I read The Sandman: The Dolls house yesterday and I really didn't like it, I'm really disappointed about this to be honest because people have been telling me for ages that I would love it. Maybe I just didn't get it because I find visual narrative much harder to interpret than just writing but I think there were things about it that genuinely disturbed me, and not in a good way.

From the off I was really uncomfortable with the initial story. It seemed really culturally appropriative, based as it was on indigenous peoples tribal rituals, as if its okay to take stories that don't belong to us and fuck around with them for our own entertainment. I don't know if the story told here is one that is passed down in any tribal culture or if Gamian made it up, but I do know that there are stories that are private and tribe specific in indigenous cultures and people who do not belong to those cultures do not have a right to tell them or even know them. (And it just seemed to be "look these noble preliterate people! they tell stories, while still being ignorant primitives!) Added to which the context that this particular story is told in doesn't make sense, the narrative tells us it is a story that is told by the men of the tribe to the boys about to go through the ritual that turns them into men (circumcision in this case) and it is stressed that it is a story that is only told once a lifetime (by the older man) and heard once a life time (by the younger man) and this is how it is transmitted, and this version of the story is only told to men by men.

So who is telling the story? Why are they breaking a generations old tradition and telling it outside of their tribe? How do I as a woman have access to it?

I'm well aware that Gamian probably made this story up but that isn't the point he is still taking part in cultural appropriation by his depiction of indigenous peoples and the idea that all stories are the property of everyone, even those who don't belong to the culture they come out of and are very likely part of a culture that has or does oppress the culture the tale comes from.

The whole serial killer convention squicked me out completely and nor did I really get what it bought to the narrative, and the guy who was all about the eyes was too disturbing for me. I get that I actually have a really low squick threshold when it comes to dismemberment and similar issues but the whole "I kill transsexuals because they fascinate me" thing was so not okay, there was no critique of this, there was no acknowledgement of the danger trans people live under, of the fact they are more likely to be killed than cis people, of the fact that they were being killed because they were trans when all the other victims seems to just be in the wrong place at the wrong time.


Also there seems to be too much rape for no good reason that doesn't really go anywhere. It's not explained who raped Unity, there seems to be no affect on her daughter when she finds out shes the product of that rape. And the almost rape of the main character seems pointless and leads to nothing, the connections made to red riding hood here are also really unsubtle and clunky

There were somethings I liked about it. I like stories about stories, I like stories about dreamscapes, I love the fact that Gilbert told one of the oldest forms of little red riding hood (the one that I unconsciously think of as the "real story") I like that Gilbert was a place and a person. I liked the story about the guy who lived forever. I do have the next book and I will read it to see if I'm being too harsh but I'm not going to get my hopes up.

Susan has been my sibling now for 31 years of life, but she still can't really pick up on my 'this topic of conversation is making my anxiety go off of the stress o' meter right now, can we talk about this another time' vibes.

I accept that because vibe analysis isn't for everyone, and I try to work with that...

...by saying the words "this topic of conversation is making my anxiety go off of the stress o' meter right now, can we talk about this another time?"

...and she still keeps pushing the issue.

Why, why, why?

*bundle of nerves*

I am totally going to have to eat my Emergency Chocolate Bar RIGHT NOW or I think that my head is going to explode.

In other news, back to work tomorrow.

This sucks.

That is all. ;)

90. The Oxford Project, by Stephen G. Bloom and Peter Feldstein. If I absolutely had to pick a favorite book this year, this is it. The concept is so neat! The Oxford Project is a history record/time capsule of a small town in Iowa. In 1984, photographer Peter Feldstein decided to photograph the residents of Oxford. Nothing posed, just had them stand against a plain background. In 2005, he revisted this project, again taking pictures of as many of the residents he could (some had died, and some had moved). Stephen Bloom conducted interviews with the residents who wanted to be interviewed -- and many did. Their thoughts and insights encompass a wide spectrum of thought of living in a small town. They share their past, their dreams and their regrets. Throughout also are pictures of the town itself. This is a large book, a coffee table book, really. There are several pages which fold out. The people are organized by family, and you have several generations at times represented.

91. At Bertram's Hotel, by Agatha Christie. I had seen the television version with Geraldine McEwan, and that had been my favorite televised Miss Marple. I was startled how much the television episode differs from the original book. I enjoyed both, however. Miss Marple goes to the luxurious Bertram's Hotel for a nice holiday, but of course not everyone or everything is as they appear. A clever crime spree, a disappearance and a murder present themselves, and the lively spinster of course has some key pieces to the puzzle. One thing I really like was the character of Chief Inspector Davy. In a lot of detective series, the main character is often portrayed as the one with all the brains with the police and FBI (or equivalent) being window dressing or just plain incompetent. Davy and Marple make a pretty formidable duo.

