Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan by Del Quentin Wilbur

Book Review

This year (2011) is the 100^th birthday of Ronald Reagan and saw a very well written book by his son Ron released.   As we learn more about this legendary man, it is natural to want to learn about the day he was nearly killed by John Hinckley, Jr. 

   The book starts a little slow, telling about Reagan waking up and about his morning schedule.  But this part is necessary to show us that this was supposed to be just an ordinary day in the life of a President.  Reagan was still new to the Presidentcy and had surrounded himself with aides who all had very different personalities and reactions to crisis. 

   We also see John Hinckley, Jr. as he prepares for this fateful encounter and get a glimpse of the dark despair he suffered from and the fascination he had with actress Jodi Foster.  He had tried once before to shoot a President; planning to shoot Jimmy Carter, but was thwarted by airport security and arrested.  Now he is in Washington armed with a Saturday Night Special and deadly Devastator bullets, bullets designed with exploding heads which blow up on contact. 

   The author researched the incident thoroughly and gives us a close-up view of what happened when Hinckley opened fire.  From this part on we see that not only is the wounded President a brave man, but there were many other brave men and woman who stepped up and did their duty above and beyond what would be expected.  Secret Service agent Timothy McCartney turning towards the shooter and using his body as a shield to try to protect the President, another agent, Jerry Parr, forcing the President in the car and making the decision to take him to the hospital, a decision which saved the President’s life.

   Unknown police men and woman clearing a way through the busy traffic so the limo could get Reagan to the hospital quickly.

   We see the many doctors and nurses who used all their training and skills to save the President as he was bleeding internally and losing the fight to stay alive. 

   The President’s personal friend, Lyn Nofziger, who was not well liked by many, who stepped in front of the microphones and gave a frank and honest description of what happened to Reagan and what was going to be done by the doctors.  His steady approach to relaying the information to the press corps calmed a fearful nation waiting to hear of the President’s fate.

   Mrs. Reagan, full of fear herself, calming her children in the hospital.

   We also see the others wounded in the shooting: McCartney, Police officer Delahanty, and Press Secretary Jim Brady.  They were treated for the serious wounds inflicted by the exploding bullets and all survived the day.

   Rawhide Down should be a “must read” for anyone who wants to see courage in action or just wants to learn more about the darkest day in the life of this charismatic President.

Steve Cram

The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry

This is the 7^th Cotton Malone story, and the first set almost entirely in the US, with a little sidetrip to Canada.

Author Steve Berry sets out to weave a story that begins with the failed assassination attempt on President Andrew Jackson and includes the shooting deaths of four Presidents, Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy.  He throws in an unsolvable cipher invented by President Thomas Jefferson and some Letters of Marque written by President Washington to four groups of pirates granting them legitimate status as Privateers in the service to America during the Revolutionary War.  Confused yet?  Then he mixes in an explanation of pirate crews by detailing the death of Edward Teach (the notorious Blackbeard,) and includes some history of the mystery of Oak Island and the treasure that was never found there.   

   Cotton Malone, the hero of the story, is finds himself drawn into the attempted assassination of the current President who orders Malone to find out who did it, where his former boss Stephanie Nell is, what the secret to the Jefferson cipher is, where some missing papers were hidden by Andrew Jackson, and stay alive while being pursued by pirates and an old enemy long enough to pull all this off.   Oh, and to find out who in his administration is leaking information that almost got the President killed.  Berry’s answer is both surprising and believable. 

   Berry uses real historical events to tie all this together into an interesting story without boring the reader with stale endless pages of dry facts.  He keeps things moving along at a quick pace, which is my one complaint about the story.  He tries to keep things moving a little too fast.  You barely have time to get into the action when he switches to another scene and you’re involved with something else.  Then he switches back to finish the first scene, and then jumps over to the second to give you some more of that.  You need to stay alert to keep up with the scene changes.

   But if you can keep up with Berry, you’ll discover a complex plot filled with enough mystery, intrigue, and action to entertain you.  You will also come to understand the fine line between pirates and privateers and why many feel there is no difference.  And you’ll learn of the ingenious cipher invented by Jefferson, which really exists and was used by him, and the reason it is so difficult to break the cipher. 

   All in all, a good read, but a little hard to keep pace with the scene switches.

Stephen Cram

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

When Alice Love wakes up at the hospital after collapsing, she doesn’t understand why her husband, Nick, isn’t at her bedside. After all, she’s twenty-nine years old and happily married, with a baby on the way.  That’s when her sister, Elisabeth, breaks the news to her: Alice has amnesia.  She is, in fact, thirty-nine, has three kids, and she and Nick are in the middle of a brutal divorce.  As Alice moves through her unfamiliar life, she is shocked by the person she’s become and wonders how in the world she doesn’t even recognize herself.

In novels popular books memory loss, the  main character is usually attempting to get trying to get their memory back, and of course, Alice tries as hard as she can to recall what she’s forgotten.  But as the book progresses, the reader’s feelings change.  I didn’t want Alice to remember what she’d forgotten.  She had the chance to rebuild her life, to right all of her mistakes, and this Alice seemed so much happier than the other Alice.  It was a crafty thing that Moriarty did, and it made it completely unique.- S. Krishna’s Books

           

I liked What Alice Forgot because it was not predictable. The author crafts a character that I could relate to. If we could go back in time would we really change anything we did?  Like many of us have one time or another, the main character struggles to understand who she is. - Lori

Unfinished Desires by Gail Godwin

 

The Chatters Book Club had a good discussion on Unfinished Desires.  The novel deals with a group of girls attending a Catholic girl's school.  Gail Godwin, author of 12 previous novels, involves women's friendships, family, and faith in this very human story.  The central setting of the story takes place when a group of 9th grade girls come together to perform a play; however, power struggles occur throughout between mothers and daughters, teachers and students. The author attended a Catholic day school and bases her story on her experiences.

