Private by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro

Started: 6/21/10
Finished: 6/25/10
Year: 2010
Pages: 385
Genre: Mystery
Grade: C
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Former Marine helicopter pilot Jack Morgan runs Private, a renowned investigation company with branches around the globe. It is where you go when you need maximum force and maximum discretion The secrets of the most influential men and women on the planet comes to Jack daily-and his staff of investigators use the world's most advanced forensic tools to make and break the case.
"Jack is already deep into the investigation of a multimillion-dollar NFL gambling scandal and the unsolved slayings of thirteen schoolgirls when he learns of a horrific murder close to him: his best friend's wife, Jack's former lover, has been killed. It nearly pushes him over the edge. Instead, Jack pushes back and devotes all of Private's resources to tracking down her killer.
"But Jack doesn't have to play by the rules. As he closes in on the killer and chooses between revenge and justice, he has to navigate a workplace love affair that threatens to blow the roof off his plans."
Opinion: I really wish that Patterson would take the time to actually write. This book just had too many plotlines that made it ugh. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.

Kiss and Kill by Dale Hudson

Started: 6/14/10
Finished: 6/21/10
Year: 2008
Pages: 352
Genre: True Crime
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBS shelf
Blurb (from back cover): "Rick Pulley was a highly respected member of his Virginia community, a youth pastor and music director at his River of Life Church. When his devoted wife mysteriously vanished, few would suspect that Rick was somehow involved. Three-and-a-half years later, police found Patty Jo's decomposed body under a bridge, and a cold case suddenly turned red hot.
"Soon, the dark secrets beneath a life of lies were brought to light, with sordid details of adultery, phone sex, rage, madness-and finally murder. As a dramatic trial unfolded, a shocked community realized that Rick Pulley had nearly gotten away with the cold-blooded killing of Patty Jo.
"This extraordinary true story looks inside the hear of a close-knit community, behind bedroom doors, church doors, and jail cell doors-where a diabolical drama led to murder, a relentless investigation shattered innocence and illusions, and a monster was finally convicted of murder in the first degree."
Opinion: Another strong true crime novel by Dale Hudson. What is sad that we will never have another one by him since he passed away this past week. RIP Dale.

Fever Dream by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

Started: 6/4/10
Finished: 6/14/10
Year: 2010
Pages: 405
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "At the old family manse in Louisiana, Special Agent Pendergast is putting to rest long-ignored reminders of this wife Helen's tragic death, only to make a dreadful discovery. Helen had been mauled by a large and vicious lion while they were big game hunting in Africa. But now Pendergast finds that her rifle-her only protection from the beast-had been deliberately loaded with blanks. Who could have wanted Helen dead...and why?
"With Lt. Vincent D'Agosta's assistance, Pendergast embarks on a quest for justice. It is a journey that sends him deep into his murdered wife's past, where he is stunned by how much she kept hidden from him. Helen Pendergast had nursed a private obsession with the fame naturalist-painter John James Audubon and spent years hunting for an infamous, long-lost painting of his known as the Black Flame.
"In a night of shocking violence deep in the Louisiana bayou, Pendergast gains some answers to the riddle of his wife's death, but he is left with an even greater mystery: Who was the woman he married?"
Opinion: I felt like I was on a little adventure while reading this book. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the future months.

These Dreams by Barbara Chepaitis

Started: 6/2/10
Finished: 6/4/10
Year: 2002
Pages: 308
Genre: Literature
Grade: A
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR
Blurb (from back cover): "When a stranger poses this question in a supermarket checkout line, Cricket Thompson is jolted out of her everyday life to face a startling revelation: She has a loving husband and two wonderful teenage daughters and feels profoundly and utterly alone. The tides of change are slowly pulling her toward something new and barely recognizable: another man. But before she can even contemplate this internal shift, an act of deadly violence erupts at the local shopping mall, causing Cricket's whole world to come crashing down. Through the prism of this surreal crisis, Cricket's life is irrevocably altered...and without her knowledge or consent, she is lunged into the kind of cataclysmic event that by its very nature breeds transformation. An exploration of the solace of dreams and the fragility of being wide awake, These Dreams is an astoundingly powerful and heart-wrenchiing novel that no reader will soon forget."
Opinion: A truly powerful story that will get you thinking.

