Inspirations

Deviant by Adrian McKinty

2011-10-21T14:20:00.003-05:00

Anyone that knows me, knows that when Adrian McKinty comes out with a new book, I hardly move from my reading chair until I've finished it, even if it is a young adult book. I hate putting his books down and moving out of his almost poetic form of writing back into the real world that generally consist of chaos. Deviant hit me a bit different however. It hit a bit close to home in some of it's content, weather it was supposed to or not.

Deviant is the story of Danny Lopez, whose family moves to Colorado when his mom is promoted at work. Suddenly, he finds himself thrown into an experimental new school where no one is allowed to talk, including teachers, except while reading the scripted lessons being taught. Not only is school strange, but someone is killing cats and leaving them in odd places that demand to be noticed. As Danny and his new friends decide to figure out who is doing the killing, they discover people aren't at all who they thought.

So what struck me about that? One thing was the school. I have 2 kids myself that go to public school, I work part time at one of their schools, and am very involved with both in any way I can be. I hate the politics of it, and as outrageous as the school system that was in the book was, if it got test numbers up, I could see the government, or powers that be, going for it. It was ridiculous, yes, but so are several ways the school politicians fool us into believing their system is working.

The other thing that struck me was the view of religion put in the book. Since I live in the middle of the "Bible Belt", religion is everywhere, and I can see the book being almost offensive here because of the mere mention of Focus on the Family, and Christianity in general, in a negative light. In all honesty, I'm now a bit curious and wouldn't mind spending some time in Colorado just to see how justified the negative impressions are.

Of course, with McKinty's books, you always get more than you expect. Thrown in with the story of a new boy at an odd school trying to catch a cat killer, you have many tidbits of fun. Japanese culture, space, old Si-fi movies, and art all appear in bits and pieces. It's a bit like reading an abbreviated form of the authors blog at times, which I always enjoy.

Plugged by Eoin Colfer

2011-09-29T16:57:00.000-05:00

Like a lot of people, I know Eoin Colfer from his Artemis Fowl series, and, having listened to one on audiobook, I was eager to read his first adult novel, Plugged. I admit, I wasn't sure how it would work out, but I hoped that Mr. Colfer would be able to pull off that mix of suspense and humor. He did. The story was both dark and humorous, and full of dialogue that makes you miss both Raymond Chandler and Ken Bruen at the same time. I hated for it to end.

From the side flap:

Daniel McIvoy, an Irish bouncer at a seedy New Jersey club. Dan has a problem. Well, he has several, but the worst is that the girl he loves was just murdered. Then more people around him start dying, and not of natural causes.

Suddenly Dan's got the mob, cops, and an unstable lovesick neighbor after him, and the only clue points toward the crooked doctor who gave him hair implants before vanishing into thin air. Luckily-or perhaps not so much-he has the help of a volatile detective, a permanently hungover army psychologist, and a mischievous ghost.

I will say that mischievous ghost was a nice touch. Having been to a question and answer book signing with Eoin Colfer, and hearing that he really enjoys writing YA novels because he can add that bit of the supernatural, I was glad he was able to fit that into his adult novel story also. I will also say that that book signing was one of the most enjoyable I've been to, since the author had some really great stories to tell. (One of them involving duct tape and kids he happen to be directing in a play. Working at an elementary school myself, I could relate.)

And, as it happens, you can win a free signed copy of Plugged over at Crime Always Pays. Enjoy and good luck.

Absolute Zero Cool and Buried Secrets

2011-09-12T07:38:00.006-05:00

I'm in shock this morning as everyone left the house for work or school and I find myself with some time to actually sit down on the computer and blog. I think it seems like forever since that has happened, or, at least since school let out last spring. It's been an insane summer with a lot of changes going on in out family and reading time, much less blogging time, has all but been abolished. Somehow, none the less, I have managed to work my way through a couple of books amid the insanity. Both of these books deserve their own post but seeing as how I'm not sure when I'll have time to sit down and type again, I'm going to take the safe route and just get it all out now. A little recognition is better than none after all, right?

Lets start with Declan Burke's Absolute Zero Cool since I just finished it and it's relatively fresh in my mind. The main thing I thought when I finished the last page of Declan's latest was "that was the most unusual, twisted book I've ever read". And that's saying something considering some of the books I tend to read. I think what made it so different for me was that instead of the story focusing on the murder/mystery plot, it focus' on the insane rationality of the main character's musings. In the beginning, I admit, it took a bit of getting used to to figure out who was who and exactly how it was going to work, but it does work. The gist of it, I think, is a character in the authors book, appears and convinces the author to re-write the book the character is in while the character is writing part of the book. Clear as mud? I promise, it makes sense once you get into it. The plot however, goes something like this:

“Close it down, blow it up – what’s the difference?”

Billy Karlsson needs to get real. Literally. A hospital porter with a sideline in euthanasia, Billy is a character trapped in the purgatory of an abandoned novel. Deranged by logic, driven beyond sanity, Billy makes his final stand: if killing old people won’t cut the mustard, the whole hospital will have to go up in flames.

Only his creator can stop him now, the author who abandoned Billy to his half-life limbo, in which Billy schemes to do whatever it takes to get himself published, or be damned . . .

amidst all of the twistedness thought, that bit of wry Irish humor manages to sneak in, like this rant about Tuesday that I will now think of every time something goes wrong on a Tuesday.

All of these creatures need to defecate. Sooner or later, the works gum up. Everyone waits until the porter hoses out the Augean edifice. Then it all starts again.

I like to call this process "Tuesday."

Everyone has a thing about Mondays, but Mondays do their best.

Tuesdays are evil.

Tuesday is Monday's Mr. Hyde, lurking in the shadows and twirling its luxuriant mustache. Tuesdays take Friday the 13ths out into the car park and set their feet on fire, just to see the fuckers dance. If Tuesday was a continent it would be sub-Saharan Africa: disowned, degraded and mean as hell.

Tuesdays are in a perpetual state of incipient rebellion. I can feel it. Tuesdays want to be Saturday nights, and a few pancakes once a year aren't going to keep them sweet forever. When it all blows up in your face, don't say you weren't warned.

We have chained Tuesdays too tightly, allowed them no time off. We have taken no notice of Tuesday's concerns about working conditions. Tuesday is Samson, blind and furious, his hair growing back by imperceptible degrees.

You have been warned.

The union rep is on the phone, so it must be Tuesday.

It continues on for a couple more pages, but you get the idea. I really like that particular rant.

Ok, so I've gone on about Absolute Zero Cool more than what I intended, but like I said, the book deserves it own blog.

Joseph Finder's Buried Secrets was another one I managed to sit down and read. Unfortunately, I finished it some time ago and with all of the distractions in my life, I honestly mainly remember liking it, and the whole Nick Heller series altogether. Nick Heller is a character that's very easy to just fall in love with. He's tough, loves his family, and does what needs to be done even though he at times hates he has to do it. In Buried Secrets, Nick Heller is called in by a friend of his family to rescue their daughter who has been buried alive. The family doesn't know where, or why and only has a live internet connection with a video and voice stream from inside the girls casket. They can clearly see her suffering and will do anything, or so they say, to stop it. It's Nick's job to save her at any cost.

Buried Secrets is the second book in the Nick Heller series, and I hated to actually finish it because there wasn't a third one to start on. I'm hoping there are more to come since Mr. Heller has become yet another fictional character on my "character crush" list.

And, last, but not least, a quick mention of a fun app I found for a handful of ebooks. If you get a bit, and have an Iphone or Ipod touch, search Booktrack in the app store. They are short stories that have sound effects and some mood music added. I just finished their version of Arthor Conan Doyle's Sherlock Homes and The Speckled Band and loved it. I've never really gotten into the original Sherlock Homes stories but I couldn't get enough of this one. Parts of it even made it seem as if I was reading a ghost story with all of the sound effects. I loved it. Next time I'm at the bookstore, I will definitely have to give Conan Doyle's series another try.

Well, if you're still with me, I hope you'll check out these books, and let me know what you think. I've enjoyed them.

Absolute Zero Cool by Declan Burke

2011-07-16T15:13:00.003-05:00

I've mentioned how much I've enjoyed Declan Burkes books before, both Eightball Boogie and The Big O were very amusing and entertaining books reminiscent of Raymond Chandler and full of wry humor. Well, as luck would have it, I'm happy to announce the coming eagerly awaited release of Declan's latest offering, Absolute Zero Cool, which can be found here as of August 10th. Declan was nice enough to send me a summery and a few reviews so I could pass it on.

ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL
by Declan Burke

“A genuinely original take on noir, inventive and funny. Imagine, if you can, a cross between Flann O’Brien and Raymond Chandler.” – John Banville, author of THE SEA

Who in their right mind would want to blow up a hospital?

“Close it down, blow it up – what’s the difference?”

Billy Karlsson needs to get real. Literally. A hospital porter with a sideline in euthanasia, Billy is a character trapped in the purgatory of an abandoned novel. Deranged by logic, driven beyond sanity, Billy makes his final stand: if killing old people won’t cut the mustard, the whole hospital will have to go up in flames.

Only his creator can stop him now, the author who abandoned Billy to his half-life limbo, in which Billy schemes to do whatever it takes to get himself published, or be damned . . .

“ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL is unlike anything else you’ll read this year … Laugh-out-loud funny … This is writing at its dazzling, cleverest zenith. Think John Fowles, via Paul Auster and Rolling Stone … a feat of extraordinary alchemy.” – Ken Bruen, author of AMERICAN SKIN

Advance Praise for ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL:

“Stop waiting for Godot – he’s here. Declan Burke takes the existential dilemma of characters writing themselves and turns it on its ear, and then some. He gives it body and soul … an Irish soul.” - Reed Farrel Coleman, author of EMPTY EVER AFTER

“Declan Burke has broken the mould with ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL, which is actually very cool indeed. Funny, inventive and hugely entertaining crime fiction - I guarantee you’ll love it.” - Melissa Hill, author of SOMETHING FROM TIFFANY’S

“If you want to find something new and challenging, comic crime fiction is now the place to go … Declan Burke [is] at the vanguard of a new wave of young writers kicking against the clichés and producing ambitious, challenging, genre-bending works.” - Colin Bateman, author of NINE INCHES

“ABSOLUTE ZERO COOL is a surreal rollercoaster of a read, full of the blackest humour, and yet poignant. An outrageously funny novel ... The joy is in the writing itself, all sparky dialogue and wry observation, so smooth that when it cuts, it’s like finding razor blades in honey.” - Deborah Lawrenson, author of THE LANTERN

“Burke has written a deep, lyrical and moving crime novel … an intoxicating and exciting novel of which the master himself, Flann O’Brien, would be proud.” - Adrian McKinty, author of FIFTY GRAND

As you can see, it's gotten some great reviews already..John Banville, Ken Bruen, Adrian McKinty..you can't beat that really. Also, if you happen to be in Dublin on August 10th, and would like to meet the author himself, who not only writes wonderful books, but seems to be an all around nice guy, the kick off release party for Absolute Zero Cool will be at the Gutter Bookshop, Temple Bar, Dublin. And feel free to come back and post pictures/stories so I can live vicariously through them. Also, for more information about Mr. Declan Burke, you can visit his blog Crime Always Pays, he'd be glad to hear from you.

Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris

2011-07-08T13:10:00.000-05:00

I had never heard of Joanne Harris before picking up Gentlemen and Players, and I had no idea she had also written the ever popular Chocolat, so I didn't really know what to expect. I was simply browsing through a bookshop and the name caught my attention. I'm glad it did as I enjoyed the novel quite a bit. Gentlemen and Players is written in the first person alternating between the protagonist, an aging professor at an exclusive boys school, and antagonist, a 12 year old wanting to be a part of the school. You get both sides of the story, with the author throwing in quite a few twist that tend to make your jaw drop in either unbelieving or shock even though you might have slightly suspected it was coming.

As the inside flap says:

For generations, privileged young men have attended St. Oswald's Grammar School for Boys, groomed for success by the likes of Roy Straitley, the eccentric Classics teacher who has been a fixture there for more than thirty years. But this year the wind of unwelcome change is blowing. Suits, paperwork and information technology are beginning to overshadow St. Oswald's tradition, and Straitley is finally, and reluctantly, contemplating retirement. He is joined this term by five new faculty members, including one who-unbeknownst to Straitley and everyone else-holds intimate and dangerous knowledge of St. Oswald's ways and secrets. Harboring dark ties to the school's past, this young teacher has arrived with one terrible goal: to destroy St. Oswald's.

The alternating points of view give you a good picture of what both main players are thinking while still keeping many secrets from the reader. I found that I could relate to both in small ways and enjoyed getting to know them. One of the "principles" mentioned in the novel even came to my attention in the real world in dealing with my 12 year old son,(although with him, we weren't talking about murder or trespassing). The story begins:

If there's one thing I've learned in the past fifteen years, it's this: that murder is really no big deal. It's just a boundary, meaningless and arbitrary as all others--a line drawn in the dirt

Like the giant NO TRESPASSERS sign on the drive to St. Oswald's, straddling the air like a sentinel. I was nine years old at the time of our first encounter, and it loomed over me then with the growling menace of a school bully.

NO TRESPASSERS
NO UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY BEYOND THIS POINT
BY ORDER

another child might have been daunted by the command. But in my case curiosity overrode the instinct. By whose order? Why this point and not another? and most importantly, what would happen if I crossed that line?

Joanne Harris does a nice job with the cat and mouse motif and if you haven't given her a try, I do recommend her and the appositely named novel.

Shooting Star by Peter Temple

2011-06-29T13:33:00.005-05:00

Ok, so I've gotten incredibly lazy with keeping up with this blog, I'd even go so far as to say ridiculously lazy. I know, I know, it's the end of the month and this is only my second blog...pretty bad. I'm sure the few of you on here are lost and wondering what to do with all of that extra time you have since I've been gone, well, never fear, I'm back...for the moment anyway.

In my absence I can't say I've been reading a whole lot that would inspire me to write about it, mostly I've been re-reading things as a result of not being interested in reading something new. One of the exceptions would be Peter Temple's Shooting Star. It's been several weeks since I finished it, but I do remember enjoying the book enough to grab my Kindle and download some of his earlier stories, and I have The Broken Shore sitting on one of book shelves also. Back to Shooting Star, according the inside flap, the plot goes something like this:

Her rich family has closed ranks and summoned Frank Calder, ex-soldier and disgraced police hostage negotiator. they want him to deliver the ransom money to the kidnappers. Frank wants them to call in the law, but the family refuses, since police bungling nearly cost the life of another Carson child kidnapped years before.

But are the two kidnappings connected? and is greed the motivation? Revenge? Or could it be something else? To find out, Frank Calder must go beyond his brief.

As Frank feverishly searches for suspects in the web of Carson family businesses and deals, marriages and indiscretions, rivalries and intrigues, he knows that if his instincts are wrong, the girl will surely die.

I can't say I remember a whole lot of what happened or "who done it", but what I do remember is the, dark writing that pulls you in, it's almost poetic feeling at times.

We go down the passage. I feel the old sprung floorboards bounce, feel the rotten stumps move. Dave is ahead of me. At the frond door, I say, 'Open it.'

He opens it, stands, looks back at me. And I am seeing myself from outside, looking into the dim doorway, seeing myself, shirtless, sweat in the hollow of my throat.

'It's OK,' I say. 'It's OK, I'm with you.'

He puts out a hand to me. I sigh and take it and we go out into the verandah together, grown men holding hands.

It is dark, no moon, no lights on in the street. I am straining to see beyond the low hedge and front gate.

At the steps, the spotlight comes on, night sun, impossibly bright light. Dave jumps, startled, lets go of my hand, turns, tries to hug me, bury his head in my shoulder.

I hear the sound and I feel the shot hit him, feel it through his bones, feel it through his arms clinging to me.

'Oh Jesus, no,' I say, holding him, feeling the strength leave his body, having to hold him up, feel his warm blood on my face, taste it on my lips, go to my knees with him.

And I hear myself saying, 'No, Dave, not me, not me.'

Then I am myself, looking into his eyes, seeing the reproach in them, no anger, just hurt and betrayal. 'You knew,' he says and he begins to cough, to cough up blood.

I have also heard good things about Temple's Truth and I believe it won The Miles Franklin award, a pretty nice Australian Literary award as I understand it. If you have read it, let me know what you think.

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen

2011-06-04T14:05:00.003-05:00

Two things struck me about Water for Elephants. The first is the entertainingly colloquial style the book is written in. One of my favorites in the beginning of the first chapter...

I am ninety. Or ninety-three. One of the other.

When you're five, you know your age down to the month. Even in your twenties you know how old you are. I'm twenty-three, you say, or maybe twenty-seven. But then in your thirties something strange starts to happen. It's a mere hiccup at first, an instant of hesitation. How old are you? Oh, I'm - you start confidently, but then you stop. you were going to say thirty-three, but you're not. you're thirty-five. And then you're bothered, because you wonder if this is the beginning of the end. It is, of course, but it's decades before you admit it.

I'm not much older than thirty and I can certainly relate...unfortunatly.

The other thing that struck me was the explicit sexual crudeness of parts of the story. I can't put an example on here without changing the adult contact settings, but I will say that she could do with a lesson from Jim Thompson on how less can be more. I'll use the example someone once pointed out to me from The Killer Inside Me

"You're not going anywhere, baby," I said, and I hit her again.

And at last she got it.

She jumped up and I jumped with her. I whirled her around gave her a quick one-two, and she shot backwards across the room and bounced and slumped against the wall. She staggered to her feet, weaving, mumbling, and half-fell toward me. I let her have it again.

I backed her against the wall, slugging and it was like pounding a pumpkin. Hard, then everything giving away at once.

That little bit says a lot, and gives you a good enough general picture to get the point across, we didn't need the details.

Regardless however, I admit, I was regaled by the story told by Jacob Jankowski about his life, and how he came to be a veterinarian in a traveling circus. In the early part of the Great Depression, as he was finishing his last year of veterinarian school, Jacob's parents were suddenly killed leaving him to fend for himself without a penny to his name. In a paroxysm of anger and sadness he runs. Just runs. Eventually he stumbles on a train and, on impulse, jumps on not realizing how drastically his life was about to change. Before he knows what has happened, he's put in charge of the animals, falling in love with the wife of a deranged animal trainer and figuring out the puzzle to training the seemingly untrainable elephant that is meant to either save or break the show, and in the end, possibly help him survive.

