and then my eyes fell out

2012 FEBRUARY

2012-02-05T13:40:00.001-05:00

MOON OVER SOHO by Ben Aaronovitch. Second in the series. A little slower getting through this one but I will continue to watch for more. Snappy dialogue, imaginative. link
(Feb 5 )

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BROKEN by Susan Jane Bigelow.   Oddly compelling.   I was going to shrug it off but couldn't quite put it down.   link     Perhaps I'll watch for the next. (Feb 6 )

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THE PURE OF HEART by Susan Hill. The second Simon Serrailler crime novel and a good continuation.   Hill carries her stories over and it's hard not to jump into the next to see what will happen with the main characters.     link         (Feb 8 )

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THE CONFESSION by Charles Todd. Latest Inspector Rutledge novel set just after WWl.   A bit of a let down but a quick read, did it in one day. I will continue to reserve the Todd novels for now. link
( Feb 9 )

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THE WILD WAYS by Tanya Huff. Book follows Enchantment Emporium.   Totally enjoyed every minute with Jack.   link   (Feb 11 )

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BLACK SUN RISING by C.S. Friedman. First book in an older trilogy. Not bad, not great. Worth finishing. link (Feb 14)

2012 JANUARY

2012-01-08T13:30:00.001-05:00

SLASH AND BURN by Colin Cotterill. The latest Dr Siri mystery/adventure. Still enjoying the stories and the characters. link

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DEATH COMES TO PEMBERLEY by P.D. James.    A what might have happened after novel using the original characters in Pride and Prejudice.      I will admit to not reading the whole book. I got partway through and got a little bored so flip read to the last few chapters to see how it all turned out.   Perhaps if I was an Austin fan I might have cared more.   link

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LEGACY OF KINGS by C.S. Freidman.   Final book in The Magister Trilogy.   Good finish to a decent story.   link       (Jan 10 )

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THE HUM AND THE SHIVER by Alex Bledsoe.    Excellent fantasy read.   The book is far better than the cover note lets on.  link    (Jan 12 )

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THE JANUS STONE by Elly Griffiths.   Second in the Ruth Galloway mystery series about a female forensic archaeologist in Norfolk England. Easy reading stories that can be picked up and put down. Now on to the next one. link   (Jan 14 )

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THE VARIOUS HAUNTS OF MEN by Susan Hill. First in a series of detective mystery stories featuring DCI Simon Serrailler of Lafferton CID.      Pulled me in right from the beginning and had me turning pages as the story keep my total interest.     Will certainly continue with this series. link (Jan 20 )

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MIDNIGHT RIOT by Ben Aaronovitch.    Fun light urban fantasy/mystery. link (Jan 24 )

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WAR IN HEAVEN by Gavin Smith. Brutal. Took me time to work my way through it but glad I did. Second and final to the story started in Veteran ( Dec read ) link     ( Jan 25 )

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CHALK GIRL by Carol O'Connell.   I've loved her Mallory series since book one. This is #10. Sad that the library does not have all the books available as I feel ready to go back and start at the beginning all over again.    link      ( Jan 30 )

December reads

2011-12-11T17:16:00.001-05:00

VETERAN by Gavin Smith. Hard hitting interesting read. Found out about it here.   I have the second one, War in Heaven waiting.     Not being able to get them from the library I actually bought the paperback editions.

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IN THE WOODS by Tana French. Her first novel. A mystery set in Ireland.   A smart read. Well written, good characters.      link

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FALLING BACKWARD by Jann Arden.   As funny and interesting as I've always found her to be in interviews. Non fiction link

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DEATH OF A LESSER MAN by Thomas Rendell Curran. Third is the Inspector Stride series set in Newfoundland Canada just after WWII.      link    I still need to track down the first book and I will be watching for more.    I enjoy his mix of history with his mysteries.

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JACKAL MAN by Kate Ellis.    Light mystery. Was close on figuring this one out.   Worthwhile reading her books in order as they follow the same characters.    link

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ACROSS THE UNIVERSE by Beth Revis. Teen light sci/fi slash love story.   Decent enough to keep reading to the end and I will try the next one in the trilogy. Not a book I would normally bother with but it was an easy book to pick up and put down as I prepared for Christmas. link

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HOME FROM THE VINYL CAFE by Stuart McLean.    A writer/radio personality I've know about for year but never read until I brought home this book. Laughed out loud. Totally enjoyed. Will be reading more.   link

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MURDER MOST PERSUASIVE by Tracey Kiely. Light and enjoyable mystery. Snappy dialogue, fun characters.    Book s - now I'll try the others.   link

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SECRETS FROM THE VINYL CAFE by Stuart McLean.    Good collection of tales.

November reads

2011-11-01T10:25:00.001-04:00

THE GIRL WHO DISAPPEARED TWICE..Andrea Kane

A mystery picked from the shelf at the library. Not bad. It's the start of a new series by this author and I will watch for the next one. Will keep her name in mind and check for previous books when I need to fill a lull. link
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THE IMPOSSIBLE DEAD..Ian Rankin. Second in his Inspector Fox series. As readable as his Rebus series.
link
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THE NIGHT CIRCUS..Erin Morgenstern.     Wow. Loved it. Different, engaging, satisfying. A tale well told.
link

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THE BURNING..Jane Casey.    New author, first novel. Engaging enough mystery, well enough written so will watch for the next. link

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I AM HALF SICK OF SHADOWS..Alan Bradley. Flavia de Luce continues to entertain. Light and easy reading. Still waiting for the mystery of her mother to be revealed. link

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THE BIRD HOUSE..Kelly Simmons.   Found on the shelf at the library and quite a good story. link

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THE CAT'S TABLE..Michael Ondaatje.   Small book full of wonderful language, characters and story.    link

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FAITHFUL PLACE...Tana French.    Pick from the library shelf that hooked me from page one and has me going back for more. link

New listing

2011-10-27T10:30:00.002-04:00

I've reached the limit at the LibraryThing site and being a frugal soul I'll start recording my reading here again.

THE DROWNING RIVER..Christobel Kent      borrowed from library
book link

Decent enough start to a new detective series set in Florence.
I have reserved the next in the series.
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THE TYPIST..Michael Knight    borrowed from the library
link to review

Short, well written, a good solid tale.
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THE HOLIDAY SEASON..Michael Knight.   Two short stories. The titled as well as Love at the End of the Year. link to review

Character driven. Good reading.

For now a link to a quicker method of recording my reading

2010-08-03T13:17:00.004-04:00

CURRENT _ WHAT I 'VE BEEN READING

I knew it would become a chore at some point so until I have the desire to post here again I've put up the link where you will find what I've read.

No slowing down on the reading, just the recording.

2010-07-05T21:05:00.003-04:00

57 - EDWARD VII The Last Victorian King : Christopher Hibbert

To his mother, Queen Victoria, he was `poor Bertie,` to his wife he was `my dear little man,` while the President of France called him `a great English king,` and the German Kaiser condemned him as `an old peacock.` King Edward VII was all these things and more, as Hibbert reveals in this captivating biography. Shedding new light on the scandals that peppered his life, Hibbert reveals Edward`s dismal early years under Victoria`s iron rule, his terror of boredom that led to a lively social life at home and abroad, and his eventual ascent to the throne at age 59. Edward is best remembered as the last Victorian king, the monarch who installed the office of Prime Minister.

A joy to read without footnotes ( a good index is provided at the end ) and the usual stuffy writing of so many biographies. I found it totally entertaining and it certainly expanded my knowledge of the monarchy and the personalities of the time. I have already reserved his book on Victoria. Pictures, well laid out chapters and just enough information to inform without overwhelming.

2010-07-04T13:28:00.003-04:00

56 - INVISIBLE BOY: CORNELIA READ

The smart-mouthed but sensitive runaway socialite Madeline Dare is shocked when she discovers the skeleton of a brutalized three-year-old boy in her own weed-ridden family cemetery outside Manhattan. Determined to see that justice is served, she finds herself examining her own troubled personal history, and the sometimes hidden, sometimes all-too-public class and racial warfare that penetrates every level of society in the savage streets of New York City during the early 1990s.

Madeline is aided in her efforts by a colorful assemblage of friends, relatives, and new acquaintances, each one representing a separate strand of the patchwork mosaic city politicians like to brag about. The result is an unforgettable narrative that relates the causes and consequences of a vicious crime to the wider relationships that connect and divide us all.

Found it on the new book shelf and discovered it to be quite readable. More a people story than a crime story with enough interest for me to go find her 2 previous books.

2010-07-03T13:14:00.005-04:00

55 - THE PINT MAN: STEVE RUSHIN

For Rodney Poole, a friendly and unassuming lover of clever wordplay and television sports of all stripes, Boyle's Irish Pub is a haven of good cheer, pleasantly pointless conversation, elaborate jokes, heated trivia contests, well-poured pints, and familiar faces. The pressures and demands of the outside world hold no sway there- the crowd at Boyle's is his family, and with family all sins are forgiven.

But reality cannot be kept at bay forever, and now Rodney's best friend and partner in inertia, Keith, is getting married and moving to Chicago. Since Rodney has for the most part enjoyed his bachelorhood vicariously through Keith, the prospect of being single, unemployed, and without his pal to while away the nights with is causing Rodney to rethink—or rather, create—his priorities.

When Keith introduces him to the lovely Mairead (rhymes with parade), a cheerful career woman who seems to enjoy his bad puns, ambitionless nature, and love of literature, Rodney can spy an honorable path to grown-up-hood at last. But a series of comic mishaps jeopardize his budding relationship with Mairead, his friendship with Keith, and most serious of all, his place on a barstool in the idyllic world of Boyle's.

If you like word play, if you like being able to laugh as you turn pages, if you just want a fun book that is easy to read .. this is it. Totally enjoyable.

2010-06-28T21:59:00.002-04:00

54 - A MIGHTY FORTRESS: DAVID WEBER

Young Cayleb Ahrmahk has accomplished things few people could even dream of. Not yet even thirty years old, he’s won the most crushing naval victories in human history. He’s smashed a hostile alliance of no less than five princedoms and won the hand of the beautiful young Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm. Cayleb and Sharleyan have created the Charisian Empire, the greatest naval power in the history of Safehold, and they’ve turned Charis into a place of refuge for all who treasure freedom.

Their success may prove short-lived. The Church of God Awaiting, which controls most of Safehold, has decreed their destruction. Mother Church’s entire purpose is to prevent the very things to which Charis is committed. Since the first attempt to crush the heretics failed, the Church has no choice but to adopt some of the hated Charisian innovations for themselves. Soon a mighty fleet will sail against Cayleb, destroying everything in its path.

But there are still matters about which the Church knows nothing, including Cayleb and Sharleyan’s adviser, friend, and guardian— the mystic warrior-monk named Merlin Athrawes. Merlin knows all about battles against impossible odds, because he is in fact the cybernetic avatar of a young woman named Nimue Alban, who died a thousand years before. As Nimue, Merlin saw the entire Terran Federation go down in fire and slaughter at the hands of a foe it could not defeat. He knows that Safehold is the last human planet in existence, and that the stasis the Church was created to enforce will be the human race’s death sentence if it is allowed to stand.

The juggernaut is rumbling down on Charis, but Merlin Athrawes and a handful of extraordinary human beings stand in its path. The Church is about to discover just how potent the power of human freedom truly is.

I guess it was hopeless to expect the series to wrap up with this book - #4. I still hate the spelling of the names but have come to terms with most of them, I still dislike all the stuff, like sea battles and shell construction , that keep the story moving slowly as far as the main characters and the storyline are concerned. I will however be waiting for the next instalment because the basic plot of the book continues to appeal.

2010-06-21T13:07:00.005-04:00

53 - UNDER HEAVEN: GUY GAVRIEL KAY

Inspired by the glory of Tang Dynasty China in the eighth century, Guy Gavriel Kay melds history and the fantastic into something both powerful and emotionally compelling. Under Heaven is a novel on the grandest narrative scale, encompassing the intimate details of individual lives in an unforgettable time and place.

Shen Tai is the son of a general who led the forces of imperial Kitai in that empire's last war against their western enemies from Tagur, twenty years before. Forty thousand men on both sides were slain beside a remote mountain lake. General Shen Gao himself has died recently. To honour his father's memory, Tai has spent two years of official mourning alone at the battle site among the ghosts of the dead, laying to rest their unburied bones.

One spring morning, he learns that others have taken note of his vigil. The White Jade Princess in Tagur is pleased to present him with two hundred and fifty Sardian horses, given, she writes, in recognition of his courage, and honour done to the dead.

You gave a man one of the famed Sardians to reward him greatly. You gave him four or five to exalt him above his fellows, and earn him jealousy, possibly mortal. Two hundred and fifty is an unthinkable gift, a gift to overwhelm an emperor.

Tai starts east towards the glittering, dangerous imperial capital and gathers his wits for a return from solitude by a mountain lake to his own forever-altered life.

I was unsure about this one but having read some good reviews decided to give it a go. I loved it. The well researched history impressed me, the characters and the scope of the story kept me interested and I truly hated to put it down until I knew the fate of all the main characters.

52 - THE LAST TIME I SAW YOU: ELIZABETH BERG

From the bestselling author of Home Safe and The Year of Pleasures, comes a wonderful new novel about women and men reconnecting with one another—and themselves—at their fortieth high school reunion.
To each of the men and women in The Last Time I Saw You, this reunion means something different—a last opportunity to say something long left unsaid, an escape from the bleaker realities of everyday life, a means to save a marriage on the rocks, or an opportunity to bond with a slightly estranged daughter, if only over what her mother should wear.
As Dorothy, Mary Alice, Lester, Candy, and the other classmates converge for the reunion dinner, four decades melt away: Desires and personalities from their youth reemerge, and new discoveries are made. For so much has happened to them all. And so much can still happen.

Easy read, perfect for outdoor backyard summer reading. Most people will recognize at least one of the character types from their own high school years.

51 - ONE ENCHANTED EVENING: LYNN KURLAND

Time travel, knights a castle and romance. You either love or hate this type of romance. This author continues to hold my attention where all others have failed.

2010-06-14T17:00:00.003-04:00

50 - THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON: SARAH ADDISON ALLEN

In her latest enchanting novel, New York Times bestselling author Sarah Addison Allen invites you to a quirky little Southern town with more magic than a full Carolina moon. Here two very different women discover how to find their place in the world—no matter how out of place they feel.

Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. Such as, why did Dulcie Shelby leave her hometown so suddenly? And why did she vow never to return? But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew—a reclusive, real-life gentle giant—she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.

Everyone in Mullaby adores Julia Winterson’s cakes—which is a good thing, because Julia can’t seem to stop baking them. She offers them to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth but also in the hope of rekindling the love she fears might be lost forever. Flour, eggs, milk, and sugar . . . Baking is the only language the proud but vulnerable Julia has to communicate what is truly in her heart. But is it enough to call back to her those she’s hurt in the past?

Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily’s backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in.

I'm a sucker for these happy quirky novels having read both previous novels by Allen. Almost like modern grown up fairy tales they flow around you and leave you with a smile once done. This author stays on my list. She manages sweet without curling my teeth.

2010-06-14T16:50:00.003-04:00

49 - HEAT WAVE: RICHARD CASTLE

R. Castle is a character on a TV show who writes novels. On the show he wrote this novel after following a female police office around on her cases.
The whole time I was reading the book I was hearing the dialogue in the voices from the show. Not a bad thing as I enjoy the programme but I probably won't bother with the next book unless I run out of reading material. Light and predictable .. not what I want as I turn pages but I give the write/writers credit for creating the novels perhaps even giving TV watchers a reason to open a book.

2010-06-09T14:17:00.002-04:00

48 - THE BURNING WIRE: JEFFERY DEAVER

The weapon is invisible and omnipresent. Without it, modern society grinds to a halt. It is electricity. The killer harnesses and steers huge arc flashes with voltage so high and heat so searing that steel melts and his victims are set afire.

When the first explosion occurs in broad daylight, reducing a city bus to a pile of molten, shrapnel-riddled metal, officials fear terrorism. Rhyme, a world-class forensic criminologist known for his successful apprehension of the most devious criminals, is immediately tapped for the investigation. Long a quadriplegic, he assembles NYPD detective Amelia Sachs and officer Ron Pulaski as his eyes, ears and legs on crime sites, and FBI agent Fred Dellray as his undercover man on the street. As the attacks continue across the city at a sickening pace, and terrifying demand letters begin appearing, the team works desperately against time and with maddeningly little forensic evidence to try to find the killer. Or is it killers . . . ?

Meanwhile, Rhyme is consulting on another high-profile investigation in Mexico with a most coveted quarry in his crosshairs: the hired killer known as the Watchmaker, one of the few criminals to have eluded Rhyme’s net.

I had it figured except for a few minor details long before the ending. Still it was enjoyable and I will continue with the series.

It's getting harder and harder to find new and interesting novels. I read too much but can't seem to stop.

2010-06-02T14:40:00.007-04:00

47 - 61 HOURS: LEE CHILD

Sixty-one hours. Not a minute to spare.
A tour bus crashes in a savage snowstorm and lands Jack Reacher in the middle of a deadly confrontation. In nearby Bolton, South Dakota, one brave woman is standing up for justice in a small town threatened by sinister forces. If she’s going to live long enough to testify, she’ll need help. Because a killer is coming to Bolton, a coldly proficient assassin who never misses.

I did like the cast of characters in this book and the conversations between Reacher and the main players. I've been reading Child's novels since the beginning and have found no reason to stop.

46 - THE PENGUIN BOOK OF CRIME STORIES: PETER ROBINSON

Bestselling Canadian author Peter Robinson once again delivers a special treat for crime fiction lovers: a compilation of outstanding contemporary crime writing from the English-speaking world. With a selection of fifteen stories featuring established writers and new voices, The Penguin Book of Crime Stories Volume II is a rich source of literary menace, psychological insight, and roaring plot. This collection includes riveting stories by Lee Child, John Connolly, Colin Cotterill, Jeffrey Deaver, Sue Grafton, Sophie Hannah, Reginald Hill, Maureen Jennings, and Ruth Rendell. The stories are selected and introduced by Peter Robinson.

As with most short story collections I enjoyed some more than others.

45 - THE COLLECTED STORIES OF ROGER ZELAZNY: POWER AND LIGHT

I was surprised at how well the stories from the 60's read . I found myself skimming the fantasy stories but read most of the science fiction. Well put together collection covering his career in several volumes, I will watch out for others.

2010-05-26T11:49:00.004-04:00

44 - FEVER DREAM: PRESTON & CHILD

Yesterday, Special Agent Pendergast still mourned the loss of his beloved wife, Helen, who died in a tragic accident in Africa twelve years ago.

Today, he discovers she was murdered.

Tomorrow, he will learn her most guarded secrets, leaving him to wonder: Who was the woman I married? Why was she murdered? And, above all . . . Who murdered her?

Still enjoying this series because they are quick to read, the story carries on and when they leave you with a cliff hanger you know you will be watching for the next instalment. I do like Pendergast.
Interesting how the authors are the selling feature rather than the title.

