongest meaning, we all try to be as stingy as possible with them. Romantic Times, Maria Ferrer, 4.5 StarsĪnne Gracie possesses the rare talent of tugging the heartstrings and tickling the funnybone while creating lovable characters with individual personalities, even for minor characters. And the way she battles her way into her new husband’s heart is equally entertaining and moving. Faith is an inspiring heroine as she conquers her fears and overcomes betrayal and heartache. Book three in Gracie’s “Perfect Series” is enchanting. There Nathan goes through his daily routine of running, washing dishes, history lessons and of course his yearly visits with the council. He makes plans to run away before his 17th birthday but before he can, he is hauled in by the council and assigned to a keeper far away from his family in the hills of Scotland. He’s picked on by his eldest sister, Jessica, fails miserably at school work and falls in love with an exceptionally kind White Witch named Annalise. He must undergo yearly tests and interrogations by the Council of White Witches which he never quite takes seriously (they rarely get a straight answer out of him). Nathan lives with his Gran, sister Deborah and beloved brother Arran. His mother was a White Witch and his father (though he has never met him) is the baddest of all the baddest Black Witches in England, Marcus Edge. You see, Nathan is not exactly White and not completely Black. Except, it’s a bit more complicated than that. That is the simple fact that Nathan has understood for his entire life. Black Witches are bad and White Witches are good. |