The Sacred Blood by Michael Byrnes

Started: 12/13/09
Finished: 12/28/09
Year: 2009
Pages: 337
Genre: Religious Fiction
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "When American geneticist Charlotte Hennesey examined what she believed were the remains of Jesus, the Vatican buried her discovery. But the DNA Charlotte extracted from the sacred bones and injected into her own body has eliminated every trace of the cancer that was devouring her from within. And it has given her the power to perform medical miracles.
"Now wheels have been set in motion that will have cataclysmic consequences for the volatile Middle East and all humankind. A two-thousand-year-old destiny is about to be fulfilled-resulting in the brazen kidnapping of Charlotte Hennesey, and ensaring Israeli archaeologist Amit Mizrachi and noted Eqyptologist Julie LeRouz in an ancient mystery centered around the world's most powerful relic. As zealots plot to rip the Holy Land asunder, the race begins to avert the unthinkable-for the armies gathering to meet on the hills of Meggido can mean only one thing: Armageddon!"
Opinion: I'm not for religious concepts in fictional pieces of work. It is an interesting concept but I wasn't blown away by the book. For a more complete review please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months

The Cellar by Richard Laymon

Started: 12/11/09
Finished: 12/13/09
Pages: 254
Year: 1987
Genre: Horror
Grade: C
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile.
Blurb (from back cover): "Visitors flock to see the Beast House with its blood-soaked corridors and creaky doors. Armed with Instamatics and video camcorders, these poor souls enter the forbidden house, never to return. The deeper the tourists go into the house, the darker their nightmares become. The men are dealt with quickly. The women have to wait longer....first they are tortured and sexually ravished.
"But the worst part of the house is actually beneath the haunted structure. There lies even a more terrifying presence waiting for its next victim. Don't even think about going into The Cellar."
Opinion: Not as good as the blurb indicates. The last chapter is completely pointless and ridiculous. As part of a series, I'm probably NOT going to continue with it.

The Sweethearts' Knitting Club by Lori Wilde

Started: 12/3/09
Finished: 12/11/09
Year: 2009
Pages: 384
Genre: Romance
Grade: B
Reason for reading: Review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "For ten years, pretty Flynn MacGregor has been turning down the same solid, upright man's marriage proposal. Her friends at the Sweethearts' Knitting Club tell her they're a match made in heaven, but Flynn knows there's only one dangerous reason why she keeps saying no: high school sweetheart Jesse Calloway. She was just sixteen when Jesse was forced out of town under a cloud of suspicion...but he's never left her heart.
"Now Jesse is back, and every time she turns the corner he's there-gazing at her with his smoldering eyes amd tempting her with his kisses. Jesse has never played by the rules, and he's made it clear that he's not going to now. And Flynn, who's always donr just what her family, friends and fellow knitters have told her to do, must finally break free and claim the love that binds Jesse to her heart."
Opinion: Despite it being predictable it is well written and readers will connect with the characters. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.

The Fourth Hand by John Irving

Started: 11/21/09
Finished: 12/3/09
Year: 2001
Pages: 381
Genre: Literature
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "While reporting a story from India, New York journalist Patrick Wallingford inadvertently becomes his own headline when his left hand is eaten by a lion. In Boston, a renowned surgeon eagerly awaits the opportunity to perform the nation's first hand transplant. But what if the donor's widow demands visitation rights with the hand? In answering this unexpected question, John Irving has written a novel that is by turns brilliantly comic and emotional moving, offering a penetrating look at the power of second chances and the will to change."
Opinion: A slightly different book from John Irving. Still very touching and well written.

The Cat Who Smelled a Rat by Lilian Jackson Braun

Started: 11/15/09
Finished: 11/21/09
Year: 2001
Pages: 229
Genre: mystery
Grade: C
Reason for reading: TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "The Big One is on its way, and none too soon for the residents of an unusually arid Moose County, who are becoming increasingly anxious about wildfires as they await the first snowstorm of the season. A Citizens' Fire Watch is formed, and volunteers go out on shifts to patrol areas of concern, particularly the old minesites, which have been rumored to contain subterranean fires deep within. When a volunteer is murdered near the Big B minesite, which had been set ablaze, the people of Pickax realize they are dealing with both an arsonist and a killer. And Koko, Siamese cat extraordinaire and owner of journalist James Quilleran, knows even more than that, as evidenced by his suspicious scrutiny of an antique pitcher, a batik of robins, and an old-fashioned glove box.
"The string of catastrophes continues as a local builder dies in an apparent accident, and it's up to Qwillerian & Co. to trap the rat who's behind it all."
Opinion: An average quick read. Very similar to the other Cat Who series of books.

The Black Hand by Chris Blatchford

Started: 11/4/09
Finished: 11/15/09
Year: 2008
Pages:366
Genre: True Crime
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf
Blurb (from back cover): "Rene 'Boxer' Enriquez grew up in East L.A., where gang fights and drive-by shootings were everyday occurrences fueled by rage, drugs, and alcohol. Sent to prison at nineteen, he was recruited by La Eme, the near-mythic Mexican Mafia, arguably the most well-armed and dangerous gang in Amrican history. A young man without fear who would kill without hesitation, Enriquez's loyalty and iron will drove him quickly up the ranks, from mob enfocer to the upper echelons, where he would rule for nearly two decades. Seeking respect, he devoted his life to a bloody cause, only to find betrayal and disillusionment."
Opinion: More biographical than true crime. A very good read if you want an insider's look at a well developed gang. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.

Miss Julia Takes Over by Ann B. Ross

Started: 10/30/09
Finished: 11/4/09
Year: 2001
Pages: 236
Genre: mystery
Grade: C
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "The Southern belle befriends the high-heeled mamma and becomes frantic when Hazel Marie disappears after a dinner date with a church fund-raiser who, in Miss Julia's opinion, wears his short too tight: 'nobody can be that upright and pious without trouble going on underneath.' Since the sheriff won't help her, Miss Julia takes matters into her own hands. With Little Lloyd in tow, she finds herself tracking Hazel Marie across North Carolina. From a most ungenteel display of fisticuffas to a hair-raising car chase, Miss Julia stands strong and forges ahead. Because...if Miss Julia doesn't take care of things, who will?"
Opinion: Slightly better, more entertaining quick read

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B. Ross

Started: 10/25/09
Finished: 10/30/09
Year: 1999
Pages: 198
Genre: Mystery
Grade: C
Reason for reading: Grabbed it off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): A proper lady of a certain age, Miss Julia Springer's quiet existence is interrupted when a close 'friend' of her deceased husband shows up at her doorstep with none other than Wesley Lloyd Springer's illegitimate son. Hazel Marie Puckett, with 'heels too high, a dress too short, and hair too yellow,' announces that since the two-timing man left her penniless, she's leaving Little Lloyd in Miss Julia's good Christian care. Now Miss Julia cuts loose and speaks her mind as the boy and his randy mother bring scandal and rollicking adventure into her life-especially since Hazel Marie is the target of a hilarious misguided kidnap plot!"
Opinion: Well, it was a quick read but Miss Julia's character pisses me off sometimes with her naivity. Pretty good mystery however.

Death Message by Mark Billingham

Started: 10/13/09
Finished: 10/25/09
Year: 2009
Pages: 458
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: Review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from book jacket): "Delivering the 'death message.' That's what cops call those harrowing moments when they must tell someone that a loved one has been killed. Now Detective Investigator Tom Thorne is receiving messages of his own: photographs of murder victims sent to his cell phone.
"Who are the victims? Who is sending the photographs? And why is he sending them to Tom Thorne? The answer likes in the detective investigator's past, with a man he had once sent to prison for life. But even behind bars, the most dangerous psychopath Thorne has ever faced is still a master of manipulating others to do his dirty work for him. And Thorne must act fast because the photos keep on coming, and the killer's next target is someone the detective investigator knows very well...."
Opinion: Not as good as Sleepyhead but still a good read.

Stupid White Men by Michael Moore

Started: 10/7/09
Finished: 10/13/09
Year: 2001
Pages: 277
Genre: Humor/Political
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb: Basically Michael Moore's look at the men that run this country
Opinion: I've enjoyed Moore's movies and thought that the book would be interesting. And it was. I was happy to see that Moore not only made fun at the Republicans but the Democrats as well.

