Tutu's 2010 Reads

Glad I found you....I had so much fun this year, I can't wait to get going in 2010...I have some interesting challenges set up to spur me on. I 'll be blogging about them at Tutu's two Cents and over on the 101010 challenge thread too, but this group just seems to have the most talkative friendly --- and WELL READ-- bunch.

Can't wait to get started. My bio on the introduction thread is here







I'm going to list all books read here, with most recent at the top, and I'm also going to track pages read, including the equivalent pages of audio books.

52. Jesus the Son of Man by Kahil Gibran
51. Ghost at Work by Carolyn Hart
50. Plainsong by Kent Haruf.
49. Bailey's Day by Robert Haggerty.
48. be the noodle by lois kelly.
47. Lake Magic by Kimberly Fisk.
46. The Woman who Named God by Charlotte Gordon.
45. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
44. Burning Cold: The Cruise Ship Prinsendam by H. Paul Jeffers
43. Morning Show Murders by Al Roker
42. Blood of the Wicked by Leighton Gage
41. The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny.
40. Rome Has Spoken by Maureen Fiedler & Linda Rabben, eds.
39. The Poacher's Son by Paul Doiron
38. Shot to Death Stephen D. Rogers
37. The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican town of San Pedro de Macoris by Mark Kurlansky.
36. Called Out of Darkness by Anne Rice.
35. The House of Beartown Road by Elizabeth Cohen
34. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
33. The Women Around Jesus by Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendel
32. The Case of the Missing Books by Ian Sansom
31. The Singer's Gun by Emily St. John Mandel
30. Buried Strangers by Leighton Gage
29. The Case of the Missing Servant by Tarquin Hall.
28. Monkey's Raincoat by Robert Crais
27. Execution Dock by Anne Perry
26. Weight of Silence by Heather Gudenkauf
25. 206 Bones by Kathy Reichs
24. The Khan Dilemma Ron Goodreau
23. War Torn:Stories of War from the Women Reporters who covered Vietnam by Tad Bartimus, etal
22. A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny.
21. Then Came the Evening by Brian Hart
20. Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
19. Death of a Valentine by M.C. Beaton
18. Fireworks over Toccoa by Jeffrey Stepakoff
17. China Lake by Meg Gardiner.
16. The Black Echo by Michael Connelly
15. The Postmistress by Sarah Blake.
14. Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
13. The Body in the Cast by Katherine Hall Page.
12. True Blue by David Baldacci
11. The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World by Paul Collins
10. Key Lime Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke.
9. Stop It! by Sally Lee.
8. Simon's Cat by Simon Tofield
7. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kwamkamba
6. Starburst: A Novel by Robin Pilcher
5. Supreme Courtship by Christopher Buckley
4. Founding Brothers by Joseph J. Ellis
3. A Fountain Filled with Blood by Julia Spencer-Fleming
2. Death Goes on Retreat by Sr. Carol Anne O'Marie
1. A Year in the Merde by Stephen Clarke.

I'm Also going to track those books that are now listed as Abandoned in my library.... I gave these my best shot. Maybe sometime in the future, they'll get another look. But these are books that took up a lot of time and gave little in return.

1. The Evolution of God by Robert Wright.
2. My Name is Will by Jess Winfield
3. The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon Reed
4. Broken Road to Disaster recovery by Keifer Bonvillain.
5. The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Glad to see you back with us again, Tina!

Here you are! Finally found you!

Found you, Tina. Glad you're back.

Welcome back!

Hi, Tina! I can't wait to see what you'll be reading in 2010.

Hi! I've got you starred!

A Year in the Merde

Author: Stephen Clark
Format: paperback, 276 pgs
Subject: life in France
Setting: Paris
Genre: fictionalized biography
Challenges: Read from My Shelves 1/20

A light piece of fluff destined for the library sale bin. The story of a very self-centered Brit who goes to 'work' in Paris for a year, and his discovery of and sarcastic take on French workers, French food, French women, the propensity of the French to go on strike for anything, and his misadventures as he tries to make himself understood with his schoolboy French. Heavy on the sexual adventures, light on brains.

Recommended only if you need something to take your mind off impending dental surgery.

Hi Tina--

Recommended only if you need something to take your mind off impending dental surgery.

That is my biggest laugh so far this year and it may stand up for the next 364 days! :-D

#8: OK, so your reading year did not start off wonderfully. It can only improve from here, right?

Death Goes on Retreat

Author: Sr. Carol Anne O'Marie
Format: audio 8 discs, approx 9 hrs.
Characters: Sr. Mary Helen, Sr. Eileen, Kate Murphy,
Subject murder
Setting: Santa Cruz CA
Series: Sister Mary Helen Mysteries
Genre:cozy mystery
Challenge:Audio Books,1/20 Support Your Local Library 1/50
Source: public library

Another cozy featuring the detecting nun, Sr. Mary Helen and her sidekick Sr. Eileen. This time the sisters get their calendar mixed up and show up a week early in Santa Cruz for a nuns retreat only to find that the place is full of priests who are supposed to be on retreat. After an encounter with an absolutely obnoxious cook who seems to hold the whole place hostage to her schedule, Sr. MH finds a body, the police show up, and the fun begins. The author presents the murderer early on, and keeps providing broad hints, but also goes to great lengths to prove that it cannot be this person. San Francisco detective Kate Murphy, from the dear sisters' home area, gets roped into helping. After a second death Sr. Felicita, the meek mousy lady in charge of the retreat center finds a backbone, the local detective (with help from Sr. MH of course) solves the mystery, and Sr. gives her sermonette on life to the reader.

This is the 2nd one of the series I've read, and while they're fun, they're a bit light, and this one was quite preachy. Still, an acceptable who-dunnit.

Are you facing dental surgery? Or, were you kidding?

I'm impressed...two books in two days! Are you trying to keep up with Stasia?

Hugs and Happy New Year!

Actually Linda, I had dental surgery early in december, and these two books were leftovers of the pile I'd set aside to read when I knew the brain on drugs wouldn't be handling anything too lite. I'm now getting into more meat, reading Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis to get me back on the Presidential road while I wait for a couple ILL's to come from the Library.

No I have no plans to keep up with Stasia, but now that I'm fully retired, and snowed in for awhile, I'll be doing a lot of reading.

Tina
Did you get a lot of snow in your area of Maine?

Ouch, dental surgery is not easy. I hope you are well and healed and the end result was worth the pain.

We are getting snow now and they say that the perfect storm is starting this evening and will dump at least 16" on us. we are ready, bring in on!

The dental surgery was an extraction and bone graft to start the process for an implant (tooth root cracked and old crown came off) it's a long process, but wasn't really too painful. Just waiting for bone to grow back now, will do implant in April or May, and then when that gets truly incorporated into bone, they will do another crown in Oct or Nov. It was a fascinating process and i have a great dental implantologist (there's a word!) even if he is 87 miles away!

Hope you stay warm and dry where you are and enjoy your holiday reading weekend.

A Fountain Filled with Blood

Author: Julie Spencer-Fleming
Format: audio, 11 discs, 12 hours, 320 page equivalent
Subject: gay bashing, murder, environmental impact from developments
Setting: Upstate New York
Genre: mystery-police procedural + amateur sleuth
Challenges: Support Your Local library 2/50 , Thrillers & Suspense 2/12 , Audio Books 2/20.

In this second of the series, Spencer-Fleming gives us another great thriller. I really enjoy the combo of the amatuer sleuth, Clare Ferguson, priest of the local Episcopal Church (and oh, by the way, retired Army helo pilot) and the professional crime fighter, police chief Russ Van Arsdale (oh,by the way, retired Army MP).

The story begins with the vicious attack on the town's Medical Examiner, who just happens to be gay, and shifts quickly to a demonstration against a resort development on the site of some alleged PCBs. Here we meet Russ's mother, a real pistol of an active elder, who gets herself thrown in jail by her son for demonstrating without a permit.

There is more murder and mayhem, and an incredible helo scene (we KNEW sooner or later Clare was going to fly again!). So no spoilers, but this plot was gut churning, and there were enough suspects to keep three police forces busy. I don't do spoilers, so we'll leave the story line there.

I do have very mixed feelings about the blossoming romantic relationship between these two. We have yet to meet Russ' wife--she's always off working on her curtain business, and Spencer-Fleming has the two protagonists playing with fire. I can't wait til book #3 to see if sparks ignite.

Founding Brothers

Author: Joseph J. Ellis
Format: hardcover 246 pgs w/additional 30 pgs notes
Subject: Revolutionary war personalities
Setting: US 1790-1825
Genre: Historical vignettes
Challenges: Read from My Shelves 2/20, US Presidents (background reading)

I was hoping this book would be a 'refresher' to bring me back up to snuff on the most telling issues of the American Revolution. I am rejoining the US Presidents' challenge, having read bios of Washington, Adams, and Jefferson several years ago, and didn't want to have to go back.

Pulitzer prize winner, Joseph Ellis presents us six essays which are alternately entertaining, enlightening, and brutally boring. He seems to think that if 100 words would do, 500 are much better. I had a hard time in several places staying awake.

Interestingly, he begins with the Hamilton-Burr duel, and seems to feel a lengthy lesson in economics is needed to explain the enmity built up between these two. The Duel seemed almost secondary.

Then he gives us a chapter entitled "The Dinner" at which Thomas Jefferson, the host, is reputed to have brokered a deal between Hamilton and Madison to allow for federal assumption of all states debt in exchange for allowing the federal capital to be situated in Virginia. We got page upon page of background, but I had a hard time finding the dinner.

The third chapter "The Silence", I found the most interesting, but also the most difficult to read. It refers to the decision of the Founders to avoid a discussion or decision about the question of slavery.

Next up is "The Farewell" a elucidation of Washington's famous address in which he puts forth his (and many claim Hamilton's) thoughts on the party system, the need for the country not to form alliances, etc. Again, enlightening, but pedantic.

"The Collaborators" I found the hardest of all to follow. To me it was a series of short paragraphs describing various friendships, alliances and relationships that helped patch together diverse policies.

And finally, "the Friendship". The most cogent of the chapters where Ellis gives us a condensed look at the magnificent letter writing that took place over the last 14 years of the lives of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

If you are a true history buff, you'll love this book. It is extensively researched, and well footnoted. If you are looking for a quick fill in, this might not be the book for you. I'm glad I read it, but I won't be pulling it off the shelf to re-read anytime soon.

Supreme courtship

Author: Christopher Buckley
Format: paperback, 285 pgs (ARC)
Subject: politics, Supreme Court
Setting: Washington DC
Genre: humor
Challenges: Read from My Shelves 3/20, TBR Challenge 1/12, Books Won 1/6

A delightful romp through the pomposity of Washington Congressional and presidential politics. Christopher Buckley is a master at tongue in cheek. He presents us with a president who is as close to Ozzie Nelson as we can find. He bowls, he watches TV, he vetoes every spending bill Congress sends him because he doesn't think the American people should pay for some of these ridiculous boon-doggles. But most of all, he just wants this term to be over, so he can go home to Ohio and sit on his front porch.

Before he does that however, he has to appoint a Supreme Court justice, and Congress is not inclined to approve anyone he sends. In a burst of brilliance (watching late night TV) he decides to appoint Pepper Cartwright, star of a top-rated TV Courtroom Show and America's favorite TV judge. This political satire gets better with each page as we watch this Texas born and bred (but Fordham Law school educated) lady bring her own brand of straight-shooting, pistol packing, rodeo riding spirit to the here-to-fore straight-laced Senate confirmation committee, and then to the court itself.

It is frankly, laugh out loud hilarious.

*waves*

Gotcha starred. Love your tickers!

Tina,
I like your header for books read, I think I'll have to steal it.

>18 tututhefirst: I hope you liked Supreme Courtship. I enjoyed it.

Edited 16,17,18 to add reviews.

Yes, Jasmyn -- I absolutely loved Supreme Courtship. I'm a huge Buckley fan (both father and son) and this one was one of his best.

Tina

I have to get Supreme Courtship for my husband. He is a political holic. Though, he would deny this and say "I give up on politics; I don't care any more!" He says this out loud while he is surfing the channels commenting on healthcare reform mess, the huge deficit, the fights between the democrats and the republicans..........................

Starburst: A Novel

Author: Robin Pilcher
Format: audio 11 discs - 13 hrs (474 pg equivalent)
Characters: Angelique Pascal, Jamie Stratton, Leonard Hartson, Rene Brownlow, Thomas "TK" Keene, Gavin Macintosh, Albert Dessuin
Subject: various characters working through life problems
Setting: Edinburgh "festival"
Genre: Fiction
Source: Public library

It's been quite a while since I read anything by either Rosamunde or Robin Pilcher. I had forgotten how incredibily character dependent their work is. It wasn't until I was half-way through that things started to "happen". I had almost given up by then.

In this story, set against the backdrop of an annual arts festival held in Edinburgh every August, Pilcher presents us with a beatiful and talented young female violin prodigy and her rather unlikeable teacher/manager; an absolutely down on his luck, but if you're a mother you have to hug him, recovering drug addict car thief who only wants to be a movie maker; an elderly retired filmaker called out of retirement to film a Japanese dance troupe performing at the festival; a young recent university grad trying to get his flat cleaned up, repaired and on the market so he can leave Edinburgh in September for his new job in London; a pyrotechnic genius designing and producing his final show (the "starburst") before he retires; a thoroughly delightful standup comic from a pub in the burbs, whose local patrons take up a collection to book her act into the festival; and a young newly-wed assistant to the festival director who is fending off an obnoxious ex-lover and trying to keep everyone happy.

How these people all come together and resolve all their individual issues begins to build in the 2nd half of the book, and doesn't completely finish until the very end. It is a somewhat soupy, sachrine story, in that in the end we don't have a lot of surprises, but it is a well written and gentle read.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Author: William Kamkwamba with Bryan Mealer
Format: paperback ARC - 374 pgs
Subject: growing up in Malawi; famine; science experiments
Setting : Malawi, 2000-2008
Genre: memoir
Source:Review copy from Harper Collins
Challenge: ARC

At the age of 12, William Kamkwamba is literally dying of starvation. His country, Malawi, a small land-locked slab of sub-saharan Africa is suffering raging famine exacerbated by totally corrupt and inept rulers. The Kamkwamba family (parents and 4 children) has been reduced to eating one small meal a day consisting of a small handfull of a grain concoction and sometimes the addition of a pumpkin leaf. William, the only son, has been forced to drop out of secondary school because his farming family cannot afford the tuition. The erratic rain patterns (too much, then too little) of the past year have meant that their tobacco and maize crops failed. No food, no money to buy food, no crops to sell to make money, malaria and cholera adding to the mix, and no work for William or his father. Life could have been very dismal.

But William is a curious and basically happy child. He returns to the local grade school where the village library is housed. There he spends his days reading everything he can get his hands on so he won't be too behind if the chance to return to school ever happens. He finds books that came in a shipment from America, among them Integrated Science and Explaining Physics. His world expanded, and he immediately realized that if they could have electricity, his father could run a pump that would allow them to manage their water supply and have not only one, but two harvests a year. His family would not have to spend money on kerosene to have light at night, nor would they have to go to bed when it got dark at 7pm if the kerosene were running low.

Inspired by his reading and by seeing bicycle lights glowing from the energy generated from the dynamos run by pedals, he set about to build a windmill to generate that electricty for his family. It never occured to him that this was something many would consider impossible. The story of how he scavenged, begged, borrowed or found enough work to pay for parts and tools, and then built a working windmill is only the beginning of this inspiring story. Once the windmill became reality, and his house was 'wired', his family became the local cell phone charging outlet, and visitors began arriving to see this strange contraption made of a bicycle wheel, a bamboo tower, melted PVC pipes for blades, and hundreds of feet of bare metal wires. My favorite part was the 'insulated' light switch made from a discarded flip-flop.

The story of his adventures out of his village after he was 'discovered' by scientists and philanthropists is even more endearing. His first airplane ride, sleeping on a real bed in a hotel, and most of all discovering computers and the internet are joyfully related. Now in his 20's, and a university student, William is determined to bring electricity and education to his entire country. I can't wait to see him succeed.

