Cookies, Books and Bikes

Random Books from the Bookshelf

2012-01-15T05:30:00.000-07:00

Ghosts in the Snow by Tamara Siler Jones

The first page reads:

Dubric Byerly, Castellan of Faldorrah, sat alone at a smalltable in the castle kitchen, his mangled breakfast congealing before him. Hesipped his tea and frowned as he poked a chunk of sausage with his fork. Havingspent the past half bell toying with the food on his plate, he worried he hadwasted too much time pretending to eat. The beginning of an inquiry alwaysseemed disjointed to him. Finding the first clue, the first mistake, the firsthint of guilt.

Responsible for the safety and well-being of Lord Bushgar’sdemesne, Dubric tried to make his presence felt on a regular basis in all areasof the castle. But as he glanced up from his plate, he wondered if he had eatentoo many breakfasts alone in the kitchen. The staff gave him a wide andrespectful berth as they hurried through their labors, but none gave him secondglance.

The Anvil of the World by Kage Baker

The first page reads:

Troon, the golden city, sat within high walls on a plain athousand miles wide. The plain was golden with barley.

The granaries of Troon were immense, towering over the citylike giants, taller even than its endlessly revolving windmills. Dust sifteddown into its streets and filled its air in the Month of the Red Moon and inevery other month, for that matter, but most especially in that month, when theharvest was brought in from the plain in long lines of creaking carts, raisingmore dust, which lay like a fine powder of gold on every dome and spire andharvester’s hut.

All the people of Troon suffered from chronic emphysema.Priding itself as it did, however, on being the world’s breadbasket, Troon putup with the emphysema. Wheezing was considered refined, and the social event ofthe year was the Festival of Respiratory Masks.

Bright of the Sky by Kay Kenyon

The first page reads:

Marcus Sund came awake all at once. “Lights,” he said.

The cabin remained dark. “Lights,” he repeated, louder thistime, but with the same result. He sat up. The station hummed with life support– the ProFabber engines churned in their colossal duties – but something wasmissing from that profound vibration.

He dressed hurriedly, toggling the operations deck as heyanked his shirt on. “Report.”

“Sir, we have some minor failures in noncritical functions.We’re on it.”

Marcus left his cabin and hurried down the corridor. Thelights browned and surged back again. The station exec knew his rig, down tothe last bolt and data structure, and therefore he could feel through the solesof his feet that the hum was wrong, the vibration of the carbon polysteel deckplates a few cycles off. That worried fair more than the flickering lights.

Book Flashback - Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley

2012-01-11T10:05:00.001-07:00

Today is my first book review flashback. I read Winterbirth in April of 2009 (and this the review I wrote then).

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Winterbirth Feels sort of liking you're reading a historybook. Not as dry but it plods along going through events in the world theauthor has created. I feel the main female characters have potential to becomplex, but the author fails at developing them. It all focuses around the menwhen clearly, Wain, one of the female characters plays a pretty big role in theBlack Road army. You get view few glimpses into her actions even though the menin her and her brother’s army are more scared of her then they are of him. Itwas one battle or progression towards a battle after another with politicsthrown in. I like the adventure but didn't care for the politics. I couldn'tfigure out if I should like the "bag guys" or not. Also if you don'tlike unpronounceable names, this book with frustrate you - it has tons of themand they are repeated over and over again. The multiple story lines kept me flipping back so that I could link them together when they were revisited later in the book. That one just one more thing that made this book frustrating for me. 2 Stars.

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So, looking back at this book, I still remember parts of it and I do remember being bored. I even remember skimming parts at time because it was battle after battle without developing interesting characters.

Have you read this book and feel differently or the same? I'd love to hear what you think. If you have a review of it up somewhere, please let me know so we can all get a different perspective.

Random Books from the Bookshelf

2012-01-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

NiceGirls Don’t Have Fangs by Molly Harper

Thefirst page reads:

Vampirism:(n) 1. The condition of being a vampire, marked by the need to ingest blood andextreme vulnerability to sunlight. 2. The act of preying upon others forfinancial or emotional gain. 3. A gigantic pain in the butt.

I’vealways been a glass-half-full kind of girl.

Theirritated look from Gary, the barrel-chested bartender at Shenanigans, told methat, one, I’d said that out loud, and, two, he just didn’t care. But at thatpoint, I was the only person sitting at the pseudo-sports bar on a Wednesdayafternoon, and I didn’t have the cognitive control required to stop talking. Sohe had no choice but to listen.

Ipicked up the remnants of my fourth (fifth? sixth?) electric lemonade. Itglowed blue against the neon lights of Shenanigans’ insistently cheerful décor,casting a green shadow on Gary’s yellow-and-white-striped polo shirt. “See thisglass? This morning, I would have said this glass isn’t half empty. It’s halffull. And I was used to that. My whole life has been half full. Half-fullfamily, half-full personal life, half-full career. But I settled for it. I wasused to it. Did I already say that I was used to it?”

Gary,a gone-to-seed high-school football player with a gut like a deflated balloon,gave me a stern look over the pilsner he was polishing. “Are you done withthat?”

HauntedGround by Erin Hart

Thefirst page reads:

Witha sodden rasp, Brendan McGann’s turfspade sliced into the bank of earth below his feet. Had he known all that he’dturn up with the winter’s fuel, perhaps he would have stopped that moment,climbed up onto the bank and filled his shed with the uniform sods of extrudedturf that a person could order nowadays by the lorry-load.

ButBrendan continued, loosening each sopping black brick with the square-bladedturf spade, tossing it over the bank, where it landed with a plump slap. Heperformed his task with a grace and facility that comes from repeating the samemotion times without number. Though his father and grandfather and generationsbefore had taken their turf from the same patch of bog, Brendan never thoughtof himself as carrying on an age-old tradition, any more than he considered thelife cycles of all the ancient, primitive plants whose resting place he nowdisturbed. This annual chore was the only way he’d ever known to stave off thebitter cold that crept under his door each November.

HappyHour of the Damned by Mark Henry

Thefirst page reads:

Afew hints: the damned of Seattle congregate at the Orphanage on Tuesday nightsfor half-price nibbles and cocktail specials, Convent on Thursdays, forBurlesque of the Living Dead, and Pharmacy on Fridays, which is brand new, andI have never been (don’t let that stop you, I hear it’s mind-blowing)…

-Otherworld Weekly

Saturdaynight is all about the Well of Souls – see and be seen is the rule –there is no excuse for absence, least of all a bad hair day. Shit, even if itlooks like broom straw or the waxy coils plunged from drains, just throw on ahat, a wig, or whatever you have to do; the worst that could happen is publicembarrassment and mockery. Nobody’s died from those. Fortunately, Wendy and Ididn’t have to worry about that; we were looking hot as Hell, and ready to burnit down.

She wore her trademark mix of lush patterns in silkand wool, which she’s been cultivating for a decade like a rose hybrid. On thisparticular night, she was working it short-short-short in a devilish Gallianoskull and crossbones print dress. She wrapped the frock in a constrictingboucle sweater that cupped under her breasts and showed them off like a sluttyEuropean peasant girl. Her blond hair hunt in perfect esses, framing her fairskin in a glow of spun sugar.

The Duke is Mine by Eloisa James

2012-01-06T05:30:00.000-07:00

Oliviahas been betrothed since a young age to the Duke of Canterwick. Her parentshave groomed her for the part of a Duchess, except it hasn’t really taken.Olivia’s younger sister, Georgiana, was also taught by default how to be aDuchess and because of Olivia’s betrothal she might actually get the chance tobecome a one. When Tarquin, the Duke of Sconce’s mother decides it is time herson marries again, Georgiana is one of the top two prospects. At every turn,Georgiana impresses Tarquin’s mother and her position as a Duchess seems to be acertainty. The only problem is that Tarquin has eyes only for Olivia.

Thiswas a fun and enjoyable historical romance. Olivia and Georgiana were bothgreat characters and are easy to like. They were funny with each other,Georgiana was the model of lady-ness in public while Olivia was down to earthand constantly in to trouble. I felt they were really the shining stars withthis novel. Tarquin is also a great character but Olivia is the one that keptme reading.

Theromance between Olivia and Tarquin was good. I wasn’t blown away by it but itwasn’t bad either. The events in the second half of the novel were the reasonfor my three star rating. I found them a little improbable and that thingswould work out in such a away.

TheDuke is Mine is a fun romance read but the ending was a little predictable sothis book gets 3.5 Stars.

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Ifyou’d like to find out more about Eloise James, check out her website. I guess this book is part of a series, but you don't need to read the others to enjoy this one. I haven't...although I will be. I enjoyed this enough to continue reading others by the author.

I received this book from the Amazon Vine program.

December and 2011 in Review

2012-01-05T05:30:00.000-07:00

I had a busy December – which is sort of a weird conceptsince I left my job in early-to-middle November. I spent part of my day jobhunting and the other part working on other projects. You’d think that withextra time I’d have written more reviews… well, to be honest, I haven’t feltmotivated at all to write reviews. It has been a struggle to write any (I alsohad a lot of family chaos in December that was out of the ordinary, so thathurt the motivation/energy). Today, for the first time in weeks, I feel likewriting. I’m hoping to keep the feeling going and that a few changes coming toCookies, Books and Bikes are welcome.

Changes? Yep. This past fall I attempted to reduce theamount of sugar in my diet. It sort of takes the fun out of making cookies. Istill make them once in a while, but I won’t be posting cookie recipesconsistently, instead I hope to present other cooking/baking creativity on myblog. I’ve been baking a lot of breads and other foods so I’d like to be freeto post those items when I’d like.

Other changes include occasional posts on other things goingon with my hobbies. I design jewelry and crochet in my spare time too (which iswhere massive amounts of my time this holiday season was spent). I’d like topost about projects within those two fields or anything else I come up with.

As always, this is a book blog first and foremost. I hope toget my Random Books from the Bookshelf back on schedule and will be introducinga new feature focused on old book reviews I’ve written prior to my blog. BookReview Flashbacks will be a feature of short book reviews that I wrote in 2009.I hope it only appears once a week and that I can eventually phase it out as Iget back into a book review writing groove. I have trying to set a goal formyself of four posts a week. If things go well, I may go back up to havingsomething every day but I don’t want to even think about it at this point. I’djust like to get back to writing reviews because I love it. I love sharing myjoy/frustration about books.

Due to massive amounts of time spent working on crochetingprojects for the holidays, I didn’t read a great many books in December. Ilistened to quite a few, which includes:

In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker

The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie

Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

The Dog Who Knew Too Much by Spencer Quinn

Dooms Day Book by Connie Willis

Duet by Kimberley Freeman

The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett

I read a pitiful four books, including:

Heartless by Gail Carriger

The Duke is Mine by Eloise James

Spider’s Bite by Jennifer Estep

Hounded by Kevin Hearne

I had a sort of time-travel, historical thing going withsome of my audiobooks. In the Garden of Iden, The Eyre Affair and Dooms DayBook all had some sort of historical aspect to them. I enjoyed all of them. Ithink the book I enjoyed the least the entire month was The Rose Labyrinth. Itwas too slow at points. The Terry Pratchett books were all re-listens and ifyou’ve never read the Tiffany Aching series, I highly recommend it! They areall wonderful. Spider’s Bite and Hounded were excellent. I enjoyed Heartlessand found it at times better then the previous book but it didn’t blow me away.

Those are my fourteen books for December. I ended the yearat 184 – which is good. I wanted to read less then I read last year so I hit mygoal.

How was your reading year/month? Did you read anythinggreat for December that is new? I haven’t been keeping up with new releasessince I’ve been focused on other things so I’d love to hear about what youread!

A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant

2011-12-27T05:30:00.000-07:00

Marthais newly widowed and will lose everything she has worked to change on herestate if she does not protect if from her brother in law, who is to inherit ifshe does not produce an heir. Desperate for the heir she doubts she is pregnantwith already, Martha sets up a business proposal with her neighbor. TheoMirkwood is a bit of a rake and has been exiled from London by his father.Martha will pay Theo for one month of intimate activities and give a bonus ifshe becomes pregnant during that time. If the child is a boy, the bonus will beeven bigger. What Martha and Theo don’t plan for is actually enjoying eachother’s company.

Uponfinishing this book, my first thought was that I really didn’t know what Ithought of this book. I enjoyed it, but it wasn’t what I’ve come up expect fromromance. Most romance takes a bit to build up to the sexual encounters as thecharacters fall in love. In A Lady Awakened, that doesn’t happen. The sexualinteraction is right near the start and some of the conversations/Martha’sthoughts on the topic (or male body) had me laughing and wondering how theauthor, Cecilia Grant, was going to build the story into a romance.

Well,Ms. Grant did a fabulous job because I really enjoyed the romance and sparksbetween the characters grew the more time they spent together. I think that insome ways, Martha and Theo didn’t feel like they needed to be shy with oneanother or behave in a proper Victorian England manner, because they’d alreadygone past that by having meaningless sex with each other. There relationshipwas refreshing in a way because it went beyond Theo saving Martha and wasn’tjust about how attracted they were to each other. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

ALady Awakened was a refreshing and enjoying romance. 4 Stars!

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Ifyou’d like to find out more about the author, Cecilia Grant, check out her website.

I received this book from the Amazon Vine program.

Random Books from the Bookshelf

2011-12-18T05:30:00.001-07:00

Hunted by Others by Jeaniene Frost

Thefirst page reads:

Istiffened at the red and blue lights flashing behind me, because there was noway I could explain what was in the back of my truck. I pulled over, holding mybreath as the sheriff came to my window.

“Hi.Something wrong?” My tone was all innocence while I prayed there was nothingunusual about my eyes. Control yourself. You know what happens when you getupset.

“Yeah,you’ve got a busted taillight. License and registration, please.”

Crap.That must have happened when I was loading up the truck bed. Speed had been ofthe essence then, not daintiness.

Ihanded him my real license, not the fake one. He shone his flashlight back andforth between the identification and my face.

“CatherineCrawfield. You’re Justina Crawfield’s girl, aren’t you? From the CrawfieldCherry Orchard?”

“Yes,sir.” Politely and blandly, as if I didn’t have a care in the world.

“Well,Catherine, it’s nearly four a.m. Why are you out this late?”

Shadow Blade by Seressia Glass

Thefirst page reads:

Kirasat on a rough-hewn bench with faded tapestry cushions, her back against thegray stone wall of the hall. Thick glass windows were set into the corridorwalls every few feet in a vain attempt to brighten the cold, desolatepassageway. She didn’t know what this place was; she’d stopped caring andpaying attention once she’d realized her parents were sending her away. She’dtried to stop caring about that too, but it was harder.

Sheknew they were on an island as they’d had to reach it by boat. They had thenclimbed a steep hill dotted with rocks and windswept grass to reach what lookedlike a sprawling sun-bleached castle perched atop a cliff set against a sky thesame robin’s egg blue as the water. Now, as she sat alone in the shadowyhallway, the sun and the sky and the sea seemed to have disappeared. They“castle” felt more like a prison than a palace.

Hunted by Others by Jess Haines

Thefirst page reads:

Long,delicate fingers caressed the stem of a wineglass, trailing upward to catch afew small beads of condensation on the glass. Sultry eyes the color of the skyduring a summer storm bored into me from across the cloth-covered table, withall of the woman’s not-inconsiderable power of compulsion behind them. I knewwhat she was trying to do, which didn’t make it any easier to resist.

Takinga deep breath, I forced my gaze away as nonchalantly as I could to look throughthe bay window beside our table. Staring at the rippling black waters of alittle man-made pond, dotted with reflected lights and a single while swan, beatfalling into a black enchant by looking into Veronica’s eyes. The bird floated,serene and oblivious, as a laughing young couple threw bits of bread at it totry to lure it closer.

Swans were pretty but vicious if you got too close.Much like my dinner companion.

