Purple Sage and Scorpions

Saturday Snapshot - January 28th

2012-01-28T00:00:00.002-06:00

Alyce of At Home With Books is the originator of this weekly event. Feel free to post any photos that you or your family members have taken and then go over to her blog and add your link.

Today, I'm going to share a few pictures of our front yard, after it was landscaped. We really wanted to do something that would require little water and little maintenance, i.e. xeriscaping. Our friend helped us with planning and implementation. He did all the work, and I think it turned out very well. It took quite some time as we were hampered by weather and water restrictions. I told him my vision was Southwest - as in Arizona. We also wanted plants that would not be "tasty" for the deer. We did not put in a full irrigation system, but there is a drip system in the beds closest to the house. We had planned to have grass grown from seed, but after months of no rain and then the restriction of no outside watering at all, we were experiencing erosion of our "good" dirt when it finally did rain. Our lot slopes pretty dramatically and so we had some grass put in - a type known as zoysia. This is just the front yard. The back yard will be a project for later this spring and summer.

Waiting on Wednesday - Restless in the Grave

2012-01-25T00:00:00.005-06:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Restless in the Grave

by Dana Stabenow

Publisher: Minotaur

Available on February 14th

19th in the Kate Shugak series

     Dana Stabenow teams up two of her most beloved characters, Aleut private investigator Kate Shugak and Alaska state trooper Liam Campbell, in the same story for the first time.
     Alaska aviation entrepreneur Finn Grant died in the fiery crash of his Piper Super Cub. Someone sabotaged his engine, and virtually everyone in southwestern Alaska has a motive, including his betrayed wife, his bullied children, and Liam’s wife, bush pilot Wyanet Chouinard. With few places to turn, Liam asks his former mentor Niniltna post commander Sergeant Jim Chopin, for help, and Jim quickly brings Kate onto the case.
     Working undercover as—of all things—a waitress at Bill’s Bar and Grill, Kate learns over beer and burgers that Grant’s business had expanded meteorically over the last two years. After buying the closed Air Force base south of town from the federal government at a bargain-basement price, he became a fixed-base operator running his fishing, hunting, and flight-seeing business, servicing planes flying through the area, and most interestingly and lucratively, getting into the air freight business. But what kind of freight was he moving, and where?
     The answers involve Kate in her most challenging case to date, one that starts with murder and quickly sprawls into a much larger conspiracy ranging from the darkest family secrets to treason and beyond.

I've loved this series for years and years. Kate and I have gone through some tough times. I have meant to read the Liam Campbell series for a while, but just never got around to it. I'm intrigued to know that Chopper Jim knows Liam Campbell. Chopper Jim is one of my favorite characters. So, have a listen to Dana Stabenow talk about her new book here. I'm sure looking forward to it.

The Jefferson Key by Steve Berry

2012-01-24T12:36:00.000-06:00

     Four United States presidents have been assassinated—in 1865, 1881, 1901, and 1963—each murder seemingly unrelated and separated by time.
     But what if those presidents were all killed for the same reason: a clause in the United States Constitution—contained within Article 1, Section 8—that would shock Americans?
     This question is what faces former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone in his latest adventure. When a bold assassination attempt is made against President Danny Daniels in the heart of Manhattan, Malone risks his life to foil the killing—only to find himself at dangerous odds with the Commonwealth, a secret society of pirates first assembled during the American Revolution. In their most perilous exploit yet, Malone and Cassiopeia Vitt race across the nation and take to the high seas. Along the way they break a secret cipher originally possessed by Thomas Jefferson, unravel a mystery concocted by Andrew Jackson, and unearth a centuries-old document forged by the Founding Fathers themselves, one powerful enough—thanks to that clause in the Constitution—to make the Commonwealth unstoppable.

The Jefferson Key is the first book I've read by Steve Berry, although my husband has picked up a few of them in the past. It is the 7th adventure of former operative, Cotton Malone, and I enjoyed it a lot. Part National Treasure, part Pirates of the Caribbean, and with a hint of Jack Ryan, Tom Clancy's hero...oh, and throw in a little Lara Croft in the guise of Malone's lady friend, Cassiopeia Vitt. There's your story. National secrets, conspiracies, agents of several governmental varieties, hidden treasure, modern day pirates, and enough historical facts to keep me turning the pages. Steve Berry writes a good yarn and it is my understanding that the location of US soil is a first for him. His people usually have their adventures in other far flung regions. The end of the book contains an author's note where we are privy to what is actually true and what is not.  I'll be on the lookout for more books by this author in the future. As I've said before, I like spies, secret conspiracies, and heroes. Plus, Cotton Malone's retirement profession is the owner of a bookstore. What's not to like?

Saturday Snapshot - January 21st

2012-01-21T00:00:00.001-06:00

Alyce of At Home With Books is the originator of this weekly event. Feel free to post any photos that you or your family members have taken and then go over to her blog and add your link.

This little owl banged into our bedroom window before dawn the other day. Really, really hard. So hard we thought the window might have cracked. It didn't. However, we got up to see what made the noise and there we found this little owl. Sitting on the ground below the window. Stunned, I suspect. We got the camera and my husband took the picture very stealthily. Now, in case you were worried, the bird was gone within just a little while - by the time the sun came up anyway.

I wondered whether Dumbledore needed to contact me through Owl Post. Do you think? (In case you've lived totally incommunicado in the last few years, that's a reference to the Harry Potter books, in which owls deliver their magical mail.) I did not find a letter from Hogwarts. Sigh.

Frozen Assets by Quentin Bates

2012-01-20T00:00:00.005-06:00

Frozen Assets is set in the months leading up to the collapse of the banks in Iceland that paralysed the country’s economy at a time when this little society was already polarised by a whole raft of issues.
Gunnhildur, a sergeant at a police station in a rural area in southern Iceland has to investigate the identity of a man found drowned in the harbour of the fishing village of Hvalvík. Although the man appears to have been the victim of an accident, she feels that there is more to this than meets the eye and finds out that this was certainly the case as she follows the trail in spite of being discouraged from pursuing it.

Frozen Assets (or Frozen Out - UK title) is the first book in the Sergeant Gunnhildur Gisladottir (Gunna the Cop) series, set in Iceland, and written by Quentin Bates. I haven't ever read a mystery set in Iceland, although there are several authors who write using that country as a setting. I really enjoyed this storyline and getting to know the characters that populate Gunna's world. If there was anything that was a little confusing, it was keeping track of the names and who was who. The author had a discussion at one point of the method of Icelandic surnames or rather, no surnames, which was very interesting. There was also a tendency for nicknames. I muddled through, all the while remembering that this was the first book in a series and I would get it all sorted out soon.

I didn't get as much of a sense of the country of Iceland itself as I might have liked, but hopefully that will be remedied in future books. There were descriptions of certain parts of the culture, such as the food (which did not tempt me, by the way). I do know that Gunna herself is from the fjord country of northwest Iceland and I believe that the third book will be set there or at least partially. Gunna herself is an interesting character, strong and competent. She's a widow with two children and reminds me a bit of Ruth Galloway, the protagonist in Elly Griffiths' series. I look forward to reading Cold Comfort, the second in the series, which has just been published.

Here's Cathy's thoughts on Frozen Assets - Kittling: Books.

Mountain Cedar - how do I love thee? Not.

2012-01-19T00:00:00.001-06:00

See this tree. Yes, the green one in the middle with the sort of shredded looking bark. It is the Juniperus Ashei, also known as the Mountain Cedar. It is the bane of my existence, at least from December through February each year. Know why? Allergies, my friends, or what's known in our area as "cedar fever". Horrid, horrid pollen that the male (yes, there are male and female cedar) tree produces. These trees are everywhere in Central Texas. Of course, they are in lots of other places too, but we are lucky enough to have vast quantities of them locally. When the trees are pollinating, they sort of look rusty or orange-ish. And when the "wind comes sweeping down the plains", as it will in the wintertime in Texas, the pollen just bursts into the air, sharing all its "goodness" with us and presumably with the female trees. Sometimes, it almost looks like the tree is smoking, I kid you not.

Our area is involved in a great controversy right now. Many people would like to chop down all the cedars and get rid of them. Good luck with that, I say. There are people on both sides of the debate - do these plants use more water than (4 times as much) the other common native tree, the live oak. Are they choking out our live oaks? Are they draining our aquifers? Can we afford to have these native plants around us when we have such awful years of little rain, such as 2011? Many people are getting rid of them on their properties. Others feel like the poor cedar gets a bad reputation through no fault of its own. My husband and nephew spent part of the holidays clearing our lot of a huge amount of cedar growth. Here's a picture of a stack that representing about 1/3 of the trees cleared. Our lot is an acre and that's what was still there after building the house.

We had a company come by afterwards and use that chopper/chipper thing that you can just see behind the stack to remove all the trees. Me, I stayed inside the whole time. Just what I didn't need - breathing chopped up cedar. I do take medication for my allergy and, believe me, I'm not alone in my suffering. Well, this is just a little bit of my life in Central Texas. Now let me see if I can find my Kleenex.

Waiting on Wednesday - Desert Wind

2012-01-18T00:00:00.001-06:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Desert Wind

by Betty Webb

Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press

Available February 7th

7th in the Lena Jones series

     An old wrangler holds the key to hundreds of deaths in secretive Walapai Flats, Arizona, but the only person he’ll confide in is the ghost of John Wayne.
     When P.I. Lena Jones’s Pima Indian partner Jimmy Sisiwan is arrested in the remote northern Arizona town of Walapai Flats, Lena closes the Desert Investigations office and rushes to his aid. What she finds is a town up in arms over the new uranium mine located only ten miles from the magnificent Grand Canyon. Jimmy’s sister-in-law, head of Victims of Uranium Mining, has already been murdered, but the opposing side has taken hits, too. Ike Donohue, the mine’s public relations flak, is found shot to death, casting suspicion on Jimmy and his entire family. During Lena’s investigation, she finds not only a community decimated by unsafe mining practices, but a connection to actor John Wayne and the mysterious deaths that occurred during the 1954 filming of “The Conqueror.” Gabe Boone, a wrangler on that doomed film, is one of the only crew members still alive, and it’s up to Lena to penetrate Gabe’s defenses to find out the tragic secret no one in Walapai Flats wants to talk about. By delving into the history of its surrounding desert, Lena learns that old sins never die; in fact, they’re still taking lives. In "Desert Wind," Betty Webb brilliantly evokes the memories of the Cold War, and brings its deadly legacy home to modern-day Arizona.
     As with “Desert Wives: Polygamy Can Be Murder,” this seventh book in the Lena Jones series exposes real life crimes, and the reason why local and federal officials want those crimes to remain under wraps.

I love this mystery series. Betty Webb has a great protagonist in Lena Jones. She's not the easiest person to get along with, but she definitely gets the job done. I love the Arizona setting and have enjoyed all the books in the series, most especially Desert Wives. Betty Webb is a former journalist whose skill at digging out the stories is definitely showcased in her Lena Jones mysteries. She writes another series as well that is set in a fictional California zoo.

By the way, I notice that the e-book version of Desert Wives is selling for .99 at BN and Amazon. I'm not sure if it is available for that price through your indie bookstore, but it's worth checking out.

A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths

2012-01-16T00:00:00.002-06:00

     It is Halloween night, and the local museum in King's Lynn is preparing for an unusual event - the opening of a coffin containing the bones of a medieval bishop. But when Ruth Galloway arrives to supervise, she finds the museum's curator lying dead beside the coffin. It is only a matter of time before she and DI Nelson cross paths once more, as he is called in to investigate.
     Soon the museum's wealthy owner lies dead in his stables too. These two deaths could be from natural causes but Nelson isn't convinced.
     When threatening letters come to light, events take an even more sinister turn. But as Ruth's friends become involved, where will her loyalties lie? As her convictions are tested, she and Nelson must discover how Aboriginal skulls, drug smuggling and the mystery of The Dreaming may hold the answer to these deaths, and their own survival.

Yes, I can say that Elly Griffiths writes one of my very favorite mystery series. I was so eager to read A Room Full of Bones, 4th novel featuring Dr. Ruth Galloway, forensic archaeologist, and DCI Harry Nelson. It's just come out in England, but won't be published here until July. I loved this book. There were many gripping sections, and I was pleased to catch up with old friends, Cathbad the Druid and Nelson's team of investigators. Other familiar characters appear and we meet some new ones. This time, the bones in question belong to an English Bishop and also to Aboriginal peoples, taken away from their homeland and their remains stored in a private museum. The ethics of such practices arise and the Bishop is not quite what was expected either. All in all, this is a great story that includes a few dead bodies, some new personal dramas, and a life threatening illness for Nelson. I could not put it down. For those of you who enjoy this series, get prepared!

I can't recommend this series highly enough. It takes it's place with others written by Louise Penny, Margaret Maron, and Dana Stabenow in my "get your hands on it the minute it's published" category. I've linked to my thoughts on The Crossing Places and The Janus Stone. The House at Sea's End made my best read list for 2011, but I did not review it.

Saturday Snapshot - January 14th

2012-01-14T00:00:00.004-06:00

Alyce of At Home With Books is the originator of this weekly event. Feel free to post any photos that you or your family members have taken and then go over to her blog and add your link.

Yes, this is a picture of some shoes. Very pretty shoes, in my opinion. The kind of shoes that I used to love to wear (or told my aching feet that I loved to wear them). No more, of course. But...I still love to look at pretty shoes. My favorite place in the mall - Nordstrom's shoe department. Do you know Nordstrom's? Discovered it when we lived in Portland, Oregon. If you've been, 'nuff said.

These shoes are the ones that my daughter wore on her wedding day five years ago. Yesterday was our daughter and son-in-law's 5th anniversary. I was clearing out some things in a closet and noticed a shoe box tucked in among some boxes of books that belong to my girl (she'll get them one day). In the shoe box, these shoes.

Here's my favorite candid shot from their wedding. I love this one because they both look so delighted. It was taken as they were walking out after they had been pronounced husband and wife. Grins on both their faces.

Happy anniversary, kids! Here's to 50+ more!

No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

2012-01-13T05:38:00.000-06:00

Fourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge woke one morning to discover that her entire family–mother, father,brother–had vanished. No note, no trace, no return. Ever. Now, twenty-five years later, she’ll learn the devastating truth.
Sometimes it’s better not to know. . . . Cynthia is happily married with a young daughter, a new family. But the story of her old family isn’t over. A strange car in the neighborhood, untraceable phone calls, ominous “gifts”–someone has returned to her hometown to finish what was started twenty-five years ago. And no one’s innocence is guaranteed, not even her own. By the time Cynthia discovers her killer’s shocking identity, it will again be too late . . . even for goodbye.

After finishing The Accident, I decided to pick up another Linwood Barclay tale, No Time For Goodbye. Again, I raced through the story, looking for clues and trying to figure out what had happened to Cynthia's family. Pretty early on I had a glimmer of an idea and I also figured out the final twist. However, that being said, I didn't mind being proved correct. I liked Cynthia and her husband, Terry. I really appreciated the lengths that Terry went to in order to solve the mystery and set his wife's mind at rest. Barclay may well turn out to be a favorite thriller author for me. And, happily, I still have several books to read in his backlist. I'm surprised that some of them haven't been filmed, at least on the small screen. If you like Harlan Coben's standalone thrillers, I suspect you'd like Linwood Barclay.

The Accident by Linwood Barclay

2012-01-12T00:00:00.004-06:00

Synopsis:

    Milford, Connecticut, is a quiet, orderly place to live, a good place to bring up kids. But people are beginning to feel the bite of financial hard times. Even decent, normally law-abiding folks have started getting a little creative when it comes to making ends meet.
     For Glen Barber, the recession has been particularly bad for his construction business, especially after a mysterious fire destroyed one of his buildings. But Glen’s troubles are about to escalate to a whole new level. His wife Sheila has her own plans for getting them out of their financial jam, plans that seem to involve a secret network of Milford’s wives and are about to pay off big-time.
     And that’s when the accident happens…
     Suddenly it looks as if the neighbors’ ‘get rich quick’ schemes are more likely to get you dead. Glen – no longer able to trust even the people he loves – must risk everything to find out what’s lurking behind the town’s idyllic façade.
     Because some accidents aren’t accidents at all.

The Accident is the first book I've read by Linwood Barclay. I liked it, more toward the end than the middle. I got a bit frustrated with the protagonist, Glen. He came very close to acting foolish and reckless, in my opinion, especially for the surviving parent of an 8-year-old daughter. However, I forgave him as the plot thickened and things got really tense at the climax. This story would probably film very well. It has the pace of a thriller movie. All in all, I liked it and will be searching out other books by this author.

By the way, this is the first of my "new" book talk style. I'm including a plot summary from the author's website. Is that important to you guys or would you just prefer a short paragraph from me and a link? Speak up and give me your thoughts, please.

Waiting on Wednesday - Defending Jacob

2012-01-11T00:00:00.003-06:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Defending Jacob

by William Landay

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Available January 31st

From the author's website:

At home, Andy Barber is a quiet family man, a devoted husband and father. At work, he is a trusted senior prosecutor, the District Attorney’s right hand and master trial lawyer. When a teenaged boy is found dead in the woods near Barber’s suburban home, naturally he takes on the investigation, as he has countless homicides before. But the case may be Barber’s undoing: in a terrifying swerve, Barber’s own 14-year-old son, Jacob, is accused of the murder.
The boy insists he is innocent, and Barber rallies to his son’s defense — as any father would, he thinks, as any father must. But defending Jacob exacts a terrible price. Neighbors lock their doors against him. Jacob’s classmates refuse to talk. Barber’s marriage begins to crumble as his beloved wife Laurie buckles under the relentless pressure of suspicion. Finally, as Jacob’s trial intensifies, Barber faces a trial of his own, in which he is forced to confront his own secret history, a past he thought he’d buried long ago.

This one looks interesting to me and Tina of Tina Says wrote her thoughts about it just the other day. It made me want to read it even more because she's excited to find someone else to talk about it with. Doesn't that just pique your interest? It sure does mine.

Revisiting a topic - Rereading and why I do it...

2012-01-09T00:00:00.010-06:00

I wrote a post about rereading in January of 2010. I always seem to be pondering this topic around holiday times, probably because I do tend to pick up well loved books during stressful times (i.e. holidays). I began with a quote that I'll repeat here:

"Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are" is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.

~François Mauriac~

Let me add another quote or two about rereading:

“There's nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over. When you do, the words get inside you, become a part of you, in a way that words in a book you've read only once can't.”
~Gail Carson Levine~

“No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.”
~C. S. Lewis~

"How I do love books! Not merely to read once but over and over again. I enjoy the tenth reading of a book as much as the first. Books are a delightful world in themselves. Their characters seem as real to me as my friends of actual life."

~L. M. Montgomery~

And especially this one:

"When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before."

~Clifton Fadiman~

Well, may I be so bold as to paraphrase the last quote by taking out the word "classic" and replacing it with "book that is dear to your heart"? In the last couple of weeks, I've read many thoughts of other bloggers about slowing down their busy, hurried pace of reading. I've read of bloggers wanting to get back to reading the way it used to be for them, usually before blogging. Cath of read_warbler wrote that she read more books in 2011 than she ever had but wasn't completely satisfied. She wants to slow down and stop rushing from one book to the next without pondering what she's just learned or experienced. I love that and it one reason why I like to reread.

For me, rereading is such a wonderful experience. I know that there are "so many books" and "too little time" and I also know I'll never get to read everything my acquisitive little brain would like to. But, rereading is immersing oneself in a story that has spoken to you once before. It's like the fairytales and family stories that a lot of us were told as children. Did you ever really get tired of those? It's like wrapping yourself in a warm blanket and settling in for a comforting hug. The story itself doesn't have to be soothing or happy or romantic. It can be a favored ghost story or crime novel or whatever floats your boat. I think it has to be a story though and you have to be carried away.

