Tag: Books

Until Now…, but Denise Skelton

7 Comments

Until Now...Finished 12-2-09, rating 3.5/5, romance, pub. 2009

It was only 7:30 am, but if today was going to be anything like yesterday, she knew that her Saturday was not going to be good.  If finding only ninety-eight cents when she needed almost three dollars in order to get a half-gallon of milk was any indication, she knew that this was going to be a great start to another shitty day.

Chapter 4

Terry is having a tough time.  Her ex-husband has knocked up his new wife for the third time while completely ignoring their two sons and bills are past due, basics like electricity and telephone are in danger of being shut off.  Terry is desperate to provide for her kids without resorting to taking her ex to court for money, and decides that starting a day care at her house would pay the bills.

Wade is an undercover  FBI agent  moving back to Chicago to work as a teacher while investigating a drug problem at the school.  He must also confront his abusive father while still maintaining a relationship with his saintly mother.  And then he keeps running into Terry in the most unfortunate situations and he starts to appreciate this brash and sexy mom.

Terry is a main character that I in turn was exasperated with and in love with.  She seems to always do the wrong thing, but she is a loving mother.  She does things that make me understand why she found herself in a bad situation, like smashing her phones when she doesn’t even have enough money for a carton of milk and I just wanted to shake her (and tell her to quit using the word ass in so many creative ways)I like a character who isn’t perfect and Terry is definitely that.  Wade is pretty much a saint and I figure that he’ll tame her a bit.  Eventually.

The story and writing kept me reading and I finished it in a day.  It isn’t so much a romance as a family drama with two people who need to find each other.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I did not really like the cover, but that certainly didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book.  Skelton wrote two other books with characters from this story and I would certainly read them.

I received this book from the author.

The Jane Austen Book Club, by Karen Joy Fowler

7 Comments

The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler: Book CoverFinished 12-1-09, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 2004

“It does bother me that Austen wouldn’t make up a good man who finds Charlotte worth having.  The Brontes would have told her story very differently.”

“Charlotte on Charlotte,” Allegra said. “I will always love the Brontes best.  But that’s just me – I like a book with storms in it.”

discussing Pride & Prejudice

Jocelyn is the heart of this small book group.  She has personally asked five women and one man to meet monthly to discuss the six Jane Austen novels.  Jocelyn, a 50 something spinster of sorts, Sylvia, her best friend who was recently left by her husband,  Allegra, Sylvia’s lesbian daughter, Bernadette  a talkative eccentric, Prudie a married French teacher, and Grigg, a man who loves science fiction, all experience their own Austen-like life changes in the course of their six month book club.

Each monthly meeting focused on one member of the group and what was going on in their lives in relation to the book they were reading.  I’m not sure I loved any of the members, but I did like Grigg and maybe Allegra.  I loved the individual stories, but the plot moving the book along and tying the chapters together was a little slow for me.

Beautifully written and less discussion of the Austen books than I expected.  Actually, I thought I would have to be more familiar with the Austen books before reading this (I’ve only read two), but I think this would be good for someone thinking about trying a Jane Austen novel for the first time.

I should say that if I had stopped when the story was over I would have given this book a 3.5, but Fowler included additional information that I loved.  My favorite part was the pages and pages of criticism and praise for Austen.  There is the response from family and friends to each of the books and there are the comments on Austen from literary greats such as Charlotte Bronte, Mark Twain, Willa Cather, and Virginia Woolf, to name a few.  There was also a recap and questions for each book.  It was these additional parts that I loved best.

This was from my personal library.

Free Books (and a Puzzle) for December

7 Comments

Leave a comment, tell me which book or puzzle you want and I’ll get it to you for FREE either by mail or personally if I’ll see you soon.  The first one to request each book or puzzle wins.  Once you’ve ‘won’ 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 few times.

1. Silent Partner by Jonathan Kellerman – Alex Delaware novel.  Mass Market. Published 1989. 484 pages. Review here.  for Word Lily

2. Kiss Them Goodbye by Stella Cameron. Mass Market. Published 2003. 461 pages. Review here. for Calila

3. Comfort Woman by Nora Okja Keller. Trade Paperback. Published 1997. 213 pages. Review here.  for Em

I love jigsaw puzzles.  I’ll probably offer one a month through the winter months.  I chose this one for December because I think it would be a great one to do with kids home on break.  It has all of the Presidents, even our current one 🙂

4. United States Presidents jigsaw puzzle.  1000 pieces. 24 x 30 inches.  It’s been put together once.  for Jenny

Teaser Tuesday – The Jane Austen Book Club

18 Comments

teasertuesdays31Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current read. Open to a random page. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!). Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

 

My parents believed children should have lots of free time.  They believed in dreaming.