The Angel Makers by Jessica Gregson

2011-12-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

Lifecan take unexpected twists and turns. One action can also cause a domino effectthat will continue tumbling until one block hits a wall. For me, the previoustwo sentences tell me everything about this book. Well, maybe they don’t tellyou about the passion, the hardship and the conflict within this book, but theydo tell me a lot about how unexpected life can turn out.

Sariwas seen as the strange cursed village girl. Being avoided was just part of herlife, until the oldest son of the wealthiest family in the village becomesbetrothed to her. Then the her fathers dies and people once again see herdifferently when she moves in with the village midwife (and a sort of hedgewitch). Then the war happens and Sari’s life changes forever. The men have allleft to fight and the women remain. Things get a little better and when thelocal manor house it taken over to be a prison camp, things change again. Shefinds love with a prisoner and so do some of the other women in the village whoare freed from abusive or controlling husbands.

Whenher betrothed returns, injured during the war, things change and Sari refusesto accept those changes. Instead she finds a way to rid herself of herbetrothed and his newly abusive ways. And the domino events begin.

Thisbook captivated me quickly and only occasionally did my interest wane; yetnever did it die completely. Sari is an interesting character and the sequenceof events in this book is both horrific and saddening. Ferenc, Sari’sbetrothed, seems like a normal and good man for the time and it washeart-breaking almost to see the changes in him the war brought. Ferenc comesback from the war a broken man and while Sari tries to make things work betweenthem even thought her heart lies more with the Italian prisoner, Marco.

Ferencis plagued by the events during his time at war and has become an abusive manand even without Marco in the picture, Sari can not bare to spend the rest ofher life as a battered woman. So she slowly kills him with arsenic. When otherwomen in the village start understanding that is how he died and anotherabusive husband dies the same way, they comes to Sari wanting the same methodto kill their abusive or war-torn husbands. Then they want it for more thanjust those reasons and in the end many people die because they are aninconvenience.

Thisbook is a fictional interpretation of real events in Hungary during the early1900’s. I wondered at first how come Sari and the other women were not caughtsooner but then I realized it is a small village and probably wouldn’t havepeople skilled yet in identifying arsenic poisoning. The events in this bookdid take place around the same time the scientists were starting to figure outhow to identify heavy metal poisoning. It was interesting.

Ifound The Angel Makers to be an interesting and captivating read. 4 Stars.

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Ifyou’d like to find out more about the nonfiction side of The Angel Makers, I’d start withchecking out Wikipedia.

I received this book from the Amazon Vine program.

Random Books from the Bookshelf

2011-12-11T05:30:00.001-07:00

Rides a Dread Legion by Raymond E. Feist

Thefirst page reads:

Thedemon howled its outrage.

Amirantha,Warlock of the Satumbria, reeled back from the explosion of mystic energiesunexpectedly hurled at him. Had his protective wards not been firmlyestablished, he would have instantly died; the demon was powerful enough tosend sufficient force through the barrier to slam the magic-user hard againstthe cave wall behind him. The blow he took on the back of the head was going torise a nasty bump in quick order.

Demonsalways brought with them a large amount of mystic energies, enough to destroyany unprepared mortal standing nearby as they entered this plane of reality. Itwas one of the reasons for erecting wards, beyond merely confining the demon toa specific location. This one had arrived with a much more impressive explosionthan the Warlock anticipated, and that surprised him.

Dead Girls Are Easy by Terri Garey

Thefirst page reads:

“She’scoding. Give me another round of epi, stat.”

“Doctor-“

“Keepingbagging her, nurse. I’m not letting her go yet. Change it to 360.”

HadI left the TV on? I’d never cared much for medical dramas. Too much intensity,too much crying, too many doctors undergoing personal crises of faith – I’drather believe they were professionals who knew what they were doing and leaveit at that.

Thebody on the table jerked at least a foot in the air when the paddles touchedits chest. A hand flopped to the side, revealing red fingernails and a silverthumb ring. A woman.

Ahigh-pitched whining from one of the machines was getting on my nerves, but Ihad to give the director credit. The urgency on the faces of the peopleclustered around the gurney looked pretty real.

In the Woods by Tana French

Thefirst page reads:

Picturea summer stolen whole from some coming-of-age film set in small-town 1950s.This is none of Ireland’s subtle seasons mixed for a connoisseur’s palate,watercolor nuances within a pinch-sized range of clouds and soft rain; this issummer full-throated and extravagant in a hot pure silkscreen blue. This summerexplodes on your tongue tasting of chewed blades of long grass, your own cleansweat, Marie biscuits with butter squirting through the holes and shakenbottles of red lemonade picnicked in tree houses. It tingles on your skin withBMX wind in your face, ladybug feet up your arm; it packs every breath full ofmown grass and billowing wash lines; it chimes and fountains with birdcalls,bees, leaves and football-bounces and skipping-chants, One! two! three!This summer will never end. It starts every day with a shower of Mr. Whippynotes and your best friend’s knock at the door, finishes it with a long slowtwilight and mothers silhouetted in doorways calling you to come in, throughthe bats shrilling among the black lace trees. This is every summer decked inall its best glory.

Red Sled by Lita Judge

2011-12-09T10:23:00.000-07:00

This is a completely random book review for me. Red Sled is a children's book...but I loved it so I figured I would share. So, if you're looking for a great children's book for the holiday/season, I recommend checking this one out!

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I picked this book on sort of a whim. I figuredit wouldn't hurt to pick it up and if I didn't completely love it, give it awayto one of my siblings (who have kids, which I do not). Red Sled seemed like agood pick for the winter (and ski/sledding seasons approaching). It is about aboy, his sled and the animals that steal the sled at night to use it.

The day Red Sled arrived, I instantly sat down and read/looked through it. Iloved it from the first line and the pictures! I instantly knew that none of mysiblings were going to be getting receiving a my copy of this book. I left itlying on the table for my husband to check out when he got home. He also lovedit after reading through it and the "scrunch scrinch" of the firstwords had him giggling. I couldn't just go out and write a review for this evenwith the two of us loving it. I wanted to test it on a kid.

Luckily, Thanksgiving was Thursday and I knew there would be a houseful of kidsat my parents so into the bag Red Sled goes for a test run with the nephews andnieces. My siblings and their kids (well, those kids that had the attentionspan to pay attention) really liked or loved this book. The images are simplebut cute and combined with the simple words, my siblings thought it would beperfect for younger kids either just learning to read or those that can't readbut like to look at the pictures.

My family and I really enjoyed flipping through this cute and simple story. 5Stars!

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I received this book from the Amazon Vine program.

Ravenwood by Andrew Peters

2011-12-05T05:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimesa young teen or children’s book just blows me away and I read the entire thingin a single sitting. This book didn’t do that. In fact, I took me over a monthto get halfway through the book. I never finished this book. I just got tiredof the pacing and I never felt grabbed by the book. The writing had its ups anddowns. At times there was great action sequences but then it sort of feel flatwith in between parts.

Thecharacters and the setting didn’t work for me either. Ark was an interestingcharacter at times and I enjoyed some of the adventurous moments of this book.The bad characters had potential but they didn’t completely work for me. Thesetting didn’t work for me because I spent way too much time wondering howhumans could climb around and have complete homes in trees. The guess, I feltthe author never made a link to me so I could picture the world in my head.There are trees that people live in. Are they little people? Regular sizedhumans? If so, then how does the whole living in trees work? I guess I feltthat something about this book made it so I could never fully drop into andexperience Arborium.

Someonenoticed I was reading this and by looking that the description and cover askedme if it felt like reading Ferngully (a movie from 1992). No, this didn’t havethe “protect the forest” or whimsical characters that Ferngully has. I wasn’tenchanted by the descriptions of the world or the characters. This book left mewaiting for better action sequences and descriptions of the world.

Ialso found that the age group for this book is a little low. I would recommendit to older children or younger teens. I am handing this book off to a nephewof mine and if he ends up looking it, I’ll come back and say so but I didn’tfind this a compelling reading experience. 2 Stars.

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Tofind out more about Ravenwood and it's Andrew Peters, I'd recommend checking out this video, and then maybe goodreads.com. I couldn't find much else on this author.

Ireceived this book through the Amazon Vine program.

Books! Books! Books! November in Review

2011-12-02T08:24:00.000-07:00

I have a good reading month for November. I read or listened to 18 books. I know part of why I got to so many is that I was sick the week of Thanksgiving.

Snuff by Terry Pratchett
The Breaker by Minette Walters (audio)
A Killer Crop by Sheila Connolly
The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson
Century Rain by Alastair Reynolds (audio)
Subterranean by James Rollins (audio)
Ashes by Ilsa Bick
The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham (audio)
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (audio)
Icebound by Julie Rowe
Altered Destiny by Shawna Thomas
Edge of Survival by Toni Anderson
The Hollow House by Janis Patterson
Water to Burn by Katherine Kerr
The Angel Makers by Jessica Gregson
The Third by Abel Keogh
A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

I had some really wonderful books this time around. I really enjoyed Snuff and Altered Destiny. The one I liked the least was probably The Stone Gods. It just didn't turn out like I expected. So how was your reading for November? What was the best book you read?

Altered Destiny by Shawna Thomas

2011-11-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

Seliaand Oren have worked side-by-side for years running their family tavern. Orenis a gentle soul and Selia and fight and hunt with the best of the men in theirsmall community. When danger threatens everything Selia has known, she seeslittle choice in offering to help the most unlikely or neighbors. Selia livesin the border with the Svistra people. The Svistra are a vampiric-like racethat wishes to take back their land. In order to prevent war, Selia alignsherself with Jaden, a Svistra warrior, and now she must find a way to convincethe humans that peace might be possible with Svistra.

Thiswas an excellent romantic fantasy. I call it a romantic fantasy but in honesty,I’m not sure it has significantly more romance they any traditional fantasy.The focus of the story, while at times is on Selia and Jaden’s relationship, isalso on the war between their people. I was engrossed in their adventure fromthe start and curious about everything would work out. The adventure was probablythe highlight of this book for me. I kept wondering what could happen next andI felt that the author did a good job of keeping me guess without making thenext twist ridiculous. It was suspenseful and action packed.

Thecuriosity and easy writing style kept me reading this book and all those things,including intriguing characters, got me to finish reading it. The Svistra are apeople with secrets and it took a while for some of those secrets to revealed.That ended up being both a good thing and a bad thing. I spent a good part ofthe first half of the book scratching my head and wondering what the deal waswith them. The second half of the book, I figure I’d either find out or Iwouldn’t (and the author better be writing another book based in this world soI can get my questioned answered), I just sort of went with the flow of thebook. It almost felt that the Svistra weren’t a fully developed race of peoplebut instead a mash-up. I wasn’t thrilled with that, but I adjusted for thesecond half of the book. The Svistra on the whole, were interesting but I wouldhave liked to see more character development outside of Jaden.

Ireally enjoyed Altered Destiny and thought it was an excellent read. 4.5 Stars!

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Ifyou’d like to find out more about Shawna Thomas, check out her website.

I received this ebook from Carina Press via netgalley.

Icebound by Julie Rowe

2011-11-29T05:00:00.000-07:00

Emiliehas lost her husband and suffered a miscarriage just over a year ago but isdetermined to continue working on her husband’s research. Only two placesremain where continued studies can be done one of which is in space and theother is Antarctica. When she is accepted as the South Pole Station’s physicianfor a season, she hopes to finish one part of her quest to give her husbandpeace that his work continued on. What she doesn’t expect to find is new loveand a new take on life.

Iwas completely taken in by the idea of a romance in Antarctica – although therewill be no naked monkey sex outside since it gets pretty damn cold, but thatdoesn’t mean there couldn’t be some great romance (well, sex too) indoors. Idid love the setting but in the future I might not read romances based in suchextreme places. My scientist brain went into overload with some of what washappening and I couldn’t help evaluating what was going on and how likely itwould be that things would really work the way they did in this novel.

Iliked both Emilie and Tom. The romance had potential to me as I continuedreading but I never quite got over my initial feeling of it. I felt it happenedway too fast and that before either character was established they were havingsex. I didn’t care about their relationship or the chemistry between thembecause I wasn’t given any time to get to know the characters before all theaction was happening. I did grow to like them a lot more and enjoyed theirinteraction but that only happened close to the end of the book.

WhileI enjoyed Icebound and will read Julie Rowe again, I would have liked a bitmore character development. 3 Stars.

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Ifyou’d like to find out more about the author, Julie Rowe, check out her website.

I received this ebook from Carina Press via netgalley.

Random Books from the Bookshelf

2011-11-27T09:06:00.000-07:00

Demonfireby Kate Douglas

Thefirst page reads:

Sundaynight

Hestruggled out of the darkness, confused, disoriented…recalling fire and painand the soothing voices of men he couldn’t see. Voice promising everlasting life,a chance to move beyond hell, beyond all he’d ever known. He remembered hisfinal, fateful decision to take a chance, to search for something else.

Forlife beyond the hell that was Abyss.

Asearch that brought him full circle, back to a world of pain – to this world,wherever it might be. He frowned and tried to focus. This body was unfamiliar,the skin unprotected by scales or bone. He’d never been so helpless, sovulnerable.

DarknessDawns by Dianne Duvall

Thefirst page reads:

Astrident screech pierced the predawn quiet.

Thehair on the back of her neck rising, Sarah Bingham surveyed the meadow aroundher. The sky had gone from black to charcoal gray, a harbinger of sunrise thatdid little to alleviate the gloom. In the nine months North Carolina had beenher home, she had heard some creepy animal calls, but the one had soundeddownright human.

Couldn’thave been. She lived wayout in the boonies with no nearby neighbors.

Strugglingto shake off her unease, she impaled the soil with a shovel, turned it over,then repeated the process that would ultimately culminate in a vegetablegarden. The unseasonable heat she had hoped to avoid by starting early added aglimmer of moisture to her skin as she grappled with the drought-hardenedground.

Spider’sBite by Jennifer Estep

Thefirst page reads:

“Myname is Gin, and I kill people.”

Normally,my confession would have elicited gasps of surprise. Pale faces. Nervous sweat.Stifled screams. An overturned chair or two as people scramble to get awaybefore I buried a knife in their heart – or back. I sucking wound was a suckingwound. I wasn’t picky about where I caused it.

“Hi,Gin,” four people chorused back to me in perfect, dull, monotone unison.

Butnot in this place. Within the walled confines of Ashland Asylum, my confession,true though it might be, didn’t even merit a raised eyebrow, much less shockand frightened awe. I was relatively normal compared to the freaks of natureand magic who populated the grounds. Like Jackson, the seven-foot-tall albinogiant seated to my left who drooled worse than a mastiff and gurgled like athree-month-old child.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

2011-11-22T05:30:00.000-07:00

Jacobhas been a little haunted since his grandfather passed away. When it issuggested that his family travel to the place of his grandfather’s stories,Jacob thinks it might help. What awaits Jacob is a mysterious place and anorphanage – that has been abandoned since it was bombed during World War II.But Jacob is still determined to find answers and the rubble may hold thoseanswers.

Thisbook has received some high praise for mixing story with images for a moreadult audience. I wish I could say that I loved it but instead this book had anunlikable main character, odd relationships and very interesting pictures. Thepictures contained in this book were unusual and fascinating to look at. I justwish they had been explained more fully. Jacob didn’t even understand them allso they weren’t explained and it left to curious and wondering what was thepoint behind the images when they were taken.

Whatdidn’t leave me curious was the main character, Jacob. I found him to a bit ofa bratty teenager with disregard for those around him, including his family. Ioften felt that he took to time to think through his actions and therepercussions they would have. He just acted and it didn’t matter if someonewas emotionally or physically hurt along the way.