Overall, I'm not yet sure if it is a story I would recommend, I think I would given a disclaimer, as I did like the author's overall style, but if you are reading the book because you enjoyed the movie, just beware of the "extra content".

The Confession by John Grisham (audio version)

2011-05-25T15:45:00.000-05:00

I've been reading John Grisham novels since I was a teenager and he was one of the first authors who wrote books I just had to have as soon as they came out. Over the years however, I've lost interest. I'm not sure at what point, sometime after A Painted House, it just didn't do it for me anymore. Then there was The Innocent Man, Grisham's endeavor at non-fiction, and my interest temporarily returned only to be quickly lost again with Playing For Pizza which hasn't even gotten more than a read of the cover from me. Now there is The Confession and once again, John Grisham has captured my attention.

Donte Drum was convicted of the brutal rape and murder of a high school cheerleader, and sentenced to death. For nine years, Donte claims he is innocent. His lawyer repeatedly points out the lack of evidence, the abuse during questioning that eventually led to Donte's confession, the lies told by his accusers, one of them being a bloodhound, and the lack of a body that proves the cheerleader is even dead. Now, Donte is 4 days away from execution, with no chance of appeal left, when the real killer, who is dying of a brain tumor, walks into a Kansas minister's office and confesses. He even claims to know where, and how, the body is buried. The question is, can the truth convince the lawyers, politicians, and powers that be that they are about to kill an innocent man?

When the book originally came out last year, I could have sworn I read it was based on a true story, I can't find anything about that now, but I have to admit, I don't find the prospect too far fetched. I'm sure we have killed innocent people with the death penalty, just as I'm sure there are guilty people that get off scott free. It goes both ways. What the book demands we think about is how that happens, and the social injustice that goes with it.

For more information about any of John Grisham's books, his web site is here, and you can find The Confession at Amazon

The Missing by Jane Casey

2011-05-18T14:12:00.000-05:00

I realized about half way through reading The Missing that Jane Casey is the first, and only, female Irish author I've read. I'm not sure what specifically made me notice that, but I do remember thinking how different the book was from the male Irish authors I typically read. Honestly though, I'm not sure the difference really had to do with gender, just a difference in how the author writes and sees the direction of the story, (except maybe the added bit of romance, that does seem to be more of a female story plot).

The Missing follows the story of Sarah Finch as we go back and forth between the time she was a young child and her brother mysteriously disappears, and when she is an adult and finds one of her students bodies on a wooded path. Back in 1992, Sarah was 9 years old and laying on a blanket in the grass when her older brother left the house to go visit a friend. He never returned. Throughout the coming years it tore her family apart and her mom seemed to never forgive her for not telling the secrets she was convinced her daughter knew. In the present day, Sarah is a teacher at a posh all girls school where things aren't always as they seem. When a student disappears, just as mysteriously as her brother, she, along with the police are convinced the cases are connected and Sarah begins to try to find the one responsible.

The story is easy to read, and I enjoyed the past mixing in with the present, but at times I thought it was a bit unrealistic. The characters just didn't quite seem real to me and I often thought the things they did didn't quite match up with the character. Regardless, accepting the story and characters as they were, it was a nice bit of difference from the Irish noir crime I tend to read and I am curious as where the next book, The Burning will take us.

The Missing

Zoe

2011-05-17T09:30:00.007-05:00

Eulogizing Zoe seems like an impossible thing, and it's breaking my heart trying. Zoe came to us 7 years ago at the age of 3 from friends. She very quickly became "my dog", following me around as I did day to day chores or sitting by me as I read a book. When I started training her, she became even more mine as she taught me instant forgiveness since I often messed up. She was a dog a lot of people said would never make it through the junior test, she certainly proved them wrong now having not only a junior title but a senior title also. And one of my fondest memories of working with this wonderful dog will always be attempting our first master test. I was petrified. We went to the line though, and finished the first two series in the test. I've never been so proud. We didn't pass, but it took quite awhile for me to stop smiling over how far we got. The impossible had happened.

Now it's been 7 years, and countless hours with Zoe acting as my proverbial guinea pig as we learned how to play the hunting game together. Driving way before dawn, staying in hotels, throwing ducks in endless fields, ponds, mud, rain, cold, hot, laughter, tears. It's been a 7 years I will never forget thanks to her. She's given me her best, I'm going to miss her more than I can begin to say.

Zoe Kiana McWhirt SH 2/7/02-5/17/11

"I'm not dead yet" (Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail)

2011-05-07T16:09:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone, I just thought I'd pop on here real quick and let the few of you know I'm still alive and reading, I'm just being lazy about blogging. I do intend to eventually get a blog on here about The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler once life in the real world will give me time to actually sit down and figure out what I want to say. In the mean time, I've been re-reading some "chic" books for some unexplainable reason other than I just want to. Yep, even I let that girly side get the best of me occasionally. However, that said, hopefully I will soon return to normal and get back to the regularly scheduled blogging....and commenting, (although, for the most part, I have been able to keep up with reading what everyone in the blog world is writting even if it is just a few seconds before running out the door with the intention to comment as soon as I get back).

Killing Mum by Allan Guthrie

2011-04-21T09:42:00.003-05:00

If I were asked to describe Allan Guthrie's Killing Mum in one word, it would be "twisted". There were so many aberrant turns throughout the story that half the time I didn't know who, or what, to believe. It was a lot of fun, (and I'm not typically a fan of short stories or novellas).

The story starts out with Carlos, our protagonist, receiving a commission to have someone killed...

The padded envelope contained a note and a bundle of cash. The note read:
Charlie-
advance for Valerie Anderson. You know her address. Second half of payment on completion of job.

We quickly find out Valerie Anderson happens to be Carlos, AKA "Charlie's", mom, and, only two people call him "Charlie"...his mom and his wife. The question is, which one wants him mom killed? Carlos intends to find out. And when he enlists his wife and a young friend he occasionally hires as a hit man to help him, things get very interesting and Carlos may be lucky to walk away with his sanity.

Killing Mum is only about 96 pages long and only available in ebook format. It's a nice quick way to get introduced to a new author that will keep you reading until the very last moment, and then make you want to know more. And at .99 cents, you can't beat the price.

Killing Mum

"Fear is my enemy, pain is my friend" (Michael Forsythe in Dead I Well May Be by Adrian McKinty)

2011-04-17T10:54:00.010-05:00

A few months ago my husband started the "Couch to 5K" running program to begin training for the Warrior Dash. He started out running a minute and walking a minute for about 40 minutes total, by the time of the race yesterday, he was running a full 5K with very little trouble. The program seemed to work pretty well, and yesterday was the test. The 5K course consisted of about 10 obstacles including climbing a 10 ft wall, climbing and running over broken down cars, jumping fire, pushing and climbing over logs in a pond and, of course, going under ropes in a giant mud pit. What would be fun if you didn't get completely filthy in the process right?

At the end of the 3 point some odd miles, when all was said and done, there was a reward. After your hosing down with a fire hose to get most of the mud off, you not only had the euphoric feeling of knowing that you've succeeded, there were tangible winnings for finishing the course. No "warrior" race would be complete without a "warrior" hat, a t-shirt, and beer. In all honesty, the hat and shirt were nice, but I think the beer was the most appreciated by said "warriors".

Chad had fun, and I did too, although there wasn't much room for spectators. I would have liked to see him climbing, jumping and crawling through muck, but had to make do with the stories he had to tell. I really can't complain though, the weather was beautiful, the company was good, and I even got a bit of Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep read. All in all, not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Ireland reading Challange 2011

2011-04-12T08:37:00.005-05:00

Thanks to Seana, I have discovered a reading challenge for books I would have read anyway. Now, I've never actually done a reading challenge, but I'm going to attempt this one and read 6 books relating to Ireland before the end of November. Since I've read 3 of these already and I have many more relating to the subject on my shelf waiting, I think I'm up for it. So, wish me luck, and feel free to join me at the Ireland Reading Challenge.

Eightball Boogie by Declan Burke

2011-04-11T06:00:00.001-05:00

I once saw a movie, I forget which one, and I'm not even sure of the scene, but the general idea was an Irish guy saying how the story should have ended there, (referring I believe to a somewhat happy ending), but it wasn't an American story, it was an Irish story. That thought is what ran through my head throughout Eightball boogie. American novelist don't seem to get quite the same level of betrayal, dissembling, and general sense of pathos that some of these Irish novelist do. And that is a compliment to the portrayal of their characters and story, and Declan Burke nails it, with a sense of humor to boot. Eightball Boogie is dark, edgy, fast paced and funny with a protagonist that isn't perfect, but will do anything he has to do to do what needs to be done. And, I have to admit, being in Harry Rigby's head as he was doing what he was doing was very entertaining.

Harry Rigby describes his job..

My job was to find out who and why, at twelve cent per word for the right facts in the right order. Enough facts, a decent hook, they might even add up to a front-page clipping for the dusty folder in my filing cabinet.

And unfortunately, sometimes that just about gets you killed, but Harry has advice for surviving that too...

If you're going to get kicked senseless, it's best to take certain precautions. Getting drunk is one. That way you go with the flow and don't resist, which is how bones get broken, especially when there's three of them and one is wielding an empty beer keg like it's a beach ball.

Through beatings, a swim in the river with a hole in his gut, his girlfriend kicking him out..again, and his psychotic brother returning, Harry manages to wade through the dissimulation and betrayal to track down the killer of a politician's wife and save his young son whose life has been threatened.

If you are interested in, or looking to try out, what has been recently labeled "emerald noir", I'd recommend giving Eightball Boogie a try, and thanks to the very generous author, you can do it for .99 cents if you have an e-reader or the cost of shipping for an old-fashioned paperback book. For more information simply click HERE.

Update: Here's another great review of Eightball Boogie by Seana over at Not New For Long with a bit of a different angle on the story.

Falling Glass excerpt and links

2011-04-06T15:18:00.004-05:00

Back in mid-March I posted my thoughts on Adrian McKinty's new novel Falling Glass. I honestly loved the story, but unfortunately, it's not available in hard copy in the U.S so I wasn't able to post an excerpt to give those of you that pop on here a sense of how the author writes. Well, that issue has now been resolved thanks to Spinetingler magazine being allowed to post the prologue and first 2 chapters of the book. So, just CLICK HERE to check it out. I promise it won't be a waste of time.

Spinetingler has also posted some interesting thoughts by Adrian McKinty of how Falling Glass came to be HERE for anyone who might be wondering where "Killian" came from.

And last, but not lest, some reviews of said novel. Again from Spinetingler, CLICK HERE, from Detectives Beyond Borders HERE, and From Seana at Not New For Long, HERE.

Why, might you ask, am I posting all of these links for a book not available here? Easy, because the book is worth it and I'd like to get the word out. So, check it out, and if you're interested, it can be ordered from over seas by Amazon affiliates or downloaded from Audible.

Field of Blood by Denise Mina

2011-04-01T07:00:00.000-05:00

Denise Mina's Field of Blood was a random find I came by in a somewhat local second hand bookstore I visit. She is the first Scottish author I've read, and she set the bar nicely high, (although it did take me a bit to get past some of the terminology and descriptions, I was glad I did). Her writing is beautiful and captivating and I found myself getting lost in conversations and characters. The language just seemed to flow.

One of my favorite parts of the story, and what got me hooked, was the description, and conversation of an antagonistic relationship that started like this:

Pete looked up and frowned, dropping his bushy eyebrows to shade his eyes. "what do you want?"

"Um, I wanted to ask you about something."

"Spit it out and then piss off."

It was not going to be a Love Is...moment, she just knew it.

To a friendly and companionable conversation, ending in this:

Pete spoke quietly. "Please don't go."
"But I need--"
"If you go, Richards'll come over here. It's been a long day, and it's hard work being pitied."

So they sat together, a man facing the end of his life and a young girl struggling to kick start hers. They drank together, and then Paddy started smoking with him. Cigarettes and drink complemented each other perfectly, she discovered, like white bread and peanut butter. She drank an all-time personal best of four half-pints.

they talked about anything that came to mind, their thoughts swimming sympathetically, barely connecting. Patty told hm about the Beatties' stuff in the garage, about how she'd always hated it when she saw the Queen's picture up in offices, because of what she represented. She always saw her smiling and handing out OBE's to the soldiers who shot into the crowd on Bloody Sunday, but she'd looked at the Beatties' portrait of her and thought she might actually be quite a nice woman, doing her best. She talked about her Auntie Ann, who raised money for the IRA with raffle tickets and then went on antiabortion marches.

Dr. Pete talked about a wife who had left for England years before and how she would cook a leg of lamb for special occasions. She stuck the meat with rosemary she grew in their garden and sat potatoes under it to roast in the lamb fat. The meat was as sweet as tablet, as moist as beer; it lingered on the tongue like a prayer. Before he met her he had never eaten food that made him feel as if he had just woken up to the world. The way she cooked that lamb was beautiful. She had black hair and was so slight he could lift her up and swing her over a puddle with one arm around her waist. He hadn't talked about her in a long time.

That one conversation takes up the majority of a chapter and gives a lot of good information about not only the history of the crime, but also about the characters having the conversation. I enjoyed watching that relationship grow, and the characters view of each other change.

I will say, however, the crime committed is a hard and violent one against a very young child. As much as Ms. Mina can use her talent to make you want to taste the succulent roasted lamb, she can also make you see the evil done to someone's baby. Thankfully, it was only to set the beginning of the plot, and the harshness wasn't continued throughout the story.

And, speaking of the story, here's what the side flap says, (because it probably gives a better summery than I would).

The murder of three-year old Brian Wilcox is the saddest story to hit the newspaper in years. Even Paddy Meehan, the new copygirl at the Scottish Daily News,feels the tremors it sends through the jaded newsroom. It's the kind of once-in-a-generation crime that changes a city's landscape-the kind that can make or break a journalist's career.

And Paddy could use a break: her battle for stature in the men's club of the newsroom is going nowhere. So when she discovers a personal connection to one of the young boys implicated in the killing, her job prospects look bright-but at the cost of her family's trust. Loyalty and ambition are at war only briefly, until the secret explodes into public view in the worst possible way. Under siege in the newspaper office and in her own home, Paddy realizes that the only way to make amends is to clear the boy's name, when he's been all but convicted by her colleagues in the media. On her own, and then with the help of charmingly disheveled young beat reporter, Paddy begins an investigation that reveals hidden allegiances and lines of deception that go deep into the past-and that could spell even more horrible crimes in the future if Paddy doesn't get it right.

Denise Mina follows Field of Blood with The Dead Hour and Slip of the Knife, all three being part of the Paddy Meehan series, and according to her website, there are two other books in the series I didn't see mentioned. More, and interesting information about Denise Mina, and Field of Blood can be found here and it can be ordered from Amazon here

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

2011-03-23T08:44:00.000-05:00

I first became interested in The Picture of Dorian Gray from the movie appositely titled Dorian Gray, where Colin Firth's character as Lord Henry Wotton had me quickly convinced he was Satan himself.

The book was, as usual, a bit different. While Lord Henry still didn't seem to be a good guy, he wasn't the quintessential bad guy either. He simply seemed to have his own ideas on life and experience and was glad to make those thoughts known, which didn't seem to be the case in the movie where his goal seemed to be corruption of innocence.

In Oscar Wilde's version, Dorian Gray is a bored gentleman whom everyone adores. He is beautiful, innocent, and has a personality that draws everyone he meets to him. Life comes easy. While he is having a painting done of himself, the artist introduces to him Lord Henry Wotton whose world view opens Dorian's eyes to his own beauty and youth, and the impermanence of it. When Dorian makes a wish to always look as he does in the painting, he makes a proverbial pact with the devil and suddenly no sin can touch Dorian's physical beauty. But what of his soul? Dorian soon realizes that the painting doesn't look as it once did. There's an ugliness developing in it, a sneer and a look of cruelty. Dorian begins to suspect that although his beauty remains, the painting reflects his trueness, and soon discovers what happens when you gain the whole world, but lose your soul.

It is a story with a meaning and valuable point, and in my opinion would do the teenagers of the world today more of a service than a lot of what is considered "good reading" on the best sellers list. That's probably quixotical of me though so I digress and leave you with one of Lord Henry's many interesting theories on life and goodness.

"To be good is to be in harmony with one's self" he replied, touching the thin stem of his glass with his pale, fine-pointed fingers. "Discord is to be forced to be in harmony with others. One's own life--that is the important thing. As for the lives of one's neighbors, if on wishes to be a prig or a Puritan, one can flaunt one's moral views about them, but they are not one's concern. Besides, individualism has really the higher aim. Modern morality consists in accepting the standard of one's age. I consider that for any man of culture to accept the standard of his age is a form of the grossest immorality."

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T11:10:00.006-05:00

Some Irish toasts I like:

A toast to a bachelor:

"May you have nicer legs than yours under the table before the new spuds are up."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An everyday Irish toast:

"May you have the hindsight to know where you've been,
The foresight to know where you are going,
And the insight to know when you have gone too far."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A toast in Irish:

"'Faol saol agat, gob fliuch, agus bás in Éirinn.'"

Which means "Long life to you, a wet mouth, and death in Ireland."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A St. Patrick's Day toast:

"Saint Patrick was a gentleman,
Who through strategy and stealth,
Drove all the snakes from Ireland,
Here’s a toasting to his health.
But not too many toastings
Lest you lose yourself and then
Forget the good Saint Patrick
And see all those snakes again."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And my personal favorite:

"Sláinte!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Have a good, and safe one everyone.

Not that I condone such treatment of dogs, but it's cute none the less

Between the blogs

2011-03-16T08:00:00.001-05:00

Very often there seem to be books I've read, listened to, or attempted that for one reason or the other don't get a full blog of their own, these are those books.

Spectres In The Smoke by Tony Broadbent

From the side flap:

"It's the austere 1948 world of post-war, black market riddled England, and Jethro, the cat burglar and jewel thief, has been pushed out onto the rooftops of London again by Colonel Walsingham of MI5.

And so, forced once again to step out from behind his disguise as a part time stagehand in London's West End, Jethro does a creep in Mayfair and sets in motion a tale of dark and deadly dealings that mixes national politics with black magic, orgies of abandon and blackmail."