The Hunted by Brian Haig

Started: 9/24/09
Finished: 10/7/09
Year: 2009
Pages: 453
Genre: Thriller
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from book jacket): "It's 1991, The Soviet Union has just collapsed, and a new democratic government is beginning to emerge. Alex Konevitch, who was thrown out of Moscow University in 1987 for indulging his entrepreneurial spirit, is now worth $300 million and is a major financial supporter of the new govenrment. In a country where greed and corruption run rampant and wealth is stolen, not earned, he is on track to become both Russia's wealthiest man-and a huge target.
"Then top executives in his company start getting brutally murdered one by one, and Alex makes a critical mistake: he hires the former deputy director of the KGB to handle his corporate security. Kidnapped, beaten, and forced to relinquish his business and his fortune by those hired to protect him, Alex manages to escape to the United States with his wife, only to be accused by his own government of stealing millions from his business.
"With a contract out on his life and the FBI hot on his trail, Alex is the number one most-wanted fugitive in Russia. He is a man on the run with no country to call home. And he must elude the bounty on his head and prove his innocence...if he is ever to build a new life for himself and his family."
Opinion: This was an interesting read and I'm not a fan of books that deal with the KGB and Russian politics. The title very properly fits the story. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.

Just After Sunset by Stephen King

Started: 9/19/09
Finished: 9/23/09
Year: 2008
Pages: 367
Genre: Short Stories: horror
Grade: B
Reason for reading: borrowed book from mother
Blurb (from book jacket): "Stephen King-who has written more than fifty books, dozens of number one New York Times best-sellers, and many unforgettable movies-delivers an astonishing collection of short stories, his first since Everything's Eventual six years ago. As guest editor of the bestselling Best American Short Stories 2007. King spent over a year reading hundreds of stories. His renewed passion for the form is evident on every page of Just After Sunset. The stories in this collection have appeared in The New Yorker, Playboy, McSweeney's, The Paris Review, Esquire, and other publications.
"Who but Stephen King would turn a Port-O-San into a slimy birth canal, or a roadside honky-tonk into a place for endless love? A book salesman with a grievance might pick up a mute hitchhiker, not knowing the silent man in the passenger seat listens altogheter too well. Or an execise routine on a stationary bicycle, begun to reduce bad cholesterol, might take its rider on a captivating-and then terrifying-journey . Set on a remote key in Florida, 'The Gingerbread Girl' is a riverting tale featuring a young woman as vulnerable-and resourceful-as Audrey Hepburn's character in Wait Until Dark. In 'Ayana,' a blind girl works a miracle with a kiss and the touch of her hand. For King, the line between the living and the dead is often blurry, and the seams that hold our reality intact might tear apart at any momemnt. In one of the longer stories here, 'N.," which recently broke new ground when it was adapted as a graphic digital entertainment, a psychiatric patient's irrational thinking might create an apocalyptic threat in the Maine countryside...or keep the world from falling victim to it."
Opinion: I've always enjoyed King's short stories and this collection is just as good as his others. Some stories will stick with me for a while.

Man in the Middle by Brian Haig

Started: 8/31/09
Finished: 9/19/09
Year: 2007
Pages: 647
Genre: Suspense
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "For newly promoted Army Lieutenant Colonel Sean Drummond, his latest assignment seems simple enough: find out if the demise of an influential defense official was murder or suicide. But the case soon leads Drummond and Bian Tran, the attractive Army Military Police officer investigating the death, into the labryinthine channels of American intelligence an the war in Irag-not to mention the shadowy motives of his so-called colleagues. What Drummond uncovers will make him question everything he believes in. And force him to ask: Are my loyalities to my superiors or to the American soldiers battling for their lives?"
Opinion: This was better than I thought it was going to be. Solid book. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

Started: 8/24/09
Finished: 8/30/09
Year: 1996
Pages: 272
Genre: Chick Lit
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "Bridget Jones's Diary charts a devastatingly self-aware, hilarious year in the life of a thirty-something Singleton. Here is the compulsively readable, laugh-out-loud daily chronical of her permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement-a year in which she resolves to: reduce the circumference of each thigh by 1.5 inches, visit the gym three times a week not merely to buy a sandwich , form a functional relationshp with a responsible adult, and not fall for any of the following: misogynists, megalomaniacs, people with girlfriends or wives, emotional fuckwits, alcoholics, workaholics, chauvinists, or perverts. And to learn to program the VCR.
"Over the course of the year Bridget loses a total of 72 pounds but gains a total of 74. She remains, however, optimistic. Caught between her Singleton friend (who are all convinced they will end up dying alone and found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian), the Smug Marrieds (whose dinner parties offer ever-new opportunities for humiliation), and crazed parental attempts to marry her off to a rich divorce in a diamond-patterned sweater, Bridget struggles to keep her life on an even keel-or at least afloat. Whenever her plans meet with disaster, as they invariable do, she manages to pick herself up, go out on the town, and tell herself it will be all right in the morning, when life will definitely be different this time and totally alcohol, calorie, and preverted-fuckwitted-misogynist free."
Opinion: A quick and fun read. Now I can go watch the movies.

Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

Started: 8/11/09
Finished: 8/24/09
Year: 2006
Pages: 334
Genre: Memoir
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: friend gave it to me
Blurb (from back cover): "In her early thirties, Elizabeth Gilbert had everything a modern American woman was supposed to want-husband, country home, successful career-but instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she felt consumed by panic and confusion. This wise and raptuous book is the story of how she left behind all these outwards marks of success, and of what she found in their place. Following a divorce and a crushing depression. Gilbert set out to examine three different aspects of her nature, set against the backdrop of three different cultures: pleasere in Italy, devotion in India, and on the Indonesian island of Bali, a balance between worldy enjoyment and divine transcendence."
Opinion: I enjoyed the writing style of Elizabeth Gilbert-just the right amount of sarcasm and humor mixed with the seriousness of one's life. I'll definitely be picking up more of her books.

Hot Six by Janet Evanovich

Started: 8/7/09
Finished: 8/11/09
Year: 2000
Pages: 270
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum and Trenton vice cop Joe Morelli join forces to find the madman killer who shot and barbecued the youngest son of international black-market arms dealer Alexander Ramos.
"Carlos Manoso, street name Ranger, is caught on video just minutes before the crime occurs. He's at the scene, he's with the victim, and he's the number-one suspect. Manoso is former special forces turned soldier of fortune. He has a blue-chip stock portfolio and no known address. He moves in mysterious circles. He's Stephanie's mentor-the man who taught her everything she knows about fugitive apprehension. And he's more than her friend.
"Now he's the hunted and Stephanie's the hunter, and it's time for her to test her skills against the master. But if she does catch him...what then? Can she bring herself to turn him in?
"Plus there are other things keeping Stephanie awake at night. Her maternal grandmother has set up houskeeping in Stephanie's apartment, a homicidal maniac has selected Stephanie as his next victim, her love life is in the toilet, she's adopted a dog with an eating disorder, and she can't button the top snap of her Levi's.
Opinion: Been a while since I read one of Evanovich's books. A fun and easy read.

Alive by Piers Paul Read

Started: 7/31/09
Finished: 8/7/09
Year: 1974
Pages: 352
Genre: Non-fiction
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "Lost in the vast snowy wastes of the high Andes...all offical rescue efforts abandoned...no food...inadequate clothing for sub-zero temperatures...no mefical supplies to ease the suffering of the dying. So began a terrible ordeal for the young men and women who, on October 12, 1972, had set out from Uruguay in high spirits for a series of rugby matches in Chile. Their chartered airplane had enterd a cloudbank, lost altitude in a series of downdrafts, and crashed into a mountain peak.
"The Fairchild had carried five crewmen anf forty passengers. Some were killed instantly. But those who survived clung to life with extrsordinary tenacity and ingenuity. They formed themselves into an ordered society, distributing tasks according to individual skills and degrees of physical fitness. Leaders emerged who had never been leaders before.
"Realizing that what little chance they had to live lay in their own hands, they planned their escape. Rather than die of starvation, they made a difficult decision: they would use the bodies of their dead companions for food. They were still to endure unexpected and terrible hardships, and one unforseen tragedy almost overwhelmed them with despair. Yet they refused to be demoralize, and their determination to save themselves increased by sheer strength of will."
Opinion: I had heard about parts of this story growing up-mostly about the consumption of human flesh. An amazing story of survival in one of the most harshest territories out there in the world.

