Tag: Books

The Coffin Dancer, by Jeffery Deaver

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Cover ImageFinished 8-23-08, rating 4.5/5, fiction, pub. 1998

I am surprised after I loved the first in this series, The Bone Collector, so much that I like the sequel even better.  Quadriplegic forensic specialist, Lincoln Rhymes, is back with his protege crime scene specialist, Amelia Sachs, in an all new and more personal race against the clock to catch a killer.  There is no down time.  From the opening pages where a federal witness is blown to bits while landing his plane to the shocking conclusion I was riveted.

The Coffin Dancer is a hired assassin that has fooled Lincoln before.  A few years earlier the Coffin Dancer, named that because of a tatoo on his arm, had killed two of Lincoln’s techs and Lincoln was still incensed that he had gotten away.  One of the two witnesses that Lincoln must protect is Percey, a woman pilot who has a lot in common with Lincoln.  This closeness sparks Amelia’s jealousy and there is tension between Lincoln and Amelia as they race to catch a killer.

Lincoln is such a great character because he shows his strength through his intellect and not physical power.  In this second book Lincoln has more electrical gadgets and is able to do more with what he has than he did in the first book.  This is a top rate page turner that does not disappoint.  The twists and turns are many and the writing is taut.  I think this is a don’t miss for thriller fans.  My only recommendation…don’t read this on a plane 🙂

How the States Got Their Shapes on CSPAN2

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I don’t know how many people watch cspan2 on the weekends, but if the tv is on and I’m aimlessly clicking I always see what’s on.  For those who aren’t familiar, it is Book TV on the weekends and has a series of  one hour book talks with various non-fiction authors.  The hour takes place in a bookstore and the author talks about his book and then takes questions from the small audience.  Many of them are political and if they lean too much either way I usually skip them, but sometimes you’ll find an hour of fun learning, like l did today. 

Mark Stein wrote How the States Got Their Shapes and it was published in May.  I’ve always looked at the map and accepted the way the states were shaped because I assumed there was a good reason for it and now that I’ve heard from Stein I find that there are a multitude of reasons behind the funny shapes.  Some of the larger influences were water, mountains, railroads, and slavery.  There was also the time tested power of bribery (Montana, Missouri), some religious mistrust (Utah), and voluntary ceding of land for political purpose (Kansas) involved in the decisions.  It really was fascinating.

Stein said that he wrote the book for a family on vacation and not a true scholar and that is the appeal I think.  I have a new way of looking at a US map and although I have not read the book I have to recommend at least watching the cspan segment.  There is a Watch Now option on this cspan2 link and also a schedule of upcoming book talks. 

http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=9604&SectionName=History&PlayMedia=No

I really enjoyed the hour (except for 5 minutes one man in the audience wasted with his question) and plan on checking out the book to learn a little more about the lines of Ohio, which he barely touched on at all during this hour.  If you’ve read the book let me know what you thought.

Devil in a Blue Dress, by Walter Mosley

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Finished audio 8-18-08, rating 3.5/5, mystery, pub. 1990

Easy Rawlings lives in 1948 Los Angeles and is a black man who is proud of owning his home and the little bit of land that surrounds it.  He has just lost his job at the plant and he is in his friend’s bar nursing the sting of being fired.  Mr. Albright walks in and is hoping to hire Easy to find a white girl, Daphne, who frequents black jazz clubs.  As soon as he takes the job Easy is thrust into the middle of a web  of lies, threats, and lust. 

I listened to this on cd and the reader, GC Simms, was wonderful.  His rich voice drew me in immediately and I’m pretty sure that he could have been reading anything and I’d have been entertained.  This book addresses the racial reality of the 1948, yet it feels completely current.  I’d recommend it.  I’ve got the movie waiting on my dvr, I’ll let you know what I think later.

When A Man Loves A Woman, by La Connie Taylor-Jones

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Cover ImageFinished 8-17-08, rating 3/5, romance, pub. 2008

Let me start by saying that I was sent this book to review for this blog.  I was curious to read it since I like romances.  This is most definitely a romance, but it was more than that.  Long after the romance had sorted itself out there was a mystery to be solved.

A.J. loved Vic and wanted nothing more that to spend the rest of his life married to her.  Vic was not willing to let her heart get broken again and resisted the urge to find love in his arms.  Their large families wanted them together as did A.J.’s twin daughters and A.J. was willing to use them to help his cause.  A car accident forced them into close quarters and into the middle of a police investigation.

This book has a lot to offer – A.J. is as close to perfect as a hero can get, Vic was a ‘hot’ size 14, there is a large cast of characters, and there is no shortage of action.  It was also wonderfully written.  That being said, some of these things were also a detriment.  I don’t trust a perfect man. Even in romance there should be no such thing.  And the extra storyline stemming from the car crash was a little too convenient and somewhat unbelievable. 

This was the second book written about the Baptiste family and I would recommend starting with the first one, When I’m With You.  Taylor-Jones plans to continue writing about this large family and another Baptiste brother in her next novel.  She is a talented author who received writing awards for her first book.  I don’t think that you will be bored or disappointed with this book.

I’ve been tagged!

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Don over at  http://donstuff.wordpress.com/ tagged me with this.  I’m so new at this that I’m not exactly clear on what I need to do, but here goes.

Here’s how it goes (by Trish):

My Friend Amy (actually Trish’s friend Amy according to Don) started the whole thing and said: I am going to list three categories of books. 3 MUST Read Books, 3 Keep Your Eyes on These, and 3 Look For These Soon. Keeping with the theme, I am going to tag at least 3 bloggers. They should put these same lists on their blog but SUBTRACT one book from each list and ADD one of their own. Then they should tag at least 3 more bloggers. It will be fun to see how the lists change as it goes around the blogosphere. Please come back to this post and leave a comment so someone can see how the lists are changing as they go around the blogosphere. Since this is Book Buzz…please keep your lists to titles released in 2007-2009.

