Average customer rating:
- Parker is one of the best and this is one of his best
- Left Me Breathless
- Did I read the same book as all the folks who gave it 4 and 5 stars?
- This is a really good book
- a good murder mystery/police drama that makes you think
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The Blue Hour
T. Jefferson Parker
Manufacturer: Hyperion
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0786862882 |
Book Description
T. Jefferson Parker returns with an explosive new thriller that pits an unlikely team of detectives -- who become an even more unlikely pair of lovers -- against a ruthless serial killer.
Customer Reviews:
Parker is one of the best and this is one of his best.......2006-08-02
Jefferson Parker is one of the most dependable writers working today. His books are full of memorable characters, and those characters drive the story -- the plot never feels imposed upon them (or upon the reader). Instead, the story arises out of the people; what drives them, drives the events. The primary characters in "The Blue Hour," Marci Rayburn and Tim Hess, are both flawed, idiosyncratic people, not necessarily likable on the surface, but Parker never stays on the surface. The story moves like a freight train at times and then slows to allow us to see these people even more deeply, and by the end of the book we not only know them but we also care about them. If you haven't read Jefferson Parker, this is a great place to start.
Left Me Breathless.......2006-06-18
A very disturbing serial killer is on the loose in Orange County, California. But that isn't what drew me into this story. It was the characters Parker has developed here. Tim Hess is an older detective who comes out of retirement to work this case while at the same time undergoing chemotherapy and radiation for lung cancer. Merci Rayborn is a young, prickly female detective who is Hess's superior for the case. It's a tense partnership that develops into a heartwarming relationship. The story moves along at a fast clip then explodes toward the conclusion. I was skimming words, trying to read as fast as I could. I found myself actually holding my breath at times. This was an exceptionally good read. I had this book in my embarrassingly large stack of unread books for too long. Now I have ordered three more of Parker's books to catch up. I am really looking forward to reading his more recent publications.
Did I read the same book as all the folks who gave it 4 and 5 stars?.......2006-03-13
I read the book first and then read the customer reviews. Lately, I've done the opposite, which has spared me from getting stuck with some really bad books. But it wouldn't have mattered with this one, which drew raves. I don't get it. I thought this book was ridiculous. I couldn't get past the 67 year old detective, who was dying of cancer and being treated with chemo, energetically hooking up with a much younger detective, not to mention his superman abilities of running, chasing, and breaking down doors, among other such feats. Every now and then, the author would throw in a sentence about how "tired" Hess was. Well, yeah! And at the end, there was that long soliloquy. . . Well, I won't spoil it for you, but all I could think was "For crying out loud, call 911 and stop with the blathering philosophy."
This is a really good book.......2005-07-25
`The Blue Hour' is in many ways a first-rate detective novel. Unlike so many contemporary thrillers, Parker packs in a trove of deductive reasoning by the protagonist team of Hess and Merci. So the whole novel feels like it is formed under the sure hands of an author capable of building an engaging puzzle. I say this with admiration because it has become very commonplace to find novels where supposedly great investigators really don't piece together clues ala Mr. Holmes or Mrs. Christie. Instead authors for the most part these days just allow for the protagonists to walk into breaks via chance. I for one often find myself cringing at the silly leaps of implausibility you might find in most thrillers. That does not occur here in Parker's novel.
I really just want to urge you on... give this novel a chance. It has a couple of faults, but it is still vastly superior to a lot of what is out there. My main beef with this novel is that it is written from the perspective of four different points of view... Hess, Merci, and two characters's that Parker throws in to confuse matters. I could have done without the two characters that Parker sets up as possible suspects. I think that this took much of the suspense away from the ultimate resolution of the novel. I found myself guessing the ending a third of the way through the book, though Parker did throw a few red herrings into the mix and I was never %100 sure if I was reading the signs correctly. One last thing that got me was the Hollywood ending. I think that this book did not need such a typical resolution.
If you have read this book and are looking for other authors to test, I constantly thought of early Patricia Cornwell novels while reading this. If you have not read her you might like her first five or so books. Another good author is Denis Lehane, I have enjoyed pretty much everything he has written; in fact he just might be the very best genre writer of our day.
a good murder mystery/police drama that makes you think.......2004-03-07
It was hard for me to decide whether to give this book four stars or five. The strong story and suspense as well as the drama which unfolded between two unlikely police partners in a search for a serial killer was about as good as one would expect from the genre.
