Started: 7/20/08
Finished: 7/27/08
Year: 2008
Pages: 326
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: library book
Blurb (from book jacket): "On a certain day in spring, Miss Julia learns that the mayor of Abbotsville plans to tear down the historic courthouse and sell the site to developers; Helen Stroud's husband has absconded with investors' money; Mildred Allen's husband has disappeared after a car wreck; LuAnne Conover's husband has left hearth and home to 'find himelf'; and Emma Sue Ledbetter's husband is considering accepting a call to another church. Looks as though spring has blown into Abbotsville like a lion, not a lamb, and carried off all the clear-thinking people with it.
"Fortunately, Miss Julia is at her best in the misdt of a storm. She consoles (more than she should have to, really), she observes (some migth say spies), and she quickly enlistes Etta Mae Wiggins in a plot to scare off the development money by exposing the town's many eccentric characters. Abbotsville has plenty of local color of the kind not usually listed in brochures for upscale condos: Tonya and her sex change, Miss Julia and her stint as a biker chick and a NASCAR fan, and the mysterious apparition on a church wall, just to name a few.
"Marriages, divorces, fraud charges, and reconciliations all play out against a backdrop of Miss Julia's struggle to save the historic courthouse, her own marriage, and her sanity. This time, Miss Julia scales new heights to get her prized treasure and finds herself in a position she never dreamed possible."
Opinion: A very prim and proper character. I have read another one of these books in the series and enjoyed it. Since the stories take place in NC and I now live down here, the scenery makes a lot more sense. A fairly good mystery.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Cell by Stephen King
Started: 7/12/08
Finished: 7/20/08
Year: 2006
Pages: 351
Genre: Suspense, thriller
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed it out of a TBR box.
Blurb (from book jacket): "On October 1, God is in His heaven, the stock market stands at 10,140, most of the planes are on time, and Clayton Riddell, an artist from Maine, is almost bouncing up Boylston Street in Boston. He's just landed a comic book deal that might finally enable him to support his family by making art instead of teaching it. He's already picked up a small (but, expensive!) gift for his long-suffering wife, and he knows just what he'll get for his boy Johnny. Why not a little treat for himself? Clay's feeling good about the future.
"That changes in a hurry. The cause of the devastation is a phenomenon that will come to be known as The Pulse, and the delivery method is a cell phone. Everyone's cell phone. Clay and the few desperate survivors who join him suddenly find themselves in the pitch-black night of civilization's darkest age, surrounded by chaos, carnage, and a human horde that has been reduced to its basest nature...and then begins to evolve.
"There's really no escaping this nightmare. But for Clay, an arrow points him to Maine, and as he and his fellow refugees make their harrowing journey north they begin to see crude signs confirming their direction: KASHWAK=NO-FO. A promise, perhaps. Or a threat...
"There are one hundred and ninety-three million cell phones in the United States alone. Who doesn't have one? Stephen King's utterly gripping, gory, and fascinating novel doesn't just ask the questions "Can you hear me now?" it answers it with a vengeance."
Opinion: It has a very similar feeling to The Stand but on a much shorter version. It is not one of his better novels but still worth the read.
Finished: 7/20/08
Year: 2006
Pages: 351
Genre: Suspense, thriller
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed it out of a TBR box.
Blurb (from book jacket): "On October 1, God is in His heaven, the stock market stands at 10,140, most of the planes are on time, and Clayton Riddell, an artist from Maine, is almost bouncing up Boylston Street in Boston. He's just landed a comic book deal that might finally enable him to support his family by making art instead of teaching it. He's already picked up a small (but, expensive!) gift for his long-suffering wife, and he knows just what he'll get for his boy Johnny. Why not a little treat for himself? Clay's feeling good about the future.