This is a book that can be enjoyed by readers from about age 10 through adulthood. It is an uplifting tale that affirms our belief in human nature. It would make great extra credit reading for a basic high school physics class.

I like how you've got your thread set up with the pretty numbers, author, format, subject, setting... Surpreme Courtship sounds fun. Is Christoper Buckley as conservative at his dad was?

I think he would label himself as a conservative, but I don't think he's in the same league as his father. And I can infer from this latest book that he was not a fan of the previous administration, but I couldn't go much further in making inferences. He seems to be an 'equal opportunity' lampooner.

I like "equal opportunity lampooners" so I think I will like the Buckley book.

I'm going to see Capital Steps in a few weeks and I laugh even when they lampoon my party. Laugh even harder, probably.

AHHHH The Capital Steps....one of the few things I miss about not living in DC area anymore. They are so funny and they used to perform at our church every year in a homeless shelter benefit. Enjoy...

I saw The Capital Steps last year when they came to Chicago and am going again this year on 1/23. I think they're hilarious.

Supreme Courtship has been put on the wish list. It sounds a good book for a rainy afternoon.

Sorry I got a little behind on posting reviews. I'm now caught up and have edited #27 to finish boy who harnessed the wind Only wish I'd read it last year when I got it. It's a wonderful heart-warming read.

#32 Tina, I already had Boy Who Harnessed the Wind on my wishlist, but your review makes it sound even better. Now I'm thinking of encouraging my teenage son to read it as well as an example of how much can be accomplished by sheer determination and will. Thanks for the great review.

My ARC copy was a very cheaply done one, now held together with a rubber band, but I'm sending it to my son who is 30, but who works wiring satellites....I know he will see himself in this one. I think many teenage, early 20's (male and female) will love this one.

Lovely review of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind - rings bells with me - I think I may have heard it discussed on the radio. Anyway, onto the wishlist it goes!

Simon's Cat
Author: Simon Tofield
Format: paperback - 240 pgs
Subject: cats
Genre: cartoon
Source: Review copy from Harper Collins
Challenge: MUYM (Contest wins)

If you are a fan of Simon and his cat, this compilation will certainly resonate. For us other cat lovers who are only peripherally aware of the role of this human and feline in the universe, the stringy, black and white scribbly cartoons don't add much to our life. This one either works for you or it doesn't, and for me, no words, no color, no familiarity equals no go. At least, in less than an hour to page the wordless cartoons, I didn't feel like I'd wasted my life.

I won this in an online blog contest sponsored by Hachette Books. I'm a cat fan, and really was looking forward to this. Oh well. Life goes on. I am disappointed, but I'll get over it.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind was one of my favorites last year and I bought a copy as a Christmas present for my son. He had heard it discussed on the radio and wanted it. My copy I sent to the son of a friend of mine who works at an orphanage in Malawi.

I've added Supreme Courtship to my list!

The Boy who Harnessed the Wind sounds interesting . . .

It seems you may be starting a trend. I adapted you header style (with some changes) for use on my thread . . . and now someone (MoonshineMax) has borrowed it from me . . . consider yourself a trend-setter! :)

Actually, I'm trying to figure out where I got it. I know I asked if it was ok if I used it, and that person said sure---I got it from somebody else. I'm suspecting TheTurtle who was active on threads last year, but who, I suspect, is busy writing his book now. hmmmm....the plot thickens.

Stop It! by Sally Lee

This is a dynamite little books sent to me by the publisher, Sally Lee Books. In today's world, the story of George the bully, his sister Anabel, and her cat Lulubel will resonate with children and the adults who guide them. In simple words and pictures, children hear a story of how to deal with a bully. Anabel uses her temper to yell STOP IT. George feels bad, and by using the cat as an example, both of how bullying hurts people, and how people can make up and feel better, the reader learns the valuable lesson of self-worth and love.

These books by Sally Lee are favorites with the pre-school group in our library. They make wonderful gifts for kids and grandkids.

I'm not counting it toward my 75, it took longer to type this in than to read it but thought for those of you with small kids or grandkids, you'd like the hint.

ETA--I decided to count it just to keep my tickers and brain straight...don't worry, there'll be plenty more to cover this one in the 75 total.

>41 tututhefirst: - Tina - I'll be on the lookout for Stop It!. They just started a new anti-bullying program at my kids' elementary school and that book sounds like it would match up nicely with what they are learning. Thanks for posting about it!

Great idea Amy!

Key Lime Murder Mystery

Author: Joanne Fluke
Format: audio - 12 hours, 374 pg equivalent
Characters: Hannah Swenson, Norman Rhodes, Mike Kingston
Subject: murder at the country fair
Setting: Lake Eden, Minnesota
Series: Hannah Swensen myseries (#9)
Genre: cozy mystery- amateur sleuth
Source: public library
Challenge: Audiobooks; TSM; SYLL

These stories could never be described as great literature, but by this time (#9) in the series, the characters are like old friends, and we now read them as much to find out if Hannah will ever make up here mind and choose between the two gentlemen vying for her hand: Norman, a suave, gentle, geekie, cat-loving dentist, who normallytreats Hannah like a china princess; and Mike, the local sheriff, who manages to come and extricate Hannah from the traps she gets herself into trying to solve murders that seem to occur on a regular basis in Lake Eden Minnesota.

Norman's tendency to play knight errant to Hannah means that he often finds himself being rescued by his rival. Hannah's mother and Norman's mother (who are in cahoots to marry their offspring to each other) also continue to muddy the waters, and her sisters continue to help out. Nothing new, but still fun and easy to read. And the recipes still make the series worth owning....like a set of cookbooks.

The Book of William: How Shakespeare's First Folio Conquered the World

Author: Paul Collins
Format: hardback, 247 pgs
Subject: Shakespeare's First Folio
Setting: England, New York, Washington DC, Tokyo
Genre: non-fiction
Source: Bloomsbury Publishing, review copy
Challenge: ARC

Paul Collins writes an entertaining and enlightening tale of the First Folio of William Shakespeare. I am by no means a Shakespeare scholar, although like most educated Americans, I've been exposed to his works both in high school and in college. So I was unsure whether this would really interest me or not. I am however interested in books, and how they are printed, published and distributed.

The story of how his works were published, and the tortuous journeys of these volumes is fascinating and presented with a clear and somewhat humorous narration. Collins follows the folios throughout the world, tracking ownership, explaining the differences in different editions, and painting word pictures of these archival masterpieces, including the gravy stains and tea cup circles left on the (now) precious pages. I was especially interested in two aspects, the collection at the Folger Library in Washington DC, and the collection owned by the Japanese and held at the Meisei University in Tokyo.

I did my library science graduate work at Catholic University in Washington DC, growing up in that area, and living there for over 20 years of my adult life. Shamefully, I must admit that I have never been to the Folger, and felt the loss as I read Collins' descriptions of the physical plant, and the incredible holdings. The Folger is at the top of my list for places to go the next time I visit the area!

We lived in Japan for almost 5 years, although before the Meisei's massive collection of Shakesperiana was begun. I found the descriptions of the area quite true, and also was intrigued by his descriptions of Japanese theatre and how Shakespeare has been adapted to it over the past hundred plus years. I am familiar with kabuki, and with the marvelous Japanese puppet shows: Bunraku. He explains:

Along with such alien notions as soliloquies, the poetry, the English system of meter and accent, didn't make much sense in Japanese. ...Japanese words are consonant-vowel, and because of the confoundment of R and L, Hamlet became Hamuretto and Shakespeare himself turned into Sheikusupia.

Puppets provided an excellent solution to the problem.

Collins' love of early printing, and the Folios in particular, is evident throughout the book. It is well researched, and provides additional resources at the end. I just wish he'd presented a bit more framing up front so I could have figured out earlier what he was attempting to tell us. It took me almost 100 slowly dragging pages before the light went on and then the story snowballed. For book lovers and students of Shakespeare this volume will provide hours of enjoyment.

#46: I am looking forward to getting hold of that one some day!

ditto what Stasia said.

The Folger is at the top of my list for places to go the next time I visit the area!

It is a beautiful building, and they host some really wonderful events. They keep a Folio on display, too. The library itself is not open to the public, but it's still a great place to visit!

Maybe we should all plan a vacation and have an LT meetup...we could do the National Geographic, Library of Congress, National Archives, and the Folger.....whoooo eeee

That sounds like a fabulous gathering to me!

I've never been to three of the four. I'm a little ashamed of that. ;)

While you're all here, you can visit Capitol Hill Books - it's just right around the corner from the Library of Congress. http://capitolhillbooks-dc.com/chbooksdc/

Ooh! Thanks for that link, Jim -- definitely going to check that store out next time I'm downtown...

Same here!

Take me with you when you go to the Folger - You know my hubbie won't go!

I'm in. I've been trying to get the wife to visit the Library of Congress with me for a while. If it's a group thing, she'd join in.

True Blue unabridged 12-cd set

Author: David Baldacci
Narrator: Ron McClartey
Format: 12 discs (hrs) - equivalent 372 pgs
Characters: Mase Perry, Beth Perry, Roy Kingman
Subject: murder, national security,
Setting: Washington DC
Genre: Thriller, suspense
Source: Hachette Audio contest prize
Challenge: Books Won, AudioBooks, Thrillers and Suspense

This is a scary book. The plot is scary, the characters scare the living blankety blank out of me, and the premise is nightmarish because it is so real.

It has a well developed, tightly written plot with many twists, surprises, and heart-stopping developments. Within the first 5 minutes of this audio, we have a US attorney murdered and his body stuffed in a dumpster by ??? --- are they good guys or bad guys??? This question will drop to the bottom of the dumpster with the body and only reappear much later in the book. In the meantime we have a female prisoner being molested by a guard and threatened by other inmates while she's trying to hold on for 3 more days until her release. And we have a high powered, big money corporate attorney discovering the body of a colleague in his office refrigerator when he goes for cream for his morning coffee. So much for trying to come in early to get work done!

It has characters whose actions sometimes require us to suspend belief, (what would you do if you were facing a gang of hoodlums with automatic weapons??---I won't spoil it, but I'm not sure my choice would have been the one written). Our heroine is constatly ignoring common sense, speeding off on her Dukati, and getting into all kinds of trouble, but like WonderWoman, she manages to extricate herself---all without a gun, and often without the help of her sister the Police Chief or her buddy the lawyer !!

The good guys are almost stereotypical--the blond female Washington DC police chief Beth Perry; her sister Mason (Mase)--a cop wrongly accused of dealing drugs who has recently been released from prison and is trying to clear her name and get her badge and gun back; Ron Kingman, a college basketball star turned corporate attorney who befriends a homeless Vietnam vet by giving him shoes, twinkies, and keeping tabs to be sure he's ok. Cap'n (the homeless vet) is one of the most fun characters in the book. He provides a few sad but comic moments in a very intense book.

The bad guys are numerous and often masquerade as good guys. The good guys aren't above a little law breaking if it serves their purpose. In fact, one of the scariest aspects of this book is that it's hard to tell who's who----good guy? bad guy?

The story is almost a political commentary on the state of US national security today and the scariest premise of all is that this kind of activity is going on in the name of national security, and none of us will ever know, or could do a thing about it if we did know.

As an audio, it is well served by Ron McClartey's crime reporter voice. I just wish that Hachette would not have included all the sound effects that seem to be de rigeur in today's MTV world. I listen to audio books because I find it difficult due to physical limitations to hold books for long periods of time, and my eyes are getting 'old' and tired. So I want to listen to the book. I don't want a stage production. My mind still works and I want to be able to IMAGINE the bullets zinging, the motorcycles zooming, the cars crashing. And ...Please............the "dum dah, dum dah, dum dah" music used to fade into and out of scenes reminds me of JAWS. I almost expected a shark to pop up. It will be bad enough when they make this a movie (and you know they will!) and we have to see all this. Until then, I'd rather paint my own mental pictures thank you.

Sounds like we all hit a patch of not so great books.

HUH????? Don't get me wrong....while it was scary....it was a great book. I gave it 4 1/2 stars. It's got great characters, a plot that doesn't quit, and great scenese. It's just scary.

> 57 True Blue sounds suspenseful and I loved your review!! The only Baldacci I've ever read was The Christmas Train. I read the book for a RL book club.

The Body in the Cast

Author: Katherine Hall Page
Format: 275 pages, hardback
Characters Faith Fairchild, Penny Bartlett, Tom Fairchild
Subject: murder, catering, movie making
Setting: fictional town of Aleford, Massachusetts
Series: Faith Fairchild Mysteries
Genre: mystery- amateur sleuth
Source: public library

An well-developed mystery featuring amateur sleuth, Faith Fairchild. This is the fifth in the series, but the first I have read. Although there are references to previous episodes, the story stands alone quite well.

Faith Fairchild, married to the local minister, mother of two pre-schoolers, runs a catering business "Have Faith." She is hired to provide food to the cast and crew of a big Hollywood movie being filmed in their small town outside of Boston. The film is to be a modern take on The Scarlett Letter. At the same time, the town is having an election with an unheard slate of three people running for one vacancy on the town select board. One of the candidates is royally detested by most people in town.

As the filming begins, bodies start turning up, discovered by Faith. Her black bean soup seems to be the culprit in a mass food poisoning that hits the entire crew. And everytime these incidents occur, filming must be delayed, and the director goes into a frenzy over his budget.

There is a cast of typical hollywood divas, under-appreciated crew members, spoiled children, all harboring enough secrets to keep NSA busy decoding for a year.

I enjoyed this book and will certainly look for at least one more in the series. Faith seems to be a tick above the standard amateur sleuth. She is helpful, thoughtful and quite intuitive, but does not strike off on her own, put herself in danger, or forget to involve the local police. A thoroughly pleasant book with the added feature of recipes for several of the offerings from "Have Faith" catering.

#57: Adding True Blue to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation, Tina. I think I will stick with the print version though. I do not think I can handle the Hollywood sound effects, lol.

Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto

Author: Banana Yoshimoto
Format: 140 pages, paperback
Characters: Mikage, Yuichi, Eriko
Subject: life, death, relationships
Setting: Tokyo Japan
Genre: fiction
Source: purchased from alibris

This is an exquisite little book written n prose that is elegant and eloquent. Mikage, a young girl living in Tokyo, is suddenly orphaned when her grandmother dies. She is living alone, mourning, emotionally lost, when she is invited to stay with a school mate Yuichi and his transgendered mother/father(?) Eriko in their larger, more modern apartment. Her relationship with them speaks of losing, dying, recovering, and living again.

The second short story Moonlight Shadow tells another story of love lost and is equalling touching.

I had started this book last fall and unintentionally left it in Virginia at a friend's house. She mailed it back last week, and I was so thrilled to be able to finish it. It is sparse, short, and beautiful. Well worth finding.

That sounds enchanting

Tina
Your thread is so darn dangerous to my tbr pile. I visit here and more often than not, I end up adding more books.

Thanks for the excellent recommendations. Book #14 sounds wonderful!

#63 Interesting - I read a book by Banana Yoshimoto last year (would have to check back to remind myself what it was) - and, while I quite enjoyed it, in my memory, I don't think I thought much of her writing style - I'll definitely be adding Kitchen to my wishlist though...

Edited to add:

Aha, it was called N. P. and my exact comments were:

"A slightly disturbing, semi-ghost story. I also enjoyed this, but did find, either the translation, or the writing style of Banana Yoshimoto (who's called Banana?!) a bit clunky."

...not one of my more lucid moments...

True Blue sounds good -- but I will read, rather than listen.

I have read quite a few of the Faith Fairchild mysteries, and have enjoyed most of them immensely. I think there was one I didn't finish, but it was an InterLibrary Loan, and I think I was just too busy to finish. I seem to recall especially liking The Body in the Lighthouse.

