BevsBookBeat

End of Summer~~

2011-08-25T17:25:00.002-04:00

The sun and the moon, take turns in the sky

The days drift by too soon
The meadows are kissed by a cool autumn mist

And it looks like summer is over...

Dusty Springfield

Hard to believe that the summer flew by yet again, of course some of those hot humid days couldn’t pass quick enough for me.

One of my favorite things to do during the summer is-surprise! - read. Some of the wonderful books I read this summer were:

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. I liked it so much I read the rest of the trilogy, Catching Fire and Mockingjay, all in ten days. I know, it’s considered a young adult, it was great….I recommended it to several folks, of all ages, when they came back they raved about all three books too!

It’s always great to read and oldie but goodie, which we did for the mystery book discussion in July with Double Indemnity by James M. Cain. Many of us hadn’t read it, and I’m happy to say that a few of the group were going to read more of his mysteries.

Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand was a delight! Helen Simonson’s debut will make you smile and remind you that love happens no matter what. These books will leave it with a smile, a real gem.

Love You More by Lisa Gardner~~one of my favorite authors~~once again has us tagging along with Detective D. D. Warren as she tries to get the answers to did Tessa Leoni kill her abusive husband or did someone else? Where is Leoni’s six year old daughter who also disappeared?

Meet Joanna, Ingrid and Freya Beauchamp in Melissa de la Cruz’s magical, sexy tale of witches, Witches of East End, who aren’t just any witches, that haven't been allowed to use their powers since, well, almost forever! Paranormal at its best. Loved it, and can’t wait for the next one in the Beauchamp women series.

Speaking of paranormal, nothing like a visit to Jim Butcher’s detective wizard Harry Dresden in his latest, Ghost Story (#13). Harry’s been murdered and he’s in limbo where he still tries to save his friends and the Windy City from the bad guys...of all types. This is one series that just gets better and better.

Since I also like to eat, cookbooks are big for me during the summer. My favorite was Amy Finley’s How to Eat a Small Country: A Family's Pursuit of Happiness, One Meal at a Time. Findey was the third season of the Next Food Network Star… when her French husband was spending so much time cooking on TV and not at home, he wasn’t happy.. Amy walked away from it all, they move to France and well, read it and enjoy this book about love, food and family. (Some great recipes)

I’m always looking for new and interesting ways to cook vegetables, especially the local one. Barbara Scott-Goodman and Liz Trovato give some great ideas with their cookbook Eat Greens: Seasonal Recipes to Enjoy in Abundance. These are just a few of my summer reads that I enjoyed. What were some of yours?

Enjoy the last few weeks of summer~~

Happy Reading!

Reading~~A Vacation for the Mind!

2011-07-14T17:06:00.003-04:00

“Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.”

Mason Cooley

It’s the middle of summer! Time to get away, which is not always that easy, so remember this: a book can take you anywhere you want to go. Where would you like to go?

Think about it~~want to visit jolly old England? Pick up a book by Edward Rutherfurd, Phillippa Gregory, Sharon Kay Penman, Alison Weir, Bernard Cornwell, just to name just a few. What did it take to build a cathedral in England? Pick up the classic Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett. Fantasy and British history together…Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley; Jennifer Roberson will take you on a very merry romp with Robin Hood and Maid Marion in her wonderful novel Lady of the Forest.

Take a trip through America? How else would I know how Centennial, Colorado started from a speck of sand millions of years before it became a town? I learned more about geology from James Michener in Centennial then I did in school. Larry McMurty took me on a cattle drive from Texas to Montana in Lonesome Dove that I wouldn’t have gone on otherwise. How about going along with Lewis and Clark in Stephen E. Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage as they head west to the Pacific? Civil War? MacKinlay Cantor’s Andersonville will haunt you with what one human being can do to others. Michael Shaara wrote, for me anyway, one of THE best fiction books on Gettysburg, Killer Angels. Don’t forget Margaret Mitchell to check out that most southern of southern belles, Scarlet, in Gone With the Wind. Even if you have already read it, celebrate Gone With the Wind’s 75th anniversary and read it again!

What to tag along and help solve a mystery? Help find out who the real killer is? Find out what happens when things aren’t quite what they should be? Any of these authors will love to have you tag along… Lisa Gardener; Chelsea Cain; Ridley Pearson; Charles Todd; Cara Black; Dashell Hammett; Raymond Chandler; James Ellroy; Nancy Pickard; Donald Westlake; Julia Spencer-Fleming; Karin Slaughter. This is a few of the variety of mystery authors that will envelope you in some twists and turns to the end.

How about helping to stop terrorism around the world? These are a few of my favorites, Daniel Silva; John le Carre: Stella Rimington (Rimington was the first woman to head MI5) Helen MacInnes; Alex Berenson: Clyde Eagleton; Charles McCarry; Tom Clancy; Len Deighton~~check any of these out and go on a page turning ride that will make your adrenalin pump.

Do you love a good legal thriller with great courtroom scenes? I know I do. Pick up Steve Martini; John Grisham; Scott Turow; David Ellis; Phillip Margolin; John Mortimer; William Diehl…just some that make you feel that you are inside the courtroom, watching the characters and give great descriptions of their reactions.

Ah, romance. What would summer be without romance? Some great historical romance writers are~~Lisa Kleypas; Rosemary Rodger; Katherine Woodiwiss; Jude Deveraux; Mary Balogh; Beatrice Small, without whom I would never have know what a Kadin was... nor, ahem… what they did.

Little paranormal romance? You can’t beat Diana Gabaldon; Karen Marie Moning; Kresley Cole; Lynsay Sands; Sherrilyn Kenyon; J. W. Ward; Gena Showalter; Charlaine Harris; Christine Feehan….vampires, werewolves, witches, shape-shifters, time-travel, men in kilts…oh my! What more could you ask for!

Enjoy more modern day romance? Here you go…Nora Roberts; Jennifer Cruise; Susan Elizabeth Phillips; Jennifer Weiner; Nicholas Sparks; Elizabeth Lowell; Emily Griffin~~to name just a few.

Hopefully one of these authors will take you away.

There you go~~pick where you want to go and lose yourself for a wee bit. As Dr. Seuss said, "Oh! The place you'll go!"

Happy Reading!

My Summer Book Shelf

2011-05-26T16:39:00.000-04:00

Come on let's read again...like we did last summer
Yea, let's read again like we did last year~~
Do you remember when things were really hummin'
Yea, let's read again~~reading time is here!
(Shout out to Chubby Checker)

As far as I'm concerned, it's always reading time. With summer just around the corner, I have my stack of books ready to go....how about you?

Fallen by Karin Slaughter
A Covert Affair: Julia Child and Paul Child in the OSS by Jennet Conant
Portrait of a Spy by Daniel Silva (Gabriel Allon series)
Eve and Quinn~~both by Iris Johansen
Once Upon a Time, There Was You by Elizabeth Berg
Snowman by Jo Nesbo
In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris

Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

I also make sure to have several romance paperbacks around too, to grab and throw in my bag.

For the summer mystery book discussions~~

China Lake by Meg Gardiner~~June 21st at 4pm
Double Indemnity by James M. Cain~~July 19th at 4pm
The Alienist by Caleb Carr~~August 23rd at 4pm

I know for me, the mood I'm in dictates the book I feel like reading, so I make sure to have several different genres around to choose from. Mixing it up is always a good thing.

What are you planning to read this summer? Let me know.

Let the summer begin! Reading time is here~~~

Happy Reading!

We Cozied Up!

2011-05-11T12:17:00.000-04:00

"Reading is to the mind what exerise is to the body."
Richard Steele

I can't think of a better way to exercise my mind then reading a book....it's great to see how many are in agreement.

We finished up the Cozy Up With a Good Book winter book club at the end of April. It was terrific! We had 68 people sign up; 55 Reader's Cards were turned in; and everyone loved the reading as a great way to pass winter. The best part is when folks tell me they read
someone different, or tried a new genre~~
and discovered that they liked it!

The top books the club read this year were:

1) Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot *
2) Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
3) Night Fall by Nelson DeMille *
4) Pilot's Wife by Anita Shreve
5) How Green Ws My Valley by Richard Llewellyn *
6) Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult
7) Little Bee by Chris Cleave
8) Tin Roof Blowdown by James Lee Burke

9) Growing Up Laughing by Marlo Thomas

10) The Help by Kathryn Stockett

11) Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

12) Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
13) Half-Broke Horses by Jeanette Walls
14) Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly
15) Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane

*Denotes books from the winter book discussions

The authors read the most during the book club were:

1) Robert B. Parker

2) James Patterson

3) Stieg Larsson

4) Michael Connelly

5) C. J. Sansom
6) Mary Higgins Clark
7) Lisa Gardner
8) John Dunning
9) Nora Roberts
10) Paul Theroux

We celebrated May 3rd with a party where we discussed~~what else~~books we had read over the winter, gave out raffle prizes, congratulated our top readers, enjoyed refreshments, and looked forward to the summer book club.

Thank you for joining the book club~~and enjoying reading.

Happy Reading!

Top Ten Books for 2010

2011-04-12T17:07:00.068-04:00

"Reading gives us someplace to go
when we have to stay where we are."
Mason Cooley

I am always curious what the top books of the year are so I checked out several lists to see what were listed. Based on what books were on the lists, and what I have read over the year, here is my favorite top ten of 2010.

Top Ten Books of 2010~~~

Fiction~~

1) Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

2) Room by Emma Donoghue **

3) A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan***

4) The Help by Cathryn Stockett*

5) Faithful Place by Tana French***

6) Our Kind of Traitor by John Le Carre***

7) The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachmann*

8) The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall*

9) Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes***

10) Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson***

Non-Fiction~~

1) Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson

2) Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand**

3) Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain***

4) Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff*

5) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot***

6) The Last Boy: Mantle Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood by Jane Leavy**

7) Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

8) Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol I by Mark Twain*

9) Just Kids by Patti Smith

10) Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory by Ben Macintyre***

Mystery/Crime~~

1) Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane***

2) Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny***

3) Man from Beijing by Henning Mankill*

4) The Glass Rainbow by James Lee Burke***

5) The Devil’s Star by Jo Nesbo***

6) Midnight House by Alex Berenson***

7) The Red Door by Charles Todd*

8) Stieg Larsson Trilogy:
A) The Girl With Tattoo**
B) The Girl Who Played With Fire**

C) The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest*

9) Still Missing by Chevy Stevens*

10) The Scent of Rain and Lightening by Nancy Pickard***

Romance/Paranormal Romance~~

1) Married by Morning by Lisa Kleypas

2) Safe Haven by Nicholas Sparks

3) Summer Hideaway by Susan Wiggs**

4) Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie**

5) Happily Ever After by Nora Roberts

6) Pleasure of a Dark Prince by Kresley Cole***

7) Lover Mine: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood by J. R. Ward

8) Shadowfever (Fever Series #5) by Karen Marie Moning***

9) Dead in the Family (Sookie Stackhouse series #10) by Charlaine Harris***

10) The Darkest Passion by Gena Showalter***

The ones I read have an ***; I put a * by the ones that I want to read; and the ones I am not sure about, I put nothing.

I must say, I surprised myself with my taste for romance...I never realized how much I seem to enjoy the paranormal. Hey, a walk on the wild side every so often is never a bad thing...

Any of these on your top ten list for 2010? Which ones have you read? Do you agree with the books on the top ten? Which ones would you read?

Happy Reading!

Happiness is a Warm Book~~~~

2011-03-23T15:11:00.013-04:00

The worth of a book is to be measured by what you can carry away from it~~
James Bryce

Being a Reader's Advisor, one of the questions I get asked quite a bit is: “What is the best book you’ve ever read?” That’s a tough question since there isn't just one best book. As you can guess, I do a lot of reading. Some folks like me to narrow it down to fiction or nonfiction, which means I have to remember which books were one or the other? With so many non-fiction books written to read as fiction, I have to check my notes. Giving this some thought, there are some of the books that would be at the top of my “best books” list for now~~I'm sure with some of them I will repeat myself, so my apologies.