2010-05-24T13:34:00.006-04:00

43 - ANNIVERSARY MAN: R.J. ELLORY

Twenty years ago John Costello's life, as he knew it, ended. He and his beautiful girlfriend, Nadia, were victims of the deranged 'Hammer of God' killer who terrorised New Jersey City throughout the summer of 1984. Nadia was killed instantly. John survived, but withdrew from society, emerging only to work as a crime researcher for a major newspaper. Damaged he may be, but no one in New Jersey knows more about serial killers than John Costello. Then a new spate of murders starts - all seemingly random and unrelated - until John discovers a complex pattern that links them. But could this dark knowledge be about to threaten his life?

Another lucky find from the newer book shelf at the library. I had stopped bothering with most thriller type novels finding them becoming very similar and in some cases beyond gory. This one caught me from the very beginning and kept me turning pages right to the end. I will be checking out Ellory's previous novels and can only hope I enjoy the characters and find the storyline as readable.

I recommend this one to police, mystery and thriller readers.

2010-05-20T12:52:00.004-04:00

42 - DEATH IN A FAMILY WAY: GWENDOLYN SOUTHIN

It's 1958 and Margaret's children are grown and her husband is comfortably settled in his job and she is bored. Answering a want ad she ends up working 1/2 days in a detective agency. She likes it.

Thanks to her intuition she becomes personally involved in a case of murder and missing girls.

Worth turning the pages if you like light mysteries. I'll get the next one from the library and see if Maggie and Nat ( the boss ) can keep my interest.

2010-05-18T13:23:00.005-04:00

41 - MAJOR PETTIGREW'S LAST STAND: HELEN SIMONSON

When retired Major Pettigrew strikes up an unlikely friendship with Mrs. Ali, the Pakistani village shopkeeper, he is drawn out of his regimented world and forced to confront the realities of life in the twenty-first century. Brought together by a shared love of literature and the loss of their respective spouses, the Major and Mrs. Ali soon find their friendship on the cusp of blossoming into something more. But although the Major was actually born in Lahore, and Mrs. Ali was born in Cambridge, village society insists on embracing him as the quintessential local and her as a permanent foreigner. The Major has always taken special pride in the village, but will he be forced to choose between the place he calls home and a future with Mrs. Ali?

Written with a delightfully dry sense of humour and the wisdom of a born storyteller, Major Pettigrew's Last Stand explores the risks one takes when pursuing happiness in the face of family obligation and tradition.

I ran across this title at Layers of Thought (you can find this blog in my link section ) and made a note to reserve it at the library. Glad I did . A well written character driven tale that satisfied on many levels. I liked the people, the place and the story they were living.

2010-05-14T17:49:00.003-04:00

40 - THE WEED THAT STRINGS THE HANGMAN'S BAG: ALAN BRADLEY

I'm not giving the description as it gives too much away. Just be assured that Flavia and her trusty bike Gladys are out and about having another grand adventure. It was as enjoyable as her first romp, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. My only complaint is that the pages ran out before I was ready to leave Bishop's Lacy and the deLuce family.

Bring on the next adventure.

2010-05-13T13:37:00.003-04:00

39 - THE RED DOOR: CHARLES TODD

Lancashire, England, June, 1920. Who was the woman who lived and died behind the red door? What did she see before she died? And who was the man who never came home from the Great War, for the simple reason that he had never really gone? How is the woman's death linked to his disappearance? And why is Scotland Yard blind to the connection, even when Inspector Ian Rutledge points it out?

Quite the family involved in this one. A few twists and turns that caught me off guard but I did pick up one clue early.

Not as much a page turner as some of the earlier works but I will continue with this series.

The side story .. Billy .. seemed a little unnecessary.

2010-05-11T13:48:00.003-04:00

38 - THIS BODY OF DEATH An Inspector Lynley novel: ELIZABETH GEORGE

New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth George is back with a spellbinding tale of mystery and murder featuring Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley.

On compassionate leave after the murder of his wife, Thomas Lynley is called back to Scotland Yard when the body of a woman is found stabbed and abandoned in an isolated London cemetery. His former team doesn't trust the leadership of their new department chief, Isabelle Ardery, whose management style seems to rub everyone the wrong way. In fact, Lynley may be the sole person who can see beneath his superior officer's hard-as-nails exterior to a hidden—and possibly attractive—vulnerability.

While Lynley works in London, his former colleagues Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata follow the murder trail south to the New Forest. There they discover a beautiful and strange place where animals roam free, the long-lost art of thatching is very much alive, and outsiders are not entirely welcome. What they don't know is that more than one dark secret lurks among the trees, and that their investigation will lead them to an outcome that is both tragic and shocking.

A multilayered jigsaw puzzle of a story skillfully structured to keep readers guessing until the very end, This Body of Death is a magnificent achievement from a writer at the peak of her powers.

This is the first George book I have read but have watched some of the Lynley mysteries on TV. I quite enjoyed this book although one character annoyed me enough to wish she would wise up or disappear. There are a good number of books in this series to explore although I will not be reading any of the ones that were used for the TV show. Tried one and found I didn't like knowing who the culprit was even though the books contain far more background material.

I list this one as not bad.

2010-05-07T19:40:00.005-04:00

,37 - THIS TIME TOGETHER - Laughter and Reflection: CAROL BURNETT

Carol Burnett is one of the most beloved and revered actresses and performers in America. The Carol Burnett Show was seen each week by millions of adoring fans and won twenty-five Emmys in its remarkable eleven-year run. Now, in This Time Together, Carol really lets her hair down and tells one funny or touching or memorable story after another – reading it feels like sitting down with an old friend who has wonderful tales to tell.

In engaging anecdotes, Carol discusses her remarkable friendships with stars such at Jimmy Stewart, Lucille Ball, Cary Grant, and Julie Andrews; the background behind famous scenes, like the moment she swept down the stairs in her curtain-rod dress in the legendary “Went With the Wind” skit; and things that would happen only to Carol – the prank with Julie Andrews that went wrong in front of the First Lady; the famous Tarzan Yell that saved her during a mugging; and the time she faked a wooden leg to get served in a famous ice cream emporium. This poignant look back allows us to cry with the actress during her sorrows, rejoice in her successes, and finally, always, to laugh.

Fluff read. I wouldn't have bought this book but as a freebie from the library it filled time flipping pages, while I waited for a more substantial reserve, and brought back some funny memories of the classic skits.

2010-04-27T11:51:00.003-04:00

36 - SORROW WOOD: RAYMOND L. ATKINS

When the charred body of a promiscuous, self-proclaimed witch is discovered at a farm called Sorrow Wood, nearly everyone in the sleepy town of Sand Valley, Alabama, is drawn into the case. As the murder probe continues, a multitude of secrets are revealed, including one that leads back to the rock castle home of Wendell Blackmon, Sand Valley`s police chief, and his beloved wife Reva. The town`s inhabitants ruminate on the true meaning of commitment, love, death, hope, and loss as they delve deeper into questions such as Who was this woman? Where did she come from? and What did her presence mean to Wendell, Reva, and the townspeople of Sand Valley?

This is the life story of Wendell and Reva not just another mystery. It is a tale of two people who live and love and click so perfectly, so well written, that you almost feel you are listening in to their conversations and sharing their days.
I loved this book and will now be tracking down the first by this author, The Front Porch Prophet and watching for anything new he writes.

2010-04-22T17:47:00.003-04:00

35 - DRAGON KEEPER: ROBIN HOBB

Here be dragons-but debilitated, deformed, damaged dragons, hatched too soon, sick and starving, into a world that has mostly forgotten them. The first of Hobb's Rain Wild Chronicles, an absorbing extension of her Liveship and Tawny Man trilogies, introduces 15 young dragons who struggle to survive with the grudging help of mutant Rain Wilders. Eventually driven out by the Traders Council, the hatchlings decide to seek Kelsingra, their ancient home. Caught up by the dragons' plight and longing to escape unhappy families and the stifling Rain Wild culture, self-taught dragon scholar Alise Kincannon and teenage tree-dwelling mutant Thymara volunteer to accompany them on the quest, with the help of magnetic liveship captain Leftrin and a host of colorful characters. Hobb's meticulously realized fantasy tale is a welcome addition to contemporary dragon lore ( Publishers Weekly )

I reached two thirds of the way through before I lost some interest. I did a flip/speed read to the end just to get it done. I will get the next book in the series and give it another chance to hold my interest. I did read the Liveship and Tawny Man trilogies and enjoyed them.

2010-04-13T11:13:00.003-04:00

34 - 501st An Imperial Commando Novel: Karen Traviss

The Clone Wars are over, but for those with reason to run from the new galactic Empire, the battle to survive has only just begun. . . .

The Jedi have been decimated in the Great Purge, and the Republic has fallen. Now the former Republic Commandos–the galaxy’s finest special forces troops, cloned from Jango Fett–find themselves on opposing sides and in very different armor. Some have deserted and fled to Mandalore with the mercenaries, renegade clone troopers, and rogue Jedi who make up Kal Skirata’s ragtag resistance to Imperial occupation. Others–including men from Delta and Omega squads–now serve as Imperial Commandos, a black ops unit within Vader’s own 501st Legion, tasked to hunt down fugitive Jedi and clone deserters. For Darman, grieving for his Jedi wife and separated from his son, it’s an agonizing test of loyalty. But he’s not the only one who’ll be forced to test the ties of brotherhood. On Mandalore, clone deserters and the planet’s own natives, who have no love for the Jedi, will have their most cherished beliefs challenged. In the savage new galactic order, old feuds may have to be set aside to unite against a far bigger threat, and nobody can take old loyalties for granted.

I started this Star Wars series because it was written by Karen Traviss an author I like from her Wess'Har series http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wess%27Har
Initially I enjoyed the storyline and felt comfortable with the characters but found myself less involved and interested with this one. Think I'm done with the clones.

2010-04-09T13:19:00.004-04:00

33 - ALICE I HAVE BEEN: MELANIE BENJAMIN

Benjamin draws on one of the most enduring relationships in children's literature in this excellent outing, spinning out the heartbreaking story of Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Her research into the lives of Charles Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) and the family of Alice Liddell is apparent as she takes circumstances shrouded in mystery and colors in the spaces to reveal a vibrant and passionate Alice. Born into a Victorian family of privilege, free-spirited Alice catches the attention of family friend Dodgson and serves as the muse for both his photography and writing. Their bond, however, is misunderstood by Alice's family, and though she is forced to sever their friendship, she is forever haunted by their connection as her life becomes something of a chain of heartbreaks. As an adult, Alice tries to escape her past, but it is only when she finally embraces it that she truly finds the happiness that eluded her. Focusing on three eras in Alice's life, Benjamin offers a finely wrought portrait of Alice that seamlessly blends fact with fiction. Publishers Weekly Review.

I quite enjoyed this book. It held my interest from first page to last and I was sad to have my time with Alice come to an end.

2010-03-29T14:18:00.004-04:00

32 - FALL ON YOUR KNEES: ANN-MARIE MACDONALD

Fall on Your Knees tells the story of several generations of the Piper family of Cape Breton, beginning with the marriage of James Piper, the controlling, emotionally stunted son of Gaelic-speaking Scottish Canadians, and Materia Mahmoud, the 13-year-old daughter of wealthy Lebanese immigrants. Materia's father cuts her off from her family for marrying James, and James in turn forces her to deny both her heritage and her emotions. James, out of a spite even he fails to comprehend, focuses all his attention on Kathleen, his first-born and a musical prodigy. He dotes on her and sends her away to study opera in New York. However, Kathleen's unexpected return from New York, where she has made some discoveries that will ultimately turn her father against her, becomes the centre of an intricately plotted series of tragedies involving each of the Piper sisters. In a startlingly skillful manipulation of prose, MacDonald teases out clues, secrets, and revelations that are both delightful to discover and disturbing to consider. --Jonathan Dewar

I loved this book almost to the end but felt it wandered when it lapsed into Kathleen's diary. I became impatient rather than feeling informed...it could have been condensed and still worked well. Yes it filled in the 'why' of so many happenings in the book but it felt like a stumble in my page turning flow. The ending felt a little rushed as if the author just wanted to tie it up rather than letting me savour the finish as much as the beginning.

There were times when it could have slipped into pure afternoon soap opera but the MacDonald side slipped it neatly thanks to her writing skill and not allowing the plot to get predicable .

Lots of great sentences to linger over: "Surely truth can be borrowed across time without perishing. Shelf life so to speak.

" .....to see him as a tousled little boy. He jerks to a sitting position, where he finds his headache waiting for him. It tightens over his scalp and he ages the forty years back to reality.

This novel is several years old and only came to my attention thanks to Canada Reads .

2010-03-26T15:34:00.004-04:00

31 - ARMS AND THE WOMAN:an elliad: REGINALD HILL

Someone attempts to abduct Ellie Pascoe, and her friend, Daphne Alderman, is assaulted by a man keeping watch on the Pascoe house. Dalziel, Pascoe and Wield feel certain there must be a link here with one of Pascoe's cases, either current or past. Only DC Shirley Novello wonders whether perhaps these events might have more to do with Ellie than her husband.

While the men concentrate on their individual theories, Ellie, her daughter Rosie, Daphne, and Novello (their official minder) head for the coast to the supposed safety of the Alderman's holiday home, Cleets Cottage. But their flight proves somewhat futile as Ellie's would-be abductor continues to send her letters of possibly threatening intent, composed in a strange Elizabethan English.

I liked parts of this better than others. I found it slow to read and harder to concentrate on then any other of his novels. Perhaps it was the language, perhaps it was the story within the novel. The main storyline was good and strong and I liked all the good-guy main characters ( I certainly like how each novel builds and fills in the characters ) but for me it wasn't as satisfying as most of Hill's works.

2010-03-21T22:09:00.003-04:00

30 - WINTER GARDEN: KRISTIN HANNAH

Can a woman ever really know herself if she doesn’t know her mother? From the author of the smash-hit bestseller Firefly Lane and True Colors comes a powerful, heartbreaking novel that illuminates the intricate mother-daughter bond and explores the enduring links between the present and the past Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard; the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only connection between them was the Russian fairy tale Anya sometimes told the girls at night. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise from the women in his life: the fairy tale will be told one last time—and all the way to the end. Thus begins an unexpected journey into the truth of Anya’s life in war-torn Leningrad, more than five decades ago. Alternating between the past and present, Meredith and Nina will finally hear the singular, harrowing story of their mother’s life, and what they learn is a secret so terrible and terrifying that it will shake the very foundation of their family and change who they believe they are.

Readable but don't spend your dollars on this one if you dislike totally unreal relationships and over done plucking at heartstrings. The woman who recommended it to me at the library said she cried at the end, I snorted in disbelieve at the stretch the author made to wrap up the fairy tale.

2010-03-19T10:44:00.003-04:00

29 - THE MURDER STONE or A RULE AGAINST MURDER: LOUISE PENNY

There’s something otherworldly and altogether enchanting about the Manoir Bellechasse, the magnificent lodge in the Canadian wilderness where Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, the head of homicide for the Sûreté du Québec, has taken his wife for their 35th wedding anniversary. Not only does the auberge offer grand views and the order and calm of old-world service, but it also observes a no-kill policy, with the proprietors feeding wild animals in winter and forbidding guests to hunt or fish. Someone obviously failed to explain that rule to the cultured but quarrelsome family holding a reunion to unveil a statue of their late patriarch, who makes his feelings felt by toppling down on one of his own. As Gamache observes, things were not as they seemed, not even in a paradise like Bellechasse.

I figured out the how early on but not the who although I had suspensions.
Now I have to wait for new releases, all up to date.

2010-03-18T20:15:00.003-04:00

28 - ON BEULAH HEIGHT: REGINALD HILL

The Yorkshire detective team of Dalziel and Pascoe is back in another riveting procedural. Fifteen years earlier, the quaint British village of Dendale suffered double tragedies: three children were kidnapped, never to be found, while a fourth barely escaped with her life. Then the government forced the villagers to evacuate Dendale so they could flood its homes and shops to create a new reservoir. A decade and a half later, seven-year-old Lorraine Dacre disappears from Danby, the village where most of the Dendale's inhabitants retreated. Dalziel and Pascoe are caught in a painful nightmare. They failed to solve the earlier case; can they solve this one? Theories, speculation, and suspects abound. Villagers report seeing Benny Lightfoot, a crazy recluse who was the prime suspect in the Dendale case. Betsy Allgood, the victim who escaped 15 years ago, is full of dark secrets she won't reveal. (from Booklist)

I thought I had it figured but I was wrong. Good twist at the end.
Whenever possible I post the cover of the edition I've read.

2010-03-14T14:23:00.002-04:00

27 - THE CRUELLEST MONTH: LOUISE PENNY

It's Easter, and on a glorious spring day in peaceful Three Pines, someone waits for night to fall. They plan to raise the dead! When C. I. Gamache of the Surete du Quebec arrives the next morning, he faces an unusual crime scene. A seance in an old, abandoned house has gone horrifically wrong and someone lies frightened to death. For in idyllic Three Pines not all is as it seems. Toxic secrets lie buried, and something terrible has finally clawed its way out. And even Gamache has something to hide. One of his own team is preparing to betray him. But who is it? And how far will they go to ensure Gamache's downfall?

Rather fun reading this just as we approach Easter. I continue to appreciate how the author expands and continues the stories of so many of the characters in Three Pines and I drool when she records lunches from the bistro and I would love to find a B&B like the one in her novels. I have only one left and I'm up to date and I'm sad I'll have to wait for the publication of another.

2010-03-09T10:53:00.004-05:00

26 - DEAD COLD or A FATAL GRACE : LOUISE PENNY

From Booklist

Quebec Surete Inspector Armand Gamache, who made his debut in Still Life (2006), returns in this enjoyable follow-up. An almost universally disliked, even hated, woman is murdered. Naturally, the pool of potential murderers is deep, ranging from the victim's lover to her friends (well, acquaintances) to various others in the small Canadian community of Three Pines. Gamache, a smart and likable investigator--think Columbo with an accent, or perhaps a modern-day Poirot--systematically wades his way through the pool, coming upon a few surprises along the way. Penny is a careful writer, taking time to establish character and scene, playing around with a large cast, distracting us so we won't see the final twists coming until they're upon us. This is a fine mystery in the classic Agatha Christie style, and it is sure to leave mainstream fans wanting more.

It's confusing when a book has 2 titles depending on edition..I think Dead Cold suits the story best. Part of me wishes I hadn't read the latest book first. There would be more mystery in watching the characters develop and there would be no foreknowledge of certain events but I wouldn't have wanted to miss finding this series. On to the next one.

2010-03-06T10:33:00.005-05:00

25 - STILL LIFE : LOUISE PENNY

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Canadian Penny's terrific first novel, which was the runner-up for the CWA's Debut Dagger Award in 2004, introduces Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec. When the body of Jane Neal, a middle-aged artist, is found near a woodland trail used by deer hunters outside the village of Three Pines, it appears she's the victim of a hunting accident. Summoned to the scene, Gamache, an appealingly competent senior homicide investigator, soon determines that the woman was most likely murdered. Like a virtuoso, Penny plays a complex variation on the theme of the clue hidden in plain sight. She deftly uses the bilingual, bicultural aspect of Quebecois life as well as arcane aspects of archery and art to deepen her narrative. Memorable characters include Jane; Jane's shallow niece, Yolande; and a delightful gay couple, Olivier and Gabri. Filled with unexpected insights, this winning traditional mystery sets a solid foundation for future entries in the series.