Iwas left confused by another factor with Jacob and that is his relationshipwith Emma. I’m not going to into was confused and weirded me out about, I’llleave that to anyone planning to read this novel to figure out why I felt thatway. Their relationship didn’t work for me and combined with Jacob’s attitude,I found this book to be a little straining to read.

Therewere some wonderfully written segments but on the whole, Miss Peregrine’s Homefor Peculiar Children, while good feel a little flat from what I expected. 3Stars.

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If you’d like to find out more about Ransom Riggs and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, I’d suggest checking out theauthor’s website.

Mai Tai One On by Jill Marie Landis

2011-11-21T05:30:00.000-07:00

EmJohnson has recently divorced her scumbag of a husband. When she is asked to goto Kauai to help her uncle run the Tiki Goddess Bar, Em jumps at the chance.The Tiki Goddess Bar isn’t much of a tourist attraction at the moment but Emplans to change that and keep it a place the locals like too. If somethingcould only be done about the obnoxious neighbor.

Whenthe obnoxious neighbor ends up dead, things take a turn for the worse since thenumber one suspect is Em’s uncle.

Thiswas a fun and relaxing romantic mystery. I liked how the romance wasn’toverpowering. It was there but it didn’t get in the way of the mystery. Theromantic elements of this story also were part of the comic relief moments.Well, the romance and the old women who make up the hula dancers. The mysteryelement and the romantic elements came together to make this a fun andenjoyable reading experience.

Anothernice thing about this book was the pacing. I thought it was well done andlacked in long stretches without anything happening. The pacing was well done and I didn’t feel this book lagged atany time (which occasionally happens in cozy mysteries).

Thisbook was a fun and rather funny read. I’m looking forward to reading more byJill Marie Landis. 4 Stars!

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Ifyou’d like to find out more about the author, Jill Marie Landis, check out her website.

I received a ebook copy of Mai Tai One Onfrom Bell Bridge Books via netgalley.

Random Books from the Bookshelf

2011-11-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

BlackRain by Graham Brown

Thefirst page reads:

Thedarkness of the jungle loomed above, its dense, tangled layers spreading like acircus tent from the towering pillars of massive trees. Gorged on the rain, itgrew impenetrable and unyielding, a home to thousands of species, most of whichnever left the confines of its elevated embrace. Life was lived up there, highin the canopy; the ground was for shadows and crawling things and for thatwhich had died.

JackDixon allowed his gaze to fall from the lush world above him to the soilbeneath his feet. He crouched, examining a set of tracks. The tread of theheavy boots was easy to discern, but subtly different from those he’d foundearlier. These were deeper at the toe, pressed down into the earth and spacedfarther apart.

Sothe targets were running now. But why?

TheAccidental Werewolf by Dakota Cassidy

Thefirst page reads:

Well,it was official.

Lavenderwas soooooo not in her color wheel anymore. Not looking like this, anyway.

Itclashed with her hair and made her skin look sallow.

MartyAndrews was now an autumn. Thus, fall colors would best suit her new pallor.Greens, gold, and a couple of shades of yellow were presently her complexion’snew friends.

Butthe color lavender?

Noso much.

Thatwas the color she’d once been so suited to. A spring color. Or was it winter?

Spring,winter, spring winter?

Sweetmother, she couldn’t even remember her seasons of color. Where were hercolor-wheel-of-life skills? Each season had colors it represented. Any womanworth her salt new that. Didn’t they?

Deadworldby J.N. Duncan

Thefirst page reads:

Amisty rain swirled down into the darkness between the two brick buildings.Flattened against a stack of sagging cardboard boxes, peering out of the narrowalley at the sliver of sidewalk illuminated by a nearby streetlight. This wasnot how he had envisioned running away. There had been no envisioning to speakof, really. All he had wanted was to escape the smack down going on in hisparents’ living room, where Dad had the leg up on the cursing scorecard and Momwas on pace to set a new “thrown objects” record. Now the midnight sounds ofChicago’s suburbs were frightening him even more.

They were not the strange sounds. Archie recognizedmost of them, from the sounds of tires on wet pavement to the screeching yowlsof two cats duking it out, but in darkness, all things magnified in the wrongdirection. Every shadow contained lurking doom. Body parts lay rotting in everycontainer. Every passing car was his dad hunting for him.

Random Books from the Bookshelf

2011-11-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

TheGoddess of Fried Okra by Jean Brashear

Thefirst page reads:

Nothingelse could have put me on the road again, not after eighteen years of beingdragged all over creation. The road was Mama’s perpetual escape clause forboyfriends, bill collectors or just boredom.

Sister,she used the road to save me.

Allthose years, I swore up and down that once I was old enough, I would find aspot and no force on earth would budge me.

ButI didn’t count on Sister.

Sistergave up everything for me, see, and I owed her. She was only sixteen when Mamadied; I was eight. Life could have been so much easier on her if she’d let thesocial services people have me like they wanted. Instead, she even chased offher no-good daddy Alvin when he showed up saying he would take care of us. Sheunderstood lighting-quick that what he really meant to do was lay on his sorrybehind. Only get up long enough to take the child welfare money and buy lotterytickets. Sure as shooting, he would have let Sister do all the work.

KillerHair by Ellen Byerrum

Thefirst page reads:

LaceySmithsonian looked down at the unfortunate woman in the coffin and thought, Ohmy God, that is the worst haircut I’ve ever seen.

Andthey say you can’t die from a bad haircut. Even as that sentiment percolated through her brain, sheadded, You are such a bitch, Lacey. But she couldn’t help it. It reallywas a bad haircut.

Thehaircut belonged to Angela Woods, “Angie” to her friends at Stylettos, thetrendy Dupont Circle salon where she had worked until just a few days ago. NowAngie was the guest of honor in the polished maple casket at EvergreensMortuary in the Nation’s Capital.

Atonly twenty-give, Angie’s sweet round face wasn’t going to get any older. Andthat hairdo wasn’t going to get any better. The deceased looked peaceful, if alittle sad, laid to rest in the satin-lined box. She wore a dark rose silkjacquard dress with a lace collar that conflicted wildly with those strangeshort rainbow-colored clumps of fair sticking up in between patches of bruisedbald scalp.

LookClosely by Laura Caldwell

Thefirst page reads:

Seatedat a table near the back, Caroline Ramsey lifted her champagne flute an inchoff the table. “Cheers,” she murmured halfheartedly, toasting the bride andgroom for what seemed like the fiftieth time. Almost immediately, she set theglass back down.

Herhusband, Matt, leaned toward her. “Anything wrong?” he said. Through hisglasses, his brown eyes looked only mildly concerned.

The groom was a distant relative of Matt’s, and inorder to compensate for knowing so few people, he’d gone into his social mode,dancing to every silly wedding song and striking up conversations around theroom. He always became vivacious and outgoing in these situations, somethingCaroline loved about him, since she was more reserved. Yet now she almostwished that he were more of a watcher, like her, someone who hung on thefringes. If that were true, maybe he would wonder now, maybe he would lookdeeper.

Science Friday: Mycophilia by Eugenia Bone

2011-11-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

Mycophilia by Eugenia Bone is the story of one women's journey in the worldof mushrooms. From cultural explorations to the science of fungi, Eugenia Bonetakes us, the reader, on her own discovering of how much more complicated themushroom really is.

Before, I write anything else on this book, I should reveal something aboutmyself. I don't like mushrooms. I am drawn to their interesting shape andcolors and can always be found to stop and take a picture of them when hiking.But I don't eat them. If someone says there are mushrooms in something my firstthought is "yuck!" I just cannot get over the texture and the tasteof common mushrooms (mostly buttons). I tried to approach this book as alearning experience and see what I could discover.

Ms. Bone starts with her experiences in mushroom hunting and the associatedfestivals around collecting mushrooms. After learning about conferencescentered around mushrooms, and the author's expanding knowledge aboutmushrooms, the science of this book kicks in. The following section is"Mutualists, Decomposers, and Parasites." All the types of mushroomsare broadly over viewed. The book moves on to talk about mushrooms as a "superfood"and other uses for mushrooms. Overall I found the book very interesting and aneasy introduction to different types of mushrooms.

Since I'm not a mushroom eater, I did find the information, regardless ofhowever simplified or broad it may be, enlightening. I know part of myenjoyment of this book was because I connected easily with the attitude of themushroom hunter. Ms. Bone states, "Mushroom hunting is a solo sport, madeup of people who thrive on the rush of revelation..." It made me think ofmany of my rock hounding experiences - because it is a bit of a solo sportalso.

Some sort of mushroom seen while hiking late this summer.

The content throughout this book was interesting but at times frustrating. Thisis not a guide to mushroom identification and at times was light on the science(but not always). Since I am not an expert at mushrooms, I am also not familiarwith all the different kinds of mushrooms and with the minimal images includedin this novel I had to look up a few types of mushrooms mentioned (and eye themat the local farmers market this fall). My other problem with this book I thinkcomes from the fact that this is an advanced readers copy and the images thatwere included within the text did not have captions. They were also all inblack and white and at times that caused me to be unclear on whatever was imagewas trying to show. I hope that if finished version of this book has captionsand at least a few colored images. The authors experience with psychoactivemushrooms was unexpected and the chapter was interesting. I liked how theauthors touched on both how psychoactive mushrooms are viewed by the legalsystem and their use as a spiritual ritual.

I enjoyed reading Mycophilia and found it a quick and at times entertainingread. While I know I won't be taking up eating button mushrooms, I'm at leastmore willing to trying other types of mushrooms after reading this book. I canalso say I know the difference between a morel and a Portobello (at leastsuperficially). I also know that crimimi are small Portobello. 4 Stars.

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I received this book from the Amazon Vine program.

I'm Not Reading It and I'm Not Buying It

2011-11-10T05:00:00.000-07:00

Overthe last year or so as I’ve searched multiple times for new books read on mykindle, I’ve noticed an increase in covers…um…well, they are maybe distastefulto me. As I’ve posted before, I pick a lot of my books by book cover and title.I like going into a book fresh and with no expectations. A cover may revealsome facts about the book, which is ok. My problem and the reason for this postis when the book reveals too much. And the revealing I’m talking about is allabout how much clothing the characters on the cover have.

Idon’t know how else to put this but if there is a naked person on the cover ofthe book, I am not going to read it. If there are boobs, butts, andreproductive parts showing, I will not be reading this book. I don’t mind thesexy urban fantasy covers or the sensual (or attempts at sensual) covers onromance. But if a book is going to show a woman’s boobs or her vagina on thecover, I am not going to be reading it. Did I mention I’m not going to bereading that book?

Thebook could have a wonderful story and great writing but…um…I am alreadyslightly grossed out and if an author is looking for me to buy their book,they’ve just ruined it. I enjoyed reading romance and erotica once in a whileand don’t think they need to show a guy’s penis to sell books. And isn't that what an author wants? For me or others readers to buy their book? Well, guess what...every time an author chooses that type of cover for a book, they lose money. I am not going to buy it and I'm not going to tell anyone about.

Whatreally bugs me about covers right now is that there is no telling where I willfind them. I can be searching for a children’s book on Shelfari (book communitythat works like Goodreads) and four or five books down, there it is: a womencompletely naked on her knees with her butt in the air and a view of way morethan I ever wanted to see. Gah! All I wanted to do was add a children’s book tomy shelf.

Irealize that Shelfari can’t control content because they get it from Amazon,which can’t control content because they sell lots of things but readers andauthors can control it. I can’t help but wonder if the author loses moneybecause of others who won’t be a buy because of tasteless covers.

So have any book covers ever kept you fromreading/buying the book? Do you think about book covers when you buy a book?

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The covers shown are ones I picked because I think they are both interesting or/and display some form of nudity without being over the top.

The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

2011-11-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

Victoriahas just reached the age of emancipation and is released from the foster caresystem, the only problem is she has no real skills and isn’t very friendly. Theone thing Victoria does have is her knowledge of flowers and the Victorianmeanings behind them. With that one skill and a lifetime of neglect and abuse,Victoria must find her way in the world.

TheLanguage of Flowers was one of those books I picked up strictly because I likedthe name of the book. I had no idea what to expect from it. I wasn’t reallyimpressed with the beginning. In fact, Victoria drove me crazy and I thoughtshe was a child with a sever chip on her shoulder and this book would end upbeing an awful glimpse into her life. And then the information about theflowers started coming out. I didn’t want to stop listening after that point. Icouldn’t wait to sit back at my desk and have my coworkers shut up so I couldcontinue to work and listen to this wonderful book.

Insteadof a book about the awfulness of growing up in foster care, this book isinstead about forgiveness, self-acceptance, relationships, and overcoming theodds. Victoria ends up being a strong character to me and while I didn’t alwayslike what she did, I understood it and in ways couldn’t condone it either. Victoriawas a character that learned and overcame great odd throughout this novel andthose moments at times were heart warming (moments with the florist) and heartwrenching (I’m not going to reveal those ones).

Elizabethwas the hardest character for me to understand. She is one of Victoria’s fostermothers and the book has flashbacks to Victoria’s life with her. I couldn’t understandeverything she did. I did really like Grant and the florist. There were some greatscenes with those characters and the really came to life. Elizabeth was harderto pin down and it always felt like her motives weren’t fully explained.

Regardlessof Elizabeth, I loved listening to this. It was a unexpected pleasure to experience.4.75 Stars!

Random Books from the Bookshelf

2011-11-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

Thefirst page reads:

Itwasn’t chance. There wasn’t any part of it that happened just by chance.

Ilearned this later; though the realization, when it came, was hard for me tograsp because I’d always had a firm belief in self-determination. My life sofar had seemed to bear this out – I’d chosen certain paths and they had led tocertain ends, all good, and any minor bumps that I had met along the way Icould accept as not bad luck, but simply products of my own imperfect judgment.If I’d had to choose a creed, it would have been the poet William Henley’sbravely ringing lines: I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of mysoul.

Soon that winter morning when it all began, when I first took my rental car andheaded north from Aberdeen, it never once occurred to me that someone else’shand was at the helm.

Ihonestly believed it was my own decision, turning off the main road for thesmaller one that ran along the coastline.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Thefirst page reads:

Thecircus arrives without warning.

Noannouncements precede it, no paper notices on downtown posts and billboards, nomentions or advertisements in local newspapers. It is simply there, whenyesterday it was not.

Thetowering tents are striped in white and black, no golds and crimsons to beseen. No color at all, save for the neighboring trees and the grass of thesurrounding fields. Black-and-white stripes on grey sky; countless tents ofvarying shapes and sizes, with an elaborate wrought-iron fence encasing them ina colorless world. Even what little ground is visible from outside is black andwhite, painted or powdered, or treated with some other circus trick.

Butit is not open for business. Not just yet.

Withinhours everyone in town has heard about it. By afternoon the news has spreadseveral towns over. Word of mouth is a more effective method of advertisementthan typeset words and exclamation points on paper pamphlets or posters. It isimpressive and unusual news, the sudden appearance of a mysterious circus.People marvel at the staggering height of the tallest tents. They stare at theclock that sits just inside the gates that no one can properly describe.

Andthe black sign painted in white letters that hangs upon the gates, the one thatreads:

Opens at Nightfall
Closes at Dawn

A Madness of Angels by Kate Griffin

Thefirst page reads:

Nothow it should have been.

Toolong, this awakening, floor warm beneath my fingers, itchy carpet, thick, aprickling across my skin, turning rapidly into the red-hot feeling of burrowingants; too long without sensation, everything weak, like the legs of a baby. Isaid twitch, and my toes twitched, and the rest of my body shuddered at theeffort. I said blink, and my eyes were two half-sucked toffees, uneven, sticky,heavy, pushing back against the passage of my eyelids like I was trying to liftweights before a marathon.