Favorite fiction books:
Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada Written in 1947, discovered and published in 2009, it is one of the first novels to be anti-Nazi written after WW ll and shows that there were some Germans who did resist the Nazis. While this book is fiction, it is based on a real event. We share the heartbreak of a couple whose only son had been forced to fight for the Nazis and was killed. They attempt, in their own sad way, to show others the truth about Hitler and the Nazis. There is only one way this book will end, and even though you do, you hope you’re wrong. When I finished this book, I sat and thought about it for some time.

Alienist by Caleb Carr Teddy Roosevelt is the police commissioner of New York City in 1896, Dr. Laszlo Kreizler is his “alienist,” and they are trying to solve some rather gruesome murders on the lower East Side. Told through the voice of New York Times crime reporter John Moore, who followed them as they investigated the murders, new procedures, fingerprinting and psychology, are just being used for the first time~~this is a page-turner that proved my point, you have to read the first 100 pages before you give up on the book. I had to convince several patrons to keep going and they would be happy they did. (Nice when they came back and agreed with me.)

Gunman’s Rhapsody by Robert B. Parker While Parker was known for his Spenser and mystery books, he was never afraid to step out of his genre. For me, this is one of the best westerns I have read about Wyatt Earp, maybe one of the best westerns I've read. Parker keeps his sparse dialog, but he also shows us a Wyatt Earp that fits 1879 Tombstone, AZ. The friendship between Earp and Doc Holiday, the bond between the Earp brothers, Earp’s relationship with Josie Marcus and what led to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral~~in this small, slim book, nobody has done it better.

Sunne in Splendour by Sharon Kay Penman English historical fiction at it’s best. Was Richard III a monster or has he just been misjudged all these years? Did Shakespeare do him an injustice in his play? What really happened to the two little princes? I loved this kind of book, what’s not to love! Political intrigue, power struggles, complicated love relationships, mystery, death, backstabbing! This is one of the best historical novels I have read, more then once. If you enjoy this genre, here is one of the best.

Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini I blogged about it a few years ago, we also had one of our best book discussions about it. This is a book that will haunt you, especially because of what’s going on in Afghanistan today. Here is the history of that country before the invasion by the Russians and explains how the Taliban took over, and gives us an idea of why we are where we are today. Sometimes, events that occur in the past can come back to haunt you.

Hello, Darkness by Sandra Brown I love when an author steps out of their comfort genre. Brown is known for her romance novels, but with this one she has one heck of a thriller. Paris Gibson is a late night radio host who gives advice about love. When she advises one caller to break up with her boyfriend, this doesn't’t set too well with the boyfriend and Paris starts getting threatening phone calls. This is a page turner that will keep you reading until the end. Let’s just say that if this book made the hairs on the back of Stephen King’s neck stand up~~~

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen I didn’t want this book to end, so this is one I have read again. I wanted to stay with Jacob Jankowski, the circus and his lovely Marlena. Gruen does a marvelous job of taking the reader back and forth in time; from the present day back to the beginning of the Great Depression. This book had it all, friendship, humor, violence, murder and a great love story. You’ll be glad you read it, but sorry when you get to the last page.

Best fiction I read this year was Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes
While fiction. Marlantes writes what he lived in Vietnam. Some feel Vietnam should be kept in the past, Marlantes reminds us why it never will nor can be. More realtisic then most I've read, and still leaves you with the question of "why?"
Thanks to my friend, le0pard13, I am reading The 13st Valley by John M. Del Vecchio...another one than lingers long after you've put it down.

Favorite Non-Fiction

Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan
The lemon tree is in the back yard of the home of Dalia, a Jew. The tree had been planted by the father of Bashir, a Palestine, whose family had owned the house before they were forced to move when Israel was granted its independence. These two meet when Bashir comes back to his home, after the Six-Day War, curious to see what it looks like. The two share how their lives have been since 1948, and the comparison causes struggles within both of them. This book is fascinating in the history of Palestine and Israel; how the USA, England and Soviet Union decided the fate of other countries. There was so much I didn’t know, things I never realized and this book has made me rethink some of my feelings about the Middle East. This is #1 on my list of all the non-fiction books I have read.

Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton and Me by Patti Boyd
Okay, I confess, the title grabbed me....and I wanted the "Me" to be me. When I heard Patti Boyd was coming out with her memoir, I early ordered it. This was the woman who had married my two favorite rockers and I wanted to know all about it. I simply loved it. Boyd had a fascinating life before she became Harrison's girlfriend and wife; but her life with both Harrison and Clapton was a roller coaster ride. Let's face it, two of the greatest love songs ever written, Something and Wonderful Tonight, were written about her. Don't expect to find any finger pointing or blame placing here, Boyd tells her story with wit, humor and love. While Boyd lived the life I dreamed of as a (very) young girl, I'm glad I didn't~~

Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story by Richard Preston This was a terrifying read. Not just because a lethal African virus, Ebola, made it into America via imported monkeys, but how far the government went to keep it secret from the American public. Preston tags along with a SWAT team as they enter the "hot zone" to try and contain this deadly virus before more people die. Mind you, the "hot zone" was right next to a pre-school and in order not to throw panic into people, life when on as normal for those that didn't know the Ebola virus was right outside their window. Be warned, there are gruesome descriptions of the virus effect on people and the horror of how they die. This was a chilling page turner...I read it in one sitting. Coincidentally, around this time my kid asked me if we could get a pet monkey~~~
I had to keep reminding yourself that this really happened...and our government had knowledge of it and the role they played in the happenings.

Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of U.S. Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan by Doug Stanton
Great account of a band of Special Forces soldiers who secretly entered Afghanistan to fight the Taliban after 9/11. Stanton gives us a terrific insight into of how 350 American soldiers, 100 CIA officers and 15,000 Northern Alliance fighters took on 50,000 plus Taliban. Humorous and horrible at the same time, and will leave you with the question~~would things in Afghanistan been different if our government had paid more attention?

These three books make me smile when I remember reading them:

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle

What happens when you move into a 200 year farmhouse in a foreign country~~of which you don’t speak the language? Spend a year with Brit Mayle, his wife, two dogs as they attempt to live a Provencal life, get to know their neighbors and learn to cook the French way. Witty, full of humor, recipes….this will make you wish you could do it.

Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck

Delightful tale of Steinbeck and his French poodle, Charley, as they travel from Maine to California. Steinbeck shares his insight with the people he meets, even some of the bumps along the way, and his joy of seeing America. This is another one that will make you laugh out loud. While written over forty years ago, and you will get great joy out of Steinbeck’s travels and wish you were along.

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson
This is still one of the funniest book I have ever read. I had tears rolling down my cheeks from laughing so hard. Bryson trek down the AP with his friend, Stephan Katz, is a wonderful reminder of how beautiful our country is. Bryson and Katz meet some amazing characters and have some hilarious adventures. A great book to read when you want a good laugh, I have read this several times when I need a boost.

The best non-fiction I read this year was The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.

This is a list of some of my all time favorite books. Many I have read more then once, and I own all of these, when I see them on my book shelf, they make me smile and I look forward to reading them again.

****My list is always subject to change

Happy Reading!

Females ARE Deadlier than the Male~~~~

2011-03-07T16:27:00.023-05:00

"Book lovers never go
to bed alone...."

Anonymous

Read one of these ladies and you might not want to go to bed at all. The reaction I get when I recommend a woman thriller writer is almost comical. I have had men look at me as if I've lost my mind when I suggest one, and women will even do a little hem and haw~~~mainly because they don't believe that a woman can write a tough, noir potboiler as well (in some cases better) than a man.....or that a female can be deadlier than the male. Not only did I pick women thriller authors, but I wanted the main character to be a woman too. Meet some women whose ruthless streak can surprise even themselves when it appears. Here are a few of my favorite ladies that I suggest to folks and I love when they come back, tell me how much they enjoyed her and grab another book by the same author.

Chelsea Cain~~Besides being one of the top thriller writers of the genre, Cain introduces one of most brutal serial killers you'll meet, Gretchen Lowell. Set in Portland, Oregon, the weather~~rainy, grey and damp~~gives the series that grey, norish feeling. Great characters, besides Lowell. Portland detective, Archie Sheridan, and reporter, Susan Ward. The connection between Sheridan and Lowell will give you pause, especially when you realize what brings them together. The series will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Pick up the entire series so you can keep going:

Heartsick

Sweetheart

Evil at Heart
The Night Season ( her newest one)

Vicki Hendricks~~This is one author that grabs you by page one and you hold on until the last page. Hang on for a ride that will leave you breathless. Set in Florida, in Hendricks first book, Cruel Poetry, we first meet happy hooker Renata (Rennie) and her pet python....and some men who feel the need to save her. This is trailer-trash noir at it's best..the hot sun, beach, kooky characters, sex, humor and of course~murder. Even keeping the air conditioner on while reading you will still break out in a sweat. As Ken Bruen fittingly said "...(Hendricks) you write like a demented banshee!" ***Warning~~Hendricks books can be considered on the, um, risque side.

Zoe Sharp~~Sharp hit the big time in 2001 with Killer Instinct. You may have heard of her co-author, Lee Child?Meet Charlotte (Charlie) Fox, Sharpe's all action, macho, tough talking "heroine," who was in the Special Forces until they kicked her out. During the early books, Charlie Fox drifts through doing odd jobs, then everything kicks into gear when she meets up with her old military instructor, Sean Meyer~~who she holds a grudge against. Charlie finds out how much her military training comes in handy when she goes to work for Meyer as a bodyguard for hire. Fox is amazed at herself when she finds out how violent and cold blooded she can be, but most frightening of all is how far she will go to do her job. I like Fox; she's strong, compassionate and adheres to her principles. Good series that opens up the characters with each new book.

Charlie Fox series:
Killer Instinct

Riot Act

Hard Knocks

First Drop

Road Kill

Second Shot
Third Strike
Fourth Day
Fifth Victim (her newest one)

Lisa Unger~~ If you scrape away the layers of a family, what do you find? While Unger has a recurring character in a few of her books, Ridley Jones, most of her books are stand alone.She does keep you turning the pages with the twists, turns and surprises that are uncovered. I love Unger's development of her characters and that once the book takes off, it is fast paced action at it's best.
Ridley Jones books:
Beautiful Lies
Sliver of Truth
**I highly recommend Fragile~~loved it!

Christa Faust~Love pulp fiction? Here is one of the best. Faust gives us tough talking, a**kicking Angel Dare, who will "gobsmack" you as soon as look at you. Angel is a former porn star, who we first meet in Money Shot, where she takes on the sex slave trade and ends up in the Witness Protection Program...of course a lot goes on in between. Angel's next book is Choke Hold, coming out in October....and I can't wait! Faust is the first women author in the history of Hard Case Crime! That alone should make you run out and pick a copy of her books. Be careful not to pick up her other genres~~not that they aren't worth reading, but they aren't thrillers (**Remember my warning about Vicki Hendricks? She's mild compared to Faust. I doubt I could put her book covers up on this blog)

Lisa Gardner~~Gardner has two series with strong women as lead characters. FBI profiler Kimberly Quincy and Police Detective D.D. Warren. Both series are terrific...and disturbing, but I love them.
The D.D. Warren series:
Alone
Hide
The Neighbor
Live to Tell
Love you More (her latest in the series)

FBI Profiler series with Kimberly Quincy:
Gone
Killing Hour
Say Goodbye

Look at those faces? Do they look like the face of someone who can write about grisly, bloody murders? A pedophile that loves spiders so much he has eight eyes tattooed all around his head? Entire families murdered on the anniversary of a family killing from years ago? Police detectives who forge a strange bond with a serial killer? Ah yes~~and when the past comes back to bite, is anything what it once seemed? Good stuff.

