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Review: Mr. Churchill’s Secretary

Mr. Churchill’s Secretary (Maggie Hope Mystery #1) by Susan Elia MacNeal

I give this book a 3.

Okay

First thing I want to admit is that I’m just now becoming acquainted with historical fiction in books. In the cinema it has always been one of my favorite genres, but I’ve never stopped to read any of it. With that being said, I’m starting to have an appreciation that is still very new and maturing.

Maggie is a very smart, almost genius, young mathematician, who is supposed to be flattered by an unexpected opportunity to be one of Mr. Churchill’s secretaries. WWII is just beginning to take its toll on London as the Nazis and the IRA take turns dropping or planting bombs in the city where Maggie and her friends struggle to just get by and make it through.

Of course, not all is quite as it seems. For one, a man Maggie is sure can’t stand her begins to look out for her well-being, then friends begin to act strange and she’s not sure if it’s a coincidence or not, and on top of everything else not mentioned, one of the parents she thought died years ago might still be around.

I think my problem with this book is that I really enjoyed the historical aspects of the story, but had difficulty reconciling the fiction aspects and the development of the characters. All the characters are well-developed, but I just don’t know if I relate to them. As a woman, still in an age facing the glass ceiling, it was easy to relate to Maggie, but the rest of the characters are a puzzle to me.

I feel as if the emotional aspect of the story could have been more involved. I get it, Maggie is this strong-willed woman who rises above her struggles, but what about everyone else. I just feel like that emotion was put to the side because there was a war on, as it should be, but it didn’t feel real to me.

The suspense and espionage was great and kept me interested in times when I was not emotionally attached, and as much as I hate to say it, I wish Maggie had more romance in her life (I’m not a traditional romance, chik-lit kind of girl).

[A slight tangent here-I encounter more and more stories every day with homosexual characters in them, in the same manner as is on TV and in the movies so that is no big surprise, but I wonder if there is a trend involving the “special aunt”. I’ve seen this general character quite a bit now.]  Trend or not, I like the aunt. She’s one of the few characters I felt really expressed good emotion and she did it in a letter, without interacting with any of the other characters.

All in all, this was a very entertaining story and an easy read/listen. I’d recommend this for adults with a love of history, spy thrillers, and or WWII, though it does seem to be geared toward women and may not be welcomed by conservative readers.

This review has been posted to GoodReads. If you’d like to obtain a copy of this book, try this link.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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Books

Review: The Trustee in the Toolroom

 

The Trustee in the Toolroom by Nevil Shute

I give this book a 4 (and a half, if I did halves).

LikeIt

I really enjoyed this story when it wasn’t making me angry (more on this later), but then I just have anger issues to begin with. This is a really simple and sweet clever story about a man who’s willing to go to great lengths to keep his word- and what’s not to like about that.

The story of Keith Stewart describes the rare instance of a man finding true peace and contentment in his life, career, and relationships. For Keith, the whole world revolves around his workshop and the work he does there writing for a magazine, but he’s no hermit. The one thing he finds that’s more important to him than his work is his word and his love for his family. When Keith finds himself the new guardian of his young niece and the trustee to her would be inheritance, he makes it his life’s purpose to secure a fine future for his new charge, despite not having the means to do so (here’s where I get angry).

As wonderful and miraculous as this story is, Keith’s adventure never would have taken place if someone living comfortably above his station had simply acknowledge and compensated him for what he was truly worth…that’s all I’ll say about that.

The story is told with almost manual precision, but the author’s style and flare with words keeps you pulled into the story. It’s not a fast pace action packed chronicle of a great adventure, but it is indeed a great adventure. Keith literally goes on a journey around the world trying to retrieve a modern-day treasure. He ends up traveling by bus, train, plane, boat, ship, and even helicopter while encountering a great number of interesting characters along the way. To help Keith along on his journey is his forever honest and cheery disposition, his masterful mind, and his unexpected fame.  This is a different kind of underdog story where there is no real favorite, just one man with a purpose fighting against a plethora of obstacles. The reader has no choice but to root for Keith all the way home.