Chapter 2

This is the same book I was reading two weeks ago, but I will finish it today.  I just need to keep telling myself that 🙂 So what are you reading today?  Visit MizB for more teasers.

What Christmas Book is That Quiz?

14 Comments

Answers to last week’s Thanksgiving Movies Quiz here.

Can you identify these books by their censored titles?  Leave a comment with the number, title and author or authors.

1. MURDER IN THE AIR BY ELLEN HART

2. CHRISTMAS JOURNAL BY MARY ENGELBREIT

3. The Night Before Christmas – Wrighty’s Reads

4. THE CHRISTMAS BOX BY RICHARD PAUL EVANS

5. Searching for Santa by Janet Dailey – Nise’

6. The Christmas Thief by Mary Higgins Clark & Carol Higgins Calrk – Nise’

7. THE SNOW BRIDE BY DEBBIE MACOMBER

8. Deck the Halls by MaryHiggins Clark & Carol Higgins Clark – Wrighty’s Reads

9. WHEN CHRISTMAS COMES BY DEBBIE MACOMBER

10. Skipping Christmas by John Grisham – Wrighty’s Reads

The Year of Pleasures, by Elizabeth Berg

10 Comments

The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg: Audio Book CoverFinished audio 11-23-09, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 2005

Betta Nolan is recently widowed and feeling alone in the world.  With no family, her husband had been the center of her universe and now in her mid-fifties she is set to embark on an adventure.  She sells her home in Boston and buys a large Victorian home in a small town outside of Chicago.  She chose the town at random and bought the house on a whim and she has her weak moments where she thinks she has made a big mistake.  Betta is still grieving and by making a few new friends and finding old ones she is able to start healing.

Betta’s heartbreak was touching and I felt for her as she tried to let go of her old life and forge ahead with new dreams.  It was easy to put myself in her place.  I was proud of her for taking her friend’s advice to purposefully do something everyday that makes you happy.  We should all take that advice.

I really liked this book.  I’ve seen people compare Berg’s books to sitting down with an old friend and I agree.  There is a familiarity in her writing that draws me in.  I felt that way about this one, but it was not without faults.  A few of the storylines were skipped over at the end and I felt a bit cheated out of knowing what happened.  So, while this wasn’t my favorite Berg novel I did enjoy it.

This was a library copy.

Killing Floor, by Lee Child

15 Comments

Cover ImageFinished 11-21-09, rating 4/5, mystery, pub. 1997

Jack Reacher series, book 1

They had come prepared.  They’d known there was going to be a lot of blood.  They’d brought overshoes.  They must have brought overalls.  Like the nylon bodysuits they wear in the slaughterhouse.  On the killing floor.

Chapter 12

Jack Reacher is an ex-military cop who is roaming the United States, seeing the country he barely knows after a lifetime (36 years) spent on military bases around the world.  A random memory of a story that his brother told him makes him step off the Greyhound bus and walk 14 miles to the small, pristine town of Margrave, Georgia.  As he is having breakfast at the diner he is arrested for the murder of two bodies found while he was on the road.  And this is where the fun begins.

Jack has an alibi, but that will not save him from dangerous time in prison or from people trying to frame him.  He does get some help from new friends, but he will have to rely on his own considerable skills to get him out of this mess.  And Jack is more than able to take care of himself.

I love graphic, gritty, and grisly mysteries.  I wouldn’t want to read a steady diet of them, but occasionally that’s all that will fit the bill.  This one fits all of those descriptors and a few more.  It is an amazing debut novel from Lee Child, it even won a few mystery awards when it was first published. 

I really liked this book and it can be read as a stand-alone novel.  There is nothing left hanging that will make you finish the series unless you need more of Jack Reacher.  And for me, Jack is not a guy I fell in love with.  He’s a hard man and while some of the book may have had too much detail, there was too little time spent addressing Jack’s sense of right and wrong.  So, I was left feeling a little uneasy about him. 