Allthis, I felt, would pass. As the static blue shock of my wakening, if that isthe word, passed, little worms of it digging away into the floor or crawlingalong the ceiling back into the telephone lines, the hot blanket of theirprotection faded from my body. The cold intruded like a great hungry worm intoevery joint and inch of my skin, my bones suddenly too long for my flesh, mymuscles suddenly too tense in their relaxed form to tense ever again, everypart starting to quiver as the full shock of sensation returned.

I lay on the floor naked as a shedding snake, and wecontemplated our situation.

Sidekicks by Dan Santat

2011-11-04T05:00:00.000-06:00

Sidekicksis all about Fluffy, a hamster. Fluffy’s owner is Captain Amazing, a superheroof amazing powers that rescues Metro City from all kinds of crime and spares afew moments to help little old ladies cross the street too. Captain Amazing islooking for a sidekick and Fluffy wants to be that sidekick. So is Roscoe,Captain Amazing’s dog, but Fluffy doesn’t want Roscoe to know he wants to bethe sidekick. Before Fluffy can apply to be a sidekick, he must train to be thevery best sidekick he can be. He doesn’t have any super powers like Roscoedoes, who can turn into metal. Fluffy seeks out Manny, Captain Amazing’s catthat has gone rogue. Also along for the training is Shifty, a chameleon.

Thiswas a fun and quick graphic novel/comic book. The characters are drawn a littleblocky but the expressions are perfect and well conveyed. The art and the expressiveness shown in the characters it what made this comic stand out for me. The adventure ofFluffy attempting to become good enough to be a superhero’s sidekick is fun andhas a few moments that will make you go “aww.”

Thestory for Sidekicks wasn’t something that would blow your socks off (at leastit didn’t for me), but it was so well done I couldn’t help but enjoy everysecond of reading it. 4 Stars!

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I received this book from the Amazon Vine program.

Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge by Mike Resnick

2011-11-02T05:00:00.000-06:00

Humanshave been extinct for centuries, and an alien archaeology team has come toEarth to view what remains of humankind. Each alien that is part of thearchaeology team has a unique ability that will allow him or her to see intoall the objects they can find of the extinct human civilization. One of thealiens, He Who Sees, views the seven artifacts that are found and reveals thestories behind them. This is a novella is the stories of those sevenobjects. From early human ancestorsthrough nuclear war, humans are viewed and studied. The last object tells aunique story and more then the alien team anticipated. But mostly, this is acollection of moments on how we destroy each other and ourselves.

Thisis a really enjoyable novella. I wish there was more to tell. It wasfascinating. What would another culture/lifeform think of our every dayobjects? There is a board game that some friends and I play once in a whilewere the one of the images on the cards has a man using a wine opener as amedical tool. Will things like corkscrews be seen as weapons or devices foropening other things? It is interesting what stories objects like a pencilcould tell.

I enjoyed every single story surrounding eachartifact and felt the way they were presented was interesting and kept mewondering what other insights into human nature would be revealed next.

Ilistened to this book and have no complains about the narrator. This was just aquick and interesting novella that shows many sides to human nature. It lackedthe humor I've seen in some of Mike Resnick's other work but the fluid writingand detail still made this a very enjoyable piece. 4.5 Stars.

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Otherworks by Mike Resnick that have been reviewed on CB&B:

Stalking the Dragon (part of the Fables of Tonightseries)

Enjoy Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge on Subterranean Press (it looks like you can read the entire novella here, but if you like audios I'd recommend seeing if you can find one).

August, September, and October in Review

2011-11-01T05:00:00.000-06:00

Irecently realized that I’ve been so busy with life that I haven’t updated myblog on what I’ve been reading over the last three months. Eek!

August

TheDragon’s Tooth by N.D. Wilson

Eyeof the Tempest by Nicole Peeler

MissPeregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

AWild Rose by Jennifer Donnolly

ABeautiful Friendship by David Weber

IfWalls Could Talk by Juliet Blackwell

MagnoliaWednesdays by Wendy Wax

TheViolets of March by Sara Jio

Fables14: Witches by Bill Willingham

Labyrinthby Kat Richardson

Audiobooks

TheJanissary Tree by Jason Goodwin

TheBreach by Patrick Lee

TheAmber Room by Steve Barry

September

FallingTogether by Marisa de Los Santos

Drivento Ink by Karen Olson

OneSalt Sea by Seanan McGuire

Stormlord’sExile by Glenda Larke

TheVery Picture of You by Isabel Wolff

TheOrphan of Awkward Falls by Keith Graves

Downpourby Kat Richardson

BloodRock by Anthony Francis

Tuesdaysat the Castle by Jessica Day George

Audiobooks

TheAutobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin

Flukeby Christopher Moore

Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge by Mike Resnick

Belongto Me by Marisa de Los Santos

DeadWitch Walking by Kim Harrison

TheGood, the Bad, and the Undead by Kim Harrison

October

Spackledand Spooked by Jennie Bentley

A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare

MaiTai One On by Jill Marie Landis

Sidekicksby Dan Santat

Mycophiliaby Eugenia Bone

Ghostin the Polka Dot Bikini by Sue Ann Jaffarian

CandyApple Dead by Sammi Carter

Audiobooks

EveryWhich Way But Dead by Kim Harrison

AFist Full of Charms by Kim Harrison

Fora Few Demons More by Kim Harrison

TheLanguage of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

Dayby Day Armageddon by J.L. Bourne

TheOmnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollon

OneDay the Ice Will Reveal All It’s Dead by Clare Dudman

Thatis a total for 41 books, a little less than half of those were audiobooks. Notto bad. I’ve been listening a great many audiobooks at work and haven’t beenreading as much at home.

So how was your reading for October? Did you find any amazing reads?

Labyrinth by Kat Richardson

2011-10-31T07:19:00.000-06:00

Singlesentence summary: Harperhas returned from London but the danger followers her back and she must nowhunt for the man that killed her (resulting in her greywalker abilities) andrescue her father’s ghost.

Thiswas the most intense and action packed book in the Greywalker series yet. Icouldn’t put it down and finished the book in a matter of days. Harper’s questwill take her deeper into the grey and cause her to do some soul searching tofigure everything out. Harper has changed from the character we meet in thefirst book and I think she is stronger, more focused and a little bit scarierthen the character introduced in Greywalker – and I don’t think I’d have it anyother way.

Thedepth and development of Harper, her cohorts and the rest of the world aroundher has been steadily growing more interesting as this series has progressed.This book is probably one of the best ones yet. In one of the previous books, Underground,Seattle became a more vivid city and this book builds on that. It pulls all thecreepiness and lifelike existence of the grey into the city of Seattle and thenshakes it up until you question everything about Harper’s world. It wasthrilling and, ok, sort of creepy to read. I loved every minute of it thoughand can’t wait to read the next book in this series.

Thiswas an excellent addition to the Greywalker series! 5 Stars!

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Ifyou’d like to find out more about this book and the others in the series, checkout Kat Richardson’s website.

Booksin the Greywalker series:

Greywalker

Downpour (recently released)

Random Books From the Bookshelf

2011-10-30T05:00:00.000-06:00

Ghostin the Polka Dot Bikini by Sue Ann Jaffarian

Thefirst page reads:

Thewoman frolicking in the waves was underdressed for November, even for a ghost.Emma Whitecastle watched as the curvaceous, bikini-clad spirit dashed in andout of the waves, as carefree and untouched by the morning cold as a porpoise.Emma, on the other hand, pulled her jacket together and zipped it up close toher chin before hovering over the cup of hot coffee she’d picked up from abakery around the corner. She’d had a restless night, tossing and turning mostof it, so just after five thirty she dressed quietly in jeans, a sweater, warmsocks, and sneakers, and headed for the beach to watch the sunrise, leavingbehind a sleeping Phillip Bowers in their hotel room.

Itwas Thanksgiving weekend. Kelly, Emma’s daughter who was attending Harvard,hadn’t come home for the short holiday, opting instead to spend it at afriend’s home in Connecticut. Emma’s parents were on a cruise through thePanama Canal. Phil’s boys, both a little older than Kelly, were with theirmother, and his aunt Susan and uncle Glen were visiting their daughter. Thatleft Phil and Emma to fend for themselves over the four-day holiday.

BitterHarvest by Shelia Connolly

Thefirst page reads:

MegCorey surveyed the drifts of paper that covered her dining room table, and allbut growled with frustration. The harvest was over – her first apple harvest,her first try at farming. Would it be her last? The apples were picked, sortedand delivered. She’d started in January, and now in December she’d survivedstorms and accidents, and had learned more than she’d ever realized there wasto know about apples and their cultivation. Now the question was, had she madeany money, or was this just one extremely expensive hobby? One she couldn’tafford?

Inan earlier life she had been a financial analyst. She should be able to sortout the mess of receipts and invoices scattered in front of her. The problemwas, she had delegated the task of analyzing the results to Briona Stewart, herorchard manager and housemate – young, untried, and eager Bree. It was Bree’sresponsibility, and part of her job description, to manage the financial sideof the orchard operations. Unfortunately, Bree might be brilliant when it cameto judging when to prune and when to pick, but she was lousy as keepingrecords, and there were far too many bits of paper with pieces of essentialinformation scribbled on them that Meg couldn’t begin to decipher. She wasconscious of year-end looming.

HardSpell by Justin Gustainis

Thefirst page reads:

Thisis the city – Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Itused to be a coal town, back in the days when anthracite was king. That was along time ago – the last of the mines played out in the 1950s. But people hereare tough, and they learned to adapt. Today, Scranton’s got a healthy economybased on light industry, tourism, and retail. They’ve cleaned out a lot of theculm banks left by the mines, too.

It’sa good place to live and raise a family – apart from vampires, werewolves,ghouls, wizards, and the occasional demon.

Scranton’sgot a “live and let unlive” relationship with the supernatural, just likeeveryplace else. But when a vamp puts the bite on an unwilling victim, or somewitch casts the wrong kind of spell, that’s when they call me.

Myname is Markowski. I carry a badge.

Alsoa crucifix, some wooden stakes, a big vial of holy water, and a 9 mm Berettaloaded with silver bullets.

I was never a Boy Scout, but “Be Prepared” is still agood motto to live by. Especially if you plan to keep on living.

One Salt Sea by Seanan McGuire

2011-10-28T20:44:00.000-06:00

Tobyis the new Countess of Goldengreen and things are going as well as can beexpected. October “Toby” Daye doesn’t seem to really have calm as a common partof her life but now, a month after the previous book in this series, LateEclipses, things are settling down.

Thingsare only starting to settle when Toby is asked to find two missing sons of theundersea courts. The boys have been kidnapped and Toby only has three days tofind them before the Court of Mists will face war with the undersea.

Theprevious books in this series are excellent, but this one may blow them allaway – except for one thing. The characterization and development in this bookis great. The previous books were action packed and fast paced reading. This bookhas better pacing as it doesn’t have the up and down moments of the previousbooks. Instead this book has a nice steady paced without feeling like any onepart of the novel is rushed. I was engrossed in this book from the first pageto the last page.

Oneof the things that hurt this book for me is the “love” interest. I don’t likehim and he strikes me as being more of a sleaze than genuine. I haven’t likedhim in any of the previous books and while he develops better in this book, thematch still doesn’t work for me. I’d rather have Toby single then have him withthis character. He bothers me that much.

Thecharacters throughout this book and the rough times that just seem to surroundToby are what made this book for me. I can do without that one particularcharacter but he did have some redeeming moments so I even managed to warm upto him. The characters around Toby really had a chance to shine in this noveland they did it beautifully. The growth of recurring characters really helpedpull all the parts of this novel together and make it an amazing reading experience.4.75 Stars!

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Ifyou’d like to find out more about the October Daye series, check out SeananMcGuire’s website. Ms. McGuire also writes under the name Mira Grant and Ihighly recommend checking out her zombie series.

Booksin the October Daye series:

Rosemaryand Rue

ALocal Habitation

AnArtificial Night

LateEclipses

One Salt Sea

Guest Review by Todd for Chasing the Moon by A. Lee Martinez

2011-10-27T05:00:00.000-06:00

Today I have a very special guest review from Todd for Chasing the Moon by A. Lee Martinez. Thanks Todd! Enjoy the post!

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Eldritch horrors from beyond! They'll drive you mad, eat your mind and soul, and make cultists have extra dice in attack when they stir in their slumber (that was an Arkham Horror reference, for those not knowledgeable about geek games.)

They also live in the closet, apparently. Typical of A Lee Martinez books Chasing the Moon is big on heart, big on weird, and big on funny. The story begins small, with some friendly neighborhood doomsday cultists and their non-specific eldritch horror object of worship, who seems more interested in acting like a normal guy. Parallel to that, the principle protagonist receives a stern warning about her new apartment: Do Not Open The Closet.

Naturally, the closet gets opened, eldritch horrors begin coming out of the woodwork, and matters go rapidly weird and out of hand. This is rather a lot of fun, it turns out. Suffice it to say you can't have eldritch horrors without impending doomsday.

A. Lee Martinez has a gift for creating setting that feel real without any particular effort and pulls it off well in Chasing the Moon. Exposition is seldom if ever seen but by the end of the book the eldritch apartments will feel real. What impresses me particularly is not just the ability to craft worlds but how incredibly good Martinez is at taking it for granted. Yeah there's this great setting but hey look over here at the characters and the story!

Bizarrely, the eldritch horrors in Chasing the Moon (of which there are many) are some of the most sympathetic, complex inscrutable monsters from beyond you've ever seen. Granted their nature is such that most begin as one-note jokes, but several of them develop into fully realized characters you'll actually care about.

All this, I should note, is delivered in a relatively short, breezy, brain candy book. Chasing the Moon is a quick read, but demonstrates beautifully that a skillful storyteller doesn't need a doorstopper to tell the tale.

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Thanks again Todd! You can find my review here.

Tuesdays at the Castle by Jessica Day George

2011-10-25T05:00:00.000-06:00

Celie,Lilah, and Roth are three lucky children. They live in a magical castle withtheir father and mother, the king and queen of Castle Glower (their olderbrother is currently off learning how to be a wizard). Princess Celie has madea project of mapping all of the castle rooms and corridors since they change ona weekly basis. If the castle likes you, you get a nice room and if itdoesn’t…well, you just might end up in a dungeon room.

Whenthe king and queen are attacked and presumed dead on a visit to see theiroldest son at the wizardry school, the remaining three children must figure outhow to protect their home and save the kingdom by using their knowledge of themagical castle.

Thisis what I think all books for little girls between 8-12 should be like.Princesses doing daring deeds, a kingdom in peril and a stuffed animal are allfeatures of this book. There are many more features in this book and some hadme giggling like my 11-year-old niece. I thought Celie was an enchanting maincharacter and the moments of her interaction with the castle were great. Lilahand Roth were well done and believable for their ages also. I’m not quite surewhat age Celie was suppose to be but it didn’t matter – you could still tellshe was younger than the other two.

Thisbook was a wonderful read and probably one of the best middle reader books I’veread in a while. I loved it. 5 Stars!

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Ifthis book sounds like something you or a middle reader in your life mightenjoy, I recommend checking out Jessica Day George’s website for a list of herother books.

Tuesdaysat the Castle is a stand-alone novel.

I received this book from the Amazon vine program.

Guest Post: Art and Books by Amanda

2011-10-21T07:31:00.002-06:00

Today Cookies, Books, and Bikes has a very special guest from Amanda, who is both an artist and a book blogger. She blogs about books occasionally at Imagination Run Amok and is here today to share with us how books have inspired some of her art. Thanks for the wonderful guest post Amanda! I hope everyone enjoys it!

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Believe it ornot I wasn't always a reader. My mother read to me as a child, and I havememories of her reading, but my passion for books didn't manifest till I was thirteen years old. Oncethe bug took hold, I couldn't stop reading. As an artist, books and art have intertwined themselves in my life on more than one occasion. The first time Irecall this happening I couldn't have been more than four years old. My motherwas reading the book, Put me in the Zooand I clearly remember being more entranced by the colors than the story. Thecolors were so bold and rich I wanted them to be mine. Thirty years later, witha book coverof my own, I was asked to paint a piece of art inspired by Frank Herbert's Dune.