The Postmistress

Author: Sarah Blake
Format: paperback galley, 322 pages
Characters: Iris James, Harry Vale, Emma Fitch, William Fitch, Frankie Bard
Setting: Franklin Mass, London 1941
Genre: literary fiction
Source: LibraryThing Early Review program

Set on both sides of the Atlantic during the early months of WWII, this is a compelling novel that pulls us right into the lives of Iris James-the Postmaster at Franklin Mass on Cape Cod; Emma Fitch-new bride of the town's doctor; Harry Vale-a WWI vet who is convinced that the Germans will land a Uboat on Cape Cod; and of Frankie Bard, the radio reporter working in London with Edward R. Murrow during the Blitz

Miss James is determined to maintain order and discipline in her life. The mail will be stamped and delivered on time without pause. Harry Vale wants her to lower the Post Office's flag pole by several feet, claiming it serves as a beacon to Germans off-shore. Iris balks at that suggestion, but agrees to petition the postal department for permission.

Emma, still recovering from a feeling of being abandoned by parents who have died, clings to her husband trying to establish an identity in this small town. After listening to Frankie Bard's emotional broadcasts about the hardships being endured by the British during the bombing of London, and after other events I'll leave to the readers (I DON'T DO SPOILERS), Dr. Fitch leaves behind his practice, his town, and his bride to go to London to help the many victims of the bombings. He writes to Emma every night, and she mails him a letter every day. He promises he will return after six months. When his letters suddenly stop, Emma becomes more detached, and Iris, as she watches her continue to mail her daily letter, becomes more concerned.

On the other side of the Atlantic, Frankie meets Dr Fitch in an air raid shelter one evening, and emerges to find her apartment destroyed and her roomate (who had been covering the Jewish story) dead. She convinces Murrow to let her go behind the war lines into Germany to find out what is really going on with the Jews. She goes through France and Germany, gathering stories but not sure how (or whether) she will be able to tell them.

It is difficult to write about this story without spoiling the ending. It's not necessarily a mystery, but this is a nuanced, evolving study of the impact of trauma, callousness, abandonment, death, and cruelty on the human beings who must live through war, and whose ability to survive, whose very humanity is constantly tested. Frankie's stories of horror and personal suffering are particularly poignant and her mental anguish as she struggles to find a frame in which to report them, and deal with her meeting with Dr. Fitch, are a cogent and mesmerizing thread pulling us along to an inevitable and powerful ending.

I encourage the reader NOT to read the cover blurb. The 'hint' there about what is going to happen is overplayed, and comes so late in the story, that it is better left behind. The forceful march to the inescapable ending, and Blake's exquisite character development and prose make this a compelling page-turner. It is a five star read, and the reader needs no road map to enjoy the journey.

many many thanks to LT Early Review program for making this copy available. Its publication date is scheduled for Feb 2010.

#68: I added that one when Tui recommended it. I hope my local library gets a copy in soon!

Actually, I think I'll edit the post to indicate that it has a publication date of February 2010. You won't be disappointed.

Sigh - that only means it will probably be February 2011 before my local library gets a copy. Rats.

#68 What a great review, Tina! I've added it to the wishlist - the library is showing it as "on order" but with no expected date, so maybe soon?

Another great review from you Tina!

A wonderful review, and it sounds like a wonderful book. Onto the wishlist it goes.

Abandoned book My Name is Will by Jess Winfield.

For the past 9 months I've been picking this book up, trying to read it (or figure out what the premise is, or asking myself what it's all about, etc., etc.), and it's just not singing out "finish me, finish me." In fact, each time I've tried reading it, the other side of my brain is going "why are you wasting your time.? I'm not liking this...."

I'm sure Shakespeare buffs are falling on their swords right now, but sorry, this one is going onto the abandoned pile--since it's a clearly marked NOT FOR SALE ARC, I can't even donate it to the library for its annual book sale. If you are interested in more objective assessments, BOOKLIST and Publisher's Weekly have blurbs you can read here.

After I wrote this part, I began paging through to see how far I really got, and my brain clicked on again. "This book is downright funny" I thought. "Some of this is finally making sense. I think I understand what the author is trying to do here"...So I planned to finish it over the weekend, and then give you the final review.

In the meantime, I thought it would be worthwhile to admit that sometimes it takes a time or two for something to 'click' and we ought not be too hasty to toss something aside. I was really settling back, and actually got about 95 of the 320 pages done, but realized that while there are sections of this book that are genuinely funny, and the premise is terribly clever, I just cannot take the abundance of sex, more sex, drugs, and more drugs needed to tell the story the way the author presents it. It is hereby permanently consigned to the abandoned forever pile. Sorry Will, but this book is not for me.

I appreciate the opportunity offered to review the book, and will point out that no body can read every book and have a favorable opinion. Others, including some very well known authors, have rated it highly. If you're a Shakespeare fan, a humor fan, and like satire, you might want to give it a try.

I have given this enough effort to cross it off the list in the ARC challenge category.

Sorry, I have to say, I told you so.

Maybe it's a sister thing?

#77 I'm imagining Tina sticking her tongue out and Cheli calling out "MO-O-O-MM!"

Actually over on the 75 challenge, I actually did give baby sis credit for saying it was crap. She is after all, from the same DNA, and as well educated, and even brighter than moi

#75: Not touching that one with a 20-foot pole!

The Black Echo
Author:Michael Connelly
Format: 14 discs (16 hrs) 496 pgs equivalent
Characters: Harry Bosch
Subject murder, bank robbery, Vietnam vets
Setting: Los Angeles
Series: Harry Bosch
Genre: detective mystery, police procedural
Source: Overdrive download audio from public library

By now most of the literate western world is aware of Michael Connelly's Harry (Heronimous) Bosch-- a rugged individualist with great detective instincts. I finally got around to reading him last fall when I got an ARC of The Brass Verdict and decided I wanted to go back to the beginning of this fascinating character. Black Echo is the first of what is now up to fifteen adventures.

With still vivid memories of his days serving in Vietnam, Bosch is called to investigate the murder of someone who served with him. in a plot with many twists, and indelible characters who keep us guessing as to who is on which side of good or bad, Connelly presents us with a protagonist who shows humanity along with ingenuity. Paired with a female FBI agent, Bosch is soon on the trail of bank robbers who seem to be tied to his homicide victim. There are Internal Affairs investigators, pompous Police Captains, and officious FBI operatives, but somehow Connelly avoids stereotyping. Definitely recommended.

China Lake

Author: Meg Gardiner

Format: 12 discs , 416 pgs equivalent
Characters: Evan, Brian, Luke & Tabitha Delaney,
Subject: Cults, Naval Aviation, crime
Setting: China Lake Air Station California
Series: Evan Delaney mysteries
Genre: mystery- amateur sleuth, thriller
Source: Overdrive audio download from public library

A new protagonist for me. Evan Delaney, attorney turned writer, has been given temporary custody of her nephew Luke. Luke's father (Evan's brother) is a Naval Aviator who is deployed to keep the world safe for democracy. His mother abandoned him because she could not abide the 'Navy way' of life. Mom subsequently joins a cult, which cult subsequently tries to kidnap Luke.

Evan and her paraplegic boyfriend Jessie- another attorney-become caught up in a series of rather 'suspend your belief' adventures as they try to return Luke to his father, now back from sea and stationed at China Lake Naval Base in the desert of California.

The book becomes a combination of good cop/bad cop, Rapture meets Hollywood, biological warfare meets Top Gun. I enjoyed the story but found Evan's character really stretched my ability to believe any of this could really have gone down the way it is portrayed.

There are four more books in this series. I will probably look for at least one more to see how Gardiner progresses as a writer. If you like cop thrillers with lots of over the top action, you'll love this one.

>77 lindapanzo:-80
My sister is much more well-read than I but every once in awhile I can judge a dud before she gets to it.

Fireworks over Toccoa

Author: Jeffrey Stepakoff
Format: paperback galley proof 260 pgs
Characters: Lily Davis Woodward, Jake Russo, Andrew Woodward
Subject: love, duty, relationships, fireworks
Setting: Toccoa Georgia 1945, 2007
Genre: fiction
Source: Advanced Review Copy from St Martin's Press (Thomas Dunne Books)
Challenge: ARC

Married for just a few weeks before her husband Drew left to go overseas during the war, Lily Davis Woodward, daughter of a wealthy Coca Cola executive, has waited three long years to take her place in society. Now just a few days before his scheduled return, she meets Jake Russo, war veteran and pyrotechnic engineer. He is preparing a huge fireworks show to honor the returning servicemen.

When they meet, love happens-- slowly, tentatively, tenderly and then with same explosiveness of Jake's fireworks.

In understated, elegant, exquisite prose, Stepakoff presents us with a painful, tragic, gorgeous, affirming love affair. The character development of Lily and Jake, as well as the presentation of Lily's parents and other supporting characters, gives us a picture of longing, duty, relationships, and heartbreaking honesty. Lily's dad for instance says to her when he suspects she's conflicted about her husband's return:

"I have been married to the same woman at least five times. Marriage comes in phases. Some good, some not so good. But you work through things, and you grow, and you change, and you stick by the decision that you made, even when you were seventeen. That is your duty." (pg. 178)

The searing anguish of these star-struck lovers reaches its peak when Lily must choose whether to leave her home and roam the world with Jake shooting fireworks, or stay with her husband.The resolution of her dilemma is heart rending but almost inevitable.I will not spoil it for other readers.

This is simply one of the best love stories I've read in my adult life.

Death of a Valentine

Author: M.C. Beaton
Format: Hardback, 246 pages
Characters: Hamish Macbeth, Josie McSween
Subject: murder, romantic entrapment
Setting: Scottish Highlands
Series: Hamish Macbeth Mystery
Genre: mystery- cozy, police procedural
Source: public library

Hamish Macbeth finally goes to the altar??

The story opens with Hamish standing before the altar as the minister asks the familiar "If any amongst you know of any reason why this man should not be joined to this woman...."

After being assigned a wee lassie female police constable as his assistant, Hamish is confronted with a series of murders, and he suspects they're related. While he tries to avoid the amorous advances of Constable Josie McSween, he manages to investigate, and solve the crimes. Throughout the story though the reader anxiously waits to see. Does Josie get her man?

Hamish Macbeth fans would lynch any reviewer who tells! If you are a fan of this wonderful cozy police procedural series set in the Scottish highlands, you will surely enjoy this one. If you've not read any before, it works as a stand alone. And I'll never tell............

You have been busy, Tina!

#84, 85 That's another two to go on the list. Thanks for those reviews, Tina.

Glad you liked Death of a Valentine, too.

#84 Sounds very good - has it been released yet? I'll be watching for it.

#84 - Thanks for the ?? --- I'll make notes from now on of release dates. This ,Fireworks over Toccoa is not due out until April ....I can't imagine waiting that long!!! It can probably be pre-ordered or put on reserve at local libraries. It's not in any main catalog yet, but Amazon is showing a release date of 30 Mar.

#90 thanks - my library doesn't have it on the "forthcoming titles" list yet, but I hawk that list, so I'll see it as soon as it shows up.

great books, as usual!

Abandoned -for now-Book: The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed.

I've been working on this one for almost three weeks. It is ponderous, tedious, learned, well-researched, and I've certainly learned a lot. It really isn't for any specific challenge, although I thought it would be good background material for my participation in the US Presidents challenge.

I'm putting it aside for now. I've had it as an audio, and it's not working. I think it might work better in print, and will look for it. I'm just finding that I'm tiring of the author's constant speculation based on 'we really have no positive proof.' I realize that historians have to make assumptions. For that reason, I try to read non-fiction written only by well-vetted authors. I felt that winning a National Book Award was plenty of vetting, but I also feel let down.

Let's hope a different format will remedy my indifference toward this one.

Lovely Bones

Author: Alice Sebold
Format: 328 pgs paperback ARC
Characters: Susie Salmon, her family, Ray Singh, Mr. Harvey
Subject: unsolved murder
Setting: Pennsylvania 1973 and forward
Genre: fiction
Source: ARC from Hachette Book Group
Challenge: ARC

Wonderful read. So many good reviews posted I can't add much. As you probably know, this is the story of a 14 year old girl, Susie Salmon, who is murdered, but whose body is not found. Susie narrates the story from heaven and shows us what her parents, her siblings, her schoolmates, the police,and the murderer are doing as everyone searches for her body. NO SPOILERS. IT's actually a beautiful story. I was afraid it would be too goulish, but it's not.

Can't believe I missed it when it first came out in 2002. My copy was an ARC of the recently re-issued paperback. It's now out in a movie, which I've not yet seen, but I'd definitely recommend the book. Just read it.

Just catching up on your thread. I read The Lovely Bones a few years back when they first talked about doing a movie. It's a lovely read.

I agree about The Lovely Bones. It is a wonderful read, which surprised me, given the subject matter.

I'm glad you liked The Lovely Bones -- it's an excellent book!

Abandonded Book: Broken Road to Disaster Recovery by Keifer Bonvillain.

An ARC I got late last summer self-published by the author. It is poorly written, surreptiously researched, and not vetted by anyone except the author. Billed as the undercover whistle blowing story of corruption in Louisiana and FEMA, the author sets out to prove he has the scoop. I just couldn't finish this one. It smacked of overblown self-importance--the author seemed to be the only person in the US who knew corruption and was qualified to report on it. If it hadn't been his 2nd such work, he is the author of Ruthless: A Tell-All Book about Oprah Winfrey I'd have had more inclination to pay attention. I felt like I should have been in the supermarket checkout sneaking a peak at the National Enquirer.

The writing was bombastic, snarky, overblown, and in need of good editing. After 50+ pages, I decided life is too short. If there's truly a scandal to be reported, then I'll wait til it breaks. I won't rate it because I didn't finish it.

Keep your eyes posted on the Member giveaway if you're interested. I'll probably post it over there in the next couple days.

2 books abandoned, are you alright?

#93 I find that for history books, audio doesn't work very well for me. I need print, so I can have 1 bookmark in the text where I'm reading, and one bookmark in the corresponding endnotes (if, hopefully, the book has some; a few otherwise good reads have dissapointed me -- and left questions in my mind -- because they didn't).

Terri...I agree with your assessement that for the most part, History books need print. Sometimes I have listened to the book but had the print one nearby to check maps, footnotes, spelling, etc. Much also depends on the narrator, but for the most part, it's the way it's written that determines whether it works as audio.

Cheli. I'm fine... just really determined that I will not waste time this year trying to get through books that don't work. Since my job-job went away, I've been reading like crazy, and should manage to finish close to 25 books for January. I've 'abandoned' four - two are on member giveaway, and 2 I've put on the 'take another look next year (TALNY) shelf.

I also think that as I read (and review) more, and read other's reviews, I'm becoming more discriminating in my reading. I'm not going to spend time reading something just because I HAVE TO. That's why i'm shying away from category challenges this year.

#100: I am the same way about audio for nonfiction. I like being able to see the references and get my hands on the bibliography. I listed to almost no nonfiction on audio for that reason. The only reason I listed to McCullough's The Johnstown Flood is that I have wanted to read it for years now and the only format the library had it in was audio.

#101 Twenty-five books already, Tina? Wow!! That's amazing.

I've had an excellent January but should end up with about 15.

I very stupidly bought a Claudia Bishop book, A Plateful of Murder last fall. I thought it was a new book (at long last) but it turns out it was a collection of her first two cozies. I think I'll put it up on Member Giveaway, once I figure out how to do that.

linda...I just did my first two books on Member Giveaway...it's fairly straighforward...just click the member giveaway, and then there's a place that says POST A Giveaway...just be sure you have the book in your hand, because it asks for stuff like pub date, isbn, etc.

Thanks for the info, Tina. Once the member to whom it's given away is chosen, do you then send via book rate?

I'll have to do this at home then.

Very disappointed by this. I love Claudia Bishop and it seemed like she missed a year in her B&B series. When I got the book, it seemed much thicker than usual.

Yes...you send it book rate. Most of my books cost $2.38, and I believe the thicker ones would be about $1 more.

Thanks, Tina. I just conducted my own member giveaway and intend to send it to someone I know who would love it.

It is good to know about member giveaway though. I mean I can donate books to the library but there are plenty of LTers who would probably like some of them, too.

