It’s happened again.
Multiple items on my library hold list come in all at once.
Right now I’m reading Burn Out by Marcia Muller.
San Francisco private investigator Sharon McCone tries to get away from it all, and ends up in the middle of another mess.
Go figure.
Cleaning up messes is McCone’s passion, and her business.
What a great way to spend a cold Saturday–home, under a warm blanket, reading a Marcia Muller mystery.
Life just get any better.
The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts
My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
After reading “Black Boxes,” I need to read something a bit lighter.
But wait, this book is about demons!
Yeah, fiction!
It’s the last book in the Sign of Seven Trilogy, and a lighter read for me.
Thank goodness.
Reading a Nora Roberts book, for me, is like watching a comical movie.
Light, maybe a tad predictable, but satisfying when my old brain need something light to read.
Black Boxes by Caroline Smailes
My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is a very good book, but I found it a hard read.
I have struggled with depression, off and on, for about 13 years. There were times I found this book impossible to read, because it reminded me of my own life in many ways.
This is a realistic, at times bitterly harsh, story about a breakdown.
It’s very well written, interesting, and painful. Caroline Smailes invites us into the subconscious of a young woman who is falling apart.
Dark of the Moon by John Sandford
My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
I think this is a very good book.
But.
I have read every one of Sanford’s Lucas Davenport “Prey” novels at least once, some two or three times.
This book frustrated me a bit, right smack in the middle, as Davenport’s Detective Virgil Flowers tries to solve a string of murders in a small town.
The story of a local preacher, introduced as an possible suspect, takes center stage, and now we’ve got the DEA involved, and there’s this huge shootout, and I almost gave up.
Almost.
I’ve always enjoyed the Virgil Flowers character in the “Prey” books, and he proves to have the right stuff to solve murders. And his boss, Lucas Davenport, enters the story frequently, giving Flowers hell as only Davenport can do.
I’m wondering if Sandford needs to fine tune the Flowers character a bit, to give the detective everyone calls “that fucking Flowers” the hero status of Lucas Davenport.
As a character, Davenport is a brilliantly flawed human being who acts decisively in his job and trips up too much in his personal life. Davenport is a sexy bastard, but you want to kick him right in the nuts when he screws up. You love him and hate him at the same time.
In this book, Flowers is just an average Joe who is a good cop. There’s no edge to Flowers, not yet.
But John Sandford is a skilled storyteller, and I have high hopes for the next Virgil Flowers whodunit.
A Darker Place by Laurie R. King
My review
rating: 3 of 5 stars
I would like to rate this book between 3.5 and 5, but Goodreads won’t let me do that.
Anne Waverly is a professor of religion, and in her spare time, she infiltrates cults for the FBI. Anne is qualified to do this work, because years ago she was a member of a cult.
I liked this book for many reasons:
–Anne is a middle-aged woman with creaky, hurting bones, and a past filled with mistakes, just like me!
–Unlike me, Anne’s husband and daughter were killed, years before this story starts, and Anne feels guilty.
–Anne is one tough woman, and she uses her intellect to figure out what’s going in this cult.
A good storyteller takes the reader by the hand and whispers, “Come walk with me, I’m going to take you down this path, to the end of my story.”
The reader is smug now, because the end of the story is so clear, so obvious.
And then, the reader finishes the last page.
The reader turns a few pages more, mutters, “This can’t be it, the book can’t be done.”
But it is, and the reader finally realizes she’s been had.
Again.
I LOVE it when that happens.
Good book.
Buying books.
Nothing racy.
It’s me,after all.
I have three books coming to my house, via mail:
I will be finishing A Darker Place, written by Laurie R. King, this weekend (and at last).
via Laurie R. King : A Darker Place.
This is an interesting book, so far.
The characters are flawed in a human and very interesting way.
Stay tuned for more about this book (I’ve only read about 100 pages so far).
TTFN.
I’m off to bed with my book, “The Lace Reader,” which is pretty good so far.
My doctor wanted me to have some routine lab work done today, including an EKG, as my blood pressure is still high and I will probably be on medication soon.
So I took 1.5 hours of my precious PTO to head to the lab, then I stopped at the grocery store on my way home.
I’ve been resisting blood pressure medicine for years, and it’s finally time to bite the bullet and take medication, I guess. I’ve been talking to colleagues about this, and I now know people in their twenties (not overweight, seemingly healthy) who are taking blood pressure meds.
So anyway, it’s off to bed I am, and dang glad tomorrow is Thursday.
TTFN.
For some time now, I’ve been planning a 2009 trip to Rochester, New York, which is my hometown.
But.
In June, as many of you know, I traveled to Washington, D.C. to take part in an expert panel for work.
I got a chance to spend four hours in downtown D.C., and I need to go back for a vacation.
Goodbye Rochester, hello Washington, D.C.
Looks like I’m planning a September trip, so that I can go to the National Book Festival!
With my resources, it may be 2010 before I can get there, but I’m going for sure.
The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry
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