Proof...

...that your kids WILL imitate the behavior you model! If my hyperactive children will sit long enough to read, yours surely will, too! ;)

Karin Slaughter is sponsoring a contest at her website in honor of the July release of her new book, Fractured; Hershey and Nestle entered the contest. Wish them luck.

Turow, Parker and Unger

This week brought three new authors into my library: Scott Turow, T. Jefferson Parker and Lisa Unger. O.k., Scott Turow and T. Jefferson Parker have been writing for some time, but this is the first time I've read their work.

In Scott Turow's Ordinary Heroes, following the death of his father David Dubin, Stewart Dubinsky learns that David was court martialed during WWII and was once engaged to a woman other than his mother. Stewart sets off to find out the details of these mysterious events in his father's life; events he knew nothing about.

I found this book to be enjoyable overall, but nothing about it really wow'd me. The characters, for the most part seemed to be on the flat side. I did like the character of Gideon Bidwell and thought he was an intriguing character. Gideon turns out to be an African-American who passed for a Caucasian when he enlisted. This fact influences a great deal of Gideon's behavior throughout the novel.

The plot was predictable, and I found myself asking Stewart what took him so long to figure it all out.

One thing the plot did very well was highlight the utter lunacy of war. Turow did a great job using the setting to make me ask again and again - why do we need this insanity to solve problems? We're supposed to be more intelligent than the beasts, but in reality, we aren't much different.

T. Jefferson Parker's Pacific Beat has former Sheriff's officer, Jim Weir, returning to Newport Beach from an imprisonment in Mexico. He learns his sister is pregnant, but then she is immediately murdered in a most gruesome manner. Jim and his best friend/brother-in-law, Raymond, set out to find who committed this atrocity.

For me, this was one of those books that was hard to put down at night. The characters and plot just pulled you in and made you part of the story.

Jim is a very complex character; he has strong ties to his family, but at the same time has a need for space and freedom. He would make decisions throughout the book that at first would surprise me, but the more I thought about them, they would ultimately make sense for his character. They wouldn't necessarily be the decisions you, as the reader, WANTED him to make, but they were the ones that were the most appropriate for Jim.

Virginia was an equally dynamic character and a lot of her complexity is explained at the conclusion of the novel.

The plot definitely kept me guessing...and hoping...right up to the end. The novel had so many people looking suspicious for one thing or another that you weren't sure which way to look.

I got a kick out of the Goinses calling Jim, "Mr. Weird."

The only thing I really questioned in this book was the police department's willingness - encouragement even - for Jim to be so involved in the investigation of the case. Yes, he has previous law enforcement experience, but you can't get much more personally involved in a case than being the brother of the victim. I don't know if I'm just conditioned by a media touting the idea that people "close" to a crime can't be involved in the investigation or if this is really an unrealistic element of the plot.

Overall, I loved the book. It was my first time reading T. Jefferson Parker, and it definitely will not be the last.

In Lisa Unger's Beautiful Lies, Ridley Jones unexpectedly finds her nice, normal life turned upsidedown when she heroically saves a little boy from being hit by a car on the streets of New York City. Everything she thought she knew about herself is suddenly called into question and she finds herself in a great deal of danger.

The writing in this book is simply outstanding! I found myself saying very often, "yes, I've thought that same thing and never put it into words" or "yes, I KNOW how she feels." Lisa Unger is one of those writers who works magic with the English language.

The story is told in the first person from Ridley's persective, as though you are sitting across from her in her living room listening to this harrowing experience. And by the end of the novel, you feel as though you are friends with this woman. Unger doesn't try to make Ridley a superwoman by any means, but she also doesn't make her a spineless wimp who opts for the easy way out. I really liked that Ridley had contradictions about her...she acknowledged those contradictions and didn't necessarily offer an explanation for them, they just were. And at the same time they were believable contradictions. How many times have I felt the exact same thing about myself? I knew I would definitely like Ridley when she said:

I'll tell you something about myself. I can get my head turned by a good-looking guy as much as the next girl. But sexy doesn't impress me. Smart impresses me; strength of character impresses me. But most of all, I'm impressed by kindness. Kindness, I think, comes from learning hard lessons well, from falling and picking yourself up. It comes from surving failure and loss. It implies an understanding of the human
condition, forgives its many flaws and quirks. When I see that in someone,
it fills me with admiration.

Now THAT is a character with substance!

