♂ His and ♀ Her Reviews

He spent a couple of years touring and long hours on the road brought up some demons
for him. He had started taking “bennies” to stay awake for long trips on the road.
He spent 7 years fighting this demon. Many ups and downs. He was canceling alot of
his shows due to “laringytis”. Than backstage he met June Carter, who with her strong
religious upbringing, helped him get away from the demons. Than he returned to his
roots of the gospel, went on to have his own tv show on NBC, and alot more.

I highly suggest this or a more up-to-date autobiography to anyone who has ever
listened to and enjoyed the musical work of Johnny Cash.

This starts Chapter 1. Jamie McGregor decided to adventure to South Africa, from his
native land. He hopes to stake his claim in the recent diamond mining industry that has sprung
up around this area. A man of only 18 years this seems to be an impossible journey, but
as you learn he is full of alot of determination to get something done. After being betrayed
by a man named Van der Merwe he decides to travel by sea to one of his beaches and rob it of
some of its diamonds. With the help of his friend Banda he does just this and successful leaves
the beach with the diamonds and becomes a very rich man because of it.

Once Jamie McGregor was a young naive kid, now with years of experince he has learned a few
things. So now that he is rich and has some money to back it up, he decides to plot his revenge
on Van der Merwe. So using an alias he starts seeing Van der Merwes daughter. Than once he gets
her pregnant he can’t resist but to rub it in Van der Merwes face. Which cause his self-destruction.

Now with this old enemey out of the way McGregor starts out building a business for himself,
Kruger-Brent Limited. Which starts out well but he starts getting distracted by Van der Merwes
daughter, Margret. She keeps trying to cling to him, but he won’t have it. She was just a tool he
used to get back at her father. Slowly as time passes he warms up to the idea of having a son, so
Magret and their son move in with them. Years later another child comes along a daughter this time.

When things go sour at one of Kruger-Brent Limiteds mines, the African people start to riot against
McGregor. In doing this his baby girl and son are kidnapped. Unfortunately his son is killed, while
it was Banda who kidnapped the daughter to keep her alive. When McGregor finds out that his only
son has been killed, he has a severe stroke and dies.

So now Margret is forced to bring her baby girl, Kate up by herself, while she is running a
corporation. Years pass and Kate, the young daughter, is the heir to the corporation. Margret
passes away and now Kate is set to run the company. Kate engulfs herself in the affairs of
the conglomerate she runs. She has no time for a social life so she ends up falling in love with
David Blackwell. David was her fathers right hand man. So now after years of knowing him she
has fallen in love with him and wants him to father her children.

In fact they do get together and have a son. Not long after this David is killed in a mining
accident. Years pass and a young Tony who wants to become a painter, but this is unthinkable
to his mother. So she helps pay to discourage him from becoming a painter. Kate Blackwell wants
nothing more than to have an heir to the Blackwell fortune. The day Tony and his wife have their
twins, Tony finds out about all of his mothers plans and takes a gun to kill her.

He was not successful but does end up in an asylymn where he spends the rest of his life. So
now Kate is responsible for raising her two grandaughters. Eve a devilish child and Alexandra a
sweet and naive girl. As they grow up Alexandra is known to be a very accident-prone girl. Eve
has become annoyed by having a twin so over the years Eve has tried to kill her sister many times.

The story is reaching its climax at the end when Alexandra has gotten married to a rich Greek guy
who ends up dead. Everyone is pointing fingers but who really done it?

The book ends again with Kate Blackwell being 90 years old after all of her guest have left the
party. She still seems to be looking for that one heir who will continue to keep the Blackwell
name synonymous with Kruger-Brent Limited.

I thought it was a real good book. Although at times it jumped from speaking mainly on the
business handling to other doings. It wasn’t hard to follow though. I also liked the previous
Sidney Sheldon book I read Rage of Angels.

Other Works by Sidney Sheldon
If Tomorrow Comes
The Other Side of Midnight

With the chances of her being disbarred, a new friend amerged. She moved into some
rundown building, attempting to open her own practice. Ken Bailey was a PI, who
shared an office with her. He had a friend who had been wanting him to deliver
subpoenas but he let her do it instead. This keep her some kind of income. Than she
met another attorney Adam Warner. Who was to lead the investigation to get her
disbarred. Upon investigating her he couldn’t let such an injustice happen and he
recommended she stay practicing law. Without her knowing it he started also sending
her clients.