I wanted to like this book, I wanted to get lost in zeitgeist of the 1948 post war England, but for whatever reason just couldn't. I liked the story, and the premise but it just didn't click for me and I finally set it aside for another time. To be fair, there has been a lot going on here, and a lot of distractions, so I'm thinking that very well could have something to do with it. I'll pick it up again when the fancy strikes me.

Rules of Prey by John Sanford

I have seen the "Prey" series books around and decided to give them a try on audio having heard they moved pretty fast and were easy to read. My discovery was that they were too long. The first half kept my attention pretty well, but at some point the story just seemed to halt and it felt like the author was just trying to keep it going despite already telling the reader what they wanted to know..who, what, where, when and why. It was time to call it quits and move on, so I did.

Box 21 by Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom

From Publishers Star Weekly and Amazon.com:

"The Swedish writing team of Roslund and Hellström make their U.S. debut with a remarkable tale of loss, addiction and revenge set in Stockholm's seedy underworld. Ewert Grens, a veteran detective, is haunted by a tragic incident that occurred 25 years earlier that left his young wife, a fellow police officer, an invalid. When the man responsible, notorious criminal Jochum Lang, is released from prison, Grens vows to put him away for life. Meanwhile, the detective arrives at a crime scene where a teenage prostitute, Lydia Grajauskas, has been nearly beaten to death by her Russian pimp. Alternating chapters fill in the backstory of Lydia and Alena Sljusareva, girls lured away from Lithuania under false pretenses and sold as sex slaves. In a bizarre twist, Lydia escapes from her hospital bed and ends up taking hostages."

I really liked this novel, a prequel to Three Seconds, although I found it pretty harsh and a bit disgusting at times with the descriptions of what was required of the prostitutes. I didn't however, feel it was too over the top or overdone. I only put it here because I've recently written a review of Three Seconds and felt it repetitive, but it certainly is worth the time and money to read it.

Spectres in the Smoke
Rules of Prey
Box 21

Currently reading The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

Falling Glass, (the audio book version), by Adrian McKinty

2011-03-11T08:00:00.005-06:00

Adrian McKinty has an incredible way with words, and it certainly shows in his new offering Falling Glass. His prose gives you a sure sense of where the characters are, what they feel, the atmosphere, along with what they see. And, if you get the novel in the form of an audio book, Gerald Doyle does an equally incredible job of enhancing that sense of feeling. These two make a great pair.

Rachel is on her last leg. She has taken her two children and mysteriously disappeared, and after being on the run from her ex-husband, and the kids father, Richard Coulter, she is ready to pull the trigger. When her ex's goons show up with guns drawn, however, she grabs the children and heads to the next hiding spot she can find.

Richard is a man that has it all, a new wife who is pregnant, a successful business, and a nice house. He has always made sure Rachel and the kids were taken care of, so why did they abscond? He hires Killian, a Pavee and ex IRA enforcer with a propensity to use a way with words, to get the job done. As Killian is on her trail, he discovers he's not the only one looking for her, and the other guy isn't near as nice. Killian must now use all of his wit, instinct and knowledge to find Rachael and figure out what is really going on before her ex gets what he wants...all of them dead.

At this point, I would normally throw in a few lines from the story to give those of you that might be interested an idea of how the author writes. As much as I love this particular authors lyrical prose, since I had this one on audio that would be a bit hard to get right. I suppose you will just have to take my word for it that it's like reading crime fiction poetry. It's quite interesting and even captivating at times

I have also found, as a somewhat regular reader of the author's blog, The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, that McKinty himself is a fount of bits and pieces of knowledge I believe most people, especially on my side of the Atlantic, never think to think about, and he weaves some of that knowledge throughout his tale. Along with many scientific morsels, the use of the Aboriginal belief in The Dreaming to set mood, state of mind and feeling made that part of Australian history come alive as it added a completely new level to the story. I also found the use of Irish history, and the Pavee, to be fascinating and a bit engrossing. It's not often that history captures my attention, but presented in the way McKinty has presented it, I admit, the interest is there and I get a bit curious. A quick Wiki search gave me this and this if you're interested.

All of this said, I think Falling Glass is probably Adrian McKinty's best novel yet, and I hope to read more of Killian in the future. In all honesty, I didn't think he could possibly do better than his Michael Forsythe character, but, against all odds, I think he's done it and I'm left wondering what the author will come up with next.

Falling Glass is unfortunately not currently available in The U.S, but can be bought from The Book Depository or downloaded as an audio book from Audible.

Treachery in Death by J.D Robb

2011-03-09T08:00:00.003-06:00

I pretty well enjoyed this new offering by J.D Robb, although, I have to admit, there have been only a few of hers that I haven't. I'm sure I've blogged on the author's "In Death" series before, so instead of giving my thoughts on this particular book, which was similar in premise to her other books, I'd like to be more general.

I was having a conversation with my "better half" the other day, and, in talking about why I've stuck with this thirty some odd book series, when other long series' seem to get boring or wear thin on my patience, the only answer I can come up with is the characters. For the most part, there isn't anything different, or too out of the ordinary that makes the stories themselves stand out, but the characters definitely do. From Eve Dallas, a kick ass New York police lieutenant who has suffered unimaginable abuse as a young child from her father, to Roarke, a self made rich Irishman from the dark streets of Dublin. Add to that a list of friends as varied as a Janet Evanivich cast and you've got a lot of heart and fun. In all honesty, it's the story of watching them grow, change and build those relationships that has me stuck.

I will also comment that J.D Robbs books, although not completely dissimilar to her alter ego's stories, are different enough for a distinction to be made. While her books under Nora Roberts tend to focus on romance, the J.D Robb stories tend to focus more on crime, murder, and the above mentioned relationships.

Now, as to Treachery in Death itself...

Detective Peabody happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when a couple of cops walk into an old police workout room. Not realizing she was there, a Lieutenant and one of her men get in an argument over an illegal drug business they have been running. Peabody overhears talk of an informer the LT. has had killed and future plans for possibly more violence. When the cops leave, Peabody immediately contacts her own Lieutenant, and partner, Eve Dallas, to inform her of what she has learned, and soon, Eve and her team, including her husband Roarke, Expert consultant civilian, engage in a cat and mouse game to put the dirty cops out of everyone else's misery.

I read this one on my Kindle, so coming up with a specific passage to quote would be difficult since I didn't "bookmark" one as I reading, but I do remember laughing at the scene of Eve spending 10 minutes watching baby Bella. Eve doesn't typically know what to make of babies, and watching her figure it out would give any parent a good chuckle.

Treachery was a fun, and entertaining story, and, since the author seems to whip books out like hot cakes, I'm glad to say it won't be too long before the next installment of the "In Death" series due out later in the year.

Treachery in Death

North Texas Irish Festival

2011-03-06T15:19:00.017-06:00

This weekend was the annual North Texas Irish Festival, one of the few times in the year my possibly abnormal interest in that island across the pond seems almost normal, (the other time being the upcoming St. Patrick's day). Honestly, I just figure I'm half Irish and at times reserve the right to have some fun with it. So all that said, here's the day in pictures...mostly.

A bit of Irish stew. I'm not sure what made it "Irish", and am really hoping it wasn't that it came in a can from Ireland.

My husband in his "Slainte" hoodie, and my little sister in law with her new backpack and my son's mini cross bow.

A "steam punk" mannequin, I'm not sure why this qualifies as Irish, but it was interesting....and a bit scary really.

One of the many singing groups playing in the "Guinness pub and stage" tent. The stage looked pretty cool with the pub decorations. They had musicians, dancers and bands playing around every corner and I loved the fun atmosphere of it.

One of my favorite shirts in the offerings being sold.

My son on the huge escalator heading up from the train station. He was too lazy, or tired, to stand like the rest of us.

And, of course, after all of the walking around and shopping, we had to bring home a few things..My sister in law got a backpack and knife necklace, my son talked me into a crossbow, claiming it was meant to shoot Nerf darts, (he left out all of the other things he'd find to shoot with it). My husband bought a fun hat, and I couldn't resist getting the pictures. The photographers were there, and one in particular had a nice accent to help him sell pictures...I made sure and asked him plenty of questions.

It was a lovely day.

London Boulevard by Ken Bruen

2011-02-26T22:50:00.002-06:00

I finished London Boulevard several days ago, and, as I'm writing this, I'm still not sure what to say. I enjoyed the book for the most part, and did find Mr. Bruen humorous. I really do like that dark Irish humor. The main thing I noticed however was how succinct he was. For instance, the description of a funeral:

The graveyard is at the back of the bus station. Across the road is the bingo hall. I thought Joe would be pleased to hear the call of

FULL HOUSE

The undertaker was waiting. The grave ready, two men standing beside it. No vicar. A man arrived a few minutes later.

"Dr. Patel," I said, "good of you to come, " and introduced him to Bri. She held his hand longer than expedient. The undertaker asked,

Any last words?"

I shook my head. he signaled to the men, and they lowered the coffin.

No excess words, or elucidation. Just straight forward laconic prose. It was refreshing in a way after recently finishing an antithetical story, however, at the same time, I missed a "certain something" that comes from at least some description. Regardless, I suppose what it truly comes down to is will I read another one of the author's books. I think I most likely will, simply because the lack of complex details in the middle of complex life is refreshing.

As for what the story is about:

When Mitchell is released from prision, life quickly gets complicated. His friends want him in their crew for "jobs" his parole officer wouldn't approve of, his sister's emotional problems begin getting the better of her, a mob boss is out for him and wants to hurt everyone he loves and, a coincidental meet with a woman has him as close to happy as he's ever been. To make things worse, his boss, a washed out female actress is obsessed with him. When the people in Mitchell's life start turning up dead, weather he wants them to or not, he has to figure out who is behind it, and why.

And I suppose, that's about as succinct as I'm capable of.

Three Seconds by Roslund and Hellstrom

2011-02-21T16:30:00.001-06:00

First off, I want to thank Declan Burke over at Crime Always Pays for the book give-a-way that allowed me to be introduced to this writing duo. Dec's site often times has great book recommendations, but even then, I'm not sure Three Seconds is a book I would have picked up, and that would have been a shame. I greatly enjoyed this book, how it was written and how the story was told, and, found it very hard to put down. Much appreciation goes out to Kari Dickson for translating Three Seconds so that I could read it.

Piet Hoffmann is a petty criminal, and going on the theory that it takes a criminal to play a criminal, the Swedish Police Service procure him to do just that, and in exchange, Piet's minor crimes will be overlooked. For years, Piet, code name "Paula", has been working his way up through the Swedish mob's food chain to finally be asked to be their drug supplier on the inside of a major prison. His goal is to take over the drug business and become the only means of supply, therefor controlling the prison. Once that is done, the police want him to destroy what he's built and take the mob down as a result. It's a good plan until a very persistent inspector starts to wonder why what looks like a hardened criminal, according to a sabotaged police data base, is allowed a gun license, and the powers that be decide that Piet is more risk than he is worth. Suddenly, Piet finds himself in solitary confinement with a death threat hanging over his head. He has one chance, and Three very critical seconds to survive.

Piet Hoffmann knew as soon as the door into the corridor opened and then shut again.
He didn't need to see, he just knew-they were there.
The heavy steps of someone moving slowly. He hurried over to the cell door, put his ear to the cold metal, listened. A new prisoner being escorted by several wardens.
Then he heard it, a voice he recognized.
"Stukatj."
Stefan's voice. On his way to a cell farther down the corridor.
"What did you say?"
The guard with the eyes. Piet Hoffmann pressed his ear even harder to the inside of the cell door-he wanted to be certain that he heard every word.
"stukatj. It's Russian."
"We don't speak Russian down here."
"There's someone who does."
"Into the cell with you now, just get in!"
They were here. Soon there would be more, every prisoner in solitary confinement from now on would know that there was a snitch here, stewing in one of the cells.
Stefan's voice, it had been pure hate.

I'm hoping more of Anders Roslund and Borge Hellstrom books will be translated to English soon, and have already downloaded Box 21 to my Kindle to read. I'm looking forward to it - probably after I finish Ken Bruen's London Boulevard.

A good day for liars...I've been tagged

2011-02-13T16:03:00.004-06:00

Thanks to Seana at Confessions of Ignorance I have been tagged. So, here's the game:

Four of these statements are lies, one is true. You must pick, and reply with your guess as to the one that is true. If you know the answer for certain, please leave room for others to guess if they don't.

1. I am 6 feet tall and wish I was shorter.

2. I have an evil twin that does unspeakable things that we won't talk about in polite company.

3. I sell all of my books back to Half Price Books.

4. I really enjoy my job.

5. My favorite vacation was when my husband and I went to Ireland and we toured the Guinness brewery. I would love to make it there again someday.

If you are one of the lucky ones that are tagged, here are the rules:

1. Link back to the blogger who awarded you.
2. Display the graphic from the award creator.
3. Post five facts, four of which must be lies and
4. Pass the award to five other bloggers who should follow these rules.

I however, being the rule breaker that I am, will only tag 3 people. Yep, I'm a rebel. Here are the lucky 3.

1. Sean Patrick Reardon at Mindjacker.

2.Philip Robinson at Soul-Searching

3. Kari at How to Smile

Good luck.

What Came Before He Shot Her by Elizabeth George

2011-02-11T09:00:00.000-06:00

What Came Before He Shot Her is one of those books that have my thoughts in such a desultory and contradictive state that I'm not sure if this review will be a positive one or a negative one. On one side, I did enjoy the story, and was curious enough to finish it, on another side, it was often that curiosity that kept me reading, and not the story itself. I often persisted simply to see how it was going to come together to get to where the books side flap had already told me it would finish. Continuing on that side, the book was long, and it seemed long. I would be on page 30 and felt as if I should be 100 pages in the story, but jumping back to the other side, it needed to be as it was to fully explain what lead to the culmination of events. And following that same thought, the author was very descriptive. Often times there would be pages and pages of seemingly needless descriptions of where the characters were going, what street, what shops they were passing, what bus they would take. But again, for the most part, although it frustrated me to a point, when it was said and done, it did add to the overall feel of the story. I also really liked that the 12 year old protagonist, like a typical 12 year old boy, thought he knew everything, and saw everything, not realizing until it was too late that he actually knew very little. Overall however, I would say it is a book worth reading, and I did enjoy it despite it's tediousness. It will be awhile none the less before I pick up another one of Ms. George's books just because of the sheer overwelmingness of them, but, I probably will pick another one up. As to what the book is about, here's what the side flap says:

The brutal, inexplicable death of Inspector Thomas Lynley's wife has left Scotland Yard shocked and searching for answers. Even more horrifying is that the trigger was apparently pulled by a twelve year old boy. Who is he? Where did he come from? And what were the circumstances that led to his final act of desperation?

That story begins on the other side of London, in rough North Kinsington, where the three mixed race, virtually orphaned Campbell children are bounced first from their grandmother then to their aunt. The oldest, fifteen year old Ness, is headed for trouble as fast as her high heeled boots will take her. that leaves the middle child, Joel, to care for the youngest, Toby. No one wants to put it into words, but something clearly isn't right with Toby.

Before long, there are signs that Joel himself has problems. A local gang starts harassing him and threatening his brother. To protect his family, Joel makes a pact with the devil-a move that leads straight to the front doorstep of Thomas Lynley.

Reading that again, I think that description is very misleading, but the book is so encompassing, a true description is impossible. It's about fifteen year old Ness, who has had so much brutality brought into her life that she can't begin to deal with it outside of the hate and hurt it's brought her. It's about Joel, a twelve year old boy with the world on his shoulders trying to save and protect everyone he loves. And, it's about the adults around them that, as hard as they try, they can't truly begin to understand what these children face in their worlds, although Ms. George does seem to point out that the ones we least expect are the ones that understand more than we think with characters like Ivan, Joel's eccentric middle aged, clock building magistrate assigned mentor.

Joel hadn't thought of any of this in ages. The sudden memory made his eyes tingle.

Unaccountably, as far as Joel was concerned, Ivan said, "ah. If we knew what the hand of cards was going to be, we'd develop a plan in advance to play them, I dare say. But the devilment of life is that we don't. We're caught out, most often with our trousers round our knees."

Joel wanted to say, "What're you on about?" but he didn't because he knew exactly what Ivan was on about" there one moment and gone the next, walking to the dancing school to fetch Ness from her Saturday lesson, Toby's hand in their dad's and Joel pausing some thirty yards back because in front of the discount store a container of footballs caught his attention, so much so that at first he didn't realize what the four loud pops were that he heard in advance of the shouting.

Joel said in a rush, "I brought these, " and he thrust his poems at Ivan

Ivan took them, mercifully saying nothing further about hands of cards or how one could play them. Instead, he placed the papers on the towel, and he bent over them exactly as he would bend over a clock. He read, and as he did so, he chewed on is mint leaves.

It's an impossible story and does well to explore the other side of things we never see, and has a way of making you wonder what you just might be missing. The ending however, does leave you wanting.

What Came Before He Shot Her

Texas annual snow week and Nora Roberts Blue Smoke

2011-02-04T10:45:00.000-06:00

This seems to be the beginning of an annual event in Texas. Last year, about this time my yard looked about the same way, only with a few more inches of snow on it. This year we seemed to have have gotten through with only about 6 inches on the ground...although, it's not finished snowing yet either. The funny thing is, I know some of you are laughing and that for those of you in the north, this is nothing, but for Dallas Texas, this is exciting-especially for the kids who have been out of school since Tuesday.

On another note, I did finish Nora Roberts Blue Smoke since I too have been off work since Tuesday, (I work at the kids school). After listening to The Search I thought I'd give another one of Ms. Roberts books a try, and finding her book on the dollar rack only helped cement the matter. I may not get around to a full blown blog on the story, but I will say I did enjoy it, and, it was quite different than I expected. I thought the story would be more romance, but it was more story oriented, focusing on a female whose life was changed one day when her family's restaurant was intentionally set on fire and almost destroyed. From that day, at 11 years old, she made it her life goal to become an arson investigator. Fire followed her everywhere, hurting her personally many times, but her family and friends always helped keep her strong. It was a beautiful story of what a strong female with strong ties can do. I would have loved to meet her family and have that restaurant nearby.