Pawing Through the Past by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown

Started: 7/19/09
Finished: 7/30/09
Year: 2000
Pages: 275
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "Emotions are running high around tiny Crozet, VA, among the Class of 1980, as plans get under way for the upcoming twentieth high school reunion. There's nothing like a reunion to stir up memories, rivalries, and insecurities. It's even put Crozet's normally placid postmistress, Mary Minor 'Harry' Haristeen, who's on the organizing committee, on edge, as she wonders if everythng will come together on time.
"Still, when each member of the class receives an anonymous letter edged in the Crozet High School colors that reads 'You'll never get old,' Harry takes it as a compliment. Others think it's a joke. But even blitzed out on fresh catnip, Mrs. Murphy senses a much more sinister meaning.
"And the sly tiger cat is soon proven right...when divinely handsome Charlies Ashcraft, the class womanizer, turns up dead with a bullet between his eyes. At first folks around Crozet figure that when a man is sleeping with other men's wives, trouble is sure to follow. But when another threatening note to the members of the Class of 1980 is followed by the murder of a second classmate, it becomes all too clear that someone is determined to spoil this reunion...someone who has waited twenty years to take bitter revenge.
"What could have happened so long ago to trigger such rage? While Harry, whose high school memories consist of football games and first love, tries to make sense of the crimes, it's up to Mrs. Murphy, her feline pal Pewter, and the corgi Tee Tucker to try to sniff out the truth. Yet when ugly rumors surface and Harry herself has a brush with violence, Mrs. Murphy is the first to realize that in the killer's mind, Harry's been chosen Most Likely to Die. And now, unless the daring tiger cat and her animal pals can stop a relentless killer, Crozet's High's twentieth reunion may very well be Harry Haristeen's last..."
Opinion: It's been a while since I had read one of these mysteries. They are entertaining and a good read.

The Cat Who Went into the Closet by Lilian Jackson Braun

Started: 7/18/09
Finished: 7/19/09
Year: 1993
Pages: 235
Genre: mystery
Grade: C
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "The mansion on Goodwinter Boulevard is more than a retreat for crime writer Jim Qwilleran-it is the scene of another delightful Cat Who...mystery.
"Qwill rents the Gage mansion in Pickax, and soon after moving in, he and Koko discover fifteen closets jammed with several generations' worth of junk. Koko, of course, is on the case, and what he discovers will shock Pickax and Moose County. What connection could obsolete currency, canceled checks, and an old bankbook have with mail clippers, foot powder, and a man's argyle sock? Something is definitely brewing in Pickax. But what starts out as junk turns into something else.
"The action begins when Qwill decides to simulate a newscast covering the great fire of 1869. An infamous even in Moose County, this fire burned half of the county to the ground. Now Qwill is about to put Pickax back on the map with a discovery that will uncover long-buried secrets of the Gage family.
"While enjoying a new life in Florida, the mansion's former occupant, Euphonia Gage, apparently committed suicide. But why would someone as happy and full of life as Euphonia kill herself? And what is the connection between the Gage famiy and dead potato farmer Gil Inchpot-who is found in the snow with a bullet hole in his head?
"Can Qwill and the cats get to the bottom of this mystery before the winter yields another dead body?"
Opinion: A quick read but not a lot of twists and turns that I like in a mystery.

Ghost Hunting by Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson

Started: 7/15/09
Finished: 7/18/09
Year: 2007
Pages: 273
Genre: Non-fiction: Ghost hunting
Grade: A
Reason for reading: fan of the show
Blurb (from back cover): "The Atlantic Parnanormal Society, also known as T.A.P.S., is the brainchild of two plumbers by day, paranormal investigators by night: Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson. Their hair-raising investigations, fueled by their unique abilites and a healthy does of scientific method, have made them the subject of a hit TV Show: The SCI-FI Channel's Ghost Hunters.
"Now their experiences are in print for the first time, as Jason and Grant recount for us, with the help of veteran author Michael Jan Friedman, the stories from some of their most memorable investigations. The men and women of T.A.P.S. pursue ghosts and other supernatural phenomena with the most sophisticated scientific equipment available-from thermal-imaging cameras to electromagnetic-field recorders to digital thermometers-and the results may suprise you."
Opinion: A great companion guide to the show. Some cases were done before the SCI-FI show. A great and quick read.

The Cat Who Saw Stars by Lilian Jackson Braun

Started: 7/11/09
Finished: 7/15/09
Year: 1998
Pages: 227
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "Qwilleran, Koko, and Yum Yum are hoping for a peaceful month of July spent sitting on the porch of their cabin by a lake in Mooseville. It's not so far from home-but far enough away from the hustle and bustle of Pickax that Quill figures he might actually find some peace and quiet.
"When rumors begin to circulate that UFOs are responsible for the disappearance of a stray backpacker, whose body is later discovered on the lakeshore, Quill finds it difficult to maintain 'vacation' mode.
"Then, of course, there's the knitting craze, which is attracting some very unlikely members of the community, and some highly innovative plans for this year's Fourth of July parade, and a dog-cart race. Yet all of this is just par for the course in slightly out-of-whack Moose County...
"Things become downright eerie when Koko begins to pass hours on the porch in the dark, watching the sky for stars-or something. And as the inexplicable goings-on get stranger and stranger, Qwill starts to wonder who or what is in fact responsible, if not extraterrestrial visitors."
Opinion: An average read. Onto the next one.

Deadly Angel by Fred Rosen

Started: 7/6/09
Finished: 7/11/09
Year: 2009
Pages: 223
Genre: True Crime
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: Review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Mechele Hughes came to Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 4200), looking for a new life and easy money. As an exotic dancer at the Great Alaskan Bush Company in nearby Anchorage, she was soon earning thousands a night-and getting expensive gifts from admiring male clients. Three in particular fell under her spell. Each claimed to be engaged to her...and they all lived with her together in the same house. But in May 1996, the bullet-ridden body of Kent 'T.T.' Leppink, a local fisherman and one of her fiances, was discovered in a wooded area ninety miles away-possibly slain by suitor number two, John Carlin III, at the stripper's urging.
"Ten years would elapse before the arrests and trials of Mechele Hughes Linehan and John Carlin III. Was the real Mechele a murderess, a ruthless sexual manipulator as the prosecution claimed, killing for insurance money-or the loving wife and mother she had since become, dedicated to children, animals, and charitable causes?"
Opinion: An interesting story but is was evident that not a lot of first hand interviews were received-author also makes a note of that. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.

Hanging Time by Leslie Glass

Started: 6/29/09
Finished: 7/6/09
Year: 1995
Pages: 413
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "In an expensive boutique on New York's Upper West Side, a young salesgirl is persuaded to open the door to her death.
"In the chaos of a police station, ambition and sexual politics raise the stakes of solving a vicious crime.
"In his office, a famed psychoanalyst hears a sister's tale of emotional terrorism and madness.
"For April Woo and Jason Frank, suspense fiction's most engrossing detective team, the clock is ticking on another brutal killing."
Opinion: A strong mystery that hints at the conclusion.

Danny & Da Mob by John S. Niblock

Started: 6/28/09
Finished: 6/29/09
Year: 2008
Pages: 175
Genre: Thriller
Grade: C
Reason for reading: review for friend
Blurb (from back cover): "Danny Molito is a comptroller for a printing company in Chicago's Loop. In fall 1961, he inadvertently stumbles upon a secret FBI listening post while trying to deliver a payoff to Da Mob. Both the feds and the hoods start looking for him. In disguise, Danny flees downstate to Homecoming and his alumni reunion at Monmouth College. A tipster phones Da Mob with Danny's whereabouts, the FBI overhears the call, and the chase is on. The campus is roiled with mayhem and murder as thugs invade a seminar on Shakespeare, Chautauqua presentations by Al Capone and Billy Sunday, and the Monmouth-Knox football game. They turn a corn-picker in the Homecoming parade into a murder weapon. The Senior Bench on campus is also a murder scene, with Danny as the intended victim. He and his classmate Kitty, a Chicado lawyer, face a showdown with Da Mob. Danny and Kitty use themselves as bait. Backdrop for the scene is a replica of the Iron Curtain donated by an alumnus who was a former Hungarian Freedom Fighter."
Opinion: This book is filled with cliches and lots of extra stuff. Probably would have made a much better short story than novella. Still highly entertaining.

