Play Dead by David Rosenfelt

Started: 4/26/07
Finished: 4/30/07
Year: 2007
Pages: 308
Genre: mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Few can rival attorney Andy Carpenter's affection for golden retrievers, especially his own beloved Tara. After he astonishes a New Jersey courtroom by successfully appealing another golden's death sentence, Andy discovers that this gentle dog is a key witness to a murder that took place five years before. Andy pushes the boundaries of the law even further as he struggles to free an innocent man by convincing an incredulous jury to take canine testimony seriously. It will take all the tricks Andy's fertile mind can conceive to get to the bottom of a remarkable chain of impersonations and murder, and save a dog's life-and his own-in the process."
Opinion: What I really loved about this book was that golden retrievers are involved. There were some editing mistakes but since this was an advanced reader copy, it's fine. For a more complete review, check out MyShelf.com next month.

Darwin and the Barnacle by Rebecca Stott

Started 4/24/07
Finished: 4/26/07
Year: 2003
Pages: 261
Genre: Biographical/Science
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "In a suspensful narrative, Rebecca Stott tells the story of Charles Darwin's discovery in 1835 of an unknown, shrimplike barnacle he would call 'Mr. Anthrobalanus' and the decisive influence this tiny marine organism would have on the course of evolutionary biology."
Opinion: An interest look at Darwin and his life. I found it worth reading as I believe in Darwin's theory and I like marine biology.

The Folding Star by Alan Hollinghurst

Started: 4/20/07
Finished: 4/24/07
Year: 1994
Pages: 437
Genre: Literature
Grade: D
Reason for reading: booksfree.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Alan Hollinghurst's hypnotic and exquisitely written novel tells the story of Edward Manners, a disaffected thirty-three-year-old who leaves England to earn his living as a language tutor in a Flemish city. Almost immediately he falls in love with one of his pupils, but can only console himself with other affairs. With the novel, Hollinghurst exposes us fearlessly to the consequences of unfulfillable, annihilating desire.
Opinion: Eh. Not worth picking up in my opinion. Only finished it because I believe in attempting to finish every book I start.

The Robert F. Kennedy Assassination by Philip H. Melanson

Started: 4/14/07
Finished: 4/20/07
Year: 1994
Pages: 353
Genre: Non-fiction
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: Scott recommended
Blurb: This is a look into the possible cover-up surrounding Robert F. Kennedy's assassination.
Opinion: This contains a lot of valid points regarding cover-ups with the LAPD, LA District Attorney's office, FBI, and CIA. After reading this, I believe that this investigation should be reopened. There are too many unanswered questions, and thanks to the some of the evidence being destroyed, there will remain unanswered questions. But in order for true justice to be done, this should be relooked at. Did Sirhan Sirhan kill Kennedy? Was there another gun? Was there a mysterious woman with Sirhan? Why would there be such a cover-up?

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

Started: 4/9/07
Finished: 4/14/07
Year: 1993
Pages: 337
Genre: Fiction
Grade: C
Reason for reading: booksfree.com
Blurb (from back cover): "At thirty-six, Quoyle, a third-rate newspaperman, is wrenched violently out of his workaday life when his two-timing wife meets her just deserts. He retreats with his two daughters to his ancestral home on the starkly beautiful Newfoundland coast, where a rich cast of local characters all play a part in Quoyle's struggle to reclaim his life. As three generations of his family cobble up new lives, Quoyle confronts his private demons-and the unpredictable forces of nature and society-and begins to see the possibility of love without pain or misery."
Opinion: I believe that this is one of the 1001 books you should read list. I don't feel that it should be on that list. I didn't find it that enjoyable but certainly not the worst book I've read. I did like how each chapter discussed a knot fact and how it plays a part in that chapter.

