book challenge
So I joined the 50bookchallenge here on LJ. Here's a copy of my first two posts there.
first challenge books 1-4
• Dec. 8th, 2008 at 9:08 PM
silverrain1139
So I just joined the community. I love reading and lately I've picked a couple of authors (mostly mystery) and tried to read all of their books. I'm almost done with Patricia Cornwell and Mary Higgins Clark, then I plan on reading Jeffrey Deaver and Janet (?) Evanovich.
I'm going to call this day one.
Book 1: Blindness by Jose Sarmango (PDF version, 354 pages)
I actually read this for a local book club I just joined. This book made you think. An unnamed European country is struck by an epidemic of "white blindness" which results in anarchy. A group of strangers, the first to go blind, are interned in an abandoned asylum which is guarded by the paranoid military. There's little food, no organization and the streets are covered in filth not to mention dead bodies. Some parts of the book are too graphic. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone under 18 or to victims of sexual assault. One more thing to mention, Sarmango writes in the stream of conscienceness style so sometimes it's hard to determine who's talking and there are no chapters.
Book 2: in progress, A Stranger is Watching by Mary Higgins Clark 256 pages
I really like this one so far. It's a little complicated to explain but I'll try to do it without giving stuff away. This man and woman meet and they are on either side of the death penalty debate. He is for it because his first wife was murdered and her killer is due to be executed within the week. The woman goes to look after the man's child and they are both abducted. There's lots of twists and turns. It's easy reading which is why I like Mary Higgins Clark. It's not trashy but it's an easy read and usually a good mystery.
Book 3: up next, He Sees You When You're Sleeping (A Holiday Novel) by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark 202 pages
The Clark ladies are a formidable literary pair, often co-authoring to offer double dips of pleasure for mystery loving readers. Now, they've taken a leaf from the classic Christmas film "It's A Wonderful Life" and spiced it with danger. Carol Higgins Clark gives authentic voice to their story.
Sterling Brooks might be everyman--except for the fact that he's in heaven's anteroom, where he's been waiting for almost 50 years for admission to heaven. In his case patience isn't its own reward, and the Heavenly Council proposes a test for him. Sterling must return to Earth and prove his Pearly Gates eligibility by helping someone else.
Where to start but Manhattan and the Rockefeller Center skating rink? There he finds a woebegone seven-year-old, Marissa, whose family has been placed in the Federal Witness Protection Program due to the threats of the murderous Blodgett family. It is the Christmas season and Marissa is separated from those she loves.
It does take some work and thought on Sterling's part but, of course, the tale has a happy ending. After all, even almost-angels have mysterious powers. Amazon.com user Gail Cooke
Book 4: next book club book, The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald 848 pages
Amazon.com Review
The Way the Crow Flies, Ann-Marie MacDonald's follow-up novel to her bestselling debut (and Oprah Book Club pick), Fall on Your Knees, opens in 1962 when the McCarthy family moves from Germany to their new home on a Canadian air force base near London, Ontario. Madeleine, eight and already a blossoming comic, is particularly close with her father, Jack, an air force officer. Her loving Acadian mother, Mimi, and older brother Mike round out this family, whose simple goodness reflects the glow of an era that seemed like paradise. But all that is about to change. The Cuban Missile Crisis is looming, and Jack, loyal and gullible, suddenly has an important task to carry out that involves a scientist--a former Nazi--in Canada.
While Jack scrambles to keep his activities hidden from his wife, Madeleine too is learning to keep secrets (about a teacher at school). The Way the Crow Flies is all about the fertility of lies, how one breeds another and another. Although the writing flows with a strong current, the profusion of pop references, especially ad slogans, grows tiresome. The author can, however, capture a lovely image in few words: "The afternoon intensifies. August is the true light of summer" and "yes, the earth is a woman, and her favorite food is corn." At times the story is marvelously compelling, as the mystery of a horrific murder in the fields near the base is unravelled. When events lead to a trial and its outcome, the story peaks, in a conclusion with no easy answers. The last third of the book takes place, for the most part, 20 years later. Here the novel meanders somewhat, losing its ability to captivate with the same intensity. The reader longs to return to the earlier world, which MacDonald has captured in vital detail. --Mark Frutkin, Amazon.ca --
book 5 (seems I forgot to post this one)
Dec. 28th, 2008 at 9:06 AM
silverrain1139Book 5: Book of the Dead (Kay Scarpetta series, book 15)(2007)
Author: Patricia Cornwell
I was really anxious to read this after reading Predator. It was ok. It dragged a little bit as her books have for me lately. I like these books because Cornwell seems to really do her homework and tie the science of forensics with the drama of the characters.
