Please note: I first published this book review on the “Goodreads”-website in 2023.

My rating: 3 (of 5) “stars”

I read a hardcover copy of this book, which previously belonged to a friend who cleaned out her library. I’ve now done the same thing, and passed the book on to another friend. The book was published in 2001 by Gefen Publishing House. You can still buy used copies of this book online, e. g., at AbeBooks.

Before I post my “Goodreads” review from March 30, 2023, I want to clarify a few things about my review. It was written during a time of political unrest in Israel, but before the heinous October 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas on Israel. Let there be no doubt about my point of view: I unequivocally support Israel. Hamas are terrorists, not Palestinian freedom fighters.

Book Review:

I actually finished reading this book a few weeks ago (note: before March 2023), but wasn’t sure what I would want to write about in my review. Here it is:

The book tells the story of a 1976 rescue operation by an Israeli elite military unit of more than one hundred hostages, who were held captive by Palestinian and German terrorists at the airport of Entebbe, Uganda. The terrorists hijacked a French airplane, and kept the hostages in an old airport building at Entebbe. The Ugandan army helped the terrorists.

The Israeli rescue operation was daring, and a success, but the Israeli military unit’s commander, Yoni Netanyahu, was killed during the rescue mission. I’m not telling you any spoilers, all that information is printed on the book’s dust jacket.

The book was written by Yoni’s brother Iddo Netanyahu, another brother is the current (in 2023) Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

The writer recounts in detail the preparation for this mission, which – as a reader, and not as a military analyst – I wouldn’t have needed to be told in such detail. I would have preferred more information about Yoni Netanyahu as a person: more childhood stories, more personal information, etc. That’s why I am only giving this book three “stars.”

But….

I pulled this book from my bookshelf – never having read it before, it ended up in my personal library when a friend got rid of it several years ago – when the Israeli people started to protest en masse against the judicial reforms in Israel at the beginning of 2023, which would weaken the country’s democratic structures and put Israel on a path towards dictatorship. The reforms were intitiated by the late Yoni Netanyahu’s brother, Benjamin, and while I was reading this book, I couldn’t help thinking over and over again, “Is this what Yoni died for?”

My personal impression is that, were he alive today, Yoni would be very ashamed of the actions of his brother Benjamin. To give your own life for Israel is heroic, and his death was a tragedy. But for me as a reader, it is mind-blowing that almost 50 years later the dead soldier’s brother is the greatest danger to the democratic state of Israel.

Please note: I first published this book review on the “Goodreads”-website in 2023.

My rating: 5 (of 5) “stars”

I love the poetry of Robert Frost, and I love this book.

This book was published by The Nature Company in 1992, you can still buy used copies, e. g. on AbeBooks. The Nature Company was founded in 1972, and purchased by the Discovery Channel in 1996. The book doesn’t have an ISBN.

Much care was put into editing and illustrating this book, as well as the slipcase cover – it’s a joy to hold it, read the poems, and look at the photographs, paintings, and drawings chosen to interpret and highlight the moods and emotions of Frost’s poems.

I bought this book many years ago as a present for my mother, who passed away in 2021. After her death, I inherited her library, and this book connects me to her and a joyful time in my life in the 1990s, when I lived, studied, and worked in Los Angeles. Reading this book evokes all kinds of memories, all good, and I guess that’s partly the reason why I cherish it so much.

Please note: I first published this book review on the “Goodreads”-website in 2023.

My rating: 3 (of 5) “stars”

I bought a copy of this book via Amazon UK, which was basically self-published by the author, Robin Farrar Maass. SparkPress is officially listed as the publisher, but authors have to finance the printing of their books themselves. SparkPress offers a few extra services, and the company describes itself as a hybrid publisher.

I originally awarded this book only 2 “stars”, but I’ve since upgraded my rating to 3 “stars.” I do think the author did an excellent job self-publishing and promoting her book, and I don’t only want to rate the story, but the whole “package,” especially if an author self-publishes.

I love the idea of incorporating a real book about the language of flowers into a story, and making that language part of the plot. That’s why I bought this book, and I think that the author succeeds in incorporating the language of flowers into the plot.

However, ….

I guessed the secret at the heart of this story and major plot points well in advance, and that’s a major flaw of this book. I was bored from page one — when I guessed the secret — all through to the end. The writer foreshadows each plot point, but unfortunately not subtly enough, so I could easily guess well in advance what would happen next – and it did.

The story lacks a strong antagonist; there’s a subplot which doesn’t amount to much, and is fairly easily resolved at the end. The “villain” of that subplot is a fairly ridiculous figure, and the subplot isn’t incorporated well into the story; it’s hinted at in the early chapters of the book, but then all but disappears until the final chapters, when it’s put front and center. This story structure didn’t work for me.

The book’s characters aren’t particularly complex figures, they don’t have many layers to them. I wasn’t interested in any of them as people, and they won’t linger in my mind now that I’ve finished reading the book.

There’s one character, Elizabeth Blackspear, a deceased poet and garden designer, whose life and a secret about her life are at the center of this novel. Yet I never quite believed that she supposedly was a famous garden designer or a world-renowned poet – the poetry, writen by the novel’s author – didn’t impress me all that much, and even all the detailed descriptions of the two gardens designed by her didn’t convince me that she supposedly was some sort of female Lancelot “Capability” Brown.

The book’s dialogue is another weakness, it’s on-the-nose: there’s no subtlety to it. Most of the time, the characters basically say what they mean, and mean what they say.

There’s one additional element which ruined the book for me, and that’s the author’s decision to tell her story in present tense. I would’ve preferred it if the story had been told in past tense. The story takes place in 1952, 2009, and 2014 — and it’s all told in present tense. That’s just weird, and I hated it. But of course that’s a personal preference/dislike, other readers might enjoy this particular creative choice.