PaintingThe Maker was the most fun I've ever had with a commission, inspiration waseffortless. Dune is one of my top five favorite books. I'm aware thereare a lot of folks out there who can't stand Dune. It's one of thosebooks you either love or you hate. For me, it's one of a very few books I stillquote. It was instrumental in helpng me break free of my shell as a young teenand later gave me strength when I battled Cancer at seventeen. These linesstill have the same power as when I first read them twenty years ago.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear isthe little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I willpermit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turnthe inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.Only I will remain.

Each of thebooks on my top five not only taught me something, but changed me too--expandedmy mind and my heart.

Top FiveFavorite Books

1. Dune byFrank Herbert

2. EarthAbides by George R. Stewart

3. TheHandmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

4. The Roadby Cormac McCarthy

5. TheReapers are the Angels by Alden Bell

What booksare on your top five?

Guest Post: Top Ten Romance Reads by Blodeuedd

2011-10-19T05:00:00.000-06:00

Today Cookies, Books and Bikes has a special guest post from Blodeuedd, who you can find creating excellent blogs about all kinds of books on Book Girl of Mur-y-Castell. Blodeuedd is here letting us know about her top ten romance reads. Thanks Blodeuedd for guesting blogging today!

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I am here to talkabout my favorite romance books. I soon realized that this would be impossibleso I tried to make it easier for me and I will only list those that I have readthe last 2,5 years that I have been blogging. Because in the end that was what mademe find so many more good books to read. So, I am taking romance in general andlet’s see what we can find.

1. Unlocked by MilanCourtney

This is a novella, butit had an impact on me because of the story of a bullied woman and then man whohad hurt her so much. The story was truly great and heart aching. A greathistorical romance.

2. Demon From the Dark by Kresley Cole

Truth be told I neverreally fall for paranormal romance but this one stole my heart and ran awaywith it. The man in it is just so alpha that my brain says kick him but my heatjust swoons.

3. Soulless by GailCarriger

Now this is just alovely mix of steampunk, historical romance and paranormal. It is witty andutterly great. You can’t help falling in love with everything.

4. Gentlemen Prefer Succubi by Jill Myles

Yes I know that I justhad a little PNR speech but this one is different, darker and it has gothumour. That can save everything. And she is just so funny.

5. Happy Hour at CasaDracula by Marta Acosta

I had no idea whichbook to choose from the 3 I had read so I just went with the first. But theyare all equally amusing, lovely and this is again a different sort of PNR.Witty, sarcastic and totally recommended.

6. Seven Nights to Forever by Evangeline Collins

This one trulysurprised me. I never thought that I would enjoy a HR about a prostitute, but Idid and it was great watching two people fall in love in such a strangeenvironment.

7. The Iron Duke byMeljean Brook

Steampunk with zombiesand romance. Oh yes now who would not fall madly in love with that :D What morecan I say than that.

8. Mucho Caliente byFrancesca Prescott

This is a chick-litthat had me giggling like crazy and the heroine is also older, I liked that.She had already seen it all.

9. Goddess of the Huntby Tessa Dare

There was somethingvery cute over this HR book and it made it impossible to put down.

10. Follow My Lead byKate Noble

I am ending it allwith another historical romance. A fun adventure through Europe and it made mecrave more.

That is my list, the positions can change a bitcos it is so hard to put one before the other so do not pay that much attentionto where some are. But all these books are books I recommend and they have alot to offer to different sort of readers. If you want straight up historicalromance, a novella, a more passionate book, zombies, steampunk, funnyparanormal, well here you go. Go on and read some romance and lose yourself ina good book.

The Orphan of Awkward Falls by Keith Graves

2011-10-18T05:00:00.000-06:00

Ienjoyed reading this but I had to wonder the whole time if it was a book Iwould give my own child (if I had one). I think the answer to that lies in whatan individual parents would deem as appropriate for their young teen or olderchild.

Josephineand her vegetarian family have just moved to a tiny town in northern Manitoba,Canada. Josephine’s father is going to be working at the local university andthe only thing of note within this tiny town is the nearby Asylum for theDangerous Insane reside. One of the residents at the asylum is also FetidStenchley, who happens to be a cannibal and a serial killer.

When Fetid Stenchley escapes, he is headed right towards Josephine and herfamily. With the help of a over-weight, sugar-craving boy genius friend (whohappens to live next door), Josephine might be able to save her family beforeanything horrible happens.

Thewriting of the story was simplistic and perfect for the nine to eleven ageranges that I believe this book is targeted for. The content is an entirelydifferent matter. Serial killers and cannibals are only the start. There isalso the weird mad scientist who experiments on dead animals – trying to bringthem back to life. The slightly gory descriptions and uncomfortabledescriptions of Stenchley made me put this book aside at times at readsomething else.

Thehorror elements to this novel really make me wonder what age group this book isdirected too. The writing I think is a little too simple for a 15-year-old toenjoy but the content is maybe to mature for a ten year old. The simpleillustrations were a nice touch but I think a teenager might want more contentwith the writing instead of images. I found the images, at times, unsettling soI don’t think they are necessarily a benefit for younger audiences.

Iguess in the end, I was torn about this book. The characters were quirky andinteresting but didn’t have any great amount of depth to them (which iscompletely acceptable in a children’s book for me). The story I liked the storyas an adult reader but I’d be careful about putting it in the hands of one ofmy 10-12 year-old nephews or nieces. 3 Stars.

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Doesthis book sound like something you might enjoy or one your child would like?You can find out more on Keith Graves’ website.

I received The Orphan of Awkward Falls through the Amazon Vine program.

Guest Post: Top Five Fantasy Reads by Melissa

2011-10-17T05:00:00.000-06:00

Today Cookies, Books, and Bikes has a special guest post from Melissa with My World...in words and pages, who is going to share her top five favorite fantasy reads. Thanks Melissa for coming by!

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HiRuthann [Wonderbunny's real name]! Thank you for having me over tochat on fantasy books, or top 5 I’ve read. I always enjoy stopping by to visit and chat books with you. We seem to have similar likes so it's always great to see what you have here that I have not seen before. Fantasy books are my guilty pleasures and picking just 5 is so hard todo. There are so many amazing fantasyreads out there. But I’m going to do mybest with picking 5. After much debatingand tossing these around my brain I’ve come up with the list for you…

Pleaseremember I don’t like to list as #1, 2, 3 in order of best I just picked 5 andthey are all #1’s to me.

1) Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson ~ This is the 1^stof the trilogy and I just feel into the system of magic Brandon uses here. And the whole trilogy itself is WELL worththe read. Fantasy readers will love thisand be talking about the magic system for years to come.

2) Canticle by Ken Scholes ~ This is the 2^ndbook in a series still being released. There are 3 out already, but this is one that is deep and heavy in thestory and characters. Wonderful andamazing story and theme to the books. These are fantasy reads that are a must read.

3) Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie ~ Thisis the 2^nd book of the trilogy but one where the world is influx. This is a harsh and gritty storyfull of war battled men trying to survive in different ways. Then we also have our journey as well. These men are not the pretty bunch, but thefighting arms. I remember looking for amap in the books, and there is not one, but when Joe described what thesoldiers where to do and were I was amazed at the way he drew the map of thisworld through words.

4) The Warded Man by Peter V. Brett ~ This isanother fantasy that has stuck in my mind ever since reading it. I think it’s because it brings the nightmonsters to life and then gives us a way to defeat them…ruins. And a man willing to carve them onto his skinto fight them. Really great work.

5) Nyphron Rising by Michael J. Sullivan ~ This isthe 3^rd book in a 6 book series, soon to be a trilogy printed byOrbit Books November 2011, December 2011, and January 2012. This is a toss up between this book orAvempartha. But I LOVED the whole seriesthus far. I’ve never come across afantasy series with touches of many different aspects in which each book jumpsby leaps and bounds over the book before it. Amazing! And with each book youget a deeper look into the overall underlying theme and storyline connectingeach book.

And as for all of you. What are your favorite fantasy reads?

Guest Post: Do You Think It's Sexy by Seleste deLaney

2011-10-12T05:00:00.000-06:00

Today I have a very special guest post from Seleste deLaney! Seleste is the author behind the fabulous Badlands book that I read earlier this year. I'm a waiting excitedly for the next book, but in the meantime, I'll have to settle for Seleste wonderful post about what is sexy. Thanks a bunch Seleste!

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Sex—it’s everywhere, at least in books. In fact, it’s inmost everything I write. But as a writer, I always wonder if it’s sexy. Then Iwonder if I really want it to be.

It might surprise you that sometimes the answer to that lastpart is no.

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good steamy sex scene, but sometimes it justdoesn’t work for the story or the characters.

As an example, my Blood Kissed series is erotic urbanfantasy. I want the sex in those stories (even the sex that is a precursor tosomeone meeting a bad end) to be hot. In fact, I occasionally want the sex tomake readers just a little uncomfortable. The kind of thing that makes themlook over their shoulder as they’re reading to make sure no one notices. Thereason for that goes beyond the “erotic” part of the genre heading. Thecharacters in these stories are either vampires or involved with vampires.Modesty just doesn’t fit the package, so closed door sex (aka fade to black)isn’t an option. And with lovers who have had decades or centuries to perfectseduction and sex, they should sure as hell know what they’re doing.

On the other hand, there’s Badlands, my alt-historysteampunk romance. There are two sex scenes in the book, both with differentpurposes. One is intended to leave the reader cold (as it did the heroine).It’s supposed to be shocking, not for its detailed description of the act, butbecause it’s a moment in the plot that changes things. The second is lessdescriptive—almost sweet even (not sweet romance sweet, but snugglingsweet)—because that’s its purpose. It’s supposed to make the reader feel good,and it is supposed to show how much the heroine changed between the two scenes.

Do I always succeed with my sex scenes as intended? Excuseme while I go laugh until I cry. Of course not. The reason for that is peopledon’t all like the same things. For some, what I call a “sweet” scene in Badlandsis racy and as far as they like to go. For others, the most provocative scenein a Blood Kissed story would make them put the book down. I know for a factthat there are people who hated one of my sex scenes. (I haven’t gotten hatemail, but I’ve read the reviews.)

And I wouldn’t have it any other way. Even knowing peopledidn’t like the one scene, I wouldn’t change it if I could because it fit thecharacter and her story. So yes, I like sexy sex, but I always prefer whateverkind of sex fits the story and characters. I hope most readers feel the sameway.

Then again, I could be wrong. So please let me knowwhat’s the most important thing for you as a reader when you reach a sex scene?

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About Seleste:

Seleste deLaney's first attempt at a novel was a sweeping epic romance called Wars and Wishes, Disasters and Dreams. She finished about three chapters before deciding she had better things to do. Looking back, she figures most twelve-year-olds wouldn't have made it that far. She went on to write numerous short stories and poems through her teens, but it wasn't until after earning a degree in chemistry that she returned to her love of writing fiction.

These days, Seleste splits her time between the worlds in her imagination and her home in southwest Michigan. Her husband and two children have learned not to worry too much when she doesn't seem all there, and her faithful dogs are attached enough that they wait patiently by her feet until she returns.

You can find Seleste online at www.selestedelaney.com, as well as on Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/selestedelaney) and Facebook(http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001203081398).

A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare

2011-10-11T05:00:00.000-06:00

Thelittle seaside English town is known for being a relaxing and calming settingfor well-bred young ladies. Be they ladies needing just somewhere to go whenmarriage no longer appeals to them or those seeking escape from the influencesof London. Susanna has worked many years to make Spindle Cove a haven for otherwomen.

WhenVictor comes to Spindle Cove looking for a way to get back his fieldcommission, Susanna and him will come to head-to-head with what is best forSpindle Cove. Victor must raise a militia but the men are in short supply andthose that live in this cozy little Victorian village aren’t soldiers.

Thiswas a quick and enjoyable romance read. It was a little on the typical side.The main female character is, of course a virgin. The main male character is aburly guy that needs to get in touch with his sensitive side. The chemistrybetween the characters was a huge factor in what kept me reading this. It wasenchanting, even if it did lead the two main characters to behave ridiculously.

Thesilly events that bring Susanna and Victor together were at times funny atother times, annoying. I found Victor’s cousin Colin to be annoying andclueless as a character. He drove me a little crazy and I’m glad he didn’t playtoo much of a larger roll in this book.

Idid enjoy the romance as it was a light and brainless read (which is perfectsometimes). 3.25 Stars.

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Ifyou’d like to read more by Tessa Dare, please check out her website.

ANight to Surrender is a historical romance set in Victorian England.

I received this book from the Amazon Vine program.

The Very Picture of You by Isabel Wolff

2011-10-06T05:00:00.000-06:00

Ellapaints portraits of other people. She spends hours staring at someone’s face,trying to capture not just their looks but a bit of what makes them who theyare. She never paints herself though because if she did, the abandonment by herfather might show up as part of whom she is. See, Ella has never really gottenover that and when the estranged father contacts her, she can’t see any choicebut to refuse to see him.

Whenshe is commissioned to paint her sister’s fiancé and two other people, she willfind out more about these three people than she ever expected. That knowledgemight also help shed light into her own life and her own self-discovery. It mayalso open up to forgiveness towards her father and bring an unseen happinessher way.

Thisbook enchanted me. Ella is an interesting character with complexities that madeher story interesting. It also added some depth to the characters around herthat I didn’t expect. What I expected with a slightly heart-warming butultimately forgettable read. Instead I found the story of a woman who foundthat by looking into others, she might find something out about herself. It wasalso a sweet story.

Ienjoyed reading A Very Picture of You but did find parts of it a littleannoying. The romance between Ella and another character was believable but hadme wondering a little bit – but I’m not going to delve much more into that as Idon’t want to give too much away. I also found parts of the plot a littlepredictable but waiting for the thing I suspected to be revealed was stillentertaining.

Ifound The Very Picture of You to be entertaining and sweet. 4 Stars.

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Interestedin finding out more about Isabel Wolff? Check out her website.

TheVery Picture of You is a stand-alone novel.

I received this book through the Amazon Vine program

A Beautiful Friendship by David Weber

2011-10-05T05:00:00.001-06:00

Iloved this book. It has been years since I’ve read an Honor Harrington noveland now I am wondering why. I was completely captivated by this novel and feelthe urge to reread the entire Honor Harrington series…which would be quite theundertaking considering my to-be-read stack is already overflowing but I mighthave to pick up and read a few anyway. This book isn't an Honor book but instead a look into how treecats and humans meet.

ABeautiful Friendship is perfect for fans of the Harrington series or to getyoung readers interested in reading them. This book is about StephanieHarrington and how she became acompanion to a treecat. Lionheart is a six legged sentient treecat lookingbeing on the planet Harrington’s parents have recently moved to. They wereunknown to the local population until Stephanie and Lionheart formed a uniquetelepathic bond that leads her to his clan home. Things aren’t going to be easyfor the 14-year-old Stephanie and her new companion but then, when you are 14things are never easy.

Thisbook is written around two characters; that of Climbs Quickly, alsoknown as Lionheart, and Stephanie. The entire cast of characters within thisnovel was interesting and engaging. From Stephanie’s parents to the all thescientists that want to study Lionheart to his clan, each had their own uniquevoice which brings this book to life.

Thisbook presents some social issues plainly and in an easy-to-understand way.Stephanie must prove that Lionheart is a sentient being but without revealingtoo much that could make people see treecats as a threat to human expansion.The conflict between showing Lionheart as sentient without putting people onedge was very interesting and I feel it was presented well in this book.

