Tag: Books

Teaser Tuesday – The Jane Austen Book Club

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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?

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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!

The Russian Hill Murders, by Shirley Tallman

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The Russian Hill Murders by Shirley Tallman: Book CoverFinished 11-9-09, rating 4.5/5, mystery, pub. 2005

Book 2 in the Sarah Woolson series

I had long since grown weary of these tantrums.  “So, you see, Mr. Shepard, you need not trouble yourself,” I continued, doing my best to ignore this outbreak.  “Mrs. Mankin will be my responsibility.”

“She will be no such thing!  Under no circumstances are you to take that woman’s case.  Do you understand me?”

I was dismayed to feel my own temper rising; above all, I was determined to maintain my composure.  “As you are fond of pointing out, Mr. Shepard, I am a mere woman.  Nevertheless, you have made yourself perfectly clear.”  I didn’t think it expedient to add that, despite its clarity, I had no intention of obeying his edict.

Chapter 2

Sarah Woolson is one of three women attorneys in California in the 1880’s and the only way she was able to get a job in a San Fransisco law firm was through boldness and a little luck.  She is stuck in a closet-sized office doing work for the men in the office when a woman walks in asking for her assistance.  As Sarah goes against her boss, with the help of fellow attorney Robert, she also becomes the focus of a sexy man who she later fears could be a murderer.  There are two mysteries to solve, one involving the horrible sweatshops of the day, and a little romance for Sarah, who wants no part of it.   And Sarah finally gets her day in court defending a Chinese man accused of murder.

I read the first book last month and loved it so much that I had to read the next as soon as my library could get it for me.  I liked this one even more than the first.  Sarah is a tough cookie, maybe a little too tough to identify with in the first book, but in this one we get to see a bit of her vulnerability.  I loved seeing her family again and the mystery was great.  I did figure it out before the end, but I really didn’t care. 

I’ve already put the third one on hold at the library.  This was a library copy.

My review of Book 1.

Bridget Jones’s Diary, by Helen Fielding

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Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding: Book CoverFinished 10-31-09, rating 3.5/5, fiction, pub. 1996

completely exhausted by entire day of date-preparation.  Being a woman is worse than being a farmer–there is so much harvesting and crop spraying to be done: legs to be waxed, underarms shaved, eyebrows plucked, feet pumiced, skin exfoliated and moisturized, spots cleansed, roots dyed, eyelashes tinted, nails filed, cellulite massaged, stomach muscles exercised.  The whole performance is so highly tuned you only need to neglect it for a few days for the whole thing to go to seed.

Sunday 15 January

Bridget is a single thirty-something Londoner in a dead-end job who is shagging her boss.  This is her diary of a year that details her weight, alcohol intake, cigarettes smoked and is an irreverent look at a woman not sure who she is or what she  wants.  Well, besides shagging her boss. She’s barely able to run her own life. let alone those of her parents, who are splitting up.  Bridget is helpless, funny, and charming.

I was shocked to realize as I finished this book that I actually preferred the movie.  Granted it is a favorite of mine, so expectations were high, but I really thought the movie was more fun and more romantic.  The book had a harder edge and while I usually like that, the movie had already won me over.  The mother in this movie was horrible and I was surprised that the movie did not really include the character of Tom, who I really liked.

This book was good and I liked it.  Bridget is a character was easy to fall in love with and hard to forget.  I think I’m going to watch the movie tonight and relive the laughs.  Look for my review of the movie tomorrow.

This was from my personal library.

The Mist, by Carla Neggers

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The MistThe Mist. Finished 11-07-09, rating 3.5/5, romantic suspense, pub. 2009

This is Book 3 in the Boston PD/FBI series

 “What brings  you to the Beara Peninsula?  Davenport asked.

“I’m  hiking the Beara Way.”  She wasn’t, and she didn’t like to lie, but it was easier–and possibly safer for all concerned–than telling the truth.  “Not start to finish.  It’s almost two hundred kilometers.  I don’t have that much time to spare.”

“You’re on your own?”

She gave him a bright smile.  “Now, that’s a bold question to ask a woman having coffee and crumble by herself.”

Chapter 1

The story starts in Ireland where Lizzie rescues Keira from a man trying to kill her and then to Boston as Lizzie races to save another woman’s life while still retaining her anonymity.  Keira’s father is a spy and he taught her the tricks of the trade, but she is still only a hotelier and getting involved with a money laundering psycho may have been more than she could handle.

As a British spy himself, Will, was keeping his eye on Lizzie.  She knew more than she let on and he was intrigued by the mystery of her.  Back in Boston he was able to reconnect with his old friend and FBI agent, Simon, and get involved in the search for a man he thought was long dead.

I reviewed the first two books in this series and enjoyed them, but I would not recommend this one unless you have read them.  I’m sure that it is intended as a stand-alone novel, but there is a large cast of characters and they all have their own storylines and histories.  Even I had to pause once or twice to remember who was who and I’ d read the first two books!  That is a part of my biggest complaint with the book.  It was supposed to be Will and Lizzie’s story, but they did not seem like the focus.  There was just too much going on to invest much in them.

I liked the story and revisiting with old friends.  I recommend this series for anyone who likes romantic suspense.

This was a library book.

My review of Book 1 and Book 2