Review by tjportugal -- Strong Heart by Charlie Sheldon

tjportugal · Post by **tjportugal** » 29 Mar 2020, 11:56

[Following is a volunteer review of "Strong Heart" by Charlie Sheldon.]

4 out of 4 stars

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An unexpected knock on the front door interrupted Tom, William and Myra on their final preparations for setting off for a camping hike up the Olympic National Park, Washington. It was Ruth, Tom’s ex-wife, dumping their supposedly inexistent 12-year-old granddaughter Sarah at Tom’s for his unplanned turn to take care of her. Cancel the trip or bring Sarah along? The answer to this question unfolds an adventure seen only in epics of literature, intertwining a community’s journey to save an indigenous reservation with a prehistoric survival expedition.

Family values and their absence; traditions long established and pressing innovation; science and faith; true love and rape; inspiring lives and despicable people; history, dream and legend; Charlie Sheldon, our author, turns some of mankind’s timeless subject matters into Strong Heart, one of those masterpieces that every avid reader craves for.

The content of this book is well grounded in human experience, leading to each character having a very realistic personality. The way environments and surroundings are described brings the reader into the story. Some of the more enthusiastic ones will definitely be hooked up to the book and feel a sense of longing for more at the end. Such is the level of magical fantasy, which keeps the reader’s mind flying beyond imagination. For some of the less romantic readers, this is still a great book as it depicts an in-depth analysis of archaeological anthropology data and theories regarding the prehistoric hominid populations; all of this within a marvellous plot. My favourite aspect of this book is the level of proficiency in harmonising the depth of the storyline and the fluidity of the narrative.

Strong topics, such as rape, are dealt with very maturely, with a narrative that doesn’t bombard the reader with explicit descriptions of sexual acts but rather helps to understand the effects from the victim’s perspective. The action side of the plot, depicts, at times, a rather graphic description of violence, which can be slightly too much for the more sensitive audiences.

As for the structure, Strong Heart is clearly professionally edited, with only and few minor typos. The book starts with short chapters, while absorbing the reader into the narrative. The chapters’ size increases significantly when the Alice-in-wonderland-experience kicks off and the reader's attention has already been grabbed. Both timelines, the primary narrative and the Alice-in-wonderland-experience narrative, have been knitted together very well. Considered separately, sometimes it seems that each line needed a bit more polishing (this is perhaps the weakest point of the whole book). Throughout Strong Heart there is a really good balance between descriptions and dialogues. The linguistic quality of the book is also top notch: the text flows very smoothly, the sentences are well structured and there is a very wide range of vocabulary diversity with an emphasis on Washington's idiomatic specificities. The realistic aspect of the characters brings in the only vulgar words, with some explicit mild insults.

Reading Strong Heart, by Charlie Sheldon, is like listening to some of grandpa’s good old tales of wisdom, receiving from him the moral legacy that is capable of bringing humanity to its best. I rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. This rating, reflects my passionate desire to recommend this book to any mature person. I would not be surprised to find Charlie Sheldon’s name among the writers one gets to study at high school or college and Strong Heart a book among the immortal classics.

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Strong Heart
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DATo · Post by **DATo** » 15 Apr 2020, 19:18

Very good and professionally written review.

I sense shades of On Golden Pond in this novel.

Sounds like a winner.

tjportugal · Post by **tjportugal** » 16 Apr 2020, 06:59

DATo wrote: ↑15 Apr 2020, 19:18 Very good and professionally written review.

I sense shades of On Golden Pond in this novel.

Sounds like a winner.

Thanks.
I actually loss all the point in the Spelling/Grammar-Errors section. It was a huge blow on my Editorial Analysis Score.

DATo · Post by **DATo** » 16 Apr 2020, 08:13

It is my personal opinion that spelling and grammar is SOMETIMES overrated. It is important in writing that rules be observed otherwise the language would descend into improvisation on the part of writers which could be largely unintelligible to many people, like the current use of abbreviations such as ADA for attention deficit disorder. I have often had to look up what some abbreviations mean in the middle of my reading. Have we become so lazy that we cannot, if only out of courtesy to the reader, spell these words out? On the other hand, a scrupulous attention to the details of spelling and grammar is often unnecessary; for instance, I could understand everything you wrote and the meaning behind the structure of your writing was not compromised by the alleged errors.

A good example of this is when we speak to people verbally. Obviously spelling is not an issue, but we often speak with grammatical errors (I'm sure I do), and yet we manage to hold productive conversations and get our points across. So I wouldn't be too discouraged by scores determined by computer algorithms as long as the thrust of your review is understandable and informative. I think it is wise to make an attempt to adhere to the rules of writing and language, but I put greater emphasis on WHAT is written rather than HOW SCRUPULOUSLY it is written.

tjportugal · Post by **tjportugal** » 16 Apr 2020, 09:18

DATo wrote: ↑16 Apr 2020, 08:13 It is my personal opinion that spelling and grammar is SOMETIMES overrated. It is important in writing that rules be observed otherwise the language would descend into improvisation on the part of writers which could be largely unintelligible to many people, like the current use of abbreviations such as ADA for attention deficit disorder. I have often had to look up what some abbreviations mean in the middle of my reading. Have we become so lazy that we cannot, if only out of courtesy to the reader, spell these words out? On the other hand, a scrupulous attention to the details of spelling and grammar is often unnecessary; for instance, I could understand everything you wrote and the meaning behind the structure of your writing was not compromised by the alleged errors.

A good example of this is when we speak to people verbally. Obviously spelling is not an issue, but we often speak with grammatical errors (I'm sure I do), and yet we manage to hold productive conversations and get our points across. So I wouldn't be too discouraged by scores determined by computer algorithms as long as the thrust of your review is understandable and informative. I think it is wise to make an attempt to adhere to the rules of writing and language, but I put greater emphasis on WHAT is written rather than HOW SCRUPULOUSLY it is written.

I agree with you. If readers were to give the same importance to typos in the books as editors give it in the reviews, I think we wouldn't have any book rated 4 out of 4 stars. 10 points for each mistake is way too much. Plus the mistakes were not actually that serious; they were certainly not proportional to the consequence.

Magnify3 · Post by **Magnify3** » 16 Apr 2020, 15:51

I think the story must be interesting. I wonder how Tom managed the situation. You do gave a great writting style. Thanks for his review.

tjportugal · Post by **tjportugal** » 17 Apr 2020, 05:21

Magnify3 wrote: ↑16 Apr 2020, 15:51 I think the story must be interesting. I wonder how Tom managed the situation. You do gave a great writting style. Thanks for his review.

Thank you very much.

Writing used to be (perhaps still is) my weakest point. But, after reading so many books, I can clearly see a significant improvement. There's still a long way to go, though...