Swimsuit by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Started: 6/25/09
Finished: 6/28/09
Year: 2009
Pages: 391
Genre: Mystery
Grade: C
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from book jacket): "A breathtakingly beautiful supermodel disappears from a swimsuit photo shoot at the most glamorous hotel in Hawaii. Only hours after Kim McDaniels goes missing, her parents receive a terrifying phone call. Fearing the worst, they board the first flight to Maui and begin the hunt for their daughter.
"Ex-cop Ben Hawkins, now a reporter for the L.A. Times gets the McDaniels assignment. The ineptitude of the local police force defies belief-Ben has to start his own investigation for Kim McDaniels to have a prayer. And for Ben to have the story of a lifetime.
"All the while, a killer sets the stage for his next production. His audience expect the best-and they won't be disappointed. Swimsuit is a heart-pounding story of fear and desire, transporting you to a place where beauty and murder collide and horrors are hidden within paradise."
Opinion: I'm really wishing that James Patterson would take some time between books to really concentrate on his writing. It seems that every book that comes out now is rushed. This is still an enjoyable, fast-paced read.

Cold Paradise by Stuart Woods

Started: 6/22/09
Finished: 6/25/09
Year: 2001
Pages: 412
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: Grabbed it off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from back cover): "Luxuriating in Palm Beach's winter warmth, Stone is stunned to recognize someone he thought was dead. Former client Allison Manning is alive and well-and suddenly very rich. Now she needs Stone's help in squaring a charge of insurance fraud that's been hanging over her head for years-and in getting rid of a recently acquired stalker. Suspects abound, including an elusive writer, an enigmatic businessman, and Allison's devious former husband. Only Stone can thwart the sly and greedy plan to steal the millions of dollars at stake-and the crafty killer behind it..."
Opinion: This was a fun and enjoyable read.

Of Two Minds by T.M. Luhrmann

Started: 6/15/09
Finished: 6/22/09
Year: 2000
Pages: 293
Genre: Non-Fiction/Psychiatry
Grade: C
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from back cover): "In this groundbreaking book, T.M. Luhrmann penetrates the mysterious culture of psychiatry, showing how psychiatrists learn to undertand people as they do, and how the enormous ambiguities in the field affect both practitioners and patients. Drawing on her extensive interviews with doctors and patients, as well as years of investigative fieldwork in residency programs and private and state psychiatric hospitals, Luhrmann illuminates a compelling profession.
"At a time when psychiatry is beset by a struggle between those who argue for the primacy of the brain and those who believe the mind is supreme, when mood-altering drugs have revolutionized treatments and medical insurers are forcing caregivers to forsake talk therapy for drug therapy, Lyhrmann's witty, sharp, and soulful study is both necessary and inspiring."
Opinion: This wasn't what I thought it was going to be like. It was long and drawn out but still pointed out a lot of important points.

The Pleasure of My Company by Steve Martin

Started: 6/14/09
Finished: 6/15/09
Year: 2003
Pages: 164
Genre: Fiction
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): "Daniel Pecan Cambridge, 30, 35, 38, or 27, depending on how he feels that day, is a young man whose life is rich and full, provided he never leaves his Santa Monica apartment. After all, outside there are 8-inch-high curbs and there's always the horrible chance he might see a gas station attendant wearing a blue hat. So, except for the occasional trip to the Rite Aid to admire the California girl Zandy and to buy earplugs because they're on sale, he stays home a lot. And a good thing too, or he would have never been falsely implicated in a murder, never almost seduced Philipa, never done the impossible task of jogging around the block with Brian, never ironed his pillows, and he might never have won the Most Average Amrican essay contest."
Opinion: This was different. But yet similar to Steve Martin's style of comedy.

Catch Me If You Can by Frank W. Abagnale

Started: 6/13/09
Finished: 6/14/09
Year: 1980
Pages: 293
Genre: True Crime/Memoir
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): " Frank Abagnale, alias Frank Williams, Robert Conrad, Frank Adams, and Robert Monjo, was one of the most daring con men, forgers, imposters, and escape artist in history. During his brief but notorious criminal career, Abagnale donned a pilot's uniform and copiloted a Pan Am jet, masqueraded as the supervising resident of a hospital, practiced law without a license, passed himself off as a college sociology professor, and cashed over $2.5 million in forged checks-all before he was twenty-one. A hilarious, stranger-than-fiction account of his sumptuous life on the lam, international escapades, and ingenious escapes, Catch Me If You Can is a captivating tale of deceit.
Opinion: I had seen the movie and enjoyed it. However, as I was ready the book, I felt like all I was doing was giving money to a criminal who did not deserve the money-felt that there was no remorse for what he had done.

Dewey by Vicki Myron with Bret Witter

Started: 6/11/09
Finished: 6/13/09
Year: 2008
Pages: 277
Genre: Non-fiction, animals
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "How much of an impact can an animal have? How many lives can one cat touch? How is it possible for an abandoned kitten to transform a small library, save a classic American town, and eventually become famous around the world? You can't even begin to answer those questions until you hear the charming story of Dewey Readmore Books, the beloved library cat of Spencer, Iowa.
"Dewey's story starts in the worse possible way. Only a few weeks old, on the coldest night of the year, he was stuffed into the returned book slot at the Spencer Public Library. He was found the next morning by library director Vicki Myron, a single mother who had survived the loss of her family farm, a breast cancer scare, and an alcoholic husband. Dewey won her heart, and the hearts of the staff, by pulling himself up and hobbling on frostbitten feet to nudge each of them in a gesture of thanks and love. For the next nineteen years, he never stopped charming the people of Spencer with his enthusiasm, warmth, humility (for a cat), and, above all, his sixth sense about who needed him most.
"As his fame grew from town to town, then state to state, and finally, amazingly, worldwide. Dewey became more than just a friend: he became a source of pride for an extraordinary Heartland farming town pulling its way slowly back from the greatest crisis in its long history."
Opinion: I'm a sucker for the true animal stories. Dewey was a sweet and loved cat during his stay at the library. Very cute stories.

Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox

Started: 6/7/09
Finished: 6/11/09
Year: 2002
Pages: 260
Genre: memoir/autobiography
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "In September 1998, Michael j. Fox stunned the world by announcing that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease-a degenerative neurological condition. In fact, he had been secretly fighting it for seven years. The worldwide response was staggering. Fortunately, he had accepted the diagnosis, and by the time public started grieving for him, he had stopped grieving for himself. Now, with the same passion, humor, and energy that he has invested in his dozens of performances over the last eighteen years, he tells the story of his life, his career, and his campaign to find a cure for Parkinson's.
"Combining his trademark ironic sensibility and keen sense of the absurd, Fox recounts his life, from his childhood in western Canada to the meteoric rise in film and television that made him a worldwide celebrity. Most important, however, he writes of the last ten years, during which-with the unswerving support of his wife, family, and friends-he has dealt with his illness. He talks about what Parkinson's has given him: the chance to appreciate a wonderful life and career, and the opportunity to help search for a cure and spread public awarenss of the disease. He feels as if he is a very lucky man, indeed."
Opinion: One of the better memoirs that I've read. I thank Michael J. Fox for taking the courage to write about his life and how Parkinson's has played such a role in his life.

