Werner Lind's reviews > Likes and Comments

Whenever I win a book in a Goodreads giveaway, I try to read and review it as promptly as I can. Here's the link to my most recent review of one of these, , posted last night: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1036930788 .

Here's the link to my latest review, of another literature textbook I used back when my wife and I were homeschooling our now-grown girls, Themes in Literature: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1121396189 .

Earlier today, I posted the link to my review of Goodreads author Juliene Lloyd's recently-published debut novel, , over on the Action Adventure common thread; but I need to post it here, too: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1043878301 . This is the opening volume of a projected series, the Vormund-Ames Files, about a consulting firm that offers under-wraps security and counter-terrorism services to governments and businesses.

My Goodreads friend Ron Andrea is active in the teaching ministry of his church, and his book is an outgrowth of this. He was kind enough to offer me a review copy recently, and here's the link to that review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1063684429 .

As a kid, I dabbled in reading/skimming a few of Donald Hamilton's Matt Helm spy novels, though I didn't recall any of the bibliographic information as an adult. Jim re-introduced me to the author a few years ago, and I've read four of his novels since then, all of which got 3 or 4 stars from me. Here are the links to those books/reviews (the first three are Matt Helm novels --though not the first three of the series-- and the last is a stand-alone):
. www.goodreads.com/review/show/87476145 .

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/87476198 .

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/87476258 .

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/87476392 .

Here are three more links to reviews I originally posted several years ago. All three of these books fall into the fantasy genre, but they're otherwise quite different from each other in many ways.

George MacDonald's is one of the genre's major, formative 19th-century classics. www.goodreads.com/review/show/166448551 .

, by Abraham Merritt, is a good example of pulp-era fantasy. www.goodreads.com/review/show/33318589 .

The late Robert Asprin was a master of humorous fantasy. is the second volume in his Myth Adventures series. www.goodreads.com/review/show/18098864 .

Usually, I try to post a new review every week, even if it's of a book I read before joining Goodreads (MANY of which I've never reviewed yet!). The latest one I reviewed falls into that category: the story collection The Hawk's Done Gone (1940), by Appalachian writer Mildred Haun. Unfortunately, I personally didn't like that one much, and only gave it one star; but I tried to review it fairly: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1142445204 .

The mystery genre is one in which I'm not as well-read as I'd like to be. But here are the links to a few reviews of mysteries I've read and liked:

, by Agatha Christie. www.goodreads.com/review/show/35766548 .

by Ellis Peters (whose real name was Dame Edith Pargeter). www.goodreads.com/review/show/18085426 .

, by Elizabeth Peters. www.goodreads.com/review/show/83042190 .

I've heard a lot about the Amiela Peabody mysteries, all of it good.

The second entry in the series, , is in one of my voluminous physical to-read piles (it was one I snapped up awhile back on BookMooch). I'm hoping to make it a priority read --but with my limited time for reading and various other reading commitments and priority reads, that means I'll hopefully get to it sometime in the next two or three years. (Sigh!) Ah, well; not having anything to read would be a much worse problem. :-)

Here's the link to my first review of the new year, posted last night: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1107019245 . It's a review of , by my friend Andrew M. Seddon.

One of my Goodreads friends recently reviewed Jules Verne's 1874 novel . When he noted that I'd read it, he expressed the wish that I'd review it too; I was glad to oblige, and posted my review last night: www.goodreads.com/review/show/18335448 .

Yesterday I finished and reviewed another short story collection I had gotten as a review book, . My five-star review is here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1149652479 .

The review linked to below, of by Jane Orcutt, is one I posted back in 2009; but looked at again tonight since one of my Goodreads friends is now reading it. I'm not normally a particular fan of the whole "romance" genre; but I think of this book as a historical novel with a strong heroine, which has clean romance as an important part of its plot. www.goodreads.com/review/show/71756949 .

Last night, I tried to post this comment; but when I attempted to proofread it first, I evidently caused some computer anomaly that lost it in cyberspace. :-( So, here's take 2. All the books referenced here are Christian nonfiction; my ratings for the four range from 5 stars down to one.

, by Rick Warren. www.goodreads.com/review/show/17313066 .

, by G. K. Chesterton. www.goodreads.com/review/show/68865397 .

, by Timothy Smith. www.goodreads.com/review/show/18019978 .

, by Hal Lindsey. www.goodreads.com/review/show/17336656 .

Here's the link to my latest review (posted last night); it's of by Paul Copan. www.goodreads.com/review/show/919548618 .

My most recent review, of by Sam Harris, is the longest one I've ever written so far. Here's that link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1093613253 .

Earlier today, I reviewed one of Robert Frost's early poetry collections, . (Although it's a new review, it's of a book I read about twenty years ago.) www.goodreads.com/review/show/17283018 .

