Kingston Observer

Never Give Up by Joyce Meyer, Faith Words, spiritual, 251 pp., $21.99

Joyce Meyer is the mega-popular Christian televangelist and author with about 80 books to her credit. At the core of her teachings are practical applications of Scripture in everyday life. Thousands attend her conferences both here and abroad. In this latest book, Meyer speaks to those whose dreams haven't yet come true, and she offers examples of some who have refused to give up from Thomas Adams, the inventor of Chiclets gum, to Mary Kay of cosmetics fame and many others who have inspiring stories and success in common. Joyce Meyer's own history and ultimate success are all the examples one needs to be convinced that her principles work. Sexually and psychologically abused by her father from the age of three until she left home at about age 18, Joyce went on to marry and divorce a husband who was imprisoned for writing bad checks. She has overcome breast cancer and 10 years of migraine headaches. She is the mother of four, grandmother to a bunch, and is married to Dave Meyer, an always devout man she met when she was in her early twenties. Her mother-in-law gave Meyer her first Bible. She describes herself as having been an ordinary housewife when she was called by the power of the Holy Spirit to preach the Gospel, but it was many years of deprivation, frustration, and preparation before her dream bloomed into a tremendously successful international ministry based in Fenton, Missouri. Anyone who needs to be uplifted and encouraged will benefit tremendously from this work and from any book by Meyer. Her approach is no nonsense, and what she has to say makes perfect sense. Meyer can be seen daily on channel 146 at 10 p.m. and at other times during the day. Details may be found on her web site at www.joycemeyer.org.

The Life You Can Save: Acting Now to End World Poverty by Peter Singer, Random House, non-fiction, 206 pp., $22

Singer, professor of bioethics at Princeton, succeeds brilliantly here in raising consciousness about extreme global poverty, and he will succeed more brilliantly if he can convince those of us living in wealthy nations to donate five percent of our income to organizations dedicated to eradicating poverty and disease in developing nations. It is Singer's contention that by giving up needless luxuries like take-out coffee and bottled water and donating the funds instead, we can make inroads in saving lives needlessly lost. The figures he presents are sobering, citing the millions of children dying annually from poverty, i.e. lack of health care and hunger. Children still die of measles in great numbers. Singer praises Bill Gates and Warren Buffett who have bequeathed great portions of their fortunes to the fight against poverty. Also included in the book are examples of others whose fortunes, though less spectacular but still significant, are being used for the greater good. Also provided is a resource to determine whether a charitable organization's effectiveness is greater than its administrative costs. Particularly fascinating are the creative ways in which aid organizations are providing assistance that is helpful over the long term. For example, one group gives African farmers better seed and fertilizer for much greater crop yield. Singer asks thought provoking questions of us all in this slim, powerful volume that surely will touch enough hearts to make a difference.

The Gardner Heist: The True Story of the World's Largest Unsolved Art Theft, by Ulrich Boser, Smithsonian Books, non-fiction, 260 pp., $25.99

The largest burglary in the U.S. occurred at Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum where more than $500 million in precious art was stolen in the early hours of March 18, 1990 by two men posing as cops. Boser picks up the story where art investigator, the late Harold Smith of New York, left off, a chase of the stolen art that takes him from Boston's back streets to Braintree, and even Plymouth. This remarkable story takes Boser to Ireland where he searches for Whitey Bulger and his IRA connections who are suspected to be holding the art. Boser, who has written for many prestigious publications, became infected with the same passion that drove Smith to employ extraordinary measures to recover the lost works. In the end, it appears, he has discovered the identity of the thieves, but remains no closer to locating the uninsured paintings which include works by Degas, Rembrandt, Manet, and Vermeer. Boser includes intriguing information about the museum's founder, her canny acquisitions, and her dicta, which govern the museum's policies and operations to this day. This is a small though solid work of research about the greatest art heist in history, but also about art's ability to inspire and captivate.