The plot was unique, but I will forewarn anyone who is interested in reading this book...don't read anything about Unger's second book, Sliver of Truth, until you've finished this one. I made that mistake and it took some of the suspense away. The summaries I read of Sliver of Truth gave away the ending to Beautiful Lies. Not all of it, but enough that I was waiting for a particular detail to come out; knowing that it would.

Harlan Coben's influence on Unger came out when Ridley turned on her cell phone and dialed the police as she was entering a dangerous situation. Maybe Ridley has met Myron in her day-to-day dealings in NYC!

The only criticism I would have about Beautiful Lies is that the ending seemed longer than it needed to be. There were several times when I thought the book was at its conclusion and it still continued. Unger definitely wrapped every loose end up. But, that aspect wouldn't be enough for me not to recommend this book highly. Anyone who enjoys suspense/mystery...and especially anyone looking for a great female protagonist...this book is a great choice.

The Twentieth Century

O.k., now on to the Twentieth Century books from 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. In this time frame I've read:

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (James Joyce)
Ulysses (James Joyce)
Billy Budd (Herman Melville)
The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf)
Brave New World (Aldous Huxley)
Absalom! Absalom (William Faulkner)
Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
The Hobbit (J.R.R. Tolkien)
Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)
Lord of the Flies (William Golding)
On the Road (Jack Kerouac)
Things Fall Apart (Chinua Achebe)
To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Ken Kesey)
In Cold Blood (Truman Capote)
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou)
The Bluest Eye (Toni Morrison)
Song of Solomon (Toni Morrison)
The World According to Garp (John Irving)
Beloved (Toni Morrison)
A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
Like Water for Chocolate (Laura Esquivel)
Captain Corelli's Mandolin (Louis de Bernieres)

The books I still have on my "to read" list for this century are The Color Purple (Alice Walker), Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five (both Kurt Vonnegut), Catch-22 (Joseph Heller), and three by Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep, Farewell My Lovely, and The Long Goodbye.

I think it was at this century that I was most acutely aware of how inappropriate the title of this book is. I definitely could have lived my entire life without reading either book by James Joyce, and I would have probably been better off for it. I've never been so turned off by a writer as I was by him. The Hobbit's only effect on me was to inform me that I don't like the fantasy genre. I was very surprised not to see any of Ayn Rand's books. I don't agree with her philosophy...I rarely agree with extremists, but I took a lot out of my experience of reading those. The World According to Garp was an entertaining read, but as a reader, I grew more from reading The Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy. Reading is such a personal experience that no one list can be defined for all people of what they must read before they die. I think the greatest experience you can have is exposing yourself to a variety: a variety of genres, a variety of authors, a variety of time periods, a variety of philosophies...that is the great thing about reading...that variety is out there and you can CHOOSE it!

All that being said, I'll go ahead and wrap up the book with the Twenty-First Century, where I have read NONE of the books from the list. Of course given the fact that we've barely scratched the surface with this century, it isn't surprising. However, I was surprised to find several from my "to read" list here: Life of Pi (Yann Martel), The Corrections (Jonathan Franzen), Atonement (Ian McEwan) and Middlesex (Jeffrey Eugenides).

I haven't read much from their overall list - 51 total. I won't be running out to grab many of the ones I haven't read either. I'm very content in my reading these days. I don't really need a list to dictate to me what I should read. I have plenty to keep me busy for a long, long time!

Happy Reading!

The Nineteenth Century

Now we get into my realm of reading. This list is much healthier than the first, so here we go. I've read:

Sense and Sensibility (Jane Austen)
Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen)
Northanger Abby (Jane Austen)
Frankenstein (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
The Fall of the House of Usher (Edgar Allen Poe)
A Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens)
The Pit and the Pendulum (Edgar Allen Poe)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas)
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
The Scarlet Letter (Nathanial Hawthorne)
Uncle Tom's Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe)
Walden (Henry David Thoreau)
Hard Times (Charles Dickens)
Madame Bovary (Gustave Flaubert)
A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
Middlemarch (George Eliot)
The Death of Ivan Ilyich (Leo Tolsto)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy)
The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman)

I also have a bunch I'd still like to read. They are:
Oliver Twist, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Martin Chuzzlewit, and David Copperfield (all by Dickens), Silas Marner (George Eliot), Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy), The Advetures of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle).

I had at one time started The Three Musketeers, but I think I have been so conditioned by Hollywood with that story that I couldn't ever get into it enough to finish it. And had I been constructing the list, there are probably a few more Civil War-era books I would have included.

Happy Reading!