The Cloud of Unknowing by Thomas H. Cook

Started: 5/30/10
Finished: 6/2/10
Year: 2007
Pages: 310
Genre: mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): "David Sears grew up in the shadow of his brilliant younger sister, Diana, convinced by their father that she would accomplish great things. Instead, she married and had a son, Jason, who-like David and Diana's father-is schizphrenic. Her husband, Mark, a geneticist, never made peace with Jason's condition.
"Perhaps this is why, when Jason drowns, Diana will not accept the authorities' conclusion that his death was accidental. Or perhaps Diana is going mad. She begins to send David faxes and e-mails about ancient murders, driven by her growing belief that the earth is Gaia, a living witness to her son's murder who could give evidence in the case she is building against her husband. David soon fears for his own family's safety as the seductive qualities of Diana's manic energy become impossible to ignore."
Opinion: Back to the traditional writing style that I've come to enjoy from this author. A definite decent read.

Twisted by Jeffrey Deaver

Started: 5/26/10
Finished: 5/30/10
Year: 2003
Pages: 383
Genre: mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed it off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): "New York Times bestselling author Jeffrey Deaver has long thrilled fans with tales of masterful villains and their nefarious ways, and the brilliant minds who bring them to justice. Now the author of the Lincoln Rhyme series has collected for the first time his award-winning, spine-tingling stories of suspense-stories that will widen your eyes and stretch your imagination.
"A beautiful woman goes to extremes to rid herself of her stalker; a daughter begs her father not to go fishing in an area where there have been a series of brutal killings; a contemporary of the playwright William Shakespeare vows to avenge his family's ruin; and Jeffrey Deaver's most beloved character, a criminalist Lincoln Rhyme, is back to solve a chilling Christmastime disappearance."
Opinion: Almost all the stories had a twist that I wasn't expecting. All of the stories were enjoyable.

Pig Island by Mo Hayder

Started: 5/23/10
Finished: 5/26/10
Year: 2006
Pages: 494
Genre: mystery/suspense
Grade: B
Reason for reading: bookray through Bookcrossing.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Journalist Joe Oakes makes a living exposing supernatural hoaxes. But what he sees when he visits a secretive religious community on a remote Scottish island forces him to question everything he thought he knew.
"Why have the islanders been accused of Satanism? What has happened to their leader? And why will no one discuss the strange creature seen wanderint the lonely beaches of Pig Island?"
Opinion: Not as good as her previous novels but still worth the read.

Peril by Thomas H. Cook

Started: 5/21/10
Finished: 5/23/10
Year: 2004
Pages: 308
Genre: Suspense
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): "Sara Labriola is a married woman haunted by the shattering secrets of her past-and terrified of the future. Tired of living in fear, Sara decides to do the only thing she can: she makes herself disappear.
"On the sultry, seductive streets of New York City, Sara will reinvent herself. She will change her identity, and maybe even get the happy ending she's always dreamed of.
"But six desperate and dangerous men-each with the power to destroy her-are on Sara's trail. And none of them suspect that the woman they are seeking has a dangerous secret of her own. For Sara is leading all of them down a path of private demons, past sins...and the deadliest peril."
Opinion: Not as good as his other novels. The style was very different. Ending seemed a little rushed.

Real Hauntings: True American Ghost Stories by Hans Holzer

Started: 5/16/10
Finished: 5/21/10
Year: 1995
Pages: 337
Genre: Paranormal/Ghosts
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: grabbed of the TBR shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): "Hans Holzer's Real Hauntings continues his account of true, authenticated case histories of hauntings throughout the United States.
"From the restless shade of a sea captain on Cape Cod, to the remorseful parishioner at St. Mark's in New York who is unable to forget her extramarital affair, to the little girl ghost of Landsdowne, Pennsylvania, who can't quite understand what happened to her world, Real Hauntings chronicles the fascinating and dramatic accounts of the tree experiences that ordinary people have had with the world beyond our own.
"New Hampshire, Virginia, California, Louisiana, Minnesota: Ghostly encounters can occur anywhere and to anyone. Among the many remarkable encounters in Real Hauntings is the story about the ghost of a young girl killed during a wild party in Hollywood; the testimony of tenants at an 18th-century carriage house in New York's 'Hell's Kitchen' regarding the several ghost they have encountered; and the account of the piano-playing phantom in an old house in Arkansas. In all, twenty-five true, witnessed accounts are reported here by Dr. Hans Holzer."
Opinion: Some interesting hauntings. This book documents a lot of Holzer's investigations from the 1960s.