My reading of this series of supernatural mysteries has continued. Again they have been my audio books-in-the-car during November and December though I combined this with reading bits from the books when I really needed to know what happened next.

Book 137: Dead as a Doornail (Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampires Book 5)
Author: Charlaine Harris, 2005.
Genre: Southern Gothic. Fantasy. Mystery.
Other Details: Unabridged audio book, Length: 9 hours and 32 min. Read by Johanna Parker. Paperback. 295 pages.

The main theme of this novel is that a sniper is targeting local were-creatures and shifters. The lovely fairy Claudine returns as does Sookie's were-friend Alcide Herveaux. His father plans to make a bid to become the next leader of their local werewolf pack and Alcide wants Sookie to help him achieve this. .

Although I didn't find this strongest of storylines it still had a lot of fun bits. What I so enjoy about this series is Sookie's wry observations and how 'real' she is in comparison to so many fantasy heroines. She has bad hair days, worries about money, and even needs to go to the bathroom. Good fun.

Book 138: Definitely Dead (Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampires Book 6)
Author: Charlaine Harris, 2006.
Genre: Southern Gothic. Fantasy. Mystery.
Other Details: Unabridged audio book, Length: 10 hours and 27 min. Read by Johanna Parker. Paperback. 324 pages.

At the request of the vampire queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Ann Leclerq, Sookie travels to New Orleans to sort out the affairs of her cousin, Hadley, a vampire, who been murdered a few months previously. There is a lot going on in this novel, there are revelations galore and threats to Sookie and her friends from more than one source. Harris' handles these multiple plot lines very well.

My one quibble was that I felt somewhat lost as though I'd missed some important back story about Sookie's cousin and only realised quite late on that this information had been contained in the short story "One Word Answer" published in Bite, an anthology edited by Laurell K. Hamilton. I'd have appreciated the existence of this story being mentioned in a foreword or Harris inserting a fuller recap in the novel's opening pages.

Book 139: Altogether Dead (Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampires Book 7)
Author: Charlaine Harris, 2007.
Genre: Southern Gothic. Fantasy. Mystery.
Other Details: Unabridged audio book, Length: 9 hours and 48 min. Read by Johanna Parker. Paperback. 323 pages.

Charlaine Harris worked in the real-life event of Hurricane Katrina into the plot line as Sookie accompanies Sophie-Ann Leclerq and her party to a US Vampire Summit on the shores of Lake Michigan. Sookie has been employed to use her telepathic abilities to assist Sophie-Ann in various negotiations that are even more important now that Sophie-Ann is trying to rebuild her economic base post-Katrina. Alongside the wheeling and dealing there are plenty of dangers that threaten Sookie and those close to her.

I found this and Definitely Dead among the strongest in the series for some terrific plot twists and unexpected character developments

Daniel Tammet – Born on a blue day (09-058)

I hardly remember where, but I’m sure I saw Tammet on television one day. I read about him in the paper later, when he had one week to learn Icelandic and was interviewed in that language at the end of it. He also wrote a book, so sometime later, when I bumped into the book online, I remembered his story and decided to buy the book.

The story of his life is quite interesting. Suffering from Asperger he has some extreme sides to day to day life. He thinks calculations are easy. All of them. When some extreme intelligent people start to lose the plot, he is still there. He is faster than most people using calculators. Apart from that, he has the ability to learn languages really quick. Finnish was one of the first languages he learned. I remember about half a dozen words in that language, enough to know that it’s a language I will never speak in my life, far too complicated for me, even though some people around me think I have talent for languages. Tammet has Savant Syndrome.

He is not good at everything. Simple day to day tasks that any normal person can do, will prove to be an enormous effort for him. Social contacts, things that are commonly known, thing people do automatically can be too complicated for the Savant.

Tammet has written an autobiography to tell the world about his life. About living with Asperger. About Rain Man, but beyond the movie. It certainly is interesting to read. On the other hand, given his natural need for structure, it is not a surprise that this book also needs a structure and dozens of examples, where sometimes the book could have done without half of those examples and certainly with a little bit more adventure instead of structure. I was glad the book didn’t last much longer than it did.

I was quite surprised how he coped with all the media attention. Earlier in his life he lost chess matches when winning, just because his opponent did something out of the box, causing him to lose all concentration. In the end of the book he was flown to the US to be on the David Letterman show on short notice, yet he goes and manages a decent interview. Tammet proves that social skills, not natural for anyone with Asperger, can be learned. I guess a great relief for many parents these days with children suffering from the disease.

