Random books from Bookmarque's library

Switcheroo by Olivia Goldsmith

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Darling Jim: A Novel by Christian Moerk

The Nature Handbook: A Guide to Observing the Great Outdoors by Ernest Herbert Williams

Understanding Tropical Fish (Interpet Handbooks) by Gina Sandford

Kindness of Women by J. G. Ballard

Green Iguana: The Ultimate Owner's Manual by James W. Hatfield, III

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Member: Bookmarque

CollectionsYour library (1,097), Currently reading (4), To read (6), Ken's Books (196), Favorites (3), Corralled (58), Read but unowned (310), Childhood books (58), Stuck in the Middle (14), Of Interest (7), ER Requests (6), Kicked to the Curb (41), Loaned Out (2), Wishlist (15), All collections (1,743)

Reviews573 reviews

Tagshb (360), series (358), crime thriller (267), 1st ed. (196), Ken (189), mmpb (174), shb (149), mystery/detective (148), British (132), general fiction (128) — see all tags

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

Groups40-Something Library Thingers, All Things New England, Blog the Book, Cemeteries & Gravestones, Crime, Thriller & Mystery, Early Reviewers, History at 30,000 feet: The Big Picture, King's Dear Constant Readers, Outdoor Readers, Someone explain it to me...show all groups

Favorite authorsDouglas Adams, T. C. Boyle, Raymond Chandler, Robert Crais, Michael Crichton, Jeffery Deaver, Edward Gorey, P. D. James, Stephen King, Dennis Lehane, Patrick McGrath, Sue Miller, Ruth Rendell, John Sandford, Martin Cruz Smith, Ross Thomas (Shared favorites)

Favorite bookstoresBarnes & Noble Booksellers - Manchester, RiverRun Books

About meAm in my early 40s, married, no kids unless you count 3 spoiled cats. Besides a persistent tendency to read I have been known to occasionally travel, hike, take photographs, make jewelry, cross country ski, ride motorcycles and drive fast cars. I also have a love of food, wine and heavy metal. My iPod almost never leaves my side and I'm an avid fitness walker averaging 25 miles a week.

My other obsession is movies...when I'm not reading or doing one of those other things, I'm watching a movie. If there were a MovieThing...I'd be there, too, cataloging away.

I'm also a jewelry artist and sell my work via two online markets with different styles of pieces -

Strictly modern - http://www.thewiresmith.1000markets.com

Not-so-Strictly modern - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=601...

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LTUN 59825

About my libraryIf you’re looking for method or correctness, this is not the library for you. I buy books on a whim, but stick with authors I like until they disappoint me {coughPatriciaCornwellcough}. Some years I buy a lot of books, some years I don’t (that whole no money thing sure is a drag, huh?). Sometimes I purge my collection. Once nearly all my books were stolen. I rarely ever give books away.

Turn ons include thrillers and books about crime with an occasional foray into some historical fiction and what I would call “quality modern literature”. I like a good detective series, but not too many because there is only so much time to read and collect and remember the characters. My lust for coffee table books must be reigned in with discipline. Turn offs include romance, fantasy, “heartwarming” Oprah choices and classics labeled as such because they are merely old.

Notes on Collections:
Yeah, I’m one of those. A LibraryThing Purist. Until Collections released I only entered books I owned. Those are housed in the My Library collection. All else is vaporware and collected in the following ways;

Childhood Books – pretty self-explanatory, these are books I owned or read as a kid; those I can remember anyway.
Corralled – books contained within omnibuses in my collection.
Kicked to the Curb – books purged over the years; either accidentally on or purpose.
Read not Owned – self-explanatory.
Wishlist – books I plan to purchase at some point. Stars indicated level of desirability.
Of Interest – books that caught my eye, but haven’t made it to wishlist status.
Stuck in the Middle – books I still own that I’m stuck in. Maybe I’ll finish them, but maybe they’ll get Kicked to the Curb.
Ken – my husband’s books.
Loaned Out – self-explanatory. Dates and borrower’s name in comments.

