Seconds Away. Finished audio 4-28-13, rating 4/5, YA thriller, pub. 2012

Unabridged audio. 7 hours 46 minutes. Read by Nick Podehl who did a fantastic job as Mickey.

Book 2 of the Mickey Bolitar series (Book 1)

Mickey Bolitar is a smart kid with a smart mouth (just like his uncle Myron) and this book picks up just a week after the first one.  Mickey is a kid who knows how to find trouble, or maybe trouble finds him, either way, his story is a thrill ride that few high school sophomores are able to experience.  His dad is still dead (probably), his mom is still a junkie in rehab, and his uncle is still his caretaker, other than that life moves on.  He gets caught in a fire at Bat Lady’s house, find out who the bald man in the sunglasses is, tries to figure out who shot his crush and killed her mom, finds out the truth about Ema’s parents, and tries out for the basketball team.  I had forgotten how much trouble teenagers could find in a day!

I liked this one a lot, maybe even a little better than the first.  I had to suspend disbelief from the beginning, but once I did that I just hung on for the ride. Many of these storylines (Bat Lady, the Butcher, his dad’s death) are continuations from the first book, but there are so many new threads to the story that it felt new.  Some things got wrapped up, some things didn’t and I am looking forward to spending more time with Mickey in the next book.

I wish Coben would write more Myron books so I liked seeing him show up in this one.  If you like the Myron series and you are willing to read about teens then this series is lots of fun.

I checked the audio out of the library.

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The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett. Finished 4-22-13, rating 5/5, novella, 120 pages, pub. 2007

My to-read list is small this year.  I started with only 9 books and this is the fourth I’ve read so far.  It made my list because Carol (Carol’s Notebook) had it on her end of 2012 survey as having the greatest impact, and it was even a reread!  So I need to thank Carol because this is my favorite book so far this year – thanks 🙂

What she was finding also was how one book led to another, doors kept opening wherever she turned and the days weren’t long enough for the reading she wanted to do. (p.21)

The Queen is out with her dogs one day when she discovers the bookmobile parked by the palace.  So begins her discovery of the joys of reading for pleasure.  Always one to take her duties seriously, reading somehow begins to creep into her schedule, making her mundane duties most unpleasant since she must leave her book behind.  And as the staff becomes more put-off by the reading, the Queen takes a hard look at her obsession.  She is a doer, and ultimately, a choice must be made.

Had she been asked if reading had enriched her life she would have had to say yes, undoubtedly, though adding with equal certainty, that it had at the same time drained her life of all purpose.  Once she had been a self-assured single-minded woman knowing where her duty lay and intent on doing it for as long as she was able.  Now all too often she was in two minds.  Reading was not doing, and that had always been the trouble.  And old though she was, she was still a doer.

She switched the light on again and reached for her notebook and wrote: ‘You don’t put your life into  your books.  You find it there.’  (p.100-101)

This delightful story enticed me with its lightness, but captured me with its unabashed love of reading books.  As the Queen notes, reading is a generally solitary pursuit and many of her thoughts on this stuck with me, especially as I was passing out books to strangers for World Book Night.  Thankfully, we can and do find ways to connect through reading.  This will make you take a look at your own reading life, and most likely, you’ll identify with the Queen’s discovery of the new worlds books open and her eagerness to share what she’s read.  I don’t think the general public is as unread as this author seems to think, but maybe they are and I just don’t want to see it.

This is a must read for all book lovers. I plan on gifting this lovely novella to the readers in my life.  I had this one on my shelves (and waited way too long to read it).

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Living Out Loud. Finished 4-19-13, rating 3.25/5, essays, 278 pages, pub. 1988

A collection of Quindlen’s columns that she wrote for The New York Times starting in 1986 until the book was published in 1988.  The columns range from her looking back to growing up in the 1960’s to her raising her own children.  I found that I really couldn’t connect with much in these columns.  There was such a focus on being a woman and what that meant for her in relation to feminism, having a career and children that I felt like I was past the birth cut-off date for optimal reading enjoyment.  It was dated, but since I am a woman and mother I was hoping to get more out of it.  I’ve enjoyed her novels but I’m not sure if I’ll read more of her nonfiction. There were a few of the columns that really spoke to me  and I’ll include a bit from them.  This was from my own library.

I work out for a very simple reason, and it is noy because it makes me feel invigorated or refreshed.  The people who say that exercise is important because it makes you feel wonderful are the same people who say a mink coat is nice because it keeps you warm.  Show me a woman who wears a mink coat to keep warm and who exercises because it feels good and I’ll show you Jane Fonda.  I wear a mink coat because it is a mink coat, an I work out so that my husband will not gasp when he runs into me in the bathroom and take off with an eighteen year old who looks as good out of her clothes as in them.   (from Stretch Marks)

It reminded me that too often we take our sweet time dealing with the things we do not like about our children: the marriage we could not accept, the profession we disapproved of, t he sexual orientation we may hate and fear.  Sometimes we vow that we will never, never accept those things.  The stories my friend told me about the illness, the death, the funeral and, especially, about the parents reminded me that sometimes we do not have all the time we think to make our peace with who our children are.  It reminded me that “never” can last a long, long time, perhaps much longer than we intended.  (from Gay)

I accept the fact that mothers and daughters probably always see each other across a chasm of rivalries.  But I forget all those things when one of my friends is down with the flu and her mother arrives with an overnight bag to manage her household and feed her soup (from Mothers)  in honor of my own mother who did this very thing for me this week.  Love you 🙂

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Collision Bend. Finished 4-12-13, rating 4/5, 275 pages, pub. 1996

Book 7 of the Milan Jacovich series. (Book 1) (Book 2) (Book 3) (Book 4) (Book 5) (Book 6)

And the differences aren’t all physical differences, either.  It’s in the thinking.

