Don of the Dead, Finished 6-2-12, rating 3.25/5, 325 pages, pub. 2006

Book 1 of the Pepper Martin series.

Casey Daniels was one of the authors who spoke at the Ohioana Book Festival last month and I was surprised that I didn’t know about her series set in Lake View Cemetery here in Cleveland.  If you remember my post from last week, I think this cemetery is so beautiful and for all of its history it is a tourist attraction (and yes I know that seems weird).  Here’s another picture of the cemetery I took last weekend…

Idyllic, right?  Anyway, Daniels talked about her Pepper Martin series that spends most of its time in Lake View Cemetery.  I bought the book and this will be the third stop on my Ohio tour.

Pepper Martin is an ex-rich girl who now has to fend for herself and find a job.  Doctor Daddy is in federal prison for fraud and her prince charming dumped her.  Pepper finds a job as a tour guide for Lake View Cemetery and one night after she hits her head she finds that not all souls are resting in peace.  Gus Scarpetti, head of the mob, has been dead 30 years and he thinks it’s high time that someone finds out who offed him.  That someone is Pepper.  Pepper sees dead people.

Okay, I hate to start with what I didn’t like first, but since it was a problem for the first half of the book I must start here.  Pepper is not only beautiful, but she can make men do what she wants just by flashing her awesome boobs at them.  Seriously, everyone that Pepper came in contact with admired her perfect 36C breasts and she used it to her advantage in every situation possible.  It was her only way of obtaining information.  She didn’t seem to have much else going for her and it’s hard to like someone like that, especially when she’s 30 and should have developed some personality over the years.

Here’s what I did like.  I thought the mystery, when it finally became the focus of the book, was good.  After the so-so first half I was prepared to do some skimming in the second, but I became engrossed in the mystery of who killed Gus, probably because Gus is the best character/ghost in the story.  A mob boss has many enemies and surprisingly, after 30 years many of them are still around.  When I found out who did the deed I was surprised and satisfied.

Since we all know Pepper is beautiful she does meet two hot men and tries to keep them both interested.  There was a tease near the end about one of them that almost has me wanting to read the next book to find out more.  But ultimately, although Pepper ceased to annoy me by the end I’m not in any rush to spend more time with her.  Casey Daniels said in her talk that Pepper matures as the series progresses, so I won’t write her off just yet.  I’m just not in a hurry to read the next one.

Finished audio 1-31-12, rating 3/5, pub. 2007

Unabridged audio read by the author.  10 hours.

The three beautiful Heaney sisters are known as the Dreamy Heaneys.  They are the oldest of six in a tight-knit Chicago family in 1943.  As World War II rages on Kitty and Louise send their boyfriends off to fight Hitler and the sisters spend their nights at USO dances and writing letters to soldiers they’ve met.  Kitty finds herself compelled to aid the war effort and Louise is patiently waiting for Michael to come home so they can be married.  Their youngest sister just wants to make sure she never gets left behind and is in some ways more knowledgeable than her sisters.

This book has come at an interesting time for me.  My grandmother’s health is failing and listening to this book made me feel closer to her as I could so easily picture her life during her younger years.  Well, maybe not her life, but certainly the feeling of the country at the time.  Berg really drew me in and I learned so much about the girls who got left behind and what their lives were like when the men were off fighting.

I don’t read many WWII novels, just not my thing.  The only reason I chose this one is because I hope to read everything Berg has written, love her, and this was available at the library.  This is quite a departure from the other books but as I was reading I found myself thinking it might end up my favorite.  I loved the Heaney family and strong-willed Kitty, loyal Louise, and perky Trish.

Until the end.  Oh, the end.  I’m still trying to come to terms with it a day later.  I hated it.  I got what she was trying to do, but I hated it.  It made me dislike my favorite character of the book.  It was disappointing and, as you can see, I’m still ticked off about it.   As I looked at some of the reviews at B&N & Good Reads I know I am not alone.  I wasn’t even sure how to rate this book, a 4.5 for everything up until the terrible and rushed ending, which I’m giving a 1.

So, have you read it?  What did you think of the end?

I borrowed this audio from the library.

Finished 12-30-11, rating 3/5, classic fiction, 266 pages, pub. 1918

“I came to ask you something, Tony.  Grandmother wants to know if you can’t go to the term of school that begins next week over at the sod schoolhouse.  She says there’s a good teacher, and you’d learn a lot.”

