Farouk Mousa Mousa itibaren Magazzeno SA, İtalya
I was not disappointed in Son of a Witch. Although it can get gruesome in places, it is an excellent read, and companion to Wicked.
This goes beyond feminism... and drifts into the realm of man-hating lesbianism. If you like hearing about a woman slurping up her own vag juice and what not... Get to it!
The rating of this book will depend on the perspective of the reader. Spiritual perspective. Open minded perspective. Humourous perspective. Faith tradition perspective. Family life perspective. Realizing that all of these perspectives follow us, and impact the way we live, and the way we review, I believe they are particularly important when reading and reviewing this book. The book is comprised of letters, diary entries, log books, formal announcements, journal entries, and phone messages. The dates on all of these are concentrated between 2003 - 2005, and are not sequential. If jumping through the years, locations, and characters, is not your style, you may want to pass on "The Spiral Garden". The main character is Ruth Broggan, a Minister of the Unified Church, and takes place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Ruth is divorced, has two children, two best friends, and an unusual perspective of faith. This faith perspective has developed in Ruth over her years as a cleric. Ruth is fired from a church in Markham, Ontario for preaching outside of the church's teachings, and tries to settle into her new location, while still speaking and preaching a message that conflicts with the church. Ruth's struggle is our struggle - why are we here? what comes after? and why does the world suffer pain and tragedy? Ruth has asked God to speak to her, with answers to these questions, and locks herself into the manse in order to wait in silence for God's reply. What ensues outside the manse is a growing following of Ruth, culminating in half a million people heading to downtown Toronto, to wait for Ruth to come out of the manse, and celebrate a Church Feast of The Winter Solstice. Ruth's take on life is serious, funny, thoughtful, prayerful, witty, and very engaging for the reader. I found that the author, Anne Hines, skillfully pulls the reader into Ruth's life, and at times I found myself so identifying with Ruth, her writings felt like my own. This is the type of book that I will pick up again, and again, reading only pages here and there - the ones that made me cry, and the ones that made me laugh out loud! If you want to be entertained, and learn something at the same time, this book is for you. If you are open minded about religion, this book is for you. However, if you are easily offended by slights against any faith tradition, and especially your own, then this book would not be for you. I was given this book free from a second hand bookstore, but after reading it, I would definitely pay full price! All in all, I would recommend this book for its humour and for its life lessons, and give it 4 stars. Take a look for "The Spiral Garden", and Enjoy!! Patricia
Creepy cover + creepy tale = good read. The Hypnotist is a debut novel for Lars Kepler (a husband and wife team from Sweden) Three members of the Ek family have been brutally murdered. Their son Josef was miraculously found alive amongst the carnage. Inspector Joona Linna is brought in on the case. Dr. Erik Bark is one of the physicians at the hospital Josef brought to. Bark was a renowned hypnotist, using his skill to help patients uncover and heal from trauma. However he has sworn off hypnotism - a past event is alluded to but not fully explained in the beginning. Urged on by Linna, but against his better judgment, Bark hypnotizes Josef. However, what Josef reveals is unexpected to say the least. I enjoyed the engimatic character of Joona Linna very much. His confidence in his abilities is not bravado, but he does make a point of asking "What did I tell you?" when he is proven correct. His calm demeanor hides a character not fully explored in this first book of a planned series. The book takes a different direction with Dr. Bark's involvement. Slowly we are led down a different path as the events that ended his use of hypnotism are revealed. His past comes to haunt him in the present, as does Josef's case. I found myself continually off kilter as I read The Hypnotist - no one behaved as I expected them to at all. The cadence of the prose added to this off balance feeling at times, but was in keeping with the story. I found the interaction between Bark and his wife quite puzzling at times. Not that it was a bad thing - I really had no idea where the plot line was going next - there was layer upon layer of plotting. I like not being able to predict an outcome and Kepler kept me on my toes. I look forward to the next book by this duo. There are a few bumps that I'm sure will be ironed out by the second book. The Hypnotist is an international bestseller with rights sold in over 30 countries. It's been on the Globe and Mail bestseller list since it's release. Warning for readers - there are definitely some graphic scenes.