Stories...they are why I read. I love stories and tales of magic and romance and justice and honor and families and friends and scary situations and tragic ones and endings that make you sigh and hug the book (or Kindle) to your chest.

My daughter and I recently went to a stage production of Beauty and the Beast. It caused me to remember why I always liked Belle so much. She's a rereader! I'll leave you with a bit of the lyrics to the opening number. Belle is visiting the local bookshop and asking whether the proprietor has any new books:

[Belle:] Good Morning. I've come to return the book I borrowed.
[Bookseller:] Finished already?
[Belle:] Oh, I couldn't put it down. Have you got anything new?
[Bookseller:] Ha Ha! Not since yesterday.
[Belle:] That's all right. I'll borrow . . . . . this one!
[Bookseller:] That one? But you've read it twice!
[Belle:] Well, it's my favorite! Far off places, daring swordfights, magic spells, a prince in disguise -

[Townsfolk:] Look there she goes that girl is so peculiar
I wonder if she's feeling well
With a dreamy far-off look
And her nose stuck in a book
What a puzzle to the rest of us is Belle

[Belle:] Oh, isn't this amazing?
It's my fav'rite part because you'll see
Here's where she meets Prince Charming
But she won't discover that it's him 'til chapter three

Well, you've read long enough. Thanks for listening and I encourage you to try a little rereading. You might like it!

Saturday Snapshot - January 7th

2012-01-07T03:00:00.007-06:00

Alyce of At Home With Books is the originator of this weekly event. Feel free to post any photos that you or your family members have taken and then go over to her blog and add your link.

I haven't participated for quite a while and in fact, when I was considering deleting my blog, took out all my personal photos. So, this is a new beginning in that regard. Several have posted family photos from time to time and I have always meant to. Here's a bit of my family life:

This is a picture of the tea cart that sits in my dining room. It belonged to my maternal grandmother and the dishes that are on the top shelf were hers as well. When she died, my mother told my sister, brother and I to select any of her things that we wished to have. I always loved this tea set and the little cart it lived on. I'm not sure whether she originally had a full set of the dishes, but these were all that were left when she died. I'm very pleased to have a large dining room in this house and this piece is perfect in one corner by the front window.

And here we have a picture of my maternal grandparents. The tea set and cart belonged to this grandmother. I think this was their wedding picture perhaps. Not positive about that, but I have a picture taken some years later that includes my mother as a little girl. My grandfather had less hair in it and he had no hair by the time I came along. Not really sure what the whole pompadour look to his hair is about. It's kind of funny looking. My grandmother had quite the stylish hat didn't she? They married in 1921, I think. She would have been 19 and he was 21. They both grew up in Oklahoma and then moved to Texas after they married. I was lucky enough to have them until they became great-grands and both lived a good long life - he until he was 83 and she until 93.

Waiting on Wednesday - Raylan

2012-01-04T03:00:00.002-06:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Raylan

by Elmore Leonard

Publisher: William Morrow

Available January 17th

#3 in the Raylan Givens series

With the closing of the Harlan County, Kentucky, coal mines, marijuana has become the biggest cash crop in the state. A hundred pounds of it can gross $300,000, but that’s chump change compared to the quarter million a human body can get you—especially when it’s sold off piece by piece.
So when Dickie and Coover Crowe, dope-dealing brothers known for sampling their own supply, decide to branch out into the body business, it’s up to U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens to stop them. But Raylan isn’t your average marshal; he’s the laconic, Stetson-wearing, fast-drawing lawman who juggles dozens of cases at a time and always shoots to kill.

I have not read any of this series as yet. I have watched Justified, the FX TV series based on Elmore Leonard's character. It stars Timothy Olyphant and my husband and I enjoy it a lot. The 3rd season also begins on January 17th. The star is just too, too cute. Not sure I'll take to the books, but we'll see.

The reading one for 2011...

2012-01-03T13:11:00.000-06:00

First of all, I wanted to say that I may have given the wrong impression about my future plans for 2012. Reading back over the last post, it seems to me that I implied no book talk. And...surprise, surprise, that will not be the case. I'm a reader. Of course, I will talk about books. What I meant to say was that I will do no "formal" book reviews. By formal, I mean with a summary and long narrative regarding characters and setting and such. I like talking about books and I know that my reviews included some very informal parts detailing why certain books "spoke" to me. In the future, I'm tossing out the summary. Anyone interested in the book can click over to another site and read the summary. My book talks will be about what I liked or didn't or what that particular book brought to mind - what story from my life I remembered. I hope that will be a better means of sharing my thoughts. I might say "if you like this one, you might try this one". So, yes, there will be books. Just not all the time. And not every book I read. And with no set format.

Looking back at 2011 and my reading, oh...my...word...what a totally weird year. I felt like I was on a teeter-totter - up, down, up, down. Kind of dizzying and a bit nauseating. I read 97 books and had to just slap myself down to keep from rushing to try to finish 100. It's just a number I kept telling myself. Years ago (not sure how many), reading 100 books a year would have seemed crazy. I think I read 30 or 40 or 50, in a good year. And then, the internet happened and finding other book people and hearing about how very many books they read in a year. Me, I had to try to keep up. Which is ludicrous. Who cares? I'm never going to be one of those people who reads 300 books a year (and I love the fact that some can do that). Seriously, why do I torture myself as if reading a specific number is like joining the Ironman competition? So, 2011 was the year of seriously awful book slumps. I hope to never be there again or never so many in one year. Here's the scoop on what I read:

97 Books

59 on Kindle

28 Personal

6 Audio

4 Library

91 by women

6 by men (serious disparity there)

26 Romance

26 Mystery

21 Young Adult

21 Literary

3 Christian fiction

Not sure what all this says about me, other than the male/female writer landslide. That's the worst it has been. I know that I tend to read more women than men - usually about 1/3 to 2/3. Maybe the romance books tipped it. Whatever.

My favorite book of the year:

A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny

Runners up in order read (each touched me personally in some way):

Left Neglected - Lisa Genova

Every Last One - Anna Quindlen

Night Road - Kristin Hannah

The Red Thread - Ann Hood

Learning to Swim - Sara J. Henry

Daughters in Law - Joanna Trollope

The Violets of March - Sarah Jio

You Know When the Men Are Gone - Siobhan Fallon

Faithful Place - Tana French

A Share in Death - Deborah Crombie

Joy For Beginners - Erica Bauermeister

Fallen - Karin Slaughter

The House at Sea's End - Elly Griffiths

The Arrivals - Meg Mitchell Moore

The Mother-Daughter Book Club - Heather Vogel Frederick

The Future of Us - Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

My goals for 2012 are as follows:

1. Read often

2. Enjoy

3. Repeat

A new start - a new name - a "new" blog...

2012-01-01T13:13:00.000-06:00

Hello my blogging friends! Yes, this is Kay from My Random Acts of Reading. First of all, may I wish all of you a very Happy New Year! I can't believe that it is 2012 already. Doesn't it seem just yesterday that we were entering the new century? And here we are in 2012. Amazing.

I struggled for the last few weeks with what to do about a new blog. I've been wanting to step away from the title "My Random Acts of Reading" and also step away from feeling like a book blogger only. The way I knew to do this was to end the book blog. My time away has been productive and I knew that I still wanted to maintain connections with the wonderful friends that I've made in the blogging world. Yes, I could comment on your blogs and give a bit of information about my life, but I didn't want to have post-size comments. I also have wanted to change up the design of my blog for a long time. Well, today, my friend Les launched her new look and new name. She went from "Lesley's Book Nook" to "Prairie Horizons". Isn't that a lovely name? And it is appropriate because she does live on the prairie in the midwest city of Lincoln, Nebraska.

I've always loved the look of my friend Nan's (Letters from a Hill Farm) blog. So simple. So clean. So perfect. Today, I decided to make my change when it became clear that I could just change my name and my design, while leaving the old blog below. I thought about deleting it and I did delete a number of posts, most of the more personal items. However, I hated to take out all the book reviews and discussion posts.

This is my compromise. A new blog is born here, entitled Purple Sage and Scorpions. An odd name? Perhaps. It is very much a word picture of life here in Central Texas. My life. The picture you see below the title is of purple sage, which grows all around us here. I know it's found in other spots too, probably all the western and southwestern states. I've always loved the dusty green of the leaves and cheerful purple of the flowers. It will represent the happy parts of my life.

Scorpions are a fact of life here as well. One of the first things I did after moving to our new home was to consult with the "bug" people or exterminators. I did not want to find myself stepping on a scorpion in the dark if I got up at night. We have lots of limestone rocks in our area and lots of trees. Scorpions love both. The scorpions will represent the darker parts of my life.

So there you have it. My new effort in the blogging world. I will be stepping away from books and stepping into life posts. There's no telling what I might write about, but there will be no formal book reviews. I hope you guys will come along with me as I voyage here in central Texas.

...and they lived happily ever after...

2011-11-21T06:43:00.000-06:00

I wish you happiness and joy and lots of good reading. Me, I'm going to try for that "happily ever after" stuff. And, yes, this does mean THE END. The blog will remain up, at least until the end of the 2011. At that point, it will likely go away. I've closed the comments here, but think I know what you'd say. Again, my wish is that you will all have a "perfect" reading life. Ta, ta!

Catching Up....Reading and stuff for a while

2011-11-04T00:00:00.061-05:00

Every year about this time I seem to get the urge to reread books. I think it's because every year about this time I tend to start getting overwhelmed by holidays and shopping and stuff. It's not that I don't love the holidays, because I do. I enjoy spending time with family and, while I am so not a shopper, I do like finding great gifts for family and friends. I love holiday songs and the cooler weather and preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This year, we're hosting both holidays at our home for family. That's a good thing because we have the space and we have a lovely place to share with them. My mother-in-law has recently had surgery on her knee and she has agreed to let me host the meals. That's kind of a big deal because she loves to do for family at this time. Our Thanksgiving plans are still up in the air - number wise anyway. We may be a small group or a larger one. Either is OK. Christmas will be bigger.

I'm still getting a few things settled here. I've been looking at bedding selections and I still want to have a few more decorative touches around. We've spent an awful lot this year on house stuff and I've wanted to spread out more expenditures, but we're getting closer to holiday time.

All this is to say that, if you take a look at my archives, you'll see that I rarely post in November and December. In fact, except for the first year I blogged (2007), I have taken breaks or even expressed my intention to stop blogging each year since. I find myself in the same place this year, but I'm going to plan on stepping away for the rest of November and December. Usually, I seem to get back into the swing as the year end posts come around. We'll see how that goes. So.....

See me reading or rereading....see me doing other things....see me not blogging....on a break for a while....a long while....or a short while....but a while.

I'm going to step away from the computer for at least a week (or longer if I can). No blogging, no reading blogs, no emails except what I must (only must) deal with. No commenting. No reading about what's to come in books (especially this). That's the goal.

Have a lovely holiday time! I'll probably check in on your blogs now and then. Here's to a stress free and peaceful holiday season. I'll likely see you in January.

Waiting on Wednesday (22) - The Betrayal of Trust

2011-11-02T00:00:00.002-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

The Betrayal of Trust

by Susan Hill

Publisher: Overlook Hardcover

Available November 10th

6th in the Simon Serailler series

From the publisher's website:

Susan Hill's readers met the enigmatic and brooding Simon Serrailler in The Various Haunts of Men and got to know him better in the four mysteries that followed. In The Betrayal of Trust, she has written the most chilling and unputdownable book yet. Freak weather and flash floods have hit southern England. The small cathedral town of Lafferton is underwater, and a landslip on the moor has closed the roads. As the rain slowly drains away, a shallow grave––and a skeleton––are exposed; twenty years on, the remains of missing teenager Joanne Lowther have finally been uncovered. The case is reopened and Simon Serrailler is called in as Senior Investigating Officer. Joanne, an only child, had been on her way home from a friend's house that night. She was the daughter of a prominent local businessman, and her mother had killed herself two years after she disappeared, unable to cope. Cold cases are always tough, and in this latest mystery in the acclaimed series from Susan Hill, Simon Serrailler is forced to confront his most grisly, dangerous, and complex case yet.

I have meant to read Susan Hill's books for such a long time. I have several friends who have written about a few - among them SuziQ at Whimpulsive, Jill at Rhapsody in Books, and Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. There are likely more as well. I always love reading about this series and I love the covers - very dark and brooding. I hope to read the whole bunch in 2012. Six books are not such a lot to plan for - that's one every other month. Susan Hill is also the author of several other books, such as - The Woman in Black - with a soon to be released film starring Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame, and Howards End is on the Landing, a book about the author's quest to read from her own shelves. Have I tempted you to pick up a Susan Hill book? I hope so.

Catching Up...Something New?

2011-10-28T00:00:00.018-05:00

I'm going to try a new manner of sharing what's going on in my life - reading or otherwise. I'll call the posts - Catching Up - and they might contain almost anything. In my pursuit of simplicity on this blog and also taking a step away from formal reviews, I plan to "catch up" now and then or maybe weekly - but not on a set schedule. I could do the Sunday Salon, which many bloggers use, but I don't want to tie myself down to one particular day. I plan to continue a weekly offering of Waiting on Wednesday (upcoming books to highlight - mostly mysteries) and Saturday Snapshot (pictures taken by me or family pictures). We'll see how it goes - so, be looking for the title of "Catching Up...". Whatever I'm sharing in particular will be after the three dots - hopefully with a zingy twist.

Do you ever end up with all your annual or semi-annual checkups occuring back to back? I've spent this week and last visiting my doctors - a well-woman visit, a dentist visit (teeth cleaning), a mammogram, and Monday, eye doctor. Whew! Why don't I just spread those out? I'm supposed to return to the dentist at some point for a couple of tiny fillings. I'll get around to it, but I was disappointed that further treatment was necessary. I haven't been wearing my mouth guard (yes, I'm a grinder) and so, that's what I get. All else seemed to be good. I always get a little nervous though.

I've been working with a personal trainer in the last few months and my sessions are coming to an end. I'll be on my own for exercise, but I think I've got a plan for continuing to make progress on the strengthening front. I've also been "learning" to cook again. In the last few years, my hubby and I have eaten out a lot - time constraints and the whole "too tired to cook" excuse. Now that we are living in an area that doesn't have a restaurant on every corner, I'm back in the kitchen. We're also trying to eat healthier and my old way of cooking is just not great. So, I'm learning about cooking fresh things, veggies and fruit and fish (at home no less). I'm marinating meats and we're using that new outdoor kitchen grill a lot. It's a whole new way of eating. For me, butter has always been a favorite food group (yes I said group - I could put butter on anything). Olive oil has become my best friend and I'm not tempted to slather it on a piece of bread and munch on it (oh, I don't have much bread around either).

On the reading front, I've finally picked up a few books in Robyn Carr's Virgin River series to finish that one out or finish all those that are available at this point. I went over to NetGalley and got the one that just published and also one that will publish in December. I wrote about these books earlier this year - Robyn Carr's Virgin River Series. I've finished:

Promise Canyon
Wild Man Creek
Harvest Moon
Bring Me Home For Christmas
Hidden Summit (reading now - publishes in Dec)

I like the characters in these contemporary romances. They might be a little racy for some, but you could just skip right over that part. The whole town of Virgin River is populated by people that I've come to love. I'll be sorry to be caught up, but I think I'll be looking for another series like this.

I've also been reading Deborah Crombie's long-running mystery series, starring Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James. I'm taking that one slowly and finished the 4th entry - Mourn Not Your Dead - earlier in October. Otherwise, I'm listening to some re-reads in audio - Nora Roberts' Three Sister's Island Trilogy and Louise Penny's Gamache series.

So, what do you think? Could you read a "catch up" post every week or so? This sure seems like a mish-mash of items, but I think it will suit me well. Have a good weekend and happy reading!

Waiting on Wednesday (21) - 11/22/63

2011-10-26T00:00:00.004-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

11/22/63

by Stephen King

Publisher: Scribner

Available on November 8th

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back? Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

On 11/22/63, I was 6 years old. I lived in Lubbock, Texas. I vaguely remember watching some of the funeral events on TV. My father worked for the Texas Department of Public Safety, our state police, and there was certainly a big uproar over the assassination of President Kennedy and the serious injuries suffered by then Texas Governor John Connally. My dad was gone for weeks, assisting with the investigations. I think that most people alive at the time can state where they were when they heard about the tragedy.

Stephen King, who I discovered when I was in college, was a favorite author for many years. It's been a while since I read any of his novels, but I wrote a post about my love of what I would call his "classic" books last year. Look for Bookish Nostalgia #5 - Stephen King - The Classic Books. I'm excited about 11/22/63 and am curious to see how this gifted author will challenge us with time travel. It's preordered for my Kindle. Yes it is.

Waiting on Wednesday (20) - The Territory

2011-10-19T00:00:00.007-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

The Territory

by Tricia Fields

Publisher: Minotaur

Available October 25th

Winner of the 2010 Tony Hillerman Prize

Chief of Police Josie Gray faces down Mexican drug cartels who have turned her Texas border town into a battlefield in this compelling debut, the winner of the 2010 Hillerman Prize.

      At the end of State Road 170 and just past a ghost town lies Artemis, population 2500. The townspeople had sought out this remote corner of western Texas in hopes of living lives of solitude and independence. None of them realized that their small town would become a hot spot for Mexican drug-runners, whose turf battles have turned both sides of the Rio Grande into a war zone. Still, many of the locals would rather take the law into their hands than get help from police chief Josie Gray, even when they’re up against a cartel’s private army.
     After arresting one of the cartel’s hitmen and killing another, Josie finds her own life at risk for doing a job which some people would rather see her quit. And when the town’s self-appointed protector of the Second Amendment is murdered and his cache of weapons disappears, it’s clear that she doesn’t have to pick sides in this war. She’s battling them both.
     Set in a desert landscape as beautiful as it is dangerous, The Territory captures the current border issues from the eyes of a tough, compelling heroine.

Several things caught my eye about The Territory and author, Tricia Fields. First, Tricia Fields won the Tony Hillerman Prize, an award given each year for a debut mystery set in the Southwest. Second, it's set in Texas, in the stark beauty of West Texas, close to the Mexican border. Third, there is a female police chief in this very macho part of the world. Last but not least, it's blurbed by Craig Johnson and published by Minotaur, both big thumbs-up in my book. What do you think? Appeal to you? It sure does to me.

I hate reading slumps and blogging slumps!

2011-10-13T08:15:00.001-05:00

This has been oddest reading year for me. I often have ups and downs in my feelings about blogging and have stepped back from it over and over since I began. But reading? Not sure what is going on with me, but I do know that I am having the slowest reading year I've had in a really, really long time. I seem to be in another funk and all my usual tricks to regain my momentum are not working.

I'm beginning to wonder if it is somewhat a seasonal issue (fall and winding down), but I don't think that's all of it. I do know that I am having trouble settling on a book and have begun to dread writing my thoughts about any book I might finish. Usually, fatigue with writing blog posts is what causes me to step away or even state my intention to discontinue this blog. Yes, I am a wishy and washy blogger.

I do love reading other blogs and commenting on them. I know sometimes my comments run very long, but they are kind of conversations for me. I refuse to add more social media to my list of "must do" items, so I'm not on Twitter or Facebook. It's that old easily addicted thing for me. Have a slight problem with that and try to keep my life easy and simple with few "must do"s.

I actually wrote another post about this and accidentally published it overnight. I deleted it because it didn't say exactly what I wanted, so I'm trying again to get my feelings down about this. I guess what I really want to convey is that I may not have many reviews here for a while. It's such a struggle for me right now. I do enjoy highlighting a new book to be published on Wednesdays and I do enjoy sharing a photo or two on Saturdays. I may start writing a weekly summary of what I've been up to on Sundays or perhaps even another day. I could mention a book I've finished (if I ever finish one again) or just update what's been going on for me.