Men, for instance, have great powers of concentration, almost a tunnel vision, that allows them to laser in on one spot;they are imminently suited to microsurgery, to rebuilding the transmission of a 1956 Thunderbird, and to many types of engineering.  Women, on the other hand, make wonderful executives because they are able to do several things at once, efficiently and well, and have remarkable peripheral awareness, something that is lacking in most males.  A woman president would probably do a hell of a job-better than many of the men we’ve had in the White House.

Chapter 15

Ex-cop and current Cleveland private detective, Milan Jacovich, is as old school as  they come.  He tells it like it is and doesn’t take any crap from people.  Milan has an ex-wife and two teenage boys but they don’t make an appearance, but his ex-girlfriend Mary, does.  When Mary blows back into Milan’s life it’s to ask for a favor, she wants him to prove her boyfriend innocent of murder, of murdering the other woman he was sleeping with.  Milan only wanted to hurt the guy, but he could not resist Mary and he takes the case.

Virginia Carville, a young television reporter is murdered in her home and Milan starts there, with her neighbor, bestselling romance novelist, Rosemary Kelley.  Milan shows his willingness to man up by reading one of her books, but then shows his prejudice by dismissing it.  This is one instance I thought Milan was being a little too old school 🙂 Milan has to dig to find other suspects, but when he does the storylines are compelling.  I wasn’t sure who did it, but they all deserved to get sent away for it.

I have expressed my love for Milan since discovering his first book years ago.  The fact that they take place in Cleveland and it’s nice to see my city represented was the attraction, but it’s Milan  that keeps me coming back for more.  He has such a common sense intelligence and steadfast character that you can’t help but love him.  The fact that he is tough enough to take care of himself and those he loves just makes me love him more.

This was not my favorite, BUT, I have never been disappointed in any of these mysteries and love recommending them.  Great main character and complex storylines make this series great.  Come on, get on the bandwagon 🙂  This was from my own library.

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Kelleys Island:An Island Story by Claudia M. Brown. Finished 4/11/13, 80 pages, pub. 2006

Jason and I have been taking a yearly vacation to Kelleys Island, Ohio, with my parents since 2007.  Jason wanted somewhere close and relaxing.  I found Kelleys Island, the largest of the US Lake Erie islands at 4.4 square miles, less than an hour and a half away.  This island is so quaint and isolated that we fell in love with it as a place to get away.  There is no bridge, you’ve got to take your car over on a 20 minute ferry ride, so the place never seems overrun, even during the summer when many tourists go island hopping using the different boat for day visitors without cars.

I thought this book was fascinating.  For such a small place there is a lot of history.  Inscription Rock is there to see.  The pictographs were done by Native Americans between 1200-1600 since the latest of the pictures have white men, but no guns.  The Glacial Grooves exist from the last Ice Age, about 18,000 years ago, when the glaciers scoured into the soft limestone bedrock.  Stripped of soil these grooves are 400 ft by 35 ft. and contain a fossil record for all to see. Both of these are under the care of the Ohio Historical Society.

In the 1700′ s the Native Americans used it as shortcut to Canada but by the War of 1812 the military was using it and the Native Americans were driven away.  In 1827 only four people lived there and that’s when continuous habitation began for the white folks.  In 1833 the Kelley brothers began investing in quarrying and the rest is history.

Because it’s so isolated I’ve always been curious about the population. In 1863, there were 600 people and that was up to 1,174 in 1900.  The 2010 census had the permanent population at 312.  That’s quite a drop!  In the winter the lake freezes over and you are stuck there with no doctor, but a plane that may or may not be able to fly you to the mainland.  I love the charm of this island but don’t think I could do it. Summer residents compose about 75% of the island’s population.

Anyway, this book is a very detailed history and as someone who knows the island, I loved it!  Makes me look forward to our trip this year.  Here are links to past posts about our trips and a few pics. 2012 2011 2009

The Peach Keeper.Finished audio 3-25-13. 4 stars, pub. 2011

Unabridged audio 7 hours, 35 minutes. Read by Karen White who did an excellent job.

When I read Allen’s first novel, Garden Spells, I fell in love with this writer who embodies lightness and magical realism in such a beautiful way.  I love the southern charm and those moments of the supernatural in her books.  I always finish satisfied.  Once I got past that expectation I enjoyed the book for what it was, a great story of friendship among women, from one generation to the next.  Some of the whimsy was missing, but only missing because I expected it.

Wall of Water, North Carolina, is home to Willa, Paxton, and Sebastian.  Though none of them were friends in high school, Paxton and Sebastian are inseparable now.  Willa own her own store and lives a happy but quiet life.  When Paxton restores the Blue Ridge Madam, an old home important to Willa’s family, it brings a mystery that leads them both to their grandmothers, looking for answers.

I loved the friendship that forms between Willa and Paxton, much like the one their grandmothers shared many years ago.  By the end of the book I was ready to look up some of my friends from high school to see if we could be BFFs again.  I also loved how the story showed how much where and how we grow up influences who we are as adults, and not just in the obvious ways.  I moved away from home when I went to college and, except for a 5 month pit stop after I graduated, I’ve never moved back.  So, I understood when Paxton’s brother didn’t want to move back to Wall of Water, afraid he’d forever be labelled ‘Stick Man’.  And Paxton, who had never lived anywhere else, lived the opposite life, always struggling with the expectations placed on her.  There was was much to like about this story.

SAA delivers once again.  She can’t write fast enough for her fans 🙂