Finished 8-31-11, rating 3.5/5, mystery, 278 pages, pub. 2001

Book 1 in the Joe Pickett series

Joe lived, but it wasn’t something he was particularly proud of.  It was now fall and Sunday morning dawned slate gray and cold.  He was making pancakes for his girls when he first heard of the bloody beast who had come down from the mountains and tried to enter the house during the night.

Chapter 1 

Joe Pickett is a stand up guy.  He has a loving wife and two little girls with another baby on the way and he has his dream job as a Wyoming Game Warden.  When a dead man shows up in his wood pile, a man Joe has a history with, Joe wants to know why even if the local cops don’t seem to care.  When more hunters end up dead Joe knows something is up, but he’s hampered at every turn of his investigation.

Saddlestring is a small town that has seen better times.  Jobs have been lost and a potential pipeline through the town could mean big bucks.  Joe knows this but remains a man of principle.  He is easy to like and unlike some characters in mysteries who have to do bad things they never thought they’d do, Joe remains a steady and predictable character.  I like him a lot.  And his older daughter Sheridan is a great kid who is wise beyond her years, but not too much so that she doesn’t make kid mistakes.

I’ve never been to Wyoming but this book made me feel like I was there.  I’ve never hunted either, but I was immersed into that life for a while.  This book captured this atmosphere perfectly for me, which is great because I picked it up for the States Challenge.

I’ve read a few bloggers who really like this series and I admit I’m on the fence about recommending it.  I liked it, but don’t really have any desire to read any more of the series.  I think if this region appeals to you then the series might be a better fit.

This was from my personal library.

Finished 7-4-11, rating 3.5/5, horror, 346 pages, pub. 2009

Chewing, right next to the bed.  Maggie gasped, pulling the flannel sheets to her chest.  She squinted into the darkness, could barely make out the dark figure of a man a few feet away.

The bag rustled.  Something touched Maggie’s face and she gasped.  A tiny pat on her cheek.  It happened again, on her forehead, making her flinch.  Again, and she swatted it with her hand, finding the object on her pillow.

Popcorn.  He was throwing popcorn at her.

Maggie’s voice came out in a whisper.  “What…what are you going to do?”

The springs creaked as he sat on the edge of the bed.

“Everything,” he said.

Chapter 1 

Safe Haven, Wisconsin, is a one road in and one road out kind of town.  Isolated by water and woods the town is a perfect target for a hostile takeover.  The takeover comes in the form of five special forces, trained and manipulated by the government, wreaking havoc on the small community in horrifying ways.

This book is a thrill ride and perfect for a fast and entertaining read.  If you find eating off toes and skinning people alive entertaining.  If you cannot find those things fun, even in the heat of a ride on the crazy train,  then this book is not for you.  I don’t mind a little horror as long as it’s accompanied by a healthy serving of humanity.  The story did have several characters who showed true strength and made me keep reading.  There were also well drawn characters who met very grisly ends and that did keep me guessing who would make it out alive and who wouldn’t.

If you like Stephen King or other horror authors you may want to give this debut author a try.  Or even if you like movies like Saw.

Finished audio 6-17-11, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 2008

Unabridged audio 9.5 hours.  Read by Tony-Award winner Barbara Rosenblat & Cassandra Morris

Renee Michel is a concierge at a posh Paris apartment building and Paloma Josse is a 12-year-old girl planning on committing suicide on her 13th birthday.  The two know each other only in passing until the impressive Mr. Ozu movies into the building and befriends them both.  Renee cannot believe that someone like Mr. Ozu can see the real her, the intelligent and insightful woman behind the concierge mask and Paloma is surprised to find someone in the upper class to surprise her with warmth and smarts.

The chapters alternate between the two and this worked for me.  I liked them both for their intelligence, spunk, and subtlety.  I would have liked more story between them.  The first half of the book was an introduction and many philosophy references.  Too many for me.  This is a book that I believe benefitted from the audio performances.  I absolutely loved listening to Barbara Rosenblat and Cassandra Morris.  They really brought the words to life for me.  I’m not sure I would have made it through the print version.

Barbery is a professor of philosophy and it shows.  She reeled me in from the beginning and then I got a little lost and/or bored until the last third of the book.  The introduction of Mr. Ozu was really where the story and my enjoyment began.  This had been on my wishlist for so long that I had forgotten everything I read about it, so I was completely unprepared for the ending.  I had forgotten or never known that it would blow me away.