"That changes in a hurry. The cause of the devastation is a phenomenon that will come to be known as The Pulse, and the delivery method is a cell phone. Everyone's cell phone. Clay and the few desperate survivors who join him suddenly find themselves in the pitch-black night of civilization's darkest age, surrounded by chaos, carnage, and a human horde that has been reduced to its basest nature...and then begins to evolve.
"There's really no escaping this nightmare. But for Clay, an arrow points him to Maine, and as he and his fellow refugees make their harrowing journey north they begin to see crude signs confirming their direction: KASHWAK=NO-FO. A promise, perhaps. Or a threat...
"There are one hundred and ninety-three million cell phones in the United States alone. Who doesn't have one? Stephen King's utterly gripping, gory, and fascinating novel doesn't just ask the questions "Can you hear me now?" it answers it with a vengeance."
Opinion: It has a very similar feeling to The Stand but on a much shorter version. It is not one of his better novels but still worth the read.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
The Darkest Evening of the Year by Dean Koontz
Started: 7/7/08
Finished: 7/12/08
Year: 2007
Pages: 354
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: Library book, fan of the author
Blurb (from book jacket): "Amy Redwing has dedicated her life to the southern California organization she founded to rescue abandoned and endangered golden retrievers. Among dog lovers, she's a legend for the risks she'll take to save an animal from abuse. Among her friends, Amy's heedless devotion is often cause for concern. To Brian McCarthy, whose commitment she can't allow herself to return, Amy's behavior is far more puzzling and hides a shattering secret.
"No one is surprised when Amy risks her life to save Nickie, nor when she takes the female golden into her home. The bond between Amy and Nickie is immediate and uncanny. Even her two other goldens, Fred and Ethel, recognize Nickie as special, a natural alpha. But the instant joy Nickie brings is shadowed by a series of eerie incidents. An ominious stranger. A mysterious home invasion. And the unmistakable sense that someone is watching Amy's every more and that, whoever it is, he's not alone.
"Someone has come back to turn Amy into the desperate, hunted creature she's always been there to save. But now there's no one to save Amy and those she loves."
Opinion: Parts of this novel moved me but the ending was extremely rushed...one of the worst endings that I have read in a while. The fact that it moved me to tears is why it got the high grade. Not a horror like classic Dean Koontz but still enjoyable.
Finished: 7/12/08
Year: 2007
Pages: 354
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: Library book, fan of the author
Blurb (from book jacket): "Amy Redwing has dedicated her life to the southern California organization she founded to rescue abandoned and endangered golden retrievers. Among dog lovers, she's a legend for the risks she'll take to save an animal from abuse. Among her friends, Amy's heedless devotion is often cause for concern. To Brian McCarthy, whose commitment she can't allow herself to return, Amy's behavior is far more puzzling and hides a shattering secret.
"No one is surprised when Amy risks her life to save Nickie, nor when she takes the female golden into her home. The bond between Amy and Nickie is immediate and uncanny. Even her two other goldens, Fred and Ethel, recognize Nickie as special, a natural alpha. But the instant joy Nickie brings is shadowed by a series of eerie incidents. An ominious stranger. A mysterious home invasion. And the unmistakable sense that someone is watching Amy's every more and that, whoever it is, he's not alone.
"Someone has come back to turn Amy into the desperate, hunted creature she's always been there to save. But now there's no one to save Amy and those she loves."
Opinion: Parts of this novel moved me but the ending was extremely rushed...one of the worst endings that I have read in a while. The fact that it moved me to tears is why it got the high grade. Not a horror like classic Dean Koontz but still enjoyable.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Started: 7/4/08
Finished: 7/7/08
Year: 1994 (this edition, originally published 1850)
Pages: 180
Genre: Classic
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: Booksfree.com, one of the 1001 books you must read
Blurb (from back cover) "Hester Prynne is the adulteress, forced by the Puritan community to wear a scarlet letter A on the breast of her gown. Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister and the secret father of her child, Pearl, struggles with the agony of conscience and his own weakenss. Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband, revenges himself on Dimmesdale by calculating assaults on the frail mental state of the conscience-striken cleric. The result is an American tragedy of stark power and emotional depth that has mesmerized critics and readers for nearly a century and a half."