There you have it, a few of my favorite women thrillers writers with great women characters. You can't go wrong with any of them. When I get to the part of the book where our leading lady is about to go head to head with the bad guy, or woman, I get an earworm of Pat Benatar singing "Hit me with your best shot...fire away!" I just start to chuckle because they have no idea what they are up against.

I'd love to know what you think of my choice of ladies....and what yours are.

Happy Reading!

Love is in the Air!

2011-02-12T12:19:00.001-05:00

Love is in the air

In the whisper of the trees

Love is in the air

In the thunder of the seas....

John Paul Young

Ah, love. Love seems to be all around. Valentine's Day seems to bring out the romantic side in everyone, especially with a romance novel.

I asked several folks "What's your favorite romance novel?" I won't even begin to go into what the men said, let's just say romance seems not to be their reading forte.

Here are just a few of my favorite romances to cozy up with~~~

Julie and Romeo by Jeanne Ray

Laugh out loud funny. Long time family feud comes to a head when rival florists fall in love. Seems even in your sixties families try and tell you how to live your life and what you should and shouldn't do~~with hilarious results. Great reminder that love (and sex) have no age limits.

The Wolf and the Dove by Kathleen Woodiwiss

Terrific tale of war, love and conquest of England during the Dark Ages between a Saxon princess and a Normans. warrior. This is a good one to lose yourself in, it has it all: a little history, fantasy and romance.

**Another good one by Woodiwiss, The Flame and the Flower~~Historical romance set in the early American colonies.

Nicholas Sparks seems to have become the most prolific romance writer of the last decade. It was hard to narrow it down but here are some that are recommended;

**When you read Sparks, keep tissues handy.

A Walk to Remember

It's 1958 in Beaufort, North Carolina. When Landon, one of the most popular boys in school gets involved with Jamie, the nicest girl in school. Everybody wonders why, including Landon. Falling in love doesn't need reasons, nor does it need an age. It happens.

Nights in Rodanthe

When you get a second chance at love, do you take it? Or do you run away from it, afraid you might get hurt? Paul and Adrienne come together in Rodanthe, North Carolina, during a hurricane, and share a lifetime in one weekend that sets in motion feelings....I always like a book that proves love can happen anytime in life. (Besides, the movie has Richard Gere in it~~)

The Notebook

This book begins in 1932, it's set in New Bern, North Carolina. Allie and Noah spend a wonderful summer together even though they come from different "caste" systems of the South. Fourteen years later, when Noah returns from WWII, they meet again. Does time heal all wounds? Being older, are they wiser?

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

I will admit to this being one of my personal favorites. Classic tale of love, rousing adventure, fantasy and full of laugh out loud humor. This was made into one of my all time favorite movies. Treat yourself to this delightful book and the movie, laugh out loud and enjoy a true romance.

Lady of the Forest by Jennifer Roberson

It's 12th-century England, Lady Marion and Robin Hood meet, and as they say, the rest is history. The gang's all here, Friar Tuck, Alan a'Dale, Will Scarlet and Little John, along with wicked Prince John and his band of slimy men. Falling in love and sword fights just don't get any better. Roberson writes some of the best romantic historical fiction.

The Last Valentine by James Michael Pratt

Caroline Thomas husband left February 14, 1944 from Union Station, Los Angeles to head for the Pacific. He never returned, he was listed as MIA....yet Caroline returns to Union Station every year on their anniversary, until she finally gets closure..... and her last Valentine. (This was recently a TV movie starring Betty White...who was wonderful in it!)

Here are some other romance authors to check out.....

Paranormal romance?

Karen Marie Moning~~ Highlander series

Lyndsey Sands~~ Argeneau series

Christine Feehan~~Dark Prince series

Diana Gabaldon~~Outlander series

Charlaine Harris~~Sooki Stackhouse series

Modern Day?

Jennifer Cruise
Richard Paul Evans

Jennifer Weiner

Carly Phillips

Nora Roberts

Sandra Brown

Marion Keys

Anne River Siddons

Janet Evanovich

Kathleen Eagle

Diane Mott Davidson

Historical Romance?

Johanna Lindsey

Eugenia Price

Rosalind Laker

Philippa Gregory

Beatrice Small

Sharon Kay Penman

I say, lose yourself in a little romance with any one of these books or authors~~I know a man in a kilt sends me.

Wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day !

Happy Reading!

Something Tells Me I'm Into Something Good~~

2011-01-05T11:30:00.011-05:00

"Something tells me I'm into something good~~
Something good...."

Herman's Hermits

That something good I'm into would be a book...and here are some that I was glad to dive into~~

The Thin Man by Dashell Hammett. (1934)

I had read this years ago, and thought it would be fun to do for book discussion. We had a great time. Of course, I warned everyone don't try and keep up with the characters and their cocktails. One of the things we talked about was how Hammett put together a great mystery with great characters and snappy banter in just two hundred pages. We also talked about Hammett's writing style, attention to detail, and how he carried his plot compared to some of today's top mystery writers; (no names) and surprisingly, not many compared that well. This book, written in 1934, was a big hit with everyone. If you haven't read this, come on ~~meet Nick and Nora Charles and their little dog Asta....who is spoiled rotten.

**This was the only Thin Man book Hammett wrote, there was never a sequel.

True Grit by Charles Portis (1968)
When I heard that they were remaking this movie, it struck me~~I had not read this book! It was wonderful. Yes yes it's a western, there is blood and gore, but it is also full of humor and friendship. In eighteen seventy -something, fourteen year old Mattie Ross tells us how she sets out after the men who killed her Daddy.
**Loved the movie and this is a terrific book!

Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane (2010)

I always love to catch up with old friends, and I was delighted to visit with Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro~~even if it may be the last time. Since the last time we hooked up, Kenzie and Gennaro are married with a four year old daughter, but still in the private detective business. We revisit some of the characters from Gone, Baby, Gone...hard to find someone who does the back side of Boston like Lehane.

It's a Book by Lane Smith (2010)

Not a book for young kids~~even though it looks like one. I gave this to several folks for Christmas and they loved it. Whether you are a techie or yearn for the simpler days, this is a great little book.

South of Broad by Pat Conroy (2009)
One of my favorite authors..... Pat Conroy came out with a book after a long absence of fourteen years. He takes us once again to his beloved Charleston and we lose ourselves in his group of characters. We follow them for twenty years, from the 1960's through the beginning of the 1980's. Through the good times, breakdowns~~revisit the racism and the effects on folks who are viewed as a different "class" in society. I love a good book about the South, and I enjoy how Pat Conroy writes. I hope he doesn't wait to long for the next one.

Matterhorn: A Novel of Vietnam by Karl Marlantes (2010)
There have been several novels of Vietnam, some of the best, in my opinion, are: Tears of Autumn by Charles McCarry; The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam; The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien; We Were Soldiers Once...and Young by Lt. Gen. Harold G. Moore and Joseph L. Galloway; A Bright Shining Lie:John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam by Neil Sheehan....I add Matterhorn to that list. Vietnam was my era, my Dad did two tours there and some of the boys I went to school with are no longer here, so I always feel a connection~~whether that makes sense or not. While some may ask 'What more is there to say about Vietnam?' this books shows that there will always be more to be said. The reminders of the horrors of war and what it does to people and countries should never be forgotten~~and Marlantes, in his first novel, gives us his first hand account of his experience during his tour there.

Some authors I was very happy to discover, heartily recommend and write a great series:

Lisa Gardener and her Detective D.D. Warren series. Can't believe I had never read her before! I picked up Say Goodbye at a yard sale and was hooked. Creepy, disturbing and page- turners, while you may sit back and go "huh?" sometimes, Gardener ties up all the loose ends by the end and you end up with a satisfying read

Andrea Camilleri. Meet Inspector Montalbano. He has the good luck to live in Sicily, enjoy good food, have a sense of humor that serves him well while he is investigating murder. He has a style that will make you smile as you read, sorry when you're done and so glad you have another one to pick up. A fun, enjoyable series!

Donna Leon. Yes, murder abounds, but it takes place in Venice...where we get to tour beautiful Venice and its surroundings while the murder is being solved. How bad that can be? Once again we are treated to a delightful European detective,Commissario Guido Brunetti, who enjoys good food, good music, loves his wife and has a conscience when it comes to what's the right thing to do, and what isn't. Delightful series.

Nemesis by Jo Nesbo (2009)
While Steig Larrson trilogy of books were the big hit this year. I liked Nesbo better. Set in Norway, Detective Harry Hole is relentless and plodding in solving the robbery and murder that occurred in a bank. Complex, multi- layered and several different plots that somehow end up all tied together. By the way, just who is setting Hole up as the prime suspect in some of the goings on? Great series.

Revisiting with a real oldie but goodie~~Ellis Peters and her Brother Cadfiel series. I had forgotten how well written these were and that there's nothing like a visit to good old England in the mid 1100's.

**Reminder to self, read more historical novels this year.

A Bad Day for Sorry by Sophie Littlefield (2009)

I have been wanting to read this and I finally got around to it!
In her debut, Littlefield introduces us to one of the most interesting characters I've come across in awhile. Meet Stella Hardesty; a widow in her fifties, feisty, sassy, hard nosed, tough as nails, full of humor...and can she kick butt! Stella does not stand for cheating husbands, abusive boyfriends or husbands~~which will explain why she is a widow. She will help any woman who is stuck in that situation, or needs help and heaven help who she is after. I had some laugh out loud fun with this one and am starting on the next.

I was into something good with any and all of these books...

Happy 2011 and Happy Reading!

Give a Book!

2010-12-15T15:06:00.308-05:00

"Do give books for Christmas.

They're never fattening,

seldom sinful,
and permanently personal."
Lenore Hershey

Is there any better gift to give then a book? I know when I receive one I am elated. That someone took the time to think of me, to choose a book that they thought I would enjoy curling up with~~I can't think of a more generous gift.

Here are some favorites I enjoyed this year, and hopefully one will make you go "aha! I know just who love this!"

Cleopatra: A Life

Stacy Schiff

Schiff introduces us to a Cleopatra who history has not been kind to. This Cleopatra is full of warmth and humanity; smart, witty, ambitious and very proud and fond of her children. This is not the Cleopatra we are used to~~great descriptions of Egypt during 30 BC, which I found fasinating. This was fun, interesting and an enlightening book to read.

Life

Keith Richard with James Fox

The simply amazing thing about this biography is that Richards remembers anything at all~~much less that he is still alive to tell it. What a wild ride this man and his friends had! For those of us who grew up with the Rolling Stones this is a great insight about them from Richards viewpoint; the ups, downs, good, bad and the ugly. Richards leaves nothing out, and he gives us a book that is very profane, full of dark humor~~and strangely, charming. He proves he's not the walking dead after all~~

Room

Emma Donogue

You won't want to put this book down. A Mom and her five-year old son, Jack, live in a Room. The Room is a soundproof, converted shed behind a house owned by Old Nick, who had kidnapped and kept Jack's mother captive for years~~where Jack was born and is the only world Jack has ever known. Talk about the resilience of the human spirit, here Donogue shows amazing it can be.

Medium Raw

Anthony Bourdain

Nobody does food-porn better then Bourdain. Here he once again will have you laugh, blush and yet, still want to go out to a restaurant to eat. Brash, profane, spicy~~who knew that there were secret gatherings of top chefs that can be compared to mafia summits? Bourdain gives us a view inside the food industry, restaurants and chefs like nobody else...and doesn't cut slack for anybody, no matter how famous a chef they are.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption

Laura Hillenbrand

Meet Louis Zamperini, juvinile delinquent, trouble maker, teenage punk; Zamperini took his anger and rage and devoted it to running, where he discovered he had a talent for it. He competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a runner and did very well in the four-minute mile. He joined the Air Force when the war came, survived his plane crashing into the Pacific Ocean, only to picked up by the Japanese where he became a prisoner in one of the most horrific POW camps the Japanese ran during the war. Hillenbrand gives a true testament to what the human spirit can endure, and to Zamperini, who survived to share his story. Powerful story of survival, keeping your dignity, and living beyond what you've lived through.