Having read her most recent, The Brutal Telling, and enjoying it it was natural for me to start at the beginning. I've now reserved the 2nd and 3rd in the series. Good reading

2010-03-04T11:33:00.004-05:00

24 - THE STRANGER HOUSE: REGINALD HILL

This standalone novel by award-winning suspense writer Hill (Good Morning, Midnight) features two characters with little in common but for their families being in the wine business. Samantha Flood is a 20-year-old Australian math genius, while Miguel Madero lives in Jerez, Spain, with a Spanish father and an English mother. After the death of her grandmother, Samantha learns that her father was adopted and comes to England seeking information about his birth mother. Miguel, who experienced a mystical calling to the priesthood but left the seminary to pursue an academic career in history, is in search of information about Catholic priests during the reign of Elizabeth I. Both find themselves drawn to the Cumbrian village of Illthwaite, and both meet resistance from the locals when they arrive and begin asking questions. As their quests become intertwined, Samantha and Miguel at last join forces. Filled with suspense, history, and wry humor, this is a treat of a novel about two people who are driven to uncover the truth about their families and unexpectedly find allies in each other.

Most enjoyable. I was slow getting into it but once I hit mid way I read right to the end.

2010-02-28T11:58:00.002-05:00

23 - UNDER WORLD: REGINALD HILL

When young Tracey Pedley vanished in the woods around Burrthorpe, the close-knit community had their own ideas about what had happened, but Deputy Chief Constable Watmough has it down as the work of a child-killer who has since committed suicide - though others wondered about the last man to see her alive and his fatal plunge into a disused mine shaft.

Returning to the town he left in anger, Colin Farr's homecoming is ready for trouble, and when a university course brings him into contact with Ellie Pascoe, trouble starts.

Meanwhile, Andy Dalziel mutters imprecations on the sidelines, until a murder in Burrthorpe mine forces him to take action that brings him up against a hostile and frightened community.

I like the way stories flow from one book into another. It does mean that reading them in order is the best way to go but I am managing well enough with a little bit of back and forth. I fear the day I am up to date.

2010-02-28T11:54:00.002-05:00

22 - CHILD'S PLAY: REGINALD HILL

The 10th in Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe novels is, as usual, a nicely plotted, smoothly written mystery on the top rung of the genre. A half-dotty old Yorkshire widow dies, throwing her relations into confusion with a will that leaves her wealth to a son missing in action in World War II. If he's not found by 2015, the fortune will be divided among charities for animals, the needy and Women for Empire. A man resembling the long-lost son appears and disappears. Officials of the charities, surviving relatives and the deceased's lawyer begin a complicated bargaining dance. A top cop campaigns to become Chief Constable. A young drifter enters the life of Sgt. Wield, forcing him to a decision about his homosexuality. There are a couple of apparently unrelated murders. Supt. Dalziel sorts it all out in his usual boorish, intuitive, irreverent way. He's helped by youthful, (relatively) cultured Inspector Pascoe, stolid Sgt. Wield and by Lexie Huby, a young, mousy legal secretary with lots of surprises. Readers will love Hill's rich characterization, vivid local color and lightly stinging humor.

Reading the older books after the current books is like a trip to the passed. Still not bored with the series and looking forward to the next one.

2010-02-22T14:03:00.002-05:00

21 - EXIT LINES: REGINALD HILL

Three old men die on a stormy November night: one by deliberate violence, one in a road accident and one by an unknown cause.

Inspector Pascoe is called in to investigate the first death, but when the dying words of the accident victim suggest that a drunken Superintendent Dalziel had been behind the wheel, the integrity of the entire Mid-Yorkshire constabulary is called into question.

Helped by the bright but wayward DC Seymour, hindered by 'Maggie's Moron', the half-witted Constable Hector, Peter Pascoe enters the twilight and vulnerable world of the senior citizen - to discover that the beckoning darkness at the end of the tunnel holds few comforts.

Fast and easy read. I sometimes wish all the characters were real people and that I could meet them all. Hill creates them well.

2010-02-21T13:06:00.004-05:00

20 - THE WOOD BEYOND: REGINALD HILL

The old trick of splitting a central character into two very different parts and using the tension to create literary sparks has worked for writers as diverse as Rex Stout (Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin) and Patrick O'Brian (Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin). Nobody in the mystery field does it better these days than Hill, whose down-and-dirty Inspector Dalziel jigs and jousts wonderfully with his smart, sensitive sidekick Pascoe. Their latest outing is one of the best in the series, with Pascoe digging up some old bones and family secrets from his own past.

Loved the WW1 back story and glad to finally meet Cap.

2010-02-20T13:36:00.004-05:00

19 - ALL OF ME: ANNE MURRAY

An unflinching self-portrait of Canada’s first great female recording artist, All of Me documents the life of Anne Murray, from her humble origins in the tragedy-plagued coal-mining town of Springhill, Nova Scotia, to her arrival on the world stage. Anne recounts her story: the battles with her record companies over singles and albums; the struggle with drug- and alcohol-ridden band members; the terrible guilt and loneliness of being away from her two young children; her divorce from the man who helped launch her career, Bill Langstroth; and the deaths of two of her closest confidantes. The result is a must-read autobiography by Canada’s beloved songbird.

Not really so humble, her father was a doctor and not as sensational as the above implies but an interesting enough read seeing as we are of the same vintage. She certainly recorded more than I was aware of probably because so much was country. The only album I ever bought was: There's A Hippo in My Bathtub, songs for children.

2010-02-16T11:10:00.003-05:00

18 - PICTURES OF PERFECTION: REGINALD HILL

In Hill's latest novel his much-appreciated team of detectives, the incomparable Dalziel and Pascoe, find themselves in the pretty village of Enscombe, which is steadfastly trying -- though somewhat in vain -- to repel the advances of both tourists and developers. When a policeman is discovered missing, Pascoe is immediately worried, but Dalziel thinks he's overreacting... until the normally phlegmatic Sergeant Wield also shows signs of changing his first impressions of picture-perfect village life. Over two eventful days a new pattern emerges: one of lust and lying, family feuds and ancient injuries, frustrated desires and unbalanced minds. Finally, inevitably, everything comes to a bloody climax at the Squire's Reckoning, where the villagers gather each Lady Day to feast and pay old debts. Not even the three lawmen's presence can change the course of history... though one of them is to find the course of his own personal history changed forever.

This one was just plain fun.

2010-02-13T14:08:00.003-05:00

17 - RECALLED TO LIFE: REGINALD HILL

The re-examination of a murder case laid to an uneasy rest 27 years earlier leads Detective Superintendent Dalziel across Wales and the eastern seaboard of the United States. He unravels an affair of Byzantine complexity, demanding close attention from the listener. The rewards are great, however.

What fun, Dalziel in New York. Still not bored with the series.

2010-02-10T16:58:00.004-05:00

16 - WINGS OF FIRE: CHARLES TODD

In a brilliant return after his introduction in A Test of Wills (1996), Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge is dispatched to Cornwall to investigate three deaths?seemingly a double-suicide and an accident?that have occurred within weeks in the Trevelyan family. Still recovering from shell shock sustained while serving in France during WWI, Rutledge carries in his head the challenging voice of Hamish MacLeod, a Scottish soldier about whose battlefront death Rutledge experiences profound guilt. In the village of Borcombe, Rutledge learns that one of the apparent suicides, Olivia Marlowe, wrote as O.A. Manning, a poet whose work had uncannily captured both the misery of war and the passion and beauty of love. Olivia Marlowe and her devoted half-brother Nicholas Cheney died of poisoning within hours of each other. Another half-brother, Stephen FitzHugh, the only family member opposed to selling the family estate where Olivia and Nicholas lived, fell down the stairs to his death not long after the funeral. Searching for answers about the deaths and for an understanding of the poet, Rutledge finds himself on a decades-long trail of cleverly disguised murders. Todd's cast is sometimes hard to keep straight, but readers will find it hard to resist following Rutledge on this emotionally intense quest. Memorable characters, subtle plot twists, the evocative seaside setting and descriptions of architecture, the moors and the sea fully reward the attention this novel commands.

Took some waiting but finally I've read book 2. Now waiting on the latest.

2010-02-10T16:47:00.006-05:00

15 - DUST OF DREAMS: STEVEN ERIKSON

On the Letherii continent the exiled Malazan army commanded by Adjunct Tavore begins its march into the eastern Wastelands, to fight for an unknown cause against an enemy it has never seen.

The fate awaiting the Bonehunters is one no soldier can prepare for, and one no mortal soul can withstand — the foe is uncertainty and the only weapon worth wielding is stubborn courage. In war everyone loses, and this brutal truth can be found in the eyes of every soldier in every world.

Destinies are never simple. Truths are neither clear nor sharp. The Tales of the Malazan Book of the Fallen are drawing to a close in a distant place, beneath indifferent skies, as the last great army of the Malazan Empire seeks a final battle in the name of redemption. Final questions remain to be answered: can one’s deeds be heroic when no one is there to see it? Can that which is unwitnessed forever change the world? The answers await the Bonehunters, beyond the Wastelands…

Oh my. It will take a second reading to fully realize the scope of the story.

2010-01-30T20:57:00.003-05:00

14 - CHASING CEZANNE: PETER MAYLE

Our hero, glamorous art photographer Andre Kelly, is on assignment for glamorous DQ Magazine--run by the glamorous Camilla Porter--in Cape Ferrat on the (you guessed it) glamorous Côte d'Azur. Snooping around an ancestral pile for some snaps, by chance he spies Old Claude, the ancient retainer of the immensely wealthy Denoyer family, packing the family Cezanne into a plumbing van. Puzzled, Andre investigates, and the game is afoot. Peter Mayle's latest effort, Chasing Cezanne, is a whodunit that shows good manners and impeccable taste. It takes its characters--graduates of all the best schools, of course--to some of the world's most posh locales. The plot device is high rent, too: a purloined painting worth a cool $30 million. To call this book lightweight seems unfair and boorish besides. There's lots of travel, lots of opulence, lots of opportunities for Mayle to describe Paris and Provence, and all the yummies you'll find in both places. Who can worry about a mystery when the food's so delectable?

Quick fun light reading.

2010-01-30T13:49:00.003-05:00

13 - BONES AND SILENCE: REGINALD HILL

While one of a police duo follows up on a cache of suicidal letters, his partner is cast as God opposite a murder suspect playing Lucifer in a contemporized medieval mystery play. According to Publishers Weekly , this mystery "confirms Hill's place among top British writers who produce solid stories of detection that succeed as first-rate novels exploring human character."

Not one of my favourites although quite readable.

2010-01-28T14:21:00.004-05:00

12 - THE VINTAGE CAPER: PETER MAYLE

Set in Hollywood, Paris, Bordeaux, and Marseille, Peter Mayle’s newest and most delightful novel is filled with culinary delights, sumptuous wines, and colorful characters. It’s also a lot of fun.

The story begins high above Los Angeles, at the extravagant home and equally impressive wine cellar of entertainment lawyer Danny Roth. Unfortunately, after inviting the Los Angeles Times to write an extensive profile extolling the liquid treasures of his collection, Roth finds himself the victim of a world-class wine heist.

Enter Sam Levitt, former corporate lawyer, cultivated crime expert, and wine connoisseur. Called in by Roth’s insurance company, which is now saddled with a multimillion-dollar claim, Sam follows his leads—to Bordeaux and its magnificent vineyards, and to Provence to meet an eccentric billionaire collector who might possibly have an interest in the stolen wines. Along the way, bien sûr, he is joined by a beautiful and erudite French colleague, and together they navigate many a château, pausing frequently to enjoy the countryside’s abundant pleasures.

The unraveling of the ingenious crime is threaded through with Mayle’s seductive rendering of France’s sensory delights—from a fine Lynch-Bages and Léoville Barton to the bouillabaisse of Marseille and the young lamb of Bordeaux. Even the most sophisticated of oenophiles will learn a thing or two from this vintage work by a beloved author.

Great fun. Quick read. No blood and guts just a light hearted romp.

2010-01-27T14:32:00.003-05:00

11 - THE SWAN THIEVES: ELIZABETH KOSTOVA

Psychiatrist Andrew Marlowe, devoted to his profession and the painting hobby he loves, has a solitary but ordered life. When renowned painter Robert Oliver attacks a canvas in the National Gallery of Art and becomes his patient, Marlow finds that order destroyed. Desperate to understand the secret that torments the genius, he embarks on a journey that leads him into the lives of the women closest to Oliver and a tragedy at the heart of French Impressionism.

Kostova's masterful new novel travels from American cities to the coast of Normandy, from the late 19th century to the late 20th, from young love to last love. THE SWAN THIEVES is a story of obsession, history's losses, and the power of art to preserve human hope.

It took me a few chapters to warm up to the characters and the storyline. I enjoyed it more than her first book, The Historian.

2010-01-23T13:31:00.003-05:00

10 - RULING PASSION: REGINALD HILL

From Yorkshire to the sleepy village of Thornton Lacey is only a morning's drive, but for Detective Sergeant Peter Pascoe, the distance will close off part of his life forever. Motoring down for a reunion with old friends, he arrives to find not a welcome but a grisly triple murder. Out of his jurisdiction, Pascoe is in an untenable position: one of his oldest friends is wanted for murder, his boss is ordering him back to Yorkshire, and his instincts are telling him that the local constabulary will never suspect that the crime's true motive lies not in the obvious places, but in the unexplored zones of passion within a twisted heart.

It's rather fun learning about the main character's relationships in the early books having read the most current novels. I had hoped to read them in order but my library has let me down and I will be skipping around til I find a cheap source for the missing.

2010-01-21T14:54:00.004-05:00

9 - THE HOUSE AT SALVATION CREEK: SUSAN DUNCAN

Continuing the story of Susan Duncan's bestselling and much-loved memoir, Salvation Creek, The House picks up after Bob and Susan marry and, two years later, move from her Tin Shed into his 'pale yellow house on the high, rough hill', Tarrangaua, built for the iconic Australian poet, Dorothea Mackellar.

Set against the backdrop of the small, close-knit Pittwater community with its colourful characters and quirky history, The House is about what happens when you open the door to life, adventure, and love. But it's also about mothers and daughters, as Susan confronts her mother's new frailty and her own role in what has always been a difficult relationship.

Where Salvation Creek was about mortality - living life in the face of death - The House is about stepping outside your comfort zone and embracing challenges, at any age. In turn funny and moving, Susan Duncan's beautifully written sequel reminds us to honour what matters in life, and to disregard what really doesn't.

Salvation Creek

2010-01-18T13:12:00.002-05:00

8 - DEATH COMES FOR THE FAT MAN: REGINALD HILL

Hill, who has created and artfully guided the destinies of Yorkshire policemen Det. Supt. Andy Dalziel (aka "the Fat Man") and his DCI Peter Pascoe through 22 remarkable adventures, doesn't give anything away until the very last pages of this excellent mystery (after 2004's Good Morning, Midnight). Only then do we learn whether or not the bomb blast that starts the story marks the end of Dalziel's life. As the Fat Man lies comatose in his hospital bed, the shrewd and usually diplomatic Pascoe—who was also injured in the blast, but saved by his colleague's bulk—takes on some of Dalziel's troublesome tenacity (as well as a touch of his saltier language) as he forces his way onto the team of antiterrorism specialists looking into the incident. The terrorists appear to be linked to an obscure branch of the historic Knights Templar, and Hill's perfect pitch (especially for the short, pithy details of dialogue and character description) carries the story through all sorts of villains—some of whom are even directly connected to the cops.

I still have lots of the early novels to read so many more hours of mystery ahead for me.

Special feature

2010-01-14T15:38:00.003-05:00

7 - LABOUR OF LOVE: ELIZABETH MCLENNAN

A limited edition novel

An author, a muse and the lifes of different families skillfully threaded together as we follow the creation of a romance novel set in rural Australia.
I liked all the characters, each with their own story, and I was impressed by and totally enjoyed the connections made and paths crossed.

2010-01-14T12:47:00.002-05:00

6 - A DUTY TO THE DEAD: CHARLES TODD

Product Description

The daughter of a distinguished soldier‚ Bess Crawford follows in his footsteps and signs up to go overseas as a nurse during the Great War‚ helping to deal with the many wounded. There‚ serving on a hospital ship‚ she makes a promise to a dying young lieutenant to take a message to his brother‚ Jonathan Graham: "Tell Jonathan that I lied. I did it for Mother′s sake. But it has to be set right." Later‚ when her ship is sunk by a mine and she′s sidelined by a broken arm‚ Bess returns home to England‚ determined to fulfill her promise.

It′s not so easy‚ however. She travels to the village in Kent where the Grahams live and passes on to Jonathan his brother′s plea. Oddly‚ neither Jonathan‚ his mother‚ nor his younger brother admit to knowing what the message means. Then Bess learns that there′s another brother‚ incarcerated in a lunatic asylum since the age of 14 when he was accused of brutally murdering a housemaid.

Bess rightly guesses that the dying soldier′s last words had something to do with the fourth brother. Because the family seems unwilling to do anything‚ she decides that she will investigate. It′s her own duty to the dead.

Some large holes but a decent enough read.

2010-01-10T10:35:00.003-05:00

5 - ASKING FOR THE MOON: REGINALD HALL

The four short stories here include an account of the trying circumstances under which Pascoe and Dalziel first met. There's also a tale from the last days of their complex relationship, when Dalziel is called out of retirement to help solve the first murder on the moon.

The moon story was written in 1990 and set in 2010. There were 2 forwards for this tale in my edition, the original and one from 2003. Read them.

2010-01-08T13:19:00.004-05:00

4 - SEAWEED IN THE SOUP: STANLEY EVANS

Product Description:

Silas Seaweed is back on the beat as the street-smart Coast Salish cop. A gardener is found dead and the prime suspects are two young local party girls. Silas is handed the case that soon takes a bloodier turn when a policeman's wife is killed. Silas begins to suspect that these murders and other events are related to the recent tide of gang-related crimes that has been sweeping British Columbia. Just as he draws closer to finding concrete evidence, Silas finds his own reputation in danger and is suspended from the police force. His quest to clear his name and find the killers leads him from Victoria's loud and steamy nightclubs and bars to the remote and quiet islands of Desolation Sound. The fifth mystery in this popular series, "Seaweed in the Soup" is a thrilling and suspenseful tale that skillfully combines a hard-boiled mystery narrative with the mythology of the Coast Salish.

..............

Seeing as I only finish books I like I won't be adding comments unless I want to really praise a book.
By numbering as I go I hope to avoid the need for a tally.
I will add as I finish each book.
This could of course all change as time goes on.

2010 January

2010-01-06T15:53:00.006-05:00

1 - H V MORTON'S LONDON

- being The Heart of London, The Spell of London and The Nights of London in one volume .

Originally written as newspaper articles between the wars you are offered a view into a time and place now very different. You can read these and then try and find how places have stayed the same or changed in the present day
and you can read them as a social commentary of the times. Today they would not read as politically correct and that makes them interesting as well.