Some tag info -
hb = standard hardback size
mmpb = mass market paperback
tpb = trade paperback
shb = hardback with the page size of a tpb (these bug me!)
lhb = hardback larger than standard, but not a coffee table
ospb = over or odd sized paperback
ken = books owned by my husband Ken
cover scan = actual scans of my books, fascinating huh?
lovcov = covers that I particularly like or was drawn to

Reading habits: I always have a few books going. Almost always fiction and different enough to suit my individual moods. I can read riding in the car or a plane or waiting for my turn in the dentist chair. Once I had a commute that was about 110 miles round trip so audio books were a lifesaver, and I still listen to them even without the drive.

For many years I have kept a Book Journal because my memory for things is pretty poor. That’s where I get most of my review material. I try not to include plot-spoilers, but will warn of such if it occurs to me.

So…enjoy. Have a laugh at my weird taste. Drop me a comment or two. Then leave me alone and let me get back to my book.

Cheers!

Homepagehttp://www.thebookmarque.blogspot.com

Also onEtsy, Flickr, StumbleUpon, Twitter, Yahoo Messenger

Membership LibraryThing Early Reviewers/Member Giveaway

Real name

LocationNew England, USA

Account typepublic, lifetime

Connection NewsConnection News

URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/Bookmarque (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Bookmarque (library)

Common KnowledgeSeries (278), Awards (275), Characters (6272), Places (1002)

Member sinceJul 19, 2006

Currently readingThe Gentle Axe by R. N. Morris
Wicked Prey by John Sandford
In cold blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences by Truman Capote
The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature by Steven Pinker

Leave a comment

I was glad to see someone else felt like I did about Atwood's latest book. Have you ever heard of Observatory Mansions by Edward Carey? It would fit in very well on your bookshelf, dark, twisted, and humorous.
This:
The term fiction reader needs quotes? Are we a euphemism? Do you not believe in us? Are we your fiction?

Totally cracked me up! Thanks!

(notice how I cleverly avoided the phase 'LOL', even though I DID!)
Hey there,

thanks for the comment on my rant about The Ruins, BTW even though I'm a Uiversity student, it's part time (distance learning), I'm one of those rare horror lovers in their 30s.

I do have to admit, it is a LOT harder to scare me lately, so I have to search even harder, the last really scary book I read was Robert Bloch's Psycho - which is weird bacuase I had seen the movie so I alreaday knew how everything turned out. I guess that's just the benefit of a really well done book.

Again, thanks!
It works! It's fabulous! Thank you so much!! :)

Also, it was great to meet you. It's definitely fun to sit down and chat with a fellow LTer.
Thanks for letting me know about that half star trick!
I saw your comment in the Owen Meany conversation, and had to tell you that I completely agree! I would have much rather gouged out my own eyeballs than finish that awful, awful book. Ugh.

Haha! Have a good day!

~Jenny
Hi, I am really sorry to bother you. I noticed that you have the Early Reviewers book called Primitive by Mark Nykanen and I was wondering if you could help me. I received the book but I can't figure out how to add it to my library. Whenever I search for it, it doesn't show a match. I need to add it so I can write a review. Could you tell me how you managed to add it to your library?
I added you to interesting libraries 'cause I love your reviews -- critical, funny, and personal. :-)

no one does St. Evanovich as well as you do.
You need to add 4 more books to your "Books Cataloged" total. 1,234 is a perfect number!

It's a slow night at Open Library. Sorry.

Mary Lou
AlyssaE: I will try to work on that! Thanks for pointing that out. I never really payed attention to that when i was typing. For me it's a little harder for me to use punctuation and everything on the computer. But, my mom said to tell you that she agrees with you. Then she walked off talking to my step dad about bow people use LOL and all that stuff these days. Then how catch phrases from the 70's would be understandable to him. I thought that conversation was pretty funny. I thought your comment was interesting though. Surprisingly enough as it is, English is my best subject. I would throughly like to apologize for not using punctuation (Proper typing grammar?). Thnaks again for calling me out on that.
Look at what showed up in my email today! A LIVE interview with Boyle, from the New York Times, no less:

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/02/1...

