Book Description
Georgia Durante was "The Kodak Girl" in 1968, the most photographed model in the country. Her journey found its way into the world of The Mob. As in many aspects of her life, Georgia stood out from the rest in the world of the Wiseguys. She became a trusted driver in a part of society where only men played the game. Georgia's time in The Mob also brought to her the man that stole her heart. He later became the man that wanted to take her life. He was abusive. He was controlling. He was darkness in a human form. He was her husband.
The Company She Keeps illustrates how negatives can be turned into positives in our lives. Georgia turns her getaway driving skills into a lucrative Stunt Driving business in Hollywood.
Customer Reviews:
Glad I didn't marry in to the mob!.......2007-09-16
This is a brave book. I can't imagine going through some of the things the author went through and not have a heart attack from fear! My sister loved the book too!
A salutary tale for our times.......2007-07-29
When I was in my last year at school I used to pass a life-size cardboard cut-out of Georgia Durante every day. It's hard for a man to remember exactly what he thought and felt when he was a boy of seventeen, but I do recall two things very strongly. The first thing was Georgia Durante as an icon of perfect pulchritude. The second thing was Georgia Durante as a person of considerable depth. At his first sight of the photograph any viewer will find his gaze ranging over the subject, but before long he will be drawn to the subject's eyes. If I didn't know exactly what those eyes were saying in 1969, they spoke to me obliquely of a profound personality. While they were not in any way sad, they were certainly not frivolous. There is a powerful innocence about the photograph, and in spite of the subject's costume and pose there is nothing coquettish or come-hither about it. The subject appears to be neither taut nor relaxed. She holds herself with an innocent pertness, as if to say that she is what she is and she doesn't really care if people want her to be something else. In short, the photograph remains one of the most powerful icons of the last half-century.
Reading Georgia's book has helped me to articulate the person behind that icon. She writes clearly and intelligently. While posssessing what sounds like a near-perfect memory, she never descends into triviality or inconsequence. Her book is a good read, unputdownable and entrancing. A great deal of it is related to unhappiness, but Georgia is artist enough to paint the unhappiness in a decorous manner. Self-pity is simply not there. She could easily have gone for the gutter vote by describing certain things in unedifying detail. Instead, she paints these things deftly with a few brush-strokes. A case in point is her description of the very worst thing that ever happened to her.
I see Georgia's book as far more than a good read. I see it as a tract for our times. To some extent it is a sermon against male conceit. While the excesses of the feminazis variously disgust and amuse me, I'm forced to concede that throughout human history men have treated many innocent women (like Lucretia) with terrible wickedness. There is something in the unregenerate male bully which enjoys causing pain to a woman. People need to be made aware of how common such bullies are.
Innocent womanhood has a tremendous gravity which seems to attract some of the worst and most dangerous elements of the unregenerate male character. Georgia's book demonstrates this fact more clearly than any other book that I have ever read.
Shakespeare wrote 'The Rape of Lucrece' ( = Lucretia). The author of II Samuel 13 wrote the story of Tamar. Georgia Durante has written her own tale, and it is an epic in its own right. She belongs in the company of Lucretia and Tamar.
'The Company She Keeps' is not a book for women. It is a book for men and women, and perhaps especially for men. Let me amplify something which I've said already. Over the last fifty years we have seen in the West the almost complete feminization of the male. An Absalom-like obsession with personal appearance goes hand in hand with a regime of no exercise and weak self-indulgence. When I was growing up I looked forward to acquiring a workshop full of good quality tools, but many of today's adolescents aspire only to a set of car-keys and a comb. By contrast, against that general background of wilful unmanliness there stands a substantial number of young men who model themselves neither on the American eagle, nor on the Brtish bulldog, but on the peacock and the rooster. They strut around in a haze of self-love and self-importance. Before long they begin to express their phoney 'virility' in gangsterism, hard drinking, dangerous driving, and immorality. Georgia's book is in some ways a case study of this pitiable kind of man. To that degree it may be construed as a salutary warning to the youth of today.
But don't listen to me. Buy the book, and read her story for yourself. Georgia has not written a sermon: she has written a tale, and told it well.