2 - A PALE HORSE: CHARLES TODD

The exemplary 10th Inspector Ian Rutledge historical whodunit (after A False Mirror) offers tight plotting and rich characterization amid understated but convincing evocations of post–WWI England. Haunted by memories of battle, unable to find a safe haven after his discharge from a psychiatric hospital and the abrupt departure of his fiancée, shell-shocked veteran Rutledge has returned to his prewar life as a Scotland Yard inspector. This time out, the War Office wants him to locate a mysterious person of interest, connected with (and perhaps the same as) an unidentified corpse found at a Yorkshire abbey. Rutledge toils diligently to uncover personal secrets and shames that may have motivated someone to kill, and their connection to a long-ago romance between the suspected killer's wife and the local inspector investigating the case. The mother and son writing as Charles Todd show no evidence of running out of ideas for murder mysteries that illuminate new aspects of their compelling protagonist and the horrors of the Great War.

3: A MATTER OF JUSTICE: CHARLES TODD

At the start of a new century, in a war far away from England, two British soldiers see a golden opportunity . . . and do the unthinkable to take advantage of it.

Twenty years later, a successful though much despised London businessman is found savagely and bizarrely murdered in a medieval tithe barn on his estate in Somerset. For Scotland Yard inspector Ian Rutledge, a man still shaken by the Great War's deafening echoes, the well-concealed trail he must now follow is leading back to an event so monumentally barbarous that its consequences envelop even the innocent. And when justice takes a malevolent turn, one haunted policeman must stand alone against the onrushing tide.

December

2010-01-06T15:10:00.006-05:00

THE BRUTAL TELLING: LOUISE PENNY

Chaos is coming, old son.

With those words the peace of Three Pines is shattered. As families prepare to head back to the city and children say goodbye to summer, a stranger is found murdered in the village bistro and antiques store. Once again, Chief Inspector Gamache and his team are called in to strip back layers of lies, exposing both treasures and rancid secrets buried in the wilderness.

Set in Quebec, Canada this is the latest in the series by Penny. I am now going back and starting with the first. Well written, interesting story, humour and dialogue add to the enjoyment.

MIDNIGHT FUGUE: REGINALD HILL

Product Description
The highly anticipated return of Dalziel and Pascoe starts with a phone call to Superintendent Dalziel from an old friend asking for help. But where it ends is a very different story. Gina Wolfe has come to Mid-Yorkshire in search of her missing husband, believed dead. Her fiance, Commander Mick Purdy of the Met, thinks Dalziel should be able to take care of the job. What none of them realize is how events set in motion decades ago will come to a violent head on this otherwise ordinary summer's day. A Welsh tabloid journalist senses the story he's been chasing for years may have finally landed in his lap. A Tory MP's secretary suspects her boss's father has an unsavoury history that could taint his prime ministerial ambitions. The ruthless entrepreneur in question sends two henchmen out to make sure the past stays in the past. And the lethal pair dispatched have some awkward secrets of their own. Four stories, two mismatched detectives trying to figure it all out, and 24 hours in which to do it: Dalziel and Pascoe are about to learn the hard way exactly just how much difference a day makes!

Waiting for the next one and still catching up on the earlier books. Hill stays on my reading list.

THICKER THAN WATER: ANTHEA FRASER

James Markham's family are shocked when he jilts his fiancee for a woman about whom he appears to know very little. When they meet Abigail they are swayed by her beauty and charm, but puzzled by the aura of mystery that surrounds her, and her reluctance to answer questions about her past.Callum Firbank is successful, with a loving family and a comfortable home. But he has always been evasive about his childhood, and his wife realizes she knows little about her husband's upbringing or family.Jill Irving runs a hotel in Dorset with her third husband Douglas. She has everything she could wish for: plenty of money, a leisurely lifestyle and opportunity for occasional illicit encounters. But she, too, has secrets in her past, and the facade she presents to the world masks a woman who lives in fear of discovery.What links these three very different people, and who is the mysterious stranger whose appearance in their lives seems to cause such terror?

An unknown when I picked it from the shelf well worth turning the pages til the end. I checked out the others books by this author and found them wanting....didn't read.

A COLD TREACHERY: CHARLES TODD

Called out by Scotland Yard into the teeth of a violent blizzard, Inspector Ian Rutledge finds himself confronted with one of the most savage murders he has ever encountered. Rutledge might have expected such unspeakable carnage on the World War I battlefields, where he’d lost much of his soul—and his sanity—but not in an otherwise peaceful farm kitchen in remote Urskdale.

Someone has murdered the Elcott family at their table without the least sign of struggle. Was the killer someone the young family knew and trusted? When the victims are tallied the local police are in for another shock: One of the Elcotts’ children, a boy named Josh, is missing.

A LONG SHADOW: CHARLES TODD ( no cover )

A long shadow finds Rutledge turned from hunter to prey when a mysterious stalker forces the Inspector to revisit painful memories from the war and confront unfinished business there.

Rutledge first encounters his unknown and unseen adversary after a dinner at the home of mutual friends on New Year’s Eve, 1919. Leaving before the other guests, he finds a brass machine gun cartridge casing on the doorstep. It’s like countless others he’s seen in the trenches—but what is it doing on a quiet London street, far from France? And this one has been engraved. Disturbed and intrigued, he pockets it.

Soon after, Rutledge is sent to the southern coast of England to help the local police capture a murderer. Work done, on a whim he drives to the cliffs high about the sea and walks out to the headland. Returning to his car, on the driver’s seat he discovers another engraved cartridge casing, the death’s heads on it marking it as a companion to the one he’d found in London. Rutledge is being followed—and to stay alive in the face of a dangerous, anonymous foe, he is pressed to the limits of his investigative skills. But there’s little time to protect himself, for he must look into a vicious attack on a village constable in the north, a crime with roots deep in the past.

Or is he being lured there for the coup de grace?

A FALSE MIRROR: CHARLES TODD

Hampton Regis, a small harbor town on the southern coast of England, is a most unlikely place for violence. Yet, one spring morning, a man is found on the strand so severely beaten that he slips in and out of consciousness. The prime suspect? His wife’s jilted lover, who served with Rutledge in the recently ended Great War—but who left the Front under a cloud. Badly wounded, yes, but did someone also cover up cowardice?

Rutledge is called on to prove the innocence of a man he dislikes and distrusts. But the deadly triangle also stirs up memories of the woman Rutledge himself loved and lost when he went to France to fight. His doubts about the accused and himself only deepen when the victim of the beating mysteriously disappears, with no body to be found.

As the brilliant yet tormented detective discovers that he’s not the only person seeing a reflection of tumultuous emotions in this case, he must confront the demons that threaten to overwhelm him and search out the truth. For in Hampton Regis hides a vicious killer who intends to let nothing—and no one—stand in the way.

6 books
Year end total....115

November final

2009-12-01T11:16:00.004-05:00

INCONTINENT ON THE CONTINENT: JANE CHRISTMAS non fiction

Product Description
Since the beginning of time, mothers and daughters have had notoriously fraught relationships. “Show me a mother who says she has a good or great relationship with her daughter,” Jane Christmas writes, “and I’ll show you a daughter who is in therapy trying to understand how it all went so horribly wrong.”

To smooth over five decades of constant clashing, Christmas takes her arthritic, incontinent, and domineering mother, Valeria—a cross between Queen Victoria and Hyacinth Bucket of the British comedy Keeping Up Appearances—on a tour of Italy.

Neither has been to Italy before, but both are fans of ancient art, architecture, and history. Will gazing at the fruits of the Italian Renaissance be enough to spark a renaissance in their relationship? As they wander along the winding Amalfi Coast, traverse St. Peter’s Square in Rome, and sample the wines of Tuscany—walkers, biscuits, shawls, and medications in tow—they revisit the bickering and bitterness of years past and reassess who they are and how they might reconcile their differences.

Unflinching and frequently hilarious, this book will speak to all women who have tried to make friends with their mothers.

SEAWEED ON THE ROCKS: STANLEY EVANS

Product Description
In this fourth mystery of the "Seaweed" series, Victoria neighbourhood cop Silas Seaweed is as always sensitive to his Coast Salish culture, but when he's confronted by a ten-foot-tall bear on a marsh on the city's outskirts, he suspects that this is no creature from the unknown world but someone out to con him. And Silas is right, but his attempts to unmask the bear lead him into a labyrinth of blackmail and murder. Along the way he investigates a homeless people's sit-in at Beacon Hill Park, a burglary in the office of hypnotherapist Dr. Lawrence Trew, and the barely legal world of small-time hood Titus Silverman. And whenever Silas is not busy finding corpses, he's on the lookout for a missing artist and two eight-year-old runaways.

THE MURDER STONE: CHARLES TODD

How well do we really know the people we love? Maybe never well enough, to judge by the example of Francesca Hatton, the young British heiress around whom Charles Todd constructs his first standalone historical suspense tale, The Murder Stone. Leaving London and her volunteer work with wounded World War I soldiers, Francesca--"the last of the Hattons ... a long and distinguished line"--returns in 1916 to River's End, the rural estate where her powerful and beloved grandfather is dying of a stroke. Francis Hatton's passing hits Francesca hard, especially coming so soon after the demise of her five male cousins, all of them "mown down with their dreams of glory" in battle. But her mourning is interrupted by multiple mysteries. Why did Francis insist in his will that the Murder Stone, a large and cryptically named white rock in his garden, be moved to the farthest corner of Scotland? Why had he concealed his ownership of two other, distant estates? And could there be any truth in the charge, leveled by an invalided soldier, that Francis long ago "abducted and killed his mother, then buried the body where it couldn't be found"? Forced by new revelations to rebalance her faith in the man who'd taken her in as an orphaned child, while simultaneously contending with a random sniper who's invaded the neighborhood of River's End, Francesca struggles to build a new future, even as her trust in the "facts" of her past crumbles.

WATCHERS OF TIME: CHARLES TODD

From Library Journal
The cliffhanger ending of Todd's Legacy of the Dead (LJ 8/00) left Inspector Ian Rutledge on the brink of death. In this follow-up, Rutledge is recovering from his gunshot wound while trying to investigate the murder of a parish priest in the small town of Osterley. Rutledge is skeptical that Father James's death is a simple case of robbery gone wrong. Was he murdered because of something he knew or had seen? Rutledge's inquiries are hampered both by the local authorities and by townsfolk unwilling to talk. With the ever-present voice of Hamish, a dead Scottish soldier, in his head, Rutledge must set aside his own problems to find out the truth. A gifted writer, Todd has once again created an intriguing mystery peopled with memorably unique characters. The depth of emotion that he expresses is truly remarkable. Highly recommended for all libraries.

A FEARSOME DOUBT: CHARLES TODD

From Publishers Weekly
This brilliant and gripping whodunit may well be the best of Todd's six Rutledge novels (Watchers of Time, etc.). Featuring as its protagonist a Scotland Yard inspector who is among the walking wounded after his WWI traumas, the series has always been compelling. This time, Todd ratchets up the psychological pressures by raising doubts about the one aspect of Rutledge's life that he has felt secure about: his prewar accomplishments as a policeman. The widow of a convicted killer, who went to the gallows for preying on the infirm elderly, confronts him with a missing jewelry piece found in a neighbor's possession, suggesting that Rutledge helped execute an innocent man. Reopening the inquiry requires caution not only because of the soul-searching it provokes, which threatens to shatter the inspector's tenuous grasp on sanity, but also because the case contributed to his superior's promotion. This old mystery becomes only one of the puzzles Rutledge must resolve when he's ordered to investigate the poisoning deaths of three disabled soldiers. The solutions to both sets of crimes are logical, satisfying and unexpected, but it is the character of Rutledge himself-intuitive, exquisitely sensitive to mood, the emotions of others and the significance of what is left unsaid-that makes this both an outstanding historical mystery and literate period fiction.

5 books

month end: 10
to date: 109

Mid November

2009-11-22T13:46:00.002-05:00

SEARCH THE DARK: CHARLES TODD

Amazon.com Review
On his way to Lyme Regis to search for work, Bert looks out of the train window in a town called Singleton Magna, and sees an unbelievable sight--his wife and two children who he thought were killed in a London bombing raid. He leaps off the train and tries to find his family, racing desperately across fields and country roads, and finally winding up asleep under a tree. Meanwhile, the battered body of a woman is found on the edge of a cornfield, and Mowbray is arrested. Is the woman his wife? Did he kill her? And what happened to the two children who were with her?

Easy books to pick up and put down and thankfully there are more to keep me in reading material.

SALVATION CREEK: SUSAN DUNCAN non fiction

Product Description
At age 44, Susan Duncan appeared to have it all. Editor of two of Australia's top selling women's magazines, a happy marriage, a jetsetting lifestyle covering stories from New York to Greenland, rubbing shoulders with Hollywood royalty, the world was her oyster. But when her beloved husband and brother died within three days of each other, her glittering life shattered. In shock, she zipped on her work face and soldiered on—until one morning 18 months later when she simply could not get out of bed. Heartbreaking, funny, and honest, this is the story of a woman who found the courage not only to walk away from a successful career and begin again, but to beat the odds in her own battle for survival and find a new life—and love—in a tiny waterside idyll cut off from the outside world. From the terrifying first step of quitting the job that had always anchored her to abandoning herself to a passionate affair, Duncan never flinches from the truth or loses her wicked sense of humor—even when she finds a paradise on earth only to discover that it may be too late.

Enjoyed it so much I ordered the follow up book. This was a gift from Tracey.

LEGACY OF THE DEAD: CHARLES TODD

From Library Journal
A sensitive approach, literate prose, and provocative situations mark Todd's latest addition to his Ian Rutledge series. Although recovered enough from World War I shell shock to function ably in his job with Scotland Yard, Ian still carries with him an internal voice of guilt named Hamish, a soldier he ordered shot for cowardice. When Ian investigates a possible murder in Scotland, the main suspect turns out to be the dead Hamish's intended, who seems destined for the gallows but will not betray a confidence. Very forceful emotional scenes ensue as Ian ferrets out the truth. A special treat for series and historical fans.

LA'S ORCHESTRA SAVES THE WORLD: ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH

Product Description
La's Orchestra Saves the World is another delightful story celebrating friendship and the healing power of music, told with the warmth and charm we've come to love from this favourite storyteller.

It's 1939 and the war in Europe casts a long, all-encompassing shadow. In a sleepy town in Suffolk, La, the generous and determined widow, forms an amateur orchestra to entertain the locals and soothe her own broken heart. She recruits Feliks, a refugee from Poland, to play the flute, and a touching friendship emerges. When the war is over and the orchestra disbands, La is left pondering her next move. What role can she play in her community now that the war is over? And can she let herself love again?

I'm not a fan of his other books but thought I'd try this one. It was ok but for some reason this author doesn't write stories that interest or hold me although he is very popular.

IN SEARCH OF IRELAND: H.V. MORTON

A wonderful look at Ireland just after the split north and south with historical details are a part of what makes Morton's work so enjoyable. I had an interesting time reviewing the now after reading the then ( 1930 ). I continue hunting down more of his work.

5 books

October part 1

2009-10-30T16:57:00.004-04:00

ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING REGINALD HILL

Product Description
The second book in the Dalziel and Pascoe series sends the two mismatched Yorkshire policemen among university students-a group for which Andy Dalziel has no great love. In fact, when he hears a dead body has been found on the grounds of Holm Coultram College, he thinks of it as a rather good start. This is 1971, and the police force does not enjoy the warmest of relations with the Ivory Tower. Nevertheless, Dalziel takes himself to college, where the single corpse is followed by another and then another, until even Dalziel is forced to admit that someone is going after the academic community with rather excessive zeal. As the investigation grows more complex, help arrives from some unexpected corners, Dalziel's callow young sergeant proves surprisingly insightful, and everyone involved gets some useful education.

Written in 1971 it still stands up. I'll keep going with this series and watch the changes.

THE COMPLAINTS: IAN RANKIN

Summary
Nobody likes The Complaints - they're the cops who investigate other cops. Complaints and Conduct Department, to give them their full title, but known colloquially as 'The Dark Side', or simply 'The Complaints'. It's where Malcolm Fox works. He's just had a result, and should be feeling good about himself. But he's a man with problems of his own. He has an increasingly frail father in a care home and a sister who persists in an abusive relationship - something which Malcolm cannot seem to do anything about.
But, in the midst of an aggressive Edinburgh winter, the reluctant Fox is given a new task. There's a cop called Jamie Breck, and he's dirty. The problem is, no one can prove it. But as Fox takes on the job, he learns that there's more to Breck than anyone thinks. This knowledge will prove dangerous, especially when a vicious murder intervenes far too close to home for Fox's

Oh no. Now I have to wait for the next Rankin. If you liked Rebus you'll like Fox.

BOMBPROOF: MICHAEL ROBOTHAM

Product Description
Sami Macbeth is not a master criminal. He's not even a minor one. He's not a jewel thief. He's not a safe-cracker. He's not an expert in explosives. Sami plays guitar and wants to be a rock god but keeps getting side-tracked by unforeseen circumstances.
Fifty-four hours ago Sami was released from prison. Thirty-six hours ago he slept with the woman of his dreams at the Savoy. An hour ago his train blew up. Now he's carrying a rucksack through London's West End and has turned himself into the most wanted terrorist in the country.
Fast, funny, hip and violent, Bombproof is a non-stop adventure full of unforgettable characters and a heart-warming hero - Sami Macbeth - a man with the uncanny ability to turn a desperate situation into a hopeless one.

Always nice to find a Michael Robotham novel. If you haven't read any of his works start at the first and move along to this one.

3 books

More October - month end tally

2009-10-30T16:32:00.006-04:00

FEDERATIONS : edited by JOSEPH ADAMS

Product Description
Edited by John Joseph Adams, editor of Wastelands and The Living Dead. From Star Trek to Star Wars, from Dune to Foundation, science fiction has a rich history of exploring the idea of vast intergalactic societies, and the challenges facing those living in or trying to manage such societies. The stories in Federations will continue that tradition, and herein you will find a mix of all-new, original fiction, alongside selected reprints from authors whose work exemplifies what interstellar SF is capable of, including Lois McMaster Bujold, Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, George R.R. Martin, L.E. Modesitt, Jr., Alastair Reynolds, Robert J. Sawyer, Robert Silverberg and Harry Turtledove. Additional authors: Alan Dean Foster, Kevin J. Anderson, Doug Beason, John C. Wright, Allen Steele, James Alan Gardner, Catherynne M. Valente

I read a good 2/3 of this collection. Short stories are not my favourite reading but this collection featured many of the authors I like and the stories chosen were quite good.

SEAWEED ON ICE: STANLEY EVANS

Product Description
Coast Salish street cop Silas Seaweed has his hands full. An elderly Jewish immigrant has disappeared. An old blind woman has been murdered. Valuable art stolen from German Jews during the Second World War has begun to show up for sale in Victoria's auction houses, and the word on the street is that collectors are planning to loot a priceless aboriginal archaeological site.

Another find from the newspaper reviews of Canadian mystery writers. This is the second in the series, the library does not have the first. Short, enjoyable and fun remembering all the streets we walked and places we visited in Victoria in 2008.

SEAWEED UNDER WATER: STANLEY EVANS

Coast Salish investigator Silas Seaweed is back in another suspenseful pageturner. What begins as a missingperson investigation takes a nasty turn when party girl Jane Colby is found drowned, strangulation marks around her neck. Silas soon discovers that some of Jane's friends would benefit by her death. Tackling the case with his usual intelligence, wit and compassion, he sets out to find Jane's killer. His search leads him to a dangerous family with disturbing secrets.