Tina,

Funny last year I read like crazy, just about anything I could get my hands, ears, eyes on. This year I have so many things to do I am glad that I set my goals lower than last years total so that I can enjoy the books that I am planning to read. One of the books I've read so far, I probably wouldn't have finished, if I could have found another to fit the bill, but alas, I couldn't so I had to buck up and finish itl

Cheli....it's way too early in the year to force a book into a category....no way should we be wasting time on bad guys in January. You have ELEVEN MORE MONTHS to "find another to fit the bill" Relax already

>82 tututhefirst: I sort of enjoyed China Lake and the first sequel Mission Canyon but the plots are ludicrously over the top, although I seem to own 2 more books about Evan Delaney as well.

>110 elkiedee:....I plan to read another Evan delaney story, but just not right away. I have other series I'm more itching to get to. I agree about the plots being 'over the top'...kept thinking I was reading a movie script.

109>>FYI - I had to have by cocktails before the meal started and I couldn't find another book that fit.

ETA - all of a sudden it hit me! I could have had a Manhattan instead of a Whiskey Sour - UGH!

Tina

I'm currently reading itchen and I like the writing style. Thanks for recommending this one!

Then Came the Evening

Author: Brian Hart
Format:; 262 pgs hardback
Characters: Bandy, Iona and Tracy Dorner
Subject:rebuilding relationships
Setting: Idaho valleys
Genre: fiction
Source: Bloomsbury publishers review copy
Challenge: ARC

This is an intense book. The setting is stark and beautiful--the wilds of Idaho.  I've never been there, but I had no trouble picturing the trees,the clouds,the winds,the gulleys,the old barns, and the valley.The scene is haunting.

The characters are intense.  There are three: Bandy, Iona, and Tracy. While several others play more than cameo roles, these three broken, dysfunctional, hurting, needy people form the basis of the story and and keep us from putting down this book while we read how they try to mend their lives and the lives of those they hurt.

The story itself is intense. There are action scenes, and scenes of incredible stillness watching two or three people trying to puzzle out what to say, where to go, what to do next. While there is no plot per se, there is a distinct beginning, a page-turning middle and a clear and dramatic end. The reader is pulled in from the very first pages and marches inexorably to an end at once fearful and hopeful.

Bandy Dorner, home from service in the Army, awakes from a drunken stupor in his crashed car, to find his house burned to the ground, and his pregnant wife running off with her lover. There's a struggle with the arresting law enforcement persons, and when next we see Bandy,the convicted felon sitting in a prison 18 years later facing the son he never knew he had. Tracy, tired of living with his alcoholic mom Iona, has run to meet and claim his other parent.

Iona manages to provide for her son during those long years of Bandy's imprisonment by first marrying an OK guy, and moving to Washington State. Then when that husband dies, Iona finds herself working a series of dead-end jobs, and moving in with her sister. Both ladies find it easier to 'bring home the bacon' by servicing gentlemen in their bedroom rather than waiting tables, or running a cash register, as long as the booze and drugs are well stocked.

As soon as he is old enough, Tracy sets out to find his roots. After visiting his father in the prison, he returns to the original family homestead in Idaho and begins to rebuild. When his father is released from prison, and his mother sobers up and comes to find the son she finds she misses, the three of them begin a slow waltz, circling each other, measuring how much effort building a relationship as well as a house will take.

Brian Hart gives us a gut-wrenching story in clean, clear, poetic prose. There is pain, hurt, violence, and heart-breaking betrayal while at the same time there is love, forgiveness, tenderness, and reaching out to rebuild what has been lost. We find ourselves routing for these people even as we fear the possibility of a train-wreck.

The ending is absolutely stunning. We should all hope that Hart has more in his repetoire where this came from. It's a keeper.

A Fatal Grace

Author: Louise Penny
Format: audio -8 discs (10 hrs), 368 pages equivalent
Characters: Armand Gamache, Jean Guy Beauvoir
Subject: murder in a small town
Setting: Three Pines, outside Montreal
Series: The Three Pines Mysteries
Genre: mystery, detectives
Source: public library audio book
Challenge: Supoort Your Local Library, Audio books, Thrillers Suspence and Mystery

Once again, Louise Penny takes us to that idyllic village in the Pines outside Montreal, where we all want to go on our vacation to experience the beauty, the quiet, the inhabitants whom we are beginning to regard now as friends. In this 2nd of the Three Pines Mystery series, we even begin to like that eccentric old lady Ruth, the poet, the head of the volunteer fire department.

Ruth contributes one of the more memorable lines of the book by insisting that soldiers about to die at the Somme yelled "F**K the pope!!" as they popped out of their trenches and went to meet their death. This is so comical coming from a prim old lady, that it actually becomes not offensive but hysterically funny, as it works into helping to solve the murder. NO MORE SPOILERS

Inspector Gamache and his team must find out who killed a woman who was electrocuted on a frozen pond while watching the town's annual Boxing Day curling match.

The fact that absolutely no one in the town liked the victim, or even seemed to know much about her, makes the job even harder. Penny is beginning to hit her stride in this one, as she offers us several different possibilities for the perpetrator, introduces some new characters, and expands on the character of Armand Gamache that we met in her first book "Still Life."

When we finally figure it out (or did we?) there's still several chapters left, and we find perhaps we didn't get it right after all.

I listened to this in audio and it's such a treat to hear the bi-lingual give and take, the elegance of the Quebecois as they go about day to day life. To read (or listen) to these books is to fall in love with characters, a town, a region. I can't wait to read more.

>>114 tututhefirst: - at first blush, Then Came the Evening wouldn't have garnered my interest, but with such a great review, I'll have to add it to my wishlist and see what happens. I love your detailed reviews!

#114: Great review, Tina. Then Came the Evening goes into the BlackHole.

#115: Glad you liked that one. The series just gets better, IMHO.

I enjoyed your review of A Fatal Grace which the Touchstone says is also known by the title Dead Cold. Louise Penney again. I have yet to hear any negative comments about these books. I think I'll try and get the series in hand before I begin reading them. Our library has The Cruelest Month in audio so I may work that one in on a trip to visit one of the kids if I can fit it in the proper sequence.

I both listen to and read the Three Pines/Inspector Gamache series and absolutely love them all. The audio is especially lovely with the added bonus that I'm not stumbling over the names and French words!

Donna - They are best enjoyed in order.

War Torn


Contributors: Tad Bartimus, Denby Fawcett, Jurate Kazickas, Edith Lederer, Ann Bryan Mariano, Anne Morrissy Merick, Laura Palmer, Kate Webb, Tracy Wood
Format: Hardback 340 pgs
Subject: Women reporters in Vietnam War (non-fiction)
Setting: Vietnam
Genre: Non-Fiction, personal recollections
Source: public library

When I think of Vietnam, I think of the soldier's faces. Unguarded, innocent, smiling. They were all so young, unprepared for the filth and degradation of war. No one wanted to be in that distant, strange land, but they did not complain. Some felt it was their duty to come to Vietnam. Some never stopped questioning why they were there. But they fought; they died....I wanted to write about these men.----Jarate Kazickas War Torn, "These Hills Called Khe Sanh" pg.121.

In 1966, when I graduated from an all-female college, women were just beginning to embrace the concept that opportunities were open to them, that we went to college to get an education-not a husband, although many of us still embraced the "womanly" occupations of school teacher, nurse, and librarian. I joined the Navy, and found myself (after a rigorous Officer Candidate training in Newport RI) serving in a schools command personnel office in Newport where for the next two plus years, I spent 50% of my time, signing orders and travel papers and getting clearances to send graduates of the Navy's various training schools in Newport to duty in Vietnam. None of my Newport classmates (all females) served in country. The only women the Navy sent were nurses. I signed their orders, but I didn't go through training with them and I didn't go to war with them. My war was at home, convincing myself that our country couldn't possibly make the horrible mistake the war protesters screamed we were making.

My husband graduated from the Naval Academy that same year, and many of his classmates did go to Vietnam. Several didn't return. He went in 1972, commanding a large ocean going tug ferrying barges in and out of that dangerous area. We don't talk a lot about the war. To this day, I cannot go to the Vietnam War Memorial (THE WALL) without breaking down in tears. It's not just for the people we know. The tears are for all the people we didn't know, that we'll never have the chance to know, and for the loved ones who never had the chance for a long life together like we have had, for the incredible carnage and anguish our country endured because of what is known as Vietnam.

So........it was with a great deal of trepidation that I took on the reading challenge War Throughout the Generations: Vietnam sponsored by Anna and Serena. I wasn't certain I was ready to tackle what I was sure could only be an extremely politicized and polarizing experience. I don't watch war movies, I can't stand to see anything with blood and guts and guns and grenades. I even have trouble reading some 'thrillers' if they're too graphic. Is it that if I can't picture it, then it didn't happen? I'm especially sure that I'll probably never be able to publicly blog about my still conflicted thoughts.

War Torn, was the perfect book for me to begin my reading, and maybe even to begin to examine my feelings. Written by nine women who served as war correspondents in Vietnam during various periods of the conflict between 1966 and 1975, the diverse perspectives, adventures, and experiences of this group helped me to come to grips with the fact that it's ok not to be able to resolve our feelings. They came from a variety of backgrounds and educations (one had never worked in any journalistic capacity - she got to Vietnam as a pediatrician's girlfriend!), they had an assortment of marching orders (from covering traditional women's items like families and food to going anywhere the military would permit them), and they had a wide range of reactions.

I was struck so strongly by their love of the country and the people. Anyone I've ever spoken to who went there speaks of the beauty of the land, and the gentleness and integrity of the people. The government may have been corrupt, and the land may have been decimated by all participants, but these women were all able to find something positive to bring out of their experiences. I was especially struck by their insistence of getting the word out about what the average GI was really going through, by trying to get to know them, convincing field commanders to let them accompany troops in the field, and then report about soldier's heroism, fears, and battlefield wisdom.

I was also struck by the difference between "the war" as experienced by those who stayed mainly in Saigon, and "the war" out in the valleys, in the mountains, in the villages.

Kate Webb: "...back in Saigon it was different. You got back more often than not stinking, sweat caked, mosquito bitten, and badly in need of a shower, the images of the last week or ten days --the loss, the nerves, the bitterness, the adrenaline, the fear-- to lights, booze, laughter, and martinis on the terrace of the Caravelle (hotel) pg. 68.

The courage (some might say recklessness?) exhibited by this group as they schlepped up mountain sides wearing 100 lb packs, burned leeches off their arms and legs, waded across rivers holding their precious cameras and tape recorders over their heads, ducked into trenches to avoid flying mortars was not what was expected of 'little ladies' of our generation. Several were wounded, a couple have debilitating physical issues that will follow them for the rest of their lives. They adopted Vietnamese children, wrote books, and basically did what they were supposed to do--they reported what they saw.

Several admitted however, that they had been unable to think about or reminisce about their time until this project was proposed. It was only in this book, 25 -30 years after they left, that they allowed themselves to confront some of the very emotional issues they had to bury in order to report in an objective manner. Kate Webb was taken prisoner (in Cambodia) at one point. In writing about the experience, her ability to detach and report is impressive.

With the lack of any news or reference point, any reality check, in the grey limbo of 'the prisoner'--where you are not among the living or the dead of the war, but trapped in a gray twilight with no links to the living world--you reach a point inside yourself that you wouldn't reach otherwise. Pg. 78

There are other memorable quotes from several of them:

Anne Bryan Mariano: "Being in the field proved to me that while there are many cases of individual courage and heroism among soldiers, there is nothing about war itself that is heroic." (pg. 39)

Tad Bartimus : "In my youth I thought I was invincible, that if I didn't get shot or visibly maimed, I'd get away clean. But surviving a war doesn't mean you escape being its victim. .....my ongoing health problems (from exposure to Agent Orange?) remind me that thousands of veterans still fight the Vietnam War every day in their own bodies." pg. 188, 217.

Laura Walker, who 'hitchhiked' to Vietnam with no press credentials or experience, writes eloquently of the other group of women who served in Vietnam, and about whom as a group not much has been written, the nurses.

The myth is that women weren't in combat. In an official sense, that's true...Nurses saw the war from the inside out, from the rotting wounds infested with maggots to the stink of burned flesh, the mangled limbs, and the sucking chest wounds....The nurses wanted, willed, hoped, believed, prayed, and yearned for their patients to live so much that each death felt like a defeat. Nearly every nurse came home with a debilitating and corrosive sense of failure embedded in her soul. If only she ad been a better nurse, more would have survived.

These are powerful and empowering stories-- for women and men. If you want to start reading about actual 'in country' experiences, this is a great place to start.


Challenge: War Thru the Generations

#120: I will have to look for that one to add to my Vietnam reading. Thanks for the recommendation, Tina!

#118 - Donna for some reason several of Louise Penny's books are released with different titles in Canada and the US. The one I read is A Fatal Gracein the US, but Dead Cold in canada.

January Recap

Just to recap, I read 23 books (not counting the four I abandoned) -they're listed in msg#1 at the beginning of this thread.

Of those my top five are

1. Fireworks over Toccoa
2. Then Came the Evening
3. Supreme Courtship
4. True Blue
5. The Postmistress.

Unfortunately, Fireworks and Evening won't be in the stores until next month...But they are worth waiting for.

It was a great month....

Nice recap, Tina. Overall a great reading month for you!

Intriguing reviews! Thanks for the heads-up on the Ellis book; looks as if I'll need to read some of his other works before tackling this one. (A friend had recommended The Duel to me; he's a Hamilton scholar, however.) I can't agree with you on The Postmistress, thought the writing was gorgeous but the plot twists unbelievable. But hey, that's life! One note -- if you're finding that Meg Gardiner's plots are a bit hyper dramatic here, at all costs avoid her new series, which starts with The Dirty Secrets Club. Utterly improbable -- a one-star read for me.

And I have to get back to DC soon... Just spent today catching up with a friend from HS in Europe who is now there, other friends there -- and a good bookstore, to boot? Now all I need to do is pick a date that the Capital Steps are performing. The first time I saw them, I laughed so hard that I ended up with hiccups that lasted the rest of the night. For context, that was during teh reign of Bush I...

looking forward to seeing what you come up with in Feb!!

Tina, your comments on the book War Torn were very powerful and brought tears to my eyes. Thanks for sharing so very much. I definitely need to look that book up and read it!

23 Books! Tina, it is obvious that you must have attended (and graduated) from the Stasia School of Tome Devourment. I am very impressed - and your selections are top-notch. * possible spoiler alert *The Postmistress was a good read a couple of months ago but I can't help thinking that the letter was much to do about nothing.

>120 tututhefirst:: Tina, I admit that sometimes I just skim long reviews, but I read every word of your review of War Torn. I am drawn to stories of strong women, and it is a bonus that these stories are true. Yours was one of the most heartfelt reviews I've read on LT. Thumbs up to you and the courageous women who have served our country in whatever capacity.

Edited to try to call up the correct touchstone. LT not cooperating this morning.

WARNING I may be off line for awhile. My computer has developed some nasty nasty behavior (I don't get the blue screen of death, I get the white screen of black dots screen of frozen nothing) so it's in the hospital now going through a queen's ransom worth of diagnostics.....
thankfully hubbie let me use his, and I can check email on my blackberry, but it's not the same as visiting with you all (or blogging) on a full screen with regular keyboard. So stand by, just means I'll have more time to read and have lots of reviews stacked up.

I hope the computer virus is cleared up quickly for you, Tina!

Tina

23 books thus far is quite an accomplishment.

Your review of War Torn: Stories of War from the Women Reporters Who Covered Vietnam is incredible!

Like you, I cannot go to the Viet Nam Veteran's memorial without breaking down in sobs.

My ex husband is a Viet Nam veteran. Sadly, the day his parents no longer had the finances for him to finish college, he knew he would be drafted, and thus enlisted. And, as you mention in your review, Viet Nam is not/was not a topic for discussion.

He was/is emotionally damaged/scarred as a result of his experiences. I have no doubt he suffers from post tramatic stress. In the end, I could not help him, neither could his friends. We were all pushed aside.

Your review is well worth the "hot" review status. I'm adding this book to the tbr pile.