Blue Smoke

I am now currently making very slow progress on Elizabeth George's What Came before He Shot Her and Baroness Orczy's The Elusive Pimpernel. They are slow going, but I am enjoying them both.

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy

2011-01-23T08:00:00.002-06:00

They seek him here, they seek him there, those Frenchies seek him everywhere. Is he in Heaven, or is he in Hell, that dammed, elusive, Pimpernel.

In all the years, since the first time I saw Anthony Andrews as the Scarlet Pimpernel, I've never forgotten those words. Among my friends and I, we knew that line better than the seemingly ubiquitous "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of good fortune must be in want of a wife." from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice novel that we were forced to read. It was a line randomly brought into group conversations, and said loudly in unison followed by fits of laughter. We all knew that poem. To this day, I can't say what made that movie so attractive to us silly teenage girls, but it was, and today, I still think about it.

But, this isn't generally a movie blog, and to write about the story properly, I felt I should take things a bit farther and actually read the novel. I also found, very little to my surprise, that I enjoyed the book as much as the movie.

Baroness Orczy does a wonderful job in telling the story of The Scarlet Pimpernel, an elusive rescuer to French aristocrats awaiting their turn at the guillotine in the midst of the French Revolution. Meanwhile, back in England, Marguerite St. Just, also known as Lady Blakney, the wife of Sir Percy Blakney, is approached by A French officer to help discover the true identity of the Scarlet pimpernel. In exchange for her help, her brother, who has been accused for crimes against the revolution, might escape his own trip to guillotine. Marguerite feels she has no choice but to do as asked, and later discovers a plot during a party for one of the Pimpernel's men to meet him in a meeting room. She gives this information to the officer, but when he goes to the meeting room at the appointed time, he only finds Sir Percy stretched out asleep on the couch. Later, as Lady Blakney's suspicions arise, she investigates her husbands private office and discovers a seal bearing the Scarlet Pimpernel's sign. Has she unknowingly betrayed her husband? And, will she be able to save him from being condemned to the same death he works to rescue others from?

In a story of romance, adventure and fun, Baroness Orczy gives us a novel for the ages, that I personally, will never forget, (nor will I forget the memories that story has given me).

The Scarlet Pimpernel

A Darker Place by Laurie R. King

2011-01-20T07:00:00.000-06:00

Laurie R. King has a knack for creating novels with wonderful, strong female heroines, and once again, she does it beautifully in A Darker Place.

Anne Waverly is a forty-five year old alternative religion professor who occasionally is asked by the FBI to infiltrate religious communities and help determine if they are becoming dangerous. Four times she has been sent, each time escaping dark memories of her past, in hopes of atoning for a mistake that led to the loss of her husband and young daughter. This last time however, doesn't go as planned when Anne Waverly has a hard time becoming Ana Wakefield, her alter ego, and her past keeps trying to catch up to her, and threaten her mission.

So, could she trust herself in this state? Her mind was urging caution and rationality, forcing her to admit that the individual threats she had seen here did not necessarily add up to the sort of desperate scenario her inner eye was putting together: An antagonistic attitude toward the authorities, a man in the woods carrying a shotgun, a titular leader who was thinly connected with reality, and a de facto leader who was overly full of himself. That was it . Everything else came from her and her strange ties to two children, and all of it was tainted by her own past. Dulcie reminded her of Abby - that was where the cracks had begun. And then Bennett looked like Martin Cranmer, and the woods made her nervous, and by the time the pantry and the communal phobia about outsiders entered into the equation, she was so sensitized to parallels that a particular brand of pencil would take on an ominous significance. She had no business being there, no right to jeopardize everything by making decisions that could be based only on irrationality. The best thing for everyone would be if she were to stand up and walk away from the compound.

Leaving behind Jason in his alembic.
Abandoning Dulcie to strangers.
They would survive, her mind insisted. They would be fine.
But her gut, her heart, her every instinct cried out that here and now, the rational decision would be the wrong one, that the long term goal was just too far away. There were times when the expedient solution was not the right one, when only faith justified and action - educated and open - eyed faith if possible, but if that failed, blind faith would have to do.

There was, in truth, no choice to be made.
The deep trembling had subsided while she wrestled with her demon, and with that final realization, that a decision had made itself, she actually drifted into sleep for a while, free at last of the tension of being of two minds

As Ana works to discover what is really going on in the upper echelons of The Change movement, and tries to save the children put in her care, she also must come to terms with her past, and finally decide, once and for all, what her life is really worth.

The story is intelligent, full of portent, and you never quite know what path the author is going to take you down until you are there. And once again, Laurie King takes you down it brilliantly.

A Darker Place

The in between

2011-01-17T20:30:00.000-06:00

It's been a couple of weeks since by last blog, and I have been reading, I just haven't been blogging because both of the novels were sequels, and it felt a bit repetitive to once again write about a similar story. That, however, is not to say I didn't enjoy both of the novels, I did very much, I just didn't want to be redundant.

Like, for instance, Crime Always Pays by Declan Burke, the sequal to The Big O. I found it an interesting story, and enjoyed the characters, especially where each one was going to take their scheme, but since I'd recently blogged about The Big O, (which can be read here)I felt it repetitive.

Also, there was Iris Johansen's Chasing the Night. I'm not sure if I've blogged about the Eve Duncan series before, and I did enjoy the book for it's easy to follow, non-complex story line, but in all honesty, it didn't stand out to me enough to warrant a blog. It was entertaining yet somewhat unremarkable.

The third book I've recently finished, I may yet get around to blogging about since it was, and is, an old favorite. The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy. I am now reading I Will Repay, the second of the Pimpernel series, and am curious as to where the story is going to go. I may, instead, wait and see if it warrants more of a blog since I think the original is already rather well known.

So, there you have it. The in between in my world of blogs. Soon to follow, as I'm currently reading it now, will be A Darker Place by Laurie R King, and very possibly, a Scarlet Pimpernel review. I will say, that, as always, I am in awe of Ms. King's writing, she never fails to tell a brilliant story.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, (movie)

2011-01-06T13:10:00.006-06:00

In all honesty, I was very surprised by the movie of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I have heard so many things about the book, and have actually tried, unsuccessfully, to listen to the audio version, that I really wasn't expecting a whole lot from the movie. That said, last night I finally got around to watching it.

First off, what I've heard or observed, myself, about the book. Like I said, I haven't successfully finished listening to the book, I made it a few hours into it and felt bogged down with so much information I ended up giving it up. It seemed as soon as I would get interested in what was going on, the the inner workings of the business world would take over and the story would start to drag. As for what I was told by people who had read it, well, that amounted to an affirmation of what I felt, along with being told of some very graphic sexual violence that I won't go into here. Lets just say it was very over the top and unnecessary in its excessiveness, and, from what I saw on the movie, I can easily believe it.

So, then, what made me want to watch the movie? In all honesty, curiosity. I didn't have the patience for the book, but I wanted to know what all the hoopla was about this supposedly inspiring story. I was glad my curiosity got the best of me, and a bit shocked at the plot. I had no idea there was a pretty interesting murder/mystery story involved...that seemed to get lost amongst the criticisms. I was pretty disconcerted at how this intriguing story was buried beneath over indulged details. I'm also tempted to give the book another try just to make sure I'm not missing something. I believe I would, none the less, only prove myself right and end up wasting good time I could have spent reading another book on my never ending "to be read" list.

Regardless, if you have the stomach for it, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo is an interesting movie, though I don't recommend it for a romantic date night.

The Big O by Declan Burke

2010-12-31T17:55:00.004-06:00

I just finished Irish author, Declan Burke's, The Big O a few minutes ago, just in time to get it in as one last post before the new year, and it did make for a very enjoyable final book. It was clever, funny, the characters smart and witty, and a plot evocative of Elmore Leonard.

Rossi, Karen's ex-husband, is fresh out of prison, and ready to start anew by starting up a "charity" to help other ex-cons adapt to the real world, but he needs his sixty grand, that Karen is "holding" to use as start up cash. Karen, a receptionist and armed robber, has been dreading the day Rossi will be released. Things are just starting to go her way and she has finally met a seemingly wonderful guy, Ray, a professional kidnapper, pulling one last job. Karen has no problem with his vocation, that is, until she finds out he was hired, by her boss, to snatch his ex-wife, Madge, who happens to be her best friend. Add in a husky/wolf mix, a female cop with a crush on Ray and a narcoleptic wheel man and you have a very intriguing and fun story.

My favorite lines..

So then Ray had to explain murals to the shylock. This after Terry and Ray turned off their mobiles, in case someone might ring, incriminate the shylock in a dogdy deal. Then came the back-and-forth about how Ray owed it to Terry and the shylock not to walk away. How it could be dangerous having someone out there who knew what Ray knew, could put people away for serious time if he didn't keep his trap shut.

"First off, " Ray said, "nothing I can say touches you, right?"

"Damn straight, " the shylock grunted.

"Okay. So now we're talking about Terry." Ray looked across the desk. "You worried about me, Terry?"

"Nope."

"Why aren't you worried, Terry?"

"Because if you pull any shit that sticks to me, I'll have your heart cut out and fed to someone you're not so keen to see eating hearts."

Ray said, to the shylock: "Terry and me, we go back. Why would I want to fuck him over?"

Intelligence, humor, and wonderful characters all made for an enjoyable, and quick read in the middle of holiday insanity. I look forward to the sequel, Crime Always Pays which can be found here if you have an ereader. Also, Declan's blog of the same name can be found here.

The Big O

Mindjacker by Sean Patrick Reardon

2010-12-23T08:00:00.001-06:00

As I was reading Mindjacker I kept thinking what an insane ride the story was. It is fast paced, to say the least, and I'm not sure you really know what is going to happen until it happens. It reminds me of an amusement park ride in a way. That said, it also is the type of book I normally wouldn't read, since I'm not a big sci-fi fan. I did however enjoy the book, and I think Mr. Reardon accomplished what he set out to do according to this interview where he says

The audience I had in mind when I wrote it would be adults around ages of thirty to fifty, who enjoy pop culture and may not be avid readers. I think it is a known fact that men are not reading much overall. I wanted to write a story that a guy could read in a few sessions, be entertained, and maybe decide to start reading some of the great crime fiction that is out there today.

Mindjacker is the story of Joel Fisher, a rather egotistical and manipulative psychologist who seeks to create a device to control the minds of anyone he chooses. He, unbeknownst to his human guinea pigs, tests out his mind control device, the Dreemweever, and not only attempts to control their future, but does so by recreating their past. He isn't gentle in his test either...

"Enjoy the show," Mr. Kite's voice whispered through their speakers.

Ballroom Blitz blasted inside Scott's headset and the ride started. he really did feel like he was sitting behind the wheel of a car driving at night time. The ride moved his body with the visuals. Everything about it seemed realistic. The road was familiar and Scott recognized it was the 101, as the headlights beamed out over the road ahead of him. Suddenly, he saw something speeding toward him on the horizon. it flew at eye level, gaining speed, and then stopped in freeze frame just as it was going to smash into the windshield. Scott saw it had Tom's face. The screen unfroze and the black cloaked figure veered to the right, landing in the grass on the shoulder of the road.

the car cut hard right and crashed into the overpass abutment, slamming Scott's upper body against the torso restraint. The screen went black. Scott struggled to push the headset off, but it wouldn't move and he couldn't squirm out of the shoulder restraints.

Get me out of this fucking thing.

The shrieks and profanity laden screams coming from the other adult riders caused Scott to struggle harder.(pg.31)

Scott doesn't realize it, but that was the easy part. Eventually however, the testing is done, and as Joel is right on the verge of completing his project, and selling it to his investors, the Dreemweever is accidentally stolen by car thieves and Joel must figure out a way to move his pawns and get the device back..quickly.

Along with writing, our author also seems to be a fan of music from the 1970's, and wrapped throughout the story is a playlist of music the characters enjoy as their journey unfolds. You always know what music is playing in the background, and, If you're interested, a complete list of songs from the novel can be found here, along with a list of songs that inspired the author as he was writing. I personally don't think I've listened to any of them, but I was only a few years old during that time so I figure I have a valid excuse.

To find out more about Mindjacker, and Sean Patrick Reardon, you can visit his blog of the same name here

Mindjacker

Borderlands by Brian McGilloway

2010-12-21T14:50:00.001-06:00

My first thought after finishing Brina McGilloway's Borderlands was, "yep, it's an Irish novel alright". There is a lot of death, involving both bad guys and people you come to care about in the story, there is a lot of betrayal, and there is a lot of connections and interweaving of relationships. What makes this story stand out to me however are the imperfections and weaknesses in the main character, Inspector Benedict Devlin. He is not perfect, and not only makes mistakes as he investigates, which is common enough in the course of a murder inquiry, but also in his personal life with his wife and family. And, to add to Devlin's character, although he does struggle with the possible consequences, he is penitent and works to set things right.

"Debbie's a lucky woman," she said. "I was once, too." she smiled and waggled her finger at me. "ah, I remember. you couldn't control yourself with me once." Again she smiled coyly, but the impression in the darkness was anything but coy.

"A lot of water under the bridge since then, " I said. "I'll say goodnight."

"Goodnight, Benedict," she said. "Merry Christmas."

She leaned over to kiss me on the cheek, and so I leaned towards her. However, at the last moment, she moved her head slightly and the corners of our mouths connected with a tingle, like static. her lips were moist from her lipstick and I felt them tug slightly on mine. The gentle teasing of her lips, the warm haze of alcohol which filled my mouth and nose, the under scent of coconut which seemed to radiate from her skin - all took me back fifteen years. I shifted slightly in my seat, pressing my lips on hers, hearing her moan deeply, feeling the cool wetness of her mouth. Our teeth knocked together slightly, like a teenager's kiss. Feeling her tongue in my mouth, I touched the tip of it with mine. I placed my hand to the side of her face, her skin warm and soft.......
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unbidden images of my wife came to my mind and, with those, the sharp recollection of the threat of infection I carried. The haze lifted and I pulled away from her quickly.....
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then, over breakfast, while the kids played, I told Debbie everything: the arrest and the bite and my attack on McKelvey, nearly punching Williams, the incident with Miriam in the car, mcKelvey's death, and Costello sending me home. As I spoke I felt the familiar catharsis of confession and began to feel a little better - though aware that reconciliation requires penance and reparation as well as simple admission of guilt.

Throughout the story, you come to know an inspector who struggles, not only in his job, but also in life. It's a bit refreshing, and definitely adds another aspect to an already interesting plot.

Borderlands

Books I'm looking forward to reading in the near future: The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy on the Kindle and The Lamb Enters the Dreaming by Nathanael Pepper if it ever arrives in the mail.

Catch up

2010-12-16T07:00:00.001-06:00

I just noticed that my last post was about 10 days ago, and at the rate I'm going, I might only get 3 blogs in this month. However, I have been reading quite a bit despite my lack of blogging and the insanity that surrounds the holiday months, but what I'm reading just hasn't inspired me to write about it. I'm not sure why this is, since I have been enjoying the stories, but none the less, here is a little bit to get the 3 of you that read this blog caught up.

Dennis Lehane's Prayers for Rain and Moonlight Mile -I enjoyed both of these as a nice conclusion to the Kinzie and Gennaro series. I'm very glad Lehane wrote Moonlight Mile as a final ending and didn't leave things as they were in Prayers for Rain and I enjoyed the leap to the future that Moonlight Mile provided. My one gripe about the story is that little Gabriella has the reasoning of a much older person...I've yet to meet a four year old that can understand that throwing a temper tantrum in public is embarrassing. However, I find that a common issue in books, so I digress. On the whole however, I did enjoy both books.

Iris Johansen's Lion's Bride and The Treasure - Historical Romance is one of my guilty pleasures, and I do enjoy Johansen's version. Lion's Bride starts off the two story series with the story of Thea's escape from a house of Woman and her rescue by Lord Ware in a time when women were little more then a means of relief for whatever man might feel the need to use them. Thea however, has bigger dreams of opening her own embroidery shop and will do anything necessary to make those dreams happen. The Treasure continues the story by telling of Thea's little sister, Selene, and the ex-assassin, Kadar, and their journey to escape the hands of the power hungry and obdurate Nasim who wants Kadar to steal what he believes to be the famous Holy Grail in exchange for his life, and that of Selene's. I suppose both books are exactly what you would expect of a stereo typical Historical Romance, but they were very nice for a few hours of escape from this stressful time of year.

Next on my reading list, I'm going to attempt to read two books at once, which is something I've never successfully accomplished. I plan to attempt to read Charles Dickens A Tale of Two Cities on my Kindle while I'm out and about, and Brian Mcgilloway's Boarderlands while at home. We'll see how it goes.

Dennis Lehane's Gone, Baby, Gone

2010-12-05T20:57:00.002-06:00

For anyone that has read Lehane's books, you know he's not gentle in his plots. Often times, I have a sense of heaviness when I finish one. Gone, Baby, Gone was no different, and it struck home with the type of choice I dread ever having to make. The choice between moral conscience and the law.

Beware of spoilers.

A four year old little girl, Amanda McCready, is kidnapped and P.Is Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are hired by the child's uncle and aunt to find her. Her negligent mother, Helene, claims she put her daughter to bed and went next door to watch television with a friend, the next morning, she discovers her daughter is gone. What she fails to mention is the trip to a bar and getting stoned while she was out. This is just the latest in a long string of abhorrent events in the little girls life. A week before her kidnapping, Amanda was left sleeping on the beach while the mom went out shopping with her friend. Helene, tired of the little girls crying, finally took her to her brother to deal with her saying she was being "a bitch". The little girls uncle, seeing his niece's face and back, promptly took her to the hospital and was told Amanda was just short of having third degree burns from being left in the sun too long without sunscreen. The poor 4 year old could do nothing but cry from the pain. Patrick and Angela, knowing all of this, must now ask themselves, when they find her, will they admit to it and give the girl back to her mom, who she legally belongs to? Or, do they follow their conscience and save the girls life?

It's not an easy choice, and Lehane tackles it with the brutality that seems to encompass his stories. His is not an easy world.

Devin reached into his pocket and removed a cell phone, dialed 411. When the operator answered, he said, "West Beckett Sheriff's office, please." He repeated the number under his breath as she gave it to him, then punched the numbers into his cell phone keypad.