RETURN OF THE CRIMSON GUARD: IAN ESSLEMONT

Product Description
This is the second epic fantasy novel from the co-creator of the Steven Erikson world of Malaz.
The return of the mercenary company the Crimson Guard could not have come at a worse time for the Malazan Empire. Driven by constant warfare, weakened by betrayal and rivalries, many see the grip of Empress Laseen beginning to weaken as conquered kingdoms and principalities test their old independence.
Into this gathering civil war on Quon Tali, the Empire’s homeland comes the Guard. And with their return comes the memory of their hundred-year-old vow — undying opposition to the existence of the Empire. Yet rivalries and betrayals stalk the Guard as well; elements of its elite, the Avowed, scheme to open paths to even greater power, and ancient potent entities, Ascendants, also lend a hand exploiting all sides to further their own arcane ends.

Still hooked on the whole Malazan story so I'll continue reading until they get boring.

HER FEARFUL SYMMETRY: AUDREY NIFFENEGGER

Product Description
Another brilliant, original and moving novel from the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife.
Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers — normal, at least, for identical “mirror” twins who have no interest in college or jobs or possibly anything outside their cozy suburban home. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn’t know existed has died and left them her amazing flat in a building by Highgate Cemetery in London. They feel that at last their own lives can begin … but they have no idea that they’ve been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the OCD-suffering crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt’s mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them, and even to their aunt herself, who never got over her estrangement from the mother of the girls — her own twin — and who can’t even seem to quite leave her flat….

At times I wanted to rush because I really did want to see how it all ended but I managed to hold myself back. This is a good one!

5 books
Month end - 8
To date - 99

Movies:
Nausicaa anime
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time anime
My Neighbor Totoro anime
Whispers of the Heart anime
The Brothers Bloom .... the best con movie ever

Last for September

2009-09-30T21:02:00.005-04:00

THE MARRIAGE HEARSE: KATE ELLIS

Product Description
When Kirsten Harbourn is found strangled and naked on her wedding day, DI Wesley Peterson makes some alarming discoveries. Kirsten was being pursued by an obsessed stalker and she had dark secrets her doting fiance, Peter, knew nothing about. But Kirsten's wasn't the only wedding planned to take place that July day in South Devon. At Morbay register office a terrified young girl makes her wedding vows. And a few days later her bridegroom is found dead in a seedy seaside hotel. As Wesley investigates he suspects that his death and his bride's subsequent disappearance might be linked to Kirsten's murder. Meanwhile the skeleton of a young female is found buried in a farmer's field - a field that once belonged to the family of Ralph Strong, an Elizabethan playwright whose play, "The Fair Wife of Padua" is to be performed for the first time in four hundred years. Is this bloodthirsty play a confession to a murder committed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1? Or does it tell another story, one that might cast light on recent mysteries?

Last title my library has so this finishes the series for me.

TEST OF WILLS: CHARLES TODD

From Library Journal
Inspector Ian Rutledge, a British veteran of the Great War secretly still suffering from shell-shock, returns to his Scotland Yard job in hopes of exorcizing his private demons. However, a devious higher-up has learned of his Achilles heel and gets Ian assigned to a potentially explosive and career-damaging case,a murder involving a decorated war hero, a beautiful ward, and a shell-shocked witness. Strong, elegant prose; detailed surroundings; and sound plotting characterize this debut historical.

A new series found. Well plotted, good characters. I have the next one on reserve.

TILL THERE WAS YOU: LYNN KURLAND

Product Description
Zachary Smith is finished with high-maintenance women, impossible clients, and paranormal adventures. But when he walks through a doorway into a different century—and meets Mary de Piaget—he knows his life isn't going to turn out quite the way he planned.

One of the few "romance" novels I still read. I like the time travel aspect and I like the intertwining of main families throughout the series.

books:3

MOVIES:
State of Play... oh hum. The BBC mini series it based itself on was far superior in acting and story development.

Duplicity .. Julia Roberts, Clive Owen. Oh dear. Thankfully we got it free.

Xmen Origins Wolverine ... mindless fun.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button .. a tad long but better than I had expected from the previews

Lost In Austin ... delightful.

Month End: 13
To date : 91

Just one

2009-09-21T15:57:00.001-04:00

DANCING BACKWARDS: SALLEY VICKERS

By Prudence Patts (London, UK)
This is a brilliantly written story of Violet (Vi) Hetherington and a serious life error she made as a young woman, which is recalled as she crosses the ocean to visit the friend she betrayed. The novel unfolds in characteristic Vickers' style - spare, dry, acutely observed and often very funny,as well as poignant and frequently painful. The back story takes place in the sixties, when as a shy young student, convinced of her own insignificance, Vi meets Edwin, her teacher of literature who encourages her to write and they become firm friends. But another friend of Edwin arrives, a serpent in this garden of Eden, and the resulting catastrophe causes Vi to leave her life as a sucessful poet and settle for a safe but drab marriage. We feel both for the young, inexperienced Vi and her older, more melancholy self, whose shrewd eye appraises her fellow passengers but who also becomes, if unwillingly at first, engaged in their lives. Oh, and she learns to dance, which she is surprisingly good at, which leads to another plot theme. What is so enjoyable about this, as with all Vickers's novels, is that her acute observations and insights are never at the expense of her characters, or her readers. She has a wise and compassionate view of humanity, as befits her psychological background, but she is also huge fun. A great book to take on holiday as well as a serious novel.

A wonderful story, a powerful read. I loved every page.

1 book

Goodbye Torin and the Valor series

2009-09-20T10:50:00.003-04:00

HEART OF VALOR: TANYA HUFF

From Publishers Weekly
The fast-paced third military SF novel in Huff's Confederation series (after Valor's Choice and The Better Part of Valor) examines how an interplanetary confederation might unite several distinctive species into an effective military organization despite widely differing physiologies, customs and mores. Marine Gunnery Sgt. Torin Kerr, recovering from injuries suffered in a first contact situation, accompanies a recruit platoon into the Crucible, a training planet where they apply their lessons in a realistic live-fire exercise against robotic drones. While the exercise is underway, the drones begin acting aggressively, without regard to fail-safes or their programming. Has the platoon come under attack by the mysterious Others, or is this related to the alien escape pod that everybody has forgotten exists except for Torin, her lover and an obnoxious reporter? The intriguing and well-designed aliens and intricate plotting keep the reader guessing.

The adventure continues. I like the link between stories and by reading them so close together I haven't lost track. Didn't feel the other characters were as strong in this tale but Torin remains her wonderful self.

THE MERRY MISOGYNIST : COLIN COTTERILL

In poverty-stricken 1978 Laos, a man with a truck from the city was “somebody,” a catch for even the prettiest village virgin. The corpse of one of these bucolic beauties turns up in Dr. Siri’s morgue and his curiosity is piqued. The victim was tied to a tree and strangled but she had not, as the doctor had expected, been raped, although her flesh had been torn. And though the victim had clear, pale skin over most of her body, her hands and feet were gnarled, callused, and blistered.
On a trip to the hinterlands, Siri discovers that the beautiful female corpse bound to a tree has already risen to the status of a rural myth. This has happened many times before. He sets out to investigate this unprecedented phenomenon—a serial killer in peaceful Buddhist Laos—only to discover when he has identified the murderer that not only pretty maidens are at risk. Seventy-three-year-old coroners can be victims, too.

Having stumbled on this series several years back I look forward to each new installment. Mystery readers should check them out but read in order to get the full context of the characters and historical background.

THE SKELETON ROOM: KATE ELLIS

Product Description
When workmen converting former girls' boarding school, Chadleigh Hall, into a luxury hotel discover a skeleton in a sealed room, DI Wesley Peterson and his boss, Gerry Heffernan are called in to investigate. But within minutes they have a second suspicious death on their hands: a team of marine archaeologists working on a nearby shipwreck have dragged a woman's body from the sea. And it becomes clear that her death was no accident. The dead woman's husband may be linked with a brutal robbery of computer equipment but Wesley soon discovers that the victim had secrets of her own. As he investigates Chadleigh Hall's past and the woman's violent death, both trails lead in surprising directions and matters are further complicated when a man wanted for a murder in London appears on the scene, a man who may know more about Wesley's cases than he admits.

I think this series might do better with more time between readings. I'm getting a little jaded. Only one left at our library so I will read it and just wait to see if I come across the rest.

VALOR"S TRIAL: TANYA HUFF

Product Description
The "rousing military adventure" (Locus) continues with a brand new Valor novel.

Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr is a Confederation Marine's marine. She's survived more deadly encounters-and kept more of her officers and enlistees alive-than anyone in the Corps. Unexpectedly pulled from battle, Torin finds herself in an underground POW camp that shouldn't exist, where her fellow marine prisoners seem to have lost all will to escape. Now, Torin must fight her way not only out of the prison but also past the growing compulsion to sit down and give up-not realizing that her escape could mean the end of the war.

OH NO is this the end? I am going to miss Torin, her quick wit and raised eyebrow. I will miss the dialogue, the aliens, the marines even the annoying reporter. I just wish she hadn't used gray.

4 books

Some great, some good and a so-so

2009-09-13T13:39:00.004-04:00

VALOR'S CHOICE: TANYA HUFF

Book Description
In the distant future, humans and several other races have been granted membership in the Confederation--at a price. They must act as soldier/protectors of the far more civilized races who have long since turned away from war.

What a great character Huff has given us in Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr. I loved this book and congratulated myself on bringing home all four in the series so I could continue the adventure. Great story, great characters, fantastic dialogue and writing. I haven't had as much fun with a science fiction military series ranking this one above Weber's Honor Harrington series for pace and enjoyability.

THE BETTER PART OF VALOR

From Library Journal
When Staff Sergeant Torin Kerr makes the mistake of speaking her mind to a superior officer, she finds herself tagged for a special mission for the interplanetary Confederation to act as protector to a scientific exploratory team assigned to investigate an enormous derelict spaceship. Along with her crew and her charges, Kerr soon finds herself in the midst of danger and faced with a mystery that takes all her courage and ingenuity to solve. This sequel to Valor's Choice, featuring a gutsy, fast-thinking female space-marine protagonist, establishes veteran fantasy author Huff as an accomplished spinner of high-tech military-sf adventure

Torin's adventures continue at the same fast pace in a worth sequel. I love this Confederation world Huff has devised with it's different 'old' and 'new' races all well thought out and described. I just know I am going to be a little sad when I get to the end of the series but I am certainly enjoying it page by page.

NAAMAH'S KISS : JACQUELINE CAREY

Product Description
Once there were great magicians born to the Maghuin Dhonn; the folk of the Brown Bear, the oldest tribe in Alba. But generations ago, the greatest of them all broke a sacred oath sworn in the name of all his people. Now, only small gifts remain to them. Through her lineage, Moirin possesses such gifts - the ability to summon the twilight and conceal herself, and the skill to coax plants to grow.
Moirin has a secret, too. From childhood onward, she senses the presence of unfamiliar gods in her life; the bright lady, and the man with a seedling cupped in his palm. Raised in the wilderness by her reclusive mother, it isn't until she comes of age that Moirin learns how illustrious, if mixed, her heritage is. The great granddaughter of Alais the Wise, child of the Maghuin Donn, and a cousin of the Cruarch of Alba, Moirin learns her father was a D'Angeline priest dedicated to serving Naamah, goddess of desire.

Unless I have nothing else to read I don't think I will bother with this series. It was OK but I am getting tired of the same old same old sex bits, that don't really add anything to the story as far as I'm concerned.

SANTA OLIVIA: JACQUELINE CAREY

Publishers Weekly
Departing from epic fantasy (Kushiel's Dart, etc.), Carey sets this powerful near-future tale in Outpost 12, a small town trapped in a "buffer zone" shielding Texas from pandemic-stricken Mexico. Two half-siblings chafing under General Argyle's military rule make very different plans to beat the status quo. Tom, the son of a soldier, lives at the gym, where he trains in boxing and hopes to win his freedom from the town by defeating the general's boxing champion. Loup, who has inherited her escaped father's oddly engineered genes, joins a group of church wards called the Santitos, a tight gang of vigilantes who masquerade as the local saint, Santa Olivia. Carey's fans will enjoy meeting another strong, fearless heroine with special powers, while new readers will appreciate the tight focus that intensifies the depth of character and emotion.

I found it a quick read. Not A totally original storyline but decent enough plot and characters. I must be getting old because I find myself flipping past the sex scenes and will admit to finding same sex sex becoming just a trademark piece for the author....Oh gee, lets spice it up a notch.

THE BLOOD PIT: KATE ELLIS

Product Description
Never has DI Wesley Peterson witnessed such a bizarre crime scene. The victim, Charles Marrick, has been murdered, his body drained of blood. Described by those who knew him as 'evil', it seems that Wesley isn't going to have any shortage of suspects until a popular local vet is murdered in an identical fashion...and a third body is discovered many miles away. And when Wesley's archaeologist friend, Neil Watson, starts getting disturbing anonymous letters written in gory detail about macabre events at a medieval abbey which Neil fears are being sent by the killer Wesley is looking for Wesley wonders whether there could be a connection between all these deaths and Neil's letters.

Out of published order so some of the personal storyline for Peterson was a surprise but not a hindrance to the plot. I will read all the books I can locate at the library but won't worry about any missed.

5 books

Month End - August

2009-08-31T19:11:00.005-04:00

THE BONE GARDEN: KATE ELLIS

From Booklist
Past and present come together in Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson's latest case. In the course of restoring the gardens at historic Earlsacre Hall, three skeletons are uncovered. The bones appear to be centuries old, but they hold an interest for Peterson, whose degree is in archaeology. But despite the attraction of the skeletons, Peterson has more pressing concerns. A decomposing body with multiple stab wounds is found at a local campsite, and shortly afterward, the body of a local lawyer is discovered, his head bashed in by a cricket bat. Peterson's intuition tells him the two murders are connected, and he also suspects a link with Earlsacre, but he has no evidence to back up his hunches.

I finally get into sequence only to find the library does not own the next one and jumps some of the later ones as well. Pity, but I will read the ones they have. Not tired of them yet.

1 book
..........................

Month End :13

To Date : 78

Movies:
The Soloist - DVD .. I had my doubts about a film about a homeless man playing classical music after seeing the trailers but the film itself delivered much much more. Solid acting, good story line and not at all preachy.

The Hurt Locker -- theatre .. loved it. The hand held camera shake bothered me a little but the story and the character portrayal was intense enough to make up for it.

Race to Witch Mountain - DVD .. Entertaining fun with some good lines. It always amazes my how good an actor The Rock is.

Caprica -- DVD .. Seeing as I followed B Galactica on TV I figured I should see this. Not bad. Could turn into an interesting series,

Fast and Furious --DVD .. Lots of cars, lots of crashes. Mindless entertainment but don't watch the extras on making of. Ruins all the stunts.

I Could Never Be Your Woman--DVD .. Got it from the library only because I like Michelle Pfeiffer. Lots of laughs thanks to a decent script. Hubby didn't cringe in horror so not totally a chickflick.

The International--DVD .. Again one that was better than the trailers led me to believe. Fantastic use of architecture, colours and cinematography. Finally a thriller without the lead actors having an affair. Smart script. Directed by Tom Tykwer.

2009-08-30T13:36:00.000-04:00

THE ENCHANTMENT EMPORIUM: TANYA HUFF I really liked this one!

Alysha Gale is a member of a family capable of changing the world with the charms they cast. Then she receives word that she's inherited her grandmother's junk shop in Calgary, only to discover upon arriving that she'll be serving the fey community. And when Alysha learns just how much trouble is brewing in Calgary, even calling in the family to help may not be enough to save the day.

Much much more interesting than this makes it sound. A new way of looking at witches, dragons and magic. I loved it and hope there are more in the series. This is my favourite work of hers so far.

THE FUNERAL BOAT: KATE ELLIS

Ellis' fourth book featuring Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson is cleverly plotted and competently written, providing an engaging glimpse of what life is like for the average small-town British cop. Daily life in Tradmouth, Devon, is usually relatively calm, even for a copper, but that isn't the case this summer. Identifying the skeletal remains found in a field outside town and finding the gang of thieves who are robbing isolated farms in the area are more than enough to keep Peterson and his partner, Inspector Gerry Heffernan, busy. But when a visiting Danish woman is abducted and her brother is killed, the pair really have their hands full. Fortunately, Wesley's keenly analytical mind and ability to charm confessions out of even the most reluctant perp, combined with Heffernan's experience, give the copper's all the tools they need to set matters right. The skeleton, which belongs to one of the hordes of Danes who invaded England in 997, produces the most interesting story line in pleasantly entertaining and engaging procedural.

I'll get into order soon but I needed to read something so I skipped ahead to what I had on hand. Light reading, decent little mysteries. Better than a lot of the works out there.

THE FIFTH HARMONIC: F. PAUL WILSON

The Fifth Harmonic is the story of Will Burleigh, a hard-nosed M.D. When he is diagnosed with throat cancer he faces a gut-wrenching decision: undergo massive radiation and radical surgery that will leave him permanently disfigured or trust his life to the mysterious and beautiful Maya, a woman who claims she can heal him-but at what cost? A fast-paced thriller.

Not really. Lots of ideas but a nothing new involved. Don't bother unless new age and crystals appeal to you. Don't click on the book..I saved the photo wrong.

AN UNHALLOWED GRAVE: KATE ELLIS

From Publishers Weekly
In her third mystery featuring Trinidadian police sergeant Wesley Peterson, Ellis proves herself once again adept at linking a contemporary British police procedural to a crime from centuries in the past that neatly parallels the present-day murder. When the body of Pauline Brent, a doctor's receptionist, turns up hanging from a yew tree in Stokeworthy churchyard, Wes and his colleagues of the Tradmouth (Devon) police soon determine that she was initially strangled. But who would want to murder Pauline, who by all reports had led a blameless life? While Wes and his team interview people who knew the victim, who mysteriously doesn't have much of a past, an archeological dig unearths the 500-year-old skeleton of a young woman whose broken neck suggests that she was hanged. As the police draw closer to identifying Pauline's killer, 15th-century legal documents just as suspensefully reveal an ancient miscarriage of justice. Besides providing a clever dual mystery, Ellis humanizes her characters with glimpses into their reassuringly ordinary personal lives. (Wes's wife, Pam, for instance, worries about finding child care for their newborn son.) This is a series that just gets stronger with each new book.

As you can see I'm still at this series as the books arrive from the library. With their size, pace and the ability to be put down and picked up during the day, they make good reading to have in the house.

4 books

2009-08-22T14:05:00.002-04:00

A CLUBBABLE WOMAN : REGINALD HILL

Home from the Rugby club after taking a nasty knock in a match, Connon finds his wife even more uncommunicative than usual. After passing out on his bed for five hours, he comes downstairs to discover communication has been cut off forever - by a hole in the middle of her forehead.
Down at the club, passions run high, on and off the field.This is a home game for Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel who knows all the players, male and female. But Sergeant Peter Pascoe, whose loyalties lie with another code, has a few ideas of his own.

Where it all began back in the 1970's. A decent start to the series so I am on to the next one.

IN SEARCH OF WALES: H.V. MORTON

Singularly susceptible to Celtic romance and history, H. V. Morton goes In Search of Wales and finds equal delight in climbing Snowdon (inclement weather aside) and going down a coal mine.

Bustling with intriguing local stories and characters, Morton's fascinating account reaches from the scenic grandeur of the north to the domestic beauty of the industrial south.