Red Leaves by Thomas H. Cook

Started: 5/16/10
Finished: 5/16/10
Year: 2005
Pages: 289
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): "Eric Moore has reason to be happy. He has a prosperous business, a comfortable home, a stable family life in a quiet town. Then, on an ordinary night, his teenage son Keith is asked to babysit Amy Giordano, the eight-year-old daughter of a neighboring family. The next morning Amy is missing.
"Suddenly Eric is one of the stricken parents he has seen on television, professing faith in his child's innocence. As the police investigation increasingly focuses on Keigh, Eric must consel his son, find him a lawyer, protect him from the community's steadily growing suspicion. Except that Eric is not so sure his son is innocent. And if Keith is not...and might do the same thing again...what then should a father do?"
Opinion: It's a simple story and moves quickly. Not as strong as some of his other books but still a decent read.

Open: An Autobiography by Andre Agassi

Started: 5/11/10
Finished: 5/16/10
Year: 2009
Pages: 388
Genre: Non fiction/autobiography
Grade: A
Reason for reading: birthday present from Evan
Blurb (from book jacket): "He is one of the most beloved athletes in history and one of the most gifted men ever to step onto a tennis court-but from early childhood Andre Agassi hated the game. Coaxed to swing a racket while still in the crib, forced to hit hundreds of balls a day while still in grade school, Agassi resented the constant pressure even as he drove himself to become a prodigy, an inner conflict that would define him. Now, in his beautiful, haunting autobiography, Agassi tells the story of a life framed by such conflicts, a life balanced precariously between self-destruction and perfectionism.
"Agassi makes us feel his panic as an undersized seven-year-old in Las Vegas, practicing all day under the obsessive gaze of his violent father. We see him at thirteen, banished to a Florida tennis camp that feels like a prison camp. Lonely, scared, a ninth-grade drop-out, he rebels in ways that will soon make him a 1980s icon. He dyes his hair, pierces his ears, dresses like a punk rocker. By the time he turns pro at sixteen, his new look promises to change tennis forever, as does his lightning-fast return.
"And yet, despite his raw talent, he struggles early on. We feel his confusion as he loses to the world's best, his greater confusion as he starts to win. After stumbling in three Grand Slam finals, Agassi shocks the world, and himself, by capturing the 1992 Wimbledon. Overnight he becomes a fan favorite and a media target.
"Agassi brings a near-photographic memory to every pivotal match and every public relationship. Never before has the inner game of tennis and the outer game of fame been so precisely limned. Alongside vivid protraits of rivals from several generations-Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer-Agassi gives unstinging accounts of his brief time with Barbra Streisand and his doomed marriage to Brooke Shields. He reveals the depression that shatters his confidence, and the mistake that nearly costs him everything. Finally, he recounts his spectacular resurrection, a comeback climaxing with his epic run at the 1999 French Open and his march to become the oldest man ever ranked number one.
"In clear, taut prose, Agassi evokes his loyal brother, his wise coach, his gentle trainer, all the people who help him regain his balance and find love at last with Stefanie Graf. Inspired by her quiet strength, he fights through crippling pain from a deteriorating spine to remain a dangerous opponent in the twenty-first and final year of his career. Entering his last tournament in 2006, he's hailed for completing a stunning metamorphosis, from nonconformist to elder statesman, from dropout to education advocate. And still he's not done. At a US Open for the ages, he makes a courageous last stand, then delivers one of the mother stirring farewells ever heard in a sporting arena."
Opinion: I have watched this man since he became pro. My mother would say I've obsessed over him. This book confirmed a lot of thoughts I've had about him over the years. Nothing in it shocked me. I cried while reading about some of his Grand Slam wins-just like I did when I watched him win them. I cried at the end just like I did when he gave his farewell speech.

Living at the Edge of the World by Jamie Pastor Bolnick and Tina S.

Started: 5/8/10
Finished: 5/11/10
Year: 2000
Pages: 283
Genre: Memoir
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "In this powerful and inspiring true story, Tina S. tells of four years living in the train tunnels beneath Grand Central Station amidst the homeless and the drug addicted. What begins as an adventure quickly turns into a nightmare as she describes daily life in a netherworld most people don't even know exists. With heartbreaking honesty Tina chronicles her descent into crack addiction, her several arrests and jail terms, and her overwhelming grief and guilt over the death of April, her best friend and fellow runaway.
"Finally faced with the reality that she might not make it through one more day, Tina begins the long struggle back to the world of the living. This is an unforgettable story of one young woman's indomitable will to survive."
Opinion: A great story but I didn't like the format of the book. It's amazing what this woman went through.

