Started: 4/19/13
Finished: 4/23/13
Year: 2010
Pages: 198
Genre: Psychology/Grief
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "Saying Goodbye to Someone You Love consists of moving narratives about end of life and grief. These personal histories are complemented by practical guidelines for those caring for their loved ones through the last stages of life. For those who are grieving, the true-to-life-stories demonstrate how others have navigated through the tidal wave of emotions and reactions that chracterize the grief process. For health care professionals and those who are offering support to grievers, Saying Goodbye to Someone You Love provides a new perspective on the challenges of caring for the dying and living with grief."
Opinion: This book deals with dealing death of a loved one who does not die suddenly. Some great personal stories and some good guidelines of how to attempt to deal.
Saturday, May 04, 2013
Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman
Started: 4/16/13
Finished: 4/29/13
Year: 1997
Pages: 293
Genre: literature
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "After nineteen years in California, March Murray returns to the small Massachusetts town where she grew up. For all this time, March has been avoiding her own troubled history, but when she encounters Hollis-the boy she loved so desperately, the man who has never forgotten her-the past collides with the present as their reckless love is reignited. This dark romantic tale asks whether it is possible to survive a love that consumes you. The answers that March Murray discovers are both heartbreaking and wise, as complex as they are devastating-for in heaven and in our dreams, love is simple and glorious. But is is something altogether different here on earth..."
Opinion: The ending seemed very rushed and certain characters didn't make sense in sticking together.
Finished: 4/29/13
Year: 1997
Pages: 293
Genre: literature
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "After nineteen years in California, March Murray returns to the small Massachusetts town where she grew up. For all this time, March has been avoiding her own troubled history, but when she encounters Hollis-the boy she loved so desperately, the man who has never forgotten her-the past collides with the present as their reckless love is reignited. This dark romantic tale asks whether it is possible to survive a love that consumes you. The answers that March Murray discovers are both heartbreaking and wise, as complex as they are devastating-for in heaven and in our dreams, love is simple and glorious. But is is something altogether different here on earth..."
Opinion: The ending seemed very rushed and certain characters didn't make sense in sticking together.
Q is for Quarry by Sue Grafton
Started: 4/10/13
Finished: 4/16/13
Year: 2002
Pages: 385
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "She was a 'Jane Doe,' an unidentified white female whose decomposed body was discovered near a quarry off California's Highway 1. The case fell to the Santa Teresa County Sheriff's Department, but the detectives had little to go on. The woman was young, her hands were bound with a length of wire, there were multiple stab wounds, and her throat had been slashed. After months of investigation, the case remained unsolved.
"That was eighteen years ago., Now, the two men who found the body, both nearing the end of long careers in law enforncement, want one last shot at the case. Old and ill, they need someone to do the legwork for them, and they turn to Kinsey Millhone. They will, they tell her, find a closure if they can just identify the victim. Kinsey is intrigued with the challenge and agrees to work with them.
"But revisiting the past can be a dangerous business, and what begins with the pursuit of Jane Doe's real identity ends in a high-risk hunt for her killer."
Opinion: This book fits right in with Grafton's Alphabet series. It was fun returning to Kinsey's life after not having visited in a long time. Lots of little twists and turns.
Finished: 4/16/13
Year: 2002
Pages: 385
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "She was a 'Jane Doe,' an unidentified white female whose decomposed body was discovered near a quarry off California's Highway 1. The case fell to the Santa Teresa County Sheriff's Department, but the detectives had little to go on. The woman was young, her hands were bound with a length of wire, there were multiple stab wounds, and her throat had been slashed. After months of investigation, the case remained unsolved.
"That was eighteen years ago., Now, the two men who found the body, both nearing the end of long careers in law enforncement, want one last shot at the case. Old and ill, they need someone to do the legwork for them, and they turn to Kinsey Millhone. They will, they tell her, find a closure if they can just identify the victim. Kinsey is intrigued with the challenge and agrees to work with them.
"But revisiting the past can be a dangerous business, and what begins with the pursuit of Jane Doe's real identity ends in a high-risk hunt for her killer."
Opinion: This book fits right in with Grafton's Alphabet series. It was fun returning to Kinsey's life after not having visited in a long time. Lots of little twists and turns.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Devil's Knot by Mara Leveritt
Started: 3/25/13
Finished: 4/10/13
Pages: 347
Year: 2002
Genre: True Crime
Grade: C
Reason for reading: TBR pile
Blurb: This is the story about 3 teenagers who were allegedly involved in a satanic cult and killed three younger kids.