#123 - Lynda....I agree about the lost letter thing being a non-starter for The Postmistress that's why I said for people to ignore the cover blurbs and just read the book.

The Khan Dilemma



Author: Ron Goodreau
Format: paperback ARC galley proof -282 pages
Characters: Rich Danko, Max Siegel, Franny Rappaport
Subject: corruption, National Security, rogue intelligence
Setting: Las Cruces, California
Genre: crime fiction; suspense
Source: ARC from iUniverse publishing
Challenge: ARC cleanup challenge, Thrillers and Suspsense

An outstanding debut thriller. Cashing in on the abundence of homeland security rogue operations scenarios sweeping the literary and video world, Ron Goodreau, practicing DA and new author, gives us a tight, chillingly believable plot with a host of good guys/bad guys (who's who we're never sure), fast paced action, excellent dialogue, and characters you can definitely picture.

A young Pakistani, Raheem Khan, has been caught red-handed by a citizen neighbor at the scene of a double homicide in a quiet residential neighborhood. Rich Danko the current DA in Las Cruces is under investigation for corruption when he is approached by FBI agents to quelch Khan's indictment avoiding a splashy trial, and ured to make the whole thing go away. Hoping to work a quid pro quo with the Feds, he hands off what he considers to be a career buster mess to his hated rival and assistant DA Max Siegel. Max immediately smells a rat and enlists the help of his favorite investigator, retired Special Forces paratrooper Franny Rappaport. Both Max and Franny dislike the FBI's handpicked lackey Detective Dale Cox and set out to discover "the rest of the story."

The plot rolls along, the pages turn quickly, and within a few hours the incredible ending arrives. It's a story worthy of a movie script. I hope that Max Siegel, the hunky protagonist turns up in more books. He is a lawyer one could almost learn to love.

Tina, not only did you read a lot of books, you read a lot of good ones!

206 Bones



Author: Kathy Reichs
Narrator: Barbara Rosenblatt
Format: audio book- 9 discs (10+hours),320 pg equivalent
Characters: Detective Ryan, Temperance Brennan
Subject: murder investigation, identification of remains
Setting: Montreal, North Carolina
Series: Temperance Brennan
Genre: crime fiction
Source: audio books from public library
Challenge: Support your Local library, Thrillers and Suspense, Medical Mysteries, Audiobooks

My first Reichs read. Being as claustrophobic as I am, I had a hard time with the subject matter (NO SPOILERS). I also felt that she was trying to politicize her obvious bias about the professional credentials required for various forensic experts. I'll read another one before passing judgment on the series.

Basically, Temperance Brennan, a forensic anthropologist, is working various cases in Montreal and in North Carolina. (I gather our heroine bi-locates.) When bad judgments appear in her examinations and reports,she sets out to discover who or what may be sabotaging her good name. Four different murders of elderly women and identifying the remains of a family lost on a boating trip 40 years ago are all begging for her attention.

There is a love(on again, off again?)interest with a detective named Ryan,a wonderful cat and a snarky neighbor. The lineup is good, the plot was well developed, and without the campaigning it would have been an enjoyable read.

As usual, Barbara Rosenblatt gives a brilliant narration.

#135: Barbara Rosenblatt is hands down my favorite narrator. She is extraordinary, IMHO.

I've never read Kathy Reichs, but now I'm putting her on my wishlist.

Weight of Silence

Author: Heather Gudenkauf
Format: bound galley edition- 384 pgs
Characters: Calli, Deputy Sheriff Louis, Petra, Martin, Antonio
Subject: missing children, selective mutism
Setting: small town in Iowa
Genre: fiction
Source: Mira Books
Challenge: ARC completion

An absolutely heart-pounding read. I picked it up last night to start it so I could get an idea of about how long it would take. I finished it 3 1/2 hours later. I was reluctant to start it since it dealt with missing children, and after some of the darker reading I've been doing, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to handle it, but I've had it since July, so it was high time to dive in.

Briefly (NO SPOILERS) Calli and Petra - BFFs- aged 7, go missing early one morning. Parents, police, and townspeople begin the search in the woods behind the girls houses, where they liked to wonder. Ben, aged 14, Calli's brother goes into the woods to search.

Gudenkauf writes from knowledge of disabilities. One of the little girls who is missing suffers from 'selective mutism.' Much of the book deals with the mystery of why she is unable to speak. Their is an element of mystery, a poignant lost love, great emotional development of all the characters.

The book deals, in very short chapters, with the search for these two. Every character has a story, and Gudenkauf allows those characters to speak in their own voice. Normally I find changing voices a distraction, but here it works really well.

The results of the search, and the resolution of personal issues I'll leave for the reader to find out. It was well worth staying up past my bedtime.

#138: I already have that one in the BlackHole. I look forward to getting my hands on it one of these days.

Execution Dock



Author: Anne Perry
Format: audio book, 12 discs ( 13 hrs.) 304 pgs equivalent
Characters: Hester and William Monk, Oliver Rathbone,
Subject: murder and child enslavement
Setting: Victorian England
Series: William Monk novels
Genre: detective mysteries
Source: Overdrive download from public library
Challenge: Thrillers and Suspense, Audio Books, Support Your Local Library

This is #16 in Anne Perry's William Monk series, and although I eventually enjoyed it as much as the others, this one almost had me giving up. She spends an inordinate amount of time to say the same things over and over again.

We understand that Monk has identity issues. We understand he has an inferiority complex. We understand the complexities of his relationship with Oliver Rathbone. We quickly figure out that Hester is suffering for her husband's mental anguish and wants to help, but good grief....get over it and get on with the book. It's #16, and while the author certainly needs to identify issues for 1st time readers, we don't need all 15 previous books worth of finger wringing.

In this story, Monk's mentor Durbin is dead. Monk and his 2nd in command Orme, capture one of their top ten criminals - a notorious peddler of pre-pubescent males for pornographic pictures and for catering to the 'needs' of gentlemen of Victorian England with the cash and discretion to participate in these sorts of activities.

NO Spoilers, so this may be a little thin....Oliver Rathbone is hired to defend the wretch and Monk and Hester are called to testify.

The ensuing trial and its aftermath add more and more plot twists, give us more of Perry's incredible insight into the mores of the period, and culminate in a great splash of an ending. Definitely worth reading if you're a Perry fan. If you're new to the series, it might do to start back a bit further.

I am a Perry fan, especially of her Monk series, so I will give it a try. Thanks for the review, Tina!

Some good books recently! Nice reviews! I have read most of the Reichs books prior to 206 Bones, and generally enjoyed them; I plan to read this one, too. I think Weight of Silence is on my list, too, but I should probably move it up in priority. The Perry series is one I haven't started yet, so I won't add this one to the list now.

What a great review of Weight of Silence..thumbs up from me. Because my tbr pile is so large, lately I'm reluctant to add weight to it, but this one simply has to be added.

#142 Terri...I hope my review didn't turn you away from at least looking at Anne Perry's work. She has some delightful Victorian mysteries (three different series). I always enjoy them, but just have to remind myself that they are set in a different time, with a different mind-set than many of the slam-bam modern day suspense thrillers I've been reading lately. Do at least give them a try.

Weight of Silence sounds excellent and I'll have to check out the Reichs book -- do you know if that's the first in the series? I've read one other about Brennan and I don't think there was as much campaigning as you noticed in that subsequent story.

#145: Missy, here is the order of the Brennan series:

Deja Dead (1997)

Death du Jour (1999)

Deadly Decisions (2000)

Fatal Voyage (2001)

Grave Secrets (2002)

Bare Bones (2003)

Monday Mourning (2004)

Cross Bones (2005)

Break No Bones (2006)

Bones to Ashes (2007)

Devil Bones (2008)

206 Bones (2009)

206 Bones is the most recent one in a long-running series. I know because I got it as an ER book last year.

Before that, I'd read #1 at least 10 years ago so now I want to go in and fill in the others.

Wow, thanks Stasia! I read Devil Bones late last year. It was pretty good...

No problem.

#144 Tina, no, you didn't turn me off from trying Anne Perry. I'll get to her eventually, I'm sure. I just have a truckload of other series I'm trying to fill in now, so I'm trying not to start any new ones right now . . . not always managing to do it, but trying. ;)

I've always been curious about the Kathy Reichs books, but have never tried them yet. But, like Terri said, there are so many other series that it might be best to let this one wait a little longer. However, I WILL be adding Weight of Silence to my wishlist - thanks for a great review.

Hi Tina, I was just thinking about you when I started reading an ultra-cozy mystery, Deb Baker's Ding Dong Dead.

In this dollhouse mystery, the sleuth's aunt has a "diva dog" named Tutu.

That sounds fun. This diva dog is not feeling very diva-ish at the moment. we've just pronounced my laptop if not dead, at least terminal - remove life support. so I'm working on Hubbie's PC (he's agreed to work only on his laptop for now) while I wait for my son to dig out 40+" of snow in northern VA and get my 'old' laptop mailed back to me. We basically rebuilt that one to give him when he went back to school, but now that he's working full time, he's gotten his PC up and running and says he's not using the laptop, so until I win another lottery, I'll use that one.

In the meantime, I'm trying to recover....there'll probably be another rant on my blog today or tomorrow. Maybe I do need a diva dog or a good cozy and a good glass of wine...

oooo...hubs just stuck his head in the door and said we are going out to dinner on the water at sunset tonite....guess I'll live.

sorry for the rant.

Sounds like a lovely evening ahead, he sounds like a hubby deserving of a hug.

The Monkey's Raincoat



Author: Robert Crais
Format: audio 8 hrs, 237 pgs equivalent
Narrator: Patrick Lawlor
Characters: Elvis Cole, Joe Pike
Subject: murder, abduction
Setting: Los Angeles area
Series: Elvis Cole detective series
Genre: mystery - private detectives
Source: Overdrive audio download
Challenge: Thrillers and Suspense, Support your local library, Audio books

Robert Crais has published over a dozen Elvis Cole/Joe Pike detetive mysteries. While this is the first one I've read, it certainly will not be the last.

Elvis Cole, Vietnam Vet and now private eye is in business with the enigmatic Joe Pike, who later gets his own series, but plays a pumped up cameo role in this one. A beautiful but tearful lady appears in his office to report his husband and 8 yr old son missing. As Elvis begins detecting, he finds himself embroiled in a nasty fight over drugs, with the requisite dealers, Hollywood talent scouts, did I say it was set in Los Angeles? domineering friends, Mexicans, Eskimos, a friendly cop willing to help him, and the stereotypical upper level "special ops" cop pushing him out of the picture. At one point, all I could think of was Rockie and Dennis in The Rockford Files.

This story had a believable plot, with terrific dialogue and characters I could believe. I may have wanted to smack a few of them upside the head, but I could believe them, root for (or against) them, and although I didn't care for some of the tactics used by either side in this undeclared war, I found they read true.This is a series I'm definitely looking forward to getting into. I want to know more about Elvis and his very puzzling partner Joe Pike. I want to see if they can keep up this pace.

The Case of the Missing Servant



Author: Tarquin Hall

Format: audio book 8 hrs, 23 minutes, equivalent 340 pgs
Characters: Vish Puri, Rumpie, Tubelight, Facecream, Flush
Subject: solving crime in India (non-fiction)
Setting: modern day India
Series: Vish Puri, Most Private Investigator Series
Genre: mystery - private detective
Source: Overdrive download from public library
Challenge: Support your local library, Thrillers and Suspense, Audio Books


I thoroughly enjoyed this one. The author manages to take a basic mystery cozy format and give us a well drawn portrait of life in modern day India by contrasting the lives of haves and have-nots. Vish Puri is a fascinating, intelligent, well-educated, detective who lives with his "Mummie-ji" (think Grandma Mazur from Janet Evanovitch), his wife Rumpie (she calls him "Chubbie" and tries unsuccessfully to regulate his caloric intake) and several servants who are well paid and well treated.

Puri's office crew all have wonderfully descriptive nicknames (they call him "Boss") -Tubelight, Flush, Facecream-- and they go about helping him not only serve a large clientele of parents researching prospective spouses for the arranged marriages so common in India, but also helping to prove the innocence of a famous lawyer accused of the murder of his servant Mary who has disappeared. The family only knows her name was Mary and she was not from their town. No last name, no picture, no registration papers, etc. Puri smells a rat and goes about trying to find Mary (how many gazaillion women in India are named Mary?) find out if she was murdered, and if so, who did it.

The portrait of India reminded me of Alexander McCall Smith's loving portrait of Botswana in the 1st Ladies Detective Agency series. Vish Puri is a believable, likeable detective and readers should hope that more of his adventures are forthcoming.

whatever Tim and company have done to make pictures easier, has really screwed up my pretty numbers for the books. Oh well, one step forward,....

156: whatever Tim and company have done to make pictures easier...

Actually, it's made them much harder. I'm really hoping it's a bug and they fix it soon.

The Case of the Missing Servant sounds fantastic! I'm going to hunt that one down now.

I am adding The Case of the Missing Servant to the BlackHole as well, Tina. Thanks for the recommendation.

>156 tututhefirst:: ...screwed up my pretty numbers...

And here I just thought you were "showing off" with the new configuration. :~)

Edited to close italics.

30 Buried Strangers


Author: Leighton Gage
Format: hard copy 308 pages
Characters: Mario Silva, Arnaldo Nunez, Hector Costa
Subject: crime, police corruption
Setting: Sao Paolo, Brasilia Brasil
Series: Chief Inspector Mario Silva Investigation
Genre: police procedural
Source: public library
Challenge: Support Your local Library

Mario Silva, Chief Inspector for Criminal Matters of the Federal police of Brazil, is trying to solve a crime in the city of Sao Paolo. What are these bones discovered when a dog dug one up? They're obviously human, but there appears to be a mass grave with 30-40 bodies. When the local cop on the scene, Delegado Tanako, is killed, Silva's boss reluctantly lets the team go from their base in Brasilia to investigate, although he'd much rather they stay in town and dig up some dirt on the man who is running against him in the upcoming elections.

While in Sao Paolo, Silva and his deputy Arnaldo and his nephew Hector, also become involved in locating a family missing from that cities' infamous favelas (slums). Could this disappearance be connected with the bodies in the mass grave? Many theories are advanced, many palms greased, a little romance blossoms, and Silva goes back and forth between Sao Paolo and Brasilia, while his crew continues to track clues. Who are these people? Are they related? Why were they killed? And what happened to the witnesses who reported the other family missing? There are characters who are quite nasty, others who are quite likeable, and the plot certainly contains enough action and clues to keep us turning pages. In fact, I was so engrossed in finding out how it ended, that I read the last 35 pages while working out on the eliptical!

Leighton Gage, the author of this well-plotted who-dunnit, lives part-time in Brazil. His knowledge of this huge country is obvious, and his ability to weave the language, the regional diversity and the mores of this nation into the story is exceptional. The reader gets a clear picture of modern day crime activities in Brazil, and gets a crime detective who hopefully will appear in upcoming episodes.

#161: Sounds like one I need to track down! Thanks for the review and recommendation, Tina.

#161 This one does sound good, Tina. I'm adding it to the wishlist.

I'm looking for the others in this series. I actually got a personal email from the author when i posted my review on my blog. I was stunned (ok....pleased) but stunned...Wow! what a nice man. Of course the fact that his mother is from Maine probably had something to do with the connection.....I mean the review wasn't that good!

31 The Singer's Gun


Author: Emily St. John Mandel

Format: ARC galley proof 304 pgs
Publication date May 4, 2010
Characters:Anton, Elena, Aria, HSA Special Agent Alexandra Broden
Subject: moral choices
Setting: New York City, Ischia Isle- Italy
Genre: fiction
Source: ARC from publisher
Challenge: ARC completion

I'm not sure I liked this book, on the other hand, I didn't dislike it. It was very slow getting started, the characters were not very likable, (although I suspect they are quite representative of real people), and I had a hard time figuring out just where the author was going with the story. Suddenly at around page 150 it finally started picking up steam and I felt like it would not be a waste to finish it.

