15 Jul 2023, 12:09pm
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Comments Off on  Kate’s 2¢: “The Splinter” by Saul Herzog

 Kate’s 2¢: “The Splinter” by Saul Herzog

“The Splinter” by Saul Herzog

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   Well, this is certainly an action packed story. Ithas multiple layers of intrigue and dastardliness.

From the web:

Saul Herzog is the pseudonym of one of the publishing industry’s most sought after and successful thriller writers. His plots focus on realistic and timely scenarios, and mix military tactics, espionage, and high-octane action. His characters are compelling and deep, just the sort of people that stick with you long after you turn the last page.

   The Lance Spector series is a private passion project, but it is also more than that. It is the culmination of years of research, working in the trenches of the thriller genre, both in publishing and in film.

   If you are new to my work, I recommend starting with my book The Asset.

   WebSaul Herzog is the author of the Lance Spector Thriller series of books. The series began in 2020 with the release of The Asset. The name of Saul Herzog is actually a pen name. The actual author is unknown at this time, but they are one of the publishing industry’s most …

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

The splinter DB111574

Herzog, Saul. Reading time: 13 hours, 17 minutes.

Read by Joe Avellar.

Suspense Fiction

Spy Stories

“Prague, Czech Republic. A Russian assassin is activated to kill seemingly unconnected female staffers at the US embassy. What emerges is a plot as complex as it is terrifying. Against a backdrop of escalating Russian invasion preparations, a Romanian kill squad, a Kremlin honeytrap, and a Soviet-era biological weapons victim converge on an unsuspecting city, and an unprotected embassy with deadly intent. The Splinter by Saul Herzog is the stunning fifth instalment in the series that has taken the publishing industry, and Hollywood rights departments, by storm. This dazzling tour de force is a full standalone novel. From the mind of one of the most creative and versatile writers working in America today, this book will surely go down as a classic of the spy thriller genre. If you read only one book this year, this is it. Action, adventure, rebellion, provocative foreign agents, characters you can sink your teeth into. If you’re looking for a new spy thriller series that will stay with

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15 Jul 2023, 12:08pm
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “The Sleeper: by Saul Herzog

Kate’s 2¢: “The Sleeper: by Saul Herzog

“The Sleeper: by Saul Herzog

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   I like to read books in a series that have characters I’ve met in the previous books.  I may not like each character, but I do look for them to pop up.

From the web:

The Sleeper (Lance Spector, book 4) by Saul Herzog

www.fantasticfiction.com/h/saul-herzog/sleeper.htm

Saul Herzog is the pseudonym of one of the publishing industry’s most sought after and successful thriller writers. His plots focus on realistic and timely scenarios, and mix military tactics, espionage, and high-octane action. His characters are compelling and deep, just the sort of people that stick with you long after you turn the last page.

   The Lance Spector series is a private passion project, but it is also more than that. It is the culmination of years of research, working in the trenches of the thriller genre, both in publishing and in film.

   If you are new to my work, I recommend starting with my book The Asset.

   WebSaul Herzog is the author of the Lance Spector Thriller series of books. The series began in 2020 with the release of The Asset. The name of Saul Herzog is actually a pen name. The actual author is unknown at this time, but they are one of the publishing industry’s most …

from NLS/BARD/LOC:

The sleeper DB111573

Herzog, Saul. Reading time: 17 hours, 11 minutes.

Read by John Haag.

Suspense Fiction

Spy Stories

“Narvik, Norway. A remote NATO seismic array in the far north of Norway detects the largest nuclear detonation since the days of the Soviet Union. Svalbard Archipelago, Norway. The largest icebreaker in the Norwegian Navy, and one of the most high tech vessels operating in the Arctic, disappears without trace. Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. In the chaos following the explosion, the lead scientist on a top secret Russian military research program goes missing with his daughter. There are rumors of sabotage. The Kremlin, Moscow. A Russian asset, embedded deep within the CIA’s London Station, sends a coded message. “Your missing scientist has made contact. I can lead you right to him.” The Sleeper by Saul Herzog is the stunning fourth instalment in the series that has single-handedly taken the publishing industry, and Hollywood rights departments, by storm. This dazzling tour de force kicks off right where the previous book ended. From the mind of one of the most creative and versatile write

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14 Jul 2023, 2:37pm
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Adrift: a true story of tragedy in the icy Atlantic and the one who lived to tell about it”

Kate’s 2¢: “Adrift: a true story of tragedy in the icy Atlantic and the one who lived to tell about it”

   by Brian Murphy

“Adrift: a true story of tragedy in the icy Atlantic and the one who lived to tell about it”

   by Brian Murphy

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   Maritime history is rife with ships that sunk with so few survivors. I enjoyed this well-researched true story  of one of the last sailing ships sans steam.. 