Death and Justice by Mark Fuhrman

Started: 4/5/07
Finished: 4/9/07
Year: 2003
Pages: 252
Genre: True Crime
Grade: C-
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): "Are innocent people being executed? Are death penalty cases being investigated and tried as if someone's life depended on it? Is capital punishment justice or revenge?
"Fuhrman seeks to answer these questions by investigating the death penalty in Oklahoma, a place where a 'hang 'em high' attitude of cowboy justice resulted in twenty-one executions in 2001, more than in any other state in the nation. The majority of these death penalty cases came from one jurisdiction, Oklahoma County, where legendary district attorney Bob Macy bragged about sending more people to death row than any other prosecutor, and police chemist Joyce Gilchrist was eventually fired for mismanaging the crime lab. These two figures loom large in Fuhrman's investigation.
"Examining police records, trial transcripts, and appellate decisions, and conducting hundreds of interviews, Fuhrman focuses his considerable investigative skills on more than a dozen of the most controversial Oklahoma death penalty cases, including two in which innocent men nearly lost their lives.
"When he began Death and Justice, Mark Fuhrman was firm believer in the death penalty What he saw in Oklahoma changed his mind. It may change yours."
Opinion: Well, it's an interesting look at Oklahoma and how an overzealous attorney and a chemist was unskilled, got together in several death penalty cases. I really did not like Fuhrman's writing style, but that could just be who he is, which is fine.

There Goes the Bride by Lori Wilde

Started: 4/2/07
Finished: 4/5/07
Year: 2007
Pages: 348
Genre: Romance
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "The moment Texas socialite Delaney Cartwright touches the veil, she know she can't go through with her wedding. And it's not just because she envisions a stranger's dark eyes and irresistible lips the second her fingers hit lace. But she can't simply call the whole thing off. The nuptials to her nice, predictable childhood friend are the social event of the season (not to mention that her mother would freak). To fan the flames of this dying ember, Delaney abducts her fiance for a night of passion...and grabs the wrong guy! It isn't her fault that Detective Nick Vinetti of the oddly familiar eyes and lips has crossed her path-and looks game for all kinds of sexy fun.
"Now Delaney hatches an outrageous plan to get out of marrying: she'll hire her own kidnapper. With an alter to avoid and a cop to dream of, this runaway bride is hoping a little Irish magic will unveil the true destiny of her heart."
Opinion: A fun romance as most Lori Wilde books are. For a more complete review, be sure to check out MyShelf.com next month.

Unless by Carol Shields

Started: 3/30/07
Finished: 4/2/07
Year: 2002
Pages: 320
Genre: Fiction
Grade: A
Reason for reading: booksfree.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Forty-four-year-old Reta Winters, wife, mother, writer, and translator, is living a happy life until one of her three daughters drops out of university to sit on a downtown street corner silent and cross-legged with a begging bowl in her lap and a placard round her neck that says 'Goodness.'
"The final book from Pulitzer Prize-winner Carol Shields, Unless is a candid and deeply moving novel from one of the twentieth century's most accomplished and beloved authors."
Opinion: I cannot grasp what I liked so much about this book. The style is different. I felt very connected with Reta and her story. Definitely glad I decided to get this one.

Remind Me Again Why I Married You by Rita Ciresi

Started: 3/23/07
Finished: 3/30/07
Year: 2003
Pages: 291
Genre: Fiction
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): "It's Valentine's Day, and Lisa Strauss, nee Diodetto, is spending it playing dutiful wife at a $100-a-head benefit instead of in bed with Eben, her hardworking husband of (is it only?) five years. Once upon a time, Lisa, too, was a member of the corporate workaday world-until she fell in love with her boss (Eben), gave birth to a cute but rambunctious son, and gradually morphed into a stay-at-home mom. Somewhere in the mix Lisa also is a writer with ambitions of fame and glory, but those dreams seem to be shrinking, along with her sex life. That is, until a hotshot literary agent shows interest in Lisa's magnum opus.
"Suddenly, she has a pen name, and an excerpt of her book appears in Playboy. In between revising chapters, Lisa is trying-and failing miserably-to get pregnant again. She's going house-hunting with Cynthia Farquhar, the gorgeous blond Realtor/divorcee who has become her closet confidante (and the object of Eben's secret fantasies). And she's wondering if this is all marriage is and can ever be: bonded for life to a man who may never again be the red-hot lover of their pre-marriage union. In fact, he just may turn out to be the conflicted protagonist of her novel-a devoted family man whose moral fiber may not be strong enough to withstand the slings and arrows of lust and temptation. As their lives begin to bizarrely mirror aspects of Lisa's book...as marital life as they know it teeters on the edge of utter chaos, Lisa and Eben search-apart and together-for the answer to teh question that has plagued husbands and wives since time immemorial: Can love survive marriage?"
Opinion: Even though I seemed to be in a small reading slump, I did enjoy reading this book. Lisa and Eben's relationship seemed real enough and as someone who has been married, I know that you usually ask yourself why you married your spouse.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

