Month: September 2009

The Xibalba Murders, by Lyn Hamilton

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The Xibalba Murders by Lyn Hamilton: Book CoverFinished 9-4-09, rating 3.5/5, mystery, pub.1997

Book 1 of An Archaeological Mystery series

“I cannot tell you more about it right now, but I can assure you that it is – – what is that American expression? — right up your alley, and that it will interest and possibly even excite you?”

“You’ll have to tell me more than that!”  I laughed.

“This is not a subject for discussion over the telephone,” he replied.  “The risk is too great.”

And then, perhaps fearing I wouldn’t come on the strength of so little information, he relented a little.

“I will give you a hint, then, since you are a student of the Maya.  We seek what the rabbit writes.” And that was all he would say.

It was a ludicrous request, so of course I went.

IMIX chapter

Lara McClintoch is fresh off a bad divorce that left her jobless and a student once again.  An old friend and museum expert on the Maya, Dr. Hernan Castillo, asks her to fly down from Toronto to Merida, Mexico, to aid him in a new project.  She jumps at the chance to work with him and visit old family friends in the city and is soon in Merida.  Only Dr. Castillo is nowhere to be found and Lara finds his dead body, casting suspicion on her in his murder.  With her passport confiscated, Lara thinks the only way to clear herself is to find the killer.  Instead she finds another dead body and is now under house arrest. 

This is mystery is heavy into the Mayan history and the current struggles of the people trying to retain their culture.  It was a little too detailed for my taste, but I did appreciate learning more about a culture I know little about.  The mystery was very good.  Although I suspected who might be behind the murders I did not know for sure and there were enough suspects to keep me guessing.

Lara was an interesting main character and this is the first in a series of archaeological mysteries that take her all over the world.  I wouldn’t mind reading the next in the series, but I won’t be rushing out to get it.

Title Meme

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This has been going around the blogs and thought I’d give it a try.  Using only the titles of books you’ve read this year answer the following questions…

Describe Yourself…The Angel (that was almost too easy, LOL)

How do you feel…Salty Like Blood

Describe where you currently live…House of Many Shadows

If you could go anywhere, where would you go…The Inn at Eagle Creek

Your favorite transportation…The Time Machine

Your best friend is…Comfort & Joy

You & your friends are…Smart Women

What’s the weather like…Yesterday I Saw the Sun

Favorite time of day…Shoot the Moon

If your life was a…Pot of Gold

What is life to you…What I Did For Love

Your Fear…The Pigman

What is the best advice you have to give…Dreamers of the Day

Thought for the day…A Body to Die For

How would I like to die…Dead Sleep

My soul’s present condition…7th Heaven

Go ahead and give it a go.

The Broken Window, by Jeffery Deaver

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Cover ImageFinished 8-31-09, rating 4.5/5, mystery, pub. 2008

“But tell me if those benefits are worth somebody knowing every detail about your life.  Maybe you don’t care, provided you save a few bucks.  But do you really want ConsumerChoice lasers scanning your eyes in a movie theater and recording your reactions to those commercials they run before the movie?  Do you want the RFID tag in your car key to be available to the police to know that you hit a hundred miles an hour last week?”

Chapter 23

This is the 8th book in the Lincoln Rhyme series

Quadriplegic forensic specialist Lincoln Rhyme is back with his most personal case to date.  His cousin, Arthur, has been arrested for murder and his wife comes to Lincoln even though the two men haven’t been friends since high school.  Lincoln feels the familial bond and takes a look at the case and discovers that they may be dealing with a serial killer.  As Lincoln and his girlfriend, Amelia Sachs, try to prove the innocence of more than one person in prison, they become immersed in the new world of Big Brother. 

SSD, Strategic Systems Datacorp, is a data mining company that specializes in knowing everything about you.  No really, everything.  And they do know it all.  And it would not be difficult for an employee to commit awful crimes and pin them on someone else or even to steal a person’s life and destroy it piece by piece.

I loved this book.  We learn more about Lincoln’s personal life than in any book since the first one and I enjoyed learning more about his childhood and family.  And Amelia had her own things to deal with involving Pam, the teen from two earlier books who is now in foster care.