The reason I finally decided to give this book four stars instead of five however, was because I really was not very fond of one of the main characters (Merci). Merci is a tough ambitious police woman who is partnered with a semi-retired hard-boiled cop (Tim Hess) who is dieing of cancer. I think the relationship between Merci and Tim is believable. But I just didn't find Merci very likable because it seemed as though she was just driven by rage and hate (nothing more). People like her undoubtedly exist in the real world (I've met some like her). I'll even go so far as to say that under some circumstances, I've had some characteristics of Merci.
The story revolves around the relationship between Merci and Tim but the main theme is the search for a serial killer called the purse snatcher who kills young women (attractive professional types) and drains all of the blood out of their bodies. The story moves relatively fast with a number of suspects and leads being interrogated by the police. I thought however that it was easy to figure out who the killer was. I figured out who the killer was very early, but assumed later that the author wouldn't make it so easy for readers to figure it out, but it was.
Book Description
Why is the sky blue and why are sunsets red? When can I see a rainbow? Why is the moon sometimes visible in daylight? In Out of the Blue skywatcher John Naylor offers practical advice about where and when you can expect to see natural phenomena, what you will see and how to improve your chances of seeing it. Naylor takes in both the night and the day sky, and deals only with what can be seen with the naked eye. Drawing on science, history, literature and mythology, and assuming only basic scientific knowledge, Out of the Blue is for everyone who enjoys being outdoors and who feel curious or puzzled about things optical and astronomical. John Naylor was born in England, but spent his childhood in Peru. A graduate of London University with a degree in philosophy, he teaches physics at a secondary school in London.
Book Description
"Blue Hour is an elusive book, because it is ever in pursuit of what the German poet Novalis called 'the [lost] presence beyond appearance.' The longest poem, 'On Earth,' is a transcription of mind passing from life into death, in the form of an abecedary, modeled on ancient gnostic hymns. Other poems in the book, especially 'Nocturne' and 'Blue Hour,' are lyric recoveries of the act of remembering, though the objects of memory seem to us vivid and irretrievable, the rage to summon and cling at once fierce and distracted.
"The voice we hear in Blue Hour is a voice both very young and very old. It belongs to someone who has seen everything and who strives imperfectly, desperately, to be equal to what she has seen. The hunger to know is matched here by a desire to be new, totally without cynicism, open to the shocks of experience as if perpetually for the first time, though unillusioned, wise beyond any possible taint of a false or assumed innocence."
-- Robert Boyers
Customer Reviews:
Amazing Again.......2007-03-18
After reading this book I was left with the "wow" feeling. Forche has done it once again! She is an amazing teacher, as well as a writer.
Best Poet in a Dark Time.......2005-01-13
Forche is really the best poet working in this country who's books you can find in the bookstores. Probably the book business people keep her around because they see her as some sort of activist writer with a political base. And that may be true. Still, what's good about her work is its personal honesty. And yada yada all those who blither on in their intellectual neediness. She just tries to tell us things that are difficult to tell. And she's not an intellectual snot, though she probably could be.
A bit disappointing.......2004-06-27
Technically, this volume is the work of a creative poetic master. Unfortunately, occasionally the craftsmanship shows through to the detriment of the message. I once took a poetry workshop led by Carolyn Forche. A piece of advice that has stuck with me was to read nature guides - learn the names of the plants, the clouds, ... In this volume, I am aware that the poet follows her own advice. Unfortunately, this causes an awareness in the reader of the poet's vocabulary in a distracting sense.
I recognize all the reasons reviewers are enchanted by this volume, but I rate it as a small misstep by a wonderful poet.
a book of stunning brilliance from this poet of witness.......2003-11-22
Carolyn Forche is one of the most memorable poets of her generation; her peculiar avant-garde poetry is of endless relevance & massive creative vision. I've already written another review of this book, but I'll have to keep making more notes in reviews as I come to understand it more. I won't understand it all. We live in an age of such chaos, & in this book Carolyn Forche responds to it how a body grows bones with forms of stern order. With the forms of these poems it seems to me that she's positing that underneath any modern chaos is a ruling order, from the long end-stopped lines at the beginning of the book, like the end-stopped lines at the historical beginnings of western poetry, to the 40+ pg single poem with all its lines arranged alphabetically. In a short poem the notes at the end of the book reveal to be about the contaminated land about Chernobyl, in the context of the motions of the whole book, she makes me feel as though perhaps while one can only surrender to change, what is manifest not lasting, this is not an impetus into disorder & what will come is new sense.
Anyways, Carolyn Forche is a wild poet. This incredible book is a very exciting creative advance from her earlier work. Metasticizing cities -- she moves like a platoon.
