The Second Rule of Ten: book review

Posted on August 15, 2013 by WordsAndPeace

The Second Rule of Ten:

A Tenzing Norbu Mystery

(Dharma Detective)

Gay HENDRICKS and Tinker LINDSAY

352 pages

Published by Hay House Visions on January 1, 2013

In full compliance with FTC Guidelines,
I received this book as a free ebook from Netgalley
in exchange for a fair and honest review.
I was in no way compensated for this post,
and the thoughts are my own.

This book counts for the following Reading Challenge:

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT The Second Rule of Ten

I read the first book of this series 2 years ago: these are mysteries with a former Buddhist monk detective. Though not top literature, it was enjoyable and well done enough to give me the desire to read the 2nd volume: The Second Rule of Ten – of course there’s a play on word right here, it could be 2/10 but remember that the main hero’s name is Ten, short for Tenzing.

I liked the plots and dialogues, and how Buddhist wisdom is included in the daily life of our young detective. In this 2nd volume though, there was a lot more about his inner struggles, especially with his dad and his former friends monks – living in the monastery where the abbot is precisely his own father. Not sure I really found that necessary, maybe it even distracted me a bit too much from the main plots. It sounded a bit too much like some elements in the only Maisie Dobbs I read.

However, I will try the 3rd rule when it comes out.

QUOTATION

” I climbed into the Mustang, inhaling its musky scent of worn leather and time. Before I placed the key in the ignition, I allowed myself a few moments to simply sit and absorb the change. I had a ridiculously well-paying jog with a man I admired. When solutions like this arrive, seemingly out of the blue, but more often than not after I’ve at least made space for their possibility, they carry with them buoyancy, a lightness of heart. Such moments affirm that hope is not a dead end, and joy is often just a small perceptual shift from despair.” beginning of Chapter 11

WHAT IS IT ABOUT

“Beware your old, limited models of thinking: no matter how safe they make you feel, eventually you will become their prisoner.” That’s the second rule of Ten.

Tenzing “Ten” Norbu—ex-monk and ex-cop—is back! In The Second Rule of Ten, the next book in the Dharma Detective series, our daring detective faces a dead Hollywood producer, an ailing philanthropist’s missing sister, and a way-too-sexy pathologist, who are all wreaking havoc with his serenity—and that’s before the arrival of cartel king and arch-nemesis Chaco Morales. As Ten moves deeper into the case, things get personal when his two best friends in Dharamshala go missing, and his former LAPD partner, Bill, turns oddly distant. Ten’s journey for the truth propels him from gang-ridden, dangerous Boyle Heights in east LA to Lhasa, Tibet, and back again. He must wrestle with more than one limiting thought and inner enemy if he is to identify, much less overcome, his rapidly multiplying outer ones. The clues to solving this complex cluster of mysterious events are sprinkled all over the City of Angels, but the ultimate answers, as always for Ten, lie inside. [Goodreads]

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dr. Gay Hendricks has served for more than 30 years as one of the major contributors to the fields of relationship transformation and body-mind therapies. Along with his wife, Dr. Kathlyn Hendricks, Gay is the author of many bestsellers, including Conscious Loving, At the Speed of Life, and Five Wishes.
Gay received his PhD in counseling psychology from Stanford University in 1974. After a 21-year career as a professor at the University of Colorado, he founded The Hendricks Institute, which offers seminars in North America, Asia, and Europe. He is also the founder of a new virtual learning center for transformation, Gaia Illumination University.
Throughout his career, Gay has done executive coaching with more than 800 executives, including the top management at such firms as Dell Computer, Hewlett Packard, Motorola, and KLM. His book, The Corporate Mystic, is used widely to train management in combining business skills and personal development tools.
In recent years he has also been active in creating new forms of conscious entertainment. In 2003, along with movie producer Stephen Simon, Gay founded the Spiritual Cinema Circle, which distributes inspirational movies to subscribers in more than 70 countries around the world. He was the executive producer of the feature film Conversations with God, and he has appeared on more than 500 radio and television shows, including Oprah, CNN, CNBC, 48 Hours, and others. [Goodreads]

Tinker Lindsay is an accomplished screenwriter, author, script consultant, and conceptual editor. A member of the Writer’s Guild of America, Independent Writers of Southern California, and Women in Film, she has worked in the Hollywood entertainment industry writing and developing feature films for over three decades. Her books include The Last Great Place and My Hollywood Ending. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University in English and American Language and Literature and completed a post-graduate course at Radcliffe College in Publishing Procedures. A practitioner and teacher of meditation, she can usually be found writing in her home office situated directly under the Hollywood sign. [amazon]

HAVE YOU READ THIS BOOK?

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4 crime/thriller/mysteries for review!

Posted on June 6, 2013 by WordsAndPeace

June is International Crime Month!

To put you in the mood we have several free ebooks available,
genre crime/thriller/mystery,
for an honest review,
or even an interview of the author!

