The Cleveland Connection, by Les Roberts

December 30, 20093 Comments

Finished 12-30-09, rating 4/5, mystery, pub. 1993

Book 4 in the Milan Jacovich mystery series

I don’t kid myself that I’m changing the world during my brief tenure here, but I’d like to believe I’m at least making a little dent. I think we all nurture a secret terror that our living and dying will go unremarked, unmourned, that unlike Jimmy Stewart in that perennial Christmas movie, our life won’t make a damn bit of difference to anyone.

Chapter 2

Milan is a 40 year-old divorced police officer turned private detective who has spent his whole life in Cleveland, Ohio. When an old classmate hires him to find her missing grandfather and his good friend, Ed, starts receiving death threats, Milan is forced to bully, and bribe, and hope that he will still be in one piece when the day is done. There’s never a neighborhood bar he can’t find trouble in and rarely a woman not interested in this ex-football player.

There are many mysteries to be solved, but the main focus is on war criminals of World War II and the losses of the Serbians at the hand of the Nazis. It’s an interesting history lesson of the war and of Cleveland. Roberts really does capture the vibe of this city I live in the shadow of.

This book is much more introspective than the first three. Milan is single and lonely and it has made him melancholy. Milan is a great character who is always trying to do the right thing, but the right thing is not always black or white. I never know for sure what side Milan will come down on in complicated issues and that makes him a very interesting character.

I love this series and think it only gets better with each book. Roberts manages to keep many storylines going at once without ever confusing the reader and I appreciate that I can never see how it’s all going to come together until the end.

This book was from my personal library.

2009 Wrap-Up, part 1

December 30, 2009January 2, 20105 Comments

It’s been a fun blogging year and I’ll focus on a few of the numbers.

53 – Number of books I gave away

2 – Memes I participated in (Teaser Tuesday & Monday Movies)

9 – Series I continued (Sophie Metropolis by Carrington, Boston PD-FBI by Neggers, Stephanie Plum by Evanovich, Lincoln Rhyme by Deaver, Myron Bolitar by Coben, Lucan Davenport by Sandford, Women’s Murder Club by Patterson, Bailey Weggins mysteries by White, Milan Jacovich by Roberts)

7 – Series I started and plan to continue (Chesapeake Shores Trilogy by Woods, FBI Suspense Thrillers by Coulter, Elm Creek Quilts by Chiaverini, Della Cooks by Wells, Texas Rangers by Neggers, Sarah Woolson by Tallman, Tradd Street by White)

67 – New authors read this year. My favorite discovery must be Deborah Smith since I read 3 of her books this year.

35 – Blog awards received. Thank you!

1 – Author signing (Daniel Levin)

6 – Trip posts (Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, New York City, The Wilds of Ohio, Washington DC, Denver/Vail, Kelley’s Island)

100 – Favorite movies list posted.

Stop by tomorrow for my wrap up of favorite books and challenges.

The results are in…

December 29, 2009December 29, 200916 Comments

and you have chosen 50 of the 55 books I will read in 2010 for the Read Your Own Books Challenge.

Opening up the voting to you was fun! 71 of you voted for 1-5 books and the top vote getter was She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb with 12 votes. Here’s a photo of the top 50 vote getters. Half of these books received 4 votes or more.

Start from the top left and you’ll see the books with the most votes. The last stack on the right received 2 votes each. There were 5 others that had 2 votes, but I was able to choose which ones not to read. It was nice to have some choice 🙂 Here are the others that received 1 or 2 votes.

I cannot tell you how much fun it has been watching the votes come in! The book I am most excited to read, based just on the comments left by the 8 people who voted for it? The Tea Rose by Donnelly. The one I’m most intimidated by? War and Peace by Tolstoy. Yikes!

I want to thank each of you who voted. As I review each book I’ll give a shout out to the people who voted for it. Now for what you’ve all been waiting for. To choose a winner I had all of the books that had received votes lined up with a paper in it that had each of the voter names. I told Jason to go shopping for a book and he chose The Glass Castle (maybe because he brought this home for me from work) and then told him to choose a number between 1-10. He chose 7. The 7th person to vote for The Glass Castle? Alita of AlitaReads! Alita will receive a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble. If I could afford it I’d sent one to each of you.