    Our June selection and meeting TBA. 

To Reign in Hell by Greg Cox

   In the Star Trek original series, we were introduced to a genetically engineered “superman” named Khan Noonien Singh in an episode titled, “Space Seed.”  Khan tries to take over the Enterprise but our hero, James T. Kirk, wins in the end.  Kirk decides to maroon Khan and his band of 70 or so other super humans plus a ship’s officer who has fallen in love with Khan, on the remote planet of Ceti Alpha 5.  Khan’s last words are to quote John Milton where he wrote that Lucifer said he would rather reign in hell then serve in heaven.

   We jump ahead to the second Star Trek movie and see Kahn and his followers discovered by another ship which they take over and he sails forth to have revenge on Kirk.  He mentions that his planet was devastated by the explosion of a neighbor planet, and his wife was killed by a grotesque desert eel, but we really don’t know much else about the 15 years he spent in exile.  Until now.

   Greg Cox took the few known facts and framed a story to tell us what happened and how Kahn and his slowly dwindling tribe of super humans survived the 15 years of exile.  He has Kirk and his fellow senior officers visiting Ceti Alpha 5 to see if they could gather any clue about how Khan and his followers lived and survived there.  They discover Khan’s hidden sanctum where he has left a journal chronicling the story of what happened to them from when Kirk left them there until the USS Reliant accidentally found them and they were able to escape.

   The story is one of tragedy upon tragedy, and we see that Khan truly did reign in Ceti Alpha 5’s version of hell.  Khan and his genetically engineered followers endure constant setbacks and adversity.  First the local fauna are large and dangerous, and there are several attacks and casualties.  Then, just when there is a bright hope beginning to emerge from their settlement, the explosion that destroys the neighboring world causes heartbreaking hardships that nearly wipe out everyone.  Khan leads his people to a temporary sanctuary where they wait out the first frightening days until things begin to quiet down some, and then they spend the next 15 years living a marginal existence where their lives are only a hairsbreadth from death.  They live on too little food and too little water and have to be on the watch for the Ceti eels, which kill many of their numbers over the years.  The constant strain whittles away at Khan’s sanity.  Finally, the last blow to him comes when some dissenters among his followers cause the death of the Marla McIvers, the Starfleet officer who loves him and went into exile with him.  This is the start of a short and deadly civil war against his rule.

    The author absolutely captures Khan in this story and presents him to us is such a way that you hate him and admire him all at once.  You come to believe that only Kahn could have led his people through this series of incredible hardships and setbacks.  By the end of the book you might find yourself beginning to feel a little sorrow for Khan.  Rarely has a story been written that describes so completely and believably how an arrogant person with supreme belief in himself can be so thoroughly crushed and beaten down as this one does.  And yet, in the face of everything, Khan maintains his belief in his own superiority and his desire for revenge on Kirk.  You don’t have to be a Trekkie to appreciate this well written story about hardships meeting iron will.  - Steve Cram

Book Chatters’ Update

 

In April we viewed the movie WATER FOR ELEPHANTS.  We all enjoyed it very much!  We agreed that the spirit of the book was captured, even though some memorable characters and scenes were left out.  Both the movie and the book are highly recommended!

Our May selection is:

Unfinished Desires: A Novel by Gail Godwin

From Publishers Weekly

Bestselling author Godwin (Evensong; The Finishing School) brings readers back in time to the early 1950s in this endearing story of Catholic school girls and the nuns who oversee them. As Mother Suzanne Ravenel begins a memoir of her 60-plus years at Mount St. Gabriel's School in Mountain City, N.C., she's forced to re-examine the toxic year of 1951–1952, one of her worst at the school—beginning with the arrival of ninth-grade student Chloe Starnes, who's recently lost her mother, and Mother Malloy, a beautiful young nun assigned to the freshman class. Starnes and Malloy's arrivals presage a shift in the ranks of freshman Tildy Stratton's cruel clique, with significant consequences for all involved. Change, when it finally comes, stems from the girls' attempt to revive a play written years before by Ravenel. Godwin captures brilliantly the subtleties of friendships between teenage girls, their ambivalence toward religion and their momentous struggle to define people—especially themselves. Poignant and transporting, this faux memoir makes a convincing, satisfying novel.

One Last Breath by Laura Griffin

When pampered former cheerleader Feenie Malone takes a job writing fluff pieces for her South Texas paper, she has no idea she's about to stumble into a juicy news story that could launch her career -- if it doesn't get her killed first. Almost as soon as she breaks out her press pass, she crosses paths with Marco Juarez, the macho PI obsessed with solving his sister's murder. The information he has might be the perfect lead -- but his dangerously sexy looks could be a deadly distraction.
Juarez has zero patience for reporters, especially mouthy blond ones. But with the evidence pointing to Feenie's ex-husband, Marco thinks she could be useful. Confident he can keep her on a tight leash, he lets her in on his investigation. He quickly discovers he's underestimated his new partner.- Amazon


I enjoyed this romantic suspense and although it is a suspense I found myself laughing out loud at times.I am looking forward to reading the second in the series One Wrong Step. - Lori