What happens to a book blog when the blogger feels it morphing into not so much of a book blog? Guess we'll see. You guys will stick around and read my sporadic posts or you won't. Me, I'm going to try to be done with worrying about it. I love commenting and will continue to share in that regard. And I'll write a post here when I feel like it. Hopefully, that will be more than occasionally.

Waiting on Wednesday (19) - A Crimson Warning

2011-10-12T00:00:00.010-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. I haven't done one of these in while and I do enjoy seeing what others are looking forward to, plus I love highlighting books that you might not know about. My choice for this week is:

A Crimson Warning

by Tasha Alexander

Publisher: Minotaur

Available October 25th

6th in the Lady Emily series

From the author's website:

Secrets prove deadly in this new novel featuring Lady Emily Hargreaves. Some very prominent people in London are waking up to find their doorsteps smeared with red paint, the precursor to the revelation of a dark secret – and worse – by someone who enjoys destroying lives.

Newly returned to her home in Mayfair, Lady Emily Hargreaves is looking forward to enjoying the delights of the season. The delights, that is, as defined by her own eccentricities—reading The Aeneid, waltzing with her dashing husband, and joining the Women’s Liberal Federation in the early stages of its campaign to win votes for women. But an audacious vandal disturbs the peace in the capitol city, splashing red paint on the neat edifices of the homes of London’s elite. This mark, impossible to hide, presages the revelation of scandalous secrets, driving the hapless victims into disgrace, despair and even death. Soon, all of London high society is living in fear of learning who will be the next target, and Lady Emily and her husband, Colin, favorite agent of the crown, must uncover the identity and reveal the motives of the twisted mind behind it all before another innocent life is lost.

I have very much enjoyed this historical mystery series, set in Victorian England. I'm always happy to join Lady Emily, her husband, Colin, who is sort of a secret agent for the crown, and their extended family and friends. Their adventures have taken them to various countries and settings. This book seems to feature the pair back in London. The first book in this series is And Only to Deceive.

First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros

2011-10-11T07:43:00.000-05:00

Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea hosts this event each week - First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros. Grab a book that you've picked up and started based on the first paragraph. See if it will hook others.

This is my first time participating. I started The Damage Done by Hilary Davidson a few days ago, but I'm struggling a little with it. Other bloggers have praised it highly and so I'll give it a bit more time. I really want to love it!

It was the bright yellow tape that finally convinced me my sister was dead. When the police had called me, I'd cried for her, but afterward a slender thread of suspicion had snaked into my brain and coiled itself around my thoughts. Claudia was deceitful, like every junkie has to be, but she also had a temper and hated to be ignored. I'd kept my distance from her since September; maybe being the butt of the world's worst practical joke was the price I would pay for four months of silence. That suspicion didn't deter me from getting on the first flight I could out of Barcelona, but it kept my heart beating at a relatively steady pace until I'd arrived in New York. Part of me believed that I would come home and find my sister waiting for me with her dark eyes and twisted smile, pleased with herself for tricking me back into her orbit.

What do you think? Would it entice you to pick it up?

The Arrivals by Meg Mitchell Moore

2011-10-10T00:00:00.030-05:00

I truly enjoyed reading The Arrivals by Meg Mitchell Moore, and I took my time with it. Perhaps it wouldn't have meant so much to me had I not been the mother of a grown child. Perhaps it wouldn't have been so poignant and funny and satisfying if I hadn't recently returned from a vacation spot that I had visited with my late parents, that last time alone with them, just Mom and Dad and me. The Arrivals was a very good read, perfect for me.

Isn't it funny how returning to your parents' home takes you back to your childhood in unexpected ways? I spent some time with my folks a few years ago, taking them to a yearly vacation spot they loved after my Dad was no longer able to drive long distances. It didn't take long for me to slip back into some childhood feelings that I had long forgotten. Not necessarily bad feelings, although there was some exasperation, but also feeling loved and watched over in a way.

On the other hand, once a parent always a parent. I just got back from a trip with my grown daughter and I found myself falling into old patterns, offering her the best seat, letting her sleep a little later, making sure all was well in her little world and being a mom in a more tangible way.

I laughed many times while reading The Arrivals, which is this author's debut novel. I felt for the parents who had their three kids come home unexpectedly, crowding everyone into a house that had felt large enough when the children were young, but felt a little close when grandkids and in-laws were added. There were some scenes in which Ginny, the mother, is up late at night and she realizes that she has missed closing up a house when all her children are safe under her roof. William, the father, goes through a kind of claustrophobic episode, lamenting that the clutter and mess of their household has gotten out of hand. There is drama and situations to be resolved with each of the kids. They all are selfish at times, reverting back to the way children will be, even though they are grown-ups. There is also a lot of love shown and understanding and finally, contentment.

Oh, one other thing, the setting is Vermont, a state I have never visited. In The Arrivals, there is a field trip taken to the Ben & Jerry's Factory, which apparently has a Flavor Graveyard section, along with lots of other good stuff to see and eat. I'd love to take a trip there. For me, Cherry Garcia is a separate food group!

I look forward to seeing what Meg Mitchell Moore will share with all of us next. This book is recommended.

From the author's website:

It's early summer when Ginny and William's peaceful life in Burlington, Vermont, comes to an abrupt halt. First, their daughter Lillian arrives, two children in tow, to escape her crumbling marriage. Next, their son Stephen and his pregnant wife Jane show up for a weekend visit, which extends indefinitely. When their youngest daughter Rachel appears, fleeing her difficult life in New York, Ginny and William find themselves consumed again by the chaos of parenthood—only this time around, their children are facing adult problems. By summer's end, the family gains new ideas of loyalty and responsibility, exposing the challenges of surviving the modern family. And the old adage, once a parent, always a parent, has never rung so true.

For some other opinions, check out these blogs:

Lesa's Book Critiques
Letters From a Hill Farm
Devourer of Books
BookNAround

Thanks for the good thoughts and be patient with me...I'll return in a while.

2011-09-16T13:11:00.001-05:00

First, I want to thank everyone for your nice comments and well wishes regarding the scary fire stuff here in Texas. It has been the oddest year, weather wise and in other ways as well. I know we are not the only ones who deal with fires and little rain, but I will say that this has been the worst year I can remember. I'm a native Texan and completely used to hot weather in the summer and the seasonal ups and downs of rain in our area. However, we've experienced utter craziness. I do have to remind myself that my grandparents lived in the Dust Bowl of the Texas Panhandle and so these cycles of weather will occur.

Sadly, so many people lost their homes and the Bastrop State Park is just devastated. Gone really and it was a lovely park. No rain still in any forecast and so our drought will continue. Living much further out in the countryside has given me a new perspective on a lot of things. I'll share some of that in a few weeks, but suffice it to say that we are still in the hot box and I should buy stock in Bath and Body Works due to the amount of lotion that I have to slather on.

I'm going to be out of town off and on for a few weeks, but I hope to be able to get back into the swing of blogging by about the second week of October or so. My enforced technology drought has been frustrating, interesting, and revealing in many ways. I'm pondering some thoughts about that. When I'm able to post again on a regular basis, I'll share pictures of the new house with furniture. I also want to tell about the nice library I joined, share some new restaurants we've visited, and give some thoughts about basically moving to a much more laid back area - a small town atmosphere, even though we are several miles outside of the small town of Georgetown, Texas. I also want to tell you about urban living, Texas style, and show where we were in the between time of apartment dwelling. It was a little surreal. And yes, I'm reading a bit. Mostly books I've already enjoyed though. No reviews to follow on those, but I might talk about authors or series that I've revisited.

Oh, I did read a fabulous, fabulous entry into probably my favorite mystery series of all. It was A Trick of the Light by Louise Penny. Sigh. Such a wonderful book. Louise deserves all the success she is getting with this new Three Pines novel. If you haven't read this series, you are truly missing out.

Take care and I'm likely to be seen around the blogs posting comments again. I've missed it a lot!!

Not a clue when I'll be back or even if I will...

2011-09-06T16:40:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone. I'm writing this from my iPhone so will be succinct. I have no idea when we will have Internet capability. It may be several more weeks. I have several blog tours that I had promised to do and I'm not sure if those will be accomplished or not. I'll try to be in contact with the publicists. Our area has been hard hit with fires this past weekend. We are safe for now but we do have a plan in case. I'm loving the country but Texas is a giant tinderbox just ready to burn up if the conditions are right. Sigh. Many people we know have had to evacuate or have lost their homes. So tragic. In any case, our cable/Internet connection is on hold for now as the company repairs burned equipment.

I'll be back someday. Take care and pray for Texas to get some rain. The situation is dire.

Waiting on Wednesday (18) - Wicked Autumn

2011-08-24T00:00:00.001-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Wicked Autumn

by G. M. Malliet

Publisher: Minotaur

Available September 13th

1st in a New Series

Max Tudor has adapted well to his post as vicar of St. Edwold’s in the idyllic village of Nether Monkslip. The quiet village seems the perfect home for Max, who has fled a harrowing past as an MI5 agent. Now he has found a measure of peace among urban escapees and yoga practitioners, artists and crafters and New Agers. But this new-found serenity is quickly shattered when the highly vocal and unpopular president of the Women’s Institute turns up dead at the Harvest Fayre. The death looks like an accident, but Max’s training as a former agent kicks in, and before long he suspects foul play.

Max has ministered to the community long enough to be familiar with the tangled alliances and animosities among the residents, but this tragedy surprises and confounds him. It is impossible to believe anyone in his lovely village capable of the crime, and yet given the victim, he must acknowledge that almost everyone had probably fantasized about killing Wanda Batton-Smythe.

As the investigation unfolds, Max becomes more intricately involved. Memories he’d rather not revisit are stirred, evoking the demons from the past which led him to Nether Monkslip. In WICKED AUTUMN, G.M. Malliet serves up an irresistible English village—deliciously skewered—a flawed but likeable protagonist, and a brilliantly modern version of the traditional drawing room mystery.

When I read about this new series by G. M. Malliet, I was very intrigued. I've read a couple of books in her other series, set in Cambridgeshire. The first book in that series, Death of a Cozy Writer, won an Agatha for Best First Novel in 2008. In this new series, the protagonist, Max Tudor, is a former MI-5 agent who becomes a vicar. To me, that particular change of occupation seems fraught with interest. Looking forward to reading Wicked Autumn.

I've moved but am not connected yet...

2011-08-16T20:06:00.001-05:00

Hey everyone! Just me here saying hi and letting you know that I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth. We moved into our new house on Wednesday, August 3rd. It was 107 here that day. Whew! Hot, hot, hot. Not much has changed in that regard in the last couple of weeks. It is surreal to realize that the temps in Arizona are often cooler than ours here this summer, but our humidity is much higher. We have been a drippy mess anytime we've ventured to the out of doors. Can't wait for fall - maybe it will come in November or so.

I still do not have internet connection. We were promised that it would be there when we moved in or soon after, but we are still waiting. Last word is in the next 2-3 weeks. I am pretty much going nuts just using my iPhone. I'm skimming a few blog posts, but not even attempting to comment. I have one more post scheduled for next week - a Waiting on Wednesday post that I was going to have for tomorrow, but I'm pushing it back. Maybe, maybe I'll have the ability to update soon. Tonight, I'm sitting here with my husband's laptop as he attends a meeting. I've frantically been paying some bills and other things that are hard to do without online access.

The house is great though. I'm looking forward to sharing my new updates and getting back in the swing of things here. Soon as I can, I'll be around. So, hello and I'm still here. More to come...

Waiting on Wednesday (17) - Pirate King

2011-08-10T00:00:00.014-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Pirate King

by Laurie R. King

Publisher: Bantam

Available on September 6th

11th in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series

In England’s young silent-film industry, the megalomaniacal Randolph Fflytte is king. Nevertheless, at the request of Scotland Yard, Mary Russell is dispatched to investigate rumors of criminal activities that swirl around Fflytte’s popular movie studio. So Russell is traveling undercover to Portugal, along with the film crew that is gearing up to shoot a cinematic extravaganza, Pirate King. Based on Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, the project will either set the standard for moviemaking for a generation . . . or sink a boatload of careers.

Nothing seems amiss until the enormous company starts rehearsals in Lisbon, where the thirteen blond-haired, blue-eyed actresses whom Mary is bemusedly chaperoning meet the swarm of real buccaneers Fflytte has recruited to provide authenticity. But when the crew embarks for Morocco and the actual filming, Russell feels a building storm of trouble: a derelict boat, a film crew with secrets, ominous currents between the pirates, decks awash with budding romance—and now the pirates are ignoring Fflytte and answering only to their dangerous outlaw leader. Plus, there’s a spy on board. Where can Sherlock Holmes be? As movie make-believe becomes true terror, Russell and Holmes themselves may experience a final fadeout.

Have you read this series? The first book, The Beekeeper's Apprentice, was published in 1994. I loved that book and have read it more than once. I am not totally current in reading this series, but I find it fascinating that enough time has passed for Mary and Holmes that motion pictures are actually being made. Wow. I'm still thinking of them in an earlier time. Anyway, this one sounds quite interesting. Laurie R. King's series continues with more fascinating adventures for this most intellectual couple.

The Gap Year by Sarah Bird

2011-08-09T00:00:00.036-05:00

Sarah Bird is a local author for me. She lives here in Austin and spoke with my book group a couple of years ago when we discussed The Yakota Officer's Club. When I saw that she had a new book, The Gap Year, and that it was about a mother and a daughter and that amazingly emotional time of preparing an only child for college, I raced to request a spot on this blog tour. I'm very glad that I did. Let me just say that I loved The Gap Year! I was only a few pages into it when I had to go research whether Sarah herself was the mother of an only child (she is, a son) and if her child was recently college age (he was, born in 1989). I knew it! I settled in to let The Gap Year uncover a few memories and feelings that I experienced sending my precious only girl off into the world 10 years ago.

Cam Lightsey is the single mother of Aubrey, a cherished only child, who is on the cusp of what her mother thinks of as "the beginning of her adventures" or what we know as the summer after senior year - that summer that a mother dreads and anticipates and works hard for. Aubrey knows she is the daughter of a mother who has always been slightly out of step with the suburban community that they live in. Cam is a lactation consultant and free spirit who met Aubrey's father in Morocco on a train. Martin was "finding himself" and dipping into books about religions and philosophies, searching for the perfect path. Unfortunately, that path led him to leave Cam and Aubrey before his daughter's 2nd birthday when he joined a cult called Next!. Cam and Martin moved to the suburbs originally to insure that their daughter was placed in an excellent school district. And she was, sort of.

Well, time passes and Cam is sure that she knows everything about Aubrey, her goals, her secret thoughts, her place in the hierarchy of teen life at her local high school. Cam is determined to get Aubrey successfully off to college, preferably one that she has picked out. Cam has a plan. My questions is: what teenager ever tells their parents everything about their lives - even teens that "seem" like they are bonded so tightly to their parents and their parents' aims and goals for them?

Aubrey's life is not at all like her mother thinks. She's been part of the marching band, but during the summer before her senior year, things change. She meets and actually throws up on the star quarterback, Tyler Moldenhauer, as he rescues her from a heat exhaustion incident. Meeting and getting to know Tyler is the catalyst that changes Aubrey and causes her to reexamine all the things that she thought she "had" to do - like going to college. And, she's also secretly been talking with her father on Facebook. Cam is about to get the shock of her life when she discovers that her little girl has new goals, new plans, new pursuits, and she never had a clue. How will mother and daughter weather the storm of "growing up"? Hmmm....it's quite a journey.

The Gap Year is told from the viewpoints of both mother and daughter. Cam's chapters are set in the latter part of that summer after graduation. Aubrey's part of the story begins exactly one year before Cam's, setting the stage for all the changes to come. As Cam discovers more and more about Aubrey and how much she's changed, the reader gets to hear from Aubrey herself how her thought processes altered and why she's not going to go meekly onto the path her mother has mapped out. I think this narrative device worked very well. Both Cam and Aubrey were annoying at times, but they are a lot more alike than they realize. It was easy for me to see things from both points of view, especially when they related the same incidents from diverse ends of the spectrum.

Sarah Bird does not specifically set this book in Central Texas, but it was clear that she was influenced by many aspects of life in our part of the country. Austin is an interesting place to live, and it will tell you a lot to know that the slogan for our town is "Keep Austin Weird!". It's very much a mishmash of new and old, liberal and conservative, urban and suburban, hippie and cowboy. And, as this is Texas, football is purported to be king. All of this and more is given a nod in The Gap Year.

I laughed a lot and even shed a tear or two. It's a book that I can recommend, especially to any mother who ever questioned whether she really knew her "oh so very close to grown" kiddo. I'll leave you with the link to an interview that the author did with Texas Monthly Magazine. I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Thanks to Lisa of TLC Book Tours for letting me be part of this tour. It was most appreciated! For other stops on the tour, go here.

Indemnity by Paula Wiseman

2011-08-04T00:00:00.010-05:00

Indemnity by Paula Wiseman is the second book in a Christian fiction trilogy, The Covenant of Trust. I read and reviewed the first book, Contingency, last month and was eager to continue the story of Bobbi and Chuck Molinsky and their family and friends. In Contingency, Bobbi and Chuck work through the ramifications of adultery. Chuck has had an affair with a co-worker and Bobbi finds out through what seems to be a stray email. The Molinskys thought they were a committed couple, one that went to church and tried to raise their boys with a secure home, teaching them right from wrong. What they find is that sometimes it is easy to stray from your original goals - to lose sight of the end purpose and become complacent. Marriage is not a static thing. It needs tending and pruning and care. Contingency tells the story of a couple working very hard to put their lives back together. And they do.

Seven years later, Tracy Ravenna, Chuck's former co-worker returns to St. Louis and once again enters the world of the Molinskys. Bobbi is an elementary school teacher and when she gets her class list for the new school year, a child's name is hand written on her list, Jackson Charles Ravenna. She is startled because she knows that Ravenna was the last name of the "other woman". Surely this child is not connected to that person. After a little investigation, Bobbi finds that Tracy Ravenna has specifically asked that her son, Jack, be placed in Bobbi's first grade class. Could this possibly be Chuck's child? Why has Tracy returned and, more importantly, why has she requested this class assignment?

Indemnity continues the story of a couple who has come through a very rough time in their family life. They will be facing another bumpy road and looking to God and their church family for help dealing with the knowledge that Chuck's infidelity produced an innocent child. Chuck struggles with his guilt and knowing that his son needs a father. Should he sue for custody and risk having to face and deal with Tracy on a regular basis? Bobbi is suspicious of Tracy's motives in returning to St. Louis and she also is uncertain that she can open her heart to Jack. Will he always remind her of Chuck's mistakes? This time, they both want to be completely honest with each other, sharing their questions, asking God why and what can possibly be the purpose to yet another season of growth for their marriage. And what about the precious little boy that needs a stable family - can their other children accept this unexpected brother?

All these questions are answered in Indemnity. I found this book just as absorbing as the first one in the series. I enjoyed catching up with the characters, seeing the growth of their children and learning about where their faith journeys had taken them in the seven years. The author shares themes of trust and forgiveness again, but also illustrates the concept that God is in control, and we don't always get to see the complete "big picture" while events are occurring. Sometimes, it takes a while to look back and say, "Ah, now I understand why this or that happened in just that way." What we do know is that God always loves us and has our best interests at heart. And sometimes He asks us to step out on faith - which isn't easy.

Paula Wiseman has a third book in store for readers, to be published later in 2011. It is called Precedent and I'm very much looking forward to the conclusion of the Covenant of Trust series. If you enjoy inspirational fiction and family stories, I suspect you would like this series. It's one I can recommend.

Thanks to Dorothy at Pump Up Your Book for seeing that I received a copy of Indemnity. I appreciate it very much! Other tour stops can be found here.