From Amazon/Audible.com:

A story of tragedy at sea, where every desperate act meant life or death.

The small ship making the Liverpool-to-New York trip in the early months of 1856 carried mail, crates of dry goods, and more than 100 passengers, mostly Irish emigrants. Suddenly, an iceberg tore the ship asunder, and five lifeboats were lowered. As four lifeboats drifted into the fog and icy water, never to be heard from again, the last boat wrenched away from the sinking ship with a few blankets, some water and biscuits, and 13 souls. Only one would survive. This is his story.

As they started their nine days adrift more than 400 miles off Newfoundland, the castaways – an Irish couple and their two boys, an English woman and her daughter, newlyweds from Ireland, and several crewmen, including Thomas W. Nye from Fairhaven, Massachusetts – began fighting over food and water. One by one, though, day by day, they died. Some from exposure, others from madness and panic. In the end, only Nye and the ship’s log survived.

Using Nye’s firsthand descriptions and later newspaper accounts, ship’s logs, assorted diaries, and family archives, Brian Murphy chronicles the horrific nine days that 13 people suffered adrift on the cold, gray Atlantic. Adrift brings listeners to the edge of human limits, where every frantic decision and desperate act is a potential life-saver or life-taker.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/toula-vlahou

Toula Vlahou – News Editor – The Wall Street Journal

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Adrift: a true story of tragedy in the icy Atlantic and the one who lived to tell about it DB92399

Murphy, Brian; Vlahou, Toula Reading time: 9 hours, 24 minutes.

Dan Warren A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.

Travel

Journalist recounts the ordeal of passengers on the John Rutledge, which struck an iceberg and sank en route from Liverpool to New York in 1856. Draws on accounts left by the sole survivor, Thomas W. Nye, to describe the turmoil experienced by passengers on the only lifeboat discovered. Commercial audiobook. 2018.

Download Adrift: a true story of tragedy in the icy Atlantic and the one who lived to tell about it DB92399

14 Jul 2023, 2:35pm
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Shakespeare in America: an anthology from the Revolution to now”    by James Shapiro

Kate’s 2¢: “Shakespeare in America: an anthology from the Revolution to now”    by James Shapiro

“Shakespeare in America: an anthology from the Revolution to now”

   by James Shapiro

Kate’s 2¢: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   A lengthy read, but quite interesting.

Wikipedia

The Free Encyclopedia

James S. Shapiro (born 1955) is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University who specializes in Shakespeare and the Early Modern period. Shapiro has served on the faculty at Columbia University since 1985, teaching Shakespeare and other topics, and he has published widely on Shakespeare and Elizabethan culture.

Life[edit]

Shapiro was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, where he attended Midwood High School. He obtained his B.A. at Columbia University in 1977, Master’s degree in 1978 and Ph.D. at University of Chicago in 1982. After teaching at Dartmouth College and Goucher College, Shapiro joined the faculty at Columbia University in 1985. He taught as a Fulbright lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and Tel Aviv University (1988–1989) and served as the Samuel Wanamaker Fellow at Shakespeare’s Globe in London (1998).

Shapiro has received awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities, The Huntington Library, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture for his publications and academic activities. He has written for numerous periodicals, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times Book Review, the Financial Times, and The Daily Telegraph. In 2006, he was named a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow as well as a Fellow at the Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library.

