thatbooksmell: 50+ friends in '07

I'll give this a go. :o) These are not in order and I may have to add to this list of already-read titles.

1. Deja Dead
2. Death du Jour
3. Deadly Decisions
4. Fatal Voyage
5. Grave Secrets
6. Bare Bones
7. Monday Mourning (these first 7 by Kathy Reichs)
8. The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd
9. Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
10. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
11. Running With Scissors by Augusten Burroughs
12. Mrs. Mike by Freedman
13. True Light by Terri Blackstock
14. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
15. A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
16. The Babes in the Woods by Ruth Rendell
17. The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
18. Deep Storm by Lincoln Child
19. Possession by A.S. Byatt
20. The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
21. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
22. Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
23. The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
24. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I'm not including non-fiction and probably not youth fiction.

OK, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle is non-fiction. LOL I really need to find my book list that I started in February!!

What did you think of The Babes in the Wood by Ruth Rendell? I own it but haven't read it yet. Is it up to her standards?

That was the first/only of the Chief Inspector Wexford books that I've read so I can't compare...I have End in Tears out from the library and I'm anxious to try some of the older ones in that series.

I really liked it--it has her slow pace and the characters, as always, are excellently drawn. The plot itself was just OK I thought. I'd give it a solid B. :)

We seem to have read a lot of the same books. What did you think of The Mermaid Chair and Labyrinth? I was less than impressed with both. I thought that The Secret Life of Bees was wonderful, so I had high hopes for the next one, but not to be (for me). I found Labyrinth way too wordy and found myself skimming pages.

However. loved The Road and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.

I was also really disappointed in The Mermaid Chair, but I did enjoy Labyrinth a lot. I liked how it went back and forth between the centuries.

Well, I bought Secret Life of Bees, hoping for better, but I'll hold off on that until I've read more on my TBR stack! LOL

I, too, really loved The Road and Curious Incident. A Spot of Bother by Haddon, though, wasn't so great.

What were some of your other favorites from this past year?

I think my favourites would have to be The Road and We need to talk about Kevin. Two very powerful books that will stay with me for a while. Other really good ones this year were Orpheus Lost, Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living, Eucalyptus and Middlesex. Each of them quite different but they all have some certain something that sets them apart.

I've been trying to find A spot of bother at the library, but maybe I can wait on that one?

25. Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin

26. End in Tears by Ruth Rendell. This one was very complex and the dry wit of CI Wexford had me laughing out loud in bed as I read.

27. Mallory's Oracle by Carol O'Connell Very good! I'm excited to have a new series.

I finished Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire by Rafe Esquith and thoroughly enjoyed it! (Not counting non-fiction in my 50, though)

28. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. Wow. Very good.

29. The Book Thief. *sigh* Beautiful--I had a good cry.

"The Mermaids Chair" is not a good book to start with if you haven't read Sue Monk Kidd before. "The Secret Life of Bees" was SO much better. One of my favorite reads of last year. So don't give up on her. If you haven't tried her out yet you may give a shot at reading Janet Evanovich. I just read "One for the Money" and it was a really fun quick read.

30. Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs. Better than I was expecting, considering the Da Vinci Code-esque plot. :oP

31. The Ruins by Scott Smith. Well-written and creepy. Double whammy! LOL Kept me up into the wee hours to finish even though a tad predictable.

32. The Devil in the White City by Erick Larson. Utterly fascinating true account of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago and one of the worst serial killers in America's history, who lived, worked and plotted his evil deeds almost completely unseen in the shadow of the fair. I was completely hooked and loved how Larson brought together other major events and people of the time to show how interrelated they were. Alternating between the main architect and his work to build an opulent, world-class city within a city for the fair and the attractive doctor who used his charm and ill-gotten wealth to lure victims to his personally designed and constructed death chamber. Chilling but not too gory, and extremely well-written.

33. Break No Bones by Reichs. Tempe needs to choose a man and get on with it. lol I enjoyed this one more than the last especially all its twists and turns. Even though I don't like how long the unresolved stuff has gone on with Pete (I think what irks me most is that Tempe refers to him as her estranged husband and then they hang out like old pals), I'm glad Reichs hasn't let it affect Tempe's love for her work or how seriously she takes her responsibilities. She can put her love life on the back burner, thank goodness--that's where Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta ran aground, IMO.

34. The Man Who Cast Two Shadows took me a LONG time to finish. I just couldn't get into it. I really enjoyed O'Connell's first book, but this one was just OK to me.

35. I am now almost finished with Thunderstruck by Erik Larson...I had this on my TBR shelf and after loving Devil in the White City I knew I had to try another. I really wish Larson would write a comprehensive American History series. I'd use it as the basis for history in our homeschooling!!

Love his writing style. It's as if he's sneaking history into a novel--or is it the other way around?

36. The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie. Good. Like the occasional witty social commentary. lol I'm anxious to try something grittier by Christie, if that word can be applied to anything of hers...

