501 Must-See Movies, by Ann Lloyd, et al.

August 13, 201026 Comments

Finished 8-12-10, rating 4/5, film, first pub. 2005

It’s no secret that I love lists and Audrey Hepburn, so I considered it a real accomplishment when I was able to walk by this book on a few different bookstore visits without buying it. But, then I had a weak moment and snatched it up. I had a blast going through this fun book with its beautiful movie stills and information. The movies are broken into 10 different genres and I have watched a total if 188. For as many movies as I watch I was surprised the number wasn’t higher. Here’s my take on each of the categories.

Action/Adventure-I watched 20 from this category. My top rated movie, Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (A+). The one I most want to see, The Mission (1986). 5 are on my Top 100 list.

Comedy– I’ve watched 18 here. A tie for my top rated comedy, There’s Something About Mary (A+) and Meet the Parents (A+). The ones I most want to see, Harold & Maude (1971) and Born Yesterday (1950). 7 are on my Top 100 list.

Drama– I’ve watched 28 dramas. There is a 5 way tie, all with A grades, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Grapes of Wrath, 12 Angry Men, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Shawshank Redemption.. The ones I most want to see, Sweet Smell of Success (1957) & The Player (1992). 11 are on my Top 100 List.

Horror– I’ve watched 16. A 3 way tie, all with A’s, Psycho, Rosemary’s Baby, The Silence of the Lambs. The one I most want to see, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). Only the 3 listed are on my Top 100 List.

Musical– I’ve watched 16 of these. My favorite, The Sound of Music (A+). The one I’d most like to see, New York, New York (1977). 5 of these are on my Top 100 List.

Romance– I’ve watched 22 romances. My two favorites, The Philadelphia Story (A+) and Breakfast at Tiffany’s (A+). The ones I’d most like to see, Adam’s Rib (1949) and The Long, Hot Summer (1958). 9 of these are on my Top 100 List.

Science Fiction & Fantasy– I’ve watched 26 of these. The only F’s I gave in the entire book came in this category and I gave 3. My favorite was Alien (A). The one I’d most like to see is Brazil (1985). Only 2 made it on my Top 100 List.

Mystery & Thriller– I’ve watched 23 of these. My favorites are The Godfather & Se7en. The ones I’d most like to see, Strangers on a Train (1951) and The Sting (1973). Only 3 are on my Top 100 List.

War– I’ve seen 11 of these movies. I gave 3 A’s in this category. The Bridge on the River Kwai, Platoon, Schindler’s List. The one I’d most like to see, Catch-22. 2 of these are on my Top 100 List.

Western– I’ve only seen 8 westerns, obviously my least favorite category. My favorite was High Noon (A). The one I’d most like to see, The Magnificent Seven (1960).

If you are a movie lover this is a fun book. Now I have a great resource for times when I need some movies for my Netflix queue. This is from my personal library.

Odd Thomas, by Dean Koontz

August 12, 2010August 12, 20107 Comments

Finished 8-7-10, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 2003

My name is Odd Thomas, though in this age when fame is the altar at which most people worship, I am not sure why you should care who I am or that I exist.

I am not a celebrity. I am not the child of a celebrity. I have never been married to, never been abused by, and never provided a kidney for transplantation into any celebrity, Furthermore, I have no desire to be a celebrity.

first lines of book

Odd Thomas is a 20-year-old fry cook who lives in a small California town whose big aspiration is to someday go into selling tires or maybe shoes. You see, Odd has a gift, he sees dead people. These ghosts are stuck in Pico Mundo because they have not yet crossed over and Odd is sometimes able to help them do that. A few people know his secret, his girlfriend Stormy, the police chief, and Little Ozzie who convinces him to write this book. Odd finds it easier to live within in the confines of Pico Mundo, I mean who knows how many ghosts he may be inundated with in a large city, and to live with low ambitions. To do anything else might threaten his sanity, he thinks.

Then one day the bodachs arrive and Odd is scared. Bodachs are evil beings, not ghosts and not able to hurt the living, but they follow evil and Pico Mundo has just been overrun with hundreds and thousands of them. Odd needs to find out what’s going on before his town is devastated by unseen evil. With the help of his friends and a ghostly Elvis as a sometime companion, Odd is on the case.

