Books

Ordinary Mystery
Judge Me Nottingham: A Nice Skates Ice Skating Mystery
Wired for Murder
Corporate Killings
The Lonely Detective: Four More Humorous, Politically Incorrect Mysteries Solved by Ed McCoppin, the Lonely Detective: v. II
Justified Crimes: A Ray Fox Story
A Favor for Zodiac: A Micki Garrity Mystery
Niagara Fall: A Novel of Crime and Comedy
The Killer Wore White: Who Wanted the Women Dead?
Frosty Deadman
Playing the Game
Fatal Ambition
The Preacher Killer
Vitamin Wow
Mystery of the Mona Lisa
Off the Record: A Novel Introducing Renee Rose
Dr. Dash and the Singing Swords
Vintage Murder: A Robbie Cutler Diplomatic Mystery
Death Beneath the Streets: A Matthew Hogan Mystery
Chasing Monsters
The Trial of Hannah Duston
Pipsqueak
Icy Blue Descent
The Eyes of Saul
Hour of the Cat

The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy, Book 2: The Return of Meteor Boy? (Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy)

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BEST SUPERHERO AND KIDS' BOOK EVER!
Another winner
Loved it!
Can't wait for the next one

The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy, Book 2: The Return of Meteor Boy? (Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy)
William Boniface
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy, Book 1: The Hero Revealed (Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy)
Grateful Fred, The (Melvin Beederman, Superhero)
Revenge of the McNasty Brothers, The (Melvin Beederman Superhero)
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Terror in Tights (Melvin Beederman, Superhero)

ASIN: 0060774673
Release Date: 2007-02-27

Book Description

Uh-Oh!

The super town of Superopolis is hiding a gigantic secret! Years ago, a young superhero named Meteor Boy mysteriously vanished during a dangerous mission. But what really happened to him?

Not only that!

There may be more to the Meteor Boy secret than anybody suspected! As Ordinary Boy begins to investigate, he discovers that nobody knows where Meteor Boy came from in the first place . . . and clues start to indicate that he may in fact still be alive.

Who is Meteor Boy?

As the Amazing Indestructo plots to exploit the memory of Meteor Boy for profit, Ordinary Boy knows that the time has come to solve the mystery once and for all. And then Superopolis will finally know the real truth about Meteor Boy. . . .

In a town where everyone is extraordinary, this might just be a job for . . . Ordinary Boy.

Customer Reviews:

BEST SUPERHERO AND KIDS' BOOK EVER!.......2007-06-05

Believe it or not, i am just turning 13 and im in the middle of reading The Extraordinary Adventures of Ordinary Boy, Book 1: A Hero is Born and i love it so much! And im so excited to read the second one! And the funny thing is, i have always hated reading, but now i enjoy it. And i owe it all to William Boniface!

Another winner.......2007-05-25

We're really enjoying this series. Once again, Ordinary Boy's brains save the day, with a little help from his friends. There's humor dry enough to make adults happy, and silly enough for kids to enjoy. The bit about time travel was a little tricky for my seven year old to understand, but it didn't detract from the story. We're looking forward to book 3.

Loved it!.......2007-05-14

My son loved the first book and waited eagerly for this one. He said it was even better than the first book and he's now eagerly waiting for book three.

Can't wait for the next one.......2007-04-21

My 9 year old son, husband, and I have enjoyed reading the first 2 Ordinary Boy books as before bed read aloud books. The humor is appropriate for elementary school kids and is amusing to adults. I highly recommend this book as a great way to get reluctant readers engrossed in a good-size chapter book. The chapters are not overly long and the action is fast paced. We can't wait for book 3 to come out!

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Couldn't Put It Down
Who is the hero of your life
Sharp

An Ordinary Hero
Debra Feldman
Manufacturer: Mystery and Suspense Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

War | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0595288626

Book Description

Who becomes a hero? Where does their story really start—the beginning or the end? Is the past unchangeable? Has the future already happened? Is Time a constant or, like Albert Einstein said, all relative, with past, present and future coexisting? In the midst of the Vietnam war, five unlikely friends join forces to answer those questions and unmask a traitor—the Brasshole responsible for orchestrating two suicide missions, hundreds dead.