Started: 3/19/07
Finished: 3/22/07
Year: 1906 (1990 this edition)
Pages: 350
Genre: Classic Literature
Grade: B
Reason for reading: booksfree.com book, one of the 1001 books that you should read
Blurb (from back cover): "Not since Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom Cabin had there been a book that would affect such a large part of the American public and move them to action. In some of the most harrowing scenes ever written in modern literature, Upton Sinclair vividly depicted factory life in Chicago in the first years of the twentieth century. The horrors of the slaughterhouse, their barbarous working conditions...the crushing poverty, the disease and the despair-he revealed all through the eyes of Jurgis Rudkus, a young immigrant who came to the New World to build a home for himself and his family. Published in 1906, The Jungle not only aroused the indignation of the public but forced a government investigation that led to the passage of pure food laws. It also established its young author as one of the world's leading spokesmen for the rights of the working man. The Jungle continues to pack the same emotional power today as it did almost a century ago."
Opinion: One of better classics that I've read. Not for the weak stomached but I could definitely see why there was a lot of controversy when it came out.

The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue

Started: 3/14/07
Finished: 3/19/07
Year: 2005
Pages: 310
Genre: Fiction
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): "In 1920s New Orleans, smart and fearless Raziela Nolan is in the throes of a magnificent love affair when she suddenly dies in a tragic accident. Immediately after her death, she chooses to stay between-a realm that exists after life and before whatever lies beyond it. From this remarkable vantage point, Razi narrates the story of her lost love, as well as the relationship of Amy and Scott, a young couple whose house she haunts seventy years later. Their trials finally compel Razi to slowly unravel the mystery of what happened to her first and only love, Andrew, and to confront a long-hidden secret.
"The Mercy of Thin Air entwines two tragic and redemptive love stories that echo across three generations and culminates in a startling finish that will leave readers breathless. From plucky, forward-thinking Razi, who illegally slips birth control guides into library books, to hip Web designer Amy, who begins to fall off the edge of grief, to Eugenia, caught between since the Civil War, the characters in this ambitious and original debut sing with life, as well as Southern flair."
Opinion: At first, the story was very confusing but after a while, the story became itself and became enjoyable.

Mindhunter by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker

Started: 3/11/07
Finished: 3/14/07
Year: 1996
Pages: 384
Genre: True Crime/Memoir
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: part of a bookring through Bookcrossing.com
Blurb (from back cover): "During his twenty-five-year FBI career with the Investigative Support Unit, Special Agent John Douglas became a legendary figure in law enforcement, pursuing some of the most notorious and sadistic serial killers of our time: the man who hunted prostitutes for sport in the woods of Alaska, the Atlanta child murderer, and Seattle's Green River killer, the case that nearly cost Douglas his life.
"As the model for Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs, Douglas has confronted, interviewed, and studied scores of serial killers and assassins, including Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, and Ed Gein, who dressed himself in his victims' peeled skin. Using his uncanny ability to become both predator and prey, Douglas examines each crime scene, reliving both the killer's and the victim's actions in his mind, creating their profiles, describing their habits, and predicting their next moves.
"Now, in chilling detail, the legendary Mindhunter takes us behind the scenes of some of his most gruesome, fascinating, and challenging cases-and into the darkest recesses of our worst nightmares."
Opinion: I thought that this was a great read-as someone who is interested in profiling and forensics, I felt that this was beneficial to read and see how profiling developed.