Ken Bailey often had a priest friend who would visit him. One day the same priest
came to see Jennifer. He had a friend who was in prision going to be tried for killing
another man in prison. It was a for sure loss, but she took the case anyways. When
she miraculous won the case it gave her much praise and acclaim. Thus starting her a
blooming career practicing law.

After she had made a name for herself, Adam Warner just had to see the girl he had
been thinking about everyday for so long. So he put in a call to her for dinner. This
started a long lasting affair between the two. Adam was almost certain to be future
President of the United States of America. His first goal of course was to reach the
Senate. Jennifer and Adam both had a deep love for each other. Mary Beth, his wife,
had agreed to give Adam a divorce. Than she tricked him into making love to her one
last time. At which point she became impregnated.

With Adams wife being pregnate, the option for a divorse was out of the question as
it would kill his chances in becoming a Senator. So when he wins the race, Jennifer
has no choice but to totally let Adam go in her life. She decides that Adam must never
know that she is pregnate with their child. She decides to go ahead and have her baby.
Joshua is a good boy. Jennifer sees so much of his father in him. While all of this has
been going on Michael Morretti, has tried constantly to get Jennifer to meet with him.
When Joshua is 7 he is kidnapped, by a client of Jennifers, who she refused to defend
because he lied to her. Jennifer has no choice but to use her last resort. So she calls
Michael Morretti, to employ his help to get her son back.

Soon after they get the kid back, Jennifer becomes involved with Michael. Losing
all close personal contacts she had with Ken Bailey, and distinguished members of
society. As Adam is making his run for the Presidency he has started heading a
committee to bring down organized crime. So Jennifer finds herself torn between
a man she will always love, Adam, and the man she is currently involved with,
Michael.

Things really come to a boil when Jennifer decides to go to a meeting over
attorneys down in Mexico. Where Joshua goes water skiing and bumps his head,
which leads to his death. But Jennifer runs into Adam and their eyes meet for
the first time in 7 years. They spend the night together, and Jennifer comes to
realize it was her way of letting go of the past.

As things come to a head Jennifer gets shot 3 times and almost dies, while
Michael himself is killed. With Michael having seen to murdering the key witness
in the case against them, all charges are dropped on Jennifer. Thus after
spending many years practicing in New York, she finds herself ending up in the
same small town that her father had worked in and this is how the book ends.

I personally think it was a great read. Think it also set things up in a way
where the story could very easily end there, but also leaves room for a sequel,
if need be. I recommend this book.

I gave it 3 Stars.

Other Works by Sidney Sheldon
Mistress of the Game
Master of the Game

Susan and David have planned a trip to the mountains, but David lets her know that he
has to go out of town on a short trip and will be back that night and will meet her there.
When Susan goes to work she learns of a program that would totally make her job
obsolete. Digital Fortress is a program that is totally unbreakable. No way to decipher the
text. When the creator of the program puts it on the internet, in encrypted form, everyone
is intrigued and sets out to be the highest bidder for the source code to it.

No sooner was it put up for bid than the creator was found dead. Thus the head of the NSA,
Strathmore, sent David Becker, someone who had to alliances with the goverment, to try
and track down the mysterious hidden key. David goes through many trials and tribulations
along the way, but being the intelligent man he is soon finds his way to the ring, which has
the key inscribed on it.

Back home in the states, Susan and Strathmore struggle with many dilemeas of their own,
including finding out that one of the men in the crypto dept., was conspiring with the
programs creator to help him. Once they rid thereselves of the problem, they finally get
in touch with Becker, who barely escaped death getting the ring. Becker reads them the
inscription on the ring and doumbfounds them. They realize that it could not possibly
be the key, because it would not work and they only have a limited number of guesses.
So Susan takes a big gamble and looks at the inscription as a code, which leads to them
breaking open the secret of Digital Fortress.

Opinion: I do recommend this book, it is the first that I have read of Dan Brown,
but I know he wrote The Da Vinci Code. I have heard all of his work is very good, so I will
definitely be reading more in the future.

Other Works by Dan Brown
The Lost Symbol
Deception Point

Doesn’t cover his whole life. Does get into alot of is interesting methods of business.
Although it doesn’t cover any of his time he invested in invention and discovery. Does
cover him coming up as a printers apprentice. Than moving from there to Philadelphia
where he put himself into debt to start hiw own printing shop. Which proved to be a
very wise decsion. He quite often used his paper to promote issues and further his
business. He than became Post-Master-General to further the spread of his news paper.
He worked the system really well. Using one median to help promote another.

I highly suggest this book, if you are capable of reading old English.

Other Works About Ben Franklin
Who Was Ben Franklin? (Who Was…?)
Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia