The Knife of Never Letting Go

I am trying to expand my horizons by reading outside the box and this YA was a defenite outside the box read. Chased by a madman preacher and his posse. Todd flees his settlement on a planet where war has killed off all the women and infected the men and animlas with a germ that broadcasts their thoughts aloud for all to hear. The noise is an opressive chaos of words, images and sounds and when Todd finds a hole in the noise he must keep the secret from the town and flees with his dog Manchee causing him to be persuded by the sheriff and his posse. Patrick Ness is a great writer and the novel is very suspenseful to the end and of course leaves you hanging so you must read the second book in the series. I suspended my disbelief and was transported in this great YA read.

I, Alex Cross

Another quick read from Mr Patterson. Alex is celebrating his birthday when he gets a call that his niece's body has been found. Alex is determined to find the killer and soon figures out that his neice was a very high priced call girl and caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. The book is full of bodies and Alex finds that the killer is among the elite of Washington. All in all not a bad read. I just wish Mr Patterson would take sometime and really write a book. He is begging people to buy this one so it won't be the last Alex Cross book... hmm like he really needs the money?!? Why not just take your time Mr Patterson and write a really good thriller that takes more than two hours to read!?

Windfall by Penny Vincenzi

What can I say but another so-so read. I really like Penny's writing style but, this one just kind of put me to sleep. Cassia Tallow inherits some money from her godmother. Since marrying and having 3 children Cassia has put her medical degree on hold but with the money she now decides to go back to work and do all the things her husband has forbade her over the years. After 624 pages of turmoil Cassia finally grows into herself and finds out where the money really came from. Just a little too slow of a read for me. Her trilogy is oh so much better.

Movies

Another thing I want to try and do this winter is settle down and watch at least one or two dvd's every weekend. I am so behind on them and there are lots here at the library I am gonna try and get watched this winter. This weekend I watched Knowing with Nic Cage and The Proposal with Sandra Bullock. Sad to say both movies were just like my reading has been. Just so-so. The Knowing was actually kind of silly. It's no wonder Nic is in financail trouble with the last few movies he has chosen to make. Watched it in surround sound which made it a little better but still what I felt a very silly movie. The Proposal was kind of cute but had the potential to be so much funnier and I am not sure what happened. Had a great cast with Craig T Nelson, Mary Sternburgeon and Betty White but was just a kind of flat movie. Let's hope next weekends are much better!

Gonna try this again

I really want to have a blog.. so why can't I seem to do it?!? Question of the year and I am gonna give it one more go. Lately it seems like everything I have read has been rather dull and boring or not even readable. This weekend I started Windfall by Penny Vincenzi and it's a chunkster. I am crossing my fingers that it will be a good read. I would like to at least start off again with a good review. Will let you all know in a couple days.

The Tsarina's Daughter

I finally finished this book! Jeesh took me over two weeks and it should have only taken a couple days. This is the story of Tsar Nicholas daughter Tatiana. Instead of Anastasia being the one who escaped this time it is Tatiana. I enjoyed the book alot as I don't know much about the revolution of Russia other than the story of the killing of this family. Tatiana tells the story of her growing up and the fragility of both her mother's mental health and her brother's illness with hemophilia and how supposedly Rasputin helped to keep him alive. It was a very good read and a different take on what might have happened during this time in history.

This is the 6th in the Abby Cooper series by Victoria Laurie. I really enjoyed this book and when I come back in my next life I want to be Abby Cooper. How cool would it be to have psychic abilities!! When Abby's boyfriend's cousin is kidnapped and they take off to Las Vegas to try and find him. After Dutch disappears Abby calls in her sister and girlfriend to come to Vegas and the search is on. A great cozy from the first page to the last. Highly recommend the whole Abby Cooper series.

Cold Rock River

I read RoseFlower Creek awhile ago and fell in love with J.L. Miles. I couldn't wait to get my hands on Cold Rock River and it was even better.