Quote: “Having realised that the answer to the handshakes puzzle was a triangular number, I spotted a pattern that would help me to work out the solution.” (p.75)


Number: 09-058
Title: Born on a blue day
Author: Daniel Tammet
Language: English (UK)
Year: 2006
# Pages: 299 (12142)
Category: Autobiography
ISBN: 978-0-340-89975-5

This one combines two of my favorite things Glee + Clois:

These past few months have been rather stressful.  Had a lot of sad events since September and also went for a promotion at work which I got, yeahy!!  Sadly the one thing that keeps me relaxed got ignored and that is reading.  So here are the final few for 2009.  My New Year’s resolution will definitely be to make sure I do make time to read and hopefully I'll get to 50!

#28 Let The Right One In - John Ajvide Lindqvist

Oskar and Eli. In very different ways, they were both victims. Which is why, against the odds, they became friends. And how they came to depend on one another, for life itself. Oskar is a 12 year old boy living with his mother on a dreary housing estate at the city's edge. He dreams about his absentee father, gets bullied at school, and wets himself when he's frightened. Eli is the young girl who moves in next door. She doesn't go to school and never leaves the flat by day. She is a 200 year old vampire, forever frozen in childhood, and condemned to live on a diet of fresh blood. John Ajvide Lindqvist's novel, a huge bestseller in his native Sweden, is a unique and brilliant fusion of social novel and vampire legend; and a deeply moving fable about rejection, friendship and loyalty. - Amazon.co.uk

Took some persuading by a friend to read this, as I don't handle horror too well.  Glad I picked it up though as this book was eerily beautiful.  I really enjoyed it.


#29 The Fetch - Laura Whitcomb

Calder, like every Fetch, had only one name, but he had two ages: his Earth Years numbered nineteen and his Death Years numbered three hundred and thirty. Though it was no excuse for what he would do, for a Fetch, Calder was young. The Order of the Fetch, on the other hand, was old--it began when the ruins of the first garden could still be found hiding in the desert beside a river, a blanket of green having grown over her like a shroud, and, in this moist cave that was once Eden, at the heart of her darkness, the Tree of Knowledge bowed to the earth. - Laurawhitcomb.com

I was really looking forward to this book as I really loved A Certain Slant of Light, although I did enjoy it, it didn't match up.  It was an interesting mix of fantasy and history which I really did enjoy but I just didn't get the desperate need to carry on reading that I got from A Certain Slant of Light.


#30 Fire -  Kristin Cashore

Set in a world of stunningly beautiful, exceptionally dangerous monsters, Fire is one of the most dangerous monsters of all - a human one. Marked out by her vivid red hair, she's more than attractive. Fire is mesmerising. But with this extraordinary beauty comes influence and power. People who are susceptible to her appeal will do anything for her attention, and for her affection. They will turn away from their families, their work, and their duties for her. They will forget their responsibilities to please her . . . and worse, crush nations, neglect kingdoms and abuse their power. Aware of her power, and afraid of it, Fire lives in a corner of the world away from people, and away from temptation. Until the day comes when she is needed - a day when, for her king, she has to stand against not only his enemies, but also against herself . . . - Amazon.co.uk

I was not disappointed. Although I enjoyed Graceling, it was an easy ready, but Fire was so much better.  There were many more levels to this book and I really loved the world that was created.  How it tied in with Graceling was very well done and I really look forward to future stories.


#31 Wake - Lisa McMann

For seventeen-year-old Janie, getting sucked into other people's dreams at any given moment is getting tired. Especially the falling dreams, and the standing-in-front-of-the-class-naked ones. But then there are the nightmares, the ones that chill her to the bone...like the one where she is in a strange house...in a dirty kitchen...and a sinister monster that edges ever closer. This is the nightmare that she keeps falling into, the one where, for the first time, Janie is more than a witness to someone else's twisted psyche. She is a participant... - Amazon.co.uk

A very quick read.  Worked well as an in-between for a book that would need more commitment.  Clever idea and I did enjoy the characters.  Definitely aimed more for the teenage market and not sure if it can really appeal as much to the young adult/adult market as well as other books can.