Final Paradox by Mary E. Martin

Started: 3/8/07
Finished: 3/11/07
Year: 2006
Pages: 261
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Harry Jenkins is an honest lawyer, seeking truth and love in a world darkened by fraud and deceit. Years back, Elixicorp, a company developing a drug to forestall memory loss, defrauded millions from Toronto's elite. But since then, no one has been able to find this long buried treasure, which has poisoned the lives of all who seek it.
"His elderly client, Norma Dinnick, teeters between lucidity and madness in her dark world of paradoxical claims. When she instructs Harry to sue the other claimants for the Elixicorp shares, one of the litigants is fatally shot in open court at Osgoode Hall. The murder weapon is an ornate, silver pistol, which is both a means of betrayal and a gift of love. Peter Saunderson, an old acquaintance of Harry's from law school, surfaces to frame his own wife and lover with the courtroom murder and to implicate Harry in the scheme.
"Harry and his father have been estranged for years. Stanley is found unconscious at the foot of his cellar steps, a gun in his hand. Waking from his coma, he asks Harry's forgiveness for a long-buried wrong. This ugly .38 caliber gun becomes the means whereby love and forgiveness is found. Beset with questions, Harry turns to the beautiful Natasha, who guides him to an understanding of the final paradox."
Opinion: Kinda jumps around. The relationship between Harry and his father is touching. The frame-up is interesting. For a more complete review, check out MyShelf.com.

Echo Burning by Lee Child

Started: 3/5/07
Finished: 3/8/07
Year: 2001
Pages: 412
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: booksfree.com book
Blurb (from back cover): "Thumbing across the scorched west Texas desert, loner Jack Reacher has nowhere to go, and all the time in the world to get there. Cruising the same stretch of two-lane blacktop is pretty Carmen Greer. But for Reacher, the lift comes with a hitch. Carmen's got a story to tell, and it's a wild one. All about her husband, her family secrets, and a hometown that's pure Gothic. She's also got a plan. Reacher's part of it. And before the sun sets, this ride could cost them both their lives."
Opinion: One of the better books I've read this year. Almost missed a stop on the subway because I was so into the book. Definitely will be checking out some more of his books.

Touch the Wind by Janet Dailey

Started: 3/4/07
Finished: 3/5/07
Year: 1979
Pages: 296
Genre: Romance
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "All her life Sheila Rogers got what she wanted, then didn't want it anymore-including a reckless marriage doomed to perish in her husband's arrogant greed.
"Then came the man they called Rafaga, The Wind, the violent, gallant bandido who carried her off in a blaze of gunfire to his mountain retreat.
"He offered her raw passion. She answered with brazed resistance. But there among his followers she saw the gentleness that was also Rafaga, and learned why his name was a quiet promise in his people's hearts.
"She yearned to become the woman who could live beside this powerful, tender man...to warm her body and soul with his proud, defiant strength...to reach out across their separate worlds and..."
Opinion: Very quick read, fairly enjoyable. Didn't like the characterization of some of the characters but not horrible.

Tutu Deadly by Natalie M. Roberts

Started: 2/28/07
Finished: 3/4/07
Year: 2007
Pages: 248
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf
Blurb (from back cover): "Meet Jenny T. Partridge, founder of the Ogden, Utah's premier school for budding prima-and not-so-prima-ballerinas. For Jenny, dealing with difficult stage mothers is business as usual...until murder cuts in.
"When the obnoxious mother of Jenny's most talented student meets her make-courtesy of poisoned cookie dough purchased through the Academy's fund-raiser-Jenny must dance as fast as she can to clear her name."
Opinion: Very funny in parts, especially the characterization of Jenny. A good mystery. For a more complete review, check out MyShelf.com

