27th April, 2008
Down To A Sunless Sea by Mathias B. Freese
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In my honest opinion, I found this book quite a difficult read. There are 15 short stories in here and I could not understand all of them. I had to read some of them a couple of times to understand them better. In a way, the stories make you think and form your own opinions about the characters and the endings. Some stories don’t have a clear ending, hence making you guess it.
Mathias B. Freese brings you into the minds of troubled individuals. For example, in ‘I’ll Make It, I Think’, the narrator describes himself as normal-looking at some parts of his body while some aren’t so normal. He says that girls wouldn’t date him because they wouldn’t hold a deformed hand like his. So even though he’s different from the rest, he is still human and has normal human feelings.
In the story ‘Herbie’, Herbie aspires to start a kind of shoeshine business with his friend. His father also polishes shoes for a living and Herbie wants to follow in his footsteps. Unfortunately, despite his son looking up to him, Herbie’s father is not very happy of his son’s idea.
I like the story ‘Alabaster’. It is about an encounter of a 9-year-old boy with an old Polish woman who had survived the Holocaust. She showed him her numbered hand but it’s not clear if the boy understood what it all meant. It’s a simple story but a truly poignant one about a small boy spending time with a lonely old lady by listening to her talk.
All the same, ‘Little Errands’ is exceptionally interesting. The person telling the story is kind of restless. He has mailed his letters but he kept worrying whether he had remembered to put stamps on them or whether the mailman collected them or not. Sometimes, I am like that too. It may just be a little chore but it’s so simple that we feel like we did not do it right. Like something went wrong somewhere and we are not sure about it, that’s why we worry and keep thinking about it!
Have you ever answered back at your teacher probably because you don’t like her or feel that she’s not teaching the right thing? That’s what Nicholas did in ‘Nicholas’. This short story was probably written by the character Nicholas himself since there are spelling and punctuation errors. It seems that he’s not good in English and he receives neither respect nor attention unlike another kid from Iran whose English isn’t that good either.
Most of the short stories are about children and young adults and about how they feel towards themselves as well as their surroundings. Like what I had mentioned earlier, this book gets you thinking and asking questions. That’s how it is with me. What about you?
Also, I’d like to thank Mr. Freese for sending me a copy of this book.
Other Bloggers’ Reviews: gautami tripathy, Melody, KittyCat
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Posted in Authors F, Short Stories, Titles D at 2:49 pm | Comments (7)
6th April, 2008
The Secret Scroll by Ronald Cutler
The title itself has made me eager to get started on reading the book. The Secret Scroll…it sounds pretty mysterious and exciting, don’t you think?
Anyway, the hero is supposed to be American archaeology professor, Josh Cohan. He has been dreaming some weird dreams about a cave somewhere in Jerusalem. Something inside the cave, which is The Scroll, is waiting for him to find it. Wouldn’t it be fun if we had dreams like his that would help us make the most important discoveries in our lifetime? But then, life would get a little bit too exciting.
Because Josh made that tremendously ‘fantastic’ discovery, he has put his and other people’s lives in absolute danger. When Josh translated the scroll, as it’s written in Aramaic, he found out that it was supposedly written by Jesus Christ himself! Now that is one heck of a crucial discovery and Josh has to make sure that it does not fall into the wrong hands.
Since the scroll was found in Jerusalem, Josh must hand it over to the Israel Antiquities Authority or The IAA. While he was trying to pass the scroll to them, there are other people too who wants the scroll badly. They are The Guardians, a cult who believes that they are the only true Christians in the world and wish to eradicate those who don’t share their faith.
Therefore, Josh and a team of archaeologists from The IAA set out to translate the scroll to determine if it’s really written by Jesus Christ. Also, there is someone from The IAA who has been leaking out information to The Guardians. Actually, there are a number of traitors and I had a fun time trying to guess who they were. Sadly, all my guesses were wrong. =D You’d be truly surprised when you read the book.
Besides action and adventure, there is also romance between Josh and the daughter of an archaeologist from The IAA, Danielle. Actually, Danielle has suffered more than Josh since she has been kidnapped and molested by The Guardians. I’ve noticed that Josh didn’t really go all out to save the woman he loves. He was more interested in translating the scroll.
Nevertheless, The Secret Scroll is an incredibly exhilarating read. You never know what’s going to happen next and I really enjoyed doing a lot of speculation while reading. It’s easy to read so you can probably finish it in less than a week or maybe even a few days. But do take note that Ronald Cutler embarked on a research that took him more than two years to create this book!
Oh, I also like the short chapters in this book. I don’t like long chapters because then, reading would be tiring. I usually stop reading at the end of a chapter and then take a break or something, so short chapters are always welcomed. =) There is a simple map of Jerusalem on two pages in the front part of the book, so you can refer to it if you want to get a clearer picture of Josh’s journey.
For fans of The Da Vinci Code, I highly recommend The Secret Scroll. Incidentally, this is Ronald Cutler’s first novel.
Thanks to Lisa Roe for letting me review this book.
Other Bloggers’ Reviews: naida
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Posted in Adventure, Authors C, Mystery/Thriller, Titles S at 11:36 am | Comment (0)
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