Waiting on Wednesday (16) - A Killing in China Basin

2011-08-03T00:00:00.007-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

A Killing in China Basin

by Kirk Russell

Publisher: Severn House

Available on September 1st or Now

1st in a New Series

From the author's website:

A Killing In China Basin launches a series. There will be at least two books, maybe more with San Francisco homicide inspector, Ben Raveneau, and his partner, Elizabeth la Rosa. In this first, Raveneau and la Rosa have just been paired as working partners and are on-call waiting for their first case. The one they catch won't be easy to solve. The victim is an unidentified Jane Doe and the investigation goes a lot of places, including into the past. Since it's their first together they also have to figure out how to work together. They have to find a rhythm.
The big city detective has been written every which way and some have done it very, very well. What I'm trying to do with Raveneau is first make him whole, so he stands as an interesting character, case or no case, so when the urgency of the investigation bleeds into life there's actually something there. He's in his fifties, nudging toward the end of his career, but without any desire to leave. He's a murder cop. It's what he knows, what he loves, and because I know the city I'm hoping I can write it well enough to make him part of it. Writing this novel and the one following it has also the result of an ongoing four or five year conversation with to San Francisco homicide inspectors, Joe Toomey and Holly Pera. I owe a lot to them.

This was a book that I discovered in the upcoming books section of Stop You're Killing Me! If you haven't visited this extremely useful mystery site, you ought to. I liked the setting of this new book and the cover was appealing to me. It's one to try out.

Shut Your Eyes Tight by John Verdon

2011-08-02T00:00:00.007-05:00

Shut your eyes tight...I'm going to give you a big surprise...
Every murderer leaves a trace. Except what if one day they don't?

John Verdon's second thriller is Shut Your Eyes Tight. It follows last year's debut of Think of a Number, which I reviewed here. I was very excited to get the opportunity to return once again to upstate New York and visit with retired NYPD Detective Dave Gurney and his enigmatic wife, Madeleine. Shut Your Eyes Tight is a hefty book, 528 pages in all. Maybe a little long I thought at first. But...no, it was the right amount of pages for me. I dug in and really became caught up in the story. Here it is:

Dave Gurney, a highly decorated NYPD homicide detective has retired from police work and moved with his wife, Madeleine, to a country home in upstate New York. Madeleine wants them to spend time together, to enjoy a simple life and take in the beauty of their surroundings. This couple has endured some very hard times and Dave is a driven cop, even in retirement. Last year, he helped out with a serious case that almost got him killed. And now, Madeleine is not pleased when her husband gets a call from a former partner, Jack Hardwick. He wants Dave to take a look at a case that has stymied the state police for several months, a murder of a bride by decapitation. The presumed murderer is a gardener that worked for the groom, but there are some very odd aspects to the crime and the case has bogged down with no progress being made for some time. Would Dave consider going over some of the files, as a consultant paid by the victim's mother, a wealthy socialite? Much to the chagrin of his wife, Dave is intrigued and says yes. And so it begins.

I shared in my review last year that I find the Gurneys a very interesting couple - both of them. Dave is very introspective and seems to lose track of things on a routine basis as he retreats into his mind to gain order in his world. He's brilliant at detection, but he doesn't share his musings with his wife and so Madeleine is often shut out. I kept being reminded of Sherlock Holmes and Dave's friend, Jack, even refers to him as Sherlock, mostly mockingly, on several occasions. Dave teaches a class at the state police academy on undercover work and he seems very adept at donning a new identity. It makes the reader wonder how much we really know of him, even though the story is told mostly through his eyes.

Madeleine is highly intelligent as well and I hoped that we would get to know her a bit better in this book. I think we did - sort of. She's difficult for her husband to read and often seems exasperated with his absentmindedness. Sometimes though, she seems purposefully vague, almost testing him. Her comments regarding his cases are very astute though and Dave would do well to pay a bit more attention to them, in my opinion. Madeleine is still a bit of a puzzle to me. Again, I hope for more layers to peel off her personality in future books.

The mystery itself was interesting, but I did guess the solution pretty early on. I enjoyed watching Dave work through things and didn't mind his constant coffee drinking and preoccupation with the question of fertilizing the asparagus fern. Some fairly gritty crimes were represented here and also there were female sexual predators, not a common theme up to now. There was a pack of coyotes that appeared over and over, stalking and howling. I saw them as a sort of metaphor for some of the characters. All in all, I was happy with Shut Your Eyes Tight. I'm not sure where the author will go with Dave and Madeleine Gurney. It would be nice to get to know Dave's son, Kyle, a law student, a little better. He is only referred to a couple of times. Dave has some real issues with being a dad as well as being a husband. Hopefully, we'll get to ride along as our flawed hero sorts through more of his issues. A good second effort by John Verdon. I hope there are more to come.

Thanks to Lisa at TLC Book Tours for asking me to take a part in this blog tour. I am very appreciative. You can find more reviews here.

Waiting on Wednesday (15) - A Trick of the Light

2011-07-27T00:00:00.007-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

A Trick of the Light

by Louise Penny

Publisher: Minotaur

Available on August 30th

7th in the Chief Inspector Gamache series

“Hearts are broken,” Lillian Dyson carefully underlined in a book. “Sweet relationships are dead.”

But now Lillian herself is dead. Found among the bleeding hearts and lilacs of Clara Morrow's garden in Three Pines, shattering the celebrations of Clara's solo show at the famed Musée in Montreal. Chief Inspector Gamache, the head of homicide at the Sûreté du Québec, is called to the tiny Quebec village and there he finds the art world gathered, and with it a world of shading and nuance, a world of shadow and light. Where nothing is as it seems. Behind every smile there lurks a sneer. Inside every sweet relationship there hides a broken heart. And even when facts are slowly exposed, it is no longer clear to Gamache and his team if what they've found is the truth, or simply a trick of the light.

OK, do I even have to say it? I am Louise Penny's biggest fan - seriously. I have loved each and every book in this series and I am more excited than I can say to be back in Three Pines with some of my favorite people. It's like they are real people to me, not just characters in a story. I love Clara and isn't it just the way that when she finally gets her solo art show that murder would happen. Of course it is. I...cannot...wait!

Waiting on Wednesday (14) - Season of Darkness

2011-07-20T00:00:00.010-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Season of Darkness

by Maureen Jennings

Publisher: McClelland & Stewart

Available on August 2nd

Historical Mystery - WWII Era

Following the disastrous retreat of the British army from Dunkirk in 1940, England is plunged into a state of fear. The threat of a German invasion is real, and many German Nationals are interned in camps across the country. One such camp is on the ancient moor land of Prees Heath, near the small town of Whitchurch in Shropshire, where Tom Tyler is the sole detective inspector.

Young women from all walks of life have joined the Land Army, to help desperate farmers keep the country fed. When one of these young women is found murdered on a desolate country road, Tyler is almost glad for the challenge; he has been fretting for some time about the dullness of policing in a rural community. In addition, a former lover has reappeared and turned his emotions upside down; his soldier son seems utterly changed by his experience at Dunkirk; and his sixteen year old daughter is unhappy. As he pursues the murderer, Tyler finds himself drawn into an uneasy alliance with one of the Prees Heath internees, a psychiatrist, who claims to be an expert on the criminal mind.

This author has written another series set in Toronto in the 1890's. It has been filmed as the Detective Murdoch Mysteries. Some of you may be familiar with it. Season of Darkness is part of a proposed trilogy and I invite you to listen to a short interview with Maureen Jennings about this book. I'm always interested in mysteries set during WWII times and this one is no exception. I'm definitely looking forward to getting Season of Darkness and reading it.

The move is coming...soon I hope....and I'll unplug for a bit...

2011-07-15T00:00:00.009-05:00

Our new house is close to being completed. I suspect that we will be moving in a couple of weeks. Tomorrow I will have my last house building update with pictures. After this week, I'm not sure what my blogging will look like. Sporadic I think for a few weeks. I have a few blog tours scheduled. When I took them, we were planning on moving at the end of August. Well, our weather here has been hot, hot, and more hot this summer. No rain to speak of. Horrible for the poor guys working on building houses. Great for the contractors in terms of speed of construction. Really nothing to hinder movement forward. Our house has been constructed in less than 5 months. This is a good thing as we've decided we are not good apartment dwellers anymore. It's the noise and barking dogs and the boom-boom-boom of the bass when neighbors (hard to determine which ones) decide to listen to music at 3AM.

My internet access will be nil for a while. I'm not sure how long. We will be leaving our current cable connection and going to a new one. I may be able to be up and running right away, but I like to plan for disasters, while hoping for sunny, blue skies. I do know that I'll be busy. I can check blogs from my iPhone, but I don't like to post from it or even comment from it. All this to say that for the rest of July and probably a couple of weeks into August, you may not see many updates here. I'll have at least 3 scheduled blog tour posts. I think I'll also get ahead and do the Waiting on Wednesday posts and preschedule until mid-August. Otherwise, probably not so much.

After we get moved in, I'll do a tour of the new place. I'll be able to take pictures in the bathrooms, which I'm kind of proud of, because there will be electricity. Right now, any shots I take are too dark. We'll be seeing how our current furniture will work and may be replacing some. I'll have a post about my new office/library. I'll also have some pictures of the area where our apartment is. We've lived in an unusual spot in Austin during this waiting time. I'll also have a shot of my books, the boxes of them I mean. I'm going to have to be doing some serious weeding there. May have a bunch to give away and donate and swap.

All this to say, hang in there with me, please. I know I've been here and not here, but I will be back soon with a life that is more settled that it has been in years. I'm really ready for that. Don't have too much fun without me!

Waiting on Wednesday (13) - Darkness, My Old Friend

2011-07-13T00:00:00.004-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Darkness, My Old Friend

by Lisa Unger

Publisher: Crown

Available on August 9th

2nd in The Hollows series

After giving up his post at the Hollows Police Department, Jones Cooper is at loose ends. He is having trouble facing a horrible event from his past and finding a second act. He’s in therapy. Then, on a brisk October morning, he has a visitor. Eloise Montgomery, the psychic who plays a key role in Fragile, comes to him with predictions about his future, some of them dire.

Michael Holt, a young man who grew up in The Hollows, has returned looking for answers about his mother, who went missing many years earlier. He has hired local PI Ray Muldune and psychic Eloise Montgomery to help him solve the mystery that has haunted him. What he finds might be his undoing.

Fifteen-year-old Willow Graves is exiled to The Hollows from Manhattan when six months earlier she moved to the quiet town with her novelist mother after a bitter divorce. Willow is acting out, spending time with kids that bring out the worst in her. And when things get hard, she has a tendency to run away—a predilection that might lead her to dark places.

Set in The Hollows, the backdrop for Fragile, this is the riveting story of lives set on a collision course with devastating consequences.

I read Fragile by Lisa Unger last year and really, really loved it. My review is here. I'm very much looking forward to returning to The Hollows and the Cooper family and am anxious to see what will happen next in this intriguing community. I...can't...wait!!

Contingency by Paula Wiseman

2011-07-10T00:00:00.011-05:00

You know, I don't really like labels for fiction. For me, fiction means a story, hopefully a story I can get lost in or relate to in some way. However, I know that labels are a fact of life in our reading world - genres of all kinds abound. I just finished a book on my Kindle that is one that fits within a label - Christian or Inspirational fiction. It was a very absorbing and interesting story. I know that some of you prefer not to read within this genre, but I can recommend the book with my whole heart and hope to pique your interest a little bit.

Contingency by Paula Wiseman is the first book in a proposed trilogy. I will be reading and reviewing the second book in this series next month and am very much looking forward to it. This book is the story of a couple, Bobbi and Chuck Molinsky, and what happens in their marriage when Chuck has an affair with a co-worker. It tells of the struggles that Bobbi has in dealing with the vast amount of hurt and betrayal she feels when she finds out through a stray email that her marriage is in serious trouble. This is a long married couple who are active in their local church and who thought that infidelity happened to other people.  In order to save their marriage, each of them must work through past hurts, some from their growing up years, and seriously discover where they are in their own personal walk of faith. Only then can they possibly turn back to each other and go forward as a committed couple.

The dilemma that this couple faces is as old as time.  Bobbi, the betrayed spouse, does not have to continue the marriage if she does not wish to.  However, there are children involved and she still loves her husband. The themes included here are an acceptance of responsibility, confession and redemption. There is also grace and forgiveness. I found myself thinking of another book that is a great favorite of mine, Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. It is a fictional retelling of the story of Hosea from the Bible. Very powerful themes - a comparison of how God loves mankind with the love and forgiveness that Hosea exhibits for his wife, Gomer.

I really enjoyed Contingency. It was a real page turner for me. I look forward to reading the other books in this trilogy and I thank the author for sending me a pdf of Contingency to read on my Kindle. I'll be back in a few weeks with a review of Indemnity, second book in the Covenant of Trust series.

The Blue Light Project by Timothy Taylor

2011-07-08T00:00:00.017-05:00

Book Description:

When an armed man seizes a television studio in the center of town, Thom Pegg, a former investigative journalist turned tabloid reporter, is as surprised as anyone to learn that he is the only person to whom the hostage taker will speak, bringing him inside the studio and in contact with the frightening truth.

From outside, meanwhile, the drama of the enthralled and horrified city is revealed through the eyes of two characters who meet in the early stages of the crisis and who bond to one another instinctively. Eve is a former Olympic gold medalist and much loved local daughter. Rabbit is a secretive street artist who has just completed a massive street art project involving mysterious installations at the tops of hundreds of buildings through the city.

It’s a time of fear, a time when people have grave doubts about the future, and each other. Yet, when events collide, and Rabbit’s installation is activated, people are shocked into seeing the power of beauty in the world, and the real possibility of hope.

The Author:

Timothy Taylor is the author of Stanley Park, which was a finalist for the Giller Prize, and the short story collection Silent Cruise, for which he won the Journey Prize. He lives in Vancouver, BC.
Visit Timothy at www.timothytaylor.ca

My thoughts:

I'm a little unsure what to say about The Blue Light Project. I'll freely admit that I did not finish this book. I attempt to only request books that seem like they would work well for me. I am definitely a believer in the adage - a book for every reader and a reader for every book. Unfortunately, I'm not the right reader for this novel. I could not make a connection with any of the characters and struggled to even understand the storyline. Perhaps it was just over my head. I do know that there are a number of reviewers that did connect well with The Blue Light Project, and I also know that Timothy Taylor is a prize winning author. I wish him well with this book and hope that other readers will find this novel more to their taste.

Thanks to Lisa of TLC Book Tours. I always appreciate working with you guys! Other stops on this tour can be found here.

The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly

2011-07-07T00:00:00.012-05:00

"At the very bottom of the box was a pile of letters, all written on thin, fragile paper, in the same large, energetic hand. Lulu drew out the topmost letter--the writing was extremely untidy, but also, unlike Grandma Cissie's, easily legible--and began to read.

     Concord, July 1869
     Dearest Meg,
     Will we ever learn to bear it, do you think? A world without our Beth, a family with only three sisters where there once were four? A family of cripples, in fact--for we are not whole without her, we sisters who remain, and never again shall be..."

When I first heard about The Little Women Letters by Gabrielle Donnelly, I was a bit skeptical. I love Jane Austen's novels and the current rage to tweak those stories in every way possible has been viewed by me as OK on the one hand and a sort of sacrilege on the other. Here was another of my childhood best loved books being poked and prodded and sequelized (is that a word?). However, I realized that I was genuinely interested in the idea that my beloved March sisters were indeed real and that Jo's great-great granddaughters were living in the London of today. I'm always happy to settle in with a story that includes secret letters and so off I went with The Little Women Letters.

I found it completely charming and delightful. Here's the premise - Jo March and her sisters Amy, Meg, and Beth, were actual people and they married Professor Bhaer and Laurie and Mr. Brooke and had kids and they had kids and so on until the present day. Emma, Lulu, and Sophie Atwater are three sisters that live in London with their parents, Fee and David Atwater. Fee (short for Josephine), a Bostonian, met her husband in America and moved with him back to his native Britain, where they had their three girls. Emma, who is engaged to be married, is a sensible woman, who plans each step of her life and has very practical dreams. Sophie, the youngest, is a budding actress, dramatic and full of emotion. She longs to practice her art by gaining a starring role on the London stage. Lulu is in the middle. She's not as attractive as her two sisters, or so she thinks, and though she's very intelligent, having gained a degree in biochemistry, she's not sure what she wants to do next. She spends her time working at undemanding jobs and feeling in the shadow of her two sisters.

One day, Fee asks Lulu to climb into the attic and go through the old family papers and boxes she's stored there. Fee brought those items with her when she married David and there they have sat for over 20 years. Fee's Aunt Amy has asked her to find a collection of family recipes and send them to Boston for a local exhibition.  As Lulu searches, she comes upon a stack of letters, written by her great-great grandmother, "Grandma Jo" as she was called. Grandma Jo was Josephine March and the star of many oft-repeated family stories. Lulu begins reading the letters and so is drawn into the world of the Little Women. She finds a soulmate in her relative and as time passes, the events and lessons related by Jo to her sisters strike a chord in Lulu and she recognizes what a gift this cache of letters will be to her and her entire family.

I'll leave the story there and if you're interested, you can continue it by reading The Little Women Letters. It was obvious to me that Gabrielle Donnelly was a true fan of the March family and Louisa May Alcott's novels about them. I think she did a great job of making the letters, which are included in the narrative, sound like Jo March had indeed written them.  They give the reader glimpses that most of us would like to continue the story presented in Little Women and find out what happened next. There was a lot of humor there and even though at times it felt a little modern, I was not pulled out of the story by it. The modern day sisters are fun and their lives in London are definitely an updated version of the March sisters. And that is fine. The author does a good job of evoking the spirit of Alcott's books, while still giving us some fresh characters and stories.

I liked all the sisters, but Lulu was probably my favorite. The Atwaters bickered and fussed with each other, as sisters are prone to do, but they were totally supportive of each other. Life was not perfect for any of the family, but, in the end, this was a novel about people who love each other and live their lives doing the best they can and being the best people they can. That may sound sentimental and a little goodie-goodie, but it's what I've always liked about Louisa May Alcott's stories. Good homespun tales. And that's what you'll find here, with some shoes to die for thrown in!

If you're a fan of Little Women or even if you're not, pick up The Little Women Letters. I bet you'll be glad you did.

My thanks to Kaitlyn of Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy of this book. I am most appreciative.

Waiting on Wednesday (12) - Murder by Mocha

2011-07-06T00:00:00.005-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Murder by Mocha

by Cleo Coyle

Publisher: Berkley Hardcover

Available on August 2nd

10th in the Clare Cosi series, set in New York at the Village Blend Coffeehouse

     A divorced, single mom in her forties, Clare Cosi is a coffee shop manager by day, an irrepressible snoop by night. When something is wrong, she considers it her mission in life to right it, and murder is as wrong as it gets.
     Can coffee enhance your love life? Clare's Village Blend coffee beans are being used to create a new java love potion: a Mocha Magic Coffee that's laced with an herbal aphrodisiac. The product, expected to rake in millions, will be sold exclusively on Aphrodite's Village, one of the most popular online communities for women. But at the product's launch party, one of the website's editors is murdered. Clare is convinced someone wants control of the coffee's secret formula and is willing to kill to get it. Can she stir up evidence against this bitter killer? Or will she be next on the hit list?

I love this mystery series. I've read it from the very beginning and it is still on my "must buy" list. Cleo Coyle, the author, is actually a husband and wife team, Marc Cerasini and Alice Alfonsi. They write the best descriptions of all the food and drink served by a successful coffee emporium that I've ever read. I long to taste each of the great treats described and definitely long to sip or even just smell the coffee drinks included. Yum! There are always recipes included and lots of coffee tidbits and lore. Clare Cosi, the protagonist and barrista/sleuth, is a fun heroine and the other characters have become dear to me. There's her boyfriend, a cop named Mike; her ex-husband, coffee buyer Matteo; her ex-mother-in-law Madame, owner of the Village Blend; her daughter, culinary student Joy; and all the Village Blend staff. Whew! I recommend taking a look at the author's website. Talk about recipes - with pictures. OK, have I whetted your appetite? Good!!