I’m iffy on this one.  I would recommend the audio if you are considering it though.

I checked this audio out of the library.

Finished audio 5-26-11, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 2010

Unabridged audio 8+ hours.  Read by the author.

Four classmates are about to attend their 40th high school reunion.  One is going to land the jock who got away, one is going because he wants his soon-to-be ex-wife to see that they can recapture the good years, one is going because his secretary is making him, the invisible girl is returning for a chance at redemption, and the beautiful one is showing up to live before she dies.  None of them gets exactly what they expected, but they all go home changed.

I liked high school.  I was not the most popular, but I was involved in a lot of activities and I had a few friends I really loved (and still do). I am class secretary so it’s my job to find everyone when reunion time comes around and this past year Facebook made it a while lot easier.  Last October, on the night of our 20th reunion, I checked into the hospital to have a baby.  Seriously, when I think of it, I laugh.  I never thought I’d be having my first baby 20 years later.  I always thought I wanted five kids.  Not only does this sound insane, but a little like overkill now that I have one 🙂

So, this book came at a good time for me.  It is easy to take the time of your reunion (whether you attend or not) to reflect on your high school self and how, if at all, you’ve changed.  And, when you walk into the reunion is everyone seeing you as the 18-year-old you were or the person you’ve become?

I liked the book, but wish it would have focused on less that five people.  The book was too short to get really involved, but I did enjoy the time I spent with them and the people they represented in my own school days.  I thought it was a fun way to take another look at the roles we all played in high school.

As always, I love listening to Elizabeth Berg read her own novels.

I checked this audio out of the library.

Finished 5-18-11, rating 3.5/5, mystery, 317 pages, pub. 1978

Karen’s husband, David, has been killed in a fire and she thinks it was murder because of a letter he sent her just before the explosion that claimed his life.  Their marriage wasn’t a good one, but she did feel an obligation to check out the situation surrounding the fires that he had gone to Tennessee to investigate.  David’s half-brother, Trevor, is an architect and the victim of the fires.  Trevor was also Karen’s first unrequited love.  Now she is staying in his house with his wife and child and there is no end to the weirdness happening there.

I thought the mystery was good.  It was creepy and there were just enough people involved that you got to know them but not too many that you got confused.  I liked getting to know more about architecture and photography.  The book is dated, but not in a bad way.

I will say that the characters didn’t really behave in a way I expected, so I didn’t really connect with them, but I still enjoyed the mystery.  The only thing that seemed over the top was Karen’s love for Trevor.  For some reason it annoyed me, maybe because it seemed so baseless.

If you like Barbara Michaels or Victoria Holt, I think you’d like Whitney.

This was from my personal library.

Finished audio 4-11-11, 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 2001

Unabridged audion read by Dick Hill, 13 Hours

Jack Reacher series book #5 (Book 1) (Book 2) (Book 3) (Book 4)

Jack Reacher, loner extraordinaire, has hitched his way to Texas and run into Carmen, damsel in distress.  Carmen has a request for Reacher.  She needs him to kill her husband.  Reacher is unsure if he believes her story of abuse but once he meets her young daughter he decides to work at her ranch to see for himself.  There he finds a domineering family and his presence alone brings out their worst behavior.  So, what happens when fists and bullets start flying?

Jack Reacher is a hard man, a drifter, and a man you’d want on your side in any kind of fight.  He’s man who has no problem killing, if rightly deserved and tries to help those weaker than him who are being picked on or bullied.  I wasn’t sure about him in the first book but then fell for him in the next few.  The problem with this book, for me is that I never really felt any emotional attachment to Reacher, which is odd since I love the character.  So, for me, this one fell flat.  The story was boring and even Reacher made my mind drift as I was listening to this one.

The reader, Dick Hill, did a fine job, but I wonder if the voices that he used for the two women in the book, Carmen and Alice, made me dislike them both, at least a little.

If you haven’t read a Jack Reacher book you should, but don’t start with this one.

I checked this audio out of the library.

Finished 2-28-11, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 2008

Unabridged audio is 8 hours, 2 minutes.  Narrated by Karen White.