This book was not what I expected. I love much of what Dean Koontz writes, they are often fast paced and intense, but this one was more introspective than the others I’ve read. Odd is a character that is fully fleshed out and his story grabs your heartstrings while at the same time engaging the reader in a thrilling mystery. There is humor and evil and heartbreak and Odd, a character you won’t soon forget. So, while I expected maybe more of a gripping thriller I was completely satisfied with the more fully realized story of Odd.

Koontz has written more books about Odd and I do plan on reading them.

This is from my personal library and was chosen by Donna, Sandy, and Sharon. Here’s what they had to say…

“A great book with wonderful characters. My whole family just loves Odd.” Donna

“I love Odd, he is a gentle soul.” Sharon

The Beach House, by Jane Green – audio

August 11, 2010July 29, 201212 Comments

Finished audio 8-6-10, rating 3/5, fiction, pub. 2008

This unabridged book was narrated by Cassandra Campbell

Nan is a widower who owns a large house in Nantucket. When her money runs out she decides the best thing to do is fix up the bedrooms and rent them out for the summer. She has two boarders, Daniel who has just come out of the closet to his wife and Daph who is on her own when her teen daughter spends the summer with her father. When Nan’s son, Michael shows up the house is full of camaraderie, even through turmoil.

The blurb on the back of the book focuses on eccentric Nan and she is a great character, but she was just a peripheral player once all of the house guests arrived. I liked Nan and would have loved the story being a little more deeply focused on her. While I liked all of the characters the book did become a little too thin when each of their stories were being told at once.

That being said it was a nice audio book for the car. It was easy listening, if not the most fulfilling of stories.

I checked this book out of the library.

NPR’s top 100 Killer Thrillers

August 7, 2010August 8, 201032 Comments

I love a good thriller, so when I saw that NPR was allowing us to vote for our favorites I was more than happy to cast my ballot. The results are now in (the link is here) and I now have a great list of thriller recommended reads. With over 1000,000 votes cast I think it’s a fairly comprehensive list. I’ve bolded the few I’ve read and commented on what I thought. What do you think of the list? Do you see a favorite that I need to read first?

1. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
3. Kiss the Girls, by James Patterson
4. The Bourne Identity, by Robert Ludlum
5. In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote – Just read this for the first time in January. My review here.
6. The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown – Gripping page turner.
7. The Shining, by Stephen King – Listened to the audio of this one in March. My review here.
8. And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie
9. The Hunt tor Red October, by Tom Clancy – My first and only Clancy. Surprised that I liked it so much.
10. The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
11. Dracula, by Bram Stoker
12. The Stand, by Stephen King
13. The Bone Collector, by Jeffery Deaver – Love this one and the whole series. My review here.
14. Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton
15. Angels & Demons, by Dan Brown – Fun hunt through Italy. My review here.
16. A Time to Kill, by John Grisham – It’s been a very long time but I remember liking it .
17. The Andromeda Strain, by Michael Crichton
18. Mystic River, by Dennis Lehane
19. The Day of the Jackal, by Frederick Forsyth
20. Rebecca, by Daphne du Maurier – I know I was supposed to love it but I didn’t
21. Eye of the Needle, by Ken Follett
22. It, by Stephen King
23. The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
24. The Girl Who Played with Fire, by Stieg Larsson
25. Jaws, by Peter Benchley
26. The Alienist, by Caleb Carr
27. Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris
28. Presumed Innocent, by Scott Turow
29. The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett
30. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, by Stieg Larsson
31. No Country For Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy
32. Gone Baby Gone, by Dennis Lehane
33. Gorky Park, by Martin Cruz Smith
34. Rosemary’s Baby, by Ira Levin
35. Subterranean, by James Rollins
36. Clear and Present Danger, by Tom Clancy
37. Salem’s Lot, by Stephen King
38. Shutter Island, by Dennis Lehane – I liked this one. My review here.
39. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, by John Le Carre
40. The Poet, by Michael Connelly – My first and only Connelly so far, but it was good. My review here.
41. The Boys from Brazil, by Ira Levin
42. Cape Fear, by John MacDonald
43. The Bride Collector, by Ted Dekker
44. Pet Sematary, by Stephen King
45. Dead Zone, by Stephen King
46. The Manchurian Candidate, by Richard Condon
47. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, by John Le Carre
48. The Talented Mr. Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith
49. Tell No One, by Harlan Coben – My first and favorite Coben and I’ve read them all.
50. Consent to Kill, by Vince Flynn
51. The 39 Steps, by John Buchan
52. Blowback, by Brad Thor
53. The Children of Men, by P.D. James
54. 61 Hours, by Lee Child
55. Marathon Man, by William Goldman
56. The Woman in White, by Wilkie Collins
57. 206 Bones, by Kathy Reichs
58. Psycho, by Robert Bloch
59. The Killing Floor, by Lee Child – Just started this series last year and am loving it. My review here.
60. Rules of Prey, by John Sandford – A big fan of this series. My love affair with Lucas begins with this one.
61. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
62. In the Woods, by Tana French
63. Shogun, by James Clavell
64. The Relic, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
65. Intensity, by Dean Koontz – This is very intense 🙂
66. Casino Royale, by Ian Fleming
67. Metzger’s Dog, by Thomas Perry
68. Timeline, by Michael Crichton
69. Contact, by Carl Sagan
70. What the Dead Know, by Laura Lippman
71. The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
72. The Cabinet of Curiosities, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
73. Charm School, by Nelson DeMille
74. Feed, by Mira Grant
75. Gone Tomorrow, by Lee Child
76. Darkly Dreaming Dexter, by Jeff Lindsay
77. The Secret History, by Donna Tartt
78. The First Deadly Sin, by Lawrence Sanders
79. Cryptonomicon, by Neal Stephenson
80. The Brotherhood of the Rose, by David Morrell
81. Primal Fear, by William Diehl
82. The Templar Legacy, by Steve Berry
82. The Hard Way, by Lee Child [tie]
84. The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fenimore Cooper
85. Six Days of the Condor, by James Grady
86. Fail-Safe, by Eugene Burdick and Harvey Wheeler
87. Strangers on a Train, by Patricia Highsmith
88. The Eight, by Katherine Neville
89. The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown
90. Goldfinger, by Ian Fleming
91. Bangkok 8, by John Burdett
92. The Kill Artist, by Daniel Silva
93. Hardball, by Sara Paretsky
94. The Club Dumas, by Arturo Perez-Reverte
95. The Deep Blue Good-by, by John MacDonald
96. The Monkey’s Raincoat, by Robert Crais
96. Berlin Game, by Len Deighton [tie]
98. A Simple Plan, by Scott Smith – This is a great book and one of my faves. More people should read it.
99. Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith
100. Heartsick, by Chelsea Cain

The Glass Castle, by Jeanette Walls

August 5, 2010August 5, 201035 Comments

Finished 8-1-10, rating 5/5, memoir, pub. 2005

Mom always said people worried too much about their children. Suffering when you’re young is good for you, she said. It immunized your body and your soul, and that was why she ignored us kids when we cried. Fussing over children who cry only encourages them, she told us. That’s positive reinforcement for negative behavior.

page 28

I usually start with a recap of the book, but today I’m starting with the fact that I loved this memoir. I don’t read a lot of memoirs, a few a year at most, but this one has me thinking that I’ve just been reading the wrong ones. I was completely captivated by the life of Jeannette and her family. I knew I wanted Jason to read it, but I think I may have ruined it for him because I couldn’t stop from sharing the horrifying, sad, and sometimes inspirational stories in the book.

For those that aren’t familiar Jeannette writes about her childhood traveling from state to state with her parents and three siblings. She starts by telling her first memory, when she was boiling hotdogs and caught herself on fire – at the age of three. She spends six weeks in the hospital before her father breaks her out. So begins the adventure that is her life. Her charismatic father convinces the kids that the FBI are on their tail so they have to stay on the run. In reality he is a drunk who cannot hold onto a job or money. The mother seems harmless enough at first, but only got worse with every story told. And by the end I was beyond mad at her complete lack of caring. The children grow up in extreme poverty.

