March 26, 2009

The Keepsake by Tess Gerritsen

When a mummy is examined by CT scan and found to have dental fillings and a bullet in it, Medical Examiner Maura Isles and Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli know that it is a modern day murder victim not a centuries old relic. As more carefully preserved bodies show up, they realize they are dealing with a monster. A monster that has been following his intended prey for years, from Egypt to Mexico and back to Boston.

A fast ride like a roller coaster, but like a roller coaster has rails and a specific path it travels, the plot for this thriller is carefully woven and the twists and turns only make the ride more thrilling. Even though police think they know who the killer is, a revelation takes all by surprise, but is not unbelievable and as the detective has an “Aha!” moment, so does the reader. In the end not everyone is who they say they are and yet it is written with such skill that it is not confusing. The full involvement of other characters is not fully known until the end.

I recommend this book.


Challenge: The 2009 Support Your Local Library Challenge
Shelfari Suspense and Thrillers March Group Reads

Posted by on March 26, 2009 in Suspense and tagged , , .

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March 24, 2009

Splash Award

Thank you, Cheryl and Amber at Just Your Typical Book Blog , for nominating me for another award! Splash Award is an award given to alluring, amusing, bewitching, impressive and inspiring blogs.

The Rules:

1) Put the logo on your blog/post.
2) Nominate up to 9 blogs which allure, amuse, bewitch, impress or inspire you.
3) Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4) Let them know that they have been splashed by commenting on their blog.
5) Remember to link to the person from whom your received your Splash award.

I would like to nominate the following blogs:
Alyce at At Home With Books
susan at Black-Eyed Susan’s
karen at Border Town Notes
Vodka Mom at I Need a Martini Mom
Irish Gumbo at Irish Gumbo
Laurie at It all started at Kent State University!
Scrap It Up (a.k.a. Kendahl) at New To This Whole ‘Mommy’ Thing
ollie1976 at The World According to Ollie
Mary Anne at The Stiletto Mom
Vickie at Vixen’s Daily Reads

Posted by on March 24, 2009 in Uncategorized and tagged , , .

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March 24, 2009

Singularity by Kathryn Casey

Kathryn Casey is perhaps best known for her non-fiction, true crime writings, here she tries her hand at fiction in the account of Sarah Armstrong, a single mother, profiler and member of Texas’ most elite group of law men, the Texas Rangers.

The murder of a megawealthy businessman and his mistress leads local police to the man’s wife, Sarah sees the work of a serial killer. As other similar murders occur, it appears she is right but she finds herself the object of the killer’s obsession. As she gets close to solving the case, the madmen closes in on her and those close to her.

Singularity features a feisty, funny, and tough heroine and a truly creepy killer, as it races along to a chilling and unexpected climax.

I have been a fan of Kathryn Casey’s true crime books and was interested in see how she did with a fictional account. Her solid writing skills shine through, and while I cannot say I loved it, I did like it and would recommend it to others. Characters are well drawn and the plot is believable, no wild twists but the increasing depravity of the killer becomes apparent before a pulse raising conclusion. A conclusion that hints there will be more Sarah Armstrong novels. We can only hope and pray and beg.

Challenge: Support Your Local Library

Posted by on March 24, 2009 in Suspense and tagged , , , .

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March 23, 2009

Mailbox Monday


Happy Monday!! Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page. We share what books that we found in our mailboxes last week. I also include books I have bought. Here’s what I received:

  1. The Laws of Harmony by Judith Ryan Hendricks from the February batch of Early Reviewers, Library Thing.

I also got this past week, my Sony Reader! I got it in Sangria Red and had it engraved with Bella is reading …

Then I just had to get some E-Books:

  1. Starvation Heights by Gregg Olsen
  2. Die, My Love by Kathryn Casey
  3. The Glimpses of the Moon by Edith Wharton (free book)

Posted by on March 23, 2009 in Uncategorized and tagged , , , .

2 Comments

March 22, 2009

The Sisterhood Award

I have been honored with this beautiful award from my sister blogger DeSeRt RoSe at DeSeRt RoSe BoOkLoGuE, the name of the award says it all 🙂 I appreciate you thinking of me DeSeRt RoSe 😉 right back at you 🙂

Here are the rules to spread the sisterhood spirit:

  1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
  2. Nominate up to 10 blogs which show great attitude and/or gratitude!
  3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
  4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
  5. Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.

My sisters that I nominate this award to are…

Kat at 3 Bedroom Bungalow to Let in Crazytown
JonJon at A DEDICATION OF LOVE
Sarah at Brit Gal’ in the USA
Imzadi Dragonfly at Imzadi Dragonfly’s Look on Things
J. Kaye at J. Kaye’s Book Blog
Jenn at Jenn’s Bookshelf
Jennifer at Jennifer’s Books
jlshall at Joy’s Blog
Kay at Musings
Peggy at Musings of Meggie
Daryl at on the m104
Tami at Straight Toque With Tami, Eh?
Hilary at Viva Law Vegas

OK, yes I went over my limit, but I like all these blogs and I wanted these blogger to know that I read and like them, even if I don’t comment a lot.

