The Sins of the Father

Synopsis
Book 2 of the Clifton Chronicles follows Harry as he serves a lengthy prison sentence for a crime he didn't commit. Meanwhile, Emma becomes convinced that Harry didn't die at sea and sets out to prove it.

My thoughts
There was a lot more action in this book than in the first installment, and that made it even more fun to read. Archer's ability to convey the action in only a few words really helps keep the pace going. This book picks up right where the first one left off. Harry and Emma's story takes center stage, but there are also significant developments for Hugo, Maisie, and Giles. (Giles certainly wins the "most improved" award.)

The one thing I complained about in the first book (multiple viewpoints) wasn't an issue here. There are still multiple narrators, but the action isn't duplicated since the characters are spread out over three different continents for most of the book.

Archer tried to end on a cliffhanger for this book, but nothing could match the first book's jaw-dropping ending. I'll stay tuned for the third book and hopefully I'll find time to read more of Archer's other books in the meantime.

Bottom line
Even better than Only Time Will Tell (the link goes to my post on that book).

Fine print
The Sins of the Father, by Jeffrey Archer
Genre: fiction
Photo from Goodreads
I borrowed this book from the library

The Mummy or Ramses the Damned

Synopsis
The immortal Ramses is awakened in the early twentieth century. He finds love but jeopardizes everything to pursue a woman who enchanted him centuries ago.

My thoughts
Romance is really at the heart of this book. The romance between Ramses and Julie was fun to read, but it wasn't convincing. He falls in love with the first woman he lays eyes on? Really? She inspires the same passion in him that Cleopatra did? Cleopatra, one of the strongest, craftiest, and most legendary figures in all of history.

What I really wanted to see was the romance between Ramses and Cleopatra. There was real drama there - she awakened him from his first sleep, he tutored her, and he fell in love with her. Then she started to assert herself and took up with that good-for-nothing Mark Antony. She broke his heart and Ramses refused to give the elixir of life to Antony at Cleopatra's request. I kept thinking that would have been way more entertaining to read about than Ramses roaming around modern England and Egypt. And then he stumbled onto a mummy who had been Cleopatra in life and resurrected her. It was a brilliant twist and that's when the story really picked up. Cleopatra was consumed with hatred for Ramses. Ramses was forced to realize that the ravages of time had not been kind to Cleopatra, and the monster running amok in Cairo was not the woman he had once loved. But now she was immortal. And he was the only one who could possibly stop her.

Bottom line
Really good. The action moves quickly and there's a lot of it. This made me an Anne Rice fan and I'll definitely read more of her books in the future.

Fine print
The Mummy or Ramses the Damned, by Anne Rice
Genre: fiction
Photo from Goodreads
I borrowed this book from the library

The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution

Synopsis
Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins formats his trek through time on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. He starts with present-day humans and goes backward in time, meeting up with other pilgrims (other species) at the points at which our evolutionary paths diverged.

My take
This was a bear of a book, but it was worth it. It's a complex tale and it's long (688 pages). Dawkins tackles many interesting facets of evolution along his painstakingly thorough journey. The experience starts with modern-day Homo sapiens and Dawkins explores how the different races diverged before introducing us to our closest ancestors, the ergasts and the habilines. These terms were vaguely familiar to me from a bio anthro course with some crazy-haired professor I took in college, but I hadn't thought much about them since so it was interesting to read about them in a broader context. From there, he explores where we split from the rest of the primates. Et cetera, et cetera. Certain species get to tell "tales," in which Dawkins uses them to illustrate certain evolutionary points. It's quite comprehensive, and I was introduced to plenty of species I never knew existed. The chapters that deal with vertebrates are the most interesting; things get a little more tedious when you reach the invertebrates.

Dawkins kicks off his romp through millions of years of evolutionary history with two opposing quotes—one from Mark Twain ("History doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.") and one from Clarence Darrow ("History repeats itself; that's one of the things that's wrong with history.") I love the Twain quote in general, but it also sums up some of the major themes of the book—that different species have independently evolved independent characteristics. (Who knew that howler monkeys and humans independently evolved the ability to see color?)

Bottom line
It's definitely a thought-provoking and rewarding read, even if you don't have a passion for evolutionary biology. It's an infuriating book if you're a creationist, but it's hard to read books like this and remain skeptical about evolution.