A legend joined to a story, meant to guide the friends, was sent from the past into the future and back again, but remained an unsolved puzzle for generations. Only by working together, utilizing bits of information they each possess, can the friends decipher the ancient tale and discover that their friendship was not random, nor have they each simply been lucky in war. Time has manipulated their lives, aided and protected them, marking one for travel to the past, so that, that which is meant to be can be preserved. Time's goal? For them to arrive at a future they are promised has already happened. What bits of the past will ultimately remain and what will have been the cost of preserving it? Only a hero knows.

Customer Reviews:

Couldn't Put It Down.......2007-06-17

"An Ordinary Hero" by Debra Feldman succeeds on many levels. I was looking for a historically-based novel that delved into the emotions felt by soldiers in Vietnam, a new view of the issues dealt with by Tracy Kidder in "My Detachment". What I found was much different, but I couldn't put it down until I finished.

"An Ordinary Hero" is about "Reweavers" who travel back in time to correct mistakes. Feldman's powerful characters get second chances. They can create an alternate history, if hints provided by the Reweavers allow them to avoid moral lapses that sent them down the wrong path the first time.

Is this book a mystery; is it science fiction; or perhaps it's a mystical parable about the consequences of moral lapses? Don't worry about classifying this novel - just enjoy it.

Who is the hero of your life.......2005-08-25

Part sci-fi thriller, mystery, war saga and love story, "An Ordinary Hero" is an extraordinary novel that succeeds on many levels. Debra Feldman has weaved a fascinating story of time travel and the power of the human spirit in her debut novel that takes us from the 1930's to 2011 and back again with rich characters who never cease to surprise. Particularly engaging is her chronicling of the dedicated soldiers of Vietnam, five of whom play a pivotal role in the story.

Sharp.......2003-11-21

Be sharp when you read this one. Everything is connected in some way and history is not static. What does baking pies in modern day New Hampshire have to do with kids skipping stones in the 1938 and the Vietnam War? All I have to say is, be nice to your kids because you may need them to go back in time and drag you out of a Southeast Asian jungle.

Embracing the Mystery: The Sacred Unfolding in Ordinary People and Everyday Lives

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Trustworthy spiritual guide
Touching Many Lives, Diane L. Dunton, M.S.
Opens our eyes!
Powerful in its Simplicity-Excellent compliment to 12 Steps
Regaining our spiritual momentum

Embracing the Mystery: The Sacred Unfolding in Ordinary People and Everyday Lives
Meredith Jordan
Manufacturer: Rogers McKay Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

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A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

ASIN: 0974953504

Book Description

"Embracing the Mystery" is a collection of spiritually compelling stories and inspirational reflections about those numinous moments when the spirit of mystery is revealed in ordinary life and brings with it an extraordinary grace, where we are irrevocably changed. Chapter by chapter, story by story, the book describes the everyday challenges of real people striving to be awake for these revelations. This all-embracing essential book provides questions and meditations at the end of each chapter that urge the reader to examine his or her own experiences of revelation.

"Embracing the Mystery" is written for spiritual seekers of all faith traditions and religious backgrounds, believers in the Sacred who are churched and those who are not, participants in book study groups and twelve-step programs, and everyone who longs to develop or deepen a spiritual life.

Customer Reviews:

Trustworthy spiritual guide.......2005-03-11

If you're seeking dialogue with someone who is genuinely wise and trustworthy about matters of Spirit, you will likely rejoice, perhaps weep, and even at times laugh out loud while reading Meredith Jordan's fine new book, Embracing the Mystery. Written in a wonderfully intelligent and accessible style, this collection of brief reflections on "living a spirited life" gently invites the reader into a process of self-reflection and deepening conversation about spirituality, personal integrity, and hope for transformation. "I'm grateful to have been given the gift of noticing," Jordan writes. "Even in the most painful of times, I attempt to notice where the Mystery is at work, and I discover-not a surprise!-it's always at work, in all situations, and in all places." With insight and compassion, she candidly shares what she has come to know, value, and trust about the Sacred in the midst of everyday life. While showing respect for where others may be on their journey, she also nudges the reader to be equally attentive to, moved by, and responsive to things that truly matter. Knowing (and being known by) the Mystery is a gift but also a task, so what will one come away with after all this probing, pondering, and prayerful openness? Perhaps you'll risk finding the richest blessing of all: a more heart-felt "yes" to life and renewed energy to go forth and make a real difference in and for a world that's groaning for renewal.