Click on the book covers to know more!

If you would LOVE to read any of these ebooks (NetGalley)
and are able to post your review/interview/guest post
on YOUR blog
on one of these days,
July 11-30,
please send me an email at francebooktours at gmail dot com
and fill in this form (only once)

Remember:
for each book you review or interview you post
for France Book Tours,
you will be entered into a monthly giveaway
to win the featured book of the month
OR a $15 gift card of your choice!

Mini reviews: Mrs Pollifax

Posted on December 7, 2012 by WordsAndPeace

I discovered Mrs. Pollifax at the beginning of 2012: I was doing this 52 countries reading challenge, and my library did not seem to have any of the book I wanted to read on Morocco. So I looked at what was available on that country, and stumbled upon an audiobook called Mrs. Pollifax and The Whirling Dervish.

I realized it was #9 of a whole series, and that each book was in a different country! Ah, perfect!

So since then, I listened to 2 other books and read 1 of that series, that fit my challenges. Iin the order of the book covers above: on Albania, Jordan, and Switzerland.

Who is then Mrs. Pollifax?

She is a bored grand-mother, though very active with karate, yoga, garden club, etc.
So one day, as she would like a bit of adventure in her life, she goes to the CIA if by any chance they could hire her. They can, especially as she does not look at all like a secret agent, what with her flowery hats, but has nevertheless great intuition, common sense, and secret skills, like deadly karate moves! And so she is sent on various missions to different countries.

Emily Pollifax is a delightful character. These are great detective stories, really well done.
The details on the countries where she is sent are good and very evocative.

In the 4 books I have now read/listened to in this series (which counts a total of 14), there’s often a child involved, who helps Emily Pollifax. It’s a neat addition to have this relation between the 2 generations of grand-children and grand-parents. Seriously, it is GOOD! I’m surprised the name Dorothy Gilman is not more popular. Oh and I just discovered some have been turned into movies.

I even prefer the audios, the narrator, Barbara Rosenblat is awesome. She has the perfect tone of voice for this super active grand-mother, as well as for her warmth. I can’t imagine Emily Pollifax having any other voice. I discovered that Barbara Rosenblat won the award Gold Voice – Best Voice for Mystery and Suspense 4 years in a row, no wonder!

In The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (#1 – in 1966. 204 pages)
Mrs. Virgil (Emily) Pollifax of New Brunswick, New Jersey, was a widow with grown children. She was tired of attending her Garden Club meetings. She wanted to do something good for her country. So, naturally, she became a CIA agent. This time, the assignment sounds as tasty as a taco. A quick trip to Mexico City is on her agenda. Unfortunately, something goes wrong, and our dear Mrs. Pollifax finds herself embroilied in quite a hot Cold War–and her country’s enemies find themsleves entangled with one unbelievably feisty lady. [Goodreads]

In Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist (#13 – in 1997. 224 pages)
Working with her retired CIA friend John Farrell, Mrs. Pollifax must smuggle a manuscript out of Jordan, a document that encodes the shocking truth of Saddam Hussein’s reign.
Hardly are the two airborne when the coils of Middle Eastern intrigue begin to unwind. Mrs. Pollifax’s seatmate is not the affable Arab businessman he pretends to be. It is not imagination that persuades Mrs. P. that wherever they go, she and Farrell are followed. To elude their pursuers in such a politically volatile country isn’t easy. In fact, it can be downright deadly. . . . [Goodreads]

In A Palm For Mrs. Pollifax (#4 – in 1973. 192 pages)
This time the mysterious Mr. Carstairs sent her to Switzerland–to a famous health resort where the world’s intelligence agents had gathered. Her mission: to track down a missing package of plutonium–just enough to make a small atomic bomb. It was a job that suited Mrs. Pollifax’s talents. She’s good with people and even better at sniffing out their secrets. But it was not until she became enchanted with Robin, the young jewel thief, that her new adventure really began…. [Goodreads]

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dorothy Gilman started writing when she was 9. At 11, she competed against 10 to 16-year-olds in a story contest and won first place. Dorothy worked as an art teacher and telephone operator before becoming an author. She wrote children’s stories for more than ten years and then began writing adult novels about Mrs. Pollifax–a retired grandmother who becomes a CIA agent. The Mrs. Pollifax series made Dorothy famous. While her stories nourish people’s thirst for adventure and mystery, Dorothy knew about nourishing the body as well. She used to live on a farm in Nova Scotia, where she grew medicinal herbs. Her knowledge of herbs comes through in many of her stories, including A Nun in the Closet, in which a nun treats a man’s wounds with the herbs growing nearby. Many of Dorothy’s books, including Caravan, feature strong women having adventures around the world. Dorothy spent much of her life in Connecticut and Maine. She died at age 88 of complications of Alzheimer’s disease. [Goodreads]