This book knocked it out of the park as far as scaring me to the point of paranoia.  I think most people recognize  that many of our individual freedoms are being stripped from us little by little, and some of us are okay with it and some of us aren’t.  But this book takes it to the next level.  Our whole lives are fodder for commercial gain and government dossiers.  It is frightening and although this is a novel, it hits home because it is happening right now. 

This book is a timely novel that will please Lincoln Rhyme fans and fans of fast paced thrillers.  I loved it.

A Prison Diary, by Jeffrey Archer

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Cover ImageFinished audio 8-28-09, rating 2.5/5, non-fiction, pub. 2002

Jeffrey Archer was 29 when he became a member of British Parliament.  After a bad investment and on the brink on bankruptcy he quit Parliament and started writing.  After a string of bestsellers, he enters politics again as a candidate for the mayor of London.  He was forced to pull out of the race when he was accused and convicted of perjury and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.  He was sentenced to four years.  This is all the backstory to this book.

Jeffery was convicted the day that his mother died.  He found solace in knowing that she passed away before she knew he had been found guilty and sentenced to jail.  He spent 22 days in the high security prison of Belmarsh where he was housed with all sorts of convicts from murderers to druggies.  He wrote this diary every day by hand on yellow legal pads from his small cell.

I listened to this on audio and it wasn’t until I was done and looked on Archer’s website that I realized this was Part I:Hell.  There are two more parts, Purgatory and Heaven where he chronicles the rest of his two years behind bars.  I will not be reading either of those.  It is not because he is a person who does not summon sympathy (although he doesn’t), it is because this book was boring.  And if part one is called Hell and is boring, well, how much more monotonous can parts two and three be?  It claimed to be ‘shocking’ and he said repeatedly that people would be blown away.  I wasn’t shocked or even really that interested to learn that he had Coco Puffs for breakfast, but preferred Kellogg’s Corn Flakes.

This is a British prison so I may have felt too removed from it to appreciate it.  And maybe in the context of the British prison system this seemed excessively bad, but I didn’t get it.   And Archer was only there 22 days!  I guess I wondered how sheltered his life had been if his new surroundings shocked him.  I mean it is prison after all.

It was well written and a had a few interesting things to say, but on the whole I was obviously disappointed.

Words Behind the Pictures Challenge

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I have decided to join another challenge.  Yes, I a currently in 3, but I’m confident I can finish them all!  Michael is hosting this fun challenge and I look forward to reading a medium that I’ve never tried before.  Screenplays!  I love reading and I love movies, so this sounds like a perfect challenge to me.

Words Behind The Pictures Challenge

The first Saturday of every month, from September, 2009, through to August, 2010, an electronic copy of one screenplay will be made available through this blog.

The goal is to read the screenplay and then watch the movie before the end of that month and comment on what you’ve experienced.

The more screenplays you get through, the stronger you are as a reading challenger, but you only need to do one month to consider yourself to have completed this challenge.

Of course, the more months you complete, the more chances you’ll have for winning a collection of screenplays I’ll be awarding to one random participant in August, 2010.

So, why not join me in trying something new.  Head on over the A Few Minutes With Michael and sign up.

Free Books for September

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Looks, free, giveawayeave a comment, tell me which book you want and I’ll get the book to you for FREE either by mail or personally if I’ll see you soon.  The first one to request each book wins.  Once you’ve ‘won’ the book I can get your shipping address if I need it.  Also, you can come back and get a free book every month if you want. These have all been read a few times, unless stated otherwise.

sept 09 free

1. The Bachelor by Carly Phillips – paperback romance that has been read a few times.  for Em

2. The Coffin Dancer by Jeffery Deaver  (#2 in the Lincoln Rhyme series)- paperback thriller that has been read a few times.  for Renee

3. Mommy Grace by Dr. Sheila Schuller Coleman – Brand new hardcover non-fiction about erasing Mommy guilt.  for Andrea

4. Stitches by David Small – ARC graphic memoir that I read once (it did travel with me to DC on vacation)  for Violet

Thanks for helping me clear my shelves.  Happy reading!