Touching Many Lives, Diane L. Dunton, M.S........2005-03-05

Embracing the Mystery is a wonderful and deeply touching spiritual book. Meredith has awaken the understanding of listening and paying attention to the signs around us. This is a book for anyone who wants to be awaken to the mystery in our lives.

Opens our eyes!.......2004-12-21

Meredith Jordan does three extraordinary things: she opens our eyes to the numinous that daily surrounds us in our earthly existence; she encourages us, by example, to accept the mystery in our ordinary story; she shows a way to share it, in words or in silence, with others. It's worthwhile following her!

Powerful in its Simplicity-Excellent compliment to 12 Steps.......2004-12-15

This book has become staple reading during my daily meditation and quiet time! Powerful in its simplicity, EMBRACING THE MYSTERY simultaneously challenges and comforts the reader. It has helped me to look for the face of my Higher Power in every situation - good or bad - and to view each situation in the light of faith and possibility rather than the darkness of fear, doubt and insecurity. I recommend EMBRACING THE MYSTERY to family and friends who are seeking a more meaningful connection to their Higher Power, or God and for those in 12 Step Programs. Absolutely one of the best books I've read in this genre!

Regaining our spiritual momentum.......2004-10-30

At the turn of the New Millennium, spiritual leaders around the world spread the message that the Family of Man had reached a higher level of consciousness, if only we'd open our hearts to it. This spiritual awakening crossed geographic, cultural and racial boundaries, and a palpable current of energy ran through our collective consciousness.

Then the 9/11 attacks occurred, and everything changed. The human family was suddenly threatened by fears and anxieties as never before. Hatred has brought us to a dangerous and frightening precipice. How can we reclaim our "lost radiance?" Author Meredith Jordan, with twenty years as a psychotherapist and spiritualist, proposes that storytelling and listening to one another's stories is "a holy act" that can heal spiritual wounds and help us embrace life to its fullest. She urges us to have the courage to become what we should be - not what others want us to be - and to do the "psychic housecleaning" necessary to discover our true selves.

Jordan's book is like spiritual comfort food - a big, warm, cozy quilt of heartwarming anecdotes and advice. The stories she tells and the questions she asks make us think - and reawaken hope in the midst of our fears. She points out how children can teach us to regain our trusting spirit and help us remember what we've forgotten. Be in the present moment, she says. Give thanks for small things. Have compassion for others. These are the things that will help us get beyond fear and inspire us to gently grow toward a deeper relationship with the sacred mystery many people call God.

Ordinary Mysteries: The Common Journal of Nathaniel And Sophia Hawthorne, 1842-1843 (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society) (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society)

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Ordinary Mysteries: The Common Journal of Nathaniel And Sophia Hawthorne, 1842-1843 (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society) (Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society)
Nathaniel Hawthorne , Nicholas R. Lawrence , and Marta L. Werner
Manufacturer: American Philosophical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0871692562

Murder in Ordinary Time (A Sister Mary Helen Mystery)

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Murder in Ordinary Time (A Sister Mary Helen Mystery)
Carol Anne O'Marie
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0312936184
Release Date: 2005-05-31

Book Description

Just one bite of that irresistible Christmas cookie and Christina Kelly, Channel 5's leading investigative reporter, was on the air--dead. The odor of bitter almond told Sister May Helen the cause of the death: cyanide. Somewhere in the studio was the wily killer; it was a person everyone knew.Had Christina's investigations led her to her dead end? Or was the fatal cookie meant for someone else: the notorious womanizer; the hard-drinking floor manager with something to hide; or perhaps Wicked Wendy, who certainly fit her nickname? Or was the intended victim the intrepid nun herself?Heaven help her as Sister Mary Helen charges in where angels fear to tread to trap a killer before he strikes again.