Essentially, except for the Homeland Security officer Alexandra Broden who is investigating immigration and passport fraud, just about every other character in the book is participating in some kind of fraud. There are two couples who shouldn't be couples, there are parents who find nothing wrong with teaching (or at least encouraging) their son and adopted daughter how to cheat at everything, there are the 'innocents' who are living lives of fear based on fraudulent identities; there are blackmailers, murderes, bullies, smugglers, and there's Anton and Elena--the central characters--whom Mandel would have us believe are just a poor schmucks who truly dislike what they are doing and want to change, but don't know how.

This was an ARC I got from Unbridled Books (I think via Shelf Awareness?) and it's not a bad book. It has eloquent blurbs touting the splendidness of the author's prose. Yes, the prose is clear, it's concise, and it paints a good picture. I just wasn't buying the premise the picture was painting. To finish the book is to arrive at the last page seriously depressed that such people exist in our world.

It's hard to explain or review this book without spoilers. It would be a GREAT book for a discussion group because the moral judgments and choices depicted all could have been different, but that would have made a different story. It's a good read, but probably not for everyone. If you can objectively handle dishonesty, cheating, theft, manipulation, and corruption, then you will probably enjoy this read.

And given the taste of today's movie going public, it would probably be a box office hit.

#164 pretty cool all the same, though. I thought the same thing - sounds like the first book in the series.

#165 I'm giving this one a pass, though

#165: I think I will give that one a pass, too. Nice review as always though, Tina.

32 The Case of the Missing Books


Author: Ian Sansom
Format: Trade paperback, 336 pages
Characters: Israel Armstrong
Subject: bookmobiles (mobile libraries)
Genre: cozy mystery
Source: public library
Challenge: Support your local library

Another new series for me. I'd seen this one recommended by several readers on LT threads, and our local library had a copy to check out. It's not great lit, not even great mystery writing, but it is an amusing, pleasant cozy read.

Israel Armstrong, a down and out librarian wannabe from London, tires of his job working in a bookstore, and prodded by his girlfriend (who appears to be tiring of his "Poor me" attitude) takes a job as librarian in Tumdrum, County Antrim. He arrives to find a notice on the door that the library is closed due to 'reallocation of resources'. He is shocked and dismayed to find that he is expected to drive a mobile library (i.e., a bookmobile), live in a renovated chicken coop, and Oh yeah....by the way, the library's books --all 15,000 of them--- seem to have disappeared.

His misadventures due to language difficulties and his personal fuddy-duddiness (is that a word?) are somewhat humorous, and are the stuff of which BBC comedy shows are made.

As I said, it was a fun read, but nothing to rave about. I'm not sure how on earth the author is going to make a series out of this, so I'll probably try one more just to see how the rather thin plot is expanded

Just downloaded the Sansom book onto my Kindle -- I'm amused by the premise, and I've traveled a lot in the area he describes recently, so it will be fun to try and tie my experiences with the author's observations.

Re Kathy Reichs, her first books -- like Anne Perry's -- are her strongest. Something happened to Perry sometime in the 1990s and her books started become more ponderous and weighty, trying to explore Conspiracies and other Big Themes. Not always successfully... Unfortunately, her effort to jumpstart something different with her new historical novel (out next month) doesn't really pan out either, at least IMO.

Leighton Gage does have at least one other Silva novel out -- spotted recently at a Barnes & Noble, I think in hardcover.

#168: I got one of the Sansom books as an ER book and could not finish it. I am glad your experience with the series has been better than mine was!

#170, great. I'm trying to catch up on my two outstanding ER books and get those out of the way. The one I'm reading is a dud and then I've got the Sansom book, too.

The ER book I'm really waiting for never arrived, though Kensington promises it will--the new Joanne Fluke, Apple Turnover Murder.

I haven't gotten my Dec ER book yet, but that's ok....I'm about 7 behind right now--just got a batch in the mail last week (see blog post ) and since I added a batch of Lenten reading to my pile, and promised myself I'd finish a piece of cross-stitch I've been working on for over 4 years, and watching the Olympics, I'm just a wee bit behind.....

who needs to do taxes???

You sure know how to make a girl feel good, Tina. I just finished a cross-stitch I started in Sept. 06 and I thought that was a long time. It may appear on my profile page soon as it is very appropriate. Perservere Tina, perservere

I'm still working on a piece that I started for my SIL's 40th birthday. She'll be 44 this year. Maybe I'll give it to her when she turns 50.

Of course I think the all time needle procrastinator is my (and Cheli's) mom who started a 'baby afghan' made of squares - single crochet stitch only- when she was "confined" at my birth. Back in those days ladies had leisurely lying ins of 5-7 days in the hospital and then were not allowed to do anything for another 3-5 weeks. Of course, she was living at home with her mother (my father was off at sea). ANYWAY....Mom didn't get the afghan finished. Every three years, (three more times) when she'd have another baby, she'd pull out the afghan and take it to the hospital with her. However, confinements got shorter and the afghan never got too far. FINALLY, 25 years later when I got pregnant with my daughter, she pulled that puppie out and got to work. Daughter was draped in the snow white afghan as part of her baptismal outfit in August in San Diego! Mom was quite proud of herself and Lisa has a real heirloom from her g-ma.

So ladies...we have lots of time to finish our projects. Enjoy. And yes--please post pictures when done. I intend to.

That's too,too (pun intended) funny. But it brings to mind the bibs I was cross-stitching while I was pregnant 10 years ago! They are still not finished, and after seeing your story, I wouldn't be surprised if I finish them when my son has children of his own.

My mom was a great procrastinator, too. When my parents moved for the first time since their marriage when I was away at college, she found a pair of culottes that had been cut out for me but not sewn together - still pinned to the pattern. Size 6X. Another year, she and I went shopping on New Years Day and found a counted cross stitch pattern that I loved. She bought it and promised to make it for me for Christmas. I was 6 months pregnant with my first baby. She gave it to me for Christmas 2 months ago. My son will be 24 in March. I wish I could say I'm not like that, but hey - I learned from a master!

Ok, Ok, one more from me and that's it. Back in 1993 I started a cross-stitch for the home my new husband and I would share. Well, we moved out of that house about 13 years ago and I still haven't completed the cross-stitch although it would go well in the house that we have now. I pulled it out again and I plan to work on it occasionally, but now we're in the throws of redecorating and who knows if it will fit in or not. Frankly, I'd rather read a book. :)

33 The Women Around Jesus by Elisabeth Moltmann-Wendell


This was the first of my annual list of Lenten reading. It is also one from my TBR shelf- it's been sitting there since the early 90's. Unfortunately, that is one of the negatives about the book---there is nothing in here past that date, and I think there certainly has been more written on the subject.

That said, in this one the author looks at various women mentioned in the bible or other contemporaneous writings and then researches thoroughly future mentions and interpretation of the traditional view of these women. The reading is very academic, although the book cover mentions that this is an example of "the forgotten art in theology: the use of imagination". I found the imagination too dry to get my arms around. Recommended for anyone looking for scholarly discussion, but not for general reading. I had a hard time finding 'relevance' although there were interesting tidbits.

If you're interested in the entire Lenten reading list, it's posted Ash Wednesday Already - It's too early to be Lent on my blog.

after I made that list, I added my current read Called Out of Darkness by Anne Rice which I'm enjoying immensely--review soon

Thank you for the link to your Lenten reading list and blog, Tina. I also try to read more "spiritually" during Lent and Advent. Right now, I am visiting an old favorite, What's So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey. I own most of his books and read them over and over. For something new (and also on my TBR stack), I might give No Man Is An Island by Merton a go since I enjoyed his Seven Storey Mountain for my Advent reading.

#34 Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.


Author: Barbara Kingsolver
Format: 14 hrs audio, 400 pages equivalent
Subject: local organic farming
Setting: rural western Virginia
Genre: memoir
Source: Overdrive audio download from public library
Challenge: Support your local library, Audio Books

One of the few "year of this and that" books I really enjoyed. Kingsolver's family decides to live off the local area for all food for a year. They raise turkeys/chickens, bake bread, grow vegetables and fruit and gather anything they don't produce from local farmers markets and sources no more than 100 miles away.

They agonize over buying some items not locally produced - coffee, olive oil, flour, spices. They debate whether to take a vacation when crops must be tended and chickens fed and watered. The text is actually written not only by Kingsolver, but by her husband Stephen Hopp who gives us short 'articles' full of statistics and facts about the entire industrial agriculture empire in the world, and by her daughter Camille, who left in the middle of this year of living locally to attend college and try to implement the lifestyle on campus. Her essays on various recipes and nutrition add quite a bit to the story.

The audio was read by the author, and I was engaged from the beginning. By the end, when we get quite a detailed lesson in the sex life of turkeys, I was rolling on the floor laughing, but came away with great admiration for this dedicated and loving family.

#35 The House on Beartown Road by Elizabeth Cohen.



A heartbreaking story about a woman who moves from Arizona to an old farmhouse in upstate New York with her artist husband and one year old daughter. Subsequently, her 80 year old father comes from Arizona to live with them. Daddy has Alzheimer's. hubbie has a total lack of marital commitment and leaves, and she is left to raise the baby and the father. She writes eloquently of the struggles her father has to remember and the struggles of her daughter to learn.

Writing gives me a sense of control. It has its own special alchemy. I can make what is terrible turn beautiful.

She writes about the surprising (to her) neighborliness of others on the street as they bring wood up to her porch, plow her driveway and shovel her walk. She tells us about her attempts to find help, her sister's problems dealing on the opposite coast with their mother. Through it all, her daughter is the shining star who brings everyone together.

Daddy walks around now this way, dropping pieces of language behind him. The baby following picking them up.

The story is poignant in its outlook, but surprisingly not a tear jerker. It is inspiring.

#181: Tina, since you liked Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, you might enjoy her book of essays that I recently finished, Small Wonder.

#182: That one sounds good. I will see if I can find a copy. Thanks for the recommendation.

Wow, those observations about writing are very powerful...

Re long-term crafty projects -- I have multiple unfinished quilts hanging around the house. May have to start another one to add to the collection. When I finish the unfinished needlepoint, that is...

Glad you liked Animal, Vegetable, Miracle! That's one of my favorite reads from last year and changed the way I shop, cook and eat.

36 Called Out of Darkness


Author: Anne Rice
Format: 245 pages, hardback
Subject: religious faith; conversion
Genre: memoir
Source: Public library

Another of my Lenten reads....An honest, soul-searching, look into the personal faith journey of one of America's most noted novelists. Going from Roman Catholicism to atheism and secular humanism back to Roman Catholicism, she allows us to see her upbringing in very Catholic New Orleans during the late 1940s and 1950s, her struggles with reading, and gender issues while attending first a Catholic college, and then a state university in Texas. She gives us breath-taking detail of the journey, in some cases TMI, and only gives us her "conversion" and subsequent love affair with Jesus in the last 15% of the book.

I've never read any of her vampire or other novels, but have read both of her Christ the Lord novels and found both of those very inspirational. Her early education in catholic school with the Sisters of Mercy brought back many memories of my years with this wonderful group of women. The issues she dealt with on reaching young adulthood were hauntingly recognizable to many of our generation. A great start to put me in a reflective mindset for Lent.

Just a note that I finally posted a better review of Animal Vegetable Miracle on message 181.

#186: I will have to look for that one. Thanks for the review and recommendation, Tina.

#181/187: I know exactly what you mean about the sex life of turkeys part of the book :)

>186 tututhefirst: I've seen references to this book before but never enough information about the content to help me decide whether to pick it up. Definitely sounds worth a read - thanks. I actually really enjoyed Interview with a Vampire but never read any of the rest of the series.

37 Eastern Stars:How Baseball Changed the Town of San Pedro de Macoris



Author:Mark Kurlansky
Format: paperback galley 288 pgs
Subject; baseball; sugar cane; poverty
Setting: San Pedro de Marcoris, Dominican Republic
Genre: non-fiction
Source: ARC from publisher
Challenge: Completing ARCs

Well.....as you know I'm a great baseball fan, and I'm running a giveaway on my blog for some lucky reader...

I read non-fiction for a number of reasons:

a) I want to learn more about a subject I'm really interested in.
b) I want to learn more about a subject I know nothing about.
c) I know a lot about the subject already and expect to get a different perspective.
d) I want to be inspired about something I'm passionate about.
e) I need to do a report.

In the case of this one,

a) I'm interested in baseball...in fact I'd say I'm getting to be a fanatic.
b) I knew there were ball players from the Dominican Republic but nothing about the country or its baseball system.
c) not applicable
d) didn't happen
e) yeah...it was an ARC and I had promised to do a review.

I'm still shocked at not finding one mention of one of my favorite Dominican Republic players---David Ortiz (Big Poppy) of the Boston Red Sox. I guess he didn't come from this specific town so he didn't rate a mention.

The book was way more about the history of the town and the socio-economic influences over the past 300-500 years. Baseball kept getting mentioned, but I had to unglaze my eyes to pick up the nuggets.

Not a book I'd recommend unless you're a serious fan whose team includes a player from this town, or you're doing research on the Dominican Republic. Too bad...it looked like it was going to be much more.

I'm surprised he didn't mention Big Papi. Isn't that the town that has produced so many great MLB shortstops?

#190: OK, skipping that one - which is one I would have picked up based on both the title and the author.

38 Shot to Death



Author: Stephen D. Rogers
Format: 257 pgs
Subject: crime
Setting: various
Genre: short stories
Source: ARC from author
Challenge: ARCs completed

This is a delightful collection of short (3-8 page) stories. While the title and cover would leave one to believe they all have a murder (or at least a death by gun) as a central motif. Actually, they are much broader in their scope, their actions, their plots, and their resolutions.

The author suggests that this is not a book to be read straight through. Rather, each story stands alone and can (and should) be read separately. This is exactly how I read it. It is a perfect book to pick up when you have only 5-10 minutes to read. Each story is robust enough that it could be expanded into a decent novella, if not full length novel or mystery story. Each leaves the reader pondering what just happened and what might happen if there were 20-100 more pages. For example, there is the story where a woman is trying to hire a hit man. We never know who she wants to kill, or why, and we are left wondering what would have happened next if the story had continued.

It would be an especially good book to leave on the nightstand of the guest room. Perfect for sleepy guests who just want a little something to read, and much classier than a magazine or guide book.

39 The Poacher's Son


Author: Paul Doiron
Format: paperback galley - 324 pgs
Characters: Mike Bowditch, Jack Bowditch, Charley Stevens
Subject: father-son relations; Maine Warden service
Setting: Maine wilderness
Genre: fiction
Source: Barnes and Noble First Look Club
Challenge: ARCs completed

My first participation in Barnes and Nobles' First Look Club. This is a very impressive debut novel/mystery. The author, who is editor of DownEast magazine, lives right here in my neck of the woods. He presents us with a well-defined cast of characters with a wide range of motivations. The setting is lush and well painted, and the plot is a true page-turner. Mike Bowditch, 24 yrs old, is a Maine Game Warden whose father is a suspect in a double murder. The book starts quickly with Mike tracking a bear on the loose who has stolen a pig; when he returns to his cabin hot, tired, thirsty, and lonely, he gets a call from his father who says he needs help. Mike hasn't seen him in over two years, and learns the next morning that Jack Bowditch is suspected of killing two people in the North Woods of Maine, and has escaped into those woods.

The following chapters are full of flashbacks to a less than happy childhood, a lousy relation with his father, descriptions of his previous and current relationship with his girlfriend Sarah, and Mike's struggle to decide where his loyalties lie. The action is concise and believable. Mike is truly conflicted, trying to balance his feelings for his father with his desire to do his job and his need to feel validated in many of his life choices. NO spoilers. It is definitely recommended if you like good characters and lots of action. It is especially recommended if you like the great outdoors, Maine, and wildlife. Let's hope that Warden Mike Bowditch appears in future works.

Many thanks to Barnes and Noble for the copy of the book and the great online discussion at the First Look Club.

40 Rome Has Spoken

More Lenten reading: Rome Has Spoken


Author Maureen Fiedler and Linda Rabben, eds.
Format paperback 224 pages + bibliography and notes
Subject Papal pronouncements over the years
Genre: non-fiction, essays
Source: my own shelves, signed copy from author
Challenge: World Religions, Reading from my Shelves

More of my Lenten Reading---The subtitle tells it all: A Guide to Forgotten Papal Statements and How they Have Changed Through the Centuries.