Forche Sets the Pace for her Generation Again.......2003-05-20
Forche's second book, THE COUNTRY BETWEEN US, elicited almost Pharisitical envy, a reaction that betrayed just how truncated and isolationist the aesthetics of American poetry had become. Her third book, ANGEL OF HISTORY is arguably THE WASTE LAND of the second half of the twentieth century. Never a mere rhetoritician of the political, Forche sets the pace for her generation of poets in her fourth book, demonstrating once again a fearless innovation of content and form. Carolyn Forche's fourth book, BLUE HOUR: POEMS, evokes that limnal state between the truth that is accessed in dreams and waking, when consciousness hovers in extreme receptivity between life and the death that is to come. Blue is the color of God in Orthodox iconography, the color, according to Maxim Gorky's grandmother, of her grandson's soul, and of the premonitory hour before dawn, with all of its connotations of enlightenment and illumination. It is in this new collection especially that one overhears the strains of a visionary's mystical apprehension, harvested from edge of extremity. In "On Earth," the forty-page abecederian hymn with its allusion to The Lord's Prayer ("Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven"), Forche catalogs with photographic accuracy the life review of a soul neither able to go forward nor back, a consciousness suspended, as in a surgical theater, above the theater of human events, creating an elegiac commentary upon mankind's ability to create heaven on earth. Included in the volume are eight lyrics of startling beauty, as spectral and haunting as the body in x-rays, riddled with a light that either illuminates or casts a shadow upon our demise. I am reminded of those small and extremely heavy cones in Borges, made of a metal which does not exist in this world, images of divinity in certain religions in Tlon. These beautifully wrought shorter poems return the lyric to its specific gravity-epigrams of matter gleaned at the frontier of consciousness. In a culture where it would be easy for poetry to devolve into a merely anecdotal art, something on the order of California cuisine, Forche reminds us of Wallace Stevens' dictum: " Poetry is that which helps us live" or, as Adrianne Rich has said it: "Poetry is where the imagination's contraband physical and emotional imprintings are most concentrated, most portable." As such, we would do well to preserve in poetry that which is most essential to our humanity. In BLUE HOUR: POEMS, Forche restores poetry to its most sacred purpose and wholeness of being. For this alone, we should give thanks and applaud.
Average customer rating:
- A "must have" for your library
- THE MOST BRILLIANT BOOK EVER
- A multi-layered romance of reincarnation and betrayal.
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The Blue Hour
Julie Tetel Andresen
Manufacturer: Madeira Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Contemporary
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ASIN: 0965449947 |
Book Description
In this tale that winds like a double helix around molecular biology, reincarnation, Impressionism, and the corporate intrigue of a French pharmaceutical company, Julie Tetel Andresen reinvents the historical romance. Join cancer researcher Alexandra Kaminski as she unravels the mysteries of DNA and the past, and step into the world of Jeanne Lacombe, a cancan dancer at le chat noir.
Customer Reviews:
A "must have" for your library.......2002-05-28
You will tell everyone about this book after you read it!
I was immediately taken away by the author's talent in situational description. All five of my senses were constantly being teased. I could see the settings and the look in the characters' eyes. I could smell the various aromas described; the cake, the lab, the hospital, the dance hall, the various characters and their living quarters. I could hear their heartbeats as they embraced, the music in both times, the puttering in the kitchen. I could almost taste the cake and was surprised to feel a different taste in the different times. I felt danger, adventure, romance, empathy, excitement, suspense, and surprise. I was so in touch with the characters that I found myself wanting to scream at them when they were in certain situations.
As an avid reader, I am grateful to the author for opening up a new world to me. After years of Clancy, Ludlum, Grisham, King and others, I am excited to explore the world of romantic adventure!
THE MOST BRILLIANT BOOK EVER.......2002-02-12
This is the greatest book I have ever read. No one should be without it.
A multi-layered romance of reincarnation and betrayal........1999-01-23
The Blue Hour is an unusual and engrossing story. Modern-day lovers discover they have lived their relationship before -- with a tragic ending. This time, they are determined to get it right. The story line is complex and the details are richly presented. A worthwhile read for those who like intricate romance.
Customer Reviews:
Chilling Cold War Tale by an Insider.......2002-04-25
Hugh C. McDonald was an Intelligence officer during WWII.
He was requested by agents behind the "Iron Curtain" to infiltrate eastern europe and debrief 'someone' by the network of spies, known by the codename of "Blue Fox", with whom Mr. MacDonald had worked during his WWII OSS days)
The story he brought out was so astounding, that he requested, and got permission to publish his book from the government.
