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.