Final Approach by Rachel Brady

Started: 6/7/09
Finished: 6/7/09
Year: 2009
Pages: 241
Genre: mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): For years ago Emily Locke's life was shattered when her infant daughter and husband were lost in an inexplicable accident. She was nearly rebuilt her fragile mental health with Richard Cole, a disgraced former police detective now working as a PI, resurfaces. He wants help he says only she can provide-reconnaissance at a Texas skydiving establishment over a thousand miles away. Emily knows better than to work with him again, but can't refuse. She identifies too greatly with the new missing child case.
"At Gulf Coast Skydiviing, similarites between this new case and Emily's troubled past make it increasingly difficult for her to stay objective, Soon she's convinced that she is somehow connected to whoever took little Casey Lyons. Someone at the quiet, rural airstrip knows that happened to the boy...and to Emily's own daughter.
"To find Casey before it's too late, Emily will have to make sense of the menacing parallels between his case and her daughter's..."
Opinion: Lots of action but the organization was off. For a more complete review, please look at MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.

Tori Amos: Piece by Piece by Tori Amos and Ann Powers

Started: 6/3/09
Finished: 6/7/09
Year: 2005
Pages: 350
Genre: Biography/autobiography
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: fan of Tori's, grabbed off the TBR pile.
Blurb (from book jacket): "From her critically acclaimed 1992 debut, Little Earthquakes, to the recent hit Scarlet's Walk, Tori Amos has been a formidable force in contemporary music, with one of the most dedicated fan bases in the industry. In Tori Amos: Piece by Piece, the singer herself takes readers beyond the mere facts, explaining the specifics of her creative process-how her songs go from ideas and melodies to recordings and passionately performed concert pieces.
"Written with acclaimed music journalist Ann Powers, Tori Amos: Piece by Piece is a firsthand account of the most intricate and intimate details of Amos's life as both a private individual and a very public performing musician. In passionate and informative prose, Amos explains how her songs come to her and how she records and then performs them for audiences everywhere, all the while connecting with listeners across the world and maintaining her own family life (which includes raising a young daughter). But it is also much more, a verbal collage made by two strong female voices-and the voices of those closest to Amos-that calls upon genealogy, myth and folkore to express Amos's unique and fascinating personal history. In short, we see the pieces that make up-as Amos herself puts it-'the woman we call Tori.'"
Opinion: An interesting look at how Tori's life in music has come about. I wasn't thrilled with how the book was organized but I did appreciate the work that both Tori Amos and Ann Powers put in creating this biography.

Bird in Hand by Christina Baker Kline

Started: 5/31/09
Finished: 6/3/09
Year: 2009
Pages: 274
Genre: Fiction
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "It was an accident. It was dark, it was raining, she'd only had two drinks. And the other car ran the stop sign. But Alison, feeling alone and estranged from her husband, Charlie, is suffocated by grief and guilt.
"A man with his own secrets, Charlie endures a long commute to a boring job so that Alison can stay home with the kids. The only thing that keeps him going these days is the thought of another woman-the only woman he has ever truly loved.
"Claire is everything her best friend, Alison, is not. Vibrant and ambitious, she's just had her first novel published and is married to Ben, a successful architect. Everything is going right-so why can't she stop thinking about what it would mean to have a different kind of life?
"Passionate about his work, Ben is living the New York dream, but what he yearns for is a house and family-the kind of life his friends Charlie and Alison have. Alternating through these four intertwined perspectives, Bird in Hand is a thought-provoking exploration of lies, betrayals, and unexpected twists that can irrevolcably alter everything we believe to be true."
Opinion: Not many books can work with multiple perspectives but this one does. A decent novel. For a more in depth review, please check out MyShelf in the upcoming months.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Started: 5/31/09
Finished: 5/31/09
Year: 1818, This edition 2003
Pages: 213
Genre: Classic/Horror
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "'I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life and stir with an uneasy, half-vital motion.' A summer event's ghost stories, lonely insomnia in a moonlit Alpine room, and a runaway imagination-fired by philosophical discussions with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley about science, galvanism, and the origins of life-conspired to produce for Mary Shelley this haunting night specter. By morning it had become the germ of her Romantic masterpiece, Frankenstein.
Opinion: Not too bad of a book considering how old it is. Not a thriller horror novel like in today's time but still worth the read.

The Road Home by Rose Tremain

Started: 5/22/09
Finished: 5/31/09
Year: 2007, this edition 2009
Pages: 411
Genre: Literature
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: Review for MyShelf
Blurb (from back cover): "After losing both his job and his beloved wife, Lev journeys from Eastern Europe to London in search of employment to suppot his family. At first he is homeless, but before long he lands a job, finds shelter, and even begins to make friends. While he embarks on an affair with a fellow restaurant worker (and dodges the attentions of other women), Lev's new life remains constricted. Homesickness dogs him, not only for nostalgic reasons but because he doesn't belong, body or soul, to his new contry. But can Lev really go home again?
Opinion: This book dragged on for me. Many can relate to Lev's character and story but as someone who has never had to leave their country and family to look for better opportunities, I cannot relate and found parts of it dull. For a more complete review, please visit MyShelf in the upcoming months.

Cat Stories by James Herriot

Started: 5/22/09
Finished: 5/22/09
Year: 1994
Genre: Animals
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "Between these covers, teller and tales finally meet in a warm and joyful new collection that will bring delight to the hearts of readers the world over. Here are Buster, the kitten who arrived on Christmas; Alfred, the cat at the sweet shop; Emily, who lived with the gentleman tramp; and Olly ang Ginny, the kittens who charmed readers when thry first appeared at the Herriots' house in thr worldwide bestseller Every Living Thing. And along with these come others, each story as memorable and heartwsrming as thr last, each told with that magic blend of gentle wit and human compassion that markes every word from James Herriot's pen.
Opinion: A sweet collection of stories all about cats and their antics.

Trick or Treat by Kerry Greenwood

Started: 5/18/09
Finished: 5/22/09
Year: 2009
Pages: 246
Genre: Mystery
Grade: C
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "When a cut-price franchise bakery opens its doors just down the street from Earthly Delights and crowds flock to purchase the bread, baker Corinna Chapman is understandably nervous. Meanwhile, her lover Daniel's old friend Georgiana Hope has temporarily set up residence in his house, and it doesn't take Corinna long to work out that she's tall, blonde, gorgeous, and up to something. Daniel is making excuses and Corinna is worried about his absences. Even more worrisome is the strange outbreak of madness that seems to be centered on Lonsdale Street.
"Can Corinna find her way through a maze of health regulations, missing boyfriends, sinister strangers, fraudulent companies and back-alley ambushes? Or will this be the end of the Earthly Delights Bakery?
Opinion: This novel appears to me to be choppy. For an Advanced Reader Copy from a puplisher that I've received several from before, there is A LOT of editing that needs to be done before the final novel comes out in America-it's already been released in Australia several years ago.

Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

Started: 5/15/09
Finished: 5/18/09
Year: 2003
Pages: 331
Genre: Non-fiction, religion
Grade: B+
Blurb (from book jacket): "Jon Krakauer's literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In Under the Banner of Heaven, he shifts his focus from extremes of physical adventure to extremes of religious belief within our own borders. At the core of his book is an appalling double murder committed by a pair of Mormon Fundamentalist brothers, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who insist they received a revelation from God commanding them to kill their blameless victims. Beginning with a meticulously researched account of this crime, Krakauer constructs a multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messsianic delusion, savage violence, and unyielding faith. In the process, he uncovers a shadowy offshoot of America's fastest growing religion, analyzes the abduction of fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Smart (and her forced 'marrage' to her polygamous kidnapper), and raises provocative questions about the nature of religious belief.
"Krakauer takes readers inside isolated communities in the American West, Canada, and Mexico, where some forty thousand Mormon Fundamentalists believe that the mainstream Mormon Church went unforgivably astray when it renounced polygamy. Defying both civil authorities and the Mormon establisment in Salt Lake City, the leaders of these outlaw sects are zealots who answer only to God. Marrying prodigiousy and with virtual impunity (the leader of the largest fundamentalist church took seventy-five 'plural wives,' several of whom were wed to him when they were fourteen or fifteen and he was in his eighties), fundamentalist prophets exercise absolute control over the lives of their followers and preach that any day now the world will be swept clean in a hurricane of fire, sparing only their most obedient adherents.
"Weaving the story of the Lafferty brothers and their fanatical brethren with a clear-eyes look at Mormonism's violent past, Krakauer examines the underbelly of the United States' most successful homegrown faith and finds a distinctly American brand of religious extremism. The result is vintage Krakauer, an utterly compelling work of nonfiction that illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behavior."
Opinion: Wow. This is the first Krakauer book I've read and I had no idea what it was about when I got it. I'm not one that believes in certain religion and didn't know much about the Mormon religion. Greatly researched and an interesting look into the history of the Mormons.