I Still Dream About You

Fannie Flagg

What can I say? Fannie Flagg has had a place in my heart since Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. This is a gem, full of Southern charm, wisdom, love and look at that! A murder thrown into it that threatens secrets that members of the town would rather let lie. Delightful little heart-tugger that will make you smile while you read it.

Moonlight Mile

Dennis Lehane

Since I first met Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro in A Drink Before the War, they became my favorite PI couple. I was sad to hear that this is the last time we would get to hang around with them~~but at least it's a good send off. There are six books in this series, I will say that you have to read Gone, Baby, Gone before you read Moonlight Mile. It gives you the background of why everyone is where they are in Moonlight Mile. Gritty, hard-boiled noir with interesting secondary characters~~great series, terrific book.

I'd Know You Anywhere

Laura Lippman

Eliza Benedict was fifteen years old when Walter Bowman kidnapped her and held her captive for six weeks. He also kidnapped another girl, who he killed. Eliza is now 38, married with two children. Bowman, in jail for killing and raping his latest victim contacts her. Memories come flooding back as well as questions: What does he want? What does he want from her? Why is he so insistent she contact him?

This is one of Lippman best psychological thrillers so far and will keep you on the edge of your seat

A Journey: My Political Life

Tony Blair

I liked this biography by Blair. He tells us about his rise to power as head of the New Labour party in a landslide victory. What interested me the most was his view, and opinion, on the Iraqi War, and I wasn't disappointed. Blair proves himself to be savvy, charming and has quite the sense of humor.

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Rebecca Sklott

***Please read previous blog about this book. It was the best book I read this year.

It's a Book

Lane Smith

Love this book and this is the book I am giving to those who will appreciate what it means. While this may look like a book for kids, it's definilty not for young kids, but a good gift for most ages. It's a delight to read: a digital techie donkey vs the literary gorilla. For me, a reminder that there is nothing like a book.

There you go! My very strong, and varied, suggestions of great books to give to the readers in your life.

May your days be merry and bright, your Christmas and New Year's be full of joy and peace.

Happy Reading!

Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

2010-12-07T12:55:00.003-05:00

Whenever science makes a discovery,
the devil grabs it while the angels are debating the best way to use it.
Alan Valentine

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
by Rebecca Skloot

This is a fascinating account of how one woman became one of the most important people in the world and would never know it. Insight into science, medicine, racism, poverty, cancer and how things were in 1951 all come together is this eyeopener of a book.

Henrietta Lacks, unknowingly, was the mother of the HeLa cells. These were the only human cells to live and reproduce outside of the body. If you could pile all Henrietta's cells and weigh them, they would weigh over 50 million metric tons. Thanks to the HeLa cells, we came to have the polio vaccine, uncovered secrets about cancer, help for a cure for HIV and AIDS. They advanced sciece with invitro- fertilization, cloning, gene mapping and effects of the fall-out from the atomic bomb. HeLa cells went into space on one of the first space flights to see how human cells reacted in space. All these amazing miracles from one woman who died in 1951 of cervical cancer in John Hopkins Hospital.

One of the things that science and doctors were trying to do during this era was reproduce human cells to do research on, and until Henrietta, this had never happened. Healthy cells and cancerous cells were removed from Henrietta before her surgery, without her knowledge, and sent out to see if they would live outside the body. Henrietta was not the first to have cells removed and sent out to see if they lived and reproduced outside the body, it was something done on other patients, but hers were different. Doctors were astounded to find that Henrietta cells not only lived, but reproduced at an amazing rate. You can imagine the excitement with this discovery.

Skloot does a wonderful job of putting a face on the woman behind the cells. The background on Henrietta Lacks isn't always happy; a poor, young black woman who worked on the family tobacco farm, raised in a house full of relatives after her mother died; she had five children of her own before she was 32. This didn't stop Henrietta from going out and dancing with her cousin Sophie at the local jazz place. Henrietta knew something was wrong with her, Henrietta went to John Hopkins Hospital several times before they discovered her cervical cancer. The treatment for women with cervical cancer will make your mouth hang open, but again, it was 1951 and this was how it was treated.

So begins the story of the wondrous and amazing things that the world has this woman to thank for.

While the HeLa cells became a multi-million dollar business, Henrietta's family was unaware of this. While the name of the originator of the HeLa cells was well known among the medical and scientific community~~doctors even went back to the family to take more blood tests to see if they had cells that reproduced also, telling the family they were testing to make sure they didn't have cancer like the one that killed their mother.

The HeLa cells became a multi-million dollar business for some, a medical marvel for doctors and a scientific bonanza for research, the Lacks family had no knowledge of any of this.

It took Skloot time and patience to earn the trust of the Lacks family. Other reporters had come around and it hadn't gone well. The family was wary of what Skloot would get out of writing a book about Henrietta, they had no idea what was accomplished from Henrietta cells. While some of the family wanted monetary reimbursement for the selling of her cells, they also wanted recognition for Henrietta from the medical and scientific fields.

I had to keep reminding myself that this happened in Baltimore, not the deep South. The Lacks family was alarmed to find that Henrietta's cells were still alive and reproducing. They envisioned that there were clones of Henrietta walking around England; that her cells were used to make half-human half-animal creatures; did it hurt when they injected viruses into her cells to infect them to see how they would react. Most of all, if Henrietta was so important to medicine and science, how come her children couldn't afford health insurance?

This is a non-fiction that reads like fiction~~I read it in three days because I couldn't put it down. I stayed up until 2 in the morning reading it. It was the most fascinating book I have read in a long time and the best book I read this year. This book is so rich in information about science, medicine, and how one person can unknowingly change the world. Skoolt takes no sides on who was right and who was wrong with what transpired. Was it ethically right what was done to Henrietta Lacks? Was it morally right what the family went though?

For me, I cannot recommend this book highly enough. Put it on your to read list, you will be so glad you did.

Happy Reading!

It's A Book - By Lane Smith

2010-10-26T11:31:00.001-04:00

Don't Fear the Reaper

2010-10-21T15:40:00.012-04:00

All our times have come

Here but now they're gone

Seasons don't fear the reaper

Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain...

we can be like they are

Halloween~~the time of year where some people like to scare the wits out of themselves to ensure they are ready to celebrate with the true spirit of the night....and yes, I am one of those people. There's nothing like locking the doors, windows, I don't close the blinds because if something is going to come get me~~I want to see it or them.

In no particular order, here is a list of some my favorites scary/creepy books made into a movie or TV mini-series.

Come on baby...don't fear the reaper
We'll be able to fly...

Invasion of the Body Snatchers ( 1956) Based on the book by Jack Finney's, The Body Snatchers.

When some of Dr. Miles Bennell patients start telling him that their family members just aren't the same, he and his psychiatrist buddy blame it on epidemic paranoia. By the time Bennell realizes there is more going on then he thought~~like finding a decomposing body turning into dust with a giant pod next to it becoming the copy of the body~~there are only a handful of normal people left. The tension builds slowly, and the enemy isn't a alien you can see, they look just like your friends and loved one. The big problem is trying to stay awake because the Pod People take over the body while you are sleeping, even if you just doze off. When some of his friends are caught and made to sleep, they become Pod People, Bennell ends up running down a major highway trying to spread the word yelling...."They're here already! You're next! You're next!" while starring into the camera.... Does anybody listen? Will the Pod People take over? What are those trucks rolling down the highway filled with?

This is on the list of the best science fiction movies ever. Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter starred in it~~It is a classic, and they did a great job with Finney's book. (The original!)

We can be like they are
Come on baby....don't fear the reaper
Baby take my hand...don't fear the reaper
We'll be able to fly....

Burnt Offerings (1976) based on the book Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco

Does it get any better then leaving Queens NY and heading out to mansion-sit for the summer on Long Island? In the book the Rolf family, Marian, Ben, son David and aging Aunt Elizabeth do, but in the movie they go from a city in California to a mansion in the California countryside. Besides taking care of the mansion, they are instructed to take care of the reclusive mother that lives upstairs. Just leave the food outside the door, don't try and interact with her. Strange things begin to happen, death, depression, accidents~~and every time there is an accident or someone dies or gets hurt, the house rejuvenates, flowers bloom, woodwork shines and the pool gets cleaner. When the family begins to realize somethings not right and try to get away, trees fall into the road, the car doesn't start or some other inconvenience occurs. Goose bumps as we come to the end of the book and the movie. Is that really the wind rattling the windows? Karen Black, Oliver Reed and Bette Davis starred in it.

Love of two is one
Here but now they're gone
Came the last night of sadness
And it clear she couldn't go on

The Haunting (1963) based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

(again, watch the original, not the 1999 version)

Dr. Markway wants to find scientific evidence of the paranormal, so he invites three people, Eleanor, Theodora and Luke, who have experienced the paranormal, to come to Hill House for a few weeks. Seems the caretakers won't stay near the house after dark, they lock the gate and go home and won't return until the morning. Plus, nobody else has a key to the gate.....any one's radar start to go off about now? The four strangers get to know each other, and Dr. Markway fills the other three in on the house history~~suicide, death, the usual strange goings on in a old house; doors that have heartbeats, walls that moan...and a portrait of the dead owner whose spirit comes to life. Nobody chooses to leave, because seeing/hearing is believing right? To this day, one of the best ghost stories ever written, and the movie shows that you don't need blood and gore to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson and Russ Tamblyn starred in this one.

Then the door was open and the wind appeared
The candles blew then disappeared
The curtains flew then he appeared...saying don't be afraid
Come on baby...and she no fear

Jaws (1975) based on Jaws by Peter Benchley.

If there was a book that will make you think twice about swimming, this is the book. When the remains of a dead girl washes up on the beach, Sheriff Brody is told she died from a shark attack. Sheriff Brody wants to close the beaches because of the shark attack, but hey! It's summer and it is the time of year that Long Islanders make their money so Mayor Vaughn nixes that silly idea. The book grabbed me right away and they did a wonderful job with the movie. The timing of the release of the movie was great, the beginning of the summer, and close to where I live. The music in the movie built of the tension...dun dun dun dun...SHARK! We all searched the horizon for fins before we jumped in the ocean that summer...mostly we sat on the beach. Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw starred in this.

And she ran to him....then they started to fly

They looked backward and said goodby...

she had become like they are

Salem's Lot (1979) based on Salem's Lot by Stephen King

Okay, while reading this book, years ago~~I didn't sleep much for the next few weeks. When Tobe Hooper was doing the mini-series for TV, yes I had to watch it. Hooper and King~~talk about great minds... I did have the doors locked, windows bared, wore my three cross necklaces (all at once) just happened to have a nice piece of wood handy....and any kids flying around after dark were not allowed in, even if I knew them. For me, this is one of the scariest, creepiest books I have read, and the series did the book justice. Once again we have a creepy house with a bad history. Ben Mears is a writer who returns to his home town, Salem's Lot, after 25 years to write a book about the creepy Marsten House. Mears also was hoping to rent it~~someone beat him to it. Shortly after this, a young boy is killed and strange things begin to happen. Seems the boy isn't dead, he has been turned into a vampire and beginning with his brother, starts to turn others into the undead. This is one of Stephen King's early books and still one of his most popular. Just thinking about it, I will make sure I am home before dark~~and lock, bar the doors and windows. David Soul, Bonnie Bedelia star in this with the wonderfully sinister James Mason as the ancient vampire's familiar.