The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery, and Meaning in an Ordinary Church

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More Church, Less Sermon, Please
Very nice, but not really a book on architecture...
Some great insights, if you have the patience.
St. Agnes and an altared world
Religion: A*Live* Imagining

The Geometry of Love: Space, Time, Mystery, and Meaning in an Ordinary Church
Margaret Visser
Manufacturer: North Point Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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The Pantheon: Design, Meaning, and Progeny
Quintillian on the Teaching of Speaking and Writing: Translations from Books One, Two and Ten of the Institutio oratoria (Landmarks in Rhetoric and Public Address)
The Rituals of Dinner: Visser, Margaret
Rome: An Oxford Archaeological Guide (Oxford Archaeological Guides)
Much Depends on Dinner: The Extraordinary History and Mythology, Allure and Obsessions, Perils and Taboos of an Ordinary Meal

ASIN: 0865476187

Book Description

Margaret Visser has visited many more churches than most people, but like the rest of us, she began to tire of the slew of facts and lack of meaningful information available from guidebooks. The desire to find answers to her own questions -- as a traveler, a believer, and an insatiable anthropologist of the everyday -- led her to undertake this unique and revelatory book.

More than any other kind of edifice, a church is intentionally meaningful in all its aspects, and Visser decided to find out what it was trying to express, in its nuances as well as in its grand gestures. She deliberately chose a relatively simple church just outside the walls of Rome, Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura, but she casts a wide net -- taking in history, theology, anthropology, and folklore, among other disciplines -- to illuminate its physical and spiritual architecture. As she guides us through the building, from apse to nave, catacombs to campanile, Visser explores the symbolism of lambs, the Christian fascination with virgins, the meanings of martyrdom, and the history of relics. At the same time, she moves back through the centuries to reveal Christianity in its earliest forms and purposes. The book ends at the church's beginning, with the grave of Agnes, a twelve-year-old girl who was murdered seventeen hundred years ago and whose remains lie buried beneath the altar. By then we have learned how to read any church building, how to interpret what it "does" and "says," whether we are of any faith or none.

Customer Reviews:

More Church, Less Sermon, Please.......2006-03-13

This could have been a terrific guide to absolutely everything in the fine old Roman church of Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura, but instead it bogs down in mystical meanderings and fifth-rate philosophizing. These aspects of the book might be of interest to those who actually believe such things, but for me it just produced eye-rolling. I found myself skimming page after page and saying impatiently to the author, "Will you please just get on with it!" There's a great guidebook to Sant' Agnese in there somewhere, but the information is buried among all the other pious maundering that bloats the book to over 250 pages. There are enough footnotes and a long enough bibliography that this could almost be a PhD dissertation! The only way it would be of any use as a guide book would be to go through it with a highlighter, and mark the passages of relevance to the church itself, while ignoring the interminable sermonizing.

Very nice, but not really a book on architecture..........2006-01-30

I agree with with the other reviewers about the lack of diagrams and pictures. Since the text is supposed to address the architecture of churches, it needs graphics. Moreover, it lacks rigor in defining how the programmatic elements of a church influence the form of the architecture, and instead focuses on religious history. This book should be in the religious studies section, not architecture.

Some great insights, if you have the patience........2005-10-27

This book is an in-depth discussion of the meaning of church architecture from a laymans (lay woman's, in this case)perspective. As Visser points out, someone on the "inside" of a faith--in her case, Christianity-- does tend to have insights into the meaning of its traditions that an outside observer might not. This book is full of little insights that are just astounding at times. However, Visser tends to wax poetic on the glories of Christianity every third sentence or so, which makes reading this book for the purpose of studying architecture more of a crapshoot and less of a solid learning experience. By all means, if you need a reinforcement of why your Christian faith is so amazing, get this book. If you want a good in-depth discussion of Christian architecture without having to sit through a sermon, this is probably not the book for you.

St. Agnes and an altared world.......2004-10-22

The book's subtitle is oddly inappropriate: Sant'Agnese fuori le Mura in Rome is hardly an "ordinary" chuch, but rather one of Christianity's most historic. It was built in late antiquity over the burial site of St. Agnes, reputedly a 12-year-old martyr executed for refusing to renounce her faith -- ironically, only a few years before Christianity was adopted by the emperor Constantine as the official religion. Among the items of interest are the mosaic in the apse, columns from ancient Roman buildings, statuary, the altar, fragments of wall inscriptions, the crypt holding the remains of Agnes and Emerentiana (a similarly martyred girl), and catacombs.

Margaret Visser has a worthy mission in writing the book. She wants to help us see the objects in Sant'Agnese not in purely artistic or archeological terms, but as aspects of a religious faith that once turned the western world completely around and, she trusts, is a living force today. As she takes us on a guided "tour" through the building and its surroundings, she muses on the philosophical and spiritual implications that they have embodied down through the centuries.

