Winston's War by Michael Dobbs
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

When I downloaded Winston's War, it was free from Nook. I shelved it in non-fiction; but it states it is a work of fiction.

I found too many parts of it to be boring for it to rank more than 2 stars as a work of fiction. Uneven pacing and too many characters who were not doing enough interesting things contributed to my boredom. I easily tire of drunken, boorish behavior as exhibited by the politicians, their assistants, and those for whom they rely on information and to spread their point of view.

I don't recommend Winston's War.

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The Talismans of Shannara by Terry Brooks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Talismans of Shannara is the 21st book I read in my quest to read the Shannara books in chronological order.

This is the fourth book of The Heritage of Shannara; and so, a conclusion to the quests of Walker Boh, Wren Elessedil, Par Ohmsford, and Coll Ohmsford is to be expected. I dropped my rating from the usual 4 stars because the last two chapters seemed to be rapid responses to possible questions the readers may still have.

I recommend it to fans of the series, rather than a first-time reader.

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Montana Gundown by William W. Johnstone
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Johnstone is an author whose work I enjoyed in the past, and it was available immediately to borrow from my new-to-me library app.
Montana Gundown is the well-told story for another adventure of Frank Morgan who is known as The Drifter or as The Last Gunman. It is possible he is The-Next-To-Last Gunman as he encounters Brady Morgan, who claims to be his son, during a range war.
I recommend it to any reader who enjoys books from the cowboy fiction genre and writers such as Zane Gray and Louis L'Amour. This can be enjoyed as your first book by Johnstone or as part of the series.


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Start Strong, Finish Strong by Kenneth H. Cooper
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My copy of a different one of Cooper's books,The New Aerobics, was published in 1970(and sold for $1.95 in paperback.) I decided to look for more recent aerobic conditioning information for those of us who are over 60 because my old book gives it for age 50 and over.

Start Strong, Finish Strong says strength training needs to be half of my fitness regime now in order to prevent any further, fast-paced decline in muscle weakness and muscle loss. Aerobic points charts are still included, with the goal of reaching a 15 point/week minimal fitness level or a 35 point/week advanced fitness level. I found the chart for "Cooper Fitness Circuit Training Program" and the 30-60-90 plan for weight-loss useful. Early chapters are discussions of how to find your mature adult motivations for starting this program and sticking to it. There is a chapter about how the aerobic exercise can help you cope with stress and another chapter that lends support to those who may have a depression after stress or any number of life's setbacks.

I recommend this book to every adult reader for even if you don't need it now, you may need it later. Even if you don't need it now, you know someone you love who needs it now.

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Paladins of Shannara: The Black Irix by Terry Brooks
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sometimes I have to backtrack from my project of reading the Shannara books in chronological order in order to read a new release.
This is a short story about Shea and Flick Ohmsford and Panamon Creel, and the additional excerpt from the newest novel is a marketing tool with which to interest Shannara fans.
I recommend it for fans of the series.

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The Elf Queen of Shannara by Terry Brooks
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the 19th book of the Shannara series I have read, as I make my way through this series in its chronological order.
I liked this book for its main story concerns Wren Ohmsford whose charge from the shade of Allanon is to find the Elves and restore them to the Four Lands. Wren had good supporting characters such as Garth, a Splinterscat, Tiger Ty, and Aurin Striate. I made a note of Aruin Striate's speech,

“Let me tell you something you haven’t learned yet, something you learn only by living awhile. As you get older, you find that life begins to wear you down. Doesn’t matter who you are or what you do, it happens. Experience, time, events—they all conspire against you to steal away your energy, to erode your confidence, to make you question things you wouldn’t have given a second thought to when you were young. It happens gradually, a chipping away that you don’t even notice at first, and then one day it’s there. You wake up and you just don’t have the fire anymore.
He smiled faintly. "Then you have a choice. You can either give in to what you're feeling, just say 'okay, enough is enough' and be done with it, or you can fight it. You can accept that every day you're alive you're going to have to face it down, that you're going to have to say to yourself that you don't care what you feel, that it doesn't matter what happens to you because sooner or later it is going to happen anyway, that you're going to do what you have to because otherwise you're defeated and life doesn't have any real purpose left. When you can do that, little Wren, when you can accept the wearing down and the eroding, then you can do anything. How did I manage to keep going out nights? I just told myself I didn’t matter all that much—that those in here mattered more. You know something? It’s not so hard really. You just have to get past the fear.

I recommend this book for fans of the series. It is Book Three of "The Heritage of Shannara."

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The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Night Circus was recommended by a list of "Best New Books" from a place I don't remember by the time I got around to reading it.

The genre of the book is Magical Realism. The reason I give this only 3 stars is because this book is out of my normal preferences. Only after reading more than half of it did I become interested enough to want to finish it to the conclusion.

I simply don't know which of my friends would have an interest in this genre.

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The Druid of Shannara by Terry Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I finished another Shannara book in my quest to read them all in their chronological order. The Druid of Shannara is book 2 of the four part "Heritage of Shannara." I recommend it for fans of the series.

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Making Sense of People: Decoding the Mysteries of Personality by Samuel H. Barondes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this as a free ebook from BN.com, when it was recommended in a comment on the Free Friday blog. I read it because I want to understand people, and this recommends a systematic way to observe for information and to listen to the stories people tell about themselves.
If you are looking for a pop psychology book to help you change someone, this may not be the book for you. This book has information about the scientists and their experiments that help describe terms for personalities, traits and character facets. Once we better understand consistent terminology, observation can be more consistent. Recognition may help us avoid people, and perhaps we can understand those we can't avoid.

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