Anyone who reads this book will experience an epiphany about
the yearly flu epidemics America suffered during the cold war.
Mr. McDonald's credentials are impeccable, and his background in law enforcement makes him able to tell "just the facts" in a concise and clear manner.
Sheriff's Detective Hugh McDonald served with distinction in California and earned the respect of his colleagues.
Hugh McDonald was the inventor of the "Identi-kit" which police used to form composites from eyewitness descriptions, in pre-computer days, and he was also the head of candidate Goldwater's security detail during the 1964 election cycle.
This book will become a prized gem of any library.
Product Description
10 LUANNE RICE Books : 1) Crazy in Love / 2) Dream Country/ 3) Follow the Stars Home / 4) Silver Bells / 5) Dance with Me / 6) Safe Harbor, True Blue 7) Summer Light / 8) The Secret Hour / 9) The Perfect Summer 10) Angels All over Town (Unboxed Set of Contemporary Books), Shipped in one
package to save on shipping costs.
Product Description
4 massmarket paperback Titles By Susan Isaacs - Magic Hour - Red White and Blue - Lily White - After All These Years
Product Description
multiple books ship as one item. save on shipping/handling charges.
Product Description
9 Titles By Rice - Cloud Nine - Silver Bells - Dance with Me - Crazy in Love - Blue Moon - Secret Hour - Follow the Stars Home - Summer's Child - Summer of Roses
Customer Reviews:
Book 6 in the "Most Likely To . . ." series.......2006-07-20
Description from the book back cover:
The Saunders sound-off. Where are they now? Saunders University keeps track of its notable alumni.
Rachel James - once Miss Popularity and the campus "It" girl, even after surviving a difficult childhood and two dreadful adoptive parents, Rachel's future was finally looking up. Until she dropped out, opting to marry instead of graduate. Widowed too young, she's decided to remain single and save herself from further heartache. But a reliable source reported that lately Rachel's been spotted having secret meetings with a handsome reporter. And when those two are deep in conversation, her eyes are ablaze with possibility ... the same flicker from her college days ...
If you know the whereabouts of your fellow alumni, or are interested in locating someone, e-mail or call your class faculty representative.
Hearing Gets in the Way of Romance.......2006-05-14
This book contains a wonderful little romance if one could just get past the long, drawn out hearing centered around a university professor. Gilbert, the college professor, is keeping a very important secret from Rachel James, one of his favorite former students. It was more than obvious how much Gilbert and his students cared for one another, but the reader was beat over the head with that point far too often.
Rachel, along with his other former students, come to the aid of their much beloved mentor who holds a well guarded secret. During this time, she happens to fall for the reporter covering the story. Another problem with the story is: most readers probably will have figured out that secret without having even gotten far into the novel.
If only the author had focused on this story rather than that of hearing, this could have been one nice little romance novel.
Cute tale of interracial love..........2006-03-20
Ian Beck is looking for a story while Rachel James is trying to find her past. They come together when Rachel's mentor is charged with helping his students out a little too much and Ian is the one reporting the story for his paper. Rachel always had to deal with being different, being biracial, and always had to deal with losing those she loves. But meeting Ian will finally help break down her walls and bring her past to the present.
I liked the book. My only complaint is that I wish it was longer. Yet, I thought the book had good characterization for just a short novel. I would recommend it.
Amazon.com
Fans of Batman are lucky to get Greg Rucka--the talented, gritty young author of Keeper and Finder, among others--sharing time with their favorite licensed character in this novelization of DC's complete No Man's Land comic series. (And fans of Rucka--assuming they get around to reading this at all--will still likely hold the opinion that Atticus Kodiak could take Batman in a standup fight any day.)