She had taken his hand....she had become like they are
Come on baby....don't fear the reaper.
(Thanks to Blue Oyster Cult)

I know there are many more to choose from, I had to narrow the list down, but these are a couple that I have fond (?) memories of, and I wanted to choose those that I thought were great scary books that had been done justice by the movie or mini-series.

Lock the doors~~turn the lights on~~check one of these out, movie or the book.

Happy Reading! ~~and watching...

Bel Canto by Anne Patchett

2010-10-05T16:00:00.001-04:00

"Music conveys moods and images.

Even in opera, where plots deal with the
structure of destiny, it's music, not words,
that provides power."
Marcel Marceau

Sometimes when you choose a book for a book discussion, you never know how it will go over. I have chosen books and thought I would have a nice size group, and hardly anyone showed up; I have chosen books that I think won't fly~~and it's a hit!

When I chose Bel Canto, I was curious: how was a book about hostages, terrorists, South America and opera go over. The night of the book discussion was a nasty, rainy, chilly night...if I hadn't had to go out I would have stayed home curled up with a good book. Imagine my surprise when fifteen hardy readers showed up!

Great questions; would terrorists really hold hostages for over four months? If you don't speak the same language, can you fall in love with each other? How come the government didn't do something sooner? Would hostages and terrorists form bonds with each other like is described in the book? Would someone really refuse to leave when offered the chance? Does music really sooth the savage beast (terrorists)?

In Bel Canto, we have people from all over the world attending a birthday party for a high powered Japanese CEO. The only way they were able to get him to attend was they had his favorite opera singer, Roxanne Coss, performing. When the terrorists appear and make it known that they are there to kidnap the president of the country...they are shocked to find out that he decided to stay home and watch his favorite soap opera instead of coming to the party....which gave us all a chuckle. The terrorists, having over two hundred hostages, decided to let the women, children and sick hostages go, but not before one of the hostages had died. That left forty-nine male hostages, and one female, Roxanne Coss.

We felt that because of the death of the one hostage, the others formed a silent bond among themselves not to attempt to escape. They didn't want any of the others death on their conscience. The bonds formed between some of the hostages and the terrorists seemed to come about because of the age of the terrorists. Except for the three generals, the dozen or so terrorists were all young. They could have been someones son, daughter, grandchild..not these gun slinging "babies."

When Roxanne Coss found one of her fellow hostages played the piano, she began to practice everyday. We talked about the description of when she sang, time seemed to stand still, even the birds stopped singing to listen to her. Even the terrorists sat and listened captured in the rapture of her singing.

We talked about who was the core character? Roxanne, as the only woman? Was it Gen, the translator who could speak almost all the languages of the hostages? Was it Mr. Hosokawa, whose birthday party it was when all this happened? One group member thought it was Roxanne Coss, which led to quite a lively discussion. Not everyone agreed, one of my group said quite pointedly, "Well, Ma'am, I disagree with you!" He felt it was Gen because he could communicate with everyone...some of the group nodded in agreement. Then some of the group pointed out that when Roxanne sang, everything stopped. Everyone walked into the room when she sang, hostages and terrorists alike, outside, the police stopped yelling through the bullhorns and, as Patchett describes, the birds stopped singing, even the wind seemed to stop. While Gen could communicate with everyone, Roxanne communicated to everyone through opera. (That's why I picked the quote at the top...it fits perfectly with this book.)

We all agreed that the book stayed on a level tone until the last three pages. The ending was not what some of us expected. Some felt we would have liked more of an ending, more closure.

I love when a book surprises me, and when it brings so much out in people. A good book, a great group and a good discussion~~one of our best as a matter of fact.

***Bel Canto is loosely based on a event that happened in the late sixties in Lima, Peru where terrorists took over a house and kept hostages for over four months. (There was no opera singer.)

Happy Reading!

Mystery/Thriller Summer Book Discussions

2010-09-15T16:46:00.014-04:00

At least half mystery novels violate the law
that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.
Raymond Chandler

The thriller is the most popular literary genre
of the 20th century.
Ken Follett

This summer we did some book discussions. I have been asked over the years to do summer book discussions, and this year I finally said okay, let's give it a go. We met every other Tuesday at 4pm, a group ranging from two to fifteen folks got together to discuss two of my favorite genres....mysteries and/or thrillers. I thought it would be fun to read an author's first book, or the first book in a series of books. (And of course, some books that I had already read.)

We kicked it off the end of June with Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon. This is the first book of a fabulous series set in Venice. Inspector Guido Brunetti, the vice-commissario of police, has to solve the case of who killed the Maestro? Seems there are several suspects. In the end, it will come down to what is the right thing to do? We loved the setting of Venice, the interaction between Brunetti with his family and his fellow police people. Leon gives you feeling you are there with the characters, and there in Venice. Leon's description of Venice made us all want to go. (We also loved the food described in the book.) We could sense that Brunetti was going to be an even more interesting character as the series progresses. The best part of this discussion for me? That the folks there said they enjoyed this series so much they were going to continue on with it.

Next up was The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva. (I know, your surprised I have a Silva book included) This was Mr. Silva's first book and the one that got me hooked on his books. Set in England during WWII, the book is fiction, but it is based on real events. How does British Intelligence (MI5) confuse Nazi Germany about their D-Day plans when it seems they know about them? They also thought they had captured all the German Abwehr agents in England, but there seems to be some sleeper agents ready to be activated in England. One of those agents is determined to get the information to Germany no matter the body count.
We talked about Churchill and how he used people to achieve the safety of England: his friendship with history professor Alfred Vicary to convince him to work for MI5, match his wits with the Nazis and hopefully keep MI5 one step ahead of them: U.S. Navel Officer Peter Jordan, because of his poor judge of character, ends up being blackmailed and used to spy. We enjoyed the twists and turns in the book. It was a page turner...many said they finished it in two days because they had to know how it ended. Big question for the group? Just WHO was the Unlikely Spy? We all had different answers and every time a different character was mentioned by someone, we would all think about it and realize.....
One of our members, who rarely reads this genre, liked it and had her other book club read this book too~~she told me they raved about it.
For those who were new to Mr. Silva, he now has several new fans.

Dennis LeHane has one of my favorite duos in a mystery series, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. Set in Dorchester, Mass, we get to meet these two private detectives in A Drink Before the War~~the kickoff to this terrific series. Great discussion on how an investigation into a missing cleaning woman led to involvement with prostitution, blackmail, gang-warfare, corruption and murder. We chatted about Kenzie and Gennaro, their cast of friends, how some of the things the two uncovered affected some of us and LeHane's writing style. For me, Le Hane reminds me of the noir style of writing: hard-boiled, cynical, snarky characters surrounded by smokey shades of grey. (Think Raymond Chandler) One great comment by one of our group was "This doesn't happen in real life!" This led to another great discussion on what is real life and what isn't.
If you watched the move, Gone, Baby, Gone, you have met Kenzie and Gennaro. This movie was based on book four of the series.

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. As you can guess, this one was the hit of the summer book discussions. Over fifteen people showed up. The discussion was about how popular the trilogy has become. Set in Sweden, we meet Mikael Blomkvist. He has just finished being the defendent in a high profile trail...where he was found guilty. When he is offered the job of finding Harriert Vanger, who disappeared forty years ago, well, he has nothing else to do...We agreed that while the names took some getting used to, the style of Larsson writing was intelligent and some said it was the best book they had read in the last five years. The character who was the groups favorite was without a doubt was Lisbeth Salander, who Blomkvist hires to help him on the case. Salander is brilliant, a computer genius, antisocial and has a lot of emotional baggage. We loved her. Mikael Blomkvist was a good secondary--not that that was Larsson's intent. Blomkvist, never realizing what Salander felt for him, made some of us want to shake him and say "wake up!" The book has many twists and underlining plots, family secrets and discovering what did happen to Harriet Vanger~~all made for a great discussion. I had warned some readers that they needed to get past the first 100 pages before the book took off. I assured them that the payoff would make it all worth while. I promised we would do book two in the late fall and book three in the late winter...if I can get the copies.

Scott Turow is probably one of my favorite legal thriller writers. Years ago, I read Presumed Innocent and enjoyed it...full of political corruption, betrayal, courtroom drama and of course, murder, what was there not to like? I thought since Turow had come out with a sequel to it, Innocent, (twenty years later) if would be fun to reread it and then catch up with the characters in the sequel. The group were surprised with how they got hooked right away. We talked about the insight he gave into the justice system and how using the present tenth made us feel we were right there watching what was going on. One group member said they felt like yelling "look out!" during one section of the book. The best part? We all agreed that we were shocked and surprised by the ending. (Well, not me because I had read it before.) Seemed nobody expected the ending to be what it was at all while reading the book, and when they found out who the murderer was, they were shocked.
I will say that the movie based on the book, starring Harrison Ford, is terrific too.

We finished up the summer book discussion with Nemesis by Jo Nesbo. This was another great series many in the group became hooked on. Who robbed a bank, shot the cashierand just disappeared into thin air? Outside of trying to remember the characters and keeping the names straight, it was a great read. Norwegian Detective Harry Hole takes us on a whirlwind of a ride from Norway to Brazil, as he tries to find the killer....and prove himself innocent in the mysterious death of someone he knew. There were multi-layered plots that did end up connecting toward the end. The big part of the discussion was the comparison between this book and the Larsson book. Several felt this book was better then Larssons and look forward to continuing to solve murders with Harry Hole.
Unfortunately this was book three in the series. The first two books were being translated into English and there weren't sufficient copies for me to get for the group. Nobody thought they had missed anything from not having read the first two.
**When Nesbo isn't busy writing books, he plays in the Norweigian rock band, Di Derre.

One question about the two European authors, Larsson and Nesbo, was the concern that anything was lost in translating the books from Swedish and Norwegian to English? From everything I read about both of them, the answer seems to be no. The translators seem to have done a superb job of translating both books.

We had some great discussions with these books. In fact, we had such a great time, many in the group requested we continue the mystery/thriller book discussions...and we will.
If you are looking for a new series, check some of these out. Want to read a popular author's first book, here you go with some good ones. Any one of them I would highly recommend.

Up next will be The Poet by Michael Connelly on October 19th at 4pm.This was Connelly's first book and it was one that you couldn't put down....

Rembrandt Affair by Daniel Silva

2010-08-30T13:00:00.002-04:00

Nobody does it quite the way you do,
Why'd you have to be so good?
Carly Simon

When I want a good spy thriller, I can always count on Daniel Silva to deliver. For those of you who read my blog, come to the book discussions, stop by my desk to chat about books~~looking for a thriller? Do I have an author for you, the best...Daniel Silva.

Gabriel Allon and his lovely wife, Chiara, are retired from being Israeli spies, and living on the coast in Cornwall, England. Peace and retirement go out the window when old friend and art dealer Julian Isherwood shows up and needs Allon's help. Someone has stolen his Rembrandt, worth $45 million dollars, and killed the art restorer Isherwood had hired. While initially Allon resists Isherwoods pleas to help him find it, he figures how bad could it be....find a painting. Allon wouldn't being working for the Mossard, shouldn't take long to find the painting and return it. When Allon's lovely wife, Chiara, tells him he needs to do this, after all, Allon is an art lover and he has to be curious to see the Rembrandt. How long can it take? How hard would it be?

What should have been relatively easy ends up taking Allon to Amsterdam, Buenos Aires and Lake Geneva. It becomes a mad dash to stay ahead of the person(s) who also want the Rembrandt, and will do anything to make sure Allon never sees it. When Allon realizes he needs help, that there might be more to this Rembrandt then meets the eye~~he calls in his friends from Mossard. He also gets help from his friends in the CIA and MI5. Looking for a lost Rembrandt has uncovered secrets that were long hidden, and now opened up unhealed wounds. As Allon discovers, this Rembrandt has a long and bloody history, and those who are in possession of it usually have bad luck.