Before he could press send, Angie put a hand on his wrist. "What are you doing, Devin?"

"What are you doing, Ange?" he looked at her hand.

"You're going to arrest them?"

He looked up at the house, then back at her and scowled. "Yes, Angie, I'm going to arrest them."

"You can't."

He pulled his hand away from her. "Oh, yes, I can."

"No. She's --" Angie pointed through the trees. "Haven't you been watching? They're good for her. They're...Christ, Devin, they love her."

"They kidnapped her, " he said. "Were you awake for that part?"

"Devin, no. She's..." Angie lowered her head for a moment. "If we arrest them, they'll give Amanda back to Helene. She'll suck the life out of her."

Also, in case you are interested, I've discovered a movie was once made based on Gone, Baby, Gone IMDB

Should be interesting.

Gone, Baby, Gone

Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice

2010-11-29T06:32:00.004-06:00

After seeing the BBC 6 hour miniseries of Pride and Prejudice earlier this year, I've finally read the book. I now see why many females the world over love this book and story. That said, and given the popularity of the story, I don't think I need to give an overview of the book, but I would like to touch on some of my favorite parts.

I love Mr. Bennet's response in chapter 20 when Mrs. Bennet goes to Mr. Bennet to importune him to force Elizabeth to marry Mr. Collins.

Lizzy enters the room when called by her father..

"Come here, child, " cried her father as she appeared. "I have sent for you on an affair of importance. I understand that Mr. Collins has made you an offer of marriage. Is it true?" Elizabeth replied that it was. "Very well-and this offer of marriage you have refused?"

"I have sir."

"Very well. We now come to the point. Your mother insists upon your accepting it. Is not it so, Mrs. Bennet?"

"Yes, or I will never see her again."

"An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day you must be a stranger to one of your parents. Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do."

You can't help but love Mr. Bennet for that alone. And then there is the exchange between Mr. Darcy and Miss Elizabeth Bennet at the pianoforte during a visit to Roslings. Elizabeth was playing for Colonel fitzwilliam when Mr. Darcy approaches..

"You mean to frighten me, Mr. Darcy, by coming in all this state to hear me? I will not be alarmed through your sister does play so well. There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me."

"I shall not say you are mistaken," he replied, "because you could not really believe me to entertain any design of alarming you; and I have had the pleasure of your acquaintance long enough to know that you find great enjoyment in occasionally professing opinions which in fact are not your own."

Elizabeth laughed heartily at this picture of herself, and said to colonel Fitzwilliam, "your cousin will give you a very pretty notion of me, and teach you not to believe a word I say. I am particularly unlucky in meeting with a person so able to expose my real character, in a part of the world where I had hoped to pass myself off with some degree of credit. Indeed, Mr. Darcy, it is very ungenerous in you to mention all that you knew to my disadvantage in Hertfordsire and, give me leave to say, very impolitic too, for it is provoking me to retaliate, and such things may come out as will shock your relations to hear."

"I am not afraid of you," said he, smilingly

"Pray let me hear what you have to accuse him of," cried Colonel Fitzwilliam. "I should like to know how he behaves among strangers."

"You shall hear then, but prepare yourself for something very dreadful. The first time of my ever seeing him in Hertfordshire, you must know, was at a ball, and at this ball, what do you think he did? He danced only four dances, though gentlemen were scarce; and, to my certain knowledge, more than one young lady was sitting down in want of a partner. Mr. Darcy you cannot deny the fact.

"I had not at that time the honour of knowing any lady in the assembly beyond my own party."

"True; and nobody can ever be introduced in a ballroom. Well, Colonel Fitzwilliam, what do I play next? My fingers wait your orders."

"Perhaps," said Darcy, "I should have judged better, had I sought an introduction; but I am ill qualified to recommend myself to strangers."

"Shall we ask your cousin the reason of this?: said Elizabeth, still addressing Colonel Fitzwilliam. "Shall we ask him why a man of sense and education, and who has lived in the world, is ill qualified to recommend himself to strangers?:

"I can answer your question," said Fitzwilliam, "without applying to him. It is because he will not give himself the trouble."

"I certainly have not the talent which some people possess, : said Darcy, "of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done."

"My fingers," said Elizabeth, "do not move over this instrument in the masterly manner which I see so many women's do. They have not the same force or rapidity, and do not produce the same expression. But then I have always supposed it to be my own fault, because I will not take the trouble of practicing. It is not that I do not believe my fingers as capable as any other woman's of superior execution."

Darcy smiled and said, "You are perfectly right. you have employed your time much better. No one admitted to the privilege of hearing you can think anything wanting. We neither of us perform to strangers."

That scene, to me shows a lot about Mr. Darcy and Miss. Bennet. I love her teasing honesty, and his willingness to stand up to it. Of course, many things go on to happen after that part, and the relationship changes, but through it all, there is that humor and honesty between them that makes Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet two of the most loved characters in a love story today. They are certainly two of mine.

Pride and Prejudice

Elizabeth Crook's The Night Journal

2010-11-24T11:07:00.001-06:00

I originally came across The Night Journal at a library book sale not far from here. I'm not sure what exactly made it catch my eye, but something did, and after sitting in a nearby chair and reading the first few pages I thought it might be, not a only something to break up the status quo of what I normally read, but also a book I'd enjoy. I was right. Reading The Night Journal was like escaping to a different world for awhile and getting caught up in history as it was happening. It's a story to curl up in front of a fire on a cold day while drinking coffee with.

Meg has spent her life rebelling against her grandmother Bassie's obsession with the past, and she wants nothing to do with the world famous journals written by her great grandmother in the 1890s. The journals tell the story of Hannah Bass' as she writes about her life..her job at the Harvey hotel as a young lady just turning into a woman, how she met her future husband Eliot Bass who often left her alone while he laid tracks for the rail roads, and how she met and got to know her best friend Vincente Morales. Eventually however, we all have to come to terms with life and face why we are who are, and that journey, for Meg, begins when she is asked to escort Bassie back to her childhood home and the ruins nearby.

"Wow" she whispered.

"They believed it was a link to the underworld, " Jim said.

Her gaze wandered around the walls and came to rest on Jim.

"A time portal," he said.

Indeed, the past seemed preserved here, in this dim, underground environment, as if the people were still down here and time had lost its linear dimension.

"It connected the realm of the underworld to the world above ground, "he said. "Spaniards filled up most of the kivas with dirt and trash so the Indians couldn't come down and worship their gods. So then the Indians built more kivas. And the Spaniards backfilled those, too. That indentation in the floor near the wall is called a sipapu. It was reminiscent of a human navel, and symbolized passage from an even deeper underworld at the beginning of life."

the wind wuthered over the opening, but the room itself, as Meg looked around the walls, seemed untouched by motion. The downward slant of light illuminated particles of dust that hung suspended in the frigid air. Jim stood at the base of the ladder, stark lights and shadows from the shaft of sunlight clinging to his face like paint as he spoke.

He talked about one of the kivas at Pecos that he had excavated.

"What was that like?" Meg asked. "To uncover a place like this?"

Imagine a room filled with dirt," he said. "And every shovelful just might contain a piece of gold. Metaphorically speaking."

"And did it?" she asked. "Metaphorically speaking?"

"We found some potsherds," he said, and she laughed. "We found a soup plate. Two hammerstones. Fragments of oxidized iron. Charred food bones, including those of a domestic rooster. Shall I go on?" but then his expression became serious. "It's like being the first person to walk into a room hundreds of years after the last person there walked out of it." (pg.156-157)

As Meg reads the journals, and feels as though she is, for the first time, beginning to understand her ancestors and who they were, she also discovers a history so secretive and shameful, that Hannah hid it from the very people she was writing the journals for. And, as Meg comes to terms with this, she also comes to discover what she wants and who she wants to be.

The Night Journal is a very picturesque and enjoyable story. At times, I wondered what it would have actually been like to go back and visit it for myself.

On another note, I'd also like to thank the author, Elizabeth Crook, for sending me another copy of the book so could fill in the missing 32 pages as mentioned here.

The Night Journal

Laurie R. King's Keeping Watch

2010-11-17T17:38:00.000-06:00

INCREDIBLE!! After reading Folly, I didn't believe Laurie King could possibly top herself, but it seems I was proven wrong with Keeping Watch. From the atrocities of the Vietnam War to the peacefulness of a Montana farm, Ms. King takes you on a psychological and poignant journey that will have you engrossed.

Allen Carmichael wanted more. He wanted adventure and experience, and he found it in the jungles of Vietnam where he went from a quotidian teenager to a man dealing with the atrocities of war.

That was not the whole of it, either. Allen looked up from Streak's slack features to another face startling in it's contrast, a face so contorted in pain and fear that he failed for a moment to recognize it. Farmboy Pete, helmet tipped back from that blond and tousled head, legs in the water, freckles stark against skin gone monstrously pale. he was trying to get his hands onto his belly where the medic was working; Two men were struggling to hold his wrists while Pete writhed and gulped for air, his eyes locking on to Allen as if to a life ring. Allen splashed over to his side, and one of the bloody hands shot away from its keeper to grab Allen's arm.

"don't leave me, Carmichael, don't leave me here."

Nobody's going to leave you, Farmboy, you're safe now. the medic's going to patch you up and it's off to the hospital with you, nice, clean sheets and plenty to eat, all those pretty nurses, don't worry." Nonsense phrases poured out, nonsense because it did not seem possible for a man to lose that much blood and survive to the medevac's arrival. "can't you give him some morphine?" he asked the medic.

"Any more might kill him."

Years later, after many years of living in disconsolation, Allen is ready to pick up the pieces as he realizes his very specialized soldier's skills could be put to good use as a professional kidnapper helping abused children escape the suffering that encompasses their daily lives. When Allen meets Jamie, a 12 year boy who claims his father is going to kill him, he knows the boy will be his last job. Soon however, Jamie's father's plane crashes and evidence is revealed that makes Allen wonder, if possibly, it's really the other way around. It seems this one last rescue is not going to be as simple as Allen originally thought.

Keeping Watch

The bookshelf

2010-11-10T08:46:00.003-06:00

Before...

After...

I'm not sure how long it took me to fill it up, my husband says less than a year, but regardless, it's filled up, and when I think about what books to send back to half price, I just can't bring myself to do it. It's sad really. Good thing we bought enough wood for 2 bookshelves :)

Oh, if you want to know what all is on there, here's a link.. bookshelf Scroll around the linked picture to see what all has been tagged, (I think I got it all).

I'm perplexed - Elizabeth Crook's The Night Journal

2010-11-04T08:41:00.003-05:00

I was finding The Night Journal an interesting story and a nice break in the status quo of books for me. It isn't the fast paced, dark crime novel I normally read, in fact, it's more of a slower paced fiction story. It was a nice change. Anyway, for the past week, I've been reading this novel, (now that I'm working part time I find my reading time has diminished quite a bit), and all of the sudden, the next page doesn't fit what's going on. I look down, and the page number jumps from page 152 to 184....32 pages missing out of nowhere!! The book doesn't look like pages are missing, nothing is cut out or torn, the binding doesn't look bigger than it should be, it all looks normal, but 32 pages aren't there. It's not a typo either because I have no idea what's going on on that next page. It really is an odd thing. Now I have to decide if I'm going to finish the book not knowing what happened in those 30 pages.

Rick Rioden book signing

2010-11-01T16:10:00.001-05:00

Last weekend Rick Riorden, my sons favorite author, had a book signing about 5 hours away, and since we have friends that lived in the area, we made a weekend of it. I'm also very thankful to these friends because they were able to get us line tickets much earlier than we would have been able to get them ourselves, which meant a lot less time standing around waiting. Instead, we got to try out new local restaurants, shop in a gihugeic outdoor mall, including Godiva, and all in all, enjoy the company of friends we never get to see. It was a lot of fun, and I'm glad my son got to experience the excitement of getting to meet his favorite author. I'm hoping one day to get to do the same...assuming I can actually decide on a favorite that is.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the picture at the top left is a small taste of the crowd that was there, the picture at the bottom is the author himself signing a book for someone else since I dropped my phone and it turned itself off as a result when it was our turn...sigh...

Folly woodwork

2010-10-26T10:00:00.002-05:00

In the story of Folly Rae Newborn is a woodworker who creates amazing furniture and tables out of otherwise useless stumps of wood. While browsing through an outdoor art festival this past weekend, I came upon a couple of pieces that reminded me of this.

The top one is a coffee table made of glass put on a stump, and the second picture, is a decorative fountain/table, again, made of a stump and glass. I couldn't help but think of Rae when I saw these.

Folly by Laurie R. King

2010-10-25T09:30:00.000-05:00

In reading Folly, I've had one prominent thought...that Laurie R. King is a master of what she does. She is definitely the cream of the crop.
Rae Newborn has a hard history full of mental illness, she sees people that aren't there...hears noises that aren't being made, and losing her much adored husband and young daughter in a tragic accident has done nothing but agitate her already fragile state of mind. To make things worse, she was physically attacked not long after the loss of her family, and the attackers are still out there. In an effort to regain control and sanity, Rae decides to move to an island and rebuild a house once owned and built by her great uncle. She hopes to use the solitude and silence to do what years of therapy and medication have not succeeded in doing. After her estranged daughter and granddaughter drop her off on her new residence, she contemplates the odd silence.

Silence was not an absence of noise, it was an actual thing, a creature with weight and bulk. The stillness felt her presence and gathered close against her, slowly at first but inexorably, until Rae found herself bracing her knees and swaying with the burden. It felt like a shroud, like the sodden sheets they used to bind around out-of-control mental patients. She stood alone on the shore, head bowed, as if the gray sky had opened to give forth a viscous and invisible stream of quiet. It poured across her scalp and down her skin, pooling around her feet, spreading across the rocks and the bleached driftwood, oozing its way into the salt-stunted weeds farther up the bank and the shrubs with their traces of spring green, then fingering the shaggy trunks of the fragrant cedars and bright madrones until it reached the derelict foundation on which fifty-two-year-old Rae Newborn would build her house, that brush-deep, moss-soft, foursquare, twin-towered stone skeleton that had held out against storm and fire and the thin ravages of time, waiting seventy years for this woman to raise its walls again.

With "the watchers" she feels making the tiny hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, Rae gets to work, always wondering "are they real?". Did she really hear a twig crack on the ground? She doesn't believe so, until she notices what might be a mysterious footprint where there should be nothing but water and sand. And, as the house builder continues in her work, other subtle inconsistencies begin appearing. Did she put her tools in the tool box in the wrong place? Has someone gone through the things in her tent? Rae isn't sure, but when the sheriff stops by to tell her her attackers were paid by someone unknown to make her think she was imagining things, and someone has been calling around the island looking for her, she starts to wonder if maybe the things she's imagined were real after all.

The prose reads as if another person is watching Rae and narrating what she is thinking and doing. The characters are human, with anger, regret, happiness and dreams. The pace is slow but never sluggish or dragging. It's a story to get engrossed in and one that makes you want to be a part of, if for nothing else, for the almost magical quality of the redemption it brings.

Folly

A good cause

2010-10-22T09:47:00.002-05:00

I wanted to throw this on here for anyone that might be interested. Declan Burke will have a new book coming out soon, and the profits are to be donated to the children's wing of an hospital to help offset the government's lack of concern in helping the little people. If you have an interest in Irish fiction, or even if you don't, check it out. It promises to be a good read, and it's for a good cause.

http://crimealwayspays.blogspot.com/2010/10/on-blowing-up-hospitals-for-charity.html

Collusion by Stuart Neville

2010-10-15T10:00:00.002-05:00

There are so many different places to start when writing a review of Stuart Neville's Collusion, that I'm really not sure where to begin. The story is intriguing and gripping, with several threads coming together from different directions, and, involving complex characters that were, in most cases agathokakological, (there's a word for you Seana). It was a novel very hard to put down and I hated to do so.

Detective Inspector Jack Lennon is a cop put on busy work duty for being a bit too scrupulous. When the men that he is watching get in a fight, and one stabs the other, Jack stumbles on a cover up that goes deep, and puts his ex-wife, Marie, and young daughter, Ellen, in danger.

Gerry Fagen is a madmen with a hard past full of ghosts, murder, and attempted redemption. He has moved to New York to try to restart his life in anonymity. That doesn't last long however, and soon, the powers that be are again trying to get Gerry to do their dirty work. However, the only dirty work Gerry plans to do is to protect Marie and Ellen at all cost if and when they call.

Marie and Ellen were once in the middle of a violent battle when they were used as bait by Bull O'Kane to trap Gerry. They have again found themselves in the same position as someone is trying to capture them to once again have a go at Gerry.

"The Traveler" is an obdurate man hired to permanently clean up a mess certain very powerful people don't want made public. He has no compunction with killing, and in fact is looking forward to the challenge he's hoping Fagen will bring him.

It's a tale of revenge, with collusion and betrayal at the heart of the story when all of these players come together in hopes of getting what they want, but the real question is, which ones will survive.

Collusion is the sequel to Neville's The Ghosts of Belfast, and I do recommend reading it first as it gives you a much better idea of the history and where the characters are coming from. It's been awhile since I read The Ghosts of Belfast and I admit to having a few problems. None the less, I enjoyed Collusion quite a bit and I hope to see more from Mr. Neville soon.

The Ghosts of Belfast

Collusion

Currently reading, and enjoying, Folly by Laurie R. King.

Lauren Willig's The History of the Pink Carnation

2010-10-11T09:20:00.000-05:00

My thoughts on The History of the Pink Carnation are a bit desultory. I feel as though as soon as I form one opinion, another thought forms, possibly even a contradictory one. The main frustration that strikes me is that although I did enjoy the characters overall, they were a bit daft and I did find myself perplexed, at times, at their lack of figuring obvious things out. I also found some of her...descriptions were a bit overboard. Overall, however I did enjoy the story, and I do look forward to seeing where the author takes the characters in future novels.

The History of the Pink Carnation begins with Eloise Kelly - a young historian writing her dissertation - traveling through England on the tube to meet an ancestor of Lord Richard Selwick, otherwise known as the Purple Gentian and friend and one time sidekick to The Scarlet Pimpernel. Eloise is hoping Mrs. Selwick-alderly has some information that will uncover the true identity of the Pink Carnation, which has never been revealed. Gold is struck when the historian not only finds there is information, but a whole chest of diaries and manuscripts waiting to be read. With permission, Eloise immerses herself in the documents and gets lost in a story of love, dissembling, and espionage in the midst of handling life in the real world.