Posted by on March 22, 2009 in Uncategorized and tagged , , .

11 Comments

March 22, 2009

Challenges I’m Doing in 2009

  1. Naming Conventions Challenge – Read books dictated by your name
  2. 2009 TBR Challenge
  3. The 2009 Support Your Local Library Challenge
  4. What’s In A Name 2 Challenge (1 Jan – 31 Dec 2009)
  5. RYOB 2009
  6. 2009 eBook Reading Challenge
  7. Lisa Jackson Read-a-Fest ~ completed June 10, 2009

Posted by on March 22, 2009 in Uncategorized and tagged , .

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March 20, 2009

Changes

I made a couple of changes to my blog.

The first was I took out the list of books read in 2009 from the sidebar and put in a link to a blog post with with list of books. So now I have 2009, 2008 and 2007 books read easily accessible. Also in the post are links to any reviews I may have written about the books.

The other thing I did is take out all the challenges in the sidebar and below the main blog posts. Instead there is one list of the challenges I am doing and links to the blog posts describing them.

These changes are for two reasons. One I didn’t like how long the sidebars were getting, and two, I was having trouble finding the challenge posts when I wrote a review.

Posted by on March 20, 2009 in Uncategorized and tagged .

3 Comments

March 19, 2009

One Thousand White Women by Jim Fergus

In 1854 at a peace conference at Fort Laramie, a prominent Northern Cheyenne chief requested of the U.S. Army authorities the gift of one thousand white women as brides for his young warriors. This seemed to the Cheyennes to be the perfect means of assimilation into white man’s world. This did not go over well with the white authorities.

From this historical event was born the idea for this novel. In actuality the women did not go, this novel is a fictional account of what may have happened if they had.

The book is written as if it is the journal and letters ‘home’ of one of the women, the writer has captured the voice of the woman and stays true to it throughout the book. It has a good storyline, he even writes a convincing ending to the account, in how it ended up in his hands and was preserved through the years. It moved along at a good pace, slow enough to give a feeling for the women’s new life and not dragging along, getting bogged down in details. There are some violent scenes that may be disturbing to some readers, I didn’t feel these were either too graphic or unnecessary. In all I thought this was a very entertaining well written book.

Challenge: Support Your Local Library

Posted by on March 19, 2009 in Uncategorized and tagged , , .

2 Comments

March 19, 2009

The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton by Jane Smiley

These are the adventures of Lidie Newton. She’s born, her mother dies, she gets sent to live with her half-sister, her father’s daughter not her mother’s daughter. Then her father dies, they have a funeral. Her half-sisters discuss what should be done with her. She is married off to an abolitionist and leaves for Kansas. They travel in a steamboat. They stake a claim, build a cabin of sorts, sleep on a hand sewed bed that Lidie sewed, even though she tell us at the beginning of the book that she can’t sew. Lidie chases away vermin puts mud in the cracks in the walls. Worries about her nephew, worries about her husband. They move into town for the winter and live with other people. People die and get murdered, good guys and bad. They go back to their claim after winter, and then we get to the “cold-blooded murder” that “invades her own intimate circle”. By now we are more than halfway through the book.

It has taken me far to long to get to this point. The narrative crawls, we know every detail of her life, even when the murder happens, she calmly relates it, tells about the fear and panic she feels, but with no feeling. There is too much description and too much detail. I didn’t finish this book so I don’t know how it ends, if Lidie found the killers and got her revenge, the book jacket promises us we get to know Lidie, by this point I didn’t want to, I just knew that I didn’t like this book.

Challenge: Support Your Local Library

Posted by on March 19, 2009 in Uncategorized and tagged , .

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March 16, 2009

Lisa Jackson Read-a-Fest

Beginning April 1st thru June 30th, J. Kaye’s Book Blog will host a Lisa Jackson Read-a-Fest. The idea is to read as many Lisa Jackson books in the months of April, May, and June. It could be as little as one book or as many as you’d like. This is not a reading challenge, but will work well with many of the challenges in place, such as Serial Readers Challenge 2009, 1st in a Series, 2nd in a Series and Series Challenge Season 3. Click on the picture to go to the blog post to sign up.

I going to try to read these four books.
San Francisco / Cahill Family
1. If She Only Knew ~ Finished May 26
2. Almost Dead ~ Finished June 10

Northwest
1. Deep Freeze ~ Finished June 4
2. Fatal Burn ~ Finished May 30

Posted by on March 16, 2009 in Uncategorized and tagged , , .

4 Comments