Antonia stood up, lifting and dropping her shoulders as if they were stiff.  “I ain’t got time to learn.  I can work like mans now.  My mother can’t say no more how Ambrosch do all and nobody to help him.  I can work as much as him.  School is all right for little boys.  I help make this land one good farm.”

Chapter 17

Let me start by saying that we listened to the first half of this in the car on our holiday travels, but I could not make Jason listen to more.  He hated it.  He told me there was a good chance of him falling asleep while driving if we listened to more.  I had to agree that the audio wasn’t good.  The Bohemian accents were laughable to me and really ruined Antonia.  And it was fairly boring on the Nebraska farm.

Once home, I picked up the book and finished.  I am happy to report that it got better for me.  Jim, the narrator, who had crushed on Antonia since he was a boy on the farm moved to town with his grandparents and Antonia soon followed him, working at the house next door.  Their friendship had its ups and downs, but remained the dominant relationship in Jim’s life even decades later.

This is a great study of early Nebraska and the people who settled there, many foreigners who didn’t understand the land, the language, or the people. Foreigners like Antonia and her family.   Life working the land was hard and it could make people mean, but not Jim’s grandparents.  Jim went there to live with them after his mom and dad died back in Virginia and was blessed with a relatively easy life compared to some.

I thought this was alternately boring and interesting.  Just when something interesting would capture my interest it would be followed by pages of details that didn’t move the story along for me.  I think it’s a good study of one Nebraska farm girl’s life, but it may have been more compelling told from her point of view so that she was not just seen on the fringes of Jim’s life.

I would rate the first half/audio a 2 and the second half/paper a 3.5.  I read this for the states challenge and I do feel like I’ve been there.

This was from my personal library.

Finished 12-26-11, rating 2.75/5, romance, 186 pages, pub. 1977

Patty is a trick rider in the rodeo. She travels with her grandfather who helps her handle and train the six white horses Patty uses for her show.  The owner of the rodeo , Morgan Kincaid is overbearing and opinionated and clashes constantly with Patty.  The animosity is hiding a powerful attraction and Patty is the last to realize that not all fighting is bad. 

I rolled my eyes through the first half of the book, but once they arrived in Oklahoma and I learned a little more about the rodeo circuit and the history of Oklahoma I actually enjoyed the story.  Did you know that Oklahoma City is the only state capital with an oil well underneath?  Makes sense, but I didn’t know it.  So, it was melodramatic, but the small historical details made it tolerable.

Okay, this is the last of these small romances that I’ll be reading and complaining about, but I needed a romance and one from Oklahoma, and this one fit the bill.

I had this book in my personal library.

Finished audio 12-21-11, rating 3/5, romantic suspense, pub. 2009

Listened to the playaway narrated by Nick Podehl.  17 hours unabridged.

Lil and Cooper were best friends.  He spent his summers in South Dakota with grandparents and Lil was a local girl and the two of them managed to keep their friendship going through their early twenties.  At that point hormones and pride got in the way and they became distant.  A dozen years later Cooper has returned to South Dakota for good and Lil is there running her rescue habitat in the Black Hills.  It doesn’t take long for the two to reconnect, especially after a serial killer seems to have his eyes set on Lil.

I read Nora Roberts on occasion, in the almost 4 years I’ve had this blog this is the fourth Roberts’ book I’ve reviewed.  I usually like her stories but didn’t really care for this one.  There was no chemistry and the killer provided no mystery.  Lil was an okay character, but Chase wasn’t very charismatic.  They were kind of a boring couple.  It also could have been the 17 hours of listening that bored me.  I did like Lil’s rescue habitat.  I visited one we have in Ohio (post here) and think they are necessary places and labors of love, so that part of the story was interesting.

Finished 11-24-11, rating 3.5/5, fiction, 385 pages, published 2011

Lawyer David Zinc spent the majority of his day overbilling clients at the very successful Trust Tower in downtown Chicago.  One day as he takes the elevator to the 93rd floor he knows he cannot step off.  He cannot go to work.  He finds the closest bar and drinks enough alcohol to kill a normal person.  When the taxi drops him at Finley & Figg instead of home to his wife his fate is sealed.

Finley & Figg are ambulance chasers.  They’ve been hustling for 30 years and have nothing to show for it but a barely profitable law office.  Inconceivably, David makes himself an office out of storage space and signs on with the two lawyers.  When Wally Figg finds the next big tort case that will make them millionaires all three are thrown into a class action lawsuit that none of them are prepared for.