Josey Cirrini is a 27-year-old who hides sweets and romance novels in her closet so her perfect southern belle mother doesn’t see them.  She lives in servitude of her mother with no life of her own until a local woman shows up in her closet to hide out for a while, seemingly to escape a boyfriend.  She draws Josey out of her shell and she starts to develop relationships that her mother doesn’t approve of.  Chloe and Adam both give Josey the confidence she needs to take a look at life in the small North Carolina town where everyone remembers her as a mean child.

I sympathized with Josey, but only so far.  I understand about living in a small town, but her knee jerk reaction to her father’s death (this happened before the book began) and her choices because of it seemed extreme.  I was much more interested in Chloe’s mysterious book ability.  When Chloe had a need in her life the perfect book would appear in front of her.  How awesome would this be?  I totally loved Chloe’s story and her transformation.  I think this is why I liked but didn’t love the book, I wanted Chloe to be the main character, not Josey.  I wanted to give Josey a little tough love pep talk.

Lots of people told me I would like this one better that Allen’s first book, Garden Spells, but I didn’t.  Maybe I was expecting too much. It was good, but I didn’t love it like I did Garden Spells.  I wanted a little more magic.

I checked this audio out of the library.

Finished 2-19-11, rating 3.5/5, fiction, 305 pages, pub. 2008

It was a small cassette, not much bigger than the palm of his hand, and when Mike thought about the terrible license and risk exhibited on the tape, as well as its resultant destructive power, it was as though the two-by-three plastic package had been radioactive.  Which it may as well have been, since it had produced something very like radiation sickness throughout the school, reducing the value of an Avery education, destroying at least two marriages that he knew of, ruining the futures of three students, and, most horrifying of all, resulting in a death.

first lines of book

There is a video that has hit YouTube and come to the attention of the headmaster of a private school in Vermont.  In it there are three boys and a fourteen year old girl, all students of the school, performing sex acts while drunk.  The headmaster tries to keep it quiet, but that is not going to happen and the media descends on the school to pass judgement.  No one is left unscathed.

The story is told from multiple viewpoints, from the headmaster to the students to small players like the man who sold the kids the alcohol.  Not only were there too many perspectives to keep track of but the timeline jumped around quite a but making it a bit confusing.  I didn’t think it was too confusing, I actually thought it was fresh and interesting for the most part, but for me the story didn’t exactly hold up.  There was a good mix of characters, some sympathetic, some not, which made the story seem real.

It is very timely in the fact that so many kids are using media, like YouTube or Facebook, to put bad behavior on display.  It is an interesting topic, but I wish it had been dealt with a little more depth.  Kids are behaving badly and broadcasting it, some hoping it will get them attention or make them famous (hello, Kim Kardashian) so the fallout from it didn’t seem to fit the crime in my opinion.  I liked the twist at the end. Even though I saw it coming, it was still  powerful and a solid end to this cautionary tale.

I have loved the other Shreve books I’ve read, but this was one was a bit of a disappointment to me.  It actually took me quite awhile to finish it even though it read fairly fast.

This is from my personal library and was chosen by Marce, Alessandra, and Mystica.  Here’s what Alessandra had to say… “A sex scandal at a prestigious boarding school in New England has dire consequences on a whole community.”

Finished unabridged audio on 12-1-10, rating 3.5/5, inspirational for girls, pub. 2010

Read by Queen Latifah, with her mother Rita Owens

Queen Latifah has always seemed like a genuine and charming person to me.  I’m not really familiar with her music, but I do like to watch her on the big screen.  I even remember her from the 1990’s TV show, Living Single. So, I was very happy to win this audiobook from Zia.  I really like when authors read their work and I enjoyed listening to her tell her story.  Her mother also reads a small portion of the book.

Queen Latifah, real name Dana Evans, has led a life full of ups and downs and still managed to come out on top full of confidence and spirit.  This book is all about helping girls and young women find the confidence to be bold and brave and smart.  She does not claim to be perfect, far from it, she admits mistakes.  I think girls, especially those who like her and those who need the courage not to follow the crowd will really benefit from listening to this.  It is inspirational. 

I was not the target audience but I did enjoy it and Queen Latifah still seems like a genuine and charming person.  I am giving away this unabridged audiobook this month, you only need to be the first one to comment on this post and request it.