You can see the list here with the people who voted for each one. Thanks for choosing half of my reading list for the new year 🙂

2009 Quizzes

December 28, 2009December 27, 20092 Comments

I love quizzes and posted one almost every Monday this year. I love that you participate! That’s what makes it so fun for me, so thank you very much for playing along. I will continue weekly quizzes in 2010 although they may be on a different day. I’ll let you know when I figure it out 🙂 So, here are the quizzes I posted this year. Feel free to click on any to check them out. I do still have my Help Me Help Myself & Win a Book Card ‘quiz’ open until tomorrow.

Welcome to 2009

What’s the Best Caption?

Notable Black Writers

What Woman Am I?

Green Title

Alternate Bestsellers

Hail to the Chief

Cry Me a Quiz

Tom Hanks Was In That?

Alan Rickman Was In That?

Patrick Swayze Was In That?

First Lines (1) (2)

Common Thread (1) (2) (3)

Presidental Censorship

Presiental Movies

Hug a Veteran

Renee Zellweger Was In That?

Thanksgiving Movies

What Book is That? (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7)

Sandra Bullock Was In That?

Last Lines

2009 Author Interviews

December 27, 2009January 5, 20107 Comments

This year I was able to interview 15 wonderful authors and if you missed any of my 9 on ’09 interviews you can click on the author below and check out the post. I asked each of them who he or she would choose if trapped in the life of one fictional character. With 4 1/2 votes (yes, one author chose 2) Elizabeth Bennett was the top vote getter. Some other choices- Scarlett O’Hara, Tinker Bell, Stephanie Plum, Tintin, and Anne of Green Gables. I do plan on continuing author interviews next year, even considering the highly creative 10 in ’10 title 🙂

Mary Doria Russell part 1 , part 2

Sherryl Woods

Laurie Dean

Emilie Richards

Eva Etzioni-Halevy

You Choose 50 of the Books I read in 2010

December 27, 2009December 29, 20094 Comments

UPDATE – Voting Closed. Results are here.

So, a few weeks ago I came up with this really great idea of letting the readers decide 50 of the books that I read next year. They had to be from my over 300 books and each person can only vote for 5. When the first few votes came in it was fun. Then a few more came in, still fun, but began to wonder what I had gotten myself into. The next day I began to think that I hadn’t really thought this whole thing through. It’s almost 2 weeks and 62 voters later and I have embraced the challenge. I mean what’s not to love about having to read War & Peace?

There is still time to vote! Please stop by my post and peruse my titles and vote for up to 5. If you click on each of the pictures they will enlarge for easier viewing. I am committed to reading the top 50 vote getters (if there’s a tie I will choose which ones to read). I am out of town until Tuesday, but when I get back I will choose one participant to win a $20 B&N gift card. Actually, Jason will choose randomly.

So, if you haven’t voted already, please do. The more votes I have the better chance that my 2010 reading list will be awesome 🙂 You have until Tuesday evening.

Go here to look at the titles and vote. See you all Tuesday 🙂 Right now A Prayer for Owen Meany and She’s Come Undone are the top vote getters with 10 votes apiece.

Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2009January 9, 201022 Comments

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!

Murder in the Air, by Ellen Hart

December 23, 2009December 23, 20092 Comments

Finished 12-23-09, rating 4/5, mystery, pub. 1997

Sophie Greenway Mystery series #4

Mother:

I haven’t got much time. By now, you’ve heard what happened. Don’t believe what the police tell you, please! Wait until you hear the story from me.

Opening Lines

Sophie Greenway and her radio talk show host husband, Bram, live at the fancy hotel she owns and runs in the Twin Cities. The hotel is the temporary home to actors who have come to St.Paul to work in a new live radio mystery theatre serial. The new owner of the radio station, Heda Bloom, has decided to use this series to change public opinion that her son murdered his lover 30 years before and is still on the loose. By bringing back the original actors from this series all the players from the time of the crime are back. She has hired a reclusive writer for the series, one she has never met but who seems very familiar with the all the players in the Justin Bloom story.

This is a mystery that is brimming with characters and plot. I was engrossed in the story and had to pay attention to keep up with everything that was happening, so that I was completely unprepared for the end. I mean I was floored, didn’t see it coming at all. I don’t usually start a series in the middle, because I want the story of the characters from the beginning, but I picked this up at a used bookstore because I needed one more holiday book for my quiz and I’m so glad I did. As much as I don’t want to start another series right now I may have to look for the first one.