There is no doubt that Visser is both knowledgeable about the history of Christianity and has meditated long over the palimpsest of meanings reflected by practically every surface in the church. For readers (like me) with many gaps in their understanding of traditional Christian iconography, her observations can be striking. It had never occurred to me, for example, that Christianity took over the idea of an altar from earlier religions, with one remarkably humane difference. Before, an altar was always a place where living beings were sacrificed. Christianity abolished that distasteful practice, but kept the altar as a reminder of another kind of sacrifice, that which its founder had made for the sake of humanity. As Visser discusses this momentous change, it is easy to be swept along with her in admiration for one of early Christianity's practices that suggests a deep and powerful love for God's creatures.

Visser is almost certainly a Roman Catholic, though she never explicitly says so, but she is clearly keen to uncover meanings in the church's furnishings that will resonate with all kinds of Christians and non-Christians. Nevertheless, although she discovers many higher octaves of significance that have universal appeal, some fine doctrinal points she lingers over will tire the patience of readers with no taste for theology.

Visser's ruminations about the interior meanings of concepts such as the circle and certain numbers are occasionally obscure, and in her determination to probe every layer of symbolism in each object she can seem to be almost free associating. Most readers will probably find paragraphs or sections that will invite skimming.

Those reservations aside, I found Visser to be a fine travel companion for visiting Sant'Agnese. She helps us understand what these mementos mean, and how they are reminders that even in a time like that of the late Roman empire, when intolerance and cruelty were standard operating procedure, there were still those who turned toward the light -- and ever since, those who have remembered and honored them.

Religion: A*Live* Imagining.......2004-08-26

One of the reviews on the back of this book states that every reader will be able to pinpoint at the exact point that s/he becomes hooked by the text. For me, this point wasn't until about halfway through the book, in chapter 5, when I realized that a reading of a church building is not like a reading of a book: the imagination presences itself front-and-center, rather than lurking in the background, masked by a self-proclaimed "objectivity". The religious imagination embodies itself in the artwork, architecture and ceremony that *is* the church.

This book is a thick narrative that works on multiple levels: architectural and artistic, theological and socio-historical. The church building itself is far from static; in letting the church speak of what is timeless, it itself enters into time: ancient altars and recent restorations, classical Byzantine mosaics and Baroque-inspired paintings all inhabit the same space of the church. Each generation, each culture has done something to become a part of the history of the church, and therefore a part of the next generation. The church becomes a shared narrative, so to speak: a structural representating of communion.

The book functions as both an introduction to Christianity, and more specifically Roman Catholicism. Visser situates her text within the larger history of the Roman church, a world filled with saints and mystics, ascetics, martyrs and power struggles, sacraments and quasi-magical popular beliefs. It is a world in which the dead still have a presence in the present, and in which heaven and earth meet at particular times and in particular places - and more in the church than anywhere else.

What appears more than anything else in Visser's work is that of the Roman Catholic imagination. Although certain theologians were largely systematic, the wider history of the Roman Catholic church speaks a different story: sacred time and sacred space, and an experience of the mysterium tremendum. It is within this sense of the sacred, embodied temporally and spatially in the liturgy and the sacraments, and continually witnessed to by the church building, which holds the people whose histories give rise to it, its development and change, restoration and remembering over time.

Visser's work is a brialliant book that will be enriched by those who come with prior knowledge, and will enrich those who pursue more knowledge afterwards. One will learn about Christian theology and history, and its socio-historical imaginings throughout time. Visser's text works outside of simplistic - even if rigorous - textual analyses, and looks to history and its representations in space and time. A brialliant work for those with heart, mind and spirit: imagination.

Mysteries of the Rosary in Ordinary Life

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Mysteries of the Rosary in Ordinary Life
Teresa Rhodes McGee
Manufacturer: Orbis Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Jesus of Nazareth

ASIN: 1570756996

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If a Book is Not Plot Driven, Not Character Driven, then???
Frustrating in the extreme
Lost in its own language.
All of the reviews are correct, and none of them are....
What's not to get?