It is the even-handed way that Walls tells her story that makes this book so wonderful. She is not bitter or pointing fingers. During her childhood years she and her siblings accepted their life and their parents and it was only later after a move to West Virginia when things became unbearable that she became frustrated. I am in such awe of her ability to come out of her situation intact and successful. I don’t really want to spoil too many details because I think once you start reading it you won’t be able to put it down and at 288 pages it won’t take you long to finish. Cannot recommend it highly enough.

This is from my personal library and was chosen by Marce, JoJo, Jenners, Molly, Sheral, Debby, Rebecca, Alita, Soft Drink, Melissa, and Angie. Here’s what they had to say…

“Excellent memoir that is so unbelievable it wouldn’t work if it was fiction.” Angie

“A fantastic memoir about a tough childhood, but the author refrains from being all ‘woe is me'” Soft Drink

“I read this last year and LOVED it. I can’t wait for Walls’ 2nd book.” Rebecca

“Excellent & unforgettable” Sheral

“The memoir I have read in the fastest sitting. Sucks you right in.” Molly

“One of the best memoirs I’ve ever read. You won’t easily forget it.” Jenners

Under the Tuscan Sun, by Frances Mayes

August 4, 201020 Comments

Finished 7-25-10, rating 3.5/5, travel memoir, pub. 1996

A guest earlier in the summer was on one of those marathon seven countries in three weeks trips. It’s tempting to mock that impulse but to me it’s extremely interesting when one chooses to power through that many miles. First of all, it’s very American. Just drive, please. And far and quickly.

Cortona, Noble City

In this Italian memoir Frances Mayes details her journey to Italy and buying and restoring a house there along with her significant other, Ed. Both are professors in San Francisco, but travel to their new Italian home every chance they get to work on the restoration process. It is more work than either were prepared for and they spent much of their time navigating the new idiosyncracies of their adopted country.

I love Italy. I would love to buy a home in Italy. And one day maybe I’ll convince Jason that it’s a necessity. I liked the comparisons between our cultures and the descriptions of life in the village. And I loved that she made her own olive oil. There were also many yummy Italian recipes included. Her sense of wanderlust was very appealing.

This is my first travel memoir and I enjoyed it, but I’m not sure it’s a genre that I will seek out. The writing was full of details which was both good and bad. I did not enjoy the minute detailing of every step of restoring their home or every meal they ate. It moved a little too slowly for me. This book took me months to finish because it was too easy to put down. If this hadn’t been chosen for me by you there is a good chance I wouldn’t have finished it.

I love the movie and there were really only a few things that were similar to this book. The movie did a wonderful job of showing the natural beauty of Italy as did this book. If you love Italy and travel memoirs this is the book for you. If you just loved the movie I think you could skip it.

This is from my personal library and was chosen for me by Jo Ann, GMR, Piroska, and Mystica. Here’s what they had to say…

“Escape to Italy and enjoy!” Jo Ann

“The movie was great and I’ve heard the book is even better.” GMR

Free Books for August

August 1, 2010August 1, 20107 Comments

Leave 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 time or two.

1. Naked Came the Manatee by Carl Hiaasen et al. Each of these Florida mystery authors writes a chapter in this zany story. hardcover. published in 1996 for Carol M

2. Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes. This travel memoir is a must for anyone who loves Italy or wants to visit, even if only for a few hours from a comfy reading chair. trade paperback. published 1996 for Darcy O

3. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. This classic is from my college days, so there are a few notes written in the book here and there, not more than a handful. mass market paperback. for Veens

4. Haunting Rachel by Kay Hooper. Suspense. mass market. published 1998 for Misha

Happy Reading 🙂

The Burning Wire, by Jeffery Deaver

July 28, 201012 Comments

Finished 7-21-10, rating 3.5/5, Mystery, pub. 2010

Book 9 in the Lincoln Rhyme series (1st-The Bone Collector, 2nd- The Coffin Dancer, 3rd- The Empty Chair, 4th- The Stone Monkey, 5th- The Vanished Man, 6th- The Twelfth Card, 7th- The Cold Moon, 8th- The Broken Window)

Since Kopeski worked for a disability rights organization Rhyme’s condition was nothing to him. An attitude that Rhyme approved of. He believed that we were all disabled in one way or another, ranging from emotional scar tissue to arthritis to Lou Gehrig’s disease. Life was one big disability; the question was simple: What did we do about it? Rhyme rarely dwelt on the subject. He’d never been an advocate for disabled rights; that struck him as a diversion from his job. He was a criminalist who happened to be able to move with less facility than most. He compensated as best he could and got on with his work.