For those that enjoy the genre of historical romance, this is an agreeable story. Although, I did find it quite unbelievable, and the characters unrealistic, especially in a sense of propriety, I was also regaled by the amusive tone of the narration and the overall enjoyment of reading of that time period.

Tishomingo blues by Elmore Leonard

2010-10-05T16:30:00.002-05:00

In Tishomingo Blues, Elmore Leonard weaves a web of lies, deception and half truths unraveled in the midst of a war reenactment. Up until the plan plays out, you really aren't sure which strings the proverbial puppeteer is going to pull. This story definitely wasn't the typical procedural crime novel we hear so much about. There is no "who done it?" or figuring out how or why, it is simply what's truth and what isn't - untangling the web.

Dennis Lenahan is a professional high diver that stumbles into a tight predicament. One afternoon while he is preforming at a casino, he unwittingly witnesses a murder, and only manages to avoid his own murder with the help of a narcissistic mutual friend who assures the shooters of Dennis' silence. As Dennis is walking away from the scene, thinking no one knew he was there, he runs into Robert Taylor, another witness with a plan of his own. Robert tells Dennis he can help him stay alive, but soon Dennis will have to decide where his life is going. He is at a crossroads, and he can stay on the path he's on, or help Robert to get what he wants, and have everything he's ever wanted as a result. But, what does Robert want? That's something that Dennis can only hope to discover before it is too late.

The story is interesting and it moves well, and putting the tangled web of lies and deception in the middle of a war reenactment was an intriguing idea. I enjoyed the, to me anyway, original idea, and I hope to find more books by Mr. Leonard.

Tishomingo blues

Ian Fleming's Dr. No

2010-09-30T08:00:00.001-05:00

I've never read a James Bond novel until now, although I have often wondered where the audacious agent originated. I enjoyed seeing a different side of Bond. In the movies, 007 is always confident, knows exactly what he's doing, and never questions the next move. In the book, James is more human. He makes mistakes and even doubts he'll win the battle when things get rough, and, his heart shows. However, I have never seen the cinema version of Dr. No, so maybe Sean Connery's Bond was different than what I've gotten used to.

In Dr. No, 007 is just getting out of the hospital when the perfect case shows up on M's desk. Two agents have disappeared suddenly from a post in Jamaica, and M, believing they have simply run off together, sends Bond out, on the premise of investigating, to rest and recover for awhile. James instincts however, are telling him something else. As soon as James is off of the plane, his picture is taken by a reporter who shouldn't even know he is there, and not long after, that same reporter is found following him. When James questions her, her fear of what might happen if she answers is greater than her fear of Bond, and he begins to really question what he is up against. With help from an old friend, Bond must track down the paths of the absconded agents, protect the beautiful girl he inadvertently involved, discover who is behind the plot to have him killed, and, of course, save the world.

It was nice to see a softer side of the overconfident agent I'm used to, and I'm curious enough now to watch the movie version to see how it compares. Besides, spending an hour of so watching a young Sean Connery can't be a bad thing can it.

Dr. No

Continuing the series..Lehane's Kenzie/Gennaro and King's Mary Russell

2010-09-27T20:27:00.007-05:00

Darkness, Take My Hand is the latest in Lehane's Kenzie/Gennaro I have read. As I started the book, I found myself quickly attracted to the story, and even more so, the characters. I find I really like Patrick's sardonic sense of humor. One of the passages that comes to mind..

"Someone Murdered her last night"
"No." Her eyes were huge.
"Yes." With all the extra cream, my coffee tasted like baby's formula. "Crucified her on Meeting House Hill."

She closed her eyes for a moment, opened them. She looked at her cigarette like it might tell her something. "Any idea who did it?" she said.

No one was parading around Meeting House Hill with a bloody hammer singing, 'Boy, oh boy, do I like to crucify women,' if that's what you mean." I tossed my coffee in the sink

Quietly, she said, "you done snapping for the day?"
I poured fresh coffee into the cup, "don't know yet. It's still early."

Although, honestly, I do find the story a little too dark and harsh for my taste, but I also find that I want to keep reading the series just to see how things work out with the characters. I do hope, both, at some point, end up with some amount of the peace they've never had.

Laurie R. King's A Letter of Mary is another one I have finished recently. I will admit, I had a hard time getting interested in this one. I normally really enjoy Ms. King's novels, and her style of writing, for some unknown reason however, this one didn't grip me as her other stories have. However, by the middle of the novel, I did find some amount of curiosity growing and kept with it, realizing I really had no idea which direction the author was going to take the story. She had several avenues open, and I had to know which she chose. In the end, I was not disappointed, and I am left wondering where the characters will go next. I also find I am getting a bit of a character crush on Mr. Sherlock Homes.

Darkness Take My Hand
A Letter of Mary

Next on the reading plan is Ian Fleming's Dr. No and I'm currently listening to Fern Michael's Weekend Warrior's

84 Charing Cross Road

2010-09-22T13:11:00.004-05:00

Last night my husband was hunting around the Netflix instant watch and came across this charming movie, based on the true story written by Helene Haniff, and staring a very young Anthony Hopkins, Anne Bancroft and Judi Dench. About 15 minutes into the movie I looked at my husband and asked if he was sure he wanted me to watch it. You see, the storyline was about a young woman living in New York in the late 1940's who is looking for certain British second hand books. She contacts an antiquarian book seller at Marks & Co. with her request, and then begins a 20 year correspondence, and friendship, with everyone at the store. It's a beautiful story, and although I'm not one to collect rare or hard to find books, the movie almost had the quixotic part of me ready to give it a try. The bookshelves displayed in the store were beautiful and covered with old looking books, and I couldn't help but think how nice it would be to have a room full of books like that and how satisfying it would be to find just the right one. However, I also realize I can't begin to imagine the cost in today's world just to find one single antique novel. Alas, I will have to make do with enjoying what I do have and can get at local stores, but it is a fun thought.

If you're interested, here are a couple of links - 84 Charing Cross Road on Imdb, 84 Charing Cross Road on Wikipedia

Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey

2010-09-18T22:40:00.004-05:00

Jane Austen is an author I didn't expect to enjoy, however, I have been proved wrong. Northanger Abbey was an enjoyable book that I, at times, didn't want to put down. The characters were amusing and somewhat overdone, in a good way, as I think only Jane Austen can pull off, and the language was very elegant and enjoyable, if not a bit of a challenge.

Catherine Morland, our "heroine", in an idealistic young woman whose very nature demands she always see the best in people. She also has an over active imagination, encouraged by the reading of Gothic novels, that tends to get the best of her. When Mr. and Mrs. Allen invite Miss. Morland to join them on a trip to Bath, she is given a harsh lesson in the realities of life. While enjoying society she is quickly introduced to new friends, Mr. John Thorpe and Miss. Isabella Thorpe, an avaricious brother and sister hoping an acquaintance with Miss. Morland will be advantageous. She is also introduced to the witty Mr. Henery Tilney, who lives, with his sister and father, at Northanger Abbey, which Catherine imagines to be much like the abbey's in her Gothic stories. She is soon entreated to accompany them home, and it isn't long before the most prosaic events get the best of her imagination and Henery is forced to explain the truth of his mother's death, and help her learn that things aren't always as they seem.

I have been told that Northanger Abbey is not Ms. Austen's best tale, but it was a good place to start, and I look forward to soon reading her most popular novel Pride and Prejudice.

Northanger Abbey

Sam Millar's Bloodstorm

2010-09-14T16:06:00.006-05:00

Bloodstorm was a very interesting book. I must admit, I was a bit irresolute about reading this book after the author himself gave me a warning saying the book was "very gory and in very bad taste", and, I have to agree, he was right. However, once all of that was waded through, I found that I really enjoyed the story, and characters, and was glad I wasn't easily dissuaded.

Karl Kane is a Belfast P.I who is all but broke because of a tendency to lose money on playing cards or the horses. As he is sitting in his office contemplating how to pay the bills, in walks his next paycheck in the form of Mr. Munday who needs some information about a recently killed friend. $500 dollars now, and $500 when the P.I finds out the where, when and how seems like a pretty good, quick, and easy, job. A chat with some acrimonious cops and Kane is set. Six days later, Mr. Munday returns to not only find out the answer to his questions, but also with another request to find out information about some prostitutes, this time for $1000 up front. Kane isn't sure about his clients motives and decides to turn him down. Unfortunately, however, a chain of events has already been set in motion, including the death of his client, and regardless of what the impecunious investigator wants, his conscience decides he must finish what he started.

It's not a story for the feint of heart, and I often thought to myself "that was more than I wanted to know", but, I found as it went along, the crudity lightened up and the story and characters became more my focus. I'm glad I stuck with it and I'm looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Bloodstorm

The Guardian by Nicholas Sparks

2010-09-09T18:44:00.004-05:00

I'm a bit tentative about blogging about The Guardian simply because of how much I really didn't like it. It was greatly disappointing. After all of the hoopla surrounding Nicholas Sparks' books and movies, I don't know what I was expecting, but it was better than this. I thought the writing was plain and redundant, the plot was stale, and the story itself was overly punctilious. On top of all of that, the author kills the best written character, Singer the Great Dane. Now, I can deal with a lot in a book, but I would have liked one redeeming factor.

Julie Barenson's husband died of cancer at a very young age, as a parting gift, he left her a Great Dane puppy named Singer who quickly becomes one of her best friends, and her protector. After spending years of trying to move on, Julie finally finds herself ready to date again, unfortunately, it seems all of the good guys are taken...until she meets Richard. Richard is polite, caring, exciting and treats her like a queen. After a few dates however, Julie starts to feel that something she can't quite put her finger on is lacking, and, in the meantime, she starts to find that something in her other best friend, Mike. When she tells Richard of her feelings, jealousy takes over and Julie's life changes forever.

It's a story we've all heard before, and granted Nicholas Sparks does, at times, pull the heart strings, but overall I found it painstaking trying to finish. I really don't mean to be harsh, but it just wasn't up to par I don't think.

The Guardian

The Scarlet Pimpernel

2010-09-07T08:45:00.000-05:00

One of the purposes of this blog is, in theory, for me to not only post my thoughts on the books I read, but also to explore some of the the thoughts those books bring up. I've noticed that occasionally a book will mention something that makes me curious, something I'd like to learn about just for the sake of learning something new. However, although there is a growing list of things to look up, I haven't been very good at following through on it. I'm going to attempt to change that. On that note...

As a teenager I remember having a bit of a fondness for the story of The Scarlet Pimpernel. I'm not sure why, but it was one of my favorites, (along with the musical Guys and Dolls). I was recently reminded of this when my mom showed me a picture of a Scarlet Pimpernel flower she was thinking of drawing for her art class....it is a very pretty flower. I remember in the play and novel that the elusive Pimpernel would draw this flower when he left messages for his men, and I remember wondering "Why that flower?". Well, in looking a few things up, the best I came up with was from Wikipedia..

This common European plant is generally considered a weed and is an indicator of light soils.

But even so, did the writer know that? I honestly doubt it considering the play was written in 1903. None the less, I think it fits well enough. If I remember the story right, (it's only been about 15 years since I've read it), the English did consider "The Pimpernel" to be a weed, not realizing he was one of their own who was masquerading as a slow-witted and deficient individual. They couldn't see what he really was.

For those that don't know about it, here's a short little trailer I found. The first 30 seconds are a bit long, but otherwise.. (and I particularly like the poem).

Naked Came the Phoenix

2010-09-04T08:30:00.001-05:00

Naked Came the Phoenix is a serial novel in which 13 female mystery authors each contributed a chapter to make up a the whole novel. They were given the setting, main characters, order of their chapters and a few simple rules such as write in the third person and no pursuing each other for favors. No asking the person before you to set a clue, hide a murder weapon or leave a certain character alive. Each writer had to take what they were given by the previous author and do what they could, which at times included making a mess for the next to clean up...which was of course, part of the fun.

Caroline Blessing, newly married to Congressman Douglas Blessing, is taken by her mom to visit a sybaritic spa for a week of relaxation after her father died. Not long after they check in however, they discover the body of the spa's owner laying in a mud bath with a shawl tied tightly around her neck. Amazingly none of the other guest saw anything. Not the long famous rock star, the anorexic model, the popular actress or the washed out movie producer, and to add to the verisimilitude, and the detectives frustration, no one is saying anything without their overpriced lawyers...or, they aren't saying anything until the bodies start stacking up.

As you can see on the picture, there were some pretty famous, and talented authors on the list, which made things, shall we say, interesting. Every chapter was a different style, and at times was inconsistent. You honestly had no idea what the characters would do since every author would turn them into who they wanted them to be. It was a bit frustrating. However, at the end of it, Laurie R. King somehow managed to take all of the twist, turns and discrepancies and make them make sense. She did a wonderful job of it, and she is what made the other, somewhat discouraging chapters come together. In my mind, Ms. King is the master of the suspense novel.

Naked Came the Phoenix

The Color of Blood by Declan Hughes

2010-08-31T07:35:00.002-05:00

My first impression upon finishing this book was WOW!! Declan Hughes now has me hooked on his Ed Loy P.I series. The story was captivating and tangled, and complex enough to have me actually take notes...and enjoy the process. I don't think I've ever read a novel quite like it.

Ed Loy was hired to find the missing daughter of a dentist in a venerable family. The case sounds simple enough, until Loy starts to dig and uncovers grisly and dissolute secrets no family should ever have to live with, (secrets that began 30 years ago and affect every part of the family, regardless of how much they attempt to deny their existence). From "kissing cousins" to decades of murders, Ed Loy has to wade through the dissimulation ingrained in every member of the Howard family to get to the truth. However, this time he isn't doing it alone. This time, his good buddy Tommy Owens is there to help, in the way that only Tommy can.

I don't think I've read such and intriguing novel with so many layers to dig through, and it is filled with connections I was, at times, surprised to see. I'm really looking forward to seeing where Mr. Hughes takes the rest of the series.

Oh, and for those that are wondering...my notes...

The Color of Blood

Next book on the reading list is The price of blood by Declan Hughes.

Pieta

2010-08-27T10:30:00.004-05:00

I came across the word pieta today while reading The Color of Blood by Declan Hughes, it means "a representation of the Virgin Mary mourning over the dead body of Jesus" (www.thefreedictionary.com). In the story Mr. Hughes writes this:

Shane Howard had been on his feet when I recounted the history of his daughter's sexual relationship with her cousin, his hands balling into fists, his eyes blurring with rage; but the news of David Brady's murder hit him the hardest. Sandra went to him and wrapped her arms around his great shoulders and pulled his head to her breast and they subsided to the floor, Sandra whispering to her little brother and stroking his sand-colored hair. It was touching and pathetic, a grotesque pieta that was moving and disturbing.

I would have gotten the idea without the specific word, but that one word added quite a bit more to the picture. As I'm blogging, I'm finding that carefully chosen words really do add to the whole of it. I've even been thinking about the etymology...(which is a scary thought in itself), and in case you are wondering, here's what The Free Dictionary says about it:

The term "pietà" (Latin: pietas) originated from a custom of the Roman Empire around the time of 64 AD, referring to the act of prostrating oneself, and putting forth an "Emotion...of great love accompanied with revering fear....of the [Roman] gods."

Another good juxtaposition I read while reading an excerpt from a book compared the coming daylight to Guinness settling after it's poured. I particularly liked that one too.

The Observations by Jane Harris

2010-08-26T14:00:00.001-05:00

The Observations by Jane Harris was an interesting book, however, I am a bit irresolute about my feelings on it. In the beginning the story captured my curiosity, but as it went on, I found myself wondering if I should finish it on the grounds that some of the topics were more than I cared to think about. Alas, the curiosity won out as Ms. Harris leaves just enough out to keep you wondering what and why.

Bessie Buckley is a "housemaid" peregrinating to Edinburgh after her previous master has died of old age. As she is walking she comes to a country home where the lady of the manor is chasing a loose pig after recently letting her housemaid go. It was perfect happenstance. Arabella Reid, the Missus, quickly hires her, and, on explaining the chores that will need done, suspects that Bessie knows very little about keeping house. This idea is proved true when Bessie tries to use newspaper to clean coal off of the rug, making the mess worse. However, Mrs. Reid is a patient woman and resolves to teach Bessie not only how to do her chores properly, but also how to behave. The only thing she ask in return is that Bessie agree to write down everything she does, and her thoughts, in a little notebook that will be occasionally read by her mistress. It is not long however, that Bessie discovers things are not as simple as they seem when her Missus starts making odd demands. One night, irately waking Bessie from sleep, Mrs. Reid will demand a cup of hot cocoa be made only to nicely request Bessie sit and drink it. Another day, Bessie is asked to sit in a chair in the middle of the room and then stand up, then sit, then stand and sit repeatedly until she refuses to stand again, (and is then lavishly praised regardless of repetitions). Bessie can't begin to fathom the reasoning behind these request, but does them in an attempt to please the one person she has grown to deeply care for...and their begins a story ingrained with dissimulation, jealousy, selfishness, and redemption as we learn the truth, not only in Arabella's motives, but also behind Bessie's past.

In typing this out, I fear I've made the story sound much less than it is. Honestly, there is much more to it. Bessie's dependence is deeply rooted and comes from an unmentionably harsh past, and the peace she finds in its resignation is hard to imagine. It's a story that shows that when we finally come to a place of self-abnegation with those we love happiness can be found.

The Observations

Added to the shelf

2010-08-22T14:30:00.002-05:00

I've hit several book stores this weekend, and added several books to the "to be read" pile...as if it wasn't big enough as it was. I seem unable to turn down the chance to buy a book so the pile just keeps growing. Added this weekend:

Dennis Lehane's The Given Day. I found this one on sale at Barnes and Nobles and since I enjoyed A Drink Before the War I thought I'd give it a try. Not to mention, I really like the cover.

Jane Harris's The Observations. I've never read anything by Ms. Harris but again, I liked the cover, (not the one in the link), it sounded interesting, and it was on the clearance rack at Half Price Books so it's hard to go wrong.