I always like the way Silva immerses humanity into his thrillers. While Allon can kill someone without blinking an eye, we are reminded that he is not a just a cold bloodied killer. He feels deeply for those that work for him, and with him. He carries with him ghosts of some of those he has killed, and when something happens to someone he cares about, he never forgets. Allon will also set out to right wrongs he comes across, no matter how old they may be.

I love the story Silva takes us on. We go behind the scenes of the art world that we wouldn't know about; we're reminded about world politics, which here is to keep a close eye on Iran and those that profess to disagree with what Iran is doing; the Holocaust, while several years ago, still carries scars; and remember, not everyone is really what they appear to be.

I have followed Gabriel Allon since Silva introduced him in The Kill Artist. The growth Allon has gone through, both personally and professionally, are not something I see many authors do. Kudos to Mr. Silva.

I know that when I read one of Silva's books I am in for a treat. I am never disappointed. Better yet, those patrons I have recommended him to (and continue to recommend him too) are never disappointed. Thank you Mr. Silva for writing books I am happy to give to people and have them come back and tell me, "What a great book! Thanks!"

Have I mentioned I am big Daniel Silva fan?

The Lion by Nelson DeMille

2010-08-19T00:09:00.000-04:00

"We're all pilgrims on the same journey-
but some pilgrims have better road maps."
Nelson DeMille

We first met John Corey in Plum Island, where he was a New York City policeman recovering from multiple gun shot wounds out on the East End of Long Island. (My stomping grounds.) Seems Corey is a character that readers want to visit more often.

The Lion is the fifth in the DeMille's Corey series. Corey is part of the FBI's Anti-Terrorism Task Force (ATTF), and his wife, Kate Mayfield, is an FBI agent. While you really don't have to read this series in order, I strongly suggest you read The Lion's Game before you read this one. It will set everything up and help with understanding what happens in The Lion.

As promised at the end of The Lion's Game, Libyan terrorist Asad Khalil, aka the Lion, comes back to deal with unfinished business. While killing Corey and Mayfield. is tops on his list, he has other business that he needs to take care of first, like finish killing those on his jihad agenda that Corey and Mayfield prevented him from completing before. Khalil is well known for his inventive ways of killing people and always seems to be one step ahead of them. Then he makes a big mistake. Unfortunately for Khalil, he goes after Mayfield first, thinking that killing her in front of Corey will make it easier for Khalil to go after Corey. It's just not nice to mess with Corey's wife~~~

The Lion starts with a bang, levels off, then picks back up again as the action becomes fast and furious as we come to the end of the book. Some of what happens here might give you a chill down your spine if you live in NYC, it will make you wonder if this is fiction based on fact.

Can Corey bring Khalil into the net set for him? Who's financing Khalil? What is it Khalil has been hired to do and will he succeed? Yes, DeMille has another thriller that will keep you turning the pages.

I like DeMille's characters in this series. Sadly, some that have gotten killed off, as per the required story line, I find I miss them when their names pop up. While I usally enjoy Corey's sarcasm, it can make me smile and it does help ease some of the tension building in the book, sometimes it's also over the top in places, which I find annoying. Snarky has it's place, but in my opinion, don't overdo it.

I always enjoy a visit with John Corey, so I enjoyed this one too. I do feel better knowing that there are people like Corey protecting our country.

I think my favorite book in the Corey series is Night Fall. This one is about that horrible night on July 17, 1996 when flight TWA 800 crashed(?) off Long Island. I can still remember seeing that fireball over the ocean. In Night Fall, DeMille shares the opinion of many, was it or wasn't it a terrorist attack? I thought this book wrapped up to soon.

Some of my other favorite books by DeMille:

Word of Honor--Ben Tyson was a lieutenant in Vietnam. What happens when a secret comes back to haunt him and possibly destroy the life he has made for himself since the war?

Charm School-What really happened to all those U.S. pilots that disappeared during the Korean and Vietnam War. Had me on the edge of my seat...

Cathedral-An IRA mastermind takes over St. Patrick's Cathedral, which makes the NYPD not to happy.

Talbot Odyssey-Russian mole has been inside the CIA for forty years (yes--40 years) Now it's time for him/her to complete her assignment!

These are some of his oldies, but they still are a great read and I highly recommend any of them.

I must confess, I did not care for the Gold Coast nor the sequel, Gate House. They were just not my cup of tea. Not a likable main character for me.

Hopefully you find one of these to like!

Happy Reading!

IT'S SUMMER!!

2010-07-08T17:44:00.000-04:00

‘Cause it’s summer

Summer time is here
Yes, it’s summer
My time of year
Summer by War

Ah, summertime. The pace of life slows down, lazing around feels good, hanging outside at the end of the day feels delightful…and reading is the best way to end the day. Ah, summer! Okay maybe all this doesn’t really happen, but I do hope you find time to end your day reading a book!!

Some highly recommended books for your summer reading follow:

One of the best non-fiction books I read this winter was Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton. This is a terrific account of a U.S. Special Forces Unit fighting alongside Afghans in the mountains against the Taliban. The contingent of US soldiers sent over had their first surprise when they discovered they had to ride horses, and almost none of them had been on ever been on a horse. It seemed these horses were descendents of the horses Genghis Khan Army had ridden out of Uzbekistan. A great written account of the triumphs, misery, courage and horror of war with, surprisingly, some humor. (You will forget you're reading non-fiction.)

One of my favorite legal thriller writers is Scott Turow. His latest book is Innocent which is a (20 year) sequel to Presumed Innocent, one of my all time favorite legal books. (Which was made into a pretty good movie.) Rusty Sabich and Tommy Molto are once again pitted against each other to determine did Sabich kill his wife…or didn’t he? Turow makes you pay attention and think while you read his books; his characters drive the storyline very nicely and I haven’t found anyone who does a courtroom scene better….and yes, that includes John Grisham.

We said a sad goodbye to Robert B. Parker this year and his wonderful characters: Spenser, Jesse Stone and Sunny Randall. As much as I liked his mysteries, I loved his westerns; Brimstone; Resolution; Appaloosa... and a personal favorite, Gunman’s Rhapsody. As luck would have it, one of Parker’s last novels is a western, Blue-Eyed Devil: the Virgil Cole/Everett Hitch. This is one I am looking forward to.

If you enjoy good westerns, here are some of the best written.

*If you haven’t read All Our Yesterdays or Double Play by Parker…give yourself a treat.

Ah, Daniel Silva! If you haven't read Daniel Silver you are missing out on one of the best spy/espionage series being written! Silva kicked this series off with The Kill Artist and introduced one of the best espionage spies to date, Gabriel Allon. The Rembrandt Affair, number 10 in this great series, comes out in July. This one is on the top of my summer reading list. I can’t wait to read it and find out what Gabriel Allon is doing…. since he was supposed to have retired….

Nelson DeMille new one is The Lion, and he brings John Corey back to tangle with old nemesis Asad Khalil, aka the Lion. Hard to believe we first met Corey in Plum Island in 2002. It’s been a wild ride with every one of his adventures since. While DeMille’s Corey series is always a thrilling ride, if you haven't read some of his early stuff, Charm School; Word of Honor; Cathedral to name a few, give them a try. Sometimes you can be surprised to see how writing styles of an author have changed.

I know Dennis Lehane is better known for his books (made into movies) Shutter Island and Mystic River; I would be remiss if I did not point out he has a great series featuring private dectectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro that is set in Boston. (The movie Gone, Baby, Gone is from this series.) Sadly, Lehane will bring this series to a close in November with the last installment, Moonlight Mile, which is a sequel to Gone, Baby, Gone. This series kicked off with A Drink Before the War, a debut that hooked me, especially because of the way Lehane writes. If you want to get hooked on a great series, you can get started on this one and be caught up by the time Moonlight Mile comes out. I am so glad to have Kenzie and Gennaro back, even if it is the last time.

Little romance for the summer?

Karen Marie Moning has a great Highlander series that has it all, love, romance, time-travel, Scotland and sex (yes, I said sex)

Starting with Beyond the Highland Mist you are off with Adrienne, a 20th century gal, who gets swept off her feet and back to 16th century Scotland by the laird known as Hawk. Nothing better than traveling back and forth through time while being in Scotland. There are seven books in this series so if you like the first, your summer reading should all set.

I love a good historical romance and when I read (many many years ago) The Wolf and the Dove by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, I was thrilled. Woodiwiss is considered the founding mother of historical romance and after reading this I know why. Pick up this golden oldie.....Normans, Saxons, …enemies, passion, and betrayal….it is England after all.

Sarah Addison Allen enchanted me with Garden Spells, her first book. Touch of whimsy, magic, family ties and love…she did another wonderful job with the Sugar Queen. Her latest, The Girl Who Chased the Moon is just as charming as her other two. Any or all of these will leave you with a little smile on your face, happy you met these quirky characters of small Southern towns, and so glad you could pay a visit.

Hopefully, one of these strikes your reading fancy and you enjoy your summer!

Happy Summer! Happy Reading!

It's Raining Books!

2010-05-19T14:59:00.000-04:00

It's raining books
Hallelujah
It's raining books
and.......
Every special book there is....
Fiction and Non-Fiction
Romance and Suspense

Horror, Science Fiction, Fantasy and Biographies!

(regards to the Weather Girls)

Check us out!

I'm gonna go out

I'm gonna let

myself get

absolutley soaking wet!

Grab a good book and Happy Reading!

Get Cookin' With a Good Book Soiree!

2010-05-11T12:31:00.000-04:00

I have always imagined that paradise
will be a kind of library.
Jorge Luis

We said goodbye to the winter reading club with a get together to chat about....books! (and, of course, eat)
Amazingly, over sixty folks handed in their completed Reader's Card! I love when so many participate and enjoy it.

Proud to say, these are the cupcakes I made for the soiree! (Yes, you are seeing penguins)

The prize for reading eight or more books was a cookbook full of the library
staff's favorite recipes.....which has been a big hit! I have even been offered money for a copy of the cookbook, which seems to have become the book to have. Nice.
We had a tie for top reader, Celie Lutz and Roberta Kalous both read 32 books; both were given a plaque and penguin salt and pepper shakers!

Top Books Read for Get Cookin’ With a Good Book…..

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Unbearable Lightness of Scones by Alexander McCall Smith

Split Image (Jesse Stone Series #9) by Robert B. Parker

Every Day in Tuscany: Seasons of an Italian Life by Frances Mays

Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by S. Levitt and S. Dubner

The Tourist by Olen Sternhauer

Wait Till Next Year: Summer Afternoons with My Father and Baseball by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Going Rogue: An American Life by Sarah Palin

While there was a little chuckle about some of the books on the top ten list, general consensus was it was an interesting top ten. To be fair, Freakonomics was our book discussion book, but it seemed to have been a hit with others too.

Raffle prizes were won, plenty of food to enjoy, good company and great book talk,can't ask for a better evening then that.

Time to start working on the summer book club...Where On Long Island Is~~
Waddle I. Read?

Happy Reading!

Apples Falling.....

2010-04-26T15:04:00.000-04:00

"Real luxury is time and an opportunity to

read for pleasure."
Jane Brody

Does the apple fall far from the tree? If a parent is a well-known popular author, does that gene carry down to the offspring? Sometimes it does, which the following three young authors show. I asked several patrons to try these authors-without telling them why.

James Lee Burke is one of my all time favorite authors. I love his style of writing, the characters and the setting…New Iberia, Louisiana which just happens to be outside New Orleans. Daughter Alafair Burke has two series; we are introduced us to her main character, Samantha (Sam) Kincaid, an ambitious, tough Deputy District Attorney in Portland, Oregon, in her debut, Judgment Calls. Hoping to make a name for herself, Sam takes on a case that is not as open and shut as it first appeared. The questions that start to nag at her include-Who do you trust?