9 Dragons by Michael Connelly

Started: 5/3/10
Finished: 5/8/10
Year:2009
Pages: 374
Genre: Mystery
Grade: B+
Reason for reading: borrowed from library
Blurb (from book jacket): "Fortune Liquors is a small shop in a tough South LA neighborhood, a store Detective Harry Bosch has known for years. Bosch still carries in his pocket a matchbook he picked up there on a case years ago. Its motto-'Happy is the man who finds refuge in himself'-has been a guiding light through some of his darkest days. The murder of John Li, the store's owner, hits Harry hard, and he promises Li's family that he'll find the killer.
"The world Bosch steps into next is unknown territory. He brings in a detective from the Asian Gang Unit for help with translation-not just of languages but also of the cultural norms and expectations that guided Mr. Li's life. He uncovers a link to a Hong Kong Triad, a lethal and far-fetching crime ring that follows many immigrants to their new lives in the United States.
"And instantly his world explodes. The one good thing in Bosch's life, the person he holds most dear, is taken from him, and Harry travels to Hong Kong in an all-or-nothing bid to regain what he's lost. In a place known as Nine Dragons, as the city's Hungry Ghosts festival burns around him. Bosch puts aside everything he knows and risks everything he has in a desperate attempt to outmatch the triad's ferocity."
Opinion: Another great fast paced thriller from Connelly.

Finny by Justin Kramon

Started: 4/30/10
Finished: 5/3/10
Year: 2010
Pages: 366
Genre: Literature
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from first page): We meet Finny Short as in impish fourteen-year-old, whose sly sense of humor can't hide the fact that she simply doesn't belong. Finny's socialite mother can't understand her, her father quotes Nietzsche over pancakes, and her brother's too busy to sympathize. The only person who makes her feel normal is her neighbor Earl Henckel, but his life is anything but normal...When turmoil at home results in Finny's deporation to Thorndon Boarding School, she finds herself catapulted into an even stranger landscape populated by a Dickensian array of eccentric characters, including a seductive New York heiress, a mercuial dorm mother namped Poplan, and a narcoleptic piano teacher whose own mysterious past will prove to bear on Finny's future.
"The entertaining, wickedly funny odyssey that follows propels Finny in an unpredictable world of intrigue and adventure, spanning twenty years and two continents, where she learns to navigate the treacherous waters of adulthood and is forced to rethink her loyalties to both family and friends. A charming and hilarious debut with a deeply felt love story at its core. Finny introduces us to both an unforgettable young woman and a talented and exitingly original new literary voice."
Opinion: Finny is one of the better literary characters that I've read in a long time. It is clear that Mr. Kramon has done his literary reading and is influenced greatly by the readings. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.

The Most Evil Men and Women in History by Miranda Twiss

Started: 4/19/10
Finished: 4/30/10
Year: 2002
Pages: 189
Genre: History
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBS shelf
Blurb (from book jacket): "Evil is a fact of life. We can see it, not only in the reigns of Stalin and Hitler, but also in everyday crimes like murder, rape and assault-quite apart from the millions of lives brutalized by political or religious oppression, poverty, disease and starvation.
"One factor unites the sixteen men and women featured in this book and the evil acts they committed-they all had unlimited power over the people whose lives they controlled. Their reigns of terror cover a time-span of nearly two thousand years, from the rule of Caligula over the Roman Empire starting in 37AD, to the genocide of education Cambodians under Pol Pot during the 1980s. Motivated by power, religion, political belief, or by sadism and lust, and sometimes by insantity, they have become bywords for terror throughout the world.
"As ths book shows, however, there are degrees of evil. Hitler and Stalin between them murdered tens of millions of people: Elizabeth Bathrory, the so-called 'Countess Dracula,' probably fewer than the hundreds named by her accusers. Even so, the red threads of cruelty, torture and terror that run through these sixteen lives makes this fascinating, if uncomfortable, book a terrifying record of cold-hearted brutality, an infamous roll of inhumanity on a scale almost incomprehensible in its lack of tolerance and mercy."
Opinion: An interesting historical look at some of the cruelist people to have ever lived. Most of the 16, people would recognize.