Laurie R. King's Touchstone. I'm currently reading, and enjoying, Ms. King's Mary Russell series so when I saw this one also on the clearance rack there was no way I was turning it down.

Jane Austen's Northanger Abby. I picked this one up on advice from a fellow blogger. Perhaps being able to keep up with Laurie King's prose is giving me some guts to explore more sophisticated authors.

James Ellroy's American Tabloid. After reading a review of Blood's a Rover here I thought I'd check out the first one in the series and give it a try.

And last, but not least, Christopher Farnsworth's Blood Oath. I've never heard of this author and don't know anything about him, but on a trip to Austin this weekend I visited an independent book store. They had Blood Oath on display and although I think the whole vampire thing is excessive I do enjoy the occasional trip into the paranormal.

Needless to say, I've got plenty of books to read, and with the kids headed back to school tomorrow, possibly some extra time to read them.

Dennis Lehane's A Drink Before the War

2010-08-17T13:40:00.000-05:00

Dennis Lehane creates a rough world for this first in the "Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro" series. It's a world of hard and fast racism, animosity and contempt, where licentiousness is a way of life. It's not a pleasant place. In all of that however, Lehane manages to put two gratifying and amusingly cynical private investigators to solve the problems in the world.

Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are hired by a sycophantic politician to find a missing office cleaning woman and some "documents" she is accused of stealing. However, they quickly find out it's not that black and white when Kenzie is almost beat to death on the way home, and the next day a violent gang war breaks out. As the case progresses, the P.I's start to wonder why these politicians are so interested in the missing woman and a seemingly innocuous picture she hands them, and what it has to do with the upcoming street terrorism bill waiting to be voted on in the senate. As they wade through all of the pretense, they quickly see there is a lot more going on than they were led to believe, and none of it is pretty.

The story is hard, and impossible to believe in the way that those of us who live in a secure and relatively sedate world don't understand, but is not without meaning or a valid point...a point well made I thought.

A Drink Before the War

(Currently about to start Laurie R. King's A Monstrous Regiment of Women)

Alexandra Potter's Me and Mr. Darcy

2010-08-14T11:30:00.003-05:00

Alexandra Potter's Me and Mr. Darcy was positively cute. It was funny, charming, romantic and entertaining. I've never been the biggest adherent of Jane Austen, even though I did enjoy the 6 hour adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, and would like to enjoy her books, but this book makes me want give her another try. I might just have to restart the audio version of Pride and Prejudice again.

In Me and Mr. Darcy Alexandra Potter tells the story of a young women who is sick of modern day men. After a string of bad dates, including a guy that not only insist she pay for her food, lets a door slam in her face, and steals her cab, but storms off when she won't invite him home, Emily Albright swears off men. When a friend tries to convince her to go on a New Years "18-30" party trip to Cancun to help get her back on the band wagon, Emily gets an idea to sign up for a Jane Austen literary book tour in England instead. Anticipating a week away with her one true love, Mr. Darcy, Emily gets on the tour bus to find it full of much older women who she instantly believes herself to have nothing in common with. Then, to make it worse, Spike, a petulant, disheveled, seemingly juvenile reporter joins them to figure out what the acclaimed Mr. Darcy has the he hasn't. Not a difficult question. Throughout the week, Ms. Albright discovers Mr. Darcy is not all he's made up to be, and she quickly discovers how true Jane Austen's words are.

The characters are fun and easy, and I could almost feel myself sitting in Starbucks talking with a friend I hadn't seen in awhile over a cup of coffee while she told me about her trip as I read the story. Ms. Potter has found a nice and easy mix to get her point across, and possibly, bring an old novel new interest.

Me and Mr. Darcy

Requiems for the Departed

2010-08-12T08:56:00.002-05:00

Requiems for the Departed was unlike any book I've read, simply because I've never read a full anthology from cover to cover. It was an interesting process, if not a little confusing figuring out the characters and plot in every individual story. Since every short story was different I can't really give you a synopsis of the story, other than to say they all contained something of Irish mythology, and for the most part were somewhat "dark". Some of my favorites though...

Adrian McKinty's Diarmaid and Grainne.... As typical with McKinty's books, and one of the reasons I enjoy his books, is that I can see them in my mind as I'm reading it. Even a day or two later I can picture it almost like watching a movie. He manages to pull this off with seemingly fewer words than more too, which seems surprising. The story of Diarmaid and Grainne, in Irish mythology is one of a love triangle, something we've all seen, but this current rendition still manages to keep it fresh.

Gary Kilworth's Hats off to Mary...I would actually like to see these characters in a book series, (and they many be, I haven't checked). I enjoyed the cleverness of the murder weapon and how things came to be. I also thought the story developed well, (although quickly, as to be expected with a short story). This story was a murder mystery based on an Irish mythological goddess named Macha who was forced to run a race against the kings horse and gave birth to twins at the finish line. As a punishment for what she was forced to endure, she cursed the men responsible to suffer labor pains when they most needed to be strong. The moral..beware the wrath of a wronged woman.

Sam Millar's Red Hand of Ulster...Based on the story of a king, O'Neill, and a man named Dermott that both wanted the same piece of land in Ireland. The king suggested they have a horse race for it, and the first one to touch the land wins. When it looked like Dermott would win, O'Neill cut off his hand and threw it to the land and therefor took the prize. Millar takes the tale and turns into a detective crime story. This one I think was the most complex of the short stories, and the most developed plot wise. It also added some humor to the story which added some balance I think. I enjoyed it and would like to read the Karl Kane series, if I can find it.

Garbhan Downey's First to Score...This one gets an honorable mention. I can't say I remember the details of the plot, or which character did what, but I do remember laughing a bit as I was reading it. It reminded me in a way of how Janet Evanivich's books read with some of the antics. It was also based on the story of Diarmaid and Grainne, but more in a satirical way then a true love story.

There are many other well told and enjoyable stories in the book, and in the end you have to admire the creativity that went to coming up with these tales.

Sam Millar

2010-08-11T11:15:00.003-05:00

I'm currently making my way through Requiems for the Departed, an anthropology on Irish mythology stories, and I'm finding it very interesting. One of the authors in the book I'm thinking sounds worth exploring is Sam Millar. I did a little investigating into his books, and the series he mentions, only to find out that his current paperback, (shown on the left), is selling for close to $1000.oo, (yes, the decimal point is in the right place). A thousand dollars for a new paperback. Wow. Not to be penurious, but that's a bit much for me. I'm still considering looking into his Karl Kane series, which run for about $15.oo on Amazon, (except for the one out of print with is closer to $100.00), but I don't like that I won't be able to find the whole series, or possibly get any new ones because of exorbitant cost. I'm really wondering what makes a current series cost/worth so much, and, why an author would put such high prices on his books that the average person can't get them. It's disappointing really.

Book neglect

2010-08-10T12:52:00.003-05:00

Lately I've been reading several new authors, or trying to. The problem comes in when I start looking at my book shelf and notice all of the books on it that have been on it for quite awhile. It doesn't seem fair to just neglect them, so my solution has been to try to go back to those series in between exploring the new, (well, new to me), series out there. It's not easy because I find myself really enjoying these new authors. Declan Hughes is one I'm looking forward to getting back to, and I have a Dennis Lahane novel from the library I don't think I'm ever going to get around to. I'm thinking it will have to be rechecked. Right now, I've just finished a Lee Child book, Echo Burning. It was unexpectedly interesting. I honestly thought the book would drag, seeing as how it was over 500 pages long, but somehow it didn't, and the 500 and some odd pages went fast. Now that I've finished it this morning, I couldn't resist Requiems for the Departed any longer, seeing as how one author I really enjoy is in it, (and yep, I started with that story, and it was, as expected true to form. I found myself wanting to yell "no, don't tell her...didn't you learn anything from Michael Forsythe?"). This book is going to prove a challenge as I find myself stopping to look up the mythological stories each short story is based on. Being an American, I've never heard of most of the folklore the authors have grown up on, so it will probably be slow going, but very interesting. And, ironically, I'll hopefully find yet more authors to read.

A couple days late, but none the less...it was my birthday

2010-08-06T07:47:00.007-05:00

Yes boys and girls, I am another year older...not that I'm normally willing to admit that. In my mind, I'm sticking with 30. I like 30, it's grown up but still young, and honestly, not far from the truth. Who needs to add the petty little single digits up every year anyway? Really though, as of August 4th, I supposedly grew up more. I had a good birthday this year too, that included gift cards to a bookstore, (because I don't buy near enough books...can you hear the sarcasm there?). Anyway, last night my husband and I, and my sister in law with her husband, went out to my favorite little Irish pub out here. We ate, and drank...a lot, (I've discovered Irish Car Bombs, a nifty drink with a bit of Guinness and a shot of Irish Cream and Jameson that you drop in), and I'm willing to bet I got properly goofy. And to top off dinner my very talented sister in law made me a Guinness chocolate cake..

It was delicious!! Cream cheese icing, Guinness and chocolate is a pretty good combination. Afterward, it was to the bookstore to spend some gift cards I'd gotten as a consolation for adding another year. I picked up Declan Hughes, Ian Rankin, (who I've never read but I've seen enough to be curious), Brian McGilloway, (who I've heard about),and a David Baldacci book I really like, among others. It was a good night.

The Wrong Kind of Blood by Declan Hughes

2010-08-04T10:15:00.002-05:00

I would like to start out saying that I enjoyed this novel, but somehow saying that, without qualifying it, doesn't seem quite right. The Wrong Kind of Blood is Irish Noir fiction in every way and it was quite different from the comparatively elemental mystery novels I've gotten used to, (not that I won't still enjoy the simplicity of them). The plot was layered and sometimes a bit bewildering, and the characters were dark and, at times, violent...everything I've come to expect from a good Irish crime novel. It was, all in all, heavy. All of that said though, I did enjoy the book for it's intricacy and will mostly likely continue in the series, (after mixing in some of the mentioned lighter books).

Edward Loy is a private detective that returns to Dublin for his mothers funeral, and afterward, Linda, an old friend, asks him to have a drink...then she asks him to find her husband. That seemingly simple task turns quickly disastrous, and soon takes Ed back to a time before he was born to figure out why people are being killed. No one is who they seem, betrayal and dissimulation are there at every turn, and through it all, Ed has wade through his own feelings and grief to confront the seemingly impossible.

Of course, the story is also not without the subtle Irish humor...

Then he looked up at me, his face a mixture of anger and embarrassment.
"We've decided I'm an alcoholic," he said. "Apparently that's easier than deciding we just don't like each other anymore."
"Would you like a drink then?" I said.
"Fucking sure I would," he said.

Overall, it is a rough story, but for those that like the dark side of Irish crime fiction, Declan Hughes pretty much nails it.

The Wrong Kind of Blood

Laurie R. King's The Beekeeper's Apprentice

2010-07-29T15:37:00.006-05:00

This is a charming book. Mary Russell, as a young, sharp witted, smart 15 year old girl stumbles, (actually trips over), a retired Sherlock Homes while he is studying a hive of bees. She sits down, and makes a simple comment about the dots Homes has painted on the backs of some of the bees, and a friendship is begun. Things quickly progress and, unbeknownst to Russell at first, she becomes his apprentice and is taught everything from telling the difference in soil samples to reading foot prints for weight, gender and height. (She would put any CSI computer to shame.). The first part of the story follows her life, thoughts and the relationship with Homes, but like any good Sherlock Homes story, eventually there is something afoot and a case must be solved. As Mary figures out how the game goes, and Homes adjust to having a partner, the danger lurks around the corner with bombs, disguise and a very vulpine antagonist. However, it really is quite a bit more than a typical Sherlock Homes story, it is a story about a girl growing up and coming to herself. Trusting herself and even putting herself through, and suffering heartbreak, to do what she has to do. Homes is also very different than the truculent detective we now see in the movies. He is personable, and worthy of Russell's respect. We see a caring side and the motivation of why he does what he does. I enjoyed reading the story from a different perspective.

I also found it more of a challenge to read as it wasn't the "fast read" I'm used to. It did require a bit of patience. And I learned a bit of vocabulary with it...

Some of my favorites:

verisimilitude - realism, quality of appearing to be true.

reticent - inclined to keep ones thoughts and feelings to oneself.

obfuscate - to make so confused as to be difficult to perceive or understand. To perplex. (I.E - Law forms are obfuscating.)

The Beekeepers Apprentice

Currently reading - The Wrong Kind of Blood by Declan Hughes

Parabellum

2010-07-26T22:02:00.003-05:00

I was reading Lee Child's Gone Tomorrow and the term, and origins, of "parabellum" caught my attention. In the book, and Child's other books, it gives the idea that a parabellum is a kind of ammunition. When I asked my husband about it, he said he'd never heard of it, when I showed him the Wiki page though, he knew exactly what I was talking about. Here's what Wikipedia had to say..

The word Parabellum is a noun coined by German arms maker Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken and is derived from the Latin saying si vis pacem, para bellum, meaning If you wish for peace, prepare for war. The term has been used in the naming of a number of cartridges.

* 9x19mm Parabellum, the pistol cartridge adopted by NATO but the 9 mm NATO has different parameters than commercial makes (dimensions and pressure).

* 7.65x22mm Parabellum, also called .30 Luger in the USA, from which the 9x19mm cartridge was derived.

The term may be used to refer to one of these cartridges, or to a German, Austrian or Swiss pistol chambered for one of those cartridges. The 9x19mm Parabellum is one of the most widely used pistol cartridges in use. The phrase a Parabellum usually refers to the Luger P08 pistol. The term may also apply to the Parabellum MG14 machine gun.

What I thought was interesting was the saying "si vis pacem, para bellum" and the meaning "if you wish for peace, prepare for war". It seems a contradiction in terms, but I think it's probably somewhat accurate. We want peace to just fall in our laps, and have everyone "just get along", but that's not how the real works works, (as much as we wish it did). It seems the German arms makers figured that out.

Alright...help.

2010-07-23T15:29:00.002-05:00

I tend to read a lot of series books, so I find myself reading a lot of books, but they all come from a handful of pretty well known authors. On the current list, I have J.D Robb, Lee Child, Janet Evanivich, Iris Johanson, Tess Gerritsen, David Baldacci, and the occasional John Grisham among a few others. I also have some Jeffery Archer and Jeffery Deaver books I haven't gotten to on the shelf. Pretty much though, I can picture how my bookshelf is laid out and tell you what authors I read because they are all lined up by series.

I want to branch out though, and find some not as well known authors that might be just a bit different that what I normally read. So, from the whole almost handful of people out there that pop on here, what do you recommend?

Nora Robert's The Search

2010-07-16T13:12:00.003-05:00

Normally, I don't read Nora Roberts, (although I do really like her alter ego J.D Robb), but this particular book was about search and rescue dogs so it had a good bit of appeal to me. It always amazes me what dogs are capable of, and I'm convinced we don't give them near enough credit. We keep them around, mostly in the back yard, ignore them, feed them whatever cheap food is easy to get a hold of, and regardless, they want nothing more than to be our best friend. They can, and will do, whatever we ask and teach them, and are capable of doing important things...like finding missing people, but we often don't invest the time to let them. However, I'm getting off track and on my soap box again...back to the story..

Fiona Bristow lives alone on an island with her 3 lab retrievers that are search and rescue dogs, she is also the only survivor of a serial killer, who is now serving several life sentences in prison. She's tough, successful, and refuses to be a victim. Enter Simon Doyle, a handsome, tough, brutally honest, rugged woodworker with a feisty and fun loving puppy, (given to him by his mom), in desperate need of training. Simon doesn't necessarily want the puppy, but is determined to make it work, and Fiona thinks the puppy would make a great S&R dog, and takes both owner and dog on. Things are happy, and Fiona and Simon are getting to know each other. However, as in all mystery stories, things can't stay that peaceful, and soon, the police show up to tell her that a body was recently found with all of the same signatures that her attempted killer used. A copy cat who knows not only what the press told the world, but also what they didn't. Fiona once again has to fight for her life, and learn to let others fight with her as her and Simon figure out where their life is going.

It's a sweet story, and anyone that loves dog can relate, and will laugh, at the antics of the puppy and the frustration that goes with having one. As I once heard on Veggie Tales..."I laughed, I cried, it moved me Bob".

The Search

dissemble

2010-07-14T13:37:00.002-05:00

My wonderful husband found this one for me.

dis·sem·ble (d-smbl)
1. To disguise or conceal behind a false appearance. See Synonyms at disguise.
2. To make a false show of; feign.
To disguise or conceal one's real nature, motives, or feelings behind a false appearance.

The sentence he used it in, and I've found I like...

One must not attempt to dissemble another who is previously, and more compitently, engaged in same.

Anyone care to guess the translation?

The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson

2010-07-11T11:14:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure if I liked The Killer Inside Me or not...I'm thinking more not. It was an interesting read though getting inside the head of a serial killer like that. Honestly, I'm glad it was fiction.

Lou Ford is an easy going, good natured Texas county deputy, so calm and even tempered that he talks down agitated drunks when he has to take them into custody. Or so he seems. What people don't see is the "sickness" that requires a different kind of victim and the inclination to violently kill when that victim becomes available...and of course, it does. And, as it does, we get to experience Lou's thoughts and feelings about the matter. His reasoning as to why the victims deserve to be killed. It's intriguing, and chilling, and a bit of train wreck that won't let you stop reading even though you're not sure you want to keep going.

Jim Thompson does a good job of getting the zeitgeist of it I think, even though the characters were a bit hard to relate to. I had to keep in mind that it was a little backwater town in nowhere Texas. Very different from the city, sock hop, Elvis, Happy Days 50's we are used to hearing about.

Speaking of Happy Days, I think I need to find a nice happy book to read...I'm just not sure I own any I haven't read.

The Killer Inside Me

The Lighthouse trilogy by Adrian McKinty

2010-07-08T12:12:00.004-05:00

This trilogy was quite a journey, and for the most part, not what I've come to expect from McKinty as far as story line. When I started the series, I wondered if he'd pull of science fiction, and not being a big science fiction fan, I felt a bit desultory about reading it. None the less, he did, and I enjoyed it. So much so that I read all three back to back in less then a week. I had to know where the next story was going to lead.