Opinion: There are several end notes in this book that would have been more effective if they weren't there (as part of the book) or as foot notes. Very distracting going back and forth. Overall it is an interesting story but the way that it was organized is why it got the grade I gave it.
Finished: 4/10/13
Pages: 347
Year: 2002
Genre: True Crime
Grade: C
Reason for reading: TBR pile
Blurb: This is the story about 3 teenagers who were allegedly involved in a satanic cult and killed three younger kids.
Opinion: There are several end notes in this book that would have been more effective if they weren't there (as part of the book) or as foot notes. Very distracting going back and forth. Overall it is an interesting story but the way that it was organized is why it got the grade I gave it.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Under Currents by Ridley Pearson
Started: 2/5/13
Finished: 2/21/13
Year: 1988
Pages: 435
Genre: Police procedural
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from back cover): "Seattle is a city paralyzed by fear. A serial killer is loose on its streets. And as each new victim surfaces-chest slashed, eyes taped open-the tide of panic arises.
"Driven by guilt and frustration, too exhausted to consider stopping, Detective Lou Boldt thinks he's finally gotten the break he needs to end the Cross Killer's twisted spree. But each new clue contradicts another. And each new corpse mocks Boldt's efforts.
"To fathom the silent tale told by the latest corpse washed up in Puget Sound, Boldt has to go beyond every state-of-the-art method at his disposal. But as he gets closer to the truth, he travels deeper into the tortured mind of a relentless killer...into the depths of his own fear...and into a whirlpool of madness more frightening than his worst nightmares."
Opinion: This was a well written and fast paced book that kept me interested until the last page.
Finished: 2/21/13
Year: 1988
Pages: 435
Genre: Police procedural
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from back cover): "Seattle is a city paralyzed by fear. A serial killer is loose on its streets. And as each new victim surfaces-chest slashed, eyes taped open-the tide of panic arises.
"Driven by guilt and frustration, too exhausted to consider stopping, Detective Lou Boldt thinks he's finally gotten the break he needs to end the Cross Killer's twisted spree. But each new clue contradicts another. And each new corpse mocks Boldt's efforts.
"To fathom the silent tale told by the latest corpse washed up in Puget Sound, Boldt has to go beyond every state-of-the-art method at his disposal. But as he gets closer to the truth, he travels deeper into the tortured mind of a relentless killer...into the depths of his own fear...and into a whirlpool of madness more frightening than his worst nightmares."
Opinion: This was a well written and fast paced book that kept me interested until the last page.
Monday, February 11, 2013
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Started: 1/29/13
Finished: 2/10/13
Year: 2003 (this edition)
Pages: 246
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): "Four seekers have come to Hill House, a scary old abandoned mansion: Dr. Montaque, an occult scholar who had been looking for an honestly haunted house all his life; Theodora, a lovely and lighthearted girl there mostly on a lark; Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House; and Eleanor, a strange and lonely woman well acquainted with poltergeists and other psychic phenomena. At first their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable noises and slamming doors. But Hill House is gathering up powers and will soon choose one of them to make its own."
Opinion: Very different than the movies that were based on one of the original ghost story writers. Jackson has a way with building subtle suspense in her stories.
Finished: 2/10/13
Year: 2003 (this edition)
Pages: 246
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): "Four seekers have come to Hill House, a scary old abandoned mansion: Dr. Montaque, an occult scholar who had been looking for an honestly haunted house all his life; Theodora, a lovely and lighthearted girl there mostly on a lark; Luke, the adventurous future heir of Hill House; and Eleanor, a strange and lonely woman well acquainted with poltergeists and other psychic phenomena. At first their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable noises and slamming doors. But Hill House is gathering up powers and will soon choose one of them to make its own."
Opinion: Very different than the movies that were based on one of the original ghost story writers. Jackson has a way with building subtle suspense in her stories.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie
Started: 1/25/13
Finished: 2/1/13
Year: 1965 (this edition)
Pages: 192
Genre: mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: collecting all of the Christie books
Blurb: A mysterious woman is found dead in a prominent citizen's library.