Taking me into 2010:

Magician - Raymond E. Feist

At Crydee, a frontier outpost in the tranquil Kingdom of the Isles, an orphan boy, Pug, is apprenticed to a master magician -- and the destinies of two worlds are changed forever. Suddenly the peace of the Kingdom is destroyed as mysterious alien invaders swarm the land. Pug is swept up into the conflict but for him and his warrior friend, Tomas, an odyssey into the unknown has only just begun. Tomas will inherit a legacy of savage power from an ancient civilization. Pug's destiny is to lead him through a rift in the fabric of space and time to the mastery of the unimaginable powers of a strange new magic. - Amazon.co.uk

Happy reading and hope to see you all blogging next year x

Title: Wraparound My Heart
Author: Krys Yuy
Prompt: Season 9, PG-13, Faora
Summary: Post-Pandora. “A kind of child’s game. You take a length of ribbon and wrap it around the wrist of the person you desire.” Lois learns of an unusual tradition from an unlikely source.
Pairing/Characters: Clark/Lois
Warning: PWP. (Plot? What plot? Get your mind out of the gutter. :P)
Rating: PG-13/K+
Word Count: 5,263
Disclaimer: I own none of the characters used. This fic is purely for entertainment purposes only.
Author’s Notes: Written for Divine Intervention’s 2009 Holiday Ficstravaganza. So… I suck. (Not news.) This is late. Like, two days late and I’m maybe hiding in a corner, beating myself up over it. It doesn’t help that I’m a little unhappy about this piece as well. :/ mpluvme, please don’t hate me! I still hope you enjoy this small fic, regardless of what I may say. (Ignore me. It’s best.) My prompt character is Faora, with special/quick appearances by Oliver and Zod. :P Faora’s kinda walking a fine line between deception and truth, and I think that’s why I’m quite iffy about how I wrote her. I’m not so hot about my characterization of Zod either. And I imagine Clark acting a certain way as well around Zod… Oi. I’m all over the place. XD;; There are a few loose ends at the end because this is meant to be a sort of snapshot of Clark and Lois during the holiday season, so some things are left open-ended. This fic happens in the course of one day and I see certain things being resolved later on down the road. I’ll probably revisit and expand on this piece later. I have a sketched out idea behind the ‘soul band’. -coughsKawatchebraceletcoughs- I hope everyone had an awesome holiday~! ;D P.S. ‘Wraparound’ is deliberately one word.

( Such frivolous traditions are for children. It reminds me of wraparounds. )
Fake-cut to my personal LJ.

Crossposted to clois, cloisfic, Divine Intervention.

I'm ahead of schedule, woot!

11. Whispers, by Nichole Schulist
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Mythological

This is a novel my friend wrote, and sent to me after finishing her first draft. It's still in its rough stages, but I love the world and characters she created, and I can't wait til she writes the rest of the series. And, you know, polishes them all up. I'm not going to rate this one simply because it's not available on the market.

12. Hunted, by P.C. and Kristin Cast
Genre: Fantasy, Teen Lit

Virtually nothing happened. This seems to be more of a placeholder than a novel in and of itself, and I can only hope that Tempted is better. I doubt it will be, though. One thing that is absolutely driving me crazy is how much is repeated from book to book. Yes, some short summary is important in a series, even for faithful readers of the series, but the Casts bring this way too far. We don't really need a rehashing of the characters and their roles in every single book.

Rating: 2.5/5

13. Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare
Genre: Play, Comedy

I don't know why I try to read plays. They really are no fun. I like watching them and getting absorbed in the story, because that's how they are meant to be portrayed. You miss so much when you don't have those little stage directions and whatnot. I like the idea of the play, but without a running summary, I'd miss so much.

Rating: 3.5/5 (tainted by my dislike of plays, of course)

14. The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown
Genre: Conspiracy Fiction

Just for the general record, after reading Stiff a couple months ago, I can say that some of the 'new' scientific things in this book are most certainly real and have been proven for quite some time. I'm not sure he even got his number right, because I don't have my copy of Stiff anymore. At any rate, it was an interesting book, and didn't follow Brown's typical pattern quite as strongly as it normally does. Still, very predictable in parts, and kind of a cheesy ending. It's certainly an interesting look at symbols and American myth and legend, and it's certainly no wonder it took him years to write the thing.

Rating: 4/5

15. Ground Zero, by F Paul Wilson
Genre: Supernatural Fiction

I have to say, I love Repairman Jack, and I've been waiting for what feels like forever to get my hands on this book. I was not let down. I love how FPW integrates modern day events into his novels now, especially considering the first book of the series was written way back in the 80's. I'm looking forward to the last two books of the series, and then I'm super interested to see what changes when he goes back and revises Nightworld.