Shapiro won the 2006 Samuel Johnson Prize as well as the 2006 Theatre Book Prize for his work 1599: a Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, which Robert Nye described as “powerful” in Literary Review, set apart by Shapiro’s precise and engrossing commentary on the sea-change in Shakespeare’s language during the year 1599.[2][3] He also won the 2011 George Freedley Memorial Award, given by the Theatre Library Association, for his study of the Shakespeare authorship question, Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?, which has been described as the “definitive treatment” debunking the Oxfordian theory.[4] The same year Shapiro was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His book, “The Year of Lear: Shakespeare in 1606”, published in hardback in 2015, was awarded the James Tait Black Prize for Biography[5][circular reference] as well as the Sheridan Morley Prize for Theatre Biography.[6] Shapiro presented a three-part series on BBC Four called The King & the Playwright: A Jacobean History about Shakespeare, King James VI and I and the Jacobean era.[7]

In 2023, his 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare won the Baillie Gifford Prize’s “Winner of Winners” award.[8][9]

He is married, has a son, and lives in New York City.[10]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Shakespeare in America: an anthology from the Revolution to now DB92092

Shapiro, James; Clinton, Bill Reading time: 26 hours, 10 minutes.

Doug Tisdale Jr. A production of the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, Library of Congress.

Drama

Literature

Collection of essays regarding the role of William Shakespeare’s works in America from the revolution to the twenty-first century. Contributors include John Adams, Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Abraham Lincoln, Jane Addams, Robert Frost, Toshio Mori, Langston Hughes, Jane Smiley, and more. Includes a foreword by former president Bill Clinton. 2014.

Download Shakespeare in America: an anthology from the Revolution to now DB92092

14 Jul 2023, 2:08pm
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “A simple murder: a Kate Burkholder short story collection” by Linda Castillo

Kate’s 2¢: “A simple murder: a Kate Burkholder short story collection” by Linda Castillo

“A simple murder: a Kate Burkholder short story collection” by Linda Castillo

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   I’ve read several stories featuring Kate Burkholder.  I like the wholesomeness of them, if you can say murder is wholesome. The characters are real and their actions have reactions. As for the sequencing of these stories, the first one was out of chronological order, which bothered me. I like things to be linear.

   Kathleen McInerney did a good job of narrating these short stories.

From NLS/BARD/LOC:                   

A simple murder: a Kate Burkholder short story collection DB109583

Castillo, Linda. Reading time: 10 hours, 6 minutes.

Read by Kathleen McInerney.

Short Stories

Suspense Fiction

Mystery and Detective Stories

“New York Times bestselling author Linda Castillo is known as a “master of the genre” (People) for her pulse-pounding mystery series set in Amish country. Now, together for the first time in print, |A Simple Murder| features six original short stories starring whip-smart chief of police, Kate Burkholder. While on vacation with her partner John Tomasetti in LONG LOST, Kate discovers that the old house where they’re staying is haunted by a girl who disappeared decades before…. An abandoned baby is discovered on the Amish bishop’s front porch in A HIDDEN SECRET, and Kate is called in to investigate. SEEDS OF DECEPTION unearths the secrets of Kate Burkholder’s own Amish past—and lays the groundwork for her future career in law enforcement. In the midst of a power outage in Painters Mill, a teenage girl is attacked at an Amish party in ONLY THE LUCKY. IN DARK COMPANY is the story of an injured woman with amnesia who seeks Kate’s help in trying to remember her attacker’s identity…and her

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14 Jul 2023, 2:06pm
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Wolf Hollow” by Victoria Houston

Kate’s 2¢: “Wolf Hollow” by Victoria Houston

“Wolf Hollow” by Victoria Houston

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   Among the many characters introduced in the beginning of this story, I suspect you, as I did, will be able to guess who the murderer is.

   I enjoyed the story and look forward to following Lewellen Ferris in Houston’s Mystery series. I wonder if Kathy Kerrigan will continue to read this series as the books are released.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Victoria Houston (b. March 25, 1945) is an American writer. She is the author of the Loon Lake Series, a series of murder mysteries. The mysteries are set in the Northwoods of Wisconsin against a background of fly fishing as well as fishing for muskie, bass, bluegill and walleyes. She has also written or co-authored over seven non-fiction books.

   Houston had been formerly married to a man nine years younger than herself, and their union led Houston to interview 40 couples in similar circumstances, resulting in the book Loving a Younger Man: How Women Are Finding and Enjoying a Better Relationship.[1][2][3] Houston lives and works in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.[4]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Wolf Hollow DBC24908

Houston, Victoria. Reading time: 5 hours, 46 minutes.