Opinion: Jane Marple is made to think about whodunit in this well developed mystery.
Finished: 2/1/13
Year: 1965 (this edition)
Pages: 192
Genre: mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: collecting all of the Christie books
Blurb: A mysterious woman is found dead in a prominent citizen's library.
Opinion: Jane Marple is made to think about whodunit in this well developed mystery.
Roadside Crosses by Jeffrey Deaver
Started: 1/15/13
Finished:2/6/13
Year: 2009
Pages: 548
Genre: Suspense
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: borrowed from mom
Blurb (from back cover): " Roadside crosses are appearing along the highways off the Monterey Peninsula, not as memorials to past accidents but as markers for fatalities yet to come...and someone, armed with information gleaned from careless and all-too-personal blog postings, intends to carry those killings. Kathryn Dance and CBI team know when the attacks will take place, but who will be the victims? Her body language expertise leads her to a recent fatal car crash, and to the driver, Travis Brigham, a gaming-obsessed teen who's become the target of vicious cyberbullies. And when Travis disappears, Kathryn must lead a furious manhunt in the elusive world of bloggers and social networking where nothing is as it seems..."
Opinion: Another great book by Deaver. It certainly had me guessing until the end. Full of twists and unexpected turns.
Finished:2/6/13
Year: 2009
Pages: 548
Genre: Suspense
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: borrowed from mom
Blurb (from back cover): " Roadside crosses are appearing along the highways off the Monterey Peninsula, not as memorials to past accidents but as markers for fatalities yet to come...and someone, armed with information gleaned from careless and all-too-personal blog postings, intends to carry those killings. Kathryn Dance and CBI team know when the attacks will take place, but who will be the victims? Her body language expertise leads her to a recent fatal car crash, and to the driver, Travis Brigham, a gaming-obsessed teen who's become the target of vicious cyberbullies. And when Travis disappears, Kathryn must lead a furious manhunt in the elusive world of bloggers and social networking where nothing is as it seems..."
Opinion: Another great book by Deaver. It certainly had me guessing until the end. Full of twists and unexpected turns.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
The Copper Beech by Maeve Binchy
Started: 12/28/12
Finished: 1/15/13
Year: 1992
Pages: 391
Grade: B
Genre: Literary fiction
Reason for reading: grabbed off TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "In the Irish town of Shancarrig, the young people carve their intials-and those of their loves- into the copper beech tree in front of the schoolhouse. But not even Father Gunn, the parish priest, who knows most of what goes on being Shancarrig's closed doors, or Dr. Jims, the village doctor, who knows all the rest, realizes that not everything in the placid village is what it seems.
"Unexpected passions and fears are bringing together the lives of many such as the sensitive new priest and Miss Ross, the slight, beautiful school teacher...Leonora, the privileged daughter of the town's richest family and Foxy Dunne, whose father did time in jail...and Nessa Ryan, whose parents run Ryan's Hotel, and two very different young men. For now the secrets in Shancarrig's shadows are starting to be revealed, from innocent vanities and hidden loves to crimes of the heart...and even to murder."
Opinion: Each chapter was about a different character in the small village. In each chapter, I became more and more interested in all of them despite their very obvious differences.
Finished: 1/15/13
Year: 1992
Pages: 391
Grade: B
Genre: Literary fiction
Reason for reading: grabbed off TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "In the Irish town of Shancarrig, the young people carve their intials-and those of their loves- into the copper beech tree in front of the schoolhouse. But not even Father Gunn, the parish priest, who knows most of what goes on being Shancarrig's closed doors, or Dr. Jims, the village doctor, who knows all the rest, realizes that not everything in the placid village is what it seems.
"Unexpected passions and fears are bringing together the lives of many such as the sensitive new priest and Miss Ross, the slight, beautiful school teacher...Leonora, the privileged daughter of the town's richest family and Foxy Dunne, whose father did time in jail...and Nessa Ryan, whose parents run Ryan's Hotel, and two very different young men. For now the secrets in Shancarrig's shadows are starting to be revealed, from innocent vanities and hidden loves to crimes of the heart...and even to murder."
Opinion: Each chapter was about a different character in the small village. In each chapter, I became more and more interested in all of them despite their very obvious differences.