I loved reading about Stephanie and Lionheart. 5Stars!

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This is the first book in the new Stephanie Harrington series.

I received this book from the Amazon Vine program.

Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos

2011-10-04T05:00:00.000-06:00

FallingTogether is the story of three college friends, their life after college andthe friendship they gave up to go their separate ways. Through some bizarrepromise these three friends stop speaking to each other for several years afterCat announces she wants their friendship to end because she can’t really pursea romantic relationship with Pen and Will so close. Pen and Will don’t know howto go on without Cat and so they too, part ways.

Someyears later after a mysterious message from Cat to show up at their collegereunion, Pen and Will back together but Cat doesn’t show up. In the search forCat, Pen and Will realize they gave up more then friendship with each other.

Iloved this novel. I found the writing engaging and the search for Cat,intriguing. The relationship between Pen and Will felt natural to me and thedevelopments between them in this novel were touching.

Relationships,how they change and grow/wither, were the focus of this novel, at least for me.I thought the complexities and needs within different types of relationshipswas beautifully portrayed and brought this novel a heart-wrenching life of its’own. It kept me reading from start to finish. The plot was at times predictablebut then, I wasn’t reading for the happy ending but for the pleasure of seeingthe changes and insights of the relationships between the characters, theirfamilies and the world around them.

Ithoroughly enjoyed this and I’m looking forward to reading more they Marisa DeLos Santos. 4.5 Stars!

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Interestedin finding out more about this author? Check out Marisa de los Santos’ website (which is currently in the works).

Falling Together is a stand-alone novel.

I received this book through the Amazon Vine program.

Blood Rock by Anthony Francis

2011-09-30T05:00:00.000-06:00

Dakotais helping out Atlanta’s police department again. She has been called in tohelp a local vampire escape magical graffiti – something Dakota has never seenbefore. When her attempts fail to free him from the graffiti and the vampiredies instead, Dakota is determined to figure out who is spraying the graffitiand how to stop the tagger.

Thisis the second book in the Skindancer series and Dakota Frost is still aninteresting character. I thought the first book, Frost Moon, was good but Iwasn’t blown away by it. My hang-up from the first book is still there with thesecond book. Dakota is a tall, tattooed woman with a deathhawk (sort of like aMohawk). She wears leather and curses a lot. She is suppose to be fairlybrilliant and dating a man who works for an organization similar to the FBI.Combine that with an adopted daughter who constantly calls her square… Icouldn’t fit all the traits of her character together. Dakota is also supposedto be bisexual, which only made me scratch my head more. In order to enjoy thisnovel, I had to give up trying to figure her out and just go with the flow ofthe story.

BloodRock does have some interesting and good parts. I find the aspects of the storyto be unique – magical tattoos and graffiti are not a common feature of mosturban fantasy (but not completely unique either). The pacing of the story isgood, it dragged at parts but the action when it happened was good. I did feellike too much was going on in this novel. There was an information overloadabout magical tattoos.

Ifelt that Dakota sometimes forgot where her priorities were and behaved in away that I felt would hurt accomplishing certain goals. It was a littlefrustrating to read because she acted without thought. I think as a whole,Dakota’s character just doesn’t work for me. The romance in this book was atleast a little easier to swallow than in the previous one.

Ithought Blood Rock had writing that kept me interested but filled withfrustrating characters (how many issues does Cinnamon need to have? Isn’t beinga were-tiger enough of a problem for a young kid?). 2.5 Stars.

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BloodRock is the second book in the Skindancer series. The first book is Frost Moon.

I received this book by request from the publisher vianetgalley.

If Walls Could Talk by Juliet Blackwell

2011-09-29T05:00:00.000-06:00

Singlesentence summary: Melaniehas taken over the family home remodeling business and when the ghost of a mankilled in a recent remodeling accident appears, Melanie starts to wonder if theman really did die from an accident.

Ihave really enjoyed read Juliet Blackwell’s Witchcraft mystery series, so whenI saw this book, I knew I needed to pick If Walls Could Talk up. Now that I’vefinally had a chance to read it, I can happily say that I thought this was agreat start for a new paranormal mystery series (with a cozy mystery side).

Melanieis a diverse and interesting character with a history (which, of course is notfully revealed in this book). The mystery was entertaining and while some ofthe descriptions of what happened to Kenneth (the man that dies) are mildlygory, I still found the process of Melanie solving the crime to be gripping andwell paced.

Theone thing that slows down this novel for me would be the home renovationdetails. I live in an apartment and so have very little knowledge of what ittakes to keep a home running and in good repair. I also don’t have a great dealof interesting in fixing things up myself, so the home renovation sections werea bit of a drag for me. Luckily those sections weren’t overwhelming and I stillmanaged to enjoy this mystery.

IfWalls Could Talk was a great start to a new series and I’m looking forward toreading more about Melanie. 3.75 Stars.

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Ifyou’d like to find out more about Juliet Blackwell’s Haunted Home Renovationseries or her Witchcraft mystery series, check out her website.

If Walls Could Talk is the first book in the Haunted Home Renovation series.

Cutie Pies by Dani Cone

2011-09-27T05:00:00.000-06:00

Cutie Pies is a collection of pie recipes – from the crust to the filling to the topping – for little pies. Specializing in pies the size of cupcakes to mini cupcakes to pockets and pies on a stick, this book had recipe variations to fit all occasions. If you want a traditional size pie, make that with one of the many fabulous recipes in this book. Looking for something that will feed just you for many days on end? Try the cupcake sizes and then you can have pie every day of the week. If you already have the perfect pie filling but want a better butter crust? This book has an amazing butter crust recipe.

This book had more than amazing recipes, the colored pictures and snappy commentary was great too. Really though, the reason the get this cookbook is all about the pies. From desert pie to breakfast pie to an appetizer to dinner, you can find a pie for every time of day. I made the Razzle-berry pie for desert one night using half the butter recipe dough (no crust over the top). The next day, I used the rest of the dough to make an egg, onion and cheese pie. The day after that, my fiancé was thrilled to take his all pie lunch to work – he even took a picture of it (which I don't have). I have used the crust recipe now for many other treats including apple pie with chopped praline pecans and raspberry peach pies.

I have been anxiously waiting for this book to publish because it is defiantly going to be added to my permanent collection of cookbooks. It was fabulous. 5 Stars!

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Cutie Pies author, Dani Cone is the owner High 5 Pies in Seattle. My pies at home didn't look nearly as good as they do in the book or on the website... but they still tasted yummy!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to try out this cookbook.

Random Books From the Bookshelf

2011-09-25T05:00:00.000-06:00

Odalisqueby Fiona McIntosh

Thefirst page reads:

Prologue

Theprisoners, chained together, shuffled awkwardly into the main square of theslave market of Percheron; six men, all strangers and all captives of a tradercalled Varanz, who had a reputation for securing the more intriguing productfor sale. And this group on offer was no exception, although most onlookers’attention was helplessly drawn to the tall man whose searing, pale-eyed state,at odds with his long dark hair, seemed to challenge anyone brave enough tolock gazes with him.

Varanzknew it too; knew this one was special, and he sensed a good price coming forthe handsome foreigner well worth the effort it had cost six of his henchmenfirst to bring the man down and then to rope him securely. It puzzled him whythe man had been traveling across the desert, of all places – that in itself aperilous journey – but also moving alone, which meant almost certain trouble,particularly from slavers renowned in the region.

PerfectCircle by Carlos J. Cortes

Thefirst page reads:

Thiscan’t be happening. KenAvery stuck his fists deep into the oilskin’s pockets and stared at theyellow-clad figures swarming around the drill head. Streams of water drippedfrom the brim of his sou’wester, blurring his vision.

Themen glared at the spinning rod. Someone had painted a depth marker on the tubeas a reference, but a paltry four inches didn’t show more than negligibleprogress: a paltry four inches in forty-eight hours. Ken could have sworn theywere willing it to advance, but the steel pipe revolved doggedly without sinkingany deeper.

Alarge man separated from the group and approached Ken with a sour expressionfixed on his puffy face.

“Nowwhat, boss? Another bit?”

Shipof Magic by Robin Hobb

Thefirst page reads:

Prologue

Maulkinabruptly heaved himself out of his wallow with a wild trash that left theatmosphere hanging thick with particles. Shreds of his shed skin floated withthe sand and muck like the dangling remnants of dreams when one awakes. Hemoved his long sinuous body through a lazy loop, rubbing against himself to ruboff the last scraps of outgrown hide. As the bottom muck started to once moresettle, he gazed about at the two dozen other serpents who lay basking in thepleasantly scratchy sediments. He shook his great maned head and then stretchedthe vast muscle of his length. “Time,” he bugled in his deep-throated voice. “Thetime has come.”

They all looked up at him from the sea-bottom, their great eyes of green and goldand copper unwinking. Shreever spoke for them all when she asked, “Why? Thewater is warm here, the feeding easy. In a hundred years, winter has nevercome. Why must we leave now?”

Stormlord's Exile by Glenda Larke

2011-09-24T05:00:00.000-06:00

Singlesentence summary: Shaleis responsible to bringing water to the Quartern but with Terelle fulfillingher grandfather’s painting, he must figure out how to bring water to theQuartern and rule it at the same time.

Thisis the third and final book in the Stormlord series. I loved the two previousbooks. I think I connected quickly with these books because I live in a desertarea and this book is about a land where water is the difference between lifeand death. It found the setting a bit refreshing because a plains and/or forestare the environments that typically prevail in fantasy. While I still foundthat connection, this book felt more rushed than any of the previous books.There was so much going on that it seemed like there was hurry to wrapeverything up.

Thistrilogy is already a hefty undertaking since each book is over 600 pages.Still, I wish a little bit more time was spent with Terelle on her return toher grandfather’s people. At the same time, I wanted action with Shale. I ended up rushing through Shale’ssections so that I could read more about Terelle. There was a lot of the the politicalmaneuvering through the book but Terelle's sections had a little less than any of the others including Kaneth and Ryka's story. I still enjoyed reading about the problems Shale has dealing with the previous Stormlord's family and Lord Gold...I just wanted more action.

Ienjoyed the plot and how the how the trilogy wraps up – but I have to wonderhow reasonable the ending really was. It was still very good – it just didn’tblow me away. 4 Stars.

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Ifyou’d like to read up more on this trilogy or other books by Glenda Larke,check out her website.

Booksin the Stormlord series:

TheLast Stormlord

StormlordRising

Stormlord's Exile

The Fifth Kingdom by Caridad Pineiro

2011-09-22T05:00:00.000-06:00

Montezuma’s tomb has be an headache for Deanna for as long as she can remember, it was the reason her mother abandoned her when she was young. It took her mother away and the last thing she wants is to hear more about the tomb. When her mother calls and leaves her a mysterious message, Deanna wants to roll her eyes and ignore it. That probably would have been possible, until someone tries to kidnap her and she only escapes the kidnapping attempt with the help of a sexy CIA agent.

That same sexy CIA agent needs Deanna’s help to locate her mother, the only problem is that Deanna doesn’t really want to have anything to do with her mother. Deanna comes to realize is that the attacks aren’t going to stop until she finds her mother and figures out exactly what the kidnappers want.

This book was a bit like Clive Cussler adventure novel (or some other adventure writers novel) with sex. And there are some steamy sex scenes in this book. Deanna must save the world, or at least her mother, from the bad guys who are going to destroy the world…ok, maybe not destroy the world, but cause a lot of havoc, destruction, and death. I like those books once in a while and I enjoyed this one. It was a fun romp.

It does have the typical adventure unbelievably factors too. I doubt that an archaeologist would be allowed to be that involved with on ingoing CIA investigation (but then, I don’t work for the CIA, so maybe that is possible). It took me a while to get into this book, because of some of the features that I found far-fetched. I always have to remind myself to let go of some of those things when reading adventure novels of this type. After letting go, I ended up really enjoying this and the chemistry between the two main characters, Deanna and Bill. The chemistry had some shinning moments for me and at other times I had to scratch my head but I still enjoyed how the story played out.

I enjoyed the pacing and adventure of The Fifth Kingdom. 3.5 Stars.

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Interested in finding out more about Caridad Pineiro? Check out her website.

The Fifth Kingdom is a stand alone novel.

I received this book from the Publisher, Carina Press, via netgalley.

Sporadic Summer

2011-09-21T05:00:00.000-06:00

If you've been wondering why my blog has been so sporadic or quiet this summer (and if you haven't been), I'd like to let my readers know that I hope to be getting back on a schedule for guest posts and book reviews.

My life has been a little crazy. As many of you know, I graduated college with my Bachelor's degree this summer and spent 20 days camping and another ten writing papers for my final field class. I also have spent a month unemployed and looking for a job. I found one but I'm not happy in it, so I've tried finding something else - which as many know, isn't easy right now. Some days, looking at my computer, the last thing I wanted to do was write a review (even with some of the wonderful books I've read and want to share).

The biggest news in my life right now, is that I married my best friend on September 10th of this year. It was a wonderful day!

It was also very crazy to get ready for and now that a little time has passed, I'm finally settling down a bit and I hope to get back on track with my blogging.

Thanks to all my readers who have stuck around while I've been flighty! I started this blog for me but found I've kept doing it for you. I love coming home from work (I can't check at my job) and seeing what you think about my reviews, random bookshelf posts or anything else that comes up! Thanks and I hope to have some cool and interesting posts coming up.

Photo is courtesy of Jeff Loh.

Random Books from the Bookshelf

2011-09-18T08:05:00.000-06:00

The Postmistress by Sarah BlakeThe first page reads:

There were years after it happened, after I’d returned from the town and come back here to the busy blank to the city, when some comment would be tossed off about the Second World War and how it had gone – some idiotic remark about clarity and purpose – and I’d resist the urge to stub out my cigarette and bring the dinner party to a satisfying half. But these days so many wars are being carried on in full view of all of us, and there is so much talk of pattern and intent (as if a war can be conducted like music), well, last night I couldn’t help myself. “What would you think of a postmistress who chose not to deliver the mail?” I asked.“Don’t tell me any more,” a woman from the far end of the table cried in delight, shining and laughing between the candles. “I’m hooked already.” I watched the question take hold. Mail, actual letters written by hand, being pocketed undelivered. What a lark! Anything might happen. Marriages might founder. Or not take place! Candlelight glanced off the silverware into eyes widening with the thought of such a trick. Around the table the possibilities unfurled. A man might escape the bill collector’s note.

March by Geraldine BrooksThe first page reads:

October 21, 1861This is what I write to here: The clouds tonight embossed the sky. A dipping sun gilded and brazed each raveling edge as if the firmament were threaded through with precious firmament were threaded through with precious filaments. I pause there to mop my aching eye, which will not stop tearing. The line I have set down is, perhaps, on the florid side of fine, but no matter: she is a gentle critic. My hand, which I note is flecked with traces of dried phlegm, has the tremor of exhaustion. Forgive my unlovely script, for an army on the march provides no tranquil place for reflection and correspondence. (I hope my dear young author is finding time amid all her many good works to make some use of my little den, and that her friendly rats will not grudge a short absence from her accustomed aerie.) And yet to sit here under the shelter of a great tree as the men make their cook fires and banter together provides a measure of peace. I write on the lap desk that you and the girls so thoughtfully provided me, and though I spilled my store of ink you need not trouble to send more, as one of the men has shown me an ingenious receipt for a serviceable substitute made from the season’s last blackberries. So am I able to send “sweet words” to you!

Hounded by Kevin HearneThe first page reads:

There are many perks to living for twenty-one centuries, and foremost among them is bearing witness to the rare birth of genius. It invariably goes like this: Someone shrugs off the weight of his cultural traditions, ignores the baleful stares of authority, and does something his countrymen think to be completely batshit insane. Of those, Galileo was my personal favorite. Van Gogh comes in second, be he really was batshit insane. Thank the Goddess I don’t look like a guy who met Galileo – or who saw Shakespeare’s plays when they first debuted or rode with the hordes of Genghis Khan. When people ask how old I am, I just tell them twenty-one, and if they assume I mean years instead of decades or centuries, then that can’t be my fault, can it? I still get carded, in fact, which any senior citizen will tell you is immensely flattering.