Waiting on Wednesday (11) - Louise's War

2011-06-29T00:00:00.005-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Louise's War

by Sarah R. Shaber

Publisher: Severn House

Available - Says August 1st but also shows Now

New Series

The first in a new series from the author of the ‘Simon Shaw’ books - 1942. Louise Pearlie, a young widow, has come to Washington DC to work as a clerk for the legendary OSS, the precursor to the CIA. When, while filing, she discovers a document concerning the husband of a college friend, Rachel Bloch, – a young French Jewish woman she is desperately worried about – Louise realizes she may be able to help get Rachel out of Vichy France. But then a colleague whose help Louise has enlisted is murdered, and she realizes she is on her own, unable to trust anyone . . .

I ran across this book on one of my favorite mystery websites, Stop You're Killing Me. It sounded so interesting and when I saw the cover, I was hooked. I mean, for me, it has it all - WWII time period, the OSS (very fascinated by that group), crime novel - what more can you ask? I guess it can be ordered now, but the author's website says an August publication date.

Fitness Challenge and another blogging break...

2011-06-28T00:00:00.003-05:00

I decided the other day to join the 100 Mile Fitness Challenge that has been renewed by Amanda and Jill for 2011. I've noticed several bloggers that I keep up with have joined and, truly, I need all the help I can get to continue to exercise with any frequency. I don't know what it is about me. I never have to sit and think "so, will I read today or will I do something else?". I never consider "will I get on my computer and check my email or will I turn it off and stay far, far away?". And, I don't think "will I eat today - breakfast - lunch - dinner?" or even more important "will I make coffee this morning?".

I've read that it takes 4-6 weeks to form a habit. OK, I confess that I am not a star in the area of exercise habit-forming ability. I can come up with umpteen excuses for why I can't or don't feel like participating in my LIFE SAVING exercise of the day. Hence, the joining of the challenge.

The nitty-gritty of the event is that the person will walk 100 miles between July 1 and September 30 of this year. Miles are whole miles and can be walked outside or on a treadmill. Other exercise counts as well - 15 minutes is equivalent to a mile. I can do that. Surely I can do that. I've signed up for 100 miles.

My husband and I try to make it to the gym on Monday-Friday mornings. We take weekends off. I walk on the track there or use the treadmill or the recumbent bicycle. I also lift weights 3 days a week. I also try to do a little yoga from time to time. He runs or jogs and does the weight lifting as well. He's doing so good, but he is a lifelong athlete. Me, I'm a lifelong exercise avoider.

So, that's the plan. I'm sticking to it, I hope. I need to do a little tweaking of my eating habits as well, but I'm going to save that until we move finally into the new house. Most of my kitchen stuff is still packed and I'll get a fresh start after I'm more settled and cooking on more frequent basis.

Oh, and I'm taking another break from the blog for a week. I'll have a Waiting on Wednesday post up tomorrow, but that will be it until the next Wednesday. I think that this holiday weekend will be a good one to step away from the computer and read up a storm. In keeping with my whole lazy-daisy attitude toward blog breaks, I've decided this sounds fun.

Have a good July 4th everyone! Don't party too much! See you next week and maybe I'll have a good report on how many miles I've accomplished.

Because I love to give books to people who will enjoy them....

2011-06-24T07:30:00.024-05:00

Listed below, you'll find some books that I'd like to give to a few of you who think you'd enjoy them. One is a book that I reviewed this week. The others are books that I've got duplicate copies, for whatever reason (not the least of which is I sometimes forget I've already ordered them!). In any case, this is not a contest - it's a free for all or free to all, for book lovers. I'm not going to print the item description, but I've linked to Amazon in most cases or my review in one case. A couple of these I've already read. I fully intend to get to my second copy of each of them and am excited about that, so it's not a case of not liking a book and giving it away.

If you'd like one of these books, leave a comment with a way I can contact you (if it's not easily determinable on your blog plus you don't have to have a blog). This is a first-come, first-pick sort of deal for my faithful readers. I'll update as quickly as I can on the post itself and once they are spoken for, that's it. Open worldwide. Good luck!!

~~Spider Web~~

by Earlene Fowler

(a signed hardcover - also got another one personalized to me, so you guys benefit with this one)

~~Deed to Death~~

by D.B. Henson

(advance copy - I got a duplicate finished copy)

~~The Little Women Letters~~ Tina (1 copy), Susan (1 copy)

by Gabrielle Donnelly

(2 advance copies - so 2 winners - reading now - really enjoying it - review soon!)

~~Now You See Me~~ Marjorie

by S. J. Bolton

(British paperback - forgot that I ordered the hardcover - my bad!)

~~Island Girl~~ Mrs. Q.

by Lynda Simmons

(paperback finished copy - reviewed this week - lovely book)

I hope these will be books that you might like to add to your TBR pile. I'm constantly trying to keep mine at a manageable level. A losing prospect, I'm afraid!!

Fallen by Karin Slaughter - Audiobook

2011-06-23T00:00:00.011-05:00

I love Karin Slaughter's books. Truly love them. I read the first of them with my mystery book group back in 2008. She has two series, the Grant County books with Dr. Sara Linton, and the Will Trent series. After a period of time, Grant County sort of finished and Ms. Slaughter brought Sara Linton into Will Trent's world. For me, this has worked very well. The newest book, Fallen, has Sara smack dab in the middle of Atlanta with Will and his partner, Faith Mitchell. Oh, I didn't say - Will and Faith are agents of the GBI, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Sara did have a private pediatric practice in Grant County, as well as being the coroner, but she now works at Atlanta's Grady Hospital, the area's Level 1 trauma center, in both the ER and in pediatrics. So, on to Fallen:

The story begins with Faith Mitchell driving to pick up her infant daughter from her mother's house. Faith, a GBI agent, has been at a computer training class and is running late. Her mother, Evelyn Mitchell, is a retired Atlanta PD captain, a real pioneer in her field. So, it's very disconcerting when Faith arrives at her childhood home to find something very strange going on. She's tried to call her mother several times without success. The door is open - and there's a bloody hand print - and Emma, Faith's daughter is hidden in the garage shed where Evelyn keeps her gun safe - which is empty. What is going on? Where is Evelyn? Faith calls the APD and gives a code she's never used before - Officer in Need of Emergency Assistance. Then Faith, without waiting for backup, slips into her mother's house.

I'm going to stop my story summary at this point, but trust me, you'll want to find out what happens next. Action is pretty much non stop and Faith will need the assistance of not only her partner, Will Trent, but also her boss and her mother's best friend, Deputy Director of the GBI, Amanda Wagner, to get herself out of the situation she finds herself after she makes the decision to enter the house on her own. Dr. Sara Linton is also pivotal to the plot and this entry into the series will bring Sara firmly into the investigative world of Will and Faith. There are long held secrets to be revealed and a number of people lose their lives as the story progresses. Faith has trusted her mother above all else, but maybe there are events in the past that she isn't aware of - loyalties that have shifted. It's hard to know who to trust and first, they must find Evelyn, who is gone, kidnapped, maybe hurt. Faith is under censure and can't help out much. It's up to Will and Amanda and Sara, along with a few other characters, to seek out Evelyn's captors and discover why she was taken, what the kidnappers want, and keep Faith from losing her mind.

I listened to this book in audio and that was a wonderful way to experience the story. I don't normally listen to very many books that I haven't already read in print. For me, it's tough to concentrate on driving or whatnot and also keep up with the storyline. I usually am more inclined to use audio for rereading books. However, I was offered a chance to have a copy of Fallen by Tara of AudioGo and I eagerly accepted. I loved the narrator, Shannon Cochran. She did a really good job with voices, both women and men, and had different aspects of the Southern cadence down pat. I will definitely seek out other books where she is the narrator. I was so enthralled that I came up with various things that required me to drive around in our 100+ degree heat (with A/C, of course) in order to listen further.

I can definitely recommend Fallen in audio and Fallen just in general. As I stated, I'm one of Karin Slaughter's biggest fans and I loved this book. While you might not get all the nuances of the character interaction and back story if you haven't read the author's other books, I think the action alone would be worth it. Yes, it can work as a stand alone. I do think though that it would make the reader want to seek out earlier books in order to understand some of the references. Karin Slaughter does a good job of not "telling all" regarding previous events.

One other thing that I want to point out about Karin Slaughter. She is a very, very big proponent of libraries. She feel passionately about supporting libraries in her community and libraries in general. That alone would make me love her.

So, if you'd like to have a chance to win an audio copy of Fallen, let me direct you to my friend, Jen's blog, Jen's Book Thoughts. She has a contest going right now that you can enter here. She's giving away 6 unabridged copies of Fallen. This contest will end on July 6th. Trot right on over there and sign up. You won't be sorry. I promise.

Thanks so much to Tara of AudioGo for sending me a copy of Fallen. I am most appreciative.

Island Girl by Lynda Simmons

2011-06-22T00:00:00.007-05:00

"the truth is Alzheimer's scares people--Lord knows it terrifies me daily--and I cannot imagine being gracious if I am ever on the receiving end of one of those false bright smiles people reserve for poor unfortunates like myself. They say Alzheimer's patients are given to violent outbursts, and is it any wonder?...The memory blanks have been coming more frequently lately, lasting longer. Before the diagnosis, I'd shrug and put it down to menopause or overwork. Convince myself that losing my keys a half dozen times a day was perfectly normal. And hadn't everyone put the toaster in the freezer at least once? Now, of course, I know the truth. The sad and ugly truth."

Island Girl by Lynda Simmons tells the story of Ruby Donaldson, hairdresser, rebel, protester, strong, confident woman, who at 55 also happens to have early onset Alzheimer's. Ruby lives on Ward's Island across from the Toronto harbor, a place of respite and recreation for area residents and accessed by a ferry. Ruby's family has lived in the same house for several generations and the Donaldson women are infamous for their fortitude and stubbornness. After her diagnosis, Ruby formulates a plan to clear up the troubled relationship she's had with her older daughter, Liz, and, at the same time, protect and safeguard her younger daughter, Grace. Now, if she can just get everyone to do as she says, the plan will work before Ruby herself gets any further in her dance with "Big Al".

Ruby's daughters, Liz and Grace, have their own problems. Liz, who has always butted heads with her mother, is a local attorney who blames herself for a tragic incident involving Grace. She spends way too much time looking for a good time in whatever bar is near and hasn't practiced law for over two years. Grace, a beautiful and gentle woman, has always been thought of as "slow". Her one attempt to become independent and live outside of her mother's control ended badly and she is back on the island assisting her mother with her in-home beauty shop. Grace longs for things that she doesn't even know how to put into words, but tries to keep the peace with both Ruby and Liz.

Island Girl tells the story of these three women in alternating chapters. Each of them is at a serious crossroads in their life. Decisions must be made to continue on the paths they have chosen or to reach out and accept each other and also the help of others in perhaps forging a new path. Mark, an old love comes back into Ruby's life, bringing with him his 12-year-old daughter, Jocelyn. These two, along with a couple of new friends that Liz meets, shake up the Donaldson women, almost forcing them to begin the process of reconciliation and acceptance.

I'm always very interested in stories of families dealing with Alzheimer's. I am glad that I read Island Girl and found many parts of Ruby's journey to be familiar. One part of accepting someone who is diagnosed with this awful disease is being prepared for them to change so much, sometimes becoming almost unrecognizable. However, another aspect is that so many people become more of what they already were. By that I mean, if someone was nurturing, that might carry over into their behavior later, but become intrusive to others - too much. If someone is slightly anxious or grouchy, that behavior might be magnified as well. Ruby was very protective and controlling of her daughters, especially Grace. She becomes much more, well, Ruby as "Big Al" comes to visit more often.

The question of the rights of the Alzheimer patient to direct their own path and even their own end of life decisions is brought into play in Island Girl. That too was familiar to me and there was more than once that I teared up reading of Ruby's struggles and certainty that she knew what she wanted for now and for later.

This book was more than a story of a woman with Alzheimer's though. It was about life changes, growing up, acceptance of self and others, and learning to think of others more than yourself. Grace has a real affinity for birds and the symbolism of a wounded bird struggling to fly again after an injury and also a baby bird being protected by his parents, but eventually set free to soar, is used effectively. There was a lot that Lynda Simmons tried to accomplish in one book, some may say too much, but I found myself moving from chapter to chapter eager to see what would next happen in each of the three main characters' lives. For me, the tales of Ruby, Liz, and Grace were all touching and I cheered for them and cried with them. All in all, Island Girl is a book that I can recommend. I look forward to seeing what the author will come up with next.

Thanks to Dorothy at Pump Up Your Book for providing me with a copy of Island Girl and letting me be a part of this blog tour. I do appreciate it! Go here to see the whole tour.

Waiting on Wednesday (10) - Children of the Street

2011-06-21T00:00:00.005-05:00

I'm posting this on Tuesday instead of Wednesday this week as I have a book tour post tomorrow.

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Children of the Street

by Kwei Quartey

Publisher: Random House

Available on July 12th

2nd in the Detective Inspector Darko Dawson series

In the slums of Accra, Ghana’s fast-moving, cosmopolitan capital, teenagers are turning up dead. Inspector Darko Dawson has seen many crimes, but this latest string of murders—in which all the young victims bear a chilling signature—is the most unsettling of his career. Are these heinous acts a form of ritual killing or the work of a lone, cold-blooded monster? With time running out, Dawson embarks on a harrowing journey through the city’s underbelly and confronts the brutal world of the urban poor, where street children are forced to fight for their very survival—and a cunning killer seems just out of reach.

My mystery book group read and discussed Kwei Quartey's first book, Wife of the Gods, last year and it was well received. Inspector Darko Dawson's Ghana seems a long way from any experiences that we might have had. I enjoyed learning more about this country and the customs and problems that exist, while still enjoying an absorbing mystery. If you click over to the author's website, he has a great trailer to share highlighting Children of the Street. Note that it begins at once, so don't let that startle you.

Dr. Quartey resides in California, but he was born in Ghana. He writes early in the mornings before he goes to his "regular" job as the lead physician of an urgent care clinic. Amazing. He feels very deeply about the issues that he brings to the reader's attention.

Before I Go to Sleep by S. J. Watson

2011-06-19T00:00:00.005-05:00

All I can say after finishing Before I Go to Sleep by S.J. Watson is...oh...my...goodness! What a story and the ending...I'm still in shock. Truly. I should have known it would be rather good because the blurb at the top of the front cover says, "Quite simply the best debut novel I've ever read." - Tess Gerritsen, an author that is a favorite of mine. But, you know how it goes with author blurbs - sometimes they are spot on and sometimes they seem a little over the top. Maybe I don't think this is the best debut I've ever read, but it is certainly one that will get your little heart pumping fast. So, what's it about - well...

Christine is an amnesiac, one of a very specialized variety. She goes to sleep every night knowing some things and wakes up every morning knowing nothing. Nada. No memories at all. What would you think if you woke up and had no idea who the man was in bed with you? You have no memories of marrying him, perhaps having a child with him, no memories of the home you live in or what you did yesterday or the day before. You spend each and every day trying desperately to piece together some sense of yourself and maybe you succeed a bit, but when you go to sleep again, it's all gone.

Christine is told by her husband, Ben, the man she wakes up with, that she suffered a traumatic accident many years ago that left her with a brain injury that has affected her memory in a very unusual way. He tells her that she had treatments for many years, but that the doctors have said that there will be no cure. This is her life. Christine isn't sure who to trust and when a doctor calls her and tells her that he has been working with her for a few weeks in order to possibly assist her in a bit of recovery, she agrees to meet with him. Dr. Nash also tells her that she should look in the back of her wardrobe to find a journal that she is keeping, writing down the events of her day to help jog her memory for the next day. The doctor meets with Chris periodically and calls her daily to remind her of the existence of the journal. Gradually, she realizes that there are many things that don't add up. She's not sure who to trust - Ben, Dr. Nash, and most of all herself. As the story progresses and Christine pieces together bits of her life, the sense of menace slowly grows and grows. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

This book starts off in a quite interesting manner as the reader goes along on the journey of discovery with Christine. After a time though, the repetitive mornings and discoveries get a little old. I became somewhat annoyed with that, but I finally came to the realization that this was deliberate on the part of the author. We were meant to feel the bewilderment and fright that the protagonist felt as she reeled from one day to the next learning the same things over and over. And, as I said above, the sense of menace increases as she peels back the layers to finally arrive at that specific memory that lurks in her subconscious. In fact, I finally found myself sitting on the edge of my chair as I read, actually quite physically uncomfortable, as I raced through the pages to that shocking ending. I found this a most compelling and disturbing book, especially the parts about the memory. It gave me a lot to think about and made me shiver to imagine what life might be like if all that I knew was taken away and hidden from me by my own mind.

Yes, I can recommend this one. Yes, I can.

Revisiting a topic - reading a series in order....

2011-06-17T00:00:00.008-05:00

Do you sometimes think that it takes a while to hammer things into your brain? How long does it take to make a habit of something? I think I read somewhere that it's 3-6 weeks of doing a task every day. Maybe longer. I suspect that I would fail that portion of the class of life, at least regarding some things. Exercise, for example. I know in my heart of hearts that it is good for me and necessary and I feel better and etc., etc., etc., but it's like I have to invent the wheel each and every morning when the alarm goes off and it's time to get up and go to the gym. I keep waiting for the "habit" to be formed.

Another area that I struggle with is my obsessive need to read books written in a series in the order the author wrote them. I did a very long post about this very thing last year - March 20, 2010 - here. All that I wrote was true for me and, at the end, I vowed to be more "forgiving" of myself in regards to "must read in order" - to actually branch out and purposefully and deliberately read out of order. Hmmm....not so much. So, here I am again, inventing the wheel.

I've decided that perhaps I can handle 5-10 series at most and seriously keep up with each and every book the author writes. I've actually started probably 200 series and read a book or a couple of books, fully meaning to return and take on #3 or #4. This would include mostly mysteries, but other fiction as well. After watching Nan's commitment to reading the 13 published books in Deborah Crombie's British mystery series and how long it took, I give up.

Note to self (putting this in red) - you're almost 54 years old - many books, good books, are being published every day, every week. You are not going to get to read all of them, plus go back and read all the ones that you've saved for a rainy day. Stop holding yourself back from experiencing a book just because you haven't read the one previous to it. The author will clue you in anyway as to what has happened and remember that you don't care about spoilers in any case - in fact, you often turn to the end of the book and check to see if you've guessed the solution (I know, it's so wrong!!).

So, you are all witnesses. I vow to read a series out of order on purpose. I'll pick up the current book in a long running series and dive in. I'll not worry that I read #1 and now have #6 and not beat myself up over #2-#5. I vow to keep my list of "must read in order" series to a manageable level - say 5. If a series interests me enough to go on a "reading binge", that will be OK too, but I don't have to do that just to read the latest offering. I'm going to take Jenclair as my guide. I've loved the fact that she goes to the library and gets what's on the shelf. I think she's told me that she would prefer to read in order, but she doesn't seem to stress about it or tell herself she can't pick up a certain book.

I've asked this before, but I'll ask again....how do you feel about this topic? Does it ever cause you stress or are you a Type B series reader that goes with the flow?

I read a little of this...and a little of that...short reviews: Unraveled, Sister and Joy For Beginners

2011-06-16T00:00:00.004-05:00

I'm going to give short reviews of the books I've been reading this last few days.

I began by picking up (or rather downloading on my Kindle) Unraveled by Maggie Sefton. This is the 9th book in a mystery series set in Colorado. I love my yearly visit with Kelly Flynn, accountant, knitter, and all-around athlete, who has a great group of people that she hangs out with. The cast (and it's big enough to require an actual printed "cast of characters" in the front of the book) reminds me of the guys and gals that were in the TV show Friends. Kelly continually runs across dead bodies and finds it necessary to help out her local police in their sleuthing. The plots in this series are not super complicated to "unravel", but I truly love catching up with all the House of Lambspun knitters and their significant others. I highlighted this book on a Waiting on Wednesday post on May 18th.