In the Vale of Clwyd it rains 'with grim enthusiasm', while at the Eisteddfod in Bangor, he is 'slightly worried by the trousers of bard and druid, which are visible for a few inches below their gowns. Father Christmas has this same trouble with his trousers'.

Anecdotal, leisurely, full of character and event, insight and opinion, this is travel writing of the very highest order.

The library found me a 1960's copy at an out of town library. This one thankfully still had the maps inside making his route. Very helpful. Again I became totally involved in the people and the history as Morton lays it out in the 1930's. It's interesting in itself and as a look back at the times and social attitudes.
I will continue to search out more.

THE CALLING: INGER ASH WOLFE

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This bracingly original mystery from the pseudonymous Wolfe opens with the grisly slaying of an elderly cancer sufferer in Port Dundas, a remote Ontario town that has gone years without a homicide. The murder hits at a particularly tough time for 61-year-old Det. Insp. Hazel Micallef, who's struggling to come to terms with a surprise divorce and battles daily with her acerbic 87-year-old mother. A serious staff shortage and an injured back add to the department commander's woes. A second, even more disturbing killing raises the ante for Micallef, who's already doubtful she can solve the first case. As Micallef marshals her forces, Wolfe fans the already high suspense by cutting between them and their elusive quarry. With the body count climbing, the detective puts herself increasingly at risk in a desperate attempt to foil the grand, demented plan that the killer regards as a mission. Billed as a prominent North American literary novelist, Wolfe convincingly lays claim to a new mantle as a first-rate crime writer.

It was so-so. Predictable and I found it rather annoying reading fake names for places and a police force set here in Ontario. This author will not be on my "keep reading" list.

THINGS I WANT MY DAUGHTERS TO KNOW: ELIZABETH NOBLE

When Barbara realizes time is running out, she writes letters to her four daughters, aware they'll be facing the trials and triumphs of life without her at their side. But how can she leave them when they still have so much growing up to do? Take Lisa, in her midthirties but incapable of making a commitment; or Jennifer, trapped in a stale marriage and buttoned up so tight she could burst. While twentysomething Amanda is the traveler, always distanced from the rest of the family. And Hannah. A teenage girl on the verge of womanhood, about to be parted from the mother she adores. But by drawing on the wisdom in Barbara's letters, the girls might just find a way to cope with their loss. And in coming to terms with their bereavement, can they also set themselves free to enjoy life with all the passion and love each deserves?

I read the beginning, I skimmed the middle and I read the end. Not a new story, nothing new for characters. Another author that I won't be reading again.

THE MERCHANT'S HOUSE; KATE ELLIS

Detective Sergeant Wesley Peterson''s first day finds him investigating the death of a young woman who may be connected to a kidnapped child. As the suspense builds, a strange parallel emerges between his case and the two skeletons found in the ruins of a 17th century merchant''s house. With stellar characterizations and sharp plotting, readers will find themselves completely swept up in this virtuoso mystery, the ending of which is as satisfying as is shocking.

The above description is a little over the top but the book was certainly entertaining and enjoyable. It fits into the light fast read category. This is a series that I will be continuing. It helps that it's set in Devon an area I found truly lovely when we visited England.

5 books

2009-08-16T15:04:00.002-04:00

THE DARK RIVER: JOHN TWELVE HAWKS
From Publishers Weekly
At the start of the engrossing second entry in bestseller Twelve Hawks's Fourth Realm trilogy (after The Traveler), the Brethren continue to control civilization through a computerized information system, the Vast Machine, and a host of offshoot surveillance technologies. Opposed to the Brethren are the Travelers, an ancient clan with the mystical ability to slip in and out of several dimensions. The Travelers are guarded by Harlequins, a warrior caste with sharp swords and ferociously lethal skills. In the Cain and Abel story at the book's heart, the quest of two Travelers, brothers Gabriel and Michael Corrigan, to find their legendary father has split them irrevocably: Gabriel fights for the forces of good, Michael has turned to the dark side. A love story featuring Gabriel's beautiful, deadly but conflicted Harlequin bodyguard, Maya, adds human interest to an often superhuman tale, and Gabriel's out-of-body journey to a horrifyingly fascinating parallel world adds a particularly compelling component to a saga that's part A Wrinkle in Time, part The Matrix and part Kurosawa epic. Given the complicated plot and complex setting, readers are advised to read The Traveler first. (July)

I had read the first novel, The Travelers, when it first came out and although I found it interesting enough I hadn't bothered keeping track of the author for the rest. I found the second one on the shelves at the library while looking for something to read and brought it home. Not great, not bad and I do have #3 on reserve.

DARKNESS AT THE STOKE OF NOON: DENNIS RICHARD MURPHY

Product Description
RCMP Sergeant Booker Kennison knows more dirt than an officer should and has been exiled by his superiors to duty in Yellowknife. When a flash fire claims the lives of two archaeologists at a dig on remote Victory Island in Nunavut, Kennison is dispatched to investigate in a cold wilderness where winter's grip and 24-hour darkness are closing in fast.

Ruby Cruz, ex-FBI agent, is also on her way north, sent to protect the interests of the American corporation that funded the dig. Those interests include Dr. Karl Kniesser and a 160-year-old journal he has secretly cut from the clothing of a frozen corpse. The journal contains the secrets of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition and may hold the key to controlling the Northwest Passage today. But when Ruby arrives, she finds Kniesser dead and the prized journal missing.

As the ice moves in and supplies grow scarce, Kennison confirms that the two deaths are murders, and the hunt for their killer begins -- until Kennison himself becomes a target of a secretive assassin lurking in the barren landscape. Threatened from all sides, Kennison must solve two mysteries before time and light run out.

This one I really enjoyed. I would have continued on with this character to see what developed with his back story but the author died and alas, this is a one and only. The location went a long way in making this a good story as well as the use of historical fact .. and fiction.

THE PRICE OF BUTCHER'S MEAT: REGINALD HILL aka - A Cure For All Diseases

From Publishers Weekly
In Hill's solid 23rd Dalziel and Pascoe procedural set in Yorkshire, Det. Supt. Andy Dalziel doesn't see much of his longtime colleague, DCI Peter Pascoe, because Dalziel is recovering from the serious injuries he suffered in Death Comes for the Fat Man (2007) in the quiet resort of Sandytown. When the charred corpse of wealthy Lady Daphne Denham turns up in a revolving basket that had been used for a pig roast in Sandytown, the two policemen pursue largely independent investigations. Much of the background to Denham's demise comes from e-mails that in spots may puzzle those unfamiliar with e-mail jargon. More deaths follow before Hill offers a final twist that's unlikely to catch experienced genre readers by surprise. The crotchety Dalziel's chafing at the restrictions at the convalescent home where he's staying provides some amusing distraction from the somewhat leisurely crime solving. Newcomers might better start with earlier books in the series.

Now I have to ask myself why I waited so long to read R. Hill. I have seen his books around but just never bothered until this one followed me home from the library. It was thick and I needed something to read ( none of my reserve are coming through fast ). Hoping that his previous books featuring Dalziel and Pascoe are as entertaining I have reserved the very first in the series and look forward to an almost endless supply of reading.

3 books

Month End - July

2009-07-31T14:08:00.003-04:00

Month end: 10

To Date: 65

July DVD
The Bank Job
Rebus 3
Knowing
Push
Doubt
Watchmen
Rumor Has It

A bit of this and that

2009-07-29T16:40:00.004-04:00

BY HERESIES DISTRESSED: DAVID WEBER
Book 3 in series.......Now the battle for the soul of the planet Safehold has begun. The Kingdom of Charis and the Kingdom of Chisholm have joined together, pledged to stand against the tyranny of a corrupt Church. The youthful Queen Sharleyan of Chisholm has wed King Cayleb of Charis, ..... and has found in Cayleb's arms the love she never dared hope for in a 'marriage of state. ' In Cayleb's cause, his defiance of the ruthless Group of Four who govern mother Church, she has found the task to which she can commit her mind and her courage. It is a cause for which she was born. Yet there are things Sharleyan still does not know. .... Secrets like the true story of humanity on Safehold. Like the intricate web of lies, deception, and fabricated 'religion' which have chained humanity for almost a thousand years..... Like the existence of a young woman, Nimue Alban, nine hundred years dead, whose heart, mind, and memories live on within the android body of the warrior-monk she knows as Merlin.

I thought this might be a trilogy and I'd be reading an ending but it was not to be. I have no idea how many books will be in this series but I will hang in til the end although I find myself doing some skip-reading. You need to read these in order for anything to make full sense.

QUEEN OF THE FLOWERS: KERRY GREENWOOD
Crime strikes close to home in this latest installment of Greenwood's charming series (The Castlemaine Murders, etc.) featuring 1920s Aussie amateur sleuth, Phryne Fisher. While the town of St. Kilda prepares for the 1928 Flower Parade, Phryne's adopted daughter, Ruth, disappears after learning her father's identity from her birthmother, Anna Ross. Phryne adds Ruth to her caseload, which coincidentally includes the search for another missing young woman, Rose Weston. As with other series entries, the solution to the mystery is secondary to the author's clever prose and gift for characterization. Phryne carries the action ably, even if her resourcefulness and unflappability sometimes border on the superhuman. The engaging cast of familiar supporting characters—including Phryne's maid, Dot, and her Chinese lover, Lin Chung—will delight longtime fans, but newcomers who like their crime on the lighter side can jump in without any trouble.

Fast easy reading and it's not really necessary to read them in order although as long as you aren't a stickler for fitting all the characters into the narrative..ie Ruth.

STILL WATERS: JOHN MOSS
Review
"Moss spins a mystery that sparkles with dynamic setting … with vivid pictures, resonant insights and a spin on mystery storytelling that is as multilayered as it is beautiful, Moss teases us down the path to resolution. Still Waters is a mystery told by a storyteller par excellence and is not to be missed." (Don Graves, The Hamilton Spectator ) This is the review I read and prompted my putting in a reserve at the library.

This psychological mystery introduces David Morgan and Miranda Quin, two maverick and culturally sophisticated Toronto police detectives. When a man is found dead in a garden pond in the wealthy heart of Toronto's Rosedale neighbourhood Morgan is lead into speculations about Japanese ornamental koi fish, and Quin into a chilling sequence of revelations that could destroy her. But the real mystery begins not with the deceased but with a woman who walks onto the crime scene and without emotion declares herself to be the victim's mistress. From that point on everything changes, even the past.

GRAVE DOUBTS: JOHN MOSS

"Summertime demands a really good, grisly mystery, and John Moss, in his [second] novel featuring Toronto detectives Miranda Quin and David Morgan, delivers the goods ... The plot is really solid here, but it's also fun to follow the cops along the byways of Toronto and then up to Georgian Bay. Grave Doubts is a great weekend-at-the-cottage novel."- - Margaret Cannon Globe and Mail Jun 13 "... John Moss has produced an elliptical dance of words ... a couple of hundred pages of puzzlement, suspicion, illumination and confusion that take Quin and Morgan all over the Southern map ... For those willing to suspend their disbelief from very high rafters, however, and who are intrigued by slippery depictions of shifting relationships, radical demonstrations of loyalties and disloyalties, and lots of interesting allusions and bits of ancillary information, it has a kind of hypnotic delight." -- The London Free Press Jun 13
The discovery of two headless corpses dressed in colonial clothing and locked in a grisly embrace draws Detectives Miranda Quin and David Morgan of the Toronto Police Service into a Gothic mixture of sex and death that ultimately threatens their survival.
What if the difference between good and evil is only perception?

Enjoyed the first so went right for the second. A bit of a drawn out finish that left me soggy but worth sticking with it. I'll watch for more of their adventures. I like Quin and Morgan.

THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE: ALAN BRADLEY
In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. It is the summer of 1950—and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia’s family calls home. A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. “I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn’t. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life.”

Reading the reviews in the paper pays, this was another book I'd have missed otherwise. Quirky and fun. I like Flavia and her sisters.

5 books

2009-07-20T20:41:00.002-04:00

IN SEARCH OF SCOTLAND: H.V. MORTON

As enjoyable as his England book. The history and the day to day information he manages to cram into his books, all done with a great flourish, make Morton very readable today. The problem now is finding others at my library. I have inter library loan forms filled in and ready to hand request.

RAISINS AND ALMONDS: KERRY GREENWOOD

Phryne Fisher loves dancing, especially with gorgeous young Simon Abrahams. But Phrynes contentment at the Jewish Young Peoples Society Dance is cut short when Simons father asks her to investigate the strange death of a devout young student in Miss Sylvia Lees bookshop located in the Eastern Market.

A tad over done.

THE PRICE OF LOVE AND OTHER STORIES: PETER ROBINSON

Best known — and much admired — for his long-running and bestselling Inspector Banks series, Peter Robinson is also widely and highly praised by mystery mavens for his riveting short stories.
Robinson’s versatile talent is on full display in the twelve stories that comprise his latest short story collection, The Price of Love and Other Stories. Spellbinding plots, suspense that grips and won’t let go, utterly unpredictable twists, psychological truths both sweet and scary, characters you’d like to meet (and some you’d hope never to encounter), all set in places that are characters themselves — these are the fundamentals of story and mystery that Robinson plays like the virtuoso he is.

I'm not a great lover of short stories and will admit that I read all the Banks on offer and skimmed several of the others.

THE COLD LIGHT OF MOURNING: ELIZABETH J. DUNCAN

Duncan, the first Canadian winner of the Minotaur/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel competition, lulls readers with her soothing prose and depiction of small-town life in Wales and then startles them with a shocker of a denouement. Readers who enjoy Louise Penny, another Canadian mystery author of note.

Light and predictable but I will be watching for more by this author. Readable and decent characters.
CASTLE: J. ROBERT LENNON

From The New Yorker
When Eric Loesch returns to the small town in upstate New York where he was reared, he dutifully describes life there in meticulous detail: the woman who sells him his dilapidated house and its six hundred and twelve acres, the hardware store he visits, the large outcropping of rock he can see from his bedroom window. And when he discovers that this rock in the center of his view marks a tiny patch of land that is not, legally, his, and that the owner’s name has been blacked out on the property deed, he decides to fill the gap in the official record. Meanwhile, the reader is wrestling with the narrator’s own troubling omissions: Why does Eric hate his sister? Why can he remember so little of his childhood, and why won’t the woman in the hardware store sell him a gun? As Lennon investigates the lethal consequences of failing to question authority, what begins as a claustrophobic tale of suspense gradually becomes an indictment of national policy.

Decidedly different from anything I've read lately but I found myself unable to put it down. The mix of almost fantasy and then the cold horror as the book comes to an end is very well handled. I picked up an earlier novel by this author at the library today.

5 books

2009-06-30T10:37:00.005-04:00

FLYING TOO HIGH: KERRY GREENWOOD

Walking the wings of a Tiger Moth plane in full flight would be more than enough excitement for most people, but not for Phryne-amateur detective and woman of mystery, as delectable as the finest chocolate and as sharp as razor blades. Here the 1920s' most talented and glamorous detective flies even higher, handling a murder, a kidnapping, and the usual array of beautiful young men with style and consummate ease-and all before it's time to adjourn to the Queenscliff Hotel for breakfast. Kerry Greenwood's Phryne Fisher series was called "the best Australian import since Nicole Kidman" in Booklist's starred review of Away With the Fairies. Kerry Greenwood is the author of 38 novels and six non-fiction books.

Perfect reading for a hot summer day. I'll be checking out more of her adventures and hopefully finally figure out how to pronounce her first name.

IN SEARCH OF ENGLAND: H.V. MORTON .. non-fiction

From the travel writer whom Jan Morris has called "the much-loved master of the genre, often imitated but never matched." H. V. Morton peerlessly evokes the sights, the splendors, and the drama of history for tourists and armchair travelers alike.

Currently in its 40th printing with its original publisher in the UK, this is the book that one British newspaper has called "travel writing at its best. Bill Bryson must weep when he reads it." Whether describing ruined gothic arches at Glastonbury or hilarious encounters with the inhabitants of Norfolk, Morton recalls a way of life far from gone even at the beginning of a new century.
First published in 1927 this book is like a time machine. I had a great fun looking up terms and words and I checked websites to see how things compared today. My library doesn't have all his books but I will be reading as many as I can find. Great fun!

THE CROSSING PLACES: ELLY GRIFFITHS

Dr Ruth Galloway is in her late 30s. When she's not digging up bones or other ancient objects, she lectures at a university in Norfolk. She lives, alone but happily so, in a bleak, marshy area called Saltmarsh overlooking the sea and Norfolk's vast skies with her cats and Radio 4 for company. She's a salty character - quirky.
When a child's bones are found in the marshes, near a dig that Ruth and her former boyfriend Peter worked on ten years before, Ruth is called upon to date them. They turn out to be bronze-age bones and DCI Harry Nelson, who called on Ruth for help, is disappointed. He had hoped they would be the bones of a child called Lucy who's been missing, presumed dead, for ten years. He has been getting letters about her ever since - odd letters with references to ritual and sacrifice, and including quotes from the Bible and Shakespeare. Then a second girl goes missing and Nelson gets another letter - like the ones about Lucy. Is it the same killer? Is it a ritual murder, linked in some way to the site near Ruth's remote home? Then one of Ruth's cats is killed and clearly she's in danger from a killer who knows that her expert knowledge is being used to help the police with their enquiries -

Another one of those lucky finds that was worth opening the cover. I'm going to be waiting for the next one.

.................................
3 books
month end: 8
to date: 65

June DVD:
Music and Lyrics
The Reader
Ghost Town
He's Just Not That Into You
No Reservations
Changeling
Revolutionary Road
Defiance
Bolt
Gran Torino
Owning Mahoney
Bottle Shock
Inkheart

Terminator Salvation..theatre

2009-06-25T15:39:00.003-04:00

Gone Tomorrow: Lee Child

New York City. Two in the morning. A subway car heading uptown. Jack Reacher, plus five other passengers. Four are okay. The fifth isn’t.
In the next few tense seconds Reacher will make a choice–and trigger an electrifying chain of events.
Susan Mark was the fifth passenger. She had a lonely heart, an estranged son, and a big secret. Reacher, working with a woman cop and a host of shadowy feds, wants to know just how big a hole Susan Mark was in, how many lives had already been twisted before hers, and what danger is looming around him now.

In a novel that slams through one hairpin surprise after another, Lee Child unleashes a thriller that spans three decades and gnaws at the heart of America . . . and for Jack Reacher, a man who trusts no one and likes it that way, it’s a mystery with only one answer–the kind that comes when you finally get face-to-face and look your worst enemy in the eye.

I'm still enjoying the Reacher novels. This one had a few gory bits and the odd " well of course" moments but nothing to make me walkway.

The Household Guide to Dying: Debra Adelaide

Delia has made a living writing a series of hugely successful modern household guides. As the book opens, she is not yet forty, but has only a short time to live.

She is preoccupied with how to prepare herself and her family for her death, from writing lists to teaching her young daughters how to make the perfect cup of tea. What she needs is a manual – exactly the kind she is the expert at writing. Realizing this could be her greatest achievement she sets to work. But, in the writing, she is forced to confront the ghosts of her past and she realizes that there is a journey she needs to make and one last vital thing she needs to do.

Absolutely loved it. Cried great big tears.