The three in the Sam Kincaid series are; Judgment Calls, Missing Justice and Close Case.

Burke’s other series features Ellie Hatch, a rookie police detective in New York City. Hatch has been called in to help in a murder investigation that is similar to a murder committed a year ago….and Hatch just happens to fit the profile of the victims. There are three books in this series, Dead Connection, Angel’s Tip and her recently published, 212 .

Consensus seems to be that Ms. Burke can more then hold her own.

Jesse Kellerman has the double whammy of writers Jonathan Kellerman and Faye Kellerman as his mom and dad. That can be a hard act to follow. In his debut, Sunstroke, Kellerman does okay, but did not impress many patrons. Then he followed with Trouble. Feedback has been more positive on this one. Psychological thrillers can be tricky if not done right, but Kellerman seems to have nailed it with this one. What can drive someone to the verge of madness? You will be on the edge of your chair from the beginning and find you won’t put it down until you have finished it. Like one that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up? Here you go. Kellerman followed with The Genius, another edge of your seat thriller; and his latest, The Executor, proves he is a writer worth checking into.

Joe Hill has written one witty, dark, engaging, morbid horror story. Heart Shaped Box is about a middle-aged heavy metal rock star, Judas Coyne, who is a collector of the macabre, most of them gifts from his fans-cookbook for cannibals, used hangman’s noose. When he hears that there is a ghost in a suit for sale on the internet-why not? The haunted suit comes in a black heart shaped box with a little extra that Judas isn’t aware of until…… (Word has that the movie rights to this book have been sold.)

Hill latest is Horns. After a night of drinking- and other things he can’t remember, or chooses not to. Remember, Ignatius (Ig) Perrish wakes up with a raging hangover headache…and horns growing out of his temples.

Dad is Stephan King who must have told this kid some bedtime stories. Rumor has it that Hill might have outdone Dad with his horror novels. Hills' books have been hot ones with many patrons.

Give one of these authors a try. I think you'll be pleasently surprised.

Happy Reading!

Peanuts!

2010-04-22T11:47:00.000-04:00

Couldn't have said this better myself......
Happy Reading:)

Freakonomics

2010-04-08T14:20:00.000-04:00

Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.

Aesop

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
Steven D. Levitt
Stephen J. Dubner

Sometimes, when you pick a book for a book discussion, you hold your breath, cross your fingers and hope it's one where you don't get asked the question: "What the heck did you pick this book for?" I have usually been lucky. The book discussion group I moderate have liked, and sometimes loved, the books picked for discussion; it has been rare that I have had irate group members.

Freakonomics is one I held my breath, crossed my fingers and hoped. Just because I liked it, how would my book group feel about it? Economics can make my eyes glaze over, how would it be for some of the book group? On a miserable, cold rainy night fifteen brave souls came out to discuss this book, and what a discussion we had!

Dubner and Levitt have taken a subject, economics.... interesting, but never something I could follow, but it helped me, and it seems some of the group, to look and think about things in different ways. They put a spin on it that made it almost....fun and interesting.
.
Where else would you finally find out why drug dealers still live with their moms? That a crack gang works pretty much like the standard capitalist enterprise..it even has it's equivalent of a CEO. It's amazing to find out that what school teachers and sumo wrestlers have in common is cheating! Is the Ku Klux Klan really like a group of real estate agents?Abortion and crime? Who knew that the decision about Roe vs. Wade just might be the reason crime decreased instead of becoming the out of control coast to coast crime wave that was predicted? It seems all those criminals that would have been born....weren't.

Interesting tidbit: When Ceausescu came to power in Romania, he outlawed abortions. He wanted a stronger Romania, and if women didn't get pregnant, they were charged a fine. When Ceausecu's regime was overthrown, he was lynched by young men....who might not have been born if it wasn't for Ceausecu.

We had a good time with this book for many reasons. While economics is about monetary, fiscal matters that shows how the world works; Freakonomics suggests that morality represents the way we would like the world to work, and that conventional wisdom is often shoddily formed. Yes, there was some skepticism about some of the data they analyzed in the book. We didn't agree with the finding on some of the topics, especially the part about parenting. Does it really make a difference to a child if Mom and Dad are home or not? Does nurturing children and reading to them every night make a difference in how they turn out? Or are they born to be what they will be? What does the name given to a child say about the parents?

Interesting tidbit: Two boys: One is African-American, abandoned by his mother, raised in an impoverished and unstable household, his family ran a cocaine-crack business from his aunt's house, his father was a drunk who abused him. During his high school years young man led a double life--excelled in sports at high school while selling marijuana and carrying a gun.
The young white boy grew up in a privileged home, the cherished son of parents who gave him everything he wanted or needed, including a house full of books and his having books read to him. Brilliant in school, especially in mathematics.
Both young men graduated from Harvard University with honors and because college professors.
The young African-American is a Harvard economic advisor who has been honored by President Obama, Roland G. Fryer.
The young white man is Ted Kaczynski, aka....the Unabomer.

I'm glad I read this book, and so was the majority of the group. It was pointed out that the cover should have been a give-a-way for the subject inside: a Granny Smith apple, cut open to reveal an orange inside.

Point taken away from the book? Look closely at what you see....it may not be what you think it is.

Happy Reading!

A Good Book and Some Good Food!

2010-03-23T12:14:00.000-04:00

A Good Book! Good Food! Does it get any better?
Bev Wowak

As we come to the last month of our winter reading club, Get Cookin' with a Good Book!, here are some great cooking blogs and books to check out.

Cooking Blogs!

I love to visit the cooking blogs…yes there are hundreds of them but these are a few of my favorite. I have tried a recipe from just about every one of them! If you have a favorite cooking/food blog, feel free to share. Meanwhile, check one of these out and have fun.

http://www.cheftomcooks.com/

http://www.farmgirlfare.com/

http://www.hungry-girl.com/

http://www.simplydailyrecipes.com/

http://www.thecheapgourmet.com/

http://www.chocolateandzucchini.com/

http://www.orangette.blogspot.com/

http://www.everybodylikessandviches.blogspot.com/

http://www.pinchmysalt.wordpress.com/

http://www.zestycook.com/

http://www.pioneerwoman.com/

http://www.pioneerwoman.com/

http://www.davidlebovitz.com/

http://www.elenaspantry.com/
(gluten free recipes)

http://www.joythebaker.com/

http://www.diabeticgourmet.com/

http://www.joythebaker.com/

I have visited each of these blogs and made at least one recipe from them. I highly recommend them!

Non-Fiction Books with Recipes

*American Pie: Slices of Life (and Pie) from America’s Back Roads
641.8652 Led Pascale Le Draoulec

*Heat: an amateur’s adventures as kitchen slave, line cook, pasta-maker, and apprentice to a Dante-quoting butcher in Tuscany
641.5945 Buf Bill Buford

hallelujah! The welcome table: a lifetime of memories with recipes
641.5973 Ang Maya Angelou

*Under the Tuscan Sun
Bella Tuscany
Bio May Frances Mayes

In Tuscany
945.5 May Frances Mayes

*Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table
*Comfort Me with Apples: More Adventures at the Table
Bio Rei Ruth Reichl

Garlic and Sapphires
641.5092 Rei Ruth Reichl

Endless Feasts: Sixty Years of Writing from Gourmet
641.5 Rei Ruth Reichl

*I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti: a memoir
Bio Mel Guilia Melucci

*Mostly True: A Memoir of Family, Food, and Baseball
Bio One Molly O’Neill

Food to Die For: Secrets from Kay Scarpetta’s Kitchen
641.5 Cor Patricia Cornwell

Jan Karon’s Mitford Cookbook & Kitchen Reader
641.5 Kar Jan Karon

*Kitchen Confidential
Bio Bou Anthony Bourdain

*Book Club Cookbook: Recipes and Food for Thought from Your Book Club’s Favorite Cooks and Authors
641.5 Gel Judy Gelman & Vicki Levy Krupp

*A Year in Provence
944.9208 May Peter Mayle

Toujours Provence
944.9083 May Peter Mayle

*Animal, vegetable, miracle: A year of food life
641.0973 Kin Barbara Kingsolver

*Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl

641.5976 Dru Ree Drummond

*Cultivating Delight: A Natural history of My Garden
508 Ack Diane Ackerman

Food Matters
613.2 Bit Mark Bittman

Cozy Up Mysteries with Recipes

Joanne Fluke
Hannah Swenson Mysteries

M.C Beaton
Agatha Raisin Mysteries

Diane Mott Davidon
*Goldy (Bear) Schulz Mysteries

G. A. McKevett
*Savannah Reid Mysteries

Philip R. Craig
Martha’s Vineyard Mysteries

Tamar Myers
Pennsylvania Dutch Mysteries

Virginia Rich/Nancy Pickard
Eugenia Potter Mysteries

Laura Childs
*Tea Shop Mysteries

Fiction Books with Recipes

*Like Water for Chocolate
Laura Esquivel

*Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe
Fannie Flagg

The Recipe Club
Andrea Israel, Nancy Garfinkel

*Garden Spells
Sarah Addision Allen

*Some Days There’s Pie
Catherine Landis

Recipes from the Dump
Abigail Stone

*Beach Music
Pat Conroy

Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands
Jorge Amado

Scarpetta’s Winter Table
Patricia Cornwell

*Ladies of Covington Send Their Love
*Gardens of Covington
Joan Medlicott

*World of Pies
Karen Stolz

She Flew the Coop

Michael Lee West

Book of Enchantments
Patricia Wrede

*Mark the ones I have read.

I hope you have been enjoying the book club...
Happy Reading!

"Stick to Your Bones Books"

2010-03-01T14:25:00.001-05:00

I often feel sorry for people

who don’t read books;

they are missing a chance

to lead an extra life.

Scott Corbett

This is the time of year when you want winter to go away…you’re ready to enjoy the outside without freezing. Spring is just around the corner...summer is a few months away…but for now, we have the cold, damp, last of the winter weather to contend with. (As I write this, we are having another of one of our many snowstorms.) One of the best ways to while away the rest of this winter is with a “stick to your bones” book. These are books over 500 pages that you have to commit some time to. They can be slow going in the beginning, you need to read at least 100 pages and when you do, you will be glad you did. Curl up with one of these (big) novels and they will help the time will fly by.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

Meet Lin; an Australian who was imprisoned for stealing to support his heroin addiction. He escapes and goes to India. A wonderful insight into the culture and people of India. and a trip through the underbelly of Bombay that you won’t soon forget. Yes, it has the violence and death, but it also has love, beauty, and hope…there’s always hope.

This is a novel based on the life of the author, Roberts. Some of the things that happen to Lin happened to Roberts…as well as the love that both Roberts and Lin have for India. One of my favorite lines in the book, “the choice you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life,” will come back to haunt you.

Andersonville by MacKinlay Kantor

Pulitzer-Prize winning novel that took Kantor over twenty years to write. If you love books about the Civil War, this one is one of the best. Extensive research was done about the infamous prison in Georgia where over 50,000 Union soldiers suffered and over 14,000 of them died many for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the South. The South didn’t have enough food for their soldiers much less their prisoners; a commanding officer who took pleasure in the fact he killed more enemy a day then those on the battlefront; and the only Confederate officer who was tried and executed for his war crimes, Henry Wirz. Heartbreaking in the knowledge that this novel is based on truth, but filled with side stories of those who tried to alleviate the horror. (This was a banned book in Texas when it was first published in 1956.)

*If you haven’t read MacKinley Kantor and love a good civil war novel, you're in for a pleasant surprise.

