Book reviews one, two, and three

A Trip to the Stars by Nicholas Christopher - 499 pages
The second reading was as good as the first, slightly more rewarding in fact. The story follows the two main characters, Mala and Enzo, and their separation and eventual reunification. Nicholas Christopher amazes me by the intricacies of the many sophisticated topics entwined into their stories. The amount of research involved is as impressive as the way the subjects naturally fall within the storyline. From arachnology to the philosophy of Plato, this book opens up numerous topics to readers that they may not otherwise be familiar with, but does so in a way that makes you want to know more, as they seem to fit so naturally into the whole picture. A Trip to the Stars is a true adventure that deals with lose, love, death, obsessions, magic, relationships, awareness and finding yourself; it holds a true inspirational message. I've passed it on to more than a dozen people, male and female. They have all enjoyed it, many have said the same as me, that it's the most enjoyable book they've ever read.

Voodoo River by Robert Crais - 383 pages
Ah, Robert Crais. You can just zip through the pages, in fact if I wanted to read 10 books for Kat's Book Club I could just read all the Robert Crais I own, but that wouldn't be fair... Robert's number one character, Elvis Cole, sets out for Louisiana to look for the adoptive parent's of TV star Jodie Taylor. Things aren't as simple as they seem, when folks start getting bumped off and Elvis realizes that Ms. Taylor knows more than she's letting on. When he finds out he was set-up, Elvis don't just get mad, he gets even. With the help of his silent-but-deadly partner, Joe Pike, Elvis gets the girl, and the bad guy. Nothing new, but it never gets old...

Lincoln: the Untold by Dale Carnegie - 253 pages
I knew that Lincoln wrote the Emancipation Proclamation, and I knew he suffered from depression his whole career. But reading a biography of someone who achieved so much in such a relatively short time opens your eyes to everything possible to man. Not only did Lincoln suffer from sever depression for almost half of his life, but he overcame defeat after defeat and failure after failure and never gave up, he always endured, because he believed that what he was trying to do was right, not that he would succeed. Lincoln was not a great leader, he lost the respect of many of his Generals and politicians who worked around him, but he could see the light, he knew he must plow on, regardless of what people thought of him. His persistence and foresight won out, and only after his death did the people truly realize what he had done for his country. If history is told correctly, not only Lincoln, but his wife, Mary Todd, and his mother-in-law, all foresaw his tragic end; Lincoln knew he would not make it to see out his second term, but as always, he plodded on, because he had to. Great reading. Carnegie brings it to life; he carried me back in time.