A very academic but interesting volume reviewing various "issues" that seem to have been interpreted and enforced differently over the two centuries of Roman Catholicism. The topics cover the range from evolution to the slavery, from Galileo to usury, and include the current buzz topics of contraception, women's ordination and divorce.
Each topic presents first the scriptural references cited over the years, and progresses with quotes from the early fathers, to Papal pronouncements over the years, to conciliar declarations (if available) and ends with an essay from a noted scholar of today.
Some topics are more interesting than others, but all are well researched, intelligently and objectively presented. A book worth reading for those wanting to know how the Catholic Church got to certain "beliefs" and what might happen in the future. It's dry, but not so dry that it can't be read. The short essay format lends itself to being read in pieces, so it can easily be picked up and put down without feeling like one has to do it all at once. In fact, I've been 'reading' this one for about four years, and finally think I've read all of it that I'm interested in.

Tina/Superwoman

What a rapid rate and what incredlbe books you are reading.

I'm adding book #35. I really like your description.

I'm very impressed with your blog...
How do you manage to read so many books, write such great reviews and create and update a blog?

Can I have some of the vitamins you are taking????

I don't do much else. I'm retired, and when someone asks me what I do, I say "I'm a book reviewer." I am a fast reader, and I take notes, or use a lot of yellow stickies when I'm reading. In fact, when I'm listening to audio books if I'm sitting down, I usually have my laptop with me, and will pause the audio and make a note on the laptop so i don't loose the quote or the thought I want to discuss in a review. I've always been blessed with the ability to type and write as I go. I usually crank out a 'review' and then go back and polish it after I've written it. There's a lot of cut and paste between LT and the blog, and I use templates in the blog to fill in. Actually, when I start a book, I open the post for the review, and just start typing things in as I'm reading it. Then I just clean it up when I'm done.

And finally, as you've noticed, I never say something in five words if fifty will do!!!! I enjoy what I'm doing, which is reading and discussing books with friends like you. I think that's why it's not so hard to do the reviews. I just sit down and write like I'm telling someone about the book and why they'd like it. If I had known when I joined LT that I'd be spending so much time on the social side of the site, I'd have chosen the user name "bloviator".

Thanks for your nice words. It's always nice to know people are reading what you say.

Yes, we are out here reading what you say. And, for the record, I think "tutu" is a much more charming screen name than "bloviator!" I also take notes when I read, even if it is only a phrase or a page number I want to return to. I don't feel like I've finished a book until I think it through and do a little review -- even if it's only in my head.

running in a corner, covering my ears so that sound of the word "bloviator" discontinues and the image gets out of my head of Bill O'Reily repeatedly using this word, over and over and over again..

Opps, it isn't working because now I hear him saying "opine.." "opine''' ''opine"

Oh, no, I'm covering my eyes now so that I don't see him with that smirk on his face whenever someone intelligent states an opinion that might be different than his....

Bummed about the review of the Kurlansky book. I may still get it from the library or BookSwim; I like Kurlansky and don't expect it to be an authoritative baseball book, but more about the intersection of baseball and a town's economy and society.

ChatterB - I think you hit the nail on the head....my expectations were off so the book didn't meet them --sometimes it's hard to get a feel for what a book is about when you just get a two line blurb asking if you'd like to review....guess I just wasn't quite up for an economic discourse which is what this essentially was.

Tina, Happy to see that your first experience with B&N First Look was a good one. Enjoyed your review as well.

#193: Adding that one to the BlackHole. Thanks for the review and recommendation!

#197: I take lots of notes when I am reading, too. I also do the sticky note tabs on my books (which sometimes make the book pages look like nothing but sticky notes, lol). Although I rarely do formal book reviews, I do try and convey quotes from the author or what I liked about a book when I do my weekly updates (although I know it really does not look like I do.) I keep my book journal document open - when I am at home reading - so I can make notes in it when I am in the midst of a particular book.

41 The Cruelest Month



Author: Louise Penny
Format: audio book 11.7 hours, 416 pages
Characters: Inspector Armand Gamache,
Subject: murder in a small town
Setting: fictional village of Three Pines, Quebec
Series: Chief Inspector Gamage
Genre: mystery, police detective
Source: public library audio b
Challenge: Support Your Local Library, Thrillers and Suspense

This not the final book in Louise Penny's wonderful Chief Inspector Gamage series, but it is the final one for me to read to be caught up. While they are understandable on their own, given the choice, I would have preferred to read them in order. In fact, that is one of my goals for later this year or next year, to read them back to back in order...hopefully before her next book BURY YOUR DEAD comes out later this year.

Of course, reading this one, now the fifth I done, I still put the book down and long to go and live in Three Pines But then I ask myself why? Why on earth would I want to live in a town where there are so many murders? Where old women roam the street talking to ducks? Where secrets seem to be hidden in every crack of every ancient building?

Well because...

Because all of these people seem to care. They care about the earth, the animals, themselves, their lovers, their neighbors, and most of all they care about their village--its history, its current state and its future. Who wouldn't want to be part of this? And who wouldn't want to stop by Olivier and Gabri's bistro every evening for a glass of wine, a poetry reading, a book discussion, or simply to watch the sunset, or the rain fall.

These are genuinely gorgeous books. They soak us in the warmth of this village. We know these people. They're our friends now, and we want them not to have to endure any more sorrow. But we know that life deals out sorrow with happiness and that's why we keep returning. They're real to us. And we want to be part of it. Penny's ability to write clear prose exploring human emotions and darkly buried secrets and terrors is special. She is in a league with Agatha Christie, P.D. James, and Donna Leon.

If you haven't read her, be sure to get these so you can be caught up when the 6th on comes out in the fall.The first in the series is STILL LIFE and it's every bit as good as this one.

"You may go now...I have wine and scotch and all the books I could want to read."== I have to go back and double check which character said this, but I loved this quote. Whoever it was was sitting in the bistro by the fire...

#204: I have loved that whole series. I did not know that there was a book coming out later this year. Thanks for letting me know, Tina!

ETA: OK, why is it that on both PBS and Amazon there is only an audiobook of Bury Your Dead listed? That seems very strange to me.

Interestingly, tonight I'm reading the first book in the Three Pine Tree series. I read 125 pages of Still Life A Mystery and have to put it down to go to bed because I need to work tomorrow. I'm hooked and wish I could read through the night.

I'm glad Stasia told me this was a series that should be read in order. While I was able to obtain the other books from the library, I had to wait for this one.

Well, I'm not that fond of mysteries, but I love your description of the village. I'll consider moving when Louise Penny gets all the murders solved! :-)

42 Blood of the Wicked



Author: Leighton Gage
Format: hardback, 304 pgs.
Characters:Chief Inspector Mario Silva, Delegado Hector Costa
Subject: crime and corruption
Setting: Brasil, 1970-80
Series: Chief Inspector Mario Silva
Genre: detectives, police procedural
Source: public library
Challenge:Support your Public Library, Thrillers and Suspense

This one is a bit violent and bloody for me, but I finished it anyway. I had read the next one in the series, Buried Strangers, and was anxious to back-fill information about the main character. Blood of the Wicked is the first of the Inspector Mario Silva series, set in Brazil. Silva is a member of the Federal Police force, so he is called to various locations throughout the country. Gage gives us a good solid introduction to Brazilian justice in the 60's and 70's during the military rule--not a brand we'd like to have here, and not a pretty site.

In this story, we get Silva's background and motivation for being a cop. We meet his nephew Hector Costa, also a cop, and are introduced to the theory of Liberation Theology, prevalent in South America during that period, but in this story recently condemned by Rome. The story opens with the murder of a Bishop. I don't like to do spoilers, but will say that in solving this murder, Silva must deal with street crime, pedophiles, corrupt (and I mean Very Corrupt) local and state police, even more corrupt judges, more murder, torture, child abuse, martyrs, selfish landowners, landless peasants, corrupt (yes Very Corrupt) and evil priests, saintly priests, abused women, and an obnoxious boss more worried about his image than justice.

In spite of this ugliness, Silva, with the help of a couple of holy people, manages to bring the severest perpetrators to justice. Nuf said. It's a great read, and, if you haven't read any of the others, holds great promise for more to come in future books.

43 Morning Show Murders



Author: Al Roker
Format:8 discs (9 + hrs), 320 pg equivalent
Narrator:  Al Roker and Dick Lochte
Characters: Chef Billy Blessing,
Subject: murder; TV shows
Setting: New York
Genre: amateur sleuth detective mystery
Source: public library
Challenge: Audio books, Support your Local Library

A very predictable, run of the mill mystery. Chef Billy Blessing (a poorly disguised stand-in for Al Roker of NBC's TODAY Show fame) runs a restaurant, lives in digs upstairs, has a running gig on the Morning Show doing interviews, food segments, Man-about-town, etc. However, he does not get along with one of the show's producers who turns up dead early in the story. Food from Chef Blessing's restaurant is found at the victim's home, and the poor guy seems to have died from poison contained in the food. Chef Blessing is of course accused of the murder, and decides he'll have to take things in his own hands and solve this crime.

There is a believable but non-too-exciting side cast of characters, and several plot twists that aren't twisty at all. They were basically ho-hum. I listened to this one on audio-- it was OK, but much as I like the real Al Roker on TV when I only have to listen to him in 3-4 minutes segments, I found his voice very irritating for long run narration. The whole thing was so unimpressive, I almost abandoned it out of boredom.

And there weren't even any good recipes.

#208: Adding that one to the BlackHole.

#209: Skipping that one.

Thanks for the reviews, Tina.

I saw the Al Roker mystery and was thinking about it. Sounds like I could put it on the backburner now.

I think I'm passing on Al Roker's book too.
Will have to check out Inspector Mario.

>209 tututhefirst:: Since I'm not particularly an Al Roker fan and have plenty of other mysteries to read by authors I enjoy, your review sounds the death knell on that one! :-)

#208 I like the sound of that one, will have to look it up and add it to my Amazon wishlist for some time in the future. Is it a Soho Press book and was it hardback or paperback? The cover looks like them - they specialise in crime fiction in translation/set in other countries and I really like the design of the covers.

44 Burning Cold: The Cruise Ship Prinsendam and the Greatest Sea Rescue of all Time



Author: H. Paul Jeffers
Format: hardback, 304 pages
Subject: shipwreck, fire at sea, US Coast Guard rescues
Setting: Bay of Alaska, Oct 1980
Genre: non-fiction, documentary
Source: public library
Challenge: Support your public library

This is one of those serendipitous discoveries that I thought I was just going to page through and ended up staying up well past my bedtime to read cover-to cover.

You could say this is a book about heroism, or a book about a terrifying adventure, or a book about carelessness and poor seamanship, but however you want to look at it, it's a true story about a little known episode in an otherwise glorious history.

Members of my family (me included) have made numerous cruises on Holland America's ships (including the Alaska cruises) and never heard about this little adventure.  The story here is about the fire onboard the MS Prinsendam, the ineptitude of the crew in extinguishing it, and the harrowing experiences of the 350+ passengers (most of them quite elderly) who endured hours waiting to be rescued as they bobbed up and down in lifeboats in scanty attire while the sea roiled from the edges of a major typhoon. It was October and it was cold and dark.

The US Coast Guard, and several civilian tankers did a stellar job of rescuing every single person who was onboard (including the now famous pianist Yanni), and getting them to safety.  While the author could have used a good editor to strain out a lot of extraneous material ---he seemed to think we needed the entire career history of every person involved in this debacle---it was still a quick read.  I'm just not sure I'd recommend it to someone about to plunk down thousands of dollars to go on a cruise, although I'd definitely recommend paying attention to the life boat drill when they say dress warmly and bring your life jacket.  Altogether an engrossing read.

#215: Adding that one to the BlackHole. It sounds right up my alley. Thanks for the recommendation, Tina.

That Jeffers is quite a guy. I never knew he wrote anything besides terrific mysteries.

I'll have to look for this one.

You've hooked me, Tina. On to the wishlist goes Burning Cold. Thanks

> 215 Ooooooh, sea disaster! Cool!

45 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks



Author: Rebecca Skloot
Format: hard cover, 384 pages

Subject: medical ethics, cell research
Setting: Baltimore, MD, Clover VA
Genre: non-fiction science reporting
Source: public library
Challenge: Support Your Public Library

I didn't think I'd get this so soon. I put it on reserve at the library and was told I was 48 in line for 37 copies. Then three days later, it came in. I thought I was just going to leaf through the pages but found myself engaged right away. It's set mostly in my hometown of Baltimore, and is so well written and such a compelling story, that I had to read it straight through. It's the story of a poor black woman, Henrietta Lacks, whose cervical cancer tumor was so unusual that doctors at Johns Hopkins took samples before they began treating her for radiation back in 1951. She died within the year, but her cells from the tumor turned out to be some absolutely fantastic ones that are almost impossible to kill and are incredibly easy to reproduce and use in medical research. Her cells are known to scientists as HeLa (the first two letters of her first and last name).

Her family never knew about the procedure or about these incredible cells growing and being used all over the world. They are reportedly responsible for Dr. Salk's success in developing the polio vaccine for instance. Today, her descendants are so poor they can't even afford to go to the doctor. It's an incredible story of a reporter wanting to find out about the cells, the family, and the research. It's well written, fairly easy to understand, and a must read.

Wow, Burning Cold: The Cruise Ship sounds awesome!

I agree, Burning Cold: The Cruise Ship sounds good.

Tutu, I just found your thread. I didn't even try catching up but I will give staying current from here on out my best shot!

Tina
I'm stopping by to say I've devoted time to getting my LT files in order and couldn't help but notice that there are many, many references noting "recommended by Tina."

You read such great books that I simply cannot control myself and add them to the to be read piles.

Linda....I have a few whisper recs myself.....There are so many books I'd never have even heard of if all you wonderful LT friends weren't suggesting them. I also think I've been diverted from reads that probably would have been less than enjoyable.

#223- Sus....missed you ....glad to see you back. Are you still doing music? I'm working on a toccata by Paradises but I suspect I'll be 90 before I master it, particularly since I only work on it about 2 hours a month right now.

yup 2 hrs a month isnt much... espec toward a complex piece. And, no, I haven't been doing music, but was reminded earlier today of my failed 999 music category. I think I'll continue to try reading through my books. Feel free to ask how it's going if it occurs to you.

Blessings.

46 The Woman who Named God

Another of my lenten reads.


Author: Charlotte Gordon
Format: 400 pages
Characters: Abram, Sarai, Hagar
Subject: Abram's journey and the roots of three great religions
Setting: Canaan desert and surrounding area
Genre: non-fiction
Source: blog contest prize (my own shelves)
Challenge: TBR Challenge, Read from my Shelves

A very readable, very scholarly discussion of Abraham's families and their antecedents in modern day religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. While this could have been very dry and boring, it wasn't. Gordon covers Abram's entire life from his call by God to leave his home to his meanderings over the years through various lands up to his burial. The research and notes are extensive and well-documented, but don't get in the way.

Gordon looks at Abran's long journey and life through all prisms: Jewish, Christian and Islamic scriptures, (both the Bible and the Koran) as well as other historical and religious writings. She will present an incident or story and then explain how each religion views the episode, what learned teachers and rabbis have said over the years, and offer the pros and cons of each interpretation.

I thought when I started the book that it was going to be only about Abraham and Sarah, but found that the title really referred to Hagar. In fact, I think when I got it, I thought it was another fiction like Diamont's RED TENT. It isn't fiction, and I definitely found myself enlightened by ideas I'd never pondered before. Although it is deep reading, it is enjoyable and certainly recommended.

http://www.metmuseum.org/works_of_art/collection_database/european_paintings/hag...

This is one of my favorite paintings at the Metropolitan Art Museum.

The Woman Who Named God sounds like a fascinating book.

Wow, Tina, I just caught up on your thread and I've added a ton of books to my wishlist. Thanks!