You won't be able to put it down!.......2006-06-15
This book grabs you from page 1. If you didn't know better, you would swear it was fiction. Georgia Durante has created an excellent portrayal of her life in the fast lane. You feel as if you are with her in the room as these things are going on---that's how "real" of a writer she is. The good thing is you're NOT with her during the dangerous parts. She is painfully honest throughout the book. You'll find it entertaining at the first level. At the second level, you'll realize what a strong, sensitive person she is. Georgia Durante is the life-size definition of "survivor." You'll like Georgia and you'll love this book. Find a comfortable reading chair and order dinner in...you'll get hungry and you will NOT want to put the book down. I highly endorse this book.
The Book Of The Century.......2006-04-29
Georgia Durante had the courage to write a book that will keep you spellbound. From the moment you start you to read "The Company She Keeps" you'll find yourself unable to put it down. I didn't want it to end. With Sopranos coming to an end this book should be the next movie to take it's place. A different look at the mob underworld as only seen through this amazing woman's eyes. She lived to tell it like it really is. Now let's see it on the big screen.
A Must Read!.......2006-04-19
Georgia Durante may not have had the best company but she certainly had some interesting, intense company during her lifetime! I applaud Georgia for having the courage to tell it like it is. There is nothing romantic about abuse. As you read the book you feel as if you are in the room watching. You can see the characters and feel Georgia's fear and pain.
I admire strength, honesty, guts and stamina. Georgia has it all and then some! Treat yourself to a GREAT book and hopefully we'll see it on the big screen one day! It should be!!
INTRIGUE, EXCITEMENT, CHILLING, EMOTIONAL, EXPLOSIVE, IMPULSIVE!
Book Description
This is the author’s first novel, which relates the experiences of a young bohemian intellectual. The six episodes create a fascinating portrait of a New York social circle of the 1930s. McCarthy’s bold insight and virtuoso style won her immediate recognition as one of the most accomplished, versatile, and penetrating writers in americanca.
Customer Reviews:
McCarthy's first book and one of her best.......2006-07-15
The book consists of six somewhat lengthy "episodes" dealing with a young woman in the 1930s who runs with a very intellectual and bohemian crowd. All of the episodes are interesting and well told, but the best is "The Man in the Brooks Brothers Shirt." It is so good that it alone is worth the cost of the book. It describes an encounter between the young woman and a young man on a train, in which they end up spending the night together. The perspective is told from the woman's viewpoint and McCarthy's insights are incredibly honest, regardless the consequences. Her tone is assured and rock steady; it's a brilliant piece of modern realistic fiction. The whole book is fascinating and enlightening, one of McCarthy's best.
An Interesting Read.......2003-12-31
This is Mary McCarthy's first book, and consists of six different exerts, some of which appear to have appeared previously in American magazines. The six parts all feature the same young woman, Margaret Sargent, and must be to some extent autobiographical. The book does not have the by now traditional disclaimer about the characters being imaginary, so I imagine that many of the males in it are based on true people as well.
The chapters and characters in the book (except for Miss Sargent) are all very different. They draw on the author's mixed Protestant, Catholic and Jewish descent. They are also a fascinating "period piece" about the USA just before the Second World War, and before another McCarthy jumped down on Marxists and Communists. The book is well written, if somewhat verbose by modern standards, and the characters well drawn. The final chapter, "Ghostly Father, I Confess" is a bit too self analytical and involved, perhaps, but interesting none the less.
In summary, the book is worth reading.
Bohemian Life.......2000-02-13
The Company She Keeps was Mary McCarthy's first novel (as noted above) and follows the life of Margaret Sargent from her first divorce through the life of a gay divorcee to a strained remarriage. Margaret tries to live the life of a twenties heroine (her ideas of the free life very reminiscent of Fitzgerald) but the context of this time had completely irrevocably changed.
The book covers the prewar period with the infighting on the left and the politics of Trotsky and Spain, the coming war and sexual freedom. McCarthy writes with incision and great wisdom, mocking, mourning, and loving her characters all at the same time.
The only problem with the book is that it was originally not a book at all, but several short stories on a theme. As such, it hangs together remarkably well, but before I knew that it had been short stories first I was already puzzled by some of the abrupt jumps and breaks.