Night Child by Jes Battis

2011-09-05T05:00:00.000-06:00

Single sentence summary: Tess is an Occult Special Investigator with Vancouver’s Mystical Crime Lab and when a dead vampire case gets messy, she will need to risk more than her job to solve the crime.

I’ve had this book sitting on my shelf for over a year. A friend recommend it and I’ve just recently picked it up to read it. I’m glad I read it but I didn’t fall in love with this book. Tess is a great character. She was entertaining and intelligent, if a little impulsive. The other characters besides Mia had potential to be very interesting but I didn’t find any of them to be very fleshed out. Tess and Mia were the only ones in the entire book and considering the Tess’ partner plays a sidekick sort of role, I would have liked more about him. Mia is the only clue to what happened to the dead vampire and while I don’t understand all of her movements in the book, I thought she was better fleshed out than any of the other characters besides Tess.

This novel did have a great premise going for it and it was fairly entertaining. I found it quick paced and while not enthralling, it did manage to keep my interest enough to finish it. I will be giving the next book in this series a try as I already own it but this book was good but didn’t blow me away. 3.25 Stars.

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If you’d like to find out more about Night Child and other books by Jes Battis, I recommend checking out your favorite book site (mine are Shelfari and Goodreads) since I couldn’t find a website for Mr. Battis.

Night Child is the first book in the OSI series.

Eye of the Tempest by Nicole Peeler

2011-09-02T05:00:00.011-06:00

Single sentence summary: Jane has just returned to Rockabill when unknown assailants attack her and Anyan, Jane luckily manages to overcome them but the fight nearly kills her.

I have loved this series since the first book, Tempest Rising, came out. I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Jane’s relationships though. From the moment Anyan is introduced, I’ve wanted Jane to be with him but it never seemed like it was going to happen. This book made me think it was finally going to happen…but you’ll have to read this book to find out if it does.

One of the best things about this series is the character development. At times, the light but well-done writing of this novel made me think that these books would always be light and fluffy reading. Jane’s preoccupation with her libido only increases that impression. After reading this book, I know even with all those things, Jane becomes a strong, more self aware and interesting character. She grows so much between Eye of the Tempest and Tempest Rising that I can’t help but hope to her to get the guy and kick the crap out of the bad guys.

The humor, romance and adventure are all other factors that make this book a blast to read. Jane is always winding up in different scraps but through each one, she grows by learning more about herself, her own personal strength and her powers. She also learns that her friends are vital parts to finding answers – even when she isn’t sure if someone really is a friend. This book expands on who “Blondie” is from the previous book that only briefly made an appearance. The story behind Blondie was very interesting and I thought brought some interesting background to this novel.

I found Eye of the Tempest to be engaging and I never wanted to put it down. 5 Stars!

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Interested in finding out more about the Jane True series? Check out Nicole Peeler’s website (and read some of her funny reviews or stories).

Books in the Jane True series:

Tempest Rising
Tracking the Tempest
Tempest's Legacy
Eye of the Tempest
Tempest’s Fury (upcoming release)

Sparks by Laura Bickle

2011-08-31T05:00:00.002-06:00

Single sentence summary: Anya works as a psychic at night and an arson investigator by day but when a new case involves spontaneous human combustion, her two jobs may get uncomfortably close.

I really enjoyed the first book in this series, Embers. Anya is a fun character but I admit, I had a moment in the first book where a scene felt completely out of place and soured me a bit. I am happy to report that this book didn’t have any thing like that and kept me riveted from the almost moment I read the first page to the very end. It did take me about 50 pages to get into it but then I couldn’t put it down until the book was done. Sparks was intense and I wanted to know what would happen next.

I loved Sparky, Anya fire salamander familiar, in the first book and I really liked some of the developments with Sparky in this book. They were great and the time spent on Sparky was very entertaining. Anya is still a fascinating character but I had a hard time getting into the love interest and it was only closer to the end of the Sparks that I really felt it was working.

Sparks is filled with scenes that that had me giggling and others where my heart was pounding as Anya got closer to discovering what was causing the spontaneous combustion. This book was an exciting and adventurous search for a killer. I am really looking forward to the next book in this series. 4.5 Stars!

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If you’d like to find out more about Sparks or the first book in the Anya Kalinzxyk series, check out Laura Bickle’s website (who also writes as Alayna Williams).

Books in the Anya Kalinzxyk series:

Embers
Sparks

Down the Mysterly River by Bill Willingham with Illustrations by Mark Buckingham

2011-08-30T05:00:00.001-06:00

I’ve read everything but the last two Fables graphic novels by Willingham and thoroughly enjoyed them. They aren’t something I would hand over to a child to read though to introduce them to fantasy. Down the Mysterly River is something that I would gladly give to a niece or nephew to read.

Max is a little disoriented to find himself in a world of talking animals and men with blue swords. He was supposed to be at scout camp and solving mysteries there but instead he is unfamiliar woods and there is a talking badger named Banderbrock. Banderbrock is only the first of fun and unusual characters that Max meets. There is also a bear who was once a sheriff named Walden, and a cat named McTavish that is a bit – ok, more than a bit of a scruffy character. McTavish was once king of cats at McDonald’s farm.

The men with the blue swords, Blue Cutters, are not nice characters. Max must escape from them if he wants to retain the qualities that make him, him. He must solve the mystery of what he is doing in the new world and what the Blue Cutters really do.

I really enjoyed this book. Max was a great character but this book really came to life with the addition of the other characters. McTavish, Banderbrock and Walden really made the book for me. I enjoyed their journey through the woods trying to escape the Blue Cutters. I also enjoyed the banter between the characters and the glimpses that we got into some of the other characters in this world. The small insights into Blue Cutter characters and other animals, added to the story.

This was a highly enjoyable young adult book about adventure, talking animals and being who you want to be. This book can be more for young adults though as I found plenty of little things to giggle over that may escape some of the young audience. 4.5 Stars.

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If you’d like to find out more about Bill Willingham and his writing, check out his website.

Down the Mysterly River is a stand-alone novel, but who knows, it could be part of a series…it just felt like a stand-alone from the ending.

I received this book as part of the Amazon Vine program.

Random Books from the Bookshelf

2011-08-28T08:27:00.003-06:00

The Séance by Heather Graham

The first page reads:

Christie opened her eyes.

Everything seemed to be as it should be. The small porcelain clock on the mantel – Gran’s favorite, brought over from Ireland – sat in its place, the seconds ticking away softly. A night-light burned in the bathroom, because she didn’t like total darkness.

The air conditioner hummed.

The clock chimed softly.

It was midnight.

Then she realized what was wrong. Granda was in the room. He was watching her from the old white rocker that faced her bed. He was smoking his old pipe and rocking gently, and he smiled as she opened her eyes.

“Granda?” she murmured.

“Ah, girl. I woke you,” he said. “I didna mean to do so.”

“It’s okay, Granda,” she told him, curious. “Is anything wrong?”

“No, my girl, just the way it is,” he said, and he leaned toward her. “I want you to be good to Gran, that’s all, Christie. Be there for her.”

The Windup Girl of Paolo Bacigalupi

The first page reads:

“No! I don’t want the mangosteen.” Anderson Lake leans forward, pointing. “I want that one, there. Kaw pollamai nee khap. The one with the red skin and the green hairs.”

The peasant woman smiles, showing teeth blackened from chewing betel nut, and the points to a pyramid of fruits stacked besides her. “Un nee chai mai kha?”

“Right. Those. Khap.” Anderson nods and makes himself smile. “What are they called?”

“Ngaw.” She pronounces the word carefully for his foreign ears, and hands across a sample.

Anderson takes the fruit, frowning. “It’s new?”

“Kha.” She nods the affirmative.

Anderson turns the fruit in his hand, studying it. It’s more like a gaudy sea anemone or a furry puffer fish than a fruit. Coarse green tendrils protrude from all sides, tickling his palm. The skin has the rust-red tinge of blister rust, but when he sniffs he doesn’t get any stink of decay. It seems perfectly healthy, despite its appearance.

Master of None by Sonya Bateman

The first page reads:

Just once, I would have liked to get my shit together. Even accidentally. But I could already see that wasn’t going to happen tonight. After all, I am the world’s unluckiest thief. Ask anybody.

Especially my ex-partners.

The long-abandoned warehouse I’d stumbled across had seemed like a blessing, and the worn canvas bag wedged under my spare tire had been downright serendipitous. That was until I started stuffing my worldly possessions into it and the damned thing split down the seams. Out came everything, all over the concrete floor that was covered with dust and oil and Christ knew what else. The gunk would wreak havoc with my instruments.

As if that weren’t enough, one of the banded stacks of bills popped loose. The draft in the place snatched a handful of hundreds and whisked them off into the gloom in a flurry of papery whispers. Like the building was laughing at me.

Frost Moon by Anthony Francis

2011-08-25T05:00:00.001-06:00

Single sentence summary: Dakota is a magical tattoos artist that needs to figure out a way to protect her clients against a serial killer that is killing magically tattooed people, and helping the police without giving too much away about her clients.

This book was very entertaining and I really enjoyed it. The story and idea of a magical tattoo artist were unique in some ways that kept me wondering what would happen next. I liked Dakota’s attitude and approach to life.

The weirdest thing about this book and the most unbelievable thing are both the fact that a woman with a Mohawk and tattoos all the way to her head (the cover doesn't have nearly enough tattoos from what I understood when reading this book) is attracting men like moths to a flame. I found it really hard to believe that men from a college karate teacher to an FBI agent are drooling all over themselves for Dakota. It seemed farfetched to me and I couldn’t quite get into the story when it seemed that the guys were falling over themselves to kiss the ground Dakota walked on. Ok it wasn’t that bad but the men that were the “love interests” in the book, just didn’t strike me as really the type that would go for someone looking like Dakota.

I hate to say that because of Dakota’s appearance and the many times it is mentioned throughout the book, I couldn’t really understand her character, I’m a short girl that is isn’t a toothpick and I don’t have a Mohawk so from the start, Dakota was a unique character in appearance and I have no idea what it would be like to look like she does. She was a vibrant character though, which helped keep me interested in this book. Other interesting and unique character surround Dakota, which allowed me to be distracted at times from her appearance.

This book was engaging in the writing but the relationships between Dakota and any man in the book felt a little off to me. It kept me from really loving this book and so Frost Moon gets 3.5 Stars.

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If you’d like to find out more about Anthony Francis and Frost Moon, check out the author's website.

Frost Moon is the first book in the Skindancer series.

Giveaway Winner!

2011-08-23T20:57:00.000-06:00

I've been a bit of a space cadet this past month or so (I'm blaming it on my wedding in less then a month) and apologize for the delay in picking this winner. So without further mumbling, the winner for the Kylie Brant book giveaway goes too:

Debbie!

Congratulations Debbie! I've e-mailed you already so if you haven't received my e-mail please let me know!

The Dragon's Tooth by N.D. Wilson

2011-08-23T05:00:00.004-06:00

I should have a disclaimer on all young adult or children’s books I read. I don’t have children; I only have a score of nieces and nephews. So when I read a young adult or children’s book, I have them in mind and what I feel would be something I could pass on to them without their parents worrying about content.

The Dragon’s Tooth is a dark fantasy story that is lightened by the goofy antics of the children within. Cyprus and Antigone lost almost everything of comfort two years ago when their father was killed and their mother ended up in a coma. Without their parents, Cyprus, Antigone and their older brother Dan see no choice but to sell their childhood home in California and move to an old rundown motel that their parents own in the Midwest.

When a creepy looking man appears demanding the room that Cyprus has made his own, Dan sees no choice in renting the room. Due to that act, the course of Cyprus, Antigone and Dan’s life will change forever. Especially when the stranger entrusts a strange set of keys and a glowing bottle into Cyprus’s care.

Cyprus and Antigone are very enjoyable characters. Cyprus is curious about everything and it causes him to have some adventures that Antigone wishes should didn’t have to be there for. She is the more serious of the pair but I found the way the two played off of each other’s strengths and weakness entertaining and perfect display of how siblings can be sometimes.

The secret society and the gift from the stranger (Skeleton) to Cyprus were interesting and in ways unique. Some of the elements of the secret society and how Cyprus and Antigone get there were predictable to me as an adult but a kid may not find it as predictable. The world around the secret society was fascinating but any more time spent on it and this book probably would have dragged.

I thought some of the events and the constant references to death and or dark and creepy things made this book both interesting but maybe a little too mature for ages under eight or nine. I would think this book is probably best for that preteen age group (about 10-12). The length of the novel is the only other thing that makes me hesitate for younger than ten as it is almost 500 pages.

I enjoyed reading The Dragon’s Tooth and found the world and characters entertaining. I did at times want the story to progress a little faster and the length did take away a little bit of my enjoyment of this read. I felt that the development of the characters and the revelations regarding the past, while interesting, slowed the story. I did enjoy the ending though and some of the small quirks with the characters did make up for the length.

If you’re a Harry Potter fan, I’d recommend checking this out as it did remind me a little bit of Harry Potter. 4 Stars.

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Does The Dragon’s Tooth sound like something you or your kid(s) might enjoy? Check out N. D. Wilson’s website for a list of his other books.

The Dragon's Toothis the start of a new series, Ashtown Burials (and the ending wraps up the most of the story but leaves an opening for another novel).

I received this book from the Amazon Vine program.

The Wild Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

2011-08-19T05:00:00.011-06:00

I wish I could say I loved this book and in a way I did. The Wild Rose was engrossing…and tragic. In some ways I didn’t love this book. Early into The Wild Rose I felt that there wouldn’t have a satisfactory ending and it didn’t. The story was wrapped up nicely but no matter what was going to happen, characters were going to be hurt, both emotionally and physically.

The Wild Rose is the story of Seamus Finnegan and Willa Alden. These two character love each other passionately and recklessly. They love adventure and exploration when it was an age of discovery in the early 1900s. When Willa Alden falls and must have her leg amputated she abandons Seamus because he could not save her. As time passes, Seamus and Alden leave lives apart but tormented for each other. When they meet again in London, sadness and betrayal will touch everyone around them.

There love was beautiful and destructive in The Wild Rose. It was like waiting for a train wreck to happen. Add in a German spy prior to World War I and this book carries a lot of betrayal and sadness. I struggled with those parts because I could anticipate what was going to happen and it frustrated me. I didn’t want to see that there would be no happy endings for characters in this book.

The story telling was beautiful but the roller coaster of emotions that are utilized in this novel worked against it for me. I could have loved this book but instead I never grew to love the main character. Seamus and Willa were flawed characters and I grew to dislike who they were because of how they behaved. There were so many other beautiful characters in this novel that I did care for, it is disappointing that I didn’t care for these two.

I enjoyed so much about this book but found the main characters to be an bit of a disappointment. 4 Stars.

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After reading The Wild Rose, I found out that this was part of a trilogy. It is in fact, the third in the trilogy but I don’t think it is necessary to read the others to enjoy this one. Other books in the trilogy include:

The Tea Rose
The Winter Rose

You can find out more about The Wild Rose and other books by Jennifer Donnelly on her website.

I received this book from Hyperion via Netgalley.

Unleashed by John Levitt

2011-08-18T05:00:00.006-06:00

Single sentence summary: Something escape from a portal and now it is targeting Ifrits and Lou is the next on the list.

This is the third book in the Dog Days series and I can’t say these books blow me away but they are quick and enjoyable. Mason keeps growing as a character and this book packed some surprises.