The Dark Tower by Stephen King

Started: 2/23/07
Finished: 2/28/07
Year: 2004
Pages: 839
Genre: Fiction
Grade: C-
Reason for reading: finishing The Dark Tower series, borrowed from Natalie
Blurb (from back cover): "Set in a world of extraordinary circumstances, filled with stunning visual imagery and unforgettable characters, The Dark Tower series is unlike anything you have ever read. The final book opens like a door to the uttermost reaches of Stephen King's imagination. You've come this far. Come a little farther. Come all the way. The sound you hear may be the slamming of the door behind you. Welcome to The Dark Tower."
Opinion: I am very disappointed in this series. I feel that Stephen King could have done so much more with this series and didn't. I understand the taking of years to complete it, especially after taking several years off from writing the books. I'm just so disappointed in how it ended. Can't call it horror. Can't call it suspense. Can't call it thriller. Just disappointing.

Thinner by Richard Bachman

Started: 2/19/07
Finished: 2/23/07
Year: 1984
Pages: 318
Genre: Horror
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from back cover): "Billy Halleck, good husband, loving father, is both beneficiary and victim of the American Good Life: he has an expensive home, a nice family, and a rewarding career as a lawyer...but he is also fifty pounds overweight and, as his doctor keeps reminding him, edging into heart attach country.
"Then, in a moment of carelessness, Billy sideswipes an old gypsy woman as she is crossing the street-and her ancient father passes a bizarre and terrible judgment on him.
"'Thinner', the old gypsy man whispers, and caresses his cheek, like a lover. Just one word...but six weeks later and ninety-three pounds lighter, Billy Halleck is more than worried. He's terrified. And desperate enough for one last gamble...that will lead him to a nightmare showdown with the forces of evil melting his flesh away. And away. And away..."
Opinion: This was a re-read for me. I had forgotten certain details so I'm glad I read this one again.

Spanish Dagger by Susan Witting Albert

Started: 2/16/07
Finished: 2/19/07
Year: 2007
Pages: 308
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for myshelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Between the herb shop, the catering business, and now a weekend papermaking class, China Bayles and her friends have as much work as they can handle. Of course, that doesn't stop the rest of their lives from going on-or coming to an end, as the case may be. Ruby, for example, is troubled by her mother's recent strange behavior and upset that her ex-boyfriend has stood her up yet again.Meanwhile, China's half brother is opening up old wounds, trying to investigate their father's supposedly accidental death.
"Although she can't stop her husband from taking the case-after all, he's a PI who hasn't had a bite in months-she can at least put the unsavory business out of mind by gathering supplies for making paper. But in a patch of yucca plants, which make great paper, she finds a body-cause of death, unknown.
"Many residents of Pecan Springs live seemingly simple lives that hide complex and dangerous pasts. It appears this victim was one of them. And now, while unraveling secrets that hit close to home, China must set the record straight-and find a killer."
Opinion: A pretty good mystery. I really liked the little facts that Susan Witting Albert added to each chapter. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com

Fear and Trembling by Amelie Nothomb

Started: 2/14/07
Finished: 2/16/07
Year: 1999
Pages: 132
Genre: Memoir
Grade: C
Reason for reading: booksfree.com
Blurb (from back cover): "According to ancient Japanese protocol foreigners deigning to approach the emperor did so only with fear and trembling. Terror and self-abasement conveyed respect. Amelie, our well-intentioned and eager young Western heroine, goes to Japan to spend a year working at the Yumimoto Corporation. Returning to the land where she was born is the fulfillment of a dream for Amelie; working there turns into a comic nightmare.
"Alternately disturbing and hilarious, unbelievable and shatteringly convincing, Fear and Trembling will keep readers clutching tight to its pages, caught up in the throes of fear, trembling, and, ultimately, delight."
Opinion: A lot of outlandish things happen in this book-several are unbelievable. Lots of funny parts.