This is the first Mary McCarthy I've read, but I will certainly be reading more. Highly recommended.
Book Description
This critical, historical, and theoretical study looks at a little-known group of novels written during the 1930s by women who were literary radicals. Arguing that class consciousness was figured through metaphors of gender, Paula Rabinowitz challenges the conventional wisdom that feminism as a discourse disappeared during the decade. She focuses on the ways in which sexuality and maternity reconstruct the "classic" proletarian novel to speak about both the working-class woman and the radical female intellectual.
Two well-known novels bracket this study: Agnes Smedley's Daughters of Earth (1929) and Mary McCarthy's The Company She Keeps (1942). In all, Rabinowitz surveys more than forty novels of the period, many largely forgotten. Discussing these novels in the contexts of literary radicalism and of women's literary tradition, she reads them as both cultural history and cultural theory. Through a consideration of the novels as a genre, Rabinowitz is able to theorize about the interrelationship of class and gender in American culture.
Rabinowitz shows that these novels, generally dismissed as marginal by scholars of the literary and political cultures of the 1930s, are in fact integral to the study of American fiction produced during the decade. Relying on recent feminist scholarship, she reformulates the history of literary radicalism to demonstrate the significance of these women writers and to provide a deeper understanding of their work for twentieth-century American cultural studies in general.
Average customer rating:
- Great writing
- Fine Company Indeed!
- Lots of Mysteries in One Book!
- The Company She Keeps
- I wish I'd written it
|
The Company She Keeps
Diana R. Chambers
Manufacturer: Aventine Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 General
| Thrillers
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
Spy Stories & Tales of Intrigue
| Thrillers
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Mystery & Thrillers
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Romance
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Contemporary
| Romance
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1593302541 |
Book Description
A young southern woman, Evelyn-also known as "E"-is confronted by a CIA officer, Nick, who says her mysterious lover is being investigated as a foreign mole. Shocked, she agrees to cooperate, secretly. E thus enters the international world of espionage, with its intrigue, glamour, and danger. That world will mark her-and she will leave her mark. There will be men. And there will be Nick-sometimes near, sometimes far-watching over her. And not only because she is a valuable Company asset.. Then, finally, after one betrayal too many, E leaves. But Nick stays. Their different choices will lead ultimately to Iran-and even more danger.
Customer Reviews:
Great writing.......2006-08-27
Did you ever read the first pages of a spy thriller and think, "This is my life?" I'm gonna guess you answered, "No." And just that quickly, you learn this is not another cookie-cutter novel that follows the same old formula.
Evelyn Walker is from small-town North Carolina. It's every Southern stereotype, and it's 100% authentic. I know. I've lived in many such places.
This book presents a vivid and wholly credible picture of how, through a combination of manipulation and circumstance, a small-town girl becomes a CIA operative. Watch her mature into adulthood, and see how international intrigue operates in this new, modern age.
Nicholas Ross Daley is the major constant character in Evelyn's adventures. He's the one pulling the strings, sending her into dangerous assignments and destroying her innocence for the good of his nation. How can he face himself?
The author has traveled the world, and knows the subjects of which she writes. I could've told you that without reading her bio, because I've read her novels. It's obvious when an author knows her subject and when she's only guessing.
If she writes about a place I've spent some time in, I quickly notice just how quickly and accurately she brings it to life. The memories come rushing back. If she writes about a place I've never been, that's even better. I learn.
Spend some time with this somewhat unconventional entry into the espionage genre. You'll be glad you did.
Fine Company Indeed!.......2005-06-30
"The Company She Keeps" is a study in foreign relations. In the course of pursuing her new career, and the men that she is inextricably bound to, Evelyn Walker takes us around the world, to the exotic and sublime places we dream of, and leads us into the mysterious, shadowed world of intrigue and shadowy assignations.
With a subtle and personal knowledge, Diana Reynolds Chambers makes us feel as if we are there, with Evelyn, as her time within The Company... the CIA... leads her down two roads - the rigorous world of 'by-the-book' espionnage, and the wild 'cowboy' world of the modern, less traditional agent.