The True Love Quilting Club by Lori Wilde

Started: 4/16/10
Finished: 4/19/10
Year: 2010
Pages: 372
Genre: Romance
Grade: B
Reason for reading: review for Myshelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Trixie Lynn Parks changed her name to Emma, shook the dust of Twilight, Texas, off her shoes, and vowed to make it big in the city. But after twelve years of shatterd dreams, she heads back to the ladies of the True Love Quilting Club...and to her first love, Sam Cheek.
"Some things-and some people-sure have changed. Sam has grown from a carefree boy to a single dad. And even though the chemistry between them sizzles hotter than ever, Trixie Lynn quickly discovers she must choose between the fame and fortune that have finally come her way-or the one true love who has the power to mend her patchwork heart."
Opinion: Not a bad romance. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.

Hell House & Other True Hauntings from Around the World by Alison Rattle and Allison Vale

Started: 4/12/10
Finished: 4/16/10
Year: 2005
Pages: 207
Genre: Paranormal
Grade: B
Reason for reading: Grabbed off the TBR pile
Blurb (from back cover): "Whether you're a skeptic looking for proof or a believer steadily collating evidence, ghost stories are a constant source of fascination. In this book we'll convert the cynics and arm the enthusiasts with facts and figures, first-hand accounts of ghostly sightings, and the frightening truth behind the stories."
Opinion: Not a lot of indepth information but does have some more recent sightings. Locations are from all over the world.

Friends of the Family: The Inside Story of the Mafia Cops Case by Tommy Dades, Michael Vecchione with David Fisher

Started: 4/5/10
Finished: 4/12/10
Year: 2009
Pages: 381
Genre: True Crime
Grade: B-
Reason for reading: review for MyShelf.com
Blurb (from back cover): "Two decorated NYPD detectives with access to the department's most sensitive information, Louie Eppolito and Steve Caracappa sold their badges to the Mafia-and became murderers for the mob. The most dangerous corrupt cops in American history, they left behind a pile of bodies when the retired in the early 1990s. For more than a decade it looked as if they were going to get away with it-until Detective Tommy Dades and Brooklyn Assistant DA Mike Vecchione turned a seemingly dead-end investigation into one of the New York City's greatest law-and-order stories."
Opinion: An interesting story and one that I remember from living there. Writing was very New York Cityish. For a more complete review, check out MyShelf in the upcoming months

Blood and Gold by Anne Rice

Started: 3/21/10
Finished: 4/5/10
Year: 2001
Pages: 564
Genre: Fiction
Grade: B
Reason for reading: grabbed off the TBR shelf
Blurb (from back cover): "Once a proud Senator in Imperial Rome, Marius is kidnapped and forced into that dark realm of blood, where he is made a protector of the Queen and King of the vampires-in whom the core of the supernatural race resides. Through his eyes we see the fall of pagan Rome to the Emperor Constantine, the horrific sack of the Eternal City at the hands of the Visigoths, and the vile aftermath of the Black Death. Ultimately restored by the beauty of the Renaissance, Marius becomes a painter, living dangerously yet happily among mortals, and giving his heart to the great master Botticelli, to the bewitching courtesan Bianca, and to the mysterious young apprectice Armand. But it isn the preset day, deep in the jungle, when Marius will meet his fate seeking justice from the oldest vampires in the world..."
Opinion: An enjoyable addition to the Vampire Chronicles.

Hush by Kate White

Started: 3/14/10
Finished: 3/21/10
Year: 2010
Pages: 341
Genre: Mystery/Suspense
Grade: B
Reason for reading: Review for Myshelf.com
Blurb (from book jacket): "When Lake Warren learns that her husband, Jack, is suing for full custody of their two kids four months after their separation, she's pretty certain that things can't get any worse. The upside is that she's working with the Advanced Fertility Center as a marketing consultant, alongside the attractive, flirtatious Dr. Keaton. But the morning after their one-mnight stand, Lake finds Keaton with his throat slashed and discovers that things can indeed become worse-they can become deadly.
"So as not to jeopardize her case for custody, Lake is forced to lie to the police. Having just been intimate with a man who has been murdered, and wanting to protect herself from being charged with the crime, she begins her own search for the truth. Meanwhile, the police start looking at her closely, people at the clinic start treating her with hostility, and strange clues begin dropping-quite literally-on her doorstep, and Lake realizes that she is dangerously close to dark secrets, both about Keaton and the clinic. But can Lake stop what's she's started before it's too late?"
Opinion: An enjoyable quick suspenseful read. For a more complete review, please check out MyShelf.com in the upcoming months.