DC shook up Gotham--literally--in its 1999 Batman plot arc: a 7.6 earthquake rocked Gotham City, wreaking enough destruction to bring the broken, crime-ridden, runt kid-brother of Metropolis and New York to its knees. In the story line's most indulgent liberty, those fat cats in Washington decide to write off Gotham, à la Escape from New York, blowing up the connecting bridges, mining the surrounding waterways, and signing into law the Federal Declaration of No Man's Land, which makes it a crime to even set foot in the city. The usual suspects from Arkham Asylum, Two-Face and the Penguin, the Riddler and Dr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and Mr. Zsasz, file out to begin running the show, strong-arming and manipulating the block-by-block turf battles that envelop the now-ultraviolent city. A conflicted Batman shows up fashionably late, only to find that these lunatics are the least of his worries: Lex Luthor, Superman's archfoe, has nefarious designs on Gotham too. Could this possibly get any better? Sure, No Man's Land is derivative fiction, but the appeal of Rucka--and, of course, Batman--can make this one worth the read. --Paul Hughes
Book Description
Fans of Batman are lucky to get Greg Rucka--the talented, gritty young author of Keeper and Finder, among others--sharing time with their favorite licensed character in this novelization of DC's complete No Man's Land comic series. (And fans of Rucka--assuming they get around to reading this at all--will still likely hold the opinion that Atticus Kodiak could take Batman in a standup fight any day.) DC shook up Gotham--literally--in its 1999 Batman plot arc: a 7.6 earthquake rocked Gotham City, wreaking enough destruction to bring the broken, crime-ridden, runt kid-brother of Metropolis and New York to its knees. In the story line's most indulgent liberty, those fat cats in Washington decide to write off Gotham, + la Escape from New York, blowing up the connecting bridges, mining the surrounding waterways, and signing into law the Federal Declaration of No Man's Land, which makes it a crime to even set foot in the city. The usual suspects from Arkham Asylum, Two-Face and the Penguin, the Riddler and Dr. Freeze, Poison Ivy and Mr. Zsasz, file out to begin running the show, strong-arming and manipulating the block-by-block turf battles that envelop the now-ultraviolent city. A conflicted Batman shows up fashionably late, only to find that these lunatics are the least of his worries: Lex Luthor, Superman's archfoe, has nefarious designs on Gotham too. Could this possibly get any better? Sure, No Man's Land is derivative fiction, but the appeal of Rucka--and, of course, Batman--can make this one worth the read. --Paul Hughes
Book Description
O'Murchu shows us Jesus in a Wholly new and creative way.
Customer Reviews:
The real message.......2007-01-09
This book lays the challenge at your feet - the real message of Jesus is how to live fully a human life while focusing on the divine within you and every human being. Father O'Murchu's point is looking at God's incarnation from the beginning of man's existance and seeing Jesus' role as the fulfillment of this. I found that the challenge is the same reiterated by G.K. Chesterton - Christianity should not be condemned, it's never been tried. And the book's central theme - Jesus came to show us a radically new way of living our human life in the Spirit of God.
Catching Up with Jesus: A Gospel Story for Our Time.......2006-03-25
An eyeopener as to how we need to have Loving Kindness fill our lives.
O'Murchu Continues His Vision.......2005-09-27
Billed as a sequel to "Quantum Theology," this book is as refreshing as O'Murchu's other work. His argument for updating our understanding of the message of Jesus - catching up with Jesus - is necessary in our 21st century world. The message O'Murchu conveys is one which is in tune with other contemporary thought - living on a shrinking planet with diminishing resources.
The second half of the book, written as monologue/dialogue is a little tedious and sanctimonious but can be forgiven knowing what O'Murchu is trying to convey.
Catching Up with O'Murchu.......2005-06-13
In liberating the Jesus story for our times, O'Murchu follows a model used by the feminist theologian, Anne Clifford -namely
intelligently critique the conventional story, try to recover the elements of the original story and reconstruct as best as possible a timeless story. O'Murchu does a fairly good job at the critiquing; the recovery section of the book focuses on important, if selected and a somewhat limited view of Jesus' identities. The reconstruction represents an exhausting attempt to practically rewrite the gospels. Because of the size of the task, O'Murchu jumps to some conclusions that seem more fictional with little scholarship to back them up. O'Murchu also tends to repeat some good insights/themes over and over again. At the same time,in love with evolution, he practically skips over trying to explain suffering, the imperfections of this cosmos and other deep mysteries. Many of his challenging insights were left a bit open-ended for me to the point that I wished I lived around the corner from him to be able to ask things like what kind of afterlife does he believe in? He also seems to vacillate as to whether we should move beyond the institutional churches or whether we should re-work them into being prime movers of the Kingom and centers for ritual/liturgies that help stir us in that direction. All in all there's a lot of mind-stretching new ideas about Jesus that do resonate in a new world order that understands how quantum science frees us from a mechanistic world
and leads us to a world of unlimited possibilites as could really pursuing the Kingdom
Books:
- The Brief History of the Dead: A novel
- The Cairo Trilogy: Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, Sugar Street (Everyman's Library)
- The Cat Who Went Underground (Cat Who...)
- The Cider House Rules
- The Crimson Petal and the White
- The Dogs of Babel: A Novel
- The Enlightened Gardener: A Novel
- The Feast of Love: A Novel
- The Female of the Species: Tales of Mystery and Suspense
- The Final Solution: A Story of Detection (P.S.)
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