Opinion: Well, I'm thankful I never had to read this in school. It wasn't a bad story and like with several classics, there is an underlying message being said.
Finished: 7/7/08
Year: 1994 (this edition, originally published 1850)
Pages: 180
Genre: Classic
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: Booksfree.com, one of the 1001 books you must read
Blurb (from back cover) "Hester Prynne is the adulteress, forced by the Puritan community to wear a scarlet letter A on the breast of her gown. Arthur Dimmesdale, the minister and the secret father of her child, Pearl, struggles with the agony of conscience and his own weakenss. Roger Chillingworth, Hester's husband, revenges himself on Dimmesdale by calculating assaults on the frail mental state of the conscience-striken cleric. The result is an American tragedy of stark power and emotional depth that has mesmerized critics and readers for nearly a century and a half."
Opinion: Well, I'm thankful I never had to read this in school. It wasn't a bad story and like with several classics, there is an underlying message being said.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
L. A. Outlaws by T. Jefferson Parker
Started: 6/29/08
Finished: 7/4/08
Year: 2008
Pages: 371
Genre: Mystery
Grade: C
Reason for reading: Library book
Blurb (from book jacket): "Los Angeles is gripped by the exploding celebrity of Allison Murietta, her real identity unknown, a modern-day Jesse James with the compulsion to steal beautiful things, the vanity to invite the media along, and the conscience to donate much of her bounty to charity. Nobody ever gets hurt-until a job ends with ten gangsters lying dead and a half-million dollars worth of glittering diamonds missing.
"Rookie Deputy Charlie Hood discovers the bodies, and he prevents an eyewitness-a schoolteacher named Suzanne Jones-from leaving the scene in her Corvette. Drawn to the mysterious charisma that has him off-balance from the beginning, Hood begins an intense affair with Suzanne. As the media frenzy surrounding Allison's exploits swells to a fever pitch and the Southland's most notorious killer sets out after her, a glimmer of recognition blooms in Hood, forcing him to chose between a deeply held sense of honor and a passion that threatens to consume him completely. With a stone-cold killer locked in relentless pursuit, Suzanne and Hood continue their desperate dance around the secrets that brought them together, unsure whether each new dawn may signal the day their lies catch up with them."
Opinion: I was really disappointed in this book. Plot wasn't strong. Ending just seemed to go on and on and on. Not really worth it in my opinion
Finished: 7/4/08
Year: 2008
Pages: 371
Genre: Mystery
Grade: C
Reason for reading: Library book
Blurb (from book jacket): "Los Angeles is gripped by the exploding celebrity of Allison Murietta, her real identity unknown, a modern-day Jesse James with the compulsion to steal beautiful things, the vanity to invite the media along, and the conscience to donate much of her bounty to charity. Nobody ever gets hurt-until a job ends with ten gangsters lying dead and a half-million dollars worth of glittering diamonds missing.
"Rookie Deputy Charlie Hood discovers the bodies, and he prevents an eyewitness-a schoolteacher named Suzanne Jones-from leaving the scene in her Corvette. Drawn to the mysterious charisma that has him off-balance from the beginning, Hood begins an intense affair with Suzanne. As the media frenzy surrounding Allison's exploits swells to a fever pitch and the Southland's most notorious killer sets out after her, a glimmer of recognition blooms in Hood, forcing him to chose between a deeply held sense of honor and a passion that threatens to consume him completely. With a stone-cold killer locked in relentless pursuit, Suzanne and Hood continue their desperate dance around the secrets that brought them together, unsure whether each new dawn may signal the day their lies catch up with them."
Opinion: I was really disappointed in this book. Plot wasn't strong. Ending just seemed to go on and on and on. Not really worth it in my opinion
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