Stephen King - Duma Key

A successful property developer, Edgar Freemantle, survives an accident on a building site, but looses his arm. He is mentally unstable after the event, which causes his family to fall apart. On the advice of his psychiatrist, he moves to a remove location to recover. He finds a quite place to rent in the remote Florida Keys, Duma Key. The owner of the property, Elisabeth Eastlake, is an old lady, fighting altsheimers. Elisabeth, or the island seems to have some control over Edgar, who starts creating artwork. The artist befriend Elisabeth's caretaker, Gereome Wireman, previously a lawyer. Together Wireman and Edgar discovers his extraordinary talent and new abilities. Edgar has to solve the tragic Eastlake family history to ensure his own existences n a sane manner.

Duma Key is a very interesting story, written in King's excellent descriptive style. All the characters are extremely well developed and has to fight their own demons to contribute to the story.

Peter Enns - The Evolution of Adam

The author sets the task of explaining how the biblical creation story should be viewed, not to clash with current onslaught on religion, specifically Christianity and Judaism, through ridicule of the sacred texts as scientific understanding improves. He states that Adam, to be considered the original man is incorrect, a new perspective is required on this.

The timeline and author of the Old Testament is evaluated, and an interesting array of historical biblical scholarly discoveries are noted. The outcome is that the biblical Old Testament, inclusive of the Pentateuch, is a "postexilic ancient history of Israelite self-definition and spiritual encouragement", with many authors. Genesis in particular was not written by Moses, but several centuries later, from a number of sources, and not a scientific document. Narratives are drawn with the the religious creation tales of time related civilizations to emphasize the biblical creation story being similar, but adjusted to highlight the attributes of Israel's God

The author is not scared to respectfully touch the sensitivity associated with the questions asked, and puts the facts on the table. This is a very important book for any person who wants to stay religious in the modern era.

Stephen King - Stationary Bike

Visiting the doctor, an artist is told that his cholesterol count is above normal. The doctor uses the metaphor of men working on a road, and they cannot keep up The man will not live long should he continue on his current trajectory. To combat his weight problem, he buys an exercise bike, and start riding. It however turns into an obsession, which he discovers, put the fictional workmen out of a job; and they want to take revenge on him.

A brilliant descriptive story, especially the way the doctor explained the men at work.

Janet Rietman - Inside Scientology

The book reveals the history of the founder of the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbert. His life story makes for excellent fictional writing, but this is no science fiction story. The statement, "people do not believe in Scientology, they buy into it", is explored, and explained how thousands of dollars are pooled into the church coffers whilst people "better themselves" in the process, and finally become "clear". The churches darker side is also explored, and how people who cannot afford to continue payment, become part of the organisation, and they are dealt with.

After Hubbert's death in 1987, David Misavige, took over the helm of the organisation at age 20. There are several people who left the organisation, and are not pleased with their experiences. Some of these tales are told about people who worked very close to the organisation's leader - this makes for shocking reporting. A detailed description is also given about the focus on celebrities, and how they are pulled into the organisation. Tom Cruise, the most famous Scientologist's recruitment and development is told in great detail.

The path to enlightenment with this organisation is revealed though not in great detail. The book's focus is not on their dogma as much as on the story of the church. It is a must read for anyone who have loose ties with the church, or plan on joining their activities.

Stephen King - The Green Mile

In 1932, the state penitentiary was located in Cold Mountain. The, then superintendent, Paul Edgecombe, writes the story of the final execution he had to preside over in his old age. It was the execution of a gifted, and enormous black man, John Coffey. His gifts are not immediately apparent, but come into good use as the story develop. The story is about the happenings in the special block of condemned prisoners in the final few months. Finally, Paul suspects that John is innocent of the crimes he was accused of, but has a duty to perform. There is a sinister twist in the tale.


King's descriptive manner is put to good use, and transfers a somber topic into a very entertaining story. There are very few boring bits, and the story takes sudden new turns at various stages.

Stephen King - Blaze

The is a very entertaining story about a thief with limited thinking capacity, Clayton Blaisdell Jr, plotting and committing the final daring kidnap of a baby. Blaze is driven by his dead buddy George, whom presents vividly in the imagination of Blaze. He follows the plan laid out by George earlier, and amazingly get quite far down with the episode before authorities catch up with him.

The plot unfolds, but holds no real surprises. The remarkable descriptive writing style is what makes you want to discover more of this interesting character.

Marlena de Blasi - A thousand days in Venice

A love story about a middle-aged, divorced American chef and writer that goes to Venice once again and falls in love with a middle-aged banker.

She abandons her life in America, moves to Venice and marries the man. It is a grown-up fairytale where girl meets boy. She writes about her move to Venice, the immense difficulty she has to adapt to the strange way of Venetians. Stranger in a strange land, she has to overcome all of these hurdles. But she also gets accustom to the foreign rituals and ways of living. She makes friends and she takes the reader on a journey not to be forgotten.

A love story that is an alternative travel guide of Venice. It was an easy read and also includes delicious recipes and tips on travelling this water city.

Elizabeth Gilbert - Eat, Pray, Love

Elizabeth Gilbert, the author, goes on a journey of self-discovery.

She is a women who seemingly has everything - a husband, a big house, a successful job, caring friends, and yet she feels that something is missing. She wants to give up all of this to set out on a spiritual journey. The book is divided into four sections describing her growth. She travels through Italy (where she eats), Indonesia (where she prays), and Bali (where she finds a new love). She describes her spiritual growth with reference to various meditations and rituals. Although I did not regard this book as a spiritual book, but raher a story about a spiritual journey.

It is an easy book to read. I liked the way the author argues with herself and her monologues. I think that it can be easy to relate to the situations that she finds herself in. I fully enjoyed every aspect of the book and would recommend it to anyone interested in personal journeys.

Paulo Coelho - The Pilgrimage

This is a recollection of Paulo's experiences as he made his way across northern Spain on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela.

It begins where he undertakes his Regnus Agnus Mundi (RAM) initiation which he fails and then needs to undertake the Strange Road to Santiago. On this road he has to find his sword and then would be accepted into the the ranks of RAM.

He travels on the road to Santiago with another member of RAM, whom acts as his guide. His guide teaches him many meditation exercises and philosophies on love.

Through the journey he must gain insight into the simplicity of life and he is subsequently transformed.

The deeper meaning is finding one's own path and the discovery that the extraordinary is always found in the ordinary and simple ways of everyday people.

Paulo Coelho - Eleven Minutes

A modern day fable about Maria, a Brazilian girl, going through many awakening experiences from childhood through adolescence and womanhood. She muses about her philosophy on life, happiness, sex, pain, pleasure, morality and love. Above all, she wants to find love, but something always goes wrong in her relationships. The book tells her story, but there are the diary inscriptions in Maria's own words, which are very naive but also mature at the same time. Maria gets on a plane with a man from Switzerland to become a samba dancer, but then eventually she gets involved in prostitution in order to save money to go back to Brazil and buy a farm. Will she realise her dream of finding true love and going back to Brazil or will she choose the soul destroying path of sadomasochistic acts. Will she ever be happy? There are many graphic sex scenes which the reader must decide if this is really necessary. I found the storyline interesting. Some people could even find the book informative, although I don't think that was the intention.