Read by Kathy Kerrigan.

Mystery and Detective Stories

In the first installment of the Lew Ferris Mystery series, a string of murders leaves Police Chief Ferris and the Northwoods community of Loon Lake, Wisconsin searching for answers. Adult. Unrated.

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6 Jul 2023, 3:31pm
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP” by S.J. Watson

Kate’s 2¢: “BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP” by S.J. Watson

“BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP” by S.J. Watson

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   In “BEFORE I GO TO SLEEP” by S.J. Watson, Christine wakes up every morning with no memory of the days before, of who that man (her husband, Ben) in bed with her is, of who she is or how old she is.

   I enjoyed this psychological thriller and couldn’t really tell what the truth was, until the very end  Well written..

Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia

Steve “S. J.” Watson (born 1971)[1] is an English writer. He debuted in 2011 with the thriller novel Before I Go to Sleep. Rights to publish the book have been sold in 42 countries[2] and it has continued to be an international bestseller.[3]

Personal life[edit]

Watson was born in Stourbridge, Worcestershire (now West Midlands). He studied Physics at the University of Birmingham and then moved to London, where he worked in various hospitals and specialized as an audiologist[4] in the diagnosis and treatment of hearing-impaired children. In the evenings and weekends he wrote fiction.[5]

From BookShare:

Synopsis

“The best debut novel I’ve ever read.”–Tess Gerritsen,bestselling author of the Rizzoli & Isles series”Anexceptional thriller. It left my nerves jangling for hours after I finished the last page.” –Dennis Lehane, New York Times bestselling author of Moonlight MileS. J. Watson makes his powerful debutwith this compelling, fast-paced psychological thriller, reminiscent of Shutter Island and Memento, in which an amnesiac who, following a mysterious accident, cannot remember her past or form new memories, desperately tries to uncover the truth about who she is–and who she can trust.

Copyright: 2011

Book Details Book Quality: Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:9780062060570

Related ISBNs: 9780062060563

Publisher: HarperCollins

Date of Addition: 05/05/20

Copyrighted By: S. J. Watson

Adult content: No

Language: English

Has Image Descriptions: No

Categories: Literature and Fiction, Mystery and Thrillers

Submitted By: Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions: This is a copyrighted book.

 Reviews No Rating Yet

Bookshare® and Benetech® are registered trademarks of Beneficent Technology, Inc. This website is © Copyright 2002-2023, Beneficent Technology, Inc.

6 Jul 2023, 3:30pm
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “26A” by Diana Evans

Kate’s 2¢: “26A” by Diana Evans

“26A” by Diana Evans

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   This was an interesting and intriguing story that was well crafted. It will mess with your mind

and cause you to think again about the twin-bond.

   Gabriella Cavallero is one of my favorite readers.

Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia

Diana Omo Evans FRSL (born 1972)[1] is a British novelist, journalist and critic who was born and lives in London. Evans has written four full-length novels. Her first novel, 26a, published in 2005, won the Orange Award for New Writers,[2] the Betty Trask Award[3] and the deciBel Writer of the Year award.[4] Her third novel Ordinary People was shortlisted for the 2019 Women’s Prize for Fiction[5] and won the 2019 South Bank Sky Arts Award for Literature.[6] A House for Alice was published in 2023.[7]

As well as writing fiction, Evans contributes essays and literary criticism to the national press.[8] She was honoured as a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020.[9]

Background and education[edit]

Evans is the daughter of a Nigerian mother and an English father. She was born and grew up in Neasden, north-west London, with her parents and five sisters, one of whom was her twin.[10] She also spent part of her childhood in Lagos, Nigeria.[11]

She completed a media studies degree at the University of Sussex.[11] While in Brighton, she was a dancer[12] in the African dance troupe Mashango.[11]

She completed an MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia.[11] At the age of 25 she became a journalist. She contributed human-interest features and art criticism to a range of magazines, journals and newspapers in the UK; published interviews with celebrities; worked as an editor for Pride Magazine[13] and the literary journal Calabash.