Linda....thanks so much for that link. It would have made a great cover for the book. In fact, the only thing I think could have helped is to have put in some sort of map so I didn't have to keep trying to find places in my atlas. Thanks for the picture link.

#230-Marcia...glad you caught up. I love sharing ideas and adding to everyone else's wishlist, because I get so many good ideas from all of you. Hope all is going well, and I look forward to seeing you 'visit' as often as you can.

I am adding The Woman Who Named God to the BlackHole. Thanks for the recommendation.

Thanks also for your recommendation of War Torn. I read it this past week.

The Woman Who Named God sounds great, and I love your idea of Lenten reads. (Note to self for next year!)

Definitely going to be looking out for The Woman Who Named God. Sounds very interesting.

Woman Who Named God is going on my wishlist as well. I've admired you and the others who do special reading for the Lenten and Advent seasons, and think that I should consider something similar for myself as a way of re-connecting with my faith which sometimes gets buried under the rest of life - especially since we don't have a "church home" right now.

Thanks for all the great recommendations.

Wow, wonderful reads and thoughtful reviews! Burning Cold: The Cruise Ship sounds right up my alley! Henrietta Lacks is already on my list. And I'll have to look for The Woman Who Named God, too!

47 Lake Magic



Author: Kimberly Fisk
Format: mass market paperback, 336 pages
Characters: Jennifer Bekinsale, and Jared Worth
Subject: relationships
Setting: Pacific Northwest

Genre: fiction- romance
Source: LibraryThing Early Review program

A pleasant romance with just enough sexual tension to keep the reader from falling asleep. While not the traditional bodice ripper, the story is fairly predictable: girl loses love of life; love of life's best friend shows up. Girl hates new guy, new guy thinks he hates best friend's girl. Both must work together to keep the dead dude's business going.......you get the picture. As a sideline to add interest, there are some family dynamics from girl's side-- a career woman sister whose son is floundering without parental guidance, overbearing mother, stuck-up attorney brother...etc etc etc.

In spite of the formulaic plot and setting, the characters are reasonably well drawn, the writing is clean, and in the end.......well no spoilers here.

I do wish the editing could have been tighter. After a while, the recitation of the mental gymnastics of the two main characters got to be a bit much as they struggled to resolve the angst of this relationship. All in all tho, it's an nice read for a rainy afternoon.

edited to fix touchstone

Well I'm glad it wasn't a looser :) (my english has gone down the tubes... I first wrote louser ... Of course, maybe you needed one for the animals? LOL)

Glad to hear it's not terrible - I also received that book from the ER program, but it's still sitting on the shelf staring me in the face as I keep reaching past it for library books that need to be read so they can be returned. I'm planning to work on the tax return this weekend while my husband and kids are out of town, and thought that might be a good book to unwind with before bed.

Sandy...it's absolutely perfect as an after tax relaxer!

48 Ghost at Work



Author: Carolyn Hart
Narrator: Ann Marie Lee
Format: 8 discs (10.75 hrs)- 336 page equivalent
Characters: Bailey Ruth Raeburn, Kathleen Abbott, Sheriff Cobb, assorted good and bad guys
Subject: Murder in a small town
Setting: Adelaide Oklahoma
Series: Bailey Ruth Mysteries #1
Genre: Cozy mystery
Source: Overdrive download from public library
Challenge: Support your Public Library, Thrillers and Suspense, Audio Books

A pleasant cozy. Bailey Ruth Raeburn has already died and gone to heaven. After a while of almost boring wonderfulness, she enlists in the heavenly rescue squad to return to earth and help people in trouble. Her first assignment is to go back to her hometown of Adelaide Oklahoma to help her grand niece Kathleen Abbott who is afraid she or her husband, the rector at St. Mildred's episcopal, will be accused of murder. After all, there is a dead body on the back porch of the rectory.

Bailey Ruth didn't have time for training in heaven before she undertook this assignment. Her continual violation of the "heavenly precepts for emissaries" lands her in hot water with her heavenly mentor Wiggins as she tries to intercept evidence, interview suspects, and find out who dunnit while keeping herself invisible. Her appetite for good home cooking keeps getting in the way, and her need to help constantly has objects flying through (or suspended in) the air as she whizzes, whisps, and zooms from spot a to spot b, all the while forgetting that while she may be invisible the bag of evidence she's just scooped up isn't. Neither can the corporeal objects melt through solid walls or doors. Her antics to overcome these difficulties are truly amusing.

All in all, Hart presents us with an endearing character, a solid plot, lots of good suspects, and a fairly surprise ending. I'll be looking for another of these to see if Bailey Ruth can learn how to do this job in a more efficient manner and whether she'll be able to get off probation and become a full-fledged emissary.

LOL sounds like fun.

I agree with Susan - it does sound like fun.

A couple of kiddie lits I got to review this week.....

Bailey's Day by Robert Hagger and Share from the Heart by Marilyn Randall. (no touchstone available)

Bailey is a delightfully illustrated story about a dog who belongs to a mailman. When his owner goes to work in the morning, Bailey eats his food, takes a nap and then goes out into the yard, where he promptly disobeys the rules and goes out roaming with the dog down the street. They have a series of adventures, including hiding when they see the mailman coming. They finally do get found out, the mailman takes them home, and then chides them for breaking the rules.

I would have liked this book a lot more if it had included some indication that the bad doggie understood that he was "bad" and there were some hint of unhappy consequences for disobeying. There aren't and that will have to be one for the parents and grandparents who will enjoy reading this really well written and illustrated story to children. In addition to the colored drawings, the book includes photographs of the author's dog - the real Bailey. Lots of fun for the little one.

The Randall book OTOH, is not going to be nominated for a Newberry or Caldecott by me...The author claims it is designed to help children understand the concept and values of sharing. In it, we see two young boys strolling along, confronting a fire-breathing dragon, being scared and then learning that the dragon just wants to be friends. The children and the dragon take the time to explore their feelings towards each other and in the end adopt each other as 'family.'

I would have liked this book so much more if it had been in prose. The forced non-rhythmic poetry doesn't rhyme well, doesn't scan well as poetry and is extremely difficult to read aloud. I give all children's books the read aloud test with our pre-school group at the library, and trust me, this one did not work. There are far too many words on a page, and although there is a delightful (and rather simple) illustration on each page, the children lose interest about 1/3 of the way through. The vocabulary just doesn't ring well in the forced rhyme scheme for reading aloud. It will work much better for precocious 1st and 2nd graders who can read it to themselves. And it's just plain preachy.

book 48 sounds delightful...Another one of your great reads goes on the pile.

49 Plainsong



Author: Kent Haruf
Format: Trade paperback 301 pgs
Characters: Tom Guthrie, Ike and Billy, Victoria Roubideaux, the McPherons
Subject: life in small town America
Setting: Colorado, sometime in late 20th century
Genre: fiction
Source: public library
Challenge: Support your local library

This one was not on my original radar screen at all. Our local senior center has a monthly book discussion group I decided to join. They chose this for next week's discussion and since we had a copy on the shelf at out local library where I work, I grabbed it, and said "ok, I think I can read this by next Monday" don't forget I also have to finish Cutting for Stone by next wednesday for another book group!!

I opened the book, read the first chapter, and could not put it down. I took it to the dentist, I took it to the Annual Town Meeting (and those of you who live in New England KNOW how hard it is to read there!), I took it to bed and read into the night...it is absolutely gorgeous, luscious, and at the same time just plain simple. Like a quilt with a seemingly easy pattern and only a few colors, but whose design is so intricate you almost can't piece it.

Haruf presents a picture of small town America...a prairie farm town outside of Denver in Colorado. He takes a few people and shows us how those lives intertwine through ordinary everyday happenings:

*There is Tom Guthrie, a high school teacher who is dealing with a recalcitrant bully (and his parents) in one of his classes, whose wife is so mentally ill she won't come out of her room and who eventually leaves him, and his two sons Ike and Billy 9 and 10 whose small town paper route requires that they get up at daybreak every morning to go down to the train depot, roll the newspapers and then deliver them via their bikes before coming home to eat breakfast and get ready for school.

*There's Victoria Roubideaux, a beautiful, shy, high school student whose mother locks her out of the house and will have nothing to do with her when she discovers her daughter's pregnancy.

*There's Maggie Jones, another high school teacher, who befriends Victoria and others in town, and who has been pining for Tom Guthrie for a long time, all the while caring for her very old mentally addled father.

*And there are the McPheron brothers, as American Gothic a pair as you can imagine. These two are just absolutely worth the entire book. Bachelor farmers who were orphaned before their teens, they live alone 17 miles outside the town, go to bed by 9 at night, get up with the chickens, and rarely speak since there doesn't seem to anything but hog belly futures to worry about. At the urging of Maggie, they take in the homeless Victoria, and the rest as they say is history...

This is an exquisite book, written in superbly simple descriptive prose that leaves you breathless, both with the characters, the settings, the various episodes of living and the warm loving portrayal of small town life. I borrowed this from the library, but you can be sure this one is going on the wishlist to buy so I can read it again and again. It is easy to see how it was a National Book Award finalist.

50 be the noodle

Author: Lois Kelly

Format: trade paper back, 124 pages
Subject: death, dying, care-giving
Genre: non-fiction essays
Source: review copy from the author
Challenge: ARCs completed

No that's not a typo....lois kelly ignores the energy needed to shift into uppercase fonts.  She instead focuses on the important in this short, pithy, well-written and extremely readable little book.  It will be cherished by anyone faced with caring for a loved one through the final days of a lingering death.

Lois, oldest child of Bette, takes over the week day watch at her mother's side at her beach house on Cape Cod, as Bette slowly faces death from lung and brain cancer. I found it especially touching that Bette chose to have surgery to remove an especially large brain tumor (there were several) but eschewed chemo because doctors said that removing the tumor would at least give her back the ability to read.  And if she had to wait for death, she could at least read while she was waiting!  Trying to respect her mother's wishes, while dealing with well meaning, and well wishing neighbors, friends, and relatives, provides the basis for the advice given here.
Written as 50 short lessons to be learned, the introduction describes this as

"...a caregiver's adventure guide based on my wild, wondrous and life changing journey helping my mother die at home...this book will help you navigate the adventure and become a compassionate, crazy-good caregiver, one of the most courageous jobs you never wanted."

The title refers to those styrofoam tubes swimmers use to support themselves in the water....it helps them stay afloat while they still retain use of their arms and legs.  Her mother loved to swim, and always disdained using noodles. In the end, both mother and daughter recognized the beauty in letting Lois 'be the noodle.'

Of the 50 "lessons" here are a few of my favorites:

• Caregiver lesson #4: tell all those generous friends and neighbors what kind of food you would appreciate. otherwise, beware the banana bread bombardment.


• Caregiver lesson #19: celebrate peepers and other rituals (if you don't live near a body of water, you probably won't get it, but it was special to me.)


• Lesson #14: escape into old photographs.

It's not depressing at all. It is cheerful, uplifting and inspiring. There are helpful hints from the time the diagnosis is made (and accepted) to dealing with after the funeral issues. Highly recommended for anyone in a care giving situation, or as a gift for someone you know who is a loving caregiver or will someday become one.

#247: That one was on my memorable reads list last year, Tina. I just loved it. I am glad to see that you enjoyed it as well.

Thank you -- I have a friend in just that situation and will recommmend that book.

51 Noah's Compass



Author: Anne Tyler
Format: audio book 8 discs, 288 pgs equivalent
Characters: Liam Penneywell
Subject: aging, mid-life
Setting: Baltimore
Genre:fiction
Source: audio download from public library
Challenge: Support your public library

I finally finished one of Anne Tyler's books. This one really took a long time to get going, and it was certainly a depressing tome. It is the story of Liam Penneywell, a 61 high school teacher, who has been riffed from his job, twice divorced, and then burgled and attacked on his first night in a new apartment. The entire book is a seemingly never ending slog through Liam's quest for remembrance, and his attempts to figure out his non-too-successful life. It is truly depressing. However, as a reader/reviewer, one must say that Tyler certainly writes well....she is obviously trying to portray this sorry shuffling "old" not old man, and she does a superb job of doing it with minimalist prose. Finally, as we get to the end, Liam has a conversation with his ex-wife that really sums up this character in a nutshell. They were having a conversation about how his life had gone.

"Are you telling me you really agree? You believe you're a bad person?" (ex-wife)

'Oh....not bad in the sense of evil," Liam said. " But face it, I haven't exactly covered myself in glory. I just don't seem to have the hang of things somehow. It's as if I've never been entirely present in my own life."

One day he has a conversation with his grandson Jonah about Noah and the ark. Jonah wants to know how Noah knew where to go since he didn't have any gas and he didn't have a compass. Liam tells Jonah that Noah didn't need a compass as he wasn't really trying to go anyplace. He just had to stay in the ark and float around and eventually he'd be there. Liam seems to look at the last years of his life in the same way.

After he takes a job as a "zayde" at a Jewish preschool, he realized

..He had lost his last chance at love...he knew that....he looked around at his current life...the classroom filled with Big Bird Posters, his anonymous apartment, his limited circle of acquaintances, and knew this was how it would be all the way to the end.

How depressing.

One of the librarians at my local library highly recommended Plainsong. Thanks for your excellent review.

#251: OK, I am passing on that one. I have seen it and debated about it, but your review seals if for me. I can live without it.

I'm always so happy when someone loves a book I really love and Plainsong is one of those books. Haruf is such a master of description without being wordy the way many similarly talented writers are. And I just love the conversations between those two old brother farmers as well. Hey, I have the follow up book that I'll send you if you want it. Mark will tell you I only offer to give away books that I don't like all that much, but the brothers are back in this sequel, so you might like it better than I did.

Edited to take out a comma that made no sense.

I'm wrapping up March and Lenten reads today and then will start a new thread for the 2nd quarter. This one is approaching Stasia size!

52 Jesus the Son of Man by Kahlil Gibran.

A lenten read I really enjoyed. Almost like reading poetry. While it is fiction, it takes words from published sources, some apocryphal, and gives us a portrait of Jesus from the viewpoints of many different people who would have been his contemporaries. The vision is mind-expanding, and for believers, inspirational. I found it to be an excellent Lenten read, as I could simply soak up one short reading at a time to take me right through from Ash Wednesday til today.

#255: I will have to look for that one. Thanks for the recommendation, Tina.

Stasia size indeed. Humph.

#255-256

I don't think anyone else can approach "Stasia size." I think she's got 9 or 10 threads this size. Most of the rest of us are lucky if we're starting our second ones now.

Not finished, try it later....Seven Storey Mountain



Author:Thomas Merton
Format: Hardcover, 423 page
Genre: Autobiography
Source: My own shelves, inherited from Auntie

This one is currently now in the "Did not finish, try later" collection. I got through about 120 pages, and while it was interesting, it wasn't yet at the point where I'd label it inspiring. Merton writes in an extremely verbose style, making it necessary for modern day readers used to the 'hurry up and get there' lifestyle to slow down and listen, and think.

Unfortunately, this book appears (at least in the beginning) to cover almost every single day of his life in excruciating detail.; I wanted to get to the mountain....but at page 120, it's only a mirage on a distant horizon. I plan to come back to this one, but I suspect it will be read in chunks over a period of several more years.

So now that I'm inspired and renewed, I look forward to Easter, spring, flowers, sunshine, and another chance to live life to the fullest--ok, ok...read more books!

#257: There is no such thing as Stasia size. It is more like Richard size - he tells me when he thinks I need a new thread. And I only have 8.

#258: Too bad about that one. It has been in the BlackHole for a long time.

Man....I didn't even get a chance to post the link to the new thread for the 2nd quarter here before Stasia found me over there.

I have one more review to do for a March Book for Wolf Hall but that was such a great book, I want to do it justice, so will post over there.

I'm doing a March wrap up on my blog (www.tutus2cents.blogspot.com) and will link here as soon as I get it up and posted

SO PLEASE hop to Tutu's 2nd Quarter - No April Fools and join in the fun.

Happy Easter to everyone.

Happy Easter to you!

Hope you have a wonderful Easter, Tina!