 (Bold Blue is mine. Red belong to donstuff):

3 MUST Read Books:

Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
Testimony by Anita Shreve

3 Keep Your Eyes on These:

The Woods by Harlan Coben

Odd Hours by Dean Koontz
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

3 Look For These Soon:

Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You by Judith McNaught (5/09)
Bones: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman
A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan & Brandon Sanderson (Heather’s note: The 12th and final book in the Wheel of Time series, coming in 2009 – I can’t wait!)

Now I’ll tag three, but if I didn’t tag you, feel free to participate anyway.

Follow Your Heart, by Susanna Tamaro

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Cover ImageFinished 8-14-08, rating 4/5, fiction, pub. 1994

“As you grow up, you’ll often get the urge to change things, to right wrongs, but every time you do, remember that the first revolution, the first and the most important, has to take place within yourself.  Fighting for an idea without having an idea of yourself is one of the most dangerous things you can do.”   -December 22

This is the brutally honest letter a grandmother who is nearing death writes to the granddaughter she raised alone.  Her granddaughter is obviously a headstrong young woman who has moved to America leaving her grandmother in Italy heartbroken and alone. 

The grandmother can feel death coming and wants to leave her granddaughter a letter of history and hope for the future.  She pulls no punches.  She is not afraid to illuminate her own shortcomings as well as those around her, granddaughter included.  It is difficult to read that she did not think about her daughter for several years after her death  or that she did not love her daughter enough without your heart breaking a little.  This is a woman who was not going to spare her granddaughter the truth.

I was pulled in right from the beginning.  It was real and honest and a great story of three generations of women who all seemed to be fighting the past.  It is definitely a worthwhile read.  It was translated from the original Italian.

Reading

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Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it. ~P.J. O’Rourke

It is what you read when you don’t have to that determines what you will be when you can’t help it. ~Oscar Wilde

The Savage Pen of Philip Roth

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A local university, Case Western Reserve, offers continuing ed classes each semester.  Since they are taught in various suburbs I can usually find one of these classes within a 10 minute drive.  In the past I’ve taken classes on the First Ladies, Greatest Trials of the 20th Century (both of which I loved), and one on English Cottage literature.  This time I’ve decided to try the class on Philip Roth.  I’ve not read any of his books, but am looking forward to the three books and, of course, the class discussion.  This is the class description.

The Savage Pen of Philip Roth
Philip Roth is a savagely astute and witty writer of our times. The three novels we will explore are the Pulitzer prize winning “American Pastoral” dealing with the pre-Vietnam era, “I Married a Communist”, the McCarthy era, and “The Human Stain”, Roth’s final offering of this trilogy spotlighting his astute analysis of human psyche and his inventive linking that is terrifyingly funny and alarmingly heartrending. Books: American Pastoral, I Married a Communist, The Human Stain, P. Roth

If anyone on the east side of Cleveland is interested, the class is in Bainbridge on Wednesdays from 10-11:30am starting September 10.  The cost is $50.  Let me know if you want to sign up and I’ll get you the info.

Has anyone read any of these novels and what did you think?

Splendor, by Brenda Joyce

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Cover ImageFinished 8-19-08, rating 4.5/5, romance, pub. 1997

Brenda Joyce’s historical romances are always top notch and this is no exception.  It’s the summer of 1812 in England and Napoleon is on the move across Europe.  The Russian Prince, Nicholas Sverayov, is in London to broker a treaty, but he finds himself the target of malicious gossip.  Carolyn Browne, the daughter of a bookshop owner, is the anonymous columnist that writes about the foibles of the powerful and Nicholas is her latest target.  Nicholas finds her out and begins a dangerous game of cat and mouse.

Nicholas is married to a beautiful woman and while Carolyn knows this she is drawn to him and unable to stop herself from loving him.  Nicholas, for his part, is falling in love with Carolyn too, and offers her the job as companion to his young daughter which she accepts with trepidation.  As war continues, Nicholas must go back to Russia to lead his men to battle and the story moves to St. Petersburg and Moscow.  The setting and the history make the story all that more compelling.

There is no shortage of obstacles for the two of them.  Her father is embroiled in the war, but on the wrong side and her grandmother has entered her life after disowning her mother before Carolyn was born.  Nicholas and Carolyn are two great characters and I was sorry to see their story end.  Carolyn is smart, audacious and witty, while Nicholas is strong, powerful and smart.  If you like romances, especially historicals I think you’ll fall in love with Carolyn and Nicholas and their story.

Libraries

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“Perhaps no place in any community is so totally democratic as the town library.  The only entrance required is interest.”                 -Lady Bird Johnson

Last week the Cleveland Plain Dealer did a story about the increased use of the local libraries.  Some already know everything that libraries have to offer, while some think there are just lots of books.  If you haven’t been to your local library lately I suggest that you visit soon and see what’s there.  There are books (surely), movies (of course), cds of music and books (without a doubt), but you will also find a multitude of other things.  There are programs for adults and kids, computers to use for free, paid subscriptions to online websites, old magazines (great to get ideas if you are renovating a room in your house like me), games…the list goes on and on.  And if you are having trouble finding what you’re looking for go to the reference desk and ask for help (maybe the person helping you will be me!).

Anyway, it is a great way for you and your family to spend an hour or two and it will also save you money.  And since your tax dollars are already funding the library, why not take advantage of everything it has to offer.  I saw a man come in today, sit down at a table, pull out his own book to read, and stay for a few hours enjoying the library without ever checking out a book.  That is a dedicated patron!

“I have always imagined that paradise will be a kind of library.”     -Jorge Luis Borges