Persuader by Lee Child

Started: 5/10/09
Finished: 5/15/09
Year: 2003
Pages: 465
Genre: Suspense
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: booksfree.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Jack Reacher is the Persuader.
"An ex-military cop and the ultimate loner. No family, no possessions, no commitments, no fear, nothing-except a strong sense of justice.
"Which is why Reacher agrees to help a female agent caught in a death trap. Why Reacher must outwit and outfight a criminal army.
"Because once Reacher finds trouble, he cannot quit.
"Not once.
"Not ever."
Opinion: A great thriller. Definitely one of the better books I've read this year so far.

Milagro Lane by Jay Brandon

Started: 5/3/09
Finished: 5/10/09
Year: 2008
Pages: 241
Genre: Fiction
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: Review for MyShelf.com
Blurb: "When Estela Valenzuela appears at the funeral of the scion of one of the oldest, richest families in town, she is a mystery-an apparent stranger who seems to know everyone. Gabe Grohman, the son of the deceased, is fascinated by her. Through Estela he discovers parts of the city he never knew, even a part that doesn't exist: Milagro Lane, a street of mind where one can only go in rare, fulfilling moments."
Opinion: Much of the extended blurb on the book is focused on how much the book is about San Antonio. I did not get that feel from reading it. It was a good read. For a more extended review, please check out MyShelf in the upcoming months.

The Beach House by James Patterson and Peter De Jonge

Started: 4/28/098
Finished: 5/3/09
Year: 2002
Pages: 358
Genre: mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "Jack Mullen is in law school in New York City when the news comes that his brother, Peter, has drowned in the ocean off East Hampton. Jack knows his brother practically grew up in the water, and that this couldn't be an accident. Someone must have wanted his brother dead.
"But the police say otherwise. As Jack tries to uncover details of his brother's last night, he confronts a maddening barricade of lawyers, police, and paid protectors who separate the wealthy summer residents from local workers like Peter. Motivated by a hundred forms of grief, Jack rallies his hometown friends to help him find the truth of Peter's death-no matter how rich or corrupt the people who stand in their way.
"Jack's relentless crusade puts him into a head-on collision with one of the most powerful and ruthless men in New York, a man who wipes out resistance with a snap of his fingers. As it unfolds that his brother was involved with some of the richest women and men in America-in ways Jack never imagined-his dream of justice fades. Only if he can somehow beat the rich at their own game will he be able to avenge his brother."
Opinion: One of the better Patterson books that I've read. Good story. Interesting plot. I liked how it ended-not rushed.

Mutiny on the Bounty by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall

Started: 4/16/09
Finished: 4/28/09
Year: 1932
Pages: 379
Genre: Classic Literature
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: 1001 Books you should read before you die, Booksfree.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Cherished as one of the most thrilling sea adventures ever recorded, Mutiny on the Bounty has sold millions of copies and enthralled generations of readers around the world in the seven decades since its initial publication. The novel reprises a true story-the strange, eventful, and tragive voyage of His Majestry's Ship Bounty in 1788-1789, which culminated in Fletcher Christian's mutiny against Captain Bligh-and reaches peaks of narrative excitement that mark the book indelibly as a modern classic."
Opinion: I really enjoyed reading this. It wasn't dry like other classic novels I've read. I hadn't realized that it was part of trilogy that I will now be looking to read the rest of it.

Murder of a Royal Pain by Denise Swanson

Started 4/11/09
Finished: 4/16/09
Year: 2009
Pages: 248
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "When school psychologist Skye Denison stumbles over the body of pushy Promest chairperson Annette Paine during a Halloween fund-raiser, it looks like a clear-cut case of promicide. Annette was not the only prom mom desperate to see her daughter crowned queen-and her skirt-chasing hubby is no prince either.
"Skye's anxious to investigate, but she keeps getting sidetracked by the overeager new social worker at school and also by her beau's emotional distance. Still, one question haunts her: Since Annette Paine was wearing a witch costume identical to Skye's, which witch was the intended victim? Will Skye realize too late that finding this killer is a matter of her own life or death?"
Opinion: Definitely not as good as Swanson's previous novels. Still enjoyable. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.

The Good Guy by Dean Koontz

Started: 4/5/09
Finished: 4/11/09
Year: 2007
Pages: 447
Genre: Thriller
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: fan of author, grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): Timothy Carrier is an ordinary guy who enjoys a beer after work. But tonight is no ordinary night. The jittery man sitting beside him has mistaken Tim for someone else-and passes him an envelope stuffed with cash and the photo of a pretty woman. 'Ten thousand now. You get the rest when she's gone.'
"Now everything he thought he knew-even about himself-will be challenged. For Tim Carrier is the one man who can save an innocent life and stop a killer as relentless as evil incarnate. But first he must discover resources within himself that will transform his idea of who he is and what it takes to be..."
Opinion: Somewhat of a typical Koontz book-guy and woman trying to fight something bad. The way that it was presented was different in this book. No sidekick dog like in most Koontz books.

Ghost Stories of the Old West by Dan Asfar

Started: 4/5/09
Finished: 4/5/09
Pages: 216
Year: 2003
Genre: History/Paranormal/non-fiction
Grade: C
Reason for reading: booksfree book
Blurb (from back cover): "Gamblers, gold rushes and ghosts-the Old West has it all. Join Dan Asfar as he unravels the haunted histories of some of America's most infamous gunslingers, lawmen and frontiersmen, as well as the forts, prisons and saloons where the region's recklessness found its truest expression.
"The phantom rider of the Pony Express, the West's legendary mail service, races past Hollenberg Station in Kansas-the only stopover still located on its original site.
"Ordered to destroy the Alamo, Mexican soldiers are frozen in their tracks by six imposing apparitions, each armed with a flaming saber.
"In the Canadian Rockies, foolhardy prospectors search for the Lost Lemon Mine and its legendary riches.
"The spirit of a Chinese maid, who committed suicide long ago, haunts Cain House in Bodie, California-one of America's best preserved ghost towns
"Determined to find her missing children, the ghost of a sorrowful mother wanders around historic Fort Leavenworth.
"Cree warriors in Alberta refuse to heed the warning of a mysterious seer, whose vision comes true after her tragic death.
"The ghost of Seth Bullock, a prominent lawman and entrepreneur, lends a helpng hand at his historic hotel in Deadwood, South Dakota.
"Near Cripple Creek in Colorado, miners are terrifed by the voices of the ferocious creatures they call the 'Tommyknockers.'"
Opinion: This was a quick read. Enjoyable pits of history but not a lot about the ghost sitings or what has been investigated. Wish that it had more of that.

Never Say Sty by Linda O. Johnston

Started: 3/30/09
Finished: 4/5/09
Year: 2009
Pages: 295
Genre: mystery
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf
Blurb (from back cover): Wealthy dreamboat and pet-supply magnate Dante DeFrancisco thinks Kendra's the cat's pajamas. So one of his conditions-before he signs on as producer of her new reality show, Animal Auditions-is that she dine with him. The meal is delicious, the kiss is steamy...so why does Kendra have a hunch Dante's up to something?
"Meanwhile, on Animal Auditions: Potbellied pigs are to be judged by a panel. But things screech to a halt when a nasty judge is found strangled to death by a pig harness. The suspects include Kendra's cop friend, Ned, his sister...and Dante. For their sake-and that of the show-Kendra must work like a dog to clear their names. If only Dante didn't make such a sexy suspect..."
Opinion: Not as strong as previous Johnston novels but still entertaining. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf in the upcoming months.