The "book of the dead" is the morgue log, the ledger in which all cases are entered by hand. For Kay Scarpetta, however, it is about to have a new meaning.
Fresh from her bruising battle with a psychopath in Florida, Scarpetta decides it's time for a change of pace-not only personally and professionally, but geographically. Moving to the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, she opens a unique private forensic pathology practice, one in which she and her colleagues-including Pete Marino and her niece, Lucy-offer expert crime-scene investigation and autopsies to communities that lack local access to competent death investigation and modern technology.
It seems like an ideal situation, until the new battles start-with local politicians, with entrenched interests, with someone whose covert attempts at sabotage are clearly meant to run her out of town. And that's even before the murders and other violent deaths begin.
A young man from a well-known family jumps off a water tower. A woman is found ritualistically murdered in her multi-million-dollar beach home. The body of an abused young boy is discovered dumped in a desolate marsh. Meanwhile, in distant New England, problems with a prominent patient at a Harvard-affiliated psychiatric hospital begin to hint at interconnections that are as hard to imagine as they are horrible.
Scarpetta has dealt with many brutal and unusual crimes before, but never a string of them as baffling, or as terrifying, as the ones that face her now. Before she is through, that book of the dead will contain many names-and the pen may be poised to write her own.
3.5 stars from Amazon.com users
I'd give it the same, maybe even 3 stars.
Currently reading: The Way the Crow Flies
Up next: The Front by Patricia Cornwell and Last Witness by Jilliane Hoffman
Book challenge started 12/8/08
5/50 read
first challenge books 1-4
• Dec. 8th, 2008 at 9:08 PM
silverrain1139
So I just joined the community. I love reading and lately I've picked a couple of authors (mostly mystery) and tried to read all of their books. I'm almost done with Patricia Cornwell and Mary Higgins Clark, then I plan on reading Jeffrey Deaver and Janet (?) Evanovich.
I'm going to call this day one.
Book 1: Blindness by Jose Sarmango (PDF version, 354 pages)
I actually read this for a local book club I just joined. This book made you think. An unnamed European country is struck by an epidemic of "white blindness" which results in anarchy. A group of strangers, the first to go blind, are interned in an abandoned asylum which is guarded by the paranoid military. There's little food, no organization and the streets are covered in filth not to mention dead bodies. Some parts of the book are too graphic. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone under 18 or to victims of sexual assault. One more thing to mention, Sarmango writes in the stream of conscienceness style so sometimes it's hard to determine who's talking and there are no chapters.
Book 2: in progress, A Stranger is Watching by Mary Higgins Clark 256 pages
I really like this one so far. It's a little complicated to explain but I'll try to do it without giving stuff away. This man and woman meet and they are on either side of the death penalty debate. He is for it because his first wife was murdered and her killer is due to be executed within the week. The woman goes to look after the man's child and they are both abducted. There's lots of twists and turns. It's easy reading which is why I like Mary Higgins Clark. It's not trashy but it's an easy read and usually a good mystery.
Book 3: up next, He Sees You When You're Sleeping (A Holiday Novel) by Mary Higgins Clark and Carol Higgins Clark 202 pages
The Clark ladies are a formidable literary pair, often co-authoring to offer double dips of pleasure for mystery loving readers. Now, they've taken a leaf from the classic Christmas film "It's A Wonderful Life" and spiced it with danger. Carol Higgins Clark gives authentic voice to their story.
Sterling Brooks might be everyman--except for the fact that he's in heaven's anteroom, where he's been waiting for almost 50 years for admission to heaven. In his case patience isn't its own reward, and the Heavenly Council proposes a test for him. Sterling must return to Earth and prove his Pearly Gates eligibility by helping someone else.