Sunday, December 30, 2012
Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul edited by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Marty Becker, Carol Kline, Amy Shojai
Started: 12/26/12
Finished: 12/27/12
Year: 2005
Pages: 378
Grade: B+
Genre: Inspiration/Pets
Reason for reading: Cat lover, grabbed off TBR shelf
Blurb: Several short stories of how cats have affected people's lives.
Opinion: Another great Chicken Soup book, this time geared towards cats and the impact that they have had on people. Some stories were extremely touching and made me even happier of owning my 3 cats.
Finished: 12/27/12
Year: 2005
Pages: 378
Grade: B+
Genre: Inspiration/Pets
Reason for reading: Cat lover, grabbed off TBR shelf
Blurb: Several short stories of how cats have affected people's lives.
Opinion: Another great Chicken Soup book, this time geared towards cats and the impact that they have had on people. Some stories were extremely touching and made me even happier of owning my 3 cats.
The Other Woman by Eric Jerome Dickey
Started: 12/17/12
Finished: 12/24/12
Year: 2003
Pages: 274
Grade: B+
Genre: African-American literature/romance
Reason for reading: grabbed from TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): " The central couple's biggest challenge is timing. He works days; she works nights. Instead of growing together, they're rapidly drifiting apart, coexisting on stolen phone calls from work, punctuated by occasional bedroom encounters that leave them both feeling even emptier and more alone. When she finds out about his affair-and starts her own-the delicate fabric of their marriage is torn irrevocably asunder. Or is it? In Dickey's expert hands, what begins as a seemingly unforgivable betrayal seques into the sexy and searing story of a man and a woman at a privotal turning point in their relationship. Only time will tell whether they'll let it all go...or whether they can hold on to the love that drew them together in the first place."
Opinion: Certainly makes you question what you would do if you were in the situation as any of these characters. Well done book.
Finished: 12/24/12
Year: 2003
Pages: 274
Grade: B+
Genre: African-American literature/romance
Reason for reading: grabbed from TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): " The central couple's biggest challenge is timing. He works days; she works nights. Instead of growing together, they're rapidly drifiting apart, coexisting on stolen phone calls from work, punctuated by occasional bedroom encounters that leave them both feeling even emptier and more alone. When she finds out about his affair-and starts her own-the delicate fabric of their marriage is torn irrevocably asunder. Or is it? In Dickey's expert hands, what begins as a seemingly unforgivable betrayal seques into the sexy and searing story of a man and a woman at a privotal turning point in their relationship. Only time will tell whether they'll let it all go...or whether they can hold on to the love that drew them together in the first place."
Opinion: Certainly makes you question what you would do if you were in the situation as any of these characters. Well done book.
Time's Witness by Michael Malone
Started: 12/4/12
Finished: 12/17/12
Year: 1989
Pages: 537
Grade: C
Genre: mystery
Reason for reading: grabbed from TBR
Opinion: It was very easy for me to be distracted from reading this story.
Finished: 12/17/12
Year: 1989
Pages: 537
Grade: C
Genre: mystery
Reason for reading: grabbed from TBR
Opinion: It was very easy for me to be distracted from reading this story.
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
Started: 11/26/12
Finished: 12/4/12
Year: 1992 (this edition)
Pages: 312
Grade: C
Genre: literary fiction
Reason for reading: grabbed off TBR pile
Blurb: A painting of a man identifies who he is.
Opinion: Not the best classic that I've read but the idea of how a painting captures and destroys a man was interesting.
Finished: 12/4/12
Year: 1992 (this edition)
Pages: 312
Grade: C
Genre: literary fiction
Reason for reading: grabbed off TBR pile
Blurb: A painting of a man identifies who he is.
Opinion: Not the best classic that I've read but the idea of how a painting captures and destroys a man was interesting.
Worth More Dead by Ann Rule
Started: 11/17/12
Finished: 11/23/12
Year: 2005
Pages: 418
Grade: A
Genre: True Crime
Reason for reading: borrowed from mom
Blurb (from back cover): "Former Marine sergeant and judo instructor Roland Pitre Jr. claimed it was all an elaborate plan to win back his wife's love-it wasn't supposed to end with her dead body in the truck of a car. Nearly twenty years later, he acknowledged that he had hired someone to kill his estranged wife in 1988, though his alleged excuse for why a monstrous 'mistake' happened is a shocking and convoluted as the crime itself. Eventually, he was charged with first-degree murder in the long-unsolved death of Cheryl Pitre, after a mysterous witness betrayed Pitre to save his own skin. Tracing back the dark and bloody path of Pitre's life, two generations of detectives found a chain of brutal and terrifying crimes by a man who manipulated the courts and prisons to walk free."