The chronicle of Evelyn's passage to "E", the CIA operative, complete with romance, sex and danger, provides us with an unmistakeable, unbreakable read.
Lots of Mysteries in One Book!.......2005-06-03
The Company She Keeps by Diana Reynolds Chambers is a wonderful book that you shouldn't expect to be able to put down until you're finished with it. Starting in the small, sleepy town of Alert, North Carolina and ending on the beaches of Bali, there's action everywhere in between!
Most of the action centers around E, short for Evelyn. She's a young girl from Alert, moves to Washington, and on from there to even more exciting places. Throughout the pages of The Company She Keeps, E becomes romantically involved with 3 spies, finally marrying one.
The Company She Keeps is filled with romance, mystery, heart-break and even some geography and social studies lessons. I really enjoyed it, and think it could probably be made into a great movie.
The Company She Keeps.......2005-06-02
This is a fabulous book and a fast read. By page nine I was hook, line, and suckered in. It launches into a female coming-of-age tale, and quickly and smoothly evolves into an espionage thriller. The heroine, Evelyn (E for short) Walker, is in her late teens. Her life is sheltered, and shared with a strict, retired Viet Nam vet father and a younger wise-cracking brother. Her mom abandoned the family years ago. They live in Alert, North Carolina, population 1,273. E is not unhappy, but yearns to experience the world beyond the city limits of this wisp of a town.
When the famous rock-star-of-her-dreams pulls into the family gas station for a fill-up, all wisdom of lessons learned is forgotten. And what starts as a local sightseeing trek turns into an unexpected and much longer journey. E experiences her first rock concert, fancy hotels and restaurants, and shopping at exclusive stores-all the things "city" gals do. But this relationship is just a stepping stone to more intriguing situations.
E has a fresh, Southern belle appearance and trusting personality. This combination plops her into electrifying escapades in Washington, D.C., Athens, Paris, and Tehran. In each situation, she finds herself more deeply and innocently embroiled in something bigger than it first appears. Spies, arms dealers, national security systems, government politics, all have consequences in the life of this plucky young heroine.
Ultimately, a fabric is woven between E and Nicholas Ross Daley, an undercover CIA operative. He must balance his duty to the U.S. government and his personal honor. In doing so, he becomes increasingly conflicted with each new task in which he is ordered to implicate E. On the other hand, E must sort through her family values and patriotism, and the loyalty she develops as she builds intimate relationships along the way.
Yes, there is intimate interaction. It runs the gamut from kissy-face to smoldering, but Chambers has artfully written them just this side of too explicit. This skill is but one example of fresh writing techniques she cleverly uses. The imagery throughout the book uses all five senses. You certainly see "the pink rose looking like a ballerina's tutu," smell "the cedarwood screen," hear "laughter sounding like wind chimes on a sultry evening," and taste "chili dogs with mustard" in the park.
The book also demonstrates Chambers' wealth of word knowledge. She sprinkles foreign words and phrases throughout the book in such a way that you understand or learn their meaning from the dialogue. "Gung ho," for example, means work together in Chinese. She also incorporates the latest spy lingo-"cosmic" documents, now means higher than "top secret."
Chambers writes as though she knows the inside story and has experienced it herself. She describes details regarding the annual White House Easter Egg hunt; procedures upon entering CIA headquarters in Washington, D.C.; history and traditions of the Islamic religion; and the battle between the U.S. and French aircraft manufacturing industries. It appears Chambers did her homework because each detail sounds totally believable.
This fast-paced book will pique your interest from beginning to back page. Plots and twists are never-ending. You don't read far to solve the current mystery. But, as in a Flash Gordon sequel, you'll quickly find the heroine embroiled in yet another more intricate and sticky situation as pages turn. E is an emerging butterfly at the beginning of the book. Her experiences gradually transform her outlook on love and life, but through it all she is a survivor and stays true to her daddy's adage, "Don't think about where you were-think about where you are!" Good words for us all to live by.