I'm continuing to plug away at linking to my Goodreads reviews posted before I joined this group, of which there are still a great many. All of these are of older classics in the SF genre:

, by George Eliot. www.goodreads.com/review/show/70703171 .

and , both by Jules Verne. www.goodreads.com/review/show/21637335 and www.goodreads.com/review/show/18335474 .

, by Robert Louis Stevenson. www.goodreads.com/review/show/15570806 .

and , both by H. G. Wells. www.goodreads.com/review/show/18335613 and www.goodreads.com/review/show/18335643 .

, by G. K. Chesterton. www.goodreads.com/review/show/71951525 .

, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. www.goodreads.com/review/show/18227453 .

The book I finished the most recently is the YA series opener , by my Goodreads friend Deborah Cannon; I was slow to get my review posted, and slow to link to it here, but here's that link, finally: www.goodreads.com/review/show/79069487 .

My latest review, posted last night, is of by Norah Lofts: www.goodreads.com/review/show/38758729 . This is the sequel to her , which I read earlier and reviewed here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/129382711 .

, a spin-off story collection from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series, proved to be a better read than I was expecting. Here's my review, posted last Friday: www.goodreads.com/review/show/67687691 .

Over the years, my wife and I have read a number of the books in Piers Anthony's humorous-fantasy Xanth series. I've only reviewed a few of them here on Goodreads, but here are the links to those reviews (the last one posted yesterday):
, www.goodreads.com/review/show/15333322 .

, www.goodreads.com/review/show/19105432 .

, www.goodreads.com/review/show/29113109 .

, www.goodreads.com/review/show/35072188 .

, www.goodreads.com/review/show/35190443 .

After reading the first book in K. W. Jeter's action-adventure Kim Oh series, (I've already linked to that review), I was eager to follow up with the sequel, . Recently, the author gifted me with a free review copy; and once again, I read through it so fast it wasn't even practical to mention it on the "currently reading" thread! Here's the link to that review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1219017469

Since I joined Goodreads in February 2008 and started keeping count of such things, by Rumer Godden is only the fourth general fiction book I've read. That statistic is somewhat misleading, though, in that I honestly do like general fiction that's well-written and tells a good story, and wouldn't mind reading more of it as time permits (I've got titles on my to-read shelf). This novel earned five stars from me: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1171493444 .

Although it's not a series I'm currently following actively, I've read and liked several of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan novels, and reviewed three: , , and . I thought it would be practical to link to all three of those reviews at once: www.goodreads.com/review/show/15317295 ; www.goodreads.com/review/show/60848875 ; and www.goodreads.com/review/show/31136080 .

I've been slow to link to many of the reviews that I posted to Goodreads before joining this group, mostly because it takes time to track down the links, and organize the numbers to facilitate coherent posting. But recently I've been able to make some needed progress with that. Here are four links to reviews of books that all fall into the religious (basically, Biblical studies) area:

Understanding Scripture: How to Read and Study the Bible by Berkeley and Alvera Mickelsen. www.goodreads.com/review/show/26899481 .

Toward Understanding the Bible by Perry Yoder. www.goodreads.com/review/show/17313617 .

The Fire That Consumes: A Biblical and Historical Study of the Doctrine of Final Punishment by Edward Fudge. www.goodreads.com/review/show/17378621 .

The Lost Gospel of Judas: Separating Fact from Fiction by Stanley E. Porter and Gordon L. Heath. www.goodreads.com/review/show/68014239 .

Here are links to two more of my reviews of anthologies edited by Peter Haining, The Vampire Hunters' Casebook and Mummy: Stories of the Living Corpse. The first review was just posted last night; the second one is several years old.

www.goodreads.com/review/show/968037193 .
www.goodreads.com/review/show/18369058 .

Last night, I finally got around to reviewing a folklore collection I last read back around the beginning of the 90s: , compiled by Richard Chase. Here's the link to that review: www.goodreads.com/review/show/17336277 .

Poetry isn't a literary form that I read much of (even though I like it --I just tend to like fiction better); but here's a link to my review of a collection by 19th-century American poet Sidney Lanier, Selections from Sidney Lanier: Prose and Verse: www.goodreads.com/review/show/18613306 . I read this one back in the late 90s, but only got around to reviewing it last night.

Here are the links to my reviews of two books dealing with aspects of the U.S. legal system: by Robert H. Bork and by Bob Woodward and Scott Armstrong. The first review is one I wrote some time ago, and the second one was just posted last night.
www.goodreads.com/review/show/25812422
www.goodreads.com/review/show/28303858

Having some unusual extra time yesterday, I posted a new review, of a Pulitzer Prize-winning political novel I read as a teen, by Allen Drury. Here's that link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/15569222 .