I’ve read Grisham here and there over the years and usually really enjoy them, but this one really did bore me until about 250 pages in and even then I didn’t love it, but at least I was more engaged.  The problem might have been that I didn’t really enjoy Figg and Finley and whatever positive feelings I had toward David were tempered by confusion over why he’d saddle himself with such shady lawyers.

I did like David and the office manager  Rochelle and was more interested in the smaller plot line involving children’s toys tainted with lead paint.  Made me want to throw out all of Gage’s toys immediately.  The end was good, but the book overall was just average for me.

I checked this book out of the library.

Finished audio 11-8-11, rating 3/5, fiction, pub. 1984

Unabridged audio 12 hours.  Read by Kate Reading.

Alexandra, Sukie, and Jane are witches who don’t have the best reputations around their small Rhode Island town.  Alexandra is the one who harnesses the most power but she is also the one who can’t get over the feeling that she has cancer growing in her.  When the rich Darryl Van Horne moves into a mansion, the three women become fixtures there, on his tennis court and in his hot tub.  The four of them enjoy a special physical relationship, each woman thinking that she holds Van Horne’s affection.  When another woman steps into the hot tub the witches decide a hex is needed.

The three women weren’t all that likeable.  They killed pets who annoyed them, were terrible, absent mothers, were fine with sleeping with married men, and they weren’t even great friends to each other, even though they had no one else.

As I listened to this in the car I felt like I needed to tell Gage to cover his ears in a few parts!  The women’s physical relationship felt icky to me and I do think it’s because I pictured Updike in his office typing the scenes and it felt like I was looking into his fantasy or something.  I know this is my own prejudice and maybe I wouldn’t have had the same reaction if I’d been reading it.

The writing was excellent, but I just didn’t like the story.  Having said that I am curious about the movie.  I can see it being campy fun, considering the cast, so I’ll have to check it out.

I borrowed the audio from the library.

Finished audio 9-12-11, rating 3/5, fiction, pub. 1815

Unabridged audio. 15 1/2 hours. Read by Nadia May

Emma Woodehouse is a spoiled English lady who enjoys high prominence in Highbury.  She fills her time by trying to improve people’s lives, her current victim, young, impressionable Harriet believes Emma when she tells her to set her sights high.  Emma is spurned in her attempts to help Harriet and she also faces a good deal of criticism from her old friend, Mr. Knightley.

This is my fourth Austen novel and my least favorite so far.  I just couldn’t muster any sympathy for Emma.  She thought very highly of herself even if she did seem to realize her shortcomings by the end.  The end just couldn’t come fast enough for me.  There wasn’t much a story to keep my interest either.  It all seemed like an aimless walk through the park without much to look at.  Mr. Knightley as a hero was the saving grace since he seemed to call Emma on her self-importance, but there wasn’t enough of him to save the book for me.

I know Austen fans might tell me I missed the subtle humor, the subtext.  And they would be correct.

This is from my personal library and was chosen by Candice, Jennifer, MsMazzola, Alita, Kathrin, and Wendy.  Here’s what they had to say…

“Everyone should read Austen.”  MsMazzola

“One of my favourite books and Emma Woodhouse is a brilliant character and this book is begging to be read.”  Jennifer

Finished 8-21-11, rating 3/5, romance, 378 pages, pub. 1993

It’s 1897 and Brett McCullum is looking for a newbie who needs to be led to the Alaskan gold towns.  Paulina Wintrop is poorly disguised as a boy so she could make the journey to find a family friend from her home in Utah.  Time is short and so are tempers.  Sparks fly between the two immediately and lots of sharp exchanges do little to disguise the interest.

This book is a bit of a hot mess. I was enjoying this above average, yet somewhat typical, historical romance when at a point fairly early on I realized this was not a typical romance at all.   There was a hidden city, a prince, and an island of jewels.  I was intrigued, but confused.  Then another turn and I was disappointed but still entertained.  So everything was fine until the end.  The end was such a letdown that I felt like I’d been cheated.  As you can see it’s hard to talk about without giving too much away.

I really enjoyed the dialogue and the two main characters so I might give Bourne another chance in the future, but it won’t be soon.  Isn’t that cover awful?

This book is from my personal library (although I have no idea how it came to be here!)