Hope it works for you.
Your review of Sweetpea's Secret had be laughing out loud, so much so that I had to read it to my husband. You sir have wit and I will now read anything that you write so be warned as my expectaions are high!

Well done!
thank you, thank for for your "Sweetpea" review - had a really grueling day and needed a good laugh. That you made it through 26 pages is astonishing. Appreciate your sharing those excruciating quotes.
"And before you award me the medal of bravery, I didn't actually read the whole thing. : )"

That's 26 pages that I won't be reading... and 26 pages of that drivel is enough to warrant a medal, if not an hour of your life back!
Howdy. I've just snickered, choked and o_0'd my way through your review of Sweetpea's Secret... an excellent, well-evidenced review.

Some books are just bad enough to warrant taking the effort to slate properly, aren't they? This was clearly one; your sacrifice in having to read the infernal thing is noted and appreciated!
I too have to comment on your review of Sweetpea's Secret. I have to say...how can you call this book bad? That's like calling fruitcake bad! Perhaps like the mysterious fruitcake, there's only one copy of this book floating around and it just gets passed from person to person gradually becoming a legend.

All that aside, I thought your review was entertaining and I have a feeling it's a much better read than the book would ever be. Keep up the good work and I only hope to aspire to the heights of your reviews!
Having read your reviews (not all but 4-5) over a period of time, I doubt strongly that I'm more discerning--maybe just the luck of the draw. i have hopes for the November one that's coming my way soon.

Joyce
Well done on the Sweet Pea review! Loved it. So far, I have really been disappointed in the quality of the books I have receiver on Early Review, but maybe 4 is not a good enough sample.

Joyce
I just read your review of Sweetpea's Secret. Great job. If you hadn't included all those quotes, I wouldn't have believed it could be so absolutely terrible. I could hardly stand to read the quotes. What drek!
About Renay Jackson: He is one of the POD people. That's right a "Print On Demand" wirter. All his books are self-published. I went to his webiste where he tells everyone he's a custodian for the Oakland Police Department. I wouldn't be bragging about that. But nice to see he has a day job. In the days of the internet any fool with grandiose ideas of being a writer can be one if he wants to shell out his own dough to print the books. What galls me is these high caliber POD "publishers" can issue ISBN numbers for these self-published works. That makes it seem like a published work, but it's not really.
Oh, I did like your review of [Sweetpea's Secret]! And you still gave it half a star - your kind heart will be the ruin of you.
Interesting library, although we have little overlap I sense a kindred spirit in our attitude. And I'm very covetous of those 'What life was like' titles - I must try to hunt them down.
Nice meeting you...
Thanks, I didn't recognize Clancy Brown in that pose - it's been years since I watched Highlander!
Hi, I was wondering about your picture, can you tell me what movie it is from? I like it.
Mel
You were asking about mysteries about reporters which I responded to (Alison Gordon). Jan Wong, a reporter for the Toronto Globe and Mail, wrote three books about China, one from being a student there and two as a reporter. You might like them.
Red China Blues: My Long March From Mao to Now
Jan Wong's China - Reports From a Not-so Foreign Correspondent
Beijing Confidential: a Tale of Comrades Lost and Found
By the way she is third generation Canadian Chinese from Montreal.
Thanks. Whatever system you have you're going to have glitches. The last one was actually caused by changing MySQL configuration an an unsafe way, which would have killed any master-slave replication system, whether or not MySQL was virtualized. What we need, I think, is redundancy. But thanks for the note.
Hi, Kris ~ Looks like we both snagged the same ER title in the July. I haven't read anything by this author yet, but I saw that Harlan Coben praised "The Killing Circle," so I'm hoping it will be really good.