How to Buy A Love of Reading: Tanya Egan Gibson

Carley Wells, nearly 16, has reportedly never met a book she likes. Aghast, her nouveaux riches parents decide that their daughter needs a "passion," and so to ensure that she does not remain intellectually impoverished, they commission a previously under appreciated writer to live at their estate and write a book to Carley's specifications. As she finds herself drawn into the story being assembled, Carley's life is dramatically altered. Complications persist in the form of Hunter, Carley's F. Scott Fitzgerald-obsessed best friend bent on self-destruction, and Bree, the hired novelist now separated from her previous existence. From the opening sentence of this strongly sardonic satire, Gibson's debut, it is clear that nothing is sacred. Whether examining trendy charity functions or the muted morals of the so-very-rich, her acerbic, acidic book is right on the money. The major surprise is that the novel also has a heart, and Carley leaps off the page as the most real character. Gibson's inventive language also enlivens this overly long novel; especially winning is the construction of the novel-within-the-novel.

Some reviewers didn't care for the style of this book. I found it easy to read, loved the satire and found the characters true enough.

Courts of the Sun: Brian D'Amato

A mind-bending, time-bending, zeitgeist-defining novel about the days leading up to December 21, 2012--the day the Maya predicted the world would end

December 21, 2012. The day time stops. Jed DeLanda, a descendant of the Maya living in the year 2012, is a math prodigy who spends his time playing Go against his computer and raking in profits from online trading. (His secret weapon? A Mayan divination game--once used for predicting corn-harvest cycles, now proving very useful in predicting corn futures--that his mother taught him.) But Jed's life is thrown into chaos when his former mentor, the game theorist Taro, and a mysterious woman named Marena Park, invite him to give his opinion on a newly discovered Mayan codex.
Marena and Taro are looking for a volunteer to travel back to 664 AD to learn more about a "sacrifice game" described in the codex. Jed leaps at the chance, and soon scientists are replicating his brain waves and sending them through a wormhole, straight into the mind of a Mayan king...
Only something goes wrong. Instead of becoming a king, Jed arrives inside a ballplayer named Chacal who is seconds away from throwing himself down the temple steps as a human sacrifice. If Jed can live through the next few minutes, he might just save the world.

Bringing to mind Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon and Gary Jennings's Aztec, yet entirely unique, In the Courts of the Sun takes you from the distant past to the near future in a brilliant kaleidoscope of ideas.

Started off loving it but there are segments that go on and on and on and if you can flip read through it works. Lots of pop references that I enjoyed but I'm not sure I can wade through 2 more installments unless they edit out a lot of the material that while possibly of historic interest, adds pages and pages to an already wordy author.

.

The Sugar Queen: Sarah Addison Allen

Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds her closet harboring Della Lee Baker, a local waitress who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey’s narrow existence quickly expands. She even bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who is hounded by books that inexplicably appear when she needs them—and who has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush. Soon Josey is living in a world where the color red has startling powers, and passion can make eggs fry in their cartons. And that’s just for starters.

Garden Spells is another of her novels both are light reading with a hint of magic.

5 books

FINAL MAY

2009-06-01T13:19:00.003-04:00

THE LAST GOOD DAY

Joanne Kilbourn is on holiday at a cottage borrowed from a lawyer friend, one of a cluster of summer homes owned by lawyers from the same prestigious firm. When one of them kills himself the night after a long talk with Joanne, she is pushed into investigating just what her neighbours are involved with, an investigation that has startling – and fatal – consequences.

Bowen’s depiction of this community of lawyers, each in his or her way now divorced from the ideals of justice and mercy that once motivated them all, is both compassionate and hard-nosed. There is Zack, the charming but controlling paraplegic; Blake and Lily, whose daughter, Gracie, struggles to keep her dignity as her parents’ marriage falls apart; Noah, who would rather practise carpentry than the law, and his wife, Delia, who is consumed by worry about the firm. The mounting stress among these lawyers is palpable as Joanne delves into their lives. And Joanne faces her own personal anxieties too when she discovers that her former lover, Inspector Alex Kequahtooway, is mixed up in what seems to be some very sordid legal business.

THE ENDLESS KNOT

When journalist Kathryn Morrissey’s sensational book on the lives of thirteen adult children of prominent Canadians is published, one of the parents, Sam Parker, is furious enough to take a pot shot at the author, grazing her shoulder. Charges are laid, and Joanne’s new beau, Zack Shreve, is hired by Parker as his defence counsel. On the day of the verdict, Morrissey is brutally murdered, and Joanne’s investigation quickly has her trying to unravel the endless knot of the relationship between parent and child.

THE BRUTAL HEART

With a general election just weeks away, Joanne Kilbourn is following the campaign of Ginny Monaghan, a woman who has her eyes set on the leadership of the federal Conservative Party and whose success depends, not so much on the election-day poll, but on the outcome of a custody battle she’s fighting with her ex. Joanne thinks this is perfect material for a TV program she’s putting together on women and party politics. Happy to be back in the political fray that used to be her life during her first marriage, Joanne is soon also glad of the distraction it provides. A local call girl has been murdered — a woman whose regular clientele included several of Regina’s most prominent lawyers, including — until he met Joanne — her own husband, Zach Shreve.

Her new marriage creaking under the strain of this revelation, Joanne throws herself into her project — and into finding out why the dead woman had started to threaten her clients with blackmail, an investigation that leads to the truth — and to death.

Finally up to date with all the Gail Bowen novels. I felt compelled to finish before moving on to any other titles. Only fault I can find is with some continutity in the last novels. Minor points but certainly noticeable when you read them back to back. I will be watching to see if any new stories hit the shelves.

May DVD:
Marley and Me
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
The Secret Life of Bees
Fever Pitch
Valkyrie
Frost/Nixon
PS I love you
Midnight at the Museum
Theatre:
Star Trek

3 books
Month end: 12
To date: 57

2009-05-24T20:51:00.002-04:00

DAEMON: DANIEL SUAREZ

Originally self-published, Suarez's riveting debut would be a perfect gift for a favorite computer geek or anyone who appreciates thrills, chills and cyber suspense. Gaming genius Matthew Sobol, the 34-year-old head of CyberStorm Entertainment, has just died of brain cancer, but death doesn't stop him from initiating an all-out Internet war against humanity. When the authorities investigate Sobol's mansion in Thousand Oaks, Calif., they find themselves under attack from his empty house, aided by an unmanned Hummer that tears into the cops with staggering ferocity. Sobol's weapon is a daemon, a kind of computer process that not only has taken over many of the world's computer systems but also enlists the help of superintelligent human henchmen willing to carry out his diabolical plan. Complicated jargon abounds, but most complexities are reasonably explained. A final twist that runs counter to expectations will leave readers anxiously awaiting the promised sequel.

I did gloss over some of the techie stuff but it certainly didn't distract from a really good story. It wasn't until I was almost done that I realized that there had to be at least one more book coming. So much left to learn, and enjoy. Highly recommend this one.

BURYING ARIEL: GAIL BOWEN

Joanne Kilbourn is looking forward to a relaxing weekend at the lake with her children and her new grandchild when murder once more wreaks havoc in Regina, Saskatchewan. A young colleague at the university where Joanne teaches is found stabbed to death in the basement of the library.Ariel Warren was a popular lecturer among the students and staff, and her violent death shocks – and divides – Regina’s small and fractious academic community.

Having read the first group of novels out of order I am now reading in order. Not totally necessary but it does make it more interesting following Jo, her family and friends in chronological order. These books are fast, uncomplicated enjoyable reads.

THE GLASS COFFIN: GAIL BOWEN

Canada’s favourite sleuth, Joanne Kilbourn, is dismayed to learn who it is that her best friend, Jill Osiowy, is about to marry. Evan MacLeish may be a celebrated documentary filmmaker, but he’s a cold fish who not only has already lost two wives to suicide, but has exploited their lives – and deaths – by making acclaimed films about them. Not even Jill appears to be particularly fond of him, and Jo is appalled to learn that her friend is marrying Evan primarily to become stepmother to his teenaged daughter, Bryn. . It’s obvious to Joanne that this is stony ground on which to found a marriage. What is not obvious is that it is about to get bloodsoaked.Gail Bowen has given us her best novel yet. Brimming with the author’s characteristic empathy for the troubled, The Glass Coffin explores the depth of tragedy that a camera’s neutral eye can capture – and cause.

Harsher than some of her others and rather creepy in spots but that made it all the more enjoyable. I have the next in line waiting.

3 books

2009-05-20T19:43:00.004-04:00

BOCA KNIGHTS: STEVEN M. FORMAN

Product Description
In a debut novel sure to both excite passions and elicit laughter, a different kind of hero emerges in that most unlikely criminal hotbed: Boca Raton. Eddie Perlmutter is capable of fighting with fearless frenzy, but only does so to defend the defenseless. Eddie’s career as a much-honored Boston cop has come to an end. At sixty, he’s still energetic and virile, but decades of harsh New England winters and collaring the pug-uglies of Boston’s underworld have taken their toll—especially on his knees. So what does a lonely, retired cop with arthritic knees do? Head to sunny Florida, of course. Country-club politics and early-bird specials are a far cry from the street toughs, scuffles, and arrests of his former life. But some things never change. Instead of enjoying a relaxed, laid-back retirement, Eddie quickly discovers the darker side of Boca Raton’s endless sun and palm trees, where hate crimes, counterfeiting, and worse lurk beneath the deceptively calm surface of cushy retirement communities. With his no-nonsense crime-fighting skills and roll-with-the punches attitude, Eddie hits Boca Raton like of a Nor’easter from Hell, fast, fresh, and unstoppable. A compulsively readable comic thriller with an egalitarian message that will inspire readers of all ages, Boca Knights will have readers in stitches and keep them on the edge of their seats.

A pick from the new book shelf that turned out to be a good read. Bits near the end were a little over done but no overall complaints other than having to wait for the next one.

WAKE: ROBERT J. SAWYER

From the Publisher
Caitlin Decter is a typical teen—smart, pretty, and wired ... but she's also blind. She undergoes an experimental procedure to regain her sight and the results are unexpected. She "sees" but not just the way we do—for her the world wide web is a riot of colours and shapes, its own dimension. While exploring it, she finds an "other" lurking there—and it finds her, seeing what she's seeing and learning as she learns. But that's not where it ends ...

Great premise but large parts of it were just plain silly, especially the dialogue he gave the "other". Worse part is I'll probably have to scan read future books just to see where he is taking the storyline.

ANGELS OF DESTRUCTION; KEITH DONOHUE

Product Description
Keith Donohue’s first novel, The Stolen Child, was a national bestseller hailed as “captivating” (USA Today), “luminous and thrilling” (Washington Post), and “wonderful...So spare and unsentimental that it’s impossible not to be moved (Newsweek. His new novel, Angels of Destruction, opens on a winter’s night, when a young girl appears at the home of Mrs. Margaret Quinn, a widow who lives alone. A decade earlier, she had lost her only child, Erica, who fled with her high school sweetheart to join a radical student group known as the Angels of Destruction. Before Margaret answers the knock in the dark hours, she whispers a prayer and then makes her visitor welcome at the door.

The girl, who claims to be nine years old and an orphan with no place to go, beguiles Margaret, offering some solace, some compensation, for the woman’s loss. Together, they hatch a plan to pass her off as her newly found granddaughter, Norah Quinn, and enlist Sean Fallon, a classmate and heartbroken boy, to guide her into the school and town.

Their conspiracy is vulnerable not only to those children and neighbors intrigued by Norah’s mysterious and magical qualities but by a lone figure shadowing the girl who threatens to reveal the child’s true identity and her purpose in Margaret’s life. Who are these strangers really? And what is their connection to the past, the Angels, and the long-missing daughter?

Angels of Destruction is an unforgettable story of hope and fear, heartache and redemption. The saga of the Quinn family unfolds against an America wracked by change. As it delicately dances on the line between the real and the imagined, this mesmerizing new novel confirms Keith Donohue’s standing as one of our most inspiring and inventive novelists.

Loved it. Can't say enough about the writing skill, the character development or the story itself. I almost hugged the book when I was done. Counts as a favourite.

THE EARLY INVESTIGATIONS OF JOANNE KILBOURN: GAIL BOWEN

Product Description
Award-winning mystery writer Gail Bowen’s first three masterful mysteries featuring amateur sleuth Joanne Kilbourn are now collected in a single volume. In Deadly Appearances, a successful politician sips his water before a speech at a picnic on a sweltering August afternoon and, within seconds, he is dead; in Murder at the Mendel, Joanne’s childhood friend may have a far more complicated, far more sordid, and far more deadly past than Joanne knows about; and in The Wandering Soul Murders, a centre for street kids holds a dark and disturbing secret, forcing Joanne to act when her own children are drawn into a web of intrigue that will leave you breathless.

Finally read the first novels and I can no proceed in order to the finish. Light but enjoyable mysteries with the main character and family evolving enough to keep the ho hum another dead body, feeling away.

6 books

2009-04-30T16:06:00.004-04:00

FALL OF OSSARD: COLIN TABER

Ossard is falling... Juvela is different. Growing up in a city of Merchant Princes, she discovers that she can see what others can't: The very currents of the celestial are open to her, and that includes the dark truths they hide. Has Juvela been cursed with Witches' Kiss - or perhaps something worse? Yet, more is to come, for Juvela is about to become forsaken, and that's before she learns the real truth of not just the crimes plaguing Ossard's bloody streets, but the wider world. Ossard is falling - falling into the realm of Death. Doom is coming.

This book is currently available at Amazon.com and in Australia. It is a fantasy novel by a chap I came to know on Sara Douglass' Bulletin Board. When he started writing this story he would send me first drafts to read and comment on. Well he's turned what I at first found confusing into a very readable story that moves along at a nice pace. Now I just have to wait to find out what happens next.

THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN: KATE MORTON

A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book -- a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-first birthday they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and with very little to go on, "Nell" sets out on a journey to England to try to trace her story, to find her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell's death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled. At Cliff Cottage, on the grounds of Blackhurst Manor, Cassandra discovers the forgotten garden of the book's title and is able to unlock the secrets of the beautiful book of fairy tales.

I preferred the story in The House at Riverton ( see March 28th review). I did like the main characters and I did like the story idea but I thought it wondered away from the main focus at times. Morton does handle her time shifts well and I will be keeping an eye open for any further titles.

2 books

Month end: 15
To date:45

April DVDs: (12)
Night in Rodanthe, Son of Rambo, Twilight, Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Passchendaele, Rent, Quantum of Solace, Slumdog Millionaire

The Tale of Despereaux, The Day the Earth Stood Still, War Inc., Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont

2009-04-28T11:16:00.003-04:00

THE FURTHER INVESTIGATIONS OF JOANNE KILBOURN: GAIL BOWEN (CDN)
Product Description
This second Gail Bowen omnibus contains her next three masterful mysteries featuring Canada’s favourite amateur sleuth, Joanne Kilbourn. In A Colder Kind of Death, a prisoner is shot to death in the exercise yard of a Saskatchewan penitentiary, and Joanne becomes a suspect when his wife is found strangled; in A Killing Spring, the School of Journalism where Joanne teaches becomes a world of deceit and fear when one of its teachers is found dead in a seedy rooming house; and in Verdict in Blood, Joanne is asked to help solve the case of a tough judge who is found battered to death in a park. ..count as three

I've know about this author for several years and finally have started reading her works. The first 3 novels are on reserve at the library and once I read those I will continue in order up to the present. Extremely readable and enjoyable.

COUNTING HEADS: DAVID MARUSEK
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This extraordinary debut novel puts Marusek in the first rank of SF writers. Life on Earth in 2134 ought to be perfect: nanotechnology can manufacture anything humans need; medical science can control the human body's shape or age; and AIs, robots and contented clones do most of the work. If only there were a way to get rid of the surplus people. When Eleanor Starke, one of the major power brokers, is assassinated, her daughter's cryogenically frozen head becomes the object of a quest by representatives of several factions, including Eleanor's aged and outcast husband, a dense zealot for interstellar colonization, a decades-old little boy and husband and wife clones who are straining at the limitations of their natures. Marusek's writing is ferociously smart, simultaneously horrific and funny, as he forces readers to stretch their imaginations and sympathies. Much of the fun in the story is in the telling rather than its destination—which is just as well, since it doesn't so much come to a conclusion as crash headlong into the last page. But the trip has been exciting and wonderful.

Weirdly enthralling. At times I wasn't sure if I liked it but I knew I had to finish it. Full of interesting ideas.

MIND OVER SHIP: DAVID MARUSEK
Product Description
The year is 2135, and the international program to seed the galaxy with human colonies has stalled as greedy, immoral powerbrokers park their starships in Earth's orbit and begin to convert them into space condos. Ellen Starke's head, rescued from the fiery crash that killed her mother, struggles to regrow a new body in time to restore her dead mother's financial empire. And Pre-Singularity AIs conspire to join the human race just as human clones, such as Mary Skarland and her sisters, want nothing more than to leave it. Welcome to Mind Over Ship , the sequel to Marusek's stunning debut novel, Counting Heads.

Lighter and less interesting in some ways but still worth reading to the end. I will keep watching for any others by this author.

FROM THE ASHES: TIMOTHY ZAHN
is the official prequel novel to the high-octane new movie, revealing the full story leading up to the movie’s events.
In post-Judgment Day LA, two lost kids named Kyle and Star keep watch for Terminators; a jaded Marine struggles to keep his rag-tag community together in the face of unrelenting danger; and John and Kate Connor assemble their Resistance team for a brutal assault on a deadly enemy.

Not great but I am a Terminator fan. I had to actually buy this.! I had run out of things to read and made a bookstore run.

6books

2009-04-18T13:45:00.004-04:00

The Faded Sun Trilogy: CJ Cherryh
will never be listed among the absolute greats of the science fiction genre, but it does bring a touch of originality and intelligence, enough to be well worth reading. The story, as you can read on the back cover, follows a race of alien warriors known as the Kel, who hire out as mercenaries on space going missions for other species. While they have long been viewed as the greatest soldiers in the galaxy, they are losing a war against humanity, who they view as fighting without honor.

However, the war between humans and the Kel is not the main focus of this book. The majority of the story focuses on the journey undertaken by surviving Kel to find their forgotten homeworld, and in a larger sense on their species' struggle to find purpose and meaning in a world that no longer seems to value them. The portions of the trilogy that are written from an alien perspective are the best parts, a fascinating exploration of a society built on completely different assumptions than our own.

Writing throughout the trilogy is first-rate. Cherryh provides good, spare, efficient descriptions of landscapes and scenery, and she makes good use of dialogue in a huge variety of situations. The total amount of storytelling that's covered in just three short books is rather remarkable. Also, the thought-provoking, philosophical portions of the books are worked well into a story that also has plenty of entertainment value. While it's true that there isn't non-stop action, each novel does have a stirring conclusion, and there are some surprising twists and turns that will keep you reading. (unknown reviewer)
The Kesrith 1978
The Shon'Jir 1978
The Kuthath 1979

I liked it. I will probably read it again. I hate that I have read the best of her works and have nothing left.