Opinion: Another great collection of true crime stories by Ann Rule. These cases are all about people that were worth more dead than alive and how people around them caused their deaths.
Finished: 11/23/12
Year: 2005
Pages: 418
Grade: A
Genre: True Crime
Reason for reading: borrowed from mom
Blurb (from back cover): "Former Marine sergeant and judo instructor Roland Pitre Jr. claimed it was all an elaborate plan to win back his wife's love-it wasn't supposed to end with her dead body in the truck of a car. Nearly twenty years later, he acknowledged that he had hired someone to kill his estranged wife in 1988, though his alleged excuse for why a monstrous 'mistake' happened is a shocking and convoluted as the crime itself. Eventually, he was charged with first-degree murder in the long-unsolved death of Cheryl Pitre, after a mysterous witness betrayed Pitre to save his own skin. Tracing back the dark and bloody path of Pitre's life, two generations of detectives found a chain of brutal and terrifying crimes by a man who manipulated the courts and prisons to walk free."
Opinion: Another great collection of true crime stories by Ann Rule. These cases are all about people that were worth more dead than alive and how people around them caused their deaths.
Hex and the Single Girl by Valerie Frankel
Started: 11/16/12
Finished: 11/20/12
Year: 2006
Pages: 290
Grade:C
Genre: fiction/romance
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "Emma Hutch's upscale Manhattan clients call her the 'Good Witch.' Her uncanny telepathic abilities enable her to plant images into unsuspecting minds, which has made her New York's most successful professional matchmaker. After all, what bachelor, confirmed or otherwise, could deny his true destiny when the woman he can't seem to stop thinking about suddenly appers right in front of him? Now an all-too-perfect blonde socialite needs Emma's help to snare the most eligiblity single man in the city-all in a day's work for the Good Witch.
"Except William Dearborn-visual artist, software genius, total hunk, and dedicated hedonist-is not so easily snared. And he's becoming a little too interested in the desperate matchmaking sorceress who's been following him all around town incognito. Emma doesn't have to be psychic to know what's going on in his mind, Williams' having very wicked thoughts indeed about the Good Witch...and Emma likes it! But she's got to resist his special brand of magic...or else her witchy career is going up in flames."
Opinion: An average romance. Interest take having a "witch" that can force images into others' minds.
Finished: 11/20/12
Year: 2006
Pages: 290
Grade:C
Genre: fiction/romance
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "Emma Hutch's upscale Manhattan clients call her the 'Good Witch.' Her uncanny telepathic abilities enable her to plant images into unsuspecting minds, which has made her New York's most successful professional matchmaker. After all, what bachelor, confirmed or otherwise, could deny his true destiny when the woman he can't seem to stop thinking about suddenly appers right in front of him? Now an all-too-perfect blonde socialite needs Emma's help to snare the most eligiblity single man in the city-all in a day's work for the Good Witch.
"Except William Dearborn-visual artist, software genius, total hunk, and dedicated hedonist-is not so easily snared. And he's becoming a little too interested in the desperate matchmaking sorceress who's been following him all around town incognito. Emma doesn't have to be psychic to know what's going on in his mind, Williams' having very wicked thoughts indeed about the Good Witch...and Emma likes it! But she's got to resist his special brand of magic...or else her witchy career is going up in flames."
Opinion: An average romance. Interest take having a "witch" that can force images into others' minds.
The Cat Who Talked to Ghosts by Lilian Jackson Braun
Started: 11/10/12
Finished 11/16/12
Year: 1990
Pages: 218
Grade: B
Genre: mystery
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "When Mrs. Cobb heard unearthly noises in the antique-filled farmhouse, she called Jim Qwilleran for help. But he was too late. It looked as if his kindly ex-housekeeper had been frightened to death- butby whom? Or what? Now Qwilleran's moved into the historic farmhouse with his two cat companions-and Koko the Siamese is spooked. Is it a figment of feline imagination-or that clue to a murder in Moose county? And does Qwilleran have a ghost of a chance of solving this haunting mystery?"