It takes place in rural Georgia in 1963. A pregnant 17 yr old Adie Jenkins discovers the diary of 17 yr old Tempe Jordan, a slave girl, begun as the civil war was winding down. Adie is haunted by the death of her younger sister, Annie and Tempe is grief stricken over the selling of her 3 young children by sired by her master. Adie and Tempe's stories are both of family, race, love, loss and longing. You become so involved in both stories it is hard to put the book down. With many twists and turns it all comes to a very surprising ending. I really enjoyed this book and look forward to my next read by this author. I highly recommend Cold Rock River and Roseflower Creek.

The Heretic Queen

I fell in love with Michelle Moran when I read her first book Nefertiti. Now with The Heretic Queen I love her even more.

The Heretic Queen is the story of Nefertari, niece of the heretic queen Nefertiti. Nefertari comes to the court of Pharoah Seti I after her family is killed. She becomes great friends with Ramesses I. When he becomes co- monarch and marries Iset, Nefertari realizes she loves Ramesses and wants to marry him too. Once they marry Nefertari is afraid that the Egyptian people will never accept a heretic descendant as their ruler. This is a love story full of romance, deceit, intrigue and suspense. Nefertari's and Ramesses love for each other is a true tale and Ms Moran brings it to life in her story. I only wish the book would have gone on for another 300 pages.

I can't wait for her next novel to become available and I highly recommend The Heretic Queen to any and all historical fiction fans.

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent is about a 10 yr old girl Sarah, growing up on a farm with her 3 brothers, younger sister Hannah and her parents Thomas and Martha. Like many mother and daughter relationships, Sarah and her mothers is fraught with tension and hostility. Sarah yearns for a more loving mother and when her brother is stricken with small pox Sarah and her sister are smuggled to her Aunt's house where she finds the love and attention she craves from her relatives. Soon however her father comes to take her back home and things go from bad to worse. People turn against their neighbors and accusations run rampant. Her mother is accused of being a witch and taken away. Soon Sarah and her brothers join her mother in jail awaiting their fate. Ms. Kent writes a compelling story of the atrocities that people went thru during this time in out history. Highly recommend The Heretic's Daugher.

I am a big fan of historical fiction and Ms. Gregory. This book tells the story of Mary, Queen of Scots and the time she spent "imprisoned" as the guest of George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury and his wife, Bess of Hardwick. The good part of the book was that I know little about Mary Queen of Scots and need to get to reading the book I have on her by Margaret George. She is an intriguing woman and I would like to know more about her. The bad thing about this book is that very little ever happens. There is little dialogue. It is told in different chapters from each of the above characters view points. Other than George falling in love with Mary little happens. She is moved around from place to place constantly being told she will be freed and that she will never be freed. Bess I think was a woman before her time. She ran the households and managed all the lands and knew to the penny how much money she and George made and how much money it cost to keep an imprisoned Queen happy. I really wish I would have liked the book more but it was just lacking. For true historical fans only.

I started this yesterday afternoon and finished it last night One good thing about Patterson's books are they are very fast reads and I think they were written in much the same way . He and Howard sit down one afternoon and write a story. A very short story. They are almost implausible in their thinking. The sailboat in this book takes off from New Port Rhode Island and in practically no time at all they are in the Bahama's! It is all pretty much far fetched and is hardly worth the $27.99 asking price for hard back book. It would be good in paperback at $4.99 for a quick beach read or a 4-6 hour airplane ride. I wish Mr. Patterson would just take sometime and write a real book again. He must have more than enough money now and why he keeps putting out this drivel is beyond me. Read if you are a fan but only from the library or a used paperback.

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson

I just finished this last night and still can't stop thinking about the book. It's about a nameless porn star who is severely burned in a car accident. While recovering he meets Marianne who is a sculptor and suffers from some mental problems. Marianne states that they were lovers in medieval Germany and starts telling him of their love story and several others that take place in Japan, Iceland, Italy and England. Very strange love stories which I found very intriguing and disturbing. Once Marianne discovers from god that she has 27 sculptures left to complete and then she will die the story just seemed to turn for me. I still read on but something about the story changed. Would I recommend The Gargoyle? Hmm I am not sure. I found it an intriguing read but.. It's very different but, I do look forward to see if the author writes another.