Ordinary Horror
David Searcy
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Last Things

ASIN: 0452282969

Book Description

Frank Delabano is a retired science teacher living an unremarkable life in an unremarkable suburb. But in a sunny corner of his backyard lies his secret treasure: a magnificent rose garden. When his beloved blooms are threatened by a mysterious burrowing pest, he sends away for an organic remedy: an exotic tropical plant guaranteed to be "antithetical to garden varmints but harmless to pets and everything else."

The strange "gopherbane" plants take care of the problem . . . and much more. Building to an unforgettable climax, Ordinary Horror tells an unsettling, richly atmospheric tale of creepily evolving menace.

"An elegantly literary debut . . . Like a Stephen King novel written by Joseph Conrad." (Laura Miller, Salon.com)

"Searcy's prose is a razor-like tool for dissecting the surreal mundanity of suburbia." ( Los Angeles Times)

"In controlled and lyrical prose, Searcy imbues the ordinary with the horrific . . . His skill is to keep us guessing." ( The New Yorker)

Customer Reviews:

If a Book is Not Plot Driven, Not Character Driven, then???.......2005-11-02

Read this and his second novel, LAST THINGS, and feel unmoved by both.

Both have a "plot" -- ORDINARY HORROR: Man buys strange plant to help prevent rodents from bothing his roses. Then...stuff happens but it's never clear. Then it's over.

LAST THINGS-- chickens and people die/disappear in a small town and an "end of days" church begins and then...stuff happens but it's never clear. Then it's over. Reminded me a bit of Peter Straub's FLOATING DRAGON. But not really!

I wish I could say both books had great and memorable characters -- but neither did. I wish both were so plot driven that I couldn't wait to turn the page. But neither is that compelling.

But I DID finish both books -- that in itself says something since we have so many reasons NOT to finish his books--dreadful pacing, long and uniwielding pacing, many loose ends. However, the reason I finished them was because I was hoping some thing would happen.

I think the problem is his books are being mis-marketed so we come in with an expectation that isn't fulfilled.

No, I won't read anymore books by him but he IS a good writer -- I'm just not clear what he's writing about.

Frustrating in the extreme.......2005-06-25

Hmm. This book purports to be a thriller and for a while it manages. An old man with a gopher problem buys some mysterious plants from a newspaper ad that claim to be "antithetical to garden varmints but harmless to everything else". Then mysteriously all the pets disappear from the neighborhood and both the old man and the little girl next door have an unshakeable feeling of impending doom.

Alright, that's fine for a start. The problem is, that's about three quarters of the book right there. The style is so SLOW. It's not slow meaning boring. But it kept taking so long for anything to happen. It drove me nuts!! For example, the little girl calls the old man in the middle of the night and asks him to come over because "the dog in her room is moving". (The impending doom was explained to the girl as "a very bad dog." It was creepy.) So the old man says he'll come over in the morning. Then the next day he spends pages and pages flipping through old photographs of his wife! Not going over to the neighbours' to progress the story line.

The whole book is like that. If it had been told concisely it would be a novella and one quarter the size it is now. As it is, it is slow and frustrating and ultimately comes to no kind of resolution anyway. Very frustrating.

Lost in its own language........2005-04-27

David Searcy, Ordinary Horror (Viking, 2001)

What to say about Ordinary Horror? A number of reviews have already said most of it. The book is derivative (most notably of Ramsey Campbell), with a pace that is an insult to pedestrians, and seems to have been vastly mismarketed by Viking, though one can't well blame that on Searcy. To call Ordinary Horror a horror novel would be to call A. M. Homes' Music for Torching (with which this book has a good deal in common, though Music for Torching is better-paced and is, at least, about something) a horror novel; it just don't work.

So then why did I end up giving it a (slightly) above average rating? Because of Searcy's use of language. The book is readable in the same way Joyce Carol Oates' books are readable; the language is so thick and tangled that at times it's impossible to sort out what's going on, but most of the time, you're too busy wallowing in the language to really care. That can be enough of a reason to read a book, and somewhat unfortunately, in this case it has to be.

Frank Delabano is a man living alone in his seventies. He has problems with gophers in his rose garden, so he orders a plant called Gopherbane to get rid of them. Once he plants them and they bloom, things start to go a little odd in the neighborhood.