Rating: 4.5/5

Title: Water for Elephants
Author: Sara Gruen
Year: 2006
# of pages: 331
Date read: 11/18/2009
Rating: 4*/5 = great


Description:

"Though he may not speak of them, the memories still dwell inside Jacob Jankowski's ninety-something-year-old mind. Memories of himself as a young man, tossed by fate onto a rickety train that was home to the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth. Memories of a world filled with freaks and clowns, with wonder and pain and anger and passion; a world with its own narrow, irrational rules, its own way of life, and its own way of death. The world of the circus: to Jacob it was both salvation and a living hell.Jacob was there because his luck had run out — orphaned and penniless, he had no direction until he landed on this locomotive "ship of fools." It was the early part of the Great Depression, and everyone in this third-rate circus was lucky to have any job at all. Marlena, the star of the equestrian act, was there because she fell in love with the wrong man, a handsome circus boss with a wide mean streak. And Rosie the elephant was there because she was the great gray hope, the new act that was going to be the salvation of the circus; the only problem was, Rosie didn't have an act — in fact, she couldn't even follow instructions. The bond that grew among this unlikely trio was one of love and trust, and ultimately, it was their only hope for survival." -- from the publisher
My thoughts:
I enjoyed this book about circus life during the Great Depression. I especially like the way the author skillfully wove in historic facts such as an elephant not understanding English and the problem "jake leg" which was caused by tainted Jamaica ginger.

Didn't make it and I really though I would. I'm not even going to make it by the 31st.
Books 27-36
27. Title: Guilty Pleasure
By: Laurell K. Hamilton
Anita Blake may be small and young, but vampires call her the Executioner. Anita is a necromancer and vampire hunter in a time when vampires are protected by law--as long as they don't get too nasty. Now someone's killing innocent vampires and Anita agrees--with a bit of vampiric arm-twisting--to help figure out who and why. Trust is a luxury Anita can't afford when her allies aren't human. The city's most powerful vampire, Nikolaos, is 1,000 years old and looks like a 10-year-old girl. The second most powerful vampire, Jean-Claude, is interested in more than just Anita's professional talents, but the feisty necromancer isn't playing along--yet. This popular series has a wild energy and humor, and some very appealing characters--both dead and alive. -amazon.com

28. Bodies We've Buried: Inside the National Forensic Academy, the World's Top CSI Training School
Jarrett Hallcox
The latest authors to capitalize on the CSI craze are well situated to add something new to the literature. Hallcox and Welch run the National Forensic Academy, a state-of-the-art, hands-on crime scene investigation school for people in law enforcement, but those impressive credentials do not translate into a good read. Despite some interesting war stories, the bulk of the book is an overly technical, step-by-step description of the course of study given to academy students ("The problem, however, is that ninhydrin is not reliable when it comes to the zinc chloride process"), which is likely to glaze the eyes of all but the most die-hard fans of the genre. In addition, the authors' failed efforts at sardonic humor ("Though there are probably a few people we could think of to stick in front of a moving vehicle, our grant does not allow us to kill anybody"), and clunky, florid phrasing ("With the first lightning strike of a tree witnessed by man, he has forever been obsessed with this primordial heat") make what should have been a fascinating insider account a hard slog. B&w photos. (Jan. 3)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

29. Title: Son of a Witch
By: Gregory Maguire
The long-anticipated sequel to the million-copy bestselling novel Wicked

Ten years after the publication of Wicked, beloved novelist Gregory Maguire returns at last to the land of Oz. There he introduces us to Liir, an adolescent boy last seen hiding in the shadows of the castle after Dorothy did in the Witch. Bruised, comatose, and left for dead in a gully, Liir is shattered in spirit as well as in form. But he is tended at the Cloister of Saint Glinda by the silent novice called Candle, who wills him back to life with her musical gifts.

What dark force left Liir in this condition? Is he really Elphaba's son? He has her broom and her cape -- but what of her powers? Can he find his supposed half-sister, Nor, last seen in the forbidding prison, Southstairs? Can he fulfill the last wishes of a dying princess? In an Oz that, since the Wizard's departure, is under new and dangerous management, can Liir keep his head down long enough to grow up?

For the countless fans who have been dazzled and entranced by Maguire's Oz, Son of a Witch is the rich reward they have awaited so long.