Since all of the stories are now running together in my head and I can't remember where one starts and one ends, I'll just throw out a generalized summery. Jamie O'Neill and his mom, Anna, inherit an island, (yes, a whole island), with a house and lighthouse, off the Northern Ireland coast. They pack up and move from New York, where life stinks, to start over. Jamie meets his new best bud, Ramsey, (who quickly becomes my favorite character), and they discover an object in a hidden room in the lighthouse that allows them to travel to an unknown planet...Altair. Throughout the 3 books, they go between Earth and Altair saving an alien race from the lord Ksar, (who does a wonderful impression of a soap opera villain by somehow always returning to life). Throw in a girl and a boy becoming a man and you have it.

I know that sounds pretty basic, but throw in McKinty's wit, dialogue, intellect and writing style and it makes for a pretty good read. Not to mention, you're bound to learn something....weather it's vocabulary, (perspicacity comes to mind), convergent evolution, or scientific theories, it's there, and it's there in an interesting way. I might even have to throw a few of them into a blog later.

The next book on my reading list...I'm not sure. Maybe The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson, or a Jack Reacher novel, or maybe Ice Cold by Tess Gerritson...hum...decisions, decisions...

Nathanial Pepper

2010-07-05T09:00:00.002-05:00

The idea for this blog came from Adrian McKinty's post about The Lamb Enters the Dreaming. I've found recently that some research is helpful in coming up with a reply to some post, and in looking a few things up, Nathanael Pepper's story became of interest to me. Mr. Pepper was a Wotjubaluk Aboriginal who converted to Christianity. If you don't know anything about Aboriginal beliefs, I'll tell you, they are nothing similar, in any way I don't think, to Christian beliefs. Not even remotely. Aboriginal beliefs consist of...well, Wikipedia puts it's better than I can

Aborigines traditionally adhered to animist spiritual frameworks. Within Aboriginal belief systems, a formative epoch known as 'the Dreamtime' stretches back into the distant past when the creator ancestors known as the First Peoples traveled across the land, creating and naming as they went.[40] Indigenous Australia's oral tradition and religious values are based upon reverence for the land and a belief in this Dreamtime.

The Dreaming is at once both the ancient time of creation and the present-day reality of Dreaming. There were a great many different groups, each with its own individual culture, belief structure, and language. These cultures overlapped to a greater or lesser extent, and evolved over time.

It doesn't sound like an easy task to reconcile those kinds of beliefs with Christianity, but I suppose he managed to do it, and I hope to track down the book to read the story of it. What an amazing point of view he must have had.

Tess Gerritsen's In Their Footsteps & Thief of Hearts

2010-07-04T14:15:00.005-05:00

In Their Footsteps and Thief of Hears were different than what I'm used to in Tess Gerritsen's books. The only other books I've ready by her were the Jane Rizzole/Maura Isle books, which deal mainly with medical forensic who done it stories, this one wasn't like that at all. It was more of a try at mystery romance I think. I can't say it really succeeded completely, but it was a nice attempt. The stories seemed to move too fast, there was more of a short story feel to it than 2 full novels, which wasn't bad, it just didn't quite hit the mark. None the less, I enjoyed them for what they were, and at the end wasn't disappointed.

In Their Footsteps is basically the first part of the story in which Beryl and Jorden Tavistock unravel the truth about their parents murder, with the help of handsome and clever Richard Wolf....it's not hard to figure out where that story is headed right?

Thief of Hearts is the continuation of the story so that Jorden Tavistock can have his fun too...when he and a female thief are both secretly retrieving things from a third parties house at the same time.

As obvious as it is where both stories lead, they are enjoyable and quick reads, and a good way to kill a couple of hours before bed.

In Their Footsteps and Thief of Hearts

Currently reading- The Lighthouse Land by Adrian McKinty

Parity

2010-07-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

Parity, another word that I had to look up in someones blog reply. Now, most people know this word as meaning something like equality, or, if I'm using my recently learned vocabulary words, thanks to Seana, fungible, (no we're not talking about fungus..go look it up for yourself if you don't know the meaning). But, one of the definitions struck me..

par·i·ty 2 (pr-t)
n.
1. The condition of having given birth.
2. The number of children borne by one woman.

This form is from the Latin parere, to give birth, or bring bring forth. Not what I think about when we're talking about a word that also means equality. I mean, I have 2 kids, and I can tell you from experiences with my friends with more kids, having 2 is by no means equal with having 4, (although I at times wonder if one of my kids is equal to several on his own, but that's another story altogether). No, that's not exactly what they meant. Something more like..."Consider the parity of the moms when getting a mom's group together so you know how many kids to expect" would probably be more like it. So, after all of that, parity is not always equal.

2010-07-01T10:41:00.003-05:00

I know I've posted about Lee Child's Jack Reacher books once already, and I don't want to bore you with repeated post, since in general his books are pretty similar. Reacher comes into town, trouble of some sort finds him even though he doesn't ask for it, he meets a girl that'll help him, and takes care of business using his previous Army MP experience. He doesn't worry about the law, which honestly, should normally be on his side anyway, and he doesn't worry about what people will think. He just goes about setting things right. I find more and more that I really enjoy Reacher's world. It's the simplicity of it. In his world, the rules are simple, "if you mess with me, I'll mess with you". He owns only what he carries with him, which is a folding tooth brush and ATM card and he buys a set of clothes, wears them for a few days, buys new ones and throws the old ones away..(I'm always hoping he doesn't wear his underwear that long in a stint). It's simple. It's the kind of world we often wish Jack Bauer had.

In Nothing to Lose Jack Reacher wanders into a town Called Despair to get a cup of coffee, and they immediately arrest him, take him to court, and throw him out of the city on a vagrancy charge. This, of course, gets Reacher's attention and he can't resist going back to see what's going on. That's when he meets a female law enforcement officer in the next town over, and the puzzle starts getting solved in the familiar Jack Reacher fashion. I liked this one, it seemed to flow well and didn't slow down as some of his earlier books do, (the later books in the series seem to do better in that way). All in all, it works for me, I enjoy being in that world for awhile, and I look forward to reading the next Reacher book I have sitting on my shelf.

Nothing to Lose

2 new words

2010-06-28T12:15:00.003-05:00

In reading a blog response by someone on another blog, I had to look up the meaning of 2 words in one reply. I'm now trying to add them to my general vocabulary...and having fun with it when I get funny looks from people wondering what I'm talking about.

The two words and shortened definitions...

Inimical - unfriendly, hostile.

-(said to my kids...Just because you don't get to do what you want, is no reason to be inimical)

Didactic- Intended to instruct, or the practice of valuing litrature for it's instructional content.

- (My mentor can be pretty didactic when we're training.)

I'm wondering how long it'll be before I have to hand out definition cards while I'm having a conversation...

Relic by Preston Douglas and Lincoln Child

2010-06-27T16:38:00.005-05:00

This book was interesting to me. I can't decide if I liked it or if I didn't. I liked the story line, and actually only finished it because I wanted to know how it turned out, but there was a lot of scientific information in it that seemed to slow the story down too. However, the information did pertain to the story and I do think it needed to be there. Also, I did wonder if I'd be disappointed, and it would have some corny Scooby Doo ending, but thankfully, that didn't happen.

The story line reminded me of something along the lines of a Michael Crichton novel. I'm not sure how to describe it without giving something away, so I'll just say there's something, or someone lurking in a museum sneaking around killing people in a very grotesque and odd manner. Margo Green, a doctorate candidate working on her dissertation under the direction of a curator at the museum, and an FBI agent, Pendergast, along with an NYPD detective work together to figure out what is going on. It sounds typical I know, but trust me when I say it isn't. One reviewer on the cover of the book described it as Jurassic Park meets Alien...and I think that fits pretty well. All in all, I'm trying to decide if I want to read the sequel.

Relic

Currently reading-Nothing to Lose by Lee Child

Changing things up a bit

2010-06-27T16:03:00.002-05:00

I've been thinking about changing this up a bit. I do read a lot, and want to put my little 2 cents in on those books, but lately I also find myself learning about little things here and there. Just random bits and pieces that pop up in books, life, and most often here lately, other blogs. I'm finding out more and more how much I really have no idea about anything outside my raising kids, endless PTA meetings, friends and family life. I don't know if it's more of an American thing to just be basically clueless about the rest of the world, (everyone I know certainly is), or if it's just a birds of a feather thing. Either way, I enjoy learning and would like to make an effort to learn. So, that said, and this being my blog so I can do what I want with it, I'm going to try and throw in the bits and pieces of attempted knowledge I might pick up along with my reading obsession.

Janet Evanovich's Sizzling Sixteen

2010-06-24T21:39:00.003-05:00

I LOVE THESE BOOKS!! What's bad is I can't really always remember the plot, but what I do remember is laughing so hard I can't stop. Without fail, these books are hilarious. The crazy characters, the conversations, the situations that are so far out there you can't help but laugh. It could be anything, you never know what's going to happen, (well, other than donuts and fried chicken will be involved). And, to add to it, there is Ranger and Joe Morelli both vying for Stephanie's affections in two very different ways. My favorite line from this particular book...

"Morelli would have offered me a beer. Ranger always offered me wine I couldn't afford to buy. Ranger knew the value of temptation and bribery."

Personally, I think she needs to ditch Joe once and for all and take Ranger up on his many offers, but that's just me.

Sizzling Sixteen

Currently reading - Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Hunting

2010-06-23T10:55:00.003-05:00

My list of books I am hunting seems to be getting longer and longer. Ok, so really it's pretty short at the moment, but considering it started out at 0 not real long ago it's getting there. Right now, the list is as follows..

Requiems for the Departed by several authors
Truth by Peter Temple
The Killer Inside me by Jim Thompson
The Lighthouse Land and Lighthouse War by Adrian McKinty, (I think I found them though)
World History for Dummies
Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

So that's the list for now. Most of them are there because the books have been recommended to me or I like other books by the author and just haven't managed to come across these. I'm looking though.

Currently reading, (well, planning to start today once the mailman delivers it) - Janet Evanivich's Sizzling sixteen and then Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child's Relic

Tess Gerritsen's The Keepsake

2010-06-22T10:49:00.003-05:00

The last few Tess Gerritsen novels I've read I really liked, but this one, not so much. The story was about a guy that was preserving/mummifying women in order to collect them forever, and Rizzoli and Dr. Isle have to figure out the who, how and where of it. For some reason however, it just didn't "hold" me, even though it sounded interesting. It was more like what I would expect to see on Criminal Minds than a Tess Gerritsen novel, in fact, I could almost picture Dr. Spencer Reid walking in the bogs explaining things. I have to admit though, there was some interesting random facts about how mummy's and shrunken heads are done...

Random fact I learned in this story - I'm not sure I remember exactly how it's done, but shrunken heads are basically made by making a cut down the back of the head and peeling the skin off of the skull. Then salt and some other stuff is rubbed on the inside to dry it out and it's set out to dehydrate. 3 rods are inserted in the lips to make holes and sometime later the holes are used to sew the lips together. Then the shrunken head is decorated with earring and whatnot and worn as a necklace as a sign of conquering. All of this is done over the space of a year with ceremonies.

I'm currently reading Lee Child's Without Fail.

The Keepsake

One of those random things thrown in

2010-06-18T22:55:00.002-05:00

Ok, so I'm tired, and have a bit too many random things running around my head, so beware, this may not make a lot of sense. It's been an interesting day..surprisingly. Typically, with it being summer, I get restless in the house all day with the kids. I'm not a "homebody". Today though, I couldn't drag myself out. Today, my obsessive side kicked in overdrive when Adrian McKinty put a contest on his blog to find out who took a specific picture of Jorge Luis Borges. The first person to hunt it down got a signed copy of his new paperback 50 Grand. I've posted about this book, and enjoyed reading it, so getting signed copy sounded like something fun to add to my nice little book collection. The hunt started. I googled my little heart out, forgot to eat lunch, drank lots of coffee, and managed to pacify the kids and eventually the answer came to me and I'll soon have the book...(did I mention I can be a bit obsessive when I'm looking for a "piece to a puzzle"?). And, along the way I think I learned more random facts about Borges than I could possible remember. As a matter of fact, at this moment I feel like I've crammed for a test and now can't remember what it's over. I can't say I mind though, I like random pieces of knowledge, and I'm hoping I retain at least part of it.

Lee Childs Jack Reacher series

2010-06-15T12:46:00.004-05:00

I'm really starting to like this series. I had the fourth book in the series, Running Blind, on audio for several months before I got around to listening to it fully, and it took me 2 tries to actually get into, and finish it. The first time, I think I got frustrated with one of the characters, or it moved to slowly so I gave it up, but the second time, I stuck with it, and found I got intrigued with where it was going. Since then, I've read the first 3 books, along with various other ones I could get my hands on for cheap. I'm liking them more and more, and I believe I'm getting a crush on Mr. Reacher..other then the fact he seems to lack a bit in the personal care area. If you haven't heard of the series, Jack Reacher is ex military police and basically now goes and does anything he wants. He has no possessions, no family, and no ties to anyone. He pretty much travels around the country as he sees fit while all sorts of scary and dangerous situations fall in his lap, and of course he always seems to have the skills to deal with them and save whoever needs saving. Jack Reacher seems to know everything, (especially guns), and knows how to do everything. He's a "man's man"...(Who needs Perry Mason?).

Lee Child's The Killing Floor (Jack Reacher series book 1)

Currently reading Tess Gerritson's The Keepsake

The Glass Castle

2010-06-13T17:05:00.004-05:00

This book surprised me. I don't normally read books like this, even though I tend to enjoy and learn things from them. This one was no different..I couldn't put it down, (except at times I had to to get over some silly frustration with the people in the book). The basic story is about a young girl growing up with parents who seem to refuse to. On the surface, when she is young, her parents are fun and exciting. They have "adventures" that any young child would love. Underneath, they are avoiding all responsibility. They don't work, normally don't have money or food, and anytime something happens they don't like, they pack up and move. It's a beautiful story over all though. It really showed a lot about how we choose our lives and who we are. We don't have to succumb to the circumstances. Every teenager that thinks their life is hard and terrible should read this story.

The Glass Castle

Currently reading - One Shot by Lee Child

Stephanie Meyer's The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner

2010-06-12T11:22:00.002-05:00

Yep, I'm one of those "Twilight" people. I read this one in a few hours, it was short. Honestly, it wasn't a favorite in the series, but I did enjoy it, and I think when the Eclipse movie comes out we'll see how it plays into things better. There were also a few holes it filled in from the book Eclipse too, but they were minor things that I had just assumed answers to. Overall, if you have a few hours and want a simple read, it'll do the trick.

Jeffrey Archer's Paths of Glory

2010-06-10T11:00:00.000-05:00

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this story. It's really the book that has gotten me interested in "historical fiction", and curious about Mount Everest. This is mostly a "what if" type story. What if Edmond Hillery was not the first person to climb the mountain, but a man by the name of George Mallory was, and we didn't know it? What if he climbed the mountain, but it couldn't be proven? After I read it, well, listened to the audio book actually, I looked up some of the details the book gave only to find out that the story could possibly have happened, and in fact, some people believe it did. A lot of the facts are actually in history and we'll honestly never know if this story hits the mark, but it's always fun to have all of these seemingly useless facts about Mount Chomolangma in my head.

Johnathan Kellerman's Devil's Waltz and Bad Love

2010-06-09T14:05:00.004-05:00

These books are the 5th and 6th in the Alex Deleware series I believe. I read the first one, When the Bough Breaks, and it was ok, good enough for me to read more. Honestly though, even though I like the premise of Kellerman's books, I can't say I like the books a whole lot...they tend to drag with a lot of descriptions and not a whole lot being accomplished. I don't find myself getting involved or caught up in the story and I often will easily get up to do other things. None the less, I'm usually curious enough to finish the story. Devil's Waltz is a story of Munchhausen by Proxy, and Bad Love is a typical "bad guy after the main character" story, with a psychological twist. Like I said, not bad premise, but slow moving.

When the Bough Breaks

Devil's Waltz

Bad Love>

Iris Johansen's The Wind Dancer and Storm Winds

2010-06-05T20:47:00.005-05:00

I gotta say, I loved these books, they are probably 2 of my favorite by Iris Johansen. The first book, The Wind Dancer is set in Renaissance Italy. It's the story of a female slave sold to a rich and powerful man who buys her only to steal back The Wind Dancer, a beautiful and priceless statue, from the man that stole it from him. It's a beautiful, and at times harsh, story with his struggle of trying to fight himself, his urges, and the things allowed in that day and age and be an honorable man. It's also the story of a woman who has been a slave all of her life, believing her place was only to please her master in any way she could, learning to stand for herself. Along with all of this is a story of history, and what could have happened...a "what if" story.

Storm Winds, is set in the 1700's and tells the story of a girl raised in Marie Antoinette's castle in Revolutionary France. Again, the story is wrapped around the Wind Dancer statue, love, struggle to change, grow, and a curious "what if" story. Like the first story, it's beautiful and at the same time harsh.

I enjoyed both of the books a great deal. I loved the history, and even though I'm not sure how accurate the "picture" is, it was enough to make me curious and want to find out.

(There's also a 3rd book, Reap the Wind that I greatly enjoyed, but it's been awhile since I read it).

The Wind Dancer

Storm Winds

Reap the Wind

Adrian McKinty's 50 Grand

2010-06-04T11:11:00.005-05:00

I just finished this one this morning. I really liked it, I like his writing style. With a lot of books, I find myself getting frustrated with all of the descriptions of everything..there are just too many details and I end up skipping paragraphs. With McKinty's books, I can't see the exact shade of the sky or the shape of a cloud, but I get a very definite "feel" for where I am and what's going on. I can get lost in it. His other books are the same way, (my favorite is the "Dead" series). Granted, his stories aren't "happy go lucky", and I think a lot would say they are on the "dark" side, but I enjoy them...they seem honest. In this one, you follow the story of a cop coming to America from Cuba to find out who killed her father. It's not really so much of a "who done it", although, there is that, but more of a story being told. You can see it play out in your head. I admit, if the picture in my is anything close to what it's like living in Cuba, it's not a place I'd want to go.

Fifty Grand

The "Dead" trilogy
Dead I Well May Be
The Dead Yard
The Bloomsday Dead

Giving this another try

2010-06-04T11:06:00.001-05:00

I honestly haven't blogged much in the last year or so, but I read so much that I thought I'd give it another try. We'll see how it goes...