There's a great premise here (in fact,t here's more than one great premise), but it seems as if the premises themselves end up being red herrings for Searcy's Homes-like satire on suburban life in America at the end of the twentieth century. There's real promise here, especially in the way Delabano's interactions change with his neighbors over the course of the book, but everything's left hanging at the end-- it's not a few loose ends, the end of the book is one massive loose end. Still, if you allow yourself to get carried away by the language, you may end up not caring too much. ***

All of the reviews are correct, and none of them are...........2004-12-14

I just finished Ordinary Horror, and I don't know what to make of it. It's a slim book, yet this was the second time I tried to read it. If you expect a good, old-fashioned creepfest, you'll get bogged down, or angry at the author, or both. The negative reviews all point to that.

But when you consider the various plot points of the story, and the mental state of the narrator, and the deliberate shift in tone about a third of the way through, I think there is something far creepier about this book. Searcy has employed experimental techniques to drop the reader into a genuine nightmare. The last forty pages of this book were jaw-dropping. I can't recall the last time I've been both angry (at the obtuse and confusing tone) and frightened (by the ultra-creepy actions unfolding).

The book is deceptively hard to read. It's challenging. And it doesn't go where you think it goes or where you might want it to go. But it sticks with you. And it's unlike anything else.

What's not to get?.......2004-11-05

I'm surprised nobody has reached the same conclusion as myself.
The plants were an opiate, an hallucinogenic... they had the neighbours and Frank stoned out of their minds for months. The effects were like LSD, where Mr Delabano found himself losing hours at a time staring at minute details, hence the narratives long, ponderous attention to the explicit details. It is why he couldn't recognise a dead animal, or Janie at the window. It also mirrors the outline of the book he has on Amazonian botany which features similarly pointless stories - and similarly pointless photos of seamingly nondescript pathways which are labelled 'luminesence'. The authors were clearly exposed to the same plant. Hence the title Ordinary Horror. Ther horror was not lurking within some monster, it was in the tedium of suburban life as highlighted and drawn into focus by the effects of the plants. ie. the sisters fixed to the TV. The horror....the horror.

Average customer rating:

A mix of mystery and science

Ordinary Magic
Thomas Quealy
Manufacturer: iUniverse, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0595359663

Book Description

In ORDINARY MAGIC Jack Daly, atheist and movie `special effects' expert, creates holograms of Jesus and famous saints to preach the Sunday sermon at Holy Redeemer Church in a last ditch effort to keep the poor parish out of bankruptcy. Tickets to the service cost up $250 each. His uncle, Fr. Frank Shymanski, the pastor, is tormented over this as he believes they are committing a sacrilege against God and will be severely punished for it.

Bizarre murders soon take place. A policeman is levitated to his death in the church. An altar boy is mortally torched by a blast of psychokinetic energy. A beautiful woman is strangled in a Black Mass ritual at a synagogue by a killer who can be in two places at the same time.

Rabbi Ari Zabel, a student of Kabbalah, is asked by the NYPD to consult on the strange case as the killer seemingly has mystical powers similar to those possessed by certain prophets in the Bible. The evidence points to a Demon as the likely culprit.

In a climactic confrontation at St. Patrick's Cathedral, the killer's formidable powers are pitted against Jack's `special effects' movie magic and the sparks fly.

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In ORDINARY MAGIC Jack Daly, atheist and movie 'special effects' expert, creates holograms of Jesus and famous saints to preach the Sunday sermon at Holy Redeemer Church in a last ditch effort to keep the poor parish out of bankruptcy. Tickets to the service cost up $250 each. His uncle, Fr. Frank Shymanski, the pastor, is tormented over this as he believes they are committing a sacrilege against God and will be severely punished for it.

In a climactic confrontation at St. Patrick's Cathedral, the killer's formidable powers are pitted against Jack's 'special effects' movie magic and the sparks fly.

Customer Reviews:

A mix of mystery and science.......2006-12-05

A well written, gritty, fast paced mystery based in New York City. Good character development and detailed surroundings. Unusual circumstances and surprises that will astonish keep you guessing. If you like The DaVinci Code, you may be interested in reading this.

Pathways to the self: The magical mysteries of the ordinary

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Pathways to the self: The magical mysteries of the ordinary
W. J Eisner
Manufacturer: American Heritage Custom Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Psychology & Counseling | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0828109400

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