30. Title: Lucky
By: Alice Sebold
When Sebold, the author of the current bestseller The Lovely Bones, was a college freshman at Syracuse University, she was attacked and raped on the last night of school, forced onto the ground in a tunnel "among the dead leaves and broken beer bottles." In a ham-handed attempt to mollify her, a policeman later told her that a young woman had been murdered there and, by comparison, Sebold should consider herself lucky. That dubious "luck" is the focus of this fiercely observed memoir about how an incident of such profound violence can change the course of one's life. Sebold launches her memoir headlong into the rape itself, laying out its visceral physical as well as mental violence, and from there spins a narrative of her life before and after the incident, weaving memories of parental alcoholism together with her post-rape addiction to heroin. In the midst of each wrenching episode, from the initial attack to the ensuing courtroom drama, Sebold's wit is as powerful as her searing candor, as she describes her emotional denial, her addiction and even the rape (her first "real" sexual experience). She skillfully captures evocative moments, such as, during her girlhood, luring one of her family's basset hounds onto a blue silk sofa (strictly off-limits to both kids and pets) to nettle her father. Addressing rape as a larger social issue, Sebold's account reveals that there are clear emotional boundaries between those who have been victims of violence and those who have not, though the author attempts to blur these lines as much as possible to show that violence touches many more lives than solely the victim's.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

31. Mistress of Justice
By Jeffrey Deaver
A plethora of generally interesting asides make this lethargically paced mystery an easy, yet ultimately a somewhat frustrating read. As we follow the paralegal days and jazz-piano-playing nights of Ms. Taylor Lockwood, we glimpse the truth behind the dark-wood panels of the venerable law firm Hubbard, White & Willis. Taylor's initial assignment is to retrieve a stolen document that could cost the firm a case and an attractive young litigator his job. The theft proves to be merely a subtext as one ferocious partner pushes for a merger, two older partners firmly oppose it and the rest of the principal players scramble for position while sides are drawn up. Taylor finds coked-up associates with grievances, partners with financial problems, and granddaughters to raise, not to mention call girls. Offices (including her own lowly hole in the wall) are soon bugged, and after an interminable wait, murder makes its entrance. Edgar-nominated Deaver ( Manhattan Is My Beat ) whips up enough atmosphere for a whole series here: late-night music, copious jazz lore, performance-art interludes, man troubles aplenty--the plucky Taylor partakes of them all. She's a likely guide to both the legal and the late-night, but this expansive mystery doesn't have enough narrative gears to shift through. Author tour.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc

32. The Tunnels
by Michelle Gagnon
Though formulaic, the debut novel from Gagnon is saved by smart, appealing lead characters FBI Special Agent Kelly Stone and her partner, Roger Morrow. A distinguished New England college is in turmoil after two female students, each the daughter of rich and powerful families, are found butchered in an old campus tunnel system, with strange Norse symbols painted around them. Joining the agents on the case is former FBI agent Jake Riley, who now works as head of security for one of the dead girls' fathers. As more bodies turn up—and a student goes missing—Kelly and her team find themselves in a race to stop the mysterious killer. While Gagnon doesn't bring much new to the standard serial-killer plot line, she keeps things moving with a brisk pace and likable leads. Kelly's interactions with Roger carry a nice blend of warmth, humor and professionalism, bringing a sense of the real to their partnership. Kelly and Jake's relationship is no less interesting, and Gagnon wisely avoids forcing a romance between them. Gagnon's characters hold promise for an enjoyable series; she just need to find some cases worthy of them. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

33. Almost Moon
By Alice Sebold
Sebold's disappointing second novel (after much-lauded The Lovely Bones) opens with the narrator's statement that she has killed her mother. Helen Knightly, herself the mother of two daughters and an art class model old enough to be the mother of the students who sketch her nude figure, is the dutiful but resentful caretaker for her senile 88-year-old mother, Clair. One day, traumatized by the stink of Clair's voided bowels and determined to bathe her, Helen succumbs to a life-long dream and smothers Clair, who had sucked the life out of [Helen] day by day, year by year. After dragging Clair's corpse into the cellar and phoning her ex-husband to confess her crime, Helen has sex with her best friend's 30-year-old blond-god doofus son. Jumping between past and present, Sebold reveals the family's fractured past (insane, agoraphobic mother; tormented father, dead by suicide) and creates a portrait of Clair that resembles Sebold's own mother as portrayed in her memoir, Lucky. While Helen has clearly suffered at her mother's hands, the matricide is woefully contrived, and Helen's handling of the body and her subsequent actions seem almost slapstick. Sebold can write, that's clear, but her sophomore effort is not in line with her talent. (Oct.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