The Given Day by Dennis Lehane

I became a big fan of Lehane with his Patrick Kenzie/Angie Gernaro crime series that began with A Drink Before the War. Loved it and I was hooked. Two of his books, Gone, Baby, Gone and Mystic River, were made into great movies; and now his book Shutter Island is hitting the big screen. ( I say.... read the books before you see the movies.)

In The Given Day, he has written a novel that takes place in Boston right after WWI; the Great War is over, the Tzar is being overthrown, the Spanish Flu has taken off…and Babe Ruth’s train breaks down in Ohio…the one taking him to the Boston Red Sox. Full of events that happened, the historic figures that make appearances in the novel, the Boston Irish…

Lehane historical novel has much of the same style as his crime novels; sympathy for the underdog, strong blue collar ethics, irony for how events change, or make, your life. Two of the main characters are Danny Coughlin, an Irish cop, and Luther Laurence…a fugitive on the run from Tulsa, he goes to his friend’s house in Boston….

A great historical novel ….savor and enjoy.

One Thousand White Women: the Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

A “what if” book about a “deal” between President Grant and the Cheyenne Indian chef, Lone Wolf: Would the government give one thousand white women to the Cheyenne, so that they could intermarry, have a baby and therefore bring peace between the two very different people? In return, the Cheyenne would give the government one thousand horses? This book is based on a meeting that did take place between Grant and Lone Wolf. It’s a great story about the American West, the gold rush, the Indians, the soldiers at the forts and outposts, full of colorful characters that you feel you get to know, all told from May Dodd’s point of view through her journal… and what might have happened if the deal had been agreed upon.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

England, 1520…and Henry the VIII is king. He wants Anne Boleyn as his queen, more importantly…he wants, needs, a male heir. Enter Thomas Cromwell, who will do anything, at any price, to make his king a happy man. Tudor history at their best, which means the Tudor’s are at their worst…with Cromwell the perfect man to do Henry’s dirty work, encourage Henry to go after his heart’s desire, regardless of what the Church thinks. Henry VIII era is always fascinating, and this is English history at its best.

Winds of War by Herman Wouk

Wouk’s epic about WWII. The winds of war are blowing in Europe as we follow “Pug” Henry, a Naval Officer and confidant of President Roosevelt, and his family. It begins just before the German invasion of Poland. The effect the coming of war has on Henry’s family and those that they know and come in contact with. Wouk also interjects the German perceptive of the war from German general Armin von Roon “book” that Henry came across after the war. This book ends with the attack on Pearl Harbor, and if you are up to continuing, pick up the sequel, War and Remembrance, which takes us all through the war.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

What happens when a 16 year old girl sets out to find the truth about her mother and father and what happened to them? When she comes across a medieval book in her father’s procession and asks him about it, the tale he tells her opens up quite a can of worms…then he disappears. This book is actually quite the travelogue of historical Europe as well as present day. We travel across Europe while our unnamed female character sets out to find the truth about Dracula! When she realizes what her father had been doing and what really happened to her mother, that the stories about the horrors that took place weren’t stories at all but were true…If you like a good vampire story that will make you want to keep turning the pages, and maybe make the hair on the back of your neck stand up, this one’s for you. Kostova’s

*This is Kostroma’s first novel.

Hopefully you will cozy up with one of these books and enjoy the last few months of winter. Keep in mind….soon we will be moaning about the dog days of summer!

Happy Reading!

Ode to Robert B. Parker

2010-01-26T14:19:00.000-05:00

As I say, I'm not sure I'd have undertaken it....
oh, yeah, I would. They were offering me a lot
of money.
Robert B. Parker

Hearing Robert B. Parker died last week saddened me. I looked forward to a Parker book, whether it be a mystery or a novel. I enjoyed his characters, Jesse Stone, Sunny Randall and Spenser...with an s, like the poet. Picking up a Parker mystery, you were visiting old friends, you caught up with them...and the latest murder/investigation/violent event that is about to transpire with them.

While I like his mysteries immensely, his novels were always a nice surprise. Here are a few of my favorite Parker non-mysteries:

One of the best books I've read about Wyatt Earp was Gunman's Rhapsody. Parker's Earp is a man of few words, he lets his actions speak for him. Earp is strong, fast and quiet, the way I would picture this icon of the old west to be. Earp doesn't seek out violence, it just seems to find him. Earp and his brothers, Dodge City, Tombstone, Doc Holiday and the OK Corral--they are all here. Loved it.

Double Play takes place in Brooklyn. It's 1947, and Jackie Robinson is breaking the color barrier by joining the Dodgers. Joseph Burke, a WWII vet trying to re-adjust to life after the war, is hired as his body guard. An imagined friendship between two men who each taught each other something about acceptance. The banter between Robinson and Burke is wonderful, and says so much, about the way things were then, the beliefs and fears of people at that time, and the sacrifices made to accomplish what is important.

Appaloosa is about two gunmen who change their ways to try and rescue a town from bad guys, with a leader who lets his men do whatever they want. Not your usual bad guy/good guy western, it is more about the customs and way of life in the west in the 1800's. Violent, romantic and full of surprises, this is not your typical western.

*This was made into a movie starring Ed Harris, Jeremy Irons and Vigo Mortensen. Read the book, give yourself a treat and watch the movie. Good stuff.

For me, Parker wrote some of best westerns I have read. Both Gunman's Rhapsody and Appaloosa will give you an eyeopening visit to the old west; Double Play made me wish that the friendship between Jackie Robinson and Joseph Burke wasn't fiction because of the way Parker wrote about it. I hoped that Robinson did have someone like Burke to help him during that time. If you have only enjoyed Parker's mysteries, give his novels a try. Trust me, you'll be glad you did.

Thank you Robert B. Parker for writing some terrific books, introducing us to some great characters, and for making reading an enjoyment. You will be missed.

Get Cookin' With a Good Book!

2010-01-19T09:52:00.000-05:00

Get Cookin' With a Good Book at the Mattituck-Laurel Library!

Begins January 19, 2010 at 10am!

Come on down at 10am, sign up, pick up your packet and get cookin'! The one requirement is to read a book with recipes..not a cookbook. There is a list of books with recipes in your packets, both fiction and non-fiction. Every time you finish a book, fill out a raffle ticket and be entered to win one of our end of club prizes. Read eight books and receive a cookbook which contains some of the library staff's favorite recipes!

See you soon!

The Defector

2010-01-02T12:31:00.000-05:00

The Defector
by Daniel Silva

"Vengeance is mine, and I will repay"
Tolstoy

Oh yeah, I ended 2009 reading The Defector....and what a way to end the year. For those who don't know, Daniel Silva is one of my all time favorite authors. Right from his first book, The Unlikely Spy, which is on my all time favorite top ten list, he has never disappointed me.

Silva's Gabriel Allon series, which began with The Kill Artist, is one I highly recommend to everyone. The Defector is an continuation of Moscow Rules, which I reviewed here March 30, 2009. Seems that Grigori Bulganov, who saved Allon's life and defected in Moscow Rules, has gone missing and the thought is he re-defected back to Russia. Allon isn't buying it, and he sets out to keep his promise to Bulgunov--not to let him end up in an unmarked grave, or any grave if he can help it. Allon gets his team together to head once again go head to head with Ivan Kharkov, who wants Allon dead for events that happened in Moscow Rules. Kharkov also wants vengeance on Allon and this leads him to do something very stupid....but it does make Allon have to go back to Russia. Kharkov should be careful what he wished for because as Tolstoy said...I will repay.

Another page-turning adventure with Allon. There is a point in Silva's books where you get to the "I am going to finish the book no matter what!" point...that's why I finished this New Year's Eve just before midnight...which was a great way to end the year.

I get the feeling Allon will be taking a much needed rest from saving the world for awhile; I just hope it isn't too long because I will miss him and his cohorts. I take solace that Silva has such great secondary characters, he could flesh any of them out and have them have their own adventures...with Allon being a secondary figure. If you haven't read Silva yet, how come? I recommend this series to everyone who enjoys good thrillers/espionage/international spying....Begin with Allon's introduction in the Kill Artist, this is one series you will be glad to get hooked on!

Happy 2010 and always, Happy Reading!!

Open Me Last List!~

2009-12-16T11:53:00.000-05:00

A Good Book---the Gift that keeps on Giving!

What books did I read this year? Which ones am I giving as gifts? I enjoyed so many, having to narrow it down was difficult. In no particular order, here they are:

Girls Like Us by Sheila Weller

Carole King, Joni Mitchell and Carly Simon, need I say more? If you love the songs they wrote and sang, this tells you how they came to be some of the best singers/songwriters of their day. Music lovers delight.

Zeitoun by David Eggers
Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and here Eggers tells the tale of what happened to Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a prosperous Syrian-American, married to an American, and their four children. One of the best novels about the events in New Orleans after Katrina

The Wilderness Warrior by Douglas Brinkley

First of all, Douglas Brinkley writes great historical books; second, Theodore Roosevelt lived a life that was never boring. What might be a surprise is that Roosevelt, being the great hunter he was, believed in conservation and went on to make it a universal effort. Written with humor and the vitality that Roosevelt was known for, it's a great book for anyone who admires, Roosevelt, conservation, and maybe explain how someone who revered animals, could have no qualms about killing them...

Every Man Dies Alone by Hans Fallada
Was there resisitence in Nazie Germany? Meet Otto and Elise Hampel who try, in their own small way, to undermine Hitler after their son is killed in the war. The Hampels print postcards denouncing the war and Hitler, leave them around Berlin hoping they will make a difference with someone. While you know there can only one way for the book to end, you keep hoping maybe........ Wonderfully written.

*Hans Fallada wrote this book in 24 days. Fallada was a bestselling novelist before the war and refused to leave Germany like some of his friends. He was brutalized psychologically by Goebbels for refusing to write a anti-Semitic book, hounded by the Gestapo, put into an asylum for the criminally insane. While Fallada died in 1947, he did outlast the Reich.

Good Soldiers by David Finkel
True story about the 2-16 battalion, called the Rangers, and their experiences when they were sent to Baghdad in 2007. The changes that occurred within themselves, the horrors that they saw, and how war changed them, some for better and some for the worse. Did the surge in Iraq work? Do you ever recover from being in war? Finkel gives opinions from those who were there.

Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton

While this book reads like a fiction thriller, it is true. A small band of Special Force soldiers sneak into Afghanistan after 9/11. They went to help the Afghans fight the Taliban. They needed to take the town of Mazar-i-Sharif to put a dent in the Taliban. One of the first obstacles to overcome was the fact that the Afghans mode of travel was horses...which most of the soldiers had ever been on. As always in war, there is the horror, but Stanton somehow shares some of the humor that occurred. If you want to have a better understanding of why we are where we are with Afghanistan, read this. Stanton did a terrific job of researching and talking to those that were there.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

King Henry VIII and the one man who would do anything to ascend to political power...Thomas Cromwell. Mantel fills in the empty spaces of what transpired during eight years of Henry's reign, the Anne Boleyn years. Not afraid to get his hands dirty and achieve his ends by any means, Cromwell becomes Henry's right hand man. If someone loves the Tudors, or if you do, the history of England during their time....here you go.

*Mantel won the Booker Award this year. for this book.

Clapton by Eric Clapton

Clapton played with some of the best in the music world, he wrote and sang songs that are considered classics. In his straight forward, honest autobiography he shares everything, how he went after his best friends wife, (George Harrison) and strangely, this didn't affect their friendship; and his anguish when his four-year-old son Connor fell to his death. I was glad when he came to realize how talented he is and what pleasure he has brought to many people. For those who love Clapton, the history of the 60's music and how most of it came to be, this is the book for them.

These are the books I am giving as gifts., hopefully one of them will make you think of someone who might enjoy it. I call this my Open Me Last list because when I open the gift of a book, I want to stop everything and start reading it. .....

I wish you a Blessed Christmas and a wonderful New Year...and always...Happy Reading!

Peace.....