I said I was going to start listing my books as I read them. Well I've just finished one. A while ago I bought a small cardboard box from St.Vincent de Paul's full of Reader's Digest Condensed Books volumes and I've slowly finished reading through one of them. I love RD Condensed Novels because since I have significantly curbed my swearing habit with the assistance of God they are very helpful to me. Even though they still contain some minor swear words they are generally good in that when they condense a novel they edit out any really major offensive swearing and that is good for someone in my position.
Here are the stories I have read:
The Client by John Grisham
Mark Sway is eleven years old. He's a normal kid, just like any other kid in his neighbourhood. He likes to ride his bike with his little brother, Ricky, and play games in the woods behind his house. He even likes school-a little.
So what could an everyday kid like Mark Sway know about murder? Plenty.
Home Ground by Hugh Miller
Megan Roberts has chosen her life, and it suits her. She's a district nurse, living on her own in a small Welsh mining village. She has a dog named Scratch and a fierce dedication to her profession. She needs and wants nothing more.
Or so she's told herself for years. But then a cry for help comes from an old and cherished friend, and Megan finds herself back on home ground, back where it all began. It was here that she once loved and lost. Now she must ask herself if she will ever risk loving again.
Elephant Song by Wilbur Smith
Daniel Armstrong has returned to his beloved Africa to make a film about the plight of its magnificent elephant herds. In Chiwewe National Park he meets Ambassador Ning Cheng Gong, and beneath the ambassador's urbane exterior, Daniel senses an almost inhuman passion-a burning lust for ivory. All too soon, Daniel's suspicions are brutally confirmed, and he is caught up in a conspiracy of greed stretching from London to Taiwan to the heart of Africa.
Wilbur Smith's gripping novel features an unforgettable cast: poachers, traders, a ruthless tycoon, a power-hungry despot and a remarkable tribe of forest-dwelling pygmies. In the midst of them all, Daniel Armstrong finds himself involved with two beautiful, strong-willed, but utterly different women...
Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief by Dorothy Gilman
Mrs. Pollifax is back! This time she's on her way to Sicily-a magic land of sun-drenched olive trees and ancient ruins. The CIA has received an urgent SOS from one of its people. So naturally they pluck their favourite part-time agent from her garden club in New Jersey and pack her off to Palermo. Her mission? To track down a document allegedly signed by Julius Ceasar.
The Julius Ceasar. But as things happen, Mrs. Pollifax is soon in the middle of another mystery-one in which her old skills at foiling villains and dodging bullets are needed lickety-split.
I hope the brief descriptions may inspire some of you to read them sometime whether you find Condensed volumes or the original full versions. They are all magnificent stories. More to come when I finish another volume