Brief Reviews: Tuck Everlasting; I, Alex Cross

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit, YR, 1975, 139p, rating=4

"A kidnapping, a murder, a jailbreak. If this were Winnie Fosters story only, it would be like any other great adventure: you would come to the end, with all resolved, and that would be that. But this is also the story of the Tuck family and therefore, though it has a beginning and a middle, it can never end. The two stories cross near the village of Treegap during a handful of hot August days in the 1880s, days which are a curious mixture of violence and love, of anguish and tranquility. And when those days are over, young Winnie is left to make a fundamental choice. What she chooses at last is not what she might have chosen at first. For when you have known the Tucks as Winnie has, however briefly, you can never be quite the same again."  (book's blurb)

You have discovered a fresh water spring that will allow you to live forever at the age you drink it ... would you?  The Tuck family did and what did they learn?  Now, Winnie knows about it ... will she drink it?  What effects does living forever have?  Should it be available to all?  What would you do with your endless days? 

Questions, questions, questions.  A short book that is simply thought provoking and live-life affirming. 

~Just for fun, if I ended up stuck to live forever in one age, I'd pull a Ground Hogs Day and learn something and better it everyday.  Maybe become an awesome writer/author! Or end world hunger.  :)

I, Alex Cross by James Patterson, Alex Cross #16, AF, 2009, Playaway audio, 7hrs, rating=2

"Alex Cross's niece is found brutally murdered. Overcome with grief, Alex vows to take down her killer before he strikes again. But shortly after he begins the investigation, Alex discovers that his niece had gotten mixed up with some very important, very dangerous people. And she's not the only one who has disappeared..." (book's blurb..first paragraph)

I'm speechless.  This was just not my cup of tea ... adult content and language.  Overall far fetch scenario.

"Alex Cross's Trial"

by James Patterson & Richard Dilallo, 2009, 315p, rating=3

(vague spoiler alert!!)
This was an easy and interesting read because it had the feel of the classic book, To Kill A Mockingbird. Then the ending came and I was disappointed. I don't understand what the author wanted me to get out of it. It wasn't necessarily that I didn't like the verdict but the whole Theodore Roosevelt electoral game and leaving it at "You did fine, Ben. You did fine." just didn't cut it for me. OK, come to think of it, maybe my disappointment had a lot to do with the verdict. It was disheartening.

During the early 1900s, as a city lawyer in Washington DC, Ben Corbett took cases that fought against oppression and racism. So when President Roosevelt enlisted him to investigate lynchings in Ben's hometown of Eudora, Mississippi he could not refuse. There he discovers that the onced outlawed KKK over forty years ago still exists. He experiences personal retaliation and have come to be regarded on the side of the blacks. In aid to protect Abraham Cross, a black man, he finds himself in the midst of a crime. A trial finally takes place and a nation awaits its verdict.

As one expects of a story of racial injustice, you will find integrity, ignorance, horrors, courage, compassion, impatience, etc. in the story line. Mr. Patterson did a good job in making these come to light. Moreover, he also gives his character, Ben, a personal consequence and the conflict of saving a marriage comes to play. Yeay, for the ending there!

**My quotables:
"I guess strength doesn't help, if you don't have some brains to go along with it.". pg 47
"Now, Judge, you know as well as I do that outlawing something does not guarantee that it ceases to exist. As a matter of fact, that's one of the best ways to ensure its continuing existence--to forbid it!". pg 124