Where to start but Manhattan and the Rockefeller Center skating rink? There he finds a woebegone seven-year-old, Marissa, whose family has been placed in the Federal Witness Protection Program due to the threats of the murderous Blodgett family. It is the Christmas season and Marissa is separated from those she loves.
It does take some work and thought on Sterling's part but, of course, the tale has a happy ending. After all, even almost-angels have mysterious powers. Amazon.com user Gail Cooke
Book 4: next book club book, The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald 848 pages
Amazon.com Review
The Way the Crow Flies, Ann-Marie MacDonald's follow-up novel to her bestselling debut (and Oprah Book Club pick), Fall on Your Knees, opens in 1962 when the McCarthy family moves from Germany to their new home on a Canadian air force base near London, Ontario. Madeleine, eight and already a blossoming comic, is particularly close with her father, Jack, an air force officer. Her loving Acadian mother, Mimi, and older brother Mike round out this family, whose simple goodness reflects the glow of an era that seemed like paradise. But all that is about to change. The Cuban Missile Crisis is looming, and Jack, loyal and gullible, suddenly has an important task to carry out that involves a scientist--a former Nazi--in Canada.
While Jack scrambles to keep his activities hidden from his wife, Madeleine too is learning to keep secrets (about a teacher at school). The Way the Crow Flies is all about the fertility of lies, how one breeds another and another. Although the writing flows with a strong current, the profusion of pop references, especially ad slogans, grows tiresome. The author can, however, capture a lovely image in few words: "The afternoon intensifies. August is the true light of summer" and "yes, the earth is a woman, and her favorite food is corn." At times the story is marvelously compelling, as the mystery of a horrific murder in the fields near the base is unravelled. When events lead to a trial and its outcome, the story peaks, in a conclusion with no easy answers. The last third of the book takes place, for the most part, 20 years later. Here the novel meanders somewhat, losing its ability to captivate with the same intensity. The reader longs to return to the earlier world, which MacDonald has captured in vital detail. --Mark Frutkin, Amazon.ca --
book 5 (seems I forgot to post this one)
Dec. 28th, 2008 at 9:06 AM
silverrain1139Book 5: Book of the Dead (Kay Scarpetta series, book 15)(2007)
Author: Patricia Cornwell
I was really anxious to read this after reading Predator. It was ok. It dragged a little bit as her books have for me lately. I like these books because Cornwell seems to really do her homework and tie the science of forensics with the drama of the characters.
The "book of the dead" is the morgue log, the ledger in which all cases are entered by hand. For Kay Scarpetta, however, it is about to have a new meaning.
Fresh from her bruising battle with a psychopath in Florida, Scarpetta decides it's time for a change of pace-not only personally and professionally, but geographically. Moving to the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, she opens a unique private forensic pathology practice, one in which she and her colleagues-including Pete Marino and her niece, Lucy-offer expert crime-scene investigation and autopsies to communities that lack local access to competent death investigation and modern technology.
It seems like an ideal situation, until the new battles start-with local politicians, with entrenched interests, with someone whose covert attempts at sabotage are clearly meant to run her out of town. And that's even before the murders and other violent deaths begin.
A young man from a well-known family jumps off a water tower. A woman is found ritualistically murdered in her multi-million-dollar beach home. The body of an abused young boy is discovered dumped in a desolate marsh. Meanwhile, in distant New England, problems with a prominent patient at a Harvard-affiliated psychiatric hospital begin to hint at interconnections that are as hard to imagine as they are horrible.
Scarpetta has dealt with many brutal and unusual crimes before, but never a string of them as baffling, or as terrifying, as the ones that face her now. Before she is through, that book of the dead will contain many names-and the pen may be poised to write her own.
3.5 stars from Amazon.com users
I'd give it the same, maybe even 3 stars.
Currently reading: The Way the Crow Flies
Up next: The Front by Patricia Cornwell and Last Witness by Jilliane Hoffman
Book challenge started 12/8/08
5/50 read