I received this ARC from Harper Collins First Look. It is the story of french painter Berthe Morisot who is devoted to her life as a painter until she meets Edouard Manet. He asks to paint Berthe and she falls in love with him. Society and her mother want Berthe to settle down and marry but Berthe must follow her own heart. Manet must have been quite the lady's man as this is the second book I have read about him and a paramour. Berthe must decided how much she is willing to give of herself to Manet. A good quick historical read.

The Quality of Life Report

I have over 500 books at home to read and had just gotten about 6 from B&T that I want to read and what do I do but, see this on PBS and it has a huge waiting list so I go and order it from inter library loan. I thought it was a true story and had to read about 1/3 of it before I figured out it was fiction... call me slow. I enjoyed most of the book. It takes place in South Dakota which would take alot for a person to move to the middle of nowhere midwest. Lucinda was a hoot until she got a steady boyfriend and then I think she kind of lost herself adn I know this can happen but I kind of lost the thrill of the story. I am glad in the end that she came to her senses and stayed and hopefully life got much better for her after that.

The GuernseyLiterary and Potato Peel Pie Society

How can I ever say the many ways that I just loved this book!! It was just an awesome read from page one to page 274 and I so wish it would have gone on at least another 274 pages. The writing was wonderful, the story grabbed you from page one and I wish Juliet Ashton was a dear friend of mine. So many wonderful words about reading and book stores. I marked my copy up terribly but this is one that I do plan to keep on my shelf and give to everyone I know to read. One of my favorite passages "That's what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you into another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive-- all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment." This is exactly why I read. One book leads to another and another and I relish the sheer enjoyment I get from reading everyday. The book tells the story of Guernsey, the British Island that was occupied by the Nazis during WWII. How this small island was effected by the war and the occupation and how some survived just by picking up a book and reading. A wonderful story that I just can't recommend highly enough.

I got an ARC of this book from Library Thing. I am a big historical fiction fan and was thrilled to recieve this one. I really enjoyed the story line about how make up was used during Queen Elizabeth I reign. This makeup contained lead and then they used rouge made up of mercury sulphide to hide smallpox scars and the advance of age. I found it intriguing that woman would go to such extremes and the way the body was ravaged by the use of this makeup. The story is about a young woman who is married to an earl who has only one favor to ask of his wife. That is to help him win favor with the Queen. Marget's introduction to the court is disastorous and she trys to do everything to gain her husband's love and the Queen's favor. I liked the book. Just didn't love it. I found it hard to care for Marget or her husband. Need to read more about Queen Elizabeth I to see if she was really as judgemental about beauty as this book makes her out to be. I like the way Ms Mitchell wrote the book. It was very easy to read with much dialogue but just never seemed to totally grab me. For true historical fiction fans only.

I read this book in one day and wish I had it to read all over again. This is the story of a hospital ship in WWII that is torpedoed and sunk by the Japanese. Nine survivors make it to a deserted island in the south pacific and this is the story of how they overcome the odds and adversities of trying to stay alive with a traitor amongst them, till help arrives and before the Japanese come to take over the island. A truly wonderful and engrossing read from Mr. Shors and I can't wait for his next book. I also highly recommend his first novel Beneath A Marble Sky. Another excellent read.

The Mercedes Coffin

Lt Peter Decker is asked to solve a 15 yr old murder cold case after another body is found murdered much like the first. A student of the first body has now made big bucks and will give the police department a seven figure charitable donation to open and solve the first murder. Decker forms a task force to solve both murders and the race is on. The only thing I missed in this book is more of the family. Rina played hardly no part at all but it was nice to see that Decker's daughter's have grown up and can now help their father in his endeavor to bring a murderor to justice. The book keeps you guessing and all in all a good mystery read.

Things I Want My Daughters to Know

This book opens with a letter from Barbara Forbes telling her family what kind of funeral she wants. She has left behind a second husband and four daughters. She has also left each of them a letter of their own and the book is told from varying daughter's perspectives and how different each of their relationships with their mothers was. It was an enjoyable read. Having lost my own mother I could relate to how all the daughters felt once Barbara was gone and trying to overcome the feeling of loss. It was nice that everyone in the book had a happy ending for once.