Writing[edit]

Her first novel, 26a, “a Bildungsroman that centres its storyline on the growing process of a pair of identical twins of Nigerian-British origin, Georgia and Bessi”[14] growing up in Neasden, was published in 2005 to wide critical acclaim and has since been translated into 12 languages.[15] It was shortlisted in the first novel category for both the Whitbread Book Award and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, and was the inaugural winner of the Orange Award for New Writers.[16] Literary critic Maya Jaggi said in The Guardian of 26a: “The writing is both mature and freshly perceptive, creating not only a warmly funny novel of a Neasden childhood … but a haunting account of the loss of innocence and mental disintegration.”[17] Carol Birch, writing in The Independent, said of 26a that “Evans writes with tremendous verve and dash. Her ear for dialogue is superb, and she has wit and sharp perception” and though she has her criticisms, concludes that Evans “has produced a consistently readable book filled with likeable characters: a study of loss that has great heart and humour.”[18] According to Diriye Osman in the Huffington Post: “Here was a Bildungsroman of such daring and sustained elegance that it felt like a gorgeous dance of a novel. In many ways, it is apropos that this book which focused on the secret bond that exists between twins was followed in 2009 by the equally masterful The Wonder, a novel rooted in the world of dance.”[19]

Evans’ second novel, The Wonder (2009), explores the world of dancing in the context of Caribbean immigration to the UK, London gentrification, and the bond between father and son.[2][12] Maggie Gee, writing in The Independent, called it “a serious work of art, with sentences like ribbons of silk winding around a skeleton of haunting imagery. … The Wonder’s most central achievement is to explore what art means in human life. … This second novel, both powerful and delicate, lacking in linear plot but rich in the poetry of human observation, proves that Evans has what she calls ‘the watch-me, the grace note’ that marks a true artist.”[20]

Her third novel, Ordinary People (2018), is a portrait of family life for two black couples in their 30s in South London in a year bookended by the election of Barack Obama and the death of Michael Jackson.[13][21][22] Ordinary People was the winner of the South Bank Sky Arts Award and shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction and the Rathbones Folio Prize.[6][5][23][24]

Her fourth novel, A House for Alice, was published in 2023,[25][26] charaterised as “the first memorialisation of Grenfell in fiction”.[27]

Also a journalist, Evans has contributed essays and literary criticism to Marie Claire, The Independent, The Observer, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, the Financial Times, Time, The New York Review of Books and Harper’s Bazaar.[11][28][29]

She is an associate lecturer of Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. She is a patron of the SI Leeds Literary Prize for unpublished fiction by Black and Asian women in the UK.[30] She is also a 2014–16 Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the London College of Fashion and a 2016–17 Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Kent.[16]

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

26a DB63157

Evans, Diana. Reading time: 9 hours, 21 minutes.

Read by Gabriella Cavallero.

Family

Psychological Fiction

In 26a, the attic of their London loft, Georgia and Bessi Hunter, twin daughters of a Nigerian mother and alcoholic English father, build a blissful sanctuary. But adolescence tests their bonds and identities as Georgia descends into mental illness. Strong language, some explicit descriptions of sex, and some violence. 2005.

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30 Jun 2023, 4:33pm
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Tomorrow the world: in which Cadet Otto Prohaska carries the Habsburg Empire’s civilizing mission to the entirely unreceptive peoples of Africa and Oceania” by John Biggins

Kate’s 2¢: “Tomorrow the world: in which Cadet Otto Prohaska carries the Habsburg Empire’s civilizing mission to the entirely unreceptive peoples of Africa and Oceania” by John Biggins

“Tomorrow the world: in which Cadet Otto Prohaska carries the Habsburg Empire’s civilizing mission to the entirely unreceptive peoples of Africa and Oceania” by John Biggins

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   Have you heard of “The Perils of Pauline”?  This story could be titled, “The Perils of Prohaska”.

   It is a rather long story chock full of details about sailing a vessel rigged in full sail for good weather and the perils of schooner navigating in stormy weather. Then, add to is all the odd behavior of the various Navy officers.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Biggins (born 31 October 1949) is a British writer of historical fiction. He is best known for his Prohaska series of novels set in the Austro-Hungarian Navy during the early years of the 20th Century.

Early life[edit]

Biggins was born in Bromley, Greater London, England. He attended Chepstow Secondary and Lydney Grammar Schools, and studied history at the University of Wales from 1968 to 1971. He continued his graduate studies in Poland.