I can't believe that I've only read And Then There Were None and now this one!

37. Finished Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres.

Although I liked it quite a bit, I think I'm going to steer clear of any more memoirs for a time. Reading about others' painful childhoods isn't good for me on a regular basis. :o/

I was pleasantly relieved with how Scheeres handled the terribly misguided Christians of the book and didn't lump them with Christians who *do* understand how Christ wants us to live with and serve others. She could have laid blame to all and instead chose to emulate the better face of Christianity, even if she doesn't identify with their faith.

38. An Unquiet Grave by P.J. Parrish. Good, quick read. Not sure if I will read others by this sister duo, but I enjoyed it and it got better as it picked up speed about half way through the book. :o)

39. Snow Blind by P.J. Tracy. This one was OK. It was more of a traditional cop story, though, than I would have liked--needed more of the Monkeewrench guys! That's what makes this series unique. Anyhow, it's just quick light reading for me so I'm not that bothered by it. Good story and I like the new sheriff in town, Iris Rikker.

40. Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie. LOVED this one! It's the first Miss Marple book--the mystery and characters are masterfully and wittily entwined. I really enjoyed it, particularly how the story is told from the Vicar's point of view.

41. Live Bait by P.J. Tracy. I don't read books that are in a series out of order very often! I enjoyed this one quite a bit. I feel like reading this kind of book for the rest of the year. LOL Too much thinking to do during the holidays. :oP

42. The Innocent by Harlan Coben. This was a fun ride! Lots of twists and turns, but the plot remained tight throughout and was believable. I thought the writing was good, too, with well-done characters.

43. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. Wow. I was pulled along the winding paths of this story all the way until the end punched me in the face. LOL! This was my first Poirot book and I'll need to read a few more to get used to his character. Very good mystery.

44. Murder on the Orient Express, another Agatha Christie mystery. Good. Very difficult for me to keep people and events straight to even come close to making my own conclusions, though! LOL This one read sort of like a case book rather than a novel. Christie is a master of details!

45. I finished High School Confidential by Jeremy Iversen with a heavy heart. (And I'm including non-fiction so that I can make my book quota! LOL)

The author goes undercover into an "average" high school in California and shares what he sees, hears and experiences. I felt that too much of it was told as a teen soap opera with too few instances of the author himself IN the story. I want to believe that for this and other reasons the retelling is exaggerated and probably not all true. But the *feel* of what goes on in today's high schools IS true, IMO.

Our older children/young adults are in a world so far from what reality is and what a real community should be--supercharged with a sexuality so aggressive that it would be considered harrassment in the rest of society; physical violence that in the real world would be considered assault hundreds of times over. And these kids are expected to fend for themselves-which shows by their irresponsible and child-like relationship, sex and drug choices, the way they interact with others--and they act like adults while their still-young hearts are trampled.

46. Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith. I enjoy the atmosphere and tone of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books so much. There is at once both a resignation that violence and death are a part of life in Africa, and yet pride in family and community, tradition (and the entire continent, really) shine through as Mma Ramotswe solves her cases with respect to all she comes across. A simple, lovely series so far, and the little gems of humor throughout always catch me with a smile on my face.

47. Well, I finished Outlander by Diana Gabaldon and I haven't been this torn over a book in a long time. (*There are some spoilers in this post.) I think the story itself is engaging, fascinating and fun. It's well-researched and written, drawing me in from the first chapter. The characters are interesting and fleshed out so well that you care to see where they are headed. I flew through the 600+ pages in a few days.

But.

The amount of sex in this book was a huge disappointment to me. It's one thing to have a few sexual encounters, tasteful and written as a hint of love and intimacy than flat out play-by-plays--the former Gabaldon does quite well. I was even OK with the sheer number of sex "scenes" included because they seemed to be brief and always between 2 married characters.

But.

The graphic nature of those parts of the story grew, and then grew to include a sick, deviant sexual predator villain as well. :o( And after the main male character is raped by the villain, we get to hear all about it as he "heals" and shares the details of his torturous captivity with his lady love. I've heard this series called a cross between romance and adventure and fantasy. Romance? Perhaps some of it is, as Claire and Jamie fall in love and marry. But beyond that is just, well, gratuitous. Ew.

I bought the second book in this series before finishing Outlander, but I'm seriously considering returning it. Unfortunately, I want so badly to see what happens to Claire and Jamie, and the promise of more adventure at the end of this first book makes me want to continue in spite of the sexual content. So, I'm torn. :o(

HaHAAA!! I remembered one I read earlier this year:

48. The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. It was a little slow and somewhat convoluted at times, if I remember, but I really enjoyed this literary mystery and hope to read Pearl's next book, The Poe Shadow sometime.

49. Sidetracked Home Executives and 50. Dragonfly in Amber

OK, I almost got them all in by the end of the year! LOL Now, on to my 888 challenge. Onward!!