34. Dead Reckoning: The New Science of Catching Killers
By Michael M.D. Baden amd Marion Roach
Baden, a leading forensic pathologist and host of HBO's Autopsy, and Roach (Another Name for Madness) are a dynamic pair, delving into delightfully creepy material that can potentially bring murderers to justice or free an innocent on death row. Baden is a methodical and ethical medical examiner and consummate scientist. Every page reveals another aspect of the forensic sciences, leading the reader into the Cimmerian world of autopsies, murder scenes, blood-splatter analysis, the life cycles of blowflies in carrion, DNA fingerprinting and the methods for identifying unknown victims by their skulls, teeth and bones. The authors also touch upon the obscure yet fruitful fields of forensic botany and climatology. The material is exhaustive, yet the journey is never less than fascinating. For the reader (with a strong stomach) interested in the juncture of crime, law and science, this book is chock-full of practical information about death by unnatural means. The account is replete with a cast of weird, amiable characters, historical insights (where else this year will readers learn that Paul Revere took the first step in forensic odontology?), and reverence for the scientific study of the dead. Baden and Roach invite the outsider into the laboratory with a gripping sense of immediacy, and conversely, they bring the usually hidden forensic sciences into the light of day. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

35. Devil's Bones
By Jefferson Bass
The lack of a strong central plot undercuts the third forensic thriller by bestseller Bass, the team of Dr. Bill Bass, founder of Tennessee's world-renowned Body Farm, and journalist Jon Jefferson (after 2007's Flesh and Bone). Two cases occupy Dr. Bass's fictional alter ego, Dr. Bill Brockton—the death of Mary Latham, a 47-year-old Knoxville native, whose charred remains were found in a burned-out car, and a disreputable Georgia crematorium that simply dumped bodies on its grounds. These probes soon take a backseat to a cat-and-mouse game with the doctor's arch nemesis, Garland Hamilton, who tried to frame him for murder in Flesh and Bone. When Hamilton escapes from incarceration before going to trial, Brockton must keep looking over his shoulder. While a smattering of Bass's trademark authentic forensic detail lifts this main narrative thread, a more focused look at a single case might have made the novel a better read. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

36. That Takes Ovaries: Bold Females and their Brazen Acts
By Rivka Solomon
The expression "that takes balls" is often used to describe actions that are especially difficult or daring. Solomon has coined a female variation to characterize the stories of the 60-plus women of all ages and backgrounds who responded to her Internet request for personal accounts of events that demonstrated an uncommon dose of courage and strength. Some can be described with terms like bold, self-confident, and inspiring; others are just plain crazy. One woman outsmarted a Detroit pimp, one reduced a burglar to tears by appealing to his black pride, one high-schooler decided to face the world with hairy legs. When presented together these stories form an inspiring collage of strength and creativity. Because the stories are told in the contributors' own words, each carries the humor and passion of each individual. Framed by an analytical introduction and a call to action in support of women's rights, the tales gathered in That Takes Ovaries! make for an interesting addition to any women's studies collection. Danise Hoover
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Nightlight:  A Parody by The Harvard Lampoon

This is a parody of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. It's about a girl named Belle Goose who falls for Edwart Mullen, an extremely nerdy boy. She becomes convinced that Edwart is a vampire after several suspicious events (such as saving her from a snowball) take place. In no time, Belle is completely smitten with Edwart, who in turn has no experience whatsoever with girls.

This book was written by a bunch of college kids, and although they are clearly intelligent, they should have done a better job of proofreading this book. There were many misspellings, typos, and grammar mistakes throughout the pages.

The humor itself was sometimes "laugh outloud funny" but at other times too obvious.

An easy read, pretty funny.


6/10

Book 135: The Redeemer (Harry Hole Book 06)
Author: Jo Nesbø, 2005 Translated from the Swedish by Don Bartlett, 2009.
Genre: Crime Fiction. Police Procedural.
Other Details: Trade Paperback 457 pages.

How do you stop a hit man who has nothing to lose?

Indeed! Although this is the sixth in the Harry Hole series, it is the fourth to be translated into English. In contrast to others in the series, the events of this novel take place over the course of a single week and it is written with a fast pace, which delivers an unrelenting sense of urgency.

One freezing night in Oslo Christmas shoppers gather to listen to a Salvation Army street concert. Suddenly a man in uniform falls to the ground, shot in the head at point-blank range. It is a shocking and seemingly motiveless crime but it soon becomes clear that a professional hitman was involved and that the dead man may not have been the intended target. Harry and his team swing into action to track down the killer. The hit man realises that he has shot the wrong man and with his resources severely limited and the police on his trail, he is increasingly desperate. Yet is determined to allow nothing to stop him fulfilling his contract.