Chapter 21

Forensic Criminologist and quadriplegic Lincoln Rhyme and his team are working on two cases at once. There is a potential terrorist attack using New York City’s electricity as a weapon and there is the ever elusive Watchmaker who has been taunting Lincoln for more than a year. And Lincoln has a visit from a group who specializes in helping people die with dignity, something he has considered in the past.

I love this series, but this may be my least favorite. There was way too much information about electricity and how it is harnessed and used in the beginning of the book. I actually started the book and put it down for a week, something I don’t remember ever doing with this series. Once the overabundance of information tapered off the story became much more fun and fast paced.

I did enjoy the extra storyline with FBI agent Fred Dellray. He hasn’t had a big story lately and it was great to see him back on the prowl and making tough choices. And Ron Pulaski had a great storyline too. So these combined with Lincoln’s consideration of assisted death made great storylines and I loved them. It was only all the electricity stuff that slowed down the story for me.

Love the series – start at the beginning!

This is from my personal library.

Potent Pleasures, by Eloisa James

July 22, 2010July 22, 20107 Comments

Finished 7-19-10, rating 3.5/5, historical romance, pub. 1999

The spring Charlotte turned 20, her family gave up hope of her marrying. In the three seasons since she made her debut she had done surprisingly well, considering that she rarely attended balls and had to be coaxed into attending garden parties and tea parties and rides in the park, the normal activities for gently bred young ladies.

Chapter 3

Lady Charlotte is fresh from boarding school and caught in situation with her friend where she makes a very bad decision. She decides this indiscretion left her unsuitable for marriage and she rebuffed any suitors. A few years go by and she decides, with the help of her very liberal mother, to put herself out there in the London ‘dating’ scene. Charlotte is beautiful and rich and has no trouble attracting potential husbands, but the one she has always wanted just walked back into her life without remembering her from their liason years before. He pursues her anyway and she tries to resist him because she is heartbroken he doesn’t remember her.

This is a very good first novel and I would gladly pick up another book by James because I enjoyed the writing. That being said this is a story set in late 1700’s through the early 1800’s and Charlotte and her mother were very modern in their behavior at times and this did take me out of the story. Also, things left unsaid is a hallmark of many romance, historical or otherwise, but this one was just too much. One or two sentences could have cleared up any misunderstanding and it did make the book feel a little too long. But even with those disappointments I will be giving Eloisa James another try because the story was entertaining and kept me interested.

This was from my personal library.

The Weight of Water, by Anita Shreve

July 21, 2010July 21, 201026 Comments

Finished 7-13-10, rating 4.5/5, fiction, pub. 1997

“Rich, I swear I think marriage is the most mysterious covenant in the universe. I’m convinced that no two are alike. More than that, I’m convinced that no marriage is like it was just the day before. Time is the significant dimension-even more significant than love. You can’t ask a person what his marriage is like because it will be a different marriage tomorrow. We go in waves.”

page 166

Jean is a married mother of a five-year old girl and a photographer. She and her family are on her brother-in-law’s boat on the islands off of Maine researching a story for a magazine feature. As Jean takes pictures of the island where a horrific crime took place in the 1800’s, she becomes convinced that her husband is having an affair with her brother-in-law’s beautiful girlfriend. This story is spliced with the truth about what really happened all those years ago.

It is haunting, sad, and drew me in right away. Beautifully told by alternating the past with the present I was even more invested in the old mystery surrounding a double murder and life on the inhospitable islands at the time. It was made better because it is based on a true story. Shreve used the old courtroom transcripts word for word, but made up the rest. It definitely made me curious about the real murders.

This is not a long novel and one that will keep you riveted. I never did fully connect with Jean, but I was fully engaged in the story. It left me thinking well after I finished reading and that is about as good a recommendation as I can give. I absolutely loved it!

This is from my personal library and was chosen by Piroska and Wanda. Here’s what Wanda had to say…”One of my all-time favourites.”

Stacy's Books

books, movies, and boy

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