Enclave: Kit Reed
In this gripping dystopian satire, ex-marine Sargent Whitmore has a plan to make millions while protecting children from the self-destructing modern world. He turns an old Mediterranean monastery into a combined impenetrable fortress and school, and enrolls 100 filthy-rich children, most of them already well-known for legal troubles, drug problems and paparazzi run-ins. Once there, everyone is cut off from the outside world, fed only canned news stories about wars and natural disasters. When things inevitably go horribly wrong, young hacker "Killer" Stade, physician assistant Cassie, drug and sex-crazed Sylvie and monastery-raised orphan Benny all attempt heroics, but remain deeply flawed. Reed (The Baby Merchant) displays unflinching willingness to explore all the facets of all of the characters, and her refusal to paint anyone as a simple villain makes this far more than a typical disaster novel.

Pure luck pick from the library shelf. Different enough to keep me turning pages.

The Mystery of Grace: Charles De Lint
On the Day of the Dead, the Solona Music Hall is jumping. That's where Altagracia Quintero meets John Burns, just two weeks too late. Altagracia – her friends call her Grace – has a tattoo of Nuestra Señora de Altagracia on her shoulder, she's got a Ford Motor Company tattoo running down her leg, and she has grease worked so deep into her hands that it'll never wash out. Grace works at Sanchez Motorworks, customizing hot rods. Finding the line in a classic car is her calling. Now Grace has to find the line in her own life. A few blocks around the Alverson Arms is all her world -- from the little grocery store where she buys beans, tamales, and cigarettes (“cigarettes can kill you,” they tell her, but she smokes them anyway) to the record shop, to the library where Henry, a black man confined to a wheelchair, researches the mystery of life in death – but she’s got unfinished business keeping her close to home. Grace loves John, and John loves her, and that would be wonderful, except that John, like Grace, has unfinished business – he’s haunted by the childhood death of his younger brother. He's never stopped feeling responsible. Like Grace in her way, John is an artist, and before their relationship can find its resolution, the two of them will have to teach each other about life and love, about hot rods and Elvis Presley, and about why it's necessary to let some things go.

The ending got a little heavy in belief systems but wrapped up the story well. Not bad, not great.

Undress Me In The Temple Of Heaven: Susan Jane Gilmore (non fiction)
While this memoir from Gilman appears to be a saucy account of international sexcapades, it quickly reveals its whip-smarts, sucking you into a story that brilliantly captures the "ecstatic terror" of gleefully leaping from your comfort zone--and finding yourself in freefall. It's 1986, and newly minted ivy league grads Susy and her friend Claire have never left the U.S. when (inspired by a "Pancakes of Many Nations" promotion during a drunken night at IHOP) they hatch a plan to circle the world, starting in China, which has just opened to tourists. From the moment of arrival, they're out of their depth, perpetually hungry, foolish, and paranoid from relentless observation. Claire, who carries the complete works of Nietzsche "like a Gideon Bible," seems more capable than Susy until encounters with military police, hallucinatory fevers, and a frantic escape from a squalid hospital expose cracks in her psyche that utterly derail their plans. Rich with insight, dead-on dialogue, and canny characterization, Gilman's personal tale nails that cataclysmic collision of idealism and reality that so often characterizes young adulthood. Be prepared to wolf down the final hundred pages in one sitting. --Mari Malcolm

I enjoyed this and it pinpoints all the reasons I prefer good hotels and preset travel arrangements.

Wings of Wrath" C.S. Friedman
Product Description
Wings of Wrath is the second novel in C. S. Friedman's Magister trilogy— a true high fantasy replete with vampire-style magic, erotic action, war, treachery, sorcerous danger, and one of the most terrifying dragon-like creatures in fantasy. Against a backdrop of knife-edged politics and fearsome prophecies, those who are sworn to protect the human lands must discover the truth that lies at the heart of ancient legends, and find a way to defeat an enemy that once brought mankind to the very brink of destruction.

Vampire?? only in the broadest sense. Guess the V word is a drawing card these days. This is the book I won at Pat's Fantasy site along with a copy of the first book...Feast of Souls.
I am looking forward to the continuation of this series

7 books

2009-03-31T17:59:00.004-04:00

Not quite finished my current book so it will have to wait til next month to be counted.

Month end: 11 books
To date: 30

2 movies on DVD... Dan in Real Life, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist : neither spectacular but enjoyable enough. Paul watched Zack and Miri make a Porno, I lasted 5 minutes so it doesn't count on my list.

2009-03-28T22:02:00.004-04:00

THE HOUSE AT RIVERTON : KATE MORTON
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This debut page-turner from Australian Morton recounts the crumbling of a prominent British family as seen through the eyes of one of its servants. At 14, Grace Reeves leaves home to work for her mother's former employers at Riverton House. She is the same age as Hannah, the headstrong middle child who visits her uncle, Lord Ashbury, at Riverton House with her siblings Emmeline and David. Fascinated, Grace observes their comings and goings and, as an invisible maid, is privy to the secrets she will spend a lifetime pretending to forget. But when a filmmaker working on a movie about the family contacts a 98-year-old Grace to fact-check particulars, the memories come swirling back. The plot largely revolves around sisters Hannah and Emmeline, who were present when a family friend, the young poet R.S. Hunter, allegedly committed suicide at Riverton. Grace hints throughout the narrative that no one knows the real story, and as she chronicles Hannah's schemes to have her own life and the curdling of younger Emmeline's jealousy, the truth about the poet's death is revealed. Morton triumphs with a riveting plot, a touching but tense love story and a haunting ending.

original title: The Shifting Fog

Loved it. I read each page slowly enjoying the authors use of words. Her characters, especially Grace shone and she parceled out bits of information at just the right rate to keep the book flowing.
"Reluctance to begin is quick to befriend procrastination" ..... neat huh!

Her next book, The Forgotten Garden is on my reserve list at the library and can't wait.

STEAL ACROSS THE SKY : NANCY KRESS
Publishers Weekly:
Nebula and Hugo-winner Kress (Dogs) presents a fascinating mystery in classic SF style. The alien Atoners come to Earth with a startling message: some 10,000 years ago, they committed a crime against humanity, kidnapping human beings and establishing colonies on 14 other planets. Now they are asking for 21 human Witnesses to travel to those distant worlds and uncover the nature of their crime. Cam, Lucca and Soledad head to the double planets of Kular A and Kular B, worlds where life is cheap but may not end at the moment of death. The knowledge that they bring back changes civilization dramatically. Though the novel is somewhat marred by an over-hasty conclusion that leaves a number of plot threads dangling, Kress's philosophical explorations will keep readers hooked and thoughtful.

Interesting premise and well enough written to keep me going to the end. I agree about the over-hasty conclusion but I'm not sure how she could have done it any differently without dragging it on too long.

We'll Always Have Paris: Ray Bradbury
A collection of short stories that I found myself flipping through. I am not a fan of short story collections but I always try anything Bradbury puts out. He was one of the first sci/fi writers I read and I feel a certain loyalty to him.

Gate of Ivrel by CJ Cherryh : ho hum til near the end. I have the next 2 books but I'm not rushing to read them. So did Stargate steal the idea of gates from her or.......

The Pride of Chanur by CJ Cherryh : decent enough featuring alien races but again the next few novels will have to wait til I get desperate.

2009-03-18T13:15:00.003-04:00

A World Too Near - Kay Kenyon

From Publishers Weekly: The fate of two universes hangs in the balance in this intricately plotted sequel to Bright of the Sky (2007). To sustain the constructed universe called the Entire, the alien Tarig have built the engine of Ahnenhoon, designed to turn the Rose—Earth's universe—into a power source. Earth's survival depends on pilot Titus Quinn's plan to destroy the engine, but ambitious scientist Helice Maki claims Titus may instead use the mission to seek his missing daughter, Sydney, lost somewhere in the Entire. Successfully scheming her way into accompanying Titus, Helice plots to steal his nanotech weaponry and grab power from the Tarig. Titus's only hope may be his wife, Johanna, captured 10 years ago by the Tarig, who has slowly taught herself enough about the engine to have a chance of disabling it. Tangled motivations, complex characters and intriguing world-building will keep readers on the edges of their seats.

I revisited this book after hearing the next was excellent. When I had first started this second in the series I lost interest fairly quickly. It must have been my mood because this time I got pull in and read through without a problem.

Regenesis - CJ Cherryh

The direct sequel to the Hugo Award- winning novel Cyteen, Regenesis continues the story of Ariane Emory PR, the genetic clone of one of the greatest scientists humanity has ever produced, and of her search for the murderer of her progenitor - the original Ariane Emory. Murder, politics, deception, and genetic and psychological manipulation combine against a backdrop of interstellar human societies at odds to create a mesmerizing and major work in Regenesis. Who did kill the original Ariane Emory? And can her personal replicate avoid the same fate? Those questions have remained unanswered for two decades - since the publication of Cyteen. Now in Regenesis those questions will finally be answered.

Loved it. I'm glad I found and read Cyteen first and I am sad that the adventure is over. I'd be quite happy if she came up with another novel using Ari and company.

Friend of the Devil - Peter Robinson

From Publishers Weekly: In Robinson's stunning 17th suspense novel to feature DCI Alan Banks (after 2006's Piece of My Heart), Banks and his on-again-off-again partner and lover, Det. Insp. Annie Cabbot, race to piece together a string of brutal murders. While on loan to a sister precinct, Cabbot investigates the gruesome death of a paraplegic woman found on a desolate cliff with her throat slit. Back in Eastvale, North Yorkshire, Banks and his team discover the body of a young woman who has been raped and strangled in a shady area of town known as the Maze. At first, there are no obvious connections between the two attacks, but when Cabbot uncovers the chilling identity of the woman on the cliff, she and Banks must once again confront sadistic serial killers Terry and Lucy Payne, last seen in Aftermath (2001). Banks and Cabbot are flawed but empathetic heroes, and readers will be on the edge of their seats as the two explore not only the depths of human depravity but also their own murky relationship.

Aftermath was the one I didn't read because of the subject matter but it didn't detract from this novel. I found myself thinking...ok, a stretch there and gee, no surprise at times.

Alternate Realities - CJ Cherryh

Long out of print, these three acclaimed novels are among Cherryh's personal favorites. The Court of Camelot lives again in "Port Eternity". Invisible alien life inhabits the planet Freedom in "Wave Without a Shore". Finally, in "Voyager in Night", a human space crew's collision with an alien ship ends in death -- and rebirth.

Port Eternity was the easiest to read. The other demanded full attention. I thought they could dragged in the middle but the endings were worth hanging if for.

All the Colours of Darkness - Peter Robinson

When the body of a man is discovered hanging from a tree in the woods near Eastvale, all signs point toward suicide. At least that's what it initially looks like to Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot.
The man is soon identified as Mark Hardcastle, the set and costume designer for the local amateur theater company. Mark was successful and well liked in the community, but enough remains mysterious about his background that suicide isn't completely out of the question. But when Mark's older and wealthier lover is discovered bludgeoned to death in his home, Annie begins to think differently. Could it have been a crime of passion, or did overwhelming grief lead to a man taking his own life? Increasingly confounded, she calls in the vacationing Chief Inspector Alan Banks—even if it means prying him away from his new girlfriend.
Once on the investigation, Banks finds himself plunged into a case where nothing is as it seems. More and more his own words about the victim's latest production, Othello, are coming back to haunt him, for "jealousy, betrayal, envy, ambition, greed, lust, revenge—all the colors of darkness" are quickly becoming his world as well.

A little over the top plot wise. I preferred the earlier and mid books to the last few. Not to say I won't be watching for any new ones.

IRISH TWEED - Andrew Greeley

At the start of Greeley's spirited 12th Nuala Anne McGrail novel (after 2008's Irish Tiger), his feisty heroine delivers a black belt kick to the unlikable new principal's stomach in a schoolyard brawl involving all four of her children. Solving the bullying problem at St. Joe's isn't the only challenge facing Irish-born Nuala and her adoring husband, Dermot Michael Coyne. They must also figure out who beat and threw Finnbar Burke, the "nice fella" with whom their shy, golden-haired nanny has fallen in love, into the Chicago River. Interspersed with the present-day action is the poignant story of an Irish girl who came to America after all her immediate family died in the famine of 1875. While some readers may feel Greeley dwells too much on Nuala and Dermot's joyous sex life and overdoes the Irish dialect, few can resist the charm of these colorful, warm characters and the author's sympathetic view of the Irish of Chicago.

I've read them all. Lightweight but usually a good read. This one missed the mark for me a bit, it felt a bit disjointed. Read it to the end so it held my interest enough.

DNF:
Storm from the Shadows: David Weber I had just hopes but it was boring so I took it back to the library. I really like the Honor Harrington books but this Honorverse tale failed.

The Rest Falls Away: Colleen Gleason A vampire book that I had ignored but felt I should look at after reading some good reviews. I didn't make it past the first chapter.

Heavy Time ... a Cherryh I didn't like

Dream Warrior: Sherrilyn Kenyon Oh well. Some of her plots/characters work better for me.

2009-02-28T17:42:00.009-05:00

Library Journal RIMRUNNERS
Bet Yeager's shady past remains a carefully guarded secret aboard the spaceship Loki. Set in the same universe as Cyteen and Downbelow Station, Cherryh's latest novel captures the acute sense of claustrophobia of men and women under pressure.

Not great but not bad. Adds a bit more detail to the whole Alliance/Union/Company saga. Characters play their parts well and the storyline has some interesting bits.

The X Files..I want to believe. ho hum. Little better than one of the average TV shows.

Burn After Reading: The end was the best. I really disliked the use of the F word .. it felt like a work count add on.

..............

Month end: 7 books - 6 of them Cherryh
5 movies on DVD

to date...19 books, 12 movies on DVD

2009-02-23T13:58:00.006-05:00

C.J. Cherryh's Union-Alliance novels, while separate and complete in themselves, are part of a much larger tapestry-a future history spanning 5,000 years of human civilization.
Downbelow Station is the book that won Cherryh a Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1982. A blockbuster space opera of the rebellion between Earth and its far-flung colonies, it is a classic science fiction masterwork.

What an imagination she has. Again reading out of order has done no harm. It's rather fun reading the start of a storyline that you've completed in a later novel. Not tired of the series yet.

I haven't been reading as much this month but I've watch movies:

Leatherheads - with George Clooney and Renee Zellwinger a so-so football movie. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379865/

Definitely Maybe - a better than average romantic/comedy. Good script. Decent acting http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0832266/

Wanted - pure fun. It was strange hearing James McAvoy with an American accent http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493464/

State of Play - A 6 part Brit TV series centred around politics and newspapers that was excellent.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362192/

And last but not least the things I didn't finish:
Heir to Sevenwaters - Juliet Marillier continuing from Sevenwaters trilogy I had read all the previous books in this series but just couldn't develop enough interest in the characters or story to read to the end.

Brideshead Revisited DVD - found it dreary and poorly acted so turned it off.

Sergeant Cribbs..brit series DVD - overacting and poor sound put an end to this

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day DVD - frantic mad dash attempt at a 1930's style romp that didn't make it at all.

Aftermath - Peter Robinson - female abuse and murder that was a little too realistic, having some foundation in a gruesome case that happen in our area back in the 90's.

2009-02-18T17:19:00.006-05:00

HAMMERFALL: C.J. Cherryh
....unaware that his seemingly immortal ruler, the Ila, has used nanotechnology to control their lives and modify their bodies for survival on their harsh planet. Marak Trin Tain, the outcast son of a desert bandit who unsuccessfully contested the Ila's rule, suffers from a terrifying form of madness. Like many others in this world, he sees visions and feels an almost overwhelming desire to walk out into the desert, heading blindly toward the east. When the Ila captures Marak, instead of executing him, she decides to send him (and a company of other madmen and women) on a desperate mission to discover the source of the obsession that draws them across their world. Unbeknownst to him, however, his civilization, indeed all life on his planet, is on the brink of destruction. Although this book may take place in a different universe from that of Cherryh's much praised Alliance-Union novels, it features her usual blend of gorgeous, slightly knotty prose, deeply conflicted heroes, desperate action and nicely observed cultural details. The first volume in her Gene Wars series, it leaves a number of loose threads to be tied up in later volumes, but is, in and of itself, an entirely satisfying novel.

I read the second of the series Forge of Heaven first ( see Jan. 18 entry) but in some ways it made reading this book more interesting. They are disconnected enough by time and story line that they are a compliment rather than a following-along. Cherryh adds enough science to keep your interested as well as setting up plots and characters that certainly keep me reading.

WHAT I DID FOR LOVE: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Phillip makes old Hollywood gossip new again in this over-the-top, hot-under-the-sheets rom-com. Sitcom Skip and Scooter co-stars Georgie York, who like her character exudes spunky charm, and Bram Shepard, whose upbringing couldn't be more different from the nice boy he plays, hate each other even before Bram's offscreen sexual escapades lead to the sitcom's cancellation. Flash forward eight years: his career has cratered, and her biggest accomplishment has been briefly marrying hunky star Lance Marks, who abandons her for sex-goddess-turned-international-do-gooder Jade Gentry. So when Bram and Georgie wake up from a Vegas bender and find themselves married to each other, they make the most of it: Georgie aims to undo the damage Lance has done to her heart and her public image, while Bram is gunning for a second chance at life, love and stardom. It's a blast to watch the hate-each-other-yet-made-for-each-other couple as they duck paparazzi or spar before falling into bed. In this massively entertaining romp, redemption is always possible, and even a fake Hollywood couple trapped in a pretend marriage might find true love.

I've been reading Phillips since her first paper back book was published. Her stories always contain a fast talking, engaging heroine in some rather funny and/or awkward situation. The dialogue is always fast and snappy, the situations are often hilarious and the men are always hunks. Some books interconnect with side characters from one becoming the main character in another. Good fluff.

CYTEEN: C.J. Cherryh

The spying, brainwashing, training tapes, and coercion run amok at Reseune, the city-sized laboratory on Cyteen where almost-human azi are grown and trained. Warped young scientist Justin and his azi, Grant, depend on each other for support. Little Ari Emory depends on her own azi: nursemaid Nellie and bodyguards Florian and Caitlin. In Cyteen: The Rebirth, the second part of the Cyteen trilogy, Ari learns why her life has been more unusual than some and why her mother was whisked away when she was 7 years old. She is a clone; and as if that weren't enough, her whole life is a laboratory experiment, an attempt to recreate the keen mind and cruel personality of the original Ariane Emory by recreating her past in Ari's present. As she grows older and wiser, Ari battles with her politically-minded relatives, Reseune powers-that-be, her responsibility to her azi, and plain old teenaged angst.

I have the 3 book set seen...three cheers for used bookstores... above but there it was also published all together. I really enjoyed this one. There were times I had to stop and reread a line or passage and times I had to find a quiet spot...I found concentration to detail important in following the full scope of the story. There is a continuation of this story coming out now and I can't wait to find out what happens next.

cherryh

Month End

2009-01-31T11:44:00.004-05:00

Final January DVD: THE DUCHESS. The Duke wasn't the horror I had expected after some of the reviews I read..a man of his times most likely.. and I really don't see why some made the Princess Di. comparison. On the whole a decent movie with great costumes and wonderful sets. There's something to be said for movies that can use the old homes and building in the UK.

Series: BLUE MURDER set 2. and I've started another Cherryh book.

I'm going to be keeping a monthly tally this year

12 books
7 movies on DVD

****

I did a quick approximate count for 2008

60 books
84 DVDs
6 movies at the theatre