I wish I'd written it.......2005-04-25
They say write what you know. In the marvelous novel I've just read, "The Company She Keeps," although nowhere in the author's bio do I find reference to Diana Reynolds Chambers ever having been a CIA agent, this lady certainly writes what she knows about. Talk about verisimilitude! She takes the reader into a world that, in a lesser author's hand, might be the make-believe world of the James Bond genre. Instead, Ms. Chambers's has created a world of three-dimensional reality. I mean, you are really there! In the intrigue-filled corridors of Washington, the romance of Paris, the danger of Teheran. And each page literally brimming with suspense. This is a book I did not want to end, whose story and characters I wanted more of. I have published eight novels, two of them New York Times bestsellers. I have written a number of screenplays, including the Academy Award nominee "Star Trek The Motion Picture." Diana Reynolds Chambers makes me feel like a novice.
Harold Livingston
Average customer rating:
- Remarkable woman; very entertaining book
- A Quick and Easy View of An Amazing Woman
|
The Companies She Keeps: Tina Packer Builds a Theater
Helen Epstein
Manufacturer: Plunkett Lake Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Direction & Production
| Theater
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Theater
| Performing Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0961469609 |
Customer Reviews:
Remarkable woman; very entertaining book.......2005-07-06
I have taken a few workshops with Tina Packer, and was delighted to find this biography (which limits itself mostly to her professional life). Any woman who is thinking about starting a theater company should definitely read this book. Packer's persistence is inspiring, while her many practical struggles (fights for grant money, real estate woes)are alternately funny and cautionary. The book is engaging to read (it indulges in many digressions--like the ghosts in Edith Wharton's home), and valiantly tries to resist worshipping Tina (impossible for anyone who has ever met her). I read the whole thing over a weekend.
A Quick and Easy View of An Amazing Woman.......2000-03-17
Picked this book up at a used bookstore well off the beaten path and had finished it in 48 hours. Its author does not belittle her audience, but also focuses on making the fairly complex world of theatre readable for anyone with an interest. Thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end. A great book to read on the train or in rehearsal downtime. Not the most complex book in the world, but definitely worth the read.
Average customer rating:
|
The Company She Keeps
Manufacturer: Dell Publishing Company 824
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000GM830G |
Book Description
Rachel Morgan's back! Bestselling author Kim Harrison returns with a new supernatural adventure that fans of Laurell K. Hamilton and Charlaine Harris won't want to miss.
Some days, you just can't win. Witch and former bounty hunter Rachel Morgan's managed to escape her corrupt company, survive living with a vampire, start her own runner service, and face down a vampire master.
But her vampire roommate Ivy is off the wagon, her human boyfriend Nick is out of town indefinitely and doesn't sound like he's coming back while the far–too–seductive vampire Kisten is looking way too tempting, and there's a turf war erupting in Cincinnati's underworld.
And there's a greater evil still. To put the vampire master behind bars and save her family, Rachel made a desperate bargain and now there's hell to pay––literally. For if Rachel cannot stop him, the archdemon Algaliarept will pull her into the sorcerous ever–after to forfeit her soul as his slave. Forever.
Download Description
"
There's no witch in Cincinnati tougher, sexier, or more screwed up than bounty hunter Rachel Morgan, who's already put her love life and her soul in dire jeopardy through her determined efforts to bring criminal night creatures to justice.
Between ""runs,"" she has her hands full fending off the attentions of her blood-drinking partner, keeping a deadly secret from her backup, and resisting a hot new vamp suitor.
Rachel must also take a stand in the war that's raging in the city's underworld, since she helped put away its former vampire kingpin -- and made a deal with a powerful demon to do so that could cost her an eternity of pain, torment, and degradation.
And now her dark ""master"" is coming to collect his due.
"
Customer Reviews:
Sex, suspense and supernatural.......2007-09-12
I just started reading Kim Harrison so I've been reading her out of chronological order. Talk about lots of fun! She makes it easy to be a supernatural fan. lots of adventure and sex spice up her book...I wish she could write faster.
Super Reader.......2007-08-26
More demonic dirty deeds are to be seen here. Rachel encounters one of her demon's past slaves, and it turns out she is an elf. Suddenly there are elves everywhere, ex demon-slaves are elves, the super villain and annoying henchmen are elves. These guys are supposed to be gone, what is the story, etc.
Mysterious elderly next door neighbour, as well.