True Detectives by Jonathan Kellerman, Ballantine Books. Fiction, 368 pp., $27

Technically this novel is part of the wildly successful Alex Delaware/Milo Sturgis series, but this time Kellerman brings back two brothers first seen in his recent novel Bones. Delaware, the sanguine psychologist, and Sturgis, the kindhearted gay detective, are placed on the action's periphery. Moses Reed and Aaron Fox are brothers. One is black, the other white. Aaron's father was a cop who died on duty, leaving his partner free to pursue and marry his wife. They were raised by a loving though avant garde mother whose best efforts have been unsuccessful in uniting the two. Moses is an up and coming LA detective while Aaron is a high-priced private investigator. This time out, they are forced by conscience to pool their talents and information to unmask the killer of a young woman who should not have been murdered. Caitlin Frostig was a college student with a nice boyfriend and a pleasant life. So how did she end up involved with some sinister and bizarre Hollywood types whose penchant for violence may have claimed other victims. I am an unabashed Kellerman fan, and I loved this book. It will keep you turning the pages until your eyes droop and beg for sleep.

Sacred Blood by Michael Byrnes, Wm. Morrow, religious thriller, 255 pp., $24.99

If you're an insatiable Da Vinci fan, you will be deliriously happy with this book and the one that preceded it, The Sacred Bones, in which an American geneticist and an Italian forensic anthropologist are brought together by the Vatican to open a two thousand year-old ossuary and examine the bones contained therein. The problem is the ossuary was stolen from Jerusalem's Temple Mount, the most hotly contested piece of earth in history. A British archaeologist and an Arab investigator collaborate to determine who stole the ossuary and its significance. Meanwhile a remorseless Italian killer lurks in the shadows of the Vatican. In Sacred Blood, Charlotte Hennesy, the geneticist from Phoenix, has managed to extract DNA from the Vatican's acquired bones. Hennesy is dying of bone cancer, but when she learns that the DNA has the power to cure and heal, and that it can be reproduced, she becomes the target of both Muslims and Jews, the stakes being no less than Armageddon. These two novels are well written and action packed, but you can't read one without the other simply because you'll miss out if you do. The author has obviously set us up for another installment, and it can't happen fast enough for me.

Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin, Putnam, historical fiction, 336 pp., $25.95 (avail. March 19)

Once again Franklin offers up a great adventure in the life of Adelia Aguilar, an Italian trained physician virtually held hostage in England by Henry Plantagenet. Women in the professions aren't tolerated in Henry's England, so Adelia travels with her guardian, a devout Muslim named Mansur who is instead purported to be the doctor while the feisty Adelia is assigned the role of his interpreter. In the past, Adelia as pathologist has solved many a crime for Henry while managing to have an affair and a child with his trusted advisor Rowley, now a devout bishop of the church, though no less the object of her love and passion. In this latest installment, Henry is trying to subdue the Welsh whose battle cry is that the legendary King Arthur will return to lead them in battle. That hope fuels their rebellion, but when corpses are uncovered at the famed Glastonbury Abbey which are reputed to be those of Arthur and Guinevere, Henry orders Adelia to learn the truth. An obviously dead Arthur would help him immensely. A sub-plot involves the disappearance of Adelia's friend Emma, whose journey to oust her hideous mother-in-law from the castle that is no longer hers by right may have ended in tragedy. Franklin carries us to medieval England and sets us down in the verdant forests. She presents the sounds of monks chanting, the stink of the unwashed, the uncertainties of peasant life, and the faults and glories of Henry with ease. This series never disappoints. I linger as I read these books, always dreading that they will end too soon.

A False Dawn by Tom Lowe, Minotaur Books, mystery, 340 pp., $24.95

Though this book has received tepid reviews elsewhere, I loved it. It's not without a flaw here and there, but it's a fine way to spend a rainy afternoon, and as debut novels go, it's sensational. Sean O'Brien is a fortyish ex-cop from Miami who lost his wife to cancer six months ago. He left the force, sold his home, bought a fixer-upper on the alligator infested St. Johns River, and traded in his sailboat for a cabin cruiser. With his wife's dachshund Maxine he's living the good life until he finds the badly beaten body of a Latina in the woods near his home. She utters her dying words in a language Sean doesn't recognize. Though the locals come to investigate, O'Brien knows they're not giving the lady their best effort, and he jumps back into the game. It doesn't take long for O'Brien to make a link between the dead woman, some very rich and powerful folks, and a killer whose work he'd encountered in years past. O'Brien's courage is a lot bigger than his brain because he inserts himself into situations no one else would or should consider. From shabby migrant worker camps to the extravagant mansion of the rich and powerful, Sean O'Brien brashly goes forth, inciting pulse pounding action that never flags. This is great read, and I hope we're looking at a series here.