Opinion: Another good mystery by Braun. The mystery was well developed and not solved until the end.
Finished 11/16/12
Year: 1990
Pages: 218
Grade: B
Genre: mystery
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "When Mrs. Cobb heard unearthly noises in the antique-filled farmhouse, she called Jim Qwilleran for help. But he was too late. It looked as if his kindly ex-housekeeper had been frightened to death- butby whom? Or what? Now Qwilleran's moved into the historic farmhouse with his two cat companions-and Koko the Siamese is spooked. Is it a figment of feline imagination-or that clue to a murder in Moose county? And does Qwilleran have a ghost of a chance of solving this haunting mystery?"
Opinion: Another good mystery by Braun. The mystery was well developed and not solved until the end.
Dark Tort by Diane Mott Davidson
Started:11/2/12
Finished: 11/13/12
Year: 2006
Pages: 422
Grade: B
Genre: mystery
Reason for reading: grabbed off TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "Caterer Goldy Schulz's lucrative new gig, preparing breakfasts and conference room snacks for a local law firm, is time-consuming, but she's enjoying it...until the night she arrives to find Dusty, the firm's paralegal, dead. The deceased also happened to be Goldy's friend and neighbor, and now Dusty's grieving mother is begging Goldy to find out who murdered her daughter.
"Just because the police are on the case doesn't mean Goldy can't do a little snooping herself. While catering a party at the home of one of the firm's lawyers, she just happens to overhear an incriminating conversation. She also discovers a few tasty clues in the kitchen. Before long, Goldy finds herself knee-deep in suspects. But one of them is incredibly dangerous...and very liable to cook Goldy's goose."
Opinion: Another good mystery by Davidson. Goldy's character continues to be witty and enjoyable as she cooks and attempts to solve the mysteries that she continues to stumble upon.
Finished: 11/13/12
Year: 2006
Pages: 422
Grade: B
Genre: mystery
Reason for reading: grabbed off TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "Caterer Goldy Schulz's lucrative new gig, preparing breakfasts and conference room snacks for a local law firm, is time-consuming, but she's enjoying it...until the night she arrives to find Dusty, the firm's paralegal, dead. The deceased also happened to be Goldy's friend and neighbor, and now Dusty's grieving mother is begging Goldy to find out who murdered her daughter.
"Just because the police are on the case doesn't mean Goldy can't do a little snooping herself. While catering a party at the home of one of the firm's lawyers, she just happens to overhear an incriminating conversation. She also discovers a few tasty clues in the kitchen. Before long, Goldy finds herself knee-deep in suspects. But one of them is incredibly dangerous...and very liable to cook Goldy's goose."
Opinion: Another good mystery by Davidson. Goldy's character continues to be witty and enjoyable as she cooks and attempts to solve the mysteries that she continues to stumble upon.
Breathless by Dean Koontz
Started: 10/24/12
Finished: 11/1/12
Year: 2009
Pages: 337
Grade: B
Genre: Mystery
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "In the stillness of a golden September afternoon, deep in the wilderness of the Rockies, a solitary craftsman, Grady Adams, and his magnificient Irish wolfhound, Merlin, step from shadow into light...and into an encounter with enchantment. That night, through the trees, under the moon, a pair of singular animals will watch Grady's isolated home, waiting to make their approach.
"A few miles away, Camillia Rivers, a local veterinarian, begins to unravel the threads of a puzzle that will bring to her door all the forces of a government in peril.
"At a nearby farm, long-estranged identical twins come together to begin a descent into darkness....In Las Vegas, a specialist in chaos theory probes the boundaries of the unknowable...On a Seattle golf course, two men make matter-of-fact arrangements for murder...Along a highway by the sea, a vagrant scarred by the past beings a trek toward his destiny."
Opinion: Typical plotline by Kootnz but interesting little creatures that he created that were truly a mystery.
Finished: 11/1/12
Year: 2009
Pages: 337
Grade: B
Genre: Mystery
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "In the stillness of a golden September afternoon, deep in the wilderness of the Rockies, a solitary craftsman, Grady Adams, and his magnificient Irish wolfhound, Merlin, step from shadow into light...and into an encounter with enchantment. That night, through the trees, under the moon, a pair of singular animals will watch Grady's isolated home, waiting to make their approach.