1001 Books...

I borrowed a book from the library called 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. I didn't really borrow it to find out what books I really must read, so much as I did to see what books on their list I HAVE read.

I do think they mis-titled this book, though. It really should have been called 1001 Novels You Must Read Before You Die. "Novels" was what they were listing, but their definition of "novel" was a bit obscure; there were short stories, memoirs...no plays or epic poems, though. I was surprised at that. I think that leaves a lot of "books" out that should be considered: Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Tennessee Williams...

They have the book broken down in century time periods, so I thought I would post a little at a time...by time period. I made two lists for this: what I've already read and what's still on my "To Read" list of life. I'll start with the first two time periods today because I really didn't have much in either, and they actually didn't have very long lists in here either, so it will include everything from prior to and including the 18th century:

I've read: Aesop's Fables, Metamorphoses (Ovid), Don Quixote (Miguel de Cervantes), Gulliver's Travels and A Modest Proposal (both Jonathan Swift).

What I'd still like to read some time: Pilgrim's Progress (John Bunyan) and The Thousand and One Nights (Anonymous).

See, not much for the beginning of time. If I was creating this list, I would have included Shakespeare, Dante, Homer...probably some Arthurian literature like Perceval. But, it isn't my list. So...

Happy Reading!

Summer Releases

You can check out USAToday.com's listing of the summer book releases here. I must admit that I added quite a few books to my "To Read" list from here. But, I was also disappointed with them for leaving off Robert Crais (July 1st), Michael Koryta (August 5th), and Alafair Burke (August 19th).

I did discover that James Lee Burke also has a new release this summer. He's releasing Swan Peak on July 8th. In addition, George Pelecanos has The Turnaround coming out on August 1st. A summer packed with new releases from great writers.

Also this Tuesday Lisa Unger has Black Out releasing. I will be writing a review soon for Beautiful Lies, her first book (as Lisa Unger). I'm almost finished and it has been a very enjoyable read. She's a talented writer, and I highly recommend her.

Hope your summer reading list is growing as healthy as mine. Happy reading!

A PSI

Here's an alternative to PayPal without the fees. They are offering a special incentive to sign up right now. If you open an account, they'll give you $25. At the site it says the offer expires May 15th, but I signed up this morning and got the $25. Check it out!

A Little Catch-Up

I recently finished The Appeal by John Grisham and Deep South by Nevada Barr, so I need to get those reviews on here. Presently I'm enjoying three authors who are new to me: Scott Turow, T.Jefferson Parker and Lisa Unger.

I've also been working on this little scrapbook project. I've decided to record the author events I attend for posterity!

So, on to The Appeal by John Grisham. In this novel, the Payton's (a husband and wife law firm) are representing Jeanette Baker in her lawsuit against a large chemical company that allegedly dumped cancer-causing chemicals at their company's site, instead of having them properly disposed of. Over time, the chemicals soaked their way into the water supply of the town and the people of this town started developing cancer. Jeanette Baker's husband and son both died from this cancer.

The book starts out with the jury awarding Jeanette Baker 41 million dollars. After the first chapter, I thought to myself, "hasn't this storyline been done...A LOT?" I couldn't believe that Grisham was going to revisit something that's been beat to death. BUT, he merely used the cancer-causing lawsuit as a conduit to his real theme...political corruption.

For me, the first three quarters of this book went very slow. I questioned whether I should keep going, but it really takes a lot for me to decide to give up on a book. I persevered. And I'm very glad I did. The last quarter was OUTSTANDING! Grisham pushes the actual lawsuit to the background and brings to the foreground the chemical company's efforts to buy their way out of the jury's outcome. He also highlights how politicians use people's fears to manipulate them as voters. This is both relevant in the present day and terrifying. The fact that so many people vote ignorantly based on unfounded fears shows we have a terrible weakness in our democracy.

Grisham illustrated how easily our sources for information can be twisted. These are sources many people believe to be "reliable" when they are gathering their "facts" to make their voting decision. And we as a people are so wrapped up in ourselves, that we're more likely to listen to a false 15-second sound bite on tv or radio - and believe it as fact - than take the time to hear a candidate speak, him/herself or to even do our own research. We simply take what is dropped in our laps. Grisham makes you question if you should believe anything that is simply dropped in your lap!

I waited the entire book for what I was expecting to happen...and it never happened. I applaud Grisham for that choice. It was the right one. I won't reveal what that was, though, so as to avoid spoilers.

It would have been nice for the beginning to be a little more engrossing, but the end of this novel was worth reading every page in the beginning.