The Call of the Wild/White Fang by Jack London

Started: 3/25/09
Finished: 3/30/09
Years: 1903, 1906
Pages: 288
Genre: Classic
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "The Call of the Wild centers on Buck, a dog bred for a life of ease on a California estate, who is kidnapped and sold to Klondike gold hunters. To survive the biting cold and his ruthless masters, Buck must listen to the Call and learn the ways of the wolf-ancestors who guide him from within.
"White Fang tells the story of a half-wolf, half-dog nearly destroyed by the vicious cruelty of mankind. Brought to the very brink of his existance, White Fang is lucky enough to experience the one thing that can save him-human love. Slowly, the ferocious White Fang grows into a creature capable of selfless bravery, undying loyalty, and affection.
Opinion: A couple of some good classic stories.

Summer on Blossom Street by Debbie Macomber

Started: 3/22/09
Finished: 3/25/09
Year: 2009
Pages: 361
Genre: General Literature
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Knitting and life. They're both about beginnings-and endings. That's why it makes sense for Lydia Goetz, owner of A Good Yarn on Seattle's Blossom Streeet, to offer a class called Knit to Quit. It's for people who want to quit something-or someone!-and start a new phase of their lives.
"First to join is Phoebe Rylander. She recently ended her engagement to a man who doesn't know the meaning of faithful, and she's trying to get over him. Then there's Alix Turner. She and her husband, Jordan, want a baby, which means she has to quit smoking. And Bryan Hutchinson joins the class because he needs a way to deal with stress of running his family's business-not to mention the lawsuit brought against him by an unscruptulous lawyer.
"Life can be as complicated as a knitting pattern. Just ask Anne Marie Roche. She and her adopted daughter, Ellen, finally have the happiness they wished for. And then a stranger comes to her bookstore asking questions.
"Or ask Lydia herself. Not only is she coping with her increasingly frail mother, but she and Brad have unexpectedly become foster parents to an angry, defiant twelve-year-old.
"But as Lydia already knows, when life gets difficult and your stitches are snarled, your friends can always help!"
Opinion: Another delightful read by Debbie Macomber. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the coming months.

Blue Smoke by Nora Roberts

Started: 3/15/09
Finished: 3/22/09
Year: 2006
Pages: 440
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: booksfree.com
Blurb (from inside page): "Reena Hale's destiny was shaped in the destructive-yet fascinatingly beautiful-fire that leveled her family's pizzeria when she was young. Now an arson investigator, she finds her strength and wits constantly tested-although sometimes the job seems like a snap compared to her love life. But she can't always blame the men. After all, a soot-caked woman barking orders and smelling of smoke isn't the biggest turn-on in the world. Then she meets Bo Goodnight, who seems different. He's been trying to find Reena ever since the long-ago night when he glimpsed her from afar. And now that she's close enough to touch, he has no intention of letting go.
"Nor does the man who has begun to haunt Reena's life-with taunting phone calls and a string of horrifying crimes. And as Reena tries desperately to trace the origins-of the calls, the fires, the hatred aimed in her direction-she will step into the worst inferno she has ever faced..."
Opinion: The beginning dragged a little but Nora Roberts has a way to draw in readers and keep them with the book. The romance wasn't completely overwhelming and had the right mix of suspense and romance.

Spiral Hunt by Margaret Ronald

Started: 3/7/09
Finished: 3/15/09
Year: 2009
Pages: 310
Genre: fantasy
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: Review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "They call her 'Hound,' and with her unique supernatural sense Evie can track nearly anything-lost keys, vanished family heirlooms...even missing people. And though she knows to stay out of the magical undercurrent that runs beneath Boston's historic streets, a midnight phone call from a long-vanished lover will destroy the careful boundaries she has drawn. Now, to pay a years-old debt, Evie must venture into the shadowy world that lies between myth and reality, where she will find betrayal, conspiracies, and revelations that will shatter all she believes about herself and the city she claims as home."
Opinion: I'm not a big fan of fantasy novels. This book is unique in the type of supernatural powers people have in it and how it is set in a realistic city. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the future months.

Obsession by Jonathan Kellerman

Started: 2/24/09
Finished: 3/7/09
Year: 2007
Pages: 445
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "Tanya Bigelow was a solemn little girl when Dr. Alex Delaware successfully treated her obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Now, at nineteen, Tanya returns with a curious request: that Delaware investigate her aunt's deathbed confession of murder. While Delaware doubts that Patty Bigelow was capable of such a horrific act, he agrees to look into the matter. Armed with only the vaguest details, Delaware and LAPD detective Milo Sturgis retrace Patty's and Tanya's nomadic and increasingly puzzling life. Then a very real murder tears open a terrifying tunnel into the past, where secrets-and bodies-are buried. As the tension mounts, Delaware and Sturgis uncover a tangled history of desperation, vengeance, and death-a legacy of evil that refuses to die."
Opinion: This was a long book. Probably a little too long. Typical Kellerman with twists and turns. Decent plotline.

What Time Devours by A. J. Hartley

Started: 2/16/09
Finished: 2/24/09
Year: 2009
Pages: 402
Genre: mystery
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "The moment Thomas Knight saw the strange, vacant eyes pressed to his kitchen window, he knew she was dead. What he had yet to learn was the woman had recently claimed to be in possession of a long-lost-and now priceless-literary treasure: Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Won.
"The police aren't interested in old plays, especially one many scholars don't believe ever existed. But Thomas is convinced that the play is real, tht it is out there-somewhere-and that it somehow holds the key to the woman's death...and perhaps other, stranger secrets as well.
"His pursuit of the truth takes him to ancient sites a continent away, through the rarefied air of academia, and deeper into intrigue and danger. To uncover that lies at the heart of the mystery, Thomas will have to enter a story that drags loss and death after it like a Shakespearean tragedy-a story bound to time and all it devours."
Opinion: An interest look at academia and Shakespeare. For a more complete review, please check out Myshelf in the upcoming months.

Breakheart Hill by Thomas H. Cook

Started: 2/12/09
Finished: 2/16/09
Year: 1995
Pages: 264
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: Library book
Blurb (from book jacket): "'This is the darkest story that I ever heard...'
"So begins Thomas H. Cook's haunting tale of love and its aftermath, of the price a whole town paid for a single moment of passionate betrayal.
"The town was Choctaw, Alabama. The place was Breakheart Hill. The girl was Kelli Troy. But the story of what really happened to her there on an August afternoon in 1962 is known by only one man, Ben Wade, the boy who loved her then and who must tell her story now.
"The violence that rocked Breakheart Hill on that summer afternoon did not end on its wooded slope. At least not for Ben Wade, now the town's doctor and one of its most revered citizens. Perhaps it never ended for anyone in Choctaw.
"A tale both of doom and of redeption, Breakheart Hill is the work of a gifted writer at the very peak of his power. Profoundly moving, beautifully written, elegiac in tone yet thrillingly suspenseful, it is a mystery of love remembered that touches on the mystery of life.
Opinion: Another fantastic book. I'm really wondering why I have not heard of this author before recently. Fantastic read.

Menage by Emma Holly

Started: 2/9/09
Finished: 2/12/09
Year: 1998
Pages: 270
Genre: Erotica
Grade: C
Reason for reading: Booksfree.com
Blurb (from back cover): "When two handsome young grad students move into Kate Winthrop's Philadeplhia townhouse she's thrilled to think she'll be sharing her living space with a couple of potential admirers. Then she comes home from work one day to find them in bed...with each other.
"Joe-a sensitive composer-is motified. Sean-an irrepressible bad boy-asks her to join in. So begins a complex three-way adventure that is destined to be fraught with confusion."
Opinion: An okay book-different that what I've been reading lately. Plot was weak but scenes were good.

Instruments of Night by Thomas H. Cook

Started: 2/6/09
Finished: 2/9/09
Year: 1998
Pages: 293
Genre: mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: library book
Blurb (from book jacket): "Paul Graves knows evil to the bone. He confronted it first as a boy, when he survived the torture-murder of his sister. As a man, he has made its exploration his life's work, tirelessly writing mysteries set in gaslight New York, a world of mists and shadows, of voices pleading in the fog, footsteps racing over rain-swept cobblestones...a world colored by the ache of Graves's own past, its still-rememberd screams.
"It is a far cry from Riverwood, the artists' community in upstate New York where Graves is invited to spend the summer. And yet, for all its splendor and grand isolation, Riverwood was once touched by crime-the murder of Faye Harrison, a teenage girl who'd lived on the estate fifty years before. Faye's mother is now dying, but uneasily still tormented by the unanswered questions about her daughter's death. Graves has been summoned by Allison Davies, Faye's girlhood friend and now Riverwood's owner, and asked to explore this long-past crime, apply the art of mystery fiction to a murder that was real, then write a story that will answer those very questions that keep Faye's mother from a peaceful death.
Opinion: Another decent book by Cook. Not as good as the first one that I had read. Cook has an amazing way of intertwining the past with the present. Highly recommend.