Enjoy!

Mary
I agree with your review of The Yiddish Policeman's Union. Although I kinda like the metaphors.

However, I do have an answer to your question, "Would a modern populace still go to these absurd lengths to force their ancient, cryptic texts to come true?"

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/0...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1000...

For what it's worth!
Your Slayer comment reminded me of this video. I don't know if anyone besides a room full of graduate composers would find it funny, but here you go: Slayer, MIDI style:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtZ1d6ovV...
Hi

Glad you agree about Invisible Prey. I emailed John Sandford's website yesterday and spoke to the webmaster. Apparently Sandford has considered killing off Weather but he has discovered that 50% of his fans LOVE Weather and so he thinks that by killing off Weather, he would alienate half his fans. I told the webmaster that perhaps an attempted murder and a permanent coma might be in order instead!!!

Mark (obsessedwithbooks)
Actually Brave New World is on the back burner so to speak, I was having real trouble with it so I've put it to one side while I read a couple of others and then I'll get back to it. It may be because it's a re-read I don't know, perhaps I'm craving utopia instead of dystopia.

As for P. K. Dick I think the only one of his I've read is Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, which I found enjoyable. Not sure if I would in my present frame of mind though.
Hi fellow Stephen King Fan!

I just noticed that you completed the Series field for Fethering Mysteries. Unfortunately you didn't put the book in brackets i.e. Fethering Mysteries (book 1) and so the books each received a Series page. I was so bold to correct it ^^.

Happy reading!
pratchettfan
hello there.

I just wanted to let you know that we share a love for Pete Steele. I saw the comment (and wonderful pics) you left in the GD thread. Several years ago I saw them in concert and a friend of mine got back stage, sadly I did not. However, he told Pete that I was a little obsessed with him. Pete asked my friend to give me a present, it was a signed copy of bloody kisses that said "Kelly (my name), kiss these lips. love, Pete Steele. I'm older and married now...but still sigh when I see a pic of him, especially if it is from his playgirl layout :)

have a good day!
-drsol
Hi,
I've just seen that you have added me to your "Interesting Libraries' listing,so many thanks for that.I also see that we share 186 books overall and thats not bad either.
All the best.
Hurray! Two of my favorite books! And I'll definitely check Run out!
Just wanted to say 'Hello'. Was perusing a forum and noticed that we have a 99% affinity. Have a nice day!
Hi!

I saw we had a lot of books in common, so when I have time I am going to look for some recommendations in your library!

Have nice day!
Thanks for the comment! I haven't started the book yet, my dad's reading it first. I'm going to see Crystal on her book tour though, on the 22nd, I can't wait!

Preludes is pretty awesome :)

I'm actually already a member of the messageboard, my username there is thefrenchinhaler88 :D

-Eliza
LOL I am so used to the 'evil eyes' I didn't even notice how nasty she looks in that picture.
Hey Kris,

Read your comment in Happy Heathens. Just wanted to say well done. I was lucky not to be born into a religious family. Whilst I am pleased about that now it's also a bit scary not knowing if I could have worked things out for my self if I had been.

Kudos to you.

Regards,

Mark

PS for historical fiction try [Patrick O'Brian]
I found the long-lost book you mentioned in one of your posts:

The Mouseball.
by Manfred Kyber
Illus. by Trudi Oberhänsli. [English translation by Roseanna Hoover.]
New York, Atheneum [1969]
[20] p. col. illus. 31 cm.
4.95
When they discover a tub of butter in their cellar, the mice decide to hold a ball to celebrate the occasion, but first they must get the cat to cooperate.

Amazon resellers are showing 8 used copies available from $3.50-$38.00
You can find out more about Helge and sign up for the newsletter to find out when he'll be in your area with his slide show. It's worth it to go. Check out his website.

http://www.globeriders.com
Hi. I'm the other librarything member with Helge Pedersen's book. Have you seen his slide show?
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