Career[edit]

As a young man Biggins worked as a civil servant for the UK Ministry of Agriculture. He also worked as a journalist and did technical writing before becoming an author of historical fiction.

In 1991 the first of Biggins’ Prohaska novels, A Sailor of Austria, was published by Secker & Warburg. The story is set in the Austro-Hungarian Navy during World War I, and vividly depicts life on board the primitive and dangerous U-boats of the period.[1] Kirkus Reviews reported the book to be well researched, but called it “bland and mundane”.[2] The Historical Novel Society, on the other hand, deemed it “Excellent military fiction”, and similarly praised his later book Tomorrow The World.[3]

In 2010 Biggins began a new series of novels, and self-published his book, The Surgeon’s Apprentice. This novel was included by The Spectator magazine on its “Books of the Year” list,[4] described as a “soundly researched tale of sea-faring and warfare.” In 2021 he published its sequel, “The Lion Ascendant”.

   His previous books are now being distributed by Bonanova Editions.

   The Prohaska series[edit]

Overview[edit]

Ottokar Prohaska, the fictional protagonist, is a Czech by birth, but an Austrian naval officer by vocation. His exploits have elements of both adventure and comedy. The historical background is the last years of the Austro-Hungarian empire, and in particular, in the case of two of the novels, World War I.[5] The reader finds the hero/anti-hero, at different times, a gunnery officer aboard a ship, a submarine commander, and a member of the flying corps.

• A Sailor of Austria (1991)[1][6][7]

• Vivat Österreich! (2011) – German translation of A Sailor of Austria (1991)

• The Emperor’s Coloured Coat (1992)[8][9]

• The Two-Headed Eagle (1993)[10][11]

• Tomorrow The World (1994)[3]

The van Raveyck series[edit]

• The Surgeon’s Apprentice (2010)

• The Lion Ascendant (2021)

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Tomorrow the world: in which Cadet Otto Prohaska carries the Habsburg Empire’s civilizing mission to the entirely unreceptive peoples of Africa and Oceania DB107327

Biggins, John Reading time: 17 hours, 26 minutes.

Bill Wallace

Historical Fiction

Adventure

Otto Prohaska is a cadet in the Austro-Hungarian Navy at the turn of the century. Bad luck continues to shadow Otto, as he heads out on a scientific expedition bound for disaster. But even sinister quack scientists, a misguided attempt to establish a colony in Africa, and angry South Sea cannibals cannot keep Otto from fulfilling his patriotic duty. Some violence. 1994.

Download Tomorrow the world: in which Cadet Otto Prohaska carries the Habsburg Empire’s civilizing mission to the entirely unreceptive peoples of Africa and Oceania DB107327

30 Jun 2023, 4:32pm
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Comments Off on Kate’s 2¢: “Alien oceans: the search for life in the depths of space” by Kevin Peter Hand

Kate’s 2¢: “Alien oceans: the search for life in the depths of space” by Kevin Peter Hand

“Alien oceans: the search for life in the depths of space” by Kevin Peter Hand

NOTE: There is a plethora of in-depth biographies of authors and reviews of their books, that state the title, author, published date, and genre; as well as,     describing what the book is about, setting, and character(s), so, Kate’s 2¢ merely shares my thoughts about what I read.  I’m just saying…

   This was an interesting read, but, I’m not sure how much of it I can use in my daily life.

From the web:

Kevin Peter Hand is a planetary scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. His research focuses on the origin, evolution and distribution of life in the solar system with an emphasis on Jupiter’s moon, Europa.

Kevin Peter Hand – Simons Foundation

www.simonsfoundation.org/people/kevin-hand/

From NLS/BARD/LOC:

Alien oceans: the search for life in the depths of space DB100326

Hand, Kevin Peter Reading time: 10 hours, 36 minutes.

Mark Ashby

Science and Technology

Nature and the Environment

Scientist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory compares the environments of Earth’s oceans with those of other planets to explain their role in identifying potential locations habitable by humans. Discusses the steps of inhabiting a location once identified, and proposes policies for future exploration and research. 2020.

Download Alien oceans: the search for life in the depths of space DB100326

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