Nesbø creates in his hitman an interesting and highly ambivalent character, providing flashbacks to his youth in Croatia where he gained the name of 'little redeemer'. Even with the fast pace, Nesbø delivers a plot with plenty of twists and turns and further develops the character of Harry Hole and supporting players. There were a lot of shocks in the final chapters that left me reeling and wanting more!

Book 136; The Devil's Garden
Author: Richard Montanari, 2009
Genre: Thriller.
Other Details: Hardback, 352 pages

I've very much enjoyed Montanari's Jessica Balzano and Kevin Byrne series of police procedurals, and so eagerly plucked this recent stand-alone novel from the library bookshelf. However, it just didn't grab me as strongly as those in the series.

The plot involves one Michael Roman, a rising star in the New York District Attorney's office. He has a lovely home, a beautiful wife and two adorable twin daughters. However, he has a dark secret which is that a few years previously he and his wife went through illegal channels to adopt the twins from Estonia. Their mother had been a young village soothsayer and died on the night of their birth. Their father, Aleksander Savisaar, was also a local man, who believes himself an immortal figure from Estonian folklore. He returns some time later and discovers the adoption; enraged, he vows to find his daughters and return them to Estonia

This very dangerous individual with shady underworld connections eventually finds his way to New York and begins closing in on Michael and his family. It is certainly quite a tense novel but I found it hard to cast Aleksander as 'the devil', even though he was a quite distributing character. He reminded me of Keyser Söze (The Usual Suspects) in his mythic status and savagery. In some ways I was more sympathetic to his quest in the early part of the book than I was to Michael and perhaps this was part of my problem with the book. ( Minor spoilers in my thoughts )

Overall, it just didn't have for me the strength or overall darkness of his other books. Also, perhaps reading it just after the The Redeemer, in which Jo Nesbø was confident enough to create a complex adversary who challenged the reader's sympathies as to his nature, made this more marked.

Book Forty-Eight

Title: Ocracoke
Author: Carl Goerch
Page Count: 224
Genre: Travel, Non-Fiction

Synopsis/Thoughts: This was a book I picked up on impulse while browsing at the library. I live in North Carolina, and the Outer Banks (including Ocracoke Island) are a favorite vacation spot of mine. So I was curious to see what this book (the edition I read having been published in the 1950s) had to say on the subject. It's written in a chatty, anecdotal manner, describing the island as it was at the time the book was published. Though these descriptions are now vastly outdated, they are no less charming. The author describes a place and a time the modern reader can hardly imagine, a place with no police officers, because they don't need them. Where nobody locks their doors because there are no criminals, where everybody knows each others and helps their neighbor when they are in need. Where the only entertainment is a weekly movie shown at a local hotel, and square dancing. We're told about the local legends of pirates and shipwrecks, as well as where the best fish chowder can be found.

This book made me smile, and made me wish I could go back in time to see Ocracoke Island as it was then.

073-092 smallville


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29. Push by Sapphire

Very raw, compelling story of a Harlem teenager who refuses to give up despite her horrific life circumstances. The narrative poetry helped me with the adolescent perspective.

Grade: A-




30. Lord Arthur Savile's Crime by Oscar WIlde

Wonderfully funny stories. I truly love Wilde's witty commentaries on social convention.

Grade: A



Next up: I am plodding through Anne Rice's Interview with a Vampire. Not sure if I will make it by 2010. I am dreadfully behind my fifty goal.

Book Forty-Seven

Title: Grave Goods
Author: Ariana Franklin
Page Count: 336
Genre: Historical Mystery

Synopsis/Thoughts: In the third installment of the Mistress of the Art of Death series, Adelia's quiet life is once again disturbed by King Henry II, who has another problem for her to solve. Glastonbury Abbey has burned to the ground, and two skeletons have been discovered. The monks claim that the remains belong to King Arthur and his queen, Guinevere. Since Henry is in the process of putting down a group of superstitious Welsh rebels who firmly believe that the Once and Future King is still alive and will come to their aid, having proof that he is dead would be immensely helpful. So he sends Adelia and company to examine the bones, in hopes that she will be able to identify them. But of course, when Adelia is involved, things are never as simple as they seem, and the identity of the two skeletons is not the only mystery lurking in Glastonbury.

I enjoyed this installment in the series, though not as much as the first or the second. I can't quite put my finger on why. It was a perfectly good story and I still had trouble putting it down, but it had a smidgen less of that special something the first two books had. I don't know, haha. Anyway, I still liked it a lot, and I'm eagerly awaiting the next book, especially to see what happens between Adelia and Rowley. The solution proposed at the end of this book is less than satisfactory on all counts, and I'm hoping there will be some resolution later on in the series.