I liked this book and if you like the Jason Bourne type character then I think you will like this one.  I will read the next in the series to see the growth of Child and Reacher from book one to book two. 

This was a library book.

The House on Tradd Street, by Karen White

13 Comments

Cover ImageFinished 11-10-09, rating 4/5,  fiction, pub. 2009

I recalled that when I was a child, before I’d learned to ignore such things, if I were paying very close attention, I could hear the murmur of very low voices all the time as if someone had left a radio on in a distant room.  But tonight all I heard was silence, and the pressing thought inside my skull.  The photo album.

I put on my robe and slippers and headed toward the guest bedroom, turning on every light as I went.  Regardless of how many times I saw them, it was always easier to see dead people when the lights were on.

Chapter 11

Melanie Middleton is a very successful real estate agent in Charleston, an expert at selling historical homes while having no love for them at all.  When she visits a new client one day and becomes the owner of his historical house a few days later due to his death, she is not happy.  She is forced to live in the house for a year and is given an allowance to restore it.  Only she is not the only one in the house.  The spirits who stay there both fight her and push her into solving a generations old mystery.

Her best friend Sophie and estranged father are both on board to help, as well as a good-looking true crime author working on his next big story.  Before long Melanie is forced to confront her past with her father and accept the help of a man she knows is silently grieving.  And these ghosts are not the Casper kind.  They can do real damage.

I really liked this book.  Melanie is a feisty 39 year-old woman who has relied on no one to achieve success and I was rooting for her to comes to terms with her father and grow to love the house.  The mystery of the missing diamonds was one that had me guessing til the end and the ghosts, while unnerving, added depth to the story. 

White writes with great humor and attention to detail and I am looking forward to the next book with Melanie.

This was a library book.

Golden Conspiracy: A Jacsen Kidd Mystery by Robert James Glider

7 Comments

Golden Conspiracy: A Jacsen Kidd MysteryFinished 11-13-09, rating 2.5/5, fiction, pub. 2009

“Our elders’ chants of truth and example are like the writings of the apostles in the Bible.  The chants make them immortal by the lessons their stories give, helping our children make important decisions about life, love, survival, marriage-anything associated with the human condition.  We sing them in the language of our ancestors so our children never forget their heritage.”

“How do you exchange stories that are not written?” Peri asked.

“Each month a council meeting is held, and afterward a family meeting,” George explained.  “Each family’s representatives sing the stories.  You see, the chants are considered collective treasures among our people.”

Chapter 10

In 1503, a Spanish ship sank and was lost forever, as was all of the valuable gold on board.  Now it’s 2010 and as the direct descendant of a famed pirate, Jacsen Kidd, spends his time recovering valuable treasures and donating them to museums.  He and his partner, chef Peri Schmoond, are on the hunt for the Spanish ship that is at the bottom of the Caribbean sea.  But they aren’t the only ones searching for the gold.  A frequent nemesis and a man long thought dead are both following the pair and don’t care if innocent people die.

I rarely accept books for review and I’m not sure why I decided to accept this one.  It is a treasure hunt with killers and pirates, not my usual reading.  But I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy the high seas adventure.  There was quite a bit of history about sailing and the islands and there was no shortage of action. 

This is Glider’s first novel, the first of three Jacsen Kidd mysteries, and with this comes my most glaring problem with the book.  It needed  a firm hand with the red pen.  There was an exclamation point on every page, sometimes more.  I felt like there was lots of yelling.  I’m not trying to be harsh, because the story was good, but it was distracting to me.  I think it would appeal to boys and young men looking for adventure on the high seas.

This book was sent to me by the author.

Teaser Tuesday- The Jane Austen Book Club

18 Comments

teasertuesdays31Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:Grab your current read. Open to a random page. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!). Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Cover Image

Jocelyn’s Austen wrote wonderful novels about love and courtship, but never married.  The book club was Jocelyn’s idea, and she handpicked the members.  She had more ideas in one morning than the rest of us had in a week, and more energy, too.  It was essential to reintroduce Austen into your life regularly, Jocelyn said, let her look around.  We suspected a hidden agenda, but who would put Jane Austen to an evil purpose?

Second paragraph

Sorry it’s so long.  I’m teasing myself since I plan on starting this in the next day or two.  I need to get busy on finishing the Jane Austen challenge!