With arguments with her boyfriend, and the amusing pixie going on, this perhaps runs the risk of turning into a crazed supernatural fest, with no human characters left, despite their overwhelming majority numbers in the city.
Couldn't put it down!.......2007-08-20
I'm new to this series, but have been tearing through them! I'll always be a fan of Anita Blake, but this world has even more types of characters and the plot hasn't deviated into the relationship-only type yet. I'm already halfway through the next one!
What a witch!.......2007-08-04
OK, so since reading the first of the Rachel Morgan series, I have grown to love getting the next in the chain. Every time I dive into the pages and submerge into the world that Kim Harrison so eloquently portrays, I feel a part of the story. Her extraordinary gift is making such fantasy feel whole, real and totally believable.
This to me was the failing of others like buffy, which always felt unreal. Rachel is sassy, and knows what real life is, and to me they should put these into film ASAP!
Book 3 Rachel starts to think she can start getting her life in order, but as always things never quite go to plan. Living with a family of Pixies, a living vampire and having your boyfriend as a familiar would suggest 'normality' is a dream that will never come true, but lets hope Rachel can do it.
If you are looking to drop out of the hum-drum and into a complex and real fantasy world, with adult emotions shown with grit and feeling, these are the books for you, and book 3 is even better!
The Life of a Demon Familiar.......2007-07-17
Every Which Way But Dead (2005) is the third Urban Fantasy in the Rachel Morgan series, following The Good, the Bad, and the Undead. In the previous volume, Rachel slams Piscary into unconsciousness and turns him over to the FIBs. Later she convinces the Howlers to pay her fee for searching for their mascot fish.
In this novel, Piscary is convicted for the murders of several ley line witches after the demon Algaliarept testifies against him. Now Rachel summons the demon to fulfill her promise in exchange for his testimony. She goes through the rites to become his familiar.
After accepting her service, Al no longer needs his former familiar, the elf Ceri. Despite his sadistic intentions, Rachel convinces Al to release Ceri and then she gets Ceri onto sanctified ground. Ceri is now free after a thousand years of service to the demon.
Although Ceri is rapidly adjusting to her new freedom, Rachel needs to find her another home. Jenks is frustrated because he can't tell what kind of creature she is. He knows that she is the same kind as Trent Kalamack, but Rachel prefers not to release that information and pixies are not known for keeping secrets. Besides, Rachel, Ivy and Jenks are not exactly a normal household living in a typical lifestyle.
Rachel invites Keasley, the old witch living across the street, to come over and meet Ceri. While Keasley is not exactly a typical inderlander himself, he is more so than the Vampiric Charms team. At first Ceri and Keasley are a bit reluctant, but soon find much to like in each other. Keasley returns home to install Ceri in his spare bedroom.
In this story, Rachel notices that an older Were has been following her and confronts him in a back corner of the zoo. David Hue is an insurance adjuster who has a few questions about the fish that Rachel had taken from Mr. Ray's office. It seems that the fish had been stolen and the original owner has filed a claim. He also has some papers for Rachel to sign concerning the final disposition of the fish.
Algaliarept cannot use Rachel as his familiar without taking her back to the ever-after and is less than happy about her refusal to cross over. One day, when Rachel uses the ley line in her back yard, Al unexpectedly appears and starts dragging her away. Since the backyard ley line is surrounded by sanctified ground, the nearest available ley line is eight blocks away and Al is determined to drag or carry her to it. But Ceri, Keasley and David form a circle to stop him and Rachel, as the de facto summoner, then banishes him back to the ever-after.
This story also tells of Rachel's troubled relationship with Nick Sparagmos. After he became her familiar, Nick was subject to seizures and other upsets whenever Rachel drew upon a ley line. Now that she is Algaliarept's familiar, that tie has been broken, but Nick still isn't returning home. Then Kristen takes her out on a date and she finds herself becoming more attracted toward him.
With Piscary in prison, the criminal underground in Cincinnati becomes more unstable. Rachel gradually becomes aware of a new player. She first learns of Stanley Saladan from Takata in regard to his annual concert. Then Kristen takes her to Lee Saladan's gambling boat. Later, Quen hires her to protect Trent during a meeting with Saladan.