"A few miles away, Camillia Rivers, a local veterinarian, begins to unravel the threads of a puzzle that will bring to her door all the forces of a government in peril.
"At a nearby farm, long-estranged identical twins come together to begin a descent into darkness....In Las Vegas, a specialist in chaos theory probes the boundaries of the unknowable...On a Seattle golf course, two men make matter-of-fact arrangements for murder...Along a highway by the sea, a vagrant scarred by the past beings a trek toward his destiny."
Opinion: Typical plotline by Kootnz but interesting little creatures that he created that were truly a mystery.
Cottonwood Winter by Gary Slaughter
Started: 10/1/12
Finished: 10/26/12
Year: 2008
Pages: 400
Grade: C
Genre: Literary Fiction
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "This clever Christmas story interweaves events on the Allied front lines in eErope with mysteries on the home front, during the last winter of the Second World War.
"The disappearance of B. R. Santa, the treat of an elite German espionage agent, the unexplained appearances of assorted grape-vine Christmas wreaths all over town, and many more mysteries are to be solved by Jase Addison and Danny Tucker, the young heroes of the Cottonwood novels.
Opinion: I haven't read the other books in the Cottonwood series so I'm not sure if I would have a more positive attitude about the stories if I had read them. The boys Jase and Danny are enjoyable characters.
Finished: 10/26/12
Year: 2008
Pages: 400
Grade: C
Genre: Literary Fiction
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from book jacket): "This clever Christmas story interweaves events on the Allied front lines in eErope with mysteries on the home front, during the last winter of the Second World War.
"The disappearance of B. R. Santa, the treat of an elite German espionage agent, the unexplained appearances of assorted grape-vine Christmas wreaths all over town, and many more mysteries are to be solved by Jase Addison and Danny Tucker, the young heroes of the Cottonwood novels.
Opinion: I haven't read the other books in the Cottonwood series so I'm not sure if I would have a more positive attitude about the stories if I had read them. The boys Jase and Danny are enjoyable characters.
Entering Normal by Anne D. LeClaire
Started: 9/24/12
Finished: 9/29/12
Year: 2001
Pages: 289
Grade: B+
Genre: Literary Fiction
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from the bookjacket): " Rose Nelson is a middle-aged woman with a broken past, harboring a sorrow from which she things she will never recover. Five years after her teenaged son's death, she is still sealed off from life, enveloped by grief and remorse. Then Opal Gates and her five-year-old son, Zack, move in next door.
"Determined to start anew, twenty-year-old Opal has left her family and Zack's father in North Carolina. Initially, Rose cannot bear the sight of the young mother and son. But with Opal's arrival in the small Massachuetts town, Rose is reluctantly drawn into the world she has avoided, irrevocably pulled into the lives of the freewheeling Opal and her child so full of promise. When Zack is injured, Rose instinctively lies to protect Opal from a single mistake that changes the lives of everyone involved. Faced with a custody battle that threatens to take away her son, realizing that each choice she has made can be used as ammunition against here, Opal must now consider : What sacrifices must a mother be willing to make if she is to keep her child?"
Opinion: This story was a tearjeaker. I was quickly absorbed by learning about Rose and Opal and how their lives mesh with each other.
Finished: 9/29/12
Year: 2001
Pages: 289
Grade: B+
Genre: Literary Fiction
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from the bookjacket): " Rose Nelson is a middle-aged woman with a broken past, harboring a sorrow from which she things she will never recover. Five years after her teenaged son's death, she is still sealed off from life, enveloped by grief and remorse. Then Opal Gates and her five-year-old son, Zack, move in next door.
"Determined to start anew, twenty-year-old Opal has left her family and Zack's father in North Carolina. Initially, Rose cannot bear the sight of the young mother and son. But with Opal's arrival in the small Massachuetts town, Rose is reluctantly drawn into the world she has avoided, irrevocably pulled into the lives of the freewheeling Opal and her child so full of promise. When Zack is injured, Rose instinctively lies to protect Opal from a single mistake that changes the lives of everyone involved. Faced with a custody battle that threatens to take away her son, realizing that each choice she has made can be used as ammunition against here, Opal must now consider : What sacrifices must a mother be willing to make if she is to keep her child?"
Opinion: This story was a tearjeaker. I was quickly absorbed by learning about Rose and Opal and how their lives mesh with each other.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)