A Dirty Job by Christopher Moore

Started: 1/27/09
Finished: 2/5/09
Year: 2006
Pages: 387
Genre: Fiction
Grade: C
Reason for reading: possible bookclub read
Blurb (from book jacket): "Charlie Asher is a pretty normal guy. A little hapless, somewhat neurotic sort of a hypochondriac. He's what's known as a Beta Male: the kind of fellow who makes his way through life by being careful and constant-you know, the one who's always there to pick up the pieces when the girl gets dumped by the bigger/taller/stronger Alpha Male.
"But Charlie's been lucky. He owns a building in the heart of San Francisco, and runs a secondhand store with the help of a couple of loyal, if marginally insane, employees. He's married to a bright and pretty woman who actually loves him for his normalcy. And she, Rachel, is about to have their first child.
"Yes, Charlie's doing okay for a Beta. That is, until the day his daughter, Sophie, is born. Just as Charlie-exhausted from the birth-turns to go home, he sees a strange man in the mint-green golf wear at Rachel's hospital bedside, a man who claims that no one should be able to see him. But sees him Charlie does, and from here on out, things get really weird...
"People start dropping dead around him, giant ravens perch on his building, and it seems that everywhere he goes, a dark presence whispers to him from under the streets. Strange names start appearing on his nightstand notepad, and before he knows it, those people end up dead, too. Yup, it seems that Charlie Asher has been recruited for a new job , an unpleasant but utterly necessary one: Death. It's a dirty job. But hey, somebody's got to do it."
Opinion: This was my first Moore book and I will not be rushing to read another one. I probably will read one but just no time soon.

One in a Million by Kimberla Lawson Roby

Started: 1/24/09
Finished: 1/27/09
Year: 2008
Pages: 183
Genre: African-American Literature
Grade: B
Reason for reading: library book
Blurb (from book jacket): "Kennedi Mason thinks she's the luckiest woman on earth. She loves her job, she has a wonderful best friend, and she's been married for ten years to her soul mate. There's nothing she can think of that could make her life any better.
"Then one fateful day Kennedi receives a piece of news that will turn her world upside down. She's excited about it, and she knows that her husband, Blake, will be over the moon. He has always dreamed of this one thing happening, and she can't wait until he comes home so she can tell him.
"But when she sees Blake that evening, he has a special announcement of his own. It shocks Kennedi into silence and wipes the admission she was planning to make right out her mind. In an instant, her life and her marriage have changed, but not at all in the way that she had expected.
"A poignant and satisfying story of hope, Kimberla Lawson Roby's One in a Million beautifully shows us the difference between what we think we want and what we actually need to be truly happy."
Opinion: I've read other books by this same other and have enjoyed them just as much as I've enjoyed this one. Touched a little to close to home due to my history but definitely well worth the read.

Snakehead by Peter May

Started: 1/18/09
Finished: 1/24/09
Year: 2009 (in the USA)
Pages: 300
Genre: Mystery/Thriller
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "In the fourth of Peter May's acclaimed China Thrillers, American pathologist Margaret Campbell finds herself back on home soil, confronted by a truck full of dead Chinese and an unavoidable confrontation with her past.
"Beijing detective Li Yan, now based at the Chinese embassy in Washington, is dispatched to find out how his fellow countrymen suffocated in a sealed refrigeration unit in southern Texas-only to find himself face-to-face with the woman who walked out of China, and his life.
"Li Yan and Margaret Campbell are tasked to work together again to find out who is behind the $100 million trade in illegal Chinese immigrants which led to the tragedy in Texas. They soon discover that these immigrants were unwitting carriers of a deadly cargo.
"Still wrestling with the demons of their pasts, Li and Margaret find themselves racing against time to defuse a biological timebomb that threatens to wipe out not only their future, but that of humankind."
Opinion: I've read other Peter May books and wasn't a big fan. This one, originally written in 2002 is probably the best one of his that I've read. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the future months.

The Broken Window by Jeffery Deaver

Started: 1/9/09
Finished: 1/18/09
Year: 2008
Pages: 415
Genre: Mystery/thriller
Grade: A
Reason for reading: library book
Blurb (from book jacket): "Lincoln Rhyme and partner/paramour Amelia Sachs return to face a criminal whose ingenious staging of crimes is enabled by a terrifying access to informtion...
"When Lincoln's estranged cousin Arthur Rhyme is arrested on murder charges, the case is perfect-too perfect. Forensic evidence from Arthur's home is found all over the scene of the crime, and it looks like the fate of Lincoln's relative is sealed.
"At the behest of Arthur's wife, Judy, Lincoln grudgingly agrees to investigate the case. Soon Lincoln and Amelia uncover a string of similar murders and rapes with perpetrators claiming innocence and ignorance-despite ironclad evidence at the scenes of the crime. Rhyme's team realizes this 'perfect' evidence may actually be the result of masterful identity theft and manipulation.
"An information service company-the huge data miner Strategic Systems Datacorp-seems to have all the answers but is reluctant to help the police. Still, Rhyme and Sachs and their assembled team begin uncovering a chilling pattern of vicious crimes and cover-ups, and their investigation points to one master criminal, whom they dub '522.'
"When '522' learns the identities of the crime-fighting team, the hunters become the hunted. Full of Deaver's trademark plot twists, The Broken Window will put the parnership of Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs to the ultimate test."
Opinion: Another great book by Deaver. Lots of little twists and turns that kept me guessing. I highly recommend.

Hide by Lisa Gardner

Started: 1/3/09
Finished: 1/9/09
Year: 2007
Pages: 451
Genre: Mystery/suspense
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
BLurb (from back cover): "It was the case that nearly killed him. Now a gruesome discovery in an underground chamber is about to resurrect his worst nightmare. And Massachusetts State Police detective Bobby Dodge has only one lead: a young girl who's been in hiding for as long as she can remember.
"Her childhood was a blur of new cities and assumed identities. But from who-or what-was Annabelle Granger's family hiding? To find out, Dodge must team up with former lover and partner D.D. Warren from the Boston P.D. to track a woman from Bobby's past who's every bit as dangerous as the new killer. The trail will lead them to chilling place where there's no one to trust...and no place left to hide."
Opinion: A great page turner. Once a big piece of information was released, I had predicted something and was correct but that didn't take away from the great ending. I highly recommend.

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach

Started: 12/31/08
Finished: 1/3/08
Year: 2005
Pages: 298
Genre: Science/Afterlife
Grade: A
Reason for reading: library book
Blurb (from book jacket): "What happens when we die? Does the light just go out and that's that-the million-year nap? Or will some part of my personality, my me-ness, persist? What will that feel like? What will I do all day? Is there a place to plug in my laptop?" In an attempt to find out, Mary Roach, brings her tireless curiousity to bear on an array of contemporary and historical soul-searchers, scientists, schemers, engineers, mediums, all trying to prove (or disprove) that life goes on after we die. She begins the journey in rural India with a reincarnation researcher and ends up in a University of Virginia operating room where cardiologists have installed equipment near the ceiling to study out-of-body near-death experiences. Along the way, she enrolls in an English medium school, gets electromagnetically haunted at a university in Ontario, and visits a Duke University professor with a plan to weigh the consciousness of a leech. Her historical wanderings unearth soul-seeking philosophers who rummaged through cadavers and calves' heads, an North Carolina lawsuit that established legal precedence for ghosts, and the last surviving sample of 'ectoplasm' in a Cambridge University archive."
Opinion: A fascinating and scientific look at the afterlife. I've already recommended this book to others and will continue to do so. Mary Roach has a great sense of humor and it is incorporated throughout the book so one does not get "bored" with all of the scientific information. I really enjoyed this one.