As usual, Rachel gets into all kinds of trouble with both her friends and her enemies. Sometimes it is hard to tell one from another, since today's friend is tomorrow's enemy and vice-versa. Her life is so screwed up!
Highly recommended for Harrison fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of inderlanders, humans and romance.
-Arthur W. Jordin
Customer Reviews:
Rachel Morgan Rocks!!.......2007-05-24
I love the Rachel Morgan series.. to team these 2 books together in one was a great idea..
Average customer rating:
- Rachel Morgan really hits her stride!
|
Every Which Way But Dead
Kim Harrison
Manufacturer: HARPER COLLINS 7 WOR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K3QQ78 |
Customer Reviews:
Rachel Morgan really hits her stride!.......2007-02-11
This is the third book in the series following Rachel Morgan, the white witch whose life seems to lurch from one disaster to the next. Although this book sort-of works on its own there are a lot of back-references to the previous two books ("Dead Witch Walking" and "The Good, The Bad And The Undead") and I think it's probably best to read them in order. There are some spoilers for the previous books in the review below, so beware!
At the end of the last book Rachel had overcome the master vampire Piscary (with the help of Kisten his former scion) although with a lot of trouble on the way - she had accidentally made her boyfriend Nick her familiar and had got more involved with the demon, Algaliarept, plus her roommate Ivy had rediscovered her taste for blood. The events in "Every Which Way But Dead" take place three months after the end of the previous book and it seems that Rachel's life is changing again. Boyfriend Nick Sparagmos has become rather elusive - Jenks thinks it's all over. And then Kisten the vampire appears on the scene again and Rachel wonders if she can trust him - after all, he did try to help her defeat Piscary. Plus Ivy's hunting of Rachel continues and Ivy's link to Piscary isn't helping. And Algaliarept wants to collect on the deal she made with him three months ago - which probably means the loss of her soul.
This book felt to me like Kim Harrison was really hitting her stride in writing. Although the first two books were really good reads this one was definitely better. There was actually less relentless action in it and much more time was spent with the characters - Rachel, Ivy and Kisten mainly. I was very glad that Rachel was rid of the drippy and wet Nick and tumbled into a fling with the phwoar-tastic Kisten. The background plot of Trent Kalamack and his doings continued, of course, with a little local power struggle between Piscary's lot and a newcomer on the scene, but the main action was about Rachel and her tangled life and her ever-growing link with Algaliarept and attempts to keep out of his hands. Jenks and his family are in the story, of course, as light relief and I love their interactions; this book was a bit more steamy than the previous two and there was more focus on the relationship between Ivy and Rachel.
Overall this was another really good read from Kim Harrison. Less spells, more character, and I felt that was a definite improvement in direction and made for a more enjoyable and meaty book.
Product Description
The complete Rachel Morgan Series (5 books, sold as a set).
Books:
- The Complete Tales of Peter Rabbit and Other Favorite Stories
- The Crystal Frontier
- The Five Lost Aunts of Harriet Bean
- The Fractal Murders (Pepper Keane Mysteries)
- The Gospel of Judas : A Novel
- The Hanging Tree
- The Man on Whom Nothing Was Lost: The Grand Strategy of Charles Hill
- The Melancholy of Anatomy: Stories
- The Rector of Justin: A Novel
- The Richard Rodgers Reader (Readers on American Musicians)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Swanson's Family Practice Review: A Problem-Oriented Approach, Fifth Edition
- Hard Rain
- Big Cherry Holler: A Novel
- Criss Cross
- DVD Demystified Third Edition
- History: Fiction or Science
- Hamlet's Dresser: A Memoir
- Grand Street 50: Models
- Chinese Medicinal Herbs: A Modern Edition of a Classic Sixteenth-Century Manual
- Brothers: The Wwii Letters of William and Charles Roseberry
Mafia Marriage
No Questions Asked: The Secret Life of Women in the Mob
Secrets of Life and Death: Women and the Mafia
On the Run: A Mafia Childhood
Mafia Wife: My Story of Love, Murder, and Madness
![This Witch for Hire [hardcover, 2 Books In 1]](http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/0739463802.01.THUMBZZZ.jpg)