The next book I started was Sister, a debut book by Rosamund Lupton. I read Cathy's review of this one a few days ago and saw that she marked it an A+ read. Good enough for me. Another Kindle download. I was really fascinated by the method this author used to relate the events of this novel. It is definitely an absorbing psychological suspense story. Beatrice is contacted by her mother and informed that her younger sister, Tess, has gone missing. Bee catches the first flight she can out of New York and arrives in London to assist the police in their inquiries. After Tess' body is discovered, Bee is driven to find out how her sister died. The police very quickly rule the death a suicide, but Bee refuses to believe it. She is convinced that Tess was murdered. The story is told in the form of a letter from Bee to Tess describing what happened afterward. The letter format affords the reader not only a play by play description of Bee's search for answers, but it allows her utter grief and despair to show through so vividly. This is a story of loss and vast sorrow. It's also the picture of a sister that has a tenacious will that insists on being heard and taken seriously. I was gripped from beginning to end. Highly recommended. I can't wait to see what will come next for this debut author.

Now, I moved on to an absolute jewel of a book, Joy For Beginners by Erica Bauermeister. Oh my. I wanted to lap this book up like a cat with cream. So many, many notable passages. I have heard several talk of their love for this author's first book, The School of Essential Ingredients. I have not read it yet, but trust me, I will and very soon. I know that this will sound very gooey and sentimental, but this book made me happy to be a woman who has experienced some hard challenges and come out OK on the other side. I wanted to know the women here - wanted to be part of their group. If you don't know the story, Joy For Beginners relates the experiences of several women who are friends. They come together in the first part to celebrate Kate's recovery from breast cancer. Each of the women have been a help and support to her as she went through surgeries, chemo, and all the things that breast cancer patients must endure. She tells them that her daughter, Robin, wants her to go on a rafting trip the next summer to the Grand Canyon. She's not excited about it, but all her ladies encourage her to be brave and go. She says she will accept the challenge if each of them will have a little adventure - doing something they are afraid of or haven't been able to - and the kick is that Kate will get to choose their task. Joy For Beginners relates each of their stories - how they all brave their task and also how each of them comes to the realization that Kate's challenges were perfectly individually suited, inspired even, for that woman. Well, I won't share any more of the storyline, but I do want to say that Erica Bauermeister is a very gifted writer. She is able to take a reader through such a waterfall of words that appeal to each and every sense. The descriptions are so visid that you can almost taste them or smell them or feel them. I read this book on my Kindle, but I have ordered a hardcover copy as well. I know I'm going to want to read this book again in order to experience the pleasure of the prose. I laughed and I cried. Highly, highly recommended.

Waiting on Wednesday (9) - Shut Your Eyes Tight

2011-06-15T00:00:00.003-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Shut Your Eyes Tight

by John Verdon

Publisher: Crown

Available on July 12th

2nd in the series featuring Dave Gurney

      When he was the NYPD’s top homicide investigator, Dave Gurney was never comfortable with the label the press gave him: super detective. He was simply a man who, when faced with a puzzle, wanted to know. He was called to the investigative hunt by the presumptuous arrogance of murderers – by their smug belief that they could kill without leaving a trace. There was always a trace, Gurney believed.
     Except what if one day there wasn’t?
     Dave Gurney, a few months past the Mellery case that pulled him out of retirement and then nearly killed him, is trying once again to adjust to his country house’s bucolic rhythms when he receives a call about a case so seductively bewildering that the thought of not looking into it seems unimaginable—even if his beloved wife, Madeleine, would rather he do anything but.
     The facts of what has occurred are horrible: a blushing bride, newly wed to an eminent psychiatrist and just minutes from hearing her congratulatory toast, is found decapitated, her head apparently severed by a machete. Though police investigators believe that a Mexican gardener killed the young woman in a fit of jealous fury, the victim’s mother—a chilly high-society beauty—is having none of it. Reluctantly drawn in, Dave is quickly buffeted by a series of revelations that transform the bizarrely monstrous into the monstrously bizarre.
     Underneath it all may exist one of the darkest criminal schemes imaginable. And as Gurney begins deciphering its grotesque outlines, some of his most cherished assumptions about himself are challenged, causing him to stare into an abyss so deep that it threatens to swallow not just him but Madeleine, too.
     Desperate to protect Madeleine and bring an end to the madness, Gurney ultimately discovers that the killer has left a trace after all. Unfortunately, the revelation may come too late to save his own life.

Last year, John Verdon published the first book in this series, Think of a Numb3r. I really enjoyed reading it and wrote about it here. I was very hopeful that we would get to meet Dave Gurney and his wife, Madeleine, again. When I heard that there would be a sequel and that this would indeed be a series, I cheered. Now I'm wondering if they will come up with a creepy trailer like the one for Think of a Number. Haven't seen one yet, but I'll be on the lookout.

Taking a reading break....

2011-06-09T00:00:00.006-05:00

I'm going to take a break from the blog for a week or two. I want to just read and enjoy some unstructured time. See you guys next Wednesday or maybe the one after that. Soon anyway.

Waiting on Wednesday (8) - A Game of Lies

2011-06-08T00:00:00.007-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

A Game of Lies

by Rebecca Cantrell

Publisher: Forge Books

Available on July 5th

3rd in the Hannah Vogel historical mystery series

     Journalist Hannah Vogel returns in A Game of Lies by award-winning author Rebecca Cantrell.
     In preparation for the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the Nazis have rid the streets of anti-Semitic material and other propaganda, and present a peace-seeking face to the world. Journalist and part-time spy for the British, Hannah Vogel, shudders to think of what lies under the temporary coat of gloss.
     Posing as travel reporter Adelheid Zinsli and lover of SS officer Lars Lang, Hannah has been collecting Nazi secrets from Lang and smuggling them back to Switzerland. Wanted by the SS, her travel in and out of Germany has always been fraught with danger, but this trip is especially treacherous.
     Surrounded by former colleagues who could identify her, Hannah tries to keep a low profile while reporting on the Games as Adelheid. Her relationship with Lang gets more complicated as he sinks into alcoholism; the whispers she hears about his work in the SS give her chills. Whose side is he on?
     Hannah agrees to meet her mentor, Peter Weill, at the Stadium, but before he can reveal information that will expose the Nazis, he dies in front of her. Hannah suspects poison.
     Hannah must discover who killed Weill and get his secret package out of the country before the Olympics end and the Nazis tighten their noose…and before her true identity is revealed. And her partner may be the very one about to expose her…

I love this series. Rebecca Cantrell is a multiple award winner for her books set in 1930's Berlin. My mystery group read the first book in the series, A Trace of Smoke, last year. I know I look forward to continuing to share adventures with Hannah, who spies behind enemy lines. I also love the noir-ish covers on these books. If you like historical mysteries, pick up this series for something quite unusual.

Lot's Return to Sodom by Sandra Brannan

2011-06-07T00:00:00.005-05:00

Lot's Return to Sodom is the second book in Sandra Brannan's amateur sleuth series featuring Liv Bergen and FBI Agent Streeter Pierce. Liv is spending some time with her family at their home in Rapid City, South Dakota after surviving her encounter with the crazed de Milo Killer. She is supposed to be resting and healing. However, South Dakota is the home of the famous Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, a yearly phenomenon that brings thousands of leather clad bikers together. How could she rest, especially when her brother Jen's girlfriend, Michelle, is murdered and he becomes the prime suspect?

In addition, Liv also witnesses a second death and lands right in the middle of an undercover operation by the FBI. Agent Streeter Pierce is trying to find a man named Mully, leader of the Lucifer's Lot motorcycle gang, and Liv has just seen that gang with a young women who suddenly collapses. Is that girl dead and did Mully realize that Liv had seen his group with her? Who killed Michelle and is her murder connected with the second death? Will Liv and Streeter actually cross paths while he is posing as a rough, tough biker? Can Liv stay out of trouble long enough to find Michelle's missing teenage sister and also clear her brother's name?

This second book in Sandra Brannan's mystery series has a different feel to it. Her first was a non-stop thriller with the FBI one step behind a crazy man, killing and posing his victims to mimic art. Lot's Return to Sodom gives the reader a window into a world populated with Harleys, 1%-ers (bikers who are outlaws), and a whole sub-culture that flocks to a small town in South Dakota each year for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. It is truly a whole other world and the notion of comparing it to Sodom is not far fetched. Undercover law enforcement officers are sprinkled throughout the crowds, looking for signs of criminal activity and also looking for specific individuals that are wanted by the police. While I have no desire to attend this annual event, I found the descriptions and lore rather fascinating.

Liv is a little reckless again, seeking to discover what she can to help the police find a killer and give her brother the peace of knowing that his girlfriend's murderer has been brought to justice. She is quite comical in her interactions with Agent Pierce, who is yet again amazed at the information she can ferret out, while putting herself into harms way over and over. He serves as her guardian angel, but she thinks of him as Agent Hotty, a term she calls him in her head and, once, out loud, unknowingly.

Sandra Brannan has crafted a more traditional mystery this time, but it was an interesting one. I'll look forward to seeing where she will take Liv Bergen and Agent Streeter Pierce in their next encounter.

Thanks to Marissa at JKS Communications for sending me an advance copy of Lot's Return to Sodom.

In the Belly of Jonah by Sandra Brannan

2011-06-05T00:00:00.010-05:00

     "When she had tried the doorknob in the dark room, it didn't give. The only window was covered by a steel grate that had been welded on the inside of the frame. There was no escape. He had done this before, she had thought. She wasn't his first prisoner. Or his last. And then a second thought had come to her. She hadn't heard or read anything recently about women disappearing or dead bodies being found. A wave of relief had washed over her mind then. She wasn't going to die after all. She just had to do what her abductor told her to do...
     She wasn't sure if she said the words aloud, but they came out like an echo in her ears, thick and slurred, 'Please, I won't tell anyone.'
     Through the heavy fog in her head, she heard him say, 'Neither will I.'"

In the Belly of Jonah by Sandra Brannan is the first in a new crime series with a very likable and resourceful protagonist, Liv Bergen. She's the manager of a limestone quarry near Ft. Collins, Colorado. Liv is shocked when one of the college interns working for her is murdered in a most gruesome way. The FBI moves in to investigate and it is determined that the killer is one known to them, a monster that stages and photographs the victims, setting the scene as if it were a piece of art. It's a race throughout to discover the identity of the killer before more people are snatched. Liv is surprisingly good at puzzling out some real clues to help her friend, Lisa, a FBI profiler and also the man in charge of the case, Agent Streeter Pierce. Time is of the essence, however, and Liv and her friends are more and more at risk.

I was really caught up in this story. Sandra Brannan has introduced a new amateur sleuth that will go on my list of "strong women I'd like to have with me when I'm in a tight spot". Liv Bergen is very smart and not someone to underestimate.  We learn a few things about her past as a Colorado State basketball player and about her family, she's one of nine kids. I look forward to discovering more as the series progresses. The FBI Agent Streeter Pierce is more difficult to know from this book, but I suspect we will learn more in future books. I hope so.

I enjoyed the Colorado setting and the author's use of it and the quarry location in the non-stop action of the plot. My part of Texas has several limestone quarries and I have actually toured one before. I was able to follow some of the background information with ease because of that. The author's family has been involved in the mining business of South Dakota for many years and her knowledge and expertise are evident.

The second book in the series, Lot's Return to Sodom, has just been published and I am going to dive right into that one. I'm curious to find out if Ms. Brannan will use titles harking back to Biblical stories in other upcoming books as well. I suspect the titles are metaphors for aspects of story or at least that's how it seems to me. In the Belly of Jonah is an exciting book that I can recommend. A little gritty at times, so be aware if you don't do well with violence. The chills and thrills are pretty much non-stop. Grab a cold glass of tea and settle in. This is one book that will keep you awake - no afternoon naps allowed. Well done, Sandra Brannan!

By the way, after reading Cath's comment below, I noticed that this book is available for free as a download for your Kindle or your Nook. Not sure how long that will last, but it's true today. Those of you with e-readers, take note! Thanks Cath for pointing that out to us.

I was sent a copy of this book by Marissa at JKS Communications. Thanks so much!

A Share in Death by Deborah Crombie

2011-06-02T00:00:00.001-05:00

A Share in Death is the first book in Deborah Crombie's Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James series. It is an older book, having been written in 1993. In it, we are introduced to Detective Superintendent Kincaid of Scotland Yard. He has been working very hard and takes a holiday at a country house that is run as a timeshare facility. The vacation had actually been booked by a relative that couldn't go and so Duncan sets off to Yorkshire for some well deserved time off. We meet an assorted group of people who are also vacationing, and then murder occurs when the assistant manager of the house is found in the hot tub/spa, having been electrocuted. Not so much of a great vacation.

Kincaid, who was really trying to have some non-police time with resting, hiking, and sightseeing on the agenda, is reluctantly drawn into the investigation. The local cops are not pleased to have a Scotland Yard "wonder boy" nosing in to their inquiries, but Kincaid can't keep himself from meddling. He contacts his Sergeant, Gemma James, who also serves as his right hand assistant, and sets her to ferreting out further info on all the guests. Gemma, a single mum of a small boy, wanders around the countryside asking questions in all the various home locations of the guests. Meanwhile, another guest is dead, a sweet, dithery older lady who might or might not have seen something connected to the first murder.

I read this book for the first time in March of 1998. Nan, of Letters from a Hill Farm, has read all 13 books in this series in the last few months. She has done a marvelous job of reviewing these books, including lots of extra tidbits that she learned while enjoying her reading. It would be worth your time to go to her blog and take a look at them or at least the report on this one. In any case, she enthused so much that I decided to attempt to read through this series in upcoming months. I didn't remember much about the book and I'm glad I decided to go ahead and reread it.

This is a very nice mystery. I found it interesting that Deborah Crombie chooses to begin her time with Duncan Kincaid by pulling him out of his everyday life and sending him on a vacation. Many authors do take their sleuth out of their usual surroundings, but it's normally in book #4 or something. We are introduced to the Superintendent differently and Gemma James, who will be a big part of the series, is kind of a tangential character. It works well, but is different.

I love mysteries that hark back to Agatha Christie's country house mysteries. This is what I thought of here, even though the concept of the timeshare is a modern one. It allows for a wide variety of characters that don't necessarily have much in common. I actually was reminded in some ways of one of my favorite Christie books, A Murder is Announced. Not that the stories were alike, but the dithery older lady who had seen something she wasn't sure about was similar.

I find it interesting also that Deboriah Crombie is a native Texan who has a passion for all things British. She does an excellent job, I think, in writing about a part of the world so different from her own. A Share in Death won both the Agatha and Macavity Awards for Best First Novel. I'm already planning when I'll get to the next book, All Shall Be Well. Soon, I hope.

Waiting on Wednesday (7) - The Silent Girl

2011-06-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

The Silent Girl

by Tess Gerritsen

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Available on July 5th

9th Book in the Rizzoli and Isles Series

     Every crime scene tells a story. Some keep you awake at night. Others haunt your dreams. The grisly display homicide cop Jane Rizzoli finds in Boston’s Chinatown will do both.
     In the murky shadows of an alley lies a female’s severed hand. On the tenement rooftop above is the corpse belonging to that hand, a red-haired woman dressed all in black, her head nearly severed. Two strands of silver hair—not human—cling to her body. They are Rizzoli’s only clues, but they’re enough for her and medical examiner Maura Isles to make the startling discovery: that this violent death had a chilling prequel.
     Nineteen years earlier, a horrifying murder-suicide in a Chinatown restaurant left five people dead. But one woman connected to that massacre is still alive: a mysterious martial arts master who knows a secret she dares not tell, a secret that lives and breathes in the shadows of Chinatown. A secret that may not even be human. Now she’s the target of someone, or something, deeply and relentlessly evil.
     Cracking a crime resonating with bone-chilling echoes of an ancient Chinese legend, Rizzoli and Isles must outwit an unseen enemy with centuries of cunning—and a swift, avenging blade.

I love Tess Gerritsen's Rizzoli & Isles series. I've read it from the very beginning and, while some books are better than others, I keep coming back to these characters that draw me in and invite me to see what crimes they have been assigned to investigate. I wouldn't dream of missing a single book. There's a good book trailer on the author's website here.

This series was developed for TV last year and shown on TNT as Rizzoli & Isles. Angie Harmon plays Detective Jane Rizzoli and Sasha Alexander plays Dr. Maura Isles. While these lovely ladies may be a bit more polished than I imagined Tess Gerritsen's characters, I liked the TV show and I'll be watching again on July 11th when season 2 begins.

Something Borrowed - The Movie

2011-05-29T00:00:00.007-05:00

My daughter and I went to see Something Borrowed last week. I rarely express negative viewpoints about books or movies, but...we were not very pleased. I haven't read the book, but I'm not sure I realized how much I could dislike cute actors that I've loved in other movies. We both left the theater discussing our feelings on cheating on a spouse (fiance here) and basically unhappy with how unpleasant we found the situation, decisions, and outcome of the story.

If you haven't seen it or read the book, there are SPOILERS ahead. Might want to stop here.

I thought Dex was wishy-washy and didn't understand why Rachel even wanted him. I thought that Rachel let Darcy run all over her and really wanted her to stand up for herself. I was sad that Ethan voiced his love for Rachel and was thinking, "Pick Ethan! Pick Ethan! Your guy best friend!". But no, she picks Dex, who finally decides that he's strong enough to leave Darcy for Rachel. And we spend the whole time disliking Darcy, but I understand that the companion book, Something Blue, is told from Darcy's point of view. Huh? We hate this girl and then have a whole book about her and how we should try to understand her. Sorry not for me.

I don't really like books or movies that end up with cheating basically being OK. I'd prefer a scene like Jennifer Garner had in Valentine's Day where she is beating the stuffing out of a heart-shaped pinata. I think we all had pictured her boyfriend's head in place of the heart.

If you loved the book or the movie, am I just missing it? Share your thoughts. I'll listen, promise.

Bookish Nostalgia #22 - My First Cookbook by Imperial Sugar of Sugarland, Texas

2011-05-27T00:00:00.011-05:00

I haven't done a Bookish Nostalgia post in a long time. No titles have come to mind for a while, but last Saturday, Margot of Joyfully Retired shared A Favorite Childhood Dish: Eggs Goldenrod. It started me thinking about favorite childhood dishes to cook and I remembered My First Cookbook published by the Imperial Sugar Company since 1959. Mine had the cover shown here. There have been many covers through the years though and if you go to this location, you can check out a TV commercial from 1972 encouraging kids to send off for their own cookbook. You can also click a link to see the recipes inside.

My mother was not a terribly good cook. She did OK with fresh veggies and breakfast foods, but she really had difficulty following recipes. I started cooking early, using some of these recipes. I know this is where I learned to make Deviled Eggs. I also liked Candlestick Salad (made from a banana and a cherry and a pineapple ring) and Tiny Turtle Salad (a pear half, green food coloring, pecan halves, and an olive). Looking at the Devilish Eggs recipe, I think they have made some changes. Mine had mustard and vinegar instead of lemon juice. I think there was a different cake recipe or maybe it's this one. It was good.

Any little person could get a copy of My First Cookbook by cutting the symbol off a bag of Imperial Sugar and sending it in with their address included. Pretty soon, an envelope arrive from Sugarland, TX, containing a cookbook that was lots of fun. I don't think I still have my original copy, but I'm going to be looking for it when unpacking my things later this summer.

Did you enjoy cooking when you were a kid? What was your favorite cookbook?

Winners of AZ Author Event Giveaway...