I also recently finished Deep South by Nevada Barr. I do remember reading an Anna Pidgeon book several years back, but it's been so long now that I don't recall which book it was. In this part of the series, Anna is taking a supervisory position on the Natchez Trace in Mississippi. She and her cat and dog are headed out to the new assignment as the book opens. And Barr begins the foreshadowing here when a tree falls to block Anna's U-Haul trailer.

Before Anna is even officially on the job, a dead teenager is found in The Trace. She has been left with a white sheet over her head and a noose around her neck. Given the fact that it's Mississippi, this murder needs to be solved swiftly and quietly so as not to result in additional craziness.

I absolutely love the character of Anna. She has a lot of spunk and she isn't bullet-proof. She battles the resistance of her subordinates who have never had a female supervisor. She battles the resistance of the town, who also resent her as the "outsider", the female supervisor who is snooping around about this murder. She doesn't have a "sixth sense" that allows her to just know everything. She learns through trial and error, common sense, and good old fashion investigating. I especially appreciate that she isn't some stunning beauty queen. She's a REAL person. Overall, I think Barr does an outstanding job with character development.

The complexity of the plot was especially fun in this book. The law enforcement agents were following the logical clues only to find out things aren't always what they seem. I appreciate that almost nothing in the plot is "unnecessary." Everything contributes to the conclusion. There were a couple parts where I started to zone out when she was getting a little prolific with the description, but otherwise, the plot was tight.

Being the animal lover that I am, I will admit that I had some trouble with the scene where the alligator attacks Anna's dog. Had it been a movie, I would have closed my eyes through it or fast-forwarded through it. But it was a moving representation of the devotion of the dog.

Overall, this was a great book. I look forward to reading more in the series.

And on one last quick note, I'll tell you about a website I discovered this morning. It's called "I Love a Mystery Newsletter". Here they review mystery books. I added a couple books to my To Read list based on their reviews, and I'll see how my feelings on the books align with theirs. I signed up to receive their future newsletters. I think it will be a good way to find out about books and authors that aren't necessarily forefront in the news.

Some Cover Art

Hopefully I'm not about to break any copyright laws or anything, but I was perusing Amazon today and saw the cover art for these two books that are coming out. Thought I would share.

July 1st from Robert Crais - Elvis is BACK!!:

And August 5th from Michael Kortya:

A Fiesty Forensic Anthropologist and an unPrecedented P.I.

This week I was able to experience two exceptional presentations by authors. On Tuesday I drove to Toledo to hear Kathy Reichs speak. It was a large event with many people, so it wasn't especially "personal." However, Kathy's presentation was fascinating. She discussed her experiences in forensic anthropology and how that all connected to her novels. She also discussed the Bones television series briefly. Her primary roll with the television show is to keep the science "honest." When asked how she felt about the way her field was portrayed on television these days, she responded with, "you don't go to a crime scene in pumps and pantyhose!"

Kathy has a great sense of humor and kept the audience laughing for most of the presentation. The audience was quite eclectic. People weren't necessarily there because they read her books. Very few of the questions dealt directly with her writing. Some anthropology students came to learn about the field, fans of the TV series came and book fans came. Of course, then there were the folks like me who overlap more than one of those areas. I attempted to take some pictures inside the hall during her presentation (before I read the little caveat about it being prohibited). It didn't much matter because they are too dark for anything except maybe to get an idea of how far away from her I was.



She followed up the presentation with a book signing. Well, it was more like an "anything" signing. She was asked to sign everything from books to copies of Bones on DVD. I was able to get some decent pictures during this portion of the evening. I am very glad I was able to hear her speak; it was definitely worth going. Kathy's next book will be out in August and is titled Devil's Bones.

On Thursday I went to Medina - the Weymouth Country Club - to see Michael Koryta again. This was the second event of his that I had the chance to attend, and it was equally as wonderful as the first. I can't recommend highly enough that if you have the opportunity to hear this man speak - Just Do It!



I love Michael's books. He has three out at this date: Tonight, I Said Goodbye; Sorrow's Anthem; and A Welcome Grave. He is an extremely talented writer. However, he is also blessed with a gift for public speaking. I could listen to him talk for hours; he's witty, personable and definitely comfortable in front of people. He makes the whole process look effortless, and he's so candid that when you leave, you leave feeling like you have established a friendship with him. I believe this particular event in Medina is a yearly event, so there were many people there who had never read Michael's works, but you could tell that after hearing him they were energized about grabbing a copy of his books.