Fine print
The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution, by Richard Dawkins 
Genre: non-fiction, biology
Photo from Goodreads
I bought this book

Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage

Synopsis
The harrowing true story of Ernest Shackleton's ill-fated journey to Antarctica. 

My take
"Our mission was called a 'successful failure' in that we returned safely but never made it to the moon." That's a line from Apollo 13, and before there was Apollo 13 there was the Endurance. Both were epic journeys to inhospitable places that turned into races for survival. In the case of the Endurance, all 22 crew members amazingly survived.

Shackleton's attempt to cross the White Continent on foot was never supposed to be an easy feat, but his tale of survival is even more thrilling. The Endurance was trapped in ice before the crew could get to its landing site. Shackleton and his men lived on board, hoping for a thaw, until they were forced to abandon ship before the ice destroyed it. What followed was an incredible trek over miles of ice and and open water to try to find help. The book is pieced together from some of the crew members' diaries, and it includes everything from the dramatic escape from a ship being crushed by ice to the mundane day-to-day activities of 22 men living in close quarters with dwindling food supplies.

Shackleton himself rarely takes center stage in this account because he always remained somewhat aloof from the rest of the men. He was acutely conscious that he was their leader and that they all depended on him to make life-or-death decisions for all of them. The book paints a portrait of him as a pioneer and a skilled leader.

The book is aimed at a lay audience and it generally explains nautical terms and other technicalities well, but the only slow parts of the read were the descriptions of ships.

Bottom line
It's a thrilling adventure story, but read it either in the height of summer or in front of a roaring fire because you'll inevitably feel chilled to the bone after reading about survival in subzero temperatures.

Fine print
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage, by Alfred Lansing 
Genre: non-fiction, history
Photo from Goodreads
I borrowed this book from the library

The Last Hurrah

Synopsis
Tammany-style politics take a bow as an old-school politician in an unnamed city makes one last run for office.

My thoughts
The book is supposedly based on James Michael Curley, a mayor/governor/representative from Boston. There are some statues of him around here somewhere, but I don't know much about him other than that he was still hanging around at the beginning of the Kennedy era (around the same time this book was written). This way of governing is long dead now, but O'Connor brings it vividly to life.

It was incredibly interesting to read this book in a presidential election year. Frank Skeffington would be considered corrupt by any standard today, but his brand of politics emphasizes the human connection between citizens and the politicians they elect - something that's entirely missing from any election today. It's a testament to O'Connor's skill as a writer that he makes you view Skeffington as a champion of the underdog instead of a corrupt politician.

There's one passage that illustrates this perfectly - with a few requests and a bit of persuasive rhetoric (read: threats), Skeffington arranges for one man's wake to be well-attended and his widow taken care of financially.

I didn't think there'd be any question about who would win the race (the hero, of course), but O'Connor manages to inject some suspense into the story. I didn't realize how invested I was in the story until I started to care about Skeffington's political fate. Skeffington is quite a character - engaging, boisterous, charming, decisive, just.

Bottom line
A must-read for anyone who's interested in politics. Probably boring as hell for anyone else. There's a movie, too.

Fine print
The Last Hurrah, by Edwin O'Connor
Genre: fiction
Photo from Goodreads
I borrowed this book from the library

Only Time Will Tell

Synopsis
A coming-of-age epic about Harry Clifton, a promising young boy of uncertain parentage. This is the first of a trilogy and ends with the beginning of World War II - and a whopper of a cliffhanger for Harry.

My thoughts
"Time will tell," my grandma always used to say. That's what drew me to this book, even though I'd never read anything by Jeffrey Archer. This family-based saga seems to be a deviation from Archer's normal repertoire of espionage thrillers, but his background in writing fast-paced, plot-driven novels works to his advantage here. I was hooked from the beginning and flew through the book. I never got bored.

My one criticism has to do with the multiple points of view. Most of the book was told from Harry's point of view, but other supporting characters get their own chapters too. The problem is that the switch from one to the other is jarring. The narration switches and all of a sudden you're reading about something that happened 20 pages ago. Most of the time it was interesting to see someone else's perspective, though.

This is a strong beginning to a promising new series. I immediately put the second book in the Clifton Chronicles and Kane and Abel, Archer's best-known thriller, on my to-read list.

Bottom line
Excellent read, especially when you're looking for something lighter.

Fine print
Only Time Will Tell, by Jeffrey Archer
Genre: fiction
Photo from Goodreads
I borrowed this book from the library