2011-05-26T10:00:00.002-05:00

I'm happy to announce the winners of the 4 books I brought back from AZ author events to give away. They are:

Staci of Life in the Thumb

Nan of Letters From a Hill Farm

Leslie of Under My Apple Tree

Carol N Wong

My husband did the random picking honors this time. Emails have been sent to each winner. Thanks so much everyone for participating. Hope this encourages you to try one of these great series!

"Waiting on" Wednesday (6) - Fallen

2011-05-25T00:00:00.001-05:00

This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Fallen

by Karin Slaughter

Publisher: Delacorte Press

Available on June 21st

4th Book featuring Will Trent and

9th Book starring Dr. Sara Linton

     There’s no police training stronger than a cop’s instinct. Faith Mitchell’s mother isn’t answering her phone. Her front door is open. There’s a bloodstain above the knob. Her infant daughter is hidden in a shed behind the house. All that the Georgia Bureau of Investigations taught Faith Mitchell goes out the window when she charges into her mother’s house, gun drawn. She sees a man dead in the laundry room. She sees a hostage situation in the bedroom. What she doesn’t see is her mother. . . .
     “You know what we’re here for. Hand it over, and we’ll let her go.”
     When the hostage situation turns deadly, Faith is left with too many questions, not enough answers. To find her mother, she’ll need the help of her partner, Will Trent, and they’ll both need the help of trauma doctor Sara Linton. But Faith isn’t just a cop anymore—she’s a witness. She’s also a suspect.
     The thin blue line hides police corruption, bribery, even murder. Faith will have to go up against the people she respects the most in order to find her mother and bring the truth to light—or bury it forever.

I love the books that Karin Slaughter writes. She has such a knack for going just to the very edge of what a reader can stand, before pulling back and letting you take a breath. She definitely flirts with the edge of tolerance for violence, but she tells such compelling stories, I can forgive her that. This book is a continued melding together of Karin's two series and, as such, includes both Dr. Sara Linton and Will Trent, agent for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. So excited about reading this thriller.

Still Missing by Chevy Stevens

2011-05-24T00:00:00.005-05:00

"Sometimes I go back to the day I was abducted--replaying my actions up until the open house scene by scene, like a never-ending horror movie where you can't stop the girl from answering the door or walking into the deserted building--and I remember the cover of that magazine in the store. So weird to think that now some other woman is looking at my picture, thinking she knows all about me."

Still Missing is a debut novel by Chevy Stevens. It was published in hardcover last year and the paperback comes out today. I can understand how some readers would find it too grim to finish, but while I deplored the violence it contained, I was enthralled with the story and how the author presented it.

Annie O'Sullivan is a realtor who hosts an open house almost to its conclusion. She is packing up her things and about to go pull her sign out of the yard when a van drives up and a man climbs out. She greets him and allows him to tour the house quickly. He looks like a good prospect, but as she turns her back on him to show off the back garden, she feels a gun pressing into her lower back. Annie is abducted and taken to a hidden cabin, far from anywhere, and subjected to the company of a truly disturbed man. His treatment of her is shocking and heinous. She eventually escapes and spends time trying to begin to remember how to feel normal again. She's not sure it will be possible and the reader isn't sure either.

The story is told in 26 sessions with the therapist that is trying to help Annie deal with her trauma. It starts out very upsetting to read as Annie relates the beginnings of her terrifying ordeal. She, herself, is full of rage and grief and terror. She lashes out verbally at the doctor and internally to herself. She sleeps in the closet and can't allow anyone to touch her. This is the story of a woman who has come close to the edge of madness and is trying to retreat from that precipice. Along with Annie's narrative of her months in captivity, she also relates what the police will tell her about their progress in solving and understanding the crime. Sometimes, the truth is just too hard.

I felt this was a well written book. The violence and trauma were difficult to read, but as I was swept up in Annie's story, I needed to stick with her to see if she was able to recover and mainly to see if justice would be done. Annie was not very likeable at times, especially in the first part of the book, but she was so damaged, it was no wonder. Some of the other characters were OK, but Annie's family was not especially of help to her in her recovery. Her dog, Emma, and the police officer that led her case were my favorite characters. I'll be looking forward to Chevy Stevens' next book, Never Knowing, to be published in July. Readers who are fans of the books of Karin Slaughter and Tana French would probably like Still Missing.

Thanks to Sarah of Meryl Moss Media for sending me a copy of this book.

The Goodbye Quilt by Susan Wiggs

2011-05-22T00:00:00.002-05:00

How do you say goodbye to a piece of your heart? If you're a quilter, you have a time honored way to express yourself.

A quilt is an object of peculiar intimacy. By virtue of the way it is created, every inch of the fabric is touched. Each scrap absorbs the quilter's scent and the invisible oils of her skin, the smell of her household and, thanks to the constant pinning and stitching, her blood in the tiniest of quantities. And tears, though she might be loath to admit it...I've always thought a quilt held together with a woman's tears to be the strongest of all.

Susan Wiggs has written an unabashedly sentimental little gem of a book, The Goodbye Quilt, about a mother who travels with her only child, a daughter, to deliver her to college for the first time. Linda and her husband, Dan, have a cherished only daughter, Molly. It's time for Molly to go off to college and she has gotten a scholarship to a prestigious Eastern university, far from her small town home in Wyoming. Linda, a quilter, has decided that she will present Molly with a quilt that is a record of her life for use in her dorm room. Mother and daughter will drive cross country and Linda will use that time to try to finish this very special gift.

I loved this book and I make no bones about the fact that it will make you reach for a tissue, especially if you've had a child leave home or are about to be at that place in life. There are some great life lessons included in it though and I understand the author wrote it after her own daughter left for school, putting her emotions into the pages as she went, I expect. Mother and daughter talk and fuss a little and learn a bit about each other as they travel. The mother thinks that she must make sure she has imparted all the wisdom she knows to the daughter. In fact, in the end, the daughter ends up imparting wisdom to the mom. It's as it should be when the torch passes.

I am the mother of an only child, a cherished daughter, and I found myself nodding and sighing and remembering oh so much about that period of my life, ten years ago now, when my baby chick left the nest. She didn't go cross country and thousands of miles away, but she was about four hours from home. It was still a wrench to my heart and I remember wondering, "who am I now if I'm not a mom?". Well, of course I was still a mom, but it was time to learn about my own passions and set a new path for my life. It was time for my husband and I to rediscover ourselves as a couple and not just as parents. It's been a very good ten years in that way.

This is a short book that you can read in a few hours. It might make a good gift for the mother of a graduating senior. If you're a mom, I think you'll like it. There is a quilt pattern included at the end.

I read this book on my Kindle.

Still Missing Book Party Tuesday....

2011-05-21T17:50:00.000-05:00

My review of this book will be up on Tuesday I'm looking forward to chatting with the author that afternoon. For more information, go here.

Another Author Event and Giveaway - Carolyn Hart and Earlene Fowler

2011-05-19T00:00:00.006-05:00

I was extra privileged to attend a second author event during my time in AZ. Lesa Holstine hosted Carolyn Hart and Earlene Fowler, both longtime favorite authors of mine, at a very special time last Monday. We gathered at the Velma Teague Branch of the Glendale Public Library before opening hours to talk books and listen to these lovely ladies share their writing thoughts and latest books. Both Lesa and I were extra excited and we discussed how many years we had been reading the books in the series represented - trust me, it's a lot!

Again, I snagged the front row - comfy seats at the front, remember? And there they were - Carolyn Hart and Earlene Fowler. Before we really began, Earlene came around and handed out pens to everyone - she had a lot of them. They said "Stolen from San Celina Police Department". That got a laugh from many of us and I asked her if Gabe Ortiz (love that Gabe) would be showing up to arrest us later. Be still my beating heart! (You'll have to read one of Earlene's books to find out about Gabe.) She told us that she got into ordering pens and decided to get 1,000 of them, but she was almost out. It's amazing how many she needs. She also told us that the next set she orders will probably say "Stolen from the desk of Gabe Ortiz, Chief of Police, San Celina Police Department". Again, does Gabe come with, I asked?

Lesa Holstine has written a very good post about these authors and their talk with all of us. I invite you to click over and read her words here. Lesa is known for taking such thorough notes - it will almost seem like you were sitting right beside me. Truly.

Carolyn Hart is an author that I've read since 1987 - 24 years now. She writes the Annie and Max Darling series, set in Broward's Rock, South Carolina. Annie owns Death on Demand, a fabulous mystery bookstore. The first book in the series is entitled Death on Demand. Carolyn's latest is Dead by Midnight, the 21st book in the award-winning series. Carolyn lives in Oklahoma City and writes two books a year. She also has a series featuring Henrie O, a retired newpaper reporter, and her newest starring Bailey Ruth Raeburn, a ghost who assists in solving crimes in Adelaide, Oklahoma.

Carolyn told us that she writes traditional mysteries (not cozies, as she's not fond of that term and she told us why), books that she would like to read herself. She started out with a couple who loved each other as protagonists and Annie and Max continue to get along as a married couple. She also said to never apologize for reading mysteries and that mystery readers are good people - people who want to see justice and the triumph of good over evil. Carolyn said she isn't interested in combing through the killer's mind, but in discovering what the sleuth has to find out about the relationships that are fractured because of the crime. By the way, she told us that cozy was a pejorative term that Raymond Chandler first used to poke fun at Agatha Christie. Now, publishers use it as a term for "gentle" mysteries, ones involving cats, crafts, or little old ladies, but Carolyn said that murder is not cozy at all. She related the fact that Agatha Christie used poison more than any other method to kill people and said how many of us thought that it was "gentle" to be poisoned?

Earlene Fowler began by telling us that Barbara Peters, the owner of the Poisoned Pen, asked her if she would mind doing her event in conjunction with Carolyn Hart. Mind, Earlene asked? Are you kidding? She was thrilled! Earlene writes the Benni Harper mystery series that begins with Fool's Puzzle, published in 1994. She was touring promoting Spider Web, the 15th book about Benni and Gabe Ortiz, her chief of police husband. Earlene made Benni the kind of character she liked and placed her in the ranch country of central California in the town of San Celina. She thought it would be fun for her protagonist to work at a folk art museum. She loves quilts and so Fool's Puzzle has a murder at a quilt show. In fact, all the titles in this series are names of quilts. She's had to fight to keep some of them because the publishers haven't felt they were "mystery-like", but she explained they are metaphors for what occurs in each book. She has a book with 4,000 quilt patterns in it, so there are still enough titles to last a long time.

Spider Web is a special book to Earlene. It doesn't even have a murder in it, but it does take Gabe down the dark path of PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). This is prompted because a sniper is targeting his officers. There is also a Memory Festival going on in San Celina. She said she started thinking about this storyline because her father, who suffers from dementia, was hospitalized and given a medication that caused him to have hallucinations. He thought he was locked in a root cellar and a prisoner of war in WWII and she realized that he was experiencing PTSD. She wondered what would happen if Gabe (a Vietnam War veteran) had something like that in his life. She said that her father's condition has made her very interested in learning about memory issues and so her real life is reflected somewhat in her writing.

Both authors shared what is coming next for them. Earlene is writing the sequel to her non-series book, The Saddlemaker's Wife. Carolyn will have a new Bailey Ruth book out in 2013 and the next Death on Demand book, entitled Death Comes Silently, is already turned in.

The authors answered several questions and it was lovely to listen to them. I raised my hand and told them both that I had read each and every book in their series (Death on Demand for Carolyn). I also said that they were authors that I looked forward to reading each time because they kept their characters true and believable. Several authors have lost me over the years, but not these two. I said I couldn't count how many times I had recommended their books to patrons when I worked at the library and I was honored that I got to visit with both of them. I told them they were like rock stars or movie stars to me!

OK, enough gushing. I did purchase the new hardcover books by each author and got them signed for me to keep. And...I also purchased and got signed the first book in each series, Fool's Puzzle and Death on Demand, to give away to you guys. I'll also include a "Stolen" pen with each book.

Let me know in the comments if you'd like to be included in the giveaway for either or both of these books. Make sure I can contact you by leaving your email address if it's not available on your blog. You don't have to have a blog to enter. I'll draw names randomly on Thursday, May 26th and post the winners. This contest is open worldwide. I hope that many of you will be interested in these great series.

"Waiting on" Wednesday (5) - Unraveled

2011-05-18T00:00:00.002-05:00

We'll take a bit of a break from my Arizona stories and do "Waiting on" Wednesday. This event is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine and features books that we are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Unraveled

by Maggie Sefton

Publisher: Berkley Hardcover

Available on June 7th

9th in the Kelly Flynn Knitting Mysteries

Spring is in the air of Fort Connor, Colorado-a time of new beginnings for the House of Lambspun knitters. But for fellow knitter Jennifer's new real estate client, it is his end. He's been murdered and Kelly Flynn is left unraveling a tangle of clues. This may prove to be her most challenging project yet.

I have really enjoyed Maggie Sefton's series featuring accountant/knitter Kelly Flynn. I like the setting of Colorado and love the characters. Over the course of the series, we've come to know Kelly and her friends that meet at House of Lambspun, the coolest yarn shop I've ever heard of. I am totally looking forward to continuing my time with Kelly and her group. Maggie left us on a bit of a cliffhanger with the last book, Skein of the Crime. Gotta see what happens! By the way, the first book in this series is Knit One, Kill Two, just in case you might want to start at the beginning.

Author Event and Giveaway - Jane K. Cleland and Rosemary Harris

2011-05-17T00:00:00.006-05:00

I was so pleased to be able to attend two author events on this trip to AZ. I've gone to several on our trips that were held at the Poisoned Pen. On this visit, however, I decided to visit Lesa Holstine's world, The Velma Teague Branch of the Glendale Public Library. Lesa is the branch manager there and she is thrilled to get to host some of the authors that do events in Scottsdale at the Poisoned Pen. I know her patrons are glad that she is able to manage this as well.

First of all, here's the Velma Teague Library. It sits in an interesting part of Glendale, close to the Civic Center, City Hall, and multiple little shops with antiques, jewelry, art, vintage clothing, and ice cream. Had to put that in there. We had some great ice cream just before the author event at Papa Ed's Ice Cream. Click the link and see the cute little house this great ice cream resides in.

I got a good seat at the library because we arrived so early. Front row seats are the most comfortable and I found myself front and center (didn't really intend that). The two authors arrived and it was so nice to be in such good company listening to these lovely ladies talk about their writing process and books. Lesa writes such a wonderful summary of author events, I want to urge all of you to click over and read her post here. I'll attempt to be brief in my sharing.

Jane K. Cleland writes the Josie Prescott mysteries set in New Hampshire. Her latest book, Deadly Threads, is the 6th in the series, which begins with Consigned to Death. Jane told us her books could be read as stand alones and this new one includes vintage clothing. She is giving away a vintage Pucci purse on her website. No need to answer any questions, just enter and she'll draw a name at the end of May. This author used to own a rare book store in Portsmouth many years ago. Once she was asked to appraise some books for a woman and found the walls of the house covered with art. There was actually a Rembrandt displayed and the woman said it was something her brother had brought back from the war. Later, when the scandals about the art that was stolen by the Nazis became public, Jane remembered that Rembrandt. Josie Prescott, the mystery protagonist, was a whistle blower at a New York auction house. Consigned to Death involves art filched by the Nazis.

I'm really looking forward to reading Deadly Threads because I love books that include vintage clothing. The cover also shows a cat, who happens to be Jane's actual Maine coon cat, Louie. He's been photoshopped a bit to make him thinner.

Rosemary Harris writes the Dirty Business mysteries involving gardening. Her sleuth is Paula Holliday, a transplant from New York and ex-media exec. She begins a gardening business in a small town in Connecticut. Rosemary read a newspaper article about a mummified body that was found. She decided there could be a mystery involved and she actually spoke with the coroner, who said the body had not been 100% identified. However, there had a been a box of chocolates found with the body. Rosemary used this to write her first book, Pushing Up Daisies. Her 4th book in the series is entitled Slugfest. It takes Paula Holliday out of her small town and to a New York flower show.

Rosemary herself is a master gardener and she said she has worked in the information booth at the Philadelphia Flower Show several times. She made us laugh telling about people wanting info about what was killing their plant and showing a tiny picture of a stick on their cell phone. She said it was a bit difficult to answer those type of questions. She asked if anyone had seen the movie, Best in Show, about the neurotic pet owners in top level dog shows. The flower shows are much the same with individuals up in the wee hours, trimming their special plants with manicure scissors and spritzing them with mist to keep them happy. Slugfest sounds like the kind of humorous mystery that I love to read and I'm so excited about it.

OK, here's the scoop on the giveaways. I got signed copies of Deadly Threads and Slugfest for me. Sorry, you can't have those. However, I also purchased paperback copies of the first books in each author's series, Consigned to Death and Pushing Up Daisies. Each lovely lady signed her book and I want to give those away to someone reading here that might like to have them.

Please leave a comment telling me which book you'd like to be entered to win. You can also say that you'd like to be entered for both of them. You'd only win one, but you'd get two chances. Also, if I can't find your email address on your blog, please leave me a way to contact you. I hope this will appeal to many of you because I think these books are well worth your time. I'll randomly draw names on Tuesday, May 24th, and post the winners. This is open worldwide.

We're Back from AZ.....and...Which Stack is Mine??

2011-05-15T00:00:00.013-05:00

We're back from Arizona, and we had a wonderful vacation. I have so much to share. I think we will suspend regular programming here for this week and I'll share a bit each day about what we did, who I saw, who I met, and also give away some wonderful signed books and other stuff. Please check back often this week. I hope you'll enjoy hearing about my trip as much as I'll enjoy telling it!

First of all, we'll kind of start in the middle. On Tuesday of last week, I was lucky enough to get to visit the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Old Town Scottsdale. Love that bookstore dearly! It is a mystery lover's dream store, I kid you not. Anyway, part of the fun this time was meeting up with Cathy of Kittling: Books. We cleaned out the shelves, and I suspect the staff was very pleased that we were there. Cathy also took my picture reading at the store for Jen Forbus' (Jen's Book Thoughts) May event, Crime Readers Caught Reading Crime at an Indie Bookstore. I'm not sure exactly when I'll be the designated crime reader, but I will let you know.

Cathy and I visited like old friends who had known each other forever. Isn't it great how blogging friends are so fun and easygoing when you meet face to face? We talked and talked until we had to grab some drinks to cool our parched throats. We also talked with the staff and one of them, Will, was kind enough to bring us a stack of ARC's to dig through, encouraging us to take what appealed to us. We shared with Will that we were both bloggers and having our first meet-up at one of our favorite stores.

OK, here's the good stuff. Cathy and I decided it would be fun to take a shot of 10 of the books that we each bought and have our readers (we know you guys can be good detectives) guess which stack belonged to each of us. So, here are the books - who belongs to the stack on the left and who belongs to the right?

I'm going to sweeten the pot a bit and share some of the other things I acquired on this trip - bookmarks, a book bag, stuff like that. These are all from author events that I attended. You'll have to return this week to hear about those. I'll also include a copy of one of my favorite mysteries, but that's a secret that I'll keep until this guessing time is over. Here's the link to Cathy's post - Which Stack is Mine? - and I'll include her commenters that guess correctly for the giveaway draw.

This guessing game will continue until Saturday, May 21st. Leave a comment below with your guess and be sure there's some way I can contact you afterward. This is open worldwide.

Off to a Scottsdale vacation....

2011-05-06T00:00:00.002-05:00

I'll be gone for a week or so. We're visiting Scottsdale, AZ. It's a little later in the year than we would prefer to be having our "winter" vacation, but our schedules were pretty busy earlier in January and February with the house stuff.

I'm taking a blogging break during this time, but hope to be back with pictures and tales of events to see authors and other bloggers. The time in Scottsdale will, of course, include a trip to The Poisoned Pen where I will stock up (like I really need to do this) on mysteries that catch my eye. Have a great week and I'll see you guys around the 15th.