The presentation on Thursday was very different from the one I attended in Rocky River last November, so you won't experience the same thing twice like you would with someone who follows a scripted presentation.

Despite the fact that he's quite a young author, he has a great deal of life experience that he uses to create his books. He's already had extensive experience as a journalist covering the crime beat. He also works for a Private Investigator and teaches at Indiana University. I would imagine that taking a class with him would be inspiring. I guess he pretty much epitomizes the "write what you know" mantra.



When I listen to him speak, I can't help but think if he had been in one of MY classes while I was teaching, he would have been one of the students that was a joker. But he would have been one of the ones I could never help laughing at. As hard as I would try there was always one who was so smart and creative in his jokes; I just couldn't resist this humor. And as soon as I would laugh at the front of the class, the whole room would erupt. That's how it is in Michael's presentations. You can try not to find it funny, but I doubt you'll be successful. That wonderful sense of humor is one of the aspects that makes his books so great, in my opinion.

Michael's fourth book will also be out in August. It is titled Envy the Night. I've really been looking forward to this book, so I'll be dropping whatever else I have planned to read when it comes out.

Two great experiences in one week. The rest of this month is going to feel like a disappointment now! ;) Hope you had a great week as well. Happy Reading!!

Looking Forward to A "Book" Week

This is the week I will be attending two author events. On Tuesday I'm going to Toledo to hear Kathy Reichs speak, and on Thursday I'll be attending a luncheon in Medina to hear Michael Koryta speak. Definitely looking forward to both events. I'll post pictures and recaps from both later.

This week I finished Faithless by Karin Slaughter as well as Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child.

Faithless was true to form for Karin Slaughter. She always manages to grab me on the first page and keep me enthralled passed the last page.

Faithless is the fifth book in the Grant County series and it finds Jeffrey and Lena investigating the murder of a young woman. She was buried alive in a box with a pipe that allowed for air. The pipe wasn't enough to counteract the cyanide that was poured in on her. The investigation leads Jeffrey and Lena to a cult-like farm where the young woman grew up.

This plot is full of twists and turns. Slaughter plays off of stereotypes to reel her characters and you, the reader, into false assumptions. That helps to build up the suspense and keep you turning pages.

Slaughter is a phenomenal suspense plot writer, but she is also extremely adept with her character development. And that is a large part of why I enjoy her work so much. It's rare to completely love or completely hate a character in one of her books because there is so much dimension to them. I'm often conflicted about her characters. One minute you want to choke them for doing something ridiculously selfish or stupid or thoughtless and the next minute you empathize with them because you can completely understand what they are going through. I'm constantly questioning my perspective, wondering if my response to a character is based on experience, based on passion, based on what I THINK I know. I love that! Lena, in her abusive relationship is a prime example of this. At points I feel so much pity for her: the loss of her sister, her own history with abduction and rape, her sense of feeling alone. And at other times I feel nothing but revulsion. So many people try to reach out to her and she does nothing but push them away or unfairly judge them while secretly wishing she could lean on them. And at even other times, I'm totally baffled. How can a female law-enforcement agent with her talent stay in an abusive, life-threatening relationship?

Definitely another great book from Karin Slaughter.

My other read for this week was Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child. I listened to this one on audio book, read by Dick Hill. I think he does a very good job with the Jack Reacher novels.

In this book, Reacher is summoned by a member of his former army team, The Special Investigators. Frances Neagley reaches out to the self-created nomad by making a deposit in his bank account. When Reacher answers the call, he learns another member of the group was murdered. Now they are out to seek revenge because "you do NOT mess with the Special Investigators."

Even though I found this motto cheesy and repeated an annoying amount of times throughout the book, I also found myself looking forward to listening to this installment in the Jack Reacher series. As with the previous book I read in this series, I found it to be pretty predictable. Jack Reacher is the "superhero"-type protagonist, so while things may happen on the last try or at the eleventh hour, you know he's going to come through in the end. That takes a bit of the mystery out of things.

Reacher and Dixon involve themselves in a little "fling" and I found myself asking "why? What's the purpose?" It did nothing for the plot. It just seemed like Child felt the need to have some kind of sexual encounter involved in the book. The book would have been just fine without it.

I thought O'Donnell was a rather fun character in this book. His dry humor and banter with Reacher added a lot.

Overall, it was a quick, non-challenging read. Entertaining but nothing that made me react with a "WOW"!

Hope your week is great! Happy Reading!!