This was a wonderful book to listen to, perfect for my drive home. There is a lot of technical engineer talk that may or may not be interesting to readers (or listeners), but I don’t feel it took away from the overall story. Though I can’t imagine a child or teenager having the temperament for this kind of book, I’d recommend it to anyone else.

This review has been posted to GoodReads. If you’d like to obtain a copy of this book, try this link.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords

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AdventuresNBlogging

Adventures in Blogging: Word Count vs. Page Numbers

adventure

I’ll be writing about my adventures, from my point of view, while offering my opinion on whatever the current matter happens to be. I hope you will enjoy it, if for no other reason, because you’ll get to see just how crazy my mind and reactions can be sometimes.
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Word Count vs. Page Numbers

Aside from the fact that books have gone digital, I wonder whether there is any reason to have page numbers other than to distinguish one page from another in a print copy. It has become quite clear to me that page numbers are utterly insignificant to the actual length of the story. In this advanced age, what is the proper way to measure the length of a book?

Average reading time: Based on what as an average would this be viable? This concept actually works in terms of audio books because you know exactly how long the recording is (the listen time is given). That’s not to say that when you’re reading you read at the same pace as professional narrator, whether that be slower or faster.

Page Numbers: I’ve already stated that this doesn’t work, but here’s why. Not all books are formatted the same. Depending on page size, font type, font size, margins, bindings, etc…, there are just too many different variables for this to be a standard.

Word count: While this doesn’t take into the consideration the miniscule differences that would occur in formatting overall, the word count is probably the best way to determine or have an idea of how long or short a story really is- and pictures/graphics don’t confuse things.

Why isn’t the word count included in basic book stats on retail and social sites?

File size: I have no idea why file size is listed on retail and social sites. Let’s be honest, if you’re reading a digital copy of a book, you probably have an e-reader or compatible device that’s well equipped to contain that book and many more. If not, you could always delete some other stuff you’re finished with. Again, how does the file size really help to determine the length of the story? If there are images/graphics, intros and acknowledgements, plus extras (which most ebooks now have), the file size isn’t going to be indicative of the actual length of the title story you purchased or borrowed.

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So, what do these two books have in common? I haven’t given it much thought, but I know you can’t find a word count for either of them online (unless I’ve missed something, though Smashwords.com is on board with this)…

but more on these in a minute.

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Now, this whole idea came to me a while back when I read a book that seemed to be a fairly good length, but once I finished it, it seemed like a very quick read. It’s true that when you’re really into a book you can fly through it, but this was not the case. After reading a few more books thinking that they would either be longer than they were or shorter than they were, I began to look back at the books’ formats.

Most of the books I read range between 250 and 350 pages, but now and then I read an epic or scan a short story- I never considered that there could be a major difference in the length of what I was reading outside the two parameters I just mentioned.  After going back and looking at these books I realized that they all used different fonts, different font sizes, different paragraph and chapter spacing and more. While most of these books were in the 6 x 9 category, some were not, which again added to the deception…

Okay, maybe I’m getting a little carried away here. There’s no conspiracy to trick me into reading more or less than I want to, but surely you can understand why this issue has begun to slightly bother me.

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Here’s an example of why I think page numbers and file sizes are virtually worthless. Pay close attention to the differences in page numbers and file sizes.

Discovery of Witches– pages: 594, digital file: 1085 KB, listen time: 24 hours and 2 minutes, word count: unknown

Eternal Curse– pages: 272, digital file: 1529 KB, listen time: unknown, word count: 82,330 (provided by me, the author)

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What would be your guess as to what the word count for Discovery of Witches is? How long do you think the listen time would be for Eternal Curse? It’s not so easy to figure out; is it?

Is this solely my issue or does anyone else feel the way I do? Doesn’t anyone else wish the word count were offered up instead of or along with the page numbers or file sizes?

The books used in the example up top were chosen merely to show a contrast in the information publicly available. The information provided here came from Amazon.com and Audible.com.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. If you like it let me know and share it with others. See you next time, Toi Thomas. #thetoiboxofwords