Just because a book is written by one of my Goodreads friends, I don't automatically read it; if I do, I don't always rate or review it, and those that I review don't always get five stars from me. When one does, it's because I honestly and truly felt the stars were earned. That's the case with my rating of LeAnn Neal Reilly's , which I finished on Thursday. That review, posted last night, is here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/364405048

Since I read more speculative fiction than anything else, a lot of the backlog of books I reviewed here on Goodreads before joining BREX are of that type. Here are links to some of those reviews, all in the science fiction genre:

, by Ursula LeGuin. www.goodreads.com/review/show/18228247 .

, by Walter M. Miller Jr. www.goodreads.com/review/show/18333722 .

, by Alfred Bester. www.goodreads.com/review/show/18226311 .

, by Anthony Burgess. www.goodreads.com/review/show/18226599 .

, by Ray Bradbury. www.goodreads.com/review/show/18226458 .

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/16092832 .

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/16093053 .

I haven't read very many plays, on the whole, and have reviewed very few of those, but here's the link to my review of J. M. Barrie's bittersweet 1902 social satire The Admirable Crichton: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1268621516 . It's a very recent review, but a blast from the past in another way, since I read the play in 1967, back in high school.

is the second of several volumes in the Chicks in Chainmail short story anthology series, edited by Esther M. Friesner. I've posted a link to my review of the first one some time ago, but only recently finished this one. www.goodreads.com/review/show/851879841 .

This past week, the English-speaking speculative fiction writing and fan community was saddened by the death of British author Tanith Lee (1946-2015). Though I've only read one book entirely by her ( ; my review is linked to below), I'd also encountered her short stories in various anthologies. She was a highly imaginative writer, and an excellent prose stylist.
www.goodreads.com/review/show/35756512 .

Such a large number of my Goodreads friends are authors that it would be practically impossible for me to get around to reading all of their books in a foreseeable time frame, even though a number of those books are on my to-read shelves. Recently, though, I've tried to be more proactive about at least checking out books by friends. One that proved to be a five-star read was , by our own Lance Charnes! www.goodreads.com/review/show/701898560 .

The link below is to a review I just wrote last night; but the play it reviews, (1946) by British dramatist Terence Rattigan, is one I read as part of an English class back in high school. It made a strong impression on me then, and has stayed with me all these years since.

www.goodreads.com/review/show/1268873064 .

Yesterday, I finished by Goodreads author Heather Day Gilbert, and posted my review last night. Here's that link: www.goodreads.com/review/show/834009560 .

Norse historical novelist Sigrid Undset is one of my all-time favorite writers; but until tonight, I'd never taken time to review any of her work. (Inexcusable, I know! :-( ) Here's the link to my newly-posted review of : www.goodreads.com/review/show/17082015 .

My review of the book I finished yesterday, by Ru Emerson, is here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/202814668 . This one was a pleasant surprise; I'd expected to rate it at three stars, but ended up giving it four.

Here's the link to my latest review, posted last night: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1251650885 . The book it reviews is the first book in Dave Duncan's King's Blades series, .

If you like action-oriented science fiction, and can appreciate a kick-butt heroine with some dark baggage, I strongly recommend the book I finished a couple of days ago, by Goodreads author E. J. Fisch. It's the first book of her Ziva Payvan series. My review is here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1292897060 .

As I expected, W. Somerset Maugham's was a quick read. My two-star review is here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1330541308 .

Rejected is a short story anthology in which the criteria for inclusion was that each selection had to have been previously rejected by at least one other publishing venue. I got a review copy from my Goodreads friend Andrew Seddon, who has a story included. (His is one of the better ones, though as you might expect there are quite a few low-quality inclusions.) My review is here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1279714392 .

Orson Scott Card is one of my favorite authors, on the basis of his Tales of Alvin Maker series and the short story collection The Folk of the Fringe. I've never reviewed the latter yet (I read it in my B. G. --Before Goodreads-- days :-) ), but I read all six novels of the series after joining Goodreads, and reviewed them as I finished them. Here are those links:

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/33094438 .

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/35758709 .

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/35758757 .

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/59011221 .

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/35758785 .

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/104813137 .

Here's the link to my review of the second installment in Suzanne Arruda's Jade del Cameron mystery series, : www.goodreads.com/review/show/1327475762 .

Recently, I completed a read (spread over several years) of Stephen Lawhead's Bright Empires series. Here are my reviews of the five novels that make up this story arc:

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/307262898 .

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/458727634 .

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/470534428 .

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/709797882 .

. www.goodreads.com/review/show/1102464461 .

Although I read Herman Melvile's as required reading back in college, it took me until last night to finally write a review of it. www.goodreads.com/review/show/17080623 .

Goodreads and Amazon treat individual issues of the irregularly published Fungi: A Magazine of Fantasy and Weird Fiction as books, and they have ISBNs like a book. I was recently given a free review copy of , and here's my take on it: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1371945781 .