The book isn’t perfect. Sophie’s son is preparing a commitment ceremony with his boyfriend and while not a major storyline, felt a little like a public service announcement for tolerance (a good theme, but seemed forced into the story). Although I guess she could have been following up on a major storyline from an earlier book. See the questions I have when I don’t read a series from the beginning?! And while I loved the big payoff at the end of this mystery I wanted a little more, maybe to see a little more of the fallout.

I would recommend this for mystery lovers.

You will choose 50 of the books I will read next year. If you help me you could win a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble. Go here to vote. (Right now there is a tie for the top vote getter between A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving and She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb)

Last Lines Quiz

December 21, 2009January 5, 201014 Comments

As we approach the end of a decade I thought it would be appropriate to see what last lines of famous literature you would know. Please leave the # and the title and author’s last name. No Googling – that’s cheating and no fun!

1. So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald – Florinda

2. But I reckon I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. I been there before. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Twain – Susan

3. He loved Big Brother. 1984 by Orwell – AlitaReads

4. ‘It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.’ A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens – Bermudaonion

5. I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita. Lolita by Nabokov – Candice

6. Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity! Bartleby the Scrivener by Melville – Susan

7. I don’t hate it he thought, panting in the cold air, the iron New England dark; I don’t. I don’t! I don’t hate it! I don’t hate it! Absalom, Absalom! by Faulkner

8. Lastly, she pictured to herself how this same little sister of hers would, in the after-time, be herself a grown woman; and how she would keep, through all her riper years, the simple and loving heart of her childhood; and how she would gather about her other little children, and make their eyes bright and eager with many a strange tale, perhaps even with the dream of Wonderland of long ago; and how she would feel with all their simple sorrows, and find a pleasure in all their simple joys, remembering her own child-life, and the happy summer days. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Carroll – Word Lily

9. Are there any questions? The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood – ‘Nise

10. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which. Animal Farm by Orwell – Candice

11. Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody. Catcher in the Rye by Salinger – Candice

12. For now she knew what Shalimar knew: If you surrendered to the air, you could ride it. Song of Solomon by Morrison

13. “Tomorrow, I’ll think of some way to get him back. After all, tomorrow is another day.” Gone with the Wind by Mitchell – Susan

14. He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance. Frankenstein by Shelley

15. And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One! A Christmas Carol by Dickens – Wrighty’s Reads

You will choose 50 of the books I will read next year. If you help me you could win a $20 gift card to Barnes & Noble. Go here to vote. (Right now the top vote getter is A Prayer For Owen Meany by John Irving)

The Christmas Box, by Richard Paul Evans

December 20, 20095 Comments

Finished 12-20-09, rating 3.5/5, fiction/novella, pub. 1993

“Tell us, Richard, which of the senses do you think are most affected by Christmas?”

I looked over a t Keri. “The taste buds,” I said flippantly. Keri rolled her eyes.

“No. I take it back. I would say the sense of smell. The smells of Christmas. Not just the food, but everything. I remember once, in grade school, we made Christmas ornaments by poking whole cloves into an orange. I remember how wonderful it smelled for the entire season. I can still smell it. And then there’s the smell of perfumed candles, and hot wassail or creamy cocoa on a cold day. And the pungent smell of wet leather boots after my brothers and I had gone sledding. The smells of Christmas are the smells of childhood.”

Chapter IV

Rick, his wife and four-year old daughter move into a mansion in Salt Lake City to take care of an elderly lady, only she seems to need companionship more than anything else. Rick is just starting a new business and spends little time at home and when he does he is distracted by work. Mary, their host and employer, strives to show Rick what is really important.

I’m sure most people have read this. I put out my beautiful copy every Christmas. But here’s a confession – while I’ve faithfully displayed it every year for over a decade, until today it had remained unread. I know, I know, how is this possible? Well, I’m really not into sugary sweet stories that try too hard and I thought this to be the case with this short book. And then today I counted how many books I’ve read this year and discovered that I need to read four more to reach my goal of 130 by the end of the year. So, this book was read out of necessity.

This is a sugary sweet story that tries too hard, exactly as I expected. Only I didn’t mind. It didn’t take more than an hour to read and it put me in the Christmas spirit. Not the frantic wrapping/shopping kind, but the what Christmas is all about kind of spirit. I’m ready to finish up everything I need to do this week, only I’ll do it with a lot less stress.

I think if you have a copy in the house you should take an hour to read it again and be reminded that Christmas is what we make it.

Stacy's Books

books, movies, and boy