Ifrits again play a huge roll in this book and more things about them are revealed. It was interesting. The plot is action packed and at times some of the things are cringe worthy. I expect them after the first two books and I am happy to report that those soap opera events are less in this book than the previous one but they are still there. I think the only way to pack so much into a book this short is to have scenarios feel like a slim on the details and sometimes, high on the cheese.

This book is probably my favorite of the series so far because the cheese moments have decreased and there were some nice twists in this. Plus, some of the characters that have been part of the earlier two books get bigger rolls in this one and it was interesting to see those characters develop further.

I enjoyed Unleashed and found the ending the best one yet. 4 Stars.

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If you’d like to find out more about the Dog Day’s novels, check out John Levitt’s website.

Books in the Dog Days series:

Dog Days
New Tricks
Unleashed
Play Dead

The Stack of Unfinished Books

2011-08-17T05:00:00.001-06:00

Everyone hates seeing and having to write a review about a book they didn’t finish. I don’t like doing it and I feel sort of embarrassed about having a “Did Not Finish” review. At the same time, I feel positive and negative reviews are sort of vital to a blog.

I want to know about the good with the bad and I like seeing blogs that show both. I don’t know a single person that all books appeal. I don’t even think that is possible. I think it is inevitable that someday I will pick up a book and love and Todd will hate.

I don’t think every bad book needs a review either. If I get ten pages into a book and realize I can’t finish it for one reason or another I don’t write a review. I just quietly put it into my paperbackswap or give-to-family pile and move on. If I do get 100 pages or more into the book before giving up on it, that is when I write the review. I am sure that is different for every person but I think that negative review is almost as important as the “OMG I loved this book!!!!!” review (multiple annoying exclamation marks required).

In fact, I tend to read negative reviews of books I’m not sure I want to read. I seek those reviews out; I want to figure out for myself if someone else’s hang-ups about the book are going to bother me too. I read the negative reviews of books I have read or have planned to read too but I don’t necessary seek those out.

I think that when I read other book blogs, seeing what worked and what didn’t work for another blogger is important. I want to see if they hated books I loved and why they disliked the book or couldn’t finish it. I think those aspects tell a lot about a blogger and how close their books likes and dislikes align with mine. It helps me figure out if I can pick up a book based on their recommendation (or lack of one). What do you think? Do positive and negative reviews for book increase your interest in a blog? Or do you only want to see the positive reviews?

I should admit, I do read many blogs that my interests don’t match exactly, but they write interesting reviews and so I keep going back.

The Unwritten: Dead Man's Knock (Volume 3) by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

2011-08-16T05:00:00.000-06:00

Dead Man’s Knock is the third graphic novel in the Unwritten series. I have a weakness and can't help but pick up something written by Mike Carey since I loved the Felix Castor series. I picked up the first book in this series on a whim and found it to be a bit weird but interesting enough that I've kept reading them. Dead Man's Knock is just as weird as the previous book and more interesting since I'm now getting use to the character and how the story is set up.

Unwritten is about a fictional character, Tommy Taylor and the real person (within the story) that he is based on. The creator of the Tommy Taylor series is believed dead and yet a new volume is coming out. The real Tom Taylor must figure out how that is possible since he doesn’t think his father, the creator, has written anything new. In the process, Tom must figure out more about his past and accept the stories his father wrote him in.

These stories are weird and very distantly remind me a bit of a Harry Potter but for adults. Tommy Taylor is the boy wizard while Tom is the man who no longer wants to be associated with the boy wizard. This addition to the series may even feel like you are young again with the pick a story section. I admit, I groaned when I saw it and was thoroughly annoyed. I’m still annoyed, but it wasn’t really all the bad. I just don’t like the flipping back and forth any more. Features of that nature don’t add interest for me instead they annoy me.

This addition did have some really interesting revelations about the characters and an interesting plot line that I enjoyed. 4 Stars.

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Books in The Unwritten Series:

Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity
Inside Man
Dead Man's Knock

New Tricks by John Levitt

2011-08-15T05:00:00.003-06:00

Single sentence summary: One of Mason’s old flames has been the victim of an attempted possession that has left her catatonic and the only clue to what happened to her a green stone clutched in her hand.

I don't know what was wrong with this book or what was wrong with me but it took forever for me to really get into New Tricks (ok... so it wasn't forever but it took me more then a couple of days of reading 20 or 30 pages a day). I was just slow reading it to start but the moment I got into the book, I ended up speeding through the second half. It did take about half of the book before I really felt invested in the characters and the events going on.

Aside from it taking me so long to get into, I felt that the characters didn't develop much from the previous book. Mason still pines over old girlfriends and seems a bit clueless about the damage that can be done when he doesn't think through actions.

I did like how much Louie (Mason's ifrit that takes the shape of a small dog) and ifrits are involved in this book. I like how more questions are asked (and some of them addressed) about where ifrits come from and how they end up with certain magic practitioners. The very little that was presented in ifrits in the previous book left me with questions. They a magical companions to practitioners, they take different shapes and no one know why some practitioners get them and other do not.

The plot of this book I think is both the best and weakest thing about. There is so much going on that at times I had to flip back to skim and refresh myself on what was going on and who was who. I don’t know if it felt this way to other and it may just have been for me and when I was reading this book but the multiple side stories are the plot were a little distracting. The progress of the story, once I got into it kept me captivated and I wanted to keep reading more. I do think that the multiple side stories hurt the development of the character. They were too busy running from one event to the next that there was no time to grow.

I enjoyed this book but felt the characters really weren't given enough time to develop beyond the previous books since the plot was so convoluted. 3.5 Stars.

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If you’d like to find out more about New Tricks and the Dog Day’s novels, check out John Levitt’s website.

Books in the Dog Days series:

Dog Days
New Tricks
Unleashed (review upcoming)
Play Dead

Random Books from the Bookshelf

2011-08-14T12:45:00.002-06:00

Dark Time: Mortal Path by Dakota Banks

The first page reads:

1692

It was well after dark, time to set aside the herbs Susannah Layhem was sorting at the table. Time to blow out the candle and join her husband Nathan.

Nathan had worked since dawn, hard physical labor helping his younger brother build a home. The boy – Susannah couldn’t help thinking of Nathan’s younger brother George as a boy, even though he was a scant two years younger than her age of twenty – was getting married in a month. It made her smile to think about the couple moving in nearby and starting a family. If Patience, the bride, caught a baby soon after marriage, then she and Patience could raise their first children only a year apart. The two young women had already grown as close as sisters. Patience reminded her of the sister she’d lost years ago, in the rush of a flooded river. Susannah would be the experienced mother Patience looked to for guidance, and that would deepen their relationship further. If Patience could get out from under her mother’s broad and smothering wing, that is.

Interesting start. I thought this was some sort of paranormal book but the start doesn’t feel that way. I guess I’ll have to read it to figure it out.

Emissaries from the Dead by Adam-Troy Castro

The first page reads:

When the Monster sleeps, she dreams of Bocai.

Bocai had been an unremarkable world, of the usual unremarkable beauty. There had been deserts of towering red spinestalks, mountains lined with spongiform trees that remained tall and unyielding despite the softness of their bark, oceans that glowed with dancing phosphorescence at night, and a day and night approximately half the length of the normal human sleep cycle, allowing the human beings who had leased one small island from the natives two sunsets and two sunrises for every day they stood upon its generous fertile earth.

A beautiful world, yes, a remarkable beautiful world, no. Those who’d traveled to many all agreed that they’d seen better.

Not sure what this is about. It had an interesting cover and I was looking for science fiction books when I picked this up. I guess it takes getting past the first page to understand what this book is all about.

Carnival by Elizabeth Bear

The first page reads:

Michelangelo Osiris Leary Kusanagi-Jones had been drinking since fourteen hundred. He didn’t plan on stopping soon.

He occupied a bubbleport on the current observation deck of Kaiwo Maru, where he had been since he started drinking, watching a yellow main-sequence star grow. The sun had the look of a dancer swirling in veils, a Van Gogh starscape. Eons before, it had blundered into a cloud of interstellar gas and was still devouring the remains. Persistent tatters glowed orange and blue against a backdrop of stars, a vast, doomed display of color and light. Kusanagi-Jones could glimpse part of the clean-swept elliptical path that marked the orbit of New Amazonia: a dark streak like a worm tunnel in a leaf.

Breaktaking. Ridiculously named. And his destination. Or rather, their destination. Which was why he was drinking, and why he didn’t intend to stop.

Hmm, interesting start. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve been unimpressed with some of Elizabeth Bear’s books but I keep on hoping to find one that is just great. I plan to give this and Undertow both a try since I already own them. This sounds like a good start.

Deadline by Mira Grant

2011-08-11T07:15:00.000-06:00

Single sentence summary: The search is on to find out who is killing off reservoir conditions survivors and Shaun is going to find out who and make them pay even if it kills him.

I loved this first book in the Newsflesh trilogy Feed. It was an awesome read and had some interesting takes how humanity and the effects that the dead rising would have. This book has all of that. If anything, it presents greater possibilities on how the government would respond with a disease outbreak that it has caused. It was fascinating. Would the government step up quickly and take the blame or would they try to cover it up? I’m not sure…I don’t think I want to know the answer to that question first hand either.

The world created in Deadline is one where the government didn’t step up and now they are continuing to hide behind the CDC (Center for Disease Control). The presentation of the world would change is one of the interesting aspects of book. The characters are also part of what move this book along.

Shaun is once again a main character in this book and some interesting things start happening right close the beginning, which made this book pick up pace a little earlier than the previous book. I enjoyed the action and adventure as Shaun searches for answers to what the government is trying to hide and why.

Deadline was a great read and I highly recommend this series for any zombie lover. 4.5 Stars.

Warcry by Elizabeth Vaughan

2011-08-09T05:00:00.009-06:00

Single sentence summary: Unrest within Xy is going to cause problems and if Lara doesn’t figure out who is stirring people up, her baby may not have a future.

If you haven't read the Warprize series by Elizabeth Vaughan and you like fantasy romance, you're missing out. This has to be one of my favorite series and yet, I can't really say why except that I've fallen for the characters and the world. They are both engaging and sweet. I am always entertained throughout the entire novel. Warcry is the fourth book in this series that starts with Warprize.

Unlike previous books in the series, this book doesn’t focus on the relationship between Keir and Lara. Instead Heath and Ateira become the focus. Heath is a man of the city Xy and Ateira is a woman of the Plains. Keir and Lara still play a part in this book but the key to helping Lara figure out who is causing the unrest is through Heath’s cunning and acceptance.

Ateira is a woman who doesn’t want the city but is conflicted over what she wants with Heath. I though the internal conflict was interesting and annoying at the same time. I just wanted to shake her and tell her to make up her mind. She had her intriguing moments, like all the characters too, but that didn’t stop me from being slightly annoyed.

I thought the previous books were excellent and something about this one fell a little short of that for me. I think it is the wishy-washy sort of behavior with the main character. I wanted them to figure out what they wanted and then stick with it. The intrigue in the city was interesting and I admit, I missed having Keir play are bigger role in the book.

I enjoyed this but found it didn't completely engage me as the previous books had. 3.75 Stars.

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If you’d like to find out more about the world of Xy, check out Elizabeth Vaughan’s website.

The four “series” books based in Xy are:
Warprize
Warsworn
Warlord
Warcry

The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson

2011-08-08T05:00:00.007-06:00

Eve has had a whirlwind romance with Dom. An older man that isn’t too much older but has a mysterious past and an ex-wife he refuses to talk about. When they settle into country living in a dilapidated farm in France, the summer is idyllic. As the cool days of winter approaching, Eve’s questions how much she really knows about Dom. The stories of missing girls and the ideal hours have given Eve plenty of time to wonder about Dom’s history and the history behind all the random objects uncovered on the property. What is the story behind the old birdcage? What really happened to Dom’s wife?

This was a slow starter for me. I took me over 100 pages to really get into the story plus I it took me a while to adjust to the jumps in time. Some of the book focuses around Eve, but the other part focuses around Benedicte Lincel. The chapter would end and the next section would be about/from another character. That threw me off the first couple of times it happened because some sections were so vague I couldn’t figure out whose story it was. The writing didn’t change between characters so instead I had to try to pick up minor clues as names weren’t always used.

After adjusting the format of this story, I was enchanted. The writing is wonderful from the get go but once I could really settle into this novel, the story beautifully unfolded for me. The small intricacies between the two storylines were intriguing and I really liked Benedicte. Eve was a little harder for me to grow to line because she at times reads so…coldly. Her relationship with Dom was bewildering and at yet, it grew to fit the characters of the book.

The characters were only part of this book. The other part was the mystery, which takes a while to really get going. The second half of this book has interesting twists and turns as Eve works towards discovering it and secrets are revealed. I was captivated with how it would all work out and couldn’t put The Lantern down until the last page. I guessed a few things but it was still enjoyable to see how everything would be revealed and the part Benedicte would play.

I thought The Lantern was an excellent read with beautiful writing. 4.25 Stars!

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If you’d like to find out more about Deborah Lawrenson, please check out her website.

The Lantern is a stand-alone novel.

I received a copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program.

Random Books from the Bookshelf

2011-08-07T10:28:00.001-06:00

South of Salem by Janni Nell

The first page reads:

“Thank God you’re here.” Mom charged across the airport, ash-blond hair flying every which way, and hugged me in a death-grip that threatened to cut off my circulation. This was highly unusual behavior from a woman who prided herself on behaving with decorum at all times.

Clutching me to her breasts like the desperate heroine of a soap opera, she whispered, “Steven seems to be –“ she stopped abruptly as a group of tourists milled around us giving me time to reflect on the Steven in question.

My stepfather, Steven Richard Hampton, the thirty-second of the name, was a politician and pillar of the community. I tried and failed to imagine what he had done to send Mom rushing through the airport tossing aside her treasured principles of decorum and immaculate grooming like so many how-to-vote pamphlets after polling day.

Fundraising the Dead by Sheila Connolly

The first page reads:

The sight of Mary Terwilliger charging into my office with fire in her eyes was never a good thing, but it was particularly unwelcome right now, as I was trying to put the finishing touches on the grand gala planned for this evening. Tonight was a big event, a really big event, and I was in charge of making it happen. The venerable Pennsylvania Antiquarian Society in Philadelphia was celebrating its 125th anniversary as the guardian of the historic treasures of Philadelphia and the surrounding counties. We were expecting nearly two hundred people, which would set a new record for a Society event.

Our famed vaults housed at least two million books, documents, and ephemera, ranging from manuscript letters signed by William Penn and George Washington, to advertising flyers from late nineteenth-century hatters, to financial records for several of the long-defunct companies that had put Philadelphia on the map of the commercial and industrial world. And that’s not including our fair respectable collection of paintings, silver, clothing, and some truly weird artifacts (like a horse’s hoof made into an inkwell with silver fittings).

The Mysterious Lady Law by Robert Appelton

The first page reads:

“Huzzah! Huzzah!”

Horace Holly had nowhere to hide. He thumbed his lapels and bowed from the thousands of adoring spectators gathered outside Westminster Abbey. How many of the youngsters even knew who he was? Their fathers and grandfathers might recall, but years had passed since he’d last braved public scrutiny on such a scale. The queen’s New Year’s Honours ceremony was something he’d read about but never imagined he would be invited to – to receive a Knighthood, no less, for “many extraordinary discoveries in exotic lands and gallant dedication to the teaching of young scientists and future explorers.”

Holly chuckled. How squat and unsightly he must appear next to the younger sportsmen, the upstanding war veterans and the distinguished men of science preceding him through the great entrance. He’d never been much to look at – his enormous sideburns, grey concessions to middle age, probably didn’t help matters – but that hadn’t stopped him from enjoying a full, some would say amazing, life. How impressed his fellow honorees must be by all this pomp and majesty.