We have winners!!

2011-05-05T10:42:00.000-05:00

There are 4 winners this morning for my 4th Blogversary Giveaway. I'm happy to say that these ladies will be treated to their selected wishlist book in the next few days. They are:

Carol of Carol's Notebook

Wishlist Book - The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

Anna of Diary of an Eccentric

Wishlist Book - Dreams of Joy by Lisa See

Kathy of The Literary Amnesiac

Wishlist Book - A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel

Lisa of Lisa's Loves (Books of Course)

Wishlist Book - Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

Congratulations to the four winners!! Emails have been sent to all of them. And, thank you so much to each of you who entered to win. I am most blessed with so many blogging and reading friends! Now, on to another year of reading, talking, and such like.

Slow Dancing on Price's Pier by Lisa Dale

2011-05-05T00:00:00.000-05:00

     "What I love about coffee is this: the dramatic change a coffee cherry goes through before it becomes a coffee "bean."
     If you've ever dumped out a bag of fresh-roasted coffee beans, you've probably stolen a sniff of that gorgeous, earthy aroma. You must have marveled at that glossy, dark sheen.
     But that smell and those oils simply did not exist in the coffee cherry when it was little more than a hard green fruit growing on a mountainside.
     It's fire that forces the transformation from seed to bean. Roasting alters the seed's makeup--an intense molecular restructuring.
     In that way, I think coffee cherries aren't much different from people. Heat and pressure change us. When we walk through fire--and we all do at some point--we come out the other side to find ourselves altered. If we're lucky, we become richer, more complex, more alluring people because of our trials. But sometimes, we just get burned."

I begin my thoughts on Slow Dancing on Price's Pier by sharing with you one of the "Coffee Diaries" that the main character, Thea Celik, writes for the Newport Examiner. Lisa Dale has written a book that was a little difficult for me to stick with at first, but I'm very glad I did. It's the story of a trio of friends who met as kids; a girl, Thea, whose Turkish parents own a coffee shop, and two brothers, Jonathan and Garrett Sorensen, one a best friend and husband to Thea, one a true love or so it would seem.

Thea owns The Dancing Goat, a neighborhood shop, close to Price's Pier in Newport, Rhode Island. She took over serving coffee after her parents moved back to Turkey. She has a 10-year-old daughter, Irina, and she and her husband, Jonathan, have decided to separate and perhaps divorce. Life has not been bad with Jonathan. It's just been uneventful, up until the point when he tells her he has slept with someone else.  Calm and stable is a good thing after what happened 15 years before, when Thea and Garrett, Jonathan's brother and the third member of their tight knit trio, fell in love and then parted under very angry circumstances.  All of the Sorensen's, including the parents, Ken and Sue, were affected by Thea and Garrett's breakup. Garrett has stayed away from Thea and even his own family for the most part during these 15 years, blaming her for the path he felt forced to take. Jonathan tried to protect Thea by marrying her, but he's missed his brother and though Ken and Sue have loved Thea and adored Irina, they too would like everyone to get along.

Thea and Jonathan's decision to part changes everything.  Garrett comes back into the picture and lets Jonathan move in with him. He gets to know his niece, Irina, for the first time and also is forced to deal with long buried feelings for Thea.  Irina is confused that her parents don't spend time together anymore and that her dad doesn't live with them. She begins acting out in some very unhealthy ways. Thea tries to keep the peace between the Sorenson's, the only family she's had for a long time, but also attempts to decide where her life will go from here. And then there's Garrett again....can she have a normal, adult friendship with the man who broke her heart as a teen?

I liked several things about Slow Dancing on Price's Pier. I loved the chapter intros, where the author included small essays about coffee and various tidbits relating it to life. They were delightful. I liked the coffeeshop, The Dancing Goat (great name, huh?), and the characters that peopled that location. Thea's friends and barristas, who all tried to help her through the changes occurring, were interesting to get to know. I felt badly for Irina, who didn't understand why her parents were no longer living together, and who acted out in ways that became alarming. I was not as pleased with Jonathan and Garrett at first. As the story progressed, I came to appreciate them both more. Thea had a lot on her shoulders and probably took responsibility for way too many things, but it was the way she had always been. She liked her shop, her house, her life, and she tried to once again figure out how to bridge the gap between the two brothers, as she had when they were kids together. This is a story of friendship, young love and then, finally, adult love. All complicated and not without risk. A slow dance.

Thanks to Erin at Penguin for sending me a copy of this book!

"Waiting on" Wednesday (4) - Hell is Empty

2011-05-04T00:00:00.004-05:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. Each week bloggers highlight books that they are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Hell is Empty

by Craig Johnson

Publisher: Viking Adult

Available on June 2nd

7th in the Walt Longmire series

Wyoming's favorite sheriff braves a frozen inferno as he races to capture an escaped murderer.

Well-read and world-weary, Sheriff Walt Longmire has been maintaining order in Wyoming's Absaroka County for more than thirty years, but in this riveting seventh outing, he is pushed to his limits. Raynaud Shade, an adopted Crow Indian, has just confessed to murdering a boy ten years ago and burying him deep within the Big Horn Mountains. After transporting Shade and a group of other convicted murderers through a snowstorm, Walt is informed by the FBI that the body is buried in his jurisdiction-and the victim's name is White Buffalo. Guided only by Indian mysticism and a battered paperback of Dante's Inferno, Walt pursues Shade and his fellow escapees into the icy hell of the Cloud Peak Wilderness Area, cheating death to ensure that justice-both civil and spiritual-is served.

I am always excited about a new book by Craig Johnson. This mystery series is one of the best I've read, depicting the Wyoming setting in a fascinating way. The characters are wonderful and I defy you to not be impressed if you pick up The Cold Dish, first book in the series. We discussed it in my mystery group a couple of years ago and, though some members were afraid it would be a "western", they were very pleased to find an absorbing mystery, set in the Western US, that had some real issues to sink their teeth into. Craig Johnson has shared that A&E is filming a TV pilot, entitled Longmire, based on his books. Several well known actors are starring. Go to Craig's website, click on Post Its, and read the April 2011 entry. Fabulous!!

Don't forget to enter my 4th blogversary giveaway....

2011-05-03T00:00:00.001-05:00

I wanted to remind all of you that your chance to enter my giveaway celebrating my 4th blogversary ends on Thursday morning (May 5th). Please click here and fill out the Google Doc if you'd like to participate. I'm giving away a wishlist book to 4 of my readers - your wishlist, I mean - limited to $25 US. Join in if you'd like an opportunity to get a book you've been panting for! The more the merrier!!

Don't Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon

2011-05-01T00:00:00.010-05:00

    "Don't look under the bed...it's stupid really. Crazy...but what she is is afraid. Because when she was a little girl, she saw the trapdoor under her bed that only appeared in the darkest hours of the night. Heard the scrabbling, the squeaking of hinges as it was opened. And she saw what came out.
     And she knows (doesn't she?) that sometimes he's there still, not just under the bed, but in the shadows at the bus stop, lurking with the alley cats behind the dumpster at her apartment building. He's everywhere and nowhere. A blur caught out of the corner of her eye. A mocking smile she tells herself she's imagined."

Don't Breathe a Word is the first book I've read by Jennifer McMahon and, throughout most of the book, I didn't know what to make of it. Is it a mystery or is it fantasy? I swung back and forth in my opinion. I wasn't sure if I was fascinated, repelled or just really, really interested in knowing the truth, and I'm still not sure I truly understood the "truth". Are you confused now? Join the club. And, yet, this won't be the last book I'll read by this author. In fact, I've already made plans to read her backlist. Guess that tells you something.

One night, Lisa, a 12-year-old girl who is fascinated by fairies and especially the King of the Fairies, walks into the Vermont forest behind her home and never comes back. She is headed for Reliance, a sort of ghost town that everyone talks about, saying that all the inhabitants disappeared simultaneously, leaving behind all their belongings, never to return. Lisa isn't sure that the old stories about Reliance are true, but she and her younger brother Sam and cousin Evie have been visiting the ruins in the forest and looking for clues and also looking for fairies. She's sure that she will one day meet Teilo, the King of the Fairies, and he will make her his queen.

Fifteen years have passed and Sam has grown up. He never believed in fairies or ghosts or any of the old stories, but he's always wondered what happened in the forest the night his sister left. Phoebe, Sam's girlfriend, also wonders. She hasn't told Sam that she was in Harmony, the little Vermont town where Sam grew up, right after Lisa's disappearance, that she actually saw Sam as she stood in the crowd in front of his house. Strange things have been happening. Odd phone calls. Phoebe and Sam find a book that belonged to Lisa that long ago summer, The Book of Fairies. Could Lisa still be alive?  What happened to Cousin Evie and her mother, Aunt Hazel? And the fairies, are they back to remind Sam of a promise he made, a promise they intend to make him keep?

Regardless of whether this book might be classified as a mystery, a psychological suspense novel, or a book of fantasy, I am glad I read it. The chapters alternate between Lisa and her life fifteen years ago and Phoebe in the present day. That was a plot device that worked fairly well.  We are slowly fed the details of the events leading up to Lisa's disappearance and just as slowly taken through Phoebe and Sam's discoveries in the present day. I often thought I had solutions determined and then would realize that I was wrong. I couldn't decide if there were bad people who stole that 12-year-old girl away or if there were actual supernatural elements involved. And I'm not going to tell you any more. Sorry. You'll have to read Don't Breathe a Word for yourself.

The last thing I want to say is that I think the cover is almost disturbing with that little girl and her big, big eyes. Slightly creepy. And, what is it about the New England woods and monsters? I used to read Stephen King and you won't find me traipsing through the tulips there. Something is bound to jump out and get you! For other opinions, read:

Fyrefly's Book Blog

Unputdownables

Eve's Fan Garden

I was sent this book by Amazon Vine. Thanks so much! Don't Breathe a Word will be released on May 17, 2011.

Daughters-in-Law by Joanna Trollope

2011-04-29T00:00:00.006-05:00

"From the front pew, Anthony had an uninterrupted view of the back of the girl who was about to become his third daughter-in-law....There had been a touching moment five minutes before, when Charlotte's widowed mother had reached up to fold her daughter's veil back from her face and the two had regarded each other for several seconds with an intensity of understanding that excluded everyone else around them. Anthony had glanced down at Rachel beside him and wondered, as he often had in the decades they had been together, whether her composure hid some instinctive yearning she would never give voice to, and how her primitive and unavoidable reaction to yielding a third son to another woman would manifest itself in the coming months and years, escaping like puffs of hot steam through cracks in the earth's crust."

I thought I had read at least one other book by Joanna Trollope, but I can't find it on my list of previous reads. Perhaps I read one before 1993. I did enjoy this author's new offering, Daughters-in-Law very much. Joanna Trollope is a British author that has written more than a dozen books, most of them concerning families and life and love and how things all play out over time. They might be categorized as light, women's fiction, but I think there are plenty of thoughtful nuggets included, things to mull over and ponder and think about. Truly one of my favorite types of books.

Anthony and Rachel Brinkley have well-loved sons, two of whom are married with at least one child. Their third son, Luke, marries Charlotte, a vivacious, cheerful girl, at the beginning of this novel. The other Brinkley daughters-in-law, Sigrid, married to Ed, and Petra, wife of Ralph, have settled into the family without rocking the boat, ruffling feathers or making much of a splash in the Brinkley world. Charlotte, on the other hand, is cut from a different cloth or so it seems, at first. Unlike Sigrid, Charlotte's family lives in England. Unlike Petra, who has no family and is a quiet, unassuming sort of woman, Charlotte has definite ideas and opinions about the life she and Luke will lead in the future. Rachel, who has been the heart and, quite frankly, the queen bee of the family is comfortable with the way things are now. Her children and their families visit her house and she and Anthony guide the family in the way things have "always been". Hmmm....not so much anymore.

With Charlotte insisting that her in-laws visit her at her home and turning to own mother first for many questions, life with the Brinkley's is about to change in a big way. And those other daughters-in-law that placidly let the Brinkley's be the Brinkley's....maybe they weren't quite as content as they thought. Daughters-in-Law is the story of a family that is in the midst of change and not completely in a bad way. After all, children grow up, have their own lives, and the parents and in-laws must discover again their own passions and how to live in this next stage of being. Sometimes, it's a rocky transition, but in the end, don't we all want to feel happy and content in our current stage of life? There can be vast enjoyment and meaning when the empty nest time comes around.

I laughed reading this book. I nodded my head, got angry, got sad, and felt a sense of understanding and empathy with many of the women here. I am a daughter-in-law of almost 31 years and isn't it always the way that your mother-in-law is so unlike your own mother? Oftentimes, your husband has been raised in a very different manner, not necessarily a bad thing. I have a son-in-law, but I think that is quite another issue from having a daughter-in-law. I'm thankful every day for the man my mother-in-law raised and have tried to remember that when there were bumps in my relationship with her (and there were). Over time though, I have come to appreciate so many things about my mother-in-law and love her dearly.

I'll be on the lookout for other books by Joanna Trollope. I've found that she writes books that I can sink into for a time and enjoy thoroughly. For some other opinions, check out:

Curious Book Fans

Pickle Me This

I Prefer Reading

I was sent this book by Ashley at Simon and Schuster. Thanks so much!

It's been 4 years now....so, 4 wishes granted? Giveaway!

2011-04-28T00:00:00.008-05:00

It's been 4 years for me here at My Random Acts of Reading. I started this blog in 2007 and I'm truly amazed that it has been so long. Admittedly, I've been in and out and thought I was finished several times but, I wasn't. I guess I'm in it for the long haul and will step in and out as my mood strikes or as my free time allows. No more worries about that. I'm pleased to be able to share my reading life and some of my personal life with reading buddies who have come to be friends.

I enjoyed granting wishes last year at this time in celebration, and I'm going to repeat the same scenario for 2011. I'd like to grant 4 wishes, of the book variety, for people who are kind enough to stop by and read my words here. I'll make sure 4 people get a copy of a book from their own wishlist. I know you all have wishlists, maybe not as long as mine, but.... here's what you need to do:

Fill out the items in the Google Doc below. Be sure you enter that way. Love the comments, but it won't get you an entry this time.
Be reasonable in your book requests. I'll put a limit of $25 (US) on the book this year.
This is open worldwide.
I'll select the winners (Random.org) on Thursday morning, May 5th, and contact those people that morning. Also, a notification post will go up on that day as well.
Feel free to share this contest with anyone you wish through your blogs or social media.

That's all! Good luck and thanks for sharing my random acts of reading!

This contest is now closed.

"Waiting on" Wednesday (4): Spider Web

2011-04-27T00:00:00.005-05:00

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. Each week bloggers highlight books that they are eagerly anticipating. My choice for this week is:

Spider Web

by Earlene Fowler

Publisher: Berkley Hardcover

Available on May 3rd

15th in the Benni Harper series

From the author's website:

    Benni and the ladies of her Coffin Star Quilt Guild are excited to display their Graveyard Quilt (inspired by Elizabeth Rosemary Mitchell's famous historic quilt) at the first ever San Celina, California, Memory Festival. The fair promises to be a wonderful and moving event celebrating memories through quilts, crafts, scrapbooks, photographs, written word, oral histories and tributes to loved ones.
    But when a local cop is wounded by a mysterious sharp shooter who seems to have a vendetta against the police, Benni fears for her own loved ones--especially her police chief husband, Gabe. The shooting sets off post-traumatic stress disorder in Gabe, who starts having violent nightmares.
    Troubled by her husband's emotional trauma and a mysterious new San Celina resident--a woman who knows too much about Gabe's past--Benni is drawn into the search for the sniper, determined to make her hometown safe again...before their peaceful street fair becomes a shooter's deadly target range.

I've read each and every one of Earlene Fowler's Benni Harper mysteries. The titles are quilt patterns and Earlene was talking about quilting long before it became the popular book topic that it is today. The first of the series, Fool's Puzzle, was published in 1994, almost 20 years ago. Amazing!

I'm really excited that I am soon going to get to attend an event featuring Earlene Fowler and also Carolyn Hart, another of my mystery author idols. These lovely ladies will be appearing together in Arizona at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore on Mother's Day, May 8th, and also at the Velma Teague Library on May 9th. This is a very special library because the manager is my good friend, Lesa Holstine, of Lesa's Book Critiques. I'm planning on going to the Monday appearance and then having lunch with Lesa afterward. Such a wonderful day and I can't wait!!

So, if you haven't tried these mysteries, do. I think you'll like them. What are you waiting on this week?

A Thread of Sky by Deanna Fei

2011-04-26T00:00:00.006-05:00

Perhaps her only legacy would be that she'd given her daughters what she'd never had: a home. They considered it their birthright, like clean water, fresh air, a stable society, citizenship of a country utterly safe from invasion. Now her daughters were taking off, as of course they should -- but grief had skewed their trajectory. They were trying to leave it behind, to outdistance her, when what they all needed, now more than ever, was to be together.
Irene couldn't bring their father back, but if she could gather them all for this tour, together they might recover a missing link. Not the notion that Kay was chasing of their laojia, their ancestral home -- but a new understanding of an old truth, old as civilization itself. A truth about death and life, about generations, about permanence. Then, and perhaps only then, could she and her daughters come back home. Jia -- family, house, home. In Chinese, it was all one word.

A Thread of Sky is Deanna Fei's debut novel. It is the story of three generations of women, a grandmother, two sisters, and three daughters. These six women will travel back to the land of their origin, China, and try to forge connections again with each other. Irene Shan is the instigator of this tour of her homeland. She is lost, unsure of which direction her life should take now that her husband has died unexpectedly and her three daughters are almost all grown and gone. A call from her sister, Susan, on New Year's Day finds Irene mulling over the cracks that have widened between herself and her children. Susan invites Irene to visit her in Hong Kong, but Irene decides that a family reunion in the form of a two-week tour of China is just what is needed to heal relationships that have become strained. She wants to include her 80-year-old mother, Lin Yulan, her sister, Susan, and her girls.

Nora, Irene's oldest daughter, is a successful trader on Wall Street, but she can't commit to a permanent relationship with her live-in boyfriend, Jesse. Kay, the middle daughter, flew to China on a cultural scholarship soon after her father's death. She has tried to forget by immersing herself in a culture that she feels should be natural to her, but isn't quite like she imagined. And Sophie, the baby, is desperately trying to keep up with the legacies her older sisters have forged, valedictorians, Ivy League graduates. Sophie, who has an early acceptance to Stanford, is unhappy with her body and in order to feel more in control, starts down the road of an eating disorder, bulimia. Irene's daughters, mother and sister all agree to join her on this female reunion trip, but their emotions range from openly hostile to sadly resigned. No one is excited about the prospect of reconnecting.

Each woman comes to an understanding of her own place in not only this family, but in life during the trip. There are definite bumps in the road and many secrets are revealed. The granddaughters learn much about their grandmother's past as a revolutionary who fled China with her family. Over time, acceptance and peace flows between the women.

Her mother and her sister, herself and her daughters -- they had all set out in a way, to be astronomers. Focused on chasing the unattainable, on charting the unknowable, and forgetting what made them who they were, what gave meaning to their lives in the end -- the connections between them. It was time they all remembered.

I liked this book very much. I'm always partial to women's friendship or family books. Each character had many facets, but they seemed real and individual. The descriptions of the locations visited in China were vivid and interesting. The reader could almost taste the food (not that I always wanted to) and smells the scents. It's obvious that China is a land in the midst of great change and growth. Deanna Fei related that phenomenon very well and still gave a sense of the vast history of the Chinese people. I think that this could be a great discussion book for reading groups. There would lots of themes to talk about and ponder. I'll be looking forward to hearing about Deanna Fei's next writing project. Here's some other opinions:

BookNAround

Rundpinne

Write Meg!

I read a copy sent to me by Tricia of Meryl L. Moss Media Relations. Thanks so much!